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Volunteers wanted
An event like Monday's fire at Hills Trucking Company on Route 60 can remind the area just how important our firefighters are. Fire departments from Dunkirk, East and West Town of Dunkirk, Fredonia, Sheridan, Sunset Bay, Hanover, Cassadaga, Stockton as well as the Chautauqua County Emergency Services responded to the site. While some communities such as the cities of Dunkirk and Jamestown and the village of Fredonia have some paid firefighters, many other fire departments are solely staffed by unpaid volunteers.
Although people are welcome to volunteer anytime, this weekend many fire de-partments statewide are holding open houses to encourage people to step up and volunteer. Many will be held Saturday from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. Fredonia's will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Other departments like Forest-ville and Falconer are listed for Sunday. Some, like Westfield Fire Department, will be open both Saturday and Sunday.
Julius Leone, Chautauqua County Fire Coordinator, was pleased with the growth of the event and noted this year the county has worked to increase participation.
Dan Imfeld, Chautauqua County Deputy Fire Coordinator, who is coordinating the "Recruit NY" in this county, said that as of Tuesday, 27 fire departments were participating in the effort by holding open houses with activities and volunteers to whom interested people can speak. The program is in its third year. Last year four departments participated.
Imfeld said, "We are using the SAFER grant from FEMA and trying to do this in a more organized way this year. The county promoted this among the fire departments."
He said, "The departments are all in the same boat. Because of the economy, young folks go away and don't come back. … Families were involved in the fire department. Grandparents, parents and then their children used to volunteer. We are trying to reach out to others."
Imfeld said that the types of calls have changed. Currently 75 percent of the calls are EMS (Emergency Medical Services) related, so there is a greater need for EMT (Emergency Medical Technicians). Fire departments will train the volunteers. He noted that many retirees are stepping up to fill in the gap, and that there are many opportunities to help. For volunteers, there is a possibility for tuition assistance in some cases.
Jeffrey Griewisch, fire chief and training officer for the Silver Creek Fire Department agreed.
He said, "There are never enough EMTs during the day. … The Emergency Squad funds the training and Chautauqua County offers two classes a year right out of Fredonia. There's a job for everybody. We need those who can fight interior fires, but those who aren't able to do that can do other things. There is an auxiliary. There are 101 jobs, if a person has the slightest inclination (to serve) try it."
Griewisch said that everyone is invited to the open house whether or not the person wants to volunteer. He said it is important for people to understand what the department does.
Dan King, president of the Brocton Fire Department, said the department is looking at a number of ideas for increasing participation. He wants to reinstate the Auxiliary that once functioned in the department. He also noted the department gives a presentation at the Brocton school.
"Those 18 and older can serve and the training can be valuable." King said.
He used Chautauqua County Fire Coordinator Julius Leone's two sons who volunteered as an example. "They are now working in paid departments in Washington, D.C. and Virginia," he noted.
Cassadaga chief David Muscato said that his department has six or seven EMTs, but the department used to have 26.
"I'm going back 20 years," he said. "It's hard for younger households now. It takes a lot out of a family, when both the husband and wife are working and they have young children."
Muscato said, "We are trying our best to get more people interested in the fire service. There is a whole list of things people can do. We will support whatever they can do."
Everett Reardon, Lieutenant in the Hook and Ladder Co. in Westfield, said this is the first year Westfield has been part of the statewide recruitment efforts. He wants potential volunteers to see the equipment and have an opportunity to talk to volunteers. He said, "There is a spot for everyone."
Kurt Maytum, assistant chief for the Fredonia Fire Department said, "It's not a big secret around here in the county and the country we need more people. It's a common problem everywhere and here we can certainly use more volunteers."
Information about local departments and the times they listed for recruitment can be found at www.recruitny.org which is sponsored by the Firemen's Association of New York.
Imfield also encouraged those with questions to call the Chautauqua County Office at 753-4341.
Comments on this article may be directed to email@example.com. Eric Tichey contributed to this report.


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I have something to confess to you all. For an embarrassingly long time, I thought the phrase "information wants to be free" (besides being the name of one of my favorite blogs) meant free as in speech, not free as in beer. My apologies in advance to my open source friends who are tired of "types of free" conversations -I'll try not to mention kittens. But for quite some time, I was under the impression that "information wants to be free" was a rallying cry for access and simplicity, not content you didn't have to pay for. "Information will out" was the underlying meaning I focused on.
Read More »
Field trips in New England often revolve around hardship. And candy. As an elementary school student, I learned to make candles like the colonists did when they weren't busy starving to death or learning about corn. As a high school student, I watched a blacksmith (who would not break character to give us directions) sweat and work on a horseshoe for what felt like an eternity to my 16-year-old self. It's tough to be a settler, which is why historical attractions always sell fantastic anachronistic penny candy - it offsets the depression that would set in on the children who just spent three hours making a misshapen candle that will provide about twenty minutes of iffy light. And all that's before anyone bothered to mention the genocide sparked by the bonneted and buckled people all of our towns are named after. Read More »
In the watered-down simplification of high school life that appears in teen movies (made by adults), libraries are the home of nerds. Jocks exist in the physical realm, while nerds dwell in the landscape of the mind. Anyone who has been to high school (or perhaps seen The Breakfast Club) knows that teenagers don't live in a world so facile and rigid, but libraries, during and after we're done with high school, are seen as temples to the intellect. Read More »
I grew up without tourists. Not for lack of trying on the part of certain groups in my hometown. There was a flurry of activity trying to establish eastern Connecticut as a hotbed of rural, agriculturally-based tourism. If only these well-intentioned folks had anticipated the local food movement. Maybe we could have put together a Community Supported Agriculture program in town. I would have gotten on board if the end result involved good tomatoes. Although I have lived a mostly touristless life, I know plenty of people who grew up or currently live in places overrun by visitors, where complaining about tourists is a local hobby. Read More »
Inbox zero. Did you just clench your teeth or tense your shoulders? I did both, just typing the words. Like most people I know, my relationship with what I have come to think of as "productivity porn" is, as Facebook would say, complicated. Just as catalogs from furniture stores make me feel a little anxious about the piles of to-be-read books and magazines (and, ahem, the occasional tuft of dog fur) in my living room, productivity blogs and books make me eye my multiple inboxes with some trepidation. Read More »
How did you answer the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?" when it was posed to you? I recently unearthed the 3rd grade journal Mrs. Laufer had her students keep and found my own scrawled meditation on the subject. Librarian was not on my list. Most of us stumble into our lives, making the best decisions we can at the time. A few have an action plan early on and pursue their destiny with a single-mindedness that can impress and sometimes alienate the rest of us mere mortals. For librarians, there seems to be a second episode of "how did I get here?" if the professional titles that include the word "accidental" are any indication. Read More »
Anyone who has spent time with small children knows that "why?" is one of the best and most vexing questions people can ask. "Why?" probes for motivations, explanations, understanding. It demands reflection and clear communication, and I think it's safe to say that most people have a complex relationship with this tiny word. Library techies can leverage "why?" to change how their organizations operate by questioning a ibrary procedure. Discussing workflow with coworkers and asking "why?" a lot, while offering ways to automate procedures, can offer value to your colleagues and your organization (and maybe wreak a little havoc). But "why?" is also a question library techs sometimes dread. "Why did it work before but not this time?" "Why is it broken?" "Why am I getting this error message?" Often the answer is straightforward: a setting has been changed, or a network problem is creating the error. But sometimes, getting to why would require an electrical engineering background and a path of inquiry beyond simply fixing the problem. Nothing is quite so frustrating as resolving a persistent error only to have your techjoy smashed to bits by a coworker disappointed because you're not quite sure why the computer stopped recognizing the printer, you only know that they're now friends again. Read More »
This summer, I was fortunate enough to attend a leadership institute led by Maureen Sullivan. First and foremost: if you get a chance to attend a workshop with her, do not pass go, just sign up.
The workshop began in earnest with everyone listing challenges and opportunities facing their libraries. "Keeping up with technology" cropped up early on. It always does. In my inside inside voice (the one that stays in my head), I wondered why we haven't figured that one out yet. Shortly after the workshop ended, I came across the WebJunction report on library staff's use of online tools.
Read More »
Does your library charge fines? For everything? I've been chatting with a couple of libraries that don't charge fines for books, but do charge them for DVDs and videos. One library finds that their books often don't come back. Or that they come back months late. Not so with the DVDs and videos. Fines, they conclude, are the way to get materials back. Read More »
"Hi, I'm sorry if I spammed you" has been my standard greeting for the last several weeks. If you've ever had email contact with me, you already know some of this story: a few weeks ago, my gmail account was hijacked. I believe this is what they call a "learning experience."As usual, timing is everything. In the middle of April, I spent two weeks at conferences, one of them driving distance from my house. On my way home from the first day of the conference, my phone chirped with the familiar text-message sound. Like a good driver, I ignored it. Read More »
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(It's still early enough in the year to still wish you a Happy New Year, isn't it :-)?)
As I mentioned in my post on the Top 10 Recipes of 2011 (all with special diet options – of course!), this year has been really something as far as this blog is concerned. I have really enjoyed interacting with all of you – getting great questions, fabulous ideas, and well, I've just liked sharing what I've learned over the years as far as our health, special needs and dietary challenges go.
Well, all that being said, it was really fun for me to see what the most popular posts over the year were. Some were surprises and others — were not.
In case you haven't noticed, I like figuring out how to make things from scratch.
If I can do it cheaply and easily – then I'm for sure going to try to figure out how to do it. I personally think that making things from scratch is one of the best frugal, simple living things that you can do for yourself and your family.
Now, with all of the dietary restrictions in our family, many of my "DIY" or "make it yourself" posts have to do with things in the kitchen (though I do have a post on the Easiest Deodorant and hope to post on the Easiest Lip Balm and DIY body lotion soon :-).)
Anyway, this is the second post in my "Top 10" series. The Top 10 DIY / Make It Yourself Posts of 2011. Next and finally, I will be sharing my final Top 10 list with you all and then we'll be back to regular blogging.
So once again, could I have a drum roll please? (I probably never told you that I played the drums in elementary school, did I?)
1. Homemade Taco Seasoning–
This handy-dandy recipe replaces those icky, way-too-expensive, MSG and other "stuff" laden packets. And it tastes good too :-)!
2. Easiest Moisturizing Foaming Soap –
In case you missed this one (it was one of my earliest posts), this is a breeze to make. And I've added a new moisturizing tip too!
3. How to Make Powdered Sugar / Powdered Sugar Substitute
Here's a way to make your own powdered sugar if you've run out, or more importantly a way to make a healthier alternative to standard powdered sugar. Super simple!
4. Easy Homemade Chocolate / Carob Chips
These are super easy and really good. I will add one caveat – since this post I've revised the recipe, but haven't updated it yet. A few ways that I think taste better and also with a better consistency. Please stay tuned for details!
5. DIY Dishwasher Rinse Aid
You won't believe how easy this is! And it really works!
6. DIY Plastic Wrap Substitute
I'm not advocating that you make your own plastic with some special chemical procedure :-). Come and find out how long it's been since I've bought plastic wrap!
7. Easiest Homemade Coconut Milk
There are a lot of recipes for this on the internet – but this one is for sure the easiest. And it tastes great! Can't you tell from this smile?
8. DIY Decongestant Rub (like Vicks Vapor-Rub)
This is another post that I am going to be revising with a better formula. But this should get your through until then!
9. Homemade Corn and Aluminum-Free Baking Powder
What? Aluminum in baking powder? Yes there is – in a lot of it.
This is great for avoiding aluminum, for those with corn allergies and for any time you are in a pinch and have run out of baking powder! Read this post to find out how to make it and what I ended up using a botched cake recipe for!)
10. Easiest Homemade Coconut Butter
Have you ever tried coconut butter? It's super yummy – and super expensive.
But it doesn't have to be and this is one of the easiest things to make!
And, because I couldn't resist adding these because they are some of my favorites:
11. Natural Blue Food Coloring
Did you know that there is aluminum in food coloring too? It's also just plain old not good for you. I've been able to pull off other colors pretty easily, but blue was a toughy. You won't believe what you can make blue coloring from!
12. Make Your Own Powdered Egg Substitute (like Ener-G)
Whether you've got egg allergies or not, this is a must have for your kitchen. If you've ever run out of eggs while baking, this will get you out of the bind!
So – did you find your favorite in the list? Or a new thing that you just have to try?
I'd love to hear about it.
And if you have something you'd like me to take a run at, please share – I need to watch that family comes first, but I love a good challenge :-).
Please share if you have a "DIY" or "Make Your Own" idea that you'd like me to tackle.


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Topic: Database update with has_many relationship
I need to do an update on my database where an Project has_many :costs. If there is a cost with :year equal to 0 I need to set :old_cost in Project to the value of :cost in the Cost.
That sounds like garbage so time for some code.
class Project
has_may :costs
class Cost
belongs_to :project
I have tries looking at update_all but that didn't seem suitable for this and I tried looping through projects and then costs in the rails console and doing an if inside that but the resulting SQL was just a SELECT not and UPDATE.
Thanks for any help


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In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Ever Merciful.
Muslims who believe in the Messiah, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani (as)
An Urdu poetry session in praise of Holy Prophet (saw). A presentation of Muslim Television Ahmadiyya.
Moshaairah Holy Prophet Muhammad
Copyright © by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community 1995-2017. All rights reserved.


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History: World War II
Compiled and Written by Lou Hoffman
Download this document as a PDF: World War II - New Mexico
World War II from a New Mexican Perspective
When war broke out in Europe and Asia in 1939, the War Department suggested to the National Guard that their 111th Cavalry convert to another branch of service. The age of the horse as a combatant had passed. Thus, the officers and non-commissioned officers of the command jointly selected coast artillery. In 1940, the 111th was re-designated the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment (AA) and the 158th was reorganized as the 104th Anti-Tank battalion. On January 6, 1940, these units, along with the 120th Engineer Regiment, were called to active duty for a one-year training period that became the prelude to some of the earliest combat experienced by American troops in World War II.
New Mexico in the 1940s also began to play a critical role in the emerging relationship between science and the military, which would grow rapidly in the decades to follow. This started with the testing of the variable-timed, radio, proximity-fused artillery shells that would be crucial to protecting the Navy's ships from Kamikazes and to the Army's defense of Bastogne, Belgium in 1944. Airplanes were suspended over the desert mesa near Kirtland between the tallest wooden towers in the world and used for targets.
The importance of the proximity fuze to the successful outcome of the Second World War is best stated by those who witnessed its effectiveness.
James V. Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy said, "The proximity fuze has helped blaze the trail to Japan. Without the protection this ingenious device has given the surface ships of the Fleet, our westward push could not have been so swift and the cost in men and ships would have been immeasurably greater."
Prime Minister, Winston S. Churchill was quoted with "These so-called proximity fuzes, made in the United States. . , proved potent against the small unmanned aircraft (V-1) with which we were assailed in 1944."
And Commanding General of the Third Army, George S. Patton said, "The funny fuze won the Battle of the Bulge for us. I think that when all armies get this shell we will have to devise some new method of warfare."
200th Coast Artillery Regiment (AA)
By August 1941, the 200th, under the Command of Colonel Charles G. Sage was given notice that it had been selected for an overseas assignment and was shipped out to the Philippines where the unit would be posted 75 miles north of Manila at Ft. Stotsenberg, the site of Clark Field. The regiment, which prior to 8 December 1941 had never actually fired a live round from either a 3-in or 37-mm anti-aircraft gun, was the largest single American outfit in the islands.
Early on 8 December the night radio crew picked up commercial broadcasts telling of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor prompting the regiment to go on full alert. Afterward, bombers of the Japanese 11th Air Fleet comprised of both bombers and fighter planes arrived at 12:20 P.M, inflicting irreparable damage to American strategic capacity. Thanks to the 200th, seven of the 300 Japanese planes that flew in from Formosa that morning would never leave -- even though much of 200th's obsolete ammunition was faulty and did not detonate. Worse, the World War I style powder train fuses that the regiment was forced to use limited the effective elevation of their 3-in. guns to 20,000 feet – well below the altitude at which the Japanese multi-engine bombers learned to fly.
The next day brought with it the creation of the Provisional 200th Coast Artillery (AA) of Manila, subsequently designated the 515th Coast Artillery Regiment (AA). It was initially staffed with approximately one-third of the officers and troops of the 200th and sent to Manila under the Command of Lt. Colonel Harry M. Peck, Executive Officer of the 200th, in order to provide anti-aircraft protection for the city. There hundreds of conscripts were added to the regiment's complement. However, by Christmas the situation had deteriorated rapidly. The 200th had earlier assumed the responsibility of covering the retreat of the Northern Luzon Force into Bataan. So, the 515th maneuvered to provide cover for the retreating Southern Luzon Force after Manila had been declared an "open" (undefended) city by General Douglas MacArthur.
Throughout the entire campaign the 200th and 515th in the process of destroying 86 Japanese aircraft expended approximately 23,000 rounds of 0.50 caliber ammunition, 6,900 rounds of 3-in. and 13,000 rounds of 37-mm ammunition, including the frequent duds and rounds also spent as field artillery. That equates to 80 3-in. rounds and 151 37-mm rounds expended for each enemy aircraft destroyed. By comparison, statistics compiled for the more advance 90-mm and 40-mm guns available during later campaigns of the Pacific Theater of Operations revealed that the rate of ammunition consumption for these evolved weapons varied from 898 to 121 rounds per kill for the 90-mm guns and 365-157 for the automatic 40-mm weapons with the lower expenditure rates achieved toward the end of the war.
During the Philippine Defense Campaign the 3-in. antiaircraft batteries of the 200th and 515th had been limited to 3 or 4 rounds per gun in each attack. And the 37-mm pieces were limited to 10 rounds each. That permitted the regiments to stay in action the whole way. But, on 6 April the limit was removed because the Japanese planes got "personal" about it, attacking the batteries themselves. Each regiment immediately increased daily expenditure rates to about 400 rounds of 3-in. ammunition and then set an all-time high on 8 April of nearly 1,000 rounds each.
Whenever a plane was brought down, everyone on Bataan knew it almost immediately. A certain unmistakable congratulatory yell had automatically developed with the first planes knocked down. How and who started it will remain a mystery forever. The fact remains that whenever the yell started, it was relayed and repeated all over Bataan, and everyone who heard it knew that another Japanese plane was out of business.
And, at the end when on 9 April General King ordered allied forces on Bataan to surrender, these two regiments constituted the last cohesive military force that remained in action to resist the Japanese. Control and communication were even maintained after they were ordered to stack arms. Before that, however, these units unhesitatingly provided infantry support as the Allies' last line of defense along a ridge on the south side of Cabcaben Air Field at the tip of the Bataan peninsula.
The Battle of Bataan can be described as the last battle of World War I and the first battle of World War II. It used weapons only marginally improved from World War I and, therefore, tactics not unfamiliar to First War veterans. Yet the use of air power, tanks and mechanization placed Bataan in a newer time. It was a "come-as-you-are" war, one that was fought with the men and material on hand, un-reinforced (on the Allied side) by better trained men with evolutionary and revolutionary weapons. It was a battle that involved relatively few troops when compared to later campaigns. Of the defenders' sacrifices General MacArthur wrote, "History I am sure will record the defense of the Philippines as one of the decisive battles of the world. Its protracted struggle enabled the United Nations to gather strength to resist in the Pacific. Had it not held out, Australia would have fallen with incalculable results."
Significantly, these regiments and their leadership who, since the 1916-17 Punitive Expedition, had gained proficiency in the art of maneuver warfare, the use artillery, automatic weapons and infantry tactics acquitted themselves with honor during their four months of combat. In that short time these "Battling Bastards of Bataan" earned two Distinguished Service medals, four Presidential Unit Citations, and the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation plus battle credits for the Asiatic-Pacific campaign medal with one silver and one bronze battle star; Philippine Defense medal with one bronze battle star and the American Defense campaign medal with one bronze battle star.
On 9 April 1942 all of that mattered little when all 47,000 of the surviving, starving and disease-ravaged defenders of Bataan were ordered to experience the gravest humiliation suffered by U.S. forces up to that point.
Taken prisoner they were denied food and water, robbed of their personal possessions and equipment and subjected to the "Bataan Death March." The 65 mile forced march to San Fernando claimed the lives of 16,950 Americans and Filipinos many of whom were beheaded, bayoneted, clubbed or beaten and left on the road side to die. They were then packed like sardines into enclosed, oven like, rail road cattle cars for transport to Camp O'Donnell, which prior to the war had been a poorly prepared training camp for Philippine Army recruits. Upon arrival, the 35,000 survivors discovered that there was only one working water faucet in the entire camp to which the Japanese would often deny their prisoners access. Hygiene was non-existent. Flies swarmed and dysentery was rampant. The Bataan Death March together with the torturous 40-month imprisonment that followed is the most devastating trauma endured by New Mexican soldiers in the modern era.
By war's end, only about half of the 1,800 New Mexicans who originally shipped out to the Philippines returned home. And only about half of those men survived another year. After the war, the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Prisoner of War and "Mac Arthur" medals were awarded to all of the men who served in these units. A number of these troops were also individually awarded Silver Star Medals in recognition of their heroism in combat during the Philippine Defense Campaign.
Albuquerque Army Air Base
Ironically, the 19th Bombardment Group, one of a number of the Army Air Corps units protected at Ft. Stotsenberg by the 200th, had been stationed for four months at the Albuquerque Army Air Base in 1940. The base would go on to be designated as an Air Forces Advanced Flying School on 24 December 1941 where an initial fleet of 150 AT-11s would support a bombardier training school that was used as the location for the filming of the 1943 movie "Bombardier." The movie, featuring the Sandia Mountains in several scenes, stared Pat O'Brian, Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Anne Shirley and Eddie Albert who would become the helmsman of a Navy landing craft that ferried Marines to the beach in the first wave of the Tarawa invasion in the central Pacific.
In 1942 actor Jimmy Stewart was stationed in Albuquerque as an instructor where he taught pilots to fly AT-6, AT-9, and B-17 aircraft until the fall of 1943 when he went to England as Commanding Officer of the 703rd Bomb Squadron, equipped with B-24s. Stewart ended the war with 20 combat missions and remained in the USAF Reserve. Brigadier General Stewart retired 31 May 1968.
Stewart talking Over the final details of a mission prior to takeoff.
Source: National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
Code Talkers
While one group of New Mexicans struggled for survival as POWs, a unique group contributed directly to American success in the Pacific and ultimately their rescue. The Navajo Code Talkers, whose official contributions remained secret until the 1980s, played a crucial role in the American victory in the Pacific. In March 1942 the first unit of Code talkers was established. The 382d Platoon was made up of 29 Navajos who were volunteers from boarding schools in Shiprock, Fort Defiance, and Fort Wingate. Their undecipherable code required first the conversion of a military term into an image such as a "bear" that was common to the unwritten Navajo language and then translated into Navajo before it was spoken into a radio that could be intercepted by the enemy. Ultimately, more than 400 Navajo Code Talkers volunteered for duty throughout Europe and the Pacific. They saw their first service on Guadalcanal in August 1942. By the time the Marines landed on Iwo Jima in 1944, theirs was the only code used by American forces on the island.
120th Combat Engineering Battalion
Additionally, trained both in amphibious warfare and mountaineering, the New Mexico National Guard's 120th Engineers Combat Battalion led the assault landing teams of the 45th Infantry Division in the D-Day landing on the Sicilian coast on 10 July 1943 and participated in 22 straight days of fighting until the capitulation of all enemy forces remaining on Sicily.
On 10 September, the Battalion again went into action at Paestum, near Salerno, Italy to clear the way for a Division landing. The Division, after leaving the beach, turned inland toward the northeast in the direction of Benevento. The Battalion, as usual, was among the leading elements of the advance, destroying mine fields, building by-passes for destroyed bridges and otherwise accelerating the American advance. Their energy and courage, then and later, served to make them one of the elite fighting groups in the European Theater.
During 46 days of continuous fighting, the New Mexico Battalion bridged the tumultuous and unpredictable Volturno River, and proceeded to build pack trails, remove mine fields, and build bridges in the mountains around Venafro. They performed tasks that now seem like miracles but which at the time were accepted as a matter of course.
Ernie Pyle
Journalist Ernie Pyle was embedded with the 45th Division throughout the Italian campaign and wrote daily dispatches from Italy:
"I lived for a while on the Sicilian front with the 120th Engineers Battalion, attached to the 45th Division. The bulk of the 120th hailed from my adopted state of New Mexico. They were part of an old New Mexico outfit, most of which was lost on Bataan. It was good to get back to those slow-talking, wide and easy people of the desert, and good to speak of places like Las Cruces, Socorro, and Santa Rosa. It was good to find somebody who lived within sight of my own picket fence on the Mesa.". . .
"The engineers were very careful throughout the campaign about tearing up native property. They used much extra labor and time to avoid damaging orchards, buildings, or vineyards. Sometimes they'd build a road clear around an orchard rather than through it."
"This consideration helped make us many friends here."
Bill Mauldin
Six days after the 120th Engineers had been relieved from the line and reassigned to special training, Pyle would also write about another iconic New Mexican, Bill Maulden:
"IN ITALY, January 15, 1944 -- Sgt. Bill Mauldin appears to us over here to be the finest cartoonist the war has produced. And that's not merely because his cartoons are funny, but because they are also terribly grim and real."
"Mauldin's cartoons aren't about training-camp life, which you at home are best acquainted with. They are about the men in the line - the tiny percentage of our vast army who are actually up there in that other world doing the dying. His cartoons are about the war."
"Mauldin's central cartoon character is a soldier, unshaven, unwashed, unsmiling. He looks more like a hobo than like your son. He looks, in fact, exactly like a doughfoot who has been in the lines for two months. And that isn't pretty."
"Mauldin's cartoons in a way are bitter. His work is so mature that I had pictured him as a man approaching middle age. Yet he is only twenty-two, and he looks even younger. He himself could never have raised the heavy black beard of his cartoon dogface. His whiskers are soft and scant, his nose is upturned good-naturedly, and his eyes have a twinkle."
"His maturity comes simply from a native understanding of things, and from being a soldier himself for a long time. He has been in the Army three and a half years."
"Bill Mauldin was born in Mountain Park, New Mexico. He now calls Phoenix home base, but we of New Mexico could claim him without much resistance on his part. Bill has drawn ever since he was a child. He always drew pictures of the things he wanted to grow up to be, such as cowboys and soldiers, not realizing that what he really wanted to become was a man who draws pictures. He graduated from high school in Phoenix at seventeen, took a year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago, and at eighteen was in the Army. He did sixty-four days on KP duty in his first four months. That fairly cured him of a lifelong worship of uniforms."
"Mauldin belongs to the 45th Division. Their record has been a fine one, and their losses have been heavy. Mauldin's typical grim cartoon soldier is really a 45th Division infantryman, and he is one who has truly been through the mill.". . .
"After the war he wants to settle again in the Southwest, which he and I love. He wants to go on doing cartoons of these same guys who are now fighting in the Italian hills, except that by then they'll be in civilian clothes and living as they should be."
After the war Mauldin freelanced for a time, joined the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1958, then switched to the Chicago Sun-Times in 1962 and moved to Santa Fe, N.M. There he sculpted a bronze statue of his famous "Cavalry Sergeant" cartoon, which is on permanent display in the lobby of the New Mexico Veterans Memorial Visitors Center and Museum. Mauldin passed away 22 January 2003 at the age of 81.
Enrie Pyle was lost to a machine gunner's bullet 18 April 1945 during an invasion on Ie Shima a Pacific island off Okinawa Honto.
For the 120th Engineers there followed four long months of "hell on earth," where the Battalion performed all tasks assigned to them, at times serving as infantry by night and performing engineering duties by day. When peace came, the 120th had accumulated 511 combat days to their credit. The 120th Engineers' numerous campaigns include: Sicily with assault credit; Naples-Foggia with assault credit; Rome-Arno; Anzio-Solerno; Southern France with assault credit; Rhineland; and Central Europe.
104th Anti-Tank Battalion
The National Guard's 104th Anti-tank Battalion, reorganized as the 804th Tank Destroyer Battalion, landed at Oran in East Africa 1 February 1943. While in Africa the Battalion primarily engaged in advanced training in artillery methods and maneuver in coordination with regimental combat teams utilizing their M3 half-tracks that sported updated WWI French 75 mm howitzers.
In January 1944 the 804th was attached to the 88th Infantry Division and sent to Italy where it went into the line in mid-February near Minturo, about 40 miles north of Naples. The mission of the 88th Division was to break the Gustav Line and eventually take Rome. Supporting this mission the 804th was assigned to provide direct fire support to the infantry units to which they had been attached while they, in fact, where themselves highly vulnerable to counter battery fire. By 15 May 1944, the Gustav Line was broken and leading elements of the Battalion pushed north and entered the Eternal City on the 4 June -- stopping for a rest only when they had advanced 30 miles beyond the city.
Included among the infantry units of the 34th Division for whom the 804th provided supporting fire was the famous 442nd Infantry Regiment (Nisei), which became the most decorated US Army unit of World War II.
23 July again found the 804th changing fronts, this time back to the 88th Division and moving into positions southeast of Pisa where the Arno River lay ahead. Attached to the 91st Division on 20 August, the 804th would again be called into the fighting line. By 3 September B company of the 804th had cleared the Arno River and had engaged the enemy north of the crossing until 7 September when the 34th Division took over.
The next great natural defensive line for the retreating enemy was the huge sprawling Apennines mountain range, running from north of Pisa to Rimini and extending 60 miles north to the Po valley. Throughout September and into October, the firing companies of the 804th gave close supporting fire until bad weather began to make operations with their open vehicles extremely difficult. Supply also became a major obstacle because of the ever present mud, which forced the battalion to often depend on pack mules.
Once the new spring 1945 offensive began, it was more of the same – firing thousands of rounds of high explosives at enemy positions, disrupting lines of communication, knocking out fortifications and harassing the enemy by day and night. For example, it was found that one gun could light up its own target with an illumination round and then take it under effective fire. But, progress was easier. The Po River was crossed by the 26th of April. On the 1st of May the battalion pushed on into Treviso where they met elements of the British 8th Army and closed a trap on thousands of enemy forces to the south. Finally on 5 May 1945, the 3rd platoon of C Company, supporting the 1st Battalion, 339th Infantry reached the Brenner Pass and contacted elements of the 103rd Infantry Division of the 7th Army, which was closing in from the north. Escape for the enemy was then finally cut off and the fighting ceased in Italy.
On 18 July the battalion boarded the "Marine Raven" at Livorno for shipment home where the personnel were discharged at Camp Hood, Texas shortly after arrival.
While in action, men of the battalion were awarded eight Silver Star Medals, three Legions of Merit and sixty Bronze Stars. One hundred and thirty-five were awarded Purple hearts. Thirty of these were awarded posthumously. And the Battalion earned the following campaign credits: Rome-Arno; North Apennines; and Po Valley.
Home Front
On the home front, New Mexicans made an all out commitment to the war effort. The slogan "Food Will Win the War" was nowhere more relevant than in New Mexico, as the rural state more than doubled its agricultural production. Women worked in fields, factories and military installations, and they planted victory gardens and saved precious resources. Likewise the state played a role in the stepped up production of strategic minerals and oil, including uranium from the Ambrosia Lake Mine in northwestern New Mexico.
As the months passed every wife, mother, sister, brother, father, relative and friends of any man or woman captured by the Japanese, became molded into a powerful voice that continually reminded the federal government of its responsibility to those who became prisoners because of the nation's lack of preparedness and support. Information was leaking out about the atrocities and sub-human treatment that American prisoners of war were receiving in Japanese prison camps in the Pacific. When wives and mothers heard about their sons and husbands who had been taken prisoners, they started calling and writing their Congressmen in an effort to find help or get assistance for their loved ones. Finally, two mothers whose sons were members of the 200th Coast Artillery and had been captured by the Japanese persuaded other parents and relatives to hold a mass meeting and formed an organization to get relief to the captured boys on Bataan. On 14 April 1942, the Bataan Relief Organization (BRO) was formed. Their motto was "We will not let them down."
Incorporated 8 September 1943 the BRO had the goal of bringing whatever aid and comfort possible to the men and women in the Philippines and to disseminate information to relatives of Americans captured by the Japanese. Within months Albuquerque, NM became the national headquarters of the BRO. The BRO would eventually embrace 14 affiliates in eight states and 40 federated groups throughout the United States comprising over one million members and supporters. Radio, telephone and mail services permitted members to keep in touch with each other in a way that had never been possible before.
Listening posts along the west coast and in Albuquerque, N.M. operated 24-hours a day, collecting messages from broadcasts and the relaying them on to the proper families. The BRO also arranged through the Red Cross for a special cablegram rate for messages to American prisoners of the Japanese. A ten-word cable gram could be sent for $6.00 plus a ten percent tax, rather than the standard rate of $15.00. The organization's officers deluged Washington, D.C. officials with mail and personal visits.
Their mission accomplished the National Bataan Relief Officers turned control of the Bataan Relief Organization over to the liberated members of the New Mexico's 200th Coast Artillery Regiment in 1945 at their annual meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1946, the name was changed to Bataan Veteran's Organization (BVO).
The first National BVO convention was held May 14, 1948, in Albuquerque. The second was held in Hollywood, California, April 1949. At this convention, it was voted to change the name to American Ex-Prisoners of War. The reason for the change was so veterans from the European Theater would realize that they were eligible for membership. By changing the name to American Ex-Prisoners of War, it would welcome all former POW's from any war. There were 800 at the 1949 convention and seven local groups comprised the initial framework of the organization. Those were: The Bataan Veteran's Organization; The Lost Battalion; The Seattle Barbed Wire Club; Orphans of the Pacific; The Dad MacMannis Post; The Southwest Barbed Wire Club; and The Barbed Wire Club of North Carolina.
From that small beginning the BVO/EX-POW grew into a 33,000 member organization that continued to express a powerful voice at the national level concerning the special needs of these disabled veterans.
The heraldic symbols of the AX-POW emblem representing Justice are balanced on swords. Curves at the top of the shield portray the two massive military defeats suffered by the United States Armed Forces in World War II: Bataan and the Belgium Bulge. Later, the Ex-POW motto was adopted: NON SOLUM ARMIS, Latin for "Not by Arms Alone."
World War II transformed NewMexico. The Manhattan Project with its successful test of the first atomic bomb, which led to the establishment of Los Alamos National Laboratory, and of Z Division Labs C renamed Sandia Laboratories in 1948 C together with Kirtland Air Force Base, Holloman Air Force Base, and the White Sands Missile Range, have inextricably linked New Mexicans to the federal government in ways not known before the 1940s.
In many ways, however, it is the ultimate irony. The stability and prosperity of New Mexico has always been dependant on a strong military presence. It simply took the atomic bomb and the global threat of communism to secure that relationship.
The following table briefly summarizes the numbers and types of defense related facilities that were maintained in New Mexico during World War II.
|New Mexican Military Facilities
of World War II
|Major Air Bases
|Dispersal Bases
|Bombing and Gunnery Ranges
|Army Hospitals
|National Cemeteries
|POW Camps
|Branch POW Camps
|National Guard Armories
|Colleges & Universities
|Specialized Military Locations


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Police tips reduce risk of becoming target
Staying alert and taking precautions to avoid becoming a target can go a long way in fighting crime, according to Minot crime prevention officer Sgt. Margie Zietz.
A 29-year veteran of the Minot Police Department, Zietz speaks to community groups on self-protection awareness, sharing tips on how to avoid becoming a victim.
"The hardest job is to get that fear out of people that we aren't safe anymore," Zietz told members of the Minot YWCA recently.
She said growth in Minot can lead to an increase in overall criminal incidents, although per capita crime rates might not change. An area where the increase has been significant is in violent crime, she said. Typically, Minot would see fewer than 20 aggravated assault arrests a year. Last year there were nearly 90 arrests.
But people can take simple steps to protect themselves, Zietz said.
Displaying confidence, becoming aware of surroundings and looking people in the face can discourage a potential perpetrator. The ability to identify a person decreases your appeal as a target, she said.
If attacked, car keys can be used as a weapon to scratch an assailant on an arm or face. A flashlight is useful because light discourages an assailant and makes you visible to witnesses, Zietz added. A flashlight also can be shone into an attacker's eyes as a disturbance allowing for escape.
Self-defense tools, such as pepper spray or stun guns, are useful only if the owner is practiced in using them and has them at hand when needed, Zietz said. The drawback is that they can be used against the owner if they fall into the wrong hands, she said. Stun guns also require a concealed weapons permit.
People should not carry a gun if they do not feel capable of taking another person's life, Zietz said. Just the display of a defensive weapon could cause an armed assailant to use an offensive weapon that he or she might not have intended to use.
Zietz prefers that people consider simple lifestyle changes that can reduce the risk of crime.
More information about self protection or home security is available by contacting the Crime Prevention Unit at 857-4711.


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Zelazny, Roger
Roger Zelazny 1937–
American science fiction novelist, short story writer, and editor.
Zelazny's unique blend of fantasy, science fiction, and myth has earned him a prominent position among the writers of imaginative fiction. Zelazny was one of the first exponents, along with Harlan Ellison and Samuel R. Delany, of the new wave science fiction that arose during the mid-1960s in America. Supporters of the movement emphasized a shift in theme from the external world of hard sciences to the internal world examined through such disciplines as psychology, sociology, and linguistics. In the early 1960s Zelazny wrote prolifically for the magazines Amazing Stories and Fantastic, often using the pseudonym of Harrison Denmark. In 1965 he emerged as one of the most important contemporary writers of science fiction when he won Nebula awards for "He Who Shapes" (novella) and The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth (novelette), and a Hugo Award for And Call Me Conrad (published in book form as This Immortal). Many critics believe Zelazny was at the peak of his creative ability during these years, when his works were characterized by refreshing originality, powerful scenes and language, and a double vision which used comedy to underline nobility. Zelazny's innovative techniques later gave way to what critics feel is a less impressive seriousness. Nevertheless, Zelazny is considered a superior writer of futuristic adventure stories.
Zelazny often incorporates myths and folklore in his plots to present a vision of the future, as in Creatures of Light and Darkness where he entwines elements of Christian, Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology. The books in Zelazny's "Amber" series are probably his best-known works. This series is Zelazny's version of the sword and sorcery motif, and was commended at the beginning for its freshness and zest. After five books, however, some critics feel the story is overworked and would be more effective if shortened to one volume. Among Zelazny's other works, Isle of the Dead and Doorways in the Sand are notable for their particularly successful character studies, a feat seldom accomplished in science fiction. Critics agree that with Roadmarks Zelazny approaches the brilliance of wit and imagination displayed in his early works; most critics, however, feel the overall effect of the book is diminished by an easy ending. Although critical acceptance of Zelazny has varied over the years, he has consistently appealed to young adults as an entertaining and imaginative science fiction writer. In addition to the awards already mentioned, he has received the Nebula and Hugo awards for "Home Is the Hangman" (1975), and the Hugo Award for Lord of Light (1967). (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 21-24, rev. ed.)
- The Times Literary Supplement
- The Times Literary Supplement
- Norman Culpan
- Kirkus Reviews
- Kirkus Reviews
- Pauline F. Micciche
- Ted Pauls
- Kirkus Reviews
- James Blish
- Norman Culpan
- John Ives
- Kirkus Reviews
- Psychology Today
- The Times Literary Supplement
- Roger Baker
- Douglas Barbour
- Psychology Today
- Sidney Coleman
- Frederick Patten
- Martin Sherwood
- Michael Wood
- R. D. Mullen
- Peter Ackroyd
- T. A. Shippey
- Dan Miller
- Gerald Jonas
- Lew Wolkoff
- R. D. Mullen
- Robin Adams
- Jay Daly
- Eric Korn
- Jeremy Weston
- ALEX De JONGE
- Lew Wolkoff
- Kirkus Reviews
- LESTER Del REY
- ALEX De JONGE
- Kirkus Reviews
- Norman Culpan
- Orson Scott Card
- MARSHALL B. TYMN, KENNETH J. ZAHORSKI, and ROBERT H. BOYER
- Matt Berger
- Darrell Schweitzer
- Carl B. Yoke
- Roland Green
- Darrell Schweitzer
- Publishers Weekly
- Rosemary Herbert
- Algis Budrys
- Publishers Weekly
- Spider Robinson
The Times Literary Supplement
Lord of Light is a weird allegorical fantasy which sets out to demonstrate how self-destructive is the human compulsion to create gods and demons. In a mistily realized future world, heaven and earth are ruled over by Hindu gods…. It sounds, and is, far-fetched. Much of the writing is reminiscent of those awful jokes, mercifully no longer fashionable, where scato-logical content was meant to provide comic contrast with a mock biblical style. There are occasional "poetic" bits of description: "Morning's pink parasol opened above the tangled hair of the clouds …" and there is often a strong feeling that Mr. Zelazny must be parodying something—though one is never sure what.
"Other New Novels: 'Lord of Light'," in The Times Literary Supplement (© Times Newspapers Ltd. (London) 1968; reproduced from The Times Literary Supplement by permission), No. 3444, February 29, 1968, p. 213.
The Times Literary Supplement
Roger Zelazny has what most readers mean when they talk of style: an obtrusive style. The Dream Master is full of style—indeed, one hardly sees the wood for its multitudinous trees. Behind the trees stands an intelligent and basically simple story, concerning Render, a "neuroparticipant" who, operating through a machine, can enter his patients' minds and build from their contents complete illusions of reality, and a strong-willed blind woman who comes to him for help and education….
It would work well as a modern myth, the myth of the man-on-the-couch turning on his psychiatrist. But Mr. Zelazny dilutes his effect by throwing in too many fragments of older legend—Daedalus, Tristan and Isolde, the Holy Grail, the Cabala, while his characters quote [Fyodor] Dostoevsky and [Walt] Whitman at each other. This takes up so much space that potentially interesting characters like Render's son and the blind woman's artificially mutated guide dog fulfil little function beyond decoration.
Given these reservations, Mr. Zelazny has his pleasures, his wit and his striking pictures, and a certain admirable throwaway sense of the future…. Roger Zelazny is young; one might hope for more substance and less filigree later were it not for his loyal fans, who tend to prefer exhibitionism to ratiocination.
"Do You Mind?" in The Times Literary Supplement (© Times Newspapers Ltd. (London) 1968; reproduced from The Times Literary Supplement by permission), No. 3448, March 28, 1968; p. 310.∗
Norman Culpan
Only a lover of fantasy who also had more than a passing acquaintance with the Buddhist religion could comment adequately on [Lord of Light]. But, without suggesting other common ground than fantasy itself, it might be hazarded that those who enjoy the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and Mervyn Peake will enjoy this book also…. The spell increases steadily as one reads on. I enjoyed it immensely. (pp. 199-200)
Norman Culpan, "Book Reviews: 'Lord of Light'," in The School Librarian and School Library Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, July, 1968, pp. 199-200.
Kirkus Reviews
Lo and on the "Thousandyear Eve," Anubis, Lord of the House of the Dead, gave his faithful servant the name of Wakim and sent him on a mission to the Midway worlds to search out and destroy "the Prince Who Was a Thousand" [in Creatures of Light and Darkness]. But Wakim was deceived for "the Prince Who Was a Thousand" was both his son and his father …? It's psychedelic myth … chasing phantoms across eternal chasms … a very heady head trip … for probably very few passengers.
"Fiction: 'Creatures of Light and Darkness'," in Kirkus Reviews (copyright © 1969 The Kirkus Service, Inc.), Vol. XXXVII, No. 14, July 15, 1969, p. 745.
Kirkus Reviews
The "Alley" [in Damnation Alley] is the post-holocaust road from L.A. to Boston and one that has never been run alive until the last of the Hell's Angels is forced to try it. Boston is down with the plague and only L.A. has the antidote. Thus full speed through a country that rains rocks, has hordes of giant bats and gila monsters, butterflies and spiders and vicious human animals. Only a Hell's Angel could make it. Only a Hell's Angel could believe it.
"Fiction: 'Damnation Alley'," in Kirkus Reviews (copyright © 1969 The Kirkus Service, Inc.), Vol. XXXVII, No. 17, September 1, 1969, p. 956.
(The entire section is 101 words.)
Pauline F. Micciche
[Creatures of Light and Darkness] is another of Zelazny's velvet fabrics with a warp of Christian, Greek, Egyptian and Norse myths spun into one thread and a weft of macabre fantasy about an order of existence which superposes and controls our own universe. The author manipulates the fantasy of the struggle for power between cruel and vindictive entities of the superposing existence around distortions of the various myths. He thus reveals the starkness of essential life and death. The creatures of this superposed world, the creatures of light and dark, have the quality of the shadows of Plato's cave seen indistinctly and constantly changing. In the end only the individuals in power have changed, not the power...
(The entire section is 160 words.)
Ted Pauls
Roger Zelazny infuriates me. I am not speaking as a reader. As a science fiction reader for seventeen years, I am impressed almost to the point of reverence by Zelazny. Nor am I speaking in personal terms. I've met Roger, and he is at the very opposite end of the spectrum from infuriating. But in my capacity as a reviewer, I am infuriated by Roger Zelazny. He does things, magic things, with words, things that cannot be neatly marked, catalogued and described. He employs concepts and symbolism that shimmer like a mirage whenever I stare hard in an effort to make certain that I really comprehend. Whenever I am found perspiring under the heat of my desk lamp, staring at a piece of blank paper in the typewriter, and...
(The entire section is 637 words.)
Kirkus Reviews
Roger Zelazny is a genial writer who sometimes manages to give old themes new twists to accomplish something bordering on the extraordinary. He does this in four instances in this collection of fifteen stories [The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth]—"Devil Car" in which the autos are self-mobile; "The Mortal Mountain" a long climb to the highest mountain in the near universe and well worth the struggle; "A Museum Piece" in which failed artists and cynical critics become living sculptures; and the best, "The Great Slow Kings," a truly funny piece that deals with dragons trying to discuss their contemporary problems over a span of centuries while the world moves on. Not all stars but O.K....
(The entire section is 148 words.)
James Blish
[Nine Princes in Amber] is Zelazny's version of sword-and-sorcery, but it is not for addicts only. Zelazny has not borrowed the standard apparatus for this sort of thing, but has invented his own, and the result is an adventure story with real originality and zest.
True, the hero is suffering from amnesia after a blow on the head as the book opens, but this soap-opera ploy is milked so successfully for suspense that it is readily forgivable. As we find out, with the hero, more and more about his real situation, it becomes more and more evident that the smallest misstep will be fatal. Moreover, the author manages to create real doubt that he will win through, despite the almost insuperable...
(The entire section is 261 words.)
Norman Culpan
Just as able, as in his Lord of Light, to conjure a new mythology out of old religion, to mingle future science with a primitive past in a context of magic, to narrate the battles of gods on a cosmic scale and single combat on a heroic scale, [in Creatures of Light and Darkness Zelazny] takes the religion of ancient Egypt as his raw material. But whereas, in Lord of Light, we thought on the whole we could identify with Sam, a kind of Christ-Buddha, in this second novel we are often not sure where our sympathies lie. The awful grotesque is replaced by the comic grotesque; imaginative response is inflated only to be punctured; even comment seems parody of the earlier style: 'the motorcycle that is...
(The entire section is 215 words.)
John Ives
[In Damnation Alley] Roger Zelazny takes the hoodlum hero of American pulp fiction, dresses him in the gear of the Hell's Angels and places him in a period several decades from now when the world has been devastated by atomic warfare. We are given a vivid and startling idea of what the future could be like after the nuclear holocaust as the hero makes a journey carrying plague serum between the two major surviving centers of civilization in North America, along the route known as Damnation Alley. However there is a dubious element of doublethink in the moral stance of the novel, for to achieve his mission of mercy the hero kills and maims steadily, and in wholesale quantities throughout the journey. This strong...
(The entire section is 176 words.)
Kirkus Reviews
Corwin, the most appealing superman since [Robert] Heinlein's Valentine Michael Smith, continues the family feud begun in Nine Princes in Amber (1970) [in The Guns of Avalon], battling in Shadow, which includes earth as well as Avalon, for the crown of the real world, Amber. Zelazny's dazzling blend of myth, science fantasy and (super) human nature suspends disbelief and raises the highest hopes for volume three.
"Fiction: 'The Guns of Avalon'," in Kirkus Reviews (copyright © 1972 The Kirkus Service, Inc.), Vol. XL, No. 16, August 15, 1972, p. 978.
(The entire section is 83 words.)
Psychology Today
The Guns of Avalon [is] a swashbuckling tale of parallel worlds. Corwin has his share of human vices, so even his struggle against the forces of darkness lacks the mythic clash of Tolkien's Ring novels. But this well-written, robust story teems with excitement, and one can enjoy it without knowing its predecessor….
"Briefly: 'The Guns of Avalon'," in Psychology Today (copyright © 1973 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company), Vol. 6, No. 8, January, 1973, p. 20.
(The entire section is 68 words.)
The Times Literary Supplement
Roger Zelazny has become something of a cult figure among modern fantasy aficionados in the United States. [Jack of Shadows] is another of his extravagant fables set in a quasi-medieval landscape of revenge and paranoia. To many the whole paranormal affair might seem an extraordinary mish-mash of new and old literary ideas, couched in inferior Morcockian prose, with confusion absolute. But there are obviously some who like things that way.
"SF in Short: 'Jack of Shadows'," in The Times Literary Supplement (© Times Newspapers Ltd. (London) 1973; reproduced from The Times Literary Supplement by permission), No. 3715, May 18, 1973, p. 562....
(The entire section is 96 words.)
Roger Baker
I regard [Jack of Shadows] as something of a find for me. Mr Zelazny has written several well-received novels already, but I had never come across him before and I read Jack of Shadows with increasing delight and a sense of satisfaction. I doubt if Mr Zelazny can be, or would want to be, characterised as a particular sort of writer—but for the sake of argument I'll suggest he falls into the imaginative fiction category, somewhere between science fiction and fairy tales. In fact Jack of Shadows opens like a fairy story, with strange names and a sort of poetical prose. And, as with all good fairy stories, we are instantly caught, both by the actual narrative and the charm of the imagination that...
(The entire section is 315 words.)
Douglas Barbour
If there's one thing Roger Zelazny has always had it's a sense of style. Often that's all he's had, but there's no doubt he made his mark early in the sixties … partly on the basis of it. The Doors of His Face is a collection of short stories from 1963 to 1968, but it's a strange collection to say the least.
Oh, a few of the big ones are here: the now famous title story and the equally famous "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" especially…. Other good stories include "The Keys to December" (a story that owes much to Cordwainer Smith), "The Man Who Loved the Faioli," "This Moment of the Storm," and possibly "This Mortal Mountain" (I must say Zelazny has a knack for good titles) all of which generate...
(The entire section is 348 words.)
Psychology Today
Roger Zelazny's To Die in Italbar … is an unusual work of science fiction that takes several disparate characters and gradually moves them together. While Zelazny is no feminist and makes it clear, a female god plays a major—and evil—role in his tale. There are enough elements in Italbar to make a dozen stories: intergalactic rivalry, telepathy, a world ruined by atomic war, a pathologist awaiting a cure for his own disease while existing for decades at the moment before death, a Typhoid Mary who can decimate whole planets with a variety of diseases, and the blue-skinned Deiban goddess Mar'i-ram. Only a master of science fiction could weave all these strands into his web, and Zelazny spins them in...
(The entire section is 141 words.)
Sidney Coleman
Maybe the Joe Blotz test will help.
The test is used by honest editors considering stories by famous writers: "What would I think of this if it were a story by somebody I had never heard of, by Joe Blotz?" I think I would give To Die in Italbar by Joe Blotz an ecstatic review. "Blotz writes well; he can describe fast action and strong emotions with equal skill; he has a fertile imagination and creates colorful characters. Joe Blotz is clearly one of the most promising new writers to appear in a long time. Perhaps he is too much influenced by Roger Zelazny, but …"
No, it doesn't help. There is no avoiding the shadow; it is impossible to write about late Roger Zelazny without...
(The entire section is 1373 words.)
Frederick Patten
Action, tense personal conflict, realistic dialogue, vivid characters, and exotic locales have made [Zelazny's Amber series] hotly sought by SF fans. However, this third volume [Sign of the Unicorn] takes up the tale with no synopsis and plunges into action so fast that even readers of the first two books may want to check back to refresh their memories. Those unfamiliar with the prior volumes may be completely bewildered. And it all ends with the most dramatic cliff-hanger yet.
Frederick Patten, "Book Reviews: 'Sign of the Unicorn'," in Library Journal (reprinted from Library Journal, February 15, 1975; published by R. R. Bowker Co. (a Xerox company);...
(The entire section is 112 words.)
Martin Sherwood
Mystery gathers strength from having roots in reality. A shoot from soil we know is always more pleasing than the unoriented and monstrous growths that often pass for advanced science fiction…. [Today We Choose Faces] postulates strange habitats populated with weird people but, throughout, it remains in touch with what we know. It is a satisfying and successful novel which exercises the mind rather than befuddles it. (p. 404)
Martin Sherwood, "'Today We Choose Faces'," in New Scientist (© IPC Magazines, 1975), Vol. 66, No. 949, May 15, 1975, pp. 404-05.
(The entire section is 84 words.)
Michael Wood
The inhabitants of Roger Zelazny's Sign of the Unicorn are not human beings at all but a race of aristocrats who live in another dimension and who can slip in and out of Earth, which they call Shadow, when they feel like it. They are a squabbling crew of brothers and sisters, a sort of outsize Borgia family complete with daggers and swords and Renaissance castles, and the plot of the novel is closer to that of a thriller than to most science fiction plots. I mention the book, though, because it is good, because it solves the stylistic problem of science fiction in an interesting way, and because it represents a sort of boundary of science fiction, the place where it ends.
To take the last...
(The entire section is 540 words.)
R. D. Mullen
[Zelazny is perhaps as skillful as any other SF writer (with the obvious exception of Ursula Le Guin) and far more skillful than most.]
[Zelazny] would surely be a great success as a scriptwriter for soap operas, who found the theme best suited to his talents and inclinations in one of the stories in Four For Tomorrow, "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," perhaps the best story ever on Mars as a dying world, but who went quite overboard in another, "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth," perhaps the most turgid and cliché-ridden of all the retellings of [Herman Melville's] Moby Dick. The other two stories in the book, "The Furies" and "The Graveyard Heart," are neither as effective as...
(The entire section is 251 words.)
Peter Ackroyd
[To Die in Italbar] is classified as 'science fiction' and whenever I pick up a random sample of that genre, I am always struck by its banality. 'SF', as its fans like to call it, must be the most vacuous form of the novel, interesting only to fantasists and to those who prefer the shadow of the novel to its substance (which is why science fiction is always shown to best effect on the screen). This particular narrative opens somewhere near Italbar, "a thousand miles distant from the space port", where Heidel von Hymack is making his way through the shadowy rain forests of Cleech…. (p. 670)
As long as the novel stays at the level of simple, linear adventure, it has all the merits of a fast...
(The entire section is 328 words.)
T. A. Shippey
[Roger Zelazny's To Die in Italbar] avoids central characters altogether, except in so far as a plague vector is central. We open with a series of apparently unconnected scenes whose characters share only a quality of bizarre invention: a telekinetic dream-sculptor, a frozen pathologist, a professional deicide, a man who is both disease-pool and universal panacea. As the book progresses these parallel figures are (as one of the characters remarks) "cramp'd into a Planisphere". But the sense of their separateness remains; Mr Zelazny relies heavily on his ability to suggest the presence in the background of whole worlds and policies and technologies, all profoundly interesting but too large for...
(The entire section is 155 words.)
Dan Miller
[In Doorways in the Sand] Zelazny has succeeded in that most difficult creation in science fiction: a genuine three-dimensional character. He's Fred Cassidy, a 29-year-old perpetual student in an unnamed twenty-first-century university, with acrophilia which expresses itself in simian rooftop ramblings…. Zelazny uses his dry chuckle, superb writing, and a fascinating narrative to make the reader want to reach out and shake Cassidy's hand.
Dan Miller, "Science Fiction: 'Doorways in the Sand'," in The Booklist (reprinted by permission of the American Library Association; copyright © 1976 by the American Library Association), Vol. 72, No. 15, April 1, 1976, p....
(The entire section is 93 words.)
Gerald Jonas
In describing his own works of fiction, Graham Greene takes care to distinguish between two kinds of books: his serious novels, like "The Power and the Glory" and "The Heart of the Matter," and what he calls his entertainments, like "Stamboul Train" and "The Confidential Agent." By signaling his intentions so clearly, Greene has saved readers and critics a lot of trouble. Serious literature may be entertaining, but that is hardly its primary function; we may be abashed or uplifted by a book without being amused. When entertainment is the author's avowed purpose, however, different expectations are aroused and different standards of taste apply….
[The] identification of science fiction with...
(The entire section is 412 words.)
Lew Wolkoff
Zelazny is writing a novel about Prince Corwin of Amber. But he's releasing each division as he finishes it, [The Hand of Oberon] being fourth in the series. It begins with the next paragraph after the end of Sign of the Unicorn, its predecessor, and concludes with a cliff-hanger that will be resolved in the next.
This creates some problems for the reader. Much dialog is background-as-conversation, never an easy trick, though Zelazny usually keeps one's interest. Even with a chapter-long flashback written to summarize past events, there is sometimes the feeling of having missed something important. Names are thrown at the reader, who may only learn some pages after the fact why the...
(The entire section is 284 words.)
R. D. Mullen
[The Dream Master and Isle of the Dead are two] very different novels even though similar in "style" (i.e. in diction and in making much use of myth). The first is a near future novel of psychological realism and tragic overreaching concerned with "neuroparticipant therapy" in which the psychiatrist participates in and shapes the dreams of the patient, and is in my opinion second only to [Thomas M. Disch's 334]…. The second is a bang-bang interstellar adventure story, a puerile daydream, albeit one of the sixties rather than the twenties, and thus mixing Philip Marlowe with John Carter to produce a hero of a more "mature" type.
R. D. Mullen, "Books in...
(The entire section is 136 words.)
Robin Adams
[Doorways in the Sand] is just great fun. Fred Cassidy, professional college student (thirteen years and no degree) is suddenly the target of everyone searching for a missing alien artifact….
Classic space-mystery, this can not miss with the sci-fi crowd. And young adults might identify with someone who has spent nearly all his life in school.
Robin Adams, "'Doorways in the Sand'," in Young Adult Cooperative Book Review Group of Massachusetts, Vol. 13, No. 2, December, 1976, p. 66.
(The entire section is 75 words.)
Jay Daly
The time [of Deus Irae, written by Zelazny and Philip K. Dick] is post-World War III; the place a wasteland America, peopled with mutant races and presided over by a God of Wrath, one Carleton Lufteufel, who had been instrumental in bringing about World War III in the first place. Tibor McMasters, an incomplete (born without arms or legs, fitted with bionic counterparts), is commissioned to seek out the God of Wrath and to paint his portrait. It is the search for Lufteufel, and its implications, which the book explores. Dick and Zelazny's names will draw hard-core science fiction freaks—the only ones who will stay with this philosophical, allusive tale.
Jay Daly; "Adult...
(The entire section is 147 words.)
Eric Korn
Philip Dick and Roger Zelazny's co-production, Deus Irae, lavishly strews wheezes, rather than ideas. Post-atomic, fragmented, monster-laden world; sardonic religion, the Servants of Wrath, idolizes Carl Lufteuful, the man who pressed the ultimate button; limbless painter sent on pilgrimage on cow-powered cart to find the Holy Face; various encounters with weird philosophical beasts, machines, mutants and metaphysics. Much irony about the relativism of religion and morality, somewhat in the style of James Branch Cabell. Vigorous, jumpy, startling, unflaggingly inventive, and rather a bore.
Eric Korn, "So Many Notions to the Page," in The Times Literary Supplement...
(The entire section is 111 words.)
Jeremy Weston
Roger Zelazny is one of my favourite authors. He writes well, with humour and quite astonishing invention and has earned several top SF awards. Doorways in the Sand is not one of his best but is still very enjoyable reading, with a mysterious alien artefact, galactic cops and robbers, lots of excitement and plenty of humour. Pure escapism—and I loved it!
Jeremy Weston, "Review: 'Doorways in the Sand'," in New Scientist (© IPC Magazines, 1978), Vol. 77, No. 1091, February 23, 1978, p. 520.
(The entire section is 78 words.)
ALEX De JONGE
Whatever one's view of [J.R.R. Tolkien's] The Lord of the Rings there can be no doubt that it has done dreadful things to the young imagination. There are simply too many long, level-paced pseudo-epics, three-part sometimes, about these days, ranging from chivalric to post-cataclysmic settings. The will to epic has even affected the work of one of the most talented science fiction writers, Roger Zelazny, who used to do such wonderful things with myth. The Hand of Oberon … is as well written as ever, but it is part of his tiresome Amber epic, and much too much space is devoted to recapping or describing complicated intrigues which are simply not good to read about. This is largely a waste of his...
(The entire section is 157 words.)
Lew Wolkoff
There is no set "Roger Zelazny" story. He can take the reader on tour across a radiation-scarred America in one story and show him/her a wizards' duel in the next, swinging easily from hard science to dark fantasy. What his stories do have in common is a strong sense of background. He works as hard at making his settings three-dimensional as he does with his characters. (Or should I say "as he does with his other characters?") Setting, however, doesn't speak, and one can dwell only so long on descriptions of ruined towers and tattered robes. The rest has to be left to subtle hints and the reader's imagination.
Lew Wolkoff, "Science Fiction: 'The Illustrated Roger...
(The entire section is 131 words.)
Kirkus Reviews
[Courts of Chaos] concludes a remarkably popular sword-and-sorcery chronicle about the children of Oberon, a swarm of rival royal siblings in a corner of space/time ("Amber") whose continued existence involves a sort of jiggery-pokery hopscotch court called "the Pattern." The madly shifting alliances of Corwin (the narrator), Brand, Fiona, Random, Deirdre, and the rest are sorted out in the final battle of Amber with its enemy and opposing principle, the Courts of Chaos. Often a clever and thoughtful writer, Zelazny here is an anything-goes artist who slaps together Yeatsian imagery and paradoxes of cause and identity with the aid of a perfunctorily realized fantasy-landscape and a style of jarring...
(The entire section is 159 words.)
LESTER Del REY
Recently, writers and publishers in the book field seem to be discovering the serial all over again. No, not the series of novels, in which each story has some kind of an ending…. I mean a serial—a single story published in several books. That's a matter of turning one into many, making each book only an installment of the whole.
That strikes me as being completely unfair to the reader, who purchases a book in the expectation that he's getting a story—only to find out that he must wait a year or two before he can discover what happens—and then may have to wait that long again. (p. 168)
The case in point is the five-part serial of Roger Zelazny that began back in 1970 with...
(The entire section is 1039 words.)
ALEX De JONGE
Roger Zelazny is [a] favourite writer, when he is not writing about Amber. His latest, My Name is Legion … is not, as its title might suggest, another of his splendid re-workings of mythological material. The book consists of three ingenious stories about a kind of private detective who has achieved total anonymity by erasing his particulars from the Central Data Bank. The stories are highly imaginative, concerning such matters as possibly criminal dolphins and the interplay between artificial intelligence and artificial original sin. All good stuff.
Alex De Jonge, "July SF: 'My Name Is Legion'," in The Spectator (© 1979 by The Spectator; reprinted by...
(The entire section is 111 words.)
Kirkus Reviews
Zelazny moves [in Roadmarks] from sword-and-sorcery to a literary time-travel/quest frolic that's only slightly less giddy than the hijinks of George Alex Effinger…. A confusing, meandering lightweight—but Zelazny's bright imagination and wry wit are in top working order; so readers who fancy erudite diversion may want to travel this road, even if it goes nowhere in particular.
"Fiction: 'Roadmarks'," in Kirkus Reviews (copyright © 1979 The Kirkus Service, Inc.), Vol. XLVII, No. 17, September 1, 1979, p. 1032.
(The entire section is 74 words.)
Norman Culpan
Roger Zelazny is one of my favourite writers of light fiction, but though I have read some half a dozen of his books. [My Name is Legion] is the first to come my way which crosses the tenuous borderline between fantasy and SF. Here are three stories describing three missions by 'the nameless one', a big-scale, freelance, single-handed troubleshooter. All are narrated in the first person, and are rooted in a technology basically our own but advanced some few score years. The first concerns a man-made submarine volcano, the second dolphins, and the third a humanoid robot who seems to have run amok. Zelazny's action is nearly as fast as Harry Harrison's (and I know of none faster). The protagonist is untrammelled...
(The entire section is 181 words.)
Orson Scott Card
Roger Zelazny is a frustrating writer. He is capable of startlingly original writing, powerful scenes and new ideas in a field where ideas tend to be a bit threadbare from overuse. And yet, about halfway through his latest novel, Roadmarks …, he seems to get bored and throws his book away. The ideas are potentially very good: a freeway through time, where new exits and new forks in the road are created whenever travelers make some change in history and where old roads fade away as they are left unused: the son of one of these time travelers, who searches up and down the road for the father who abandoned him in—of all places—Cleveland; a man who suspects he is immortal and keeps having fits of madness in...
(The entire section is 257 words.)
MARSHALL B. TYMN, KENNETH J. ZAHORSKI, and ROBERT H. BOYER
[Nine Princes in Amber] is the first book in the Amber series, five closely related novels which, while of uneven quality (the middle three are the best), are on the whole excellent, both for their unusually original fantasy elements and for their literary qualities. Readers should be cautioned at the outset that the series must be read in the proper sequence to gain the full (or in some of the novels any) understanding of the world of Amber, one of the more ingeniously conceived secondary worlds in fantasy literature…. The series starts out like many standard sword and sinew works but develops rapidly in literary quality. Characterization improves; style becomes more polished; and philosophical...
(The entire section is 1170 words.)
Matt Berger
To those familiar with science fiction, the recent work of Roger Zelazny must be considered something of a letdown…. Mr. Zelazny has not been especially popular these past few years. But with Roadmarks, his latest, there is reason to believe that his writing has regained the depth and fluency that have not been apparent for so long.
Roadmarks is written in the typical Zelazny style, which is often hard for an inexperienced science fiction reader to follow at first, but which reveals itself in later readings to be succinct and flowing….
In terms of being a science fiction "mystery," Roadmarks is excellent, and it makes use of the "trick ending" method as well...
(The entire section is 161 words.)
Darrell Schweitzer
[Roadmarks] is a throwaway novel, I'm sorry to report. It reminds me of a half a dozen Philip José Farmer books in which brilliant ideas are presented, then left underdeveloped, trivialized, or just cast aside in pursuit of an irrelevant plot…. In this case, the central premise is one of those outrageously literalized metaphors which only work in science fiction and fantasy. In mainstream they'd be gibberish. Consider a "road through time". Zelazny's Road, which may have been built by dragons, runs from the far past to the far future…. With discipline and imagination, there's no limit to what a first rate author like Zelazny could have done with it.
Unfortunately he does damn little....
(The entire section is 404 words.)
Carl B. Yoke
Renewal is an abiding concern of Roger Zelazny's writing, especially his early work. In fact, this theme is so deeply engrained in his thinking that most of his significant fiction uses it in one way or another. "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" treats the restoration of fertility to a barren Mars and the salvation of the natives from racial suicide. This Immortal treats the restoration of an irradiated Earth. Lord of Light treats the renewal of a society. The five "Amber" novels treat the restoration of the land and the salvation of the world of form from Chaos.
In Zelazny's writing, renewal comes in two distinct forms: renewal as a physical objective and renewal as a psychological objective....
(The entire section is 4819 words.)
Roland Green
[With Changeling the] prolific and popular Zelazny has produced a short but satisfactory fantasy novel on the "changeling" theme. A baby from a world of magic is brought to technological Earth, while an Earth child is carried off to the magic world…. The writing is clear, the characterization adequate, the background and system of magic intelligently worked out, [and] the pacing brisk….
Roland Green, "Adult Fiction: 'Changeling'," in Booklist (reprinted by permission of the American Library Association; copyright © 1980 by the American Library Association), Vol. 77, No. 1, September 1, 1980, p. 35.
(The entire section is 87 words.)
Darrell Schweitzer
Someone recently made a very perceptive comment about Zelazny, which I'll repeat here: of his first two novels, This Immortal proved far more influential on his later work than did The Dream Master, and it might have been better the other way around. Immortal was jazzy, witty, and polished, but without much depth. The Dream Master was an elegant, substantial tragedy. The course he took later caused Judith Merril to ask, "Will Zelazny ever write the insides of his novels? Can he?"
He certainly didn't this time. Changeling is all around more satisfying than his previous one, Roadmarks, but still it has no insides. By way of improvement, it is a fairly...
(The entire section is 315 words.)
Publishers Weekly
["The Last Defender of Camelot"] is a superlative collection by one of the genre's better authors. There are a number of early stories (including the author's first two), which are minor but vivid vignettes; and, at the heart of the book, several novelettes…. "For a Breath I Tarry," which Zelazny indicates is his favorite, is a touching story of a machine, one of the guardians of a future Earth. Interested in the long-dead human race, the machine decides to become human, and so discovers, unexpectedly, fear and despair and love.
"Science Fiction: 'The Last Defender of Camelot'," in Publishers Weekly (reprinted from the October 17, 1980, issue of Publishers Weekly...
(The entire section is 127 words.)
Rosemary Herbert
No large sf collection should be without Zelazny's latest anthology [The Last Defender of Camelot], featuring the author's own choice of stories originally published over the last two decades. A brief but engaging introduction and the remarks prefacing each story explain the origin of each work, and occasionally leave the reader mildly amazed that, for instance, a cloud formation resembling a horse and rider could conjure up the compelling tale "Horseman!" Many of the stories are quite short, but all are effective.
Rosemary Herbert, "Fiction: 'The Last Defender of Camelot'," in Library Journal (reprinted from Library Journal, November 15, 1980; published by...
(The entire section is 115 words.)
Algis Budrys
Roger Zelazny's The Changeling is 40,000 words of very pretty trade paperback,… and I rather wish there had been a few more words. Perhaps there were; there appear to be places where segments that ought to have occurred are simply missing, rather than skimped….
But the author triumphs over the editing (?)…. This is very good science fantasy, counterpointing the lives of two attractive male heroes who, as babies, were exchanged between a magical milieu and our mundane one. (p. 43)
[The] two young men do come into contention—partly because both of them are involved with a particular girl, partly because Mark is such a rockhead—and the old struggle between technology...
(The entire section is 205 words.)
Publishers Weekly
[In The Changing Land] Dilvish, of the Elvish race, bent on revenge against Jerelak, tries to gain access to the Castle and does so by being captured and thrown in the dungeon. Aided by other prisoners, he escapes, and eventually brings about the fall of Jerelak and Baran, the reorganization of the Castle by the Elder Gods and the re-creation of the universe outside it. Zelazny names one of his characters Hodgson in a nod to William Hope Hodgson's powerful "House on the Borderland." But unlike that novel, this book is at best a qualified success, a good idea given lackluster treatment.
"Science Fiction: 'The Changing Land'," in Publishers Weekly (reprinted from the...
(The entire section is 137 words.)
Spider Robinson
The Last Defender of Camelot is subtitled simply, "A Collection By Roger Zelazny." The generally accepted definition of a "story" is a fiction in which one or more characters are faced with a problem and strive to solve it. By this definition, less than half of the 16 pieces in TLDoC are stories. Most are anecdotes, or situations, or conceits, which are economically sketched and left standing there…. Cute situations, but not stories. Nobody grows, no problem is solved or even attacked. Call them prose poems. If you agree that the situation is interesting or the conceit elegant—or if you simply enjoy the way Zelazny strings words together—you enjoy the piece.
I report that I...
(The entire section is 249 words.)


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Episode 13
- Recorded July 29th, 2011
This week we talk about the latest in the Kirby/Marvel legal battle, Darabont's departure from The Walking Dead, and the new Kick-Ass 2 schedule. In reviews we take a look at LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, X-FORCE, VENOM, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #666, THE MIGHTY THOR, and CAPTAIN AMERICA & BUCKY #1. For our final segment, we reminisce about our favorite Spidey stories from the past!
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Speed Racing Cause of Sunday Wreck on Table Rock Wreck
Medford Police say street racing was the cause of an accident Sunday morning that involved a car crashing into a duplex in the 2500 block of Table Rock Road. Neither the resident of the home that was hit nor a 9-year old boy were injured.
20-year old Mireya Serrano of Medford was cited at the crash scene for Reckless Driving and Speed Racing. She suffered minor injuries.
Police are looking for the driver of the other car, described as an older model, light-colored Buick or Cadillac. The accident occurred shortly after 10 a-m.


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Netflix Facebook Post Prompts SEC Probe: Hot Trends
NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet include Netflix(NFLX) after a Facebook post by CEO Reed Hastings prompted an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission .
Netflix announced on Thursday via Facebook post, SEC filing and news release that Hastings and Netflix received a Wells Notice from the SEC pertaining to a post Hastings made on July 5. In that post, Hastings said Netflix customers were viewing more than 1 billion hours of video content per month. The posting was widely covered in the media and Netflix stock climbed 13% the same day.
Although that same information had been included in the company's blog the month before, Netflix never issued a formal press release or made a filing with the SEC disclosing it.
The Wells Notice received by Netflix said the agency will recommend regulators issue a cease-and-desist proceeding and/or bring a civil injunctive action for violation of its fair disclosure rules. Hastings, however, defended his actions. Hastings, who has 245,000 Facebook subscribers said, "We think posting to over 200,000 people is very public, especially because my subscribers are reporters and bloggers."
Hastings added, "We think the fact of one billion hours of viewing in June was not 'material' to investors." He also attributed the rise in Netflix's share price that day as driven by a positive Citigroup research report which had been released the evening before.
Cablevision(CVC) is trending as the cable operator said it would raise Internet prices by $5 in January.
Cablevision said all customers who have Internet service as part of their video or phone package will be subject to the higher price. The higher price represents an average hike of 3.2% for customers' monthly bills.
The company said prices for video and phone services as well as promotional packages will not be affected.
Cablevision said it has invested $140 million in improving its Internet services by adding hotspots and putting no caps on consumer usage. The company also said it has not raised its Internet prices in a decade.
Hurricane Sandy recently shuttered service for half of Cablevision's customers. The company said costs from the storm would be substantially higher than the $16 million it incurred from Hurricane Irene in 2011.
Google(GOOG) is another popular search. The online search giant has decided to shut down the free version of its Google Apps for Business.
Now, instead of offering a free and premium version, only the paid version will be available for $50 per user per year. Google said it made the move because the free model slowed things down for individuals and businesses.
Google Apps will remain free for individuals and businesses that have already signed up for it. Google Apps for Education will also remain free for schools and universities and Google Apps for Government will still be available for the cost of $50 per user per year.


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So I do not think there is a yield issue as much as the demand is so high that OEMs are getting the product over graphics card manufacturers.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has denied that the yields of chips made using TSMC's 40nm fabrication process dropped substantially recently as a consequence of the company's problems. The firm states that the yields stayed flat.
"The 40nm yield did not drop as reported. As a matter of fact, yield on the 40nm process remained flat. TSMC is confident that the 40nm yield will improve at the beginning of next year," a spokesperson for TSMC said, reports EETimes web-site.
Late last month some web-sites reported that TSMC's yields on the 40nm fabrication process dropped from 60% to 40% recently and that ATI, graphics business unit of Advanced Micro Devices, and Nvidia Corp. were impacted. While TSMC confirmed it did have certain issues with 40nm process technology, the world's largest contract maker of semiconductors stressed that those issues were "logistical". Thus, TSMC wants to stress that 40nm yields now are about 60%.
On Monday TSMC announced its net sales for October 2009: on an unconsolidated basis, net sales were approximately NT$29.18 billion ($902.42 million), an increase of 4.1% over September 2009 and an increase of 2.9% over October 2008. Revenues for January through October 2009 totaled NT$225.93 billion ($6.987 billion), a decrease of 21.9% compared to the same period in 2008.
Tags: TSMC, 40nm, Semiconductor, ATI, AMD, Nvidia, Evergreen, Cypress, Juniper, Fermi


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Student Media
Trio Lorca @ Carnegie Hall
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Trio Lorca is Terry Vermillion, percussion, Melissa Krause, flute, and soprano Catherine Verrilli.
A trio of classical musicians will take its genre-bending music to Carnegie Hall for a March 16 performance.
Soprano Catherine Verrilli, flutist Melissa Krause and percussionist Terry Vermillion will perform an hour-long show in the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall, the 268-seat chamber music venue at the world-famous concert center.
Just two blocks from Central Park in midtown Manhattan, 120-year-old Carnegie Hall is one of the world's great performance spaces. Musicians who've performed there include Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Billie Holiday, W.C Handy, Judy Garland, Isaac Stern and the Beatles.
View Trio Lorca's 2012 concert flyer (PDF).
The nine-year-old ensemble stretches the boundaries of the classical trio format, in both music and performance choices. The repertoire ranges from European-style madrigals, to modern classical works by composers such as Aaron Copland and Charles Ives, to pop music by songwriter Rufus Wainwright. At Carnegie Hall, the threesome will wear clothing created by East Village designer Garo Sparo, including a black leather-and-silk gown for Verrilli and a black West Africa-inspired dashiki for Vermillion.
The scarcity of works for a soprano-flute-percussion trio has forced Trio Lorca to take liberties with classical works. Their adaptations and arrangements can require them to play parts written for instruments other than their own. Krause, for example, may play a line, or combination of lines, written for piano or other orchestral instrument. Vermillion can change the character of a work simply by choosing which of 26 percussion instruments will voice a part.
Meet Trio Lorca
Krause, Vermillion and Verrilli practice daily on their own, meeting once a week for group rehearsal. Meet the musicians:
Krause's music has been performed at the Dvorak Museum in the Czech Republic and at the New Music Festival at Florida State University (FSU). She holds a doctorate from FSU.
A timpanist for the St. Cloud Symphony, Vermillion has traveled the world exploring musical forms such as Indonesian gamelan, Brazilian samba and Afro-Cuban rhumba. He earned his doctorate at University of Northern Colorado.
The Washington Post has described Verrilli's voice as "gently agile" and "expressive." She was a finalist in the Washington International Competition for Singers. Her doctorate is from the University of Maryland School of Music.
"It's like we change the colors and the depth," said Verrilli. "But, it's still playing off the page."
The Carnegie show is a "stamp of approval" for the trio's professional development efforts, which include commissioning works and adapting and arranging others' works, Vermillion said. He credits Music Department colleagues and Mark Springer, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts, for supporting that professional development.
Trio Lorca's performances often include solo, duo and trio presentations. The March 16 Carnegie Hall concert will include pianist Ann DuHamel on Henryk Gorecki's "Good Night" and "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Lukas Foss. DuHamel is a teaching specialist in keyboard studies at University of Minnesota-Morris.
Trio Lorca is appearing at Carnegie Hall as part of the Distinguished Concerts Artists Series.
University Communications
St. Cloud State University


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Chuck Silber - Chief Operating Officer
Chuck joined NewTek in March of 2008, after a successful tenure at Avid Technology. Chuck is responsible for driving and managing the strategic growth of NewTek's reseller channel, developing and enhancing the company's sales organization, and increasing revenue in its core video and 3D animation businesses. As vice president of sales and service operations at Avid Technology, Chuck managed a $280 million per year sales and professional services organization, including a direct sales force of more than 50, a service organization of more than 200, and a reseller network of more than 100 companies. He played an integral role in negotiating $10 million+ contracts with major broadcast networks, including NBC, CBS, ABC/Disney, and Turner Broadcasting. Chuck began his career in digital media at MicroTech Solutions, where he rose to the post of vice president of sales, before his departure in 2000.


text: This event is expired. Lecturer: Dr. Elisabeth L. Cameron, Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz Ticket Information Lecture is $3 members/ $4 non-members. Museum admission is not required. Reservations are not accepted. Seating is first come, first served. Contact Information Rebecca Crump firstname.lastname@example.com