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Fufu, coffins and the High Life
Trip Start Jun 02, 2003
41Trip End Dec 31, 2006
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Kelley and I traveled through pouring rain from Lokossa to the Togo-Ghana border last Monday, getting drenched as we walked across the borders. Finally, the rain stopped when we arrived in Ghana. A good sign, no?
ATTENTION: The following information may freak some of you out, but don't worry. Things are different here. Okay, warning out of the way...
So Kelley and I, poor Peace Corps volunteers that we are, decided to try to hitchhike to Accra from the border. Volunteers regularly do this in Benin with no problem. In fact, I once got a ride in one of the Minister of Justice's SUVs. Hitchhiking in West Africa is very different because you can truly be selective about the cars you get into (ie. choose NGO SUVs (they all have logos on their cars) with TRAINED and SAFE drivers and air conditioning). Plus, getting in a bush taxi is practically the same thing as hitchhiking, and we have to do that all the time. Why not try to get a free ride in a car with AC and your own seat. Note also that Kelley had pepper spray with her, so had some fluke thing happened, we would have been able to use that. Neither one of us would EVER hitchhike anywhere else in the world!!!
Anyway, Kelley and I managed to get a ride with a really nice and very Christian Nigerian man named Fred who drove a red volvo. We got there just fine, but soon after we checked into the Salvation Army, Kelley realized that she had left her passport in the car. (We sometimes had to take them out at police checkpoints.) This would have completely ruined our vacation, and we had to figure out a way to get it back. Several trips to various police headquarters later, we created our plan of action. We knew that Fred would be going back to Nigeria the next day, so we decided that the best way to get it back would be to wait at the first police checkpoint just outside of Accra and hope that he would indeed be passing by sometime that day.
We woke up at what we already thought of as before the crack of dawn - 5:00 a.m. Later, we realized that we had forgotten about the time change. We really got up at 4:00 a.m.! We found a taxi that drove us out to the first police checkpoint (quite far out of Accra), and there we sat. We passed the time by playing cards and chatting with the rifle-toting policemen and women. The sun was starting to change directions, and our patience began wearing thin, our panic slowly mounting. Then, at around 10:30 a.m., off in the distance, we see a familiar-looking red volvo pulling over to talk to the policewoman. We run up to the car with huge smiles on our faces and began to thank Fred profusely. He said that he had been all over Accra looking for us. He had gone to several tro-tro stations hoping to find us, and if you have ever been to Accra before, you can truly understand what kind of sacrifice this is! Tro-tro parks are absolutely hellish! Fred had stopped at the checkpoint thinking he would leave the passport and ID there with the police in hopes that we would come by. We couldn't believe our luck! We got his address so we could send him a thank you note, and then we, with the help of the policeofficers, hitched a ride back into Accra. Kelley kept a closer watch on her documents from then on.
We had a fabulous time enjoying the "good life" in Accra. We ate good food (have you ever had Ethiopian? Try it!). We bought cool jewelry. We wandered the streets and markets. Then, we decided to head on to Kumasi.
No hitchhiking this time, as getting a ride out of Accra would be too difficult do to the traffic. We stuffed ourselves into a tro-tro and tried to enjoy the ride. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking: forested green hills and rocky cliffs sprinkled with tall trees. We got out of the taxi on the outskirts of Kumasi and headed to the Peace Corps hostel where we would spend the night. It was incredible! A house worthy of a mention in Architectural Digest! We wondered what happened when Benin selected their hostels! After a good meal, we hit the sack in order to have energy for the next day.
Kumasi is one of the larger cities in Ghana, and it boasts what is supposedly the largest outdoor market in all of West Africa. Kelley and I certainly agree that it was enormous! We gazed out at the large expanse of ten roofs and decided to explore its depths a little later. First, to the artisanal center which was surprisingly calm and peaceful in comparison to the one in Cotonou. It is situated on beautiful grounds with green grass and several buildings. It feels like a small college campus. The center is not just for tourists. It also has a library and a theatre. In addition to browsing in various shops, some quite chi-chi, we watched as weavers passed the shuttle through the threads of giant looms and created Ghana's famous kente cloth. We saw sculpters chip away at enormous blocks of wood as they created gigantesque drums and statues. We learned about making bronze statues and saw the different molds used in the elaborate process. We debated over whether or not to buy drums unique to Ghana and spend the afternoon taking a drumming lesson. We decided against it but thought about coming back to do it during the Christmas break.
After a relaxing lunch of Ghana's incredible street food - fried rice, we headed down the hill to brave the market. We got lost in its depths quite quickly. The market really wasn't much different from any other market we had seen in West Africa except in the scale. Kelley had bought a Jesus picture earlier in the day as a gift for her host family, and it was quite a hit in the market. We found ourselves being called over to chat with several marche mamas who wanted to take a picture with the Jesus. We "bonded" with them over Jesus and then moved on. We were ready to go home. To the tro-tro station, one of the worst I have been to! We waited for hours, and at one point, Kelley, to the horror of the Ghanaians standing around us, couldn't take it anymore and sat down on the dirty ground. I wanted to do the same but was worried about messing up my new sarong. Kelley offered Jesus as my savior, so I set it on the ground and gingerly plopped my butt on top of it (forgive me, Lord). This, I think, literally brought gasps from our onlookers, especially when we heard a resounding crack. I wonder how many of the Ghanaians surrounding us prayed for my salvation for breaking Jesus's frame. Of course, not much later, the tro-tro showed up. By this time, it was night. We got on, drove around a few blocks, and then, the tro-tro decided to stop for some repairs. Kelley and I had had enough by this point, and we weren't the only ones! We flagged down a taxi with a nice young man who had been sort of taking care of us up till then by making sure we got in the right tro-tro, etc. He stayed with us in taxi all the way to the hostel to make sure that we found it alright! Ghanaians surely do go out of their way to help people!
The hostel has a one night only policy, so we had to gather our stuff and trek to a nearby cheap hotel where we spent the night on a mattress we had pulled onto the floor because the bed frame was so awful. The floor wasn't much better! It slanted so much that my stomach muscles were bordering on being sore the next morning from trying not to fall off all night!
The next day, at the advice of the Peace Corps Volunteer Leader in Kumasi, we decide to try our luck with hitching again. And what luck we had! We got in an air-conditioned SUV driven by Jacob, an incredibly wonderful Ghanaian. Jacob, Kelley, and I talked the entire way to Accra, solving the world's problems, West Africa's problems in particular. He invited us to meet his wife and children, and we made plans to go to his house for lunch a couple of days later. He took us out to lunch and then dropped us off at our hotel.
Over the weekend, we explored a bit more of Accra. We went to the wacky coffin place! Here, sculpters create coffins to order, but they are not ordinary coffins. Oh, no! They are works of art! They shape the coffins to fit the customer's personality or profession. For example, a fisherman might be buried in a coffin shaped like a giant fish. A pilot might have a plane. A drunk (or a bartender), a bottle of beer. Kelley and I selected a couple of coffins and posed inside of them for some pictures. That night, we headed to a hip bar/restaurant on the beach called Next Door and listened and danced to Ghanaian High Life music with some friends we had met the night before.
The following day, Jacob picked us up and took us to his house, but first, we stopped by to see his new house that wasn't quite yet finished. It was gorgeous, and he showed us the guest room we could stay in if we decided to come back for Christmas. When we arrived, his wife Hilda and his baby girl were there to greet us. Hilda had made us a traditional Ghanaian dish that is sort of like pounded yams called Fufu. It is pounded plaintains and cassava. She had made us vegetarian groundnut sauce, too! It was delicious! Afterwards, we went to pick up the 7-year-old Jacobelle from a birthday party. It was so strange to see little kids playing and singing Happy Birthday like in the States! Jacobelle is just like an American child who grows up in a middle to upper class household. She has tons of toys (she's spoiled), and she is very bright. Her parents encourage her to read. So rare to see all this in an African girl. Of course, she has spent quite a bit of time in England as well. Jacob and his family are VERY well-off, though, especially by African standards. Jacobelle speaks with a British accent when she speaks to white people, and then she will lapse back into a Ghanaian accent when speaking to her friends. That night before leaving, a man and his wife came by. Jacob told us that the man was the brother (or some sort of close relative) of the President of Ghana! The man told Jacob to call us if we came back so he could invite us over. Who knows?! I might meet the President of Ghana next time!
Jacobelle didn't want us to leave and begged us to stay for a couple more weeks. She cried when we left. We have been invited back for Christmas, and I think we might go. All good things must come to an end, though, and the next day, Kelley and I had one last cappucino, bought a few more souvenirs, and then climbed into another tro-tro and made our way back to Benin.
We had something good to look forward to, though.... Niger was waiting.


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Scan is a company that is more famous for the "Today Only†deals on its website than its PCs. When the system arrived we were a bit perplexed over the instructions supplied as Scan puts antistatic bubble wrap inside the system to prevent any damage during transit. The only problem here is that you have to open the PC to remove the bubble wrap when it arrives, but rather this than a damaged PC.
The 3XS E series looks very stylish when you take it out of the box as it's finished in aluminium and black. Sadly this is somewhat cosmetic and the inside of the case is nowhere near as impressive as the outside. It is however much better than the case from Jal and unless you're the kind of person that likes to tinker around inside your PC this is hardly an issue.
Inside the case you'll find an Abit NF7 version 2.0 motherboard with an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ CPU and 512MB of PC3200 memory. This is the slowest processor on test and it shows in the benchmarks as the Scan system is one of the slowest in Sysmark 2002 and PCMark 2002. Sadly the motherboard is a bit lacking compared to most of the ones found in competitors PCs. It offers very few integrated features. It does come with 5.1-channel sound, but it does not feature the MCP-T and thus lacks Dolby Digital support.
You also get integrated 10/100Mbit Ethernet on the board. If only Scan had used a different version of this board with support for S-ATA and FireWire, it would have had a much more compelling machine on offer.
Due to the lack of S-ATA the hard drive is a standard 120GB IDE drive from Maxtor, a little below the average on test. Scan has only supplied a single optical drive, but as it is a Sony DVD writer capable of handling DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW media and there is little else you need unless you intend to copy a lot of CDs. We still feel that the extra cost of a DVD-ROM drive or even a CD-RW drive does not add that much extra to the overall system cost.
The graphics card is a Creative Labs GeForce FX 5600 Ultra and it brings the Scan system up in the middle of the playing field in both versions of 3DMark. This is connected to the excellent LG Flatron L1710B 17in TFT display that won the Editor's Choice award in our recent monitor group test. It has a native resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 at 75Hz and features a built in USB hub.
The wireless keyboard and mouse are from Chieftech, who is better known for its cases. This is a reasonable setup, but it can't compete on quality with the Microsoft bundles seen elsewhere in this group test.
Scan has however added a couple of unique features of its own, the first one being a 6-in-1 memory card reader that supports Compact Flash Type I/II (including MicroDrives), Smart Media, Secure Digital, MultiMedia Card and Sony Memory Stick.
The other one being a small unit inside the PC called Cooling After, that keeps the CPU and rear case fan running for approximately 30 seconds or so after you switch off the PC to cool it down gently. How useful this is in real life is debatable but it is still a novel feature.
There is no office package supplied with the Scan system, but you do get a set of 10 blank DVD-Rs in the box allowing you to try out the DVD writer straight away.
The build quality of the 3XS E series system is first rate, but sadly the choice of components hasn't done it any favours. It's not a terrible system and Scan has spent some extra money on the LG TFT display, but at this price it's hard to recommend.

subset: commoncrawl


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love you dad hope you have a great b day
ha ha ha very funny!
Everyone's favourite penguin surf harmony group sing a fun birthday song for you.
Lovely, colorful animated flowers. Perfect for any birthday.
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Send this colorful card to wish happy birthday to a friend or family member!
Beautiful visuals and a warm message to wish someone a very happy birthday.
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Say Happy Birthday to someone special... A CAPPELLA! IF YOU WANT TO LEARN THIS SONG...
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Artwork by Brianne Drouhard - https://www.youtube.com/user/potatofarmgirl Song by...
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The Muppet Show's Swedish Chef dancing in the kitchen to wish you a happy birthday! No...
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After talking to Richard Carlbom, I talked to my neighbor, Gia Vitali. Vitali was the Communications and Research Director for Minnesotans United for All Families (MN United). I wanted her thoughts on anything Carlbom and I didn't touch upon.
"I found it really refreshing to work with such a wide variety of political views," Vitali explained. She's been involved in a bunch of DFL campaigns including running Paul Thissen's gubernatorial bid.
"I was amazed at how good our message discipline was," Vitali continued.
Think about it. Coalition members ranged from far left gay activists to moderates to Republicans. And this also applied to the individual organizers and volunteers. Regardless of political bent, everyone stuck to talking about freedom, love and commitment.
"Rep. John Kriesel was a great example," she continued. "His message was perfect. His message was simple and very personal. All we really had to do was shrink what he said on the floor of the House so that it would fit into the TV ad's time."
The campaign also did a very thorough job of training every single volunteer. For example, my wife went to a four hour introductory training. Then she went to another four hour training for phone banking which included a debriefing.
"We also worked really hard to be prepared for the ugly stuff we expected the other side to do," Vitali said. "We were able to respond really quickly through press releases and social media."
"And Jake Loesch did a great job with social media," she said. "He had a lot of real conversations with people on Facebook and Twitter."
"We got people to do all kinds of stuff online for us," Vitali explained. "From twibbons to choosing which catchphrases best represented why defeating the amendment was so important to helping supporters use social media to help the campaign."
This campaign left no stone unturned. If there was an angle to take advantage of in getting their message out, they found it.


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Timepiece Photography Photographer
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Lake could have called me a jerk. He could have said I was out to lunch. Instead, he just wrote, "not so much with the liking," and linked to the review, rather than ignoring it entirely. I'd come to understand later, after being introduced to Lake in person by Christopher Garcia, and getting to know him a bit through Twitter and Facebook, that it was because Lake was a just a cool, laid-back guy.
|You know you're famous in the steampunk scene when you get your face on a set of Bicycle cards done steampunk pirate style.
I felt badly about the post, so I promptly followed up my review of Mainspring with a laudatory post about Lake's short story in Extraordinary Engines, which I enjoyed very much. Thing was, I found myself thinking an awful lot about Mainspring as I proceeded with my research. My initial dislike of the work was based on flawed expectations for what steampunk should be, a concept I've since divested myself of. The more I thought about the book, the more I liked what it did. And I kept thinking, "I need to revisit and reconsider Mainspring."
I was given the opportunity to do so in a course on nineteenth century works: I wrote a paper comparing Mainspring with Conrad's The Secret Sharer. My prof hated it, mostly because he thought science fiction was rubbish, beneath academic attention, but I kept meaning to share the results of that paper online. Lake had wanted to see it, but it was one of those things I kept putting off, and never got around to. Add that to my list of things I'd do differently.
We have lost Lake's voice to the future of SF and Fantasy, but his previous words are preserved. And so, while I'd meant to have this later this year, I'd like to make this my tribute to Jay Lake, who passed away June 1 after a long, and touchingly public battle with cancer. I cry just about every time I read through his posts on that struggle.
So I felt like I owe Jay Lake this. I owe it to him because I promised him I would do it, I owe it to him because I've known since 2010 that Mainspring was a better book than I'd said, and just never got around to publicly stating. The following is an edited version, with all references to The Secret Sharer excised, of that paper my prof hated. It is not a review, since I don't do those much any more; it is an exploration of the major themes of hospitality and messianic duty in Mainspring.
Clockwork Messiah: Mainspring Reconsidered
Mainspring takes place in an alternate history of early twentieth century earth. The majority of alternate history contains a clearly established moment of break which transforms a readily recognizable historical event, thereby setting off a chain of cause and effect which results in a different version of present reality. Unlike other alternate histories, which might suppose a break in a known historical event such as Hitler's invasion of Poland, Lake's alternate earth has its moment of the break at its creation. When God "hung Earth in the sky on the tracks of her orbit around the lamp of the sun" (43), it was on a very real, not abstract track: Mainspring's Earth is bisected by a massive gear, which serves as a colossal brass wall, separating the world into the oppressive, industrialized Northern hemisphere, and the Edenic, pre-industrial Southern hemisphere. The historical ramifications of such a break are obviously further reaching:
On the other side of the Equatorial Wall lies the southern Earth. It is vastly different from our contentious, industrialized Northern Earth. Where we have smoky mills and laboring children and great cities of brick and wood, the Southern Earth has cathedral forests whose dwellers live free of misery, without even the need of labor for their daily fare. Where we have competing empires shaking the very air with the thunder of their cannon, the Southern Earth shakes to the thunder of hooves as great beasts migrate across endless plains. Where England and China each struggle to bend Creating to their will, the Southern Earth abides comfortably in the lap of God's world. As man was meant to do. (162)The inclusion of a massive, physical proof of the existence of a clockmaker God permits Lake to have angels trouble the flights of his steampunk airships, and allow Mainspring's protagonist Hethor Jacques a type of clockwork magic to assist him on his quest: Hethor is himself a precision instrument, gifted at hearing the sounds of the gears and machinery which keep the earth on its great brass track orbiting the sun. While he is in the Northern Earth, his "sense of time was always with him, always accurate" (46). While crossing the Equatorial Wall, he is deafened by close proximity to movement of the orbital track. He does not regain his hearing until reaching the Southern side of the Wall, at which point he begins to hear the sound of gears in everything, discovering that "[a]ll Creation was artifice, was it not?" (208). Hethor's powers are not an anachronism: they belong in the world of Lake's radical break.
Hethor as hero of the story does not begin his journey aware of such powers; instead, he is a lowly clockmaker's apprentice who receives a visit from a suitably steampunk angel Gabriel, "bright as any brasswork automaton" (11). Hethor is entrusted with a quest to find the legendary "Key Perilous", one of seven sacred artifacts given to humanity by the Brass Christ following his "horofixion" on a "wheel-and-gear" instead of cross (12). Hethor's journey takes him from his comfortable, predictable life in New Haven, Connecticut, to the court of the viceroy of Boston, then onto an airship in the Royal Navy before crossing the Equatorial Wall and passing into the savage lands beyond. There he finds a primitive race of hairy primates who call themselves the "Correct People", who are intelligent enough to communicate verbally and "human" enough that Hethor finds a sense of community and belonging among them, ultimately becoming husband to one. The Correct People aid Hethor in his mission, assisting him in the last leg of his journey to the South Pole by another airship. Upon arriving there, Hethor finds the Key Perilous in an unexpected way, and winds the Mainspring at the cost of this own life.
Unlike many works of steampunk where the hero or heroine is tasked with saving the Empire, or saving the people by bringing the Empire down, Hethor Jacques will save the entire world. The ideas of messianic expectation in science fiction and fantasy result in metaphysical, not merely moral messiahs. In The Secret Life of Puppets, Victoria Nelson has suggested that the presence of the religious in science fiction is no mistake, but that "[c]onsuming art forms of the fantastic is only one way that we as nonbelievers allow ourselves, unconsciously, to believe" (vii). Unlike the increasingly inhuman Paul Atreides of Dune, however, Hethor Jacques still presents an intensely immanent and human messiah. Further, the solution to the world-threatening problem of its clockwork running down is strongly connected to the ideas of hospitality to the stranger, and the sacrificial action of the Christian messiah, rather than the redemptive violence of science fiction messiah Neo in The Matrix trilogy.
I would like to situate Mainspring in the context of the uncanny, not to investigate the concept of the uncanny double in some psychoanalytic reading of Hethor Jacques, but in regards to Gary Watson's investigations of hospitality, and the Other as potential Messiah in Opening Doors, where he writes about Joseph Conrad's The Secret Sharer as "the kind of Hospitality narrative that takes the form of Welcoming the Other or Strangers (who may just turn out to be the Messiah)" (158). Rather than employing the uncanny as it relates to Freudian readings, I wish to explore how Lake deals with the idea of belonging in Mainspring, of how creating a space of belonging constitutes the idea of home, and how a sense of not belonging results in a sense of the uncanny.
While Freud's essay title is translated as "The Uncanny" in English, the German word unheimlich etymologically refers to the idea of home-liness. The root word heim means "home" or being "rooted in home", while "Heimlich" means something hidden, secret, or clandestine, while unheimlich generally understood as that which is eerie, uncanny. According to Friedrich Schelling, everything that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light is unheimlich. In "The Houses of Fiction: Toward a Definition of the Uncanny," Maria Tatar shows how the German word heimlich, which can be taken to mean "belonging to the home", and unheimlich, which is commonly translated in Freud as "uncanny" relate the literature of the fantastic to the concept of home as a place of "domestic comfort" (170). In the Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film, Jack Morgan notes that "in this etymology, the house is the defining symbol of what is right and normal, the violation of which situates primitive anxieties" (183).
In Mainspring, Hethor Jacques is an orphan, living on a meager inheritance from his late father, and the goodwill of Master Bodean, the clockmaker he is apprentice to. Consequently, we meet him in an unheimlich space, the home which is not his home. He is reviled by Bodean's sons: Pryce Bodean, the sanctimonious seminary student, and Faubus Bodean, a loutish, violent ruffian. Hethor spends the course of his journeys finding and losing a series of temporary "homes," places of belonging: Master Bodean's house, The Bassett, the British Navy Airship he is press ganged onto, and a monastery high on the Equatorial Wall. Offered a permanent place at a monastery, Hethor finds the offer tempting enough to nearly cause him to abandon his quest for the Key Perilous. Shortly after leaving the monastery, Hethor is asked if he wants to turn back in the face of a difficult and dangerous descent down the southern side of the colossal Equatorial Wall. Hethor replies, "I didn't come here just to go home again," and then ruminates that "[t]here was no home to go to." He was a failed apprentice in Connecticut, under order of imprisonment in Massachusetts, and absent without leave from the Royal Navy. Souther Earth could only be an improvement. "Onward, sir. Onward." (172) Hethor is a man without a home, or at the very least, unfamiliar enough in the spaces he inhabits to feel a sense of unease, "utterly lost to anything familiar" (Lake 217).
I have appropriated Watson's discussion of spaces of "Chaos" which are "Out of Context" or represented by the "Open Road" to apply to the unheimlich spaces which Hethor Jacques journeys through on his way to the Equatorial Wall and beyond (133). Hethor has been removed from hisnormal context, cut loose from the trajectory of his apprenticeship, out in the wide world. He has set his foot upon the path of the Open Road, understanding that he does not know where it leads, and that things are out of his control. According to Jacques Derrida, it is only in the space of the Open Road where one can accomplish true acts of hospitality: "If I had a criteria, a set of norms, that I would simply apply or enforce, there would be no decision . . . Otherwise it would be a mechanical development, a mechanical explication, not a decision" (qtd. in Watson 172). In short, we cannot accomplish a true act of hospitality if we are acting within social norms when we do so. It is only when we are in chaotic spaces of lawlessness where we can truly make moral choices.
Steampunk heroes are often outlaws of one stripe or another. They exist at the periphery of law-abiding society, or are thrust from the comfort of a structured, moral and ethical society into the realm of lawlessness and chaos. In general, they are opposed to concepts of Empire and oppressive authoritarianism. In Mainspring, Hethor moves sequential further and further into lawless space, metonymically represented by the presence of clockwork machinery. The clockwork precision of the Northern hemisphere's industrialized world is illustrated in a steampunk version of the Lord's prayer spoken at a funeral aboard the Basset:
"Our Father, who art in HeavenHethor begins his journey within the quotidian and structured world of Master Bodean's workshop as a clockmaker's apprentice. This is an environment which prizes consideration and precision. When Hethor is thrown out of Bodean's workshop, catalyzing the start of his journey, Hethor goes to Boston, where he is thrown into prison, and then press ganged into service aboard the Basset. There is still a structured society to the airship, but it is radically different from that which he had known before. He rises in the ranks of the ship's crew through his knowledge of precision instruments, which makes him a natural choice to learn navigation. However, as the airship approaches the Equatorial Wall, it passes over evidence that Hethor is leaving civilization behind. Lake makes use of colonial European ethnocentrisms of the late nineteenth century travel-adventure stories by describing The Basset's progress over Bermuda and then onward to Africa in a series of increasingly chaotic and morally compromising experiences.
Craftsman be thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy plan be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
Forgive us this day our errors
As we forgive those who err against us
Lead us not into imperfection
And deliver us from chaos
For thine is the power, and the precision
For ever and ever, amen." (102-03)
Following a disciplinary and somewhat initiatory flogging, Hethor is thrown off the airship with a rude parachute to plunge into a lagoon in a rather violent baptism to his life as an airship sailor. Immediately following this violent induction to the social community of The Basset, Hethor is carried off "toward a haze of rum and hemp, and even a prostitute someone else paid for, though all she did for Hethor was dab ointment on his back and sew up the wider wounds" (85). It is important that neither in this episode (which would have been somewhat ludicrous given Hethor's ruined back), and later when he has healed and is on shore leave in Georgetown, Guyana, that Hethor refuses to have sex with a prostitute. Earlier, on his way to Boston, he is propositioned by a young woman who gives him a ride, "to spoon a bit." Refusing her advances, Hethor runs away and releases his erect penis from where it was "straining at his pants", although he is "careful not to touch himself" since "[t]hat way lay sin and madness, everyone knew" (50). So long as Hethor is in the North, he abides by the moral law of the North. Once he reaches the lands south of the Wall, however, he not only engages in a sex act, but engages in interspecies intercourse with a female of a race of technologically primitive but spiritually advanced hominids who take Hethor under their care, seeing him as a sort of Messiah figure. The loss of his virginity is framed in an entirely positive light, juxtaposing Hethor's jettisoning of the moral code of the formalized religion of the north for a more dynamic morality in the south. Derrida posits such a dynamic when he states, "Justice is the relation to the other. That is all. Once you relate to the other as the other, then something incalculable comes on the scene, something which cannot be reduced to the law or to the history of legal structures" (qtd in Watson 138).
Hethor's sexual epiphany is paralleled by another realization: Hethor is a precision instrument, gifted at hearing the sounds of the gears and machinery which keep the earth on its great brass track orbiting the sun. While he is in the Northern Earth, his "sense of time was always with him, always accurate" (46). While crossing the Equatorial Wall, he is deafened by close proximity to movement of the orbital track. He does not regain his hearing until reaching the Southern side of the Wall, at which point he begins to hear the sound of gears in everything, discovering that "[a]ll Creation was artifice, was it not?" (208).
Watson spends a good deal of time in Opening Doors exploring the idea of radical hospitality and the idea of "entertaining angels unaware." Not in a spiritual being in the sense Milton meant when he described angels as "more refin'd, more spirituous, and pure" (line 475), but rather as an unexpected guest, of the sort mentioned in the book of Hebrews, where it reads: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it" (13:2 RSV). The writer of Hebrews is advising his readers to remember to extend a radical hospitality to strangers. The possibility of the stranger being an angel is most likely an allusion to Genesis 18-19, "in which Abraham offered hospitability to the mysterious visitors, who turned out to be angels …[t]he principle is that it is better to assume that guests are angels and to act accordingly rather than risk treating people unworthily" (Guthrie 268).
As Caputo and Yvonne Sherwood note, it is of course always possible that the stranger knocking at our door might be a "monster", which might well make us tremble. But then, as Derrida reminds us according to St. Paul we should always be in a state of trembling (Watson 139).The fear and trembling in Mainspring is readily apparent, beginning with the appearance of the angel Gabriel, whose manifestation causes Hethor to hold his breath, "afraid to even share the air with such perfection" (12). But Gabriel is not the stranger in need of hospitality. Clearly a real angel, in a steampunk sense of what Milton meant, Gabriel presents a mission which almost immediately makes Hethor the stranger. When Hethor investigates the history of the Key Perilous the next day by questioning Pryce Bodean, he inadvertently sets the stage for dismissal from his master's workshop. By the end of the day, he is cast out into the world, and is on the Open Road, in need of the hospitality of others. Yet even before he begins his journey, Hethor is aided by kind individuals who provide him with information, transportation, lodging, food, and healing:
Master Bodean, Librarian Childress, the farmers who had helped him, that girl with the hearse, even the crazed and foolish candlemen, Her Imperial Majesty's sailors, the Jade Abbot—all their lives hung on him … Perhaps he was her angel, her Gabriel come from the sky to awaken her people to their peril. (299)These are all individuals who extend hospitality to Hethor along his difficult road. It is not simply a list of people counting on Hethor to achieve his mission, but those who have effectively taught him how to achieve that mission. Master Bodean provided shelter, Librarian Childress was the first to believe his fantastic story, the farmers and the girl with the hearse gave him transport, all selfless acts which have prepared Hethor for one final selfless act:
Hethor had always possessed the Key Perilous, he realized. His journey wasn't to find the key. Everything else—Gabriel's mission, the messages on the golden tablets, all his tribulations—were his schooling … Well, perhaps he had learned something. (316)Hethor is the messiah of Mainspring. "The world hurts" he says of the numerous earthquakes, tidal waves and other disasters he witnesses along the way. Ultimately, Hethor extends the greatest act of hospitality of all. At the heart of the world, Hethor finally deciphers the meaning of a golden tablet he found along the way. The tablet reads, "The heart of God is the heart of the world / As man lives, so lives God / As God lives, so lives the world" (225). Hethor comes to the realization that this means that as he lives, so lives God, and consequently, the world. "Love is the heart of God," Hethor says, providing a first line to the scripture of the golden tablet (317). Man must choose to live well in order for the Mainspring of the world to be fixed.
Drawing upon his ability to hear and work within the gears of Creation, he sacrifices himself to resurrect his beloved, Arellya, one of the southern denizens on the other side of the wall. This selfless act, accomplished in the presence of the Mainspring, heals the world's hurt, but results in Hethor's death. This action places Hethor firmly in a messianic position, as he is reenacting the sacrifice of Lake's steampunk Jesus, the Brass Christ, on the horofix 2000 years prior. While this may seem a convenient deus ex machina conclusion, it must be remembered that the world of Mainspring is a machine, and that Hethor's quest is effectively, like the Blues Brothers, "a mission from God." More importantly, it is the moment each episode of kindness extended to Hethor has been building towards.
Georgio Agamben states that, "[i]n Judaism as in Christianity and Shiite Islam, the messianic event above all signifies a crisis and radical transformation of the entire order of the law" (qtd. in Watson 158). In other words, when the messiah comes, the law is no longer the highest authority. A religious impulse transcends the law. Hence, Hethor can abandon home and nation and all former allegiances to achieve his quest. He is engaged in a radical, dynamic morality which seems to fulfill Jesus' dynamically radical reinterpretation of Torah law in two gestures: love toward God and love toward neighbor (Luke 10:17-28). One must constantly assess the question of who is God, and who is my neighbor, to which the parable of the Good Samaritan replies: the person in front of you who is in need. The parable of the Good Samaritan also teaches that we are likely to meet our neighbor on the Open Road, or Out of Context, in a place of Chaos; in the unheimliche Länder, the place where we are no longer in our homely homes, but are standing before a stranger in need of help, knowing that our action may very well place us in danger. Hethor Jacques represents this moment beyond the Pale of normative decision making, where one must base their decision not on safety of self, but love for the Other. In the action of welcoming the stranger on the Open Road, the chaotic space is made into a place of belonging. Hethor makes the entire world a place of safety in a hyperbolic act of hospitality, because he has been the recipient of similar hospitality. This is the heart of the world, love for each other, not rationality, and not even religion. Love, radical love, beyond law, beyond safety, out in the chaos of the open road.
Love. Thanks, Jay. You will be missed.


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Jacksonville Jaguars vs Denver Broncos – The Broncos who are extremely tough in their own building, do battle this week against a wounded Jaguar squad who desperately need this one to stay in contention in the AFC South Division race.
The Jags disappointing running game should be able to rebound this week against a Broncos defense that hasn't had much success at stopping anyone on the ground. Through the air, Matt Jones has been the Jacksonville's leading receiver through the first five games of the season, but the most productive part the Jags receiving grouping has been the running back combination of Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor on flat, screens and arrow routes.
The Broncos offense is flying high with Jay Cutler, the top quarterback in the league to this point and the very dangerous receiving combination of rookie Eddie Royal and Brandon Marshall. The diminutive Royal and the T.O. clone Marshall have combined for 64 receptions, 744 yards and five touchdowns in just nine total games; far and away the best combination in football.
The Jags defense has been suspect particularly in the secondary so unless they can put some real pressure on Cutler, look for this one to go squarely in the win column of the Broncos. I like their chances in this one.
Broncos 34 – Jaguars 20
Dallas Cowboys vs Arizona Cardinals – This one should be one of those old fashioned shootouts! The young gun Tony Romo going up against the aging sheriff Kurt Warner.
Last week against the previously undefeated Bills, the Cardinals forced seven Buffalo turnovers in scoring 41 points. Warner on the season has thrown 10 TD receptions and when given the time, is still a very formidable signal caller.
The Cowboys with Romo leading the way are an amazing 58 % on third down conversions. The mobile Romo has thrown 11 touchdown passes and leads the league in yards per completion. The Cowboys have many potent offensive weapons, but the secondary play and coverage teams continue to be a major problem for the Cowboys.
The big problem with the Cowboys 3-4 defensive look, has been the relative ineffectiveness of their five techniques; Chris Canty and Marcus Spears, neither of who have shown the ability to apply enough sustained pressure on the passer.
Look for Cowboys rookie running back Felix Jones, who is averaging an amazing 9.0 yards per carry, to play a major role in this one. It should be a good one, but I'm going with the young gun to shoot down the old gunfighter..
Cowboys 37 – Cardinals 24
Green Bay Packers vs Seattle Seahawks – If things weren't bad enough for the one and three Seahawks, it now appears likely that they will enter into this weeks contest against the Packers, without the services of starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and quite possibly his back–up Seneca Wallace.
If it hadn't been for the much improved running game and the good fortune of scheduling the Rams in game number three, this decimated Seahawk squad might still be searching for their first victory of the season.
After a quick start, the Packers have lost three straight including two at home versus the Cowboys and Falcons. The running game has been dismal, but the major disappointment for the defending NFC North champions, has been the defense which has allowed better than 360 total yards a game.
Neither team is playing particularly well and the Seahawks are playing at home, but this one is far too important for this far better Green Bay squad.
Packers 37 – Seahawks 20
Philadelphia Eagles vs San Francisco 49ers – The 2 and 3 Eagles received some good and bad news this week. The good news is that this weeks' opponent, the 49ers have performed rather poorly in recent weeks, while the bad news is that the Eagles have also dropped two in a row and will line up this week without three of their top offensive performers (Andrews, Brown and Westbrook).
Look, both coaches are in deep trouble and unless both Andy Reid and Mike Nolan turn their team's fortunes around very quickly, I would suggest they and their staff's get their resumes updated.
For the Eagles, Donovan McNabb numbers have been more than acceptable, but when was the last time you saw him put the team on his back or make a play with the game on the line?
The 49ers defense has given up thirty-one points in each of the last two weeks, while the offense has few players that fit into Mike Martz's high-powered offensive system.
Look for the 49ers to attempt to run the football while the Eagles with McNabb at the helm, will attempt to exploit a San Francisco secondary that has given up some very big plays as of late.
This contest should be a close highly contested game, but if it comes down to the last possession, I question if either club have anyone on their active rosters capable of getting it done.
Eagles 27 – 49ers 20
New England Patriots vs San Diego Chargers – I thought when the schedule was announced last spring, that this one would be a mid-season prelude to the AFC championship game, but both clubs, and in particularly the Chargers, have not played to near the level that I had originally expected.
The Chargers have a host of offensive weapons including the great LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, Philip Rivers, Darren Sproles and Chris Chambers, but the receiving group as a whole is unremarkable and their offensive line is in my opinion highly overrated. The Chargers defensively have given up a ton of points, but again have some impressive players from an athletic standpoint, particularly on the back end.
The Patriots who have won ten straight games on the road have neither run the football effectively and have already given up 16 quarterback sacks in just four regular season games. Matt Cassel, who has completed two thirds of his passes on the season and last week threw for 259 yards last week versus the 49ers. I really like the progress he has made in just three professional starts and believe he could well be a force to be reckoned with before this season is over.
The Chargers just five games into the season are faced with a virtual must win situation. They certainly have the talent to win this critical match up, but I'm not sure they have the mental toughness to close the deal versus a battle tested, experienced team like the Patriots.
Patriots 31 – Chargers 23
New York Giants vs Cleveland Browns – Looking for a reason why the Giants are at the top of the heap in the NFC? It's very simple; take a close look this Sunday at the people on their offensive front. Rich Seubert, Shaun O'Hara and David Diehl are certainly names that even the most fervent NFL fans are familiar with. They will bite, claw, spit and get up in your face on every snap. Kareem McKenzie shows signs of developing into a good one at the right tackle position and right guard Chris Snee, is an absolute assassin! They are not pretty as a group and none have even been selected to the Pro Bowl, but at nut-cutting time, I can't think of another group in this league that I would rather have in front of me.
Quarterback Derek Anderson has hung in there tough, but has really struggled to make plays in critical situations (an anemic 18 for 50 on third down). Winslow, Edwards, Steptoe, and Lewis are all averaging less than ten yards per reception (unheard of at the pro level) and Jamal Lewis just isn't moving the chains on the inside. Add to the fact that Joe Jurevicius will be on the sidelines until mid-season and off season acquisition Donte' Stallworth, has yet to appear in a regular season game and one can get a better grip on the Brown's offensive dilemma. The Browns' announcement earlier in the week that Kellen Winslow was hospitalized with a mysterious illness was to my way of thinking, strange.
Although the Browns have lost both of their previous home outings, they are overall a far better football team playing on the lake. The fans at Cleveland Browns Stadium certainly make a difference, but the Giants have won an amazing eleven straight games on the road, have a balanced high-powered offense and overall just too many weapons for the Browns' defense to handle.
Giants 31 – Browns 17


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Radicchio's crisp texture and pleasantly bitter flavor is delicious when balanced with sweet and/or creamy ingredients, such as balsamic vinegar, caramelized onions, fresh ricotta, or gruyère cheese.
Quick idea No. 1: Toss chopped radicchio with sliced roasted beets and a dressing of minced garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, ground pepper, and herbs of your choice. Sprinkle with goat cheese.
Quick idea No. 2: Roast halved radicchio with garlic and olive oil and serve with shaved asiago cheese. Or chop roasted radicchio and add to pastas or risottos.
Recipe: Radicchio Salad with Citrus, Dates, Almonds, and Parmesan Cheese
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|Home > Sport > AFL > Article
On television, he played the snippy restaurant owner John Allen Hill on Cheers and had appearances on MASH, Touched by an Angel, Caroline in the City and ER.
He also appeared in a number of movies, including Heaven Can Wait, American Hot Wax and Richie Rich's Christmas Wish.
Born in Salt Lake City in 1923, Curtis grew up in Bountiful, where he made his own stage out of cardboard boxes and put on shows for the neighbourhood.
He was a student actor and cheerleader at the University of Utah and spent three years in the Navy before he was discovered in 1947 by Orson Welles, who cast him as Lennox in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
After winning his Tony Award, he donated it and 48 boxes of theatre memorabilia to the University of Utah.
He also endowed a scholarship there to help graduates of the school's Actor Training Program start their careers.
Curtis is survived by his sister-in-law, nieces and nephews.
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Listing his ex-girlfriends reads like a Who's Who of Essex beauties, but now ladies' man Mark Wright seems to have found his own Miss Right.
That's according to the woman who knows The Only Way Is Essex star best... his mum Carol, who thinks he's ready to settle down after years of enjoying the single life.
Carol, 51, is convinced romeo Mark's romance with model Emily Scott, 28, is the real deal and that he's fallen head over heels for her on this year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
The couple struck up a budding jungle romance after treating each other to massages and enjoying half-naked showers together.
Mark and Emily Scott
But as Mark, 24, just missed out on the King of the Jungle crown last night, Carol admitted she's delighted with his new girlfriend... and believes they could even endup married.
"As long as Emily's happy to come and live in Essex, I think it could go the distance... she could even end up as Mrs Wright," said Carol.
"I've met her since she's come out of the jungle and she seems lovely.
"She's very different to the usual Essex girls Mark goes for. She's low- maintenance, a bit of tomboy and she never moans. Of course, it helps that she's absolutely beautiful, too.
"Mark was impressed she got stuck in to all the challenges and wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty.
"We would love her to visit Essex, stay with us and see the sights!"
Former FHM cover girl Emily found fame as a lingerie model in Britain and in her native Australia and has appeared on several reality shows.
She dated Little Britain star David Walliams, 40, then wed former 5ive boyband star Ritchie Neville, 32, but they divorced within months.
Carol knew lots about blonde Emily well BEFORE Mark went into the jungle. She revealed: "He had her posters on his wall when he was a teenager. It's cute to think he used to have a crush on her and now they could end up together."
As far as Carol's concerned she's just happy her son has finally moved on from his relationship with fashion designer and fellow TOWIE star Lauren Goodger, 24.
The couple, who had been together on and off for 10 years, broke off their well-publicised engagement earlier this year.
"I think Lauren's going to be angry and upset about Mark and Emily getting together. But their relationship just wasn't working.
"When Mark and Lauren met they were at school. It kept going wrong, but they got back together. All they ever did was argue, they needed a clean break. It wasn't fair on either of them.
"There's no chance they will get back together now... and I'd be disappointed if they did."
And she has absolute faith in her son's ability to find new love.
She said: "If it doesn't work out with Emily, the type of girl he would go for is someone like Angelina Jolie, Cheryl Cole or Pippa Middleton. Mark likes classy girls. He's not the player he's made out to be.
"He would never cheat on a girlfriend because he knows I would tell him off if he did. But I do feel a bit sorry for his girlfriends."
In just over a year, Mark has become one of the country's biggest reality stars thanks to ITV2's hit show TOWIE. As the self-proclaimed Mr Essex, he became known for his love of working out, partying hard... and dating several of his co-stars, including Lauren, Lucy Mecklenburgh, 19, and Sam Faiers, 20.
The former club promoter also had a fling with last year's I'm A Celebrity... star and glamour model Kayla Collins, 24.
But Carol says Mark, who grew up in Epping Forest, Essex, withhis sister Jessica, 26, and brotherJosh, 22, wasn't always so confident.
"It's crazy to think Mark's this sex symbol because he's always been a mummy's boy," she said.
"When he was born he was so pretty, he looked like a little girl. I even used to dress him like a girl. He's a real softie. Even now when he's upset he'll come and see me for a little cry and a cuddle."
But she admits there was also a wilder side to her little boy.
"Mark was always so mischievous and naughty," said Carol. "When the milkman delivered the milk, he would run outside and get in the float to drive it down the road as a prank.
"But he was always a wheeler-dealer. At eight he had a paper round, and made me drive all over Essex to wash people's cars for an extra fiver a time."
But his first chosen career ended in failure – he signed for Spurs' youth team at 17 but eventually gave up on professional football after failing to make his mark.
Now Mark's looking to the future. He's quit TOWIE after three series to try bigger and better things.
Carol said: "He was very nervous about walking away... he knew it was a risk. The night before the jungle he was nervous and worried he had made the wrong decision.
"His dream would be to become a proper actor or a TV presenter.
"Anything's possible. He might end up being the next Jason Statham.
"But if Mark hits the big time, he's not the kind to waste it all on girls, cars and champagne."
And while Mark's family are already relatively wealthy, living in a plush five-bedroom house, his earnings look set to eclipse them.
"He's not a millionaire – yet," she said. "But I'm A Celebrity could change that."
And as his career goes from strength to strength, Carol says one goal matters to Mark.
"All he really wants to do is find a nice girl, settle down and have a family," she said. "He's a real family man."
And Carol and his family have gone down under to support Mark in the show's final.
"He's finally had a chance to show everyone who he really is," she said. "I just hope everyone loves him as muchas I do."


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We needed money to help with repairs on our truck we just didn't realize Fasteat-Title-Loans wasn't the actual company. We didn't even know this was a pawn title loan until after we got the loan. We have had nothing but problems from Title Loan America aka Sovereign Lending Solutions.
Because of how they do there payment schduele were always late. They actually reopossed our truck back in September but because of a complaint my husband had filed they told him to drop it and they would bring it back. Of course they wanted us to pay for the repo charges and storage and put it on the back of the loan. My husband is disabled is a little autistic and suffers from ptsd so when they came to get our truck he went into a downword spirail. They had him sign a letter he had no business signing because of his state of mind. He still isn't back to normal since that incident.
The State decided not to drop the charges agaisnt Sovereign Lending Solutions plus added my name to the complaint. We were told it can take a while. They have had no response from them which there not surprised. We know were on there repo list again but the vehical is in the shop and we can't afford to fix it. We plan on making back payments but we put money down to start work on our truck. We live on what my husband gets from a pension and disabilty which isn't very much. He has the VA to take care of him medically which helps.
After my husband signed the new deal to change our payment date and pay the right amount they decided we owed them for changing the date and late fees again this payment is now well over $1000. We have a complaint in with the United States Government just to cover all of our basis. If we had a lawyer I would sue the pants off of them in the US Courts for what they did to my husband. They have been nothing but threatening from the start. If you have any dealings with them at all file a complaint with your local Division of Finance and Corporate Securities. Also the United States Division of Finance and Corporate Securities this is the only way of stopping preditory lending with this company.
We have asked for a copy of the contract and the payments weve made and they won't even do that. We are taking a stand agaisnt Sovereign Lending Solutions I can't believe any tribal intity would do these things. They even have a ballon payment as much as the original loan for the last payment. We did not sign up for any of that we thought it would be low monthly payments over a year to 18 months. So they lie,cheat to get you in then steal your vehical. I would suggest you never get a loan from this company.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/11/2013 02:00 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/sovereign-lending-solutions/boca-raton-florida-33429/sovereign-lending-solutions-title-loan-americafastest-title-loan-fraudulant-ropossion-li-1106196. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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#1 General Comment
Sovereign Lending Solutions
SUBMITTED: Friday, June 06, 2014POSTED: Friday, June 06, 2014
This company will still your money take my advice if you want to be ripped off and want your title stolen this is the best place to come to.There pay near me system is down but they are still charging are charging people 15 dollars to process their payments but it's there system that is down a total ripp off people please I'm begging you do not do it don't do business with this company please .
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Watch playwright August Wilson's entire Century Cycle online
The series, which begins tonight, is directed by the likes of Phylicia Rashad and Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and runs through Sept 28.
Mon Aug 26 2013
Playwright August Wilson was a pioneering force in American theater, documenting the African-American experience in the working class through plays like Fences (1987), for which he won one of his two Pulitzer Prizes, and Seven Guitars (1995). Wilson died in 2005, leaving the world with his celebrated ten-play Century Cycle; now, for the first time ever, all ten works will be read, recorded and presented as live video webcasts.
The readings will be held at WNYC and WQXR's Greene Space in Soho, and though all are sold out, you can catch them live-streamed on the Greene Space's website every performance night starting at 7pm. Directed by the likes of Phylicia Rashad, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Michele Shay, the series stars longtime Wilson pros like S. Epatha Merkerson and Kenny Leon in addition to Wilson newcomers like Taraji P. Henson and Jesse L. Martin.
The first installment, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, kicks off tonight at 7pm. The series will run through September 28; check the Greene Space's website for a full schedule.
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ROSS, Senior Circuit Judge.
Appellant Milton Reierson is the former president and chief executive officer of First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Thief River Falls, Minnesota (First Federal). Prior to February 24, 1989, Reierson had a deferred compensation agreement with First Federal as part of a retirement plan. On that date and prior to his retirement, First Federal entered into an irrevocable trust agreement with him, under which Reierson, as beneficiary, would receive $1,000 a month for 10 years upon his retirement. Reierson's deferred compensation funds were transferred to the trust. Gary Rux was appointed trustee under the agreement. Reierson retired from his position at First Federal on March 16, 1990, and on April 20, 1990, he began receiving monthly payments of $1,000 under the trust agreement.
On August 9, 1991, the Office of Thrift Supervision of the United States Department of Treasury declared First Federal insolvent and appointed the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) as receiver of the failed institution. On August 12, 1991, the RTC sent notices to First Federal's creditors informing them that First Federal had been declared insolvent and that the RTC had been appointed receiver. The notices also informed the creditors of their right to file a claim against First Federal, set forth the manner in which to file a claim, and stated that all claims had to be presented to the RTC by November 21, 1991. First Federal's books and records listed Reierson as a creditor of the institution, along with his current address. The RTC also published a notice in the local newspaper to the creditors of First Federal, notifying them of the necessity of presenting their claims. Although the RTC claims to have mailed such a notice to Reierson, Reierson denies ever receiving this notice.
On April 17, 1992, Reierson filed suit against the RTC, alleging that it improperly disallowed his claim. He opposed the RTC's summary judgment motion on the ground that a factual issue existed as to whether he received the RTC's notice. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the RTC, concluding that the RTC complied with the statutory notice requirements under 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(3)(C), 806 F.Supp. 1408. Reierson now appeals.
Once the RTC is appointed receiver of a failed depository institution, the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) requires the RTC to publish a notice to the institution's creditors that informs them of their right to present a claim against the institution by a specified date, which may not be less than ninety days after publication. 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(3)(B)(i). The RTC must republish that notice twice, id. § 1821(d)(3)(B)(ii), and must mail a similar notice to any creditor shown on the institution's books. Id. § 1821(d)(3)(C).
Under Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, in order for summary judgment to be granted, it is the moving party's obligation to demonstrate that "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). In determining whether the moving party has met its burden, all evidence and inferences are to be viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Johnson v. Enron Corp., 906 F.2d 1234, 1237 (8th Cir.1990).
Reierson contends that the RTC failed to comply with the statutory mandate to provide notice because he never received any such notice. The district court, however, concluded that FIRREA does not require the RTC to insure the claimant actually receives the mailed notice. See McLaughlin v. FDIC, 796 F.Supp. 47, 49 (D.Mass.1992). Rather, the statute requires only that the RTC mail the notice to the claimant's last known address appearing on the institution's records. The district court also found, without any discussion, that the evidence supports the conclusion that the RTC mailed the notice to Reierson's last known address.
If a claimant fails to submit a timely claim, the claim is to be disallowed and "such disallowance shall be final." Id. § 1821(d)(5)(C)(i). FIRREA, however, provides a notable exception to this rule. 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(5)(C)(ii) provides:
This "exception only applies to claimants who do not receive notice of the fact of the appointment of a receiver." McLaughlin, supra,
Again, relying on McLaughlin, the district court determined this exception does not apply to Reierson because Gary Rux, the trustee of the irrevocable trust agreement, received notice of the RTC's claim to the trust assets within the claim period and his knowledge of the insolvency proceedings was imputed to Reierson. In McLaughlin, while the claimant did not receive notice of the institution's insolvency and appointment of the FDIC as receiver, the court concluded that notice to the claimant's attorney satisfied the requirement to notify the claimant. Id. McLaughlin, however, is clearly distinguishable from the present case. In sharp contrast to the position of the attorney in McLaughlin, Gary Rux, the trustee, was neither Reierson's agent nor his representative. The fiduciary relationship between Rux and Reierson did not create the type of agency from which knowledge could be imputed from one party to the other. Notification of the trustee will not serve to impute Reierson with knowledge of the receivership in the present case, especially since the trustee continued to remit the monthly payments to Reierson after the declaration of insolvency, and Reierson did not receive notice that the monthly payments would cease until after the filing deadline set by the RTC.
A material question of fact remains, therefore, as to whether Reierson had knowledge of the appointment of the receiver. If the district court determines he did not have knowledge of the receivership, Reierson falls within the section 1821(d)(5)(C)(ii) exception and his failure to file a claim within the prescribed time will not be fatal to his cause of action. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the RTC and remand to the district court to determine whether Reierson had knowledge of the appointment of the receiver before the deadline for filing a claim.
(C) Mailing Required
The receiver shall mail a notice similar to the notice published under subparagraph (B)(i) at the time of such publication to any creditor shown on the institution's books —
(i) at the creditor's last address appearing in such books; or
(ii) upon discovery of the name and address of a claimant not appearing on the institution's books within 30 days after the discovery of such name and address.


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|Home > Entertainment > Film > Article
|Friday June 28, 2002
I'm sorry, but Scooby-Doo is really a very bad film. At its first world press screening in Crete three weeks ago, a colleague from a big British paper threw his head into his hands and groaned, "I've lost the will to live!" The other Australian there hid her face in her skirt. "God, what is it about?" she asked. It seemed incredible that we should have come straight from the Cannes film festival to … this.
To be fair, a bunch of Greek children at the screening did laugh at every fart gag, ghostly apparition and at Scooby-Doo, the talking dog. As the people from the film company said afterwards, "it is for a different audience".
The funny thing is that on paper, turning the popular '70s cartoon to life with real humans and state-of-the-art CGI must have seemed a definitively winning formula. For a start, it's Scooby-Doo, the talking dog, on the big screen: that is huge in itself. And Freddie Prinze, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini look startlingly like Mystery Inc's human members.
"We didn't want to re-invent everyone," says the director, Raja Gosnell. "We wanted people to feel, 'Yeah, these are characters I've known for 30 years and now they're up on the big screen'. But we also wanted to give them human issues and human problems." Yep, they've got issues. Issues like Velma feeling overlooked, Fred being arrogant, Daphne being vain. Shaggy being hungry. All human life is here.
The story is set three years after the
cartoon left off, prefaced by one flashback to a final adventure where all those
human issues finally came to such a head that Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy
decided to go their separate ways. Now they find themselves reunited at a theme
park called Spooky Island. The owner, played by Rowan Atkinson, has summoned
each of them, hoping that Mystery Inc will be able to find out why perfectly
normal, gross-out students are coming to the island for holidays and leaving as
scary automatons. Something odd seems to be happening in the vaults of the
haunted castle ride.
Scooby-Doo was shot on the Gold Coast, where the Wet and Wild theme park stood in for Spooky Island. "We needed beaches, we needed rainforest and we needed a theme park we could close down and shoot in," says Gosnell. Wet and Wild, like the Scooby-Doo name, is owned by Warner Bros and was correspondingly obliging. "The combination," he adds, "was irresistible".
Of course, all the cast say the expected things about how Australia was so sunny, so friendly and all-round great that even over six months' shooting, they hardly missed lovely Los Angeles at all. Freddie, a keen cook, did barbecues for the cast. They played team-building games with guns that fired foam darts. "We had been together so long in a foreign land we invented our own games!" hoots Cardellini.
They are all very upbeat about Scooby-Doo as a creative experience. Sarah Michelle Gellar says that working on Scooby was like doing an acting workshop every day. Hyperbolic as this sounds, it must indeed have been tricky to act around an imaginary main character, getting everyone to look at the same time at a dog that wasn't there. While Gosnell, who was an editor for 20 years, could easily visualise each image in post-production with Scooby imposed on it, the cast could not.
Where there is money, however, there is a solution to every problem. In this case, it was the oldest standby of all: an actor. Matthew Lillard explains how a dwarf actor stood in for the cartoon image dressed — lest anyone forget who he was — as Scooby-Doo. "They made him a full Scooby-Doo suit. Which was terrible for him," he adds sympathetically, "because it was a hundred degrees and he was running around in it."
He was on set all the time, too, because even when they were shooting reverse angles he would stand out of shot to give them an eyeline. "So he was a great support," says Gellar enthusiastically. "They made an animatronic Scooby but they used it for one shot and then didn't even use it."
Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Daphne, Mystery Inc's glamorous incompetent who was always getting caught. By the time of the movie, however, she is supposed to have done some judo and, when caught in a tight place, does a bit of Buffy-style fighting. Not that it is supposed to be an� hommage, we are assured; Daphne's sudden presence of mind "comes from a different place", whatever the superficial resemblance. Lillard chips in that Sarah wanted "to get as far from all that as she could". But that statement makes Sarah pull on the reins; she doesn't want to sound ungrateful to Buffy. She knows that without her, she would not be sitting here.
Nor, perhaps, would Freddie Prinze, Buffy's real-life boyfriend who plays his own egotistical namesake. Prinze is, however, the hard-core Scooby fan among them. "I'm 26 now and since I was about five years old I've collected cartoons and comics and, somewhere along the way, discovered I had every single episode of Scooby-Doo," he says.� He is a bit riled, though, that Nicolas Cage has a bigger comic collection than he does.
"He has so much money, I mean, like, he can get anything he wants. Man, I've gotta, like, hold out for a little while and go, 'OK, now, make your move, Cage went to the bathroom, go, go, go!' I never met the guy; I just know he has certain books I wanted because he'll outbid me. Because he has more money than Christ."
Christ? The poor carpenter, giving-away-all-worldly-goods kind of Christ? Should that be, suggests a Scottish journalist, the legendarily rich Croesus? "Exactly, exactly!" says Prinze distractedly. "It works out better for him. Once it gets into the upper 50s and 60s I kinda back off a little bit and he just keeps on going!"
Now, call me old-fashioned, but a world in which Freddie Prinze can keep forking out $US50,000 for old comic books — and resents not having enough readies to go higher — just has to be the wrong kind of world.
Of course, Prinze takes his comics terribly seriously. "I honestly look at Scooby-Doo as American literature," he says. "Because Scooby and Shaggy are literally the only two protagonists who are cowards and never want to solve the crime. They'd rather go eat sandwiches. But you pull for them all the way and you love that they're whining and crying and shaking and wetting their pants. I think that's a big part of the appeal."
Whatever its source, there is no doubting that appeal. Scooby-Doo has been in the pipeline since 1994. Over the years, it fell victim to a series of studio buy-outs and misdirected attempts at writing a script. Mike Myers was involved for a while, but he and the studio "didn't get anywhere with any of their drafts", according to the producer Richard Suckle, who was himself locked out of the project at that time. Myers is not known as a corporate team player, so it is hardly surprising that he didn't fit. In the end, however, the script credit is even more curious.
James Gunn cut his teeth at Troma, the schlock-horror micro-studio that makes Z-grade so-bad-they're-good cult movies. And you can see traces of Troma in the opening scene, where we bypass any kind of plot development to find the fab five of Mystery Inc in a nightmare toy factory, dodging swingeing battle-axes and creepy killer things that, sure enough, turn out to have been the janitor all along, like a whole Scooby Doo episode telescoped into a punchline.
Cut from the final movie was a very Troma sequence in which Daphne and Velma kiss. "It pushed buttons that shouldn't have been pushed in a family film," says Matthew Lillard. "When you make a film called Scooby-Doo, you have a responsibility to families."
Says Richard Suckle: "What James did great is that he's quite commercial but at the same time he's a little bit left of centre. This project needed that quirkiness."
In some ways they were lucky it took so long to bring Scooby to the screen, because digital technology has taken quantum leaps since 1994. Scooby's digital construction is a master work; he leaps seamlessly into Shaggy's arms, wrestles with him, appears both solid and furry, his nose glistening convincingly.
All round, in fact, Scooby-Doo is technically wizard; you could probably really enjoy it if you looked at it solely as a film about lighting. Much of the film is set in a darkened theme park by night but, even in the gloom, the colour is never less than psychedelic, an effect achieved by lighting plans of Einsteinian complexity.
"All my conversations with the director of photography, David Eggby, were, 'You gotta make it pop, it's gotta pop off the screen'," says Gosnell. "And Bill Boes, who designed Spooky Island, when we got together I told him, 'I don't want witches on broomsticks, I don't want ghosts, I don't want werewolves, I don't want anything you see on Halloween. It has to be a really unique tiki-meets-voodoo thing'."
And it does look fantastic in a lurid way, which is good for the series' legion of stoner fans. But there are plenty of others, of course, who won't be satisfied with the "wow, man" factor. Hard-core buffs consider Scooby both an untouchable artefact of the past and their personal property, and anyone who tampers with these categories does so at their peril. The Lord of the Rings production team, for example, brought in the original illustrator as an on-set consultant, ensuring that new and old interpreters were all on the same side. And the millions of Tolkien devotees were there too, drawn into the process by tantalising weblogs, online trailers and by Peter Jackson's clear sincerity. By the time the film was released, the world's fantasy nerds already knew they loved it.
But Scooby-Doo might as well have sprung from nowhere. Only Linda Cardellini, says Richard Suckle, has had any contact with the actor behind the character's original voice, Nicole David. Joe Barbera, the elderly co-founder of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon company that is now part of Warners, put together some initial notes that, Suckle, says, they "read carefully". One of the original animators, who still works for Warners, heard about the film and came down for a look. "We didn't have much involvement, but he gave us the thumbs up," says Suckle hesitantly. Clearly, there is not a lot of historical continuity in there.
So are they concerned about the fans? Concerned, says Suckle, is not a word he would use; he is confident they have made a good movie for a variety of audiences. And Prinze, as a bona fide fan, is positively belligerent on the film's behalf. "Who wouldn't like it?" he demands angrily. "No! We took all the best parts of the cartoon series and implemented them! We approached the movie with nothing but dignity and respect and there is NO WAY that anybody could see it in any light but that! And if they did, they weren't real fans. They don't know what's going on."
He was certainly right about that. Over there in Crete, watching Scooby-Doo in an amphitheatre in the warm evening air, we really didn't know what was going on.
Perhaps that doesn't matter. The truth is mobs of people will flock to Scooby-Doo because, as Prinze kept saying with heavy italicising, "It's Scooby Doo!", and if you show it, they will come. Loads of parents will find themselves there on Spooky Island, collectively losing their will to live. I may very well be among them myself, since the cartoon is very big with the five-year-old in my life and while I would like her to contemplate nothing but truth and beauty, I don't suppose I'm really going to hold out on the Scooby-Doo question.
And who knows? Perhaps there is some fun in there to be had. It's just that it's for a different audience.
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In this section
Buying into the future
Peter Pan goes to Queensland
Festival zooms in on Australian films
Peter Pan to be shot in Australia
John Sayles a godfather to indie films
Animated role a perfect fit for Tia
Nicole Kidman to make up with Ceausescu
Tapping the Spirit of 2-D animation
Hollywood renews licence to spy
Drawn like moths to the big screen
Cruise and Spielberg file their Minority Report
Woo bids adieu to straight action
The ascent of Everett
To Halle and back
Spinning down memory lane
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Even dog lovers have a hard time with unattended, yapping
canines. This is one of the nagging problems observed in Kleber Mendonça Filho's
much lauded debut feature, Neighboring
Sounds (2012), in which a security surveillance company descends on a
paranoid community in the city of Recife, Brazil.
It's at the MFA Wednesday through December 9.
With some film festivals, you don't know what you're in for.
Not so with the fifth - or "Five-ever" - Experimentally Ill Film Festival.
According to festival co-founder Michael Phelan O'Toole, it is the "filmic
answer to punk rock." Among the shorts screened are Dan Lucal's Parking Spot, Mike Messier's Wrestling with Sanity trilogy, and Mick
Cusimano's gorilla-suited Monkey Do,
Monkey Don't
The urtext of the police procedurals that now dominate TV, Jules
Dassin's noirish The Naked City (1948)
employs pseudo-documentary techniques and on-location photography to chronicle
the efforts of two New York City detectives (Barry Fitzgerald and Howard Duff)
to solve a pair of murders. Still holds up, and then some, in this age of CSI
For some, the crew of the Starship Enterprise will forever
be Captain Picard, Data, Troi, Worf, and the rest. You can see them again in "Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Celebration
of Season 2," a special event featuring two programs from 1988, "Q Who?" and
"The Measure of a Man," the latter supplemented with 12 minutes of previously
unseen footage.
Two tough-minded movies at the Brattle celebrate those folks
whom Mitt Romney was referring to with his unfortunate 47% remark. In Do the Right Thing (1989; 7 pm) Spike
Lee directs and plays a pizza deliverer who discovers that sometimes the right
thing involves a trashcan and a plate glass window. And union stalwarts played
by Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto, and Harvey Keitel become unlikely criminals in
Paul Schrader's Blue Collar (1978;
4:30 + 9:30 pm).
As proven in "Comedy Marathon: Universal Pictures
Celebrating 100 Years," the aforementioned studio cornered much of the comic
market in the '40s with stars W.C. Fields, here represented by The Bank Dick (1940; 3 pm) and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941;
4:45 pm), and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, yukking it up in Buck Privates (1941; 11 am + 6:30 pm)
and Abbott & Costello Meet
Frankenstein (1948; 1 + 8:30 pm), all screening at the Brattle.
And you thought your holiday was difficult. Woody Allen
balanced his talents for the comic and dramatic in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), in which he also plays the
ex-husband of the title sibling, played by soon to be ex-flame Mia Farrow. They
join Hannah's two sisters played by Dianne Wiest and Barbara Hershey for a
family Thanksgiving dinner with extra helpings of infidelity and neuroses.
Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman had a lot of pressure on
him when he put together his Palestine
(later Israeli) Philharmonic in the 1930s; the Jewish musicians who didn't make
the cut were likely doomed to be victims of the Holocaust. Orchestra of Exiles, Josh Aronson's harrowing, but uplifting doc
about this amazing story will screen starting Friday, November 23 and throughout the week at the MFA.
If you
have any doubt that Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
(1960; 5:30 pm) is the most perverse and frightening film ever made, take
another look when it screens tonight at the Brattle. Then stick around for a
free sneak peek at Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock (2012; 8 pm), a behind-the-scenes
drama about the making of Psycho, starring Anthony Hopkins in the
title role.
According to "The Biology of B-Movie Monsters," a scientific
paper by Professor Michael C. LaBarbera (see the Fun List, page TK), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957; 5:30
+ 9:15 pm) would have to eat his own body weight every day just to survive.
Thanks for spoiling that fantasy, Teach. Luckily, we can still believe in The Creature from the Black Lagoon
(1954; 7:30 pm).
Contrary to Sacha Baron Cohen's depiction of the country in Borat (2006), Kazakhstan
boasts one of the world's most original and thriving film industries. See for
yourself at the MFA series "Flowers of the Steppe: A
Festival of Kazakh Cinema," which begins Wednesday, November 14 with Ermek Shinarbaev's Letters from an Angel (2009) and
continues through Sunday, November 18.
Lightning Over Braddock (Final Sequence)
Described as a "national treasure," Tony Buba offers
legitimate insight into the American working class with his unique
documentaries. He'll be presenting his first feature, Lightning Over Braddock (1988), and other work in the Brattle's
program, "An Evening with Tony Buba."
An environmental warning before people even knew there was
an environment, Robert Gordon's It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955)
features a giant octopus provoked by H-bomb testing into destroying San Francisco. It makes
sense when you see it, especially when University of Chicago professor
Michael LaBarbera explains the monster's biology when he hosts this session of
Science on Screen series at the Coolidge.
The Hurt Locker
Paul Thomas Anderson said that his film The Master, in which a shell-shocked WWII vet tries to return to
normal life, was inspired in part by William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946; 6 pm), the revered classic
dealing with the same subject. If you haven't seen it, here's your chance,
likewise Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-winning Iraq War masterpiece The Hurt Locker (2008; 9 pm).
The Blue Tiger
If you've taken the kids to see Hotel Transylvania or some other crap targeting children, you've
probably wondered if that's the best they can do. A visit to the Belmont World
Film's Family Festival at the MFA should answer that question
- its international selection of outstanding features and shorts demonstrates
that kids watch the darnedest things.


text:
ED Magedson – Founder
Ripoff Report
Spring Hill Nurseries110 W Elm St Tipp City, Ohio USA
Spring Hill Nurseries SpringHillNurserySpring Hill Nursery onslaught of spam Tipp City Ohio
Does your business have a bad reputation?
Fix it the right way.
Corporate Advocacy Program™
Every spring, this company barrages my email address with daily emails. Numerous efforts to get them to stop have gone unresolved. Worse, their so-called custumer service is located, you guessed it, in India. Demanding that the emails stop only gets placid responses from the personnel who do nothing. They'll tell you the email will stop but it doesn't.
If you check forums on this company, you'll find approximately half of their customers are very unsatisfied. In my mind, that's totally unacceptable. Their "marketing" practice of spamming everyone typifies behavior of suspicious companies.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 04/08/2014 12:48 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/spring-hill-nurseries/tipp-city-ohio-45371/spring-hill-nurseries-springhillnurseryspring-hill-nursery-onslaught-of-spam-tipp-city-oh-1137273. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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text:
Right. I have so many clothes and so many shoes that the state of play in my bedroom and guest bedroom is getting completely ridiculous.
And because I know that I am unable to actually stop buying clothes and shoes, I am aware that the situation is only going to get worse. It's actually quite horrifying!
These are just recent pairs in boxes. There are other piles similar to this. There are other more terrifying piles not similar to this at all. There are piles that haven't arrived from the Kurt Geiger sale yet. If I think about it too much….well…I try not to think about it.
And then last week, a little email pinged into my inbox. From a company called Tszuji which specialises in shoe storage.
The author of the email said that they had been enjoying my blog and, I quote,
"It suddenly dawned on me that you and your devotees probably have some serious shoe collections … and quite possibly a Shoenami in waiting!"
Well, the word Shoenami absolutely summed up what had happened to me just about an hour earlier when, I was trying to get a pair of shoes down from big pile of boxes on top of the wardrobe. I had a little struggle and then there was an almighty avalanche!
How on earth did Tszuji know? It's uncanny!
And then they said they would like to send me one of their shoe storage solutions to try.
And then they said they would like to send me one of their shoe storage solutions to try.
Now this email triggered a chain reaction. It crystallised my complete dissatisfaction at the current state of affairs and has inspired a plan.
I am going to turn my guest bedroom into a walk in heaven of a wardrobe. The bed is going and will be replaced by a subtle sofa bed, and the rest will be clothes and shoes, clothes and shoes!! Yay!! Oh and a plethora of accessories and handbags as well. This is a fanfare moment.
I think my dream will be a fairly long time in the realising, as there are lots of other dependants, but the first evidence of it arrived today.
My 50 pair, 10 tier, bamboo and chrome shoe rack. This is what it looks like right now:
|Tszuji Bamboo & Chrome 50 Pair Shoe Rack
And suddenly I am starting to feel better about things. Of course, this will provide a stylish home for only some of my shoes but it is only the beginning of the plan. I'm very excited!
And while Project Closet is in progress, I am going to try my best not to buy any more clothes and shoes until I have created some order in the current chaos. I am going to pretend that I didn't just have to stop writing this post to go and sign for a package from the Outnet! Ahem…
How do you organise all your clothes and shoes? Can you give me any tips while I am still in the planning stages? All help will be utterly appreciated as organisation of this kind is hard when faced with countless garments and footwear.
For more information about Tszuji visit http://tszuji.co.uk/
Can't wait to hear from you
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3 Responses to Project Closet – Shoenami No More!
Looking Fab in your forties October 26, 2010 at 6:50 am #
I need one of those!