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Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
As I've mentioned multiple times, chocolate and peppermint is one of my favorite flavor combinations. In fact, I love it year round. It seems that it's only acceptable to show this love of chocolate and peppermint during the winter months when it's chilly outside. So I take full advantage and try to make as many chocolate/peppermint things as I can in the months of December and January.
I've seen a variety of similar cookies popping up in blogs and cookie swaps all around me. I decided to take a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I know produces a thick and chewy cookie since the addition of the candy cane crunch (or crushed up candy canes) would likely thin out a cookie as they baked.
I remember this chocolate chip cookie recipe specifically because it was the first time my eyes were awaken to the amazing flavor of bittersweet chocolate. Now I use it almost exclusively in my baking when chocolate chips are called for. I just love the flavor.
I used the leftover peppermint crunch that I got from KAF in the recipe and they came out amazingly. The peppermint and chocolate both shine and don't overpower one another at all. This might just be my new favorite holiday cookie.
One Year Ago: Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Two Years Ago: Butter Ball Cookies
Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 4.5 dozen
1 cup butter, at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups plus 2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup crushed candy canes or peppermint crunch
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (or more semi-sweet if you don't have bittersweet)
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or lightly butter them, and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or a large bowl if mixing by hand, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.
Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, and mix until just combined. Fold in the peppermint pieces and chocolate chips.
Using a cookie scoop or two spoons, scoop cookie dough onto prepared pans. Bake 12-15 for smaller cookies, 14-17 for larger ones or until the tops are a light golden brown (mine came out after 12 minutes).
Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Recipe adapted from In The Sweet Kitchen
8 Responses to "Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies"
Per usual, these look fantastic! Wishing you and C a Merry Christmas!
These look delicious and they are very festive! Normally peppermint recipes don't really catch my eye, but I will definitely have to try this one. Thanks!
you taking full advantage of the peppermint chocolate combo in all forms is highly appreciated. These look delightful. Merry Christmas Jen!
Do you add the crushed peppermint before or after adding the chocolate chips?
I was wondering if i could just do a second cup of regular sugar instead of the brown sugar? i am all out…
Do I need to adjust the recipe for my high altitude?


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I have already covered this in the past, but I recently got an email from Neil Hammerschlag campaigning to bring Sharkwater (I still cannot get over the DVD cover) to China. By now everyone knows where I stand in reference to the movie and Rob Stewart...HOWEVER...I really do believe that showing this movie in China will have an impact. I am surprised it has been taking so long - should have debuted there before showing in the US (I know, I know)
You can donate at Save The Blue - a non-profit which Neil is part of. With the donation you will also receive a shark pendant - I already got mine.

subset: commoncrawl


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ACParadise Network: American Cosplay Paradise American Cosplay Experience American Cosplay Snapshots
Hello! As of right now, I only cosplay Chibitalia from Hetalia and Mio from K-on. However, I also have a lolita outfit and a maid outfit. I hope to do more cosplays in the future (if money allows) and enjoy seeing all of yours!
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text: Doctors in a study of children suffering from migraines said that ginkgo biloba has anti-inflammatory properties, which might help ease migraine in children. In the study, 12 boys and 12 girls with chronic migraines, aged 8 to 18, took a combination of ginkgo biloba extract containing 80 mg of ginkgolide B, 20 mg of coenzyme Q10, 1.6 mg of vitamin B2, and 300 mg of magnesium twice per day with meals. After three months, headaches had decreased from 7.4 attacks per month at the start of the study to 2.2 at the end. The children were also able to take fewer analgesics for pain, decreasing from 5.9 doses per month to 1.5 doses.


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In our continuing series of tips for using The G.E.C.K., Fallout 3's PC editor, Level Designer Jeff Browne put together the following video, entitled "Bunker Kit & Snap to Reference."
Below is a quick note on the video from Jeff about the video:
Because of the scope of our games, it's necessary for our artists to build robust, flexible kits that allow us to re-use a relatively small number of assets in a wide variety of combinations. Thanks to these kits, level designers can create unique Vaults, offices or utility areas without the need for specialized art.
Learning to work with a new kit can be a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process. Kits are composed of inter-locking pieces and it can take a while to get accustomed to the nuances of working with each one. The Enclave Bunker Kit is relatively small, but working with it can be as difficult as the larger kits. In this video, I explain the kit and how it's to be used. This tutorial will also teach you how to work quickly with Reference Snapping.


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Rockwell Automation's FactoryTalk VantagePoint software
FactoryTalk VantagePoint software allows end users to self-configure Web-based dashboards, trends and reports without support resources. Through an Internet browser, Microsoft Office user interfaces and pre-defined connectors to third-party systems, users can install and configure their systems in as little as a few hours with minimal technical support.
Rockwell Automation; 414/382-2000; www.rockwellautomation.com


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The signs are almost as famous as the names on them. Posted along several entry points to Washington, Ind., the signs bid visitors welcome and pay homage to the city's four most famous sons—Steve Bouchie and Luke, Tyler and Cody Zeller, all of whom were named Indiana's Mr. Basketball.
Cody is the youngest of the Zellers, and after Tyler (the middle brother) won the award in 2008, Cody drove by one of the signs nearly every day and wondered whether he'd eventually see his own name hanging there.
After he led the Washington Hatchets to the state championship in 2011 for his third title in four seasons, he thought he had a good chance to win it. He knew how the process worked, having seen his brothers go through it. The winner was notified late in the week, and the announcement was made the following Sunday.
His phone rang on Tuesday night while he ate dinner at a restaurant with his mom, Lorri, and dad, Steve. He wasn't expecting the call for a few more days, and because he didn't recognize the number, he put the phone back in his pocket without answering it. Five seconds later, his mom's phone rang. She fished it out of her purse, answered it and handed it to him.
The caller asked whether he'd like to represent the state of Indiana as Mr. Basketball. "I said, 'Yeah, that would be a great honor,' or whatever." Here he laughs. "I'll check my schedule and get back to you."
Cody Zeller bounces between saying not winning Mr. Basketball would not have been a big deal and, um, telling the truth. He and his brothers are so competitive with each other that they turn Christmas morning into a present-opening contest. When they skip rocks across a lake, each tries to beat the others' count. They also have pizza- and pancake-eating contests ... though from the looks of them nobody ever wins those.
"I was kind of joking about it—I always have a pretty easygoing outlook on it, but I was like, Man it's going to suck if I don't win Mr. Basketball, with Luke and Tyler up there," Cody said.
As he enters his sophomore season at Indiana, he has a chance to do something Luke and Tyler never did: lead his team to a national championship. (Tyler won one, but it was as a bit player as a freshman at UNC, and the closest Luke got at Notre Dame was the second round.) And not just any team, but the only team that matters in the great state of Indiana. If Cody leads the Hoosiers to the national championship, Washington is going to need a bigger sign.
-- SN's All-Americans: Zeller leads the way
* * *
The locker room in the bowels of Assembly Hall is empty save for one impossibly tall teenager. He's so big it's a wonder he gets in here without a crane removing the roof. When he stands, he unfolds like a magician's handkerchief—there is more and more of him, and just when it seems like he's done, there's more still.
Cody Zeller is covered in a layer of sweat after an early afternoon workout. The red, er, crimson, from his size 16 shoes has turned his white, er, cream socks and ankle braces slightly pink. Each sock has at least one hole, revealing that even his toes are big.
His legs are longer than IU's national championship drought, his voice deeper than the fans' desire for another one. He's 19 and officially 7-foot and 240 pounds, but he continues to get taller and thicker, and the bigger he gets, the better IU gets. It is upon his increasingly stronger, increasingly broader shoulders that IU fans have placed their hopes for another title.
The Hoosiers took the first steps back to prominence last season, when they started 12-0 and made it to the Sweet 16. With Zeller and all but one of the team's key contributors back, Indiana is primed to win its first national championship since 1987, but the Hoosiers will go only as far as Zeller carries them.
He is the rare young big man with a refined game, the result of years of playing against highly skilled and much bigger brothers and for a Hall of Fame high school coach (Gene Miiller) who is obsessed with fundamentals. Zeller is a basketball player who is big rather than a big man. He is exceptional in transition, a great passer and a voracious rebounder. He's a good free-throw shooter (75.5 percent last season) for anyone, great for a 7-foot (and rising) sophomore. He says his father and Miiller pounded it into his head that height was no excuse for shooting poorly from the line.
Zeller led Indiana in scoring last year at 15.6 points per game while making 62.3 percent of his shots. But head coach Tom Crean uses a 3-point stat to show Zeller's real influence on the team's offense. The year before he arrived, Indiana ranked 157th in the nation in 3-point shooting. In his freshman season, the team ranked second.
Zeller's numbers likely will be better this season, as Crean is pushing him to be more aggressive with the ball. That will lead to one of two things, and probably both: He'll score (even) more, and the team's 3-point shooting will get (even) better.
Here's how good Zeller is: Crean asked him to work in offseason pickup games on a skill he rarely uses in a game—defending a man on the perimeter. The coach wanted his star out of his comfort zone, to see the game from a different angle and to think about it from a different perspective. Many big men would look like a giraffe on roller skates if they did that. But Zeller is athletic enough that he is at least trying.
Zeller's impact off the court is important, too. He is more mature for his age than any player Crean has ever coached. "There's never anybody around Cody who you say, 'I wonder who that is. I wonder what his agenda is,' " Crean said.
SN preseason Top 25: Indiana is No. 1
* * *
The Zellers, Cody included, carry themselves with face-forward, Christ-centered earnestness. Cody's twitter bio (@czeller40) says nothing about him but is instead a verse from Philippians: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Or maybe that says everything about him. The Zellers believe providence, not luck, landed them in the best area in the country from which three basketball-loving 7-footers could sprout. As a young married couple, Lorri and Steve Zeller bounced from Iowa, where Luke was born; to California, where Tyler was born; to Minnesota, where Cody was born, before settling in Washington, Ind. (about 60 miles southwest of Bloomington), where Lorri jokes she told Steve to buy a dog.
It's almost like Washington knew the Zeller boys were coming—and couldn't wait for them to grow up. The city had a storied basketball history, with three state titles and a Mr. Basketball (Bouchie was on the 1981 Indiana team that won the national championship). Sam Alford, father of Indiana legend Steve, played there. The basketball team plays at the Hatchet House. It seats 7,090 and averaged roughly 5,000 while the Zellers played.
It is often said of small towns like Washington that everybody knows everybody. But that's not true. While eating dinner recently at Bobe's Pizza Express—Washington's place to see and be seen—Lorri Zeller looked around at the 30 people enjoying steak night. She knew only 20 of them. Safe bet: All 30 know who the Zellers are.
Steve Zeller, who's 6-4, works at the turkey processing plant in town. Lorri (6-0) recently left her job in the high school athletics department to work for the family's nonprofit organization, Distinxion.
Conceived by Luke when he was playing at Notre Dame, Distinxion teaches character and basketball, in that order. Distinxion holds camps across Indiana that Cody attends when he can, and it runs regular classes at its church gym in Washington.
On the wall there is Distinxion's motto, which spells out CHAMPIONS: Character, Honesty, Attitude, Motivation, Perseverance, I am Responsible, Optimism, Network of friends, Serve others. One night in August, Steve Zeller was working with trainer Bryce Bow and a handful of students. Before they took their first shot, Bow assigned them a drill: Greet the visitor, shake his hand with a firm grip, look him in the eye and say, "Welcome to Washington." This they all did, with varying degrees of firmness and in-the-eye-looking.
Also on the wall is a verse from Colossians: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."
The same verse is on a plaque on Crean's desk in Bloomington.If Washington had a Zellers-shaped hole in its basketball heart before the family arrived, so too did Indiana before Cody Zeller got there. The program was in a shambles when Crean took over in 2008. From the time he got the job, Crean identified Zeller as crucial to the rebuilding process. The team needed to get better, and it needed to do so with high-character, homegrown talent.
The day in 2010 Zeller committed to Indiana has become a watershed moment in the team's recent history. Crean says fans "remember where they were" when they saw Zeller make his announcement, which he did wearing a hoodie while inside the Hatchet House. Dozens of media outlets covered it. The hype grew, if that was possible, when Zeller arrived on campus. He inspired a rap song, fake Twitter accounts and a nickname, The Big Handsome.
But if the team didn't win, none of that would matter. Nine games into last season, the attention was validated, and all it took was one of the most famous shots in the history of the program.
* * *
Christian Watford deserves all the credit. He made the last-second 3-pointer that lifted Indiana over No. 1 Kentucky last December and was the ringing of the bell that heralded the Hoosiers' return to relevance.
When Crean was asked to name moments from last season that showed Zeller was the real thing, he picked Zeller's first basket at Assembly Hall, how he rebounded from a bad game against Michigan State and his heady play that made Watford's shot possible.
As Verdell Jones brought the ball up the court, Zeller saw a defender who was looking to try to intentionally foul him. Showing uncommon court sense, Zeller rushed out of position to block the defender's path. That freed Jones to make it to the wing unfouled and get the ball to Watford before the buzzer sounded.
Playing against his brothers, Cody learned how to be creative to get shots, how to play against bigger and stronger opponents and how to compete fiercely but walk away after the game and be nice. He also learned, and continues to learn, by watching them.
Last season, when Tyler Zeller played for North Carolina, Duke's Austin Rivers hit a last-second 3-pointer to lift Duke over UNC, one of the most dramatic shots in the history of that rivalry. Tyler was criticized for not getting in Rivers' face to contest the shot.
A few months later, Indiana was in the closing seconds against VCU in the NCAA Tournament. VCU had the ball with a chance to win. In the huddle, as Indiana discussed defensive switches, Cody vowed to be aggressive. "I even told someone, 'You better believe I'm going to get out. I'm not going to have a Tyler moment.' "
When the play started, Cody blitzed a screen and jumped out on the ballhandler at the 3-point line. That forced the VCU player to drive into the lane. He had no chance to shoot over Zeller, so he passed to a man on the wing. He missed the shot, and the Hoosiers won.
* * *
Crean has compared Zeller to Andrew Luck, the former Stanford star quarterback who was drafted first overall this spring by the Indianapolis Colts. Crean is married to the sister of Jim Harbaugh, Luck's coach at Stanford and now the coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
The comparison works on multiple levels. Early in their careers, both showed dedication to fundamentals and displayed on-field awareness that most players need years to develop.
Both play with intensity on the field but are goofballs off it. When Cody Zeller was in high school, his mom worked in the athletic department. He often hid her stapler in the ceiling panels, which he could reach from his tiptoes. He did the same thing with teachers' lesson plans. He also liked to get to class early and move the clock ahead 10 minutes.
But the comparison falls apart in one crucial area: At Stanford, Luck never faced anything like the pressure Zeller is under. From the day Zeller committed to Indiana, he has been called the savior of the program.
If this bothers him, nobody knows it.
"He never gets too high or too low. He stays on such an even keel," said Miiller, Zeller's high school coach. "When you watch him, sometimes people get the idea that Cody's not real competitive because he just stays in that easygoing demeanor. But he's very competitive."
Zeller shrugs off questions about saving the program or relies on cliches—he vows to take the season "one day at a time" four times in an hour. The high expectations he faces at Indiana are a difference of degree from his time in Washington, not a new experience. He was in junior high the first time he signed an autograph—someone recognized him as a Zeller and expected based on that alone that he'd make something of himself one day. He wasn't expected to be a good high school basketball player or even a great one, he was expected to be the best in the state. And he was.
He has been around big-time basketball for far longer than most players his age. He met John Wooden, whose legendary career began in Indiana, when he was in sixth grade. The setting was a hotel lobby at a McDonald's All America game, in which Luke played. Wooden was sitting at a table, signing autographs. He called Cody over, by name. Stand there, he said. So Cody did. Now move a little, Wooden told him. Cody looked down at this frail old man, this living legend, and wondered what was going on. But he didn't say anything. He did as he was told. A little more, Wooden said again, the man at the end of greatness instructing the kid still years from it. Again, Cody complied.
Wooden was using him to keep the sun out of his eyes. For once, the youngest brother was casting the shadow.


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HOUSTON - A man was selling iPad boxes without an iPad inside, police said Thursday.
The Oak Ridge North Police Department said Mario Ramey, 44, was scamming people by selling a phony iPad box stuffed with a piece of tile.
"The devil is in the details for these folks. If they can make you believe that you're buying the real thing, then they make money on it," Oak Ridge North Police Department Chief Andrew Walters said.
Ramey was arrested when he was caught trying to sell one of the bogus tablets overnight, police said.
Investigators said Ramey walked into a Chevron on Interstate 45 and asked the clerk if he wanted to buy an iPad for a discounted price.
Afraid that he was being sold stolen merchandise, the clerk called police, who happened to be patrolling the area after a recent rash of robberies.
"He's a career criminal and this is his seventh time arrested," Walters said.
Police said Ramey, who was high on marijuana, was not working alone. They said his accomplice, Jerevelyn Wade was with him.
The back seat of their truck had 50 boxes of packaged tile made to look like real stuff.
"That's the problem. If it looks too good to be real, it probably is," Walters said. "I don't think it's worth the risk to spend your money on something like this just to find on Christmas morning that you bought a piece of tile for $400, $500, $600."
Both suspects were charged with 50 counts of criminal simulation. They are being held on $30,000 bond each.
Copyright 2012 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Topic: Introduction - Tina R.
Hi, my name is Tina. I was diagnosed on September 7th. I work at Johns Hopkins and left work early on September 5th to see my PCP due to increasingly darker urine over 5 days and pale/white stools for two days.
Intermittently over the last several months, I had pain in the upper right abdomen just under my rib cage. I had an ultrasound in January, a colonoscopy and endoscopy to followup on colon polyps in February, but no sign of this terrible disease. I kept thinking it was my gall bladder. I was diagnosed with Chron's Disease as a teenager which I have been told is one of only four potential precursors for this disease.
Late in the afternoon on September 5th, the PCP did a urine stick test and said I was mostly likely having some kind of liver problem and I should go to the ER. I returned Hopkins to the ER and after a 16 hour experience which included ultrasound and CT with contrast, I was admitted. I had an ERCP on the 7th, but the internal medicine team at Hopkins told me the news just before going down for the ERCP. The doc said it's one of two kinds of cancer and neither are good. CC was the eventual diagnosis confirmed by cytology brushings and FNA of regional lymph nodes. I believe I am staged at 3C as I have regional lymph node involvement as well as the tumor is encasing a vein. I also have a portal vein thrombosis. PET found no other obvious tumor sites.
I start chemo tomorrow at Johns Hopkins using the usual Gemcitabine and Cisplatin. The plan is to do three rounds and then rescan to see if there has been an effect on the tumor. I'm considered inoperable due to the location of the tumor ("very far down the tract") and the vein/artery involvement.
I have a very loving and supportive husband and family who are currently holding me together. My husband and I have three children ages 18, 12 and 10. I am 46 years old. I have spent the last three and half weeks being completely overwhelmed by the news. It's been hard to be positive.
Thanks for listening,


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Atlanta Lyric Theatre Opens ANYTHING GOES, 9/21
ANYTHING GOES will play September 21 – October 7, 2012 at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre (117 N. Park Square, Marietta).
What better way to open the 33rd season of musicals than with this show that has won six Tony awards, as well as the 2011 Drama Desk Awards for Best Revival, Best Choreography and Best Actress, and the 1987 Outer Critic's Drama Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Revival. The musical also introduced several songs that have become legendary standards, such as "Anything Goes," "It's De-lovely," "Friendship," "You're the Top," "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," and "I Get a Kick Out of You."
Debuting in 1934 in the midst of the Depression, ANYTHING GOES became an instant success, running for over 400 performances. This age-old tale of boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-meets-another-girl, boy-gets-one-of-the-girls, done as a zany shipboard musical, features the brilliant words and music of the incomparable Cole Porter. It has remained an audience favorite, playing to Off-Broadway audiences in 1962, then returning to Broadway in 1987 and 2011. ANYTHING GOES also had a successful run in England's West End in 1982 and was revived there in 2002.
When Billy Crocker learns his ex-fiancée, Hope, is onboard the S.S. American, he stows away to try and win her back, not knowing that Hope is heading to England to marry the very wealthy Sir Evelyn Oakleigh. Meanwhile, Billy's friend, evangelist turned nightclub singer Reno Sweeney, turns her sights upon Sir Evelyn Oakleigh. To remain on board the ship, Billy borrows an unused ticket and passport from incognito gangster Moon Face Martin, disguising himself as the gangster's missing confederate. Will Billy get Hope? Will Reno get Sir Evelyn? Will Billy be taken into custody, along with Moon Face? This madcap romantic comedy is filled with music, dance, mistaken identities, and hilarity. It promises to deliver a fun-filled evening of theatre for all.
With stage and music direction by Lyric Artistic Director Brandt Blocker and choreography by Karen Hebert, Lisa Manuli as Reno Sweeny headlines the cast of ANYTHING GOES. Manuli was recently seen in "Motherhood the Musical" at the 14th Street Playhouse and in Annie at The Fabulous Fox Theatre. The Lyric's Associate Artistic Director Alan Kilpatrick plays notorious gangster Moon Face Martin. Kilpatrick was last seen in The Lyric's hit productions of "Legally Blonde" and "Gypsy."
Others in the all-Atlanta cast include Jackie Prucha, Dustin Lewis, Laura Floyd, Jeremy Wood, Steve Hornibrook, Jennifer Smiles Plumley, Andy Danh, Jono Davis, George Deavours, Nicholas Crawley, Findley Hansard, Becca Potter, Priscilla Curtis, Victoria Drothler, Chris Lewis, Tucker Weinmann, Fenner Eaddy, Preston Watson, Kara Noel Harrington, Andrew Cole, Austin Tijerina, Dan Ford, and Stephanie Anne Lloyd.
Also featured is the on-stage Atlanta Lyric Orchestra conducted by Blocker.
The creative team also includes Bradley Bergeron (Production Designer), Lindsey Paris (Costume Designer), Bobby Johnston (Sound Designer), and George Deavours (Wig Designer).
All performances are held at The Earl Smith Strand Theatre at 117 N. Park Sq., on the historic Marietta Square. For tickets and information call
404-377-9948 or visit www.AtlantaLyricTheatre.com.


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deepbluehum wrote:
I see. Guru Nanak was a syncretist who gathered practices from all around and made a stew.
He went all arounnd looking for the highest/ truest teachings. He did not just incorporate many things but sought out the highest. I wouldn't say he simply "made a stew".
deepbluehum wrote: The Guru Granth Sahib mentions Buddha and Nirvana. Ek on kar, sat nam, karta purak, nirvo nirvan. This first verse of the Guru Granth Sahib is about nirvana.
Also talks about god being everything, all beings and things being a reflection of god. God (and all phenomena, mind and matter) empty, self luminous, and so on. Come on, it is obvious he was influenced by his visits to the Buddhist lands, Tibet, Sikkhim, etc.
deepbluehum wrote: But, the founding philosophy is that the way to practice is through bhakti yoga in the form of singing bhajans and doing japa of "wahe guru sat nam," which is an epithet for the creator god like Allah.
A creator like Allah? No not exactly.
deepbluehum wrote:
I don't think Guru Nanak Dev had anything resembling the power of Guru Rinpoche who is most definitely unmatched in the world in terms of yogic power.
No one said Guru Nanak Dev performed many miracles like Guru Rinpoche did. But some people (apparently many Tibetans if you read what I posted on the first pages of the thread) believe him to be an emenation of Guru Rinpoche. This gives more credence to the possibility him being a Dzogchenpa.
deepbluehum wrote: Guru Nanak Dev was much more heavily influenced by Mardana his muslim attendant and spent much more time in Muslim lands doing Sufi practice.
There may be Sufi infleunces, this is certainly possible. But his Sikh bios also have him doing a retreat after visiting Samye (a Nyingma temple). . .


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Whole Wheat Veggie Pizza Recipe
5 2 1
"A wonderful crust layered with herbed tomato sauce and toppings encourages my family of six to dig right in to this low-fat main course," relates Denise Warner of Red Lodge, Montana.
Recommended: 73 Reasons to Get Behind Meatless Monday
VERIFIED BY Taste of Home Test Kitchen
- 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) quick-rise yeast
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm water (120° to 130°)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
- 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1-1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1-1/2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup chopped zucchini
- 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
- 1/4 cup each chopped onion, green and sweet red pepper
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1-1/4 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
- In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Add water and oil; beat until smooth. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring sauce ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 15-18 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat; set aside.
- Punch dough down. Divide in half; roll each portion into a 12-in. circle. Transfer to two greased 12-in. pizza pans. Prick dough with a fork. Bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.
- In a small skillet, saute vegetables in oil until tender. Spread pizzas with sauce; sprinkle with vegetables and cheese. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Yield: 2 pizzas (6 slices each).
Originally published as Whole Wheat Veggie Pizza in Taste of Home August/September 2000, p17
Reviews forWhole Wheat Veggie Pizza
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Reviewed Jul. 27, 2008
"Try using 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed instead of 1 tablespoon oil. This works great and adds heart-healthy fats."
Reviewed Jun. 29, 2008
"I noticed that this recipe still calls for 2 Tbls. oil, which is quite a lot of fat. Could you use fat free liquid margarine instead? I have used it in making breads in my bread machine, and it works great."


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Hal Jordan 2-Up to benefit the Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA...
One official, fully painted DC Universe Classics Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) 2-Up Prototype figure is be being auctioned right now to benefit the Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA.
This is your chance to own a one-of-a-kind piece of DCUC memorabilia. No DC Universe Classics 2-up prototype has EVER been officially released to the public, so that makes this one very special event for a very worthy cause. This is also the only item to ever be autographed by the Mattel DCUC design team AND all of Four Horsemen Toy Design Studios.
To place a bid and help support the Children's Hospital UCLA, CLICK HERE.
For a great selection of superhero action figures and collectibles, check out fine sponsors BigBadToyStore.com, BriansToys.com, ToyWiz.com, PastGenerationToys.com, Urban-Collector.com, SmallJoes.com, HobbyLinkJapan.com, and Sekaido.com.
To insure your action figure collection, get in touch with our sponsor Collectibles Insurance.


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Ring Around the EarthScience brain teasers require understanding of the physical or biological world and the laws that govern it.
Imagine a smooth metal ring running around the earth's equator about the width of a sidewalk. Now imagine a metal cable wrapped around this first ring so tightly that nothing can squeeze between the cable and the ring. You may assume that the ring and cable are perfect circles even though they most likely would never be. Now this cable, which does not stretch, has three extra feet added to it and is made to magnetically float up and off of the ring so that extra three feet of slack is then equally distributed around the earth. This now gives you an equal distance between the ring and the cable anywhere you checked it around the planet. Now before you do the math, if you are going to do the math at all, what do you think the largest object is that will fit between the cable and the ring?
A) an electron (Less than 1x10-13 cm)
B) a virus (~100nm)
C) single skin cell (~20 microns)
D) a grain of sand (~200 microns)
E) a typical pearl (~9mm diameter)
F) a grape (~1 inch diameter)
G) a grapefruit (~5 inches diameter)
H) a pumpkin (~1.5 feet diameter)
HintThe earth's diameter is 41,865,458 feet or 12,760 km. Do the math first as if the cable were wrapped around a soccer ball say with a 1 foot diameter and then had 3 feet added to it. Then do the earth.
AnswerThe gap comes to about 5.73 inches, which is about the size of a grapefruit! If you wrap the cable around a soccer ball and add 3 feet the gap between the soccer ball and the cable will be 5.73 inches, the same as it was for the earth. If you wrap the cable around the solar system and add 3 feet you also get a 5.73 inch gap! It does not matter what the original circumference is in this problem, the answer will always be the same!
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text:
Veteran Green Point Nursery owner Jim Balestreri says critics of the plan for a "solar farm" at his 20-acre Olive Avenue business are waging a turf war for his property.
Balestreri, whose quest for a solar operation on the nursery began six years ago, is ready for the battle when county planners consider approval of the project later this month.
At issue are plans for a 664-kilowatt photovoltaic array rising up to 6 feet above grade on an acre of the nursery at the corner of Atherton and Olive avenues. It would consist of a series of 25- by 100-foot nonreflective panels staggered in 16 rows varying in length up to 800 feet, and screened in part by a 5-foot fence, trees and nursery stock.
The county Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the plan May 28, and neighbors are expected to weigh in with a variety of concerns about a project that one veteran observer contends could have far-reaching implications.
While some are concerned about glare, visual, wildlife and other aspects of the project, Hank Barner, a former county planning commissioner who once served as president of the Black Point Improvement Club, said the issue extends far beyond the neighborhood.
The improvement club recently voted to oppose the project after listening to concerns that "really are a manifestation of zoning," Barner said, noting that the nursery site is in an agricultural zone.
Approving a large solar operation at the site sets up a "slippery slope" that could set a precedent and "put in jeopardy our agricultural land in the county," Barner said. "On the surface it sounds pretty reasonable," he said of the Olive Avenue solar plan. "But it could have unintended consequences."
Balestreri agrees the project may have consequences for agricultural land — and good ones at that.
"If there's vacant farm land, there's a reason for it," he said. "People have to take a second look at how we use that land," the 75-year-old added. "Everybody wants open space, but who's going to pay for it? That's the key."
He noted that his $1.7 million project was pared back from a larger, $3 million proposal he pitched last year, when representatives of the Marin Audubon Society and Marin Conservation League expressed concerns about birds, noting marshland owned by the society is next door. Since then, the project has been cut 40 percent, the height of the solar panels lowered almost 3 feet, and their location shifted 100 feet from the marsh to an upland area.
"We met with them early on and told them it was too much," said Barbara Salzman, head of Marin Audubon, adding she had not reviewed the latest plan.
Balestreri said worries that solar panels would make ducks nervous, disrupt nesting marsh birds or foraging wildlife are all wet, the result of "overzealous" advocacy. "There's no biological study saying solar affects bird habitat," he declared. "It's a turf war, what we have going on here."
County planner Lorene Jackson, who headed a staff review of the proposal, noted the county supports alternative energy — and that a solar farm of similar size at the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District has worked well with few problems. A biological assessment of the Olive Avenue plan indicated no significant impact on resources, she added.
In an analysis issued Friday, the county planning staff recommended approval of the project.
Contact Nels Johnson via email at email@example.com. Follow him at twitter.com/nelsjohnsonnews


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Trillium Organics Shea Butter - 1.5 oz Reviews
BlondieI love this color enhancing shampoo and conditioner. It actually anhances your blonde hair!! — 9 years, 8 months agoAlexandriaRae | 1 reviews
Struck GoldMakes my hair have beautiful highlights, when I color my hair color shines longer. Love it! — 9 years, 8 months agoljshaf | 4 reviews
Love this stuffI love the way my hair smells, feels and looks after using it. Always soft and shiny! — 9 years, 8 months agoTonigail | 1 reviews
best shampoo everThis shampoo makes my hair shinier and more blonde than I thought it was. — 9 years, 8 months agoJanice | 1 reviews
Love It!It makes my hair smoother and shinier than any other conditioner I've ever used. It makes my blonde look clearer. — 9 years, 8 months agorebeccapieper | 4 reviews
I love this stuff!!I have used many shampoos(including very expensive ones) and this is my favorite. It makes my hair feel very soft and light. It really brings out my blonde highlights. Lots of people have commented on my hair since I started using this product. I love the conditioner as well! — 9 years, 8 months agoKay123 | 3 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 1 people said helpful
Great highlight enhancing ShampooI'm a natural blond, and I started using this shampoo because my hair was looking a little dull. When I use this shampoo and the conditioner, all my highlights seem brighter. I highly reccomend others trying this too! — 9 years, 8 months agoRuffwillow | 3 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 1 people said helpful
i love blonde expressions!i love this shampoo!! it keeps your color vibrant and lasting longer. i recommend this to all blondes — 9 years, 8 months agoKimK24 | 3 reviews
I love this one too!Never found my hair so soft and shiny, great highlights. — 9 years, 8 months agobutterfly12 | 5 reviews
Soft and ShinyDecided to try this a few months ago after using a competitor...This is a keeper! Accents the highlights perfectly with a beautiful shine. No looking any further for my favorite shampoo. — 9 years, 8 months agoHDcowgirl | 12 reviews
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text:
First thing you need to know about The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza's Museum Store & Cafe: It's not just about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, conspiracies or lack thereof, or the aftermath.
Yes, this beautiful, light and airy gift shop does sell books, DVDs and more commemorating the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination in Dallas.
But it also has a wide array of great items you might never expect to find there: Mad Men-style goodies echoing the "Kennedy Era" of the late 1950s and early 1960s, toys and other fun stuff related to space exploration, reproductions of Jackie Kennedy's jewelry (the famous triple-pearl necklace is only $129), and much more.
The store opened in 2010 in the early 20th-century building at 501 Elm St., across from the former Texas School Book Depository, which houses The Sixth Floor.
There's also a smaller gift shop inside The Sixth Floor, but it mostly stocks items that deal directly with Kennedy's assassination.
"This store [at 501 Elm] has more pertaining to the culture of Kennedy's era, whether it's culture, politics, fashion, consumer products, jewelry, industrial design or whatever," says Amy Gilchrist, retail manager.
In the cafe, which sells inexpensive breakfasts, light lunches and sweet treats, a large screen displays a running loop of photos and video footage from that fateful November day. "We have people who'll just sit and watch it all the way through, several times," Gilchrist says.
"People seem to like to make this either a preview or a wrap-up to their visit to The Sixth Floor." About 330,000 people visit the museum each year, says Liza Collins, public relations manager.
The store stocks things suitable for very young kids through adults, from 50-cent tchotchkes to $125 reproduction Eames chairs for youngsters, even a $695 piece of original art from CAC Mosaic Designs. Most items seem to fall in the $15-$100 range.
You'll find silver Texas School Book Depository earrings mimicking the design of bricks that covered the ground-floor windows in 1963, a poster of the iconic Andy Warhol painting of Jackie Kennedy, tote bags, puzzles, holiday ornaments (including one I'm going back for, a gorgeous rendition of Dallas' Pegasus symbol priced at $19), spacesuit costumes for kids and items from many countries where the Peace Corps operates (Kennedy and his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, founded the nonprofit organization, which sends volunteers worldwide to serve those in need).
The assassination and its aftermath are well-represented, of course, with everything from reproductions of the post-assassination editions of The Dallas Morning News and Dallas Times Herald to the DVD of KERA's documentary JFK: Breaking the News.
CDs related to the era are also available; while I was in the store, the overhead speakers were playing the original Broadway version of Camelot.
The store plays no favorites politically or culturally, with many items sporting either the Republican elephant or Democratic donkey (ornaments, golf balls, playing cards), and it has both itty-bitty "reporters' notebooks" for kids and a lovely little piece of hanging glass art that proclaims, "I'm not fooled by the media."
Tops on my list of things I'll be returning for? The clock made from a View-Master (complete with cardboard insert and itsy photos) and a handful of the "Peace, Love & Rock 'N' Roll" nail files, along one of those groovy Mad Men-esque ties for my hubby.
Can't get downtown soon? Many of the best items are available from the shop's website.
501 Elm St., Dallas. The store-cafe is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekends 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 214-747-6660. store.jfk.org.


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Prime Minister David Cameron took a break from chairing the Government's Cobra national emergency committee dealing with the flooding problems to write a birthday card for Marlborough's Harry Beckhough who was 100 today
Actually Mr Beckhough who lives in Castle Court retirement apartments has two birthdays.
His father omitted to register him when he was born on February 8 in 1914 and didn't get round to it until February 15 which is on his birth certificate.
The Queen also has two birthdays, her own and her official birthday, and she
sent the centenarian a telegram that arrived today, the 15th which Mr Beckhough regards as his official birthday.
The Devizes Constituency Conservative Association organised a party today for Mr Beckhough who is believed to be the country's oldest Tory having joined when he was 15 and been a staunch party member since.
So it was not totally unexpected that a card arrived at the party held at the Conservative Club in Marlborough from the Prime Minister who had singled him out at the Tory conference in 2010 who then told him: "Without people like you we wouldn't be here."
Inside Mr Cameron's birthday card with No 10 Downing Street on the front he said: "Dear Harry. Happy 100th birthday. This comes with my very best wishes for your celebration."
Earlier this week there had been parties on three days for Mr Beckhough at the Jubilee Centre of which he is a member and he was having another with his family, his daughter Jennifer and her husband Sir James Munby, head of the High Court Family Division, who live in the Pewsey Vale. They were present at the Conservative club party with their daughter Charlotte.
Guests at the party included Devizes MP Claire Perry and two surprise guests.
One was Richard Notby who is head teacher of Cundall Manor School in North Yorkshire that Mr Beckhough founded in 1959 when he lived in Harrogate but could not find a school for gifted children for his own son and daughter to attend.
Mr Notby said: "Harry Beckhough has a habit of leaving a great legacy wherever he goes.
The second surprise was guest was the chairman of the Wakefield Shirt Company, Ricky Donner, that Mr Beckhough helped found before the Second World War.
Wiltshire Council chairman Lionel Grundy who welcomed guests to the party referred to Mr Beckhough's distinguished war service which included a spell as a code breaker at Bletchley Park as well as his service with the Royal Engineers that took him to India and Egypt.
As well as being the country's oldest Tory, Mr Beckhough is believed to be possibly the oldest working person because every weekday he spends the morning helping with the administration at the constituency above the Conservative Club where the party was held.
As well as the Prime Minister's card, MP Claire Perry took along with her messages of congratulation from Foreign Secretary William Hague and from former Devizes MP Michael Ancram.


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« Back to Schedule |
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Ages: 10-12
Location: Goodwin Field-Fullerton, CA
Sunday, November 3, 2013 to Sunday, December 22, 2013
Starts: 6:00pm / Ends: 7:30pm
Camp Cost: $315.00
This camp is for players ages 10-12 years old that want to improve their batting fundamentals.
The camp is run by Cal State coaches and players and will have a 5:1 coach/player ratio. This will be an advanced junior hitting camp and it is a great way for your son to get outstanding instruction and ton of quality swings each week.
This camp is every Sunday night from Nov 3rd, 10th, 17th ,24th and December 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd (8 sessions total,from 6:00-7:30pm and is for junior high kids ages 10-12 years old that need to brush up on hitting.
This camp will be limited to 20 kids
EquipmentEach camper must bring his own baseball equipment. Players should bring a glove, bat, Helmet, cleats/spikes, running shoes or turf shoes, hat, and any other equipment they feel necessary to compete.
The Titan Baseball Academy is for all players interested in taking their skill set to the next level whether it be batting, fielding, position play or pitching. Our camps are designed to prepare you for the next step in your baseball endeavors.
Please check your email regularly as this is our primary way we communicate. Any additional information that we need to convey as the camp draws closer will be passed on to you via the e-mail address that you supplied when you signed up for camp. Please make it a habit to check your e-mail daily, this will eliminate any confusion and or miscommunication.
Medical forms will be attached to your e-mailed receipt and are available on-line. Please print fill out and bring to camp.
Download Waiver Form
The major cross-streets to Goodwin Field are Yorba Linda Blvd & Associated Rd
(2 blocks West of CA-57 "Yorba Linda Exit").
Goodwin Field is the third on-campus diamond to serve Cal State Fullerton and, since its inauguration, has been an undeniable home field advantage for the four-time NCAA National Champions. Thanks in part to extensive renovations and a commitment by the University to transform the field into a state-of-the-art facility, the NCAA has named Goodwin Field as a host site for Regional play in seven of the past nine seasons and a host for Super Regional play in seven of the last eight years.
A $3 million expansion project, spearheaded by a $1 million gift from Jerry and Merilyn Goodwin, has transformed the field into one of the premier collegiate facilities on the West Coast. The field now features the Wilson Clubhouse - which includes locker rooms, a reception area and offices for the coaches - and the Doubek VIP Room.
Prior to the 2006 season, covered batting cages were installed in the area between the coaches offices and the Fullerton Arboretum to enable hitting and pitching at night or during inclement weather.
There are 30 minute spaces in Lot G for drop-off/pick-up of campers.
If you plan to be here longer than 30 minutes, please purchase an $8.00
permit from one of the yellow machines in Lot G. Campus is open and there is a charge for parking.
The parking officers check this lot frequently and if you are parked over 30 minutes in a 30 minute
space or in the lot without a paid permit you will be issued a citation.
Titan Baseball merchandise will be available for purchase at this event.
Refund Policy
We do not offer refunds on cancelled campers, just a future camp credit if you decide to cancel, but we do have what is called "Cancellation Protection". We offer basic Cancellation Protection to allow participants some peace of mind in case plans change. This allows us to keep our prices low and provide the best service possible. Due at the time of registration, Cancellation Protection entitles you to a full refund of camp fees should you cancel your registration more than 14 days prior to the start of an overnight camp, and 7 days prior to the start of a day camp. If you cancel within 14 or 7 days of the start of your session, we will give you a camp credit for all money paid. The credit is valid for one year from camp date.
Questions regarding Titan Baseball Academy at Cal State University Fullerton? Contact 800.222.8152 or e-mail email@example.com.
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General News of Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Source: XYZ
The much anticipated IEA presidential debate will come off tonight at the State House in Accra.
The event is the second and final one for parties with representation in parliament. President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC); Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP); Dr Michael Abu Sakara of the Convention People's Party (CPP); and Mr Hassan Ayariga of the People's National Convention (PNC) are expected to participate in the event.
The presidential candidates will answer questions on areas such as good governance (peace and security, corruption, bureaucracy, the rule of law, as well as character and leadership), natural resource management (oil and gas, mining, forestry and environmental management) and women and gender issues.
The candidates will also answer questions on youth and child development, persons with disability, sports, as well as culture and arts.
The IEA debate has been fraught with controversies including the recent rift between the IEA and the PNC flagbearer. Research Fellow with the IEA Ransford Gyampo said the institute is ready for the event.
Mr Gyampo said all four parties with representation in parliament will be represented on the platform.
Communication Director of the CPP, Nii Armah Akomfrah, told Breakfast XYZ that the party's flagbearer will stand out again as was the case in the first round. National Organiser of the NPP, Alhaji Moctar Bamba, said Nana Akufo-Addo will buttress the ideas of the party on the IEA platform and show why he deserves the presidency.
Sam George of the NDC indicated that the president John Mahama has always been prepared for the debate and will shine again.
Flagbearer of the PNC, Hassan Ayariga told Breakfast XYZ that despite his health condition, he is prepared to excel again at the presidential debates.


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Joey Landwehr may be the most qualified theater teacher in San Diego.
He studied with Marcel Marceau and Patti LuPone, worked on productions with Joel Grey, Madeline Kahn and Kristin Chenoweth. He's acted in national touring productions as well as on Broadway.
But the theater veteran isn't passing on his wisdom and experience to adult actors. Landwehr, 41, is the artistic director for J*Company Youth Theatre, a company for kids ages 7 to 19.
Landwehr left New York City for San Diego in 2003 and worked at the San Diego Performing Arts League. He also secured acting, directing or choreography jobs at most of the local theaters.
He joined J*Company in 2006 and is currently working on "Shrek — The Musical," the first play in his "Once Upon A Time" season. The show runs Oct. 11 to 27 at the Jewish Community Center's David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre in Golden Triangle.
Q: Please tell us a bit about J*Company.
A: J*Company is in its 21st year of providing theatrical opportunities to young people ages 4-19. We offer classes for 4- to 6-year olds, but to be in a production, you must be 7). Our programs provide children and teens a safe place to grow and explore their creativity, instill confidence and build self-esteem through the magic of the performing arts.
Q: Were you a child actor?
A: The theater scene in rural Missouri was pretty slim. We performed in school cafeterias, gymnasiums and church basements. I started sort of late in the game, as compared to most of my little 7-year-olds. I auditioned for my first production, "Carnival," when I was 15 and was cast as the lead. Needless to say, I was shocked and really thought it was a fluke
Q: Did you have a teacher/director that inspired you when you were growing up?
A: At Fort Zumwalt North High School in O'Fallon, Mo., there was this brilliant instructor who was, and still is, always there for me. Her name is Tina Heitman and she inspired me not only to become a great performer, but also a great human. I like to think I always have her sitting on my shoulder, whispering in my ear as I continue her work in theater with youth.
Q: Have any of your kids gone on to pursue acting?
A: Absolutely! Many of our young artists have worked in national tours, on Broadway, in film and television and go on to incredible institutions of higher learning such as New York University and Yale.
Q: When did you go to New York, and what were some of your highlights as an actor there?
A: I moved to New York City directly after getting my MFA in acting and directing from The Ohio State University and am proud to say I worked pretty consistently. I soloed and directed at Carnegie Hall and did a few shows on and off Broadway, as well as national tours. There are too many exciting highlights of my time in N.Y.C. to mention, but I am going to narrow it down to two. Number one, I am proud to have been a student of Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone and the brilliant Uta Hagen. And number two, I had the incredible joy of singing backup for the gorgeous Kristin Chenoweth and then the next year soloing at Carnegie Hall.
Q: Do you still act in the local (adult) theater community?
A: I do. I have performed all around town winning a few awards for my performances. For the past seven years, I have also been the resident staging director/choreographer for the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus. And currently, I am directing "Five Course Love" at Scripps Ranch Theatre (Jan. 18 to Feb. 23).
Q: What's the best advice you ever received?
A: I remember being in a master class with the brilliant George C. Wolfe from the New York Public Theatre. He put us in a circle and asked us, "If you were told that you could never work in theater again, what would you do with your life?" Many people talked about how they were good with numbers, or mechanical, or perhaps they would go into their parents' business. When he came to me I was sobbing like a baby. He asked me what was wrong. I said, "I can't do anything else. If I couldn't do theater, I don't know how I would survive." He said, "That is the right answer. This business is so difficult that you have to want it so much that you couldn't live without it."
Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?
A: I have roller ballet trophies from when I was a kid. Maybe that is why J*Company has been the only youth theater in town to present "Xanadu."
Q: Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.
A: Opening up a good book, lying on my back deck with my partner and playing with my baby kitties, Chelsea and Brooklyn.


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Sheriff's office seeking person of interest
July 20, 2014
The Douglas County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in identifying a person of interest in a July 3 theft from Walmart in Gardnerville.
A male entered the store and loaded a shopping cart full of items and exited the store without paying. The male loaded the merchandise and left the parking lot in a dark colored SUV.
A reward is being offered to anyone with information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the suspect. Your identity is not needed and you will remain anonymous. Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to call DCSO Dispatch at (775) 782-5126 or Douglas County Secret Witness at: 775-78-CRIME (775-782-7463) or DCSO Investigator Nate Almeida at 775-782-9908.


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Valenciennes 2
The Film
Running Time
09 min 36 s
Canadian War Records Office, Ministry of Information
With the Armistice, the brass arrived for their tours of the battlefields. British, French, American, Canadian and Belgian senior officers and politicians visited the trenches or set out to greet the troops. King George V toured the front and watched infantry and tanks stage an exercise. The Prince of Wales reviewed Canadian troops and received endless bouquets of flowers (where did they come from in November 1918 after four years of German occupation?) from children in Valenciennes. The war was over, Germany was defeated, and Canada had lost 60,000 dead. Now the statesmen's task was to make a peace that would last.
Pieces of History
The Commanders
Patrick H. Brennan
Military Historian
When the Canadian Expeditionary Force began to take shape in the autumn of 1914, the majority of its future commanding officers had been pursuing their business and professional careers only weeks earlier. Even those with some pre-war militia experience were still amateur warriors who would have to learn how to command soldiers while actually fighting a war. Combat would prove a cruel and unforgiving teacher, and the mistakes they made learning how to command would cost men's lives.
Arthur Currie: the first Canadian to command the Canadian Corps
Arthur Currie began the war in command of a brigade of 4000 men. He had earned his appointment on the recommendation of Garnet Hughes, a fellow British Columbia militia officer who happened to be the son of Canada's Minister of Militia and Defence, the erratic, meddling and militarily incompetent Sir Sam Hughes. During the early stages of the war, Hughes personally selected almost every senior officer in the army, and far too many of them were friends and political cronies who proved unfit for their commands and ultimately had to be replaced. Nothing in Currie's background as a school teacher and realtor with a smattering of militia experience made him stand out. Yet he turned out to be a fast learner and superb leader whose military skills quickly blossomed. By 1916 he was recognized as the best of the senior Canadian officers. A year later, he was the obvious choice to be the first Canadian to command the Corps, a responsibility he carried out with distinction through the rest of the war.
As the Canadians desperately struggled to overcome their inexperience, they were fortunate to have the guidance of some very capable British officers such as Lieutenant-General Julian Byng and his chief staff officer, Major-General Percy Radcliffe. First-rate professional soldiers, they identified the most promising Canadian commanders, mentored them, and, when they proved their worth, promoted them to more responsible commands. Consequently, by 1917 the Canadian Corps had assembled a pool of very capable, battle-experienced Canadian commanding officers.
Two of the brigade commanders, Brigadier-Generals James MacBrien and Victor Odlum, were typical of this group. MacBrien was a professional soldier, one of only a handful of such Canadian commanders. After initially serving as a staff officer, Byng gave MacBrien command of the 12th Infantry Brigade in September 1916, just before this untested unit received their first taste of combat.
After serving in the South African War, Odlum had returned to Vancouver where he'd built up a prosperous financial and insurance business. He saw action with the 7th Battalion at Second Ypres, the Canadians' first battle, taking over command of the battalion when Lt. Col. McHarg was killed. Byng promoted him to the command of the 11th Brigade in July 1916 and like MacBrien, he led his brigade until the Armistice. MacBrien's style was studious and reserved, and his forte was training and planning. In contrast, Odlum was a dashing, fearless battlefield commander who had the wounds to prove it. Although they displayed two very different styles of command, both were effective.
Unlike earlier wars, the sheer scale of World War I battles and the breakdown of communications during the fighting actually made it impossible for generals to control the attacks they launched. What they could do, however, was utilize the weeks before an assault to prepare for every possible battlefield contingency – in other words, to emphasize thorough planning and training.
From amateurs to an elite force
By the end of 1916, the British Empire forces were adopting new, more effective fighting tactics. This was particularly true in the Canadian Corps, where Byng, Radcliffe and Currie had inaugurated a highly efficient system of "organized learning." The officers and soldiers doing the fighting now compiled "after battle" reports outlining in detail what had succeeded and what had failed. Whether it was tactics or weaponry, the Corps' commanders placed a premium on figuring out better ways to fight, emphasizing to every officer and soldier how vital absorbing the lessons of the "battlefield classroom" was to the survival and success of them all. Henceforward, something of value learned by one battalion would be speedily adopted by the rest simply by making it part of everyone's training. Lessons now learned in an organized way were applied in an organized way, too. More than any other factor, mastering this "learning curve" was responsible for transforming the Canadian Corps from an enthusiastic mob of amateurs into an elite attack force, the "shock troops" of the British Empire. Officers, and especially senior commanders, had played an indispensable role.
Battalion commanders
One group of commanders shared the dual responsibility of preparing their soldiers and then leading them in battle—the commanding officers of the Corps' 48 infantry battalions. Of the 200-odd men who commanded a Canadian battalion, 22 were killed in action and many more were wounded. Along with the junior officers under them, they were in charge of most of the soldiers' actual training. They also had the critical responsibility of maintaining the health, morale and unit pride of their men, and often organized sports, concerts and other entertainments with this end in mind.
Battalion commanders were the most senior officers their men actually knew and saw regularly, and who shared their daily risks and grim living conditions at the front. As a result, the men looked to them for inspiration and confidence, and a brave and skilful battalion commander could keep his men going under the most appalling conditions. Lieutenant-Colonel Cyrus Peck was one such officer. He'd enlisted in the 16th Battalion in 1914, fought with it at Second Ypres and commanded it from November 1916 until the end of the war. Although the stocky, walrus-moustached Peck was hardly the most military-looking of commanding officers, he was fearless, and none of his soldiers doubted who ran their unit. During the storming of the Drocourt-Quéant Line on September 2, 1918, such leadership won Peck the Victoria Cross. When stiff German resistance blocked his battalion's advance, he exposed himself to heavy artillery and machine-gun fire in order to reconnoitre enemy positions, then re-organized what was left of his men and led them to capture and hold their objective.
Armies are hierarchical organizations, and the quality of command plays an enormous role in their ultimate success. Even the bravest and best-equipped troops will fail in battle if they are asked to execute a flawed plan, or if the officers directing them in the heat of combat make poor decisions. As the war progressed, the best commanders worked their way to the top of the Canadian Corps. Consequently, planning was sound, and Canadian soldiers were prepared for battle using the most effective tactics learned from earlier combat experiences. Once the battle began, brave and skilled leadership by battalion commanders and the junior officers who followed their lead contributed mightily to the chance for victory. By the last two years of the war, the quality of commander in the Canadian Corps was outstanding, as an unbroken string of victories attests.
Selected Bibliography
Brennan, Patrick. "From Amateur to Professional: The Experience of Brigadier General William Antrobus Griesbach." in Canada and the Great War, Briton Busch, ed. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003 : 78-92.
---. "A Still Untold Story of the Canadian Corps: Byng's and Currie's Commanders." Canadian Military History 11, 2 (Spring 2002): 5-16.
Brennan, Patrick and Thomas Leppard. "How the Lessons Were Learned: Senior Commanders and the Moulding of the Canadian Corps after the Somme" in Canada and War: 1000-2000, Yves Tremblay, ed. Ottawa: Canadian War Museum, 2001.
Dancocks, Daniel. Sir Arthur Currie: A Biography. Toronto: Methuen, 1985.
Hyatt, A.M.J. General Sir Arthur Currie: A Military Biography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.
McCulloch, Ian. "'Batty Mac': Portrait of a Brigade Commander of the Great War, 1915-1917." Canadian Military History 7, 4 (Autumn 1998): 11-28.
Swettenham, John. McNaughton, Vol. I: 1887-1939. Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1968.
Tremblay, Yves. "Brutinel: A Unique Kind of Leadership." in Warrior Chiefs. Bernd Horn and Stephen Harris, eds. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2001.
Canada's Mounted Troops
Major Michael R. McNorgan
Instructor, Royal Military College, Kingston
At the beginning of the First World War, horsed cavalry was still an army's principal mobile arm. However, after the onset of static trench warfare on the Western Front in late 1914 – with thick barbed wire barriers and large numbers of machine guns protecting defensive works – the battlefield utility of cavalry was greatly diminished. Cavalry was nonetheless retained in large numbers because of the perennial hope of breaking through the enemy's line and rolling up his defences from the rear. Thus, for virtually every major offensive operation during the war, cavalry divisions were kept in reserve.
Canada contributed two distinct groups of cavalry during the War – the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and an independent cavalry regiment known as the Canadian Light Horse.
Canadian Cavalry Brigade
This Canadian Cavalry Brigade was formed in England in the autumn of 1915, consisting of permanent force units, the Royal Canadian Dragoons and Lord Strathcona's Horse, along with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. In early 1916, The Fort Garry Horse, a militia regiment from Winnipeg, was added, along with a Cavalry Brigade Machine Gun Squadron equipped with Vickers machine guns. The Canadian Cavalry Brigade served as part of a British cavalry division for the remainder of the war. Its first mounted action was at the Somme in the summer of 1916. When cavalry units were not needed as reserves for an offensive operation, they were often employed dismounted to occupy quiet sectors of the front.
The Brigade again saw mounted action in March 1917 when tasked to pursue an unexpected German withdrawal to a new defensive position called the Hindenburg Line. During this pursuit, Lieutenant Harvey of Lord Strathcona's Horse earned the brigade's first Victoria Cross for valour during the liberation of a French village. By the time of the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917 – best known as the first major tank offensive of the war – the Canadian cavalry was judged to be among the best brigades in the British Cavalry Corps, and it was tasked to serve in the lead of a large cavalry exploitation force. During this operation, a single Canadian squadron was the only cavalry to penetrate German lines, and Lieutenant Strachan of The Fort Garry Horse was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry.
The Brigade served with great distinction during the German's March 1918 offensive toward Amiens, riding from place to place assisting in slowing the relentless enemy advance. Its final action in this operation took place at Moreuil Wood, where Lieutenant Flowerdew of Lord Strathcona's Horse won a posthumous Victoria Cross for leading a gallant cavalry charge against German machine guns. After the war, Marshal Foch, the Allied supreme commander, credited the Canadians with halting the German offensive at Moreuil and preventing the separation of the French and British armies. Later in that final year of the war, the Canadian Cavalry Brigade was in action during the great Canadian Corps victory over the Germans at Amiens in August, and it played an important part in following up the German retreat in the last two months of the war.
Canadian Light Horse
Until May 1916, three of the four infantry divisions of the Canadian Corps maintained their own independent cavalry squadron of some 150 all ranks . These squadrons – from the 19th Alberta Dragoons, the 1st Hussars and the 16th Light Horse – were then amalgamated into an ad hoc regiment that reported directly to Canadian Corps Headquarters. In early 1917, this unit was named the Canadian Light Horse.
The Canadian Light Horse first saw action as a mounted unit in the consolidation of the ground captured in the attack on Vimy Ridge in April 1917. The CLH played a major role in the fighting at Iwuy on October 10, 1918, where the last ever swords-drawn charge by Canadian cavalry took place. During the pursuit of the Germans in the final month of the war, CLH squadrons were always well out in front as a scouting force, ensuring that the Canadian divisions would not be surprised by German lay-back patrols. When the war ended for the Canadians in Mons Belgium on November 11, 1918, the Canadian Light Horse was already well beyond the city.
Modern armoured fighting vehicles – tanks and armoured cars – owe their development in part to the stalemate created on the Western Front by the deadly combination of machine guns and thick belts of barbed wire protecting trench lines, along with massive artillery bombardments that could be brought down with great accuracy on an attacking force. The problem of how an attacking force could be strengthened to overcome well-defended trenches had been studied by British scientists since late 1914. They came up with the idea of a 'land ship' – a tracked vehicle protected by armour plate, large enough that it could carry guns or machine guns, drive over belts of barbed wire, and crossover trenches. This highly secret vehicle was given the code name 'tank'.
Tanks were first introduced in limited numbers during the battle of the Somme in mid-September 1916, and the Canadian Corps was given seven (these models were called the Mark I) for its attack on the village of Courcellette. But these early versions were mechanical nightmares; almost all broke down before they got anywhere close to the German lines. Still, scientists kept improving their tank designs. Finally, in November 1917, tanks were used in large numbers in a successful offensive at Cambrai: the era of mechanized warfare had been born. Tanks then played major roles in the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, in the breaking of the Hindenburg Line in September, and in the pursuit of the retreating Germans in October and November 1918.
Early in 1918 many thought the war might well last into 1919, and the Canadian Army agreed to raise tank units. The 1st Canadian Tank Battalion was recruited from university students, and in June 1918 it was sent to England to begin training at the British Tank School. Despite the general aversion to volunteering at this stage in the war, a 2nd Battalion was also quickly raised. The 1st Tank Battalion had just completed its training and was preparing to leave for the front when the Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918. Thus, while no Canadian tank unit saw action in the war, many Canadians did serve in British tank battalions, and in a number of instances displayed their nationalism by painting maple leafs prominently on their vehicles.
In 1914, Canada created the world's first armoured unit. The driving force behind this achievement was Raymond Brutinel, a wealthy engineer originally from France, who had the idea that lightly armoured vehicles designed to carry machine guns would be especially useful. He offered to raise the funds for the vehicles, a suggestion which was readily accepted by the government. Brutinel designed the vehicles, had them built, purchased the machine guns, and recruited the soldiers, all within two months. His new unit was given the name 'Automobile Machine Gun Brigade No. 1'. In the next few months three other mobile machine gun units were raised, all paid for by private subscription – the Eaton Battery, the Borden Battery and the Yukon Battery. All four units found their way to France where, in 1915, they were amalgamated under Brutinel's command as the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade.
Brutinel's Motors came into their own in the last year of the war, when the stalemate of trench warfare had been broken. This highly mobile force played an especially important role in stemming the onslaught of the Germans' March 1918 offensive, and a second similar brigade was formed. The Motors were a valuable part of a composite formation of cavalry, armoured cars and cyclists, termed 'The Independent Force', during the Battle of Amiens in August 1918. Between September and November this force led the Canadian Corps from one victory to another during the pursuit to Valenciennes and finally to Mons on November 11, when the war ended.
At the beginning of the war, each Canadian division had its own company of cyclists – troops equipped with sturdy bicycles whose tasks included field security and aspects of military intelligence. In the static conditions on the Western Front, they were not very useful, so they tended to be used as guards or labourers. In May 1916 the four companies were amalgamated as The Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion. In 1918, the battalion was included in Brigadier-General Brutinel's 'Independent Force', and there they served valiantly at Amiens and in the Pursuit to Mons as a form of mounted infantry – riding to the scene of action, dismounting and then fighting as infantry.
Selected Bibliography
Ellis, W.D., ed. Saga of the Cyclists in the Great War 1914-1918. Toronto: Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion Association, 1965.
Lynch, Alex. Dad, the Motors and the Fifth Army Show: The German Offensive, March 1918. Kingston, ON: Lawrence Publications, 1978.
---. The Glory of Their Times : 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade, March 1918. Kingston, ON: Lawrence Publications, 2001.
Marteinson, John and Michael R. McNorgan. The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps: An Illustrated History. Toronto: Robin Brass Studio, 2000.
Mitchell, G.D., Brian Reid and W. Simcock. RCHA - Right of the Line : An Anecdotal History of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery from 1871. Ottawa: RCHA History Committee, 1986.
Wallace, J.F. Dragons of Steel: Canadian Armour in Two World Wars. Burnstown, ON: General Store Publishing, 1995.
Williams, S.H. Stand to Your Horses : Through the First World War, 1914-1918 with the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians). Winnipeg: Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) Regimental Society, 1999 (1961).
Life in the Trenches
Tim Cook
Historian, Canadian War Museum
From Switzerland to the North Sea, some 500 kilometres long, soldiers on both sides carved out ditches in the ground that, over time, were expanded in complexity and depth. By 1915, vast underground cities housed the soldiers, as the opposing armies faced off against each other across no man's land. Along this continuous line of trenches, offensive operations degenerated into frontal assaults, which were usually stopped dead by concentrated fire.
The Western Front, as it was called, consisted of a series of trench systems in depth. The front lines were held in strength, but behind them, joined by a series of communication trenches that ran perpendicular to the front, were support and rear trenches. Deep protective dugouts were situated along the front and rear trenches to provide some degree of safety against all but direct hits from artillery fire. Saps and listening posts were pushed into no man's land, where soldiers were positioned to provide advance warnings of enemy attacks.
Despite the unsanitary nature of front line trenches, they were areas of safety. The trenches protected against small arms fire, shrapnel bursts and high explosive bombardments. Every day and night soldiers shored up the crumbling walls, filled sandbags, and rebuilt sections that had been damaged by artillery fire. It was not only a war of the machine gun and rifle, but also of the shovel.
Life in the trenches was filled with long periods of boredom interspersed with terror. Much of the time was spent in routine duty. At half an hour before dawn, the infantry was roused from their dugouts or funk holes (small spaces carved into the trench walls) and ordered to 'Stand-To.' At the alert, they waited for a possible attack with bayonet fixed. If nothing occurred, and it rarely did, since the infantry of both sides were always at their most prepared at this time, officers inspected the men. Rifles were examined for rust; feet were prodded to ensure that dry socks had been worn to protect against trench foot. The latter being a type of frostbite that occurred from prolonged standing in cold, slushy water, and could, in severe cases, require the amputation of toes or feet. After inspection, soldiers were often rewarded with a small dose of rum, which was much appreciated by the men, who saw it as a form of medicine to help withstand the daily deprivations.
Breakfast, like most meals, usually consisted of canned beef, jam and biscuits. It was a monotonous diet, but soldiers rarely went hungry. For lunch or dinner, soup or stew was brought up from rear areas to offer some variety and warmth. Care packages from home, filled with cheese, bread and sweets, augmented the bland food. During the day, though, the goal of most privates was to avoid the sergeant who assigned trench chores. Most were unsuccessful, with soldiers spending much of their time rebuilding the trenches or standing sentry.
Despite these duties, soldiers had much free time, during which they dreamed of home and of loved ones left behind; worried about children who were growing up without a father; of ailing parents with no caregivers; or of a wife who was trying to feed a family with insufficient funds. Literate soldiers might spend a few hours scribbling letters. Return mail from home was a welcomed treat, with letters read and reread. These exchanges back and forth remained an important life-line to Canada from the trenches. And while they were usually subject to two levels of censorship, by officers at the front and officials in England, soldiers nonetheless tried to share their thoughts with those at home. Civilians could not understand everything, nor could soldiers often capture the full range of their strange experiences in words, but letters remained an important avenue of expression.
Boredom could be kept at bay through gambling, and there was always some rake with dice or cards to fleece his mates. If a soldier had no money, he at least had cigarettes. Soldiers smoked all day long, and cigarettes, which were issued by the army, bought in rear areas, and begged from those at home, were a useful distraction. They helped to calm the nerves, or so soldiers said, and they certainly helped to mask the stench of unwashed bodies.
There were no baths in the front lines and, most soldiers went at least a week, usually longer, without changing their clothes. Dirt and mud were a part of life and, during the winter, helped to insulate soldiers. Far more trying was the infestation of parasitic body lice. The lice lived in the seams of clothing where they feasted on human blood. Soldiers scratched themselves raw to get at their infernal enemies. They learned to defeat their insect adversaries, at least for a time, by taking off their shirts and running a candle over the seams. This drew out the lice that were then squashed satisfactorily between finger and thumb. While soldiers did this, they would sit around, talk, complain and gossip. It was known as 'chatting,' and it is just one of many wartime phrases that would enter the English lexicon. But the lice always came back, tormenting the soldiers day and night.
Rats, too, were a constant plague, and because they lived off corpses, they could grow as big as cats. They bit soldiers and scurried over their faces while they slept. The rats were hunted by soldiers and their trench pets, usually fierce terrier dogs, but the rodents lived in and outside of the trenches and were always multiplying. Their squealing movement could be heard throughout the battlefield.
Amidst the mud and slush in the winter, or heat and flies in the summer, soldiers developed their own trench culture. New words sprang up, slang like 'napoo' for being killed, or 'blighty' that referred to England or home. Artistic soldiers could take spent ammunition and shape it into art. Some soldiers tried their hand at poetry. While most were not as skilled as John McCrae, Wilfrid Owen or Siegfried Sassoon, to name the best-known war poets, the trench poetry or doggerel provided much insight into the soldiers' front-line experiences. At the group level, some battalions printed trench newspapers. Drawing from their own soldiers in the ranks—men who in civilian life had been editors, journalists and cartoonists—these crude newspapers contained rough humour and wry commentary on the strange, subterranean world of the trenches.
But just as a soldier might be penning a letter or staring at the blue sky above, the crash of an artillery shell could bring sudden death. The enemy was always there to kill or maim. Snipers skulked into no man's land, camouflaged and ready to put a bullet through a man's head should it rise, even for a second, above the safety of the trench parapet. Poison gas was released in the form of gas clouds and artillery shells, and soldiers who could not put on their respirator quickly faced a lingering death as chemicals corrupted and ravaged lungs.
Machine-gun bullets raked the front lines day and night. Yet artillery shells were the greatest killer in the war, accounting for more than half of all deaths. High explosive shells blew deep holes in the ground or wrecked trenches; soldiers were atomized by direct hits. Equally deadly, shrapnel artillery shells rained hundreds of metal balls and jagged steel down on soldiers, shredding through flesh and bone. Steel helmets, introduced in early 1916, helped to reduce casualties, but a unit's tour in the front lines almost always resulted in a steady hemorrhage of casualties. It was clinically called wastage, and impersonal charts showed that each month the infantry would lose approximately 10% of its strength, even in quiet areas where no operations were carried out. While the snipers and artillerymen did their dirty work, the soldiers could look around and see their best friends killed and maimed.
Yet the soldiers struck back in the form of nighttime raids. Changing into dark clothes, equipping themselves with revolvers, grenades, daggers and clubs, small groups of men snuck past their wire and into no man's land. Raids were a form of organized mugging, and the goal was to gather intelligence, kill the enemy and grab a prisoner. Enemy sentries were usually the target, but sometimes large groups of raiders slipped into the opposite trenches to wreck mayhem. While Canadian troops acquired a reputation as fierce raiders, these operations were dangerous affairs, and in the confusion of night fighting, casualties were often heavy.
To help relieve the unending pressure on soldiers, they were rotated in and out of the front line. On roughly four- to six-day tours, filthy, verminous, exhausted soldiers passed from front to secondary lines and finally to the reserves. This rotation helped to relieve the strain, but soldiers always knew they would return to the trenches in this maddening cycle.
Endurance was the key to survival and soldiers learned to cope with the inhuman conditions. Some developed fatalistic attitudes, believing they would be killed 'when their number was up'; others lived in terror all the time; a few hoped for a blighty wound, a bullet through the hand or leg that would take them away from the horror and back to a clean hospital in England. Thousands suffered mental breakdowns, known as shell shock, but hundreds of thousands more of the 'poor bloody infantry,' as the soldiers liked to call themselves, learned to withstand the strain of the trenches. And it was these survivors who, after four years of bitter fighting, would finally break the static warfare on the Western Front and defeat the German forces.
Selected Bibliography
Bird, Will R. Ghosts Have Warm Hands: A Memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919. Ottawa: CEF Books, 1997 (1968).
Black, Ernest Garson. I Want One Volunteer. Toronto: Ryerson, 1965.
Canadian Bank of Commerce. Letters from the Front : Being a Partial Record of the Part Played by Officers of the Bank in the Great European War. 11 v. Toronto: Canadian Bank of Commerce, 1915-1919.
Cook, Tim. "`More a Medicine than a Beverage': 'Demon Rum' and the Canadian Trench Soldier of the First World War." Canadian Military History 9, 1 (Winter 2000) : 6-22.
Fraser, Donald. The Journal of Private Fraser, 1914-1918, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Reginald H. Roy, ed. Nepean, ON: CEF Books, 1998 (1985).
Granatstein, J.L. Hell's Corner: An Illustrated History of Canada's Great War, 1914-1918. Toronto: Douglas and McIntyre, 2004.
Litalien, Michel et Stéphane Thibault, Tranchées : le quotidien de la guerre 1914-1918, Outremont, Québec, Athena éditions, 2004.
Morrison, J. Clinton. Hell upon Earth: A Personal Account of Prince Edward Island Soldiers in the Great War, 1914-1918. Summerside, PEI.: J.C. Morrison, 1995.
Morton, Desmond. "A Canadian Soldier in the Great War: The Experience of Frank Maheux." Canadian Military History 1, nos 1 & 2 (1992) : 79-89.
---. When Your Number's Up: The Canadian Soldier in the First World War. Toronto: Random House, 1993.
Morton, Desmond and J.L. Granatstein. Marching to Armageddon: Canadians and the Great War, 1914- 1919. Toronto: Lester & Orpen, Dennys, 1989.
Winter, Denis. Death's Men: Soldiers of the Great War. Markam, ON: Penguin Books, 1985.
Other Materials
Mount Houy and Valenciennes
During this period the 4th Division [CEF] made several attempts to send patrols across
the Escaut by boat, footbridges and over the debris of destroyed bridges. Orders that
Valenciennes itself was not to be bombarded because of the large numbers of French
civilians in the city made it extremely difficult to clear enemy machine-guns and snipers from the houses overlooking the canal. From what probing the patrols could accomplish and from the statements of prisoners it was clear that the enemy was preparing to make a determined stand at Valenciennes. In selecting the city as a key-point in the Hermann Line the Germans had chosen well. The Escaut Canal provided an effective water barrier against attack from the west and the north. The enemy had heavily wired both banks of the canal and fortified the east bank with a well-planned trench system. In addition he had loop-holed the walls of the city's houses and factories and armed them with machine-gun posts. By cutting gaps in the canal dykes and opening sluice gates the Germans had inundated the country on both sides of the Escaut. West and south-west of Valenciennes the flooded area was several hundred yards wide, and to the north, in the wide angle between the Escaut and the Condé-Mons Canals, the water spread over many square miles.
Nature had further favoured the Germans in defending them against any attempt to
capture Valenciennes from the south. The prominent wooded height of Mont Houy, east of the bend in the Escaut, rose to a height of 150 feet above the canal and completely
dominated the southern approaches to the city. Behind it a long ridge overlooking the
valley of the Rhonelle stream reached northward to Valenciennes, and along this the enemy had constructed a line of wire and trenches to add artificial strength to an already difficult natural position.
The plan for taking Mont Houy and Valenciennes had been revised. Orders from
G.H.Q. called for the Fourth, Third and First Armies, in conjunction with the First French Army, to be prepared to resume the main offensive on 3 November, and it was urgent that Valenciennes should be captured in order to secure the left flank of this large-scale operation. The capture of the Blue and subsequent exploitation to the Green line was now to be carried out as a single operation with massive artillery support, the 10th Canadian Brigade cooperating with the 49th Division on the right. While the 10th Brigade (commanded since 28 October by Brig.-Gen. J.M. Ross) assaulted Valenciennes from the south and moved around the east side, the 12th was to establish bridgeheads over the Escaut from the west and mop up the city. Farther to the north the 3rd Division prepared to cross the canal at the same time. The new plan was geared for an assault early on 1 November.
Arrangements for the attack were complicated by the many civilians remaining in Valenciennes. As far as possible the city was spared from heavy artillery fire, and only such defended positions as the industrial centre of Marly and its steel works, which were known to be full of enemy troops, came under bombardment.
The weather, which seemed constantly to be in opposition to Canadian plans, held true to form. Throughout the preceding night and the day of attack, frequent showers caused the soldiers much discomfort. There was no preliminary bombardment on the morning of 1 November, and promptly at 5:15 a.m the infantry of the 10th Brigade began to advance behind a deluge of shrapnel, machine-gun bullets and high explosive shell that swept down on the enemy from front and flank and rear. The German artillery was prompt to retaliate, but its fire rapidly dwindled under the accurate counter-bombardment of the Canadian guns.
Encirclement of Valenciennes and penetration into the city continued. During the morning of 1 November the 12th Brigade and the 3rd Division had both established bridgeheads over the Escaut, the infantry crossing by means of collapsible boats and cork float bridges. By noon the 12th Brigade, on the immediate left of the 10th, and the greater part of the 38th and 72nd Battalions east of the canal and patrols had pushed well into the heart of the city.
On 2 November General Currie recorded in his diary: "The operation yesterday was one of the most successful the Corps has yet performed." The capture of the Mont Houy position and the advance on Valenciennes had been skilfully planned and well executed. Though the enemy still clung to the city and held firm his strong position near Marly, the day for him was one of disaster. The Canadians had taken nearly 1800 prisoners, and more than 800 enemy dead were counted in the battle area. Canadian losses numbered 80 killed and some 300 wounded. Careful coordination in employing a tremendous weight of artillery in very close support of minimum numbers of infantry had achieved victory at a very low cost.
During the night of 1-2 November the 11th Brigade relieved the 10th. The 54th
Battalion attacked Marly before dawn, only to find that most of the Germans had withdrawn from the village. During the night the two battalions of the 12th Brigade, which had met strenuous opposition during the afternoon, were able to push through Valenciennes with no great difficulty as the Germans evacuated the city. Both units reported themselves on the eastern outskirts by 8:30 a.m. By nightfall on the 2nd the Brigade had secured St. Saulvé, a mile up the Mons road. On the Canadians' right a determined German garrison in the steel works held up the 49th Division until mid-afternoon of the 2nd, when a battalion of the 148th Brigade successfully rushed the position.
Sir Douglas Haig had postponed by one day the set-piece attack by the four Allied
Armies ordered for 3 November. On the morning of the 3rd, however, when it was clear that the enemy had retired from the Escaut leaving only weak rearguards, he cancelled the offensive. He ordered a general advance, telling divisions to act vigorously on their own initiative so as to keep the Germans from establishing a firm line. The 22nd Corps was given an initial objective ten miles away, and the Canadian Corps ordered to cover the British left. By nightfall on the 3rd, Canadian patrols of the 4th Division had pushed forward to the Estreux-Onnaing road, three miles east of Valenciennes, without making contact with the enemy.
The battle for Valenciennes was the last major prearranged attack in which the Canadian Corps was engaged. The week of campaigning that remained was to see no large action, as the enemy was kept continually on the move. Only twice was the daily advance less than a mile.
Adapted and used with permission from Nicholson, G. W. L., Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919. Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1964 : 470-475.


text:
TO SWIM a hundred miles in just 100 days would be a stretch for most.
But for one Winchester woman she's got all the motivation she needs who is swimming in aid of her nephew.
Ten-year-old Zac Giles, of St Peter's Street in Bishop's Waltham, was diagnosed with leukaemia last June and has been courageously battling his way through chemotherapy ever since.
And with the help of his loving aunt, Emma Giles, he's getting all the support he needs.
Ms Giles, 44, of Bar End Road, said: "It's the one sport I can do well and I do quite regularly so I thought I'd try doing 100 miles in a 100 days because I wanted to do something for Zac.
"I obviously didn't give too much thought to what I was getting myself into because when I tell people what I'm doing most people think I'm balmy!"
Zac, who hopes to join his friends at Bishop's Waltham Junior School ready for the next academic year, said: "I'm really proud of my aunt for doing so well."
Ms Giles hopes to raise close to £3,000 for the Magic Wand Appeal, a charity raising funds to improve the children's unit at Royal Hampshire County Hospital, and the Piam Brown ward in Southampton General Hospital where Zac has been receiving treatment.
She was spurred on by her brother Guy, 41, Zac's dad, as well as his mum Dawn, 42, and his little sister Amelie, eight, when Emma swam over 22 miles on Saturday (January 11).
Dawn said: "Zac has been really brilliant and has put everything he's got into getting better. He's sat there watching his aunt swim wishing he could just get in there with her and join in the fun.
"It's a really important cause and there's so many other families going through this and we would urge anyone considering donating blood or bone marrow to look into it because it really does save lives."
For more information or to donate to Zac's cause visit virginmoneygiving.com/EmsGilesswimming100milesin100days.