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Mark Ruffalo
AppealIf Mark Ruffalo wasn't a movie star, we see him spending his days as a scruffy bartender in L.A., riding his motorcycle around town, flashing his crooked smile, and bedding all kinds of women who would kill for a part in his yet-to-be-produced screenplay. Maybe that's because before he was a movie star, Ruffalo spent his days as a scruffy bartender in L.A., riding his motorcycle around town, flashing his crooked smile, and bedding all kinds of women who would kill for a part in his yet-to-be-produced screenplay -- including his future wife, French actress Sunrise Coigney, with whom Ruffalo has three children.
SuccessAs a longtime struggling actor in L.A., Mark Ruffalo was about to pack it in before a chance meeting with writer and director Kenneth Lonergan landed him a part as a troublemaking drifter in the surprise hit You Can Count On Me. Ruffalo's performance was widely praised and earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead. Suddenly, Ruffalo was one of the most in-demand fresh faces in Hollywood and went on to work with some of Hollywood's leading directors, including Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Michael Mann (Collateral), David Fincher (Zodiac), and Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island). But Ruffalo's most celebrated performance to date was as a bohemian sperm donor in Best Picture nominee The Kids Are All Right, which earned the actor his first Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.
Mark Ruffalo Biography
Based on Mark Ruffalo's lineage, the Midwestern-born actor should have been a hairdresser instead. Both his mother and two sisters are in the business of cutting hair (as was his brother, who was shot and killed in 2008), while his father worked in construction. But Ruffalo had different ideas. Raised a Roman Catholic, Ruffalo has spoken highly of his loving family, in particular about his father, who moved his family to San Diego and then to L.A. after Ruffalo graduated high school. But as the Ruffalos struggled financially, tension grew at home and eventually led to his parents' divorce. Ruffalo, who felt increasingly lost in the world, turned to acting to cope with his unease, and began studying acting at The Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre. He eventually co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company, a vessel he used to write, star in and direct a series of plays.
Mark Ruffalo Breaks Out In You Can Count On Me
For over a decade, Mark Ruffalo was living the dreaded Hollywood cliché: a struggling actor tending bar in between countless auditions and inevitable rejection. Just as he had reached his wit's end, Ruffalo met writer Kenneth Lonergan, who cast Ruffalo in a successful New York run of his play This Is Our Youth, which led to Ruffalo being cast in Lonergan's directorial debut, You Can Count On Me. As Laura Linney's ne'er-do-well brother, Ruffalo charmed audiences and critics alike, drawing comparisons to a young Marlon Brando and earning significant award buzz, including an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead. But just as Ruffalo's career began to take off with follow-up roles in Committed and The Last Castle, the actor was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and his world came crashing down. Ruffalo -- who'd faced his share of adversity before -- was determined to beat the disease, and, after intensive surgery, he fully recovered despite partial facial paralysis, which eventually faded as well.
Mark Ruffalo Becomes One Of The Most In-demand Actors In Hollywood
Throughout the mid-aughts, there were few actors more ubiquitous than Mark Ruffalo. From action films (Windtalkers, Collateral), comedies (View from the Top, 13 Going on 30, Rumor Has It…, Just Like Heaven), and thrillers (Zodiac), the actor quickly became known for his ability to leapfrog genres with relative ease. But no film throughout this period stood out more than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Michel Gondry's surreal ode to broken relationships. Despite playing second fiddle to Jim Carrey, Ruffalo stole scenes as a stoner technician, and will forever be associated with the generation-defining film.
Mark Ruffalo Makes His Directorial Debut
As the decade progressed, Mark Ruffalo continued to add a slew of memorable performances to his resume. Although the star-studded remake of All the King's Men flopped, Ruffalo's artistic integrity and thirst for meaningful projects remained as strong as ever. With Zodiac, Reservation Road, Blindness, and The Brothers Bloom, Ruffalo showcased his growing abilities as an actor. But despite his continued string of successes, Ruffalo was hungry for something else. In 2010, on the heels of his performance as Leonardo DiCaprio's partner in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island -- his most successful film to date -- Ruffalo's directorial debut, Sympathy for Delicious, showed at Sundance. Despite an all-star cast featuring Laura Linney, Orlando Bloom and Juliette Lewis, as well as a Special Jury Prize, the film -- about a paraplegic faith healer and DJ who can cure everyone but himself -- has yet to find a distributor.
Mark Ruffalo Stars In The Kids Are All Right
If Brokeback Mountain was the "gay cowboy" movie, then Lisa Cholodenko's touching comedy The Kids Are All Right is its female counterpart -- the "lesbian mom" movie. Featuring two powerful female performances, courtesy of Julianne Moore and Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right also marked Mark Ruffalo's most complete performance to date. And as the biological father who becomes involved with the family that used his sperm donation, Ruffalo earned critical acclaims and several major nominations, including his first Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor. It also set the stage for a huge next couple of years, in which he'll appear in a handful of films, including Margaret opposite Matt Damon, Cogan's Trade opposite Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem, and The Avengers, in which he'll play Bruce Banner and his alter ego, the Incredible Hulk, opposite a slew of superstars, including Robert Downey Jr. Not bad for someone who just 10 years ago was considering giving up acting altogether. We, for one, are glad he didn't.


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FORMER Charfield footballer Sean Rigg has joined League Two club AFC Wimbledon.
The 25-year-old became a free agent at the end of last season when his two-year contract at Oxford United came to an end after he made 72 appearances in his two seasons at the Kassam Stadium.
Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley had apparently been tracking the former Port Vale, Bristol Rovers and Forest Green winger for some time.
Ardley told Dons Player: "I have always liked him when Sean's played against us and been impressed when I've watched him in games.
"I contacted a few people that I trust at Oxford and the feedback I got was that they were stunned that he'd been released because he was one of their better players.
"That's really positive. Sean works really hard, he's quick and direct, and can score goals, which is obviously an area we are trying to improve upon."
He added: "His biggest strength is running at defenders down the left side, but if we need to change things in games and throw someone up front then he can also do that too.
"I'm really confident that he will be a good signing."

subset: commoncrawl


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Carriker Blogs 2007 First-Round MemoriesPosted by on April 26, 2012 – 1:41 pm
Once upon a time, Redskins defensive end (and amateur blogger) Adam Carriker was one of the top prospects in all of college football. Just five seasons ago, he awaited the exact same uncertainty that many top prospects face going into tonight.
His between his junior and senior seasons at Nebraska, Carriker was named the team's MVP, along with the NCAA's Bronko Nagurski and Chuck Bednarik awards. He tallied 134 tackles despite starting only two full seasons, and piled up 20.5 sacks in his career.
But Carriker explains in his latest blog post on ProInterviews.org, that the titles and totals were less important than his game tape. The way he performed on film was the true essence of his NFL job application and résumé.
Everything he had ever done as a football player led up to Draft Day: Read more »
Tags: 2007, adam carriker, Bronko Nagurski award, Chuck Bednarik award, defensive end, Nebraska, NFL Draft, washington redskins
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »


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The Produce Marketing Association has added agribusiness specialist Olivia Wenger to its business development group.
On July 22, Wenger joined the Newark, Del.-based PMA as its West Coast business development manager.
Based in California, Wenger plans to create, implement and connect PMA's programs to the western U.S. and Canada's members and will be responsible for member relations, sponsorship sales, event attendance and yearly partner relationship management, according to a news release.
She supervised member recruitment and retention for growers, shippers and farm labor contractors along California's central coast as vice president of policy, member services and communications for the Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara & San Luis Obispo counties.
Wenger also worked as sales and marketing director for her family's Paso Robles, Calif.-based Limerock Orchards walnut farm.
"Olivia's background and passion for agriculture, along with her professional drive and genuine desire to advance an industry she views as family is an asset to PMA and our members," Anthony Barbieri, PMA's vice president of sales and business development, said in the release. "She possesses the ideal set of skills to help our members discover new ways to build businesses by leveraging the many year-round benefits of PMA membership."


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Professor Invents New Approach to Electronic Communication
One day, Stephen Casey was sitting at his kitchen table while his teenaged daughter and her 11 friends sat in a different room, chatting away and using their cellphones.
"I was thinking that there's no way, with the way that we think about communication, that we'll keep up with that generation," the mathematics and statistics professor said. "Because what happens is that they talk in these incredibly rapid bursts of communication. It is also rich, multilayered communication."
Casey said this "art" of allowing information to be communicated electronically is called signal processing.
"I was sitting at the kitchen table, in essence hiding. I was the adult in charge at this time, and I was trying to let them do their thing and just trying to remain invisible," he added, "while thinking about this signal processing innovation."
What resulted from that day was an idea that led to a $145,537 award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for a three-year project called "New Techniques in Time Frequency Analysis: Adaptive Band, Ultra Band and Multi-Rate Signal Processing," which led to an invention that now has a pending patent.
"My invention is to take blocks of the signal and project that into what is called frequency space," he said. "The method that I invented is called the projection method."
Casey already has two provisional patents for this method and said he is currently under review for a full patent.
When he applied for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research award, he described all the different ways his method could provide solutions for the different problems the Air Force works on.
"One is a very interesting phenomenon called ultra wide band communication," Casey said. "This came about because of high-level radar and sonar signal processing, which obviously the Air Force is interested in."
Casey explained ultra wide band communication through a civilian use, referring to the earthquake that shook the Washington, D.C., area in the late summer of 2011.
"We noticed that the first thing to go down was cellphone networks," he said. "So the projection method actually solves the post-earthquake communication problem. Because if we communicated with our cellphones via ultra wide ban communication and used the projection method, we could layer the communications in hierarchy so that the low-level communication would get through."
Casey said text messages would go through first, followed by voice messages, then followed by video uploads or Facebook statuses about where a person was when the earthquake happened. The projection method is also energy efficient, Casey said, because when there is less complicated communication, it operates more efficiently and at lower energy levels. In the three years that Casey has to work on his idea with the award money, he said he will continue to write papers and think about a few other ideas that branch off of his projection method.
"I am amazed at how useful and how interesting mathematics is," he said. "Even though I've been teaching for 25 years, I still feel like a student. I'm just very excited and enthused by the wonderful collection of things I get to work on, and I am thankful for having the opportunity to teach the great students we have in the AU Mathematics and Statistics Department."


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Gibbons being cautious with veteran rotation
CINCINNATI -- The Blue Jays are taking extra precautions to make sure their starting rotation doesn't run out of gas during the latter stages of the 2014 season.
Toronto promoted right-hander Liam Hendriks from Triple-A Buffalo to make a spot start for Friday night's game vs. the Reds. The biggest beneficiary of the move is R.A. Dickey, who was bumped back to Sunday as he recovers from a minor groin injury.
Dickey wasn't the only one the Blue Jays had in mind with the move. Toronto also wants to protect Drew Hutchison and Mark Buehrle from tiring down the stretch.
"I think it's going to better serve us throughout the whole year when we pick a spot here and there and we give those guys an extra day," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "We have some off-days coming that will allow us to do that.
"[Hendriks] was coming to pitch this series regardless, but with Dickey and the groin deal the other day, it allows us to back him up and give him an extra couple of days. But Hendriks was coming here anyways, it wasn't strictly to give Dickey a break."
Gibbons has never taken this approach before, but he pointed to the ages of Dickey (39) and Buehrle (35) as one reason why. Then there's also the fact that Hutchison missed all of last season because of Tommy John surgery and will continue to have his overall workload closely monitored.
Gregor Chisholm is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, North of the Border, and follow him on Twitter @gregorMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Topic: Miracle Man
A Teddy update: T is in his 3rd week of radiation for the cancer that returned where his duodenum used to be. 2 weeks to go! The doctor said he is doing well with this procedure, but he feels it is not going to do the job. He said not to worry as at that point we will then qualify for the cyberknife which he feels will do the trick. So, we will not worry! Had another visit to our regular ONC yesterday and all T LAB work is good except that CA count is still inching upwards. He brought up chemo for down the road and we said, no chemo at any time, T wants quality time. Still not a horrible count but I thought with the radiation going on that would come down. Labor Day weekend is going to be great as 25 kids and grandkids (his and mine) are coming for a 3 night weekend. We got a hotel for 59.00 a night in Scottsdale and all will stay there. Pool parties, games and picnics!! Something nice to look forward too. Sincerely hope you all are finding some "good" things too!!!


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BP Comment Quick Links
|Strength of Schedule Report
August 27, 2012
What You Need to Know
Monday, August 27
The Weekend Takeaway
The Marlins stumbled to a 5-6 finish on their National League West tour, splitting four-game sets with the Rockies and Diamondbacks and avoiding a sweep with a 6-2 victory over the Dodgers on Sunday. Stanton left his mark at all three venues.
The 22-year-old went deep in each of the first three games at Coors Field, extending his home-run streak at that stadium to six, before being held to an 0-for-2 effort with two walks in the series finale. The Marlins' team plane may have landed in Phoenix before this 494-foot blast in game one of four found the Coors Field stands.
Stanton didn't take long to impress the fans at Chase Field, either. He contributed two big flies to Miami's 12-3 victory in the series opener, leaving the home team flabbergasted.
Here's manager Kirk Gibson after the first one:
And here's Ian Kennedy after number two:
Stanton was merciful in the ensuing three games, confining himself to a 3-for-6 effort the next day before going a quiet 0-for-4 the rest of the way. Once the D-Backs got to Dodger Stadium, though, their right fielder went right back to yardwork.
The Panorama, Calif., native had two career home runs in six games at Chavez Ravine before Friday's opener. He delivered one in each of the three contests there this past weekend, giving him five in nine. And it was this doozy to dead-center field that paved the way for the Marlins' win on Sunday.
Stanton, who missed a month with a knee injury from June 7 to July 7, now has 29 home runs on the season, good for second in the senior circuit behind only Ryan Braun's 34. With the Marlins back to square one in their perpetual rebuilding process, even manager Ozzie Guillen agrees that he's "the highlight of the month right now."
After a day off on Monday, Stanton will attempt to go deep in a fourth straight game—a feat he previously accomplished on Aug. 14-17, 2007. But it won't be easy, with Stephen Strasburg set to toe the rubber for the Nationals.
What to Watch for on Monday
Daniel Rathman is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @danielrathman
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Los Altos High School graduate Keane Johnson has been selected to represent the United States in rowing at this week's World University Games in Kazan, Russia.
Johnson played baseball at Los Altos High and was a member of the 2008 team that reached the Central Coast Section final. He was named team captain and MVP the following year, receiving the Bob Baird Scholar-Athlete Scholarship.
At Boston College, Johnson transitioned from baseball to rowing. The Los Altos native rowed varsity by his sophomore year and was team captain as a senior.
The week of his graduation this year, Johnson was invited to the US Rowing selection camp for the World University Games. He competed with the top college rowers in the nation for more than two weeks before earning a seat on the racing team.
The World University Games began in 1923 in Paris and take place every two years. The event has been held in Asia, Europe and the Americas, including the United States in 1993. This summer's World University Games feature 27 sports and participants from 162 nations.
The rowing competition is scheduled Saturday through Monday.
For more information, visit wugusa.com.


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The Barn Kids' to Present DISNEY'S CINDERELLA-KIDS, 6/17 - 6/19
The Barn Kids, grades 3-7, will present the Disney classic CINDERELLA-KIDS the evenings of June 17th, 18th and 19th at the Barn Players Theatre, 6219 Martway in Mission; curtain at 7:30 p.m. The production follows the first of two summer theatre workshops for the youngsters where they learn about theatre and stage presentations.
Disney's CINDERELLA-KIDS features a wonderful musical score including "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and the classic "Bibbidi-Boppidi-Boo", all performed by the young cast. The show is rated "G" for all ages.
Poor Cinderella is mistreated by her sisters and step-mother and is denied a chance to go to the Royal Ball. But with a little help from her mice friends and Fairy Godmother, her dreams come true and she attends the Ball, meets the Prince and falls in love. With only a glass slipper the Prince scours the Kingdom to find the foot that it fits. Of course there is a happy ending as the curtain comes down and Cinderella and the Prince marry to live happily ever-after.
Diane Bulan will be the workshop and production director. She is a local director, an acting coach, a professional actor and stage manager, has appeared in TV commercials, films and industrial motion pictures and performs in schools through Kansas Young Audiences, she is a member of SAG.
Tickets are $5.00 each and available on the website www.thebarnplayers.org, by calling 800-838-3006 or at the theatre box office the date of the performance.
Following a second Barn Kids summer theatre workshop a second production of "CINDERELLA-KIDS" will be presented July 22, 23 and 24th


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Why are they reviewing this? That's our ball.
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Why are they reviewing this? That's our ball.
turnovers are automatically reviewed
what? how the **** do you reverse that?
What the ****?
Don't ask Marvin Harrison what he did during the bye week. "Batman never told where the Bat Cave is," he explained.
We're not playing well, but we're also gettin ****ed.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
There are two types of quarterbacks in the league: Those whom over time, the league figures out ... and those who figure out the league.
I hate *****ing about refs, but that's a legitimately game altering bad call
We got SCREWED there. Collinsworth can't believe it either. AWFUL.
The NFL is becoming so slow and over-officiated. That stupid reversed call is one thing, and I've seen at least three BS personal fouls called today on "late hits" or "unnecessary roughness" on routine football plays. Reminds me why I'm a basketball fan first and always will be. NBA officiating has gotten worse over the year, but the NFL is quickly overtaking it.
That view looking down the sideline, it looks iffy. The view from behind the sideline, where the camera is looking over Bethea's shoulder there was no doubt it was a fumble and not touched and recovered. They must not have had that view under the hood because there was no question at all. This was the break the Colts needed and the refs blew it. Just like they blew the roughing the kicker on McAfee.
why's Daris Butler on Johnson? he's all they have, so we put our 4th corner on him?
Cannot believe this is the same secondary that was physically beating up on Bronco receivers
They just explained it. Schaub doesn't throw downfield and this kid does. All their coverage is designed for short throws.
Last edited by travmil; 11-03-2013 at 10:58 PM.
F*** the refs
Don't ask Marvin Harrison what he did during the bye week. "Batman never told where the Bat Cave is," he explained.
Do not blame the refs for this. We are not playing well whatsoever
This team is too good to be outplayed like this. This isn't the first time this season a bunch of nobodys have made us look bad. I blame the coaching staff.
You can't beat elite teams and then play like this.


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On home video May 17th...
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Hes waged battles in Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Avengers 2, Next Avengers and Hulk Vs., and now the "God of Thunder" is ready to strike out on his own in THOR: TALES OF ASGARD. The newest Marvel Animated Feature arrives on Blu-ray (SRP: $29.99), DVD ($19.98), Digital Download and On Demand on May 17, 2011.
BLU-RAY COMBO PACK & DVD SPECIAL FEATURESBefore he ever lifted his mighty hammer, there was the sword. Fantastic journeys beckon from the mysterious nine realms. Places of dark mists and fiery voids. Of winged creatures and giants in the ice. And the most alluring quest of all the search for the legendary Lost Sword of Surtur. Hungry for adventure, Thor secretly embarks on the journey of a lifetime, joined by his loyal brother Loki, whose budding sorcery equips him with just enough magic to conjure up trouble, along with the Warriors Three a band of boastful travelers reluctant to set sail on any adventure that might actually be dangerous. But what starts out as a harmless treasure hunt quickly turns deadly, and Thor must now prove himself worthy of the destiny he covets by saving Asgard itself.
· Audio commentary with Supervising Producer Craig Kyle and Screenwriter Greg Johnson
· Audio commentary with Supervising Director Gary Hartle, Animation Director Sam Liu and Character Designer Phil Bourassa
· Worthy: The Making of Thor: Tales of Asgard featurette
· The Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes Bonus Episode from the new hit TV series
Source: Edited Marvel PR


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Posted 7 years ago
(74 items)
At the Rincon Center in downtown San Francisco there used to be a post office (until 1978) which is now a food court (sadly). In it there is a series of murals (27) by Anton Refregier which chronicle the history of California from Indians to World War II.
These are murals seven and eight in the series, along with the outside of the annex. The descriptions from the post office are below.
7. Fort Ross: "Fort Ross was founded in 1812 by Ivan Alexander Kuskov, the governor of the Russian settlers in California. Inside its walls and blockhouses were the governor's house and a chapel. About 50 other buildings were located outside the fort. John A. Sutter bought the property from the Russians in 1841. In 1906, the San Francisco Examiner acquired and donated it to the state of California. The original buildings which were destroyed by the fire and earthquake have been accurately reconstructed."
8. Hardships on the Emigrant Trail: "Emigrant Trail was a term used to describe various overland routes to California in the 1840's and 1850's. The subject of the panel is the trail through Donner Pass. Donner Pass, Donner Summit and Donner Lake are all named after the George and Jacob Donner brothers of Illinois. Their party of 87 settlers was forced to spend the winter of 1846 along the shore of Donner Lake after being trapped by heavy early November snows. Only 47 group members survived."
What that last one doesn't mention is the cannibalism that ensued...
Part of my trip to Rincon Center. For more on New Deal Post Office murals, check out this website: http://www.parmaconservation.com/newdealpostoffic.html


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ORLANDO, Fla. - The song behind the movie trailer for "The Nut Job" is the product of three Orlando brothers: Connor, Riley and Toby McDonough.
They started playing in the band together just two years ago, and already their original song, "I Like That," went viral. They've developed a huge fan base overseas, especially in the Philippines, and now their song is the track behind an animated comedy about a squirrel who plans to rob a nut store.
"I'm excited to see the movie," said Riley. "I think it's going to be pretty cool. It has a lot of big actors in it."
While the boys have been making music and getting ready for shows, they said they're not too busy to give back to the place where it all started -- Howard Middle School.
"Just yesterday we played at a middle school for a fifth-grade teacher of ours, who all three of us were in his class, and now we played for his students, so it's really cool to see how it all comes back around," said Connor.
Copyright 2014 by ClickOrlando.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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CLERMONT - Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest is pleased to announce Frank B. Wilson, President and CEO of Wilson Muir Bank and Trust Company, as the President of Bernheim's Board of Trustees.
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Journey into the very heart of Europe to scenic Switzerland and Austria, plus the northern fringes of Italy.
"A wonderful and memorable experience"
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13 Days 4 Countries 14 Cities
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15 Days 1 Country 9 Cities
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15 Days 1 Country 9 Cities
Departure date
Zurich, Switzerland
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Zurich, Switzerland
Early payment discount
Was: PP
Save: PP
Code: XXXXX
Extensions available for this trip
Secure your trip with a deposit todayEasy Quote View Trip Book Now Please call 800 352 4444
Travel to Europe often requires an overnight flight. Please arrange your flights to arrive on or before day 1.
Please read our Trip Notes before booking
Please note, the itinerary, meals and highlights may have changed as a result of selecting a new date.
Please check these again before booking this date.
Explore the Alpine landscapes of Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the northern fringes of Italy, following the Arlberg route into the Tyrol and the breathtaking scenery of the Wachau Valley. Cross the Tre Croci Pass to the heart of Italy's Dolomites and spectacular Rhône Valley, enjoying beautiful Vienna, St. Moritz and Lake Geneva as you traverse the heart of Europe.
Trip type: Regional Explorer i
Trip code: SWAU
12 hot buffet breakfasts
5 dinners (including Be My Guest)
All transport shown.
What's Included
City tour in Salzburg and Vienna
Orientation of Zurich, Graz, Innsbruck and Lucerne
See Melk Abbey and the Wachau Valley
View the Golden Roof and Hofburg Palace in Innsbruck, the Matterhorn and Jungfrau mountains (weather permitting), the castle of Chillon, the city of Berne, Chapel Bridge and Lion Monument in Lucerne
Visit Vaduz the capital of Liechtenstein, the Italian ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, the mountain resort of St. Moritz, lakeside Stresa and Zermatt
What's Included
12 hot buffet breakfasts
5 dinners
(including Be My Guest)
What's Included
Audio Headsets for flexible sightseeing
Daily breakfast and an average of 50% of evening meals
Luxury air-conditioned coach with WiFi in most countries or alternative transportation (such as rail journeys)
Cherry-picked hotels, all tried and trusted
Hand-picked Insider Experiences
Optional Experiences and free time
All porterage and restaurant gratuities
Must-see sightseeing and surprise extras
An expert Travel Director and separate Driver
All hotel tips, charges and local taxes
VIP entry to many sights
Airport Transfers
Specific transfer information can be found on the airport transfers page
Switzerland and Austria
Day 1Arrive Zurich Day 1 - Arrive Zurich
Welcome to Zurich. After check-in, your Travel Director takes you on an orientation of Switzerland's financial capital before you enjoy a Welcome Reception with your fellow travellers and Travel Director at a local restaurant.
Radisson Blu
Radisson Blu
Day 2Zurich – Liechtenstein – Salzburg Sightseeing Day 2 - Zurich – Liechtenstein – Salzburg Sightseeing
A scenic drive along Lake Walensee brings you to Liechtenstein where you stop at its capital Vaduz. Follow the Arlberg route into the Tyrol, past the Wilder Kaiser Mountains to Salzburg. This impressive city is dominated by Fortress Hohensalzburg. Your Local Specialist shows you a wealth of fascinating sights during your walking tour, including Mozart's family house and the Domplatz.
Austria Trend Europa
Austria Trend Europa
Day 3Salzburg – Vienna (2 Nights) Day 3 - Salzburg – Vienna (2 Nights)
Admire breathtaking scenery as you travel past Lake Mondsee and through the Wachau Valley to see the impressive Melk Abbey en route to Imperial Vienna.
Renaissance Wien
Renaissance Wien
Optional Experiences
Eagle's Nest Tour And Bavarian Alps
In Berchtesgaden National Park drive past farmhouses and picturesque villages as we ascend the Obersalzberg. We transfer to special buses for the second leg of the journey: a spectacular road and great engineering feat blasted out of the mountain side. Finally we take an elevator up to the Eagle's Nest, intended as a mountain retreat for Hitler and his inner circle. Once at the top learn its fascinating history and take in the awe inspiring views of the surrounding mountain peaks whilst enjoying a local refreshments! This optional is weather dependent and subject to seasonal closures, therefore it may not be available on all departures.
Adult Price: €55.00
Lake and Mountain Tour
Marvel at the Alpine beauty of the Salzburg lake district, with its 76 glacier lakes and picturesque towns like Sankt Gilgen. We will also have the chance to see some of the major backdrops for the film "The Sound of Music".
Adult Price: €36.00
Day 4Vienna Sightseeing Day 4 - Vienna Sightseeing
Vienna is a beautiful city featuring grand palaces and buildings such as the State Opera, the Hofburg, St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Parliament and the Imperial Boulevards. Marvel at all these wonderful sights with your Local Specialist. Stroll through the oldest part of the city - 'Am Hof'. Spend time afterwards exploring on your own. Tonight why not enjoy a Viennese concert.
Optional Experiences
Dinner And Viennese Concert
A wonderful evening of all things Viennese! Enjoy a superb dinner with drinks, followed by a concert of Viennese classical music. Works by Johann Strauss and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be performed and your 'A Class' tickets and a complimentary glass of sparkling wine or juice during the interval will only enhance the experience.
Adult Price: €100.00
Viennese Dinner with Musical Entertainment
Enjoy dinner in an atmospheric Viennese restaurant, with drinks and traditional musical entertainment included. A unique experience in one of Europe's most elegant cities.
Adult Price: €61.00
Schönbrunn Palace And Gardens
The Imperial Summer Palace of Schönbrunn offers an amazing journey through the centuries of Hapsburg rule. It is perfectly preserved and richly decorated with treasures from around the globe. Each room has a story to tell, so of course, you'll have a Local Specialist to bring it to life and VIP entrance to make the most of your time.
Adult Price: €42.00
Day 5Vienna – Graz – Piber Stud Farm – Villach Day 5 - Vienna – Graz – Piber Stud Farm – Villach
Admire galleried courtyards and Renaissance squares in Graz. Visit the Lipizzaner Stud farm at Piber for a Cultural Insight into the breeding of the athletic white stallions for the Spanish Riding School. This evening enjoy a Be My Guest dinner at a monastery housed in a beautiful old castle, before arriving to your hotel in Villach.
Day 6Villach – Cortina d'Ampezzo – Innsbruck Day 6 - Villach – Cortina d'Ampezzo – Innsbruck
The Alpine scenery is breathtaking as you drive into Italy via Carbonin and Lake Misurina. Explore Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Olympic skiing resort set in the heart of the Dolomites. Traverse spectacular mountain passes as you cross back into Austria. At Innsbruck admire the Golden Roof, St. Jakob's Cathedral, the Hofburg Palace and see the Olympic ski-jump during your orientation tour.
Grauer Bär
Grauer Bär
Optional Experiences
Tyrolean Evening With Dinner
You'll enjoy a delicious meal of traditional Tyrolean cuisine before a lively folklore show, where singers, dancers and musicians dressed in national costume provide an evening of entertainment and fun. Drinks are included.
Adult Price: €67.00
Traditional Tyrolean Evening
You'll enjoy a lively evening of traditional entertainment, as singers, dancers, and musicians dressed in national costume provide a colourful show of folklore and fun. Includes two drinks.
Adult Price: €44.00
Day 7Innsbruck – St. Moritz Day 7 - Innsbruck – St. Moritz
This morning travel over the border into Switzerland and cross the enchanting Engadine. Arrive later in the fashionable winter sports resort of St. Moritz, where you are free this afternoon to explore the pristine landscape. Perhaps take a mountain pass train ride. Tonight enjoy dinner at your hotel.
Bären Authentic Accommodation
Bären Authentic Accommodation
Optional Experiences
Bernina Express Discovery
Join us for a drive along the Engadine Valley to the spectacular Bernina Pass. Here you'll board our panoramic train for stunning vistas of timeless glaciers, as we wind our way over the Southern Alps. Our journey will finish at a local hostelry, where you'll indulge in a tasting of delicious local vintages.
Adult Price: Fr.75.00
Day 8St. Moritz – Thusis – Bellinzona – Stresa – Zermatt (2 Nights) Day 8 - St. Moritz – Thusis – Bellinzona – Stresa – Zermatt (2 Nights)
Traverse Alpine landscapes to Thusis and follow the San Bernadino route to Bellinzona, famous for its three castles. Continue via Locarno to the shores of Lake Maggiore and explore the scenic town of Stresa. See the beautiful Borromean Islands as you head towards the Simplon Pass. This evening enjoy dinner at your hotel in Zermatt.
Monte Rosa/Ambassador
Monte Rosa/Ambassador
Optional Experiences
Discover The Borromean Islands
We've organised a private launch to take you to the beautiful islands of Lake Maggiore. Here you'll see the Isola Madre, the Isola dei Pescatori, and on the Isola Bella we visit the magnificent palace of the Borromean Princes (this optional is only operated between mid March and the end of October).
Adult Price: €41.00
Day 9Zermatt Day 9 - Zermatt
Spend your free day relaxing in the shadows of the magnificent Matterhorn or perhaps consider a mountain trip for fantastic views of the surrounding Alpine peaks.
Optional Experiences
Fondue Dinner Experience
You'll discover the beautiful resort of Zermatt, then enjoy dinner in a typical chalet-style restaurant – and a chance to try fondue.
Adult Price: Fr.86.00
Klein Matterhorn Excursion
A unique electric taxi service will drive us to the foot of Zermatt's highest and most spectacular mountain ride. You'll enjoy stunning views as we ascend to Furi and Trockener Steg, before boarding Europe's highest cable car to 3779m (12400ft) and the magnificent snow-capped top of the world.
Adult Price: Fr.115.00
Day 10Zermatt – Chillon – Montreux Day 10 - Zermatt – Chillon – Montreux
A spectacular drive through the Rhône Valley brings you to Lake Geneva where you view Lord Byron's Castle of Chillon. Follow the shores of Lake Geneva round to Montreux, famous for its annual jazz festival.
Eurotel Riviera
Eurotel Riviera
Optional Experiences
Yvoire & Boat Cruise with Lunch/Dinner
We'll enjoy a steamer cruise past palatial mansions, stopping at picturesque villages before arriving at our enchanting French destination - Yvoire. You'll explore its winding streets, lined with the old stone houses of former fishermen and dominated by the ancient chateau of the Count and Countess, before enjoying a regional meal.
Adult Price: Fr.94.00
Day 11Montreux – Berne – Interlaken – Lucerne Orientation (2 Nights) Day 11 - Montreux – Berne – Interlaken – Lucerne Orientation (2 Nights)
Travel via Berne the Federal capital of Switzerland, to Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland, where you see the mighty Jungfrau (subject to weather conditions). Interlaken is one of the oldest and most popular tourist resorts in Switzerland. Cross the Brünig Pass to the charming town of Lucerne. View the Chapel Bridge and visit the Lion Monument, built in the memory of Louis XVI's Swiss Guards, during your orientation tour.
Grand Europe Authentic Accommodation
Grand Europe Authentic Accommodation
Optional Experiences
Swiss Folklore Evening And Dinner
Tonight we'll enjoy a tasty Swiss meal, including the famous Swiss cheese fondue, in a typical restaurant. While enjoying dinner, you can also join in a lively folklore show which includes yodelling, flag-throwing and Alpine horn-blowing. Two drinks are also included.
Adult Price: Fr.99.00
Day 12Lucerne Day 12 - Lucerne
Lucerne is a beautiful medieval town set against an impressive backdrop of mountains. Spend free time exploring the old town, shopping for watches and chocolates or consider an Optional Experience up a nearby mountain. Tonight celebrate with your travelling companions at a Farewell Dinner.
Optional Experiences
Mount Stanserhorn And Lake Cruise
Take a scenic cruise with us across Lake Lucerne to Stans, and one of Switzerland's oldest mountain railways. Travelling by railway and Cabrio cable car, we'll reach 1900m (6300ft), where you'll have free time to admire the stunning Alpine scenery and enjoy some refreshments. (On certain departures Optional may be operated in reverse, ending with the cruise.)
Adult Price: Fr.112.00
Alpine Farm & Carriage Ride
A chance to get to know the Swiss, you'll meet local farmers and enjoy a delightful countryside tour in horse drawn carriages. Soak up the stunning scenery as we trot around a typical rural community, en route to a working farm where you'll savour local drinks and snacks.
Adult Price: Fr.67.00
Day 13Lucerne – Depart Zurich Day 13 - Lucerne – Depart Zurich
Say goodbye to Europe and your new found friends at the end of this amazing holiday. Airport transfers are available to Zurich Airport. Conditions apply.
Authentic Accommodation
Once a short coach stop on the road to St. Moritz, Hotel Bären today exudes Swiss Chalet charm with the comforts of a modern hotel. Enjoy the elegance of yesteryear and sweeping lake vistas at the Grand Hotel Europe in Lucerne, where warm Swiss hospitality and a grand past spanning over a century guarantee an unforgettable stay
Be My Guest
Sister Monika takes you on a tour of the Monastery of Kloster Wernberg, originally a castle, today home to 60 Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood with whom you'll enjoy a traditional Carinthian dinner
Cultural Insights
Visit the Lipizzaner Stud Farm at Piber which has bred horses since 1920 and today provides all the stallions for the Spanish Riding School in Vienna
Hidden Treasures
Enjoy at least one surprise Hidden Treasure
Local Specialists
For included sightseeing in Salzburg and Vienna
Find out what makes Trafalgar different.
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What's Included
City tour in Salzburg and Vienna
Orientation of Zurich, Graz, Innsbruck and Lucerne
See Melk Abbey and the Wachau Valley
View the Golden Roof and Hofburg Palace in Innsbruck, the Matterhorn and Jungfrau mountains (weather permitting), the castle of Chillon, the city of Berne, Chapel Bridge and Lion Monument in Lucerne
Visit Vaduz the capital of Liechtenstein, the Italian ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, the mountain resort of St. Moritz, lakeside Stresa and Zermatt
What's Included
12 hot buffet breakfasts
5 dinners
(including Be My Guest)
What's Included
Audio Headsets for flexible sightseeing
Daily breakfast and an average of 50% of evening meals
Luxury air-conditioned coach with WiFi in most countries or alternative transportation (such as rail journeys)
Cherry-picked hotels, all tried and trusted
Hand-picked Insider Experiences
Optional Experiences and free time
All porterage and restaurant gratuities
Must-see sightseeing and surprise extras
An expert Travel Director and separate Driver
All hotel tips, charges and local taxes
VIP entry to many sights
Airport Transfers
Specific transfer information can be found on the airport transfers page
Why Trafalgar?
Simply AuthenticEnjoy
Enjoy the wonder of travel, crisscrossing the globe through the seasons. On effortless adventures in breathtaking new horizons, forge lifelong friendships and memories. Our lovingly crafted itineraries are a fascinating mosaic of cultures, flavours, festivals and local stories. We're with you all the way, guiding you and ensuring you experience the real thing: the sheer love of travel, entirely hassle-free.
Simply AuthenticLove... Travel
"Is simply the best way to position what our guests love to experience and what we love to deliver" - Gavin Tollman CEO
Simply AuthenticMeet
Meet warm-hearted locals and like-minded travellers. Along your journey of discovery, stop to share stories and flavours with local farmers, chefs and winemakers. Pause to admire the handicrafts and rich traditions of amazing artisans. Explore the essence of Europe through captivating accounts shared by expert historians and savvy local guides.
Simply AuthenticTaste
Travelling with your tastebuds, treating them to new flavours, spices and textures along the way. From the very first breakfast to the last nightcap, travelling through Europe indulges your palate, with every meal an opportunity to discover regional fare. Savour each new flavour, try the local tipple and take home fresh culinary inspiration. Let us share our love for food and hospitality with you.
Simply AuthenticUnwind
Once you've packed your suitcase, we take care of the rest, removing all your concerns so that you can be secure in the knowledge that an award-winning global company with an impeccable reputation has taken care of every little detail. We arrange everything you'll need along your journey - meals, accommodation and travel logistics, because we are with you all the way. Travel the world with peace of mind, knowing you're in the hands of Trafalgar.
Guest Service Rating from 216 Reviews
Overall 4 stars experience especially related to the hotels. They were at best mediocre in about 2-3 instances and most disappointing was Lucerne where we were provided rooms that faced construction site and a parking lot. We would have thought Trafalgar would be able to leverage their
Service rating : Would recommend Trafalgar to others. Thoroughly enjoyed all places we went to on tour. A great variety of places and I would not like to see any of them taken away from your tour. A number of them were outstanding like the Matterhorn, Mt Stanserhorn, Monastery, Eagle's Nest, etc.
Service rating : Great itinerary. Found the whole experience to be average. Some hotels were nice and some weren't. In some cities we were either rushed to see things or left for several hours at a time to kill time in a place we weren't on the tour to see. Food was average to awful that were
Service rating : We had a great tour director, Michael Thomas. He was so knowledgeable.We saw so many great attractions. Most of the hotels were very good.Breakfasts were great.Product : We visited the beautiful Kloster Weinberg. Loved the dairy farm.Dinner in Vienna and concert.
Service rating : The majority of the hotels were substandard for the price that we paid for the trip and were not as advertised. In one hotel the bathroom was 5 feet by 2 1/2 feet with a 45 degree door; I had to shimmy by the toilet to shut the door. The coach seats were hard and the driver was
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Tutoring Services
We offer free academic support in a variety of undergraduate subjects each semester. Individual tutoring and study groups are available.
One-on-One Help
Individual tutoring sessions begin the second or third week of the semester.
Peer Tutors offer one-on-one assistance in a variety of subjects. These students are subject area experts who have successfully completed the course and are able to answer questions, review course material, help prepare for exams, guide discussion and provide tips on study strategies.
Please note: No drop-in tutoring is provided. See the Front Desk Staff to complete a tutor request and to schedule the appointment.Learn More »
Study Groups
A variety of courses each semester have study groups affiliated with them. Group tutoring usually starts the third week of the semester. No prior appointment is needed to attend study groups. Learn More »
Tutoring & Learning Center Hours
During the Academic Year only
closed during the summer
Mondays - Thursdays: 9:30am - 6pm
Fridays: 9:30am - 2pm
Want more info? Email us or call 920-465-2958.


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Tamron's next generation 18-270mm, the world's lightest, smallest 15x zoom optimized for use on APS-C- DSLRs, continues the pursuit of the ideal all-in one zoom lens. Combining prior award-winning achievements with new engineering breakthroughs yielded the remarkable 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD (Piezo Drive). Special piezoelectric technology now delivers faster, quieter precision autofocusing. Tamron's exclusive tri-axial VC (Vibration Compensation) image stabilization, featuring three pairs of driving coils and low-function ball bearings placed around the VC optical group, combats camera shake-related image blur. It's Tamron VC that allows handheld shooting at as many as four shutter speeds slower than otherwise possible with a dramatically stable viewfinder experience. Compactness and light weight are preserved, thanks in part to the VC mechanism's newly-developed moving coil mechanism.
Canon DSLR Cameras
Questions? Please contact a PCNation Account Manager at 1-800-235-4050


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Muskingum College presents "First Step" program, a summer transition program for college-bound students
with learning disabilities and/or ADHD
Muskingum College will be offering First Step, a program designed to improve the academic skills of persons with learning disabilities and/or ADHD, from July 16 – 29, 2006. The two-week summer experience helps high school juniors and seniors to make the transition to college, whether or not they plan to attend Muskingum.
Included in the 2006 First Step is a non-credit college expository class that examines local history. Through lectures and hands-on laboratories, students will investigate the histories of John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed), The National Road, regional coal mining, and Muskingum College's past and present.
First Step aims to reduce student anxiety and to promote academic success, said Dr. Eileen Henry, Executive Director of Muskingum College's Center for Advancement of Learning, which has provided academic support to Muskingum students for more than two decades. "Participants develop a better understanding of their unique learning styles, as well as a plan for improving their opportunities for academic success."
These opportunities include diagnostic learning assessments, academic reinforcement and instruction through one-on-one tutoring, learning strategies workshops, and social and emotional support.
"Students will identify their individual strengths and weaknesses and then will be given assistance in practicing strategies such as time management and organization; note-taking; textbook reading; writing, proofing and speaking; memory, testing, listening, and self-advocacy," explained Dr. Henry.
"The time that students spend at a program like First Step will help them enter college feeling confident and comfortable," said Dr. Henry.
Muskingum College's Center for Advancement of Learning is dedicated to helping students with learning disabilities to realize their academic potential and provides the framework for campus-wide academic support. Through the Center, Muskingum College offers its nationally- recognized PLUS Program of comprehensive academic support services for students with specific learning disabilities. Those services include tutoring by qualified professionals, advising regarding the number and mix of courses, and group study opportunities.
For more information regarding Muskingum College's Center for Advancement of Learning, call Dr. Henry at 740/826-6082, email her at email@example.com or click here.
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Posted 6 years ago
(124 items)
A sweet older lady I've known for many years gave this to me. She said it was her Christmas gift from her parents in 1958. It is in exceptionally good condition. With the sewing machine (the "head") folded away, the cabinet is actually a very unique table by itself.
Probably isn't worth all that much, but she had all the original attachments to go with it. It's a much more modern, interesting style -and considerably less common - than the Singer machines that are a dime a dozen.


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There are many sub-genres of coming of age stories. We are drawn to them because we see ourselves in their paces. In the new film Blue Like Jazz (in theaters April 13) we have a spiritual coming of age story in a distinctively evangelical Protestant vein.
The opening sequence has the main character speaking directly to us, and Don Miller is intended to be a hero. This is no Woody Allen in the opening frames of "Annie Hall," but rather a confident young man telling us that what he didn't know by the age of 19 was a lot, and perhaps it was because he grew up a Southern Baptist.
The story begins in the evangelical subculture. We see Don assisting his youth pastor, working with the kids in his church, and we watch him at his job, working for a company that manufactures plastic Communion cups pre-filled with red grape juice.
"Life is like jazz, it never resolves," Don's bum of a father tells him one morning as they sit outside his trailer home. Don has come from church and is soon headed back for another service, while his father has woken up with a young intern and listens to John Coltrane to watch the sun rise. Later that day, Don discovers that his mother (his parents are divorced) is as much a hypocrite as his father is a louse. She's been sleeping with his youth pastor. At that moment he makes what is presented as a courageous decision: he leaves for Reed College in Oregon, foregoing a scholarship to Trinity College in another nearby Texas county.
By the end of his second day on campus at the notoriously liberal Reed, Don reveals to a student that he's a Christian and receives some sage advice: "Do you have any idea what your hateful, bullying tribe has been up to? If you have any hope of making friends, get in the closet, Baptist boy, and stay there." He follows that advice and becomes what he hates in his mother.
There is some genuine questing going on in this film, although the actors are mostly stereotypes. It would be paying them too much compliment to say that they are character actors. With one or two exceptions (Justin Welborn offers a nuanced performance as Don's best friend), they are parodies. On campus, there is the gay man, the closed-minded intellectual, as well as someone in a rabbit suit who never speaks. And the screenplay—based on Don Miller's New York Times bestselling memoir by the same name—almost parodies itself at times. Don sits at a table drinking milk when he arrives at Reed. He seems to constantly walk past bumper stickers or crèche scenes, all poking simple fun at his simple faith. (Again I thought of Woody Allen, who does it so much better in "Hannah and Her Sisters.") Don's closest male friend dresses up like the pope, complete with mitre and pallium, and roams the dormitories looking for books to burn, while the first female student Don encounters at college is the woman standing to urinate beside him in the co-ed bathroom.
However, just past the midway point, we see Don and others begin to show not only character development, but the reason why we are here, watching. Don begins to move beyond simplicity and process his emotions and ideas of who God is. The girl he's been pursuing, it turns out, is not only interested in social justice causes; she also goes to church.
"I read the Bible in Lit class last year and it turns out that I like Jesus—a lot," she tells Don.
"Does anyone know?" he asks her.
"Are you going to turn me in?" she responds.
This young woman, then, becomes Don's way back to the fold. But not before a series of angst-filled experiences and days. Don talks about God with friends. Don walks alone in the rain. Don is disappointed by more news from home—now his mother is pregnant. Then Don attends a debate on the topic "Does God Exist?" where he asks the rationalist on the panel, "Where, then, do we find meaning?" and is coldly told, "I suggest you consult a dictionary."
All of this is followed by college partying and, equally as vapid, the juxtaposition of Don's girl-interest becoming passionately involved in the lives of the needy in Kashmir. More stereotypes—and in this case quite unhelpful ones, as they only seem to reinforce the idea that upper-middle class white kids are easily bored and then just as easily convinced that momentary passion for a cause is a profound act.
"Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something, before you can love it yourself," Don realizes toward the end of this coming of age tale, and while it's an important and beautiful thought, it is also one that is never realized.
"Blue Like Jazz" is weakened by the all-too quick way that Donnie's faith melts when he is challenged by modernism and diversity, and then the equal speed with which it is picked up again. But ultimately Blue Like Jazz fails because it does not show how spiritual practice works, or how it matters. It makes too much of belief, as if deciding thumbs up or thumbs down for the existence of God is what changes the world.
"You really believe in all of this stuff?" one of Don's friends asks him by film's end.
"I think…I do," he stammers out.
So what?


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Column: Yesterday's Emergency Has Been Cancelled Due to Political InconvenienceNews at Home
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There are some things any hardcore political junkie is compelled to admire about this administration. For instance when it comes to propaganda, the Bushies outdo with ease the wiliest of opposing spin rascals, and that includes the wiliest of them all -- Iraq's information ministry, which defiantly declared the absence of U.S. forces near Baghdad even as the 7th Cavalry was pummeling the city's elite guard. The Iraqi leadership's brand of earnest fiction requires a certain P.R. panache rarely seen, yet Bush II has managed to top it.
Remember when the White House thundered about unavoidable war because Saddam Hussein's secreted weapons of mass destruction posed an intolerable threat to our national security? Remember its verbal pounding on that point? Remember its incessant claims of knowing the whereabouts and wherefores of Iraq's seemingly vast WMD, evidence of which the administration could not then responsibly disclose? Remember its repeated avowals that Iraq would not hesitate to use these weapons against us, even during a faux peace? Remember all that?
Well, forget it.
Since Saddam chose not to unleash so much as a can of pepper spray against invading American forces, invading British forces, the hated Kurds or hated Shi'ites during the onset of hostilities, the White House has leapt to an altogether different dish of propaganda. Sure, Centcom issues occasional warnings about possible chemical attacks just to keep the inspirational Old Testament alive. And such an attack may yet come. If so, the White House will leap back to its original fundamentalism. But by and large, that once-imposing danger is no longer mentioned by the White House. It simply melted away, quite literally without a word, when the chemical nasties and biological bugs failed to arrive as advertised.
Ain't that the damnedest thing?
To fill the nagging void, George W. Bush now speechifies that his chief objective all along has been to liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam's long reign of terror. This -- not the protection of national security in the face of clear and present danger -- is why war could not wait, why the United Nations could not stall us any longer, why $75 billion in requested funding was purportedly incalculable a month ago, and why untold young American lives must be put at risk -- now, and not a minute later. This political sleight of hand has been far trickier than Dick and slicker than Willie, and the "in-bedded" media report nary a word.
No one disputes that the sadistic reptile Saddam Hussein has administered said reign of terror. No one, assuredly, will miss His Bloated Pomposity when he's blown to pieces and dispatched to wherever dead dictators go. And naturally anyone possessing the slightest compassion is heartened by the prospect of truly liberating an oppressed people. Excepting the Saddams of this world, we all desire freedom and a democratic voice. Yet those are givens, thus hardly the point.
The point, rather, is that Bush's initial casus belli has been replaced without comment by what the White House propaganda machine, in these ever-changing opportunistic times, now considers the more easily salable: the Iraqi regime's brutality. The administration expected (correctly so far) that by applying proper diversionary tactics the public would simply forget what the selfsame administration emphasized only weeks ago; that is, America's desperate security straights. With characteristic nonchalance, George has opted to erase history. As brazen propagandistic ploys go, this one has been a beaut; one made especially comely by a televised-tragedies-distracted, hypomaniacally patriotic American public buying the president's political gamesmanship in wholesale quantities.
And gamesmanship it is, for if oppressed peoples' liberation was indeed the administration's principal -- and principled -- objective at any cost, then we'd be lobbing cruise missiles and deploying khakied teenagers around the world this very day. There is no shortage of oppression to be relieved, and some of the oppressors possess infinitely more destructive weapons of mass destruction than Saddam Hussein has ever socked away or was too stupid to R&D effectively.
The barely submerged truth, of course, is that neither biochemical bugbears or humanitarian outrage led the administration to drag us all to the brink of global bedlam. It dwells instead in the realm of relentless ideology. Those resolute folks laying siege to the weak and easily impressionable presidential mind have yearned for this war since 41 wimped out, be it to redraw geopolitical maps or assert intimidating military muscle at will. The titular strongman might wish to permanently erase recent history, but reality is stubbornly, inherently indelible. In fact, the above-referenced resolute folks have made little to no effort to conceal their underlying motivations. The public record alone is littered with the frank and open bellicosity long advocated by the Dick Cheneys and Donald Rumsfelds of official Washington and assorted right-wing think tanks.
Another truth is that by any conscientiously observed rules of rhetorical engagement,
the unsure among us should not take the antiwar commentariat's word for these
things any more than they should accept the administration's word without question.
They instead should turn off the propagandistic tube and indulge in some honest
cramming. Alternatively, they can just stay tuned for tomorrow's new-and-improved
emergency message, which could very well be the real thing.
© Copyright 2003 P. M. Carpenter
Mr. Carpenter's column is published weekly by History News Network and buzzflash.com.
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More Comments:
Tom Kellum - 4/15/2003
Saddam agreed to go into exile. That left Bush with no plausible reason to invade. So, a deal was struck. Saddam is told to tell his troops to back off. He (and others from his family and regime) goes to Syria. Bush sends the troops in. They meet little resistance (as per the agreement). Bush gets to look like a hero (to some).
Now, a question for the warmongers: In light of the fact that the U.S. supported Saddam during the time when he is alleged to have committed all kinds of dastardly deeds, wouldn't it have made more sense (and be seen as more genuine) to encourage and assist IRAN to invade Iraq...if the ostensible motivation was to liberate the Iraqi people?
Alec Lloyd - 4/15/2003
I find it interesting that the same people who said Hans Blix should be given as many months as needed--indeed rejected any deadline for weapons inspections to conclude--now point to the "failure" of US forces to find WMD in less than a month while engaged in extensive combat operations.
Give the inspections more time.
Akira - 4/14/2003
Faber has it right, when will right-wing idealogues get some basic reading comprehension skills.
You can not deny that the Bush Administration's FIRST AND FOREMOST REASON for pursuing this war was hi stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and his (alleged) ties and state support for Al-Queada and other terrorist organizations. They tried desperately to tie Hussein and Bin Laden, only to have the air let out of that bag.
Then they tried to scare Americans into believing his WMD was going to be given away to terrorists so they can strike the US. They have repeatedly harped on that topic for months and months. Indeed, I have no recollection nor any record of Powell's numerous visits to thr UN to secure their approval to invade Iraq to free that population to enjoy freedom and a new government. The story was the same : WMD, he has them and he will use them against the US. We must eliminate the threat NOW.
Nowhere was the thought of humanitarian purposes injected into that debat until AFTER POLLS showed basically ZERO support for the administrations' claims of WMD.
Open your eyes.......Iraqi Freedom was the soundbite they came up with only when it became painfully obvious there was no support for this war.
Suetonius - 4/13/2003
would it be possible to bump this discussion of Syria over into its own thread so that it doesn't drop off the radar screen when this column pushed back into the archives?
Suetonius - 4/13/2003
An interesting question you raise, Mr. Kellum. I did see reports of a fierce firefight at that border town between Iraq and Syria between U.S./coalition special forces and elements of the Ba'athist forces. The implication was that there was someone or something there worth protecting at all costs.
Letting Hussein escape into Syria, though, would require knowing both he was alive and well and knowing just where he was. Granted, we in the public can't know exactly what's really going on, but it would not at all seem to be in line with the successive attempts to hit him (both on the first night of the war and at the restaurant/safe house last week).
I'll posit that two things are going on, in general:
(1) the U.S. is bringing the pressure on the Syrians more to get any weapons of mass destruction that have moved into the country (as well as pressure the Syrians on their own stocks) than to get the senior Iraqi leadership (although they do want the senior Iraqi leadership), because we want to make sure that any weapons do not move through the Damascus arms bazaars into the hands of the al Qaeda members there and in Lebanon, and...
(2) to bring pressure on the Syrians in such a way that either Bashar begins to relax political and economic control in Syria _or_ cracks the defacto monarchy and moves Syria towards democracy and liberal reforms. The generals and senior Syrian Ba'athists aren't too pleased about this, for it would mean a dwindling of their influence and power.
(3) there are other benefits to reining in Syria that come to mind but none worth directly engaging just yet (i.e. Israel).
I'm not a middle east specialist, but I've been trying to follow this closely. I think invading Syria is the last thing the Bush administration has any interest in doing. The United States _could_ do it, but just has to appear crazy enough about doing it that the Syrians take all this tough talk seriously. The continued discovery of Syrian mercenaries in Baghdad and the anger in CENTCOM over finding these guys has to be frightening to Damascus.
Can anyone add to this?
Tom Kellum - 4/13/2003
Did the bush regime set a trap for SH by agreeing to let him "escape" to Syria? Is THAT where the "Final Solution" will be finalized?
Herodotus - 4/12/2003
Sky news | 4/12/03
It is too early conclude that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction just because Baghdad has not used any, UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has said.
"It's a little early to draw the conclusion that there aren't any (such weapons)", Dr Blix told Swedish daily Aftonbladet.
He said President Saddam Hussein may well have decided that world opinion would have swung behind the United States had Iraq used weapons of mass destruction.
"This has to do with the sharp criticism against the war all over the world," he said.
"It is certain that if they had used weapons of mass destruction then the criticism would have become much weaker.
"People would have said: 'In any case, they had weapons of mass destruction, and they lied about them all along'."
The inspector believes Saddam would not have used WMD even as the very existence of his regime came under threat.
"It may be important for Saddam what kind of obituaries he gets," he explained.
"He sees himself himself as an Arab hero and he would rather be remembered as a hero than as a liar."
Dr Blix retires from his job in June and said his future projects include writing books about Iraq and North Korea.
The Chile-an - 4/12/2003
Can you show a link to one credible article showing the discovery of WMDs in Iraq since the war's beginning?
I'd truly be interested to know.
For the moment, note:
newswire report at:
Saddam's science adviser surrenders
By Hamza Hendawi
April 12, 2003 | BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Saddam Hussein's science adviser surrendered to U.S. military authorities Saturday, insisting that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and the U.S.-led invasion was unjustified.
Lt. Gen. Amer al-Saadi arranged his surrender with the help of Germany's ZDF television network, which filmed him leaving his Baghdad villa with his German wife, Helga, and presenting himself to an American warrant officer, who escorted him away.
Al-Saadi told ZDF that he had no information on what happened to Saddam and repeated his assertion, made often in news conferences before the U.S.-led invasion, that Iraq was free of weapons of mass destruction.
In Doha, Qatar, the U.S. Central Command said it had no information on al-Saadi's surrender.
The elegant, British-educated al-Saadi is believed to be the first of 55 regime figures sought by the coalition to be taken into custody. He had been wanted because he was a special weapons adviser to Saddam and oversaw Iraq's chemical program in the past. He is believed to have in-depth knowledge of other weapons program as well.
He was among the key figures who worked with U.N. weapons inspectors and often spoke for the Iraqi government in news conferences between the resumption of inspections in November and their end last month.
After Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N. Security Council in February, al-Saadi suggested that monitored Iraqi conversations Powell played were fabricated, that defector informants were unreliable, and that satellite photographs "proved nothing."
Al-Saadi had also defended the regime's longtime practice of insisting that Iraqi officials be present during meetings between U.N. weapons inspectors and Iraqi scientists, saying that otherwise the scientists' remarks might be distorted.
(what reason would he have to lie now?)
Herodotus - 4/12/2003
and thus another sign that this website drifts farther and farther away from 'history' past 'news' and on into irrelevance.
A pity, really.
Jack Greeley - 4/12/2003
Another incisive analysis by P. Carpenter. And then, as surely as night follows day, out comes the chorus of HNN jackals to nip at his heels. What would Herodotus, Plato, Zorba, Suetonius, and Lloydsoflondonus do without him ? Their transparent bias and relentlessly fallacious distortions would never be accepted by the Bush in 2004 campaign, no matter how loudly these two-bit partisans try to howl the party line (which, as Carpenter rightly points out, is a fast-moving target).
Herodotus - 4/11/2003
Your caution is well taken. The variety of sources that I have seen that lead me to believe that the weapons have been found encompasses the wire services and the major daily newspapers.
While any individual case may turn out to be a false positive, the cumulative discoveries thus far look pretty bad for the Hussein regime's claims that they had nothing.
Alec Lloyd - 4/11/2003
Somehow, I don't think we'd see Mr. Carpenter on the morrow of a smallpox outbreak defending the Bush Administration for not adequately protecting the American people.
Nor do I think he'd be sympathetic if American troops were gassed and failed to have their MOPP suits handy.
Mr. Carpenter's hatred of the Bush administration is all-encompassing. It can, to his mind, do nothing right.
Suetonius - 4/10/2003
Mr Schmidt cited Carpenter's:
"Remember its repeated avowals that Iraq would not hesitate to use these weapons against us, even during a faux peace?"
Repeated warnings that Iraq might use these weapons is a prudent preparation for the war. It would be remiss of any battlefield commander to fail to prepare his soldiers for coping with these things. It was very clearly part of the administration's interest to prepare the general public for the possibility of their use (and the horror that would result) while at the same time make very public to the Iraqis what would happen if the weapons were used.
Would Mr. Schmidt care to explain why the Bush administration has chosen to innoculate thousands of health care workers against smallpox if the threat were simply a manufactured one by the Bush administration that has been set by the wayside?
Alec Lloyd - 4/9/2003
Perhaps Mr. Schmidt, we will begin a fuller examination of Iraq AFTER the fighting has stopped?
Or should our troops ignore the snipers firing at them and start reading Iraqi paperwork?
A better question (for both you and Mr. Carpenter) would be that if Saddam had no forbidden weapons, why did he act as if he did?
Why the obstructions?
Why the intimitation of Iraqi scientists?
If it is found that Saddam was in complete compliance he will go down in history as the most idiotic ruler ever, bar none.
He could have had the sanctions lifted, not to mention maintaining his murderous regime, simply by filing an accurate report and providing full accountability.
Instead he chose to play a shell game, full of deceit and bluster. He successfully convinced us he had something to hide.
Mr. Carpenter comes off is irreconcilably bitter, eager to find any criticism to throw at the Bush administration. The Iraqi people are free. Is that so terrible? Would you see them returned to servitude?
Mr. Carpenter strikes me as a man who, on the occasion of the liberation of Paris in 1944, would point out that Germany wasn't involved in Pearl Harbor and really didn't have a quarrel with the US.
My advice to him is: get over it.
It would be helpful if you'd post the counter-evidence. Otherwise it just sounds like a children's argument "Did not!"
Jim Schmidt - 4/9/2003
Alec Lloyd offers no substantive rebuttal to P. M. Carpenter's post.
Mr. Carpenter wrote the following:
"Remember its (the Bush Administration's) incessant claims of knowing the whereabouts and wherefores of Iraq's seemingly vast WMD, evidence of which the administration could not then responsibly disclose? Remember its repeated avowals that Iraq would not hesitate to use these weapons against us, even during a faux peace?"
Mr. Lloyd fails to address these issues. These are factual issues. The facts are not Mr. Lloyd's strong points.
Mr. Lloyd, when will you argue the facts? You can do so in many ways. For example, you might show us how our assumptions cause us to misinterpret the facts.
What is your excuse Mr. Lloyd?
Jim Schmidt
Alec Lloyd - 4/9/2003
Mr. Carpenter's latest screed truly reaches new heights of sophomoric irrelevance.
At no point did the Bush administration ignore the humanitarian desire to rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein. It was simply one of many reasons.
Would Mr. Carpenter prefer to have the inmates of Saddam's prisons for children returned to their cells?
One would think given the celebrations now taking place across Iraq (and in exile communities across the world) Mr. Carpenter might credit the vision and courage of the Bush administration. But no, he has to throw a brick, so this the one his hand alights upon. And a feeble brick it is.
There are two glaring flaws with Mr. Carpenter's logic (or pathetic excuse for it).
Firstly, he assumes that weapons useful for terrorists must somehow have a tactical use on the modern battlefield. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Biological agents have virtually no battlefield use; their effects aren't immediate enough to be felt before the issue has been decided. It also isn't exactly a wise idea to use them in one's home country. However, as terrorist weapons, they have enormous destructive potential.
Similarly, chemical weapons don't work well against trained troops. Coalition forces have better chem. warfare training and equipment than the Iraqis do. Using chemical weapons would most likely hurt the Iraqis more than help them—and ensure the punishment of the commanders responsible.
For terrorists, however, chemical weapons have enormous potential. A small plane spraying blister or nerve agent over a sports stadium doesn't need to inflict much actual damage to cause widespread panic. One hundred thousand football fans trying frantically to escape from a perceived gas attack could provide as high a body count as any terrorist would want.
These were the dangers the world faced. Now they are lessened.
Secondly, Coalition forces put a great deal of effort into discouraging the use of WMD. The Iraqi command structure was subjected to intensive psychological pressure and physical attack. These operations seem to have been successful. Yet for Mr. Carpenter, no success goes uncriticized.
One cannot read Mr. Carpenter without a sense of disgust, particularly after seeing the jubilation in freed Iraq. But for the "warmongers" in Washington, those people would still be in prison. For all his glib rhetoric and forced light humor, the chief impression I get from reading this latest column is that Mr. Carpenter would rather see them languish in a prison state than acknowledge a Republican success.
Herodotus - 4/8/2003
Carpenter argues that the threat was not real, that it was fabricated and that having served its purpose another is employed in its place to keep our attention. He fails to engage the notion that the Ba'athists did not use the weapons as a result of a successful pre-war campaign to convince Ba'athist commanders it was smarter not to use them.
The threat was real. Sending U.S. soldiers into battle in the MOPP suits despite it being over 80+ degrees out is the last thing a commander who wants his soldiers to remain at the peak of their operational effectiveness would chose to do. The discovery of the chemical and nerve agents, once verified after exhautive tests but already confirmed by a variety of people in a variety of places, will bolster this.
Why is it that die-hard opponents of this war continue to employ single-track logic? Why is it that they cannot engage the notion that there are many reasons to support a war, and many reasons to go to war, and that in this instance quite a few of them are valid? Is it because Carpenter has a deeper agenda, of wanting an end to the Bush administration even at the expense of the necessary actions to protect the security of the country? If Carpenter offered a viable alternative, instead of pointlessly sniping, his work might be worth considering more closely.
Herodotus - 4/8/2003
dan - 4/8/2003
Faber - 4/8/2003
The thrust of the article cleary is that the Bush admin frightened the public with claims of an "intolerable threat," that Bush already knew there were weapons and he knew where they are, and that Iraq would not hesitate to use them against the US. But there was no imminent threat, we didn't know where the weapons were, and obviously Iraq never used them against us even during war time. The article does not deny that Iraq had wmd. In fact it admits Iraq probably does have them.
Why is there always a problem among Bush lovers with basic reading comprehension skills?
Herodotus - 4/8/2003
Since the chemical and nerve agents have been discovered, Mr. Carpenter's fundamental argument is fatally flawed.
Herodotus - 4/8/2003
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Our friends at the Whole Grains Council kicked off 2010 with their clever Grain of the Month Calendar, a plan to honor an individual grain each month of the year. March is Quinoa month and we thought it might be a good time for a refresher course on the nutritional powerhouse known as quinoa.
Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-WA) is a high protein grain cultivated by the Incan tribes of the Andes mountains in South America. A traditional staple of the Incan diet, quinoa was known as the mother of all grains or chisaya mama. Because the native peoples of South America held the grain in such high regards, it was scorned by Spanish conquerers and fell into obscurity until a revival of the grain in the 1970s.
Lucky for us that the grain did find its way into the kitchens of 1970s America. Not only is it delicious, but quinoa has a short cooking time which sets it apart from many whole grains. Unlike many other whole grains, quinoa cooks in just 15 minutes! This tiny , gluten-free grain delivers all of the essential amino acids and is a good source of dietary fiber, phosphorus and iron. People often talk about the bitter saponins in the seed coat of quinoa. Bob's Red Mill quinoa has been pre-washed to remove this bitter coating. There are other brands that are not pre-washed, so be sure to check the label before consuming or you'll be unpleasantly surprised. When cooked, quinoa is light and fluffy and has a very unique look. If you look very closely, you can see a lighter ring attached to the grain- this is quite simply the germ. It looks a little bit worm-like and is most noticeable on the black and red quinoa, but rest assured this is normal.
I've noticed quinoa on the menu at several of our local restaurants and in deli salads at places like Whole Foods- next time you see that funny q-word, see if you can sample some, you might just fall in love with this tiny grain.
If you're not sure what to do with quinoa, we have some fabulous recipes on our website and you can get more info (we particularly liked their fun facts) and recipes for quinoa from the Whole Grains Council.
Here are some of our favorite recipes using quinoa:
Quinoa Salad (Pascal Sauton)
Quinoa Taboule
Roasted Winter Vegetables with Quinoa
Tuscan Quinoa Radicchio Wraps
Black Bean, Corn and Quinoa Salad


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(UPDATED COVERAGE, Dec. 22) No illnesses have been reported and the wholesaler doubts any peppers remain in the supply chain, but as a precautionary move Cal Fresco LLC has recalled jalapeño and serrano peppers due to possible salmonella contamination.
Fernando Vargas, owner and founder of Cal Fresco in Buena Park, Calif., said Dec. 21 he took immediate action when the Food and Drug Administration notified him.
"There is no overkill in this kind of situation," Vargas said. "Within two and a half hours of being notified we had contacted all of our customers."
Vargas said the government didn't work quite as quickly.
"The tests were done Dec. 12, but we weren't notified until Dec. 19," Vargas said.
Vargas said the U.S. Department of Agriculture took random samples at two distribution centers in Washington state. Records show a retail customer took possession of the peppers Dec. 8 at the Washington distribution centers.
A portion of the same lot of jalapeños was distributed to retail stores in California, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Canada through other distribution channels from Dec. 3-5, Vargas said.
He said it was easy to do traceback on the jalapeños. Cal Fresco checked internal records for the lot number the USDA tested. The records showed what grower the peppers came from, when they were packed and where they were shipped.
About 18,500 pounds of jalapeños are covered by the recall.
The serrano peppers were initially more difficult to trace "because the USDA Sample and Isolated Pathogen Information Report failed to disclose individual lot numbers" of the tested peppers, according to a news release from Cal Fresco.
Vargas said the company's food safety team, headed by Dave Rueda, figured out what lot the serranos were from by using internal records. Rueda said the routinely captured data allowed him to determine which lot USDA had tested.
Rueda and Vargas said Cal Fresco regularly conducts random tests on the 100 commodities it packs, as well as its packing equipment and building.
The company is cooperating with state and federal officials in the investigation into the source of the salmonella.
"We think it will be found to be an isolated incident," Vargas said.
As of 6:45 p.m. EST Dec. 21, the FDA had not posted a notice on its website in relation to the Cal Fresco recall. The agency sent an e-mail notification of the recall notice to subscribers at about 6 a.m. Dec. 22.
Recall details:
Jalapeño peppers from lot 205610
Serrano peppers from lot 205467
The recalled peppers were shipped in bulk boxes and intended for retail sale from bulk bins.


text:
A collapsed man was airlifted to hospital on Bank Holiday Monday.
An ambulance was called at 7.45am after a man in his 60s collapsed near the A131.
He was flown to Queen's Hospital, London by the Essex Air Ambulance.
A spokesperson from the ambulance service said: "He is still in a serious condition.
"It is not known what caused him to collapse but further tests will be carried out in hospital."


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Which areas in the city and suburbs will trend to hip and "must-buy" this year?
Therefore, when it comes to where we live, we're ultimately going to want to invest our money into a home that goes beyond being structurally sound and attractive. The neighborhood it is built in also needs to reconcile our definition for quality of life (encompassing the cultural, restaurants, outdoor activities and safety) with existing realities: whether we are single or raising children, young and starting out, or older and looking for change.
Redfin Realty, an online real estate company based in Seattle, looked extensively into the matter for a variety of major U.S. cities to discern which neighborhoods would be the "darlings of 2014" — not the popular, established neighborhoods everyone is familiar with, but those that are on their way to the top. Their resources included Redfin users, tallying hundreds of millions of online pages visited and hundreds of Redfin real estate agents who shared their insights on which neighborhoods are buzzing and why.
Boiling things down for Philadelphia and its suburbs, Redfin predicts that Wayne, Elkins Park, East Passyunk Crossing and Newbold, both in South Philly; and Haverford will be the "next big things."
Blakely Minton, a Philadelphia Redfin agent, says these neighborhoods represent the three things many Philly residents are looking for when buying a home: top-ranked schools, easy commute and affordability.
Minton adds that Newbold and East Passyunk Crossing represent pockets of affordability close to Center City. Other neighborhoods represent buyers driven by the search for a highly ranked school district.
The good news for potential buyers, meanwhile, is that some of the hottest neighborhoods can be affordable.
Ron Gosewisch, a mortgage adviser for Coldwell Banker Home Loans serving Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, cites the Graduate Hospital area in southwest Center City, and Passyunk Square in South Philly — bordered by Washington Avenue at the north; Tasker Street, south; Broad Street, west; Sixth Street, east — the two hottest neighborhoods in the city.
Graduate Hospital is particularly popular, he claims, because of its proximity to the University of Pennsylvania, one of the region's biggest employers; Passyunk exists as a city within the city with boutique shopping and trendy restaurants.
While older homes appeal to some, others may take a shine to sparkling new properties ready-to-move-in. Alon Barzilay, an established Philadelphia developer, has intimate knowledge of the issue, as he is currently working on several residential projects throughout Philadelphia.
His notion of the hottest neighborhoods are those that offer lots of action, yet have quiet, charming side streets, nestled away from that activity, where one can make a home a sanctuary.
"There are some locations that are not so hot — 'there is no there there,' as Gertrude Stein would say," states Barzilay. "The trick is to find up-and-coming locations that already have some track record of success and are well on their way. By the time there's a Starbucks, it's too late, and potential buyers or renters are already paying at the top of the market."
Barzilay cites Graduate Hospital and its southwest Center City neighbor, Fitler Square, as examples of already-popular spots, but points out that the city has in the works a revived section around the South Street bridge. He also points to new towers going up at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in West Philadelphia and new housing to accommodate the anticipated growth in that area.
He adds that Fitler Square continues to be a hotbed for younger families moving into southwest Center City. An increase of construction and new businesses will place the area on the cusp of "extreme urban value."
On the other hand, there are areas that are being rediscovered as they are being revitalized.
"Northern Liberties is a prime example of what I like to allude to as the 'Bar Mitzvah Growth Effect,' " continues Barzilay. "The neighborhood is now bustling with tons of vibrant new stores and restaurants. It's evolved into its current state" — one of hipness — "gradually over time; we didn't even notice it. It's sort of like when your out-of-town little nephew hits a growth spurt, and it seems like he sprung up overnight when you see him at his Bar Mitzvah."
In looking for the next big thing — a neighborhood yet to have its "Bar Mitzvah" — Michael Silverman, managing director of Integra Realty Resources in Philadelphia, notes that there are many treasures to be found, but that search and subsequent investment should be approached with care.
"Investors attracted to the market and developing" — or renovated — "properties are moving toward Newbold," bordered by Broad Street to the east and 18th Street to the west, with Washington Avenue on the north and Wolf Street on the south.
Silverman observes that "investors are buying homes cheap, maybe $60,000, and renovating them and selling them for $150,000."
On the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Logan Square "is on the rise," what with the establishment of the Barnes Foundation, coming in from the suburbs, and the Granary, an apartment complex. "The area," he says, "is becoming hotter."
"I think the biggest issue that can arise is when investors come into a market and try to 'create' neighborhoods," Silverman says. "This is a good thing, as it creates demand, but what may happen is that that demand exceeds supply and that drives up the price. This often takes place in neighborhoods where people have gone because of the initial price point. Because of the investors, other prospective buyers may be priced out of the market."
Gosewisch says that if you are looking at a not-yet-trendy area, make sure the business district in that neighborhood is developed before you go there. Don't move to an area based on an assumption, he warns.
Barzilay suggests putting the concept of neighborhoods into perspective: "People think of neighborhoods as having specific boundaries; however, most areas are defined by the people who live there, as well as how they live and what's in that area supporting that lifestyle.
"Neighborhoods evolve, just like people."
Elyse Glickman is a West Coast writer. This article originally appepared in "Real Estate," a special section in the Jewish Exponent.