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A portrait of a mysterious man hangs on a white wall in the Cornell Museum of Art in Delray Beach. You likely couldn't name him if your life depended on it, but if you're a woman, in a way, it does.
The man is Dr. George Papanicolaou, inventor of the Pap smear, a cervical exam that has made it possible to detect several kinds of cancer. The picture was painted by Papanicolaou's grandniece, Olga Stamatiou, who, with her husband, Rocky Zappia, and a merry band of hangers-on, has embarked on a project in the physician's honor. It is a mission as fantastic as a Greek myth, except that it's real.
More or less.
As far-flung as it is far-fetched, Rocky and Olga's tale takes them from whitewashed Greek villages to white-walled American galleries, aboard a motor home in Fort Lauderdale and a yacht in Monaco, through hallowed halls of elite hospitals and within the thin walls of the Ocean Mile Motor Lodge.
Meet these soi-disant artistes as they pursue their own Greek-American dream: freedom, poetic justice, and specula for everyone!
First, however, a fable.
Once upon a time, there was a man who lived among a coterie of carefree bohemians. One day he met a beautiful girl who displayed neither talent nor guile. Using his powers of hypnosis, Svengali transformed Trilby into an opera star. She rose to fame and brought great wealth to Svengali, without whose manipulation she could not perform.
Named for the woman-child, George du Maurier's 1894 novel, Trilby, coined the term Svengali.
It is the 1950s in the Greek-American community of Douglaston, Long Island, and the sounds of Beethoven blare from the phonograph. Olga and Kathy Stamatiou, itchy in their little-girl dresses, are trying to sit still and listen. They are at the home of their great-uncle, George Papanicolaou. Their parents, Evangelos and Mary, are like children to the doctor and his wife Mary, so such Sunday family get-togethers are routine. Although the sisters are aware of Dr. Pap's passion for classical music, his skill playing the violin, and his rigid schedule, they know little of his work. "We knew he went to the laboratory every day," Kathy shrugs, half a century later.
Today George Papanicolaou's face is on Greece's largest bill -- the 10,000 drachma note -- but to many his story is obscure. Olga, now in her fifties, would like to change that. In September she and Rocky founded Prevention and Protection (PAP), a nonprofit organization, to fund projects that, among other things, would restore the great man's name. She came up with the idea while visiting Pap's childhood home in Kymi, Greece. Rocky considers Pap's legacy his wife's birthright. "Olga and Kathy are the nieces," he points out, "and that gives us a certain position."
Rocky's position is harder to discern. His long, curly ponytail is streaked with gray. He speaks with the accent of his native New York in words that spill forth with nervous urgency, as if bottled up too long. He describes Dr. Pap with great familiarity: how he'd bring his lunch to work rather than waste time in line at the hospital cafeteria, how he'd plan his day down to the second. It is the familiarity of a fable, of course. Rocky Zappia never met the man.
As he speaks Rocky sits beside Olga in a bare upstairs room of the Cornell Museum. She is trim, her short white-blond hair is carefully styled, and her T-shirt and jeans appear crisp and carefully chosen. Ordinarily soft-spoken, Olga is especially quiet when Rocky is present. She looks at him, wide-eyed, and a smile of adoration crosses her face.
Rocky wears a crumpled white linen shirt and jeans and a tooled leather belt with a large silver buckle, adorned by a loaf of bread, that reads, "Farming, everyone's bread and butter." The belt looks like something he's had for years, maybe since that fateful day in small-town Maine when he met Olga as she rode by, Mary Poppinsstyle, on her bicycle. Olga had traveled north after finishing her M.F.A. at Boston University. "I just decided I'd take the car and see where I wanted to go," Olga recalls, smiling serenely, "so I landed in this magical place, Kennebunkport."
When she met the man she calls her soul mate, Olga was planning to travel to New Mexico with friends. She needed a truck for her trip. Rocky was good at fixing old cars and trucks. Was it fate? she wonders now. She and Rocky spent the next nine months together. Even as Olga was preparing to leave New England, she had misgivings. "He wasn't saying, "I want you to stay,'" she remembers.
"I didn't want to hold her back," Rocky explains apologetically, with a sidelong glance toward his wife that suggests they've discussed this before. For the record Olga finally asked Rocky whether he wanted her to stay. He said yes. That was ten years ago. They haven't spent a day apart since.
For Svengali would not allow her to sing without him; nor, indeed, would he be parted from her for a minute, or trust her out of sight.
It is a week before PAP's first benefit exhibition, "The Man Behind the Test." The show is the culmination of two years' worth of letters and transatlantic phone calls by Rocky. Olga's bright paintings share wall space with squares of sunlight shining through picture windows. The show (which opened September 21 and runs through November 12 at the Cornell Museum) includes artwork from an array of Olga and Rocky's artist friends; nearly all of it is unrelated to George Papanicolaou, gynecology, or Greece. Upstairs, workers are preparing a display of personal items from Dr. Pap, some books, some letters in Greek.
The paintings are done in realistic style, with bright colors and bold geometric shapes. There's a painting of Pap and Mary in tones so soft and light they seem to disappear, as if the portrait were not of the couple but of their ghosts. Another painting is a closeup, larger-than-life portrait of Rocky in hat and sunglasses, sipping an enormous cup of coffee at an outdoor café. The cup is nearly as big as his head, but it doesn't seem to be for effect; rather it appears amateurish.
"This isn't the traveling exhibit," Rocky points out. "This is just to raise funds for the traveling exhibit."
PAP, Rocky hopes, will become a threefold tribute: a traveling multimedia exhibit stopping at college campuses ("a really hip venue"), a documentary about the good doctor, and Papmobiles that roam the streets, giving free exams to the poor. While they are at it, Rocky and Olga wouldn't mind selling a few of Olga's paintings. "I call it my hand-grenade theory," Rocky says. "Just throw it out there and see what people are interested in."
Olga praises her husband's organizational skills, but Rocky demurs. He wouldn't call himself a manager. Rather he's "more of a visionary," he says. "I can visualize how things are tied together."
To Eleanor Kalvin, Rocky's vision is blurry at best. An otherwise bubbly, Bette Midler esque woman with neatly coifed hair and tinted, gold-framed glasses, Kalvin hardens at the mention of Olga's companion. "He's a dreamer," she says dismissively. "He's trying to get in using the Papanicolaou name." As president of Papanicolaou Women's Corps For Cancer Research, Inc., she too has a stake in the Papanicolaou name. And she doesn't like Rocky using it: "He's a dreamer and has wonderful ideas, but he hasn't got the authorization, and he hasn't got the money."
The Papanicolaou Women's Corps has both the money and the name recognition that Rocky and Olga's foundation lacks. Founded in 1952 under the aegis of Dr. Pap, the Hollywood-based nonprofit is one of South Florida's oldest charitable organizations. Its members reside in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties but are concentrated in south Palm Beach enclaves like Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and West Palm Beach; many of them are cancer survivors.
More than 1100 bejeweled, pastel-suited matrons turned out for a celebratory luncheon in May at the posh Boca Raton Resort and Club. The corps presented a giant cardboard check to Dr. Jerry Goodman, medical director of the University of Miami/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Research Center; made out for the sum of $1.35 million, its size was hardly hyperbole.
In fact the fluffy, feminine image of the Papanicolaou Women's Corps belies its power and history. Dr. Pap spent the year before his death in Miami as director of the then-brand-new Papanicolaou Research Institute, which was dedicated on his 79th birthday, May 13, 1962. A handful of the corps' most senior members met the man before his death later that year of coronary heart failure.
The center was later renamed and eventually became part of the University of Miami. Although there is still a Papanicolaou Research Building on campus, the 10,000-member, 30-chapter corps is largely responsible for keeping Pap's memory alive. Each chapter hosts activities, like dinners, luncheons, raffles, and golf tournaments. The corps is UM/Sylvester Cancer Center's largest donor. "They're an enigma in the world of volunteering," says Victoria Rogers, executive director of development for Sylvester. "When most groups are dwindling, they continue to grow."
Rogers' office is down a long, Creamsicle-color corridor in Sylvester's opulent coral compound on the UM campus. It's the end of the day at the end of the week, and she distractedly runs her hand through her spiky salt-and-pepper hair. Though invited to Rocky and Olga's gala in Delray Beach, Rogers didn't attend, because, she says, she had to go to another function. A thick, shrink-wrapped stack of postcards promoting the exhibit sits near her desk, unopened. She chooses her words carefully when discussing PAP: "To my knowledge they have not yet acquired a not-for-profit status."
"I can do more good by lying than by telling the truth, and make more deserving people happy, including myself and the sweetest girl alive -- the end shall justify the means!"
Had Rogers gone to the gala, she might have noticed that Rocky and Olga listed her name alongside Eleanor Kalvin's on the dedication page of a glossy, 40-page catalog. (New Times is also thanked.) Rocky and Olga had 1000 copies printed for the show, which cost them about $7000. "Anything that's being done to heighten awareness of cervical cancer is a service," Rogers says evenly.
Kalvin is less circumspect. She turned down a chance to speak at the event and snubbed Rocky's invitation. When he tried to convince the corps president to auction some of Olga's artwork, Kalvin says, "nothing came of it. We got stuck with a couple of paintings."
She suspects Rocky is attempting to mislead potential donors by implying an affiliation with the corps. "If he makes money, we may be looking at a lawsuit," Kalvin continues, her voice rising in anger. "He's using us, and he's trying to use other people."
The story of Rocky and Olga is rooted in the ancestral tale of Dr. Pap. Although in the 1920s he developed a test that would save untold lives, Pap was a headstrong child whose energy, though considerable, was splintered among his many interests. He was fascinated by music, art, and inquiry.
Physically Pap was bold: Sometimes he'd ignore his elders' warnings and row the roiling Aegean merely to test his mettle. He tried to join the Greek navy but was rejected in a clear case of age discrimination -- he was 13 years old.
Eventually Pap followed in his father's footsteps and became an army doctor. After completing his service, Pap returned to start a private practice in Kymi, a tiny seaport on the island of Euboea. His stay lasted only a year, and his patients were few, mostly lepers neglected by local townsfolk. This left plenty of time for long walks through the island's olive groves, where he pondered great ideas. There was much to consider: Darwin had recently published his theory of evolution, which challenged Christian dogma. Then there were Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche.
Soon wanderlust struck, and Dr. Pap traveled to Germany with the idea of combining his interests and studying the philosophy of biological sciences. But he was disappointed by the program at the University of Jena, so he enrolled at the University of Munich. After receiving his doctorate, Pap returned to Greece and defied his father by refusing a marriage that had been arranged for him. Instead he proposed to the daughter of a general, Mary Mavroyeni. He wed her in a small ceremony; his family did not attend. When Greece fought Turkey in the Balkan Wars, Papanicolaou served his country once again. Though he saw the horrors of war, he also learned from Greek-American soldiers of opportunities in America. With first-class tickets paid for by Mary's father and despite both families' strong reservations, the couple set sail for America. With little more than the $250 minimum required to enter the United States, they abandoned Greece and a life of affluence for a new, unknown world. It was New York, October 19, 1913.
Pap and Mary both found work at Gimbel's department store -- she doing alterations, he selling carpets. On the second day at his new job, he was called to show a rug to a woman he'd met on the first-class cruise. It was too humbling. He quit.
Eventually Pap landed a job in the Anatomy Department of Cornell University, and Mary was later hired as his assistant, which would become her lifelong role. Pap continued work he had begun in Munich. His study of guinea pigs was stymied by the difficulty of observing ovulation. He surmised that, like other female animals, rodents must have a menstrual period, even if it was not evident. No one had bothered to document the menstrual cycles of guinea pigs, so Pap purchased a nasal speculum and took samples himself. Eureka! Turns out guinea pigs have menstrual cycles, too. Pap's technique was soon used on other mammals.
By the 1920s Pap began extrapolating his findings to women. For his best guinea pig, he didn't have to look far from home. He studied his wife for 21 years, an unbroken body of research made possible by their childlessness. "That woman probably had more Pap smears than any woman in history," laughs Dr. R. Wallace Lind, a gynecologist who, with his gynecologist wife, Heide, has written about Dr. Pap.
Papanicolaou's innovation formed the foundation for what is called exfoliative cytology, the study of cells that have been scraped from an organism. After documenting normal cells, Dr. Pap turned his attention to cell pathology, revealing the test's utility in the field of cancer research. The Pap smear has since saved untold women's lives by helping doctors to detect cancers.
Pap never received the Nobel Prize, a fact Carol Ann Armenti, executive director of the New Jersey based Center For Cervical Health and a cervical cancer survivor, considers an injustice. "It's a denial of [Dr. Pap's] contribution as a human person," she says. In 1998 Armenti successfully lobbied Congress to designate January as National Cervical Health Month and also helped launch a project that sends vans to perform Pap smears on the needy, a program much like the Papmobiles Rocky and Olga envision.
Armenti says a vaccine for cervical cancer is on the way, which would make it "the first cancer we can all but eliminate." This could happen within the next two years, which, Armenti admits, would make more Papmobiles moot: "It would take that long to get vans donated." Nonetheless, when Rocky and Olga wrote to tell her about PAP earlier this year, she was delighted and quickly agreed to be the keynote speaker at the Cornell Museum show.
Nobody knew where Svengali lived, and few knew how or why.
Dusk descends on Kozy Kampers RV Park on Commercial Boulevard in Lauderdale Lakes; the campers are cozy in their Winnebagos, their folding lawn chairs empty save two near space number ten. A string of icicle lights twinkles in the newborn night, illuminating the green-and-white striped awning like a circus' big top on Christmas Eve.
"We're like gypsies," Olga says, and indeed, after meeting in Maine, they did nine-month stints in Miller's Falls, Massachusetts, and Charleston, South Carolina, and three years in Sarasota, Florida.Ach! What an existence! what travels! what triumphs! what adventures! Things to fill a book -- a dozen books! Those five happy years -- with those two Trilbys!
Their rolling home, a metal camper towed by a red 1961 milkman's truck, is chock full of the detritus of everyday life. Plastic dinnerware and bottles of wine clutter the kitchen; tubes of Tom's of Maine toothpaste and boxes of L'Oréal hair color spill out of the tiny bathroom's crowded cabinets. By day the shaded area provided by the awning doubles as Olga's studio. "It's very cozy, and I love it," she says gaily. "It's like being in a big bubble."
An artist's life should be away from the world above all that meanness and paltriness... all in his work.
Tonight they are having dinner for a few friends and family, who have assembled for the show. At the stove, peering into a mass of macrobiotic rice, is Olga's sister Kathy, an interior designer who lives in London. With ten different grains (Rocky's recipe), she's unsure how long to cook it.
There's Hillary, a photographer and friend of Olga's for more than 20 years, who has photos in the show. Today, as often, she is wearing black; her long dark ringlets stretch to the middle of her back. With Hillary is her husband, Fritz, a bearded, bespectacled German who spent a career making public-television documentaries.
At dinner, between passing bowls of salad and plates of grilled fish, Hillary tells the story of how she met Fritz at a wine bar in Cologne. He was married. "It was unfortunate," she deadpans. Everyone laughs. She shrugs and pours more wine.
This is Olga and Rocky's inner circle; it is small by design. "[Although] we have a lot of acquaintances," Olga says, "mostly we just like to be together."
Olga pulls her knees to her chest and hunkers down over a laptop, frustrated. She doesn't know how much to charge for her artwork, nor can she line up the numbers on the screen. The prices are arbitrary, Olga admits, and one piece, her painting of a woman holding an umbrella, is not for sale.
Like an amateur, in short -- a distinguished amateur who is too proud to sell his pictures, but willingly gives one away now and then to some highly-valued and much-admiring friend.
She says she'll donate the proceeds from her work to PAP. Taped near the stove is a photocopy of a document from the state of New Jersey regarding their nonprofit corporation application. Olga finally settles on a range of $3000 to $6500 for her paintings. She says she sold eight of them at her last show in Greece. Rocky, however, will not say how many paintings they have peddled. "We sell enough to live on" is his only comment.
Nikes propped against the door jamb, his large frame folded in a mauve-andwood-grained chair, Matt Zappia is trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid breaking a rule. Room 106 of the Ocean Mile Motor Lodge is nonsmoking, thus he's hovering, lit cigarette in hand, on the threshold. When the ocean breeze blows through the door, smoke curls inside the room anyway. Matt just laughs. He wears corduroy shorts the color of rippling wheat and an orange T-shirt with a flowery, psychedelic print on the chest that reads, in tiny letters, Polo. His hair is short and brown; a few days later it shows a rakish patch of bleach, as if the Florida sun has gone to his head.
At 23 years old, Matt is at once self-assured and painfully self-aware. His stop-start relationship with his father, Rocky, gives him an usually fresh perspective on the man he calls "Pop." Matt gestures toward standard-issue motel tables piled with an artillery of not-so-standard equipment: a digital video-editing console, monitors, and a keyboard, all worth at least $20,000. Rocky bought it and it belongs to PAP. Rocky has always been an entrepreneur. Even in 1979, when he moved from New York to a commune in Gill, Massachusetts, he was making what those around him constantly refer to as his "connections."
"Forty people in the woods eating turnips," Rocky says, chuckling at the memory of communal life. "I convinced everyone to go out and make $1000 and buy the land from a farmer." He learned organic farming and met friends who would later become his business partners in a Maine company that produced wooden storage units for videocassettes. For the most part, though, he says the commune was simply a place to crash when he wasn't traveling the country as a roadie for rockers like Joe Cocker.
The commune also happened to be Matt's birthplace, a fact Matt tosses out with practiced indifference. Apropos of his origins, Matt was given Tibet as his first name but now goes by his middle name. Rocky, Matt, and Matt's mother, Wendy, lived on the commune until Matt was three or four years old, "just long enough," he says, "for me to get my complexes down." In 1988, when Matt was 11 years old, his parents divorced. Torn between the two, Matt eventually cut off contact with his dad. "I was trying to get my home shit figured out," he says. "I was living in a dual world. I didn't know where I was fitting in."
The ensuing estrangement would last through his high-school years and his first year at the Maine College of Art. When Matt decided to end their silence, he had no problem getting his father's phone number from a friend. "I made one phone call, and that was it."
On Christmas Day 1996, he dialed Sarasota, Florida. An unfamiliar female voice answered the phone, choked with tears. It was Olga. "He had told her about me," Matt says. "It was very emotional." But then his dad came on the line, and Matt was characteristically nonchalant: "I just said, "Dad, what's up?'"
At the time Rocky and Olga were making plans to marry and go to Greece, where Olga's father was ailing. He died just after they had arranged to ship their truck across the Atlantic, but they went anyway. Olga had inherited her father's apartment in the Athens suburb of Aegina.
Several months after that fateful call, father and son were reunited in the dingy, smoke-yellowed terminal of the old Athens airport. They spent two weeks together. The next year Matt returned for six weeks, gradually learning the language and customs. He also became reacquainted with his father. "It just felt time," Matt remembers. "He was at the point where they were starting something new, and I felt I was ready."
After graduation Matt returned to Greece and spent a year there, working on PAP projects and traveling through Europe. During the day Olga would paint while Rocky and Matt worked on the computer. Sometimes Matt would work with Olga, helping her with perspective, a skill she readily admits has troubled her through 20 years of painting. At night they'd eat outside, under the Aegean sky, with lots of wine and conversation about music, art, and ideas.
But like a CD with a skip in it, Matt's relationship with his father has gaps. One is chronological, the other, generational.
Matt plays new music for Rocky and Olga, and though they say they like it, Matt isn't sure they understand. While he respects Olga's work, the still-lifes, portraits, and realistic renderings of pigeons on rooftops are too literal -- not really his kind of thing.
Still, he speaks with admiration about his father's old-fashioned people skills. He describes Rocky as an "über-networker," always planning. "He's a workaholic."
Even as Matt speaks, the synthesized sounds of French DJ Alex Gopher waft from unseen speakers, a disembodied voice of Generation Y. Along with an art-school buddy, Jona Rice, he is putting the finishing touches on a biographical video of Dr. Pap. The Cornell Museum show is less than a week away, but Jona and Matt have yet to put up posters for it. They'll have time, Matt laughs, when it's over.
Since it is housed at a museum and not a private gallery, the PAP exhibit is, in Rocky's words, "a very soft sell." Olga has dressed up for the occasion anyway. She wears an iridescent lilac taffeta bustier, the same bruised shade as the twilight sky outside. Her skirt is long and black with a slit that reveals a silky white lining inside. A soft white scarf is draped around her pale shoulders like the flourish atop an Ionic column.
Tonight Matt Zappia's first impression of Olga seems especially fitting: "Right off the bat, I felt that Olga was just this little girl," he says. "She's so sweet and nice. She can't stand stresses, but she does through [Rocky]. He takes the brunt. There is a dependency," he adds soberly. "Once you meet them, you realize they can't be apart."
Tonight as ever, their joint efforts are ultimately entrepreneurial. "Be your own boss," Matt says, "that's the American dream." It's a dream that, paradoxically, may be lived abroad: "If we can get money here, we can travel back [to Greece]. There's no money there for things like this."
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On this night the money is here, piled high in heels that clack on the museum's hardwood floor, traipse silently outside over the soft green carpet of grass, champagne in hand, to a parking lot that purrs with cash wrapped in the chassis of Jags and Benzes. Palm Beach County's stealth wealth is here, soft-spoken and big-haired, but what, if anything, will they spend?
Voices rise and faces redden in the heady swirl of red wine. Olga cannot tell if the event is going well. Track lighting casts a golden glow on her paintings. Standing next to them, with their vibrant tones and larger-than-life still-life subjects, she seems especially small and pale, Trilbyesque. She smiles uncertainly.
I know very well I can't sing well enough to sing in a place like that! What a fool I was! It all seems like a bad dream! What was it about? Was it a dream, I wonder!
Days after the show, Rocky reluctantly reveals that not a single piece of art was sold.


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Re: Any info on Nute, son of John Deer & Mary Van Cleave?
In reply to:
Any info on Nute, son of John Deer & Mary Van Cleave?
Barb Dunlap 6/06/02
Further research finds "Nute" in the 1880 Census (Washington, Adams, Iowa) as Newton Deer, merchant, 30, b. IN.His wife is listed as Emma, 29, b. IN and children are Almeda 8, Nettie 7, Flora 5, Luther 3, Frankie 1, all born in Iowa.The 1850 census (Washington, Adams, Iowa) lists a child "James" age 10 with parents John and Mary Deer.This would fit as this same person which would mean his name was probably James Newton Deer.Are their any decendents to this family?

subset: commoncrawl


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The spell that binds them can only be broken with an incantation found in the Codex Merlini, an ancient grimoire. The Codex's location has been lost in the present day, so Cassie will have to seek it out in the only place it can still be found---the past.
But Cassie soon realizes the Codex has been lost for a reason. The book is rumored to contain some seriously dangerous spells, and retrieving it may help Cassie to deal with Mircea, but it could also endanger the world.
©2008 Karen Chance; (P)2008 Tantor
"Karen Chance will entrall you." (Rebecca York, author of Ghost Moon)
"Really good series"
This book has lots of action. Vamps, Pixies, Witches, a little sex and a lot of laughs. Great narrator.
"Fun and worth the listen"
This series is just plain fun. These characters aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, but they are hilariously flawed :) I can't wait for y'll to get the next book in this series as well as more books from Karen Chance.
"Timey Wimey"
Time travel is always tricky, especially in a book with this much constant action. It is played out well here, with a few holes that are easy to over look, since the story in itself is fun and keeps your interest easily. The narrator, whom I know from other books, is very good in this one, the timing is finally spot on, an it is a pleasure to listen to. Best to start at the beginning with this series, as the world in it is all connected book to book. Really liking this series!!
"Fun, sexy, wildly inventive UF series!"
Another great installment in a fun series. This one follows Cassie's escapades through time as she frantically tries to save Mircea's life and both of their sanities from a spell gone wrong. Fun, sexy, wildly inventive UF.
"Action, Passion, Adventure"
A race to save Mircha! Cassie is clever and adventurous, and smart. She fights to save him yet, save the timeline and history.
"Great story"
I started with book 5 and found I needed to know the beginning I have been going through them like water
"Great Story"
Ms. Chance has created a great fantasy. Cassie Palmer gets more and more interesting with each installment of the series. The only thing lacking with Cassie's character is that she doesn't seem to want to be intelligent; she only learns accidentally or when she is forced to read something. It would be a nice addition to the character if she would try to be knowledgeable.
"Worst Narrator Ever!"
I have to give this narrator credit for curing insomnia. This narration can put you to sleep in no time.
"Like the stories--hate the narrator"
I like the series other than the fact that the heroine is as dumb as a box of rocks, it gets tiresome after a while. I would recommend the stories but caution as strongly as possible to be prepared for some of the most mangled pronunciations a narrator has ever uttered. I like the stories enough to try to ignore it, bad luck for us this narrator does most of the authors I like so I am getting better at finding her less maddening.
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text: I've been meaning to double smoke a ham since BearCarvers post on this about 2 years ago & finally got around to it. Picked up an 8.5# shank ham during the Easter sales for .99 a pound. Decided to give it a 4 hour bucket soak to pull off any excess salty brine. Hard to tell if it made any difference with no side by side comparison. A rub of brown sugar, paprika, pepper, garlic, Colmans mustard & a dash of ground clove after a fat trimming prior to the overnight rest. The aroma in the garage fridge next morning was mouthwatering. Into the smoker with the trimmed fat above for basting through a holey pie plate, set it to 200 degrees and let the TBS from the pecan chunks work it's magic. About 7 hours later the IT was 120 and it got the first basting glaze of apricot-pineapple preserves warmed up with some maple syrup & brown sugar. Hit it with a second coating of glaze about an hour later while getting rest of the meal together. IT was at 130 and the group was ready for chow. Nieces BF knocked off a huge plate, so I was happy with the results. Thx for looking & thanks to SMF posters for reference info....Willie humble beginnings of the 99 cent supermarket hammy 4 hour soak....made me feel better anyway, gotta watch my salt intake rub before overnight sleep threw some xtra rub on the trimmings for grins after second glaze still nice and moist inside after an 8 hour smoke bubbling chocolate skillet cake with chocolate pecan frosting for dessert


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Miley Cyrus has been filmed smoking a legal high. Video footage posted on the internet show the 18-year-old singer-and-actress inhaling smoke from a bong – a filtration device for smoking – at a party held at her Los Angeles home on November 28, before bursting into giggles.
According to gossip website TMZ, the smoke comes from a natural herb called salvia, which has psychedelic qualities.
In the clip, Miley takes a hit then says: "OK I'm about to lose it now. I'm having a little bit of a trip right now."
With music blaring in the background, the 'Last Song' star later mistakenly identifies one of the party guests as her former boyfriend Liam Hemsworth.
She laughs: "Oh my God! He looks so much like him! He looks so much like Liam. Is that me tripping? He doesn't look like Liam at all? Dude, that looks just like Liam!"
It is believed the footage was stolen or copied from a camera belonging to a friend of Miley's.
The former 'Hannah Montana' star's "honorary godmother" Dolly Parton recently admitted she was worried about the people influencing the teenage star's behaviour.
Dolly said: "I think she's just in a crosswind trying to overcome the 'Hannah Montana' little girl and trying to become a young woman.
"I don't know if she's surrounded by people that are helping her to not make the wise decisions…"
- Miley Cyrus: Academy Awards without her boyfriend
- Miley Cyrus branded herself a "stoner"
- Liam Hemsworth was taking Miley Cyrus to Australia
- Miley Cyrus: She has split from Liam Hemsworth again
- Miley Cyrus: Her Mother loves Liam Hemsworth
» Nicole Richie: She still hasn't decided on her wedding dress


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Annual Canarsie Community Festival Bridges The Gap
If there had been any gullies, rivers or mountains that needed to be surmounted, you can be assured they were gulfed last Sunday, when the Canarsie Bridges Community Festival was staged on St. Jude's Place behind the Hebrew Educational Society.
Featuring the P.S. 115 Glee Club, the Sesame Flyers Steel Drum Band, carnival rides, live D.J.s and even a health fair, the event promised fun, fun, fun for the whole family - and lived up to its billing.
Besides all the events, prizes were given for the winners of the Canarsie Bridges Essay Contest, where children from the community schools were to write on the topic: "Canarsie: A Caring Village."
There were two First Place winners, two Second Place winners and one Third Place winner:
First Place: Maurice Marrow and Ayah Shahin;
Second Place: Verdi Degbey and Jabari McNichol.
Third Place: Anthony Licea.
With rides (and food galore!), those who attended said they enjoyed themselves so much they already looked forward to next year's festival.
Photos by Bennett Silverman


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California League
Prospect Of The Day
First baseman Sean Doolittle simply won't go away. He had just one hit in three at-bats last night, but he drew three walks and his fourth-inning grand slam made big difference in the 9-8 win over Lake Elsinore (Padres).
The grand slam was part of a seven-run fourth inning for Stockton (Athletics), putting the Ports up 7-1. The Storm continued to put up some offense, but Stockton was able to slip away with the one-run win.
It was Doolittle's 11th home run of the season and he is now hitting .353/.432/.691 in 139 at-bats.
Prospect Nuggets
Inland Empire (Dodgers) third baseman Josh Bell went 1-for-2 with his fifth home run…Lefthander James Adkins went 6 2/3, allowing just one run on four hits and four walks while striking out three…Ben Snyder's record is still perfect for San Jose (Giants) as he improved to 5-0. He went seven innings allowing no runs on seven hits and no walks while striking out five.
What To Watch For Today
Lefthander Kasey Kiker takes the hill against High Desert (Mariners). In four starts he's 1-0, 6.20 and has allowed 30 hits in 20 innings.
Carolina League
Prospect Of The Day
Lefthander Aaron Poreda seems to have figured out how to win when your own team doesn't give much run support: Don't let the other team score at all.
Poreda went six innings allowing only three hits and two walks while striking out five to earn his third straight win. He is now 3-2, 2.34 on the year.
Prospect Nuggets
Kinston (Indians) left fielder Nick Weglarz went 1-for-2 with his fourth home run of the season…Brandon Erbe was tagged with a loss after allowing six runs on eight hits against Salem (Astros)…Astros left field James Van Ostrand did the damage, hitting his first home run of the year, a two-run shot in the fifth, the virtual nail in the coffin for Erbe…Blake Wood had a quality start, but was handed a loss nonetheless. He went seven innings allowing three runs on three hits while walking one and striking out seven.
What To Watch For Today
Lefthander Daniel Moskos has kept the run total down in his last two starts and will take his 3-1, 3.72 to the mound against a struggling offense today in Winston-Salem (White Sox).
Florida State League
Prospect Of The Day
Righthander Kyle Ginley made just his second start yesterday for Dunedin (Blue Jays). In his first start he allowed just one run on two hits in five innings.
He bested that yesterday in seven innings tossing a one-hitter and striking out four. He is now 2-0, 0.75.
Prospect Nuggets
Catcher J.P. Arencibia took care of the Blue Jays offense, going 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and run scored…Lakeland (Tigers) righthander Duane Below went 7 1/3, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits and struck out 10, but didn't get a decision as the game went into extras and Lakeland prevailed in the 11th…Outfielder Drew Stubbs went 2-for-5 with a triple and RBI in a 7-2 win over Fort Myers (Twins)…Righthander Jeff Manship took the loss, allowing six runs on 10 hits over four innings. He did strike out eight though.
What To Watch For Today
Righthander Deolis Guerra seems to have found a groove with his control, keeping his walk count to six in his last five starts. He'll face Vero Beach at 7 p.m. EDT.


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From August 9th to August 15th the week was over-flowing with hearty new game trailers, news and announcements. Turns out Dragon Age: Origins is suffering from the Section 8 complex insofar that PS3 gamers will be left in the gutter. News about the Halo movie have surfaced, or more-so why the movie itself won't be surfacing. A new debut trailer was recently made available for the innovative new Aspyr shooter, DreamKiller and id Software's Rage, and Nintendo announced that they are going to win back hardcore gamers with an inflatable horse. Way to go Nintendo, you really know how to hit all the right notes for keeping the fans pleased. These stories and more in the Blend Games Weekly Recap for August 15th.
Ozzy Osbourne Will Perform At BlizzCon 2009. That's good news for the people who can still understand the guy.
Three Nintendo Titles Have Potential To Sell 10 Million Units. It's obviously titles including Mario, Wii Sports or the word "Fitness".
Dragon Age Origins Delayed Again; PS3 Version Now Undated. Another slap in the face to PS3 gamers. Find out how long the delay will be by clicking on the link.
Spirits Of Metropolis Part Of Archive Games New Line-Up. They are all puzzle games so it's just a matter of various grades of puzzle games that are featured in the line-up.
Johnny Cash To Be Latest Dead Music Legend To Join The Guitar Hero Series. There's no artist this series won't touch, look for more grave-robbing hits to make into the next Guitar Hero.
Review: King Of Fighters XII. Blend Games' Andy Keener pummels his point of view into this latest iteration and it's not good.
Mortal Kombat 9 Aims To revolutionize Online Play. What about revolutionizing the premise of a Mortal Kombat game actually being good for once?
Midway UK Brand Purchased For Only $0.82 Cents. As if Mortal Kombat's legacy isn't embarrassing enough, the UK and French brands were sold for less than a hotdog at a local vendor.
Email Scam Targets Battlefield Heroes. Find out how it works and what it does.
Free Madden NFL 10 Copy With Sports Illustrated Subscription. Some consumers are getting scammed and it's not the people who subscribe to Sports Illustrated.
Wii Vitality Sensor Coming In 2010. This is to go alongside the inflatable horse.
Nintendo Patents Inflatable Horseback Controller For Wii. Who in their right mind would buy this? Honestly?
First Dragon Age Origins DLC Details. The game isn't out yet but people are already psyched on what's to come.
Halo Movie Shelved In Favor Of Games. That's not a bad idea considering that the movie would be a game-movie, anyway.
Neilson Games Study Reveals Nintendo Wii Usage Is Terribly Low. It's no surprise that Gamecube and Xbox owners would prefer playing real games on a real console.
Sacred 2 Ice And Blood Add-On Not For North Americans, Mexicans Or Canadians. For whatever reason most regions that actually enjoy playing video games won't be getting this add-on for Sacred 2.
John Carmack Thinks SonyWill Jump The Gun With PS4. Well, Microsoft did it with the Xbox 360, so it looks like it's time for Sony to screw themselves over too.
Prison Break Game Coming To Xbox 360, PS3 And PC. It's going to be a suspenseful, plot-twisting action game. Tv-to-game stigma could be low but still possible.
TimeSplitters Developer Interested In Natal. Sounds like Crytek UK could implement a little monkey business into their Natal plans.
DriverAgent To Fix Outdated Drivers For Gamers. If gamers happen to lack the tech-savvy required to keep the drivers up to date or are too lazy, DriverAgent could be a saving grace.
Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising System Requirements. Is your computer up to snuff for this massive new military game? Click the link to find out.
Indie Game Edmund Imitates Rapelay; To Ban Or Not To Ban? Touchy subject matter for an insensitive but poignant game.
Contra ReBirth Coming To North America. WiiWare gamers rejoice! A real game is coming and maybe now gamers don't have to worry about sifting through all those workout titles on the Wii.
GRIN Closes Its Doors. Another development company hitting the bricks, and possibly for the best.
Section 8 X Servers Allow For Up To 32 Players On Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is finally catching up to multiplayer PC gaming from 2001. Is that awesome or what?!
GRIN Veterans Form Outbreak Studios. After getting booted and closing the doors to GRIN, the vets of the studio then reformed under a different name. That's business for you.
Mini Ninjas Release Date Revealed. It's just a matter of time before gamers will slice and dice with miniature ninjas.
Crysis Wars Free For Another Week. If this doesn't get people to clicking, then someone doesn't deserve to be called a gamer, really.
F.E.A.R. 2 Slow-Mo Deathmatch Coming In September. This is an awesome trailer accompanying news that multiplayer will now support slow-motion.
World Of Darkness MMO Confirmed By CCP Games. It's like Vampire: Masquerade except now with thousands of other players. Nice.
Street Gears G Project Update Now Available. It's like Jet Set Radio and it now features new military racing tracks. Now if only it had graffiti it would be the best MMO of all time.
Army Of Two The 40th Day Release Dates; Multiplayer; Pre-order Bonus Revealed. Sounds like too much information too soon. That's actually a good thing.
2K Marin Hard At Work On Post Bioshock 2 Title. Because Bioshock 2 obviously isn't time-consuming enough for the devs.
Lost Planet 2 Co-Op Demo Coming To Xbox Live Next Week. The later you read this the closer the demo is to becoming available.
Dungeon Fighter Trailer Shows Off Side-Scrolling MMO Action. It's unique but not quite as good looking as Wind Slayer.
June 2009 NPD Sales Report: Predictable Results For DS And Wii. What, were you expecting the PS3 to beat out the PS2?
Karos Online Closed-Beta Applications Being Accepted. Want to play the new MMO by Nexon? Get in line now because the beta gets underway on August 21st.
Three-To-One Gamers Prefer M.A.G Over Halo 3: ODST. Interesting poll results that may reflect the waning grip-lock Halo had over the industry.
DreamKiller Trailer Debuts With Intriguing Concepts. It's not like shooting toast and jelly at monsters but it certainly isn't Duke Nukem 3D either.
DiRT 2 Rally Vs Reality Trailer. Codemasters was bold enough to put polygons against fiber glass and the difference is tough to spot at times.
Diablo II Vs. DarkEden: Classic Round. A little weekend treat that sees Diablo II resurfacing to face off against the vampire-hunting MMO, DarkEden.
That wraps up this week's news here at Blend Games. We round out this week with a new gameplay trailer for id Software's highly anticipated,
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Roberts gets go-ahead to resume activities
Roberts gets go-ahead to resume activities
"Roberts is back, he got cleared by Doctor [William] Goldiner [Tuesday]," manager Dave Trembely said. "He'll resume some baseball activities and in all likelihood when we leave [for Toronto following Thursday's game] he'll be on his way to Florida to see if we can get that going."
Roberts was originally scheduled to go to Sarasota, Fla., during the team's last road trip -- which started May 19 in Texas -- but he was hospitalized with pneumonia on the Monday prior, and has remained in Baltimore since.
When Roberts departs for Florida later this week, he will report to the team's Spring Training complex in Sarasota with the expectation being that he will gradually work his way back into baseball shape.
Roberts has been sidelined since April 9 with a herniated disc in his lower back, an injury that was originally suffered during offseason workouts but was reaggravated during a slide into second base in the team's home opener.


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Two voluntary blood donors received a special mention at a ceremony to commemorate World Blood Donor Day at Victoria Hospital in the Republic of Seychelles. Both had donated more than 50 units of blood. Around 200 other donors were also honoured. The Minister for Health and Social Services awarded certificates of recognition, and in his address to donors, he thanked them for their life-saving activities, and called on them to encourage other people to give their blood voluntarily.
In attendance at the ceremony were the Secretary for Health, World Health Organization liaison office, and officers from the Department of Health.


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Memories Book
Memories of the Beach Ballroom book
Memories of the Beach Ballroom is a collection of stories from times gone by told by people who used to socialise there. Over the years the Beach Ballroom has played host to a wide range of events from functions and shows to dinner dances and pop concerts. The Beach Ballroom has been a special venue which has been foremost in the hearts of Aberdonians since it first opened its doors in 1929.
Available to buy now
Celebrating Aberdeen's Beach Ballroom - History & Memories 1929 - 2009 is now available to buy from the following locations at a price of £10 paperback and £15 hardback:
- Beach Ballroom
- Aberdeen Central Library
- Aberdeen Maritime Museum
- Waterstones
Beach Ballroom
Beach Promenade
Tel: 01224 647647
Email email@example.com
Back to the Beach Ballroom homepage.


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text:
Exponential stability in p-th mean of solutions, and of convergent Euler-type solutions, of stochastic delay differential equations
Results are presented on the stability of solutions of stochastic delay differential equations with multiplicative noise and of convergent numerical solutions obtained by a a method of Euler-Maruyama type. An attempt is made to provide a fairly self-contained presentation. A basic concept of the stability of a solution of an evolutionary stochastic delay differential equation is concerned with the sensitivity of the solution to perturbations in the initial function. We recall the stability definitions considered herein and show that an inequality of Halanay type (derivable via comparison theory)j and deterministic results can be employed to derive stability conditions for solutions of suitable equations. In practice, dosed form solutions of stochastic delay differential equations are unlikely to he available. In the second part of the paper a stability theory for numerical solutions (solutions of Euler type) is considered. A convergence result is recalled for completeness and new stability results are obtained using a discrete analogue of the continuous Halanay-type inequality and results for a deterministic recurrence relation. Various results for stochastic (ordinary) differential equations with no time lag or for deterministic delay differential equations can he deduced from the results given here.
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in a Northern California county after a wildfire forced the evacuation of more than 100 people and destroyed two homes.
State fire officials say there is no longer any threat to homes in Yuba County, and all evacuations have been lifted.
The blaze burned nearly 4,000 acres, or six square miles and is 90 percent contained.
Schwarzenegger's proclamation frees up state funds and resources to help firefighters and property owners.
Meanwhile, a fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains that charred more than 7,500 acres, or about 11.9 square miles, is 90 percent contained.


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Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz—New York Times best-selling author of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! and A Drowned Maiden's Hair—creates a magnificent tale about a tiny night fairy who loses her wings and can no longer fly. As Flory the fledgling fairy soars through the dark sky, a ravenous bat bites off her wings. Injured yet determined to live, she's willing to do what it takes to survive—even if it means befriending a hungry squirrel and becoming a day fairy.
©2010 Laura Amy Schlitz (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC
"Newbery-winner Schlitz writes with strength of vision and delicate precision of word choice. A far cry from the conventionally sweet, whimsical stories about diminutive fairies, this tale begins with violence and ends with redemption. In between is an imaginative adventure story in a familiar, yet exotic landscape." (Booklist)
"Needs stronger narration"
Though it is intended for a younger audience, (who would not mind the lighter, sweeter voice) It would do the story a world of good were the narrator to use a bolder and more decisive voice. The main character may be a faery, but she is not a sweet faery, so it left things feeling mismatched and unbalanced.
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If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.


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Cable television often boasts that it can deliver esoteric fare suiting nearly any taste. But it could be rendered obsolete by the likes...
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Cable television often boasts that it can deliver esoteric fare suiting nearly any taste. But it could be rendered obsolete by the likes of Bill Eason's hog-cooking class.
The North Carolina cook's program — self-described as an "all-day, whole-hog class edited down to 45 minutes on how to find, select, prepare and serve whole hog from the man who cooks several hundred per year" — will be available for a $1.99 download as early as next month on something called DaveTV.
It's the type of show — niche programming to please any taste or whim — we'll be seeing much more now that broadband Internet has finally become a more reliable conduit for the delivery of broadcast-quality video.
A number of startups are promoting this sort of "narrowcasting."
Ken Lipscomb, chief executive of the Atlanta-based company, says DaveTV will offer more than 100 channels featuring 100,000 hours of licensed programming, much of it specialized fare such as illegal street racing and bedtime stories read by an on-screen narrator.
The hog video will be on the company's "BBQ" channel, featuring more than 1,000 barbecue-related programs. Initially, DaveTV will only be available for viewing on a computer. But the company promises a set-top box for about $200 that will allow downloads to be played on televisions.
Linking to computersAlso getting into the act is a company called Brightcove Networks, which will let customers avoid buying a separate set-top box and instead link their TVs to newer computers that run Microsoft Windows Media Center software.
Led by Jeremy Allaire, former chief technical officer of Macromedia, the Cambridge-based company says it plans to begin offering a platform to deliver all manner of programming — supplied by everyone from traditional TV producers to video bloggers to video-on-demand startups — sometime in the second half of the year.
"I deeply believe that over the next several years it will be this blend of very popular shows to kind of middle-of-the-road, down to you-happen-to-be-a-fly-fishing-guy, and you watch fly-fishing videos made by some guy in Kansas, and you're paying him $10 to see it," Allaire said.
Startups like Brightcove are counting on revenue from consumers, advertisers and such content providers as small-time filmmakers looking to gain exposure. The latter can feed their masterpieces to a distributor and set terms for pricing and any ads that might accompany the show. Revenue from viewers who pay either a subscription or per-program fee could be split.
Other fledgling companies, such as San Mateo, Calif.-based Akimbo Systems, offer a mix of traditional TV fare and more esoteric content. Akimbo charges $10 a month and offers about 1,600 programs, though 60 percent of them cost extra — anywhere from 50 cents to a few bucks.
The History Channel, A&E, CNN and Playgirl TV are among more established players who are already latching onto the new distribution services even as they license their programming to traditional cable and satellite operators.
Technology boostThe shift in the video landscape is made possible by high-speed connections and increasingly fast microprocessors that typically allow a two-hour feature film to be downloaded in less than an hour.
For spur-of-the-moment viewing, a customer can begin watching a film in less than a minute and download the rest while the movie plays. Or, like TiVo, a download can be scheduled while a computer isn't in use, for later viewing.
Allaire and others expect that companies like his will bypass the copyright battles plaguing music downloads because distributors can choose to offer only copyright-protected content. And copy-protection technologies such as Microsoft's Windows Media Digital Rights Management system are expected to limit unauthorized copies.
Allen Weiner, a new-media analyst at Gartner, says startups like Brightcove are "all going after the next generation of what television will look like."
Looking to nourish all this technology with programming are a host of new players in the movie business such as streaming video site iFilm.com and AmazeFilms, a partner that is among content providers to Akimbo.
They may not be the next Steven Spielbergs. But the new media offer promise for creators like Jonathan Caouette, who spent just over $200 assembling camcorder footage and other recordings into a personalized family documentary using movie editing software.
His 88-minute downloadable film "Tarnation" won critical acclaim at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals.
There also are free alternatives to the pay-to-view model, including the recently formed Open Media Network, a service for the online distribution of video and audio content whose founders say they won't allow it to traffic in pirated programming.
Internet TVMeanwhile, traditional phone companies — including Verizon and SBC Communications — are investing in Internet Protocol television, or IPTV, which involves converting a TV signal into small data packets.
New TV delivery systems such as IPTV are expected to accelerate fragmentation of TV audiences with more robust video-on-demand offerings and greater interactivity.
A recent report on the future of television by Deloitte & Touche said cable-subscription revenue has tripled since 1997 while revenue from DVD sales has risen by a factor of 15.
IPTV "has the potential to drive video-content revenues higher still," the report says. "The bottom line is that television networks will have plenty of opportunities for rapid growth. They'll just be different than the ones companies rely on today."
Gartner's Weiner says companies like DaveTV, Brightcove and Akimbo can thrive initially by drawing early adopters who are tired of traditional network fare. But the competitive landscape could quickly change if the likes of Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft can leverage their Internet search muscle and provide portals for consumers to access video content, he said. All three tech giants are already developing video search engines.
Weiner says big companies may eventually take over, but not before lots of small players rush in. "My greatest fear is that once people begin to see these services, there will be so much excitement around this and so many companies moving into this space that there will be a bust," he said. "In the interim, people will just see an unbelievable opportunity. You will see a huge rush into the space."


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Every time Charleston Hughes goes to a pro training camp, he gets cut.
Just don't expect it to happen this year.
Even after a solid rookie camp in 2008, the Calgary Stampeders went in a different direction and Hughes was released, only to get called back in Week 2 because of injuries.
Hughes went on to finish second on the team in tackles and tied for first in sacks, enough to get an NFL-option year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. In their training camp last season, he was cut, and he returned to the Stamps, with whom he had six sacks in his first three games before going without one in the final five outings.
With the benefit of a full off-season, Hughes has come back to this year's camp feeling energized. He also feels secure in his job.
"It's good that I feel confident, and I'm showing that I'm doing my job on the field," Hughes said. "I should feel confident being here. I had to relax, train and critique myself and make myself better."
Godfrey Ellis took a low blow in his attempt to win a starting job with the Stampeders' offensive line.
On the opening day of camp, Ellis took a pair of shots below the belt and was forced to sit out Monday's sessions.
"For me, I pretty much take it in stride," said the easy-going Bahamian.
This is an important training camp for Ellis, who is trying to replace the retired Jesse Newman at left guard.
Canadian WR Johnny Forzani returned to action after sitting out the first day with a hamstring injury ... DL De-Vone Claybrooks (cut finger) and OL Matt Sheridan (undisclosed) sat out Monday.


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Legal Question in Veterans Law in Texas
Is there any help or laws or anything that helps service connected disabled veterans with credit card debt, Ive currently found myself in a position that i can not afford to pay my minimum payments and keep my wife and child with food and shelter, all debt was acquired while i was in service which is approx. $35,000. A little about me, 80% disabled 70 for ptsd the other 10 is a combined rating from normal wear and tear nothing significant, Ive been hospitalize in civilian and military psychiatric wards both willing and against my will, i do not work, we live solely on social security and VA disability, and im in crisis within myself 100% of the time and now all this financial crisis, there has to be some sort of help for veterans that have be left out to dry. I am currently contemplating trying to be re evaluated to see if they will up my disability so I can make ends meet. There must be a better way to deal with this, any advice will help.
thank you
SSG Walsh (Ret)
2 Answers from Attorneys
I'm not sure of any programs specifically for veterans, but there are credit counseling services that can help you negotiate some of your debt down. From my point of view, you should be rated at 100% by VA if you are at 80% and not able to work. If you have any VA decision at all that is dated within the past year, I can probably help you. If you don't, you should send a request to your VA regional office, which according to your zip code is Waco (unfortunately) for an increased rating due to unemployability. Let me know if you have any more questions or if I might help you further. Good luck and hang in there.
Dear Sgt. Walsh:
First, thank you to you and your family for your service. Next, I suggest that you contact the Legal Hotline for Texas Veterans at 800.622.2520. They should be able to point you in the right direction.
Good luck,
Tanja Martini
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Dianne Wiest plays Peg, a suburban housewife who fills up her days selling make up door to door. The problem is, no one will buy anything from her. In desperation, she makes her way into a dark and foreboding manor at the far edge of town. There she discovers Edward (Johnny Depp), a strange looking young man with scissors instead of hands. In an act of altruism, she takes him home and he becomes part of the family. He's the talk of the town, and becomes beloved for outlandish and artistic hedge sculptures, dog stylings, and haircuts. However, small towns don't condone the different for too long, and soon Edward finds himself at the rough end of a lynch mob.
Tim Burton described Edward Scissorhands as a fairy tale. It certainly has elements of the fantastic, but it's dialed down from the extreme nature of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman. Yes, the houses are painted all kinds of crazy colors, but they're still recognizable as normal suburban houses. Compare that to the mess of architectural styles in Batman, one film previous to this, and you'll immediately see how Burton has learned to rein himself in. The fairy tale comes out in the underlying themes. In ways, Edward Scissorhands is a more tragic "Frog Prince."
Johnny Depp was just a young lad when he starred as Edward, and he'd never made a more important film in his career. Look at the films he's made with Tim Burton, and you'll see much that makes up the best of both of their bodies of work (including the best work perhaps either of them ever did, Ed Wood). Even this early on, it's easy to see why the two have worked together so often. Depp is brilliant as the meek and misunderstood Edward. He brings the character to life, beyond even what Burton wrote for him.
Burton also works with composer Danny Elfman, who had worked with Burton on all of his previous films. This was an important film for Elfman as well, as his scores often felt underdeveloped. For the first time, with Edward Scissorhands, Elfman created a fully realized series of compositions, that both worked on their own and in conjunction with one another. In his own commentary, Elfman says that Edward Scissorhands may be his own personal favorite of his work, and it's hard to disagree with his assessment. All of the key themes that would punctuate Elfman's later work are present here.
This was the final film of Vincent Price, beloved horror film actor. Price was a huge influence on Tim Burton, so much so that he made an animated short, appropriately entitled Vincent. Price only has a few minutes of screen time, but they're poignant and a suitable swan song for an actor who enchanted and terrorized generations of people.
But as much as the picture was important for the people who made it, it's even better for the audience. The movie has real poignancy, especially towards the end. Depp's delicate performance tugs at the heartstrings without ever feeling sappy. While the love story between his character and Winona Ryder's feels a little anemic at times, it still has a genuine emotional punch that never fails to connect. In fact, this is one of Burton's most nakedly emotional films. A minor classic.
The Blu-ray Disc:
The Image:
Fox presents Edward Scissorhands in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in this MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer. I was quite pleased with the image on this disc, which does a fantastic job of bringing to life the crazy world Burton invented. The colors are the first thing you'll notice, with reds and pinks popping out at you from the screen. There's a nice amount of detail, too. Just take a look at the minute scars on Edward's face to see how much more is available here than on DVD. Another great place to look would be in the flower garden at the manor, which is brimming with color and detail. At times, blacks tend to drop off too rapidly, but this may be due to the film stock used as opposed to a flaw in the actual transfer. Any fan of the film will want to take a look at the fine image on display here.
The Audio:
Fox offers up a DTS-HD MA 4.0 track, from which my PS3 was able to decode the lossy core. The most enjoyable aspect of this mix is Danny Elfman's classic score, one of the first to show the mature elements of his work. But dialogue and sound effects get their equal due as well. Having no bass channel makes the track feel a little light, but every DVD version of Edward Scissorhands has had this mix. Perhaps that's my biggest problem with it. Even without the ability to hear the full lossless sound, most of the MA tracks I've reviewed on Blu-ray have offered improvements offer their DVD editions. This one, while it sounds good, fails to do so.
The Supplements:
Continuing their erratic success to failure ratio with Blu-rays, Fox only ports over a few of the extras available on the latest DVD edition of Edward Scissorhands. Maybe if they had bothered to use a 50GB disc instead of 25GB, and used an AVC encode instead of an MPEG-2 encode, they could have fit everything in. But hey, it's Fox, who have consistently made some of the worst decisions when it comes to home video.
The Conclusion:
Edward Scissorhands is one of Tim Burton's most personal and revealing films. It was the first time he worked with Johnny Depp, a partnership that would drive both men to do their best work. It's a film that only gets better with age. The transfer on this Blu-ray is a real step up from any previous edition, with plenty of color and detail. Unfortunately, the sound features no such improvements and many of the extras from the DVD have been left off. While fans of the film will want to get this for its upgraded visuals, for Fox to release an incomplete package at the absurdly high price of $40 while a significantly cheaper, feature-laden DVD is readily available is just insulting to consumers. Unless you own everything with Tim Burton's name on it, show Fox that they need to put care into all of their releases, not just big blockbusters. Rent It.
Daniel Hirshleifer is the High Definition Editor for DVD Talk.