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Legal Question in Criminal Law in Iowa
Charged with 4th degree theft and arrested in Iowa yesterday. One prior conviction of simple misdemeanor 5th degree theft 3 years ago.
I have a few cameras to begin with. Purchased a new one from WalMart by credit card, didnt like it, and wanted to return it. The wrong camera ended up by mistake in the box of a camera that was returned. A couple weeks went by before I noticed the mistake because I was gone on holiday (I took one of my other cameras with me otherwise I would have noticed the mistake before I left). While unpacking and cleaning up , I found the camera I thought I had returned sitting on my desk with the other cameras I have. Upon discovery I wasn't exactly sure what to do...I felt foolish and like an idiot going to the store with no receipt, no box, nothing but the camera, and missing the camera I returned by mistake. I didn't have the software, instruction manual, cables, disks, or charger to even use the camera - all that went with the wrong camera that was returned. I have documented social anxiety issues and really did not want to place myself in that situation looking stupid in front of everyone at the returns counter, so I just put the matter in the back of my mind hoping I would get a phone call or letter or charge placed back on my credit card from WalMart. Instead an inspector came to my residence and after taking my account of the events and recovering the camera, placed me under arrest. This whole thing was a big mistake, nothing that involved criminal intent, but rather an honest mistake that could have been handled better.
I plead not guilty this morning. My question is: should I hire an attorney to represent me now for my preliminary hearing or should I go by myself to the hearing and ask the county attorney if I can receive a deferred judgement based on the circumstances described above, and if I do the latter, what is the likelihood of receiving this judgement?
Thank you in advance.
1 Answer from Attorneys
I always recommend that you have an attorney. You can meet with an attorney in advance of the hearing and find one that you are confident and comfortable with in pursuing your objectives.
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I am interested in Ann or Saria Taberer who married Robert Spencer. They either married in England or in Surry, Virginia.Most researchers call her Ann, but a couple of them at Rootsweb say she was Saria.Various people list Saria Taberer as born c1618 while others say 1633 in Derbyshire, England, the daughter of William Taberer and Ann Bennett).
Is this the correct Saria Taberer, and was she indeed the one whom Spencer researchers call Ann?
1 Ann (or Saria?) Taberer born about 1630-40
+ Robert Spencer, Sheriff, who lived in Surry Co., VA.
2 Ann Spencer
+ William Rowland II b: 1660 d: 1714
3 Christopher Rowland
+ Ann White
4 Robert Rowland b: 1710 d: 1777
+ Mary Hargrave b: ABT. 1710

subset: commoncrawl


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Background: DH had a conference in San Francisco in late March. Rather (for us) at the last minute I decided to accompany him for part of the time (as a high school teacher, I hate to miss many days in the busy last quarter of the schoolyear). We would fly from south Texas through Dallas to SFO on a Sunday; I would return on Tuesday while he stayed through Thursday.
Previous SF trips: In 2007 I accompanied him for 4 days in which we rode the cable cars, strolled the Ghirardelli Square area, had a marvelous night tour of Alcatraz, and rode a bus to the Cliff House area for DH's first brief glimpse of the Pacific. While he was in meetings two days, I took 2 day tours, one around San Francisco and then north across the Golden Gate to Muir Woods and Sausalito and the other south along the Pacific Coast Highway to Carmel. Two years ago he attended the conference alone and did a bit of walking around the SoMo area and also made it to Coit Tower. So between the two of us we had seen several of the area's great destinations, at least briefly.
This trip: DH wanted to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway. That was really the only goal we had. So when I decided to go with him, he reserved a Mini-Cooper (which he's rather wanted since college!) and I started exploring the internet, looking at maps, and posting questions on Fodors so we could have a tentative itinerary! Below is a mini-report on our "Mini"-trip.
Day 1—Sunday, the travel day: We traveled to DFW very early but smoothly. For the flight from DFW to SFO DH had been able to use one of his AA upgrades so would be in first class, but a similar request for me saw me bumped further and further down the list, as the flight was full. (He DID try to make me ride in first, but he was headed to drive and then a conference—I was just taking it easy for a few days, so I wouldn't take his seat!) So we didn't ride together on the rather bumpy ride, which took off a little late, but generally all went fine. The coast had been having horrible weather, including flooding around the Santa Cruz area, but it was much better when we arrived. We rode the airtrain to the rental car center and got our Mini pretty quickly (from Avis). In the garage we easily located our dark green car-for-the-day, hooked up "Sheila" our Garmin GPS and were on the road by about noon. The skies were cloudy but no rain, with sometimes bright blue skies and bright sun shining through.
When the idea of our driving along the coast had first arisen , I had hoped to show him Carmel, but it quickly became evident that was too far. So we planned to drive to somewhere north of Santa Cruz probably and decide from there on a couple alternate routes for getting the car back to SFO.
We drove very quickly and through not bad Sunday traffic to Pacifica and began to have great glimpses and even long views of the roiling Pacific. There had been (maybe still were) high surf warnings and the water was pretty riled up. We began pulling over often, onto the shoulder or into pullouts, for frequent photo-op quick sessions. The air was too misty and gray and the sky not clear, so the pics aren't terrific, but we were enjoying the beauty and glad it wasn't raining.
HUGE LUNCH: Thanks to stududley, we were on the lookout for Sam's Chowder House as we approached Half Moon Bay. And there it was, with a full parking lot. But because we were willing to sit on those tall chairs with a tall table near the bar, we had no wait (otherwise it would have been 15-20 minutes). We had absolutely wonderful service and food. I had maybe the best clam chowder ever (although NOT in a bread bowl) and DH had …interesting gumbo. Our fish sandwiches—grilled mahimahi and salmon patty--with wonderful sides were delicious. And HUGE! And the views from the restaurant and from the outside porch areas of Half Moon Bay are wonderful. Thanks, StuDudley, for this recommendation; it was a perfect stop for us.
Then on we went down the Pacific Coast Highway, with, as I said, frequent photo stops. We drove along the coast through areas with evidence of slides like the Devil's Slide area….We opted not to pay to park any where. There are several state parks/beaches that charge $10 to park. I think this is a perfectly reasonable rate for day use of the beach, the picnic tables, the hikes—but a bit steep for a 5-10 minute photo stop and we're too honest to park and not pay when it says to. So we just enjoyed our views from the Mini and from occasional shoulder stops.
HUGE WAVES: Then we got to Pescadaro Beach at which you park for free. So we did. And walked out to see the HUGE waves. It was amazing. Neither of us have been to Hawaii or even along the Pacific much; Gulf of Mexico and Hilton Head Island waves aren't very big generally! These waves were HUGE, the biggest either of us had ever seen. They swelled, they rose, they roared and broke and foamed and rushed in a froth over the rocks and pebbles. It was great! We enjoyed a lengthy look here.
Back on the road our next main stop was the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. We didn't spend any time here, but we took the short detour off the main road to drive near this pretty spot.
At Davenport we stopped for some drinks and a leg-stretch and decision. We had been given advice on Fodors that if we wanted to see some big trees, go to Big Basin Redwoods, and near here was a good place to cut east. It was about 3pm so we decided that's what we would do.
HUGE TREES: We then headed from a little south of Davenport east to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. This is California's first state park. We had a blast driving the Mini (generally at the speed limit—I promise) up and down and around and back over the windy roads. I was rather surprised at the total lack of signs. If we hadn't told "Sheila" where we wanted to go, I don't know; of course, we knew we'd be using her and not a paper map, but still—I was surprised. Anyway, she generally told us how to get there; we overruled her once. The roads are good but narrow, twisty, and hilly—much fun! Don't know how it would have been in a bigger vehicle or as rider in a back seat! We arrived at the Park before 5 and found a few people there but the store closed but the ticket office open. We paid our fee, put the receipt in the window and took a hike. We did the pretty and short Redwood Trail on which we saw the oldest and the tallest (The Father and the Mother) redwoods in this forest. It was gorgeous and awesome. I had been to Muir Woods, but DH had never seen such trees. As janisj says, it compares quite comparably to Muir Woods with less crowds. We walked for less than an hour and then drove around a little.
The weather was now deteriorating. We had had a little misty drops and the skies were totally grey now. My "plan" had been to head over the mountains to the freeway and back to SFO. But DH said he'd just as soon backtrack and maybe catch some different views of the Pacific, even if in worse weather. So that's what we did—we left Big Basin about 6 and retraced our drive toward SFO along the Pacific Coast Highway. But by the time we reached the coast, it was raining, so we basically just drove back to SFO through light to medium gray rain. DH did get a couple cool pics of Pigeon Point actually being a LIGHT House!
At SFO we turned the car in with no hassles, caught the airtrain to the BART station, figured out how to buy our tickets (we live in a city where we never take public transport so it's an adventure for us!), and rode the BART for 30 minutes to the Powell Street Station for $8.10 one way each. I bought a round trip ticket but DH wasn't sure how he'd be returning to the airport so bought a one-way. We found this experience to be generally fine. I was a little confused by the automated ticket booth thing, with the $20 increments you have to subtract or add from to match the proper fare needed, but we got our tickets fairly easily. The worst thing was the basically useless audio announcements of the stations while we rode the train, and without any digital display and darkened signs on platforms as we passed by, I think this is very unhelpful and could be very confusing, especially for non-English speaking riders. In any case, we did make it to Powell Street in about 30 minutes. From there it was a fifteen minute easy walk to the Hilton San Francisco on O'Farrell. It is a fine hotel and we settled in for a good nice sleep.
Day 2—Monday, my sight-seeing day: BLUE skies! We didn't hurry getting up and then walked over to Mel's Diner on Ellis for a hearty late breakfast. When we stayed at the Marriott before, we had discovered this and liked it. Good food and cool atmosphere and convenient. Then DH went off to a full day of meetings.
I first went through Yerba Buena Gardens, a pretty spot this late morning, with a few older people doing their exercises including one with a sword and a few tourists like me with their cameras. I wandered on to Union Square and a little after 10 went into Macy's. I have a Macy's store, and a pretty nice one, in my hometown, but this one is huge. I enjoyed wandering the petite dept. and actually found a couple pieces I'd never seen. Fun. I meandered here and there around Union Square and Geary Street enjoying window displays (are those REALLY Miros and Picassos in the windows?). I took my purchases back to the Hilton room and took off one layer of shirts—it promised to be a gorgeous day.
Thanks again to StuDudley—I had read about the different CityGuides free walks in SF; there were two on Mondays, at 10 and 1:30, of Chinatown and I had decided I'd try to make one of those. Our morning was too nicely un-hurried to try to make the 10 one, so in later morning I headed toward Portsmouth Square for the 1:30 tour. (Their website said meet near the elevators, which made no sense to me. I emailed them for clarification and was promptly answered. CityGuides seems to be a great organization—highly recommended!)
HUGE INTELLECTUAL FUN: I had plenty of time, so I walked first to City Lights Bookstore. I'm an English teacher at a classical Christian private school and I have definite "conservative" bents, but I also strongly support both free press/thought and independent bookstores. So it was great fun to be here. I could spend a small fortune in 15 minutes in such a place, but I confined myself to one book (Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom by Beauclerk—I'm actually willing to consider that maybe "Shakespeare" was a pseudonym, maybe for Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford—hey, a little literary/historical controversy is good for the intellectual soul!).
I then went back to Portsmouth Square, our meeting place, an hour early. (I had found a little shop to buy a soda and some chocolate at, and to use the facilities, but I forgot to get the name! They were kind). I sat in the shade watching the many many groups of card-playing adults and playground-enjoying kids and parents while I ate some Ghirardelli, fruit, and Coke (yes, in that order!). It is a busy, vibrant area. About 1:15 I went over to the elevator area—it was obvious now what this meant. I easily found the people obviously waiting for a tour and a couple people with clip boards. Mr. Ng would be my tour guide; he was absolutely wonderful. He had a microphone and led us for about 2 hours all around Chinatown. There are too many details to even begin to recount here. All I can say is if you are in San Francisco, check out the CityGuides website and see if there are any tours during your time there. These tours are free (but do bring $ for donations) and sponsored mostly by the public library. There are many different ones. The Chinatown one was terrific; I'm so glad to have gotten to go.
Afterwards, I headed toward the hotel; DH was getting done with conferencing about the same time. We rested a bit in the room and about 5:45 we walked to John's Grill on Ellis. We had eaten here before. It was made famous in Hammett's The Maltese Falcon –a falcon and an Oscar are on display—but we were returning because the food is great, too. We had to wait at the bar a few minutes as the upstairs room doesn't open til 6, but we got seated and started our delicious meal. The electric guitar player arrived before 6:30 and we enjoyed this as we ate. This is a wonderful place—food, music, atmosphere, history.
Day 3—Tuesday, day of separate ways: After breakfast at Subway on Ellis, DH went off to the conference and I wandered just a tad then went back to the hotel and decided to just go early to the airport in case there was any glitch and I could always read my book there while waiting. I walked down Powell to the station on another lovely morning. I easily found the right platform, slid in my previously-bought roundtrip ticket, and in about a minute, here came a train so I hopped on. Didn't read the sign. It wasn't going all the way to SFO, so I had to detrain at Balboa Park and wait about 15 minutes for the "right" train. Duh. Still made it to SFO in about 30 minutes total. Upon arrival things are pretty well-signed, so I headed toward the correct terminal and security (no luggage to check). Security took about 15 minutes at the most (note—I had all my toiletries in bag in the outside pocket of my luggage to easily grab out—I forgot—and nobody said anything. Hmm.) Found my gate and a seat to read awhile. Got an (expensive) turkey wrap right before I got on the plane.
My flights to DFW and home were on time and smooth, so no stories.
Meanwhile, DH had a full conference day and then went with a group to First Crush on the corner of Ellis and Cyril. It normally sells wine flights along with a full menu, but for this big group they just served selections from a set menu and he said it was all good.
Day 4 for DH: This day was all conference—breakfast provided, meetings and presentations, even dinner at the hotel. No sightseeing this day!
Day 5 for DH: He and a couple companions also took a BART train from the Powell Street station back to SFO; that as well as the 2 legs of his return were basically glitchless. Good to be gone; good to be home!
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A "Mini"-trip with some HUGE moments—San Francisco & area
Background: DH had a conference in San Francisco in late March. Rather (for us) at the last minute I decided to accompany him for part of the time (as a high school teacher, I hate to miss many days in the busy last quarter of the schoolyear). We would fly from south Texas through Dallas to SFO on a Sunday; I would return on Tuesday while he stayed through Thursday.
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DW covers a lot of ground in her TR, but I'll add a few comments of my own.
First, readers of our previous TRs know I take a lot of pictures. So before I went to California, I "scouted" locations that I wanted to photograph on the internet. I looked at trip reports, Flickrs and Picasas of those who have gone before me. Then I planned where to stop and the landmarks to be photographed along the way. I even fussed about the angle of the sun and when we would be where.
After all that I had two disappointments: 1) To cut the glare on the surf, I knew I wanted to take my polarizing filter. Imagine my "argh!" when I realized I had not packed it. 2) The sun was in and out and then finally rained out totally. Except for the Pigeon Point light, the camera stayed inside after we left Big Basin.
Second, the Mini. I had driven a friend's Mini stick a couple of years ago, but never had a chance to spend much time in one. So the romantic kid in me really looked forward to motoring the PCH with my best friend, sunroof open and wind in my rapidly graying hair, zipping around in the rented Cooper automatic. Although the weather disappointed, the Mini did not. Quiet and confortable, the Mini added a unique flavor to my California dreaming. Pushed hard in the mountains, it just kept gripping, and I stopped pushing before reaching the edge of its handling capabilities. And after about 200 miles in eight hours, I filled up to find it had delivered 33 mpg.
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<<<I was a little confused by the automated ticket booth thing, with the $20 increments you have to subtract or add from to match the proper fare needed, but we got our tickets fairly easily>>>
It's confusing even for those of us who live here and take BART from time to time! Just so you know, in case you ever find yourself there, the same system is used on the DC metro, so now you're prepared!
Great report.
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So - now are you going to buy a mini cooper rag top?? Could prove to be a very expensive trip
Very nice report . . .
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Thanks for the report!!
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janisj--if only! Thanks (and thanks again for great suggestions)
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i love it!! my husband's dream car is a mini and we got one in vegas (yes that's what he chose when there was also ferrari, viper etc) ..i thought he was the only one. we did get the rag top and proudly went down the strip in decemeber with the top down and heater on!!
great SF report- my favorite city in the world..i'm so lucky to live hour and half away
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DD told me I should buy one. I saw right through her, though, and said "If I bought one, I figured you would want it." She laughed a little nervous laugh.
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We are going to spend 4 driving down the coast in June. We plan on spending a half a day in Big Basin. We have been to Muir, Sequoia, Redwoods, and Yosemite. Big Trees are nice and it looks like an interesting parks, sounds like something we would want to see. I don't want a Mini Cooper. My daughter drives a Smart Car, so i just jump in it occasionally.
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spirobulldog: How is your daughter's back doing?
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Texasbookworm and Volcrew,
Thanks for the trip report. As always, you provide great details. I love your collective writing styles.
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Thanks europeannovice--Nice feedback warms the cockles. We do make a pretty good team in several different ways!
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text:
Shares in the world's second-biggest tobacco group fell 16½p to £23.96½ despite the company unveiling a 5pc increase in revenues to £14.9bn in the year to December 31.
Pre-tax profits rose 7.5pc to £4.4bn, boosted by higher sales in emerging markets and a 7pc rise in sales volumes for BAT's driving brands – Dunhill, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall and Kent.
However, across the group volumes fell 2pc as consumers were hit by the difficult economic climate.
"Some emerging markets are now showing strong economic growth and even developed markets are returning to growth, yet unemployment remains stubbornly high in many parts of the world and disposable incomes are still under pressure," said Paul Adams, chief executive. Mr Adams will be replaced at BAT's helm next month by Nicandro Durante, chief operating officer.
The company said its share buyback programme, which was suspended in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis, would be resumed this year. However, analysts expressed disappointment at the scale of BAT's plans. David Hayes at Nomura had forecast a £1bn cash return, and others were also unimpressed.
However, Ben Stevens, chief financial officer, said: "We like to keep a little bit of firepower available for any tuck-under acquisitions that are out there."
BAT raised its final dividend by 13pc to 81p, payable on May 5.


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The Charleston Moose Lodge will be the site of the second annual Bob Huggins Tailgate.
The event, presented by Little General in conjunction with Remember the Miners, will be held at 7 p.m. Dec. 4 The event also will serve as a canned food and toy drive for the Southern West Virginia Christmas Outreach Program. Guests are encouraged to bring items to donate in addition to partaking in the festivities of the evening.
The inaugural tailgate benefited the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Endowment Fund, named in honor of WVU men's basketball coach Bob Huggins' late mother, as well as the Remember the Miners Scholars program.
The Remember The Miners Scholars Program was created in 2011 to provide financial aid to miners, dependents of miners and students pursuing higher education in the mining industry. Scholarships are awarded twice annually during spring and fall semesters. In its first year, the Scholars Program awarded $50,000. Applications to the Fall 2012 Scholars Program are open now.
"The second annual tailgate will be a great time to celebrate the miners of West Virginia and raise funds for two causes very important to me," said Huggins "It's wonderful to see our annual events grow each year to support our efforts in improving the lives of members of our community."
Contact Cam Payne at email@example.com for information.
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JABO-2BS Remote Control Bait Boat (Fish Finder)
Never before have anglers been supported by so much High-Tech as with our new Bait Boat Sonar! The new One Hand Transmitter which comes with the model means that you can accurately steer the boat to exactly where you want it before you unload the ground bait or your terminal tackle by deploying the tipping loading bay. The large clear display constantly keeps you up to date with all of the information which you need around the area of the boat such as the water depth, amount of fish in the area, the water temperature and the battery power of both the boat and the transmitter. Find the spots where the real (big) fish are and place your tackle where you cant cast too to get the catch of the day. The boat is powered by 2 jet motors especially designed to prevent weeds clogging them and it is fitted with position lights to draw the fishs attention.
Product Name: R/C Bait Boat with Fish Finder
Certificate: CE/Rosh/ISO9001
Product Spec:
Bait Boat:
Dimension: 600x240x155(mm)
Total Weight: 4.25KG (Battery Included)
Color: Black or recommend by client
Control Range: 300m
Bait Capacity: 2000g
Drive Speed: 2m/s; 7km/h
Screen:3.5 display
Battery: 6V (4pc AAA battery)
Display: fish position,water temperature, power storage
Control: bait and hook drop;boat driving and fish detect
Battery of Boat
Battery: Lead Acid Battery Rechargable; 6V/10Ah; (6v/12Ah optional)
Battery Working Time: 3h (6v/10A); 3.5h (6v/12A)
Operate Fucntion:
Drive: Go Straight; Turn right and left; Dropping Bait and Hooks
Fish Finder: Detect and display where fish are when boat driving; Water temperature and depeth display;
Supersonic detector: Install supersonic detector in the bottom of boat
Tempting Fish Light: focus white light to attract fish nearby
Indicator Navigation Light: 3 indicator LED direct for night fishing
1) Boat pakcage: color box (690x290x220mm)
2) Item weight: 5kg
3) Shipment Package: 4pcs/carton
4) Carton weight: 21kg
5) Carton CBM:0.2
Pretty cool Whats the price ? I could use this (in spots a full size fishing boat can't go)


text:
Happy Valentine's Day! Cynicism about this holiday has become common, and many see February 14 as just another excuse to empty the pockets of consumers, who will spend more than $16 billion on cards, flowers, chocolates, and other gifts. I'm still enough of a romantic to find the day a charming tradition. Ever since I read a particular romance novel a few weeks ago, I've been thinking about osculation in fiction. What better day to consider kisses than a holiday that celebrates love and lovers?
A kiss, of course, can mean many things from simple affection to bitter betrayal, but it is the romantic/erotic kiss that most fascinates. The ancients believed that in mouth-to-mouth kisses, lovers exchanged the breath of life and mingled souls. The Roman poet Catullus (84BC?- 54BC) inspired poets such as Robert Herrick, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Lord Byron with his explicit demand: "Kiss me now a thousand times and still a hundred more and then a hundred and a thousand more again till with so many hundred thousand kisses you and I lose count." Herrick's "To Anthea (III)" utilizes Catullus's math and adds a challenge:
Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score;
Then to that twenty add a hundred more:
A thousand to that hundred: so kiss on,
To make that thousand up a million.
Treble that million, and when that is done
Let's kiss afresh, as when we first begun.
Poets are not the only artists who find material in kisses. Rodin's Kiss sculpture, inspired by Paolo and Francesca, the eternally entwined lovers in circle 2 of Dante's Inferno, still attracts visitors to the Tate Gallery in London, and photographs of kissing couples in Paris and Times Square are internationally famous. Movie kisses have come in for their fair share of attention as well. Googling "best movie kisses" yields more than 8 million results, and "favorite movie kisses" is a favorite topic among romance fiction bloggers. My favorites are from older movies such as those between Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life and between John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man. Viewing several movie versions of Pride and Prejudice consecutively makes one aware of the distance between Jane Austen's discreet description ("He [Darcy] expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man in violent love can be supposed to.) and the eight minutes of moonlit lip locks added to the U.S. version of the 2005 Keira Knightley/Matthew MacFadyen film.
I thought the kisses exchanged by Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty were pretty hot when I first saw Splendor in the Grass in 1961, but I didn't know then that the first screen French kiss in that movie would lead to increasingly sensual screen kisses to the point that such scenes today sometimes seem to be about voyeurism than about romance. But then scholars tell us that the kisses art gives us are voyeuristic. Social convention leads us to avert our eyes from the intimacy if we happen to see a couple kissing in real life, but art encourages us to gaze at the osculatory exchange that can express both physical and emotional intimacy.
This is no less true of fiction than of the visual arts. Long before the no-holds-barred sex that can be found in both popular and literary fiction, the kiss was used as a metaphor for orgasm. In Portrait of a Lady, in a scene written from his heroine's point of view, Henry James wrote: "His kiss was like white lightning, a flash that spread, and spread again . . . his presence, justified of its intense identity and made one with this act of possession." In June 2008, The Guardian published a list of ten of the best literary kisses. They ranged from the kiss shortly after first meeting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the invasive kiss endured by an unwilling bride in Ian McEwan's 2007 novel On Chesil Beach.
I maintain that those who draw up lists of the best fictional kisses do a disservice to their audience by ignoring the kissing scenes in romance fiction. No other writers possess the awareness of all that a kiss can express that the authors of the best in romance fiction can claim. Here are my candidates for ten of the best kisses in Romancelandia (listed chronologically by publication date):
1. Derek kisses Sara in the garden
Dreaming of You (1994), Lisa Kleypas
The I'm-not-good-enough-but-I-can't resist-her kiss:
Without meaning to, he reached her in three strides and snatched her in his arms. Her joyous laugh tickled his ear as he lifted her off his feet. Urgently his mouth roved across her face with rough kisses that stung her cheek, her chin, her forehead.
2. Jessica kisses Dain in the rain
Lord of Scoundrels (1995), Loretta Chase
The hero-as-helpless-and-needy kiss:
He melted under that maidenly ardor as though it were rain and he a pillar of salt.
He stood, helpless in the driving rain, unable to rule his needy mouth, his restless hands, while, within, his heart beat out the mortifying truth.
Ho bisogno di ti.
I need you.
3. Catherine kisses Michael after eight pages leading to consummation scene
Shattered Rainbows (1996), Mary Jo Putney
The post-coital-bliss kiss:
She gave him a kiss of aching sweetness, the silken fall of her hair gliding across his throat.
4. Anna yields to Cam's kiss
Sea Swept (2001), Nora Roberts
The I-know-it's-bad-for-me-but kiss:
She gave into it, gave all to it, a moment's madness where body ruled mind and blood roared over reason.
5. Colin finally kisses Penelope 200+ pages into the novel
Romancing Mr. Bridgerton (2002), Julia Quinn
The I-thought-it-would-never-happen kiss:
He leaned forward and kissed her, slowly, reverently, no longer quite so surprised that this was happening, that he wanted her so badly.
6. Diana and Rothgar share what they believe will be their last kiss
Devilish (2005), Jo Beverley
The we-can-never-be-together kiss:
Then she put her lips to his and asked for their familiar kiss. She was mistress of the art and he was her equal. It was long, and as satisfying as a favorite meal.
7. Sydnam kisses Anne after the two have become totally vulnerable to each other
Simply Love (2007), Mary Balogh
The tenderness-in-the-afterglow kiss:
"He kissed her temple and made sure the blanket was tucked all about her. He warmed her body with his own."
8. Villiers gives Eleanor a promising—and public—kiss
A Duke of Her Own (2009), Eloisa James
The I-promise-you-there's-more kiss:
He took her hand. Then without smiling at her, without saying a word, without doing anything other than meeting her eyes, he slowly peeled off her glove. It was utterly surprising—and scandalous.
Villiers's kiss was slow and deliberate, giving everyone in the tent more than enough time to enjoy the spectacle.
9. Julian and Lily share a first kiss
Three Nights with a Scoundrel (2010), Tessa Dare
The this-is-the-real-us kiss:
Because in that moment, neither of them moved. Neither of them breathed. They just . . . existed together. The tension melted away. And the kiss was still artless, still desperate—but only because it was real. The most honest, truthful moment they'd ever shared.
10. Moncrieffe kisses Genevieve and finds himself in an unexpected role
What I Did for a Duke (2011), Julie Anne Long
The I-got-more-than-I-bargained-for kiss:
He hadn't counted on a third option. Stealthily as a liqueur or an excellent drug, in much the same way she'd been doing for days now, Genevieve Eversea—her heat, her scent, her generosity and kindness, her devastating sensuality, entered his bloodstream. Beneath his hand, the lush, lithe give of her body just barely brushing against his chest, the hum of that passion she kept so tamped, burned through him. The invader becoming the invaded—that was the third option. He was hers now.
What are your favorite kisses in visual art forms? In fiction, literary or genre?
I owed a debt to the following article for information on the history of kisses: Blue, Adrianne. "The Truth about Smooching." The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec), August 17, 1996, Saturday, FINAL EDITION, EDITORIAL / OP-ED; p. B6.
Janga spent decades teaching literature and writing to groups ranging from twelve-year-olds to college students. She is currently a freelance writer, who sometimes writes about romance fiction, and an aspiring writer of contemporary romance, who sometimes thinks of writing an American historical romance. She can be found at her blog Just Janga and tweeting obscure bits about writers as @Janga724.


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How Obama Can Save the Middle Class Today on Meet the Bloggers (1pm ET/10am PT)
November 14, 2008, 5:00 AM GMT
Fortune 500 CEOs make an average of $6,153 an hour, while the majority of workers in our country earn an hourly federal minimum wage of only $6.55. Fortunately, this ridiculous gap can be closed with Barack Obama as President and Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, and it all starts with the The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). EFCA tops the progressive agenda for unions because it could effectively restore the middle class in our country, and yet this vital piece of legislation still faces challenges from anti-union businesses like Wal-Mart.
Today on Meet the Bloggers, join Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and chair of the international labor federation Change to Win, as we discuss EFCA's passage during Obama's first 100 Days. Burger will talk with show host Cenk Uygur and blogger Todd Beeton (MyDD) about how EFCA can revitalize our nation's middle class. Also on the show will be Satyam Khanna (Think Progress) to talk about Lieberman Must Go.
Check out some of the articles below and join us today at 1pm ET/10am PT for the live blog discussion on Meet the Bloggers.
- Join Obama and Support the Employee Free Choice Act -- Andy Stern, SEIU
- Hey Barack, Don't Forget: "You Gotta Dance With Them What Brung Ya" -- Don Hazen, AlterNet
- Obama's First 100 Days in the White House -- Katrina Vanden Heuvel, The Nation
- EFCA: Why the Republicans REALLY Hate Obama -- Jane Hamsher, FireDogLake
- Employee Free Choice Act Summary -- American Rights at Work
Robert Greenwald is the director/producer of "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" and "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism."


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At 7:00 p.m. on April 10, a crowd of well-heeled residents gathered in the Key Biscayne Village Hall. Impeccably tanned women and men in pressed chinos nibbled on crudités staffers laid out, while sipping complimentary sodas. The atmosphere was more cocktail hour than monthly village council meeting. The pressing issue that night: whether to light the village green at night for flag-football games.
This, after all, is the summer home of presidents. The site of international tennis tournaments. A caviar Mayberry.
Which is precisely why Michael Flaherty took the post of police chief here nearly a decade ago. Key Biscayne couldn't be further from the racially divided Maryland county where he previously served as chief. There Flaherty worried about drive-by shootings and federal investigations into police brutality. Here the cops try to discourage speeding.
Related Link: Institution of Internal Affairs
But Flaherty currently is dealing with one rather unpleasant matter as chief: He's fending off a lawsuit filed by a police officer he fired last year. And Jackie Rojas, the cop in question, is hoping to put some furrows in Flaherty's brow. She portrays the department as the kind of place where the chief orders his underlings to sue his enemies, fires them for disloyalty, and where the atmosphere is so lax officers sleep on the job. Flaherty denies these claims. He says the lawsuit hardly is a cause for anxiety: "No, this is not stressful. These are common problems you deal with in law enforcement." His broad, ruddy face crinkles into a smile. Four fishing rods leaning against the wall in his office speak to his other priorities.
Still it would be hard to deny that Flaherty is beginning to learn a familiar lesson: The life of a police chief in South Florida has an uncanny way of becoming tangled in controversy, even in a sedate enclave like Key Biscayne.
When she was ten years old, Jacqueline Rojas lived next door to a Miami motorcycle cop. She began dreaming of one day becoming a police officer. "I wanted to be a female police officer in Miami," the 38-year-old says. "That's what kept me going through school. I think what pushed it was that my brother was killed by a drunk driver when I was nineteen years old."
She joined the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) in 1987 and stayed for ten contentious years. "I walked into an organization where the good-old-boy mentality was alive and well," she charges. "I clashed with some supervisors. I always spoke my mind. I never disobeyed an order, but I'd tell them if I disagreed with one." Some of her supervisors had a different take on her. Her personnel file contains at least seven internal affairs inquiries, two of which were sustained, both for minor offenses. Then there was the Kmart case.
In 1994 a Kmart employee arrested for stealing told police that Rojas and another trooper who worked off-duty security at the store also had stolen items. Rojas was accused of taking a children's bicycle. An internal-affairs inquiry cleared her when she produced a sales receipt for it. Afterward Rojas sued Kmart and won a settlement, which she says is confidential. Ultimately, she believes, it was clear she was not wanted at the FHP. In 1997 a friend told her the Key Biscayne Police Department was looking to hire women, so she sent an application.
Rojas wasn't hired right away. In her first interview with Chief Flaherty, he asked if there was anything he should know about her background. She says she gave him the Kmart file. Weeks later the chief called to say he wasn't going to hire her because of disciplinary information in her personnel file. She requested a meeting to respond to his concerns. "He called me in for a stress-voice analyzer, primarily because of Kmart," she asserts. "I passed that."
A week later Flaherty called to offer her a job. Before applying, she says, she hadn't even known the island had its own police force.
Until a decade ago Key Biscayne was part of unincorporated Dade County, sort of its master-bedroom community. President Richard Nixon kept a home there. The island has long been a popular safe haven for Latin America's aristocracy. The international Lipton Tennis Tournament (now called the Ericsson Open) is held there. But residents, most of them wealthy, thought they would be better off on their own. A secession movement started, and the county eventually allowed Key Biscayne to incorporate as its own municipality in 1991. As intended, real estate taxes have declined steadily since.
One of the first orders of business for the new village -- after it decided not to contract with the county for law enforcement -- was to create a police department. To do that they needed a chief. The village manager conducted a nationwide search -- they wanted the best and were willing to pay for top talent. "This is a high-end community, and we demand good services," says village Manager Sam Kissinger.
Michael Flaherty was looking for a job. In 1989 he had resigned from the Prince George County Police Department, just outside Washington, D.C. During his 24 years on that force, the last 6 as chief, Flaherty had seen the worst that inner-city America could throw at a cop. In the Eighties the murder rate exploded owing to the crack-cocaine epidemic. Friends of his were killed in the line of duty. Colleagues were arrested and investigated for brutality, even for killing suspects, always black. In a volatile place, Flaherty earned a reputation as a troubleshooter.
But Flaherty also clashed with the union and local black leaders. After six years of swelling crime rates and public turmoil, he resigned. "It was simply a matter that the blacks were coming to power," Flaherty observes, "which they deserved as a majority of that county. They wanted a black police chief. The head of the NAACP told me many times: We want a black police chief.' So it wasn't about Mike Flaherty."
Two years after his resignation he saw an ad for the Key Biscayne position in a police trade journal. Flaherty, who lived in Miami as a young man after a stint in the military, had always hoped to retire to South Florida.
Key Biscayne officials made it easy by giving him a boatload of money. "I hired him out of about 100 people," Kissinger recalls. "He was clearly the best." This was not a case of a stressed-out chief taking a pay cut to hide in a small town. He was hired at $60,000 per year, with a stipulation that he had to live on the key. To help ease that transition he received a $12,000 housing bonus. By 1998 he was earning $100,509 and still was able to convince village officials that he was owed a whopping $84,600 incentive bonus. Flaherty received another $5000 cost-of-living adjustment as well. This year Flaherty will earn $117,000, slightly less than Miami Beach police Chief Richard Barreto ($127,000) and Miami police Chief Raul Martinez ($118,000). Miami has 1000 officers, and Miami Beach has more than 300. Key Biscayne has 30.
To Samuel Kissinger Flaherty is worth every penny. "He's one of the top chiefs in the country," the village manager says. "The department's been surveyed and resurveyed, and the public always gives us glowing marks. I think that's because of him."
Jackie Rojas plunks a box of folders down on the kitchen table of her South Miami-Dade home. The walls are adorned with pictures of Miami Dolphins players (her husband, a City of Miami cop, is a huge fan). Rojas describes her job on Key Biscayne almost wistfully. "The residents liked me; I gave out my home phone number," she recounts. "One woman would call to ask me to stop her kids from jumping off the roof onto a trampoline. It's not the City of Miami. It's not complicated. There was some domestic violence. But that was not the norm. For the most part it was traffic tickets and noise complaints. The residents of Key Biscayne liked having police around."
Her tenure as a Key Biscayne cop was unremarkable, and she was never disciplined while working there. "I never had a problem until Larry Curtin," she says.
Curtin, the brother of actress Jane Curtin, is a well-known figure on the key. He's worked as a magazine and script writer, and has patented a solar-cell design. By all accounts he's very bright. He's also been described by police as "agitated" and "hostile" toward them, terms he vehemently denies. "I'm argumentative," he clarifies.
Curtin has a penchant for filing lawsuits against authority figures. According to a department memo, his own son told police his father likes to file lawsuits "against people he's angry with." Curtin maintains any lawsuits he has filed are only intended to redress wrongs and government inaction.
Rojas made Curtin's acquaintance around midnight on September 6, 1998. She was in her patrol car when she says she saw a black truck roll through three stop signs. She says she pulled the vehicle over and Curtin stepped out of the car and began yelling. Rojas called for backup. Ofcr. Brett Capone responded. In a memo to the chief, Capone described the scene as he approached: "I observed what appeared to be the driver of the vehicle ... in the middle of the street yelling at Ofc. Rojas. I identified the subject as Mr. Larry Curtain [sic], a resident of Key Biscayne. I knew this to be Mr. Curtain because he is an acquaintance of mine." Despite his efforts to calm him, Capone says Curtin grew increasingly hostile, calling Rojas a liar and demanding to fill out a complaint. Curtin claims he merely argued with the officers to prove his point. "I'll admit to being loud," he concedes, but asserts Capone threw him against a car. "He assaulted me. Who's volatile?"
In the end Rojas cited Curtin for running one stop sign. The next day Curtin sent a letter to the chief insisting he did indeed stop at the sign and calling for Rojas to be fired. A few days later he sent another letter. And another. And then another. He appeared at village council meetings denouncing Rojas and Capone. He filed a public-records request to view their personnel files and researched Rojas's file at the FHP. He also accused Rojas of falsifying documents while she was a trooper.
On December 9, 1998, Flaherty sent a memo to all police personnel warning that Curtin was "infuriated" after losing his appeal of the ticket Rojas had given him: "Recently I had a conversation with Mr. Curtin during which he made veiled threats toward police officers." Curtin allegedly told Flaherty he had been arrested in Boston for assaulting a police officer in 1977 (Curtin says he was defending someone). "It has also been noted that Mr. Curtin has followed several of our officers around while officers were on patrol," the chief wrote. He warned all officers to use caution handling any call involving Curtin and to have a backup present.
Flaherty also ordered Lt. José Monteagudo to conduct a "threat-assessment report" on Curtin. The report, which filled two large binders, included lawsuits Curtin had filed, police reports from around the nation, and a mental-health report conducted during Curtin's attempt to win custody of his children.
At that point Curtin changed his tactics. "Suddenly his campaign veered away from me and Brett [Capone], and he went after the chief," Rojas notes. Curtin wrote letters to the mayor and village council, the State Attorney's Office, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, claiming that the chief was having officers trail him, that Flaherty was hiring officers with criminal pasts, and that the chief himself had a questionable background, a reference to his resignation from the Prince George County Police Department.
"One day after all this started," Rojas says, "the chief calls me into his office, and he says, Kid' -- that's what he called me -- Kid, come here. I want to talk to you.' He tells me he's been advising Larry Curtin he has to stop. Then he says, It's time to sue Larry Curtin.' I said you can sue too, but he said he couldn't; as an appointed official he wasn't allowed to. He said he talked to Mortimer Fried, a councilperson and an attorney, and concluded I could sue. He told me to call my attorney. Call and set up an appointment. I'm going with you.'"
The chief, Rojas says, thought this would shut Curtin up.
Flaherty flatly denies ordering Rojas to sue Curtin: "Ms. Rojas had an attorney; she was looking to sue Larry Curtin anyway. She came to us and said, Can I have the files on Larry Curtin?' She already had an attorney. She simply came to us and asked for assistance." Flaherty won't get into the specifics of her allegation, citing the pending litigation with Rojas.
When New Times contacted Mortimer Fried to verify that the chief called him to inquire about suing Curtin, Fried declined comment. "I have to get back to the chief," Fried said. "I'll have to call you back." A few days later Fried called back and said the chief never made such a request.
Although Rojas's illegal-termination lawsuit is against the Village of Key Biscayne, the council has treated the case as an internal police affair. "I'm not familiar with that matter," Councilman Robert Oldakowski says, adding, "I think the chief does an extraordinary job. The turnover is low. I mean, we know these people; we live with these people."
But John Agnetti, Rojas's attorney, claims Chief Flaherty played a more active role than he admits in encouraging his underling to sue Curtin. In early April of 1999 -- Agnetti can't recall the exact date -- he met with Rojas, Flaherty, and Lieutenant Monteagudo. "[Flaherty] came to my office with another gentleman. He was having a lot of problems with Curtin, and he wanted Jackie to preemptively sue him. Mr. Curtin was slandering Ms. Rojas. It wasn't a frivolous lawsuit."
Agnetti continues, choosing his words with lawyerly care: "I can tell you, the impression I got was that in order to be a team player, quote-unquote, this is something she needed to do because he asked her. There was a lot of pressure. No one ever said, We'll reimburse you for your legal fees. And she took money out of her retirement account to pay my retainer. It was more like, Be a team player: You take care of us and we'll take care of you." (Key Biscayne police officers do not belong to a labor union, which commonly provides attorneys in such situations.)
As he recounts the meeting, Agnetti asks an assistant to produce the threat-assessment report on Curtin. "These two binders were given to me by the chief," he says. "He said if I needed anything else, to talk to this gentleman [Monteagudo]. They didn't want this case to get expensive for her."
Rojas concurs: "The chief said, Whatever you need to keep her costs down; we'll utilize the department.'" Agnetti never called for assistance.
In other words, according to both Rojas and Agnetti, not only did Flaherty order his officer to sue a civilian, he then put his department's investigative services at Agnetti's disposal -- for use in a civil case. Flaherty denies doing anything other than offering the Curtin files to Rojas at her request, and those were public documents.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Tallahassee says its legal department will not speculate on what laws or code of conduct Flaherty's alleged actions would violate. Milton Hirsch, a Miami criminal lawyer who has handled public-corruption cases, says he can't speak to the veracity of Rojas's claims, but he does note, more broadly, that "a police chief would have no authority to devote public resources to the pursuit of a civil lawsuit. That's no different from theft or fraud of public money."
Rojas says she thought the chief was giving her a choice: File suit against Curtin or be out of a job. "I didn't have a choice," Rojas asserts. "I knew I had to do it."
Rojas v. Curtin was filed in April 1999. "He actually backed off once he got served," Rojas says. "He stopped going to meetings. The letters pretty much stopped. Occasionally I would see the chief, and he would ask how the lawsuit was going, and I'd tell him the lawyer is handling it; I don't want to know anything."
She continues, "[Flaherty] told me at one point in time something to the effect of: It would be nice to take his house from him. It's worth a lot.' And I told the chief I don't want his house. I just want him to leave me alone."
Curtin, meanwhile, countersued not only Rojas but also Chief Flaherty and the Village of Key Biscayne, alleging racketeering. Since then he says he's received numerous threatening e-mails, including two sent in January that read, "Kill yourself, loser" and "Bang," plus others that make references to the lawsuit.
In December 1999, a lawsuit filed against Rojas and the FHP by a woman arrested for driving under the influence in 1995 came to trial. The woman claimed Rojas improperly administered the roadside drug test, and she sued for false arrest. A jury found the troopers liable. Rojas was devastated. "I thought my career in law enforcement was over," she says.
Curtin found out about the lawsuit and made sure the press did too. In an article that appeared in the Islander News, the attorney who sued Rojas cited an FHP internal-affairs complaint that revealed she had once accepted an award for making 100 DUI arrests when she hadn't made that many. (Rojas denies this claim.) Flaherty defended his officer in the article. "This was something done supposedly ten years ago, and the Florida Highway Patrol took no action," Flaherty is quoted as saying. "When I talked to her commanding officers and the seven officers who recommended her for hiring, they said this was a bunch of junk."
But it was all too much for Rojas. She told the chief she was going to drop the lawsuit against Curtin. By this time a circuit court judge had removed Flaherty and the village as defendants in Curtin's countersuit. Agnetti speculates that because the chief no longer had to worry about keeping a united front with Rojas against Curtin, the department was free to fire her. To have done so earlier could have been seen as a concession that she was a troubled officer. "Once the Key [Biscayne Police Department] obtained a dismissal in the Curtin case, they abandoned Jackie," Agnetti says. "I think they used her."
Immediately, Rojas claims, she began receiving bad shift assignments. Eventually Key Biscayne Deputy Police Chief Cathy McElhaney called Rojas in for a meeting. According to a memo Rojas wrote to the chief recounting the meeting, McElhaney wanted Rojas to resign, saying the department believed the officer had lied on her job application. Otherwise, McElhaney reportedly threatened, the department would launch an internal-affairs investigation and fire her. Rojas refused to resign.
McElhaney did conduct an internal-affairs investigation and promptly fired Rojas. But if there were a motive beyond the one given to fire her, even she's not sure what it is. "Maybe they do believe I lied," Rojas says. Or maybe the chief is upset with her for dropping the Curtin lawsuit.
On the Key Biscayne Police Department's application form, under the section titled "Arrest, Detention, and Litigation," this question is asked: "Have you ever been the subject of a police investigation? If yes, give details including police department and date." Believing the question referred to criminal investigations, not internal-affairs investigations, Rojas answered no.
This is what the department cited when they fired her: "Officer Rojas misrepresented, omitted, or falsified her employment application, and during subsequent interviews with the Chief of Police, failed to inform him of her prior work history." McElhaney noted that Rojas never mentioned her internal-affairs history with the FHP. She was fired December 18, 2000. Rojas then hired attorney Teri Guttman Valdes and sued for illegal termination. After some digging Valdes found that several other officers had made the same mistake on their applications. Two officers actually had been criminally charged in the past, one for impersonating a police officer, another for driving while intoxicated. (Both charges eventually were dismissed.) Other officers with sustained internal-affairs complaints from previous jobs answered "no."
"It's a bad question," attorney Valdes says. "All the other officers who had prior law-enforcement experience and prior internal-affairs investigations omitted them from the application. They were right not to answer yes.'"
McElhaney also accused Rojas of not telling the department about the DUI award fiasco. Rojas says she not only told the chief, she pointed out his comments in the Islander News defending her in that matter. Flaherty claimed he was misquoted.
As part of her probe, McElhaney received a tip that Rojas slept on duty. Surprisingly Rojas, who worked the midnight to 7:00 a.m. shift in 1999 and 2000, didn't deny it. "I told them it was true but that we had permission from the lieutenant," she asserts. "He said, I don't mind if you lay down.' He said he'd rather have us come to the station and lay down than get into an accident because we were tired."
She adds, "I won't deny it. I'd lay down in my patrol car, or in a chair in the women's bathroom. We were told we could do it. The only one who stayed awake the entire shift was the dispatcher."
As part of her research for the lawsuit, attorney Valdes made a public-records request for a taped conversation that took place on October 28, 2000, between Lt. Neil Rubin (Rojas's supervisor at the time) and dispatcher Arlene Sorensen. An excerpt from that conversation:
"Key Biscayne Police Department, Sorensen.
"Hi, Arlene, it's me.
"Hi, Neil!
"Can you do me a favor? I need a memo, from me to Cathy. Just put down subject information.'
"And do me a favor, write it, stick it in my box. Don't show it to anybody.
Rubin goes on to dictate the memo: "Between April of 1999 and April 2000 I was the midnight-shift lieutenant. At no time -- do you remember me bringing in a group meeting and telling everybody they could legally sleep?"
After no response from Sorensen, Rubin continues: "Did I ever tell you you could bring in a sleeping bag and go to sleep?
"Heh. It's unbelievable. I'm so upset over this I can't tell you. You know what she said, Jackie? She said I gave permission they could sleep.... Basically all I'm asking you is did I tell you you could sleep? No, you didn't sleep anyway, heh, heh, heh. You're the only one who stays awake.
"Yeah." (Deputy Chief Cathy McElhaney says Rubin cannot comment on Rojas's assertion because the matter currently is the subject of an internal-affairs investigation.)
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Rojas is now cordial, if not friendly, with her former nemesis Curtin. They share a common enemy in the chief. And Rojas, confident that the evidence she has gathered exonerates her, is still keen on law-enforcement work. "My intent is to walk back into Key Biscayne in full uniform," she declares.
But in Key Biscayne it's business as usual. At the last village meeting, for instance, Councilwoman Martha Broucek wanted to bring up complaints about how the police are treating minors arrested for vandalism and graffiti. Councilman Scott Bass interjected quickly, accusing his colleague of "badgering" the chief. Flaherty sat impassively, watching from the audience. No mention was made of Rojas's suit, her claims about the chief, or his allegedly well-rested officers.
After all, on Key Biscayne they like to accentuate the positive. As Councilman Robert Oldakowski pointed out after the meeting: "We've got a lot of good stuff going on out here. If you want to write about that, I'd be happy to spend a lot of time with you."


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TUPELO — The board of directors of the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation has voted to award the contract for the expansion of Presley's birthplace venue to the apparent low bidder, Panola Construction of Batesville.
The low bid for the base project was $2.689 million. The board agreed to accept Alternate #2 for $38,600.
In additional action, Germantown Contracting's base bid of $227,000 for audio-visual and theatre equipment, along with an additional alternate for $21,000, was accepted by the board.
This will allow the first phase of approximately $5.6 million in construction at the birthplace to include an event center, theatre, snack bar, archival storage and administrative space and two patios for guest enjoyment.
The construction is partially funded by $2.8 million voted by the Mississippi Legislature in 2010 and administrated by the Mississippi Development Authority, along with matching funds from the City of Tupelo, the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation, the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Carpenter Foundation.
Construction will begin this spring.
Source: Robinson & Associates Inc.


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FORT DODGE — Ryan Tunink finished ninth in the Class 4A boys' race, and became the first Waukee boys' runner to medal at state since Tyler Rich in 2007.
Tunink, who won the state-qualifying meet, crossed the finish line in Fort Dodge in 15:43, crushing his 2012 pace by 26 seconds.
"Ryan had a terrific finish to a fine senior year," coach Josh Maxwell said. "Placing in the top 10 is special, and a very tough task. I'm excited to see what he can do on the track this spring."
Waukee, which featured six seniors in its starting lineup, finished seventh, matching its finish from a year ago and edging Ames by just one points, 179-178, for the spot.
Brennan Borgestad finished 26th in 16:04, Noah Larrison was 41st in 16:17, Austin Krohnke was 61st in 16:42 and Mohad Awan was 64th in 16:44. Freshman Kevin Kato was 100th in 17:17, and Michael Fellers was 107th in 17:30.
Maxwell is hoping the preparations made by a big senior group have rubbed off on their younger teammates.
"We have a fine group of ninth and 10th graders that know how to compete," he said. "Our seniors have shown them how to train at a high level so they know what to expect down the road. I'm very excited for their future here."
The Waukee girls jumped four places from last season's finish to place sixth, matching their best finish from 2011. In terms of points, it was their best finish with a team score of 154. They scored 181 two years ago.
"We were very excited about how the girls finished," coach Heather Every said.
Sophomores Rachel Brush and Jordan Allen led the way for Waukee. Brush was 17th in 14:54, while Allen was 20th in 14:57. Senior Kayla Sabotin was 38rd in 15:18 and Maddie Anderson finished 44th in 15:21. A pair of freshmen, Maggie Laird (54th in 15:33) and Taylor Tornberg (91st in 16:15), rounded out the lineup.
Waukee's 39-second spread among the five scorers was the best in the race.
"Our season theme this year was 'Better together' so it was very fitting, and exciting, to have a split of 39 seconds," Every said. "We talked about needing to be aware of how many people were in front of us so as not to have to battle through a huge pack if we were too deep in the race."
The Waukee girls made their ninth consecutive team appearance at state dating back to 2005.
"We focus on getting everyone to the starting line healthy and excited to compete with the best teams in the state," Every said. "We have a lot of fun together and stay loose, but focused as the championship meets approach at the end of the season."


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Out of the blue, Rod Blagojevich decides to play dead. He thinks, "Maybe they'll throw me in jail for a few weeks and forget the rampant criminal enterprise that was my administration."
It's just the latest weirdo outburst in a saga only slightly less crazy than the Charlie Sheenathon.
Blago comes out of hiding and asks a judge to sentence him, skipping the retrial. That would be great if there weren't 20-plus charges still pending. Always the martyr, Blagojevich is trying to couch this as a money-saving move.
"Just forget those charges, I'll go quietly and we all win!"
It doesn't work that way. Let's compare it to another famous Illinoisan: Al Capone. Everyone knows Capone was a murderous bootlegger. The man was responsible for countless crimes. But the government could only convict him of income tax evasion. It was enough to get him off the street and into Alcatraz.
But hard evidence against Capone was scarce. In the Blago case, the state has audiotape of the ex-governor shaking down and threatening anything with a pulse. We don't need to connect the dots because there's a straight line from Blago's mouth to his eventual jail cell.
It doesn't matter whether Blagojevich is sentenced today, tomorrow or three weeks from now. More guilty verdicts are coming. And he's going to be locked up for a very long time.


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I served in Vietnam. When I came home wearing my uniform I was scorned. It really hurt. America is my country and I voluntarily answered the call. I am a disabled vet and I pledge to help my brothers with part of my income. The people of the United States now seem to recognize the warrior. Please also give a little to those that gave so much.
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Guardian ends bid to force Amish girl into chemo
Gildas LOGAN, UTFeb. 14, 2014 10:42 a.m.
It is a great pity that anyone has to flee the United States in order to get "the State" off his back. Chemotherapy, I hear, does indeed make you very very sick. It will be interesting to see if this child is still living later this year (this summer). If so it will prove the parents right and the representatives of modern medicine wrong. I believe we had a similar situation in Utah two or three years ago, and a boy, kept from the coercive power of orthodox practitioners of modern medicine, and their coercive supporters, has survived.


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Navigating through the deluge of Bat merchandise in 1989 (that capitalized on the movie and 50th anniversary), these button sets were among the nicer products.
Three button sets, four buttons in each set, representing different artistic eras of Batman comic history.
Button Set 1 (pictured right) is of course the early Bob . . . → Read More: Batman Button Sets, 1989


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Republican and Democrat Words.
- November 1, 2010
So here at Infochimps, we thought it would be interesting and timely to take a look at some of the things that are being said about the candidates. With Twitter, it's now easier to get a taste of the real world thoughts and discussions happening amongst the voting populace. I've had the privilege of working with renowned data scientist Kurt Bollacker last week to come up with some quick analysis of what's being said about politicians on Twitter.
Gathering The Data
Here's what we did.
The Federal Election Commission keeps records of all of the candidates for the House and Senate races. From there, we were able to get a list of 3,533 candidate names. With this list, we culled our Twitter repository for these candidate names. We treated them as full names, since in most cases merely the first or last name would come up with many unrelated tweets.
So, for each candidate name, we were able to accumulate a "wordbag" of terms that are commonly found in tweets that contain their name. To clean up the wordbag data, I first hid the candidate's name from the wordbag, and then hid very common terms like "http", "bit", "com", and "www" since the relative frequency of these common terms were eclipsing the other words. For this study, we searched our entire Twitter corpus that contains over 3 billion tweets dating back to its inception in 2006.
I've placed the raw wordbag data up in the Infochimps data marketplace, so take a look if you're so inclined.
Taking A Look At Specific Candidates
For the Massachusetts House race between incumbent Democrat Barney Frank and Republican challenger Sean Bielat, we were able to use a word visualization tool, Wordle, to illustrate the two wordbags. The key thing to remember here is that this is analysis for Tweets that contain the politician's name — and not Tweets by the politician.
For Tweets that mention Barney Frank (D-MA), the most commonly found words are:
And, for Tweets that mention Sean Bielat, the most commonly found words are:
One curious term in the Sean Bielat wordbag is "235l44r" — this turns out to be a reference to http://tinyurl.com/235l44r, which resolves to a blog post on Bielat's blog.
For both candidates, "tcot" is a strong signal. This is an acronym for "Top Conservatives on Twitter," who commonly apply the hashtag "#tcot" to their tweets. What is more interesting is that #tcot is much more popular of a term to use in conjunction with Barney Frank, the Democrat, than his Republican challenger.
Taking a look at another race, this time in California, between Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina, we, once again, generated wordbag visualizations using Wordle:
For Tweets that mention Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the most commonly used words are:
And, for Tweets that mention Carly Fiorina, the most commonly used words are:
As expected, Boxer is commonly associated with Obama, and Fiorina is commonly grouped with Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for California Governor.
One term that stands out notably for both candidates is "hair." This most likely stems from Fiorina's errant comment about Boxer's hair she made when she was off-camera. Way to stick to the important issues, Twitterverse.
Looking for party differences
We were curious to see if there are any noticeable differences between the words used when tweeting about politicians from either party. From our filtered subset of the Twitter corpus, we ran a wordbag analysis against a set of tweets segmented by political party. To simplify things for this case, we only looked at Democrats and Republicans. Once again, if you're interested in the raw data, it's available at the Infochimps data marketplace.
We wondered what terms were more unique in talking about each party, so to do this, we compared the percentage frequency of a term's occurrence to the percentage frequency in the other party. From this analysis, we ended up with a measure of each term's relative frequency within each party's filtered Twitter corpus.
I picked out a few that I thought were interesting:
We can see that "god", "lie" and "republican" are used predominantly in Tweets that correspond to Republicans, and "obamacare", "daily" and "democrat" are used in Tweets that correspond to Democrats. "Daily" most likely refers to The Daily Show, of course. Interestingly, "racist" is split exactly evenly between parties. And, for Tweets about politicians that refer to the Huffington Post, 52% of the time, they're talking about Democrats.
There is a hypothesis going around that Democrats' political messaging is much less focused than the Republicans', and this data seems to support that theory. "Obamacare" is most likely a term used by the Republicans in a derogatory manner, and that is one of the most commonly tweeted terms. The Dems have failed to unify around such a term.
Furthermore, the aforementioned "#tcot" phenomenon indicates that conservatives seem much more organized than the liberals on Twitter, at least in their hashtag usage. If there is such a hashtag on the liberal side, it has failed to gain any type of momentum thus far. At first, I thought that "#tlot" was the liberal banner, but indeed, that has already been co-opted by the "Top Libertarians On Twitter."
Where are all of the Democrats on Twitter? Perhaps they're all quietly watching the Daily Show.
What's next?
Now, in looking at this analysis, a whole slew of other questions start to arise. How does this word bag change over time? What sentiment is associated with each of the tweets, and how does that change over time? To me, to have these types of questions start to surface is a promising indication that we are on to something. After all, the first step towards answering a question is to figure out what question to ask in the first place.
Words are powerful, and analyzing Twitter provides us with some interesting insights into what people are saying about politicians today. If you're interested in doing similar analysis on your own, take a look at the raw wordbag data or our Wordbag API. If you find something interesting, give us a shout — we'd love to hear from you.
Oh, and don't forget to vote tomorrow!
How is the housing disaster, and drop in home values, gonna be fixed if individuals are unable find a new job? There are an incredible number of men and women which have lost their houses and many more will until the United States starts making something more then excuses. It is time to alter the trade agreements with the Chinese. For crying out loud, our biggest trade partner is a communist nation!
Pingback: Welcome Kurt Bollacker to the Infochimps Team! | blog.infochimps.org
Maybe it'd be interesting to see "wordbags" created from sources other than Tweets — eg. pending legislation or public speeches…
Or try creating tweet wordbags for actors vs actresses, female singers vs male singers… endless possibilities… :P
Hm, I would also wonder about "daily" for "daily kos". And it would be interesting to see whether "hair" appears for other female candidates as well, or whether we're actually making more progress in terms of treating female candidates as just candidates.
I'd also be interested to see the wordbags for tweets *by* politicians in particular races, to see how similar or different they are.


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|Home > World News > Article
Mr Mnangagwa is seen as the man Mr Mugabe has chosen to succeed him as leader of the ZANU-PF party that has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.
Last year Mr Mugabe won a presidential election that gave him another seven years in office, but the opposition and Western observers refused to recognise the result, claiming intimidation and political violence by ZANU-PF.
A source inside ZANU-PF said on Thursday that the alleged approach by Mr Mnangagwa and General Zvinavashe had opened up a war of succession around Mr Mugabe, with contenders including the Defence Minister, Sydney Sekeramayi, a former home affairs minister, Dumiso Dabengwa, who lost his seat in the 2000 general election, and a retired general, Solomon Mujuru.
"All of them have fallen out with Mugabe over the direction in which he is taking the country, and they don't see Mnangagwa as the best man to take over the job," the source said.
Last week Mr Mugabe said he had no plans to retire or go into exile.
On February3 Mr Tsvangirai will stand trial at the High Court in Harare on a charge of plotting to kill Mr Mugabe. The charge arises from a video tape first aired on Australia's SBS television in February last year allegedly showing the opposition leader discussing an assassination plot with a Canadian public relations firm which, it transpired, was working for ZANU-PF.
Mr Tsvangirai says he is confident he will be cleared. "My information is that the Government is not all that confident about the case any more.
"They have used this case to confiscate my passport and prevent me from travelling outside Zimbabwe. But I think that all this has done is to show the world what kind of government we are dealing with here."
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A barren victory for the women married to war
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Skip to comments.ADL, LGBT Group Slam CUNY for Sponsorship of Anti-Israel Pinkwashing Conference
Posted on 06/13/2012 3:37:03 PM PDT by SJackson
The Anti-Defamation League and a Jewish LGBT group have blasted a conference being planned by the The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at City University of New York that intends to accuse Israel of using their strong record on gay rights to detract from the oppression of Palestinians.
This conference is not an academic exercise designed to promote and encourage different points of view on LGBT issues; it is simply a venue to criticize Israel for the most absurd reasons, Abraham Foxman, the national director of the ADL told The Algemeiner. The academic community should find the conference abhorrent, because it disregards the key aspects faced by the LGBT community which is global repression in many other countries.
The conference smacks of an effort to discredit Israel, Foxman said.
The Homonationalism and Pinkwashing conference, scheduled for April of 2013, will examine what its planners claim is a concerted effort by Israel to market its positive relationship with the gay community to detract from the oppression of Palestinians.
The Graduate Center at CUNY defended its hosting of the conference saying it is supportive of providing a platform for students to discuss issues from different perspectives.
As a diverse and intellectually robust institution, the Graduate Center embraces the academic tradition of providing a forum for discussion across the spectrum of ideas and points of view, Jane Trombley, Executive Director for Communications at CUNYs Graduate Center said in an email to The Algemeiner. With the proposed conference sponsored by The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) still 8-9 months out, it is too early to comment on any specifics concerning the event.
Foxman called CUNYs co-sponsorship inappropriate and abhorrent. We will reach out and try to convince them not to sponsor the conference, he said.
Gay, lesbian, and transgender rights in Israel have been championed by the LGBT community for years now, including Tel Aviv being named the Best Gay City of 2011″ in an American Airlines competition that polled LGBT tourists on their favorite destinations.
Jayson Littman, who leads the organization HEBRO a promoter of gay Jewish events throughout New York City -, says a group of LGBT academics who traveled to the Palestinian territories and a New York Times op-ed from late 2011 are the driving forces behind the conference.
The main reason why everything is happening now is because there was a group of academics who went to the Palestinian territories in January, and those 15 queer academics have toured around the country since then, promoting the idea of Palestinian suffrage, Littman told The Algemeiner. That, and the New York Times article from last year.
Littman is referring to an op-ed written by Sara Schulman, who will reportedly be taking part in CLAGS conference, in which she writes that the progress made by gay rights activism is being co-opted by Western European governments, as well as Israel.
After generations of sacrifice and organization, gay people in parts of the world have won protection from discrimination and relationship recognition. But these changes have given rise to a nefarious phenomenon: the co-opting of white gay people by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim political forces in Western Europe and Israel, she wrote in November of 2011.
I went to a forum of these American academics, Littman told The Algemeiner, and one of them told the crowd they were instructed not to come out as gay to their Palestinian hosts because they wouldnt be okay with it. This is where the real pinkwashing is happening.
Last week, CUNY Trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld called the conference disgusting in an interview with The Algemeiner.
CLAGS has not returned numerous requests for comment made by The Algemeiner.
They kill and beat Gays in Palestine. These people have no sense.
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
Homosexuals come to Israel specifically because all over the Middle East, with the UAE as an exception, getting caught in a homosexual act gets you the death penalty, and that's only the start considering that you can get killed by an angry mob in some places. Among all the places that kill homosexuals, this includes the Palestinians. This group is pretty pathetic in the fact that it could at least try pressuring the Palestinians to try and denounce their stance, but sometimes, it appears that gay rights groups have no grasp of who their real enemies are sometimes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


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DRC, there does have to be some meeting of the minds somewhere in the middle. The right simply cannot keep pounding the table saying "no new taxes" and left cannot keep pounding the table saying "no cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid". All the while the entire economy keeps going into the toilet. I hope you do notice the howls of protest from the left with Paul Ryan suggests overhauling Medicare and Medicaid. Sorry, those programs cannot continue in their present form, they are way too expensive. And if you argue that the right threw away a bunch of money on wars that should not have been fought, that does not change that reality. I'm not giving them a pass on the wars, I honestly don't know if your opinion is correct, it may be a case of Bush acting on bad intelligence, or it may be a war (or wars) that we should have never gotten into in the first place. That does not matter, the one trillion dollar a year shortfall has to be closed, and a decent amount of that has to be from cuts in the sacred three programs (SS, Medicare, and Medicaid). And hey, if you can do just by cutting waste, bully for you, but I find that a little hard to believe.
I do understand that the Dems will have to save face by getting the right to agree to some tax hikes, but tax hikes will only close about 10-15% of the gap. The rest has to come from spending cuts somewhere.


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Albert is a 10-year-old quaker parrot whose family is retiring and moving to a complex where pets are not allowed. He is friendly, healthy and is well-loved by his family.
Kiwi is a Senegal parrot whose family just had a baby, and they no longer have time to care for him. He is well-socialized and charming. Both of these parrots need new homes. Who can help?
Parrot adoption organizations can, and so can you.
Albert, Kiwi and others like them are placed for adoption every year. If you are new to birds, or if you are expanding your flock, consider the adoption option. Re-homed birds are no more difficult to care for than birds acquired through other means.
Working with a reputable adoption organization gives you access to a network of informed caregivers and dedicated volunteers. You also get flexibility. If the parrot doesn? work in your home, many adoption organizations are willing to work with you to find a bird that does.
Some adoption organizations cover the initial expense of taking in a bird, such as cage costs and vet care.
Finding the Perfect Match
Working with an adoption group, you should get the support to deal with problems as they arise, and the counsel of experienced caregivers is key.
Kathy Leader of Virginia likened her adoption experience, which was done through Phoenix Landing, as similar to the TV show The Dating Game.
"They asked me to describe the bird traits that fit my family. My husband was interested in a quiet bird, my son was interested in a playful bird and I was looking for a tame bird. They let us know about Kiwi, a 7-year-old Senegal that was being fostered in our region. We initially fostered Kiwi. If for any reason the placement did not work, we were not obligated to keep Kiwi, and we would all keep looking for the ?ight?bird fit.?lt;/span>
Matthew Sullivan met Albert, a quaker parrot, at his vet? office where Albert was being fostered. Sullivan was immediately smitten with the little guy.
"It only took me a moment to decide that fate had brought this bird into my life,?Sullivan said.
"When I arrived home from the vet I could not wait to tell my wife about the cute parrot that was available for adoption. We discussed the possibility of adding another pet to our family. My wife was open to the idea, and we made several trips to the vet to visit our adoptee, Albert.
"We contacted Phoenix Landing to begin the process. We were required to fill out an adoption questionnaire and review their foster/adoption requirements. We were also required to attend a parrot information course that was provided free of charge.?lt;/span>
Smooth Transitions
As with any new parrot, go slowly and encourage independent play from the start. Let your new parrot adjust to its surroundings for a few days, and don? force your new bird to interact. Discuss with your family how much time you can reasonably spend with the bird, and use this schedule from the start.
Bringing home a new bird can be exciting, but if you spend 10 hours a day with the bird initially, it will come to expect this amount of attention, and may develop behavior problems when you can no longer devote long hours to hanging out.
Do not respond to any behavior that you cannot live with for the next 50 years. In other words, if the bird does something you don? like, such as scream, ignore the behavior. Instead, increase the likelihood of positive behaviors by praising and giving attention to the behaviors that you like.
Use the first two weeks (you might need a little longer) to find out your bird? motivator, which is most likely treats. These coveted treats are the key to getting your bird to choose positive behaviors.
Whether you are looking to expand your flock, or are a first-time bird owner, adoption is an excellent choice. To locate a reputable group, talk to your avian veterinarian, members of a bird club or other bird owners in your area.
Keep in mind that you may need the help of an adoption group one day, and support those organizations. If you do not have the resources to adopt a parrot, consider fostering a bird in need. You can also get involved by volunteering at a parrot adoption organization or offering financial support or sponsoring a bird in need of a home.
Re-homed birds often come from responsible, loving caretakers who come to realize that they no longer can care for their parrots. By relinquishing the bird to a reputable adoption organization, these families are doing the best thing for their parrots.
Want to read more?
Are You Ready To Adopt A Bird?
Fostering: When Parrots Need Home


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Project CARS, an acronym for \"Community Assisted Racing Simulator\", has been delayed on the Wii U. The game will still come to other consoles this November, but the game will only launch on the Wii U next year in 2015.
\"We\'re committed to delivering an exceptional and unique experience for racing fans on Wii U and for this we kindly ask our devoted and passionate Nintendo fans for a little more time in order to ensure the game delivers on our vision of being the most authentic, beautiful, and technically-advanced racing game on any platform.\"
This news would explain the absence of Wii U gameplay videos for Project CARS, but it is still disheartening to see yet another title delayed for the Wii U. Do you think this extra time could allow the team to create gamepad-specific features for the game? Make sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below!


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Final Score: England 54 Fiji 12
CHRIS Ashton will be desperate to inflict more misery on Australia after being forced to watch Charlie Sharples shine for England in his self-inflicted absence.
That is the view of England head coach Stuart Lancaster, who has been left with a selection poser after Sharples took his opportunity against Fiji with two tries in a 54-12 victory on Saturday.
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England scored seven touchdowns in total but Ashton missed out on the chance to break his international duck for 2012 because he was suspended, having collected three yellow cards for dangerous play.
Ashton, who has scored three tries in three Tests against Australia, is available as England go in search of a third consecutive win against the Wallabies.
Everything points to his immediate return to the side, with Sharples and Ugo Monye competing for the other wing berth – and Ashton will come back with a point to prove.
''Chris was desperately disappointed to miss this game,'' Lancaster said.
''He likes scoring tries and, if anything, this will fuel his hunger and desire to get back into the side. It was a tough lesson to learn.
''We all know the quality of Chris Ashton. He has been one of the in-form players, both in the Premiership this season and since I have been involved with England.
''Australia are a top-three side and we recognise the quality of players we will need to beat them.'' Ashton was warned to work on his tackling technique by the disciplinary officials who banned him, which he has done with England coach Andy Farrell.
Lancaster has also spoken to him about the need for selfcontrol and discipline. Two of the yellow cards were for late charges and one for a dangerous tackle.
But neither of those issues will count against Ashton's selection to face the Wallabies, against whom he scored one of the great Twickenham tries in 2010.
''He has done some work on this with Andy. We know his quality, he tracks the ball well and he is a great finisher. We don't ignore what he has done in the past,'' Lancaster said.
Sharples went into the Fiji game with no expectations of unseating Ashton from the team, given he is England's most prolific try-scorer with 15 from 26 Tests.
But the Gloucester wing made a strong case to be Ashton's wing man against the Wallabies with an impressive two-try performance.
''I wasn't expecting one good performance to push 'Ashy' out when he has played exceptionally well for England for the last couple of years,'' Sharples said.
''My goal was to do the best I could, put a bit of competition on him and also with Ugo Monye for the other wing spot.
''It was a good game for a wing. Our attack was firing, I got my hands on the ball and scored two tries. I was happy with the way it went.'' If Ashton and Sharples were both selected, one of them would have to start in their less-favoured left-wing position.
Monye will hope to influence that debate in training this week, having worn the 11 jersey against Fiji and marked his return to the England team with a simple try.
''There are selection decisions to be made. It's not a nightmare at all, it's a great position to be in,'' Lancaster said.
Sharples and Monye were joined on the scoresheet by Manu Tuilagi, who touched down twice late on against the tiring Fijians, and Tom Johnson, while the England pack earned a penalty try.
Alex Goode was highly influential from full-back, stepping up to act as England's second playmaker alongside Toby Flood and bringing a new dimension to the red rose attack.
While Goode shone, Lancaster believes his influence will be even more important against the might of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
''The defences will be tight and tough to break down. To do that you need intelligent footballers and he is that,'' Lancaster said.
Despite Goode's vision and the seven tries scored, Lancaster is acutely aware that England were not anywhere near as clinical as they wanted to be or will need to be.
''It was a good start but we recognise the quality of the opposition that is coming around the corner.
"We will have to step up a couple of levels next week,'' Lancaster said.
''We will have to be at our best. We are going to have to be more clinical.'' In addition to Ashton, Lancaster is expecting to have fitagain prop Alex Corbisiero and centre Jonathan Joseph available to face Australia.


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|September 22, 2000, 08:35 PM
Junior member
Join Date: July 20, 2000
Location: pasadena,california,America
Posts: 542
Fubsy introduced me to O'Toole's Law which constantly sits on your shoulder and he brings Mr. Murphy along just to make sure things go wrong.
I'd like to make a list of things that can go wrong with your help so that all of us TFL'ers can learn from this list:
What can go wrong in real life ?
1)Your gun is not 100% reliable...it jams at the wrong time.
2)You haven't really tried out the ammo that you have presently in your mag...it(ammo) fails to feed..slide doesn't close preventing the weapon from firing.
3) Your weapon tends to malfunction once in a while when you don't clean it...you're coming home from a good day at the range, you have need of your handgun...it malfunctions.
4) You haven't had a chance to practice a lot of drawing from the holster..Situation calls for you to draw your weapon...
a)holster comes out with the weapon,
b)holster is not broken in yet, you can't draw your weapon for love nor money.
c)weapon hangs up on jacket because you haven't tried drawing a lot with this jacket.
d)holster is too big, gun comes out by itself....to land on the ground 5 feet in front of you.
Etc., ETc. Help?
5)You're not using a holster, you're carrying with gun in waistband (Mexican carry)..pants is too big, shorts eats gun.
6)Wrong type belt to hold gun in holster, gun falls out in theatre making a loud clunk sound.
7) Holster is not really "concealing" gun..girlfriend sees bulge in pants just thinks you're really glad to see her.
8)You draw weapon and accidentally hit mag release, mag drops out of gun.
Any of these things happen to you? What other ways has O'Toole visited you? or Mr. Murphy?
|September 22, 2000, 10:27 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: August 21, 2000
Location: SC
Posts: 105
Why's number 7 a problem? She'll prolly just try to jump you...
|September 23, 2000, 07:17 PM
Junior member
Join Date: August 2, 2000
Location: Honolulu, HI, USA
Posts: 210
For what ... to induce an AD ... ?
|September 24, 2000, 02:54 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: August 21, 2000
Location: SC
Posts: 105
More like an ID (intentional discharge) hehehe.
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12 Comments
abstrasctik Artist
+1 vote
hey this design is amaizing the color and all the compositions rulz! you have my vote so maybe you can comment mine too ;D and maybe vote for me too hehe
nice work+1 check out my VZ design let me know what you think.
cool teeth,check my VZ buddy,if you love, hit it, thank u^^it almost finish the race,thank ^^
great character and those yellow bubbles must have been a bitch!
yeah this is cool!!! headup man!!
VZ is almost over!! so lets give ourselves some lovin votes! exchanging votes!!! lol imvoter17
love it, love cartoon style, so cute +
Jaws style.
hehe, the most funny project for this contest, simple and nice, I like it +1
haaa nice!!!
gilmoreart Artist from United States
That's great!
berthorthon Human