text:
Shadow Warriors - Pt 4
Thursday, May 5, 2005, 09:00 AM - Memory, Myth, and Imagination
Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, Jr.
McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, showing operations from April 4 through June 1, 1862
And, once more, let me tell you, it is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help in this. You will do me the justice to remember I always insisted, that going down the [Chesapeake] Bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas [in northern Virginia], was only shifting, and not surmounting, a difficulty--that we would find the same enemy, and the same, or equal intrenchments, at either place. The country will not fail to note--is now noting--that the present hesitation to move upon an intrenched enemy, is but the story of Manassas repeated.
I beg to assure you that I have never written you, or spoken to you, in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you, so far as in my anxious judgment, I consistently can. But you must act.
-- Abraham Lincoln to McClellan, April 9, 1862
Fearing the pain involved, almost all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, attempt to avoid problems. We procrastinate, hoping that they will go away. We ignore them, forget them, pretend they do not exist. We even take drugs to assist us in ignoring them, so that by deadening ourselves to the pain we can forget the problems that cause the pain. We attempt to skirt around problems rather than meet them head on. We attempt to get out of them rather than suffer through them.
The tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all human mental illness. Since most of us have this tendency to a greater or lesser degree, most of us are mentally ill to a greater or lesser degree, lacking complete mental health. Some of us will go to quite extraordinary lengths to avoid our problems and the suffering they cause, proceeding far afield from all that is clearly good and sensible in order to find an easy way out, building the most elaborate fantasies in which to live, sometimes to the total exclusion of reality. In the succinctly elegant words of Carl Jung, "Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering."
-- M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth (1978)
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10
Rules, Even in War - Pt 6
Wednesday, May 4, 2005, 10:16 AM - An Antiwar Military History?A month after his code was published as General Orders, No. 100, Lieber wrote Halleck with satisfaction, "I think the No. 100 will do honor to the country. It will be adopted as a basis for similar works by the English, French, and Germans. It is a contribution by the U.S. to the stock of common civilization." Subsequent events proved him correct. The Prussians adopted it lock, stock and barrel to guide their armies' conduct of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and its language greatly influenced subsequent efforts, such as the Hague and Geneva Conventions, to create restraints on war.
But for my purposes--to repeat a point made in Part 1, my job is to write an entry on the code for the Encyclopedia of War and American Society--I'm interested in the code's influence on subsequent American practice. The original version of "General Orders, No. 100" governed the U.S. Army during the Spanish American and Philippine Wars. A new field manual adopted in 1914 incorporated everything from the original code that remained relevant after the passage of a half-century, while Richard Shelly Hartigan detected echoes of the code even in the 1940 field manual on the laws of war--FM 27-10--that set forth official U.S. policy during World War II. (The current edition of FM 27-10, which essentially dates from 1956 with a few emendations in 1976, may be found here.)
Historian Sir Michael Howard notes that during the mid-nineteenth century, "a consensus was growing that, although war might still be a necessary element in international politics . . . it should be waged, so far as possible, with humanity." He immediately goes on to say that this was the generation that produced "the first comprehensive codification of the regulations for the conduct of war on land," and of course he means Lieber's Code. That's the image we have of the code, and Americans who have never heard of Francis Lieber assume that the United States honors the rules of war, fights according to those rules, and would be very little surprised to learn that, through Lieber's Code, their nation played a significant role in shaping them.
It therefore comes as something of a shock to find that when, during the Philippine War, U.S. commanders had trouble dealing with Filipino guerrillas (insurrectos) and wanted to crack down harder, their solution was not to dispense with Lieber's Code but rather to invoke adherence to the letter of it, for when it came to guerrilla warfare the code was very strict:
Men, or squads of men, who commit hostilities . . . without being part and portion of the organized hostile army, and without sharing continuously in the war, but who do so with intermitting returns to their homes and avocations, or with the occasional assumption of the semblance of peaceful pursuits, divesting themselves of the character or appearance of soldiers--such men, or squads of men, are not public enemies, and therefore, if captured, are not entitled to the privileges of prisoners of war, but shall be treated summarily as highway robbers or pirates. . . . Armed prowlers, by whatever names they may be called, or persons of the enemy's territory, who steal within the lines of the hostile army for the purpose of robbing, killing, or of destroying bridges, roads, or canals, or of robbing or destroying the mail, or of cutting the telegraph wires, are not entitled to the privileges of the prisoner of war. . . . War-rebels are persons within an occupied territory who rise in arms against the occupying or conquering army. If captured, they may suffer death. . . . They are not prisoners of war.
My point is not that these rules were inappropriate or immoral. My point is that, coupled with Lieber's expansive definition of "military necessity," they opened to door to a very harsh program. Brig. Gen. J. Franklin Bell, for example, issued an order which stipulated that if US or friendly native prisoners or unarmed persons were murdered, a prisoner of war would be executed under Sections 59 and 148 of Lieber's Code. This prisoner of war will be selected by lot from among the officers or prominent citizens held as prisoners of war, and will be chosen when practicable from those who belong to the town where the murder or assassination occurred. Historian Glenn Anthony May could find no evidence that this provision was actually implemented, but other draconian policies were. Noncombatants were concentrated into zones where they could be kept under surveillance. Food found outside the zones was to be captured or confiscated, and people found outside the zones were to be captured or killed. The number of Filipino civilians who died as a result of such policies is conservatively estimated at 200,000. An [i[Encyclopaedia Britannica article I consulted places the number at between one and three million. The Philippine War remains a notoriously politicized topic and I have never read anything on it I really trust. But it seems plain enough that the Filipino people have no reason to feel grateful to Francis Lieber or his code.
Ultimately the thing that troubles me about Lieber's Code--and perhaps most attempts to create rules of war--is the implicit attempt to stack the deck toward certain kinds of armed violence and away from others. That seems laudable. But I have always believed that if you expect rules in war to be followed, your prescriptions have to be practical. You have to establish rules that the belligerents can follow and have a shot at winning the conflict. The Bush administration today seems to be playing fast and loose with the rules of war because it considers those rules ill adapted to the War on Terrorism. But the terrorists and insurgents employ the tactics they do for precisely the same reason: under the recognized rules of war, the deck is stacked so that they have no chance of winning at all. The Filipino resistance, to revert to the Philippine War, actually began as a conventional conflict by which the Filipinos attempted to defeat the U.S. Army in open battle. It didn't work. The American forces were better led, trained, and equipped--which is pretty much what you'd expect in the circumstances. Having lost the conventional war, the Filipinos were supposed to quit altogether. But their will to fight remained unbroken and they chose instead to continue their resistance by unconventional means. If Lieber's Code ruled that out of bounds, so much the worse for Lieber's Code.
What's the solution? How do you avoid stacking the deck when not stacking the deck effectively means that it is okay for the enemy to use Improvised Explosive Devices, car bombs, hostage-taking, and the like? I suspect that in terms of the laws of war you cannot do so. You have to alter the laws of politics instead. You have to create conditions wherein all the parties believe they have a fair chance of prevailing within the realm of normal politics. Otherwise they will step outside it.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
8 comments ( 18 views ) | permalink
Rules, Even in War - Pt 5
Tuesday, May 3, 2005, 10:08 PM - An Antiwar Military History?For all its subsequent fame, Lieber's Code attracted surprisingly little attention at the time of its issuance. My first book, The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865 (1995), spends several pages on the code and as I did my research I was constantly on the lookout for references to it by Union commanders, but I found almost none. Generals like Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan based their actions on the same laws and customs of war from which Lieber distilled the code, but they pretty much ignored the code itself. Richard Shelly Hartigan, who in Lieber's Code and the Law of War (1983) tried to assemble all significant contemporary comment on the code, could find nothing by any major field commander.
Abraham Lincoln also seems to have paid it little heed, despite occasional offhand statements to the contrary. (For instance, one online source quotes a legal review article claiming that the code was "drafted by Francis Lieber and issued by President Lincoln in 1863." Another calls it "Lincolns own military code.") But neither the index to the standard collection of Lincoln's papers nor the index to James G. Randall's four-volume study of Lincoln's presidency have listings for "General Orders No. 100", "Lieber's Code," or even "Lieber, Francis."
The documents that Hartigan did locate that bear upon Lieber's Code do so almost entirely in connection with fairly specific legal matters, primarily the thorny issue of parole and exchange of prisoners (which ultimately broke down over the Confederacy's refusal to consider captured African American soldiers to be prisoners of war), and the use of POWs as forced laborers.
Hartigan's finds also include a rather acid letter concerning Lieber's code, written by the Confederate agent for the exchange of prisoners to his Union counterpart. "Do you recognize the rules of General Orders, No. 100, to be as binding against you as for you?" the agent inquired. Then, calling attention to recent "flagrant outrages" that had occurred during a recent Union raid into tidewater Virginia:
Are they a fair interpretation of your celebrated general order? I am aware that it gives a license for a man to be either a fiend or a gentleman. He can find abundant authority for either role in the order.
I wrote about the raid in question in The Hard Hand of War; it amounted to a series of small expeditions that burned tanneries, destroyed grain, and seized livestock--all pretty standard stuff by that time, in the war's western theater, and done in a controlled manner accentuated by the fact that civilians received receipts for all property taken or destroyed, so that after the war they could receive compensation upon furnishing proof that they had remained loyal to the Union. Nobody needed Lieber's Code to authorize such acts. The War Department had already published a general order encouraging the use or destruction of rebel property in August 1862 (and unlike Lieber's Code, we know Lincoln was both aware of and in favor of the order). In any case, it lay within the recognized limits of the laws and customs of war, as the Swiss jurist Emmerich de Vattel had made clear in his Law of Nations (1758):
Since the object of a just war is to repress injustice and violence, and forcibly to compel him who is deaf to the voice of justice, we have a right to put in practice, against the enemy, every measure that is necessary in order to weaken him, and disable him from resisting us and supporting his injustice; and we may choose such methods as are the most efficacious and best calculated to attain the end in view, provided they be not of an odious kind, nor unjustifiable in themselves, and prohibited by the law of nature.
Comparison of Vattel's chapters dealing with war with Lieber's Code, however, reveals a striking difference in tone. Vattel tended to demarcate the limits of what a commander might legitimately do and then offer reasons why an enlightened commander would do less. Lieber--who once termed Vattel "Father Namby Pamby"--typically established similar limits but his rhetoric invited commanders to be as tough as possible within those limits. "The more vigorously wars are pursued the better it is for humanity," he argued. "Sharp wars are brief." Applied to a later conflict, Lieber's Code produced results quite different from those imagined by those who today admire it from afar.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
Rules, Even in War - Pt 4
Tuesday, May 3, 2005, 10:03 AM - An Antiwar Military History?A treatise to help justify a policy of retaliation toward secessionist guerrillas was all that Halleck asked of Lieber. But Lieber wanted to go much further. In November 1862 he wrote Halleck urging the U.S. War Department to adopt "a set of rules and definitions providing for the most urgent issues occurring under the Law and usages of war, and on which our Articles of War are silent. . . . For instance: The Spy--Who is a spy? How is the spy to be punished? Paroling [of prisoners of war] - What is it? Who paroles? What punishment for breaking the parole? Who shall be treated as a prisoner of war? etc., etc., etc."
Why did Lieber seek such a thing? It was partly to impose restraint--he rather ponderously noted that "in all other countries the Law of War is much more reduced to naked Force or Might, than we are willing to do it, perhaps now, in this Civil War--but mainly he thought the federal government should regularize procedure in a conflict that sprawled over half a continent: "single wars [do not] extend there [in Europe] over such distances as here." He recommended that a committee be formed to draft the rules and that Halleck--as both general in chief and as a prominent authority on the Law of Nations (Halleck had written a significant book on international law)--should chair it. Halleck demurred--"I have no time at present to consider the subject"--but Lieber persisted, and barely a month after his initial proposal the War Department formed a committee "to propose amendments or changes in the Rules and Articles of War, and a code of regulations for the government of armies in the field." The committee consisted of Lieber and four generals. The generals, as far as I can tell, then sat back and let Lieber do all the work.
The parole issue was perhaps in most urgent need of attention. Even before the committee was created, Lieber had sent Halleck a draft chapter on the subject, and in February 1863 a revised a codified version was issued as General Orders, No. 49. General Orders, No. 100, came out two months later, on April 24, 1863.
You can find a copy of them here. The orders--henceforth known as Lieber's Code or simply the code--are divided into ten sections. Six of them deal pretty directly with guerrilla activity, flags of truce, surrender, prisoner exchange, and the like. Another condemns "assassination;" i.e., proclaiming a combatant or individual to be an "outlaw" and authorizing their death without due process. (This section was pretty obviously inspired by the Confederate government's branding of certain Union officers, especially Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. "Beast" Butler, as outlaws.) The rest cover such broad issues as military necessity, protection of noncombatants, war crimes, and the definition of insurrection, civil war, and rebellion.
The highlights re military necessity: "Military necessity . . . consists in the necessity of those measures which are indispensable for securing the ends of the war, and which are lawful according to the modern law and usages of war. . . . Military necessity admits of all direct destruction of life or limb of armed enemies, and of other persons whose destruction is incidentally unavoidable in the armed contests of the war; it allows of the capturing of every armed enemy, and every enemy of importance to the hostile government, or of peculiar danger to the captor; it allows of all destruction of property . . . and of all withholding of sustenance or means of life from the enemy; of the appropriation of whatever an enemy's country affords necessary for the subsistence and safety of the Army. . . . Military necessity does not admit of cruelty--that is, the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge, nor of maiming or wounding except in fight, nor of torture to extort confessions. It does not admit of the use of poison in any way, nor of the wanton devastation of a district. It admits of deception, but disclaims acts of perfidy; and, in general, military necessity does not include any act of hostility which makes the return to peace unnecessarily difficult. . . . . The citizen or native of a hostile country is . . . an enemy, as one of the constituents of the hostile state or nation, and as such is subjected to the hardships of the war."
Re protection of noncombatants: "The United States acknowledge and protect . . . strictly private property; the persons of the inhabitants, especially those of women; and the sacredness of domestic relations. Offenses to the contrary shall be rigorously punished. . . . This rule does not interfere with the right of the victorious invader to tax the people or their property, to levy forced loans, to billet soldiers, or to appropriate property, especially houses, lands, boats or ships, and the churches, for temporary and military uses. . . . Private property, unless forfeited by crimes or by offenses of the owner, can be seized only by way of military necessity."
Re definitions of insurrection, civil war, and rebellion: " Insurrection is the rising of people in arms against their government, or portion of it, or against one or more of its laws, or against an officer or officers of the government. . . . Civil war is war between two or more portions of a country or state, each contending for the mastery of the whole, and each claiming to be the legitimate government. . . . The term rebellion is applied to an insurrection of large extent, and is usually a war between the legitimate government of a country and portions of provinces of the same who seek to throw off their allegiance to it and set up a government of their own. [Mark G: Which, incidentally, is why the American Civil War is officially known as the War of the Rebellion.] The military commander of the legitimate government, in a war of rebellion, distinguishes between the loyal citizen in the revolted portion of the country and the disloyal citizen. The disloyal citizens may further be classified into those citizens known to sympathize with the rebellion without positively aiding it, and those who, without taking up arms, give positive aid and comfort to the rebellious enemy without being bodily forced thereto. . . . The commander will throw the burden of the war, as much as lies within his power, on the disloyal citizens. . . . [H]e may expel, transfer, imprison, or fine the revolted citizens who refuse to pledge themselves anew as citizens obedient to the law and loyal to the government."
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
Shadow Warriors - Pt 3
Tuesday, May 3, 2005, 02:21 AM - Memory, Myth, and Imagination
"The fierce soldiers with their faces blackened with the smoke of battle, the wounded crawling with feeble limbs from the fury of the devouring flames, all seemed possessed with a common impulse. One long, unbroken cheer, in which the feeble cry of those who lay helpless on the earth blended with the strong voices of those who still fought, rose high above the roar of battle, and hailed the presence of the victorious chief. He sat in the full realization of all that soldiers dream of--triumph; and as I looked upon him, in the complete fruition of the success which his genius, courage, and confidence in the army had won, I thought that it must have been from such a scene that men in ancient times rose to the dignity of gods." -- Charles Marshall, Lee's Aide de Camp (1927, rpt. 2000), 173.
(Print by Mort Kunstler)
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10
7 comments ( 15 views ) | permalink
Shadow Warriors - Pt 2
Monday, May 2, 2005, 02:28 PM - Memory, Myth, and Imagination
See also Robert L. Moore's web site.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10
Shadow Warriors - Pt 1
Sunday, May 1, 2005, 10:56 PM - Memory, Myth, and ImaginationFor some years now, I have increasingly suspected that military history functions as one of the ways--perhaps a very important way--by which males in our society learn how to be men. It is not necessarily a good way (though I would not leap to the assumption that it is a bad one), nor do I think males necessarily realize that they use it for such a purpose. Indeed, if my hunch is correct, the reaction to my hypothesis by males whose hobby is military history would be neither recognition nor curiosity but hostility and resistance. Nevertheless, one of the prerogatives of my position as a professor in a research university is that I get paid to think up and explore just these sorts of ideas. And I suspect I can rather quickly make the case that this hypothesis is plausible and that it will not take much longer to give it the heft of a theory.
A number of "straws in the wind" led me to this hypothesis, among them:
My own interest in military history, which dates from an early age--but also the realization that many males report the same early fascination with the subject;
The fact that the "hobbyist" interest in military history focuses heavily on certain themes--Great Captains, battles, weapons and technology--and resolutely ignores many others, e.g., the relationship between war and the state, the impact of war on civilians, the prevalence of military regimes in developing countries--that from an intellectual standpoint are just as relevant. (If you're a Civil War historian, for example, when was the last time a Civil War Round Table invited you to talk about the U.S. Sanitary Commission?)
Prof. John A. Lynn's offhand remark that men read books on military history the way women read Harlequin romances, as escapist entertainment;
John Keegan's observation, in The Face of Battle, that the study of generals and generalship, besides being in some quarters almost synonymous with military history, "too often dissolves into syncophancy or hero-worship, culminating in the odd case in a bizarre sort of identification by the author with his subject--an outcome," he continues, "common and understandable enough in literary or artistic biography but tasteless and even mildly alarming when the Ego is a man of blood and iron, his Alter someone of scholarly meekness and suburban physique" (pp. 25-26);
The pointed exclusion of women from most military history as irrelevant, coupled with an illogical hostility to the idea of using gender as an analytical category by which to understand this artificially constructed but nonetheless exclusively male world.
I could multiply examples, but by now you get the point. Or you don't, in which case I doubt any amount of argument could persuade you.
If this sounds as if I'm about to launch into an exercise in male-bashing, believe me, I'm not. For one thing, there's quite enough of that. The Ohio State University Library, for example, has fifty-three entries under MenUnited StatesPsychology, which happens to be the heading under which the Library of Congress classifies Iron John: A Book About Men, by poet Robert Bly. Iron John was a founding document in the men's movement which flourished briefly in the early 1990s but which, as far as I can see, has almost dropped off the face of the earth. For your convenience, I have exported the entries and placed them on this page. See for yourself how little company Bly has, and see if you can detect a theme that runs through most of the titles.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - [Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10
25 comments ( 235 views ) | permalink
Virtual Drums, Virtual Trumpets
Sunday, May 1, 2005, 04:21 AM - Memory, Myth, and Imagination
Shown above is a screen shot from The Battle of Bull Run, 1861: Take Command, marketed by The History Channel and Activision but designed and produced by MadMinute Games, Inc.. The game came out late last year and has gotten very good reviews:
GameZone Review
Metacritic.com User Reviews
WarGamer.com Review
StrategyPage.com Review
DIY Games Review
I bought a copy this evening. (It cost only twenty bucks--normally the sign of an inferior game, but apparently not in this case.) Following up on Zu's suggestion, I thought I'd use it to explore how one might go about using computer games in a military history course.
My general idea is to examine the game through the lens of four books: a recent study of the First Bull Run campaign by an outstanding young Civil War military historian, Ethan S. Rafuse, entitled A Single Grand Victory: The First Campaign and Battle of Manassas (2002); and three studies of Civil War tactics: Paddy Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Civil War (1989), Grady McWhiney and Perry D. Jamieson, Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage (1984), and Brent Nosworthy, The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War (2003).
7 comments ( 15 views ) | permalink
Memory, Myth, and Imagination
Saturday, April 30, 2005, 06:48 PM - Memory, Myth, and ImaginationThis post inaugurates a new category in the blog. For a clue as to its direction, click the postcard image of "As I Opened Fire," by artist Roy Lichtenstein:
(I got the postcard years ago at the Tate Gallery in London.)
8 comments ( 19 views ) | permalink
Emotional Realities
Saturday, April 30, 2005, 04:20 PM - Counterfactuals and Contingency
The distinguished psychiatrist and author Anthony Storr once hypothesized that Winston Churchill's well-documented struggle with depression was a key element of his greatness as a leader:
In 1940, when all the odds were against Britain, a leader of sober judgment might well have concluded that we were finished. Political leaders are accustomed to dissimulation. Even when defeat at the polls is imminent, or the policies which they support have been shown to be futile, they will, until the eleventh hour, continue to issue messages of hope to their supporters. In 1940, any political leader might have tried to rally Britain with brave words, although his heart was full of despair. But only a man who had known and faced despair within himself could carry conviction at such a moment. Only a man who knew what it was to discern a gleam of hope in a hopeless situation, whose courage was beyond reason, and whose aggressive spirit burned at its fiercest when he was hemmed in and surrounded by enemies, could have given emotional reality to the words of defiance which rallied and sustained us in the menacing summer of 1940. Churchill was such a man: and it was because, all his life, he had conducted a battle with his own despair that he could convey to others that despair can be overcome. [Storr, "Churchill: The Man," in Churchill's Black Dog, Kafka's Mice, and Other Phenomena of the Human Mind (1988), p. 5]
Notwithstanding Churchill's example and that of many others known to have had mental illnesses of various sorts--to say nothing of "normal" individuals--when it comes to explaining the views and behavior of historical actors, historians still tend to avoid psychology as an analytical tool. This is partly because early attempts at psychohistory were often deeply flawed. Partly it is because of the unexamined assumptions redolent in such throwaway lines as "You cannot psychoanalyze the dead." But much of it, I think, comes from a different sort of assumption: namely that highly functional people cannot, by definition, have significant mental or emotional disorders. Or to frame it in the reverse, that people with such disorders reveal crippling weaknesses that unfit them for significant historical agency.
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill conducted a survey at an American shopping mall in which respondents were asked to select causes of mental illness from a list. Only ten percent of respondents believed that mental illness had a biological basis involving the brain. A whopping seventy-one percent thought that it was caused by "emotional weakness." Sixty-five percent blamed "bad parenting." Thirty-five percent thought it was "sinful behavior," while forty-five percent thought that people "bring on their own illnesses." [Anne Sheffield, How Can You Survive When They're Depressed: Living and Coping With Depression Fallout (1998), pp. 270-71.]
Across the Atlantic, Rethink has been trying to counter a similar stigmatization of mental illness in Great Britain. It has an annual Rethink Week in which it ramps up its efforts in this regard. The focus of last year's Rethink Week was a statue of Churchill in a straitjacket which it sought to erect, temporarily, in Trafalgar Square. Denied permission to do so by the Greater London Authority, Rethink took the statue--festooned with a sash labeled "Prejudice, Ignorance, and Fear"--on a sort of guerrilla-theater tour of London's streets in defiance of the ban. Personallly I'm not wild about the statue or its heavy-handed symbolism--"a bit over the top" is the expression that comes to mind--but it does at least underscore the basic point.
Back Next


text:
The Book of Joe
Mario Pena
USA, Action/Sci-Fi, 2013
9 min, HD, Color
English, Spanish with English subtitles
Director Mario Pena and producer Samantha Lopez in attendance
THE BOOK OF JOE is an action/sci-fi short film that pits Joe, an everyday man from South Texas, against Death, an Angel, and even Jesus himself in an apocalyptic battle for the future of Earth. Blending vintage science fiction, biblical imagery and South Texas Americana, THE BOOK OF JOE is a unique, entertaining, and action-packed take on the end of the world. Before returning to the filmmaker's native Austin, the film has screened as part of the Official Selection at the Seattle International and the HollyShort Film Festivals, among others.
Austin Premiere
Sunday, April 27th 11:00AM
Marchesa Hall & Theatre

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Official shows off their Winter 2009 Lookbook, highlighting a strong line of headwear. Focusing on it's strengths as a headwear brand, this season Official takes a decidedly more refined and subtle approach with selective fabric based fitteds, single-knit earth tone beanies and "The Officials" snap-back in a classic red/black athletic colorway. Available at finer retailers worldwide and online now.
Each piece purchased for this season comes with a printed nylon Official Duffel Bag that zips into a pouch as a "gift with purchase."
See the full Official Winter 2009 Lookbook after the click.


text:
open/close all folders
Comic Books
- The Superhero-themed strip club Superiors in Secret Six, featuring "supervillain team-up" group dances and a Stan-Lee sounding DJ. Deadshot even lampshades the lack of nudity.
Films — Animation
- Esmeralda's dance at the Feast of Fools in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Her actual dress isn't much skimpier than her regular outfit, but she lifts it enough to show off her legs and bare feet, and at the end she grabs a spear from a guard, sticks it into the stage, and spins around it. She even jumps into Frollo's lap and ties a scarf around him, which he remembers a little too well for anyone's good.
- Justified in The Great Mouse Detective. Miss Kitty's song-and-dance number is period-accurate for Victorian-era England, with her just showing some leg in a leotard. Her song also has plenty of Getting Crap Past the Radar.
- Gazelle's tiger dancers in Zootopia reach Mr. Fanservice levels of this trope.
Films — Live-Action
- Appears in, of all things, the film adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City: the comic featured nudity (both male and female); the movie kept most of the female nudity, axed all of the male nudity, and most notably took out the nudity in the strip club. The reason for this was Jessica Alba's career-long refusal to do nude scenes.
- None other than Gypsy Rose Lee herself performs an extremely family-friendly strip in Stage Door Canteen (1943). Mostly, she removes various undergarments, such as a petticoat and garter belt, from under a voluminous skirt and then holds them up.
- Just because Lindsay Lohan played a stripper in I Know Who Killed Me doesn't mean she has to take her clothes off or anything.
- In Independence Day Jasmine works as an exotic dancer, but leaves her bra and panties on during her dance scene. Hey, the film was a PG-13 summer blockbuster, after all, and the film does deserve credit for making her no less sympathetic as a leading lady. Also, justified in that she was just starting her routine, and then stopped dancing and left after noticing that no one was watching her due to being glued to the news reports about the events of the movie.
- In Armageddon Rockhound decides to spend the night before the mission getting lap dances at a strip club. Seeing that this film is also a PG-13 summer blockbuster the dancers leave their underwear on.
- Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle- The Angels go undercover at a sleazy strip club filled with criminals. Instead of strippers, we get the the Pussycat Dolls and zero nudity.
- Flash Dance Artistic dancing and the above-mentioned nipple-free wet T-shirts.
- In The Goodbye Girl Elliot gets a job as a street barker outside a strip club. The dancers keep bikinis on. This is in New York in the 1970s.
- In Gilda, securely within Hays Code years, Rita Hayworth performs an amazingly sexy strip-tease ... in which she takes off a single glove.
- Amy's act at Club Scum in Hobgoblins involves her stripping down to her bodice and underwear, which together cover as much of her body as a strapless one-piece bathing suit. ("Right down to the workout gear!" as the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version puts it.) This is treated as a major embarrassment.
- Enforced in Shish O Besh, where Panis poses as a very fully-clothed hooker and Sexy Secretary for various cons. Iranian films are subject to fairly strict censorship, and genuine Fanservice is limited to showing the face and a little hair. The rest must be implied.
- Lady of Burlesque a movie about a burlesque theatre, shows only skimpy costumes and emphasises the comedy performance. As this was during the days of the Hays Code, no stripping is shown at all. They still do at least have a murder being done with a G-string.
- The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) was another movie made during the Hays Code era; the girls at the local strip club never go past a bra-and-girdle ensemble.
- Sucker Punch features a brothel (or a fantasy of one) where the girls only perform in sexy costumes. There is no stripping or nudity shown.
- The theatrical version of Coyote Ugly was rated PG-13 and didn't go further than sexy dance moves and girls stripping down to their bras. The unrated version had longer dancing scenes and a few more voyueristic close-ups, but only added actual nudity during the sex scene.
Live-Action TV
- Smallville: Lois goes undercover at a "Gentlemen's Club" and dances on a pole in a bikini, but never takes off her top.
- How I Met Your Mother features scenes inside the Lusty Leopard strip club on several occasions, but this is still broadcast TV (also, getting Alyson Hannigan to do a stripper act while pregnant was pretty unlikely). So the Lusty Leopard is a well-lit strip club, where the performers wear elaborate burlesque costumes that never come off, and where the music is sufficiently muted to permit the dialog.
- MacGyver featured what must be a family-friendly version of one of this: women dancing around in tight leather.
- CSI (yep, the one in Las Vegas) features an episode involving a strip club. Not a single top is removed in the club and the only person who ends up completely naked in that episode (bar the corpses) is Warrick Brown. A man. Hell, there's an entire sub-plot about a BDSM brothel that pops up every few episodes and no one is depicted naked, just a few comedic scenes of guys getting spanked on the butt.
- Married... with Children: Al Bundy is fond of going to these. It is supposed to be a "nudie" bar, but of course, no real nudity is ever shown, although there is at least one scene where, from the POV of the stage, a bra and a pair of panties hit Al in the face. However, another episode shows a topless woman from behind.
- Titus: When Titus was having money troubles Erin ended up working in one of these, running into Ken and Tommy. Even though she was only a waitress, this didn't stop Titus imagining the worst via "Worst Nightmare Cam".
- The Bill, being (on the whole) a pre-Watershed show, sometimes features this. There was one episode where Cathy Bradford went undercover at a gentleman's club and had to take her top off in front of Nick Klein (another police officer) to maintain her cover since she was on camera, but we didn't see any nipples.
- Amusingly enough, Family Matters featured a male equivalent, given the hilarious name of "Club Buff." Needless to say, none of the studs go anywhere near the full Monty.
- On Two and a Half Men Charlie and Alan go to a strip club. Alan asks Charlie why the strippers are wearing bikinis, and Charlie replies that it is a bikini club, you get drinks but there is no nudity.
- Wings. On "The Lyin' King," where an exotic dancer (played by supermodel Carol Alt) is coming to town for her final performance. Only the back of her legs are shown.
- In the Supernatural episode "Heart" (S02, Ep17), Dean visits a strip club while tracking a suspect and only the legs of the stripper are shown.
- While Fish Mooney's place on Gotham is theoretically a high class burlesque bar/restaurant, the dancers onstage never show any sign of taking off their admittedly skimpy costumes.
- The title character of Cleopatra 2525 is an exotic dancer by trade, but the few times her talents are called upon, usually in a seedy bar setting of some sort, she never goes down to anything beyond a relatively modest bikini. In one episode, to create a diversion, she even takes over for a dancer who is wearing far less (but still in a skimpy bikini) and ends up enthralling the crowd with her PG-rated striptease.
- Even serious documentaries exploring the lives of the girls can be prone to this trope. A critically well-received docu which followed four girls' lives and aspirations as they prepared and entered for the coveted "Stripper of the Year" competition shied away from nudity, despite the fact that accepted practice in the business is to end with complete (but artistic, of course) nudity.
- One episode of NCIS: Los Angeles has Deeks explicitly stating that a given bar they need to check out is a bikini bar rather than a strip club due to either Los Angeles city law or California state law prohibiting a bar from offering both alcohol and nudity.
- Motive: "Undertow" opens in a bikini bar (referred to as a 'strip club') that a drug dealer is using as his base of operations. Angie and Oscar later visit it during the course of their investigation.
- In Eva Ibbotson's The Secret of Platform 13, the complicated plan of the magical creatures to kidnap their lost prince back involves the fairy of the group replacing a dancing girl, in order to distract the people. The usual dance number is a striptease where the light is switched off exactly when the last veil could fall. The very prim and proper fairy consents to the plan, but insists on wearing her very long, very decent underwear under the seven veils, just in case there's a problem with the light switch. Hilarity ensues.
Pro Wrestling
- Magnum TOKYO was a stripper character, but naturally he only stripped down to his wrestling tights.
- Tyler Reks and Curt Hawkins debuted a striptease gimmick (while WWE was PG no less) but Reks asked for his release a week later. In their one appearance with the gimmick, they stripped down to trunks.
- Randy Orton hosted a striptease segment one night when he was in charge of Raw. The girls only stripped down to modest lingerie.
Video Games
- Scarlet Blade has the Delilah Nightclub, which has plenty of girls dancing in very little clothing, from Barely-There Swimwear, to super revealing lingerie. Plus the players character can also dance in club with little clothing, and all but one of the playable classes are female.
- The 'strip club' you visit in the Undercover section of Crime Patrol. A 'stripper' writhes on a platform, but never even looks like she is about to remove an item of clothing.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons:
- At the time of the episode "Homer's Night Out" aired on FOX, the animators couldn't get away with showing an actual stripper. So, they made "Princess Kashmir" a Belly Dancer instead.
- Also the Maison Derriere in "Bart After Dark", which offers burlesque and even a fan dancer.
- Parodied when Mr. Burns tries to organise a basketball halftime show. He has a troupe of girls called the "Basket Belles" dressed in 1910s dresses. They only give the crowd a glimpse at their ankles.
Real Life
- In many jurisdictions, a strip club that serves alcohol won't be allowed to have full nudity, presumably to protect the dancers from drunk patrons. However, the law only forbids showing nipple and genitals; dancers will often make use of g-strings and pasties to be as nude as possible while techincally being in full compliance.
- There are events in Taiwan and occasionally Mainland China that hosts professional pole dancers who aren't wearing much but nobody ever goes nude. These events are public and children can be seen in attendance.


text:
|December 22, 2012, 02:32 PM
Junior Member
Join Date: December 22, 2012
Posts: 8
First handgun
Hello everyone. This is my first post on these forums, and I have a question. I will be getting my first handgun this coming Monday, a beretta 92fs inox. The deposit is already down just waiting the 72 hour hold. I've shot a couple different guns before, and figured this was the one for me. I have hearing and eye protection, now my question is in regards to cleaning it. I saw a universal cleaning kit I am going to get, but I need help with the oils. I don't know which to get, and could they be purchased in a hardware store like menards or Home Depot. Should I clean it before I shoot it, or is it safe to use right after I pick it up? Sorry for the long wall of text.
|December 22, 2012, 02:48 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: December 26, 2004
Location: Louisville KY
Posts: 13,534
Welcome to the board.
I would go ahead and clean it first, using something like Hoppes or equivalent. I've been using synthetic motor oil for years on various firearms with good results. Just take a q-tip and put a light film on all sliding contact surfaces. Doesn't take much.
I would also recommend you take a handgun safety course ASAP if you haven't done so already. There's a lot that new shooters aren't aware of regarding trigger discipline and safety practices.
|December 22, 2012, 02:57 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: January 24, 2009
Location: Anchorage Alaska
Posts: 3,340
Welcome to the orum and thanks for asking our advice
Welcome to the forum and thanks for asking our advice.
Congratulations on your new gun. Is it your first firearm?
I generally field-strip and inspect every gun I ever get before shooting. In recent years, I have read the advice of others suggesting that a full cleaning is in order because some factories have been know to leave metal shavings and debris inside. It is a sad comment on quality control.
If it is a gun with which I am unfamiliar, I usually ask the owner (if used) or store clerk (if new or used) to show me how to strip and reassemble.
I have used a variety of oils over the years. Any good machine oil seems to do as well as any other. There are some specialty lubricants in my cleaning box, mostly from www.tetraproducts.com/ But even motor oil will do in a pinch.
Some guns are intended to run "dry", with just a little lubrication. Some do better with more. I don't know about the Beretta. See what the owner's manual says and ask the seller. Follow the owner's manual precisely. Even the most expensive gun oil is a lot cheaper than what you will pay a gunsmith to fix excessive wear.
Good luck.
Lost Sheep
|December 22, 2012, 03:05 PM
Junior Member
Join Date: December 22, 2012
Posts: 8
Yes it is my first firearm. So I should clean it first. I was hoping to shoot about 200 rounds, seeing as how it's Christmas, they'll close an hour after I'm legally allowed to pick it up. I've been you tubing videos on how to clean it, I just wanted to make sure I'm using the right stuff.
|December 22, 2012, 03:46 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: November 24, 2010
Location: Spring, TX
Posts: 1,541
Any cleaners you find in the gun section of your local sporting goods store will work fine. Likewise for oils. For me I buy the cheapest oils I can find because what I do is clean with hoppes, coat pretty much everything I can in CLP, and then if will be shooing it that day I oil it with whatever right before leaving home to head out. When I get home, it's cleaned again.
Because of the short time my oil is on there I don't stress much on the oil so long as it is a "gun oil". Synthetic motor oil works too.
For my carry gun that needs to be lubed and ready for deployment at a moments notice I use frog lube for oil and coat exterior surfaces in CLP to avoid corrosion. LOVE CLP for protection, lubrication not so much. Carry gun gets stripped, cleaned, and re oiled 4 times a year or more if I shoot it at the range.
|December 22, 2012, 03:58 PM
Join Date: November 2, 1998
Location: Colorado
Posts: 19,405
Why clean the gun before going to the range?
Familiarization. You get to know your firearm, the control mechanisms, how it works and how to handle it.
So, clean it and be safe.
Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt. Molon Labe!
|December 22, 2012, 04:00 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: November 7, 2011
Location: Earth
Posts: 446
That 92 is THE BEST looking full size 9mm bar none!!! (sorry 1911 guys)...
EXCELLENT first handgun!!! It will last forever!!!!
...They have the internet on computers now....-Homer Simpson-
|December 24, 2012, 12:37 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: June 19, 2012
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 640
Another reason to clean and lube it first is so that, if there are any malfunctions, you will know it isn't because it was not clean and properly lubed.
|December 24, 2012, 02:10 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: November 29, 2007
Location: Everett, WA
Posts: 5,999
Hoppes 9 and rem oil are what I use mostly.
With one exception all of my guns were used when I got them. I clean them fairly well before I first use them.
Even the one new gun I got was cleaned as soon as I got it.
Without exception none of them "needed" to be cleaned, but better safe than sorry.
|December 24, 2012, 05:38 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: November 11, 2001
Location: chandler,az
Posts: 905
I clean all my guns with CLP after shooting and them just wipe them down every week or so.. Some guns like the Beretta I use a little grease on the rails.
You need a good holster for it now.
|December 24, 2012, 09:13 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: July 1, 2001
Posts: 3,845
I would not go to a hardware store looking for a cleaning kit. As a matter of fact, I would not buy a cleaning kit.
I would look for these items:
Basic gun cleaning kit list
|December 24, 2012, 09:18 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: November 26, 2008
Posts: 216
My favorite gun cleaner/lubricant is CLP. For certain weapons I feel need to run a little "wetter", I use RemOil. Bore cleaning is somewhat different; Hoppe's #9 is a good general powder/residue solvent, if you end up with copper deposit issues (typically a rifle problem) it opens a whole other discussion.
If you are limited to what you can find in a hardware store, I used "3-in-1 oil" for many years with no issues.
|December 24, 2012, 10:34 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: April 5, 2011
Location: NE Ohio
Posts: 2,461
get very familiar with your gun. the beretta 92 is a fantastic first gun. easy to take apart and clean. recoil is very easy to handle as it is big and heavy and only firing 9mm. very accurate due to the long barrel and sight radius. i learned on a taurus clone myself. luckily for you, you get to learn on a quality firearm instead of a taurus POS.
Favorite range gun for the money - CZ 75B or STI Spartan V 9mm
Go-to carry setup - Walther PPS or PPQ in FIST kydex holster 1AK
Favorite semi-auto design - HK P7
"A Sig is like a lightsaber - not as clumsy or random as a Glock."
|December 24, 2012, 01:26 PM
Junior member
Join Date: November 18, 2012
Posts: 23
The Beretta 92 series are great guns. It's always good to field strip and inspect a new gun before shooting it. I always relube as well. Certain gun oils/lubes tend to migrate from critical areas during shipping and storage.
|December 24, 2012, 08:41 PM
Junior Member
Join Date: December 22, 2012
Posts: 8
I went ahead and took everyone's advice and cleaned, with the help of the people of my local gun store, before firing today. 100 rounds smoothly, went home cleaned it again. I purchased a cleaning kit from Menards which aside from the rods and oil wasn't very helpful, at least I didn't find it very helpful. I used q tips for most of my cleaning ran patches through the barrel until it was clean, and oiled the slide and other parts as well. I'm happy with my purchase, and am looking forward to take the hour and a half trip to cabelas for some actual cleaning supplies, more ammo, and a good holster.
|December 24, 2012, 11:19 PM
Junior member
Join Date: May 1, 2010
Posts: 5,797
Cleaning kits, CLPs....
There are a few good gun care & cleaning products you can buy.
Remington has a new bore cleaning system called SQ-UEEGE. It removes gunk & lead with one pass. The BoreSnske Viper is great too.
Many gunners use Hoppes #9, 7.62 solvent or Butch's. A well made CLP(clean protect lube) can be used as a regular gun care product. Brands include LPX, Ballistol, Gunzilla, and Weaponshield. NOTE: do not use a lot of oil or CLP. Excess oil or lube can cause problems. A small bottle can last a few years.
Brownells is a highly respected source for gunsmithing & cleaning items. See www.brownells.com
Stay safe & happy holidays:
|December 25, 2012, 09:16 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: May 23, 2012
Posts: 522
Safari Charlie's gun lube works great too.
|December 25, 2012, 11:48 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: February 12, 2005
Location: North central Ohio
Posts: 6,555
There are three major objectives to accomplish when caring for most any firearm: Cleaning, lubrication and protection. Some products claim to do all three chores and, in my experience, some (CLP or Break Free for instance) do a pretty good job of it and most others do at least a passable job. However, I generally prefer to use a product that specifically addresses each piece of work. For example, I like something like Hoppes No.9 or Shooters Choice for cleaning the bore and other parts of the gun; CLP or TW 25 b for the task of lubrication and Gunslick Metal Seal for protection.
And welcome to The Firing Line!
NRA Benefactor Life Member
|December 25, 2012, 12:34 PM
Junior member
Join Date: May 1, 2010
Posts: 5,797
gun oil/CLP range shooting...
In general, I give my firearms a quick pass of Ballistol or CLP before I go shooting on a range. It lubes the moving parts & aids cleaning later on.
As I posted, don't use a lot of oil or CLP. A few drops is all you need.
Professional gunsmiths & LE armorers who attend gun company seminars all say improper cleaning or using a lot of gun oil are some of the biggest problems.
|December 25, 2012, 12:48 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: December 3, 2012
Posts: 495
You have to clean it anyway after shooting so what does it hurt to do first. If you give it a cleaning up front you will see how all goes together should you need to strip on the range. Also, some of the new non-petroleum products like frog lube are non toxic and do a fantastic job on the whole gun. I wish I had some of these in Afghanistan to avoid the stick of dust and dirt to oily surfaces. I am now changing over to Frog Lube on all my FAs.
|December 25, 2012, 04:07 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: March 19, 2012
Location: The Keystone State
Posts: 236
I just use Ballistol for both cleaning and lubing, works just fine for me. Hoppes makes good stuff as well so you can get a cleaning kit from them with most of the stuff you'll need.
|Thread Tools
|Search this Thread


text:
Gun control debate comes to Xavier
College republicans sponsor councilman David Crowley and author John Lott, Jr., who hold opposing views on the topic | October 14, 2004
An advocate of gun control, Crowley was elected to Cincinnati City Council in 2001 and serves as the chairman of the Board of Education Cooperative Affairs sub-committee and vice chairman of the Community Development and Intergovernmental committee. He is also the president/CEO of Crowley's Incorporated, a family-owned Irish pub established in Mt. Adams more than 65 years ago. Crowley earned a master's degree in social work from Ohio State University and a second master's in international affairs from George Washington University. He also served as president of the Mt. Adams business guild and as the chairman of the Mt. Adams annual blood drive.
Lott, an economist and author of More Guns, Less Crime and The Bias Against Guns, believes that more criminals would be deterred from committing crimes if more people carried concealed firearms. Lott is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and served as senior research scholar at Yale Law School and the John M. Olin visiting law and economics fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. He has a BA and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California Los Angeles.
This event is free to students and the public, and all are encouraged to attend regardless of political affiliations. For more information please call 513 238-4895.


text:
This product is no longer available.
You can try these similar gifts instead.
International Silver Simplicity 106 Piece Flatware Set
This flatware set makes everyday dining feel like a special occasion and it includes a ten piece hostess set and steak knives. Stainless steel flatware has a mirror finish and embossed handles. 106 pieces.


text:
Register | Login
Build a Hit List
United States: New York
New York FootBike Tours : Hablamos EspañolWe start at Eighth Avenue between 14th x 15th streets. Tours can last 2-8 hours depending on your fitness level. 2 hours affords choice of downtown or Central Park and Hudson River tours. 3-4 hours can include Brooklyn or NYC end to end. 4-8 hours is for those wanting a tour of the city as well as extended Brooklyn or Lower Hudson Valley and extended fitness touring. Rates include helmet.
√ Yes - Add to my Hit List
All things to do in New York
A guided, interactieve journey to the locations that shaped hip hop. Featuring live entertainment, photo ops, and memories that will last a lifetime. Celebrities and the pioneers of hip hop lead each tour: Grandmaster Caz, Mikey D, Kurtis Blow,Reggie Reg, Raheim, Melle Mel, Red Alert, and special guest.
United States: Los Angeles, Miami, New York
Live the dream - ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle across the USA- The iconic Coast to Coast trip across the states. The Live the Dream adventure company in the UK arrange guided and self ride tours across the states with low cost one way motorcycle rentals.An epic way to see an epic country! And it not just the Coast to Coast - you can choose your own States biking experience - Cruise from Miami to the Florida Keys, ride coast to ...
All things to do in Los Angeles
Snow and Beer - and all this from New York - Urban Escapes have put together the perfect winter New York day trip. Enjoy a morning of snow tubing fun, then chill out in a different way with an afternoon of beer tasting at a local brewery. What could be a better! This New York day trip leaves Manhattan at 9:30 am, for a few hours of extreme snow tubing fun. Enjoy 12 different runs, race your friends, compete for 'the most air' on the turns, ...
See New York through the eyes of a New Yorker!A volunteer Greeter will show you a favorite neighborhood, answer your questions and demonstrate how easy it is to use public transportation. And it's FREE, too. Big Apple Greeter is a non-profit organization that matches visitors with friendly and enthusiastic New Yorkers who are happy to share the city they love. A wonderful experience for families, friends and individuals traveling ...
Belgium: Brussels; Finland: Helsinki; Hong Kong S.A.R., China: Hong Kong; Hungary: Budapest; Italy: Rome; South Africa: Cape Town, Johannesburg; United Arab Emirates: Dubai; United Kingdom: London; United States: Las Vegas, Miami, New York
Dinner in the Sky is a unique event meant for anyone who wishes to transform an ordinary meal or meeting into a magical moment that will leave a lasting impression on their guests! The latest version of Dinner in the Sky, is even more like like a real restaurant with 8 4 seater tables (or you can elect to have 6 4 seater tables and 2 entertainment platforms surrounding) sourrounding a 4.5m long bar. With the new configuration its possible to ...
All things to do in Brussels
United States: Miami, New York
The Dream Car Tour puts you and up to twelve of your friends, family members and associates behind the wheel of some of the world's most exhilarating automobiles.Drive six different supercars from among our stunning collection of the world's greatest automobiles, including the Ferrari F430, F430 Spider, and 360 Spider, the Lamborghini Gallardo, Gallardo Spyder, Murcielago and Murcielago Roadster, the Bentley Continental GTC and Flying Spur, ...
All things to do in Miami
Dress like a diva, shop like a tightwad! Join author Pamela Parisi on fab romps through PRIVATE New York City Garment Center showrooms, not open to the public. Buy current season designer duds at wholesale & below - sometimes way, way below. Some of the prices you can expect on one of her "Garment District Diva Treks:" Jackets retailing in top department store for $120 to $150... $20 with us Tops retailing for $90 to $150...$10 to $35 with us ...
United States: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa
With an unmatched level of individual attention and a keen eye for detail, Flydar links busy executives with the best aerial solutions for their business needs. We've assembled a network that includes some of the most trusted aircrafts and pilots in this industry. This expansive Flydar network allows us to provide you with plush, private jets and high-quality multi-use helicopters to distinguish us from the competition. Whether you desire a ...
All things to do in Atlanta
Fancy playing with guns and drinking whiskey in New York City? Well come along and join Urban Escapes - We're suspending the rules and shelving conventional wisdom for the day, as we combine the power of guns with the glory of whiskey tasting right in the heart of New York! This half day tour starts off at Manhattan's only indoor rifle range. Here, our instructor will go over the basics of shooting and safety before outfitting the group ...
Take a Sex and the City Tour when in New York and follow in the footsteps of Carrie & Co. as they conquer New York City! On the tour you will be able to take a drink where they drink, go shopping where they shop, and gossip where they gossip.The tour includes more than 40 used while filming Sex and the City, including:the bakery where Miranda stuffed cupcakes into her mouth The Pleasure Chest where Charlotte bought her 'Rabbit' ...
Do you love fabulous designer clothes? Does the thought of buying at wholesale & below send thrills up & down your spine? Then you've come to the right place! Our goal is to provide you with a Total New York Designer Discount Shopping Experience. We will lead you to the best designer clothes in New York at the lowest possible prices on our shopping tours. We offer 4 types of shopping tours - Tightwad Treks- Garment District ...
We offer tours of NYC, the financial capital, guided by Wall Street traders. The real story on Wall Street is what is currently happening behind the walls of banks and financial institution. Don't miss out on this exclusive opportunity to see inside the heart of capitalism! Bring your camera and bring your questions.Hear what the media is saying:Galding.com -"It's rare that you get a guided tour through still unfolding carnage. ...
Museum Hack was founded in New York City to provide small, private, renegade tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now offering tours at the American Museum of Natural History, Museum Hack's theatrical, storytelling guides help create "un-highlights" tours that focus on the offbeat, overlooked works and the unexpected stories behind them. Museum Hack strives to avoid "Museum Fatigue" by engaging guests with a "tasting menu" of all the museum ...
Private, highly personalized New York shopping and sightseeing tours led by a licensed NYC tour guide and professional wardrobe stylist with years of experience in TV, theatre, and print.
PhotoTrek Tours offers you a private, customized walking tour of New York City with a personal photographer and Tour Guide. Explore New York like a celebrity as you are photographed in various NYC locations such as Times Square, Central Park, The Brooklyn Bridge and exciting neighborhoods such as Soho or Greenwich Village. You will also receive insider tips for dining, shopping, off the beaten path places for entertainment as well as how to ...
In a city which has more to offer than one can ever enjoy, Shop Gotham NYC shopping tours offer "insider access" to the VERY BEST and less traveled shopping options. Many tours and options are avaiable including: Wholesale Showroom shopping, Edgy Chic boutiques offering exclusive discounts and Designer Vintage. Along to the way, you will also see the sights and hear the tales of each neighborhood. Its fun, its shopping, its NYC!
Czech Republic: Plzeň, Prague; France: Le Castellet, Paris; Germany: Frankfurt am Main, Peenemünde; Italy: Fano; Russia: Vyaz'ma; Spain: Burgos, Madrid; United States: Clearwater, Los Angeles, Mojave, New York, Tampa
Warbird Ride in many places worldwide with MiGFlug.L-39 Albatros flight in France, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain and the US.
All things to do in Plzeň
United States: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Maine, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Portland, Richmond, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa
Hot Air Balloon Rides offered across the United States. Discounted rates on gift certificates for 2 people. All Gift Certificates are good for two years and for any location within our national network.
All things to do in Albuquerque
New York City Photo Safaris are exciting photography workshops for small groups & individuals of all skill levels. While using New York City as both backdrop and classroom, these workshops provide a unique experience to sharpen your photography skills. Groups are small, so you'll get personal instruction based on your specific needs. Whether you're a native New Yorker or a first time visitor, Photo Safaris are a great way to see the city while ...
Use the map below to find things to do, activities, experiences and attractions in and around New York.
Been to New York? what did you think?, what did you do?, what was good?, what was bad? ... tell us about it!
We value your privacy. Your email address will never be disclosed to third parties.
This comment is from my direct experience of this location
Receive email when new posts are made
Human test:
Do you provide an activity and aren't listed on YouGoDo yet? Why not?! Click here to add yourself to YouGoDo - it's FREE!
Want to advertise with us?
Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines | Site Map | Data & API | Media | Blog | Contact YouGoDo | About Us | Map
© YouGoDo S.L. 2010 - 2017


text:
I wanted to share my experience with this company - EquineLUX. I came across them online in my search for a nice shaped pad that would actually fit my forward-flap saddle.
I emailed the company after seeing that they could custom-make sizes, inquiring as to the price, etc. Imagine my surprise when I was told they would make me a pad to measure, for the same price as a stock size! I took photos of my saddle with a measuring tape held up so they could see the flap width, length, etc.
As it turned out, a friend ended up ordering a stock hunter pad after I showed her the website. I took pictures of my saddle sitting on that pad (girthed up on Zack) so they could see how it sat. I would have been happy with the pad just extending more forward, but the rep was far pickier - he noticed areas behind the flap, under the panel, etc that just weren't perfect and said they would fix that too. I also sent them a photo showing how my girth wouldn't fit through the billet strap as it was located too far back on the pad (stock size).
I finalized the order last Friday. Monday was a holiday in Quebec, where the pads are manufactured. They nicely emailed to tell me this, and to let me know that the pad should be ready by Thursday. I replied that they were fast, but joked that it was too bad CanPost was so slow as I have a show Monday.
Well...not only was the pad done on Wednesday, they sent it FedEx at no charge to me so I received it on Thursday, in time for the show!
I tried it on today - and was impressed yet again. The pad fits beautifully, AND I can get my girth through the billet straps on both sides without contorting the pad at all. The workmanship and materials look first-rate. I can't wait to use it at the show on Monday - the first shaped pad that actually fits properly and that I won't have to keep adjusting all day!
I don't work for the company or anything, just wanted to share a great experience. The product is made in Canada, and the pad is similar to EcoGold but has a few benefits IMO. The non-slip material is only on top, not touching the horse's skin (it's kind of plasticy...I always wondered about that being hot and uncomfortable). Also, it's far less expensive for this pad than the EcoGold, AND this one is made to measure. The OEF also has a discount code for 20% off if you're a member.
Website: www.equinelux.com
Photos of my pad (towel is underneath to protect it from my wet dirty horse!). There's also a black Thinline half pad sitting on top, that's not their pad looking funny.


text:
This product is no longer available.
You can try these similar gifts instead.
I Love You Mug Set
Everyone thinks they're an adorable couple. Imagine them waking up and fixing each other a pot of coffee, then sharing breakfast over these cute mugs. It's wonderful to start each morning with a person who's loved.


text:
" CHRIS What's art, Holling Is a Davinci art Dada art If you wrap up the whole Reichstag in toilet paper, is that art HOLLING Well, I can't give you a complete definition, but I think it would be something Maurice would be willing to give good money for. CHRIS Yeah, well, you're starting to scare me cause if that's art, then I got to get a whole new gig.
Find a translation for this quote in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss this Jeff Melvoin quote with the community:
Quote of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE inspiring quote delivered to your inbox daily?
Use the citation below to add this quote to your bibliography:
"Jeff Melvoin Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2017. Web. 19 Nov. 2017. <http://www.quotes.net/quote/20929>.


text:
Paul Hartal
The River Of Permanence - Poem by Paul Hartal
It is not possible to step
Into the same river twice,
Said Heraclitus of Ephesus.
Since other and yet other waters
Keep flowing on,
The river is never the same.
And like the river,
Everything in the world
Is in constant change and flux.
Nonsense! Retorted Parmenides
Of Elea. Nothing is in flux.
Things never change, he said,
The world is permanent.
Objects of thought and speech
Must exist all the time.
They cannot change
Because change consists in
Things coming into being,
Or ceasing to exist;
Whereas words have
An immutable meaning.
Of course a table differs from a chair
Parmenides continued,
And so does the nightingale
From the elephant.
Or the land from the sky.
We live in an illusionary world.
Things only appear to be different.
And mind you,
There are no opposites in the world.
For warm means merely not cold
And dark means no light.
More than a century later,
Aristotle scratched his head rumbling:
Is not this talk a next door to madness?
After all even a lunatic
Would not confuse fire with ice.
How can one argue,
From thought and language
As a frame of reference
To the world at large?
How can one reconcile
The existential with the copulative?
The past with the future?
Tell us Parmenides,
How can Socrates be alive
If he is dead?
Yet Parmenides
Remained unperturbed and smiled.
Your logic, Aristotle, is not flawless.
It does not hold water.
On a deeper level of reality
Things are always the same,
Belonging to an ultimately
Homogeneous cosmos.
In the final analysis
There is neither past nor future
Only an eternal present.
When you refer to Socrates
Your memory unfolds
Not in the past but in the present.
Your recollection happens now,
Right in this moment,
Immortalizing him.
Poet's Notes about The Poem
Comments about The River Of Permanence by Paul Hartal
Read this poem in other languages
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem »
Paul Hartal's Other Poems
Famous Poems
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
If You Forget Me
Pablo Neruda
Langston Hughes
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
Caged Bird
Maya Angelou
Rudyard Kipling
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You
Pablo Neruda


text:
Three High School Students Arrested for Abusing Classmate for Two Years
The attackers are believed to have documented their action on mobile phone cameras; police are investigating whether they have distributed the footage around the school.
Three students from a prestigious Jerusalem high school were recently arrested on suspicion of physically and sexually abusing their schoolmate for two years, police said. The alleged victim of the abuse is now 14 years old.
Police say that among other forms of abuse, the three shackled the victim, defecated on him, beat him and extorted money from him. The abuse went on for two years, taking place in the victim's house and after school.
The attackers are believed to have documented their action on mobile phone cameras, and police are investigating whether they have distributed the footage around the school. Some eighteen months ago, the victim left the school, presumably because of the abuse, but the assaults continued.
"When we received the complaint we arrested two suspects of the same age, and then another suspect," said Superintendent Golan Meir, head of the youth division at the Moriah district police. "The teenagers have cooperated with investigators and their motivation appears to be sheer cruelty."
Because of the sensitive nature of the case, the name of the high school is not being released.
The abused boy did not come forward about the abuse until he told an instructor at study club he takes part in a few days ago.
The main suspect, believed to be the ringleader in the abuse, had his remand extended until Sunday. Another suspect was given 11 days house arrest, complete with a restriction order barring him from approaching the complainant. The third suspect was only arrested yesterday, and is expected to be arraigned today.
The main suspect's lawyer said that the situation was a complex one.
"It's a situation in which one can't necessarily discern a victim and a perpetrator," he said. "At the end of the day, the court ordered the police to make an effort to send the minor home, and has set conditions for his release. In this case, a connection should be made between all involved and the welfare authorities. The general direction should be therapy, not punishment."
"The suspect is not involved in the abuse investigated by the police," said the lawyer for the suspect released to house arrest. "All that he is suspected of is taking part in one incident, which was seen as a children's game. This is why he was sent to house arrest. He is a normative child and a good student."
Want to enjoy 'Zen' reading - with no ads and just the article? Subscribe todaySubscribe now


text:
A. Sherrod Blakely is back with another week of NBA Power Rankings. With more games under each team's belts, the rankings are starting to take shape.
Celtics' cup has runneth over so far this season
Celtics' cup has runneth over so far this season
BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics are no different than the rest of us. They have a lot to be thankful for.
There's the usual good health, family and friends. But they have a few more things to be thankful for, as well.
So as you take a brief time-out today from the turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce, here's a look at five things the Celtics are thankful for this season.
The Celtics have had some solid players in recent years, but the addition of Kyrie Irving was a game-changer. He provides Boston with an unmistakable superstar who has a proven track record of success on all levels -- he's won an NBA championship and an Olympic Gold medal, and is also a four-time All-Star. Did I mention he's just 25 years old?
His numbers will never adequately measure the impact Horford has had on the Celtics. The big plus with Horford was him simply agreeing to be a Celtic. For years this franchise has been built on the success of developing draft picks or trading for talented players. But rarely have they had the financial flexibility or, to be frank, the kind of appeal to free agents to go out and acquire a proven All-Star like Al Horford. His arrival has enhanced an already-established winning culture, one that has become a player on the free agency market ever since.
Other than Oklahoma City's Sam Presti, it's hard to imagine another front office executive having as good an offseason as Ainge. He rolled the dice to go down two spots in last June's NBA draft, and wound up with arguably the most NBA-ready player (Jayson Tatum) among those selected in last June's NBA draft. (Remember, the likely rookie-of-the-year Ben Simmons did not play last year after Philadelphia drafted him with the top overall pick in 2016.) The free-agent pickups of Aron Baynes, Daniel Theis and Shane Larkin have all had moments where they carried the team to victory. Even second-round picks like Semi Ojeleye and two-way players like Jabari Bird have contributed to wins this season. Fans may not like some of Ainge's decisions in the moment but he deserves a lot of credit for the team we see today, one that has played at a level few envisioned they'd reach this quickly.
And to think, the Big Three (Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward and Al Horford) Boston was planning to build around this season has played less than five minutes together. Stevens has been pushing all the right buttons, putting guys in unexpected positions to succeed with a cast that's long on talent and well, well short on experience. Boston's first win of the season came at Philadelphia, a game in which the Celtics played six different rookies. It's not unusual for teams to use first-year players frequently, but for a team that was built to contend for a championship? That's highly unusual. The biggest thing is despite the lack of experience on the floor, Stevens hasn't allowed them to use that as a reason to fail. Instead, Stevens has had them lean heavily on film study and the wisdom of veterans, as well as empowered them to have a "next-man-up" mindset with one goal regardless of what they are tasked with doing: Get it done. No excuses.
Boston has spent most of this season atop the NBA standings, fueled in large part by a 15-game winning streak -- the longest of the Brad Stevens era and the fifth-longest ever by a Celtics team. But within that winning streak, there have been some noticeable areas of concern (i.e., bench scoring) that have made games more challenging. And that's what makes these Celtics so scary to the rest of the league. If they're beating teams consistently now, how much better will they be when the offense catches up or, at a minimum, gains some ground on what has been an impressive stretch of play defensively? That's why as good as this first full month of the season has been, there's reason to believe they'll only get better. The Celtiheircs have seen share of adversity. They've played without their All-Stars. They have fought back from double-digit deficits to emerge victorious. This is a young squad, but battle-tested already. Because of all that, they have a certain level of confidence that regardless of the situation, regardless of the score, they feel they will find a pathway to success. And that, Celtics Nation, is something to be thankful for.
Blakely's takeaways: Moving on without the streak
Blakely's takeaways: Moving on without the streak
The streak is over! The streak is over!
We now return the Boston Celtics to their regularly scheduled pursuit of success without the growing pressure that comes with a historically relevant winning streak.
The 104-98 loss at Miami on Wednesday night brought an end to what had been one of the more unlikely winning streaks we've seen in the NBA for quite some time.
Boston reeled off 16 straight wins, many of which were the come-from-a-double-digit-deficit variety. In the end, the Celtics' winning streak ranks as the fourth-longest in this storied franchise's history.
"I told you, we're not as good as the 16-game win streak," Stevens said following the loss. "But we do have a lot of resolve."
That resolve will surely be challenged with the Celtics taking Thanksgiving off, only to return and play three games in the next four nights beginning with Orlando on Friday, followed by a road game at Indiana on Saturday and a home date against the Detroit Pistons on Monday.
Here are five takeaways from the Boston Celtics' 16-game winning streak.
When the Boston Celtics traded for Kyrie Irving during the offseason, there was a sense that his presence would be a plus in some capacity, at some point. But few envisioned Irving would not only have a relatively seamless fit with the Celtics, but deliver in such a way that would catapult them to the top of the NBA standings and in doing so, establish him as one of the early front-runners for the league's MVP award. This season, Irving is averaging a team-best 22.5 points and 5.2 assists while shooting 47 percent from the field but most important, the Celtics (16-3) have the best record in the NBA.
If you are a fan of good defenders, you probably love the Boston Celtics' second unit. Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart are both ball-hawking defenders who can make some miserable times for opponents when they are on top of their game. Daniel Theis provides great energy on the glass and defensively. But the second unit needs a jolt offensively. Because as good as they can defend collectively, the Celtics have to have at least one starter on the floor most of the time because the bench doesn't have an adequate collector of buckets that they can rely on consistently. Marcus Morris looks like an ideal choice for that role, but the left knee soreness that kept him out for eight games seems to be flaring up from time to time. Whether they address this with a trade or possibly with a player bought out, the lack of a second-unit scorer is very much an issue for this team.
The plan was for Jaylen Brown to be an elite, shut-down defender this season. He has shown himself to be a good defender this season, but what has really made him stand out is the growth in his game offensively. The second-year wing has scored 20-plus points in three of Boston's last four games. Doing that along with continuing to play good defense has him looking like one of the NBA's promising young two-way talents.
You never want to see the Boston Celtics or any team for that matter, lose a player for the season let alone one who meant as much as Gordon Hayward to the Celtics. But if there is a silver lining in his ankle injury which is expected to keep him out all season, it is the opportunity it created for Jayson Tatum. The 19-year-old has been arguably the best player from last June's draft class, playing major minutes with a major role for the team with the best record in the NBA. The opportunity to play around 30 minutes a game would not have been there for Tatum if Hayward didn't get hurt. The challenge for Tatum going forward is to stay consistent, because now that teams have seen him for almost a quarter of the season, you can expect they will make some adjustments in how they defend him as well as try to attack him when he's defending.
During Boston's 16 game winning streak, the Celtics played the last eight games in 16 nights. That's a game every other night for more than two weeks. In that time, there's little to no time for practice which has been a factor in Boston not being quite as sharp in the last few games, as they were at the start of the streak. After Thanksgiving, Boston plays three games in four nights with a pair of days off to follow before they return to action. There's a very good chance that the Celtics will use one of those two days to practice, something this team desperately needs to clean up some of the minor mistakes that were big problems in their loss to the Heat on Wednesday.


text:
Workers in the highest tax brackets are paying as much as 66 per cent on their earnings as they are hit by large income tax rates while losing out on valuable allowances, a report published today suggests.
Although the headline rates suggest that those earning more than £40,000 are taxed at 40 per cent, they actually end up paying 49 per cent because they face higher National Insurance contributions and other levies.
Those earning between £100,000 and £114,950 are worst hit, surrendering 66.6 per cent of their upper earnings because they also lose valuable tax-free allowances. This "super rate" of tax is thought to hit about 25,000 people. The best-paid Britons, earning more than £150,000 annually and facing the new 50p higher rate of tax, will actually lose 57.8 per cent of extra earnings.
Even basic tax payers will be charged 40.9 per cent on their pay rises, according to research by the Centre for Policy Studies.
Tim Knox, the director of the think tank, said: "This research shows up some of the inadequacies and inconsistencies of the UK's personal taxation system.
"But the most important aspect it highlights is the need for transparency. We should stop talking about a 20, 40 or 50 per cent tax band and accept that the real marginal rates are much higher."
The think tank calculated marginal effective tax rates by taking into account both employees' and employers' National Insurance contributions. The paper included employers' NI on the footing that it increases the cost to employers of employing staff, thereby driving "a wedge between the cost of the employee and what the employee finally receives". Even without including employers' NI contributions, real taxation rates are effectively higher than income tax rates would suggest.
The high rates of tax threaten to erode the value of pay rises that are already lagging behind increases in the cost of living.
The Bank of England has warned that Britons face an unprecedented squeeze on their disposable income as a result of sharp increases in energy bills and other essentials.
George Osborne, the Chancellor, announced earlier this year that the Treasury was considering merging income tax and National Insurance to produce a single rate of tax on earnings. However, this is likely to take several years.
Conservative ministers believe that if workers are aware of the "true" rate of tax they pay it will add to pressure for lower taxes after the next election in 2015. But the scheme could backfire by provoking public anger when the Government may be powerless to cut taxes quickly. The Coalition is under pressure to cut income tax rates, which are among the highest in the developed world.
Gordon Brown introduced the new 50p higher rate which, it is feared, has deterred wealthy investors from settling in Britain.
The Centre for Policy Studies said that scrapping the new top rate would "increase the tax base" and "reduce the incentive for tax avoidance techniques".
Mr Osborne and David Cameron favour scrapping the levy, although they face opposition from some Liberal Democrats. The Treasury is assessing its impact and is likely to confirm the end of the 50p rate next year.
However, ministers have pushed ahead with an increase in National Insurance for higher earners. VAT was also increased to 20 per cent at the beginning of the year.
A Lib Dem pledge to increase the rate at which income tax is paid to £10,000 is being steadily introduced, with rises to the tax-free personal allowance each year. The move does not benefit high-rate taxpayers earning more than about £40,000 a year, for whom the perk is removed.


text: Ok as someone who cooks alot, knows a decent amount about foods and recipes, i feel alittle dumb not knowing this...and it's something i've wondered for YEARS! What is the difference between sausages....ok broad question...but "breakfast sausages" which i think are the same as "Italian sausage" and kielbasa (sp?) have never suited me proper...usually i'll eat one link and i'll feel a little sick to my stomach or just plain wont each another. On the other hand "hickory smoked sausage" that you buy at the store (johnsonville and other popular brands) i absolutely love! For some reason the before mentioned "types" of sausages have a tangyness (for lack of a better term) that i dont like. This type of sausage does not have that. Also what is summer sausage? is that another term for pepperoni? because i also love this kind! most sausages are pork (unless you specifically buy turkey) correct? so is it all about the spices and herbs? Maybe it's the "Italian" or "herby" flavor i do not like and maybe i like the kinds with less "seasoning" ok not sure if my ramblings made sense but this has been a burning question on my mind for atleast 20 years haha


text:
Brandwag Hotel Upgrade
18 April 2008
Please note that the Brandwag Hotel will be undergoing extensive upgrading between the 12th of January 2009 and the 31st of March 2010.
During this time none of the hotel rooms or conference facilities will be available for bookings and holders of already existing reservations will be contacted. It is important to note that all other facilities in the hotel building, including the reception, restaurant and shop, will be unavailable while the upgrading is in progress.
The chalets at Brandwag will remain available for bookings, however these guests will have to check in at the reception office in Glen Reenen.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank-you for your patience while we�upgrade to a better Brandwag-and ultimately a better visitor experience!


text:
The Best Time to Buy Sold Out Tickets
Money Tip: The Best Time to Buy Sold Out Tickets
Your scrapbooks scattered with ticket stubs from concerts and baseball games may give you the itch to get out and enjoy some live music or watch men in uniform, but it's a commitment to purchase tickets a few months in advance. The online marketplace for buying and selling tickets for sports events and concerts is continually growing and that's good news for consumers.
According to Sean Pate, a spokesman for StubHub, "The very best time to buy is four days before an event because that's the deadline for buyers' listings to expire. There will still be deals after that, but not the same supply." If you're dying to spend a fun day in the sun watching your favorite team get dirty, consider attending a game against a team that isn't the biggest rival. The game may not be as rowdy but you'll still have a grand old time.


text:
Gulfstream Park officials will present a check for $10,000 to the American Red Cross Jan. 31 to support local and national efforts on behalf of victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
A release from the track said the donation represents donations from racetrack and casino employees, jockeys, and track management. The check will be presented following the fifth race on the 10-race Sunshine Millions program.
"In the midst of celebrating Florida Thoroughbred racing, the entire Gulfstream Park team felt a strong need to reach out to our neighbors who are facing such dire circumstances," Gulfstream president Ken Dunn said in a statement. "With one of the larger Haitian communities here in Florida, hopefully the donation will offer at least some measure of relief and hope."
"Our prayers are with all the people in Haiti," said John Velazquez, Gulfstream's leading jockey and Jockeys' Guild representative. "For now, every jockey in the room wants to do what little we can to help."


text:
* Prices may differ from that shown
I have been meaning to buy a new kettle for a while and decided to have a quick search of the internet to find a good one. The Russell Hobbs 13897 colour change kettle attracted my attention initially because it was half price - £22.50 through Amazon with free delivery. The kettle also looked good - a nice modern shape in white or black. I chose the white one as it fitted into my kitchen. My previous kettle boiled very quickly but was extremely noisy so I was looking for a new one that didn't mean I had to turn the radio up when it was on! Reviews suggested that the Russell Hobbs Colour Change was quiet and this has proved to be correct.
Details of the kettle are as follows:
1.7 litre capacity
Removable washable filter
3KW concealed element
Illuminated window
The kettle is cordless and so stands on a base unit which the unused cord can be wrapped around underneath to obtain the correct length required to reach the socket.
The lid is opened by pressing a button on the top which then pops the lid open for easy filling. This is much easier than my previous kettle.
The kettle is very light making it easy to lift and pour even when full of water. It boils quickly but quietly. The switch to turn it on is at the base of the kettle and is just a flick down to turn on. The kettle automatically switches off when it reaches boiling point unless the switch is flicked up beforehand or lifted from the base.
When the kettle is filled and then turned on a blue light appears in the clear water level window, as the water boils the colour changes to red indicating that the water is hot. As the kettle cools down the colour changes to blue again. This is obviously a novelty and doesn't affect the way the kettle works but I find it quite a quirky gimmick.
The water filter stops any scale particals going into the teapot or cup. Removing the filter is easy for cleaning. It just needs rinsing under a running tap to remove any scale and then refitting to the kettle.
To clean the outside of the kettle it is recommended that a damp soft cloth be used at regular intervals. The kettle should be decaled regularly using a descaler recommended for plastic appliances.
I am very pleased with my new kettle and even more pleased that I managed to get it for half price!
Short name: Russell Hobbs 13897


text:
Driving by Garden City and heard some hype on this Teas and Java. It was a nice looking place a bit cold and dense not too warm like Brewed Awakenings. But for a coffee its ok maybe a leg up on D/D But the display case had pastry not too many selections most were cookies which were drooping off the plate and not too appetizing. The cupcakes had frosting on them which was dried up and had those little hair line cracks on them. the Ice Cream was completely freezer burned on top which I have Never seen on a display case. There were 3 dried up sandwich plates mixed with the pastry which should not be done because the flavors of the meats would get into the pastry which would have made them a little more appetizing looking anyway.
The jewerly place was packed with their items which are very nice but only 6 people having coffee and this was on a Saturday afternoon at 1:30 when GC was a complete zoo and if this is the way they think at least for this place will exist better go back to the drawing board.