text:
Last week, I was fortunate enough to receive some goodies from the fine folks at Briden Wilson Farm, a family owned and operated almond farm in the north-central valley of California.
Upon delivery, I immediately opened the jar of creamy almond butter, inhaling the aroma of fresh roasted almonds. The best (& only) way to truly judge any almond butter is with a spoon straight from the jar.
Afterwards, there was more taste testing…had to make sure it was good. The things I do for my HEABers. 🙂
Hmm, not 100% sure yet. Better keep trying…
Now, for the ultimate test…
My review? This almond butter is excellent in every way. According to Tom, owner of Briden Wilson Farm, the ingredients are nothing but dry roasted premium Carmel almonds, not the leftover pieces like most large companies use. My only complaint is that the jar was not big enough to hold all my oat bran. 🙂
As far as the raw almonds go, perfectly crunchy and slightly sweet, everything a raw almond should be.
Now, I'll be honest, I was a bit hesitant to try the Wasabi Roasted Almonds as they contained both sugar and artificial ingredients. But, because I wanted to include them in this review, I decided on a small handful:
Well, then all hell broke loose, and I was eating these babies on everything. They are the perfect combo of sweet and savory, and not too hot. HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!
Above was my favorite wasabi almond dish. Using Chocolate Covered Katie's recipe, I made a veggie stir-fry and topped it with lots and lots of wasabi love.
Thanks again to Tom and Rebecca at Briden Wilson Farm for allowing me to review your wonderful products…but please, don't send anymore more Wasabi almonds! 😉 Now, for the best part – Tom has graciously agreed to send one lucky HEABer their very own jar of Briden Wilson Farm's creamy roasted almond butter. All you have to do is click here to visit the company's website, and then list in the comments below either one of their recipes you'd like to try or a health-related almond fact. You have until midnight, tomorrow night (Tuesday, July 14 – Happy Bastille Day!), and I will announce the random winner on Wednesday. Trust me, you want to win this one!


text:
The Politics Hour – November 17, 2017
Virginia Democratic Party Chairwoman Susan Swecker is in studio. And Aisha Braveboy, candidate for Prince George's State's Attorney, joins us.
Sports may no longer provide American athletes or spectators with an escape from politics. Our most popular athletic contests now double as venues for debates about race, gender rights, religion and class. In his newest book, "Game Over," Dave Zirin argues that the hot-button issues of our time are now impossible to detach from our pastimes. We'll explore how games became arenas for epic clashes over everything from the role of religion in the public square to the push for democracy in the Arab Spring.
MR. KOJO NNAMDIFrom WAMU 88.5 at American University in Washington, welcome to "The Kojo Nnamdi Show," connecting your neighborhood with the world. Roughly, 100 million Americans will gather in front of their televisions on Sunday night for the mother of all American athletic events, the Super Bowl.
MR. KOJO NNAMDIA great many of them will, no doubt, try to kick back, eat a little junk food and forget about the rest of the world for a few hours. But sports writer, Dave Zirin, says the days are long gone when we could count on our favorite games and pastimes to provide some respite from politics.
MR. KOJO NNAMDIHe argues that the athletic arena now simply doubles as a venue for debates where, about the values that make us who we are. Whether they're debates about religion in the public square, gender rights, immigration or war. So try as we might on Sunday to detach our politics from our sports and focus on the game between the Ravens and the 49ers, Zirin says we should face the reality that for the athletes, for the fans and even for people who pay little attention to sports, these are no longer merely games.
MR. KOJO NNAMDIWe're living in the era of "Game Over." Dave Zirin is sports editor at "The Nation." He's the author of several books, the most recent of which is titled "Game Over: How Politics Turned the Sports World Upside Down." Dave Zirin, thank you so much for joining us.
MR. DAVE ZIRINIt's great to be here, Kojo. Thanks for having me.
NNAMDIAlways a pleasure. Dave will be speaking tonight and signing copies of his book, "Game Over," at Busboys and Poets at 2021 14th Street Northwest in the District. That event begins at 6:30 pm. Later sportscaster, Howard Cosell used to like to say that the number one rule of the jock-acracy (sp?) was that sports and politics do not mix.
NNAMDIBut you say we've reached a point where it's impossible to detach our politics from our pastimes and that no where will that be any more apparent than at an event like this weekend, Super Bowl. When you tune into the game what will you see?
ZIRINWell, there's going to be so much that we see that has actually nothing to do with football, with the idea of throwing a ball, catching it, scoring a touchdown and winning a game and that is something that's been a fact for the last several years. And that's actually the reason why I wrote this book, is this increasing frustration with sports media that you have all these explosive issues coming out in the world of sports and yet the sports media as it currently exists, just not talking about them.
ZIRINIt's like if people were sent to cover the civil rights movement in the 1950s and came back with dispatches about the quality of Dr. King's grey suits. And by the way there were articles back then that did just that. I mean, it's not seeing what's happening before our very eyes and what we're seeing is a wide scale transformation in the world of sports where political issues are really, in no way shape or form, able to be segmented or set apart from the play.
ZIRINAnd you're going to see that front and center in the Super Bowl this week. I mean, there's a couple of issues that have come up with this Super Bowl that are going to be there for people and that people are going to see and that they're going to have to confront even if they just want to see a game.
NNAMDIBefore you say what those issues are allow me to tell people how to participate in this conversation. 800-433-8850 is our number, you can send email to email@example.com. Do you enjoy sports more when politics are out of the picture? Do you think it's possible to put politics out of the picture any longer? 800-433-8850 to talk with Dave Zirin. Now, let's talk about the issues you were talking about that we will see in the Super Bowl.
ZIRINAbsolutely. You know, Dr. King gave his life to slaying what he called the giant triplets of American life and that he described as militarism, racism and economic injustice. Those were the giant triplets that Dr. King said he would take on. Watch the Super Bowl this year and you will see the giant triplets on full display.
ZIRINMilitarism, there will be without question as there have been in recent years in the Super Bowl, an explosion of military, both sponsorship, war planes flying overhead before the games, live action shots of the 101st Airborne, watching...
NNAMDIWhy is that? Every sporting event I go to there is some militarism. Whether it's a basketball game at the college or pro level, football, why is that?
ZIRINWell, there are several reasons why that is. I mean, first of all, there's the direct financial reason. That the military directly sponsors these events because they see that the people who watch sports are the same people they want to try to get to sign up for the U.S. military.
ZIRINAnd it's a way to say, hey, if you like this sporting event, then you will just love the latest war that we've got going on in Afghanistan, in Iraq, what have you. So there's, one is directly connected to the other on a financial basis. The second reason that I think you see the connection is it works the other way too.
ZIRINIs that it's a way to dramatize the sporting event itself and you hear this all time. I mean, RG3 who the quarterback for our Washington football team, and I love RG3 but when he went down with his knee injury in the playoff game a few weeks ago against the Seattle Seahawks, the first tweet that he sent out afterwards was against critics who said that he shouldn't have been out there playing with an already injured knee.
ZIRINAnd he said you don't know what it's like to be out there in war when the bullets are flying all around you or words to that effect. And this is RG3 who's from a military family and should really know that football and war have very little to do with each other, other than that one sponsors the other.
ZIRINAnd yet, it becomes a part of the language because it's a way to dramatize the event. I mean, think about quarterbacks are called field generals throwing bullets and bombs down the field encroaching on enemy space and this is a very historic part of U.S. sports. I mean, you could go back to Teddy Roosevelt, like the language of war and the language of sports, walking arm in arm. But in our hyper commercialized 21st century era it's just so much more in your face.
NNAMDISo that's one of the triplets, militarism.
ZIRINMilitarism's a big one. Another one, racism, big one. I mean, the NFL this year just had a horrible embarrassment. There were eight head coaching opportunities open, all eight filled by white coaches. This despite the fact of the much praised Rooney Rule as it's called, which asks that NFL owners and NFL general managers to actually interview African American head coaches for these jobs.
ZIRINYet they went 0 for 8 in showcasing any kind of diversity. There's now the lowest number of African American head coaches that we've seen in over a decade.
NNAMDIThat's compared with what percentage of African American players in the league?
ZIRIN70 percent players are African American. We're now talking about less than nine percent of head coaches are African American. And one of the reasons why that is, is that there's been a rush to hire offensive coordinators as head coaches. It's seen as a very offensive sport at this point and of the 32 offensive coordinators in the National Football League, 31 are white.
ZIRINAnd if people don't think that that's connected to issues of race and racism then they don't understand the history of the National Football League. There was a time where you had to be white to be a quarterback in the National Football League because it was thought that only...
NNAMDIIt required a certain level of intelligence.
ZIRINExactly, exactly. Randal Cunningham, when he was a rookie with the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1980s, he was asked that at his first press conference, "Do you feel like you're intelligent enough to be a quarterback in the National Football League?" And you, and yet since that time in the '80s there are, of course, more African American quarterbacks now, yet the play calling duties have moved from being the province of the quarterback to the province of the offensive coordinator with very few exceptions, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady.
ZIRINOther than that, if you're the quarterback you're not necessarily calling the plays, the offensive coordinator is calling the plays and you look at there and it's this highly racialized as ever, as I said, 31 out of 32 African American. The only African American offensive coordinator, Baltimore Ravens, Jim Caldwell who was actually hired mid season. So it was 0 for 32 by about the halfway point of this past year.
NNAMDIAnd he's going to the Super Bowl.
NNAMDIThird of the triplets?
ZIRINThird of the triplets is economic exploitation. Now, this is something that the NFL is loath to talk about but they have players in the National Football League because there are people in this country who feel like that this is their only way out of poverty.
ZIRINAnd this is going to become more and more acute as we see more and more suburban parents keeping their children from playing youth football because of the new statistics that we see about head injuries, concussions and the way it can really, if you're playing football under the age of 14 you could be, tackle football, you could talk about it's stunting the rest of your life.
ZIRINThe intellectual development that you will experience for the next 30, 40 years of your life could be stunted just by playing Pop Warner football. That's the medical data, that's not my opinion. And this received a lot of news over the weekend when President Obama was interviewed by "The New Republic" and he said that if he had a son he doesn't know that he would let him play football.
NNAMDISo he'd have to think twice.
ZIRINHe'd have to think twice and I could speak for my family as well. I have a four year old son. My father-in-law was invited to the Dallas Cowboys camp but played college football and he always said that his grandson would play football and we always sort of smiled and went along with it. In the last year my wife has put, you know, put the foot down and said to her dad, no that's not happening.
ZIRINAnd I'm, of course, yes I'm with her because I'm smart. But it's something as you see that it's going to drive the economic status of the players who actually play in the National Football League more and more impoverished state. And of course, the people who play football, the average career is only three and a half years. Their life expectancy is, by some studies, less than the typical American male.
NNAMDIBut you know, every time you say the average football player only plays three and a half years it's, it flies by because people tend to focus on the superstars, the ones who, like Ray Lewis played for 12 years or more...
NNAMDI...not realizing that there are a very small minority of the people who play professional football.
ZIRINExactly. So much praise for Ray Lewis, 17 years in the league. That's more than any middle linebacker has ever played in the history of the league. Yet, it doesn't make nearly as good a copy to talk about the players who get in there, they play for a year, two years, they get injured terribly and then we never see them again. So that's part of it too.
ZIRINA couple of people want to comment on this already. Here's Jeff, in Washington D.C. Jeff, you're on the air, go ahead please.
JEFFThank you, good afternoon. I'm concentrating mainly on the first prong, militarism. That is something that's been going on ever since the NFL has managed to market itself into being the most preferred American sport, you know, since the 1970s. Owners have seized upon that particular imaginary and they've marketed directly their teams and indirectly their sports to reflect that sentiment.
JEFFI'm going to have to drop a name here. If you look at Dallas and the way Dallas was marketed in the mid to late '70s with the posters as America's team with, you know, that very open appeal towards what was seen as a traditional America with those traditional values. That was partly the owner expressing himself but also that was very canny marketing for the sake of profit. And that's been going on across, in pro football, for about 40 years and you see it reflected in other sports, not quite to the same extent.
NNAMDIThat's the process that's been taking place, Dave Zirin?
ZIRINNo, that's absolutely true as far as the acceleration in the 1970s as part of the politics of backlash against the 1960s was the NFL being put forward as a counter to that with the Dallas Cowboys, the so-called America's team being a part of that. the one thing that I would add to tie it back to our previous discussion is that there actually is one place where the NFL and the Armed Forces have a great deal of legitimate interests in common and that's the issue of TBI or traumatic brain injury.
ZIRINThe U.S. Army and the NFL have actually joined forces with pooling tens of millions of dollars to share research about the effects of traumatic brain injury because they have found that the effects of playing in the NFL are very similar to the effects of suffering a nearby IED blast or a concussive grenade and so there is a real similarity as much we scoff at the idea of comparing the NFL to actually fighting in a war. Some of the aftereffects are in fact quite similar.
NNAMDIThank you very much for your call, Jeff. If the Super Bowl isn't about football or if it is about football it's also about big money ads. It's my understanding that you've got your eyes peeled for a particular ad by a company called Soda Stream. Why?
ZIRINYes. That was part two -- we're talking about three things. First we've got Dr. King and his three triplets that are reflected in the NFL, then we have Soda Stream and then we also need to talk about LGBT rights in the Super Bowl. But let's go with Soda Stream for a second. There will be a Super Bowl ad for a company called Soda Stream. It bills itself as being very eco friendly because what it does is it allows you to take water and carbonate it in your home.
ZIRINThe problem is that Soda Stream is a factory that -- in a business that exists on an illegal settlement in the West Bank. It's an Israeli company that has a history of labor violations, that is actually a part of a free trade zone in the West Bank that's been illegally settled by the Israeli government. Now there are people who would call the very existence of Soda Stream a human rights violation. There have been regular protests right here in D.C. led by Jewish voices for peace at the Columbia Heights Mall where Soda Stream is sold. And these protests are not going to stop any time soon.
ZIRINAnd a lot of us reflects SodaStream as seen as a symbol of the way -- of a human rights violation, an illegal factory is able to be mainstreamed and marketed in a way that actually looks eco friendly, that actually tries to appeal to people with liberal sensitivities and liberal sympathies like...
NNAMDIWell, there's going to be protests against that ad, including Code Pink protesting against it. It's my understanding that there's also likely to be a protest against the protest.
ZIRINYes. And there have been protests against the protest because folks on the other side of this question, they see the West Bank as being, of course, you know, critical to Israel's security concerns and therefore any ability to settle the West Bank, whether it's settle it militarily or economically creates a buffer zone.
ZIRINThe counterargument to that, which is a counterargument that I certainly stand with, is that it's not their land to do that with. And it violates every possible semblance of UN decree and resolution about what makes up Palestinian land. But the bigger issue for this discussion is that there is no cultural real estate more prized in American life than an ad in the Super Bowl.
ZIRINAnd so to have this company have an ad during the Super Bowl, I mean, really is crossing into new territory and new ground. And in some respects it's a positive because it allows people to see that, hey this actually does exist. Like it's an opportunity to say there are companies that exist on illegal settlements that force people off land to be able to build and market. And now that reality -- people are going to be confronted with that fact during the Super Bowl.
NNAMDIYou mentioned LGBT issues, before we get off of the Super Bowl and take a break.
ZIRINOh, I've got to mention that because, is America ready for the big gay Super Bowl. Because on one side, you have Brendon Ayanbadejo who's a linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens. He has said explicitly that he is going to use the Super Bowl as a way to speak out for LGBT rights, marriage rights, anti-bullying. He's been in contact with all sorts of people who've been involved in this issue and said, how do we do this? So he's ready to do that.
ZIRINOn the other side, the San Francisco 49ers are the first NFL team to actually do one of the it-gets-better ads against anti-LGBT bullying. So it's an issue that is going to be front and center during the Super Bowl. And Brendon Ayanbadejo, he joins actually a significant list of NFL players. And the NFL of course if such a sort of hamlet of this kind of, you know, toxic masculinity, you know. And to have it be also a platform for LGBT rights is really quite remarkable.
NNAMDIGot to take a short break. When we come back we'll continue our conversation with Dave Zirin. He has a new book out. It's called "Game Over: How Politics Turned the Sports World Upside Down." 800-433-8850 is the number to call. You can shoot us an email to firstname.lastname@example.com. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.
NNAMDIWe're talking with Dave Zirin, sports editor at The Nation and author of several books, the most recent of which is titled "Game Over: How Politics Turned the Sports World Upside Down." A major athletic contest like the Super Bowl is usually pitched as an economic boost to the whole city, just as something like the World Cup is being pitched as a rallying point for Brazilian 2014. But you say underneath the surface in Brazil is a bigger story about the displacement of more than a million families who live in low income neighborhoods. What's happening there in your eyes?
ZIRINI was in Brazil for several weeks in September and toured all of the famous favelas on the hills in Rio. And it really is remarkable what's going on there. It's like the Olympics and the World Cup, both of which are coming to Brazil, both of which are going to have locations in Rio, have been operating as like a neoliberal Trojan horse showing up to the country with this idea of celebration and we're going to celebrate the country. And it's going to be a global brand and a global city and a destination city.
ZIRINWhen in reality, beneath the surface, what you're seeing is mass displacement taking place in Rio right now. You're seeing the creation of all kinds of bus lines and clearings as a way to get people to leave. And what's so interesting about Rio is that -- you know, in this country if you're rich you live on the hill and if you're poor you live on the bottom of the hill, like say Beverly Hills for example. It's the reverse in Rio where if you're poor you live on the hill.
ZIRINAnd there was economic stagnation in Brazil for 30 years so now that there is growth and these events are coming, and there is such rampant real estate speculation that takes place in Brazil, there is a push to get people off of the hills and to begin to develop and construct on the hills. And what that means is that you have these communities. And a tragedy is that people translate favela as meaning slum.
NNAMDIShanty town.
ZIRINShanty towns, exactly. These are communities that people -- you don't want to of course glorify a sense of poverty but these are communities that people have built up by themselves over the course of decades, generations of people living there. And I've got to tell you, like, I was in Rio, like Ipanema, a fancy neighborhood at the bottom of the hill. And there there's a Starbucks with an armed guard in the front, so you can get your Starbucks without fear of being shot and killed. Or you go up into the favelas where people leave their doors unlocked and they actually care for stray dogs and cats.
ZIRINSo it's a very incredible, bizarre world, funhouse mirror as far as what is or what isn't in progress. And the Olympics and World Cup allow them to get away with development projects that they otherwise wouldn't be able to get away with.
NNAMDIWell, the current president of Brazil who people would argue has a lot of progressive credentials, so to speak, the government there makes the argument that they are in fact resettling these residents and spending millions of dollars in order to resettle them from what they would describe shanty towns into better locations. What say you?
ZIRINYes. The places where they are being resettled -- and they are spending millions of dollars, but they're spending millions of dollars to develop where they used to live, and then being sent to places that are like these austere antiseptic government projects. Now much -- for families living in areas, not just bigger than this room we're in here right now, this little radio studio that we're in. And you contrast that to the favelas that I saw where people on their own -- I mean, it's a very DIY, do-it-yourself culture where people are on their own building stories upon stories on their own houses.
ZIRINAnd Brazil traditionally has had some of the most stringent squatter's right laws in the world. So people have taken over these areas and built them up and built them up for their families. And they have a sense of pride and a sense of community. And the government is gutting that in the name of progress.
NNAMDIOn to Tony in Baltimore, Md. Tony, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.
TONYYeah, I just wanted to make a comment about the nature of the national pastime. I lived in Europe, in Asia actually for many years. You know, as a culture we celebrate the Super Bowl and we all sit down with our beer and snack food. And it just seems to be not healthy.
NNAMDIAs opposed to what?
TONYWell, you look at, like, Europe, Germany where votes marching. I mean, everybody now on the weekend. You know, this nation, we drive everywhere, we sit down everywhere, it is what we are. The national pastime is something that we all watch. Very few of us actually play, and I'm sure there's a lot of soccer moms who will call in and say how their kids play soccer and stuff like this.
NNAMDIWell, I'm glad you brought that up because there are other cultures in which the fans of those sports do definitely not stay home. So, Tony, thank you very much for bringing that up because it's fitting that we're talking today, nearly two years after massive protests toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime in Egypt. During the past week Egypt's new President Mohammed Morsi was forced to declare a state of emergency in three cities after protests engulfed the country, some of which erupted in response to the death sentence as recently handed down to a group of soccer fans involved in a riot last year. This is a place where people in general go to watch their teams play.
NNAMDIYou write that the culture of these fans known as Ultras or Ultras is essential to understanding what's really taking place in Egypt and how the political revolution began two years ago to begin with.
ZIRINExactly. I mean, fandom inherently reflects the country where those fans take place. And so you can tell a lot about a country by looking at how people ingest and follow sports. So the caller is right, that in this country it can be an incredibly passive relationship between sport and fan. In Egypt historically is very different. And that's the starting point is Hosni Mubarak. He was dictator for 30 years. If you protested against Hosni Mubarak, you could find yourself locked up with the key thrown away. But what Hosni Mubarak did allow, which is very common among autocracies throughout the world, is he allowed much more organizing, chanting and even street violence when it involved sports.
ZIRINSo if you were going to go out in the street and chant, you know, we want food, you're going to find your heads cracked in by the police. But if you're going to go out there and just be an ultra fan club and fight other teams or even fight the police, the rule in the Mubarak political system was, let them blow off their steam. Now when the revolution happens the soccer clubs, the Ultras, found themselves as being the people who had the most experience in how to do things like set up checkpoints, keep an area safe, keep an area secure, keep out the police.
ZIRINSo the fan clubs found -- and I have a whole chapter on his in the book -- they found themselves in the position of actually defending the interests of the revolution. Now when the Port Said massacre took place, this horrible thing that took place where dozens of people died in the soccer match, which led to everything that's happening there right now, the starting point of the Ultras was, this is a fault of the police. This is something that the government let take place as a way to declare a state of emergency and delay the victory and the fruits of the revolution.
ZIRINSo this latest court decision, which calls for the execution of 21 people but doesn't hold any of the security people to account, has led to this kind of violent outbreak because -- and this is not something you're getting in the U.S. press but because there is a broad sense of saying that this is really a cover up. That this is a tactic, not just to divide and conquer people, but also a tactic to declare more states of emergency so there can be even further delay of any sort of real political and democratic reform.
NNAMDII'm glad you talked about the roles that the Ultras displayed during the Egyptian revolution itself, because under normal circumstances these are people in different camps with very intense rivalries. How did they happen to, so to speak, come together?
ZIRINWell, it didn't happen by accident and it didn't happen easily. I quote people in the chapter that I have about Egypt and the revolution saying things like, yeah I'll fight against Mubarak but it'll be a cold day in hell before I ever link arms with the fans of Zamalek, you know. So for a lot of cases when they would secure Tahrir Square you would have, like, the Alawi fans on one side and the Zamalek fans on the other -- the fan clubs because they couldn't even be near each other. They couldn't even say their names without spitting. I mean, the dislike was so intense.
ZIRINNow if that sounds bizarre to people, try to imagine Red Socks and Yankee fans linking arm in arm and you could see that this wouldn't exactly -- or for here, Ravens and Steelers fans, it's hard to imagine. But just the shear process of organizing and fighting broke down those barriers between them. I mean, when it comes to a point where Mubarak, for example, was calling upon members of his armed guard to ride into Tahrir Square with horses beating people over the head brandishing swords, at that point you tend to care a little less that someone roots for Zamalek and you're willing to link arms and do something.
NNAMDIHere's Normein (sp?) in Washington, D.C. Normein, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.
NORMEINI just wanted to make the point, if it wasn't for the Ultras and the unions, those are the two who really turned the tide in Tahrir and made it really the revolution that we talk about today. And they continue -- many of the people who died in Port Said were revolutionaries in that square.
ZIRINThat's right. That's exactly correct. And that's what's -- I'm so glad you said that because that's what's not being reported in the press here with the current riots. It makes it seem like something chaotic as opposed to something that for people has a real political logic to it. And if I could say one more thing about the call, the relationship there is very important because without the unions, particularly without the strikes that took place towards the end of Mubarak's reign, he doesn't get pushed out like he did. But without the Ultras maybe Tahrir Square doesn't even happen. Maybe it gets crushed so early in its infancy that there's not even time for the unions to really grab that baton and run with it.
NNAMDINormein, thank you very much for your call. And because Dave Zirin is very versatile, I'm going to swing back to the NFL here for a second with Charles in Washington, D.C. Charles, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.
CHARLESYes, it's a very interesting discussion you have here, gentlemen. One thing that I always seem to be -- the NFL seems to be very hypocritical is the health of its players. They say they want to protect the players' (word?) but yet they still have -- the only thing that (unintelligible) happen like three or four days after (unintelligible) game with both teams, what have you (unintelligible) . And then they argue for more regular season games. I (unintelligible) how the NFL to really say they're for the health of the players when they do all this, you know, type of stuff.
ZIRINWell, let's be very straight up, Charles. I think that the commission Roger Goodell is a profound hypocrite. And I think that what he has been proposing in terms of the health and safety measures for players has been public relations, a way to have a queasy public feel that something is being done while actually doing nothing. And you want to hear just like the basic proof of that is that the owners are not proposing anything that will actually cost them money.
ZIRINEverything that they're proposing to make things safer are about taking money out of the players' pockets, fining them for excessive hits and things of that nature, while at the same time they're still pushing for an 18-game season. That would of course make the season longer. They're still not putting independent medical professional on the sideline, which is just absolutely unbelievable to me that you don't have independent medical professionals on the sideline.
NNAMDIThe medical professional on the sideline work for the team.
ZIRIN...work for the team and this is how you get ridiculous situations like Dr. James Andrews, the famed orthopedist for Washington's football team. I mean, we often saw what happened with RG3. The day before their big game against the Seahawks, James Andrews says, well I didn't clear him to play. And then of course he actually gets hurt and then it's a big scandal. And the day after James Andrews says, well I think people misinterpreted what I said. And it's like there's no trust there.
ZIRINAnd I've talked to a lot of players about this and there really isn't that kind of trust. And let alone like psychiatric professionals. I mean, this has been a big issue, of course, because of the number of suicides in the National Football League in the last year. And yet you do not have psychotherapists, psychiatrists who are independent of the team. And I've talked to players about this and no one feels like any meeting with the team counselor is in any way confidential. And when you have people, you know, from poor backgrounds and they don't have guaranteed contracts, this is not a recipe for player safety.
NNAMDICharles, thank you very much for your call. Along the same line, Ron in Gaithersburg, Md. Ron, your turn.
RONYeah, Kojo, thank you for taking my call. This is a great show and I have to kind of piggyback on the last caller but expand it a little bit. In that I look at football as a regular business and a football field as like a factory floor. And if on a regular factory 10 to 15 percent of your workers would get seriously injured every single time you opened the door for normal business, OSHA would shut you down. How does the NFL get around these basic OSHA rules?
NNAMDIOSHA being the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Dave Zirin?
ZIRINSigned into law by Richard Nixon, putting that out there because we had mass social movements at that time that pushed him to do so. They get around it because they have antitrust exemptions. That's why owning a pro sports team, whether it's the NFL, Major League Baseball or what have you, is really like having a license to print money. You don't have to open your books and you get to evade all kinds of rules that otherwise you would have to follow.
ZIRINSo they have antitrust protections against OSHA, but ideally OSHA would be right now in the middle of a serious investigation over, for example, what happened to RG3 at that game. Was it the coach, was it the medical staff, was it Dan Snyder, the owner of the Washington football team that had that field in such horrific disrepair? I mean OSHA would be investigating this and they are not because they are not charged to. And that's a serious problem.
NNAMDIThanks for your call, Ron. This email we got from Woodbridge. "What will it take to break football's grip on our culture? I am a mom who will have to confront the Pop Warner issue with my son soon. I have some time to figure it out, but football does worry me. At this point, it's pretty easy to notice how savage a game professional football has become, but as a society, we're willing to watch these men do savage things to one another, drink our Miller beer and allow ourselves to be brainwashed by all the commercials. I'm convinced it will take nothing short of a player dying on the field for us to start to think differently. What are Dave's thoughts?"
ZIRINWell, first of all, the winds of history are at your back. So don't feel as embattled as you sound. More than one million less children are playing youth football than a year ago. That's about an 8 percent drop and that's a big deal. And it's hard to know, of course, what to attribute that to, but it would be hard not to see it as attributed to a lot of the news about head injuries that have come out.
ZIRINThe second thing is that I talked to Robert Cantu, who is considered the foremost expert on the issue of football and brain injuries and has worked for the NFL and is somebody who is very high up in power. He has put out there that he thinks tackle football should be banned for people under 14, strictly for neurological reasons. Not because it's his opinion that it's a moral or that it's bad for the social fabric of the country, but just straight up neurology. The same way you wouldn't let a 12-year-old drive a Sherman tank or let a 12-year-old drive a truck, you shouldn't let a 12-year-old play tackle football under the age of 14.
ZIRINAnd I really think that that's where things are headed for the future. And I think that terrifies the NFL because they look at a sport like boxing, which was once the most popular sport in the United States. And they say, there but for the grace of the almighty dollar go us.
NNAMDIWe're talking with Dave Zirin. He is sports editor of The Nation and author of several books. The most recent book is "Game Over: How Politics Turned the Sports World Upside Down." If you're on the phone we'll try to get to your call, but we first have to take this short break. You can call us at 800-433-8850. How do you think sports have changed America's political culture or how politics have affected sports? 800-433-8850. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.
NNAMDIWelcome back to our conversation with Dave Zirin. He has written several books. The most recent of which is titled, "Game Over: How Politics Turned the Sports World Upside Down." He will be speaking tonight and signing copies of that book at Busboys and Poets at 2021 14th Street Northwest, in the District. That event begins at 6:30 p.m. You know, there might not be an athlete on Earth whose brand has suffered as much and fallen as far as Lance Armstrong, the cyclist who has now admitted that he cheated with performance enhancing drugs to come back from cancer and dominate his sport. What do you see when you look at Lance Armstrong through a more, I guess, social lens than through an athletic one?
ZIRINWell, a couple of things. First of all, he symbolizes one of the things that frustrates me so much about sports media and why I wrote this book, in that we seem to build up athletes and then tear them down. Build them up to unreasonable degrees and then take this great delight in tearing them down, with very little shades of gray in that process. It's like that line from the Batman movie, die a hero or live long enough to become a villain. I mean if Lance Armstrong had tragically passed away 10 years ago, for example, there's a very good chance that there would be buildings named after him here in Washington, D.C.
ZIRINAnd instead, now we get what's happening right now. So I think both are blown so out of proportion. Like how great he was. He was clearly not that great. How awful he was. Yeah, he was pretty awful, but it's not like he lied to get us into war in Iraq or anything or crash the financial system in 2008. And yet we speak about him as if he's our modern day Genghis Khan, Ted Bundy with a bicycle. Now, what he did, though, instead--I mean it is repellant what he did.
ZIRINHe's very different from say somebody like Barry Bonds, who we've discussed before, who was a player. And then you have a management structure above Barry Bonds that benefited from what he may or may not have ingested in his body. What Lance Armstrong was, was much more of an owner. That's how cycling works. He ran his cycling team. And there is a ton of evidence that he pressured people -- people have sworn to this under oath, that he bullied and pressured them to also use performance enhancing drugs.
ZIRINNow he has denied that, but he has admitted this to the healing glow of Oprah Winfrey. He admitted to her, in an interview that was a disaster…
NNAMDIHe went after people.
ZIRIN…that he went after people, that he bullied people, that he attacked people, that he sued people as a way to keep them quiet. He hurt the reputations of a lot of very good journalists who got caught up in the story. And I think this so emblematic of a sports culture that really is out of control. And one of the reasons is that there's no gatekeepers. There's no fact checkers. There's nobody actually looking to see who these athletes are, what they stand for, what they don't stand for and assessing them as actual what they are, which is ambassadors of ideas in our society.
ZIRINInstead, it's just you either God them up, as my friend Bob Lipsyte says, you God them up or you just tear them down.
NNAMDIOnto Travis, in Ocean City, Md. Travis, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.
TRAVISHi. This isn't related to Lance Armstrong. This is more harking back to the NFL players.
ZIRINThat's okay.
TRAVISI think these players should have known what they were getting into. I mean it is a violent sport. It's always been a violent sport. If you were a fighter in UFC and you went into the Octagon and, you know, in another violent arena, I just don't think you could walk out of there and say I didn't know this was going to happen to me. I didn't know that, you know, repeated blows to the head were, you know, going to have long-term effects. Similarly, in the winter X games in Aspen recently there have been a number of very vicious injuries, people in snowmobiles, skiing, etcetera and I feel like as an athlete you should understand…
NNAMDIIn other words, Dave Zirin, if you took all of the people in college football right now or the people in Pee Wee football, sat them down in a room, showed them every statistic there is about concussions. Showed them in the most graphic forms, the injuries that they can have, they would still be going after the brass ring, so to speak.
ZIRINYes and no. I mean, you get to this issue of informed consent, which is very important. And what I would say back to you Travis is actually I agree and I actually strongly disagree with a part of what you just said. I agree that there is certainly assumed risk when you play in the NFL. But you have to understand that what we're finding out about what head injuries produce, even when they wear these space age helmets. I mean we're talking about early on-set dementia. We're talking about early on-set Alzheimer's disease. We're talking about the inability to remember your loved ones and family.
ZIRINI mean these were things that, no, players did not know that was going to be a part of playing in the NFL.
NNAMDIThat's not going to happen to me, though.
ZIRINYeah, exactly. That's not going to happen to me. I'll be one of the lucky ones. And unfortunately, that's not the case. And every time I now interview an NFL player, I always ask them that question, like do you want your son playing in the National Football League? And I'll tell you something, some say yes, some say no, but they all think about it. Nobody is confident and says, absolutely. What a great life it gave me.
NNAMDIIn other words, change doesn't occur overnight.
ZIRINWell, you know, like James Reston once said, we're much better, as the media, covering revolution than evolution. And there is an evolution taking place in how even football players think of the game.
NNAMDITravis, thank you very much for your call. Another brand that's been run through the ringer in recent weeks has been Notre Dame Football. For much of the season they were the subject of heart-wrenching feature stories about how their star player Manti Te'o lost his grandmother and his girlfriend on the same day in September and played through the pain. Except it turns out that the story about his girlfriend was a hoax, either perpetrated on or with him.
NNAMDIRegardless, you have expressed outrage that more important stories about the Notre Dame brand involving the University's response to rape cases have escaped scrutiny. Why is it that you feel that Notre Dame's brand has grown to be so powerful? How do you think this string of stories is likely to affect it in the future?
ZIRINWell, it's so powerful because it generates hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. And this is a small, private, Catholic university of 13,000. People don't realize how small it is. It's not some big state school, funding all kinds of departments or whatnot. What it is instead is the beating heartbeat of South Bend, Ind., which is another de-industrialized part of the Midwestern rust belt of the United States. Every home game at Notre Dame pumps $10 million into the local economy. And it's a company town.
ZIRINAnd what do you do when there's a company town? You protect the company. So Manti Te'o has been protected. Protected in the case of he perpetrated this hoax about this fake, dead woman, this horrible story. And he has been protected by the school. The athletic director Jack Swarbrick held a press conference where he cried, he actually shed tears and spoke about that the great tragedy of the Manti Te'o story is, as he put it, and I quote, "the most trusting young man I've ever known will never trust again."
ZIRINNow, if you'll excuse me, I'm getting nauseous. And they're much better at working with this situation of a fake dead girl than with an actual dead young woman, a woman named Lizzy Seeberg, who went to neighboring Saint Mary's College, who took her own life after accusing members of the Notre Dame Football team of sexual assault. She tried to go public with the charges. She was sent threatening text messages by the football team. She was a freshman from a whole family of Notre Dame graduates. And she took her own life.
ZIRINNow, there was no internal investigation into what happened to Lizzy Seeberg, like there was for Manti Te'o. There were no tears shed by Jack Swarbrick. Instead there were jokes made by the head football coach Brian Kelly. So this is a school, two years ago, way before the Manti Te'o stuff broke of course. I wrote an article saying that I thought Notre Dame Football should take a break. That the school would be better off if they just stopped playing football for awhile, that the moral compass was completely out of whack. I wrote this after Lizzy Seeberg took her own life.
ZIRINAnd another young man, Declan Sullivan, died when the coach sent him up onto a crane in a hurricane to film the team. And he was sending out tweets like, whoa, I might die up here. And then he dies.
NNAMDINo investigation?
ZIRINNo investigation and certainly no internal investigation. No real push by the University to find out what took place. So it's a school in serious need of reformation. And to me the Te'o story only really exposes the funhouse mirror of Fighting Irish Football.
NNAMDIOnto Doug, in Silver Spring, Md. Doug, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.
DOUGHi, Dave. It's Doug, your old neighbor.
ZIRINHey, how you doing, Doug?
DOUGHey, pretty good, man. I'm going to shift it all away from football and I'm going to ask you what did you think of the whole incident with the lockout with hockey this year? I mean, we lose half a season and, you know, the Caps aren't doing so hot right now. And, I mean, they got their first win the other night. Hopefully, another one is coming up soon.
NNAMDIWhat Doug is referring to is the fact that pro hockey players are now back on the ice after a lockout washed out the first several months of the season. A lot of people make these labor disagreements in professional sports out to be fights between millionaire athletes and billionaire owners. How do you feel, Dave Zirin?
ZIRINWell, I feel that this is a function of the broader economic crisis in our society, is that owners have chosen, because they can't get public subsidies anymore, to extract wealth from players. So you have every single pro sports league now, for the first time, is represented by the same law firm called Proskauer Rose, New York City. And that's why there have been four lockouts in the last year. Interestingly, Proskauer Rose used to have a partner at their law firm named Gary Bettman, currently the commissioner of the NHL. They once had another partner at their law firm named David Stern, commissioner of the NBA.
ZIRINSo this is much more in common with a typical attack on labor unions and a lockout strategy than anything resembling billionaires versus millionaires. And as we've discussed, I mean, when your playing career is so short and also when communities now are dependent, in terms of their service industry, about the businesses that exist around a stadium--like I talked to a bartender who works right by the Verizon Center. And he was breaking it down for me as to how much money he was losing because the Caps weren't playing. And it was stunning. Like his life is in economic crisis because of this lockout.
ZIRINAnd it makes you realize, like, how irresponsible the owners were being in this particular lockout. It was an absolutely ridiculous display of hubris and greed. And frankly, as a fan I have to tell you the Caps are paying a terrible price because they have a new coach, a new system and no training camp to figure out what they're doing on the ice.
NNAMDIDoug, thank you very much for your call. We move on now to Chris, in Rockville, Md. Chris, you're on the air with Dave Zirin. Go ahead, please.
CHRISYeah, thanks for taking my call. You've said so many right things that it's hard to comment on everything. I think the RG3 thing was really very irresponsible by both management. And (word?) is a really good leader. He should have taken himself out of the game and said I'm about to jeopardize us winning this game, take me out, Coach, you know. And it's money. I mean it's like the drug trade. There wouldn't be any narcotics if there weren't consumers paying billions of dollars. You know, if the government produced everything and said, here, you want some coke? It's 25 cents down at your CVS drugstore, there wouldn't be any romance.
CHRISBut, you know, I mean, football -- I played football, got a dislocated shoulder twice. It's kind of a stupid game. It'll jeopardize your ability to do anything in later life, but we all love to watch it and it is exciting and the athletes are tremendous. And a great long run is exciting to watch and a win in the last minute is exciting, but if you wanted to discourage kids from playing football, maybe the best way would be to get the girls in high school to stop idolizing the football players and start favoring the baseball players, the tennis players, the swimmers, the soccer players and all the other sports. That would probably make the job of a parent a heck of a lot easier.
NNAMDIA lot of that has to do with the prominence of the sport itself. Right, Dave?
ZIRINYeah, that's certainly very true. The prominence of the sport back in the home, as well. I'll tell you, after this past weekend my four-year-old son came up to me and he said, "Daddy, I don't --" my son, he can, like, cook. He's four and he can make eggs. And he came up to me and he said, "Daddy, I don't want to be a chef anymore. I want to be a Raven." And, honestly, it depressed the hell out of me. Because I know that I'm somewhat culpable in him saying that.
NNAMDIChris, thank you very much for your call. Here is Karen in Washington, D.C. Karen, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.
KARENHello, how are you? I've sort of been multi-tasking. I'm listening to your show. I'm a parent that has a son that plays football and I, too, have very mixed emotions about him playing the sport. And I'm a mental health professional, so I also follow the health issues and the neuroscience and it scares me.
ZIRINHow old is your son, can I ask?
KARENHe's 14.
ZIRINOkay. Go ahead.
KARENBut, Dave, here's what I wanted to say…
NNAMDIYou've only got about a minute left, Karen.
KARENYou pushed my buttons a little bit when you discussed Notre Dame Football. And I'm a graduate and I definitely don't think that the school walks on water. I think that mistakes have been made. And the three things that you mentioned, the Manti Te'o thing, the Declan Sullivan tragedy--because, above all, it was a tragedy and the Lizzy Seeberg case, I think it troubles me to see people painting the school with such a broad brush.
NNAMDIWell, we only have…
KARENAnd especially the Lizzy Seeberg case.
NNAMDIWell, we don't have time to go into that because we only have 27 seconds left.
ZIRINI will take your point though, under advisement and say that I absolutely agree that there are good people at South Bend trying to do the right thing and do the right kinds of investigative work, but there needs to be much more of it.
NNAMDIThank you very much for your call, Karen. Dave Zirin, always a pleasure. His latest book is called "Game Over: How Politics Turned the Sports World Upside Down." Thank you all for listening. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.
Virginia Democratic Party Chairwoman Susan Swecker is in studio. And Aisha Braveboy, candidate for Prince George's State's Attorney, joins us.
The number of people living in D.C. is booming, and so too is the number of rats. Kojo talks about how D.C.'s rodent problem is affecting the city and what's being done to fight off the pests.
The federal court judge who ruled that Maryland's public universities were unlawfully segregated rejected solutions proposed by the state's Higher Education Commission and a group representing a coalition of Maryland Historically Black Colleges and Universities for redressing that segregation. We get an update on the case.
A new book, "Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital," presents a sweeping view of how race impacted Washington, D.C. for the past four centuries.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Jimmie Johnson (48 Chevrolet) wins the 9th Annual AAA Texas 500, his 66th victory in 433 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
Chase Elliott was the second best non playoff driver in the Coke 400 at Homestead Miami Speedway. After not advancing to the final stage of qualifying Elliott started back in 18th and moved forward 13 spots to capture his sixth top-five of the 10 race playoffs. Last year in his first attempt at the track the then rookie finished just outside the top 10 in 11th.
Kevin Harvick finished fourth in the Coke 400 at Homestead and third in the 2017 Monster Energy Cup Championship. Harvick ran near the front all day but he never could make the pass for the lead. The one time Champion went into the final race with an impressive stat for Homestead, Harvick has led the most laps on 1.5 mile tracks since 2014. In Saturday practice Harvick was the slowest out of the championship contenders.
Kyle Larson was the highest finishing non-playoff driver in the Coke 400 at Homestead. For a while it seemed like Larson was going to pull off the spoil as he led 145 laps and captured both stage wins. Larson's third place finish came after four DNF's in a row starting with his playoff ending night at Kansas.
Kyle Busch found himself watching the championship from his front windshield, as Martin Truex Jr. beat him to the line in the Coke 400 at Homestead by four car lengths. Busch led 43 laps of the race and was made several runs on Truex in the late stages of the race.
Martin Truex Jr. led 78 laps of the 267 lap Ford 400 at Homestead to secure the Championship. The highest finishing playoff driver would be awarded the championship but with the level of drivers competing it was pretty clear that the only way to win was to win. Truex beat fellow playoff contender Kyle Busch to the line by 0.681 seconds. This is Truex's first Monster Energy Cup Series championship, and his eighth win of the season.
William Byron added two more superlatives to an already lengthy list – 2017 NASCAR XFINITY Series Champion and 2017 NASCAR XFINITY Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year.
Cole Custer (No. 00 Haas Automation Ford) won the Ford EcoBoost 300, his first victory in 38 NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) races.
Kyle Busch posted the quickest 10-lap average in final practice for the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a speed of 164.681 mph in his first circuits on the track.
Martin Truex Jr. posted the fastest single lap in Happy Hour for the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a speed of 171.195 mph. He was also second-quickest in terms of 10-lap averages with a speed of 164.460 during his first 10 laps on track.
Tyler Reddick (No. 42 BBR/Granger Smith Chevrolet Camaro), making his first start at Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS), won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Ford EcoBoost 300 with a lap of 165.624 mph.
Kevin Harvick posted both the slowest top speed and worst 10-lap average among the Championship contenders in Saturday morning's practice session for the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.


text:
Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Does an heir who's been told they've been disinherited have a rigbt to see for himself or just expected to believe it and leave it at that? I am that heir, the oldest child of 3, whos father just passed, whom I cared for and lived with, and was told by a text message from my uncle who is the executor that I've been disinherited but wont tell me what language was used or anything and wont let me see for myself if he's even telling me the truth or what because he doesn't like me to begin with and it seems to give him pleasure to tell me that. If I was disinherited can I make a direct contest of it. How does it work? I've read a few web site articles but I don't understand all the ins and ohts.
3 Answers from Attorneys
You can force the issue by filing a petition to probate his estate and then serve your uncle.
You should be able to see the last will of your father if it is being probated. And if he had a trust, you have a right to review the trust as well. If you would like to discuss your matter in detail, feel free to call me at 818.347.0264
If he is really the executor, then he has been appointed as the executor of a court with letters testamentary. That means there is a case filing and the will should be lodged with the court. If the will is lodged with the court, you should be able to go to the courthouse and get a copy.
Related Questions & Answers
Asked 8/04/12, 12:35 pm in United States California Probate, Trusts, Wills & Estates


text:
Oxfordshire Cotswolds
Towns & Villages
Throughout history, visitors have succumbed to the charm of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Steeped in history, rich in heritage and awash with natural beauty, the Oxfordshire Cotswolds is rural England at its very finest.
A charming blend of bustling market towns, like Burford, Chipping Norton and Woodstock, and breathtaking scenery that has earnt it classification as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Oxfordshire Cotswolds harbours over 6,000 years of history and a sense of harmony that has taken countless generations to create.
As you travel between thriving communities and peaceful open countryside, you'll experience the full flavour of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds past and present - its sometimes turbulent past, its colourful people and the rich diversity of its culture and heritage. Revel in the lively atmosphere of the towns, enjoy the wealth of attractions and explore the area's rich history.
What's Nearby
Cogges Manor Farm Museum
The Cotswold stone farm buildings grouped around the farmyard and the manor house beyond provide a...0.66 miles away
Wychwood Brewery Tours
Guided tours of the brewery every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. The tour lasts approximately 45...0.78 miles away
Crocodiles of the World
Come and join us on a great day out with photo opportunities, feeding displays, crocodile talks...1.46 miles away
The Spa at Witney Lakes Resort
The Spa at Witney Lakes Resort provides you with the chance to taste the exotics as well as adding...2.32 miles away
Hardwick Parks Watersports Centre
The watersports centre is located between our two lakes. We have a wide variety of watersports...4.15 miles away
Oxford Bus Museum
As well as over 30 buses on display, there are other numerous exhibits adding a period feel....5.14 miles away
West Ox Arts Gallery
West Ox Arts is situated in a lovely, spacious gallery on the first floor of the Grade II listed...5.43 miles away
Bampton Garden Plants
Bampton Garden Plants started out as a small plant sale that occurred a couple of times a year...5.44 miles away
Charlbury Museum
Charlbury Museum is an independent museum, run entirely by volunteers. Its five rooms are crammed...5.53 miles away
Blenheim Palace
Birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill and home to the Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, one of...6.37 miles away
Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum
A museum which tells the personal lives of generations of men and women experienced through war.6.46 miles away
Wychwood Wild Garden
Wychwood Wild Garden is a beautiful woodland and garden, close to the centre of Shipton under...6.72 miles away
Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens
One of Oxfordshire's top attractions and one of the most beautiful zoological collections in the...7.51 miles away
Cotswold Woollen Weavers
The splendid 18th century buildings, in the idyllic setting of the tranquil village of Filkins,...8.38 miles away
Foxholes Nature Reserve
Foxholes is a tranquil woodland sloping down to the River Evenlode with year-round colour and...9.07 miles away
The North Walls Arts Centre
Arts centre for live music, theatre, film screenings. With a 200-seat theatre space and two...9.17 miles away


text:
This year's many commemorations of the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas have drawn attention around the world. Among them have been some by Dallas blacks assessing how the slaying and related events affected the black community.
A public forum with blacks who lived through that tumultuous period and a Freedom Ride trip by Dallas high school students are two events centering on the assassination and related happenings from 50 years ago. And last month, local playwrights Kyndal Robertson and Camika Spencer staged the play Black at the Assassination to give a black perspective of the tragedy.
Public forum
The free forum "November 1963: Black Dallas Remembers" will allow older black residents to share their memories of the climate and state of affairs in the community when Kennedy was slain, and how black people reacted. A panel will conduct a discussion with audience members from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday at Bishop Arts Theatre Center, at 215 S. Tyler St. off Jefferson Boulevard.
Panelists and some of the audience participants include civil rights and community activists Peter Johnson and Eva McMillan, historian-librarian Harry Robinson Jr., integration trailblazer Joe Atkins, and educators Jerry Chambers, Julia Jordan, Robert Price and Ada Williams. I will moderate the discussion.
The forum is part of the Scholars of the Diaspora Speaker Series presented by TeCo Theatrical Productions, which is observing its 20th anniversary season. To learn more, visit tecotheater.org or call 214-948-0716.
Freedom Ride
Thirty students and 15 chaperones from Lincoln, Kimball and Roosevelt high schools will take part in a three-day reconstituted version of a 1961 Freedom Ride.
The riders will travel on a charter bus leaving the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center at 7 a.m. Nov. 25. They will make visits to the governments of Vicksburg and Jackson, Miss., and Birmingham, Ala., en route to a stay in Atlanta. The students will film a documentary and give a public presentation during Black History Month next year. The group will return the morning of Nov. 28 in time to spend Thanksgiving with families, said trip creator Jerry Chambers, a 76-year-old education advocate and retired teacher.
The trip has special significance for Chambers, who is marking his 50th year in education.
"I came to Dallas for my first teaching job in 1963," he said. "I want the students to have special memories of these 50-year milestones."
The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center and the NAACP's Dallas chapter are the trip's main sponsors, which will be fully underwritten by donors. Chambers said about $5,000 of the trip's $15,000 is still needed. To donate or to inquire, call 972-693-1489.


text:
Niekro added to Astros Walk of Fame
Niekro added to Astros Walk of Fame
Niekro, who died of a brain aneurism in 2007, was represented at the unveiling of his plaque by daughter Natalie Niekro. Joe Niekro won 144 games for the Astros, for whom he played 11 years in his 22-year career.
"Houston was always our home and by far out of the seven teams my dad played for, it was definitely the one he enjoyed the most," Natalie Niekro said. "So it means a lot to me. We just have to get No. 36 hanging from the rafters. That's my next mission."
Shortly after her father's death in 2006, Natalie Niekro started the Joe Niekro Foundation, which has raised more than $2 million to benefit brain aneurism research. It's based out of Scottsdale, Ariz., which is Natalie's home.
"I come to Houston quite a bit and we do a lot with the foundation in the city, but today is extra special," she said. "I appreciate being here and what the Astros are doing. It means a lot."


text:
Flickr Offers 1TB of Free Photo Storage2TB at $500/year
By Jean Jacques Maleval on 2013.05.27
By Corentin Béchade, redactor, StorageNewsletter.com
Flickr, the photo sharing services owned by Yahoo! Inc.
has gone through a massive and much needed update with an overhaul
redesign of the website and most noticeably 1TB of free cloud storage
for all free users.
With that bump Flickr is the largest photo-only cloud storage services available on the market. Marissa Meyer announced in a blog post that the new service was dedicated to "put photos front and center".
The offer changed deeply Flickr business model. The pro accounts are now gone and there is now only two paid plans available:
- The Ad-Free account:
The website is now ad-supported to compensate the revenue they drawn
from Pro unlimited storage plans. People who don't want to see ads next
to their photos will have to pay a yearly fee of $49.99.
- The Doublr account:
For those who want more than 1TB of storage this options allows the
total storage to be set to 2TB. This plans cost $499.99 and does not
include the ad-free advantages.
people who subscribed to a Pro account before the update can still
enjoy all of the benefice of unlimited photo storage, unlimited
bandwidth and ad-free browsing for $25 a year and the plan will be
renewable once. Although the drop of the Pro offer seems like a step
backwards, most of the people who use Flickr will never reach the terabyte of
storage offered with free account and the size limit is now capped at
200MB for all accounts, even former Pro plan.
1TB of free storage is an impressive steps forward in the cloud storage
market. The Doublr account is two times less expensive than a similar
Dropbox plans for example, and even though it does not offer the same
variety of service, Flickr step up in the cloud storage market is a
clear indicator of a new trend in the cloud storage market, the start of
a terabyte-standard model instead of gigabyte-standard model for mass market.
we move more and more data into the cloud, the market needs to evolve
to reflect those new ways of consumption. If Flickr is representative
of a first step in the good direction, the bandwidth is still the most
serious problem standing in the way of an all-cloud experience.


text:
Enquire Now
B.Sc. (Agriculture / Forestry)
BSc Agriculture College in Dehradun,Roorkee opens doors for mechanized farming for agri-entrepreneurs. The demand for trained professionals in this field is huge. Agricultural giants such as ITC, Monsanto and Cargill, are on the look out for young executives. Since agriculture is a priority area in achieving financial inclusion, many insurance companies and banks also recruit agriculture graduates in large numbers. Quantum is ranked the top Agriculture college in Roorkee, Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Be the face of modern, young India...
Students are trained to improve agricultural productivity and pave way for future development.
Modern Techniques
Students are exposed to use modern scientific equipment and techniques in agriculture.
Students are trained in interpersonal skills to become a valued member in the field of agriculture
Highlights of the Quantum Agri Program
Provides the students with all theoretical, analytical and practical inputs in the field of Agriculture.
Provides the students with all resources for better understanding the concepts to produce technorats towards challenges in Agriculture.
Provides training programs in Instructional Farms, Organic Manuring, Marketing Business etc., givig live experiences of what they are learning.
Provides value based and career oriented certificate programs, treasured much in the Agriculture field to turn a candidate into an independent consultant, an entrepreneur in their own field.


text:
3s68, resolution 1.85Å
[COMT_RAT] Catalyzes the O-methylation, and thereby the inactivation, of catecholamine neurotransmitters and catechol hormones. Also shortens the biological half-lives of certain neuroactive drugs, like L-DOPA, alpha-methyl DOPA and isoproterenol.
The biological activity of catechol neurotransmitters such as dopamine in the synapse is modulated by transporters and enzymes. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT; EC 220.127.116.11) inactivates neurotransmitters by catalyzing the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine to catechols in the presence of Mg(2). This pathway also inactivates L-DOPA, the standard therapeutic for Parkinson's disease. Depletion of catechol neurotransmitters in the prefrontal cortex has been linked to schizophrenia. The inhibition of COMT therefore promises improvements in the treatment of these diseases. The concept of bisubstrate inhibitors for COMT has been described previously. Here, ribose-modified bisubstrate inhibitors were studied. Three high-resolution crystal structures of COMT in complex with novel ribose-modified bisubstrate inhibitors confirmed the predicted binding mode but displayed subtle alterations at the ribose-binding site. The high affinity of the inhibitors can be convincingly rationalized from the structures, which document the possibility of removing and/or replacing the ribose 3'-hydroxyl group and provide a framework for further inhibitor design.
Catechol-O-methyltransferase in complex with substituted 3'-deoxyribose bisubstrate inhibitors.,Ellermann M, Lerner C, Burgy G, Ehler A, Bissantz C, Jakob-Roetne R, Paulini R, Allemann O, Tissot H, Grunstein D, Stihle M, Diederich F, Rudolph MG Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2012 Mar;68(Pt 3):253-60. Epub 2012 Feb 14. PMID:22349227[1]
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Categories: Buffalo rat | Catechol O-methyltransferase | Benz, J | Ehler, A | Rudolph, M G | Schlatter, D | Stihle, M | Methyltransferase | Neurotransmitter degradation | Transferase-transferase inhibitor complex


text:
My Nonprofit Reviews
Curtis S.
111 profile views
1 reviews
Review for MaleSurvivor: National Organization Against Male Sexual Victimization, New York, NY, USA
MaleSurvivor has saved my life. MaleSurvivor has helped me become the person I was meant to be.
More Feedback
Would you volunteer for this group again?
For the time you spent, how much of an impact did you feel your work or activity had?
Did the organization use your time wisely?
Very Well
Would you recommend this group to a friend?
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
Role: Volunteer


text:
HIALEAH, Fla - One man died and another was injured after two sports utility vehicles collided in Hialeah early Friday morning. The man injured was a police officer traveling in a marked Hialeah Police Department vehicle.
The on duty police officer was traveling east bound on West Eighth avenue when it collided with a silver Nissan Murano sports utility vehicle at the intersection of 49th Street in Hialeah.
After the impact, both cars spun out of control and were badly damaged. The Nissan came to a stop after crashing into a tree on the median. The police car came to a stop on the garden of the Ocean Bank, 790 W. 49th St.
"Both drivers were seriously injured and air lifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital," Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez said. "The driver of the Silver Nissan Murano, has expired at JMH. The officer is in serious, but stable condition at this time."
Police kept 49th Street from 10th to 6th Avenue closed for most of the morning. Rodriguez said the cause of the crash remained under investigation.
Refresh Local10.com for updates as this story develops.
Copyright 2014 by Local10.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
At Sunset Logistics, Inc., we pride ourselves in having clients with the newest, up-to-date equipment on the highway. We utilize 2012-2015 model Freightliners which are enhanced with 10-speed and automatic transmissions, air-ride suspensions and cabs, and on-board computer systems for electronic dispatch and paperless logs.
If you are interested in joining the Sunset Logistics, Inc. team, we are anxious to talk with you about our great driver package. Sunset Logistics, Inc., has many attributes which contribute to a great employee benefits package including:
We also offer exciting opportunities in our fleet repair shops. If you are an experienced technician and want to work in a team environment contact us today.
As one of the largest and best equipped fleets in Texas, Sunset offers customers over nineteen years of experience in shipping operations.
At Sunset, we are committed to providing safe and dependable transportation services that consistently deliver value to our customers and employees.
Duties include servicing and repairing tractor-trailer fleet. The Mechanic will provide quality professional service with the shortest turn-around time economically feasible while providing quality workmanship.
* 401k
5 + years experience servicing and repairing large over-the-road vehicles and related equipment
Proper skills for servicing, preventive maintenance, diagnosing and heavy duty repairs such as on hydraulic, electrical, brakes, including air brakes as well as light duty repairs
Must be proficient with the Tire Program and have basic computer skills
Must communicate effectively, follow directions and complete checklists in a professional manner
Works in a team environment by assisting other technicians in major repairs
Diagnoses vehicle problems based on driver complaints and inspection
High school diploma or equivalent required.
Must provide your own tools.
Must possess a valid clear driver's license. CDL a plus
Must pass physical, background check and drug screen
Sunset Logistics, Inc. do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law. Our Equal Employment Opportunity Policy applies to all areas of employment, including recruitment, hiring, training and development, promotion, transfer, compensation and benefits, social and recreational programs, and all other conditions and privileges of employment in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws.
Sunset Logistics, Inc.
1001 West Euless Blvd.
Suite 400
Euless, Texas 76040
This website and its content is copyright of Sunset Logistics, Inc.
© Sunset Logistics, Inc. 2011-2016. All rights reserved. Sunset Logistics, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer


text:
Hide Images
1Heat waffle maker; grease with vegetable oil or shortening. In large bowl, stir together Bisquick mix, egg, milk, lemon peel, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons oil and the granulated sugar until smooth.
2Pour batter onto center of hot waffle maker. (Check manufacturer's directions for recommended amount of batter.) Close lid of waffle maker. Bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops. Carefully remove waffle; cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter.
3To serve, place each waffle on a plate; spread with 1 tablespoon lemon curd. Sprinkle berries evenly on half of each waffle; fold other half of waffle over berries. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.


text:
Everything from Clay Bar to Polishing for a Better Finish To us, paint care begins and ends with a solid process; Clean, Prep, Protect. It's our credo and it's a little known technique to a better finish. Basically, we teach and preach a complete process because no job is done after "cleaning." Prepping the surface for proper protection and Read More
Modern Paint Care Workshop: Recap
A Black Car's Worst Nightmare
Automatic Car Washes, Scratches, and that "Hot Wax" It's no secret that hand washes are better than automatic car washes. Time spent washing is directly related to the quality of car your car is getting; hand car washes are a natural option, but why? Ever wonder what's really going on in an automatic car wash? Read on and witness why you won't be Read More
Pre-Washing Your Car
The Key To A Scratch-free Car Wash A car wash is basically rinse, soap, wash, rinse, dry. What if someone told you that you were missing a step? Well you are. Move over Grit Guard, recent developments have shown that there's a new secret to an even better car wash; pre-washing. As integral and important as the microfiber waffle weave towel you use Read More
5 Don'ts of Exterior Car Care
What Not To Do To Your Car Mastering the art of car care isn't an easy task. The enthusiast is beaten with thousands of products, hundreds of techniques, and dozens of tools to make detailing more and more confusing. In an effort to build the foundational knowledge needed to properly care for your car, here are five things you probably should Read More
How Hot Is Too Hot?
Carnauba Wax, It's Melting Point, and Your Car's Protection With the recent heat wave sweeping through most of the United States, our ice cubes aren't the only thing melting. If you've waxed your car with a typical carnauba wax, the heat is beating it up. Dr. Beasley's Staff in Chicago took a series of hood temperature tests on the hottest day of Read More
Remove Bugs From Your Car
Kiss Bug Splats Goodbye If you have driven a car, chances are you know what happens to the front of a car after driving a long distance. For some reason, no matter where we drive, bugs seem to magnetize to the front of our cars as if they were covered in fly paper. People everywhere understand that bug guts make your car look like a science Read More
Cyclo Model 5 Polisher Review
The Most Effective Orbital in Detailing For over 50 years, the Cyclo name has been trusted to product quality, durable, and effective polishing machines. The company began with the motivation to produce polishing machines for airplanes in the military. What makes this polisher different is its rotating heads. Unlike a normal rotary machine Read More
5 Common Detailing Mistakes
Tips from a Professional Detailer Much like life, when you're detailing a car there are common mistakes that come up all too often. Luckily, enthusiasts have various resources to get tips and advice from, such as articles, publications and even professionals. I sat down with our CEO and IDA Certified Professional Detailer, Jim Lafeber, to see what Read More
Why Is My Car's Paint Cracking?
The Facts Behind Spider Webbing and Dry Paintwork If you've owned a car for a long time, chances are you've noticed some aging, especially in relation to your paint. This happens over time, but it's important to understand why this happens and how to prevent it. Small cracks, light spider webbing, and hairline fractures make paint unappealing and Read More


text:
The Bradford Bulls became the first team in the Super League era to win the Grand Final from third place. In an incredibly tough contest against their great Yorkshire rivals they gained revenge for last year's defeat by Leeds with a performance of guts and character.
While the Rhinos had played just one game over the past three weeks, the Bulls were doing it the hard way, playing do-or-die football all the way to the final. After a bruising contest at St Helens last week, there was a danger that they would run out of gas but they just kept going and got their rewards.
Leeds found themselves in deep trouble from the kick-off when Willie Poching dropped the ball under his own posts. The Bulls piled on the pressure and forced a goalline drop out, but despite Brad Meyers going close, the Leeds defence held firm.
A few minutes later Bradford found themselves under the cosh when Michael Withers spilled a high kick and was forced back over the line. There was little to choose between the teams in a tough opening quarter, but Bradford put the first points on the board when Barrie McDermott went high on Adrian Morley and Paul Deacon slotted over the penalty.
But within two minutes Leeds had taken the lead, the Bulls losing the ball 30 metres from their own line to give their opponents a great attacking platform. They took full advantage, Andrew Dunemann putting a grubber kick over the line and Danny McGuire winning the race to the touchdown.
Kevin Sinfield was surprisingly wide with the conversion and Bradford soon drew level when Leeds were penalised for ball stealing and Deacon added his second penalty.
Ali Lauitiiti then presented the Bulls with a great attacking position when he lost possession 20 metres from his own line. Bradford probed down the right before switching the ball to the left. Leon Pryce came into the line from the wing, hit the ball at pace and Sinfield couldn't quite fill in the gap as Pryce strode to the line to score.
Leeds worked their way back into the game and when Morley was penalised in front of his own posts for going into a tackle with his elbow raised, Sinfield landed the penalty to make it 8-6 at the interval.
Leeds had the better of the early exchanges in the second half, but couldn't turn good attacking positions into points.
Bradford sought to capitalise. A high, spiralling kick by Deacon to the left-hand corner caused confusion in the Rhinos defence. Both Mark Calderwood and Chev Walker, under pressure from Lesley Vainikolo, got nowhere near the ball and it bounced kindly for Shotayne Hape to touch down. However, the video referee was called to adjudicate and after nearly two-and-a-half minutes of deliberation decided that Vainikolo had impeded the Leeds defenders and awarded a penalty.
Five minutes later the video referee was called on again, but this time it was Bradford on tenterhooks after Walker looked to have squeezed over in the corner. But the replays showed that the centre had lost control of the ball.
There was no need of the video official minutes later when Marcus Bai made a mess of securing a high bomb behind his own line and forced a goal line drop out. A strong run by Jamie Langley took the Bulls close to the Leeds line where Vainikolo snapped up the ball from dummy half and crashed over for the try. Deacon converted to give Bradford a 14-6 lead.
The Rhinos worked hard to get back into the game and they created a couple of opportunities, but their options on sixth tackle were not as good as they should have been and going into the final quarter Leeds began to lose their composure.
Great work by Gareth Ellis and Rob Burrow split the Bradford defence down the middle, but what should have been a great attacking platform was ruined when Calderwood got into a spat with Withers, which resulted in Dunemann losing the ball as he tried to move away.
Bradford looked the stronger side in the closing stages, both Vainikolo and Lee Radford going close, but some magnificent last-ditch tackling denied them.
Leeds promptly went up the other end and forced a mistake from the Bulls to give themselves six tackles just 15 metres from the line. Once again they lacked composure at crucial times and ended up surrendering the ball without really threatening the line. With five minutes remaining Iestyn Harris landed a drop goal to put his side nine points ahead.
It proved to be enough.
Man of the match: Leon Pryce - He signed off his career with the Bulls by scooping the Harry Sunderland award for his player of the final. He is off to St Helens, but his incursions from the wing were a constant threat to Leeds and his crucial first-half try gave them a lead that they never surrendered.
Leeds Mathers; Calderwood, Walker, McKenna, Bai; McGuire, Burrow; Bailey, Dunemann, Ward, Ellis, Poching, Sinfield
Subs Lauitiiti, Diskin, McDermott, Jones-Buchanan
Try: McGuire. Pen: Sinfield.
Bradford Bulls Withers; Pryce; B Harris, Hape, Vainikolo; I Harris, Deacon; Fielden, Henderson, Peacock Johnson, Meyers, Radford
Subs Paul, Morley, Vagana, Langley
Tries: Pryce, Vainikolo. Pens: Deacon 2. Con: Deacon. Drop goal: Harris.
Referee: A Klein.
Attendance: 65,536.


text:
Swiss Hanging metal cow bell
Sold for:
Start Free Trial
or Sign In to see what it's worth.
- Sold Date:
- Source: eBay
This is an old Swiss Metal Cow Bell. Bell is 7 inches tall from top to oval bottom. It measures 17 1/2 inches around the middle widest part. Bell tapers down at the bottom and is a 4" X 3" oval at bottom. On the top of the bell, the hanger that attaches the strap is a welded on 3/4" deep X 3/4" high and 2 3/4" across. The bell has a seam running down the side that looks welded, with a rivet at the bottom on each side. The only markings on it, is a squiggle around its center. It is gold colored, with a ruff rusty feel on the surface. The strap is in poor condition and measures 2 1/4" wide X 20 inches around, buckled, with colorful yarn trim sewn on. The strap is cracked in many places and the stitching on the trim is the only thing holding it together. This weighs 2 pounds 6 oz. Magnet does stick to it.All sales are final. I only accept Pay Pal and also can only ship USPS Priority mail. I do not ship outside of the 50 states. Shipping and handling will be a flat rate of $10.00. This is shipping from Alaska, so please allow extra time for shipping.


text:
You have no items in your shopping cart.
You have no items to compare.
There are no products matching the selection.
The semi-rigid, water-resistant Suitcase for Inspire 1 from DJI allows you to securely store and transport your quadcopter and accessories. It features an ABS exterior as well as a custom-fitted EPP foam interior designed to help keep items from shifting around during transport while absorbing vibration.
Key Features:


text:
The suspenseful and magical children's story Murder at Midnight, narrated in clear and genial tones by Jeff Woodman, concerns a courageous 10-year-old servant boy, Fabrizio, who witnesses a plot to overthrow King Claudio in the Kingdom of Pergamontio in the year 1490.
Fabrizio's kind master, Mangus the Magician, is framed as the traitor by the king's court and slated for a midnight death. But Fabrizio knows Mangus is no traitor. The resourceful boy must solve the mystery and prove his master's innocence before the clock strikes 12.
In this prequel to Midnight Magic, a plot to overthrow King Claudio is brewing in the Kingdom of Pergamontio. Scholarly Mangus the magician - along with his street-smart and faithful new servant boy, Fabrizio - have been marked as easy scapegoats for the traitor lurking within the king's court. Together, these two unlikely partners must gather clues to solve the mystery and prove their innocence before the stroke of midnight...or face death!
Intricate plotting, surprise twists, and lively prose make for another suspenseful novel that stands alone or sets the stage for Midnight Magic.
©2009 Avi; (P)2010 Scholastic, Inc.
There are no reviews for this title yet.
Report Inappropriate Content
If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.


text:
COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 2 (UPI) -- If the behavior of the seasonal form of the H1N1 virus is any indication most strains of H1N1will become resistant to Tamiflu, U.S. researchers suggest.
Researchers at Ohio State University have traced the evolutionary history of the seasonal H1N1, which first infected humans during the 1918 pandemic. Primary author Daniel Janies says H1N1 is one of three seasonal influenza A viruses that commonly infect humans.
The others are H1N2 and H3N2.
Within H1N1, two strains of virus circulate in humans -- a seasonal form and the pandemic form of influenza known as swine flu, which has sickened millions and killed thousands of people since it first emerged in North America last spring, Janies says.
Over time, the H1N1 strain of seasonal influenza surviving around the world has developed mutations that have caused it to become resistant to oseltamivir-based agents, or Tamiflu.
"Something happened in 2008, when drug resistance took hold," Janies says in a statement. "It is a pretty good bet that whatever pressure is in the environment, excessive use of Tamiflu or something else that was driving seasonal influenza to become resistant to Tamiflu is also going to apply to pandemic influenza. We can see it happening already."
The findings are published in the International Journal of Health Geographics.


text:
Opera NOVA in Bydgoszcz ranks among the most significant cultural institutions of the city as well as the region.
Opera NOVA is a modern musical theatre that takes into consideration the preferences of highly diversified audiences. Although the mainstream repertoire comprises great opera and ballet works, the Bydgoszcz company also stages operettas and musicals. The theatre's constant ambition is to attract outstanding producers; this is probably why the successive premieres of Opera NOVA have won considerable critical and public acclaim.
© Opera Nova, Bydgoszcz, 2011


text:
Course Guide ▾
2 For 1 Golf Vouchers▸
GreenFree 2 for 1 Golf
Open Fairways
My Golf Pass
2-FOR-1 France
Golf O Max
Book Tee Times
Golf Insurance
Rest of the World
Submit a Course Review
Latest Course Reviews
Charity Golf Days
More... ▸
Change Course Details
Add a New Course
Golf Course News
Golf Course Videos
Equipment ▾
Golf Balls
Drivers, Woods & Hybrids
Irons & Wedges
Footwear, Socks & Gloves
Clothing & Waterproofs
Bags, Buggies & Trolleys
GPS & Rangefinders
Ladies Equipment
Training Aids & Fitness
Accessories & Eyewear
What's in the Bag?
Tried & Tested
Equipment Videos
Tuition ▾
Long Game
Short Game
Grip & Set Up
Training & Practice
The Mental Game
Swing Sequences
Golf Tips Videos
One Minute Tips
Golf Breaks ▾
Complete Venue List
◂ Travel Features
England & Wales
Spain & Portugal
Rest of Europe
Africa & Middle East
Asia Pacific
North America
Travel News Archive
News ▾
Archive 1999-2016
Amateur Golf
Asian Golf
Global Golf Post
Golf Ecology
Golf International
Junior Golf
Ladies Golf
On This Day
Tours ▾
◂ Tour Rankings
Official World Ranking
FedEx Cup
Race To Dubai
Ryder Cup Standings
European Tour
PGA Tour
Champions Tour
◂ Majors
The Masters
US Open
The Open
The PGA
Ryder Cup
Archive 1999-2016
19th ▾
A-Z of Golf
Classified Ads
Golf Quotations
Golf Property
History of Golf
◂ Humour
Anyone For Tee?
The Major
Dr Felix Shank
Readers Letters
Golf Rules
Services Directory
Video Library
Course Guide
Shropshire Map
Hill Valley Golf & Country Club
Hill Valley Golf Club, Terrick Road, Whitchurch, SY13 4JZ
Bookings 0844 879 9049
Golf 01948 660703
Online Form
• Emerald - 18 (Sweeping around undulating fairways through natural water hazards and strategically placed bunkers)
• Saphire - 18
Emerald - 6714, Saphire - 4801
72/73 - 64/66
Must contact in advance
Special Offers and Golfing Breaks available at this location.
Special rates available for group bookings of 8 or more. Contact to enquire.
Corporate golf: tailor-made golf packages
Societies: bespoke packages
Green Fees
Contact Club for latest fees
Course Designer
Designed by Peter Alliss and Dave Thomas and created by Albert Minshall in 1975.
Located 30 minutes down the road from Chester and Shrewsbury. 1m N follow of Whitchurch, off A41/A49 Bypass
• 4-star Hotel / Golf Breaks
• Lounge/Restaurant/Banquet facilities/Cocktailbar/Conference facilities
• Resident professional / Golf Academy / Electronic swing analysis
• Driving range (see information below), Putting green
• Gymnasium/Swimming/ Luxury Spa and Health Club
Weather Forecast
Advertise on this page!
Click here
to send us your review)
Sapphire and Emerald
Annual Masters Sunday Driver Golf Trip
Just returned from our second visit to Hill Valley on our now annual golf trip, as usual we played the short Sapphire course, on completion we checked in to the hotel.
We were greeted with the warmest of welcomes from the reception staff special thanks to Michelle, Nikki and Christine for their patience and excellent customer service.
The food was excellent as usual, everyone in our group complemented the quality of cuisine and the restaurant staff, again special thanks to Steph who attended to our table for the evening meal and the breakfast staff Debbie and the senior serve Bernard, very professional and informative especially about the famous black pudding from the isle of Stornoway. which was excellent. Bar staff Annalisa and a special thanks to Ian for looking after us in the Masters bar, thanks for going that extra mile to make sure we were looked after on Sunday night watching Bubba win his second Masters.
Finally not forgetting the Pro shop staff Matt and Andrew for their exceptional service although we were only a small group of 12.
I can only thank you for your exceptional staff for their professionalism and whatever your training program is do not change it,
See you next April
The Clarke Party
Mark: 10
Value For Money: Good
Gary Clarke
April 15, 2014
I played Emerald course on Jun 17th 2010. At last a course with good greens.
Was tired of bumpy greens but this course had lots of grass on greens.
A very good golf course IMO with some tree lined fairways.
But a lot of the bunkers were bad - very little sand.
P Jones
(Pre 2010)
Played the Emerald course in Oct 2008 and really enjoyed it. The course was in superb condition, is well laid out, with fairway markers at 100,1 50 and 200 yds which i liked. A lot of tree lined holes so can be easy to get into trouble off the tee. An easy walking course which would be ideal for a weekend break as the facilities are top class. A course i'd definitely play again.
Lee Schofield
(Pre 2010)
Just returned from a golf break at Hill Valley and wanted to praise the hotel, staff and golf courses. Being a Macdonald hotel, the quality is very high and the staff were all very friendly and polite. 10 out of 10. We played both courses and found them to be real tests. Despite this being the start of Autumn, the conditions of the courses were fantastic (although a leaf blower would have been appreciated on the greens by the early morning greenkeepers). The Emerald doesn't play as long as its yardage suggests but is a good test. The Sapphire is a strategic course - I used my driver 3 times off the tee. Of course, I would play it different if I had played a few times before but that's the thrill of playing new courses. On our experience, it was a very worthwhile venue and we would have no hesitation in recommending it.
(Pre 2010)
The Emerald course is superb. The greens are well kept and the whole course beautifully manicured. A good test of golf. The Sapphire course is disappointing. It is poorly maintained and more of an obstacle course than a golf course. Such a pity.
Keith Boxall
(Pre 2010)
Fantastic course at superb value. I would definitely join as a member if i lived closer.
Tom Dunn
(Pre 2010)
Playing on the Saphire course at Hill Valley was a completely enjoyable experience. From the phone call to book a tee time to the final stroke to achieve a par on the 18th. The friendly staff in the pro shop were more than helpful. The course played well and I wasn't held up even when catching up with a group in front on two occasions who were more than happy to let me play through. 10 of out 10 for the whole experience.
Steven T
(Pre 2010)
Driving Range
Automatic Teeing
No Info
Paul Casey rejoins the European Tour
Tiger Woods to return at Hero World Challenge
RSM Classic: Austin Cook claims first PGA Tour title
DP World Tour Championship: Tommy Fleetwood wins Order of Merit
Latest Official World Golf Ranking
Current European Tour Race to Dubai Standings
Current PGA Tour FedEx Cup Standings
A Time For Teaching Warily
Ai Signs Off Amid Accolades
A Golfer Who Could Inspire A Nation
By ceding control Lewis conjures a miracle
Europes Solheim Glass Is Half Full
Feeling The Love In Iowa
Hall And Ko Bide Their Time
Parks Victory A Powerful Indicator
Fathers Spirit Buoys Kang
Gender Mixing A Mixed Bag
Pelley Makes Good Grades
Thompson Wraps Up A Season Of What-Ifs
A Perpetual Glow Returns At Sea Island
An Architects Most Inspiring Creation
Amateur: Horsfield Soars Through European Tour Q-School
Ping launches iBlade irons
TaylorMade Golf M2 Irons
New SM6 Vokey Design Wedges
Titleist launch new Scotty Cameron Select putters
Titleist launch DT TruSoft golf ball
adidas Golf launch Tour360 Boost
SuperStroke introduces new Pistol GT putter grip
Do you struggle to take your 'range game' onto the golf course?
© Golftoday.co.uk 1996-2017 -
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
About Us
Contact Us