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30 September 2011
In Praise of the Thesaurus
Hearing the news that the latest issue of the Writer's Chronicle contains a statement from poet Mark Doty that, "If you write a poem with the aid of a thesaurus, you will almost inevitably look like a person wearing clothing chosen by someone else. I am not sure that a poet should even own one of the damn things," I was aghast.
Aghast, I say! Astounded! Appalled!
I have said before that my favorite reference book is a 1946 edition of Roget's International Thesaurus, and that remains true. I covet the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary and continue to dream at night of figuring out a way to convince the good people at Oxford University Press to send me a copy (other than to pay them $500). (I do have The Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus, which is a delight. It includes a fun foreword by Rick Moody in which he notes that Donald Barthelme used a thesaurus, which should be enough to cause you to make sure you are never without one yourself.) (And, by the way, Mark Doty, what's so wrong about wearing clothes somebody else picked out?)
Doty's statement is idiotic. Irrational, witless, obtuse, hebetudinous, dull-pated, chuckleheaded, purblind, and dim. Writers! Decline to dote on Doty! He wants you to be dumb, in all senses of the word!
Few reference books are as fun to roam around in as thesauri. They demonstrate the marvelous connections possible with language. Dotyish dolts are fools who simultaneously think they have a superior command of language over everybody else while being afraid of the marvelous vast richness of language -- they want to tame us and they want to tame it. Don't give in!
Some of these crustaceous curmudgeons will say things like, "Well, if you must use one of those terrible tomes, make sure you only do so to jog your memory of words you already know."
That's terribly churlish advice. Why limit ourselves to words we already know? I want to know more words! I am greedy and lexically lustful!
There's some sort of strange Romanticism going on in the idea that one must only use the words one has immediately at hand. It's like people who say one should always go with the first draft of a piece of writing because that's what's most pure. Eschew the puritans! Cast off your ideas of Romantic genius! Get to work -- and use a thesaurus!
So some people will misuse words, particularly if they are young and untrained, impressionable and ignorant. Oh no, the unruly kids might not fully understand the context and connotations of a word they discover! Horrors! Next thing you know, they might start playing with their words! Nooooo! Stop them before it's too late!
Poets -- be not a Doty! Take instead Wallace Stevens for your model, a writer of vast vocabulary, a man who reveled in language. Do not let the great structure of words become a minor house! Fall into the thesaurus and let yourself feel the obscurity of an order, a whole, a knowledge. Dream of baboons and periwinkles! Let your thesaurus take dominion everywhere! Call the roller of big cigars, the muscular one, and bid him whip from thesaurus pages concupiscent words!
27 September 2011
Die, American Literature! Die! Die!
Last month I wrote about Joseph Epstein's hilariously grumbly screed against The Cambridge History of the American Novel, and now at Slate the editor of that volume writes a temperate, rational, and utterly ungrumbly response. I particularly liked this paragraph:
Simply recording our appreciation for the "high truth quotient" (the measure Epstein wants) of a stream of canonical novels won't do. It's not clear what that "quotient" is for Epstein, but anything that smacks of pop culture is by definition excluded. Yet novels were and remain a vital part of popular culture, and their emergence in the 18th and 19th centuries was greeted as an affront to the "centurions of high culture" who appointed themselves to guard the gates before Epstein nominated himself for the job. Only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of American novels published ever achieved—or even aspired to—the exalted status of high art.
26 September 2011
Telluride at Dartmouth: We Need to Talk About Kevin
This post continues to chronicle my attendance at the Telluride at Dartmouth program at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Days 1 & 2 can be found here.
I have not read the acclaimed novel by Lionel Shriver that We Need to Talk About Kevin is based on, and I was just about to read it when I heard about the film, so I decided to wait. I have seldom wished I had read a book before seeing a movie based on it, and so whenever possible, I don't read the book first. That turned out to be, it seems, an especially good decision here, because I had dinner after the film with friends, some of whom had read the book, and it was clear that that would have changed my viewing somewhat by adding more context to Swinton's character of Eva.
Ramsay is brave and nearly alone among narrative filmmakers in her willingness to subsume almost all exposition within image and sound -- to suggest, hint, and gesture toward exposition rather than state it. (It is no surprise that Tarkovsky and Malick are to her taste, and in Ratcatcher she even used some of the Carl Orff music from Malick's Badlands.) What we get in We Need to Talk About Kevin, then, is not so much a story as a portrait of a psyche. Things happen, certainly, and there's a major climax that the film works its way toward, but the movement of the film is associational, imagistic, musical. Meaning is created not through dramatic scenes, but through colors and sounds, camera angles, montage, repetitions. The story is not presented so much as unearthed -- this is filmmaking as psychic archaeology.
Labels: film, Lynne Ramsay, Movies, Telluride at Dartmouth, Tilda Swinton
24 September 2011
Telluride at Dartmouth, Days 1 & 2
|A Dangerous Method
This year, I've decided to try to see as many of the films as I can, and unless exhaustion wears me down, I expect to see five of the six. (Unfortunately, The Kid with the Bike, the new movie from the Dardenne brothers, is playing on a day when I have a prior commitment.) I won't do in depth reports on the films here, I don't think, because of a lack of time, but I do want to record initial impressions.
The first film shown was A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg's best comedy since Crash. Most people probably wouldn't classify A Dangerous Method as a comedy, and it's certainly not being sold as such, but I find it a helpful way to view it. Cronenberg has the most developed and complex kitsch aesthetic this side of Abel Ferrara, and much like Ferrara, he allows actors to indulge their most histrionic tendencies with utter sincerity. Such acting can create a variety of effects, and the style's strength is the complexity of feelings it can evoke in an audience -- a complexity especially apparent when one cannot suppress laughter at the unbridled mugging on screen while also wondering whether this is something you should be taking more seriously (one of the funniest scenes I've ever watched is the one in Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant where Harvey Keitel talks to Jesus). Yet the filming and acting make no concessions to comedy in such moments -- and many viewers do not see them as funny; indeed, some see them as "great acting" and powerful, authentic expressions of emotion. Which they may be. Most of James Dean's reputation is based on such scenes, and one of the legacies of American Method acting, particularly as proselytized by Lee Strasberg, is a whole canon of "Look at me, Ma, I'm emoting!" moments. The filmmaking process can tone down, fragment, and distort such performances, and the brilliance of a Cronenberg or a Ferrara is to go in exactly the opposite direction -- to indulge the actors and allow them to reach their full melodramatic heights. More traditional directors and editors try to manage the emotions represented and the emotions evoked in the audience, and their greatest nightmare would be an audience laughing at a scene intended to be dramatic, but the filmmakers who love the melodrama inherent in their material cast that fear aside.
Labels: David Cronenberg, film, Gender, Movies, psychology, Telluride at Dartmouth
22 September 2011
The Revelator is Now Revealed!
Eric Schaller and I have been working on creating an online version of a magazine some of our ancestors were involved with in 1876, and after a long period of work, with the brilliant and invaluable help of Luís Rodrigues, THE REVELATOR can now be revealed.
In it you will find two new short stories, "Gaslight" by Jeffrey Ford and "Nick Kaufmann, Last of the Red-Hot Superwhores" by Nick Mamatas; an essay about the relationship between Salem, Massachusetts and witches by Robin DeRosa, poetry by Lillian Aujo and Beverly Nambozo, an interview with and comix by Edward Bolman, an account of The Spleen Brothers by Brian Francis Slattery, paintings by Michaela D'Angelo, and an eyewitness account of the James/Younger gang's raid on the bank in Northfield, Minnesota -- an account unlike any others, and till now lost in the archives of The Revelator!
A theme of twins, doubles, and doppelgangers runs lightly through this issue of the magazine. It's present in the fiction, there's the idea of historical doubling in Robin's essay on Salem, etc. We got creative with the doubling in the poetry department -- I knew Beverly had a lot of poet friends, and so we asked her to be the commissioning editor for the second poem, and she brought Lillian to us. Never having met Lillian in real life, I don't know if she's Beverly's doppelganger, but I do know we're thrilled to be able to publish the work of both. And of everybody else who was brave enough to want to join the old, weird tradition of The Revelator.
There will probably be future or past issues. Please note though that because of limited resources, we are not open to unsolicited submissions. We would love to get to that point eventually, but right now we just don't have the ability to read through a lot of unsolicited work.
21 September 2011
Politics and Aesthetics, Part MCCCLV
My writing at this here blog has fallen off significantly since classes started, because I'm teaching six days a week (university classes during the week, a high school class in epistemology on Saturdays), and so my current schedule consists of prepping for classes, teaching classes, and then whatever errands, etc. I can fit into the occasional free minutes.
But still the internet provides interesting stuff, regardless of how much I am paying attention to it! Imagine that!
For instance, here's an advertisement from a 1968 issue of Galaxy that reveals which science fiction writers were in favor of the Vietnam War and which ones were not. I've seen the ad before (I have some Galaxy issues from 1968) but never paid much attention to it, really, until just now I noticed something odd.
On the list of writers who declared themselves in favor of remaining in Vietnam in 1968, there are very few whose writing I have much interest in -- R.A. Lafferty and Jack Vance are the only ones whose work I find especially compelling, though I like some of the writing of Leigh Brackett, Fredric Brown, Edmond Hamilton, and Robert Heinlein, and isolated stories by a couple of others.
On the list of writers who declared themselves opposing the continued presence of the U.S. military in Vietnam, I find names I would include on any list of favorite science fiction writers, certainly, and in many cases favorite writers of any sort -- Samuel Delany, Philip K. Dick, Thomas M. Disch, Carol Emshwiller, Ursula K. Le Guin, Fritz Leiber, Joanna Russ -- as well as others who I have at least as much interest in as in nearly anyone on the other list. And among the names I recognize, at least, there are fewer I think of as just flat-out bad writers than among the names I recognize on the list of Vietnam war supporters.
Of course, aesthetics and politics have a complex relationship, and support for/opposition to the Vietnam war could include people of varying ideologies, but I'm still struck by the general aesthetic differences between the two lists. Since I am a bourgeois liberal with occasional pretensions of radicalism, my own ideological position may explain some of my preferences. (I'd be curious to see a similar list for other genres or non-genres -- didn't the New York Review of Books or the New York Times run something similar during the '60s?) But even someone who didn't find the differences between the two lists as striking as I do would have to admit that overall, and with a handful of exceptions, the two sides represent two different styles of writing. We could take the political labels off the advertisement and present the two lists to folks who have read stories and novels by many of those writers, and the groupings would still make sense overall. That could mean all sorts of things -- I would be wary of essentialist claims about how ideology affects writing, but it would be interesting to think about the ways various affinity groupings overlap. You could create Venn diagrams from those lists in which politics, friendships, publishers, etc. are categories, and the results would be interesting.
10 September 2011
This Term's Courses
I haven't done my usual blogging about teaching yet this term, mostly because I spent so much time trying to put a couple of new classes together that the idea of writing about it all wasn't very appealing. But now the classes are up and running, and so I can at least share some syllabi and thoughts with those of you who are curious.
The classes, with links to their syllabi, are:
- Writing and the Creative Process (a general education, "intro to creative writing" sort of class)
- Currents in Global Literature (a required course for English majors)
- Media and Popular Culture (an upper-level Communications & Media Studies class)
Labels: teaching
07 September 2011
Just Be Glad You're Not Trying to Sell a Poetry Book
I was working on a post about the BlazeVOX asking-writers-to-help-subsidize-poetry-publishing brouhaha, and its connections to the criminal idiocies of so much academic publishing, and what the idea of "legitimacy" in publishing does for us as writers and readers, but the post got long and banal and so boring that I started falling asleep while I wrote it, which is a bad sign, so I abandoned it, but I've still been keeping one eye on the discussion.
Today's post of note is from the blog of No Tell Books, a small, respected indie press:
I know of prose books where the publicity machine exploded spectacularly (or didn't exist), the publisher seemed to do everything possible to bury the book, and it only ever appeared at tiny bookstores in uninhabited regions of the world -- and still managed to sell over 300 copies!
I was going to say that obviously America hates poetry, but that's not true. To hate it, we'd have to pay attention to it.
Today's post of note is from the blog of No Tell Books, a small, respected indie press:
No Tell Books' best selling title broke even after three years and is now earning a very modest profit. This is by an author whose work has appeared in places like Poetry and Best American Poetry. This title has been taught at universities. How many copies does one have to sell to be the best selling title at No Tell Books after four years? 228. That is not a typo. This number doesn't include what the author has sold herself, probably around 200 copies on her own. But the press doesn't earn money on those sales.
So if that's a best seller, what's a flop? 74 sales after five years (again, this number doesn't include what the author sold on his own, which was maybe 50 or so). (UPDATE: Gatza states, "In general, books by new authors sell around 25 - 30 copies." Shocking? Only if you don't know the first thing about poetry publishing.)
This is the reality of poetry publishing. There are certainly presses that sell more copies. A poetry title reviewed in The New York Times can sell 2-4k copies, it is true. But small, independent presses, those small shops, usually run by one or a few people, rarely see those kinds of sales. University presses, for the most part, don't see those kinds of numbers for poetry. I attended a panel by the publisher of Grove/Atlantic and he said his press' poetry sales was around 800 per title. They publish "big-name" poets, their books are often shelved by chain bookstores, they have good distribution, a strong reputation . . . and that's what they sell. Publishing poetry is their charity--their poetry titles are subsidized by their fiction and non-fiction sales.
I know of prose books where the publicity machine exploded spectacularly (or didn't exist), the publisher seemed to do everything possible to bury the book, and it only ever appeared at tiny bookstores in uninhabited regions of the world -- and still managed to sell over 300 copies!
I was going to say that obviously America hates poetry, but that's not true. To hate it, we'd have to pay attention to it.
Labels: books, poetry, Publishing
05 September 2011
World on a Wire
My latest column is up at Strange Horizons, and this time it's about Rainer Werner Fassbinder's epic science fiction film World on a Wire (Welt am Draht).
If you want to see World on a Wire (and you should!), it's available on home video in the U.K. and Europe, and in the U.S. can be seen via Hulu if you subscribe to Hulu Plus (you can get a free trial subscription for a week, or if you have .edu email address, for a month). Rumor has it that Criterion will be releasing the film on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.S. at the end of this year or the beginning of next [update: the rumors were true]. It's also still touring various U.S. cities -- at the end of this week, it will be at the Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, MA.
I'm a Fassbinder nut, so will passionately defend even his films that only lunatics defend, but you don't have to be as obsessed with Fassbinder as I to see get pleasure from World on a Wire. (Although if "efficient" plotting, suspenseful storytelling, and "round" characterizations are your primary requirements for pleasure, you should probably stay away.) While World on a Wire isn't of the power and depth of, say, Berlin Alexanderplatz or a handful of Fassbinder's other absolute masterpieces, it's still a powerful, unsettling, beautiful movie, and the restoration that the Fassbinder Foundation did is remarkable -- to take an old 16mm master made for TV and turn it into something that can be admired on a giant cinema screen is no easy feat.
I could go on and on. I won't. Instead, if you want a taste of the film, check out the trailer, which I'll embed after the jump here:
Labels: Cheney publications, Fassbinder, film, Movies, Strange Horizons
02 September 2011
An Obstacle
The preconception, on the part of critics and actors alike, regarding cinematic theatricality as a marker of feeling—a prejudice in favor of one particular school and method of acting—remains as much an obstacle to creation as to appreciation.
—Richard Brody
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Martin Gal, Producer in Public Affairs at WMSB TV, requests permission rights to Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" for broadcasting purposes. Gal seeks to create a short pictorial documentary with Dr. King reading the text as a voice-over.
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subset: commoncrawl


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LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - LG Electronics will begin selling televisions based on "OLED" technology, which allows for thinner displays that consume less power, in the United States in March.
TV makers like Samsung and LG are banking on the next-generation, "organic light-emitting diode" screens to prop up flagging sales of televisions.
"You have been waiting patiently for the launch (of OLED). Well, the wait is over," LG's chief technology officer, Skott Ahn, told reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
James Fisher, LG's head of marketing, said the South Korean electronics maker will begin selling 55-inch and 65-inch versions of the TVs, with the 55-inch screen costing $12,000.
(The story corrects last paragraph to say that 55-inch (not 84-inch) versions would cost $12,000)
(Reporting By Tim Kelly; editing by John Wallace)


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Ah, a new year and even a new decade. Time to list my New Year's Resolutions. I'm terrible at follow-through, but maybe you all can help me. I suspect that, even though I've wished for calm, 2010 will be a year with some upheaval and change for me.
Wine: I'd like to either get my CWE (Certified Wine Educator) or Level 1 Sommelier this year, and I'd like to get certified in Mixology / Craft Cocktails. I know, I seem to be working on some weird career trajectory towards bartender, but I hope I can somehow become a trainer in the adult beverage industry someday like I am in the technology field. We'll see.
Real Life: I'd also like to change my day job. It's time to find a "real job," as I call it, and stop working at home in my pajamas. Ideally the perfect job is in marketing and social media or training and social media. You get the gist. Cross your fingers for me. That job hunt will probably start in March, if not sooner.
Thank you so much for reading and sticking with me. I love my readers and I hope you all know that. My thanks and best wishes for a safe and wonderful 2010!
Wine Competitions Wine Book Club (WBC) Wine Judging Reviews Readings Whiskey Watch France Games Weblogs Wine Clubs Books RIP Repost WBW #65 Wine Glossary Wine Maps TasteCamp Web/Tech Marketing Uncategorized Legislation Recipes Florida Recession Wine Meet the Winemaker Greatest Hits Drink Pink! (BCRF) Holiday Current Affairs Television Spirits Photos Wine Shop Wednesday Contests Scotch & Whiskey History Disney Wine Tech Food and Wine Pairings Mad Men Monday Guest Writers Pop Culture Food and Drink Wine Blogs Knowledge Entertainment Dinner and Drinks Life Charity Benefits News Beer-Guy.net Special Events Beer WBW Local Wineries Cocktails Wine Shops Restaurants Travel Wineries Wine Notes Wine Events Weekly Cincinnati Wine Events Wine Misc Local Tastings Cincinnati
Krystal Pepper Memorial Scholarship Fund
Raising money for a scholarship fund in memory of Michelle's little sister who passed away in 2007


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2 days ago
Titans welcome back Bird and Henderson for Round 24
The Jetstar Gold Coast Titans have named State of Origin representative Greg Bird and prop Michael Henderson to make their return for Monday night's heavyweight clash against the Sydney Roosters at the SFS.
Bird was unable to take his place in the Jetstar Titans line-up for last Saturday night's win over North Queensland after failing a fitness test on his injured hamstring in the lead-up to the match.
However, the 26-year-old is expected to be fit to take on the Roosters after being named by Jetstar Titans coach John Cartwright on the interchange bench alongside Henderson, who was ruled out with a virus last weekend.
Youngster Ben Ridge has again been named as 18th man.
After being hindered by a virus last week, Henderson said he was ready to take on the Roosters.


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Friday September 21, 2018; 04:52 am EDT
After an active spring, the native mosquito populations
are naturally declining. But not the Asian tiger mosquito.
A rainy March and April kept mosquito slappers busy.
"We had populations in larger numbers than expected this spring," says Mike Cantwell, chief of Maryland Department of Agriculture's Mosquito Control Program. "High rainfall brought out exceptionally large broods of woodland species. But these are single-generation species. Once they're done, you don't see them until next year."
At the same time, higher than normal tides on salt marshes meant more flooding and more salt marsh mosquitoes.
"We did a lot of air spraying," Cantwell says. "But things have quieted down."
That is, the native species are quieting down. They breed in wet natural environments. During drought-like conditions, water evaporates — and so do the native mosquitoes.
Not so with the non-native Asian tiger mosquito. These tiny black-and-white pests are the likely culprits feeding on us in our back yards.
"They are less affected by drought conditions," Cantwell says. "Probably because we keep their habitat wet."
The non-native skeeters — first found in Maryland in 1987 — are different from our native species in two ways. First, they are persistent daytime biters. Second, they thrive in human-made breeding grounds. They prefer to lay their eggs in containers instead of natural habitats. Gutters, toys, birdbaths, anything collecting rainwater are perfect breeding grounds.
You can keep the ankle nippers at bay by dumping standing water from flower pots, tarps, trash cans and toys, and regularly cleaning bird baths and your pet's food and water bowls.
And wait for the first hard frost of winter, when all mosquitoes freeze their little arses off and leave us alone until spring.
Mosquitoes are a vector agent that carries disease-causing viruses and parasites from person to person without exhibiting symptoms themselves. While it's no relation to the standard barfly, the Asian Tiger mosquito is the true invasive species of urban mosquito tormenting large cities. Here's what you should fear: the Asian Tiger mosquito can distribute the potentially terminal disease known as dengue fever.


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Project Collaboration
Tools for sharing work with others.
ALA Connect: One of the resources you will need to use is ALA Connect. This will be especially likely for ALSC committees and workgroups with a designated workspace on ALA Connect.
Document sharing
Google Docs: documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, drawings, and tables. Google Docs works well for small groups and is one of the most commonly used tools for collaborating on documents and spreadsheets.
Presentation sharing
Slideshare allows you to share presentations online and view others presentations as well. Prezi is a fun and different way to create a presentation online, free for educational users, that allows for collaboration and is easy to share over the web.
Project Management
Stoodle is a whiteboard that allows your team to type, draw, and upload images at the same time. You can also chat and connect Stoodle to your computer's microphone and talk with your collaborators while sharing the whiteboard. Stoodle does not require you to create an account; you just click "launch a classroom," name your room, and share the URL assigned to your room.
Toodledo allows you to create to-do lists, add notes to your tasks, organize tasks into folders, and prioritize tasks by date or importance. You can also invite collaborators to see your task list with a free account. To assign tasks to team members, you must upgrade to a paid account.
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites can be used to share links within a group or with the public. Committees may find social bookmarking useful to track and share resources relevant to their work. Popular social bookmarking sites include Delicious and Pinterest. Diigo is another useful bookmarking tools that allows you to make lists for sharing, tag and categorize items, make slideshows from your bookmarks, and even save your favorite tweets.
Wikis work well if you want to develop content that anyone can edit (or anyone within a defined group, if desired), and if you want to share that content with a large audience. Keep in mind that much of what you can do on a wiki can also be done on ALA Connect.
A free and easy to use wiki site is PBworks.
Return to Online Tools


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Organic gardening is a much more widely accepted practice now than it was 30 years ago when John Dromgoole became fascinated with it. He studied radio and television in college, but after working in a friend's organic nursery in Austin, Texas, he was hooked.
Wanting to learn more, he immersed himself in a range of horticultural venues, including commercial propagation, floriculture (forcing flowering plants to bloom on specific schedules), and landscape installation. After about five years, he opened an organic nursery in San Antonio, but customers weren't ready for the concept. "They'd storm out because I didn't have malathion," he recalls.
Dromgoole remained committed to organic growing, and he eventually put his media background to use in reaching the average homeowner about the benefits of organic methods. For the past 22 years he has hosted a local call-in radio show in Austin that he thinks is the longest-running organic gardening program in the country. When he became frustrated at the limited availability of organic products, he decided the time was ripe for launching another nursery and gardening store, which he called the Natural Gardener. That was eighteen years ago, and the business has expanded along with the public's interest.
"I used to feel that I was butting my head against the wall," recalls Dromgoole. But now he's convinced that a large-scale attitude shift is taking place as more and more people are concerned about long-term health effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, especially for their children. "I compare our education process over the years to putting consumers in a boat and rowing them across the river to the organic side," he describes. "Now we're rowing back and forth a lot faster than we used to."
The Natural Gardener features eight acres of demonstration gardens, including a butterfly garden, herb garden, vegetable garden, native plants, and fruit trees. Classes are offered on many topics, and at the heart of all of them is the importance of building the soil and and choosing well-adapted plants. "People need to understand that healthy soil is the basis for success, so we start there," says Dromgoole. "Maladapted plants struggle with pests, such as whiteflies, so you're better off removing plants and replacing them rather than battling the pests every year."
Well aware that more people will choose organic products if they are easy to use, he developed a line of products under his Lady Bug Natural Brand, including potting soil, fertilizer, and compost. "Not everyone wants to make compost tea, but if we put it in a bottle, it's simple for them." Dromgoole also carries popular organic pest controls, such as beneficial insects, diatomaceous earth, and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
Although he is entirely satisfied to make converts one at a time, Dromgooles' communications background has allowed him to reach a much broader audience. In addition to his radio show, he's featured in weekly, five-minute television segments for both PBS and NBC affiliates, explaining what to do in the garden each week. "Years ago I used to get flak from skeptics on the radio, but now I frequently get callers who say, "I started doing what you said, and you should see my yard!'"
Visit The Natural Gardener Website for Lady Bug Natural Brand organic products and more: http://www.naturalgardeneraustin.com/.


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FARGO, N.D. (AP) — As North Dakota faces another possible major flood this spring, federal officials are frustrated by the number of people in the state who lack insurance for such a disaster.
Along the Red River and its tributaries, in flood-prone Fargo and Cass County, the number of insurance policies dropped by more than 40 percent from 2011 to 2012, FEMA officials said. Residents there have battled flooding in for five of the last seven years.
"It's an amazing phenomenon how people can go through these things, then drop their flood insurance and try to buy it back in time," FEMA spokesman Dave Kyner said. "I guess that's one of the most frustrating things for us here."
Flood policies in all of North Dakota declined 32 percent, which coincided with a dry year throughout the state.
Policies must be in effect for 30 days for flood damage to be covered. FEMA officials did not have figures for 2013 but said they have received calls recently from agents indicating a flurry of activity.
Richard Thomas, who lives in a subdivision south of Fargo that has lost nearly 20 homes to flooding or buyouts, said he considered dropping his insurance before deciding it was a bad idea.
"Our property is fairly high, so I thought about getting it when I thought I would need it," he said. "But the window (for getting insurance) is pretty small so I didn't want to try and time it."
The National Weather Service says there's a 50 percent chance this spring that Fargo will have one of the area's top five floods of all time, at around 38 feet. The first flood outlook in January called for a 6 percent chance that the river would reach 30 feet, but late winter snows bumped up the forecast.
Darren Dunlop, who lives in a north Fargo neighborhood protected by a permanent floodwall, said he started buying insurance a few years ago so he would be grandfathered in if there were policy changes.
"My insurance agent told me that when the new flood plain comes in, you will be required to have it," Dunlop said. "If you don't have it, you will have to buy it from the feds and it will be at an astronomically high rate."
The average flood policy in the U.S. is about $600 a year, according to the federal website http://www.Floodsmart.gov. Where a person lives and the age, elevation and structure of the home can affect the cost.
Policyholders can receive some money for flood-protection efforts, including sandbags. Thomas said he was paid $1,000 for a portable plastic tube called an AquaDam, which he calls his second insurance policy.
"Everyone out here is done with sandbags," Thomas said of the Forest River subdivision where he lives. "We're an AquaDam community."
Kyner said North Dakota had more disaster declarations than any other state in the six-state FEMA region between 1964 and 2010 and is among the top in the country for FEMA declarations in the last 15 years.
Kyner said when the historic Souris River flood wiped out 4,160 homes and businesses in Minot in 2011, the number of insurance policies in the city stood at 383. By the end of the year, that number had ballooned to 2,622. Last year it dropped 39 percent.
FEMA officials said people in Fargo and Cass County may have a false sense of security because of improvements made in flood protection since 2009, including the construction of new levees and the demolition of houses on the flood plain.
"People tend to think if they are close to the river, they have a high propensity for flooding, they need flood insurance, and if they're away from the river, they don't," said Norm Ashford, FEMA's insurance specialist. "But we actually pay 20 to 30 percent of our claims that are not close to the river."
Asked who needs flood insurance, Ashford said, "Everyone."
Follow Dave Kolpack on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/davekolpackap .


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Broccoli Cheese Soup
*Update (10/2011): We continue to love this soup (and eat it often)! I've edited the recipe just a bit to enhance with a bit of salt and flesh out some of the details. Enjoy!
I could sum up this post by the following statement from my husband while devouring this meal: "This is the ultimate perfect dinner."
Of course it could have been atmosphere since it had snowed all day and was the perfect night for soup, but still, when we were fighting over the last scoops in the pot, I knew this had to be a winner.
I received this recipe from a commenter, Liz, who has tried several recipes from here. Come to find out, after a few months of back and forth commenting, we figured out we went to high school together and went to the same church growing up.
What a small world – especially now that we both live several states away from where we grew up!
She mentioned the other day in an email that she had used the Italian Bread Bowl recipe for her broccoli cheese soup and her kids ate it up…plus it was a no-velveeta recipe.
Of course, I begged and pleaded for her recipe. While I don't have anything against velveeta, I wanted a recipe with less processed flavors, and if my kids would eat it…then I knew it would be a keeper.
This soup was incredible, and sure enough, my kids ate it with minimal fuss even with the broccoli. I was quite pleased (shocked, actually, but then quite pleased). It's since became one of our family's favorite soups of all time!
Artisan or Italian Bread Bowls
Simple green Salad (or for an extra special salad this Spinach Salad with Spicy Nuts)
Fresh, seasonal fruit
Broccoli Cheese Soup
- 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups milk
- 1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, preferably sharp or extra sharp
- 1/2 cup shredded swiss cheese
- 2 1/2 to 3 cups chopped, lightly steamed or blanched broccoli
- Simmer chicken broth and chopped onion for 15-20 minutes in a covered small saucepan, until onions are soft.
- Heat milk in microwave for 1-2 minutes.
- In a separate medium-sized stockpot, melt butter then add flour, salt and pepper. Cook together, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes, then whisk in warmed milk. Stir and heat together on medium heat until soup starts to thicken, about 5-8 minutes.
- 6. Add warmed chicken broth and continue to stir until well blended. Add cheeses and stir until completely melted. Stir in seamed broccoli. Add more salt and pepper to taste, if needed. Serve immediately in bowls or bread bowls.
To make my life easier, while the soup is coming together, I put the chopped broccoli in a large glass bowl, cover with saran wrap and microwave for about 3-4 minutes. It cooks perfectly and just in time to add it to the soup.
Follow @melskitchencafe on Instagram and show me the recipes you are making from my blog using the hashtag #melskitchencafe. I love seeing all the goodness you are whipping up in your kitchens!
Recipe Source: adapted very slightly from my friend, Liz K.


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Opening night of RIIFF to be held at The Vets
Join FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) for its 16th annual opening night screening and celebration Tuesday, Aug. 7 at The VETS (formerly the VMA Arts & Cultural Center), 1 Avenue of the Arts, Providence, beginning at 7 p.m.
RIIFF's opening night screening is a popular annual event and the official kickoff for this year's amazing Festival. The opening night is a showcase for the very best of short film submissions and features programming that will inspire, challenge and illustrate the talent of the participants who define New England's largest and only Academy Award-qualifying film festival.
In 2011, five of the films that premiered at RIIFF went on to receive Academy Award nominations, and two came away as winners: ("The Shore" directed by Terry George and "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" directed by William Joyce.)
The magic of this year's RIIFF begins at 7 p.m. for an evening co-hosted by RIIFF Advisory Board President, Michael Drywa, Esq. and Steven Feinberg, Executive Director of the RI Film & Television Office, who will be joined by Providence Mayor Angel Taveras. The RIIFF Screenplay Competition Award will be presented to Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold (Maine) for her screenplay "Raising Rufus: A Maine Love Story." The Roger Williams Independent Voice Award will then be presented to Trinity Repertory Actor, Barbara Meek by Maia Farish, wife of Roger Williams University President, Donal Farish. The award is presented semi-annually to an outstanding artist whose vision promotes tolerance, compassion and understanding.
Then the Festival kicks off in earnest with seven exceptional cinematic gems:
- ASAD directed by Bryan Buckley, South Africa
- Trotteur directed by Arnaud Brisebois & Francic Leclerc, Canada
- Pesaran-e-Buzkashi (Buzkashi Boys) directed by Sam French, Afghanistan
- Friend Request Pending directed by Chris Foggin (starring Judi Dench), United Kingdom
- BRÛLEURS (Burners) directed by Farid Bentoumi, France
- Mannen fra isødet (The Devil's Ballroom) directed by Henrik Martin K. Dahlsbakken, Greenland, Norway
- J'aurais pu être une pute (I could've been a hooker) directed by Baya Kasmi, France
Following the film screening, audience members are invited to a celebration gala at The Vets. Featuring mouthwatering desserts provided Decadent Catering and beverages from Providence Coffee Roasters 12NtM, Sparkling Beverage, Stella Artois and Empire Soda. Music will be provided by critically acclaimed local artist William Quirk.
Tickets for the screening only are $15. Tickets for the combined Opening Night Screening and Celebration Gala are $30. Purchase tickets online at RIIFF Opening Night Celebration to avoid long wait times. Tickets are also available for purchase at the door for the screening. The Box Office will open at 5 p.m. before the show.
The FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) has secured its place in the global community as the portal for the best in international independent cinema, earning the respect of domestic and foreign filmmakers, filmgoers and trend watchers. This confluence of art and commerce brought together world-class celebrities, award-winning filmmakers, new talent and audience members in record numbers last year. Ranked as one of the top-12 festivals in the United States, RIIFF is one of 75 festivals worldwide that is a qualifying festival for the Academy Awards through its partnership with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. For more information about this year's FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Film Festival, running Aug. 7-12 at The VETS and other locations throughout the state of Rhode Island, visit www.RIFilmFest.org or call 861-4445.


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On January 6th 2010 we requested service on our 10 month old Kenmore refrigerator freezer from Sears. Our second warranty repair. This time the unit blew out the control panel which regulates the temperature and the unit was already warming up. After speaking with the scheduler I was told the soonest we would see repair would be the afternoon of January 14th (8 1/2 days later.) I explained that this was a problem as our perishables would be destroyed in a few days and we required the refrigerator to cool insulin and another drug used by a kidney dialysis patient. The agent put me on hold and insisted that was the best.
When I asked who would pay for the lost food I was told that there was a $250 refund available under warranty. I was told to ask the technician for the form and to fill it out and return it at the time of the repair. Since I had 8 days to wait I did my best to expedite the service in the meantime. One individual (who worked in local repair) said that some areas were backed up two-three weeks and I was lucky it was just 8 days. Hardly a selling point and as my food was melting I felt anything but lucky.
If I would have been told at the time of sale that this type of dreadful response was normal I would have left the store instead of buying the unit. I would assume 99% of your customer base would do the same. I began researching complaints made by others online and saw that there was an email address that kept recurring email@example.com. Whenever they found a complaint online they posted a cheery little response advising disgruntled customers to work with them to resolve the complaint. I emailed my problem.
On the 6th day of my wait (01-12-10) I received a phone call. A rude individual by the name of ** called to help. His take on helping was that he would call me back after the original repair date to make sure that they fixed it. I explained that this wasn't helpful but if I needed any help filing the food loss claim I would keep his number. He then informed me that there would be no compensation for the hundreds of dollars' worth of food that melted. I explained that I had discussed this on my original call and had mentioned it in subsequent calls to expedite the repair. He said they were wrong and we would have to assume the loss.
Naturally I was irritated and when I expressed my irritation he finally offered two options.
He would send us a check for $100. That was better than nothing but still unacceptable. I wanted what I was promised and $100 didn't come close to paying for our loss.
He would give us a 2nd year of warranty for free. This wasn't helpful as we already had a free 2nd year of warranty service because we purchased it with a Visa card that included a double warranty up to one year. Besides who in their right mind would tolerate service delays like this twice?
He said that was all he could do and I said I may take this issue to small claims court. At which point he told me "If you're going to take that attitude I'll hang up on you. Before he hung up he promised to follow up with me following the repair on the 14th to make sure I was pleased. Further efforts to expedite the repair were useless. January 14th finally arrived and the repairman came as promised at 2:00 PM.
Although I described the exact part that failed the service tech didn't bring one on the call. He was however helpful enough to check with a local supplier in Dallas who then couriered the part the same afternoon. He promised to make one other call then swing back and fix it shortly after 5 PM. The parts arrived at 5:15 PM. At 5:20 I received a call from the tech who apologized and told me that he was told he could not return until Monday January 18 to complete the repair so we would have to wait another 4 days without refrigeration for our food and medical supplies.
The routing department in Ft Worth said he could not come because they would not pay the overtime. (15 minutes to complete the repair.) I asked for the name of that individual to call and was told she was gone for the day but was given the number. As a last resort I spoke with the local Sears store (previous calls were unsuccessful) here in Plano and spoke with ** who is the Appliance Manager. He pulled strings and got the call rescheduled to Friday (Jan. 15th) and apologized profusely.
The next time I spoke with "Sears Cares" ** called me on January 18th and asked if I was pleased with the service. I told him in no certain terms I was extremely displeased and would never buy another product from Sears. He insisted the service was done as promised on Friday. I corrected him because his notes were again incorrect -- the promise was Thursday and then later Monday. I reminded him that he didn't bother to follow up on Jan 15th as promised and he had done absolutely nothing to help alleviate the problem.
Then the lies continued. I asked to speak with his manager. He informed me he was THE manager. I asked for his last name. He advised me he "didn't have to tell me". I asked who he reported to and he informed me it was Bruce Johnston the CEO of Sears. I told him I believed he was lying to me. Silence on his end. I asked if the CEO did his performance review. After a lull he said "No, that's done by the Board of Directors" another obvious lie. I asked again for his manager's name or to be transferred he said he couldn't because he didn't know his manager's phone number.
This has been the worst service experience of my life. I will never buy another Sears product and will warn everyone possible that they should consider my experience before spending hard earned money with Sears. After researching other people's complaints online I realized how much the service at Sears has degraded. As one person put it "They're not the same company your parents bought from". That is so true.
I worked at Sears scheduling service calls when I was working my way through college. In that entire time I was never asked to be transferred to a manager because this type of response was unheard of and wouldn't have been tolerated. Sears is one of the largest resellers of appliances in the world. To expect customers to wait 12 days to fix an in warranty refrigerator-freezer is ludicrous. To expect warranty customers to absorb the loss of food on top of that just throws salt in the wound. Don't do as I did and trust these jerks, you'll regret it just like I do.
MOORESTOWN NEW JERSEY -- In good faith, I purchased a new ref/freezer (defect) and had no service on three different dates, between the hours of 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm on 4/15/11, 4/20/11 and 04/25/11. All three dates I was assured and promised a repair service person to replace this gasket on the drawer/freezer. It is well over a month, 04/08/11, when I called to mention that the freezer is filled with frost all over the freezer. When I opened the drawer, the frost fell all over the floor. This has been gone on the entire month of April. I was promised and assured of service.
All three of these dates, has proven to be "no show" and not even a call from anyone, beginning with mgr. or a rep from the service dept. All calls that I have made have been empty promises and apologizes. This is not acceptable for me. I am a former employee of sears of twenty years (20 yrs.) my late wife and I have always purchased big ticket items from sears. They were always reliable. Today, I can honestly say, "i will never ever purchase another item from sears again. After all the empty promises and apologies I have had every time I initiated the calls to find out what has happened.
On one call, I was told, I was not even scheduled. I have lost all interest with sears and their guarantee that we will be out to fix your freezer. The gasket has been at my house all month of Apr. And still sits presently. I requested on April 25th to a rep. Miss **, if I could have the replacement ref/freezer delivered on 04/30/11 in the morning. I received a call tonight 04/29/11, that the del. Time is 2:30 to 4:30 pm. Reason, I will not be here in the Sat. Pm because I have to be at my church to set up for the 5:00 pm mass (catholic). Sunday, I will not be here all day, because I will be in a convent, to play for a mass and a communion breakfast after the mass.
I have never ever been so disgusted and fed-up with sears, that I can honestly say, that I will not deal with any product with sears again. I just cannot go through what I have endured this month because no one from sears has made any kind of effort to contact me and try to make good on this repair. Now the deliv. Date is all messed up too. My request for an am delivery went on deaf ears. I was told to call early tomorrow morning to see if a deliv. Can be made in the sam on this Sat. 04/30/11. I am anticipating, the same disappointment will result, just like the three dates for a repair.
I can promise, I will never, ever purchase any more products from sears again. I am extremely dissatisfied with this whole mess. I can understand why sears is not doing well with the business market. I won't have anything to do with sears again. This whole ordeal this past month has proven this to me, that I will take all my business elsewhere. An extremely dissatisfied and disappointed former customer.
To Robert J Kamuca,
My name is James and I am part of the Social Media Support Escalations team at Sears and I am very sorry that this repair has gone so incredibly bad. We would like to help. We are a single point of contact for escalated concerns which means we step into a situation and handle it start to finish with one Case Manager. At your convenience, please contact our office at email@example.com so you (and others) don't have to continue to be impacted by this. At your convenience, please send us an email. In the email, please provide a contact phone number and the phone number the item(s) were purchased under (if different than the contact phone number) and we will call you directly. Also, in your email please provide the screen name (Robert J Kamuca) for reference to your issue and we do look forward to talking to you soon.
Thank you,
James H.
Social Media Moderator
Sears Social Media Support
RHODE ISLAND -- We had bought a washer, dryer and a freezer chest from Sears. All Kenmore products. Within 3 to 6 months' time one by one the products stop working.
1st - was the washer was hopping and make funny sound when I wash my clothes. I called Sears, they send the technician to take a look at it, but the tech person did not do anything, he just said "oh it's normal - nothing wrong" and he left. I call the Sears customer service again, I have to argue with them & finally they send tech, it's the same guy they send. He told me the same thing, nothing was resolve. With all this aggravation, Sears won't give me a new washer, they said will send another tech. This time a different guy, he did say something was wrong and they order me a brand new washer.
2nd - after the washer was done, the dryer was acting up, it was not drying my clothes, I have to hang dry all my clothes outside. I thought the guy did not connect it properly or something came lose, keep trying it, still the same thing, called Sears they keep saying will send tech, which takes them 2x finally to get it diagnose. It was the circuit board. They just change the circuit board, they won't replace a new dryer, said they stop making that model. Apparently you have to yell or argue with them to get your appliance fix.
Lastly - the chest freezer. It was working for 3 months, and today I went to go to the freezer to get something, I notice there is water on the door, when I open it some of my food in the freezer was already defrosted. Some of the food I have to throw it out. I looked at the manual and to see if we did not set the temp correctly. Everything was done as the manual. I call Sears, the representative (a guy) answer he ask where I put my freezer, he said it is my fault that the freezer does not work, he keep telling that I should look at the manual for the trouble shooting.
I have to yell at him, when we bought the machine everything was install by them, and there is no way it is our fault. This freezer only 3 months old. He said will set up the appointment for me, however he stated that "if the tech goes to the house and if it is not the manufacture defect I have to pay the fees at least $95 for the tech to come out". I call back few hours later and ask them to just take back the freezer give me the money back or give me a new one. The customer service said they can't do that, they have to fix it 1st at least 1x, if can't be fix they will give me a new freezer.
She guarantee me that I will not get charge for the tech to come out. Well they will come out the 11 of August. Will find out what they say. Apparently when Sears advertise they do not follow or stick to it. Even on the back of the receipt it stated "if you are not satisfied for the products you can return or exchange it within 90 days as long as you have your receipt". My freezer this week exactly 90 days. You know what? They lie, they won't give you the money back or even exchanging it. This is the last time we are buying products from them. Sears sucks.
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA -- 12/26 - Bought a Kenmore freezer delivery scheduled for 12/27.
12/27 -- AM - Freezer did not arrive with some poor excuse about the weather. It was 70 degrees and sunny on that day in Pittsburgh. Rescheduled delivery for 12/28.
12/27 - Purchased an LG refrigerator, delivery scheduled for 12/28 along with freezer that never made it earlier in the day.
12/28 -- Delivery arrived, Freezer did not. Refrigerator was severely dented. Returned and new delivery scheduled for 1/3 for both items.
1/3 Freezer delivered but had dents in the side, took $110 Sears gift card in exchange of dent damage & after driver left, removed tape from key area and found a large dent on the key hole. Scheduled exchange for 1/5.
1/3 Refrigerator delivered but painted over scratches found in door! How can LG/Sears sell a product that has touch up paint over two large scratches?! Do you think someone wouldn't care? Exchange scheduled for 1/5.
1/3 talked to ** who appears very helpful. She confirmed the reschedule items for 1/5 and also ordered a "pink & shrink" which means they will inspect and shrink wrap each item prior to delivery. If items are damaged we would get a call. She was to transfer me to a supervisor **. ** promised my delivery would be after 4 PM on 1/5.
1/4 - 6 PM I got a phone call stating the system automatically scheduled for delivery between 12:30 and 2:30 on 1/5. What happened to the after 4 PM promise? I called a delivery specialist and was told no matter what the supervisor said my times could not be changed. I asked to speak to a supervisor. The delivery specialist told me that a supervisor would just tell me the same thing. I again asked to speak to a supervisor.
After 10 minutes of arguing about getting me a supervisor, she said she would get one, and then I went back into the waiting queue, only to be picked up by another delivery specialist 15 minutes later. I finally did get to talk to a supervisor, and he said he would e-mail the warehouse to move my delivery to the last stop of the day.
1/5 -- Driver called at 11:30 AM and said he is 30 minutes out. I explained that I was to be the last stop, and he basically told me that's not how it works. I explained that I talked to a supervisor and that it was to happen. He got an attitude and told me to call delivery to reschedule. I called and rescheduled the delivery for Tuesday 1/6. Hoping to get a later delivery slot. At 6 PM we got an automated call that delivery was scheduled for 11 AM. Wife talked to another delivery specialist and he said he was sorry, and that he would definitely schedule the delivery to be the last stop.
1/6 - My wife called off work for this delivery, since she was certain delivery would screw it up anyway, which they did. They arrived at the house at 11 AM. They only brought the refrigerator, no freezer! At least this time the refrigerator wasn't dented, scratched or mangled in any way.
1/6 -- Wife talked to a delivery specialist supervisor AGAIN to ask about the freezer. We again asked for late delivery, and again were promised, and again got a phone call at 6 PM stating a delivery time in early AM. Instead of fighting and getting empty promises I told my wife that I would make arrangements with my office to get there if they would give me an hour lead time.
1/7 -- Finally got my freezer at 11 AM, no late delivery of course, as was requested. It was not "pink & shrinked" as requested.
As of 1/7 -- This was the sixth scheduled delivery date. Both items had to be returned twice due to dents/scratches. There were a ton of broken promises, both with numerous delivery times, pink & shrink, etc. There was the sneakiness of Sears & LG trying to pass damaged product as new. I was on hold with customer service for a total of 10 hours relating to at least 7 calls. I was passed around within the Sears customer service line to many different people.
Many customer service individuals were rude, with two of them telling me I couldn't talk to a delivery specialist supervisor. I tried to remain civil in discussions, but resorted to anger when this happened, and then finally got to talk to a supervisor. If this is what you call good customer service, no thanks... I'll buy my products elsewhere.
I will send this document to everyone I know. I will post it on numerous websites... and even turn what I consider fraud (Painted over scratches) into the attorney general... unless I get a call from a regional manager at Sears with an apology and what he is going to do for me. A free extended warranty on both products, or all future products I buy at Sears would go a long way.
BRANDON (WESTFIELD MALL), FLORIDA -- On friday april 16th 2010 we purchased a side by side fridge/freezer. We were told delivery would be saturday it was then changed to sunday. When the truck came the item was damaged and left leaving us without a fridge. Food was packed in ice all over the kitchen which we put back into the old fridge. By the next day it had spoiled. We went to sears and got the run around but an assistant manager promised delivery on tuesday of a temp so we could store our food.
On monday night the store manager called me not knowing anything about the food spoiling or the truck leaving. She insisted that I have proof of all the items in my fridge. Who the heck keeps foot receipts for more than a day??? She was rude and had not one ounce of care for my situation. Promises were made that a truck would be here in the morning. Morning comes with a 6:45 wakeup call saying that the truck was coming. At 7:15 a call saying no the truck isn' t coming. At 8:00, yes it's coming.
i called the sears hot line in ill and the guy says now it's not coming until thursday. We bought this item on friday have been without a fridge since sunday and now they are calling for my credit card number to put the charges on my account for a rebate but I do not have the item. Not one person has told us the truth and the store manager thinks i'm ripping her off for money for spoiled food. Where is the concern for me the customer? Not one person in that store in brandon, fl. Knows what the other has said or done. It is the most utterly disorganized store I have ever dealt with and now reading others reviews I fully understand why.
i can only try and warn the next innocent person not to buy = deal = or go into a sears store b/c they will lie to you and treat you awful. Words cannot describe how we have been treated and sears does not care about their customers at all. P. V of florida.
I was surprised to see so many negative reviews for the Sears Maintenance Agreement. We have had one ever since we purchased our first side-by-side refrigerator/freezer. After purchasing, we had constant problems with the ice maker and its door's access drop chute. It kept freezing and causing ice to form on the inside of the freezer. To make a long story short, after many service calls, Sears gave us a new refrigerator/freezer of our choice AND allowed us to keep the one we had purchased which we put into our garage.
The new one had an ice maker that worked (we chose the Sears brand this time). We did not need the ice maker on the original one, so having it work was no longer an issue. NINE YEARS LATER, we were contacted by Sears that the ice maker on the original product had been recalled and that we were entitled to a replacement at the expense of Sears which was done. In the meantime, the "drop chute" on the door still would not properly close. When the repairman came to put in the new ice maker, he was shocked to see paper towels stuffed into the drop chute and duct tape over the top of the entrance to the drop chute.
He was especially alarmed that the previous repairman had offered the paper towels and duct tape as the only "solution"; so, the new repairman decided to call his manager and complain. To make another long story short, Sears decided to give us credit toward the purchase of another Sears refrigerator/freezer. We chose a newer version with French doors at the top and a drawer freezer at the bottom and paid an additional $200 to get the largest version.
BOTTOM LINE -- except for the additional $200 we recently paid, we have THREE huge refrigerator/freezers for the paid price of one. We've even had one of them lose "freon" and been paid the agreement's maximum for the replacement of all of the food that we lost. We will NEVER be without maintenance agreements on our Sears products again. Those maintenance agreements were certainly much, much less costly than buying new appliances.
With three products, we were able to give one to our son and daughter-in-law and they were thrilled!!! They now have one in their garage the same as we do. The overflow availability is wonderful!!! My guess with those people who complain about these agreements is that they don't ask the right questions or don't try to use the agreements properly. Too bad for them because we think they're GREAT!!!
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA -- Just wanted to warn people to be aware that this particular brand of refrigerator (it's called a Kenmore but apparently it is a Whirlpool manufactured in Mexico) is a real lemon. We bought one from Sears in 2006 and immediately began to have problems with it. It would shut off for no particular reason, Sears would come and repair it, then it would happen again a month or two later. Finally, after documenting all the problems and repairs, Sears gave us a new one.
We bought the two year warranty and all was well until just after the two year mark, when the same problems began again. Unfortunately for us, the warranty had expired and we had not extended it again (the hundreds of dollars Sears wants for its warranties seem excessive). It died on us and, after Sears sent out a repair person (for free) to see if it was a compressor (in which case they would have repaired it for free), they determined it was the computer board, which was not covered under an extended manufacturer's warranty.
In sum, a very expensive and frustrating experience and one that you wouldn't think you'd have to undergo when you pay 1400 dollars for a major appliance. Sears said they couldn't refund any of our money, but offered to give us 30 percent off another refrigerator, to which we said "no thanks." We're done with Sears.
CLEVELAND, OHIO -- Freezer purchased 6/27/12 stopped freezing Wednesday, 8/19/12; Sears was called that day, earliest appointment offered 9/6/12. The customer service representative was very inept. After giving her the model number (the owner's manual contained two model numbers) and my purchase information, she was unable to locate any Kenmore Freezers meeting my specifications. Her advice: Keep the unit plug in, leave the meat in place for the repairman to see, and be patient.
A second call two days later to Sears offered this sage advice: Don't refreeze the meat. Over $700.00 worth of meat (beef, pork, & poultry) was disposed. Several further phones to Sears for an earlier repair appointment were unsuccessful. It will be two weeks this Wednesday (9/5) since I contacted Sears. I unplugged the unit; removed the freezer's contents, and am staring at a $500+ freezer that does not operate! I am requesting a full refund of the purchase price of the freezer and of the freezer's contents.
Sears stated they cannot guarantee the freezer will properly operate after the upcoming 9/6/12 repair appointment and will only compensate me up to $250.00 for the freezer's contents. I was further advised by Sears that under the Master Purchase Agreement only after 5 unsuccessful attempts to fix the freezer have occurred, will a replacement appliance be offered. I am certainly not going to trust that if the present freezer is fixed on 9/6/12, it will work correctly in the future; or be forced to dispose of more food if it stops working, while working two weeks for future service calls. This experience has been financially frustrating!
EL CENTRO, CALIFORNIA -- I really enjoyed my latest visit at the Sears store. ** was awesome, and made my purchase painless, and happy to have been there, He is outstanding awe have been looking for a new type of refrigerator, and ** at the El Centro store, was helpful, and had seen customers very satisfied with this new Kenmore 25 cu ft French doors and sliding freezer so much more space, and it makes ice, I love the crush ice, and lordly the ice water in the door, is to die for, with the filter system it taste like spring water, I am very happy with this design, and hope anyone liking, stop!
You have to look no further, you will hit the jackpot on this one, it's so quiet I have to open to see the lights, and it's an energy saver you get 250 back from the stimulus plan and a 50.00 rebate from your electric company. Run, what are you waiting for?
WALDORF, MARYLAND -- I purchase a freezer with a temperature control on the outside that does not work. I contacted the store within seven days and was promised that I would get a new freezer. Later was told that they do not make the freezer anymore. No one call me, I had to drive to the store to find out the information. The store manager asked a salesman to set an appointment, which he did not. I end up contacting the office of the president and had an appointment scheduled.


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While I was looking for something, I came across a really nice tips and trick about bossting your XP... SO here you go...
Shutdown XP Faster
Like previous versions of windows, it takes long time to restart or shutdown windows
XP when the "Exit Windows" sound is enabled. To solve this problem you must disable this useless sound. Click Start button. Go to settings > Control Panel > Sound, Speech and Audio devices > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds. Then under program events and windows menu click on "Exit Windows" sub-menu and
highlight it. Now from sounds you can select, choose "none" and then click Apply and
OK. Now you should see some improvements when shutting down your system.
Stop Getting Tricked into Running Viruses
Stop getting tricked into running viruses because you don't see the file extension of an attachment.
· Click Start, click My Computer, and on the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
· Clear the Hide file extensions for known file types check box, and then click OK.
Now when you receive a file called something.jpg.vbs, you'll see the .vbs extension and know that it is not an ordinary .jpg file.
I hope it could be of helpful.
Do Not Highlight Newly Installed Programs
Tired of that annoying little window that pops up to tell you that new software is installed? If it gets in the way when you're logging off, turn it off completely. To do this:
Click Start, right-click at the top of the Start menu where your name is displayed,
and then click Properties.
In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, on the Start Menu tab, click Customize.
Click the Advanced tab, and then clear the Highlight newly installed programs check box.
Click OK, and then click OK again.
How to Have Windows Remind You About Pending Updates
· Click Remind Me Later in the Automatic Updates dialog box before you download or install the update.
· In the Reminder dialog box, you can specify the amount of time Windows should wait before reminding you.
· If the reminder is for downloading, Windows reminds you only when you are connected to the Internet.
· If the reminder is for installing, Windows reminds you according to the schedule that you specify.
Correcting System Hang at Startup
If your system hangs about 2 or 3 minutes at startup, where you can't access the Start button or the Taskbar, it may be due to one specific service (Background Intelligent Transfer) running in the background. Microsoft put out a patch for this but it didn't work for me. Here's what you do:
Click on Start/Run, type 'msconfig', then click 'OK'.
Go to the 'Services' tab, find the 'Background Intelligent Transfer' service.
Disable it, apply the changes & reboot.
Clean Your Prefetch to Improve Performance
This is a unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is necessary to scrub registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodically. Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer noticeably.
Open C(system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files, reboot. It is recommended that you do this every month.
Performance Increase Through 'My Computer'
Easy enough tweak to usually find out about it on your own, but still, some of us still don't find it right away. So here it is:
Start > right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
Click on the "Advanced" tab.
See the "Performance" section? Click "Settings".
Disable the following:
Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show Shadows under menus
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Use a background image for each folder type
Use common tasks in folders
There, now Windows will still look nice and perform a lot faster.
Load Internet Explorer the Fastest Way Possible
Edit your link to start Internet Explorer to have -nohome after it. For Example:
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome
This will load internet explorer very fast because it does not load a web page while it is loading. If you want to go to your homepage after it is loaded, just click on the home button.
Auto Login
Go to Start/Run, and type 'control userpasswords2'.
From Users Tab, Uncheck "Users must enter ...."
A dialog will allow setting a user and password to be used automatically.
Turn Off Autoplay for Program CDs
How can you stop Windows XP from launching program CDs?
Click Start, click Run, type GPEDIT.MSC to open Group Policy in the Microsoft Management Console.
Double-click Computer Configuration, double-click Administrative templates, double-click System, and then click Turn off autoplay.
The instructions on your screen describe how to configure this setting. Click Properties to display the setting dialog.
Click Enabled, and choose CD-ROM drives, then click OK, to stop CD autoplay.
This setting does not prevent Autoplay for music CDs.
Win XP Won't Completely Shutdown · Go to Control Panel, then go to Power Options.
· Click on the APM tab, then check the "Enable Advanced Power Management support."
· Shut down your PC.
It should now successfully complete the Shut Down process.
Disable Error Reporting
· Open Control Panel.
· Click on Performance and Maintenance.
· Click on System.
· Then click on the Advanced tab.
· Click on the error-reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
· Select Disable error reporting.
· Click OK. Click OK.
Increase BROADBANDThis is for broad band connections.
· Make sure your logged on as actually "Administrator".
· Start->Run->type gpedit.msc
· Expand the "Local Computer Policy" branch.
· Expand the "Administrative Templates" branch.
· Expand the "Network Branch".
· Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window.
· In right window double-click the "Limit Reservable Bandwidth" setting.
· On setting tab check the "Enabled" item.
· Where it says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0.
Effect is immediate on some systems, some need to re-boot. This is more of a "counter what XP does" thing. In other words, programs can request up to 20% of the bandwidth be reserved for them, even with QoS disabled.
Stop Password Expiration
After you have run Windows XP for a while, you may receive this message when you log on: "Your password will expire in 14 days.....". By default, Windows XP is set up with passwords which will expire after 42 days. And 14 days in advance, Windows will start warning you of this fact.
· Go to Start > Run > type control userpasswords2
· Select the Advanced tab in the User Accounts window.
· Press the Advanced button below the Advanced user management header.
· Select Users in the Local Users and Groups.
· In the right pane, right-click the user name for which you want to change the setting, and select Properties.
· On the General tab, check Password never expires.
· Click Apply and OK (all the way out).
Create a Password Reset Disk
Microsoft has enhanced security features in XP including the ability to create a floppy diskette to recover your password in case it is forgotten.
· Click Start > Control Panel > User Accounts.
· Click on the account which you want to create a password disk.
· Click Prevent a forgotten password which starts the Forgotten Password Wizard .
This is found under Related Tasks.
· Insert a blank, formatted disk into drive A, and click Next.
· Enter the password in the Current user account password box.
To use the recovery disk, at the Welcome screen:
· Click the user name whose password is on the recovery disk.
· Click the question mark button, this causes the "Did you forget your password message" to appear.
· Click use your password reset disk. This will start the Password Reset Wizard.
From this point, just follow the wizard's instructions and you will be able to set a new password.
Install the Recovery Console on Your Computer
You can install the Recovery Console as an option on your startup menu and use it to recover your system in the event that safe mode and other startup options don't work. This tool is for advanced users.
· With Windows XP running, insert your Windows XP CD in the drive, and click Exit when the installation options are displayed.
· Click Start, click Run, and then type D:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons Where D: is the CD-ROM drive letter, and then press Enter. (There is a space between .exe and the slash.)
· Follow the instructions on screen to install the Recovery Console, and when the installation is complete, restart your computer. The Recovery Console will show up in the list of available operating systems in the Startup menu. You must be an administrator to use the Recovery Console.
If the i386 directory is already installed on your computer (as might be the case in computers purchased with Windows XP pre-installed), you can use the same syntax as in Step 2, using the [path]\i386 directory without having to use the CD. An alternative method is to boot to the CD and start WINNT.EXE, then when prompted to Install or Repair, click Repair, which installs the Recovery Console for you. If Windows XP will not start, you can run the Recovery Console from the Setup CD.


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Academic Rigor
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Classes at Scripps (and all of the Claremont Colleges) are definitely a lot of work and require thoughtfulness and dedication. You will spend a considerable amount of time studying, reading, writing papers, and getting to know professors in office hours. The Core program is particularly challenging but in a fabulous mind opening way!
To find more tips for prospective students, what to do for fun and whether this school is great for a particular type of student read the 25 reviews for Scripps College
Curious about something that isn't answered here? Feel free to ask Scripps College a question
At Scripps, we live and learn in a tight-knit community where we share our experiences and make meaningful connections with others. I feel very lucky to be surrounded by not only independent and self-motivated students at Scripps, but also other wonderful students from the 5Cs. I wouldn't trade my academic and social experience at Scripps for anything--it is truly unique and I've learned and grown so much since my first year!Read More
Scripps is an incredible place for any type of woman to attend. Everyone is so passionate about a variety of different disciplines. You can't help but be inspired by the people around you.Read More
Scripps is a women's college that fosters an incredibly strong community for learning. It creates a nurting environment that helps women go beyond thier comfort zone and expand what they are interested in. It is impossible not to feel at home at Scripps because of the amazing location, dorms, and food.Read More
The campus is beautiful in an approachable sort of way--each building feels like it could be a (very!) grand home. The students are sharp and hard-working, and the administration is very responsive.Read More
I can't imagine being anywhere else. From the great weather, food, and facilities to the enthusiastic and available professors, Scripps understands that healthy, happy students are better students. My time so far has been engaging and filled with opportunities.Read More
Scripps is an incredible institution in an incredible location. I have learned more than I ever expected in the past two years. Being outside LA and also being situated in the consortium are essential parts of the many opportunities offered to a woman as a Scripps student.Read More
The food is great! The opportunity to do undergraduate research is amazing. The professors and students are top notch. I have met lots of students from the different schools and they are people who want to help change the world for the better.Read More
Scripps is a challenging institution that offers a variety of options through the Claremont Colleges consortium. The campus, dorms, and people are beautiful. Scripps provides the true liberal arts education experience with skilled faculty and many opportunities.Read More


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This weekend, Bob Dylan and his Band will sing out from the beautiful stage at The Paramount for a three-night engagement, from Friday, October 17th to Sunday, October 19th. The Seattle dates actually kick off the North American portion of what's being called Never Ending Tour 2014, a joking reference to the fact that DylanRead more…
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Seriously, now--what is it with all these puppet/dummy/mannequin movies I've been watching lately? I went months and months with only one movie in this label group (that being the 1945 British anthology flick that started it all, Dead of Night), and now in the last several weeks there's been a veritable deluge of these soulless mockeries of humanity parading through DVD player, causing me no end of gooseflesh and strangely arousing dreams.
The latest float in this macabre parade is th 1960 French-Italian production Il Mulino delle donne di pietra, better known stateside by its literally-translated English title, Mill of the Stone Women, a leisurely-paced chiller with great sets, cool cinematography, and plenty of creepy atmosphere. And dummies. Lots and lots of blank-eyed, hair-raising dummies...
We open the film in 1890, with young journalist Hans (Pierre Brice) who has traveled to the village of Veeze in Rotterdam to interview Professor Gregorius Wahl (Herbert A.E. Böhme), a well-respected sculptor and curator of the famous "carousel" at the Wahl Mill where he lives. The carousel--a spookhouse nightmare device constructed by Wahl's father which uses the mill's wind-power to shuffle life-sized effigies of infamous dead folks like Cleopatra and Joan of Arc along a funhouse track--is celebrating its centenary, hence Hans' interest. Hans' childhood sweetheart Liselotte (Dany Carrel), with whom he is interested in rekindling a relationship, also lives nearby.
After being brusquely received by Professor Wahl, Hans is installed in an attic room and given a few days to complete his work. Sequestered in the mill, Hans begins to hear strange yelping howls coming from a locked room, and sees disembodied hands clutching a curtain before being warned away by the imperious housekeeper Selma. He also gets a look at Professor Wahl's studio, which is almost as full of nightmare fuel as the carousel--life-sized statues of gruesomely hanged women, beheaded women, strangled women --pretty much any nasty thing you can think of to do to a woman, chances are good Wahl has a model of it in the works. I wonder if he could have some kind of complex that will become important later?
Next we get to see Dr. Wahl teaching a sculpting class in which red-headed Eurobabe Amilore (Liana Orfei) is serving as a model. Liselotte is a student of Professor Wahl's and it must be said he's much more personable with his girl students than he was with Hans. Later Liselotte, Hans, and their childhood friend Raab (himself) meet at the beer hall to shoot the schnitzel while Amilore sings and shows some ankle. Woohoo! Turns out Amilore is going away to Paris that night, and so will never see any of her art friends again. Hmm...I wonder if she'll make it to Paris without incident?
Finally, back at the mill, Hans investigates those doglike yelping sounds and discovers their very unexpected source--Elfy Wahl (the Barbara Steele-lite Scilla Gabel), the professor's heretofore unmentioned daughter! Hans is immediately enthralled by Elfy's strange, ethereal beauty, and Elfy doesn't think he's chopped liver either. However, the population of the mill continues to grow as the very stern Dr. Bolem (Wolfgang Preiss, looking just as German as his name), the Wahl's live-in physician, warns Elfy away from the young man's affections. "I am the only person in the world who knows everything about you!" Bolem sneers. "I am the only person you have a right to love!"
Unsurprisingly Elfy is not at all down with this idea, and invites Hans to her room at eleven that evening, for what purpose she will not divulge. When he arrives that evening--walking through some very eerie tableaux of Professor Wahl's macabre work--he finds Elfy stretched out on her bed in a red negligee, her intentions nowhere near as mysterious as her origins. Unable to resist, Hans falls on top of her as she turns down the lantern and shrouds them both in darkness. This is not followed up by more of her dog-yelps, but oh my god it TOTALLY should have been.
The next day Raab (himself) and Liselotte come to see the Carousel in operation along with half the village. Liselotte makes her romantic ideas about Hans clear, but Hans is morose and withdrawn, telling her "I don't believe I'm worthy of you!" leading the audience to wonder just what kind of sick shit he and Elfy got up to last night. Dr. Wahl starts up the carousel and Liselotte faints from terror, like you do. She hits her head and leaves a bloodstain on Dr. Bolem's handkerchief. Hmm, I wonder if...
Like I said, the movie is VERY leisurely-paced, content to give tiny hint after tiny hint, building up layer upon layer of mystery and misdirection into a pervasive atmosphere of dread and unease. And for the patient viewer, it works--MTV addled youths might be asleep or out grinding a rail by now (punk kids! stay orf my lawn!), but if you stick with it you'll soon find yourself awash in atmosphere thick enough to cut with the dagger Elfy toys with while jealously eyeing Liselotte and Hans together. Gee, there's something a little off about that chick...
Once the dam breaks, though, it breaks in a big way. Elfy goes all Glenn Close on Hans, professing her love and refusing to accept his claims of love for Liselotte. Professor Wahl has meanwhile warned Hans that Elfy is an invalid, subject to a malady that could make any emotional shock fatal (the reason for Dr. Bolem's presence), but that doesn't stop Hans from dumping her like a Tonka Truck and bringing about her untimely demise. Full of remorse, Hans flees back to Veese.
Hans soon starts wigging in a BIG way. We are soon whisked away on a 6+ minute hallucination sequence in which Hans is preached at by a reverbed-out Dr. Wahl, sees visions of Elfy among spider webs in the attic, goes to the family crypt to find her corpse under glass in the tomb, and finally sees Amilore tied and gagged in an attic room. It's a very wild and creepy sequence, and a standout in the film.
When Hans finally comes down, Professor Wahl comes in and doesn't seem to know anything about his daughter having checked out or prisoners being shackled in the attic. Hans' frenzied investigations turn up nothing, making him lose his mind and all his dramatic acting ability. Really, Brice's acting is lamentable here, hammy and unconvincing as he regularly substitutes volume for pathos. However, this does allow him to deliver the line of the film to the calmly incredulous professor: "She's there, in her tomb! Dead! DEAD! NOT ALIVE!" That kills me. Dead. Not alive.
Finally Elfy herself(y) appears, none the worse for wear despite her slight bout of death. Convinced that he is in fact going crazy, Hans accepts Bolem and Wahl's flimsy explanations and leaves. No sooner is he out the door than the two men turn to each other and practically start rubbing their hands together villainously. "Bolem! My plan succeeded!" Wahl says, a mad gleam in his eye. And then we get a huge chunk of crazy exposition that almost erases all the sleepiness that was building up before.
Turns out Elfy really did die--but Bolem, being a mad scientist type, has discovered a way to bring her back to life using the blood of another girl (men's blood is apparently no good--it has to be a girl, and she has to be at least as hot as Elfy, apparently). They've been doing this for years, because Daddy Wahl just can't let his snooky-ookums go; unsurprisingly, Amilore ends up giving the fatal refill.
Walter Paisley, apparently--with a handy secret serum he is able to petrify the dead bodies, which he poses like his sculptures and puts on display in the carousel! That's right, they're not mannequins, they're dead bodies! Just as I always suspected the ones at JC Penney's were. See, Mom! You thought I was nuts!
So with all that explained, Dr. Bolem figures out thanks to his bloodstained handkerchief that with Liselotte's blood he can cure Elfy for good. When Elfy dies again, they kidnap Liselotte, Hans and Raab (himself) race to her rescue, Bolem picks a very inopportune time to renegotiate his employment with Wahl, and Wahl makes a real mess of contract negotiations by killing Bolem before the cure is administered! Wild with grief, Wahl sets fire to the mill just as Hans, Liselotte, and Raab (himself) are reunited and flee into the night. The professor cradles his dead darling in his arms as the dummies burn and reveal their grisly innards all around him. Fade out.
Despite its slow first hour, I ended up with a smile on my face thanks to the film's crazy final third. Böhme's mad raging at the end is something to see, and there are some great effects with Wahl's "sculpture," particularly when he places Amilore's severed head on top of her pre-posed body (the sound effects are not spared, giving a nice icky touch). The girls are all lovely, and Dany Carrel even gives us a brief glimpse of nipple during the transfusion scene, shocking indeed for 1960. (The Mondo Macabro DVD also includes as an extra a gallery of nude photos of Scilla Gabel, who is quite buxom and lovely.) The mad science subplot is wild, and the ending very cool.
Mill of the Stone Women 2.5 thumbs--better than your "run of the mill" horror flicks. Haha! Hey, thanks folks, I'll be here all week.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Mill of the Stone Women (1960): or, Every Body Must Be Stone
Posted by The Vicar of VHS at 3:05 PM
Labels: '60s, 2-3 thumbs, Dolls Dummies and Puppets, Mad Science
2 comments:
- Karswell said...
Glad to hear you enjoyed this one... it's one of my all time favorites. And yes--- the LADIES!!
- April 24, 2008 at 3:42 PM
- Michael J. said...
As atmospheric as any top Hammer flick, and equal to same in the Eurobabe dept. Italian/French co-production shot in Holland... WTH? Oddball reason enough to give it a spin. And that half-nipple thing -- I mean, did they just not notice 'til they got the dailies back? It just adds a further layer of weirdness. Top-notch stuff all around if you can tolerate the slow pace.
- May 25, 2009 at 4:15 PM
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