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Aluminum Close-Up Pad by Dan and Dave
Starting at: $149.95No journey is ready without an Aluminum Close-Up Pad in your valise. Each pad has been engineered to a level where mobility rivals aesthetic design, effectively creating an essential companion to the luggage of the jet-setting conjuror. In addition to its versatility, the slim aluminum base of the pad is coupled with water-wicking velvet on the face, providing an ideal surface to display your skill. Whether it be soaring high above the clouds or racing along the rails, let our industrial pads complete the voyage to your next destination. Includes a wax cotton slipcase so nice you may just end up using it for your computer. Measures 14.3 inches by 9.8 inches.
Hollingworth Collection by Guy Hollingworth$149.95Six years ago we began a voyage to produce a project that possessed potential to transform the world of magic. Today that journey culminates with the release of the Hollingworth Collection, and needless to say, our groundbreaking expectations have been far surpassed. With the aid of the Hollingworth Collection, a compendium of original and updated material spanning The London Collection, Routines, and The Reformation, we are confident that Guy will influence you, much like he did us, for the better. Signed and limited to 1,000 copies.
Gold Abalone Clip by Joe Porper$144.95This luxurious take on the original Classic Clip was designed to keep your cards like new in humid conditions while presenting an element of beauty. Machined from aluminum, anodized in gold, and inlayed with authentic Abalone from the shores of Hawaii. Available in Red or Blue. Handcrafted in Los Angeles. No two Abalone Clips are the same. Designed to hold 52 playing cards inside their case. Available in 2 color options. Please see our Original Abalone Clip for additional color options.
Card Holster by Dan and Dave
Starting at: $149.95The Card Holster is a leather wallet designed for every-day use. It holds up to six credit cards in two pockets and has an elastic strap for cash, receipts, tickets, and so on. It can also transform into a holster for your playing cards, which we never leave home without. Crafted by Avund Goods from vegetable-tanned Horween leather. Made in the USA.
Abalone Clip by Joe Porper$144.95This luxurious take on the original Classic Clip was designed to keep your cards like new in humid conditions while presenting an element of beauty. Machined from aluminum and inlayed with authentic Abalone from the shores of Hawaii. Handcrafted in Los Angeles. No two Abalone Clips are the same. Designed to hold 52 playing cards inside their case. Available in 4 color options. Please see our Gold Abalone Clip for additional color options.
Woody Clip by Joe Porper
Starting at: $124.95Take shelter in the cabin, let the warmth from the hearth fill the the room, and allow our Woody Clip protect what matters most. Constructed from industrial strength aluminum and inlayed with the finest quality imported wood, the Woody Clip is the definitive piece in the pockets of every naturalist, woodsman, and wayfarer. After having been sanded, stained, and lacquered by hand, the highest level of craftsmanship and excellence is as apparent as the leaves of the cedars. Not unlike the forest floor, each clip is completely unique. Handcrafted in Los Angeles. Designed to hold 52 playing cards inside their case.
The Complete Walton by Roy Walton$134.95
We are very pleased to announce that The Complete Walton is back in print.
These new volumes have been re-edited, printed and bound to an exceptional standard using the original diagrams. They are beautiful.
Dai Vernon once described Roy Walton as "Truly Brilliant". Read these books and you'll know why. The Complete Walton includes literally hundreds of effects using an ordinary deck of playing cards. The body of work clearly reveals how obsessed with playing cards Roy is, and is a collection you'll be coming back to for years to come.
Both volumes are included. That's over 600 pages covering well over 200 effects with playing cards.
Utopia by Dani DaOrtiz$149.95
Everyone is talking about him. His methods are unique, his presentations brilliantly entertaining. Now he reveals all on this incredible DVD box set. Four discs of wonderful magic plus an interview by Luis de Matos.
Incredible magic from one the world's most astonishing magicians… Dani DaOrtiz!
Deck of the Month Club by Dan and Dave
Starting at: $119.95A one-year subscription to our Deck of the Month Club includes first class delivery of one brand new deck every month. A great opportunity to try out 12 completely different decks or start a playing card collection of your own. All Club members will receive the same deck each month. 12 different decks (color variations excluded) will be sent over the course of one calendar year. USA customers only. Shipping included in price.
The Magic of Fred Robinson by Peter Duffie$104.95
Fred Robinson was a private man but his skill at sleight-of-hand with cards and coins was legendary. He could be found at the Magic Circle on Monday evenings and many well-known names from around the world paid homage to Fred and traveled countless miles to witness for themselves his legendary skills.
I state without fear of exaggerating that Fred was one of the all-time greats; especially with cards. - Dai Vernon
Card College on DVD by Roberto Giobbi$124.95
Roberto Giobbi's remarkable Card College books have become the groundbreaking course in the subject - an analysis of the art, science, technique and philosophy of card magic. Card College has changed the way a generation of magicians have learned card magic, and changed the way they think about it.
On this four volume DVD set Roberto not only demonstrates and explains the primary techniques of card magic, quickly giving you the ability and skills you need for performance, but also shares the wealth of his experience, based on years of successful performing. And if you're already a pro you'll find advanced material, moves, sleights and psychology to enhance your performance and shows.
Masterfile by Lennart Green$149.95
Here for the first time Lennart Green reveals the secrets behind his award winning professional act and dozens more card and close-up routines, sleights, flourishes and the incredible card controls that have made his performances legendary.
Also included two hours of exclusive interview material.
Hand-Printed Gift Certificate by Dan and Dave$100.00Hand-printed for a touch of class.
Variety Box, Endless Summer Ed. by Dan and Dave$149.95Seasons will change, winds will rise, and time will continue its endless march. The beauty and nostalgia of summer is here one morning and gone the next with nothing but a warm kiss goodbye. But for some, those dog days of beach musings and afternoon escapades linger. For our next addition to the Variety Box line, it's our pleasure to introduce Variety Box: Endless Summer Edition. Inspired by the gorgeous sunsets of Southern California, and the everyday promise of perpetual sunshine, we could not be happier with this unique selection of playing cards. Limited to 144 numbered boxes. Signed certificate of authenticity included.
Zarrow: A Lifetime of Magic by David Ben$124.95Containing over one hundred and fifty of Herb's most cherished secrets, sleights and routines, most of which appear here in print for the first time. The book, a distillation of one humble man's journey to the essence of his art, is destined to join a short list of true classics of magic.
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ABC 22 News Team
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Dodgers Fan Accused of Defying Great American Ball Park Ban
CINCINNATI (AP) -- A Los Angeles Dodgers fan has been accused of trespassing and making threats at the Cincinnati ballpark that he was banned from six years ago.
Forty-year-old Troy Sexton of Hurricane, West Virginia, was arrested Tuesday night at the Dodgers-Reds game. Police say he had been ordered to stay away from Great American Ball Park after his arrest in a melee when the Dodgers were in town in 2008.
Sexton was jailed Thursday under $40,000 bond on misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and obstructing official business. He also will face a felony count of burglary charging he trespassed intending to commit a crime.
A police affidavit states that Sexton made threats that he wanted to "shatter lives" over the next couple of days.
His court-appointed attorney, Amy Williams, says she is reviewing the case.
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The Ferguson Decision
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Applications for US jobless aid jump to 313,000
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits jumped last week, pushing total applications above 300,000 for the first time in nearly three months.
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Annual Holiday Party
Acadiana CARES presents its Annual Holiday Party
12/11/2014 read more
World AIDS Day Event - 'deepsouth' screening
Free Screening of 'deepsouth,' Award-Winning Documentary about HIV/AIDS in Rural Southern Communities
12/1/2014 read more
Red Ribbon Ball
Red Ribbon Ball on November 29, 2014 at Fame Nightlife. Drag Show and Live & Silent Auctions Benefiting Acadiana CARES. Doors open at 8:00 PM!
11/29/2014 read more
Office Closed-Acadian Day
The Offices will be closed on Thursday November 27th and Friday November 28th for the Thanksgiving Holiday. The office will open on Monday December 1, 2014.
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Earthquakes Top Cause of Natural Disaster Deaths
The death toll in last month's quake in Turkey stands as testimony to the devastation earthquakes -- responsible for nearly 60% of deaths from natural disasters worldwide -- can cause. more
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Earthquakes Top Cause of Natural Disaster Deaths
The death toll in last month's quake in Turkey stands as testimony to the devastation earthquakes -- responsible for nearly 60% of deaths from natural disasters worldwide -- can cause. more
ADHD Drugs Don't Damage Hearts
Stimulant drugs for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder didn't increase the risk of cardiovascular events in children, researchers found. more
APHA: Hospitals May Have to Mandate Flu Shot, Panel Says
WASHINGTON -- Hospitals and clinics where fewer than 90% of healthcare workers get an annual flu shot should consider mandating vaccination, according to draft recommendations by a federal advisory committee. more
Listeriosis Deaths Now at 29 in Tainted Cantaloupe Outbreak
The number of people with confirmed infections with one of the four outbreak-associated strains of Listeria monocytogenes has risen slightly to 139 in 28 states, adding Nevada and Utah to the list, according to the CDC. more
'Achy Breaky Heart' Misses a Beat for CPR
The search for the perfect musical accompaniment to support guideline-compliant chest compression rates and depths during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has hit a sour note, according to a small study. more
APHA: Painkiller Abuse on Rise in White, Older Women
WASHINGTON -- As the nation's opioid problem has shifted from heroin to prescription painkillers, the demographics of abusers has shifted as well, according to research presented here. more
Economics at Heart of Drug Shortages
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's plan to deal with current and future drug shortages got a lukewarm reception from several observers with knowledge of the problem. more
Home HPV Tests Good Bet for Poor Nations
In poor or developing countries, home-based sampling for human papillomavirus could pick up many cases of cervical lesions and cancer that would otherwise be missed, researchers suggested. more
Deaths from OD of Rx Painkillers Triple in 10 Years
Deaths caused by overdoses of prescription opioid painkillers more than tripled over a decade, to nearly 15,000, CDC researchers reported. more
Airport Metal Detectors Safe for Pacemakers
Metal detector security screening appears safe for people with pacemakers or implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), researchers found. more


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Antenna TV's Fall 2014 Schedule
- August 24th, 2014 at 12:02PM
- News
- 17 Comments
August 27th, 2014 Update:It's new fall schedule may underwhelm but Antenna TV has just announced it will be adding 15 shows to its lineup in 2015: Newhart, The Jeffersons, Mork & Mindy, One Day at a Time, Family Ties, Evening Shade, Leave it to Beaver, Doogie Howser, MD, Mr. Belvedere, Dear John, and and Small Wonder.
Original Post:
Unlike Me-TV, classic television digital specialty network Antenna TV apparently hasn't done much to get the word out about its new fall schedule, which debuts Monday, September 1st. Last week Me-TV launched a splashy web page about its Fall 2014 lineup. So far, it looks like Antenna TV has just posted a PDF of its schedule to its Facebook page and website.
Antenna TV isn't adding any new shows next month, unless you count its Saturday educational/information programming. A number of shows are being shuffled around. Hazel will be leaving the schedule while more recent sitcoms The Nanny and Married with Children will be returning after almost a year's absence. To be fair, I don't watch a lot of Antenna TV so I can't say whether there has been any on-air promotion.
Take a look at the new schedule and hit the comments with your thoughts.
17 Comments
I'm glad to see Bachelor father in the afternoon—it is surprisingly well written (aside from the racism of the "house boy"–although Peter does get quite a bit of normal storylines along with ones that make you cringe.)and Noreen Corcoran is a very refreshing actress.
And Barney Miller is back, so that's kind of fun. Besides that, I'm glad to see that they kept the hour block of Bewitched on weekday evenings.
Glad to see The Patty Duke Show, Burns and Allen and Rin Tin Tin all staying among others. Would really like to see Antenna pick up Love That Bob/The Bob Cummings Show since they have Bachelor Father.
I love the Norman Lear shows except for Good Times. Good Times was only watchable for the first two seasons. After John Amos was let go from the series the show tanked big time; and with Esther Rolle's absence from the series the show was completely unwatchable.
Is there any way that Antenna TV can play episodes of Three's Company that aren't so badly butchered for extra commercial time? It's not as bad as TVLand's practice of shaving five to six minutes off of these episodes, but it's still a real bummer to watch this show and see the obvious cuts.
"Good Times" was not a bad show, but Jimmie Walker's character was so buffoonish it tainted the show. I loved Ja Net Dubois, Bernadette Stanis, Ralph Carter, Johnny Brown and Janet Jackson. They were all very good!
I wish hazel could stay one of my favorite……
Sorry hazel was taken off..
You have great shows like married with children and wkrp, but you put them on too late for some of us that have to get up.
"Married With Children" isn't fit to be viewed in a sewer trap.
I am sorry to see they took Hazel and Jack benny off of there schedule between 4am and 6 pm.
It isn't fair they say post a comment and then I can't even get it posted.
I'm beginning to think that Antenna TV has jumped the shark by airing some of the worst TV shows ever to disgrace the airwaves, that being "Married With Children" and "The Nanny."
Just because these shows are 20 years old does NOT make them classics! The '80s, '90s to current day has given us some of the worst programming ever.
Now I see the doodle-brains in charge of programming at Antenna TV are digging themselves a deeper grave with future rubbish like "Dear John," "Small Wonder," "Doogie Howser," etc, These shows are junk! Absolute junk! They were junk when they were new and will they will always remain junk!
What's next reruns of "Full House," "The Apprentice" and "Wife Swap?" We all know what happened to Nickelodeon and TV Land. Will the same fate occur with Antenna TV????
Loving that Small Wonder and Doogie Howser will be in the line up. 2 of my fave shows as a kid! Thank you for adding some childhood memories :)
I can't believe Antenna TV would show "Small Wonder" and "Doogie Hauser." These shows are garbage 1980's material. I remember these shows when they were new and thought they were horrible! They aren't classics even if they're on the cusp of being 30 years old. If this is Antenna TV's direction with future programming then they've lost me as a faithful viewer.
Would it be possible for nostalgic TV networks to air some of those great, old, PBS instructional shows from the '70? Inside Out, Think About, Wordsmith, All About You, Tony Salatan's The Songbag, etc.
The Jack Benny Program and Burns and Allen need to go. Neither of these shows are funny at all. I miss seeing Hazel. I don't care for The Patty Duke Show. I'd love to see those terrific Normal Lear shows during late night. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Forever Fernwood would be a treat to see rerun.
Thank you so much for adding "One Day At A Time" to the schedule. It's a sitcom that has rarely been seen in syndication and deserves to be shown.


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A picture hanging bracket comprising a pair of complementary parts, one for attachment to the picture and the other for attachment to the wall, which parts interact to hold the picture and also to permit leveling after the picture is hung on the wall.
1. A fastener for attaching pictures and the like to the wall, comprising in combination:
a first part for atachment to the picture structure;
a second part for attachment to the wall structure;
said first and second parts each including a base member;
means for attaching the base of one part to one structure and the base of the other part to the other structure;
each part including a post extending at an acute angle to the base;
each part also including a recess having a bottom surface which is serrated, each said recess being configured for receiving the post of the other part such that when the part attached to the picture is positioned with the post extending generally downward and the part attached to the wall is positioned with the post extending generally upward, the parts can be interlocked with the post of each part extending into the recess of the other part to hold the picture on the wall; and
each extending end of the post being serrated to engage the bottom surface of the recess of the other part and hold the parts at the angle selected relative to each other.
In hanging pictures and other objects on the wall, it is preferable not to use nails because upon removal, holes are left in the walls which are unsightly and must be repaired. Thus there have evolved brackets of the type which glue onto the wall and onto the picture if necessary. However, such brackets are usually difficult to place on the picture and on the wall such that the picture hangs at a level attitude.
It is the general object of this invention to provide an improved bracket for hanging objects on the wall which bracket permits the alignment of the object and once aligned, firmly holds the object in that attitude.
A fastener for attaching objects to the wall comprising first and second parts, each part including a backing plate for attachment to the corresponding wall or picture and including a post extending at an acute angle to the backing plate, each part including a recess for receiving the post of the other part such that said members interfit with the first member being inverted relative to the second member, and surfaces on both parts which abutt and hold one part stationary relative to the other part while permitting adjustment of their relative positions to allow alignment of the hung object.
FIG. 1 shows a picture with a part attached for attachment onto a wall;
FIG. 2 shows one part of the fastener in an enlarged perspective view;
FIG. 3 shows both parts of the fastener in position to be interfitted for hanging an object on the wall;
FIG. 4 shows one part of the fastener in cross-section;
FIG. 5 is a plan view partially cut away of the two parts of the fastener fitted together.
Shown in FIG. 1, is a fastener 10 attached for the attachment for hanging a picture 11 on a wall. After attachment to the wall, it is sometimes necessary to adjust the attitude of the picture through the angles illustrated by the lines 12 for proper horizontal alignment. However where brackets are glued directly to the picture and the wall, such adjustment has been difficult.
The present invention is shown in FIGS. 2 through 5 and comprises the fastener 10 made of a pair of parts 14 and 15 which are identical and which interfit when one is inverted relative to the other. Each part comprises a base member 16 having a flat surface 17 for attachment to the picture structure or the wall structure. Preferably there is located on this flat surface an adhesive 18 in the form of a layer of sticky material which will adhere to the wall or to the back of an object such as a picture frame.
Extending at an acute angle relative to the plane of the base member of the part and away from the front face 19 is a post 20 preferably formed integrally with the baseplate in a one-piece molded plastic assembly. The post is generally rectangular in cross-section and in this embodiment extends at an angle of approximately 25� to the baseplate. The extending end thereof is formed along a convex arc drawn around the approximate center point of the largest side of the post. This end is also roughened in some manner, preferably by forming serrations 22 thereon extending across the end and generally parallel to the shorter edges 24 and perpendicular to the plane of the post.
The baseplate 16 also includes a recess 25 therein having a cross-section slightly larger than the cross-section of the post 20 and extending parallel thereto preferably in the space between the post and the baseplate. Thus one side of this recess is formed by the extended surface 26 of the post and the other side 27 is the baseplate body. The bottom edge 28 preferably includes serrations and also is of a concave arcuate configuration generally formed with the center of the arc being roughly the center of the adjacent post 22.
Thus to assemble a wall fastener for a picture, a pair of these parts are fitted together as shown in FIG. 3. The part A is fixed to the picture or object to be attached to the wall and the part B is attached to the wall. Attachment is achieved by pressing the adhesive surface 18 against the picture or wall. One part is positioned upside down relative to the other with the part A attached to the picture having the post 20A extending downward. Thereafter the picture is maneuvered until the post 20A is slid into the opening 25 of the part B until the end 22A thereof contacts the bottom of the recess in the part B and the end 22B contacts the bottom of the recess in the part A.
For adjustment of the attitude of the picture after hanging, the picture can be lifted very slightly and tilted to one side or the other with the ends of the posts sliding along the roughened bottom of the recess as shown in FIG. 5. By thereafter lowering the picture back onto the fastener, the roughened end 22 of each part is pressed against the roughened bottom of the receiving recess to hold the picture in the position selected. Thus even though the fasteners might be attached to the wall or picture to initially hold the picture in a non-horizontal attitude, the fastener can be maneuvered so as to straighten up the picture relative to the wall and hold it in that position because of the interlocking surfaces on the parts. Also the adjacent surfaces 26 of the posts can be roughened to assist in holding the parts stationary relative to each other.
It should also be realized that while a preferred embodiment has been described, other means can be used for attaching the units to the wall and the picture such as nails, et cetera. In addition, the units can be made larger or smaller depending upon the weight and size of the object to be attached to the wall. Thus it can be seen that the subject invention provides an improved method of attaching objects to walls and of allowing adjustment of the object after such attachment.
Patent Citations
Referenced by
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for my husband. It's an account with $5k limit, owe $460. Good Standing, two lates about three years ago (30 days). Should I call them and ask about reporting on TU? Will they backdate from the beginning of the account OR backdate a year? I don't want those two lates to show up. It would really help with his utilization, bringing it down quite a bit.
Poke the bear, or leave it be?
Which will create the greater issue? The TL for utilization, or the reporting of two 30's over a few years old? I doubt you'd take a hit for old lates, in exchange for 5k reporting. I could be wrong?!?!
myFICO is the consumer division of FICO. Since its introduction 20 years ago, the FICO® Score has become a global standard for measuring credit risk in the banking, mortgage, credit card, auto and retail industries. 90 of the top 100 largest U.S. financial institutions use the FICO Score to make consumer credit decisions.>> About myFICO


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There are rumours, strong and persistent, that the ruling non-state actors of the Bharatiya Junta Party (BJP) are going for a makeover of history text books to right all historical wrongs perpetrated in these 60 years by 'Eminent Historians' hooked to the
The Times of India
Upps, the cover of this day is not available.
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timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ Cover Newspaper The Times of India - Monday 26th of May 2014
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Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp has picked up a 25% stake in online property brokerage startup PropTiger for $30 million.
"Heartfelt tributes to people who lost their lives in Mumbai terror attack of 2008. The perpetrators of Mumbai attack are yet to be punished," he said in a tweet.
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a bill to amend the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act to include leader of the single largest opposition party as a member of the selection committee to choose the CBI chief.
There is no ban on GM crop field trials either by the government or the Supreme Court, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said.
No text for this new
The VHP and its backed outfits have also said they want idols of Godess Saraswati, the Hindu deity of learning, installed in missionary schools.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat told intellectuals, educationists and academicians to come out with a new indigenous model of education that would be universal in its appeal and produce better human beings.
A Japanese construction company has put forward its proposal to solve the issue of rising property prices – start building cities in the ocean.
Officer Wilson said he feared for his life because of Michael Brown's imposing stature. "It was like a five-year-old holding on to Hulk Hogan," said the officer.


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If you know anything about this artist, you know that it's 100% meant to look like a butt plug
If you know anything about this artist, you know that it's 100% meant to look like a butt plug
I'm pretty sure this is exactly what bojack was making fun of
Excuse me. The term is "yard sard"
Brothers and sisters are natural enemies. Like English and the scots! Or Scots and scots! -grounds keeper willie
Poor Karen, going from a number one show to a flop that will be canceled after three episodes.
Ugh. You don't need to have children to be fulfilled in life. This list is stupid.
My political stance on Facebook is "batman" so other than justice, I don't think Facebook knows how I vote.
You know planet fitness is a "no judgement zone" right? You should be glad that these people are trying to stay healthy no matter how they do it. Pizza or not they're bringing people in to exercise. Mostly because they promise not to have judgmental assholes like this post.
Can we talk about how AMAZING her hair is though.
I started full on sobbing at "Friend for the end of the world" like they tell you that the medior is unpreventable at the beginning of the movie. But god. When it happened I was still not emotionally prepared. I just curled up on my couch after and cried for hours.
#3 is rude and untrue. She had a mental break down and you guys are assholes
Maybe if they weren't all removed for copyright.
Her hair looks like a wig
I practice classic rap songs in my car all the time so i'll ready to impress strangers at the bar.
Simple homemade "Chipotle" burrito bowl. -Boil a bag of rice
-once that is done, take the rice out into a bowl
-then use the same pot to warm up a can of black beans
-if you want spicy beans add a little hot sauce while they boil
-while the beans are heating up, chop up an avocado
-add some salsa to the mashed up avocado (to taste) and a tiny bit of lime juice to make the simplest guac ever
- when the beans are heated up and the guac is all mixed, put on top of the rice, add some shredded cheese and enjoy!
I'm only offended because this hunk wasn't aware of my food allergies and that clearly isn't gluten free bruschetta
Tomorrow on buzzfeed "is the pope a catholic?"
Ahhh, memories of the orthodontists office and sneak-reading Jane
Bjork evolved into morrisey!
He got married in the future, this is him with a high school boyfriend in present day. God people, always so quick to complain.
The tumblr one was hard because even of I hadn't heard of them it still seemed like it could exist somehow. Brb starting "cars that look like animals"
No fish, no guitar looking thing. I saw no basses dropped.
Saying "rape alarm" isn't nearly as funny without a welsh accent.
Traci with an i. THANKS MOM
What musicians do you think Katy perry is into there though?
Hashtag Edith's bitchface.
Dear "I enjoy a dance" I will gladly indulge you with one.
Pretty sure Ashley does voices in video games a lot now. I don't care enough to check his imdb. He certainly looks like one now though.
Whenever I get sweet and cute to my boyfriend, I always remember to end it with "right after Benedict cumberbatch" "You are the handsomest guy in the world boyfriend! Right after bennidict of course.
Red only in a college town in Texas.
But they taste so much better when stale!
Wash your hair girl
God I miss my grandma
I think you mean Skarsglåry
David morrisey was on an episode of doctor who, can't be more British than that.
http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload/27623/tn-500_fh000031.jpg ets talk about how his girlfriend is like a fourth of his age. Not to say that I wouldn't date patrick stewart though.
I like him because even though he's stupidly handsome, he looks like the kind that's a chubby chaser. And that gives me hope.
Number seven is quite justified if you ask me.
Lauren Conrad's line is actually quite cute. I worked at a kohls and was constantly surprised at how cute it was.


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Tags: Art, badbird, craft, Embroidery, fish, folk, folk art, free, free pattern, kantha, pattern, sew, stitch, thedoomgirls, zuill
Tags: Art, badbird, craft, Embroidery, fish, folk, folk art, free, free pattern, kantha, pattern, sew, stitch, thedoomgirls, zuill
Andrea, I've been enjoying your blog for a while now. You fish pattern has so inspired me. I would like to make a Priority Quilt for donation to the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative. Would you give me permission to use your pattern for this? If you haven't heard of the AAQI, give it a google
no no no… I'm too busy, I have no time for stitching but I love your fish. ugh, I love it so much…
Andrea, I look forward to your embroidery designs every month, I'm going to embroider the fish in three sizes and hang them from string….
I don't really like fishy things but by golly you have converted me with this pattern! Beautiful!
That is super cool looking! I love Amy's idea of hanging them from a string. Thanks so much, I'll be linking.
I love this design. I just finished embroidering two of your designs and I am working on another now to add to my hoopla wall- I will definitely have to add this one to my to-do list. I am excited about all the texture possibilities!
Andrea, cute fish. Also wanted you to know that I linked to you today in my blog here.
Thanks for the information about bird expressions! I also linked to your etsy shop!
Love the fish! So appropriate for the March Pisces people. saved for when I'm into embroidery again. Thank you.
You are awesome! I truly love you patterns and look forward to them every month. Thank you so much!
Your patterns are just sooo sweet!
This is nice, thank you
Hi there all, here every one is sharing these familiarity, so it's fastidious to read this website, and I
used to pay a quick visit this website daily.


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By Cheryl Baehr
By Mabel Suen
Plank Road Pizza Paves the Way to Good Eats
By Cheryl Baehr
By Mabel Suen
Drummer Finds a New Calling at Grove East
By Cheryl Baehr
Is Ballpark Village Cannibalizing Downtown?
By Nancy Sitles
Here's Our Lineup for Holiday Spirits!
By Nancy Stiles
By Patrick Hurley
More tips and tidbits from the local food scene: The hotties over at Babalu's (8 1/2 S. Euclid, 314-367-7833) are conga-dancing in anticipation of their appearance in the September issue of Bon Appétit magazine. Babalu's is one of five restaurants featured in an article about Caribbean food in the U.S.
And up the street at Café Balaban (405 N. Euclid, 314-361-8085), the newest midweek shtick is called Tuesdays Tastings, featuring an extended small-plates (and relatively small-priced) menu complemented by a specially priced list of about 20 half-bottles of wine, topping out at $20 for a Mumm's Cordon Rouge or a 1998 Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir.
150 E. Argonne Drive
Kirkwood, MO 63122
Category: Restaurant > American
Region: Kirkwood
A bit farther west -- in Chesterfield, to be exact -- R.L. Steamers (14156 Olive Blvd., 314-439-8060) is hosting a moderately exotic wine event of its own on Monday, April 30, featuring hors d'oeuvres, three courses and dessert complemented by five wines from New Zealand. Cost is $48 a head; reservations required, Maori full-body tattooing optional.


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(T)his wolf has been spotted on the Kaibab Plateau, the very place where conservation hero Aldo Leopold worked to exterminate wolves in the 1920s. In his essay, "Thinking Like a Mountain," included in 1949's A Sand County Almanac, he wrote about the role wolves play in controlling deer numbers and thus staving off catastrophic population crashes when giant deer herds eat all the available vegetation. He also recounts shooting at a pack of wolves there (after all, as he writes, "In those days we never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf"). He killed one, and, in what is among the most famous passages of the book, he watched "a fierce green fire dying in her eyes." Somehow, at that moment, he understood the ecological role of the wolf. Yet by the time his book came out, there were no more wolves on the Kaibab.
Wolves once roamed the U.S. from sea to shining sea. But on the Kaibab and elsewhere, humans shot and poisoned them into oblivion. In recent decades, reintroduction and conservation efforts in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes have successfully revived gray wolf populations. And now, the carnivores are making inroads into other historic territories on their own, says Suzanne Stone of Defenders of Wildlife, who has worked on Northern Rockies wolf conservation for decades. "The wolves from the Northern Rockies used to be connected to the Mexican wolf population," which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently trying to reestablish in Arizona and New Mexico. "So this is a very natural process that was in place for thousands of years. It's exciting to be able to see the potential for (connectivity) happening again."
"Dispersal," or leaving one's pack to find a mate and establish new territory, helps maintain genetic diversity and tends to occur when wolves are in their "teenage years." Thanks to tools like radio and GPS collars and DNA analysis, we're increasingly able to piece together the epic treks canid explorers make into areas we previously vanquished them from. Some journeys attract massive amounts of attention, like that of OR7, the male wolf who, in 2011, became the first wild wolf to enter California in decades. Others go little noticed.
Here at High Country News, we plotted a few notable wolf treks of late on a map, with lines that give a crude sense of the distance they've traveled. The animals, of course, don't follow straight lines from one place to the next; the plots are rough estimates of where they dispersed from and arrived. In the case of the Great Lakes population, which occupies northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, we used just one point to show the general region in which the core population lives. Click on the red markers for more info about specific wolves.
Cally Carswell is a High Country News contributing editor based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She tweets @callycarswell.
Thumbnail photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.]]>
1974: The nearly extinct gray wolf was listed as endangered.
1995: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced gray wolves into Idaho and Yellowstone National Park.
May 2011: The now-thriving predator was delisted in Montana, Idaho and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah, but remained protected in Wyoming because the state lacked a viable management plan ("How the gray wolf lost its endangered status — and how enviros helped," HCN, 6/6/11). After Wyoming revised its plan, that decision was reversed in September 2012. Under the state's plan, wolves could be shot on sight in the "predator zone," which spans nearly 80 percent of Wyoming.
Wyoming's attempt at wolf management is over, at least for now; conservationists challenged the 2012 decision and a U.S. District Court recently affirmed that the delisting was premature and a violation of federal law. Defenders of Wildlife CEO Jamie Rappaport Clark said, "Any state that has a wolf-management plan that allows for unlimited wolf killing should not be allowed to manage wolves." The state's fall wolf-hunting season is now on hold.]]>
The reaction of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation? A little more tepid. Director Doug Vincent-Lang sees any attempt by the feds to usurp Alaska's wildlife management authority as overreach, and this new rule — which maintains hunting rights on Alaska's 22 million acres of national preserves but bans certain controversial practices — is overreach at its worst: "unfounded and unjust," he told Alaska Dispatch News.
The proposed rule is currently up for public comments, and will likely be implemented next year. It prohibits the baiting of brown bears, the killing of wolves and coyotes when pups are in tow, and the use of artificial light to kill black bears in their dens. It also pre-emptively prohibits any other practice "with the intent or potential to alter or manipulate natural predator-prey dynamics." In other words, killing predators to boost ungulate populations will no longer be allowed in Alaska's national preserves.
To understand just how big this is, it helps to backtrack to 2002, when former Republican governor Frank Murkowski took office. One of Murkowski's first actions was to remove five of seven members of the Board of Game — the body responsible for most wildlife decisions — and replace them with new appointees more supportive of "intensive management:" reducing predator populations to bolster the moose and caribou that many Alaskans depend on for food. Almost overnight, the state went from non-lethal management to gunning down wolves from the air.
In the dozen years since, Alaska's predator control efforts have only intensified. In addition to allowing aerial shooting, the board eliminated a 122-square-mile buffer protecting wolves around Denali National Park; allowed the baiting of brown bears, illegal since statehood; extended the wolf and coyote hunting season to months when the animals have pups (and their pelts are worthless); and approved "spotlighting," or using artificial light to rouse hibernating black bears to shoot them as they emerge.
Many environmentalists dislike such practices, but they accept that Alaska has the right to do what it will on state land. Yet because Alaskan agencies manage wildlife on both state and federal land, the board also tried to implement such practices on Alaska's national preserves, where hunting is allowed.
The issue drove a wedge between state wildlife agencies and the National Park Service. The Board of Game says it's only adhering to a 1994 food security law; the Park Service maintains that manipulating the predator and prey dynamic is antithetical to their very existence: "We're managing parks not as a game farm that produces high numbers of prey species, but as an ecosystem where you see natural gains and losses in predator and prey populations," says spokesman John Quinley. "That's based on (federal) law."
Since 2001, the Park Service has asked the Board of Game roughly 60 times to exclude certain practices from national preserves, to no avail. So each year, the Park Service goes through the complex, costly process of individually overriding each of the state hunting regulations in each national preserve. Each year, public notices and meetings are held around the state. They've become so routine hardly anyone bothers to show up any more.
That's about to change. The new rule will not only replace temporary, inefficient bans with a permanent, statewide ban, it'll also enable the agency to opt out of any future hunting regulations that could inhibit natural diversity. "We don't know what (the state) is going to come up with in the future," says Stratton. "If they decide they want to allow brown bear baiting in some place where they don't have it now, this gives the Park Service a way to push back."
Yet though the proposed rule will help the Park Service maintain natural conditions on the land it manages, it won't help predators that inadvertently wander beyond the agency's invisible boundaries. In the past several years, the state has responded to feds' temporary bans by dropping an agreement to spare wolves radio-collared for scientific research. Last year, roughly half of the wolf population of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve were shot from helicopters when they left park boundaries, including the entire Lost Creek pack, which had been studied by Park Service biologists for 20 years.
Editor's note: For more on the new rule, check out Former governor Tony Knowles on Alaska's predator policies.
Krista Langlois is an editorial fellow at High Country News. She tweets @KristaLanglois2.]]>
Since he's left office, though, the state's predator control efforts have grown increasingly lethal. Knowles continues to push for a more moderate approach, chairing the National Parks Advisory Board and testifying against bear snaring. He spoke with High Country News this week about a new National Park Service proposal that will curtail predator control on federal lands. The following is edited for length and clarity.
High Country News How has Alaska's approach to wildlife management changed in the 12 years since you left office?
Tony Knowles The most disappointing thing is that the balance of views on the Board of Game has just disappeared. I tried to work with a balanced board that reflected subsistence hunters, sport hunters, guides and conservationists, but now the Board is made up of people who want to make hunting ungulates the priority for wildlife management. There's been a focused effort to dramatically reduce populations of wolves, coyotes and bears, and the methods and means they've used are both unscientific and unethical.
HCN Like what?
TK Bears. Even though bears are a predator both of moose and caribou, snaring them or killing sows with cubs in their dens to somehow, hopefully increase moose and caribou numbers just doesn't work. Grizzly bears have one of the slowest reproduction rates of all mammals. It's so easy to over-harvest them, and that's just never been part of the Alaska history. When the Board of Game proposed allowing snaring across Alaska, there was a group of wildlife biologists, scientists and researchers that protested snaring as unscientific because you can't target or differentiate between sows with cubs and male bears. And it's incredibly inhumane.
HCN Do you think the changes in state policy reflect an overall shift in the attitude toward wildlife in Alaska?
TK I think the vast majority of Alaskans have a respect for all wildlife and certainly the ethics of harvesting. I can remember Jay Hammond, one of the great Alaska governors, when he was a homesteader out in Lake Clark. There was a bounty on wolves, and he was the top bounty collector. But when he was governor, he appointed the first non-consumptive representatives to the Board of Game. People here have always respected that different views can help come to the best solutions on very complex issues.
HCN What would you change right now, if you could?
TK I think we can certainly return to the cooperation between state and federal agencies that worked for a generation. We can recognize that the state currently has predator control laws that are legal and apply to state lands, and that that the national parks system has its own statutes and regulations that protect the diversity of all species. Just because they're different doesn't mean we can't have collaboration.
HCN How will the new proposed rule by the National Park Service change things?
TK Sixty percent of America's national park land is in Alaska. I think most Americans would be in favor of prohibiting lethal predator control on national preserves, because it favors people who want to hunt caribou and moose over people who just want to enjoy the park in its natural diversity. I think most Americans would be surprised to learn that Alaska has tried to permit killing wolves and coyotes and their pups at a time of year when there's absolutely no value to the pelts. They'd be surprised that you can kill bear in their dens with artificial light, and bait grizzly bears with donuts and bacon grease, which has never been allowed anywhere. This proposed rule ends that.
Next year, when we'll be celebrating the centennial of the national park system, I think this rule will serve as a reaffirmation of the values that are so important to our big landscapes and national parks here in Alaska.]]>
In the next half mile, we passed several dozen senior citizens, one or two dragging wheeled oxygen bottles. They were enjoying a brief side-trip on a casino run; their tour bus waited patiently at the trailhead.
These folks were experiencing a nature high as real as my own. But I felt like I had dropped from timberline into a shopping mall. And it struck me: California had run out of remoteness. Neither man nor beast would ever again find respite from the pulse and clatter of civilization, not even in wilderness.
Which is why I was as stunned as anyone on Dec. 28, 2011, when OR-7 trotted over from Oregon to become the first wild gray wolf in California in 87 years.
The 2-year-old male – named for being the seventh wolf ever radio-collared in Oregon – was a product of the federal reintroduction effort that began in the Northern Rockies in 1995. OR-7 had left his home pack in northeast Oregon and traveled the entire length of that state to seek a mate and claim his own turf.
For some reason, he came to California, a state with 38 million inhabitants – more people than all the other Western states combined.
OR-7 spent 15 months traveling the state's northeast quadrant, roaming more than 3,000 miles on a crazy-quilt course recorded by his GPS collar. He explored at least five national forests, crossed numerous highways, and came within howling distance of busy Interstate 5 near Red Bluff at least twice.
Yet nobody ever saw him. This is no small feat: California in 2012 had an average population density of 244 people per square mile, the highest in the West. The runner-up, Washington, has a density of less than half that.
The public reaction was a mixture of elation and anxiety, familiar from wolf reintroduction in the Rockies. But there was more to it: a sense that we were part of something miraculous. No matter our politics or lifestyle, we were astounded that our crowded state could still interest a wolf.
As OR-7 wandered, we wondered, and demanded information. The Department of Fish and Wildlife posted daily updates on its website (minus precise location data, to protect the wolf). Tracking his course became as habitual as checking the weather. Media stories covered the wolf's epic journey, his chances of finding a mate, the policy implications of his arrival.
The newspaper stories I wrote about OR-7 were among the most widely read and appreciated in my 25 years covering California environmental issues. Readers of all political bents thanked me. They even renewed my faith that print newspapers still mattered in a digital era: People were clipping and saving the stories, passing them around in classrooms and mailing them to relatives.
"I think it's just more fascinating than anything," Brian Dahle, then a county supervisor in conservative Lassen County, said in January 2012. "It actually came close to my own farm. It's amazing how far the animal has traveled."
One acquaintance wrote a poem about OR-7, dedicating it to me just for covering the story. Another reader created an hour-long dance performance inspired by OR-7's travels. At the premier, he showed me a binder packed with clippings of my OR-7 stories, and thanked me from the stage for covering the saga.
All this was a little uncomfortable. As a journalist, I was trained to remain detached to preserve my objectivity. I had been careful to let my sources do the emoting about OR-7, keeping my own feelings in check.
But something momentous had happened to California. I eventually realized that it affected me as well. If this icon of the American wild was so interested in our state, perhaps I had been hasty back at that trailhead. Maybe California still holds solitude – if you know how to find it.
OR-7 crossed back into Oregon in March 2013, then settled into a forested region between Klamath Falls and Medford. This June, officials confirmed he had found a mate, her origins unknown. They're raising at least three pups, which have been photographed by remote camera.
The young members of this new pack will eventually disperse, and may even follow their father's scent trail back to California. If they do, state biologists say there's enough habitat for a few.
OR-7 reminded us that, despite our 244 people per square mile, there is still something wild about California. Now there is reason to think it could be wilder still.
Matt Weiser covers environmental issues for the Sacramento Bee newspaper.]]>
Mexican wolves were also nearly wiped out south of the border, where officials began releasing captive-bred animals in 2011. This summer, the first known litter of wild pups was born in the western Sierra Madre (see photo above). Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comment until Sept. 23 on a revised, and controversial, management plan. Advocates want stronger protections, but the proposal continues the animal's ESA "nonessential experimental" designation. It would give wolves more room to roam, though not into historic range in the Grand Canyon and Southern Rocky Mountains.
While Cambier is not necessarily opposed to bolstering Alaska's moose and caribou populations through predator control, he prefers non-lethal assignments. A few years earlier, he'd flown National Park Service biologists out to radio-collar two members of the same pack he was now being asked to help kill. But the pilot who usually flies predator control was away, and Cambier knew that if he refused the job, it would likely fall to someone less capable of getting close enough for a clean shot. "I'd heard of situations before where they'd used (an inexperienced pilot), and it was pretty brutal," he says. "It was hard on the critters."
So as the winter sun rose, Cambier found himself racing low over the contours of 5,000-foot mountains, his helicopter doors thrown open. He won't talk about what happened next. "I don't think anybody enjoys that stuff," he says. By the time he touched back down in Fairbanks, though, all 11 wolves in the pack – including those with collars – were dead.
The animals were the latest casualty in a long-simmering dispute between state and federal officials. At issue is the management of predators in and around Alaska's national preserves and wildlife refuges, where state and federal agencies share management responsibilities. Lately, the lines of authority have grown blurry, and agencies' goals are increasingly at odds. State biologists are bound by a 1994 law requiring them to manage for abundant moose, caribou and deer for food security, while their federal counterparts say that the 1916 Organic Act tasks them with maintaining healthy populations of all animals – not just those people eat.
Nowhere is the divide so stark as in Yukon-Charley. Last year, the Park Service spent about $100,000 studying wolves in the region. The state spent roughly the same amount to kill them. And pilots like Troy Cambier were caught in the middle.
Before the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act parceled the state's vast wilderness into parks and preserves, many Alaskans feared the loss of traditional hunting and subsistence opportunities. So to ensure that those rights were protected along with the land and animals, the law granted wildlife authority on 98 million acres of federal lands to both state and federal agencies. For decades, the arrangement worked smoothly: The state spared wolves and other predators that were part of federal studies, while the Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife accepted most decisions made by the Alaska Board of Game, which sets hunting, fishing and trapping regulations and passes them on to Alaska's Department of Fish and Game for implementation.
"Until five or 10 years ago, state hunting regulations and the Park Service aligned quite well," explains John Quinley, the agency's Alaska spokesman. It likely helped that during Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles' tenure in the '90s, aerial wolf culls were supplanted by non-lethal – but expensive – measures like relocation and sterilization.
Not everyone was pleased. "Subsistence opportunities were in shambles," says Board of Game Chairman Ted Spraker. On the Southern Alaska Peninsula, for example, caribou numbers had fallen from 10,000 in the '80s to about 2,000 by the end of Knowles' second term. So when Republican Frank Murkowski became governor in 2002, he replaced five of the seven members of the Board of Game with citizens who favored a more lethal approach. Among them was Spraker, a stern but grandfatherly biologist just retired from nearly 30 years with Alaska Fish and Game.
Under Spraker's watch, the board began a campaign to reduce predation and ease hunting regulations on both state and federal land. "The governor didn't tell us how to vote," he says wryly, "but we had encouragement."
That encouragement continued under subsequent Republican governors Sarah Palin and Sean Parnell. By 2008, caribou on the Southern Alaska Peninsula had dropped to less than 600, and the board allowed state biologists to shoot 28 wolves from helicopters. Calf survival rates jumped from 1 to 40 percent, and the herd's numbers have since grown substantially.----
Next, the board legalized using artificial lights to rouse hibernating black bears from their dens so that hunters could shoot them as they emerged. Native elders in interior Alaska had asked for the right to use the practice ritually, as their ancestors had before firearms made it easier to challenge bears in the open. But because state law forbids discriminating between hunters, the board opened the practice to everyone – and tried to extend it into parts of Gates of the Arctic and Denali national preserves.
Finding bear dens in unknown territory is expensive and difficult, and it's unlikely that a white guy from Anchorage is going to kill denning ursines in interior Alaska. Still, the move angered environmental groups. Alaska has the right to do what it will on 105 million acres of state land, says National Parks Conservation Association program manager Joan Frankevich, but "I don't understand why they think they have the ability to override federal laws. National preserves were set up to preserve the natural balance of predators and prey."
Adding to the tension is a disagreement over how to define subsistence hunting in the 21st century. The Federal Subsistence Board bases its definition solely on where a hunter lives – so-called "rural priority" – while the state allows any resident, regardless of home address, to become a recognized subsistence hunter if they can prove a long-standing dependence on the land. Thus, the feds acknowledge 124,000 subsistence hunters, while Alaska counts a possible 732,000.
Alaskan officials say their method helps families survive in a state where milk can cost $10 a gallon and gas even more. Plus, Spraker says, predator control is limited to the 10 or 12 percent of the state where human demand is highest, often around the state's limited road system. "People think I don't like wolves," he adds. "That's absolutely not true." But if Alaska goes all out on predator-control now, programs can be scaled back or eliminated once ungulate populations reach desired levels.
So in 2010, the board eliminated a 122-square-mile buffer abutting Denali National Park that protected wolves crossing its boundaries from hunting and trapping. Two years later, one of Denali's alpha females was caught in a trap; wolf populations are now the lowest in decades. In other locations, the board has authorized baiting brown bears, illegal since statehood, extended wolf seasons to months when adults have pups in tow, and increased bag limits from five per season up to 20 per season or 10 per day.
Those actions are completely incompatible with Park Service objectives, says Yukon-Charley Chief of Resources Jeff Rasic. "We're at loggerheads. We get painted as these romantic animal lovers, and that misses the point."
Since 2001, the Park Service has asked the Board of Game roughly 60 times to exclude certain practices from national preserves. Each time, the board has said no: Alaska's 2014 hunting regulations are once again largely the same for national preserves as for state land. And so once again, the Park Service will override state rules allowing longer seasons, increased bag limits and controversial hunting methods on the lands it manages.
State Fish and Game officials like director of wildlife conservation Doug Vincent-Lang see this as federal overreach, and in response are flexing the state's muscle in places like Yukon-Charley. Last year, biologists gunned down 36 of the preserve's resident wolves – more than half the population – when they wandered outside park borders. As for the Lost Creek wolves, which had been part of a decades-long state study, "I've always been kind of surprised that a supervisor would allow his research staff to collar wolves adjacent to an area that has predator control," muses Spraker. "If you're going to study wolves, you've got an entire park. Study them on the other side."
Federal officials, for their part, aren't saying that it's inappropriate to reduce predator numbers, but question whether the state is going too far in certain places. While the Fortymile caribou herd's numbers are indeed below some historic estimates, the state's own biologists published a paper in 2012 that found signs of nutritional stress among the animals. "To increase the (caribou) population might not be a smart move based on ecological carrying capacity," notes John Burch, a federal wolf biologist and former wolf trapper who studied the Lost Creek wolves for 18 years. If Alaska continues to call for culls of 60 to 80 percent of Fortymile's wolf population, he says, the caribou could eat themselves out of house and home.
This is the slippery political terrain that Cambier and other pilots find themselves navigating. Cambier came to Alaska because he loves to fly, loves to explore the kind of wilderness that most people only dream of – and because he has a passion for wildlife. "I (always) knew I was going to be flying," he says. "But I'm in it for the animals. If it was for mining stuff, I wouldn't do it."
So after Cambier returned to Fairbanks on Feb. 21, he took a deep breath and called Burch. "I'm sorry," he said.]]>
Her gender had big implications because a famous he-wolf, known as OR7, was right nearby. OR7 rocketed to celebrity in 2011, when he was two years old. He ditched his pack in northeastern Oregon that year and went where no wolf had gone for decades. He traveled south through Oregon, crossing I-84 and four U.S. highways, and became the first wolf known to have been west of the Cascades since 1947. Then, he slipped over the border into California, giving his species a presence in that state for the first time in almost a century.
He proceeded on an epic and ongoing solo journey between Oregon and California, looking, people became fond of saying, "for love in all the wrong places." When wolves leave their pack, they do so to establish their own territory and their own brood. But the closest potential mates were among the packs OR7 left hundreds of miles behind in northeastern Oregon.
Recently, though, he stopped wandering so much. "Over the last few months, he was localizing in a more specific area than he had been before," says John Stephenson, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Biologist who set the remote cameras, knowing OR7's radio collar was near the end of its life. "And it was breeding season. But we still didn't have any evidence that he had a mate."
Now, they do.
"It was a big surprise," says Stephenson. "This area in southwest Oregon, it's over 250 miles from nearest pack. It's a long distance to travel. And then they've got to find each other. It's impressive. They're good at finding each other."
There's still only circumstantial evidence that OR7 and the black-furred female have bred. If they did, the pups should start venturing from the den soon. Stephenson will continue monitoring the remote cameras for evidence, and eventually will look for the den. Biologists will also try to determine where the she-wolf traveled from.
Many stories of large carnivores traveling among us don't end well. Consider the puma killed on the 101 in Southern California last fall, attempting to cross between two pieces of fragmented habitat. As Judith Lewis Mernit reported for High Country News, had it lived, it promised to introduce much needed genetic diversity to the small and dying population of the Santa Monica Mountains.
The story of OR7, in contrast, has so far been remarkably hopeful -- a testament to the resilience of wolves, to their skill at surviving in human dominated landscapes, and to their ability to recolonize old habitat. OR7 hasn't navigated the treacherous urban jungle the Santa Monica pumas must. But his travels haven't been entirely "safe," either. He has crossed roads and agricultural land and circumscribed towns. He may have been tempted by livestock, but is not known to have killed domestic animals for dinner. Many people were thrilled by his journey; others wanted California wolf-free forever. "With wolves, a lot of people love them and a lot of people hate them, and sometimes there's a lack of people in between," says Stephenson.
Stephenson points out that there are typically fewer livestock conflicts with lone wolves and small packs. "They become very effective hunters in larger packs and have more mouths to feed," he says. He hopes for a "grace period" with this new potential pack, in which managers can take measures to minimize wolf-livestock conflict, such as cleaning up cattle boneyards on ranches, installing deterrent fencing around calving areas, and putting range riders on patrol. He expects some of these things will get underway soon.
But for now, we can simply revel in the wonder OR7 provokes. Writing for Orion last fall on his own journey to the part of Northern California OR7 was simultaneously wandering, Joe Donnelly summed up the feeling quite well: "The air feels wild and dangerous and alive in a new way. So do I."
Cally Carswell is a High Country News contributing editor, and writes from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She tweets @callycarswell. Images courtesy USFWS / Oregon Department of Wildlife.]]>
In 1985, Bryan came up with the idea for a new kind of travel company that would combine conservation goals with cultural sensitivity. He and his wife, Pam, built their company – Off the Beaten Path, based in Bozeman – into a $5 million-$7 million per year operation, and he helped manage it until 2012. Now he's president of OneMontana, a nonprofit he helped establish to bridge the rural-urban divide, through a high-school student exchange program and other strategies.
Bryan, now 70, talked with HCN senior editor Ray Ring about the relationship of adventure travel, conservation and communities.
High Country News How did you evolve from conservation advocacy to the adventure-travel business?
Bill Bryan One of the challenges in conservation work is people saying, "Well, you don't really understand the real world until you do something in the for-profit world." Both Pam and I had a passion for the Northern Rockies, not just the natural resources but also the people here. Off the Beaten Path offered "custom travel" experiences. By that, I mean we connected with people who were interested in coming to the Northern Rockies, and interviewed them about their tastes and what they might want to experience, and then we put together trips tailored for them and for their budgets. No one else in the travel business back then was doing what we did.
We gave each customer a spiral-bound book that told them everything they needed to know on their trip, as soon as they got off the plane or as soon as they drove into our region. If they needed to go 10 miles down the road and turn left, it was in the book, along with various things along the way that we thought they might have interest in. Condé Nast Traveler called us "the travel shrinks of the West." Eventually, we expanded into Alaska, then the Southwest, the Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina, the Northwest and California, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, New Zealand and Australia. Pam and I led walking trips in Patagonia nearly every year.
HCN And you involved Native Americans pretty much from the beginning?
Bryan I had written a book that came out in 1985, Montana Indians: Yesterday and Today, and updated it in 1996, profiling leaders of each reservation. That helped Off the Beaten Path do trips on the reservations. Beginning in the early 1990s up to 2009 or so, Bill Yellowtail (a member of the Crow tribe who held positions in the Montana Legislature, the Environmental Protection Agency and Montana State University) and I led nine-day trips that began on the Blackfeet Reservation and swung up to the Blood and the North Piegan reservations in Alberta and back down to the Flathead Reservation. We were trying to give (tourists) a sense of hope on the reservations. We met with the tribal college presidents and various human resource people and natural resource people within the tribes; we went to the Heart Butte powwow, the most authentic one around; we once were invited to a Sun Dance, and people did sweats.
But we had a hard time selling the reservation trips. People would go visit tribes in Peru or Bolivia – that was a whole different ballgame, customers were more interested in going there. Another problem with going to reservations here: People don't want to go on a vacation and feel guilty – not that we wanted to make them feel that way, but any (white) American who spends time on an Indian reservation, with the poverty, you've got to fight your feeling of guilt. But good things came out of it. People on our reservation trips later donated money to fund programs at tribal colleges and for other needs on the reservations.
HCN Your trips also included conservation issues. How unusual is that?
Bryan The whole idea that if you're coming out here, you need a guide who isn't just a fishing guide or a hunting guide, was new when we started Off the Beaten Path. We hired local naturalist guides for trips to Yellowstone and Patagonia, and so on.
HCN Were conservation groups selling similar trips?
Bryan The Sierra Club had its own program, and still does – moderately priced trips led by local Sierra Club members who are not necessarily professional experts. Other national groups have travel programs where they contract out to an Off the Beaten Path-type organization – trips mainly for donors or just for their membership. That became a fairly big deal for Off the Beaten Path, running trips for World Wildlife Fund and the National Parks and Conservation Association. A few other companies got into it, too.
Lindblad Expeditions does trips in small boats, maybe 70 to 120 passengers, in Alaska and the Columbia River and Baja whale-watching, and recently it merged with National Geographic so most of their work now is under the banner Lindblad National Geographic. Sven Lindblad, the founder of that company, has a real environmental agenda, so those trips have great naturalist guides; they've even done trips to the Arctic and Antarctica, taking influential people into the ice regions to observe climate change. Natural Habitat Adventures, out of Boulder, Colo., has a relationship with World Wildlife Fund. Backroads, out of Berkeley, Calif., offers conservation-minded biking and hiking trips. Other companies specialize in bird-watching trips. Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, out of Bozeman, helps qualified travelers volunteer to do research in the outdoors. Smaller groups like Montana Audubon offer local trips for their members. There are other companies doing it too, now.
HCN And this is a good trend?
Bryan Yes. In order to deal with these environmental issues, you have to get outdoors, and you can't think just about your own back yard, you have to think about the larger context. Travel helps with that. Most of these conservation-minded travel companies attract customers who, even if they're not members of conservation groups, they're looking for a learning experience. ... You'd be surprised how many people come out here without a clue. They want to come to a dude ranch, and they ask about the ranch's spa program and whether there's a swimming pool, how fancy are the meals, and can they do a bit of horseback riding or fishing in a pond that's stocked? They want their amenities to come with them.
HCN On any conservation-minded trips, you think adventure travel should engage the local cultures respectfully?
Bryan Everywhere we go, travel should be accountable to the local communities, and accountable to the environment. On fishing trips to Patagonia, many American adventure-travel companies bring their fishing guides from this country, instead of hiring local guides in Chile, because the American guides speak English better and know the needs of the American travelers. Companies doing 30 bus trips per year in Yellowstone bring in guides from Santa Barbara and Connecticut, because that's also cheaper and easier than hiring local guides. To encourage more accountability, Off the Beaten Path and Lindblad and a few other companies created the Adventure Collection, an organization advocating for all companies to be "deeply respectful of our travel destinations" (according to the "travel ethic" posted on www.adventurecollection.com) while minimizing our impact. We call for travelers to engage with local communities, to help sustain them, and for educating travelers on the best cultural and ecological practices.
Those that try to be accountable will do it to a certain extent, always with the profit margin in mind. It's easy to develop trips to see polar bears around Churchill (on the shore of Canada's Hudson Bay); lots of people want to do that. It's much more difficult to develop trips to see something like the black-footed ferret, an endangered species on the Northern Plains, where you might not even see one ferret. Or trips to see Yellowstone wolves, you can't guarantee you'll see one wolf. People want certainty. ... The marriage of the adventure travel world and the conservation world has come a long ways in the last 25 years, and it's probably going to get better, but there has to be some accountability to more than the bottom line. My feeling is, you can do both.
This story is part of an April 2014 special issue of the HCN magazine devoted to travel in the West.]]>
Livestock Guardian Dogs from Conservation Media on Vimeo.
Video courtesy Conservation Media.
Ben Long is a writer, outdoorsman and conservationist in Kalispell, Mont. He is senior program director for Resource Media. He owns a Lab mix guard dog who protects the bird feeder from squirrels, skunks and coyotes.]]>
The wolf was named Kaori. Clipped to a leash attached to her handler's harness, she was part of an educational program and accustomed to crowds. Her handler convinced her to jump up on the table and stand there, less than 20 feet away from us, and pretend to be Wolf.
We all "oohed" and "aahed." We took pictures and listened carefully. We tried to convince ourselves we were scared. We felt we were in the presence of something spectacular, and we were. Finally, and this is one thing I'm sure of: We prided ourselves on being lucky enough to have the opportunity. The next day, we told people we barely knew that we'd been within spitting distance of a wolf, and in the widening of their eyes we saw that we'd achieved a new and unusual kind of status.
Kaori had appeared from around the corner of a building at a trot, ears forward, nose to the ground, eyes taking in everything. Other animals can be collared -- "broken," as we say of horses, trained or otherwise taught to live in the company of humans. With wolves this is impossible. Their whole existence is centered around being wild and able to roam.
In the epilogue to his 1978 book, Of Wolves and Men, Barry Lopez writes about his experience raising wolves, saying, "I do not wish to encourage other people to raise wolves. Wolves don't belong to people. It is as simple as that. Having done it once, naively, I would never do it again." Take the wolf out of the wild, Lopez is saying, and it ceases to be Wolf.
Initially, I'd gone to see Kaori out of simple curiosity, a boyhood desire to be in the presence of danger and an adult's desire to see something rare. As is so often the case, I was unprepared for the reality. Kaori stood there and faced west, and the evening sun highlighted her fur. Still, what I was looking at was only the shadow of Wolf. Despite my good intentions and best efforts, all I really saw was the six to eight feet of nylon rope that tied her to her handler.
It is a few years later as I write this, and the fact that my experience has stayed with me is testament to the place wolves hold in our psyche. Meanwhile, debate continues to rage over our reintroduction of wolves -- how many we will allow, and where we will let them roam.
I believe we need wolves, need them running through our woods and through our imaginations. We need to know they are out there even if we never see one, because both of us, the wolves and ourselves, will better off for it. Of course, this kind of thinking rarely makes it into policy debates. Poets and sentimentalists are given no room at the table; science and the bottom line are the only things that matter.
In my own fuzzy-headed way, I also believe that cattle and ranchers need wolves, as do ground squirrels and ravens. The balance of ecosystems is permanently out of whack, but our knowledge of our role in that balance changes everything. We have to think about more than just ourselves, something that's hard, given our day-to-day economic reality. In this case, however, it's not livelihoods that are at risk, it's our soul.
Finally, for the same reason I don't like to keep fish in a bowl or birds in a cage, I wouldn't keep a wolf in a pen. This does not mean I don't believe in zoos that protect endangered species, or that animals such as Kaori should not be used for educational purposes. But we need to let the wild live wild when we can. We need ambiguity and mystery: both real and imagined wolves.
I still remember how Kaori stood in the Montana evening and bounced her nose on the breeze. I remember her paws, the size of them, and the long legs that grew out of them -- legs built for tremendous journeys. But whenever someone asks me if I've ever seen a wolf, I just shake my head and say, "No."
Charles Finn is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He is moving from Bend, Oregon to the East Coast.
In less than two days, the landowner, who had leased the billboard space to an advertising firm, demanded that the firm take the sign down. Then, in March, a new billboard went up. This one depicted four cows peacefully grazing in the background, but in the foreground, the huge head of a snarling wolf was pasted in. The headline read: "Wolves are protected, why not cows, people and private property rights?"
Whatever side you're on in these wolf wars, the absurdity of that question is offensive. Cows not protected? That will be big news for many people, especially those environmentalists who charge that cows get too much favoritism on public land, including being grandfathered in to graze in designated wilderness. It will also be news to private landowners in open-range states who must fence out cows to keep them from intruding onto their land.
Consider the case of Dr. Patrick Shipsey. In 1996, after unsuccessful attempts to keep out persistent cows that liked a stream on his land, his patience snapped, and he shot 11 cows. He said afterward that he was tired of trying to keep the cows from trespassing on his land along a riparian area he was trying to restore. He was convicted of criminal mischief and "unauthorized use of livestock."
Not only were the cows protected, but Oregon's open-range law meant that Shipsey didn't even have a right to demand that his neighbor keep the cows off his private property. Of course, I do not agree with Shipsey killing cows. But his story illustrates the extremes of our disputes about restoring wolves, the so-called sanctity of private land and grazing cattle that seem to have a lot of power. Our conversation is often all about outrage and little about reality.
Misleading rhetoric in these emotionally charged debates only serves to rally extremists on both sides while alienating and confusing the more thoughtful -- and numerous -- middle ground where the solutions reside. The placement on a billboard of a huge and snarling wolf head next to text falsely implying that property rights are being taken away is guaranteed to heat the blood of many Westerners. It does nothing to resolve differences between wolf advocates and opponents.
So who won this billboard battle? It is impossible to say with precision. The Oregon Legislature recently passed one useful bill, establishing a mechanism that compensates people for livestock killed by wolves. This was breakthrough legislation resulting from ranchers, wildlife advocates and the governor working together calmly and rationally. No billboards were involved.
But that wasn't the only wolf legislation passed. Rep. Mike Schaufler, D, capitalized on the heated political discourse: "If your cattle, your pets, your family, your property is threatened, you should be able to shoot any varmint that's making that threat even if it's the last one on earth." Legislation was then passed that allows anyone in Oregon to kill a wolf in self-defense or while defending a family member. The vote was unanimous, for who could ever vote against self-defense?
Well, actually, every legislator could have, because the new law is an unnecessary duplication of already existing laws. It's irrational to boot. It is already legal under both state and federal law to defend yourself, even if it means killing an endangered species. This legislation merely provided cover for lobbyists needing to claim a victory for an extreme position, while further cluttering our legal system with an unnecessary and misleading law.
In the end, I sympathize with the ranchers. Small ranchers and farmers are indeed under a lot of pressure and facing many threats to their existence. Yet the threats they face have much more to do with corporate monopolies and government policies than with wolves or other predators.
I want small ranchers and farmers to flourish here, just as they once did, to preserve and protect the rural Oregon that I love. I also want wild areas and wildlife to flourish here, as they once did. Both have coexisted in the past, and they can again. What's required is thoughtful discussion to find ways to bridge differences instead of artificially creating even more of them. Debate by billboard doesn't resemble discussion; it just makes our tempers rise. It's time to call cow chips on irrational rhetoric coming from either side: the extreme greens or the extreme ranchers.
Mitch Wolgamott is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He is a biologist, born and raised in Oregon, who writes from rural Union County.]]>
When U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials removed the wolves from the endangered species list and handed management over to Idaho, Wyoming and Montana this spring, they expected the population, which was around 1,500 at the beginning of 2008, to grow to more than 2,000 by this summer. But a recent census suggests there are now only about 1,455 wolves in the ecosystem. The lack of growth could be due to disease, or to the animals filling up the area's available habitat. Some enviros say it could also be the increased killing of wolves under state management. The finding came as the agency, prompted by a recent court ruling, asked to restore endangered species protection to the animals while it reconsiders the population's genetic viability and Wyoming's management plan, which allows wolves to be shot on sight outside of the Yellowstone area.
Wyoming lawmakers are discussing their options -- which could include suing the feds or modifying the state plan so that wolves can't be killed quite so easily -- in an effort to restore state control. But that possibility looks a bit hazy after another court ruling. On Sept. 29, Washington, D.C., District Judge Paul L. Friedman suspended the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2007 delisting of the approximately 4,000 gray wolves that roam the states surrounding the Great Lakes. Friedman said the agency failed to show that its decision to simultaneously declare the region's wolves a distinct subpopulation and remove their federal protections was legal under the Endangered Species Act. Environmental groups say the ruling, coupled with the Northern Rockies wolf decision, should make it harder to strip endangered species protections in a piecemeal way. It could also be a boon to groups suing to restore federal protection to Yellowstone's grizzly bears, which were delisted in 2007.
The wildlife wars don't stop there, though. Environmental groups have hauled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service back into court over its second decision not to extend Endangered Species Act protections to wolverines. After a court order forced it to reconsider the status of the California red-legged frog, the agency released plans to designate 1.8 million acres of critical habitat for the threatened amphibian -- three times more than what had been proposed under the meddling influence of former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald back in 2006. Meanwhile, another species the agency is reconsidering for federal protection is declining in Nevada. Wildlife officials estimate there are 70,000 to 80,000 sage grouse in the state this year, down from 100,000 in 2005.
At least grizzlies appear to be doing well in northwestern Montana's 7.8 million-acre Continental Divide ecosystem, where they are officially listed as threatened. A five-year, $4.8 million federal study released this month estimates that 765 grizzlies now roam the area -- about two and a half times more than previously estimated. The bears have expanded their range 2.6 million acres beyond recovery area boundaries set in 1993.
At the state level, critters in parts of Colorado and Montana are getting some unprecedented (if still weaker than hoped for) protection from oil and gas development. Colorado's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has reworked more than 80 of its rules over the last three months, tentatively passing measures in late September that will, for the first time, require companies to consult with state wildlife officials to minimize drilling's impacts on species like mule deer, elk and sage grouse in sensitive wintering and mating habitat. Companies will also have to clump development to preserve more undisturbed land, and avoid drilling and laying pipelines within 300 feet of cutthroat trout streams, among other rules. Meanwhile, the Montana Oil and Gas Conservation Board forbid roads, drilling, and wellpads within a quarter mile of waterways on 16 new leases on state trust lands along the Yellowstone, Shields and Boulder rivers -- all renowned for their trout fisheries.]]>
(For the related story, click here.)
Thirteen years after the government began an ambitious reintroduction program for the endangered gray wolf in the Northern Rockies, the Feds declared the program a success. They went so far as to delist it March, but put the delisting on hold after conservationists expressed concerns about genetic viability of the wolves. The increase in wolf population has resulted in a healthier ecosystem: a decline in coyote populations and an increase in willows, beavers and songbirds. But it has also pitted environmentalists against ranchers and hunters, sparking long-held animosities, and scuttling cooperative efforts in other arenas.]]>
Even though boosting domestic oil production isn't likely to significantly affect what consumers pay at the pump, public support for more domestic fossil fuel development and exploration has grown rapidly over the past several months. So House Democrats introduced a limited pro-drilling bill of their own in mid-July even as they resisted Bush administration pressure to lift a ban on drilling the outer continental shelf. The aptly named "Drill Act" would have forced oil and gas companies to drill on millions of acres of leases they already own on federal land -- much of it in the West -- before buying new ones, and required regular lease sales in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, among other measures. The bill enjoyed broad support but failed to win the supermajority it needed to pass without amendments.
Those who rally under the anti-wolf slogan "smoke a pack a day" are going to have to hold their fire: Northern Rockies wolves are back under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, at least for now. In mid-July, federal Judge Donald Molloy scuttled Wyoming, Montana and Idaho's plans to hold public wolf hunts this fall when he granted environmental groups a temporary injunction against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to hand wolf management over to the three states, where more than 100 wolves have been killed since the March 28 delisting. Molloy wrote that the federal agency had failed to demonstrate that there is enough genetic exchange between wolf populations to ensure the animals' long-term survival in the region.
Meanwhile, Northern Rockies wolves continue to range farther afield. Wildlife officials in Washington confirmed that an animal hit by a car northwest of Spokane was a wolf. They caught and radio-collared two other suspected wolves in northern Washington. If DNA tests pan out, Washington will join Oregon in confirming its first wolf pack since the animals were eradicated from the states early last century.
Even if they have to wait to hunt wolves, Western gun-owners and sportsmen can take heart in the fact that presidential hopefuls are courting their favor. Democratic candidate Barack Obama touted his strong support of the Second Amendment "rights of law-abiding gun-owners, hunters and sportsmen," in a recent statement. After stopping in Butte, Mont., in early July, Obama condemned the Bush administration for jeopardizing hunting, fishing and other recreational access to federal land in western Montana through its backdoor negotiations with Plum Creek Timber over residential access.
Gas pains in the West
.76 Average gallons of gas a resident of New York state used per day in the first four months of this year
1.7 Average gallons of gas a resident of Montana used per day in the first four months of this year
10-16 Percentage of income the average resident of Socorro County,
N.M., spends on gasoline
2 Percentage of income the average resident of Hunterdon County, N.J., spends on
10 Average number of cents by which taxes on gas in the West exceed the national average, as of January 2008
4.18 Average price in dollars of regular gasoline in the Western states, as of July 21
+9.4 Percentage change in bus ridership in Denver, from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008
-36 Percentage change in Hummer sales for the first five months of this year, compared to 2007
+24 Percentage change in scooter sales from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008
--Andrea Appleton
"Source Material Involved: A glass vial of Certified Reference Material (CRM) 138 (approximately 0.25 grams of Pu in the form of Pu(SO4)-4H20; isotopic distribution certified at Pu-238 Atom Percent 0.010, Pu-239 Atom Percent 91.805, Pu-240 Atom Percent 7.925, Pu-241 Atom Percent 0.227, Pu-242 Atom Percent 0.033)."
That's the official description of the plutonium that leaked from a glass vial in a National Institute of Standards and Technology research lab in Boulder, Colo., on June 9. The institute's recently released investigation found that, after a researcher accidentally cracked the vial and tried to deal with it, more than a dozen people ended up contaminated with trace amounts of plutonium on their hands or feet or inside their guts (some swallowed or inhaled traces). A tiny amount of the plutonium was also washed down a sink drain, entering Boulder's wastewater treatment system. The investigation concluded that safety procedures and training need to be improved, but that the contamination had not endangered anyone's health. The Boulder Daily Camera editorialized angrily: "The institute has abysmal safety standards ... It was an accident only Homer Simpson could truly appreciate."
--Ray Ring]]>


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Monday, June 19 2000
Steve Earle: Transcendental Blues
Steve Earle, once all but given up for dead, metaphorically if not literally, has been riding a white hot hand since returning from the long dark night of drug addiction and musical oblivion.
Einstürzende Neubauten: Silence Is Sexy
Many bands attempt to defy or destroy the established musical boundaries. Few succeed, and fewer still do so with the fervor and style of Einstürzende Neubauten.
Monday, June 12 2000
Modest Mouse: The Moon and Antarctica
The scenario here is a familiar one. Guitar, bass, drums trio Modest Mouse, heroes of the indie scene and its self-appointed rock intelligentsia have signed with a major and everyone is mighty concerned that the band will turn sell-out and leave the kids sad and alone.


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Whether it was love at first sight or a surprise baby on the way, these celebs couldn't wait to tie the knot
(9 Photos)
Jennifer Merritt
Sep 24, 2009 at 1:39PM
Lester Cohen/WireImage
Earlier this year, Kendra Wilkinson announed she was engaged to her beau of one year, NFL player Hank Baskett. They married on June 27, following the annoucement that the couple were expecting their first child.
Yummy recipes, DIY projects, home decor, fashion and more curated by iVillage staffers.
The very dirty truth about fashion internships... DUN DUN @srslytheshow http://t.co/wfewf
Behind-the-scenes pics from iVillage.


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