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Giddy does not begin to describe the joy I am feeling over something so silly.
I like things to match.
And when it comes to my classroom, I'm not a fan of the color red.
I acquired the shelf in the picture below from a coworker who had inherited it with her room.
I literally painted it black within 8 minutes of it being in my room.
do you see those chairs?Ugh!
They make me crazy.
I'm OCD like that.
Well, last week I brought in fabric book covers because I read online that you could use them as chair pockets.
You can't.
They are way too stretchy. But, since I had already bought them all and I am TERRIBLE about doing returns, I played with them a bit. In doing so I found that if I double wrapped the chairback then it transformed the clashing red into a color that matched my room. I decided to do that because I could then refer to the kids by color groups.
That left only the red seats to stare me down and irk me.
And irk me they did.
So you can imagine my joy when me and my Ikea cart stumbled upon this bin of chair cushions.They were in the "as is" bin because they were made too small for chairs...which makes them oh-so-perfect for my little classroom chairs.
And they just so happen to be the same colors as my room.
And they were only .50 cents each. I'm also excited that my friends will be more comfy this year.
The only problem is that IKEA doesn't give you bags and they took up lots of room.


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UPLAND >> It will be another month before city officials know if its annual Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular was a financial success.
But it did happen, and even that was in doubt earlier in the year, along with the city's finances.
"We haven't got the final numbers yet," said Roberta Knighten, community services director for Upland.
Knighten said she expects to report to the council by August how much the event cost and the revenues generated at this year's event.
Earlier this year, city leaders were considering canceling the fireworks show after 27 years because the city has had to dip into its general fund to make up for a budget shortfall in the cost of the event. They voted to keep the show because of the benefits to the community.
In 2013, the event brought in a little more than $37,200 in revenues but cost more than $38,300, a loss of more than $1,100. This year, with the holiday on a Friday, officials were concerned about a lower turnout and a larger financial burden to the city.
"I had so many people tell me they were appreciative that we hosted it," Knighten said.
Two weeks prior to the annual fireworks show, city officials said they had raised a total of $12,000 to support it.
Councilman Gino Filippi sponsored the event at $500, even though he was opposed to the idea of keeping the event. Filippi went to other businesses to help drum up financial support.
Filippi said at the football stadium at Upland High School, where the event was held, the stands were more than half full.
"It was a well-attended event," he said.
In addition, Knighten said, the streets near the school were lined with people waiting to see the show.
"It wasn't that I was disappointed in the crowd. It was a nice turnout," she said.
Anyone who sponsored the event was given a booth. Filippi said he used the space to talk to residents and community members.
"It gave me a chance to visit with both friends and the public," he said. "I think everyone who attended enjoyed it."
Filippi thanked all the staff and volunteers who worked to make the event possible.
When the council decided to keep the show, it requested that city staff be more proactive in raising funds so it does not become a financial burden to the city, something Filippi hopes will happen next year.
"I want to encourage staff and the city to continue to build these partnerships with the city and to continue to build on this event," he said.

subset: commoncrawl


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Published 12:02 am, Monday, January 14, 2013
Manu Ginobili added to the lengthy list of injuries he's suffered in his 11th NBA season with a strained left hamstring that forced him to miss the second half of Sunday's 106-88 victory over the Timberwolves.
It is at least the fourth injury Ginobili — nicknamed "El Contusión" by former teammate Brent Barry — has incurred this season. In addition to a sore foot in the preseason, he has missed three regular-season contests with back spasms and a thigh contusion.
Coach Gregg Popovich said Ginobili will be re-evaluated today. From the tone of Stephen Jackson's comments, he's anticipating Ginobili will miss some time. The Spurs' next game is Wednesday at home against Memphis.
Sports Channel
"It sucks," said Jackson, "but it's a part of the game. I'm glad it's a strain and not a pull. He'll be back a little quicker. But we have to step up. One person won't be able to fill Manu's shoes for what he does. Me, Gary (Neal), a couple other guys off the bench have to do it collectively."
The Spurs answered that call Sunday as the reserves totaled 55 points, their highest total since erupting for 67 at Charlotte on Dec. 8.
Ginobili had 12 of those points, sparking a 29-9 run spanning the first and second quarters before leaving just before halftime. Neal had his best game in almost a month with 15.
Even little-used DeJuan Blair got into the act, scoring more points against Minnesota (nine) than he had in his previous six games combined (eight).
"Gary, Jack and Patty (Mills) did an excellent job off the bench," said Blair, who is rumored to be on the trading block once more. "We really needed that, and now we've got to get ready for Wednesday."
"I remember seeing the back of his jersey many a time in practice as he flew by me," Porter joked. "He was so explosive and quick with the ball. Other facets of his offense, he had to grow those. But the speed alone was eye-catching those early practices."
Porter said he's been impressed with Parker's subsequent maturation, particularly his trademark floater.
"He didn't have that (as a rookie)," Porter said. "That's been a great weapon for him."
Twitter: @danmccarneySAEN


text:
Research Topics
Heinz Schneider
Affiliation: HealthEcon AG
Country: Switzerland
Detail Information
- Symptom-modifying effect of chondroitin sulfate in knee osteoarthritis: a meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials performed with structum(®)Heinz Schneider
HealthEcon AG, Steinentorstrasse 19, CH 4051 Basel, Switzerland
Open Rheumatol J 6:183-9. 2012....
- A German national prevalence study on the cost of intensive care: an evaluation from 51 intensive care unitsOnnen Moerer
Department of Anaesthesiology, Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, University of Gottingen, Robert Koch Strasse 40, Gottingen 37075, Germany
Crit Care 11:R69. 2007..Intensive care unit (ICU) costs account for up to 20% of a hospital's costs. We aimed to analyse the individual patient-related cost of intensive care at various hospital levels and for different groups of disease...
- PORTAL: pilot study on the safety and tolerance of preoperative melatonin application in patients undergoing major liver resection: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trialPeter Schemmer
Department of General Surgery, Ruprecht Karls University, Heidelberg, Germany
BMC Surg 8:2. 2008..Experimental data suggest that preoperative supraphysiological doses of melatonin, a potent immuno-modulator and antioxidant, would decrease postoperative infectious and non-infectious complications induced by major abdominal surgery...
- Trends and stabilization up to 2022 in overweight and obesity in Switzerland, comparison to France, UK, US and AustraliaHeinz Schneider
HealthEcon AG, CH 4001 Basel, Switzerland
Int J Environ Res Public Health 7:460-72. 2010..Based on the projection, these prevalence rates may be expected to stabilize until 2022 at the 2007 level. These results were compared with future projections estimated for France, UK, US and Australia using the same model...
- Modelling the lifetime costs and health effects of lifestyle intervention in the prevention and treatment of obesity in SwitzerlandCarmen Galani
HealthEcon AG, Basel, Switzerland
Int J Public Health 52:372-82. 2007..To quantify the lifetime health and economic consequences of preventing and treating obesity with lifestyle intervention in Switzerland...
- Economic burden of obesity and its comorbidities in SwitzerlandAlexandra Schmid
HealthEcon AG, Basel, Switzerland
Soz Praventivmed 50:87-94. 2005..To estimate the total annual economic costs caused by overweight and obesity in Switzerland...
- Prevention and treatment of obesity with lifestyle interventions: review and meta-analysisCarmen Galani
HealthEcon AG, Basel, Switzerland
Int J Public Health 52:348-59. 2007..To assess the mid- to long-term effectiveness of lifestyle interventions in the prevention and treatment of obesity...
- Uncertainty in decision-making: value of additional information in the cost-effectiveness of lifestyle intervention in overweight and obese peopleCarmen Galani
HealthEcon AG, Basel, Switzerland
Value Health 11:424-34. 2008..There has been an increasing interest in using value of information analysis in medical decision-making to quantify the uncertainty in decision-making, and to identify the need for further research...
- Obesity and its comorbidities: present and future importance on health status in SwitzerlandAileen Neilson
HealthEcon AG, Basel, Switzerland
Soz Praventivmed 50:78-86. 2005..The objective of this study was to estimate the proportion of various diseases attributable to obesity in Switzerland in order to get a hint of its present and future importance on health status and on our health care budgets...


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Monday, June 20, 2005
(Bad) Things Men Say
i have since changed my mind.
instead, i think i will just periodically post about some of the more notable things men have said to me, both good ("yippety-yap") and bad (bad = wow, my version of the world is different from yours).
for example.
the night before i moved to san francisco i was with my sister in a bar in boston. and the two of us were waiting for her then-boyfriend (now-husband) to join us. we were seated at one end of the bar, and two men were seated at the other end of the bar, perpendicularly.
like this (but please excuse the diagram because my sister only has MS "Paint" and a sad, uncontrollable mouse):
(here, the men are in black and my sister is purple-ish and i am pink, and we look like we are doing some choreographed tap dance a la Shuffling Off To Buffalo but really we were just seated at bar stools.)
now, to set the stage, you must consider a few things.
first, remember that while boston is one of the more liberal cities in the US, parts of it tend to like its liberalism Old School. like, kennedys: good / them crazies out in california: bad.
second, this was about 3 weeks after 9-11. "patriotism" was rabid.
finally, i may be cute and all, but at that time i was not in the best place. i was divorcing, not in great shape, not particularly happy, and not especially receptive to men in bars. (plus i was sitting next to my 23-year old sister who was not divorcing, in great shape, seemingly happy, and charming to men in bars.)
so. the two guys are engaging my sister in conversation while being standoffish with me (and vice versa). and they get on the topic of where everyone lives. they are locals and my sister is too and oh--no, i am not.
"she's actually moving to san francisco tomorrow!" my sister mentions.
and shortly afterwards she excuses herself to go to the ladies' room. leaving me, the chubby older bitter sister, at the bar with two construction workers from south boston.
who just stared at me. while i gave the perfunctory smiles and kept drinking my drink.
until finally one of them looked squarely at me. and squinted a bit.
southie dude, thickly accented: so uh, sayn francisco, eyh?
me: yep.
the guy continued to squint at me. and think. and then offered helpful information.
southie dude: the's a lotta gays theya.
me: mmm-hmm.
much more squinting ensued, but then the guy smirked in a not-good way. and spoke.
southie dude: ah you a gay?
uh, pardon me? what did you just ask me? you, who have not spoken one word to me all night? did you just ask me if i am *a* gay? a GAY?
my mind boggled at how many things were wrong with that question. it was so completely disrespectful, i was just dumbfounded. i barely managed to eek out an answer.
me: uh. um. no....
and then both guys laughed. because isn't that so funny?
i just sat there, silently.
so okay, maybe at first this might not seem like such an inappropriate or offensive question to you. but i assure you it is.
because for some reason, this man thought it was okay to ask me -- a young woman he didn't know and wasn't even being friendly with -- about my personal life. my sex life. and also thought it was okay to generalize about me, my life, my soon-to-be home city, and also to laugh about the gay population at large.
while wearing a "9-11 Never Forget" t-shirt.
and so his question remains one of the most disrespectful things any guy has ever said/asked me. and to this day i am haunted by the fact that i didn't have it in me (then) to give him the verbal smackdown he so deserved.
but at least i've shared it here.
47 comments:
What an asshat! This would have been a good opportunity to use a line of dialogue from my student short film circa 2002: "Yea, I'm a big dyke and I do marijuana". And then storm out. I've been waiting for a good opportunity to use that in real life. Only that would have left your sister coming back to an empty barstool opposite two assholes wondering what happened to her charming sister.ReplyDelete
You should have said "Yes, why?"ReplyDelete
- Anonymous2:32 PM, June 22, 2005
i love the east.ReplyDelete
-el snarkster
Silly girl, didn't you know that those gays aren't American™?!ReplyDelete
They're* part of the One World Government plot to destroy America's™ moral fiber with the lure of hot, hot man on man action.
*Especially the lesbians!
yes, yes we are el gallo. i won a car and a toaster over this year alone for my conversion work!ReplyDelete
This sounds like the near fist fight my (platonic) girlfriends and I got into with a handful of frat boy types up in Tahoe one time. The guy insisted that we were from the "Gay Area" instead of the Bay Area. We didn't know whether to cry or punch him, so we did halfway versions of each. So ignorant on so many levels.ReplyDelete
- Carolyn3:25 PM, June 22, 2005
ah you a gay?ReplyDelete
An approriate response to that is "Men like you make me seriously consider it"
a friend and I had two guys ask us that when we wouldn't return their flirting.ReplyDelete
we just answered yes, and walked away to flirt with other guys who didn't have idiocy and disrespect dripping from their questions.
A jackass once asked me if I was gay, largely because I had long hair and wasn't interested in football. I told him, "Bend over and find out."ReplyDelete
How I have never had my nose broken is beyond me.
ewwww, losers. Yeah, because people only move to SF to be gay. Whatever! Dumbasses!ReplyDelete
You have captured the Southie charm there!
doris day said...ReplyDelete
yes, yes we are el gallo. i won a car and a toaster over this year alone for my conversion work!
See, this is exactly why America's™ moral fiber is in such danger. The One World Government Homosexual Conversion Department gives out these nice rewards for acheiving quota.
Straight people just get refrigerator calendars.
and thank you for sharing it here -- made my otherwise sucky day a little brighterReplyDelete
Well, once a guy called me a "faggot". Some men are very confused.ReplyDelete
"confused"? we call that "projection."
- gypsysoul5:18 PM, June 22, 2005
"Bend over and find out."ReplyDelete
Go Sam!
- Anonymous6:23 PM, June 22, 2005
Oh wow, I've so had those nights out.ReplyDelete
Ignorant people are my biggest pet peeves. What an ass.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous6:49 PM, June 22, 2005
Who wins in a verbal smackdown, anyway. Glad you shared it here tho. In some circles it's PC to ask if you're gay :) so it's all relative. I'll bet the guy's brother's gay or something like that. Take care.ReplyDelete
I agree with anon. Bars are not the place for verbal smackdown.ReplyDelete
I would have said, "Gosh no! Are you to a couple? I would have never guessed" while smiling ever so sweetly.ReplyDelete
But that's just me...
Bah haaa haaa - El Gallo and Doris Day - too funny. Thanks K. for another wonderfully told anecdote. Love your blog.ReplyDelete
You should have said: I'm not gay but my girlfriend is.ReplyDelete
He should have said:ReplyDelete
"ah you a knitter?"
So what wuz the problem??? I don unner stand......Gotta go "Dukes of Hazzards" re-runs are on...ReplyDelete
This ranks up there quite nicely along with something an ex once said to me. We'd been friends some years back, lost touch, got back together again in a lovey way a few years later, and so I flew out to see him. Thousands of miles. From Los Angeles to London, for pity's sake.
And some of his first words to me?
"Oh, I was expecting someone smaller."
Note the conspicuous use of the word "ex" in the first graf there above.
- Anonymous6:51 AM, June 23, 2005
you've been married??? I got the impression you'd only been engaged. my my you must be quite quite an appealing catch to the menfolk!ReplyDelete
anonymous, i don't know if you're being sarcastic or not.ReplyDelete
because really, the menfolk don't always think that a twentysomething who's been married *and* engaged is such a great thing...
the way i see it, though, i'm collecting rings. :D
i love how the obvious conclusion for those asshat, egotistical types if a girl isn't drooling all over them is that she must be gay. that's the ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION, right? girl doesn't want to make babies with me?? = gay. must be.ReplyDelete
You gotta love our chah-ming men of Southie.ReplyDelete
You definitely handled this well (though a funny comeback could have been hillarious). I forget where I heard this expression (it had to be somewhere in my home territory of the midwest), but it goes something like this: 'Never wrestle with a pig.... you'll just end up muddy and the pig loves the attention.'ReplyDelete
- Anonymous10:06 AM, June 23, 2005
men come and go but good jewelry is forever. nothing wrong with collecting rings.ReplyDelete
Thanks you for sharing!
Ok, here are a couple of doosies said to me recently...
Remember I am 43, but I take good care of myself and I feel about 22. SO, one night, my best friend and I are out dancing...had a great time, closed the place down.
This guy comes up to me at the door and says "You've still got the moves!" STILL?! WTF?!
A couple of weeks ago, same club, a guy I'd been dancing with (who had been at a table full of pretty obnoxious college boys) stopped to say, on his way out, "You are prefectly skinny! Don't let anyone tell you different!"
Jeez. They can be idiots.
Yep those chaahming Bawstin boyz...gotta love 'em.ReplyDelete
HAAAA! Some really great responses here! As a card carrying, toaster owning, dyke myself...I can't even come up with anything nearly as witty as most of these responses. Probably 'cause I'm sobor and at work. The best I can do is to have looked at the guy with a look of puzzlement and said "didn't your sister tell you...?" Or "yes, as a matter of fact, didn't I see you two at the Back Door Lounge last weekend?"ReplyDelete
Underachiever said...ReplyDelete
You should have said: I'm not gay but my girlfriend is.
I agree, but with a slight modification:
I think you should have gone with
"yes, and I love my girlfriend's penis because it's bigger than yours and it never gets soft."
you should have said, "i have 4 pussies [cats of course] waiting for me at home! more than you'll ever see"ReplyDelete
just kidding, i'm wining it tonight, sorry for the lame humor.
wine always makes me giggle.
- Anonymous6:30 AM, June 24, 2005
I think you should have said "actually, i'm a man". They would have had NO IDEA what to say to that. Stupifying stupid people is just so easy.ReplyDelete
Okay i have a good one for you...ReplyDelete
im out shaking my goove thing ... having a great time...((not drinking))... i think i was there for about 2 1/2 hours at that point and hadn't stopped... i had to go outside cause i was just so hot and needed to cool off for a sec.. so im out side.. talking to a friend that went with me.....**sidenote.. im not saying that im the skinniest thing in the world, but i do know that im not fat, or chubby... im don't going to say my weight, but im a size 4. Okay** back to story....so dumbass comes up to me...
"Excuse me?"...
i look at him, with a yes?...
"Are you Pregnant?" comes out of his mouth.
My jaw drops in shock, "Are you Joking me?" i replay with.
..He sits there and just looks at me...
**OKAY ** i have 2 things that i "WOULD" say to him next....
1. Yes, im Pregnant, and since im Pregnant i cant get anymore Pregnant, PLEASE fuck me. ((with sacrum))
2.Its almost 1am, on a Thursday, and im at a BAR, Of course im Pregnant. ((with more sacrum))
BUT April, butts in with, "Dude, She's a fucking twig, MY BOOB's are bigger than her waist" then we walk away.
We go back in and Dance some more. there's some great music going on.. And THEN .. The Dumbass comes back and try's to DANCE with me ... so i stop.. And look at him right in the eyes and say,"How stupid are you?" and walk off to a different area and start to dance... im getting back into my zone and not paying attention to anyone.. When some OLD WHITE GUY comes up to me.. and try's to dry hump my leg... **** i stop dead in my moves and say, "Is that your way of trying to ask me to dance?" .."Dont do it again" ..... And i walk off to dance where there aren't any dippity dumbasses.
- Anonymous2:03 PM, June 24, 2005
dude: ah you a gay?ReplyDelete
kristy: No, but it's too bad your momma wasn't.
A girl could write a book on the stupid things guys say! My beautiful friend got asked by some guy at the bar how old she was and she asked him, how old do you think I am. His reply" Your face looks young but your body looks...older" ugh...ReplyDelete
I had a guy spend the whole night talking about himself- pausing only to hear what my response to his question" What do you think my ETA is for getting in you?" Ugh...never in the first place but after that question...neva evva-evva!
- Anonymous4:37 PM, June 24, 2005
guys are pigs. Thats why I'll marry a woman.ReplyDelete
By the way...if anyone is going to be out and about during the Dyke March tomorrow, I'll be working the door and sellng Foster's oil cans at CAMA on 16th between Valencia and Guerrero. (CAMA actually has really creative and delicious original mixed drinks but this is for people to grab a can and keep on marchin'. It's not a Fosters oil can kinda bar) Come by and say hi. Should be around 7:30-ish until whenever the 40,000 women have all gone by.ReplyDelete
Gee...the witty banter of these two just amazes me.ReplyDelete
I've only been to Boston once, and am glad to say, there two didn'[t cross my path!
I have been asked quite often if I am a real redhead, and if, ahem--the shoes match the handbag, and if it is true that redheads are wild in bed.
I often say their momma taught me everything I know, or that they would need to get a physical from their doctor before they could ever find out.
On behalf of the y chromosomes out there, I apologize. On behalf of 1% of them, we're not all that stupid, but about 49% are. Plus a few of the double X's. I mean, look who's in the white house....ReplyDelete
I hate that feeling of thinking of 100 smarty things to say *after* the situation passes. In this case, I think my ideal responses would be:ReplyDelete
* "My goodness, you seem to have an awful lot of interest in 'gayness.' How long have you enjoyed this interest, and in what ways have you pursued it?"
* "That's on a need-to-know basis. Ask your mama."
* "My sexual identify is something that you will never, ever, EVER need to worry your nappy little head about."
* "Oh no, I'm like you and like all the men I can get."
And so on. - Loopy
- Anonymous10:27 AM, June 28, 2005
I live in South Boston. The fact that they new San Franscisco was part of the U.S. actually made them rather enlightened.ReplyDelete
The joke is on them because South Boston is "gentrifying" at record pace. Although if you go into a store on Broadway it's still 50/50 that the person waiting on you has recently left Ireland.....


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The final rule for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) changed the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) outlined in the proposed regulations in several respects: fewer quality and performance measures, reduced financial risk, and greater potential financial gain, just to name a few. These were all amended from the proposed regulation in order to make the MSSP more attractive to health care providers.
The most significant change, however, was not in the program itself, but rather in the Proposed Antitrust Guidance from the federal antitrust enforcement agencies, the Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (the Agencies). I blogged in this space earlier to commend CMS and the Agencies for incorporating competition values into the ACO program and doing so in a way that accommodated multiple competing interests. As has been exhaustively chronicled elsewhere, provider market power is a serious and growing problem, and the Administration was rightly concerned that the MSSP could accelerate the trend to the detriment of Medicare beneficiaries and the private market.
The final ACO rule and associated Antitrust Guidance, while making a rhetorical bow in the direction of antitrust, is in reality a step in the wrong direction. CMS struck the right balance when it proposed to exclude ACOs that were under credible threat of federal antitrust litigation and, in reversing that judgment in the final rule, significantly increased the potential harm to consumers and Medicare beneficiaries alike. The risk of anticompetitive harm to the market far outweighs the modest gains CMS anticipates from the MSSP, and the final Rule lacks a quick and effective enforcement mechanism to prevent the MSSP itself from causing consumer harm by promoting provider consolidation that otherwise would not have happened.
Looking forward, those of us who believe that health care markets depend on competition to produce benefits for consumers should encourage and facilitate actions by the Agencies to vigorously enforce the law.
Comparing the Proposed and Final Antitrust Guidance
The proposed Guidance. The proposed ACO rule and Antitrust Guidance required program participants to calculate their share of a "Primary Service Area" (PSA) market using Medicare data, and those over a 50 percent PSA share would have been required to go through an abbreviated antitrust review by one of the Agencies. Those potential ACOs who failed that Agency review would not have been able to participate in the program. The proposed Antitrust Guidance also provided a "safe harbor" for ACOs with PSA shares under 30 percent, an opportunity for an advisory opinion, a list of practices to avoid in order to minimize the risk of a violation and a statement that ACOs that qualified for the program would be evaluated under the antitrust rule of reason instead of the "per se" rule.
The final Guidance. The final Antitrust Guidance substitutes a mandatory notification of all ACO applicantions to the Agencies in the place of mandatory exclusion from the program for those ACOs under threat of Agency enforcement action. The mandatory notification resembles, in a very loose way, the concept and process utilized by the Agencies in their regular merger and acquisition review work. (The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, 15 USC § 18a, provides for mandatory notification and waiting periods for all stock or asset acquisitions that meet certain minimum thresholds.)
The proposed ACO agrees to have its application shared with the Agencies, which will then decide independent of CMS whether to initiate an enforcement action in court. The final Guidance is similar to the proposed Guidance in several respects: it provides for a safe harbor for ACOs under a 30 percent PSA share, it has a list of conduct to minimize antitrust risk, and it confirms the Agencies will afford rule of reason treatment to ACOs that qualify for the MSSP.
The final Rule describes a three-prong approach to maintain competition among ACOs. First, the Agencies will offer voluntary expedited antitrust review to newly formed ACOs. Second, CMS will provide the Agencies with aggregate claims data and share a copy of the ACO application with the Agencies, all of which is intended to help the Agencies assess and monitor ACOs' effects on competition and take enforcement action as appropriate. Third, the Agencies will rely on their existing enforcement tools to evaluate competition concerns.
The critical difference between the proposed and final Guidance. The most important difference between the Proposed and Final Antitrust Guidance lies in the enforcement mechanism. As proposed, those ACOs over a 50 percent PSA share which failed to obtain a "clean bill of antitrust health" would not have been eligible to apply for an ACO contract. That policy set the right balance between the potential costs and benefits of the Medicare Shared Savings Program. The MSSP is a rare piece of the Affordable Care Act with wide stakeholder support, but even those who have faith in the program are modest in their claims. The Final Rule itself predicts a four year median net savings of $470 million, which in the scheme of what Medicare spends, is a rounding error.
As small is that number is in terms of the Medicare budget, the more relevant comparison is to the potential damage to consumers if the MSSP acts as a catalyst for unwarranted and anticompetitive provider consolidation. The amount of money we spend on health care services is staggering – estimated at 17 percent of GDP – and if the MSSP causes prices to increase in even a few markets, we will experience a significant wealth transfer from health care consumers to providers and a corresponding limitation on access to and quality of care for private market participants and Medicare beneficiaries alike.
The literature on the damage done by health care provider market power is powerful, and once market power is entrenched the antitrust laws are not an effective tool for fixing the problem. That's why the Proposed Policy got it right: the MSSP should have provided the tools to stop market power in its incipiency instead of hoping it would be taken care of later. Competition policy generally recognizes that market power problems are best avoided instead of remedied after the fact and CMS unfortunately decided on a course that may well add to a wide-spread and serious problem.
What Should Be Done Now
Whatever the rationale for shifting policies (See Note 1 below), the focus now should be to prevent the potential harm from coming to fruition. The Agencies should place a high priority on reviewing ACO applications and make use of the information and claims data provided as part of the ACO application. Health plans, employers and other purchasers of provider services should commit to working with the Agencies to identify problematic ACOs and provide information and testimony necessary to bring cases to court, and Congress should provide the necessary increased funding to ensure the Agencies have the resources to commit to this vital mission.
While the Medicare Shared Savings Program is a potentially useful step forward in providing incentives for better coordinated, less fragmented care, the danger to competition is real. If ACOs prove to be just another health care acronym and passing fad their ultimate legacy could be further consolidated provider markets, and that would be a bad end for a promising idea.
Note 1. The Final ACO rule explained that it was concerned it may be illegally conferring unreviewable authority on the Agencies and cited an article as summing up the legal argument. See Richard D. Raskin, Ben J. Keith & Brenna E. Jenny, "Delegation Dilemma: Can HHS Require Medicare ACOs to Undergo Pre-Clearance by the Antitrust Agencies?," 20 Health L. Rep. 961 (2011). This concern is misplaced. The HHS Secretary would not be delegating away her authority under the Social Security Act or the Affordable Care Act, but is instead recognizing the Agencies will continue to exercise their long-standing authority to enforce the Sherman Act.
The Secretary has wide discretion to decide which ACOs will best fulfill the SSP goals, and the mandatory antitrust review would reveal actionable information that a potential participant would be devoting significant time and resources to a legal battle. The issue is not delegation, it is whether the Secretary is reasonably exercising her discretion to administer the SSP in a manner that will not be disrupted by the Agencies' independent authority to enforce the antitrust laws; she would be well within her authority to not select program participants that have been credibly threatened with expensive, resource draining litigation.


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[DIY] Blinder M-45 Laser Jammer Install
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Drives: 2008 M3
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Raleigh, NC
iTrader: (
[DIY] Blinder M-45 Laser Jammer Install
I've had this thing sitting in my floor for over a year. I went to a local shop and they quoted me $325 to install it, no thanks. With the help of doba_s, I was finally able to get it installed today. As far as difficulty, I wouldn't say it was too bad; no harder than my angel eyes in my E46. The hardest part, by far, was running the cables through the firewall. If I had really small hands, it would have been cake. I opted out of the rear detectors for now because I didn't want to deal with running wires through the length of the car and I figured two up front is better than four sitting in my house. The last two can easily be added later.
This is just a guide. It's not my fault if you screw up your car during the install
Tools needed:
Torx T-15 bit & driver
Knife/razor blade
Small screwdriver
Allen wrenches
8mm socket with extension
Wire snips - optional, but makes cutting zip ties easy
This took me ~7 hours, but I doba_s and I were PMing back and forth for the first hour or so while I tried to figure out where the grommet was. I also had to re-route the wires a couple times because I wasn't paying attention and that's a real bitch. I feel that I could do it again ~4 hours or so.
Prepping the car
1. You'll need to remove the two air filters and the big plastic piece that spans the width of the car. There are 3 8mm bolts holding each air filter down and 2 8mm bolts holding the plastic piece down.
Notice that the bolts that hold the plastic piece down have more threads than the bolts that hold the filters in place.
On the passenger's side, there is a sensor you'll need to remove. There is a small circle on the right side. Push it with a pencil or knife and rotate the entire thing up. It will pop out very easily.
After the sensor is free, release the wires. They're attached with a plastic clip attached to a metal clip. I was able to slide the plastic off of the metal for one, but had to pry the metal & plastic off together for the others. The same type of clips hold a sensor in place on the driver's side filter. You can see the entire clip assembly in the third picture
Once you get both filters off and the wires freed up, you can remove the big plastic piece. It's held down with the 2 8mm screws and 2 rubber pieces on each side of the car. Just move them out of the way and the entire piece comes out pretty easily. I forgot to circle it, but one of the bolts is right behind the hydraulic arm in the first picture.
Go back to the driver's side. There is a small rubber tube chilling on its own; pull it out. I didn't get a picture of it in place, but here's where it was. You can see the white clips for the grommet you'll be using to pass through the firewall in the bottom of the picture.
There's a rubber box right beside that tube. It's attached to the fender with a pop rivet and to the firewall with a 10mm bolt. You don't need to remove either, just slide it off of the bolt so you'll have more room to work later. For reference, you can see the hole where the rubber tube was at the top of the first picture.
There are 4 bolts holding the top of the bumper in place. Remove these, push the bumper out, and reach in and release the grilles. They're held in place with plastic tabs. I used my finger to bend them down, but a flat head screwdriver works too.
Time for the interior. Use the torx driver and remove the 3 T-15 screws holding the panel below the steering wheel in place. It simply drops down once these are out of the way.
There are 4 connections under there. 2 of them simply slide out, but the one on the far left, with a purple/black tab, needs to be depressed in order to be removed. I used my knife, anything small works. The big one also needs to be depressed to slide out, but it's big enough for your fingers. Also, remove the wires from the clip holding them down so you can pull the entire panel out.
Now's a good time to take the clutch spring out if you haven't already. There's a link in my sig on how to do that.
Next up is the center console. The shifter trim comes off by pushing in around the edges and pulling up. To remove the knob, put it in 2nd and pull up. Although, I think you can remove the center trim without pulling the knob off. To remove the iDrive wheel, pull up. I didn't remove the connections for power, DSC, or EDC, there was enough slack to work with.
Under the console are all the wires for the cigarette lighter. Remember, on the connector,
I mounted my switch and LED on the panel. You can mount them wherever, but here's how I did it. The switch is 2cm wide, the LED housing is 1/4". Mark where you want to put them, and drill the holes. It's that easy. I slipped at some point and scratched the panel, but I really don't care, it's under the steering wheel. After I was done, I ran the buzzer wire through one of the vent holes and screwed it to the panel.
Running the wires and mounting the receivers
Here comes the fun part. There is a white ring around the grommet that you'll use. It's under the white tank (steering fluid?) up against the firewall. You'll have to maneuver your hand to unclip 2 of them in order to get enough play in the grommet to work with it. It doesn't take much to release them. Once you get them released, get back inside the cabin. Here's what you're working with.
That small hole at the top right is the nipple I cut to run the wires. There are 3 nipples, but I couldn't get to the other two. I was able to pull most of the white ring inside the car, pull the nipple around, and snip it off. Then I took a razor and sliced down to make it easier to pull the wires through. I probably cut too much, but it's tight down there and I couldn't really see how far I had gone.
Take the two front receivers and pull the wires through the kidneys, in front of the air box, and then follow the stock wiring around the air box,
to the left of the hydraulic arm
(I had to re-run both wires because I wasn't paying attention), and down into the grommet. There's a plastic piece that sits between the fender and hood that crosses over the stock wiring. You can remove it by releasing the tabs that hold it in place.
My wires have tapered rubber at the ends to make it easier to seal the firewall if you're cutting holes. I used a razor to take one off, and left the other to help seal the hole in the grommet.
If you have intake scoops, you're going to have to remove them. I debated and tried different mounting points, but this is the best place and easiest to level. I found it best to mount the brackets to the receivers, but only tighten the top screw to allow some rotation for leveling. I marked where the brackets were, used the self tapping screws to make holes, and leveled them out using washers. After getting the heads leveled, go ahead and pull all the slack out of the wires. I zip tied the driver's side to the column in the middle to keep it from waving around. If you can find a better way to route the wires, let me know.
Powering Up
Now comes the easy part. Here's a simple wiring diagram:
I went ahead and snipped the blue wire because I don't care about an auto-mute. The red wire that connects to the main box goes to one side of the switch, and the other red wire (the one with the fuse), goes to your power source, which in this case is the cigarette lighter. I don't have many pictures of this part because it was getting late and I was just trying to finish up. At this point you have your wires from the receivers in the car. Pull all the slack through and zip tie everything to the stock wiring under the hood. Roll the wire up and tie it up. I put my wires and box behind/under the steering wheel, you can put it anywhere.
The wires you're tapping are the 2 larger of the four. The red wire with a black stripe is positive and the brown wire is the ground. I cut a coat hanger, ran it from the console to the foot well, taped the wires to it, and pulled it back through, which is the easiest way I can think of doing it. Use the supplied taps to piggyback the pos/ground. I ran the end of the ground for the Blinder into the tap before I clamped it down and it worked fine. The positive lead simply plugs into the tap after you've clamped it. You're going to want to tap the wires from the cig lighter back a few inches from the connector in order to leave room for the ash tray when you put the console back in.
Once you get all the wires tidied up and everything is working, it's just a matter of putting everything back where it was and you're done.
Blinder M45 DIY
Exhaust Cutouts
Removed Clutch Pedal Spring DIY
Fiamm Air Horns
Last edited by SS32; 03-22-2009 at
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Small merchants face sizable barriers between them and the technology that could help them compete with today's global mega-chains. The MasterCard Insights' Merchant Scope study assseses and quantifies the difference in technology attitude and capability among small-to-mid-sized merchants across four key global markets.
Scroll down to access the full study content, create your own report or review the key issues now.


text:
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When it comes to saving money, bundling is the best! Combining your Frontier Internet and Frontier Home Phone services eliminates extra monthly statements, as you only have to worry about a single bill for your bundle. Plus, you'll get a lower rate on both services, and you don't even have to sign a contract. You can also lock in your monthly rate for three years, thanks to Frontier's 2-Year Price Guarantee. Nothing beats the Frontier deals in Phlox, so don't delay! Call now to learn more about how you can save with a Frontier Bundle.
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text:
[eIndonesian Embassy] eIndonesian Ambassador for eEstonia - Introduction
Day 1,822, 01:55 • Published in Estonia • by
Prabu Gatotkaca
HAIL eINDONESIA
Greetings From eIndonesia !
First of all, I would like to congratulate ALL the newly elected presidents and their cabinets to our allies, our Friends and our Brother countries, and to our opponents.
And on behalf of our entire people I wish a successful month to all the friendly governments, and I have no doubt that our good relations will continue to grow as they have until now.
I'm Prabu Gatotkaca, the eIndonesian ambassador for eEstonia.
As an Ambassador I'll have 5 major things I'll be doing:
1) Creating new Dialogue options for the Executive Branch of the Government of eIndonesia, by getting to know other members of the country that I'm assigned to;
2) Reporting on major events happening in eEstonia regularly, even events of a moderate nature that maybe interesting to know.
3) Reporting in an Office on the eIndonesian MoFA Room (IRC server Rizon) those events, to my Deputy Chairman in order to see what eIndonesia will do regarding the situation.
4) Help CP and Governoor in eEstonia if they need help and always keep in touch with them at IRC room, PM, or Forum.
5) as a communication bridge between the government of eIndonesia and the government of eEstonia.
Primary goal from eIndonesian embassy For eEstonia in this month is to bring back the old friendship that has begun to stretch, making the continuation of our foreign policy. Also we will always try to help the alliance and a close friend of us both in military and economic, and if need we will help bilateral politic between another country even in very difficult situations. We will also maintain MPP with friendly countries which have a long association with us, are also continuing our efforts to create a new MPP with the countries that recently in cooperation with our country.
With this we call for all of our friends to come back over and work together with eIndonesia, we open wide the doors to our friends and alliance .
HAIL eEstonia
in conclusion, We call all our people, friends and everyone involved to remain strong, sturdy, and unite against all the challenges we will face later.
Let us show the world that the brotherhood of our unwavering and also remain focused on our goal really is. we are confident that we can do this!.
for ALL of our alliance that needs help, we are ready to help you anytime, anywhere. we will help you as much as possible even in difficult circumstances.
Best regards,
Prabu Gatotkaca
eIndonesian ambassador for eEstonia
Its my very first article..
Thank you Kjork and Viskaja for your welcome and guide..
Im sorry for the delay..
Hail eIndonesia!
Hail eEstonia!
What is this?You are reading an article written by a citizen of eRepublik, an immersive multiplayer strategy game based on real life countries. Create your own character and help your country achieve its glory while establishing yourself as a war hero, renowned publisher or finance guru.


text:
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A not-so-long-lasting silence fell across the room April 7 as Discovery School students waited to see which animals were in the covered cages.
Students gasped at the legless lizard. They giggled when a cockatoo started swaying. And their eyes widened when a coati climbed up Conservation Educator Khoreen Vetter's leg.
The smell of sea life stunned visitors walking into Buford Elementary School on Tuesday.
Fourth graders lined up in the hall outside a science lab wearing aprons and rubber gloves.
It was time to dissect sharks.
Some students plugged their noses to avoid the smell. Other wide-eyed students looked at the 2-foot-long dogfish sharks lined up on the counter.
Kelly Morrissette
For The Lancaster News
Jasmine Blair, a 16-year-old junior at Lancaster High School, attended the Pinckney 4-H Leadership Conference at Clemson University last month.
It was a weeklong dose of fun and learning, from whitewater rafting to making shoes for Ugandans to cultivating leadership skills.
Brian Garner
Landmark News Service
Chester County school officials are working to eliminate a problem with bats in the cafeteria and classroom areas at Great Falls Elementary School.
School district Chief Operations Officer Jeff Gardner talked about the efforts at a recent meeting of the Facility Advisory Committee. The bats were a problem last school year, and the district tried to deal with the creepy creatures this summer.
Art created electronically on tablets was unveiled Wednesday at a public reception for the artists and community members at the Springs House in Lancaster.
The artists, pre-k students from Southside Early Childhood Center and adult clients from the Chester/Lancaster Disabilities and Special Needs center, created digital pieces using tablets and their own imaginations.
Phillip Mickles has resigned from his teaching position at Barr Street Learning Center.
The resignation became official after a vote during Tuesday night's Lancaster County school board meeting.
Mickles was placed on administrative leave in April after an allegation of improper discipline of a student. The Lancaster Police Department investigated the incident and did not charge Mickles with a crime, but he was not reinstated to his job at that time.
More than 12,000 students began the new academic year at the Lancaster County School District's 22 schools on Thursday.
It was smooth sailing most of the day, except for some traffic congestion around the district's many on-going construction projects.
"We had a little congestion at Lancaster High," said David Knight, LCSD spokesman. "But nothing out of the ordinary for the first day of school."
Lancaster County school board members, district staff and community members gathered Monday afternoon to break ground on the Panhandle's new elementary school.
Expected to be complete next August, the 95,000-square-foot building will accommodate 1,170 students. The 36-acre site is on the west side of U.S. 521, just south of Rebound Road.
School board member Melvin Stroble, who represents District 1, where the new school is being built, said the district needs additional facilities to support growth in the Panhandle.
More than 1,000 Lancaster County School District teachers and faculty members in matching school T-shirts filled Buford High School's gym Monday morning to celebrate great teaching.
Four teachers from around the district were awarded annual teaching awards. Others were recognized for the number of years they had taught, including one teacher who has 54 years under his belt.
Troy Helms, an agriculture teacher at Buford High, won the district-wide Great Teaching Award and the high school award. He has been an educator for 15 years.
Leader in Me, a program designed to teach elementary students management skills, is coming to North and Brooklyn Springs elementary schools this academic year.
The three-year program, piloted in the county by Buford Elementary last year, is driven by Stephen Covey's book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People."
Linda Blackwell, Lancaster County School District director of elementary instruction, said Leader in Me lets students become partners in their learning.
Copyright © 2017
The Lancaster News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Lancaster County and Lancaster, South Carolina, and the surrounding area..


text: West Virginia-born actor Lou Myers dies By Rusty Marks February 20, 2013 Story Share CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia-born actor Lou Myers, a champion for improving the image of his home state, died Tuesday evening, his agent said. He was 67.Myers, perhaps best known as Mr. Gaines on the TV show "A Different World," was born in Chesapeake, the son of a Cabin Creek coal miner.Myers died at 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Charleston Area Medical Center, Memorial Division. He had battled pneumonia for months, according to a news release.Myers is survived by his mother, Dorothy Jeffries, 95, son, Melvin Myers, and two grandsons, Brayden and Christian.The West Virginia State University alumnus was an accomplished stage, screen and television actor who was also an adept piano player. He got his first break as an understudy in the Broadway play "The First Breeze of Summer," and won an NAACP Image Award for his portrayal of the Stool Pigeon in the play "King Hedley II."During his fourth Broadway appearance in "Oprah Winfrey's The Color Purple," Myers was the only performer in the play whom the audience recognized and applauded each time he appeared on stage, which Myers said at the time was better than having his name in print, according to the release.Myers completed his fifth, and final, appearance on Broadway in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," African-American style. The black actor appeared in more than a dozen films, including roles in the 1998 film "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and 2001's "The Wedding Planner."Television roles included appearances on "ER," "JAG" and "NYPD Blue."Myers sometimes returned to his home state as a motivational speaker and cheerleader for West Virginia and its residents. He gave the Black History Month convocation at West Virginia State in 2010, and helped present a Black History Celebration in 2011 with local songstress Doris "Lady D" Fields and poet Crystal Good.In 2005, the Appalachian Education Initiative listed Myers as one of 50 "Outstanding Creative Artists" from West Virginia and featured him in their coffee table book Art & Soul.Myers was the founder and director of the "Tshaka Ensemble Players." For eight years throughout Black History month, "Tshaka Ensemble Players" continually performed the historical and educational play "Foot Steps From Before," which was written and produced by Myers.He even sang jazz and blues with the touring company of "Negro Music in Vogue." Reach Rusty Marks at firstname.lastname@example.com or 304-348-1215. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 Facebook founder visits Charleston restaurant 2 WVU seeking improvements during off week 3 Innerviews: Dual-identity surgeon riding high in horse racing world 4 Parole hearing set for Putnam man who claims wrongful sex assault conviction 5 Rod Run and Doo Wop brings classic cars, music to Boulevard for 12th year Review: Clay Center crowd loves Irish dance Previous Story Seatbelt bill clears major hurdle in House Next Story


text:
Chapter 8 (v.1)
Lila and Dimitrius spent the next hour walking around the orchards, deciding which apples would be the tastiest. They would tease each other every now and then, and yet they both enjoyed themselves immensely. It was a strange feeling for Lila, going from loathing Dimitrius to actually liking him. 'Well', she thought, 'I only like him a little.' She refused to get carried away with any emotions that might overcome her. At least, that's what she told herself. As Dimitrius was reaching for an apple high up on a tree, Lila finally asked the question that had been bothering her.
"Why are you so interested in me?" she inquired. Dimitrius almost lost his balance when he heard her. He regained his composure, picked the apple, and turned around to face Lila. He took a quick bite of the apple.
"Those are for lunch, you know," Lila said slyly. Dimitrius rolled his eyes and ignored her.
"To answer your question, I don't really know," he replied. Lila raised one eyebrow. He didn't know? How was that supposed to answer her question?
"What do you mean 'I don't know'? What kind of answer is that?" Lila asked. Dimitrius shrugged.
"I don't know. I was drawn to you. Maybe it was your obvious animosity towards me. Or maybe it was your boldness. Like I said, I don't know," he responded. Lila couldn't imagine having someone being drawn to her, especially if the reason her sharp personality.
"So...it was my anger that got to you?" Lila pushed. Dimitrius shrugged once again, causing Lila to scowl.
"You know, you're not being very helpful," she pouted. Dimitrius only smiled. Lila rolled her eyes.
"I bet you do this everywhere you go," she said teasingly, "You find a maid that initially despises you and spend all your free time with her. I suppose you like taking blows to your pride?"
"Hardly. You're the only one, my lady," Dimitrius replied. Lila frowned. She had never been called a lady before, and it didn't feel right.
"Please don't call me that, your highness," Lila said dejectedly. Dimitrius furrowed his eyebrows.
"Call you what?" he asked. Lila sighed. Explaining this was really going to do a number on her pride.
"A lady. I'm not a lady, and I never will be. I'm a servant, a maid, and you know that. I appreciate the kindness that you've shown me, but calling me a lady is just a bit much. It's...it's not my status," Lila said, looking towards the ground. Dimitrius walked over to her and put one hand on her shoulder. Lila looked up in slight surprise.
"You are certainly not the definition of a proper lady, but you are the closest thing to a real lady that I've ever seen", he said in a tone so serious that Lila almost shivered. She didn't know what to say. She opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly felt something cold and metallic hit her foot. She looked down and saw Dimitrius' prize necklace from the ogres resting in the grass. Lila let out a quiet 'oh' and started to bend down to pick it up, but the prince beat her to it. He laughed as he grasped the necklace.
"I thought you might have thrown this away," Dimitrius said, admiring the pendant.
"Of course I didn't!" Lila responded, "You did give it to me."
"Oh ho, so you do appreciate acts of kindness! And here I thought you were completely made of ice," the prince joked. Lila rolled her eyes but laughed a little.
"Don't get too ahead of yourself, my heart is rather cold," Lila replied with a smile. Dimitrius chuckled. He then placed the necklace around Lila's neck and hooked the clasp. As Lila felt him lift her hair from underneath the necklace, she felt herself shiver. There was something that she felt in her heart that she had never really felt before, and she wondered if Dimitrius felt it, too. She bit her lip out of habit, and looked up at the prince, who had an unreadable look in his eyes. Lila felt his hand trail from her hair to her neck and slowly up to her cheek. The sudden silence was deafening. If Lila moved only a few inches forward she could...
"LILA!" came a shrill voice. Lila and Dimitrius immeditely seperated themselves, and Lila tucked the necklace into her servant's dress.
"LILA!" the voice screamed again. Lila quickly snapped back to reality. She recognized the voice of the head kitchen maid. How long had it been since she had sent her out for apples? Lila turned to Dimitrius, but looked towards the ground as she felt her face go hot.
"I...erm...I'm being called. Your highness," she said while curtseying. Lila turned and ran back to the castle, leaving Dimitrius stunned and pondering what almost was.
Once Lila returned to the castle, she was scolded for staying in the orchards so late. The head kitchen maid told her that she needed to keep her head out of the clouds and that she should focus on her work. This all went unheard by Lila, however. As she set the apples in the fruit bowl, all she could think about was what might have happened in the orchards. She had to be careful. Although she was enjoying her time with Prince Dimitrius, she couldn't get close to him ever again. She desperately hoped that he wouldn't mention anything to anyone in the castle. Lila didn't know what the penalty for almost kissing a prince was, but she imagined that it couldn't be anything good. Besides, he was betrothed to Giselle, and Lila certainly didn't want to hurt her. So, she decided, she would keep her distance from Dimitrius - no, Prince Dimitrius - and everything would go back to normal. As Lila finished putting the apples in the fruit bowl, she heard the familiar voice of Princess Giselle.
"I hope she's still here. I haven't had a chance to see her all day! Lila! Lila, are you in there?" Giselle said as she walked into the kitchen, Karmella in tow. Once she saw Lila, her face brightened. Lila made sure to cover her bruise from Ulric.
"There you are! Father said you had to work off what you missed this morning here, but I couldn't stand it any longer. Karmella and I have been absolutely bored. Come on, come with Karmella and me!" Giselle said very quickly and cheerfully. Lila nodded and followed Giselle out of the kitchen. As they made their way through the dining room and foyer, Giselle grasped Lila's hand for a brief moment.
"Did you notice that I'm calling you and Karmella by your names again?", she whispered, "I hope that things can be as they were."
Lila smiled weakly and nodded. Giselle laughed and began to hurry up the stairs. Karmella turned to Lila as they followed Giselle up the stairs.
"I'm sorry I couldn't visit you in the dungeons. I tried to get away, but I couldn't. Are you alright?" she asked genuinely. Lila smiled thankfully at her and took her hand.
"I'm fine. Of course, Ulric wasn't the kindest of persons...," Lila trailed off. Karmella cocked her head to the side. Lila checked to make sure that Giselle wasn't looking. When she saw that Giselle was stilling laughing happily and running up the long staircase, she lifted up her sleeve to show Karmella the large bruise that Ulric had given her. Karmella looked horrified.
"Lila, you have to tell Gi-," Karmella started.
"No! I can't, and you can't either. Please Karmella, don't tell," Lila interrupted. Karmella began to protest, but when Lila pleaded with her eyes, Karmella finally nodded. As they reached the top of the stairs, they followed Giselle down the hall and into her bedroom. Giselle sat down at her dresser and began to brush her orange locks.
"I'm so happy things are getting better. Soon, it will be all of us like we were...plus Dimitrius, of course," Giselle said. Suddenly, she stopped brushing her hair and turned to Lila and Karmella.
"Speaking of my prince, have either of you seen him? He's been absent since breakfast," Giselle said curiously. Karmella shook her head instantly, but it took a moment for Lila to do the same. Giselle shrugged and turned back to her dresser. She motioned for Lila and Karmella to sit down, and then began to hum a bouncy tune. The two girls sat down on Giselle's periwinkle couch. On the mahogany table in front of the couch sat Giselle's practice writing. Karmella took a blank sheet of parchment and the brush sitting next to it. She dipped the brush in a bottle of ink that Giselle had been using and began to silently write on the parchment.
When she had finished, she pushed the parchment towards Lila.
Are you sure you're okay? You seem distant.
Lila looked from Karmella to the parchment, and then began to write.
If I tell you something, you must promise to never tell anyone about it. Ever.
Lila passed the parchment back to Karmella. Once she had read it, she looked at Lila with a scared expression and began to write back.
I promise. Are you in trouble?
When the parchment came back to Lila, she took a breath, looked at Giselle, and then wrote her answer.
I almost kissed the prince.
Karmella's eyes widened. She looked at Lila with disbelief.
"Are you insane?", she whispered, "That would be considered treason now that he's betrothed to Giselle!"
"I know, I know. But I didn't do it!", Lila whispered. Karmella was about to respond when Giselle stopped her humming and called them over to her dresser. As the two handmaidens got up from the couch, Lila was careful to take the parchment she and Karmella had used with her. She hid it behind her back, and when Giselle wasn't looking, threw it into the fireplace where it burned into ash.
© Copyright 2017 papermask. All rights reserved.
Add Your Comments:
OMG this is ike so good can u plz update day soon and if u have time plz KMU! lol i loved this story so far cant wait to see what happens next! :)
KMU Please :) I LOVE it!
I'm really loving this!!! I have said it many times before but you really do have a way of expressing what you want through words.
Please keep me updated!
-Tasha x
ohhhh my gosh D:
i love the prince and lila. lovelovelove them D:
i cant wait to see what will happen when they get discovered; wonder what will happen to lila's friendship with the princess D:
Muy interestante...Liked the part about passing the notes. My friend and I do that all the time, only on her computer!
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"I've got it," said the old man. Running for the legislature, the 85-year-old candidate had been thinking about a campaign slogan. It was perfect, reflecting his honorable profession -- an undertaker. His slogan read "I'll be the last man who ever lets you down."
His voters got the joke, as well as the point. They elected him Maine's oldest lawmaker.
Naturally, death means different things to different people. I think it is the only way to escape my credit rating. A clergyman I know says life is a parenthesis, preceded and followed by something greater. He sees irony in life insurance -- because it is not life "assurance."
No one knows for sure what comes next. And in the case of the city of Eureka versus the atheist, fighting about faith can be pricey. In an invocation, you have to be careful who you are invoking these days.
My brother thought death was a great thing to fight about. It made life much more fun. Besides, why fight about something you can resolve? Who did my late Mom love most? Only God knows. The star witness (Mom) cannot testify.
My mother loved everybody unconditionally -- a point lost on those who needed love most, especially my siblings. We could not agree on how to bury her. Her last writings had not been clear. Some mentioned a cemetery, others mentioned scattering her ashes in the mountains.
My well-meaning brother took things (my mother's urn) in his own hands. So for months, she rode around in Tupperware on the back of my brother's motorcycle. She also spent some time in my father's garage. What a trip that was -- "Mom's Motorcycle Diaries."
The way we honor death is important for the living. We are the ones left to sort out the remnants of our loss. I do it with humor. I've wanted to be stuffed and propped up in the lot at Wabash and Broadway. There, I'd hold a placard saying "Action News 6. An NBUC affiliate -- Not Bad Under the Circumstances."
When I signed my own will, I left everything to Nina's family. After all, they are the ones who have cared for me. I told Nina there will be a big fight over my dirty baseball jerseys. She said not to worry about it: There wouldn't be.
Through the process of losing her a month ago, I have been reminded of the great burden left the living. I have also learned that planning one's own burial is an act of beautiful affirmation.
My friend Zu-kenya Zawadi of Oceanview Cemetery has reminded me of that in the days since Nina's burial. So I bought a plot next to hers, a beautiful spot overlooking the bay. For me, it was a happy day, affirmation that I am here and always will be.
Someday, historians will see the markers of two linked names, Silverbrand and Winogradov. They will wonder how we got together -- and oh, the stories we could tell.
They'll also wonder about the epitaph on my marker. It's the sign-off old radio announcers used when the show was over. "Looks like we're out of time," it will say. "See you on the flip-side."
Dave Silverbrand is the general manager of CBS 17 and is a journalism instructor at College of the Redwoods.


text:
Ruby Turner talks Jools, Jazz and Emeli Sande ahead of Aberdeen visit
Ruby Turner is relishing her trip to the north-east for the Aberdeen Jazz Festival.
Ruby Turner's cv positively sparkles with superstars in the music world. The singer, songwriter and occasional actress has worked with the likes of Bryan Ferry, Mick Jagger, UB40, The Temptations, Steve Winwood, Lulu and The Four Tops.
There have been hits liberally sprinkled throughout her career, from "It's Gonna Be Alright", which reached No 1 on the American R&B chart, to "I'd Rather Go Blind", which was the highlight of her string of chart successes throughout the 1990s.
Yet, when we spoke this week about her forthcoming visit to the Granite City at the Beach Ballroom on March 15, as part of the Aberdeen Jazz Festival, it was clear that Turner had little interest in dwelling on former glories. She talked briefly about her long-term association with Jools Holland, formerly of Squeeze fame and now a "Hootenanny" veteran.
But she was equally determined to pay tribute to the emergence of Scotland's Emeli Sande: an artist with whom Turner can empathise as somebody with a pure love of music in all its guises, whether pop, rock, gospel, soul, jazz or the blues.
Turner told STV: "I've been very impressed with how Emeli has dealt with her success and I think she is terrific. I met her in Finland last year, and she was amazing, very down-to-earth, but full of passion for what she was doing and she struck me as a major talent.
"Some people get carried away with success and being in the media, but Emeli hasn't let it affect her. I brought her debut album ["Our Version of Events"] and it was clear from listening to the songs that she wasn't some pre-packaged star, but the genuine article.
"She is intelligent, she does things her own way, and she walks her own path. In many ways, she reminded me of the [US singer] Anita Baker and that is no small recommendation."
Turner's peripatetic career has steered her from Montego Bay in Jamaica, to Handsworth in Birmingham, and most of the way round the globe. In tandem with the loquacious Holland and his big band, she has belted out boogie woogie and scintillating soul and wrapped her sumptuous voice around everything from evocative elegies to stomping stadium anthems.
Yet one of the most impressive aspects of Ruby's attitude is her refusal to be pigeon-holed.
She said: "When I walk through record shops and see how they are trying to put everybody into little niches, it irritates me and I just want to shout: "Don't do that!"
"I try to tap in to everything I possibly can and I never want to be restricted to any one or even two types of music when there is so much good new stuff out there.
"Too often, these days, it seems you have to be one kind of singer and stick to that. But I'm hopefully going to keep moving around [the genres]. That's one of the things I love about recording: the sense that you're never sure what will emerge at the end of the process.
"It might be brilliant. It might be rubbish. But it will never be formulaic. We aren't on a conveyor belt. We have to go in new directions all the time. Or at least that is my way of looking at it."
Turner enjoys devising new concert schedules with Holland - "Jools has this boundless enthusiasm about him which is really infectious" - but is also involved in solo projects. And, having visited Aberdeen in the past, she is savouring her night in the spotlight in March.
She added: "We'll have to see how it goes, but I always want to push myself. There will probably be some blues, some soul, some jazz and gospel, and who knows what else?
"The main thing is that is makes you feel warmer, happier, and stirs your emotions. I feel blessed that I have been able to do something I love for so many years.
"But I have no intention of slowing down or looking backwards. I live in the here and now."
With or without Jools, this lady is a diamond!


text:
July 19–October 22, 2006
StudioSound: THE BLACK ATLANTIC PROJECT is an innovative collaborative music project in which DJs in the United States, Britain and France have remixed one another's works and passed them on like a hip–hop chain letter. London–based sound artist, DJ, and writer Charlie Dark who conceptualized the project started it with Naima's Theme, the original track he composed for his newborn daughter. Dark sent his track, along with a personal "audio letter," to Djinji Brown, a musician and DJ based in Miami, for remixing and reinterpretation. Brown then passed his new piece and a new audio letter to vocalist Netsayi in Bristol. From there, the project went on, like a surprising, inspired game of sonic telephone, to DJ King Britt in Philadelphia, musician Atjazz (Martin Iveson) in Derby, American producer and MC Mike Ladd in Paris, and innovative Brit–hop and soul producer Dobie (Tony Campbell) in London, before returning to Dark for the final remix. Inflected with beats and vocals from both sides of the Atlantic, this installation is the debut of each artist's mix, individual voice letter and the final remix mastered by Charlie Dark.
The title of this project comes from The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double–Consciousness, an analysis of the African diaspora by London School of Economics cultural theorist Paul Gilroy. In his book, Gilroy describes a black culture that is not African, American, British, or Caribbean, but a mash–up of all four that he calls the "black Atlantic." This shared culture, to some extent precipitated by the Atlantic slave trade, provides the background, intellectual foundation, and cultural milieu for THE BLACK ATLANTIC PROJECT, a living, pulsating representation of the culture Gilroy analyzed. And although hip–hop was born in the Bronx, it has a global presence that makes it the perfect medium for an artistic discussion of "black Atlantic" culture.
StudioSound: THE BLACK ATLANTIC PROJECT is organized by The British Council, USA and presented by The Studio Museum in Harlem as part of StudioSound. Special thanks to Andrew Missingham. The Black Atlantic word mark was conceived and generously donated by Map, NYC.


text:
Father and son badly burned after fire in Lawrence home basement
A father and his 13-year-old son were badly burned in a fire in the basement of a Lawrence home where they were working Saturday afternoon, the Lawrence Fire Department said. Firefighters responded to a call for "an explosion with injuries'' around 2:20 p.m. at 71 Woodland St. to find the boy and his father still conscious outside the residence severely injured, said Lawrence fire Deputy Chief Brian Murphy. Both victims were taken to Lawrence General Hospital, and then flown by medical helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital for their wounds, said Murphy. Their conditions were unknown as of Saturday night. The blaze, which was contained to the basement, is believed to be accidental and did not involve illegal activity, said Murphy. The fire, as well as the cause, is under investigation.


text:
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Up to six items of mail were found to be destroyed when a New Zealand Post courier cleared the post box, on Hope Ave, near Nerin Sq, on Tuesday. A further 30 items were found deposited on top of the ashes, and were able to be mailed to the recipients.
The courier found the box had been the target of a second arson attack on Wednesday morning.
About 15 mail items were recovered and as many as 10 were destroyed. Of the remainder, four were partly damaged and NZ Post will attempt to contact the senders.
Two small parcels also showed damage and will be forwarded to the recipients with an explanatory letter.
Community association chairman Kevin Burdon said yesterday he was "ropeable" and association members were "devastated" to learn New Zealand Post had a "three strikes and you're out" policy when it came to wilfully-damaged post boxes.
Mr Burdon said association members sought to publicise the problem and they asked parents to supervise their children to make sure the post box was not vandalised again.
"We worked for 12 months to get it. There's more than 430 houses there and you'd have to drive to Frankton to post a letter otherwise," Mr Burdon said.
The $2000 box was installed by NZ Post in 2009 at the request of the association.
NZ Post spokesman Keith FitzPatrick, of Wellington, said yesterday the company would regret the removal of the collection service and box. However, it would not tolerate the wilful destruction of the public's mail, he added.
"It's an unfortunate case of one of our street boxes being the subject of two mindless attacks.
"We are saying to the community association, it's disappointing, but if it continues to be the target, we will remove it.
"The actions of a reckless individual, or individuals, are jeopardising the service."
Destroying personal mail was "despicable behaviour", Mr FitzPatrick said.
The only way customers could know if their mail was among the six items destroyed would be to contact the intended recipient.
NZ Post was aware Lake Hayes Estate was a growing community, he said.
Queenstown police will be advised and residents were urged to be vigilant and report suspicious activity to the police.
The Postal Services Act had provision for penalties. However, the general auspices of the Crimes Act would be appropriate and charges would be a matter for the police, Mr FitzPatrick said.


text:
03 March 2010
The Caps were one of the most active teams at the trade deadline yesterday. They added Scott Walker, Joe Corvo and Eric Belanger to their roster, and took back Milan Jurcina from CBJ. They rid themselves of Brian Pothier and Oskar Osala and a bunch of picks during the exchanges. Jurcina, who this year alone I have watched live 5 times in Vancouver (1 Caps game, 1 CBJ game, 3 Slovak games) has a really weird skating stride, like his top half of his gangly body can't seem to figure out how to balance on his legs, anyways he's injured for the next 4-6 weeks with a sports hernia, so his acquisition is more for the playoffs.
Enemy Blog: Check out Rock the Red for your Washington perspective
After Tuesday night's abysmal loss to the Flyers, I can only hope that the Lightning have brought at least some game to tonight's meeting. In a 7-2 loss, they let in 5 goals in the third period with three of them being powerplay goals. This is our fourth game against the Caps (42-13-8), and after tonight we'll play them again in 8 days and then again another 8 days after that game. The Lightning have lost 4 games in a row and really need to start getting some wins, especially against SE Division opponents. The Caps won their last game against Buffalo 3-1.
Last game the boys took an assortment of hooking, slashing and fighting penalties. Tonight the Lightning really need to focus on not taking dumb penalties. Stamkos kept his point streak alive with 2 goals against the Flyers, he now has 12 goals and 13 assists in his last 14 games.
New acquisition Teddy Purcell will play tonight wearing #16. Don't get too excited about him because it sounds like he's terrible, Chris from The Royal Half called him The Royal Half Whipping Boy™
Line-up Notes:
- Mike Smith is getting the start
- David Hale is out with a broken leg


text:
It's odd that Frank Sinatra and Woody Allen were both coupled with Mia Farrow.
Oliver Ray dated Tatum O'Neal and Patti Smith. Two more different people, I cannot imagine.
It's odd that Frank Sinatra and Woody Allen were both coupled with Mia Farrow.
Oliver Ray dated Tatum O'Neal and Patti Smith. Two more different people, I cannot imagine.
|by Anonymous
|reply 118
I always forget that Brad Pitt and Gwenyth Paltrow were actually engaged. Or that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were going to get married.
|by Anonymous
|reply 1
Michael Keaton and Courteney Cox
Tate Donavan and Jennifer Aniston / Sandra Bullock
|by Anonymous
|reply 2
Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall.
|by Anonymous
|reply 3
Ava Gardner and Mickey Rooney and Frank Sinatra%0D %0D Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles and Prince Aly Khan%0D %0D Paulette Goddard and Charlie Chaplin and Erich Maria Remarque%0D %0D Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone and Alfred Steele%0D %0D Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and Gary Morton%0D %0D Cary Grant and Barbara Hutton and Dyann Cannon%0D %0D Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller%0D %0D Though in each case the couplings were seemingly wildly inconsistent, they were all really logical and predictable considering the circumstances.%0D %0D %0D %0D
|by Anonymous
|reply 4
R4, what's so strange about a group of human mattresses hooking up with any and all takers?
|by Anonymous
|reply 5
I started the OP's first post and I thought he was claiming that Frank Sinatra and Woody Allen were once a couple. He would have been right: I never would have believed it!
|by Anonymous
|reply 6
Matthew Broderick/Helen Hunt%0D %0D SJP/Nick Cage%0D %0D Jennifer Anniston/Brad Pitt%0D %0D Goldie Hawn/Bill Hudson%0D %0D Michael Jackson/Lisa Marie Presley%0D %0D
|by Anonymous
|reply 7
I always knew Frank would end up with a boy.
|by Anonymous
|reply 8
R7 just reminded me: I can't believe SJP got a crack at JFK, Jr. What was he thinking?
|by Anonymous
|reply 9
Leann Rimes and Eddie Cibrian
|by Anonymous
|reply 10
r9 He was not thinking with the right "head". She did have a smoking body..
|by Anonymous
|reply 11
good thread!
|by Anonymous
|reply 12
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher
|by Anonymous
|reply 13
Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman
|by Anonymous
|reply 14
SJP has never had a smoking body, R11. She's always been too skinny with no chest. Then again, JFK also dated Darryl Hannah and Madonna, who both have boy bodies, and he married Carolyn, who was a bit more glamorous but almost as boyish. JFKjr clearly wasn't into boobs or ass.
|by Anonymous
|reply 15
Second Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and Gary Morton.%0D %0D Lena Horne and either of her two gay husbands.%0D
|by Anonymous
|reply 16
I can't believe Cate Blanchett is married to Mr. Potato Head!
|by Anonymous
|reply 17
I always wondered about beautiful celebs who have homely non-famous mates like Cate. However, she seems to be really happy so it's more than looks.
|by Anonymous
|reply 18
I thought we did this thread already but here goes my post. Patty Duke and John Astin.
|by Anonymous
|reply 19
Michael Jackson and Tatum O'Neal. Elijah Wood and Franka Potente. Kristen Stewart and Michael Angarano. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.
|by Anonymous
|reply 20
Hold the fucking presses!
Wasn't Cate Blanchett the one that talked about how good looking people are more or less obligated to reproduce?
I always assumed she was married to some stud and that they would be improving the planet by adding some gorgeous humans to the population.
She's married to that?!?
|by Anonymous
|reply 21
|by Anonymous
|reply 22
r15 - SJP is skinny but not flat-chested at all.
Whoopi Goldberg & Ted Danson
Mandy Moore & Ryan Adams
Valerie Bertinelli & EVH
Lara Flynn Boyle & Jack Nicholson
|by Anonymous
|reply 23
Everyone Lee Pace has dated. How can someone that hot have short, old, and bald as a type?
|by Anonymous
|reply 24
I don't get Mandy Moore with anyone. She's dull.
|by Anonymous
|reply 25
Wait, JFK Jr fucked Vadge? No shit!!!! How did I ever miss that.
Ol JFK Jr was one nasty fuck if he had some Madonna.. My sweet adorable John John is now forever sullied in my whack off fantasies.
|by Anonymous
|reply 26
John MacEnroe married both Tatum O'Neal and Patti Smith, right?
|by Anonymous
|reply 27
MacEnroe married Patty Smyth, the other singer. Not the one that never shaved her armpits.
|by Anonymous
|reply 28
[quote]Then again, JFK also dated Darryl Hannah and Madonna, who both have boy bodies
I'm sorry, but both of those women have/had fantastic tits. Check out Madonna's "Sex" book and Daryl in "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" for proof.
|by Anonymous
|reply 29
SJP and Robert Downey Jr.
Mandy Moore is married to Ryan Adams.
Whoopi Goldberg and Frank Langella
Jack Nicholson and Paz de la Huerta
Scott Weiland and Paz de la Huerta
Courtney Love and Edward Norton
John McEnroe married both Tatum O'Neal and Patty SMYTH, not Patti Smith. Patty was the lead singer of band called Scandal.
What is shocking, Patty Smyth was married to punk icon Richard Hell!
|by Anonymous
|reply 30
Prince Charles and Diana Spencer
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
Liza Minnelli and David Gest
|by Anonymous
|reply 31
Sean Penn and Madonna
|by Anonymous
|reply 32
Tom Cruise and Cher
Tom Cruise and any other female
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck
Guy Ritchie and Madonna
|by Anonymous
|reply 33
I can't get my head around the idea of Martina Navratilova with Rita Mae Brown and Judy Nelson. When they hooked up, RMB was a college professor and Martina was a 21 old high school drop out. Nelson was a 40 year old housewife who had never had a lesbian experience before she met and seduced Martina.
|by Anonymous
|reply 34
Rita Mae Brown? The one from Ghost??%0D
|by Anonymous
|reply 35
Patti SMITH and Robert Maplethorpe.
|by Anonymous
|reply 36
Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett
|by Anonymous
|reply 37
Michael Jackson and anybody%0D %0D Liza Minnelli and anybody
|by Anonymous
|reply 38
Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher %0D %0D Elizabeth Taylor and Larry Fortensky%0D %0D Michael Jackson and anybody%0D %0D Liza Minnelli and anybody%0D %0D Courtney Love and anybody%0D %0D Whoopi Goldberg and anybody%0D %0D Roseanne Barr and anybody%0D %0D Madonna and anybody%0D %0D Woody Allen and anybody%0D %0D Patti Smith and anybody%0D %0D Barbra Streisand and anybody%0D %0D Roman Polanski and anybody%0D %0D Peter Bogdonovich and anybody%0D %0D Hugh Hefner and anybody%0D %0D Clara Bow and Bela Lugosi%0D %0D Mary Astor and George S. Kaufman%0D %0D Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor%0D %0D Pete Duel and Judy Carne%0D %0D Pete Duel and Kim Darby%0D %0D Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy%0D %0D Princess Diana and James Hewitt %0D %0D Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed%0D %0D Cary Grant and Barbara Hutton%0D %0D Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow%0D %0D Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Hyde%0D %0D Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller%0D %0D Marilyn Monroe and Bobby Kennedy%0D %0D Jane Fonda and Ted Turner%0D %0D Anna Nicole Smith and J. Howard Marshall%0D %0D
|by Anonymous
|reply 39
Hugh Jackman and Deborah Lee Furness
|by Anonymous
|reply 40
Julian Sands and Jodie Foster%0D %0D Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart
|by Anonymous
|reply 41
Patti Smith and beautiful Sam Shepard
|by Anonymous
|reply 42
SJP had a slammin' bod back in the day. Here's a clip from Honeymoon in Vegas (1992)
|by Anonymous
|reply 43
Mary Kay Place and absolutely no one ever in recorded history
|by Anonymous
|reply 44
The straight fool Thoughtful Critic and the self-declared "top" Miss Helen Bedd were a toxic pair, but made sense in a weird way. I always thought it cruel how MHB would scream "Fish!" at her in public.
|by Anonymous
|reply 45
Hilarious that Blanchett is married to THAT. One thing he does do is make her look better; she's no beauty herself. WEHT her career btw?
|by Anonymous
|reply 46
R21, Blanchett did indeed say that:
"The world is so massively overpopulated, but if you're halfway decent-looking and you make nice ones, then I think it's probably your responsibility to make more."
Looking at her husband, I wonder what she was thinking. Her kids could turn out to be tres funny looking.
She said this in an Interview magazine thing with Jack White. I always thought Jack and Renee Z. were a weird couple.
|by Anonymous
|reply 47
Kyle McLachlan and Linda Evangelista
|by Anonymous
|reply 48
Faye Dunaway and Peter Wolf.
|by Anonymous
|reply 49
(R41) well I couldn't believe Foster dated a guy so I typed Julian sands and Jodie foster and I found this website called who's dating who, now I wanna know who's in charge of that site, because there a lot of rubbish in it, according to them Jodie dated Julian, rob low, russel crowe(who outed her if I'm correct) and some other guy who's now dead.
|by Anonymous
|reply 50
Tom Cruise and..
Mimi Rogers
Nicole Kidman
Penelope Cruz
Katie Holmes
How four beautiful, talented women could date that repulsive hack - no matter how powerful and rich he is - is beyond me.
|by Anonymous
|reply 51
Now I know why Kristen Stewart is always sulking...if I broke things off with this hottie for a fake showmance with Robert Pattinson, I'd be sneery as well:
|by Anonymous
|reply 52
Wasnt Julian Sands a beard for Jodie Foster?
|by Anonymous
|reply 53
Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon
|by Anonymous
|reply 54
r 54...if we're going that route, how about George and Barbara Bush?
|by Anonymous
|reply 55
It's not the same thing. Dick was a homosexual.
|by Anonymous
|reply 56
r56 For real?? I have never read that.
|by Anonymous
|reply 57
Bashful and Dopey
|by Anonymous
|reply 58
Sean Bean and Debra James / Melanie Hill / Abigail Cruttenden / Georgina Sutcliffe
Viggo Mortensen and Exene Cervenko
Eric Bana and Rebecca Gleeson
|by Anonymous
|reply 59
Rob Lowe and Melissa Gilbert Emilio Estevez and Paula Abdul Charlie Sheen and Kelly Preston Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey jr. Carrie Fisher and John Belushi Carrie Fisher and Paul Simon Valerie Bertinelli and Steven Spielberg Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan Warren Beatty and (15-year-old) Molly Ringwald
|by Anonymous
|reply 60
OP and the carriage return.
|by Anonymous
|reply 61
Sorry, should've read "r60 and the carriage return".
|by Anonymous
|reply 62
r.62 & everyone else--
Sorry, don't know what happened there...
|by Anonymous
|reply 63
Ric Ocasek and Paulina Porizkova
|by Anonymous
|reply 64
People can't believe my dad and I are a couple.
|by Anonymous
|reply 65
R57, you must look up and read a thread called:%0D %0D "Was Eisenhower The Last Good Republican?"%0D %0D Pic of Nixon and BF:
|by Anonymous
|reply 66
|by Anonymous
|reply 67
Ted Danson and Whoopi own this thread.
I know Whoopi loves some white cock (though I think she was bearding for Frank Langella) but Ted and Whoopi were just bizarre. Even for the 80s/early 90s.
|by Anonymous
|reply 68
If you believe in astrology then the pairings of Mia Farrow with Sinatra and Allen aren't so strange. She's an Aquarius; Sinatra was a Sagitarious and so is Allen. Aquarius and Sagitarious are very compatible signs.
|by Anonymous
|reply 69
r46, she's been filming those Hobbit movies.
I think she is truly beautiful and her husband is a toad. He isn't a nobody though, he is a playwright and they have a theatre group in Australia that he runs when she is filming.
|by Anonymous
|reply 70
It's not weird now - but at the time: Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz
|by Anonymous
|reply 71
Marilyn Manson and Evan Rachel Wood
Katey Perry and Russell Brand
Nastassja Kinski and Quincy Jones
|by Anonymous
|reply 72
Me and anyone I've ever been with.
|by Anonymous
|reply 73
R50. Jodie Foster and Russell Crowe went to the Golden Globes together in 1999 so that whosdatedwho website didn't just make it up. I'm sure it was a fake relationship but on the red carpet a reporter said they were a gorgeous couple and Jodie just said thank you and didn't correct her.
|by Anonymous
|reply 74
Madonna and Sean Penn
|by Anonymous
|reply 75
Suzanne Pleshette and Tom Poston. That is a combo that I would never, ever have imagined.
|by Anonymous
|reply 76
"Ted Danson and Whoopi own this thread."
Yes, that one was really unbelieveable. What the hell was Danson on when he hooked up with THAT? And wasn't it at a Friar's Roast of her where he did a monologue in blackface and made jokes about her pussy (she later claimed to have written the nasty "jokes")? I think the backlash from that episode was the beginning of the end of their bizarre relationship.
|by Anonymous
|reply 77
Gale Harold and Randy Harrison
|by Anonymous
|reply 78
Many of these strange relationships were obviously drug and alcohol related.
|by Anonymous
|reply 79
Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie. You know he was on something at the time.
|by Anonymous
|reply 80
Ted Danson loves his dominatrixes!
|by Anonymous
|reply 81
I think most people have forgotten about Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere
|by Anonymous
|reply 82
WRT JFK, Jr.: His mother was a more than a tad boyish-shaped. J/s.
|by Anonymous
|reply 83
No one thinks Angie and Brad are an odd couple? I do. Brad = dull, white bread, happy-go-lucky, dumb-jock type. Angie's more 'out there'-- a deep thinking, dour, strange (troubled?), artistic loner.
|by Anonymous
|reply 84
When she was in her 20s SJP had a perfect body. She's too ropey and skinny looking now.
Never understood Jennifer Lopez and Puff Daddy as a couple. He was more famous than she was at that point.
|by Anonymous
|reply 85
If you're gonna nit pick on SJP's body, going the tits and ass route is the wrong way. How about the fact that she's severely bow-legged? That's what kills the silhouette for me every time she's modeling some kicky ultra-tight short dress, Her curves are fine, but her legs scream jockey!
|by Anonymous
|reply 86
These two... and they've been married for almost 30 years!
|by Anonymous
|reply 87
Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford
Heather Locklear and Tommy Lee
Aaron Carter and LIlo and Hillary Duff
Tyra Banks and Rick Fox
|by Anonymous
|reply 88
r77, years later Whoopi went for some white pussy in place of cock. Gossip was that Bebe Neuwirh was sleeping with her for the slutty onscreen part in The Associate; ah, method acting.
|by Anonymous
|reply 89
Jennifer Aniston and Adam Duritz Emmy Rossum and Adam Durtiz
He's so gross.
|by Anonymous
|reply 90
Paul Thomas Anderson and Maya Rudolph....(really how on earth?)
|by Anonymous
|reply 91
Andre Agassi & Babs
|by Anonymous
|reply 92
Cher and David Geffen
Burt Reynolds and just about everyone
Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal
|by Anonymous
|reply 93
"This is no dream! This is really happening!"
- Mia Farrow, shortly before reaching the decision to end her relationships
|by Anonymous
|reply 94
Oh god, I can't get over how ugly Cate Blanchett's husband is. He's not even just schlubby, he's straight up fug.
|by Anonymous
|reply 95
And yet, R64, they've been married for years.
|by Anonymous
|reply 96
Way back when they first hooked up, I thought the Bruce Willis/Demi Moore coupling was odd. I saw Bemi with someone like Rob Lowe even though I wanted him for myself.
I thought Jennifer Aniston & Vince Vaughan were odd together.
|by Anonymous
|reply 97
Tina Fey's husband is just all sorts of unattractive. I feel like a b*tch for saying this, but their daughter did a cameo on 30 Rock and she looks just like the dad, unfortunately. =(
|by Anonymous
|reply 98
[quote] Elijah Wood and Franka Potente
This happened? Bahahahaha.
|by Anonymous
|reply 99
Howard Stern and Angie Everheart Howard Stern and Robin Givens Howard Stern and his current wife..
|by Anonymous
|reply 100
That had to be a beard situation @ r99. Still freaking weird.
|by Anonymous
|reply 101
Justin Bieber and Camille Paglia seemed pretty odd at first, but you know what, it may just work out.
|by Anonymous
|reply 102
R34 funnily enough Rita Mae Brown then went on to have a relationship with Judy Nelson after Martina had left Judy.
|by Anonymous
|reply 103
Monica Seles and Tom Golisano
still are a couple i think ....
|by Anonymous
|reply 104
Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer
Debbie Reynolds and Harry Karl
Katy Jurado and Ernest Borgnine
Mai Britt and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Keely Smith and Louis Prima
Charro and Xavier Cugat
Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks
Margaret Whiting and Jack Wrangler
|by Anonymous
|reply 105
"Michael Jackson and anybody Liza Minnelli and anybody"
I'll add:
Lucille Ball and Gary Morton
|by Anonymous
|reply 106
Rose Nyland and the late Dr. Jonathan Newman.
"No thank you little boy, we already take the Miami Herald."
|by Anonymous
|reply 107
Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett
|by Anonymous
|reply 108
Cher and Greg Allman.
|by Anonymous
|reply 109
Tom Cruise and Cher
|by Anonymous
|reply 110
Padma and Rushdie
|by Anonymous
|reply 111
Whoopi Goldberg and anybody
Roseanne Barr and anybody
Courtney Love and anybody
Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe
Liza Minnelli and Peter Sellers
Liza Minnelli and Martin Scorcese
Liza Minnelli and Mikail Barishnikov
Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett
Bruce Springsteen and Julianne Phillips
John Travolta and Debra Winger (yes, he really did fuck her when they did "Urban Cowboy")
Don Johnson and Barbra Streisand
Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Hyde
Jean Harlow and Paul Bern
Liz Taylor and Eddie Fisher
Liz Taylor and Larry Fortensky
Cher and Tom Cruise
Cher and Gregg Allman
Cher and Gene Simmons
Cher and the Bagel Boy
Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra
Mia Farrow and Woody Allen
Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton and Woody Allen
Tatum O'Neal and Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson and Brooke Shields
Tom Green and Drew Barrymore
Dave Attell and Sarah Silverman
Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston
Brad Pitt and Robin Givens
Warren Beatty and Madonna
Dennis Rodman and Madonna
Winona Ryder and Al Pacino
Winona Ryder and Chris Noth
Winona Ryder and David Duchovny
Winona Ryder and Jimmy Fallon
Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan
Roger Ebert and Oprah Winfrey
John Tesh and Oprah Winfrey
Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky
John Edwards and Rielle Hunter
|by Anonymous
|reply 112
Apologies to the Whoopie/Ted guy, but they are a close second. Michelle Pfeiffer(at the top of her game) Fisher Stevens.(did he even have much of a game?)
Three years!!!!
|by Anonymous
|reply 113
[all posts by ham-fisted troll a removed.]
|by Anonymous
|reply 114
Stephen and ... anyone.
|by Anonymous
|reply 115
[all posts by ham-fisted troll a removed.]
|by Anonymous
|reply 116
Andrew garfield&simon amstell
I've heard this rumour a lot.
|by Anonymous
|reply 117
Anna Nicole Smith and J. Howard Marshall.
|by Anonymous
|reply 118
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