text:
Man, say what you want about this upcoming flick, but the title alone makes us damned hungry. If there were a restaurant named The Seasoning House, we'd be there in a heartbeat. Still, we'll be there for the movie as well.
From the Press Release
Written and directed by PAUL HYETT (award-winning special makeup FX designer for The Woman In Black, Dog Soldiers, Doomsday, Attack the Block, Eden Lake, Centurion, and more) and starring SEAN PERTWEE (Equilibrium, Doomsday, Mutant Chronicles, Devil's Playground, 184.108.40.206.), ROSIE DAY (Black Books, Fallen Angel, Harley Street), ANNA WALTON (Hellboy II – The Golden Army, 5 Days of War, Mutant Chronicles, Crusoe), KEVIN HOWARTH (Gallowwalker, The Magnificent Eleven, The Last Horror Movie), and JEMMA POWELL (Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, The Symmetry Of Love). Produced by MICHAEL RILEY (Vampire Diary, Outlanders, Sugarhouse, Lava, In a Land of Plenty) of London-based Sterling Pictures.
THE SEASONING HOUSE is a stylish, claustrophobic, nightmarish neo-horror about Angel, a young Balkan girl forced to work in a rape house during an unspecified war. After killing a militiaman, she goes on the run.
Writer/director Hyett explains: "I like to think of the film as a cross between Pan's Labyrinth, Martyrs, and Die Hard. It's an uncompromising, action-packed, and claustrophobic revenge thriller set against the backdrop of an unspecified Balkan war. Having worked on so many films over the last few decades, I am totally comfortable with making the leap into directing. It feels like a natural progression for me. While the subject matter is dark, disturbing, and nihilistic, I'm approaching it in a very stylish, glossy, and beautiful fairytale way. The first half is an opiated dream; then the tone shifts as the young girl is dragged out of this darkness, the dream shattered, and a far edgier, fractured and realistic film emerges. I've been lucky enough to be working with friends from my previous work, including Sean (Pertwee, playing "Goran", the brutal militia leader), Kevin (Howarth, playing "Viktor" the shifty proprietor of the eponymous establishment), Michael (Riley, producer), as well as some new friends such as the amazing Rosie Day, who plays "Angel", the tiny young girl who makes her way around the house via the crawlspaces and spaces beneath the floorboards. Directing The Seasoning House is an enormous pleasure for me, and this will be the first of a series of films I will direct over the next few years".
Producer Riley adds: "Paul has done prosthetics on many of my films over the last 15 years. His focus, preparation, and creative abilities, coupled with his vast experience on some of the best European films of recent years, convinced me he was ready to put on director's shoes. On set he is calm, prepared, relaxed, and communicative. With a confidence born of years of experience and virtually ego-free, he commands the respect of the cast and crew so is the perfect director. I look forward to continuing this relationship into the future on subsequent horror/thrillers".
Got news? Click here to submit it!
Be seasoned in the comments section below!


text:
One of the most beloved art/horror fests on the West Coast is Monsterpalooza, which celebrates the "Art of Monsters." The fest will hit Burbank once again on March 28-30. Save the date!
As usual, Monsterpalooza will feature award-winning F/X artists, special presentations, a walk-thru monster museum, and monster-related artwork on display and for sale. The list of celebrity guests is large and impressive. Take a look at whom you can expect to see at this year's Monsterpalooza.
Special Celebrity Guests From The Genre And Beyond!
Kenji Sahara – War Of The Gargantuas, Destroy All Monsters, Rodan, Godzilla vs The Thing, The Mysterians, King Kong vs Godzilla
Harou Nakajima – Godzilla, Rodan, Destroy All Monsters
Russ Tamblyn – "Twin Peaks", War Of The Gargantuas
Rutger Hauer – Blade Runner, The Hitcher, "True Blood"
Dee Snider – Twisted Sister, Strangeland, Van Helsing's Curse
Tippi Hedren – The Birds, Marnie, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
Nancy Allen – Blow Out, Carrie, Dressed To Kill, Robocop
Ricou Browning – Creature From The Black Lagoon, Flipper
Julie Adams – Creature From The Black Lagoon Celebrates 60 Years!
Vivica A. Fox – Independence Day, Batman and Robin, Kill Bill Vols. I&II
Doug Bradley – The Hellraiser series
Ashley Laurence – Hellraiser
Anne Serling – Author of As I Knew Him: My Life With Rod Serling
Bill Mumy – "Lost In Space", "The Twilight Zone"
Richard Kiel – Moonraker, The Longest Yard, "The Twilight Zone"
Award Winning Special Effects Artists
Chiodo Brothers – Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Critters
Mike Hill – Sculptor and painter
Jordu Schell – Creature designer and sculptor, Avatar, Galaxy Quest, 300, Hellboy, The Thing (2011)
Guests are still being added. For tickets and more information, visit the official Monsterpalooza website and "like" Monsterpalooza on Facebook.
Got news? Click here to submit it!
Make plans in the comments section below!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Kids' Spot
Kids' Spot is a children's exploration area featuring interactive displays of weather elements from the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Also featured are a crawling apparatus and a Plasma Wall that displays arcs of energized color activated by sound. This exhibit was developed for children to explore weather concepts and "let off steam" prior to their flights, and is located post-security in Terminal 3, near Gate 87A.Tweet


text:
FREE UK Delivery on orders over £50*
Regular Price:
Special Price:
Click on the image to enlarge and zoom.
Be the first to review this product
In stock
Free Delivery
On Demo
* Required Fields
Audiolab design and engineer high quality, audiophile-grade hifi components. The company have claimed numerous awards and positive reviews over the years and continue to retain their position as one of the most highly regarded hifi companies on the market today.
The recent redefinition of the company's 8000 series, launching as the 8300 range, has inspired the prestigious hifi manufacturer to revise other models within their catalogue. One such model is the M-DAC, with its newly developed 'Plus' counterpart. The M-DAC+ is not a direct replacement for the company's award-winning M-DAC, but rather runs alongside the M-DAC, featuring a number of enhancements and upgrades to the original technology, for those audiophiles who wish to take the quality of the M-DAC to the next step.
The M-DAC+ is different from the original M-DAC, both aesthetically and in terms of performance. Two control knobs and an unobtrusive power button make for a clean and neat design, with the visual display portraying all of the relevant information that one might need when listening to digital sources. The M-DAC+ provides support for DSD files from USB, as well as high resolution audio formats up to 384kHz/32-bit and DSD256. For those who require a wireless, hassle-free listening experience; Bluetooth has been incorporated with the lossless, CD-quality apt X codec.
There are no reviews for this product yet. Be the first to write a review.
Providing your item is in stock, the order is usually dispatched within 24 hours. Please remember that postage and packing is completely free for orders over £50*. Out of stock items will be dispatched as soon as they become available, out of stock items can take between 4 to 21 days for dispatch.
Deliveries usually take 1-3 working days. The majority of orders are sent via our couriers'; Interlink Express on a next-day-delivery service. Smaller, low value or light-weight items are normally posted using Royal Mail Recorded or Royal Mail Special Delivery.
Once your product has been dispatched, you will be notified via email and sent a unique consignment number, you can use this number at http://www.interlinkexpress.com to check the status of your delivery. If you have provided a mobile telephone number, Interlink's Predict service will notify you by text (and email) of a one-hour delivery window. If the window they suggest is inconvenient, you can change the date of delivery to a later one via text or email.
*We ship free of charge to mainland UK addresses, excluding the Scottish Highlands or 'Out-Of-Reach' Scottish locations. Please consult the post-codes below to see if your location falls within this category. If you are still unsure, please contact us on 01432 354921. We also ship to Northern Ireland, Channel Islands, Scilly Isles, Scottish Isles and Scottish Highlands, however delivery to these locations will incur a charge and can only be sent via a 2-day service.
Post codes exempt from the free delivery service include:
Scottish Highlands Post Codes: AB30-38, AB41-42, AB44-56, FK17-99, G83, IV1-28, IV30-39, IV52-54, IV63, KW1-14, PA21-33, PA34-40, PH15-26, PH31-41, PH49-50 Islands Post Codes: HS1-9, IV40-51, IV55-56, KA27-28, KW15-17, PA20, PA41-49, PA60-78, PH42-44, ZE1-3 Northern Ireland: All BT postcodes Channel Islands Post Codes: JE, GYScilly Isles Post Codes: TR21, TR22, TR23, TR24, TR25
Keep up to date for exclusive offers and discounts


text:
After a narrow victory in Game 6, the Boston Bruins had everything on the line in Game 7 against the Capitals.
Thankfully, there was plenty of spirit for the home team, both at TD Garden and on couches across New England.
To get a better look at that spirit, we compiled some of the best fan and team photos leading up to Game 7. From fans in training to fully developed Bruins maniacs, the support is out in full force.
The Bruins weren't able to advance in the playoffs, but the passion of the player and the fans will live on.
Powered by WordPress.com VIP


text:
- Get access
- Contains open access
- ISSN: 0963-5483 (Print), 1469-2163 (Online)
- Editor: Professor Béla Bollobás University of Cambridge|Dept. of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics|Center for Mathematical Sciences|Wilberforce Road|Cambridge CB3 0WB|UK
- Editorial board
Published bimonthly, Combinatorics, Probability & Computing is devoted to the three areas of combinatorics, probability theory and theoretical computer science. Topics covered include classical and algebraic graph theory, extremal set theory, matroid theory, probabilistic methods and random combinatorial structures; combinatorial probability and limit theorems for random combinatorial structures; the theory of algorithms (including complexity theory), randomised algorithms, probabilistic analysis of algorithms, computational learning theory and optimisation.


text:
"Camelot conjures up memories of a mythical, romantic city somewhere in England. A fantasy realm abounding with Arthurian Kings, dashing Knights atop graceful. spirited steeds with wildly flowing manes and flaring nostrils. Most scholars regard it as entirely fictional, its geography being perfect for romance writers. It has been commented that "Camelot, located no where in particular, can be anywhere". Now, you can enjoy your own piece of Camelot."
The House of Staunton is proud to offer another masterpiece - The Camelot Series Luxury Chessmen from our our exclusive Artisan Collection. In introduces an unparalleled degree of elegance and workmanship into your home. An inspirational modification to the vaunted Staunton design, these chessmen represent a new paradigm in chess set design As with all House of Staunton chessmen, the profiles of the individual chessmen are harmonious. The pieces are carefully weighted for consistency, their weights reflecting their relative value on the chessboard. The individual bases are beveled to create the illusion of floating. Each piece is heavily weighted, beautifully polished and cushioned on green baize base pads. These are qualities only found in House of Staunton chessmen.
The Chess pieces are hand carved by our master artisans and crafted out of the highest grade woods. The Chess pieces are heavily weighted with luxurious billiard cloth base pads on the other Chess pieces and a beautiful finish. As with all of our Chess sets, Camelot Series exemplifies a perfect combination of distinct beauty and functionality. It has been designed to withstand the rigors of practical play while maintaining an elegance which has become the hallmark of a House of Staunton chess set. The design, quality and craftsmanship of this set is UNMATCHED by any set of Chessmen in its price range. Nothing even comes close! The Chessmen are new and each set consists of 34 Chessmen, including four Queens, a standard that was introduced by The House of Staunton in 1993.
Our Original Manufacturer's Plaque
Click for Higher Resolution Image.
Now Available From The House of Staunton
Included with the purchase of these Chessmen is our new Original Manufacturer's Plaque. Crafted from brass, these plaques feature the engraved production details of each individual Chess set, creating a beautiful, permanent record that is truly worthy of House of Staunton-brand Chessmen.
NOTE: The Camelot Series Luxury Chessmen ships with three King's finials, a graceful Eastern finial, a Maltese cross and a classical Forme
Layaway Available
We're proud to offer our new Layaway program!
- With Layaway, purchasing from us has never been easier or more affordable. It allows you to purchase selected House of Staunton products by making payments over time.
- Simply choose the items that you wish to purchase and how many months you wish to make the payments over.We'll automatically charge your debit/credit card each month. Once you've paid for the item/s in full, they'll be sent to you. It's that simple!
Laser Engraving
Are you looking to make that Chess gift special and something they will cherish forever?
The House of Staunton is proud to offer Personalized Engraving that will allow you to customize your chess box with your personal message,creating a truly unique gift that they will be sure to love.
Gift engraving is perfect for many memorable occasions, for corporate branding or simply to offer a special gift to your friends and family.
Personalized Gifts are great for...
Why choose The House of Staunton to personalize your Chess Gift?
Unlike the engraving shop at your local mall, the House of Staunton doesn't not charge you up to $3.00 per character for engraving.
Our prices are very affordable, with text engraving starting at just $25.00 Per Line (up to 60 Characters). We use an industrial-grade Laser Engraver that allows us to achieve an incredible amount of detail in our engravings.
Your gift should say what you want it to say and not be limited by how much it costs you to say each of those words!
Note: Only Premium Chess Boxes and Fitted Coffers can be Personalized with engraving directly on the wood.
***Olive Ash Burl, Bubinga Burl & Macassar Ebony Premium Chess Boxes cannot be engraved due to the high gloss finish.***
All other Chess Boxes, including the Fitted Briefcase, will come with a laser-engraved brass plaque when personalized.
Write Your Own Review
Included with Purchase
- Certificate of Authenticity
- Engraved Registered Plaque
- Individual Production Number
Product Details
|Chess Board Included?
|You Get to Select Your Own Chess Board
|The House of Staunton
|King Height
|4.4'' inch / 11.18 cm
|King Base Diameter
|1.9" inch / 4.83 cm
|Recommended Chess Board Size
|2.5'' inch / 6.4 cm
|Basepad Material
|Billiard Cloth
|Median Set Weight
|80.6 Ounces
|Total Number of Chess Pieces
|34 Chess Pieces, including 2 Additional Queens (for Pawn Promotion)


text:
British education and media publisher Pearson Plc said it will buy a 5% stake in Barnes & Noble Inc.'s digital Nook and college bookstore businesses for $89.5 million.
Barnes & Noble said the Nook division will not meet prior expectations for its current year.
The top US bookstore chain's Nook Media unit comprises its digital businesses—including Nook e-reader and tablets and the Nook digital bookstore—and 674 college bookstores across America.
Barnes & Noble said in November that quarterly loss at the Nook division increased on raised spending on its e-readers and tablets to keep pace with larger rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.
The bookseller also said on Friday that sales in the crucial holiday season will come in below expectations, based on preliminary results and current sales trends.
The 2012 holiday season may have been the worst for retailers since the 2008 financial crisis, with sales growth far below expectations, forcing many to offer massive post-Christmas discounts in hopes of shedding excess inventory.


text:
Impeccably turned out in a formfitting navy Armani suit and matching pumps, an exquisitely tailored outfit marred by none of the heinous froufrou that sometimes blights her public appearances, Cherie Blair launched into her testimony before an unsmiling phalanx of members of Parliament with the easy confidence she earned the hard way, via a decade-long witch hunt.
As co-chair of a commission investigating street crime, Blair delivered its findings at hearings in Portcullis House, the faux-Victorian building containing parliamentary offices across the street from the Palace of Westminster. When one M.P. addressed her as "Cherie," the chairman of the Home Affairs Committee reprimanded him for the unseemly familiarity—"That's Ms. Booth," he said sternly—but she just smiled and continued.
Although she testified as the barrister Cherie Booth rather than as Mrs. Blair, the most controversial prime minister's wife in memory (not to mention the only one ever voted in a poll of the British people as the individual they would most like to see deported), it is clearly challenging for the Brits to remember which Cherie they're dealing with at any given moment.
Wife of the estimable Tony? Harried 54-year-old mother of four? Distinguished attorney and Queen's Counsel? Unstoppable baby machine whose fecundity was rivaled only by her distressing tendency to miscarry at politically inopportune moments? Former B.F.F. of a sexy masseuse who embroiled her in a real-estate deal with an ex-con, resulting in a scandal immortalized as "Cherie-gate"? Consummate role model for professional women everywhere—or a greedy, grasping embarrassment to the nation?
Even her childhood offers lurid and confusing possibilities. A devout Catholic schoolgirl, Cherie was the daughter of a classically trained actress who got knocked up by a charming actor, who soon abandoned his family. Cherie's mother went to work in a fish-and-chips shop to support their children while Tony Booth became an alcoholic, drug-addled television star, married four times, and spawned at least eight daughters with different women, most of whom he neglected to wed. (Since a new daughter has surfaced in recent years, that tally is not necessarily final.)
So when it comes to the personal history of Cherie Booth Blair, the options are dazzling—especially since the publication of her autobiography, Speaking for Myself, which instantly added "best-selling author" to her résumé last spring. The book, which is being published this month in the United States, added so much salacious material to the dossier that the United Kingdom is still struggling to process it all.
Cherie's account of her decade at Downing Street has been widely denounced as self-pitying. "It was the 20th Century equivalent of the stocks," she complained in the book. The Observer responded with a review headlined: days of whine and poses.
"There is very little point to Speaking for Myself other than to make money," The Sunday Times concluded.
Make money she did; Cherie collected a reported $2 million advance for dishing up her years as prime minister's wife. But it was the book's intimate history that really riveted the nation. " 'Too Much Information' might have been a suitable subtitle," the Daily Mail commented. Thanks to Cherie's revelations, her multiple identities now include two-timing hussy (actually, she was three-timing, if you want to get technical about it) who juggled a brazen affair with the future prime minister while hoodwinking a couple of other boyfriends. Stunned by such racy episodes, British subjects have been obsessed with the myriad flowerings of Cherie's sexuality ever since the book vaulted to the top of the best-seller list, last May.
In July, the parliamentary columnist Ann Treneman was unable to resist a prim reminder of the distress Cherie caused with her literary indiscretions: "I am sure I was not alone in desperately trying to ban the words 'contraceptive equipment' from my mind," Treneman wrote in the *Times'*s coverage of Cherie's street-crime testimony. "But censorship never works. The words kept popping up, in a thought bubble above her head."
As usual, many commentators insist that Cherie has only herself to blame. After all, nobody forced her to share the details of how she got pregnant with Leo, her unplanned fourth child, at the age of 45. It seems that she and Tony were visiting the Queen for a bracing weekend at Balmoral, and Cherie left her "contraceptive equipment" at home because she had been mortified on a previous stay when royal servants unpacked her clothing and toilet articles for her. The next time Cherie went to Balmoral, she didn't bring any contraception. Alas—Scottish castles get cold at night, Tony's "really strong body" was warm, and "what with one thing and another," as Cherie reported breezily in her book, the result was Leo, who is now eight years old.
Although the British media have gleefully mined this new mother lode, it certainly hasn't caused them to relinquish their death grip on Cherie's previous incarnations. In another story about her parliamentary testimony, The Guardian helpfully itemized the harrowing litany that has characterized her public image. Although Tony stepped down as prime minister last year, the Blairs have since morphed into global citizens with an ever growing range: "Nor is it the money-grubbing, property-hoarding, freebie-grabbing, Gordon Brown–denouncing, new age flim-flam-believing, statistics-mangling, warmongering, Bush-loving, contraceptive-leaving Blairs of the past. It's the new, caring Blairs," Simon Hoggart complained in a grumpy column.
Indeed, Cherie is now positioning herself as an international crusader for women's rights, creating the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women even as Tony gallivants around the world trying to solve global warming, promote peace in the Middle East, teach a course on faith and globalization at Yale University, vanquish malaria on behalf of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, and cash in as an adviser to the investment bank J. P. Morgan and the insurance firm Zurich, among other gigs. It's enough to make your head spin.
But not Cherie's. Her legal career is intact, the muzzle she wore as prime minister's wife thankfully removed, her choices finally beyond the reach of the Downing Street staff that used to hang her out to dry, her opportunities to speak up multiplying in rich profusion, her lifelong terror of penury receding as the money rolls in.
The sniping never stops; her detractors have spent years exploiting her weaknesses, bombarding her with the most wounding personal ridicule, staging ambushes and playing dirty tricks designed for maximum humiliation—even printing outright lies, according to Cherie. But no matter what they say about her, she plows ahead, as relentless as a battleship that will not be deterred from her course no matter how many torpedoes are fired in her direction.
Britain was heartily sick of Tony Blair by the time he left office, but his successor's "disastrous first year," as The Independent recently described it, has turned the welcome for dour Gordon Brown into fond nostalgia for the good old days of twinkly Tony. His reputation is being burnished once again, her book is a smash hit, and Cherie is laughing all the way to the bank.
"There's no doubt about it—she will remain a public figure," says one of her mother's oldest friends, Di Wilson, who has known Cherie since she was an infant. "She wants to capitalize on what she's achieved so far."
The morning has been a bit fraught. The Blairs' oldest child, 24-year-old Euan, is in Japan on a business trip, but his new apartment, in London, has got water gushing through the ceiling fixtures from the apartment above. Cherie is trying to sort out the mess while calming Euan with soothing maternal noises, like a mother bird cooing to her distressed fledgling by long-distance telephone. A visitor from Liberia who is supposed to stay at Euan's flooded apartment has just walked into the Blairs' house, a team of deliverymen is maneuvering a wrapped package that looks like a large piece of furniture through the front hall, I'm waiting for Cherie in the kitchen, policemen are changing shifts on the front steps, and staff members dart around trying to control the traffic as if they were anxious Border collies herding an unruly flock of sheep.
Looking entirely unfazed, Cherie gives me a rueful grin. "It's like Piccadilly Circus all the time," she says. "And of course my husband is blissfully unaware of any of this—because, frankly, they don't call their dad."
The older Blair children no longer live with their parents; 22-year-old Nicholas is teaching in Birmingham, and 20-year-old Kathryn is studying law at King's College London. But the rest of the family is settling into their new, $7 million home on Connaught Square, a magnificent 200-year-old Georgian mansion facing the gated park, which is now guarded by watchful British officers. The Blairs also purchased a $1.6 million mews house behind the main residence, renovating to combine the space.
Wide open: with the royal family at the Braemar Highland Games, in Scotland, 2003. By Jeff J. Mitchell/Reuters/Landov.
These days Tony spends much of his time on the road. One afternoon I'm waiting for Cherie in a downstairs den when Tony, who returned from Singapore earlier in the day, wanders in, wearing running shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt. He looks so startled that I apologize for surprising him with my presence. "I'm always surprised here," he mutters.
Cherie suspects that some of her book surprised him, although he was supposed to have read it before publication. "I think he's rather embarrassed by the love-affair bits," she concedes. "I don't think he particularly read those closely. Been there, done that! He did read the political things."
Since the Blairs celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary earlier this year, Tony has considerable experience in dealing with his wife's tendency to embarrass him. Her autobiography begins with the day they left Downing Street, when the photographers called out, "We'll miss you!" and Cherie retorted, "Bye, I won't miss you!"
" 'You can't resist it, can you?' Tony said through clenched teeth as the door closed behind me," Cherie reported in the book. " 'For God's sake, you're supposed to be dignified, you're supposed to be gracious.' "
With varying degrees of exasperation and affection, Tony refers to Cherie as his "Bolshie Scouser," British slang for an argumentative Liverpudlian. This defiant aspect of Cherie's personality extended to her interactions with the royal family, which often foundered on her refusal to observe the niceties of traditional protocol.
When Princess Anne addressed her as "Mrs. Blair," Cherie said, "Please call me Cherie."
"I'd rather not," replied the Queen's daughter. "It's not the way I've been brought up."
"What a shame," said Cherie, who admits that her relationship with Princess Anne "never recovered."
Elsewhere in Speaking for Myself, Cherie described an encounter with Princess Margaret that must have been excruciating for all concerned. One evening at the Royal Opera House, Cherie was chatting with the Queen's sister when Culture Secretary Chris Smith came over. Cherie introduced him, adding, "And this is his partner."
"Partner for what?" Princess Margaret inquired.
"Sex, Ma'am," Cherie replied.
"She stalked off," Cherie wrote, still indignant. "She knew exactly what kind of partner I meant. She was just trying to catch me out."
Even her admirers acknowledge that Cherie's personality was hardly the best fit with the wifely requirements of Tony's position. "She was totally unsuited to the role," says another well-known Englishwoman, whose prominent husband has been knighted.
Despite all her years in the public eye, Cherie lacks the disciplined self-control of the adult woman who has learned that some behaviors, while entirely natural, are considered unseemly for a lady. As a result, she can seem curiously unself-conscious. At a cocktail party at Bute House, the Egyptian ambassador's residence in Mayfair, she is friendly and unpretentious, circulating around the imposing 18th-century mansion with a smile for everyone. "I always like the parties given by the Arab ambassadors, because they have such superior nibbles," she confides, grabbing an hors d'oeuvre.
She is still clad in the black-and-white shirtdress she's worn since an early-morning television interview, but its alarmingly bold geometric patterns would challenge a sofa's upholstery to look good, let alone that of a middle-aged woman. Her feet are clopping around the marble floors in white kitten-heeled sling-backs with white leather flowers bobbling atop their pointy toes. As she chats animatedly with a series of bespoke-tailored men and bejeweled Arab women, occasionally poking someone in the arm for particular emphasis, she keeps scratching herself around the waist, as if her panty hose itch. Such lapses can make her seem like an adolescent girl who is not yet fully socialized, but they are also oddly appealing. Whether in public or in private, she comes off as natural and unaffected, if at times inappropriate, rather than as calculating and controlled. What you see is what you get.
These characteristics have provided her enemies with a great deal of ammunition, and Cherie is well aware that she could have done better as prime minister's wife. She gives Tony high marks for his time in office: "He was fantastic. I'm sure history will judge him very well. I think he'll be up there with Churchill."
But when I ask how she would characterize her own performance as the British equivalent of First Lady, she winces and says, "Less good. Because the P.R. wasn't very good—that's for sure. Just looking at the press cuttings, you couldn't say that it was a triumph, could you!"
More than a year after Tony left office, the British press continues to voice its scorn at every opportunity. Cherie was "the only Number 10 spouse to have screwed it all up so badly," The Observer charged in an article about her book. "Even Denis Thatcher did a better job, and he was supposed to be drunk."
The withering tone began on day one. The morning after Tony was elected prime minister, the Blairs' bell rang with a flower delivery, and Cherie answered the door in her nightdress, "hair like a bird's nest, and bleary-eyed," as she later described it. The photographers pounced, the pictures went all over the world, and the coverage deteriorated from there.
"The trouble with Cherie Blair is quite simply that she has no class," wrote the *Sunday Mirror'*s Carole Malone in a typical rant. "No matter how many style gurus she employs, no matter how many designer outfits she buys, no matter how many therapists, beauticians and hairdressers she takes on in her efforts to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, Cherie will always be that awkward, envious, frumpy lass from Liverpool who by dint of a decent brain and a lorry-load of ambition catapulted herself into the heart of High Society."
Cherie was accused of everything from an atrocious fashion sense to ordering the death of Humphrey, the Downing Street cat, a mouser who had served under two previous prime ministers. The public outcry over that charge was so worrisome that Downing Street was forced to bring journalists to photograph Humphrey at his new home in the countryside in order to prove that he remained alive. There were constant charges that she exploited her position with obscene displays of greed. One famous story had her being offered a few items in an Australian showroom, only to make off with 68 pieces of clothing. Cherie insists that she told the store to bill her, never took freebies, and accepted discounts only because she was told it was permitted.
"What the Cabinet secretary made clear was that if I paid at a discounted price which they gave to other people, that was all right. And so I did, but then they described that as a freebie," she explains, still aggrieved. "But after the whole Cherie-gate thing, that particular Cabinet secretary insisted I had to pay for everything, and similarly for Tony's suits. Tony said, 'All right, I'll pay it all back.' I said, 'I'm sorry, but if you can show me what law there is, then of course I will comply—but if not, then I'm afraid I say no.' "
The Cabinet secretary, Andrew Turnbull, later reported that Cherie, whose legal specialties include human rights, had accused him of violating her human rights by demanding that she pay full price for the clothing. In one of her more notorious quotes, Cherie protested that it was her human right to get perks.
The press also delighted in ridiculing Cherie's affinity for New Age mumbo jumbo and other religious quackery, from the crystal pendant Hillary Clinton gave her, which supposedly emanated a so-called bio-electric shield, to the rebirthing ritual Cherie and Tony reportedly indulged in during a Mexican vacation, when they smeared mud and fruit all over each other's bodies.
But the worst scandal was precipitated by Cherie's ill-advised friendship with Carole Caplin, a masseuse who was often described as a "former soft-porn model." Downing Street officials deplored their relationship, but Cherie refused to banish Caplin and continued to use her as a style adviser and confidante with extraordinary access to the Blair household.
After Caplin fell in love with a con man named Peter Foster, she brought him along to help her negotiate a deal for the Blairs to purchase two apartments in Bristol, one of which was to be used by their son Euan, who attended the University of Bristol. When the real-estate dealings erupted into a public furor at the end of 2002, Downing Street forced Cherie to deliver a tearful public apology that pleaded her case as a stressed-out working mother who was desperately trying to delegate some tasks to others.
"I am not Superwoman," she said. "The reality of my daily life is that I'm juggling a lot of balls in the air trying to be a good wife and mother, trying to be the prime-ministerial consort at home and abroad, barrister, and charity worker, and sometimes one of the balls gets dropped."
Cherie's mea culpa, in which she insisted she would never want to "misuse my position in any way at all," was characterized by what some saw as her typical combination of self-justification and cluelessness. She claimed to have been unaware that Foster's criminal record included jail sentences on three continents, but suggested that this wasn't really her responsibility. "I don't think it is my business to choose my friend's friends," she said. "He started to offer me what seemed like helpful advice which at the time I saw no reason to reject. He was not my financial adviser but I should not have allowed a situation to develop where Tony's spokesman said he played no part in the negotiation."
To make matters worse, Foster was facing deportation from the U.K. and Cherie had made inquiries about the judge assigned to his court case, which prompted an additional outcry. Cherie insisted that she "emphatically did not try to influence this one way or another. I was simply trying to help my friend Carole find out the facts."
Such explanations did little to mollify Tony's political enemies—or even his advisers, who were enraged by the public firestorm over Cherie's miscalculations. The entire debacle was widely viewed as a black eye for the Blair government, and her family remains bitter about the way it was handled. "She was made to do that humiliating speech—not by Tony, by the powers that be at Downing Street," says her mother, Gale Booth. "She shouldn't have had to do that."
"They just fed her to the sharks," says a former Downing Street staffer.
Caplin then compounded the damage by allowing a BBC filmmaker to follow her around for a televised documentary called The Conman, His Lover and the Prime Minister's Wife. Cherie is no longer friendly with Caplin, and the lessons she learned from such ordeals were painful. "You've always got to be on your guard," she says. "It's a really hard thing to do, but if you're not on your guard, you're going to make mistakes."
When I ask what her mistakes were, she snorts derisively. "The list is potentially endless," she says. "But in the end, it's pretty trivial. You try and do your best, but you're only human."
Whatever Cherie's missteps, the hostility toward her was so rabid that even the Blairs' political foes remain puzzled by "a level of vitriol scarcely believable," as one review of her book put it.
The insults were as relentless as they were cruel. The Daily Mail referred to Cherie as the "wicked witch." The writer Liz Jones derided "those awful outfits, that nest of hair that looks home-dyed and that letterbox mouth adorned with a gash of red lipstick, as if she got ready in the dark after a makeup lesson from Dame Edna Everage."
"It's a real mystery—why did the press hate her so much?" muses a prominent Conservative. "Does she have, in dilute form, the Hillary Clinton toxin?"
The most common explanations begin with Cherie's class, appearance, and career. The British have always wondered why the ambitious young Tony, a proper middle-class boy who enjoyed a private-school education, chose to marry a scrappy working-class girl from Liverpool. "She wasn't as pretty as Tony," says the Conservative, a frequent talking head on television.
Nor did Cherie devote herself to becoming an elegant upper-class wife who made a priority of being decorative. Having married a fellow attorney, she—like Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama—also had to become her family's major breadwinner when her husband chose a public-service career, a struggle that exacerbated the searing anxieties created by Cherie's impecunious childhood.
When her father left, her mother was forced to move in with her mother-in-law, who insisted she go to work and pay rent. The powerlessness suffered by her mother left a lasting imprint on Cherie. "My ambitions were artistic, but Cherie was determined that she wasn't going to end up like me, with no money," says Gale Booth, who is now 75. "The fact that she knew how hard it had been for me is what goaded her on to do so well for herself."
Money nonetheless remained a source of gnawing concern for Cherie, a preoccupation that took a grave toll on her public image in what is still a deeply class-driven society. "You're not supposed to be interested in money if you're British," explains a longtime Labour Party hand. "If you appear to be interested in earning money, you come in for some heavy criticism from the left, because somehow it's not socialist. But there's also a right-wing agenda that is conservative politics mixed with snobbery. It's only artistocrats who are allowed to have money. I don't think the Blairs ever had a free holiday; they always paid, even if it was giving money for a charity, but of course nobody ever said that. There's a complete double standard. When the Tories were in power, most of John Major's holidays were spent on Lord Harris's yacht or at another M.P.'s house in Spain, but that was considered charming. But the Labour Party—'I'm sorry, that doesn't apply to you.' "
Cherie was excoriated for accepting speaking fees, although the majority of her speeches were given free for charities; the denunciations were so fierce that it sometimes seemed that the British begrudged her any opportunity to earn money.
The fixation on such issues often overshadowed more substantive matters. "Cherie Blair has never been given the credit she deserves for the way she supported the London 2012 bid for the Olympics," says Mike Lee, who served as communications director for the successful effort to bring the Olympics to London. "There's a certain kind of sexism in the way these things are reported."
Even officials from other countries were struck by the bias against Cherie. "I saw so many examples of very prejudicial reporting and photo reporting," says Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, the former Pakistani envoy to the U.K. as well as the United States, who traveled to Pakistan with Cherie and credits her with helping to start a Pakistani organization to support breast-cancer awareness. "Clearly there was a deep prejudice."
Cherie sees her own story in the larger context of women's history. "It wasn't just about me," she says. "I think we're in a transitional stage with regard to women. My mother and grandmother left school at 14. I believe that I'm the first wife of the prime minister to have a university degree."
As a barrister, Cherie went to work in wig and gown like her male colleagues. "Clothes were not an important part of my career, that's for sure," she says. "I felt a deep sense of relief when Carla Bruni came over with the French president and I wasn't the one who had to stand next to her, because that isn't really a fair comparison, is it! Since I'm not a fashion model, there's a limit to how nice I can make myself. I don't regard myself as an ugly person, but I don't think of myself as someone who would choose to be a model. I'm somebody who might be, I'd like to think, a role model for people who want to become lawyers."
In many ways, the challenges faced by Cherie have paralleled those of Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. Cherie often invokes the advice Mrs. Clinton once gave her: "Hillary said to me, 'You have to realize you're not going to please all the people all the time, and there are going to be some people you're never going to be able to please. So you must be true to yourself and to the people you know and respect.' It's a difficult role, to be First Lady. That's why I admire Hillary so much. She played that role, and she also showed us she could play the role of president too."
A mischievous smile tugs at Cherie's lips. "I'm not sure Bill, much as I love him, played the First Lady role that well. So how talented does that mean Hillary is?"
After Senator Barack Obama wrested the Democratic presidential nomination away from Senator Clinton, the press on both sides of the Atlantic trained its sights on Michelle Obama. "Is she the U.S. Cherie?" London's Daily Mail wondered recently. "Like Mrs. Blair, she's a lawyer from the wrong side of the tracks married to a political charmer. And like Mrs. Blair, she's loved—or loathed."
For Cherie, all the years of being loathed have created a certain paranoia. "It's hard; you're only human," she says. When she tries to avoid negative headlines, people invariably ring her up to tell her about them. "Your instant feeling is: Oh my god, what have I done now!—when in fact you haven't done anything," she says with resignation.
And yet her embattled posture sometimes leads to unfortunate judgments about how to handle even the most trivial gossip. Last May the Blairs, having relinquished the prime minister's official country residence, Chequers, spent $8 million to buy a nearby stately home in Buckinghamshire. Once owned by Sir John Gielgud, who died in its drawing room in 2000, the seven-bedroom Queen Anne house was built in 1704.
The purchase elicited a new round of criticism about the Blairs' growing incomes and the way they're spending their money. The Telegraph has estimated that Tony earned $20 million in his first year after leaving office, and The Sunday Times reported that he made up to $2 million from speaking engagements alone. But the fact that the Blairs are now private citizens has not exempted them from the usual scorn about Cherie's taste.
One day a staffer tells me that the Evening Standard accused Cherie of lowering the tone of the neighborhood by hanging a tacky tapestry from Dubai featuring portraits of her children on the wall of the august house. The tapestry was actually a gift from another Arab country several years ago, not something Cherie commissioned recently, the staffer reports.
But when I ask Cherie about it later, she denies it even exists. "There is no tapestry from Dubai," she says flatly. When I persist, asking if there is a wall hanging from another Arab country, she brushes off my questions. "That's a total fantasy." Despite my initial sympathy for her right to decorate her house as she likes, I am left wondering if Cherie may be fudging the truth with a technicality worthy of the term "Clinton-esque." But Cherie remained so incensed about the report that she had her solicitors send a threatening letter to the newspaper, which dutifully printed an apology retracting its claim that she had actually commissioned a tapestry.
Like the Clintons, she's gotten better at shrugging off the attacks by innumerable critics. These days, she says, "I don't much care. They don't like that. It takes away their power."
She also refuses to apologize for what she wrote in her book. All the hand-wringing about the references to sex, which were widely described as "cringeworthy"? Cherie doesn't see what the fuss is about. As far as she's concerned, she's female, icky subjects like menstrual periods and childbirth and menopause go with the territory, and she's striking a blow for abolishing outmoded taboos that oppress women and prevent them from being honest about their experience.
"I'm sure that in political books people don't talk about their contraception, but this is not a political book," she says. "This was a book about a woman's life, about my journey and how it reflects the journey of so many other women. And part of that is the fact that women can control their own fertility. I'm not ashamed of the fact that that has helped me. My mother fell pregnant with me and it changed the course of her life. That was something I had a choice about. All my children were my choice."
Oops. Not quite. Cherie realizes her error and giggles sheepishly. "Well, actually, that's not true," she admits. "But by the time Leo came along, God was laughing at me, wasn't he? So I don't really think it was out of place in this sort of book. These are the things women talk about."
What she does regret is her failure to inform her hometown boyfriend, David, that she was cheating on him with another boyfriend in London—and then, as she got to know a new legal colleague named Tony Blair, that her entanglements had grown to include a third suitor. "I'm not a Goody Two-Shoes; I have my faults, and how I treated David was a fault," she says. "I was cowardly, wasn't I? I see that it wasn't fair to him, not telling him about it. The others knew, and they made a choice to take their chance, but he didn't know."
In Speaking for Myself, Cherie elaborated on why she chose Tony over her other boyfriends. "It was partly chemistry—I fancied him rotten, and still do—but partly because I thought even then that he had something," she wrote. "Behind the charm there was a steely quality to him. Frankly, he fascinated me, as I had never met anybody quite like him before, not somebody who could give me a run for my money."
Their affair began on the deserted second tier of a double-decker bus and reached its romantic climax at the end of a vacation in a rented Italian villa, when Tony chose a particularly telling moment to propose. Cherie—who regularly found herself scrubbing the filthy toilets and floors in Tony's London bachelor pad—was, as usual, down on her hands and knees, cleaning the toilet in the villa, when Tony came up behind her. "You know, Cherie, I think maybe we should get married," he said. So much for the grand gesture.
Although Cherie dutifully maintained the public role of loyal political spouse during her husband's years in office, many observers wondered whether she privately agreed with his decision to support President Bush in waging the Iraq war. "Absolutely I did," she insists. "Saddam Hussein had been defying the international community for 12 years, he was perceived to be dangerous, everyone believed he had these weapons, and the issue was: How do we deal with that? I did not know all the information, but I trusted Tony to make the right decision. Do I agree with Tony on everything? No. Do I think Laura agrees with George on everything? No. But if you ask me do I trust Tony to make the big decisions wisely—yes."
Recent deals by major oil companies have led some Americans to the cynical conclusion that the Bush administration's real goal was establishing an oil colony in Iraq. "My own reaction to that is: Absolutely not. I absolutely believed that it was not a selfish motivation," says Cherie.
In any case, she thinks it's a waste of time to regret the past. "I'm an incurable optimist, and I'm a great believer in never looking back," she says. "Life is too short, and new challenges are exciting."
The Blairs remain committed to the kind of big issues that others frequently avoid as too daunting. Tony's current agenda—Make peace in the Middle East! Solve global warming!—is nothing if not ambitious, and Cherie's top priorities include establishing her foundation, which will promote women's economic empowerment. She hopes to accomplish this by connecting women from the industrialized world with those in developing countries who could use them as resources.
"There's a bit of a tendency to say, 'We know best,' but I don't want to go in like some queen bee, and I'm not going to dictate," she explains. "I don't really know what's best for them, but I know what's worked for me, and I can help them. I want to be working in partnership. What I'm envisaging is linking up groups, using the Web and new technology so those groups in different countries can come together and communicate, both regionally and internationally. Women can have master classes on marketing and video streaming and how you deal with being the only woman in the boardroom."
The foundation will be launched with a three-year pilot program in up to four developing countries. And Cherie maintains that she'll welcome public scrutiny of such endeavors. "I wasn't able to be judged by what I did when Tony was prime minister, because there were so many things that I could not do," she says. "Because my husband was prime minister, it gave me a sort of newsworthiness that wasn't actually justifed by what I was doing. Now I have to stand and fall on what I'm actually doing, and I should be judged on that. That's a great new challenge, and I'm enjoying it."
The role of political wife, however, she will gladly leave to her successors. Any final words of advice for the next First Lady of the United States?
"Don't open the door in your nightie," Cherie says. "Not a good idea."
Leslie Bennetts is a Vanity Fair contributing editor.


text:
Skip to Content
Home > Careers > Students > For Parents
Mercy offers a supportive, caring environment that helps employees feel comfortable, challenged and part of a cause: compassionate, skilled health care. We care about our employees, too.
Find out more information on what makes Mercy special – our history, The Mercy Touch, our mission, vision and values and details on Mercy's nationally recognized, award-winning care.
Wondering what it's like to live in Cedar Rapids?


text:
Naruto leaves the village, leaving a very heart broken Sasuke behind.
Sakura want's to get Sasuke the best birthday present ever, but what do you get the guy who want's for nothing?
Ryou leaves the group, everyone want's to know why...will Bakura find out?
Jou has a plan to get Seto, what happens when Seto catches on!!!


text:
BIZ BUZZ: April 3, 2014
Randy Emmons believes his new restaurant will succeed where others have gone before. The location of his latest enterprise, not surprisingly named Randy's Southside Diner, opens in the 2500 block of North Avenue in June.
Emmons' confidence is probably justified. He discovered the secret to good diner food a few years ago and then trained his staff to prepare it in a consistent way.
"Consistency is the key," he said.
With busy morning and lunch crowds at his other two locations, 3210 I-70B in Clifton and 2704 S. U.S. Highway 50 on Orchard Mesa, Emmons and his wife, Heather, decided to tackle another challenge, which started with a total gutting of the restaurant that once served Chinese food by the scoop, Emmons said.
Emmons and his wife were measuring the place for new appliances Tuesday.
Before he opened his own restaurant, Emmons said he spent several years managing Golden Corral restaurants, where consistency means the difference between a customer who returns again and again and one who walks away forever after a bad experience.
"All it takes is one negative experience and they never come back," Emmons said. "That's what I tell all of my employes," who number nearly 30 at present.
■ The Small Business Development Center of Montrose/Delta, Western Colorado State University, Region 10 Small Business Resource Center and the Delta Area Chamber of Commerce teamed up to offer a series of classes for those considering going into business for themselves, town officials said in a news release.
A second class will be held simultaneously for those who are already in business and need help optimizing their operations, officials said.
"Business 101: What You Need to Start Your Own Business" and "I'm in Business – Help!" will have a free, two-hour introductory class on April 17. One session will be offered from 10 a.m. to noon; a second will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
After the introductory class, students who wish to continue can take part in an in-depth, nine-week course meeting each week on Thursdays from May 1 to June 26.
The series costs $329 per business, including materials.
At the end of the course, entrepreneurs will have either a new a business plan ready to present to banks and investors or will have an updated business plan to help them stay in business for years to come.
Additionally, at the successful completion of the course, $100 of the class fee will be rebated and will pay a portion of your membership dues in your local chamber of commerce.
Classes will be held in the upstairs conference room at the Delta Area Chamber of Commerce, 301 Main St. Classes are limited to 15 people. Call (970) 872-5444 to register for the class or for more information.
■ Palisade's Peach Tree Distillers won silver and gold medals for its agave spirits at the second-annual Colorado Distillery Tasting at Telluride Ski Resort in March.
Tasting participants sampled distilled spirits in small batches by 20 local, Colorado-based distilleries, including 14 whiskey and nine gin offerings to taste and compare.
Approximately 150 people participated over the course of the weekend, which included "On Mountain" tastings, "People's Choice" and two blind tasting sessions.
Trail Town, Montanya, Mile High, Peach Street, and Trail Town distilleries were repeat winners.
Also, new distilleries at the Telluride tasting and 2014 winners included Breckenridge, KJ Wood, Leopold Brothers, Peak Spirits, Stranahan's, and Santa Fe distilleries.
"The quality and creativity of spirit production coming out of the Colorado distilleries is exceptional," said Rick Gomez, a blind tasting judge for both the 2013 and 2014 events.
"We are in the midst of the birth of a boutique distillery industry in Colorado. While several Colorado distilleries have already received national and international recognition, it is only a matter of time before more of the small-batch Colorado distilleries are recognized on a bigger stage as well," Gomez said.


text:
Kanye West is the narcissist we deserve, often admire, and sometimes love. To prepare for the release of his sixth album, Yeezus, and to contextualize the upcoming onslaught of reviews, rambles and write-ups, we've prepared a sort of annotated bibliography of his past decade.
"Kanye West's Time Has Come," FADER #20, 2003
A bourgeois background is nothing new in hip-hop, of course. The music's secret history is the way in which the middle class has pumped out gangs of tough-talking rappers and thus, as these things go, steered the fate of the music itself. What distinguishes West is not even that he's openly admitting these values. West is distinct because he's claiming the middle class as his own and rapping from that perspective, about that life, and directly to those listeners in myriad ways: a formula that propelled the huge success of Lauryn Hill's Miseducation in '98.
Quoted in the Wall Street Journal, 2013:
"Rob Stone, co-founder of music magazine the Fader, recalled the budding lyricist visiting his office in 2003 and quietly asking him to put on a CD. He then rapped 'voraciously' over the instrumentals for a song he wrote after a serious car crash, 'Through the Wire,' which would become his first solo hit. Mr. Stone says, 'He was performing as if he was in front of 20,000 people but there was only four of us in the room.' That display earned Mr. West his first magazine cover."
Kanye West: Culture Clash, FADER #47, 2007
Since the release of College Dropout in 2005, West has been served a heaping stack of shit along with his even bigger stack of shine. He's been blasted about his credibility, his character, his personal life, his history and the number of shirt buttons he leaves open in public. West's extreme self-confidence has always been tempered with a tendency to take critique harshly, but instead of defending himself on Graduation, he responds with the daring of an artist who has something to prove.
"Kanye West: I'm Amazing," FADER #58, 2008
Kanye West has become a brand synonymous with not just success, but innovation, and its CEO is as mercurial and provocative as Steve Jobs.
Ever since I was at preschool I had little kids following me around.
I think in the daily life of a black male, we gay-bash way more than we disrespect women. We would call a gay guy a fag to his face. But if we walked up to a woman and said ''Aiight, bitch!'' we would know that was disrespectful. I remember five years ago I was in this clothing store in Greenwich Village with my old girlfriend. I said the word fag kind of loud and there were some gay dudes in the store. My girlfriend was like, ''Yo, c'mon, step into the new millennium.'' Well, my level of consciousness has since raised. And I actually think that standing up for gays was even more crazy than bad-mouthing the president.
I'm a pop enigma. I live and breathe every element in life. I rock a bespoke suit and I go to Harold's for fried chicken. It's all these things at once, because, as a tastemaker, I find the best of everything. There's certain things that black people are the best at and certain things that white people are the best at. Whatever we as black people are the best at, I'ma go get that. Like, on Christmas I don't want any food that tastes white. And when I go to purchase a house, I don't want my credit to look black.
[Jay-Z] is really mad cool with Chris Martin. They hang out. Are they not allowed to go into the studio because he did a song with me? So that was pretty bitchy on my part. He had the right to do it, but it was like me wanting to be the first one to wear Jordans. It was just me being competitive. I was complaining that I didn't want to play the album for Jay, because of the Coldplay thing. Then Jay hit me back, like, "What the fuck do you mean, you can't play the album for me? You forget who I am? I'm your big brother."
I want the freedom of having less fans. It's like the freedom of having less money. If you have less money, you have less responsibility. It's like Björk. If she wanted to pose naked, you'd be like, 'Oh, that's Björk.' But if I wanted to pose naked, people would draw all type of things into it. I definitely feel like, in the next however many years, if I work out for two months, that I'll pose naked.
I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life.
What was arrogant about that [the Taylor Swift situation]? That's completely selfless. That's like jumping in front of a bullet. I lost an arm. I'm walking around trying to put my album out with one arm right now. Every time I try to perform a song, everybody's like, 'Well, what's up with that missing arm, though?'
"Balloon Mind State," Vibe, 2004
"It's like this," West adds before hanging up, "by not giving my album a classic rating, you diminish your magazine's credibility. And that's real."
"Head of the Class," Rolling Stone, 2004
Donda is Kanye's biggest fan. She bought fifteen copies of The College Dropout and accepted no freebies. She listens to it constantly. "I'm a fan of 50 Cent, Ludacris, Eminem," she says. "I even like Chingy. But I really haven't been as impressed by their lyrics as I am by Kanye's. I mean, Kanye has a way of putting a unique twist to things. [On 'Through the Wire'] he doesn't say, Thank God I ain't too cool for the safety belt.' He says, 'Thank God I ain't too cool for the safe belt.' I just think it's so brilliant."
"Natural Born Show-Off," The Guardian, 2005
Back in 1996, when he left college to pursue music, he couldn't get arrested. He blew an interview with Mike Mauldin at Columbia records by announcing his ambition to overtake R&B kingpin Jermaine Dupri, oblivious to the fact that Dupri's real surname is - oops - Mauldin.
"The Passion of Kanye West," Rolling Stone, February 2006
West, for some inexplicable reason, feels more comfortable discussing his addiction to porn, something, he points out, he has in common with the gospel singer Kirk Franklin. Partial to the popular Booty Talk series, West traces his "addiction" back to age five, when he happened upon one of his father's Playboy magazines. "Right then," he says, laughing deeply, "it was like, 'Houston, we have a problem.'"
"Out of the Darkness," The Telegraph, 2008
"It's weird - I heard about my Mom passing on a plane and I heard about Obama getting elected on a plane," he says. "Like Obama, I'm from Chicago and I would have loved to have made it back to take in the celebrations that night but it just couldn't be done. I still find it unbelievable that he won." There's a slight feeling that he finds it equally unbelievable, and not a little inconvenient, that Obama went and made political history in the same week as West was beginning the promotional campaign for his new album.
"The Unraveling of Kanye West," Details, 2009
A question about the type of woman he'd settle down with elicits a classic hyperbolic yet self-evident response: "What I feel like—'cause I wanna be married, of course—I feel like the type of girl I would be with is a fellow superhero. So we get that 'already flying and now we're just flying together' thing."
"Kanye West Has a Goblet," Slate, 2010
But when West complains about the pillows, it's not just an underhanded brag. It also speaks to a deeper sense that, as life has gotten ever more luxuriously comfortable for him, he has become that much more restive and incapable of truly enjoying it. He fancies himself a king these days, but throughout his career he has frequently come across like a princess tossing and turning atop a pea. It's as though an irritating little voice nags at him from down below, telling him that he still hasn't achieved everything he can, that he still doesn't have all the success he deserves, and that he never will. Sometimes he says he doesn't want to be "limited by the art form of rap," and sometimes he sets his sights higher and says he doesn't want to be limited by the 21st century: "When I think of competition it's like I try to create against the past. I think about Michelangelo and Picasso, you know, the pyramids," he says.
"Kanye West's La Dolce Vita," XXL, 2010
"Drake was the first thing that actually scared me and put pressure on me, because it was the first thing that was blatantly from a similar perspective and lane. When I feel pressure, I step my game up. So I believe that Drake made great music for people to love and enjoy, but he also forced me to step my game up, because I have to be Kanye West."
Late Registration Review, SPIN, 2005
Once liminal, now integral, West is the person in pop music who is most entitled to overreach and the one most likely to overstep.
Mr. West has kept a relatively low profile since he hijacked Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at last year's MTV Video Music Awards. A few weeks ago he made some of his first public appearances since then with performances at the offices of Facebook and Twitter. But now he's back at saturation levels, thanks to his Twitter intensity and a slew of new songs that he's releasing weekly through his blog, kanyeuniversecity.com/blog. This is the familiar Mr. West, logorrheic and punchy, seeping all over the media available to him.
On My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 2011
"Twisted Fantasy" is a hip-hop album accessible to both insiders and outsiders, arriving in a moment in which other genres are as open-armed as ever. Since his debut album Mr. West has boldly asserted his primacy, demanding that others — critics, award shows, other artists — fall in line. By asking to be judged at a higher level Mr. West implicitly allows for it by creating the language for that acclaim. And maybe in some way fear plays a role, with institutions worried that history will not smile on dissenters.
Mr. West is often depicted as arrogant and surly, but the warm swaddle of the Kardashian clan has done him wonders. In one episode he helps clear Kim's closet of clothes that he deems out of style and fills it up with sexier, more severe items; in another, he attends Kourtney's baby shower and has a private moment with Khloe discussing his relationship with Kim, admitting, "It's scary, but it's about me being responsible with my heart."
"Like, J-Kwon, "Tipsy." People would think that's like a lower-quality, less intellectual form of hip-hop, but that's always my No. 1. There's no opera sounds on this new album, you know what I mean? It's just like, super low-bit. I'm still, like, slightly a snob, but I completely removed my snob heaven songs; I just removed them altogether.
Hua Hsu on Late Registration, Slate, 2005
West has shown he can be all things to all people, from the nouveau riche who shares his thirst for diamonds to the janitor earnestly working his way up. He possesses a pathological need to ask the impossible, important questions, even if he is the first to confess that he hasn't a clue about the answers.
Jonah Weiner on 808s and Heartbreak, Slate, 2008
On the surface, this stripped-down, haunted album promises a paean to vulnerability—in other words, all self-doubt, no arrogance. Ironically, though, 808s and Heartbreak is the least vulnerable thing West has released. It's a spiteful breakup album in which he plays the mostly blameless victim, a nasty feast of wound-licking and backbiting, and a claustrophobic pity party that brooks hardly any self-reflection.
Molly Lambert on "Mama's Boyfriend," Grantland, 2011
Do you think Kanye ever made the extremely morbid connection between his verse on "Throw Some D's" (in which he offers to upgrade his theoretical girlfriend's breast implants) and the fact that his mom died from complications following cosmetic surgery? That his single mom's overwhelming need to be physically attractive to men (which led to her death) is connected to Kanye's own desire for women to be perfect sex robots who he can mentally control.
Hua Hsu on Watch the Throne, Grantland, 2011
Here is an album that has begged to be taken seriously as an event, from its lavish, paranoid listening sessions to Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci's gilded, Transformer-at-rest album cover. The powers that be chose to debut the album on iTunes rather than stores so that fans worldwide could experience the duo's grand vision together at the same time — a strike against Internet piracy disguised as a gesture of egalitarianism, a victory for the big guy over mom-and-pop record shops. But none of this could truly prepare listeners for Watch the Throne, which, at its core, is a marvel of affluenza...[Watch the Throne] is the culmination of a wealth-happy maximalism that is as logical as it is ill-timed. Rarely has an album seemed so simultaneously in and out of touch with the exigencies of American life.
There's a couple more joints we can't wait to hear again, but we don't want to ruin the surprise for the rest of y'all by going into detail (plus, we went there for music and Hen-rock, not to take notes).
808s and Heartbreak, October 2008
West delivered a monologue about how this album is about the freedom to do what you want to do and that he used Auto-Tune because it is the most fun thing ever. Then he said 808s & Heartbreak was about emotional nakedness. Then he said he'll have another album out next June. Then the DJ played "Good Life" and we went to get our car from the valet parking before the line got out of hand.
West's intro speech highlighted his connections to black "pioneers" of the last generation, but Kanye spent the more time talking about his rollout strategy and the Yeezy sneakers he designs. Talking about how he's learned to make a "better sneaker" than Lanvin's for just $300, he didn't sound so much anti-establishment as he did a guy from a start up, bragging about smartly "disrupting" an industry. Smart ideas and business strategies don't necessarily challenge the status quo, though.
Bloated tracklist, guest star overload, lyrical paradoxes: It all might sound a bit critical for an 8+ album, but College Dropout's flaws tend to only help make Kanye West all the more personable as an artist.
Those who claim Kanye West's antics hinder his work are missing the point. His self-importance is obvious, but the arrogance that comes pre-packaged with his insecurity is what makes West the most interesting hip-hop figure of the past five years.
Lyrically, West is magnanimous, corny, self-aggrandizing, and likeable in the all the usual ways. The difference here is that he's dialed down his inner conflict. The neurotic inner monologues of his most engaging verses are virtually absent here. If there's one criticism to be made of Graduation, it's that in striving for universality, he's sacrificed a more personal dimension of himself.
Poor Kanye West.
"Kanye West Criticizing George Bush After Katrina Is a Reason to Love Live TV," The Washington Post, 2005
West's comments would be cut from the West Coast feed, an NBC spokeswoman told The TV Column. (The Associated Press later reported that only his comment about the president was edited out.) The show was live on the East Coast with a several-second delay; someone with his finger on a button was keeping an ear peeled in case someone uttered an obscenity but did not realize that West had gone off-script, the spokeswoman said.
Kanye West Interrupts Taylor Swift at the VMAs, Idolator, 2009
Six-ish hours later, and I'm still unsure if the Kanye West/Taylor Swift brouhaha at tonight's Video Music Awards was a work or a shoot. That is, whether it was the result of a genuine outpouring of emotion on Kanye West's part, or just a way for the VMAs to sneak up behind the rest of the cable lineup and command the television-watching nation's attention.
Kanye West Writes a Book, Reuters, 2009
Rapper Kanye West does not read books or respect them but nevertheless he has written one that he would like you to buy and read.
Barack Obama Calls Kanye West a Jackass, TMZ, 2009
Barack Obama: "[Taylor Swift] seems like a perfectly nice person. She's getting her award. What's he doing up there? He's a jackass."
People Hate Kanye West's First Fashion Line, The Daily Beast, 2011
If this is the way fashion's going then anyone with any real talent should seriously consider a career in Tesco instead. Because that's a job with dignity. Unlike ghost-designing for a rapper who has the presumption to show "his" very first collection in Paris during prêt-à-porter – supposedly the summit for true creativity in fashion. It was the equivalent of Karl Lagerfeld launching a hip-hop career: i.e. absurd.


text:
I'm 8 days post-op with using ib cartilage implants in my bridge and tip with a Asian rhinoplasty. Another Asian girl at the same healing day as me had Gortex for her bridge. Her nose already looks very natural with some light swelling. However, my nose looks monstrous and extremely swollen and fake. My bridge is so swollen it's convex, even though the doctor did not raise it too high. My bridge is also swollen in sections and bulbous. Does gortex heal faster than rib cartilage immediately?
Does Gortex Show Immediate Healing Faster Than Rib Cartilage for Bridge Implants?
Doctor Answers 2
Gortex versus autologous cartilage for dorsal augmentation in Asian Rhinoplasty
Rib cartilage for dorsal or nasal bridge augmentation will definitely swell up more than gortex, at least in the immediate post-operative period. It may take a few weeks to a few months until the swelling improves visibly. However, in the long run, there can be more longevity, less chances of infection or extrusion of the cartilage graft as this is your own tissue, versus gortex can be rejected, can be extruded and can even become infected. Please be patient. Often the final results from a rhinopalsty are seen after a year. Taking arnica montana or bromolein can help as well, but check with your surgeon first. Good Luck and take care.
Learn more: http://www.drlacerna.com
Rib cartilage for dorsal augmentation Asian rhinoplasty
In the immediate post-operative period, swelling may be somewhat less with a synthetic implant such as Gortex. This is because there is less manipulation necessary to place a goretex implant. You are still extremely early in your recovery, and your swelling will decrease rapidly in the next 3-6 months, though full healing can take up to 1-2 years.
Learn more: http://www.spaldingplasticsurgery.com/face/ethnic-rhinoplasty/
These answers are for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for medical advice you may receive from your physician. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. These answers do not constitute or initiate a patient/doctor relationship.


text:
How Home Decor Can Double As Wedding Decor
In a Lake Forest, Illinois, house, designed by Ruthie Sommers, the chair seat and dressing table skirted to match the wallpaper envelop the guest bedroom in flowers. Wallpaper and fabric are Cowtan & Tout's Amelie. The pair of lamps is from Rubbish, with shades by Munder & Sons.
In the master bedroom of a Palm Beach apartment, a screen in Thibaut's Westfield adds dimension and "gets more fabric into the room for softness," says T. Keller Donovan, as does the flouncy plaid table skirt.
10 Designer Tricks to a Perfectly-Styled Coffee Table


text:
Carpet wall base serves as a soft, low-maintenance alternative to traditional wood trim or vinyl cove base in the home. Made from strips of carpet, this base is installed along the bottom of the walls around the entire perimeter of the room to finish off a carpeted floor. Carpet wall base offers easy installation compared to wood trim, and requires many of the same tools and techniques required for vinyl base installation.
Sizing Carpet Base
Carpet base comes in a range of sizes, from 2 to 6 inches or more. For new installations, consider visual appeal and personal preference when choosing base. For renovation work, many contractors select base that's slightly taller than the existing base to hide wall damage that occurs when removing and replacing the base. For example, using 4-1/2 inch carpet base serves as an effective method of replacing standard 3-1/2 or 4 inch base without refinishing and repainting the walls. When buying carpet base, always buy about 10 percent more than you plan to use, just as you would with carpet and other types of flooring.
Wall Preparation
The type of adhesive and the brand of carpet base you use determines where the material can be applied. Film adhesive tapes used for carpet base installation can typically be installed over any surface, from drywall to concrete. Johnsonite, a carpet wall base manufacturer, cautions homeowners against installing carpet base over paint, wallpaper and other finishes. Never install carpet base over existing vinyl cove or other types of bases. Instead, slip a putty knife behind the base and carefully pull it away from the wall. Use your knife to scrape away any remaining adhesive before proceeding with installation. Wipe walls a final time to remove dirt, dust and other contaminants before attempting wall base installation.
Cutting Carpet Base
Cutting carpet base requires only a sharp utility knife or a pair of heavy scissors. When you come to an inside corner, measure and cut the base to end at the corner, then cut a new piece to start at the adjacent wall. Outside corners may require some shaving to fit, similar to the technique used with vinyl base. Measure your carpet base and score it along the back where you plan to wrap it around an outside corner. Fold the base in half so that the backing is facing out, then use a sharp utility knife to carefully shave a small groove around the scored line. When you install the base on the corner, this groove allows it to fit snugly to the wall. You may have to use extra adhesive to hold these outside corners in place.
Before installing carpet base, refer to the manufacturers recommendations to determine the correct adhesive for the job. Some carpet base features built-in adhesive, so all you have to do is peel away the protective backing and stick the base to the wall. If a separate adhesive is required, use a 1/8-inch, square-notch trowel to spread the adhesive so that 80 percent of the back of the base is covered. Avoid applying adhesive to the top 1/4 inch to keep adhesive from oozing out onto the wall after installation. Some non-porous wall surfaces may require you to apply adhesive to both the wall and the base. Use small finishing nails to secure the end of the base as needed.
If bits of adhesive ooze out of the top of the base, use a damp cloth to wipe them away before they dry. Remove dried adhesive using a clean rag dipped in mineral spirits.
Related Searches
- Photo Credit Ablestock.com/AbleStock.com/Getty Images


text:
Kenny Gunderman, a director of America's Car-Mart, just received 5,000 options from the company. The strike price of the options received was $37.30, and these expire on May 01, 2027. Gunderman now owns at least 5,000 options on the company.
The above information was disclosed in a filing to the SEC. To see the filing, click here.
To receive a free e-mail notification whenever America's Car-Mart makes a similar move, sign up!
Other recent filings from the company include the following:
America's Car-Mart director just disposed of 27,370 shares - Sept. 6, 2017
America's Car-Mart's Chief Executive Officer just cashed-in 6,250 options - Sept. 6, 2017
America's Car-Mart Just Filed Its Quarterly Report: Earnings per Share ... - Sept. 6, 2017
Report of proposed sale of securities - Aug. 31, 2017
Major owner of America's Car-Mart just picked up 12,560 shares - Aug. 28, 2017


text:
Photographs by Ivan FordeMay 21, 2013
This series of photographs by Ivan Forde represent the process that the reader's mind goes through when reading Milton's Paradise Lost. While attending SUNY Purchase College for literature, Ivan merged literature and photography to critique poetry. The result is this fascinating series of 8 photos titled Transformation. "The act of reading the poem invites readers to put themselves under the cold eyes of self-examination. Milton forces his readers to see themselves against the unblemished background of the divine and perfect world of paradise. By contrast, we see our own human imperfections.The sight of our imperfections stimulates Transformation, resulting in a non-duelist view of all our parts - accepting the process between good and evil."


text:
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Large U.S. agriculture companies, energy infrastructure exporters and fast-food giants are among those that could suffer if the situation in Ukraine deteriorates further.
That's the assessment from fund managers and strategists, who point to a full scale Russian military occupation of Ukraine as the biggest risk to markets.
Global markets were a sea of red on Monday, with key European indices shedding more than 2% after Russia seized border posts and pushed to expand its forces in Ukraine's Crimea region.
Despite the alarm, UBS' head of global emerging markets equity strategy, Geoff Dennis, said the political turmoil in Egypt of early 2011 was far more significant for global markets.
"Egypt is owned by foreign investors and is an emerging market," he said in a phone interview. "There was potential for it to stir the Israel-Palestine conflict and it caused a spike in oil prices."
By comparison, Ukraine is a major agriculture producer but doesn't pose the same geopolitical risk to global markets. It is classified as a frontier market, which means it is less developed than so-called emerging markets with less input from offshore investors.
Dennis said the worst-case scenario for the region would involve military confrontation, in which Russia moved to restore ousted Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych or place another Soviet-backed leader in power.
A potential default by Ukraine on its debt could also see a ripple effect through the European banking system, the UBS strategist warned. Russian banks are seen as those most exposed to the region, while two large Austrian banks -- Raiffeisen International and Bank Austria -- are active in Ukraine. "If loans aren't repaid in the Ukraine, western banks there could be forced to liquidate investments elsewhere," Dennis said, suggesting overall exposure of western European banks was probably contained.


text:
This is why I hate the media, who always seem to be too busy to provide actual insight instead of giving 10-point Times-New-Roman-font blowjobs to the people they cover. They're like children wandering around in a mall, until one of them suddenly gets hungry and they all start crying. And even that one perverted guy that manages to pull that one kid away for some "candy" never seems to find the one little bastard that actually deserves a little adversity in his life. Which brings me to Brett Favre.
Brett Favre was asked about returning next season, and he said he won't make that decision until next year. "We'll take it week to week," the Jets' quarterback said Wednesday. "At the end of the season, I'll take a look at … I'll assess how I played this year and talk with the Jets and we'll see from there. I think it's way premature to even think about next season."
What's that, Brett? Way premature is exactly right. You don't have to whore for attention in New York City; they have buckets of attention there, just waiting to be dumped on some guy from Mississippi that can't seem to retire fast enough for everybody. They never asked Chad Pennington if he was going to retire. Or Laveranues Coles. Man, I bet that guy's been to the mall a couple times, if you know what I mean. No? Forget it then.


text:
Game Time Start: 8:00 PM ET
Where: Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC
Officials: Tony Brothers (#25), Eric Dalen (#37), Brian Forte (#45)
Media Notes: Indiana Notes, Charlotte Notes
Television: TNT
Radio: WFNI 1070 AM, 107.5 FM / WFNZ 610 AM
NBA Feeds: NBA Audio & Broadband League Pass (subscription req'd)
REMINDER: Per PD policy, please do not share a link to, describe how to search for, request a link to, or request a PM about streaming video of a NBA game that is not coming directly through the NBA. Not even in a "wink-wink, nudge-nudge, know-what-I-mean" round-about sort of way.
Thank you
Season Records: (W-L) 32-30 Away: 11-20
East: 17-19
Series: 0-2
27-35 Home: 16-13
East: 16-20
Series: 2-0
Upcoming Games: March 08 March 10 March 12 vs at vs ESPN - 8:00pm FSI - 8:00pm NBATV - 6:00pm
Projected Starting Lineup: TURNER YOUNG GEORGE MILES TEAGUE Projected Starting Lineup: ZELLER WILLIAMS BATUM KIDD-GILCHRIST WALKER
Lavoy Allen - questionable (sore left knee)
Frank Kaminsky - out (left AC joint sprain)
Miles Plumlee - out (right calf strain)
Ramon Sessions - out (left knee surgery)
Minimally Relevant Video:
Semi-Relevant Video:
140 Characters of (Non-PD) Coverage
Nate Taylor @ByNateTaylor
Scott Agness @ScottAgness
Jared Wade @8pts9secs
Tim Donahue @TimDonahue8p9s
Tom Lewis @indycornrows
Whitney @its_whitney
Rick Bonnell @rick_bonnell
Ben Swanson @CardboardGerald
Brett Hainline @BrettQCHoops
Derek James @DerekJamesNBA
Joshua B. Priemski @HoopPlusTheHarm
Spencer Percy @QCHspencer


text:
2011 BSFA Award Winners
posted Monday 9 April 2012 @ 1:55 pm PDT
Winners of the 2011 BSFA Awards have been announced:
Best Novel
- The Islanders, Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
- Cyber Circus, Kim Lakin-Smith (Newcon Press)
- Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan)
- By Light Alone, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
- Osama, Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
Best Short Fiction
- "The Copenhagen Interpretation", Paul Cornell (Asimov's July 2011)
- "The Silver Wind", Nina Allan (Interzone #233)
- "Afterbirth", Kameron Hurley (www.kameronhurley.com)
- "Covehithe", China Miéville (The Guardian)
- "Of Dawn", Al Robertson (Interzone #235)
Best Non-Fiction
- The SF Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition, John Clute, Peter Nicholls, David Langford, & Graham Sleight, eds. (SF Gateway)
- Out of This World: Science Fiction But Not as We Know It, Mike Ashley (British Library)
- Review of Arslan, M.J. Engh & Abigail Nussbaum (Asking the Wrong Questions blog)
- SF Mistressworks, Ian Sales, ed. (SF Mistressworks)
- Pornokitsch, Jared Shurin & Anne Perry, eds. (Pornokitsch)
- The Unsilent Library: Essays on the Russell T. Davies Era of the New Doctor Who, Graham Sleight, Tony Keen, & Simon Bradshaw (Science Fiction Foundation)
Best Art
- Cover of Ian Whates's The Noise Revealed, Dominic Harman (Solaris)
- Cover and illustrations of Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls, Jim Kay (Walker)
- Cover of Lavie Tidhar's Osama, Pedro Marques (PS Publishing)
- Cover of Liz Williams's A Glass of Shadow, Anne Sudworth (Newcon Press)
The awards are voted on by members of BSFA and the British Annual Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon). Winners were announced during the 2012 Eastercon, held April 6-9, 2012 at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Heathrow, London.
Category: Awards.
Pingback from Christopher Priest's The Islanders Wins BFSA Award for Best Novel | Barking Book Reviews
Time Tue 17 April 2012 at 1:37 am
[…] short in sweet. As in, here are the awards, with no further commentary. Except that is, to praise Locus, which had the BFSA award winners list posted even before the BFSA folk posted them on their site; guess they are still recovering from […]


text:
Coconut oil may already be in your home as a cooking oil but did you know that it can also be used topically for skin and hair care? Coconut oil can help with everything from soothing a dry scalp, providing the essential proteins required for nourishing damaged hair to helpng skin ailments like psoriasis, dermatitis and eczema.
Below are 10 uses for coconut oil. Coconut oil is available refined and unrefined. All references below are referring to unrefined cold-pressed coconut oil which still retains the beneficial fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.
Many couples use store bought chemically based lubricants. Coconut oil is natural, inexpensive and if you can use it for all these other things, why not use it for lubricant.
While it is solid in the jar and below 76 degrees, when it is wamred, it easily dissolves into the skin. Coconut oil is harmless to the tender tissues of the vagina and has antiviral and antibacterial properties that can be beneficial. Somehow coconut oil kills the bad bacteria but does not harm the beneficial bacteria in the body. Another advantage is that coconut oil is completely edible and pleasant tasting. I won't go into detail why this is an advantage to other store bought chemical lubricants.
Do be mindful though that oil of any sort is incompatible with latex and should not be used with diaphragms or condoms.
If your infant or child develops cradle cap, there is an underlying issue that needs to be dealt with. Cradle cap is a fungal infection usually due to an imbalance in internal yeast and bacteria. To soothe baby's head while you deal with the underlying issue, you can use coconut oil. Gently work the coconut oil into baby's scalp. Work it into the scalp well, and gently ( it is important to remember that your baby still has a soft head). Now, take a fine toothed baby comb and use it to gently remove the flakes. This will take a few times to get rid of it all. If the underlying issue is dealt with, this will be gone, and you won't have to deal with it again. If cradle cap comes back, then see a natural minded doctor for help with dealing with the internal issues.
Many lip balms on the market contain petroleum by-products which actually dry the skin rather than moisturize. Coconut oil can prevent chapping and help moisturize lips. You can use it just straight from the jar, or make your own lip balm with a few simple ingredients. The below makes about 8 tubes of lip balm.
Melt the below ingredients and mix together:
1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil
2 Tablespoons Sunflower Oil
1 Tablespoon & 1 teaspoon Beeswax
Pour into lip balm tubs and let cool.
Whether you have frizzy curls or limp straight hair, coconut oil is a great hair and scalp treatment. The same way it can nourish your skin, coconut oil can nourish your hair. Apply a small amount (pea size for shoulder length hair) to washed hair then rinse. Coconut oil makes a wonderful detangler as well.
If you apply a small amount as a leave-in treatment, coconut oil can defrizz and even hold curls. You can also use it on straight hair as a leave-in treatment and it will hold your style.
Most of the reason that we have body odor is from bacteria growing on our skin. Coconut oil has antibacterial properties so applying it as deodorant works wonders.
Store bought antiperspirants and deodorants contain aluminum (which although has not been 100% proven) may contribute to Alzheimer's, breast cancer and other diseases. Even if you don't buy that, store bought deodarnts and antipersperants contain many other toxic chemicals that many people want to avoid.
Coconut oil melts at is just 76 degrees. Adding baking soda and cornstarch will give it a thicker consistency, but you may still want to keep it in the refrigerator during warmer months! Mix together 1/4 cup each baking soda and cornstarch and 1/3 cup of coconut oil. Mix well then store in a jar with a tight lid or transfer to an empty deodorant container.
Coconut oil can be applied topically to the skin to use as a luxurious moisturizer. It is solid when kept cold, but melts at room temperature and to the touch. Reach into a jar and apply to the skin. Coconut oil quickly absorbs into the skin. Coconut oil has antioxidant properties as well which can help prevent aging and wrinkles.
Many of the skin products sold in stores have coconut oil as a main ingredient. Rather than purchase a product with lots of additives and chemicals, skip all those excess ingredients and use 100% coconut oil.
Coconut oil is a great moisturizing make-up remover. Simply apply coconut oil to a cotton ball and wipe over eye makeup, and the rest of the face. Wash your face again as you normally would, or just leave the coconut oil on your face for an added moisturizing treatment. No need to mix anything in with the coconut oil, just apply straight from the jar onto the cotton ball and wipe away all that makeup. Coconut oil can remove the toughest of make-up including mascara. It is gentle on the face and in delicate areas of the face, like the eyes.
For mamas who nurse and have tender, cracked nipple tissue, coconut oil can not only be soothing, but also help to heal the cracked skin. Not all nursing mothers experience cracked nipple skin, but for those who do, coconut oil can also help prevent thrush from getting into those cracks.
There is no need to add anything to the oil, just apply straight from the jar. If you or your baby have any sensitivities to coconut though, you would want to avoid this application since it will be ingested by baby.
Many of the uses listed are for items that may be filled with toxic chemicals. Toothpaste is no different. Most toothpastes contain SLS or sodium laurel sulfate. A recent study published in the Journal of The American College of Toxicology showed that concentrations as low as 0.5% of SLS could cause irritation and concentrations of 10-30% SLS caused skin corrosion and severe irritation. Sounds like SLS is something to avoid.
We use a solution of 1 part Dr. Bronners peppermint liquid soap to 5 parts of coconut oil. Store in a jaro or in a pastry bag with a piping tip and apply to your toothbrush brushing as normal.
There are many reasons not to use store bought sunscreen these days. The biggest being that sunscreen blocks your body's ability to process the sun and make vitamin D (which is actually an enzyme we make, not a vitamin). Mix one part shea butter, melted, into 2 parts of coconut oil and apply like any other sunscreen. If you are more concerned about sun exposure, you can also add one part zinc oxide. I am incredibly pale, live in the Sunshine state and have never had to add zinc oxide to prevent burning.


text:
Destinations at Panorama Resort
Panorama, British Columbia, Canada
Destinations at Panorama Resort
Panorama, British Columbia, Canada
Timeshare Owner?
Post your timeshare at Destinations at Panorama Resort for rent or sale in less than five minutes!
Nestled near the Canadian Rockies, Panorama Resort is rich with rugged natural beauty. Surrounded by creeks, lakes, forests, and mountains the resort offers seasonal outdoor activities. In winter enjoy on-site downhill, cross-country and heli-skiing. Summer offers golf, tennis, horseback riding, rafting, hiking, cycling. Special events for the whole family and children's programs are available throughout the year. Enjoy the pool, hot tubs, saunas and masseuse, along with two dining rooms and lounges as well as a pub. Please contact the resort for a current calendar of events and activities.
Back to reviewsResort review
6 of us spent the first week of April 2008 at this resort. The skiing was wonderful, both groomed and off-piste. The temperature was perfect, around freezing point - and we had 20cm of fresh snow at the beginning of the week. The kids had a great time, and our guests from the UK had some of the best skiing they had ever had.
The resort is starting to look a little tired in the older timeshares but the new ones look fantastic. I believe the older ones are being upgraded. The ski hill is better than I remember from some years ago. No line-ups and great snow.
We are planning to go back every year. We loved it.
There has been heavy construction going on since April 2003, so past visitors will be surprised at the changes. The small town nearby had more stuff in it than I had "researched"/or expected. The ride to Banff is a MUST, but the bigger towns are very touristy; but still quaint in appearance. They require a large $300 sec.dep. bec. of possible damage by young people (I'm guessing). Spcial events for whole family are based on the season. I was there on a "border season" and some were stopping and others starting. All the kitchen stuff you'll need, incl. fireplace! There are stairs! and a nice covered garage.
Carolyn and I enjoyed an adventurous trip to Canada beginning September 28, 2003. We flew from Chicago to Salt Lake City, UT connecting to a flight to Calgary, Alberta (AB), Canada.. elapsed time about 6 hours... after renting a car, we drove about 3 hours along the Trans Canada Highway 1 through the Banff National Park and the Kootenay National Park to Panorama Village about 12 miles west of Invermere, BC.. deer, moose and bears are frequently observed on the highway.. along the way we viewed (and could smell) the effects of devastating forest fires which occurred about two months earlier.. we traveled for miles in blackened, charred forests.. although depressing to see such destruction, we recalled that in fact this is nature's way of cleansing and stimulating new growth..
During our first week we enjoyed the timeshare accommodations of a 2-bedroom, 2- bathroom, full kitchen unit that was relatively clean and comfortable in Panorama Village... an inside flight of stairs up from the front door led to the main living area with another flight of stars up to the sleeping area.. an outside flight of stairs down from the front door led to an underground, enclosed, heated garage.. the resort is 30 years old and shows wear, but it was acquired a few years ago by Intrawest which is significantly refurbishing the older units while investing in major enhancements to the resort which include a challenging golf course, efficient gondola and ski lifts and whole ownership units.. we were told that the Russian, Canadian and US ski teams practice here the first two weeks of the skiing season... the staff is friendly and competent.. the mountains are awesome.. the amenities are typical of a large resort..
The near-by community of Invermere is replete with grocery stores, art galleries, an antique shop, and the typical support services of a bustling ski area.. hot springs are a not-to-be-missed attraction in both the Radium and Fairmont communities..
At week's end, we retraced our initial travel route to spend the following week in Canmore, AB from where we visited Banff, Lake Louise, the Columbia Icefields and Kananaskis Country..
We just enjoyed an amazing holiday at this
"diamond in the rough" resort. I strongly
recommend this vacation spot to anyone.
From the golfer to the hard core downhill
mountain biker to the little 4 year old that
just wants to swim in the hot spings pools.
Happy Holidays!!!
Great nature resort. Excellent Golf course. Excellent Skiing in Winter.
- Bar
- Child Care
- Children's Pool
- Cross-Country Skiing
- Downhill Skiing
- Golf
- Grocery Store
- Horseback Riding
- Laundry Room
- Live Entertainment
- Outdoor Pool
- Restaurant
- Sauna
- Spa Services
- Swimming
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing (12 miles)
- Lake (12 miles)
- Medical Facilities (12 miles)
- Mountain
- Park
- Tennis
877 Hamilton St.
Panorama, British Columbia, Canada V0A 1T0No available map for Destinations at Panorama ResortAccuracy not guaranteed. Contact the resort to confirm the address before making plans.
Timeshare rentals
Timeshares for rent at Destinations at Panorama ResortAdd a posting
Join the most trusted timeshare community
View all timeshare rentals and resales at Destinations at Panorama Resort by creating a free accountCreate a free account
Timeshare resales
Timeshares for sale at Destinations at Panorama Resort
Points/Credits for sale
|Club Intrawest
|100 - 652
|$3,000 - 4,999
|View all postings
Points/Credits for sale
|Club Intrawest
|View all
- View Timeshare Rentals (0)
- View Timeshare Resales (0)
- About the Resort
- See Resort Amenities
- Read Resort Reviews (5)
- View Resort Address & Map
- Discuss This Resort