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About a month after the "King of the Nerds" episode aired, I began filming "Heroes of Cosplay" for Syfy channel. Though the journey to getting the first episodic TV Show about cosplay greenlit was about 3 years long for, which began with a simple phone call. Over the next couple of years, I shot multiple sizzles with production, recommended cosplay friends to be cast members on the show, and went to a couple of conventions and made a couple of costumes for them. We basically shot a mini-season and finally in January 2013, Syfy ordered 6 episodes of the show still known to us as "CosWorld" at the time.
I did my absolute best to be on time for every filming day, accommodate logistics and be a good hardworking cosplayer, because that is what I am. Cosplay is more than just my hobby, it is my sole form of income. Letting a film crew follow me for months while trying to get work done was interesting to say the least lol. I had some unforgettable experiences during the show, overwhelmingly positive. All TV productions are hectic and all good things have to be balanced out with some negativity. I'm glad to have been a part of a TV show that not only did well in the ratings, but also had a huge internet buzz around it. I will take the good and bad buzz with a project I worked on over silence and apathy any day. And all the talk about HoC resulted in countless people contacting me and letting me know that they were introduced to Cosplay for the first time and how much they are enjoying this artform with their parents, kids, friends, brothers and sisters, spouses, granparents, aunts and uncles etc. So many heartfelt happy messages and smiles, I really could not ask for anything better.
I did a bunch of interviews about Heroes of Cosplay prior to the Premier, here are some of them:
MTV Geek
Entertainment Weekly


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Consequences of Inhaling Rubbing Alcohol?
My mother is 55 year old diabetic, with renal insufficiency and taking medications for depression and has recently (in last 30 days) quit smoking. She had a small fracture to her nose last summer and was told by her Primary Care Physician to rub her nose with alcohol pads to help with the discomfort. Since then, she has been "sniffing" these pads 6-8 pads at a time (3-4 on each nostril) taking deep breaths several times a day. She gets very defensive when we talk to her about it. I have been looking online to see if there are any dangers with her habit and have not been able to find anything. In June she was told that she had some fibroid scarring in her lungs and when I told the pulmonologist that she was sniffing the alcohol pads he dismissed it as the cause of her scarring. This cannot be healthy what exactly is she doing to herself?
Thank you for your question. As you can infer from your mother's response to your questioning this behavior, there is nothing normal about inhaling or "huffing" isopropal alcohol (rubbing alcohol).
Although it is different than ethyl alcohol (drinking alcohol), isopropal alcohol is a volatile liquid that vaporizes easily, can be absorbed across the lung membrane, and causes brain effects and other nerve effects.
The brain effects include dizziness and numbness with some altered perceptions. It appears that she has developed a liking of these feelings and is abusing the drug.
The major risks are nerve damage from continued exposure — something that is already a risk in a person with diabetes. I hope this information is helpful.
For more information:
Go to the Addiction and Substance Abuse health topic.

subset: commoncrawl


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We planted some arborvitaes last year and they died. The nursery said it was a bad batch and gave us replacement ones. Now these are starting to turn brown. Now they say it's probably a drainage issue since we have clay soil. Since they won't give us anymore replacements, we want to do all we can to save these. We are going to dig them up and replant them in 1 of these 2 ways:
1) Dig down about 8-12" deeper than needed, put 4" of gravel and then cover with topsoil, then plant the arbs and backfill with topsoil. This will keep them fairly level with the ground (root balls will be slightly above ground level as they are now).
2) Build an above ground berm of topsoil and plant the arbs in this. This will avoid the work of digging down as deep as #1 above.
Which option is better? Any other options/suggestions? I live in Buffalo. Thanks!


text: Magpie mourningOctober 21st, 2009 Dr Bekoff of the University of Colorado, an animal behaviour researcher, claims that magpies feel grief and even hold funeral-type gatherings for their dead and lay grass "wreaths" beside their bodies. "One magpie approached the corpse, gently pecked at it, just as an elephant would nose the carcase of another elephant, and stepped back. Another magpie did the same thing. Next, one of the magpies flew off, brought back some grass and laid it by the corpse. Another magpie did the same. Then all four stood vigil for a few seconds and one by one flew off". It seems that similar behaviour has been observed among other magpies and crows. More here


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Creating products to provide sustainable retirement income for the diverse group of baby boomers preparing to enter retirement has presented a substantial challenge for insurance companies, and they are stepping up to the task. The lack of the traditional pension plans common to earlier generations, coupled with the uncertainty surrounding the long-term viability of the Social Security system, has these clients searching for alternative ways to generate secure income during retirement. In response, insurance companies have begun building annuity products in a variety of shapes and sizes, and the latest crop of deferred income annuity products could pave the way for clients seeking to maximize retirement income security in the years leading up to retirement.
Minimizing Risk
The traditional deferred income annuity allows clients to purchase the product before entering retirement, but typically provides that the annuity income stream will not begin until much later—in some cases, income is deferred until the client reaches age 80 or 85. While this type of longevity insurance is often a smart choice for retirees, newly developed deferred income annuities allow your clients to purchase a retirement income stream that can begin as soon as they enter retirement.
Because the client is purchasing a deferred income annuity where payouts begin approximately five years after purchase, rather than 15 or 20 years after, the risk that the client will not live long enough to reap the benefits of his investment is dramatically diminished.
This product facet makes these deferred income annuity products very attractive to clients looking for a guaranteed stream of income even in the early years of retirement—at a time when many of their peers are attempting to develop a withdrawal rate strategy for their IRAs or 401(k) plans. Instead, clients have the option of rolling the funds from their traditional retirement account into a deferred income annuity, where the income payout amount is determined and guaranteed.
Maximizing Income Growth Potential
Many of these new deferred income annuities also allow clients to collect nonguaranteed dividends over the life of the annuity product. Clients have the option to collect the cash dividends offered or can reinvest the dividends into the annuity product to increase their guaranteed income stream.
This option gives clients the flexibility to invest dividend income elsewhere in strongly performing equity markets but also allows them to keep the added income within the secure annuity product in a down market.
Within this product group, the likelihood that nonguaranteed dividends will be paid is high because these annuity products do not provide clients with the option of cashing out the annuity to receive a lump sum payment. By eliminating this option, the insurance companies offering these products have a longer guaranteed period during which they can invest your client's money, which allows the companies to maximize overall investment performance provided by the pool of clients that purchase these products.
As your baby boomer clients have only recently begun to enter retirement, it is a near certainty that these types of income-guaranteeing products will remain in demand for years. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, the increasingly robust market for deferred income annuities has insurance companies continually updating their portfolios of available products to provide the solutions your clients need.
For additional coverage of this issue and similar ones, we invite you to sign up with AdvisorOne's Summit Business Media partner, National Underwriter Advanced Markets, for a free trial.
You may also be interested in signing up for a free trial with another Summit Business Media partner, Tax Facts Online.


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Kiss me?
Inspired by The Daily Post.
Kiss me?
Inspired by The Daily Post.
Charlotte van Gils
A photography blog by Euan Murray
Looking for meanings in words, images and sounds
This site is mainly about pictures, from the middle of Norway. Click a picture to read posts.
Images of People Photoblog
This Camera Life
The Art and Craft of Blogging
Photography. I'll give it a go...
A Skewed Glimpse of the World
ich zeige euch meine stadt wie ich sie sehe
At home in my corner of the world
Romancing the planet; a love affair with travel.
Science 'n' Fun in Melbourne


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Weekly wire: The global forum
These are some of the views and reports relevant to our readers that caught our attention this week.
Humanitarian Action and Non-state Armed Groups: The International Legal Framework
Chatham House
A significant number of current conflicts involve non-state armed groups (NSAGs) that exercise control over territory and civilians. Often these civilians are in need of assistance. International humanitarian law (IHL) provides that if the party to an armed conflict with control of civilians is unable or unwilling to meet their needs, offers may be made to carry out relief actions that are humanitarian and impartial in character. The consent of affected states is required but may not be arbitrarily withheld. Once consent has been obtained, parties must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief operations. In responding, humanitarian actors must overcome numerous challenges, including insecurity arising from active hostilities or a breakdown in law and order, or bureaucratic constraints imposed by the parties to the conflict.
Measuring the Business Side: Indicators to Assess Media Viability
DW Akademie
In times of digital transformation media all over the world have to come up with new ways to ensure their survival. Meanwhile, media development actors are searching for new concepts and orientation in their support of media organizations and media markets. This paper presents DW Akademie's suggestion for new indicators to measure economic viability. The criteria not only take into account the financial strategies and managerial structures of individual media outlets, but also the overall economic conditions in a country as well as the structures of the media market needed to ensure independence, pluralism and professional standards. After all, money talks – and media development should listen.


text:
Change date
27ft Blue Crush Water Slide
per hr
per 2 hrs
per 5 hrs
per 8 hrs
per 24 hrs
Circuits needed:
Item Dimensions:
Space Needed:
Product Information:
The 27ft Blue Crush 2 Lane Water Slide features a radical sliding angle that's sure to get the adrenaline pumping as riders scream down the 27' Blue Crush Slide. At the bottom, riders continue down 26' of additional sliding fun before landing in the pool. This water slide will blow your mind!
Product Reviews:
- 7/3/19JaredHose for top of slide hardly sprayed any water.
You might also be interested in:
- Surf The Wave
Surf the Wave as you slide down this awesome slip-n-slide! Bright colored and amazingly detailed, kids and adults will have fun and keep cool for hours!
- Chair - White Plastic
Very nice thick white plastic chairs.
- Table - 6ft Rectangle
6ft white plastic folding tables.
$50 non-refundable deposit required at time of booking per Inflatable. Deposit must be paid with credit card. Remaining balance will be due at delivery or time of customer pick up. We accept cash, Visa, Mastercard, & Discover. We do NOT accept personal checks! Church and School checks are accepted!
CUSTOMER PICKUPS – Inflatable is to be picked up at our warehouse located at 2110 W 28th N in Muskogee, OK between 8:00am – 9:00am and returned the same day between 7:00pm – 8:00pm
DELIVERY – We deliver Inflatable Rentals to the Tulsa & Muskogee area. The best price for deliveries is 5 hours and less. You select the time you would like the Inflatable ready, we deliver and set it up before that set time, and then come back to take it down after your event is over.


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- The Academic Senate for the California Community Colleges has many useful resources.
- The faculty union is AFT2121.
- Community College League of California. Trustee Handbook.
Chapters 26-27: "Employee Participation in
Decision-Making" and "Faculty Participation in District
and College Governance" ( Pdf
- Learn about the Diego Rivera Mural, located on CCSF's Phelan campus
- Funds for professionaldevelopment were one available through AB1725.
- Preliminary Report on Student Achievement Gap and Social Equity Report - October 2009 (pdf)
Selected Sources relevant to ACCJC and the accreditation of City College


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In Season 11 of NBC's hit television series, "The Biggest Loser," former contestant Austin Andrews, and father Ken, embarked on a journey to get healthy. Since losing 174 pounds, Austin started a "Check into life" campaign to inspire America to change. The Daniel Plan asked Austin to share more to his story - up close.
The ranch was tough! I was always under camera surveillance, and I constantly had people telling me where to be and when to be their and I barely had time for me sometimes! Filming on the ranch happened 5-6 days a week, 12 hours a day- and in spite of that filming I was working out anywhere from 5-8 hours a day! When I was not in the gym, I was eating or resting, or being interviewed! I had very little free time, but I was always finding new and intriguing ways to keep moving, and prepare food! I had to learn to make things I like to be able to enjoy food! I really focused on making this my new lifestyle!
I can focus on a few ways to look at fitness and health. One way is looking at it like a diet. A diet has an end date, a diet has do's and don'ts, a diet has always caused me to lose weight, but as soon as I was off of it, I would gain it all back. Or, I can focus on a lifestyle. I can choose to live healthy, recognizing that I will sometimes have a bowl of frozen yogurt, or that I might get stuck eating fast food once in a while. What matters is, what is my normal? How often am I eating these things?
On a daily basis, I log my food. I choose to write it in a journal, cause that way works for me. My Dad, who lost 158 pounds on the show, chooses to log his food online. There is not a right or wrong way. Its a choice, and its figuring yourself out, how you work!
The same goes for exercise! I can tell you till I'm blue in the face that I love to workout in the Martial Arts. I love Muay Thai and I do that all the time. That doesn't make it YOUR best workout. I'm a guy who like to hit things. Its an aggressive way to workout, for some people that doesn't work for them! Maybe running, or cycling or rowing or walking or yoga or .... you get the idea? Each person must decide for themselves, what do I like? How do I make what I like a part of my routine?
I would not have made it through "The Biggest Loser" without my faith. My God is my strength, and on that ranch there were days when I had to have His help to get me through. God used "The Biggest Loser" to break me of my deepest bonds, to shred the shackles that I had placed on myself. When you beat your body into a place of submission, God moves in, and shows you parts of yourself, some ugly, some wondrous, and God transformed me. I was a broken, beaten, battered boy when I got to the ranch. I walked off the ranch standing much taller, much more confidently, and I resided not in my own pride or arrogance of my accomplishments, but in God's momentum for my life. I am changed.
This is where it gets interesting, cause everyday is a battle. I have good days, and I have bad ones but I have come to some key points for myself.
Also, you have to celebrate the little things! We are on a journey, and that Journey has many steps. Each step has to be acknowledged for it to have the power to move us the way it could. Celebrate the steps your taking! Each step might be small, but its a step!


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Dipesh Batheja necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 106 diseños de 31 diseñadores freelance.
Netlings is a small software development studio. We help in building web based projects by providing the technical know how. We take pride in our ability to deliver great results consistently, whether it's creating pixel perfect web front ends to compliment web designs or developing elegant bespoke web based applications.
We are the people who live on the Internet and love bringing ambitious web ventures to life!
Netlings offer services that can benefit anyone who needs an expertly programmed web front ends, integration with CMS or is looking to build a new web based venture and requires an expert web development team.
We are looking to market a global audience for web savvy people, who understand/know design and/or web technologies to a decent extent and are looking for a team that can provide technical expertise to help in there projects on consistent basis.
1. The most important aspect of this contest is to provide a good graphic representation of our brand name 'Netlings'. And this the area where you need to show most of your creativity. It should not use more than two colors and should not be a grunge design.
2. Second aspect is to use a type face for 'Netlings' that stand apart. I am not sure if using script style would be a good idea, but you are free to figure out the best one.
3. We currently have a logo on our website http://www.netingshq.com . Its pretty simple. 'The Cloud' in it is our initial representation of the Internet. You may want to work further on this concept or completely choose to think of something else. We are really looking for a the best representation.
4. The second concept that you may want to try is creating a variation of http://creattica.com/logos/crowds-clouds/9838. Probably removing the outer circle and just concentrating on the 3 cloud heads and the body.
5. Also this logo will be used in business cards and letter heads, so need to look good on paper as well.
6. I am listing links to some interesting logos i found that were simple and had good typeface. You may want to have a look to understand the quality i am looking for:
a). http://brandstack.com/logos/details/2180
b). http://brandstack.com/logos/details/4759
c). http://brandstack.com/logos/details/3873
d). http://brandstack.com/logos/details/1678
I hope this information would be enough to get started. Looking forward to a great logo to represent our brand.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Rex Nutting of MarketWatch says that while everyone is talking about employment (and Rudy Giuliani and Stormy Daniels and Kanye West), the economic statistic that matters more in the long run is capital spending.
One of the main selling points of the GOP tax cuts was that they would provide a boost to business capital expenditures, which in the long run would help the economy grow faster and push wages higher. While it's too soon to tell if the tax cuts are achieving that purpose, Nutting says that business investment in things like offices, factories, machinery and software has been picking up in the last year, even before the tax cuts took effect.
The bad news, however, is that "net investment is very weak by historical standards," as you can see from this chart Nutting provided, which shows a long-term decline in net investment (as a percentage of cash flow) since the 1950s.
The good news is that economic conditions may finally push companies to start investing more in their businesses. Nutting writes:
"This dismal trend may be about to change for a very good reason: Businesses are reporting that strong demand is running up against the economy's capacity (including imports). Supply chains are tight, and prices are rising for goods and services in short supply. The natural response by profit-maximizing companies would be to expand their capacity rapidly to meet demand, and to some extent that seems to be happening."
The only thing lacking so far is convincing evidence that this jump in investment is actually occurring. And, despite the encouraging economic environment, there's reason to think that it may not, since the data shows that over the long-haul companies have found less and less reason to invest in their own businesses.
"So far," Nutting writes, "American corporations seem to be doing just what most economists expected them to do: Return the bulk of their tax-cut windfall to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends. It's not a lack of capital that's holding back investments in the American economy, it's a lack of imagination."


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OK Gretsch
Alt-rock indie heroes Ok Go used Gretsch Electromatic CVT III guitars and Gretsch G5222 Electromatic amps in the video for their song "Needing/Getting." You might have seen the elaborate automobile-as-musical-instrument video in a Chevy Sonic commercial during Super Bowl XLVI, or perhaps you're one of nearly 20 million online viewers who have made it a huge viral hit.
OK Go played and recorded the song by driving a specially equipped Sonic along a 2.5-mile desert course lined on both sides and overhead with a fantastically varied array of instruments. These included nearly 300 of the specially tuned CVT III guitars, fastened to a fence with every six instruments plugged into one amp. By activating special appendages fixed to the car, guitarist/vocalist (and driver) Damian Kulash, drummer/percussionist Dan Konopka, bassist/vocalist Tim Nordwind and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Andy Ross "played" the instruments along the course by driving by them (the guitar solo happened at 45 mph, by the way). You've got to see it—it's a truly remarkable musical and automotive feat.
Behind The Scenes: Overview
Behind The Scenes: Tuning A Track
Now the black and red Gretsch guitars and G5222 Electromatic amps used in the video can be yours. They come in straight-off-the-set condition, which quite frankly means that they're pretty dusty and a little worse for such unusual wear and tear. But they're also utterly loaded with OK Go mojo, indie cred and Gretsch cool, and each guitar and amp comes with a certificate of authenticity (signed by all four band members and Gretsch president Fred Gretsch III) and a color 8x10 photo of the instruments on the set during the shoot.
These OK Go Gretsch guitars and amps won't last long, so if you're "needing" one, don't miss this one-of-a-kind chance to be "getting" one.


text: Ever since she recorded her first porn in 2006, Presley Maddox has become a favorite of fans and industry professionals alike. She's got a slim, sexy build, with just enough meat to sink your teeth (or cock...) into. Her big round PAWG booty compliments her all-natural 34C tits perfectly, and seeing that big ass of hers oiled up and ready for action is a thing of rare beauty. Watching her work is a captivating experience, as it's obvious how much she enjoys every second of her job! She's got a naughty smile and a dirty, mischievous laugh that tells you she's always ready for action. She treats every dick like it belongs to an old lover, teasing it until it's hard and then riding it until she gets the nice load of cum that she craves. So make sure to check out Presley Maddox in one of her videos, her all-natural body and raw sexual energy will have you begging for more!


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Get used to the "MVP ... MVP" chants that filled Quicken Loans Arena late Tuesday night. King James doesn't look ready for his team to give up its throne too easily. LeBron James put together another monster night, leading the Cavaliers to a 109-104 overtime win over the Celtics. Cleveland won its fourth straight by handing Boston just its second loss.
Get used to the "MVP ... MVP" chants that filled Quicken Loans Arena late Tuesday night. King James doesn't look ready for his team to give up its throne too easily. LeBron James put together another monster night, leading the Cavaliers to a 109-104 overtime win over the Celtics. Cleveland won its fourth straight by handing Boston just its second loss. A sell-out crowd of 20,562 watched an early showdown of the defending Eastern Conference champs against a team many pick to win it this season. But with James, the short-handed Cavs continue to show they can be as menacing as the new Beast of the East with its heralded "Big Three." "No matter if we're short-handed or not, we know how to win ballgames," James said. "We have guys that have been in pretty tough games, so we know how to win ballgames no matter what the score is, no matter how much time is on the clock." They also have James, who looks like the NBA's top player a month into the season. He had 38 points, 13 assists, four rebounds, two steals and two blocks. "LeBron, again ... amazing, as simple as that," Cavs Head Coach Mike Brown said. James, who had triple-doubles in his previous two games, took this one over by scoring 11 points in overtime. He opened the OT with a strong driving score and blocked a Ray Allen shot, as the Cavs led the rest of the way. James also delivered a 3-pointer from out top midway through the OT and went 6-for-6 at the foul line down the stretch. "He was great. He was fantastic," Celtics Head Coach Doc Rivers said. "He made big shots, and that's who he is. ... He hurt us as much with the pass, to me, as with the scoring. When he's not only scoring and getting everybody else involved, then he's a killer." Forward Drew Gooden and center Zydrunas Ilgauskas played key roles, too. "They came to play tonight and had an impact on the game on both ends of the floor," Brown said. Gooden had a season-high 24 points and 13 rebounds, making 11-of-15 shots and playing solid defense vs. Kevin Garnett. Ilgauskas had 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting to go with 14 rebounds, five assists and four blocks. Cleveland's power trio of James, Gooden and Ilgauskas combined for 77 points, 31 rebounds and 18 assists. Boston's "Big Three" of Allen, Garnett and Paul Pierce had 64 points, 18 rebounds and 15 assists. "We don't want no tag. We don't want no 'Big Three,'" James said. "We go out there and do our job. ... Z's playing career basketball right now, Drew's continuing to get better and I'm doing my part." Ilgauskas hit four of his first five shots to help the Cavs take an early 12-point lead. But by halftime, Boston led, 49-46. Allen had 16 of his team-high 29 in the first half. The third quarter belonged to Gooden, who shot 8-for-8 -- the first Cav in six years to make at least that many shots in a perfect quarter. "We got a little stagnant," Brown said. "We didn't know what to do with the basketball, at times, and we found Drew ... and he came through for us." Gooden drilled an assortment of jumpers. He worked each baseline, often in tandem with James, turning around and facing up for his shots. Boston took a 79-74 lead early in the fourth, but James led the Cavs back. Six points from him keyed a 9-0 run. "We kept our poise and kept our composure," Brown said. Sasha Pavlovic's 3-pointer from the left corner after two quick passes by James and Daniel Gibson tied the game, 92-92, with 59 seconds left. Each team missed chances late to win. Allen, a 91.7-percent foul shooter, missed two free throws with 23.1 seconds left. James missed a 20-footer at the buzzer. James didn't want to call this a "statement win," saying it's too early for that. But it was big. "For us to get a win against those guys does help confidence-wise," Brown said. "But at the end of the day, it's one game. ... We have to get ready for Detroit (tonight) because that's going to be a tough ballgame for us." Reach Canton Repository sports writer Chris Beaven at (330) 580-8345 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
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text:
20 February, 2012
"A Kiss in the Snow . . . "
We interrupt our usual chatting about light fixtures and dog fashion shows . . . for some quick thoughts on last night's season finale of Downton Abbey. Well, it was the season finale here in the US . . . in England, they watched the second season last fall . . . and were treated to last night's 'episode' as a special on Christmas Day. And thank you to all my British friends who did not peep a single word about the plot. Blessings upon you all.
So . . . a few highlights of the evening for me. There's a parade of spoilers to follow . . . so, proceed at your own risk if you haven't seen the show yet . . .
1) The Pace. We've been cranking through plot and characters at break-neck (or better yet, back-breaking) speed this season. And I was growing nostalgic for the languid pace of the first season. My thought was that it was a editorial device (with the many new characters, the rapid changes of fate, the large breaks in the timeline) . . . commenting on how quickly life was changing during the First World War. And for that reason alone . . . I understood the new pace. I didn't say I liked it . . . but, I could see a point for it. But last night, we seemed to return to a pre-war rhythm. And though the episode was packed with plot . . . it didn't feel as hurried.
2) The Continuity Fairy. Firstly, I love the Continuity Fairy. And she is missing from a great many television shows. She just stops in every once in a while and says, "Remember that thing that happened? Well, I do . . . and here is some of the fall-out from events that took place in previous episodes." So, it was a great delight to see Sir Anthony Strallan re-appear in Edith's life.
3) The Bomb. Okay y'all. I seriously jumped off the sofa when Lord Grantham asked Mary if the only reason she was marrying was to keep the secret of the death of Mr. Pamuk! And the shock was almost palpable. There was a point about mid-season this year . . . when I was trying to figure out who did . . . and who DID NOT . . . know the story of the "Turkish gentlemen." But, after two complete seasons of keeping the awful truth from her father . . . it was SO satisfying to finally hear it spoken of. The worrisome part is that Bates is now in prison for life . . . just for trying to keep that very same secret from being revealed.
4) The Kiss. It's been a slow burn. I don't think since we all waited and watched outside a rainy coffee shop for Ross and Rachel to admit to the feelings that they shared . . . has there been such a joyous and perfectly pitch declaration of love . . . as an (at times icy) Mary . . . and the (at times stoic) Matthew . . . in a swirl of snow . . . illuminated by the warmth of the Abbey . . . finally, seriously finally, expressing their true feelings. Good stuff. And seriously, if the fine people at the BBC aren't selling "Downton Abbey Snow Globes" they're missing a HUGE opportunity.
5) The Dog. I don't care which character is killed, or crippled, or maimed, or executed, or miscarries . . . don't y'all DARE hurt that dog. Seriously. No, I mean it.
6) The Dowager. It always kinda worries me when a character becomes the "comic relief." So often they become over-used . . . and lose their potency. Not so with the delicious Maggie Smith! And with her three word line, "Do you promise?" last night . . . I will be the first the start the campaign to build a national shrine to the aforementioned Maggie.
What were your favourite moments? Favourtie lines? Favourite plot developments?
34 comments:
- Pat McIntosh said...
"It was LUST, Matthew."
- February 20, 2012 at 10:45 AM
- Scot Meacham Wood said...
She has been keeping that secret for SIX YEARS!
- February 20, 2012 at 10:46 AM
- EAC said...
Downton Abbey Snow Globe. Love.
- February 20, 2012 at 10:56 AM
- YONKS said...
I was desperate to tell you all and it's quite unusual for me to keepmy mouth shut - trust me! News for you, they are now filming the third season here - watch this space!
- February 20, 2012 at 11:13 AM
- Daniel Shigo said...
Watched on PBS's website after it was uploaded around 11 PM. Worth waiting for! One hopes that Lord G will somehow realize that Bates was protecting him and all will be set right.
- February 20, 2012 at 12:56 PM
The finale redeemed the series for me. This season has been a bit soap-opera-like for me. And as Scot mentions, the pacing was a bit odd--- WWI in 4 easy episodes! and the return of Patrick Crawley (or was it?) was rather hastily swept under the run. But, like I said, the finale really brought me back. It must be said that thefamily is not very good at wingshooting...
- February 20, 2012 at 1:47 PM
- Scot Meacham Wood said...
I was reading about Downton somewhere else today - and their suspicion was that the ever-hateful Mrs. Bates . . . was killed either by Sir Richard (to protect Mary) or *even better* by someone from the Turkish Embassy (to protect the name of Mr. Pamuk.)
Season Three indeed!
- February 20, 2012 at 2:19 PM
- Virginia Country House said...
I feel the same way about the dogs in television shows and movies. Lol, I don't care if the the main character disappears, just don't hurt the dog! It always seems like such a low blow.
- February 20, 2012 at 5:08 PM
- the designers muse said...
I don't know how I'm going to wait until next year to see the next season. The kiss and proposal in the snow was lovely, but I'm guessing there are more rough waters ahead for Mary and Mathew.
- February 20, 2012 at 5:10 PM
- Tobi Fairley said...
Loved every moment of it. Especially the broken vase (promise?) and finally the kiss I've been waiting on for weeks!!!!! It was splendid. Can't bear to wait for season 3. Thank God Madmen is finally starting March 25 to tide me over!!! :)
- February 20, 2012 at 6:50 PM
- Notes From ABroad said...
We finished all the Downton Abbey episodes a few months ago .. Down here at the bottom of the world ~
I loved that last episode.. everything worked out just the way I wanted it to ..
Can't wait to see the new season, no idea where and when we will see it though :)
( totally agree about the dog )
- February 20, 2012 at 6:54 PM
- Jalon Burton said...
One word - MAGIC... the kiss was pure magic! When does the new season begin?
- February 20, 2012 at 7:15 PM
- Sunday Taylor said...
The kiss in the snow was pure magic. But there were so many great moments. From the moment the episode opened with the truck hauling that huge Christmas tree to Downton I was entranced and loved every moment of the season finale. Thank goodness Lord Grantham gave Lady Mary permission to get rid of Sir Richard. As if she would ever go to New York and marry a cowboy with Matthew on the scene. I think Matthew's mother was hugely instrumental in his decision to propose. Lots of tears were shed last night. What a wonderful finale!
- February 20, 2012 at 7:34 PM
- Karen said...
I don't care if it was a bit soap opera like...I loved every minute of it. Good reason to send a donation to PBS!
- February 20, 2012 at 7:36 PM
- La Vie Quotidienne said...
Maggie Smith's comment has keep me amused all day...so perfectly delivered. Wonderful!
- February 20, 2012 at 7:51 PM
- Karena said...
Scot thank you for your great thoughts. I know the next season will be filed with twists and turns.
Curse him for locking up that precious dog!
Yes, Maggie Smith and her "Do you promise?" line!
Art by Karena
- February 20, 2012 at 8:16 PM
I started watching Downton season 1 a week ago and have obsessively watched every night. What am I going to watch now? There is nothing that can compare to such a masterpiece of television!
- February 20, 2012 at 10:53 PM
- Sue said...
Great recap. I too thought "It was lust Matthew" was the best line.
- February 20, 2012 at 11:50 PM
- Mary Middleton @ Hellopeagreen said...
When it was on at Christmas (here in the UK) the whole family gathered round the TV to watch it. I can't think when the last time a historical drama caught the public attention (or my families for that matter) with such utter conviction.
I even had to write a piece on how to incorporate Downton style into your home!
- February 21, 2012 at 12:27 AM
- TN Mimi said...
Thomas! He came out smelling like a rose even when this scheme with Isis went awry. Hope he is growing a heart...but I doubt it.
- February 21, 2012 at 8:09 AM
Yes please for a snow globe. Totally loved the kiss in the snow. Completely agree on the monumment to Maggie Smith, too. Adore her! I can't get enough of DA. Hope the Masterpiece gods don't make us wait too long for the next installment.
- February 21, 2012 at 8:20 AM
- Diane Stewart said...
I agree it was wonderful, but I was distracted during the final scene with Mary standing outside in a sleeveless gown! It didn't make sense to me, she lives in a freezing old castle and she runs around in a gown more suited to summer time. Also, can someone please clear it up for me: did she or didn't she lose her virginity with the Turkish guy? It seemed to me that they never closed the deal.
- February 21, 2012 at 11:38 AM
- Scot Meacham Wood said...
Yikes . . . I don't want to be indelicate here . . . but, I remember Mr. Pamuk saying that there were activities that they could do . . . that wouldn't affect her virginity. Personally, I can think of a few options . . . but, I'll just leave the exact specifics to everyone else's imagination.
- February 21, 2012 at 11:47 AM
- Penny said...
I just have to weigh in. It is the only thing one can do with 11 long months of waiting ahead.
I think Thomas had something to do with Mrs. Bate's demise. He was the one who, after been dismissed by Famuk, led him down the long corridor to Mary's room by candlelight. Did he put something into Famuk's drink? Who told Vera Bates about the "scandal" in the first place? Who wants Bates' position as valet? Oh, that Thomas . . .
- February 22, 2012 at 8:45 AM
- in tampa florida said...
I enjoy your blog!, This unique is just a totally nicely structured posting, I do appreciate the writing
Thank you!
- February 22, 2012 at 9:35 AM
- Sarah said...
I particularly LOVE the music and Maggie Smith's line to the detestable ex-fiance of Mary's - that was great. I may have to revisit 'Upstairs Downstairs' to keep me interested until next year!! ;-))
- February 22, 2012 at 5:50 PM
- The Devoted Classicist said...
I, too, was so worried about Isis and glad she was safely returned! I knew Bates wouldn't hang, but did not want any harm to come to that dog!
- February 23, 2012 at 5:36 AM
- Unknown said...
I still have to go back and watch the first season (especially now that they tie back to the Turkish man!)...but that last episode was the most enjoyable and joyous!
I agree...Maggie Smith's 3 word line was....sublime!
xo Elizabeth
- February 23, 2012 at 12:47 PM
- tammy j said...
i'm late checking in to your post on the addictive downton abbey here.
i just cannot get enough of it! i ordered the english cut of each season from pbs so can have my fix as often as i like through the long summer ahead.
thomas cracks me up. i loved it when he's walking back torn and dirty from trying to find isis.
how can lord grantham be so naive!
and like you... if they ever dare to do isis in, they will lose me.
i'll be "bloody" mad!
cheers and hugs you handsome boy,
tammy j
- February 24, 2012 at 7:02 PM
- Tami said...
"Don't be a defeatist dear, it is so middle class."- Granny to Edith
I love her lines, and need to write them in a journal for future reference.
Absolutely the very best show, in many years!
- February 26, 2012 at 10:33 AM
- Bubble and Squeak said...
How magical was that snow! So dreamy! Thanks for sharing Scot!
Best wishes,
Bubble & Squeak
- February 26, 2012 at 12:55 PM
Wasn't it all just delicious - - the snow scene was masterful. And that lady's maid of Lord Crawley's sister - did not one realize what her intentions were right off? Plain old hussy!
I've dared the phone to ring after 9:00 on Sunday nights here lately nor my husband utter one word!
Such a wonderful escape to go back and see TV at its finest - how I wish we had more offerings such as this.
- March 1, 2012 at 2:49 PM
Uh- oh - - not Lord Crawley's sister but Lord Grantham . . see it's just so great I'm totally confused...
- March 1, 2012 at 2:52 PM
"damaged goods" - what a great years ago description..!
- March 1, 2012 at 3:01 PM


text:
When the fifth installment of "Die Hard" comes up Valentine's Day, there will be a lot destruction, explosions, and seriously totaled Mercedes.
Mercedes-Benz revealed a behind-the-scenes look showing they lent more than 70 vehicles consisting of its C-Class, G-Class, Unimog, Sprinter, and Zetros for car chases, crashes, and complete annihilation.
Check out the video:
Here's a closer look at the specific cars you'll see in the film.
Unimog, which John McClane (Bruce Willis) will drive near the beginning:
A Sprinter McClane's son will show up inside:


text:
If there's a theme of 2013, it's been "don't post it on the Internet." Add another entry to the file: this asshat biker in Pennsylvania posted GoPro video of him running from the cops.
The video shows one dirt bike rider on Pennsylvania Route 424 pulling wheelies at highway speeds when he spots a cop waiting by an offramp. Does the biker stop? No. He and the other two riders he's with keep on speeding, passing traffic on the shoulder, all while pulling more wheelies across the median. The video ends with the biker disappearing onto a rural dirt track leading into the woods.
This is what the biker might call "badass" and what the police might call "evidence."
This chase vid is reminiscent of the last time bikers posted video of them getting reckless on public highways, the now-infamous NYC attack/chase video that involved multiple arrests, including a number of undercover cops.
It took the NYPD a couple weeks to figure out exactly who was involved in attacking Alexian Lien. Time will tell how long it will take before this biker is unmasked.


text:
On the night of November 14, 1996, Linda Sarofim Lowe awaited as the high black gates of her River Oaks Boulevard estate opened wide for the arrival of Earle Lilly.
She knew him first as her lawyer -- and then as her lover. On that evening, Lilly came carrying the best of champagne, a $143 bottle of Cristal, suitably chilled for a grand if intimate celebration.
This bulldog of a courtroom battler, with his distinctive gravel-tinged growl, had just gained a final divorce decree for her from billionaire investment czar Fayez Sarofim.
Noted for a tenacious or just plain nasty style of attack, Lilly turned Lowe's divorce suit against Sarofim, with its allegations of mere marital discord, into high drama, with accusations of spousal rape, abuse, cruelty and false imprisonment.
Sarofim would end the dispute with a stroke of his pen on a $12 million check to Lowe. Lowe would suddenly be independently wealthy. She had a lot of warm feelings for the charismatic court crusader who had helped her gain this new status in life.
In Lowe's mind, here was the man who would escape with her from the past known as Houston. They had already talked of togetherness in some faraway place that would bring them peace, paid for in part with Sarofim's settlement. Then they would, well, just live happily ever after as the Lady and her Earle.
Lowe drank his champagne. They consummated the relationship about the time the midnight bells chimed in her mansion, she said.
Rumors of this affair rippled through Houston society circles still rebounding from the earlier gossip generated by the scandalous allegations in the megabucks Sarofim divorce. River Oaks regulars fueled their suspicions of a romance with increased sightings of Lilly with Lowe -- then confirmed it when the twosome jetted away for rendezvous in Acapulco and New York.
Romance reports raced through the elite, followed nearly as quickly by news that the romance was over. Houston society speculated about the problems, but all Lilly had to do was listen to his telephone messages. In contrast to the romance of chilled champagne, the chilling voice of Lowe described her very different dream for him:
"I'm your worst nightmare," she said. "I am rich white trash."
Lest there be any misunderstanding, Linda Sarofim Lowe made her message clear repeatedly in later calls.
"If you and Fayez think that you can just hang up on me, you're wrong. You are absolutely wrong, because I will take you down, just like that -- everything. I hate you all."
A forceful Lowe spoke of a strange faith. "Get right over here, or I am going to burn the fucking house down, and I will be praising Allah in the front yard."
This former Army brat from Bad Kreuznach, Germany, the ex-mistress-turned-millionaire-wife-and-mother with the master's degree in English, appeared to have learned her lessons well under the tutelage of the black belt of marital torts.
In a tale that turned into Sex, Lies and Audiotapes -- River Oaks style -- she talked in the recorded messages of lost love and newfound fury.
Her wrath culminated in a lawsuit filed against Lilly late last year. She accused the prominent attorney of accepting a divorce case that conflicts of interest should have barred him from ever taking. And she alleged that he violated ethical canons by violating her; that he screwed her -- literally -- out of half of the $12 million cash payment from Sarofim.
Lilly, her suit maintains, applied his wily charms to try to woo her out of a new Ferrari as a bonus for settling the divorce. She rebuffed him on that effort. All he got from her, it seems, was a brand-new Mercedes.
"You can't keep on ruining my life," one of her taped messages said. "I hope the next time you take out that fucking Mercedes that I bought for $130,000, that you wreck it and you die."
Her suit says that when he had taken her and what she had to give, the romancing was over. Her court documents allege that Lilly left with his loot and dumped her cold and hard. When he walked out -- or rather, drove away in his Mercedes -- she was left with no more than faded memories and a fresh, unused $10,000 wedding dress.
She sued for breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract -- in other words, Lilly just got too big for his breaches. Lowe accuses him of civil fraud, intentional misrepresentation and infliction of emotional distress.
She wants an estimated $50 million in damages to chase away the demons left by Lilly, Lowe told Lilly's attorneys. She demands the return of her gifts, the final $6 million Lilly deposited from the Sarofim payment, and some $600,000 in other fees paid to the attorney and his firm, according to her lawsuit.
In short, Lowe wants a lot of things back. Lilly isn't among them.
The litigator who built his professional prowess on expressing moral outrage on behalf of clients is, ah, morally outraged at the vile assault on his character -- especially coming from the former client he himself had portrayed as a hapless victim of an overbearing ogre of a husband.
Sure, Lilly took aim at Sarofim and unleashed vitriolic barrages on behalf of Lowe. But that was different. That was another divorce case in a long line of such litigation for him. Could Lowe now be turning his own tactics against him?
"I've done nothing to be out Lilly-ed, so to speak," he says. "As tough as I am, I can't create 'facts.' The facts I applied in that [Sarofim] case were facts I obviously didn't dream up.... I believed at that time they were appropriate, and I believe at this time they were appropriate."
"There are a number of things in that [Lowe] lawsuit that are factually inaccurate and legally inaccurate," Lilly attorney James Barker maintains. "In other words, false factual claims as well as false legal claims."
Lilly says he did a superlative job for Lowe, "what I feel is perhaps the most outstanding case in my career."
In terms of fees received for a non-trial divorce settlement, it may be the most outstanding case for any attorney in Harris County, some other family-law lawyers opined.
"Word around the [courthouse] halls was that Earle got a good bonus, that it may have even been as high as $1 million," one attorney said. "This was a case that required a lot of 'hand-holding' for the client, so everybody figured he might have been worth it," the Lilly competitor said. "But $6 million? That's outlandish."
Lilly says it is misleading to believe that he would have demanded 50 percent of Lowe's total take from the divorce. The $12 million in cash was a small part of an estimated $50 million in property he managed to get for her, his defenders say. "I obviously don't want my reputation splattered with inaccurate facts or inaccurate contentions or claims or whatever," he says.
He threatens to sue Lowe for defamation, after the litigation. "Some day, there will be a lawsuit with the evidence that comes [from this case], and I believe all those [Lowe] claims will be flushed down the toilet, where they belong."
However, Lilly hesitates when asked if Lowe concocted the entire account of events contained in the lawsuit. He seems to suggest that, yes, there could have been romance -- but only after he had left his role of attorney.
Some facts in the suit are accurate, but they are not evidence of inappropriate acts on his part, Lilly says. He cites a confidentiality order gained by Lowe in the case and adds, "I don't know how far beyond that I can go."
In this case, though, Lilly hardly holds exclusive claims to moral outrage.
Attorney Richard Keeton branded the allegations by Lowe regarding Sarofim "scurrilous -- none of it is true." And the earlier accusations in the divorce case were equally groundless, Sarofim's attorneys said. Those allegations were never substantiated in any divorce proceedings. While veteran divorce attorney Roy W. Moore was brought in to engineer the divorce settlement, Keeton has represented Sarofim for years.
It is irresponsible for any publication to report the accusations and derogatory remarks about Sarofim, Keeton said. When specific answers were sought to the Lowe allegations, Keeton said, "Don't waste your time." Moore declined comment on the divorce case.
Sarofim finds another unlikely defender in Angleton attorney Michael Phillips, the lawyer for Lowe. He said he believes Lilly manufactured most of the inflammatory allegations against Sarofim in the divorce case. Phillips says Lowe already is being subjected by Lilly and his attorneys to irrelevant issues designed only to embarrass and intimidate her.
Phillips notes that it was Lilly and co-defendant Robert Piro, Lilly's partner, who filed the first lawsuit in the dispute with Lowe. That two-page document merely asked a judge to rule on the legitimacy of the fees. It refers to the payments as "substantial" but less than they could have received under the fee contract signed by Lowe. Gosh, their suit said, Lowe "may be dissatisfied ... for reasons unknown" to them.
Lowe benefited handsomely from their representation, they said. "There is nothing wrong in a large fee," Lilly said. "In our society, people make large fees. In all walks of life they make large fees: large corporate fees, large sports fees, large fees in certain circumstances in law and medicine."
Piro and Lilly have teamed up with an unusual helper -- Southwestern Bell CallNotes. In 153 recorded messages to Lilly's phone, Lowe lashes out at this former object of her affections. She threatens suicide, demands her gifts back, berates him as "fuck-wad" and "chicken shit" and disparages his family.
During Lowe's deposition in the case, Lilly's attorneys played two hours of tapes for which they sought explanations from her.
Lowe conceded that she had been involuntarily committed for alcohol and prescription drug problems earlier, and said she did not remember most of the calls. "I was out of control," she said repeatedly.
Her attorney, Phillips, praised his client's willingness to be subjected by Lilly's lawyers to hours of humiliating questions and tapes. "It took some real courage," Phillips said.
Lowe said she has regained her stability, and knows with certainty what Lilly did to her and why she is pressing her claims:
"Mr. Lilly was a strong, powerful man who took advantage of me when I was weak, out of control. He stepped over the professional line to enable him to better his interests [while] not representing me and my best interest. And I don't feel that -- I doubt much will come of this case, but I hope that he will stop this practice and he won't victimize more women."
Linda Loie Olson was born in Germany with a warrior's blood, the daughter of a U.S. Army colonel and a homemaker. The family was on a perpetual march, it seems, with Linda making nine moves -- one of them trans-Atlantic -- before she finished her public schooling.
She made the grades, gaining an exemption to her senior year of high school to pursue an English degree at the University of Alabama. She married Air Force officer Edward Hicks in 1971 and had her master's degree in English by 1974.
In 1977, she gave birth to Sean, who is now in his second year at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Despite the child, the marriage was collapsing. Hicks had left the Air Force and was flying a helicopter for a medical transport company. They were soon separated, with a final divorce in the early 1980s.
"We had grown apart," Lowe told attorneys at the deposition.
"In what way?" asked Lilly's lawyer.
"I was more mature."
Maturity, though, did not mean experience in the job market. At the time of her separation, she found herself with a young son and a female roommate in an apartment by Woodlake Square. She drove a modest Ford Granada into an uncertain future as a single mother.
Lowe's life shifted into sharp focus in 1979, when she stepped off the elevator at the 29th floor of Two Houston Center at the offices of investing czar Fayez Sarofim.
Lowe, who said she had never worked a day at an outside job before, became a broker/trader. She would call banks to confirm that there was enough money to back up the big-stakes stock trades and purchases that had made Sarofim a rising star in the financial circuits. She would also review the trade sheets with bank balances and related financial material.
Lowe estimated that she made between $25,000 and $50,000 annually for the three years she worked for the company. But it was her moonlighting work that would make all the difference in her development.
Lowe got about $25 an hour to be a baby sitter -- for the Sarofim family's two children. In two-hour stints about two or three times a week, the struggling woman witnessed her first scenes of real wealth.
Sarofim, born of a wealthy Egyptian landowner and honed by a Harvard MBA, was drawing international attention for his investment savvy. It centered on a simple stock strategy -- buy name brands and be conservative.
He had founded the investment company bearing his name in 1958, and was well on his way to the status of guru when Lowe entered his life. Sarofim was touted regularly by the U.S. business press as a man who could step into the ring with a wildly swinging stock market and beat it virtually every time. By 1992, he was general of a $28 billion portfolio, calling the trades for the massive Ford Pension Fund and Dreyfus Appreciation Fund.
He was smart, but his start had been aided as well by marriage many years earlier to Louisa Stude, adopted daughter of legendary icon George R. Brown, a man whose power and persuasion shaped Houston and its destiny for decades. With a scion of the Brown family at his side, the groom nicknamed the "Sphinx" walked down the aisle leading into the inner temples of Houston's richest social elite.
Into that life inched Linda Lowe, the baby sitter and beginning employee 25 years younger than Sarofim. In her recent deposition, she would admit to having a years-long affair with Sarofim, but she insisted that her first sexual encounter with Sarofim came against her will.
She said Sarofim told her in 1981 -- two years into her job -- that she faced an ultimatum: Go to a downtown hotel and make love with him, or be fired.
"Did you meet him there and have sex with him?" Lilly's lawyer asked.
"For what period of time?"
"Several years."
Lowe told attorneys at the deposition that she considered it immoral and unfair to his children -- not his wife.
Lowe said she continued the affair with Sarofim to save her job; later in the deposition she testified that the affair cost her that job. An executive at the investment company fired her for the relationship with Sarofim, she said.
After three years at the company -- the only three years in her life that she ever worked outside the home -- Lowe was no longer a broker/trader. She was a mistress.
That mistress showed her first litigation skills in 1983, against Sarofim himself and his company. She alleged he assaulted her in 1982 and the company conspired to cover it up, causing her "great emotional distress," Lowe's attorney, George Karam, stated in the suit.
Sarofim's attorneys filed a stock response, denying the allegations and asking for a judgment that would award nothing to Lowe. Instead, a confidential settlement was announced on January 19, 1984.
Information sealed in that suit did not surface again until the deposition 14 years later. Sarofim, she said, raped her. Her required medical attention, she said, was for an abortion. She was about nine weeks pregnant when she walked alone into a Planned Parenthood clinic near downtown and had the operation. Sarofim paid the bill.
Attorneys for Lilly pressed Lowe for Sarofim's position on the pregnancy, and a pregnancy that followed seven years later. What was his feeling about an abortion?
"Do it," Lowe quoted him as saying.
And her own feeling about the affair with Sarofim? They continued that relationship, even after the lawsuit and settlement. A man familiar with the couple at that time shook his head when questioned about Sarofim's reconciliation with the suing mistress.
"The guy's got to be a genius, at least in investing, but there is no way in hell to imagine how he'd go back to her after she hauled him into court," the former associate said. "Beauty? She wasn't really attractive in looks or in intelligence. She already had a kid. Maybe it was the age thing -- she was young and he was getting up there in years.
"But let's face it, a man with that kind of money could have his pick. It never made sense why he chose her."
On November 27, 1984, the reunited mistress gave birth to a baby boy. Nearly two years later, she provided him with a brother, also out of wedlock.
River Oaks insiders had known about Sarofim's mistress much earlier and were described as fairly tolerant of that and other affairs of the wealthy. But when the maids in River Oaks brought in the mail, the most accepting of Sarofim's associates were stunned by the openness of this relationship.
There was no hiding the existence of either love child. In fact, traditional birth announcements, one of them neatly accented by baby-blue ribbon, trumpeted the births. Over the years, that mail-out has become legend among the upper crust. The story has evolved into one of two versions: Lowe licking the stamps to flaunt her special relationship with Sarofim, or wife Louisa displaying her disgust at her husband's blatant shenanigans.
In the deposition earlier this year, Lowe said Louisa was responsible for the announcements. Attorneys for Lilly said these were hardly limited-edition notices -- a copy ran in the advertising columns of the Houston Chronicle.
At the deposition, Lowe was asked of her reaction to the announcements.
"I thought it was pretty despicable."
"I just did."
On January 3, 1989, life became a bit less complicated in the Sarofim triangle. Louisa Stude Sarofim dropped out and filed for divorce. That spared any need for announcements when Lowe gave birth to yet another child later that year.
In her deposition, Lowe identified the father as a builder who'd worked on a Sarofim project years earlier, who she said neither denied nor acknowledged paternity. Lilly's attorneys asked Lowe for Sarofim's reaction on the paternity.
"Nothing," Lowe said.
Sarofim, in his divorce from Louisa, reached a confidential settlement -- reported to be $250 million, one of the largest in the area's history -- on June 25, 1990.
Three months later, Lowe formally became Mrs. Fayez Sarofim. In the process, her path crossed that of her future lover and adversary, Earle Lilly.
Romantic urges were one challenge for Sarofim, but another was warding off financial ruin from family-court judgments. He had gone through the divorce settlement with Louisa and paid dearly. Before any wedding with Linda, there was going to be a prenuptial agreement. Lowe looked to the firm of Robert Piro and Earle Lilly to help her negotiate a pact.
Lilly has been fabulously successful for a man who was little more than an insurance adjuster in search of success when he arrived in Houston in 1959. The son of a cabdriver and a homemaker, he prides himself on the lean years of his youth in an outlying area of Boston.
He turned cabbie himself to finance his way through the University of Massachusetts. A newlywed, he headed to Texas when an uncle told him he could find insurance-adjusting work in Houston.
Lilly took a liking to the legal field. While working for an insurance company during the day, he attended the University of Houston law school at night for more than six years to get his law degree.
As an attorney, he first took on the drab role of defending insurance companies in lawsuits. After that, Lilly switched to personal injury litigation, for ten years of work that was also largely lackluster.
And, had the late Houston oil tycoon J. Collier Hurley stayed happily married, Lilly might never have made the transition into a family law practice. A woman whom he had represented in a minor case, years earlier, called to line him up as the attorney for Hurley's second divorce. In interviews, Lilly still laughs about asking the millionaire oilman for a modest $5,000 retainer. That legal down payment was part of $100,000 in fees Hurley ultimately paid him in the case.
Hurley brought in two more divorce cases, both his own, for Lilly. There was also a little criminal work mixed in. Hurley's fourth bride was reported to have been distraught over the end of the relationship and tried to leap from the eighth-floor balcony of his posh Memorial Drive apartment, police were told. An aide, who served as Hurley's driver and butler, told of grabbing her arms and trying to hang on. His grip was not quite good enough, apparently, as she plummeted to the ground for the final -- and literal -- breakup of the relationship.
Lilly's law career, however, soared higher than ever.
Couples who could resolve their differences in divorce, or walk away without major wars, usually selected other attorneys. The scorned, or those intent on having their way at any cost, came to Lilly if they could afford it.
Now 60, Lilly still relies on his trademark raspy tones tinged with the northern accent that lingers from his Boston youth. He employs these tones effectively in pleading for compassion for clients or commanding them to correct the wrongs of their condemned counterparts.
A trace of Bogart once radiated from that low voice and long-jowled face. Years have sent his hairline in gray retreat and widened his waist until he could pass for a dapper, charming big brother of actor Danny DeVito.
Lilly's courtroom opponents say they are sometimes appalled at how he can push the limits of the legally acceptable. In past cases, his private investigators did not merely trail the former husband or wife -- they acted as bait to see if their target could be caught soliciting a sexual liaison.
He once had a female investigator make herself available for propositioning by an estranged wife who was reported to be attracted to women. Lilly said criticisms of that method and other tactics are unjustified, because they are taken out of context and were used in past eras, when such investigative conduct was considered more acceptable. Another favored ploy of Lilly's is to provide videotapes of his angelic clients at home, lovingly caring for their children.
Opposing attorneys said most of his tactics are stock-in-trade for divorce battles, although Lilly takes them to new highs -- or lows. With the immense wealth of many of his clients, he can bankroll broad investigations that regularly find their marks.
Lilly is considered a master showman and self-publicist who maximizes his triumphs -- and they are many, over his career. Socialite Carolyn Farb had signed a prenuptial agreement limiting her to $1 million if she ever divorced developer Harold Farb. She did. Lilly got her $23 million from her now-deceased husband.
King Ranch co-owner Robert Shelton gained custody of four of his children in a divorce from wife Deborah -- then he hired Lilly to take the final two from her as well. In a 1990 interview, she said she was "nailed to a cross and hung upside down" by Lilly. Her only apparent crime as an ex-wife was dating an unattached man, but that was enough for Lilly.
His personal favorites are the cases that garnered him the most acclaim, as well as guest appearances on the national television talk-show circuits.
In 1988, Lilly represented Patti Sue Sullivan Chiles in her divorce after two years of marriage to Jerry Chiles, son of Eddie Chiles, former owner of the Texas Rangers baseball franchise.
Lilly broke new legal ground in his suit, asking that Patti Sue's prenuptial agreement be voided and that she receive $5 million in damages for "emotional abuse," a claim previously barred by Texas family courts.
Chiles protested that he was being victimized by a gold digger who had pushed him into prolonged drinking. In typical Lilly fashion, the attorney presented Chiles as an abuser, cocaine user, drunkard and philanderer -- who was infected with venereal disease as well. A Houston jury awarded Patti Sue $500,000.
In that same period, Lilly won damages for former airline flight attendant Sandra Renfro, who gave birth to a child by former baseball star Dave Winfield. That award came on her contention that the two had a legal -- if short-lived -- common-law marriage under Texas law.
He cites those cases as ones propelling him beyond the role of tough divorce attorney, and into the loftier status of legal scholar. But Lilly is less eager to discuss the aftermath of the Chiles and Winfield cases -- long after the publicity, outcomes in both cases were rejected on appellate review.
Lilly protests that they were not technically reversals, but concedes that appeals courts wiped away the verdicts and shipped them back for retrials. The Winfield case was settled when the baseball star agreed to pay $26,000 in attorney fees, and Lilly points out that the state Legislature did expand the law later to include emotional-abuse damages in divorce cases.
On a personal level, Lilly also has ample experience in divorce court. He has had three failed marriages, but he said he counts each of them a success for the years together and the four children they produced. Divorces did not douse his romantic fires, by all indications.
He delighted in relating his story about the humble Russian immigrant who turned to him for help in gaining custody of his child, then persisted in arranging a date for him with a young actress named Laura Keys, 25 years younger than Lilly. Readers of Maxine Mesinger's Houston Chronicle society column learned that Lilly proposed to her in 1990 by hiding a ring in her glass of champagne.
Lilly also loves to retell how he successfully fought for an ex-husband to gain custody of his beloved dog, Satan.
Those compassionate stories gained him notice in the news media, but follow-ups are nowhere to be found. The champagne wedding with Keys went flat. And they had their own brief dogfight -- over their pet, Moses. That one didn't go to court, but Keys got primary custody of the canine.
And a portion of a 1988 magazine interview would prove particularly pertinent later. Lilly scoffed at the image of divorce lawyers beaming through the nation's television screens in the immensely popular L.A. Law series.
"The divorce lawyer in that firm has sex with his clients and gets involved personally, and that's not the way a law firm is."
Lilly says he stands by that statement today.
Linda Sarofim Lowe said she did not know Lilly until after she arrived at his firm's law office in 1990, to have his partner, Piro, negotiate a prenuptial agreement that remains largely confidential.
Her later suit against Lilly referred to one provision which apparently ensured that, in the event of a divorce, she would collect at least $1 million for every year of marriage to Sarofim, provided that she did not challenge the contract. Lilly witnessed the signing of the document, her suit said.
Little more than a year after the wedding, that prenuptial arrangement faced its first test. Lowe filed a divorce petition that tamely cited discord and conflict. It languished in the courts and was dismissed in 1993, shortly before the Sarofims moved into the impressive home on River Oaks Boulevard. About a year later, they separated again, for the final time.
One River Oaks insider said Lowe had expected the marriage to be her entry into the coveted "old guard" of Houston's elite. But she did not understand that Sarofim himself had been admitted only through his previous wife's status as a Brown family heir. Lowe quickly became frustrated when her expectations were not realized, the source said.
Piro returned to the courthouse in 1995 to file another divorce petition for Lowe. Lilly followed with the amended suit, which launched the all-out attack on Sarofim as a sexually abusive, spousal-raping imprisoner of Lowe.
That divorce action estimated Sarofim's assets at $2 billion, and sought $100 million for Lowe, plus primary custody of the children. Lowe showed her gambling instincts in the case, betting the $5 million sure thing from the prenuptial deal against far greater payoffs if the pact could be voided in court. Impressive as her suit demands sounded, there were two massive obstacles in the way for Lilly and Lowe.
Potential conflicts of interest reared up immediately for her attorneys because of their roles in the prenuptial contract work. In her current suit, Lowe said they never informed her of those conflicts. They failed to advise her that Sarofim's lawyers could "coerce a settlement" by using those problems to get Piro and Lilly disqualified because they were potential fact witnesses in the case, her suit alleged.
Lilly scoffs at such allegations. There was no problem, because any potential conflict never harmed her. He argues their work helped her gain a much better divorce settlement than she could ever have expected in her situation, otherwise.
Some other attorneys privately question that logic. "If somebody came to me and said, 'Your partner negotiated a "prenup" and you witnessed it, and now I want you to challenge that same agreement,' I don't know how a lawyer could take that case. If that's not a conflict, I don't know what is one."
And Lowe faced a critical personal problem. By her own later admission, she was losing her grip on reality because of an addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs. In her deposition, Lowe said she spiraled sharply downward from August 1995 until she hit bottom in March 1997. Near the end of that time, Lowe said, she was gulping 15 milligrams of the sedative Valium every two hours -- around the clock.
Lilly's tapes of his phone messages logged calls from Lowe during all hours of the day and night. Like most high-flying crashes, this one had its black box of recordings to be retrieved and analyzed in slow, agonizing fashion. During the deposition, Lilly's attorneys hit the play button on their recorder again and again, asking for explanations for the unexplainable.
Lowe's attorney, Phillips, protested extensively as 153 tape recordings were played to his client. She said she recognized her voice, but could not remember making the statements.
Phillips said he is astounded that Lilly, who was her attorney at the time, would collect the kind of evidence that would have crippled his client's position in the divorce case. His objections were duly noted at the deposition -- and the tapes played on:
"Earle," her voice says. "Get back with me right away or I'll come over with my Jag and jam your car apart."
In another message, she refers to a "sue list," apparently of people she planned to file lawsuits against after the divorce proceedings were over.
At 12 minutes to midnight on an unspecified evening, the messages move into the suicidal. "Call me tonight or I am going to slit my wrist. Somebody call me or I will kill myself tonight." One evening, she says she is ready to put her "head through a marble wall. Are you going to call me, or what the fuck are you going to do?"
Lilly's attorneys at the deposition were somewhat less than sympathetic to her earlier pleas.
"What marble wall were you threatening to put your head through?" Barker asked.
"I don't know."
"Did you have a marble wall in your house?"
"Where did you have marble walls where there was a phone?"
"Several rooms."
A male voice, that of her adult son, Sean, breaks the pattern of calls to Lilly. "I will make this message as sweet and short as possible, you son of a bitch. We got it all fucking working perfectly, then you had to come over and spoil fucking everything and ruin our goddamned hopes. I want you to get your ass over there, apologize to her, because if not, I'm coming right home and I am going to beat the shit out of you."
And a child's voice: "Earle, it is 6:45 and my mom wants you to come over. Thanks. Bye."
"Earle," Lowe tells him at one point, "I love you and I need you as support to keep me sober. Please be there. I just love you."
After berating him for having an apartment "that reminds me of a slum in Brooklyn, she adds, " ... All you had to do was just stroke me on the back a few times and I would purr like a kitten and [have] done anything you did...."
Those expressions were rare in the deposition tapes, although the selection of messages played at the deposition was left up to Lilly.
Lowe left one message telling him she had sex with a young handyman who is "much more romantic than you are." In the deposition, she denies having sex with that person, or having an affair with another man referred to in a later tape.
"I forgot to tell you that John is bisexual, not just homosexual, and that he was with a woman over the weekend, and we tried but we just couldn't do it because we have been friends for too many years and it was impossible to do."
Her cook comes in for considerable abuse, with Lowe complaining to Lilly that the servant and staff eat steaks "and everything else at lunchtime and at breakfast time. Then at dinnertime, if I am in bed, then I get dog food. And then Manuela [the cook] went over there crying because I refused to eat dog food."
In several calls, she demands the return of all her gifts, including the Mercedes, warning Lilly she will report it as stolen. She also says she will send emergency ambulances, fire trucks and police to his house if he continued to refuse to call her.
Her messages call him "scum like any Jew" and describe him as sexually inadequate. "Are you so fucking old that you go to bed at this time of night," another message begins. "I mean just like Fayez. I mean, I already know you're impotent and balding and Jewish and fat, and everything else...."
Lowe said in the deposition that she only referred to Lilly as impotent in the sense that he had lost the power he had over her.
Lilly is told in one call to sue Sarofim "for cancer things for me ... before we even go to court before this goddamn divorce." She explains that she heard that abortions increase breast cancer odds by 20 percent, so she has had to have mammograms every six months. "And so when they told me I have big breasts, that is just amazing to me. Since I have grown in the past year from a 32A to a 36B, obviously, something is wrong."
Something was very wrong -- her admitted addiction. In her deposition, Lowe both took responsibility and gave Lilly ample blame. He was the one, she said, who decided to call in two doctors for a $10,000-a-month treatment program that included ample prescriptions. He did it even while knowing that it could be used as evidence against her in her efforts to gain primary custody of the children, her suit said.
Lilly attorney Barker challenged Lowe's claims against Piro and Lilly. "Nobody ever held you down and poured alcohol down your throat, did they?"
"Mr. Lilly would bring alcohol over to the house and stated that he did not believe I was an alcoholic and that -- he opened many bottles and shared many drinks with me," she said.
"It was your choice to do it, was it not?" Barker said. "Ma'am?"
"I think when a person is out of control and was dependent upon them, that they should not have been bringing alcohol over in sight. It's fuel for the fire."
Barker attacked her position, asking how Lilly could have enticed her to drink when she was drunk and making abusive calls to his home. And what about the time he took her to Alcoholics Anonymous? Or locked up the liquor cabinet? She insisted she did not take prescription drugs before the emotional distress with Lilly occurred.
On February 19, 1997, she was involuntarily committed to St. Joseph's Hospital to begin her recovery from alcohol abuse.
Some of Lilly's hardest critics among attorneys do not endorse Lowe's attacks on him with regard to her addiction and the treatment program arranged by him with private doctors long before the commitment. They said that the substance abuse would have emerged in any trial, and that the best way to mitigate that damaging evidence would be to try to convince a judge or jury that Lowe had started on the road to recovery.
However, Lowe's deposition testimony about her addiction could support her arguments that she was too unstable and irrational to comprehend the kinds of fee contracts that were presented to her by Lilly -- the ones that added up to the $6.7 million in payments.
Lowe also maintains that the romance with Lilly drained her of any objectivity to what was happening.
Barker questioned her about her claims of sexual relations with Lilly.
"It depends on what you mean by 'sexual relations,' " she said. "Hugging, kissing, yes, that went on for months and months."
They first had intercourse on the night of the Sarofim divorce decree in November 1996; then they made love in their hotel room in Acapulco ten days later, she said. Within weeks, they were at it again, this time in an apartment owned by a Lilly friend at the Carlisle Hotel in New York, Lowe testified.
Asked for witnesses to these sexual encounters, Lowe provided no names. She volunteered that her security staff at the River Oaks home would have seen Lilly arrive and depart the premises -- and the maids changed the sheets and may have noticed the stains.
Lowe also alleges that Lilly misled her about the divorce settlement offers from Sarofim. She said her ex-husband and his attorney, Keeton, told her earlier this year that they had made proposals to Lilly for even better settlement packages than the one Lilly advised her to accept. Sarofim and Keeton were denied a request to see the fee contract from Lilly, and Sarofim would have granted her "huge" monthly allowances had he known Lilly was working on a contingency fee agreement, she said.
"They had said since they were dealing with Earle and Bob [Piro] -- and since Fayez dislikes them intensely -- that he was trying to keep the cash settlement as low as he could" to avoid whopping payoffs to her attorneys, Lowe said.
She said Piro was to be the specialist in any property settlement, and he brought in Lilly as the attorney who was the child custody expert. Despite the public allegations of Sarofim abusing her, Sarofim gained primary custody. While terms of the divorce agreement remain sealed, Lowe's deposition describes standard noncustodial visitation rights -- Wednesday nights and alternating weekends with the children. Lilly's attorneys said that, given her addiction and abusive conduct to Lilly and others, she was lucky to get that much visitation.
Lowe blames her custody terms on the decisions and actions of Piro and Lilly in her case, and said she plans to seek more custody and visitation rights after this suit.
Lilly's attorney asked: If the divorce settlement was bad, if it denied her the kind of custody rights she sought with her children, then why didn't she reject it?
"I agreed to it because I didn't want to go to court. I never wanted to fight Fayez. I was too out of control, too embarrassed, too weak, too dependent. I didn't want to be a public spectacle."
"What were you embarrassed about?" attorney Barker asked.
"My alcoholism, my pill-taking; if any people thought I had a relationship with Earle Lilly, that was embarrassing. Just the whole thing was embarrassing."
Embarrassment, by all indications, has given way to more and more anger in one of the most contentious cases in Harris County. Attorneys chided each other during the April deposition over camera angles and even the seating beyond the wood-and-beveled-glass doors of Lilly's conference room. Lowe said she felt threatened by the close proximity of Piro and Lilly, and her attorney complained that the video-camera angles were designed to make her look deceptive in her responses.
Disputes over the deposition led to its entry into the official case file, infuriating Lowe attorney Phillips. Meanwhile, a flurry of subpoenas has been filed with state District Judge Tracy Christopher, to track everything from prescription records at the Avalon Drug Store to credit card receipts and emergency calls made from the Lowe home.
Phillips gained a confidentiality order to restrict the release of evidence gained through subpoena and the discovery process.
In life after Lilly, Lowe has found new love. She met her husband, Mason Abram Lowe, during her hospital commitment in 1997. Lowe testified that he is a former legal assistant who is a manic depressive.
Lowe credited her husband and his stability with breaking her of the Valium habit, which he accomplished by flushing two bottles of those pills down the toilet in March 1997. She said they have discussed buying property in Hawaii and relocating there, but those are not firm plans.
Lowe testified in the deposition that she busies herself with commanding the staff of servants, the cook, the gardener and the security personnel at her home, picking up her children from Sarofim on Wednesdays and alternating weekends for visitations, and serving on the boards of Houston Grand Opera and the Awty School.
Of course, she does manage to break away from that grind on occasion. Lowe said that since the divorce, she has eked out treks to Acapulco, New York, Italy, Africa, the Amazon, Los Angeles and twice to Paris. There were no frequent-flier miles on the trips to the beach house and ranch.
She wants custody of her children, but said she is picking her legal fights one at a time -- and her first target is Lilly.
In spite of the legal fight with Lowe, love also has crept back into Lilly's life. He is engaged again, to a wonderful woman, he said. She is real estate agent Cathy Cagle.
Romance for the participants in this suit has not softened the fury, it seems. Lowe had been scheduled to continue her deposition on June 1, but Lilly asked to postpone it so he could attend the funeral of his mother, Evelyn, who died May 28.
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Lowe objected to the request. She was overruled, and Lilly buried his mother that day.
Lowe's wedding dress, for the Lilly nuptials that were not to be, now displays an evidence exhibit sticker instead of a $10,000 Neiman Marcus sales tag. Cupid, a jewelry pin given by Lilly to Lowe, has joined the dress and other gifts in the wait for a trial tentatively scheduled to begin April 19, 1999.
As for the Mercedes, the divorce lawyer who drives the hard bargains is still in the soft leather driver's seat -- at least for now.
E-mail George Flynn at email@example.com


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Chicago Man Arrested for Selling Cleaning Supplies without License in Sioux Falls
Police say a Chicago man was selling cleaning supplies in Sioux Falls without the proper paperwork. And now, 21-year-old Devon Martin Smith is facing several charges:
Information Officer Sam Clemens says Smith was on West 58th Street near South Holbrook Avenue when police were called, and he says the man was arrested.
Clemens says Smith was working for a company called "Worldwide Cleaning Products." He says if someone comes to your door to sell you something, you should ask to see their peddler's permit and state sales tax license.


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Though we missed waving hello to the Streetfire.net gang across the spacious and accommodating media center at the SEMA show, we turn to them now for raw drift footage from a presentation on Tuesday afternoon. If you were one of those doubters who thought the Pontiac Solstice wasn't ready for the tarmac, you may be schooled by Rhys Millen's Red Bull Solstice GXP Drift car, whose two-liter Ecotec inline four produces upward of 500 hp. That car replaces Millen's GTO in Formula D. Score one for rhe sport compact kids.
Super Amateur Dorifto Crash Potential! [internal]


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I've created a Combo Box in my MFC Dialog and would like to get the integer number which I select, for example:
I have no problem to select any number from 1 to 8 in the ComboBox but I need to get the number which I select to be applied in the function: CSerialSource::Open(PortNumber); "Code:void CCOMPort_ReaderDlg::ReadDevice() { CHAR DeviceTermSize [6]; m_DeviceNumber.ResetContent (); for ( int nDevice = 1; nDevice <= 8; nDevice++ ) { sprintf ( DeviceTermSize, "%ld", nDevice ); m_DeviceNumber.AddString ( DeviceTermSize ); } m_DeviceNumber.SetCurSel ( 1 ); // int PortNumber = ??? ; }
This is very important to my serial communication to select the Port Number and let my program know what I have selected.
How can I obtain the "PortNumber" value? Any suggestion and help is well appreciated. Thanks!


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The search for the suspected shooter in a double homicide in Blissfield July 13 ended in rural West Virginia after four days.
U.S. Marshals and Tyler County Sheriff's Department deputies searched for Thomas Fritz, 38, of Sylvania, Ohio, near the town of Sisterville, W. Va.
When officers arrived Tuesday evening, July 17, at a cabin owned by a man that Fritz once worked for, the suspect was seen running inside the structure while carrying a rifle. A few seconds later a single gunshot was heard.
Officers weren't sure if Fritz had shot himself or fired at them and waited for a SWAT team to arrive. The team entered the structure and found Fritz dead.
Fritz faced a three-count felony warrant including two counts of open murder and one count of assault with intent to commit murder.
His victims were Morenci graduate Lisa (Burrow) Gritzmaker, 24, and her unborn daughter, and her sister Amy Lynn Merrill, 33, the former girlfriend of Fritz. The girls' mother, Robin Lynn McCowan, 52, of rural Morenci, was injured in the shooting.


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An annual celebration of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday turned into a melee early Sunday that ended with four men arrested, including one who was hospitalized after getting hit in the face by a police officer swinging his flashlight.
The celebration drew more than 100 people and lasted well into Sunday morning. At about 3 a.m. Sarasota Police officers said they saw two men urinating in public in the 1900 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way, where the celebration was centered.
Officers said when they went to talk to one of the men, Jaymes Smith, he tried to get away and took several steps into the crowd. An officer then restrained Smith, but he reportedly continued to pull away.
The crowd surrounded the officer, reports say, and police attempted to move them off the street and onto a nearby sidewalk.
Meanwhile, police said another man from the crowd, Jarred Harrington, grabbed Smith in a bear-hug in an effort to prevent the officer from handcuffing Smith. Another man, Desmond Smith, grabbed the officer from behind and attempted to separate him from his prisoner.
That is when Devontae Williams, 19, tried to get between the officer and Jaymes Smith, and then punched the officer, reports say.
Police pulled Harrington off of Jaymes Smith and pushed him away. Harrington pushed the officer back with both hands. As a second officer attempted to arrest Harrington, the crowd closed in.
"I swung my right hand while holding my flashlight to clear the danger in front of me and the tip of the light struck the defendant (Harrington) on the bridge of his nose," the officer wrote in his report.
Harrington, 18, was arrested and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence and resisting arrest without violence. He was treated at Sarasota Memorial Hospital before being taken to jail.
Desmond Smith and Devontae Williams also were arrested and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer.
Jaymes Smith was arrested and charged with urinating in public and resisting arrest without violence.
Newly installed Sarasota Police Chief Bernadette DiPino and Capt. Wade McVay, commander of the patrol division, contacted community leaders, including NAACP President Trevor Harvey, Sarasota City Commissioner Willie Shaw and Sarasota County Commissioner Carolyn Mason to discuss the incident and arrests.
DiPino said Monday that she was still gathering information about the incident, but denied that her officers incited or provoked the violent response.
"Our officers didn't provoke anything," she said. "It wasn't a riot. It was a group of individuals — a couple were violating the law. I haven't talked to the officers yet, but they went to engage a subject about not urinating and the subject refused to talk."
Her officers have discretion to make an arrest, DiPino said, adding, "The officers went to engage the subject, who continued to walk away, and that's when other people got involved. That's how the situation started."
DiPino also said the officer did not intentionally strike Harrington in the face with his flashlight.
"The officer was using the flashlight to keep the crowd from jumping on top of him," she said. "It wasn't his intent to hit the subject. He was using the flashlight to keep the crowd back when he struck the subject in the nose area."
At least one bystander took video of the incident, and promised to provide the video to the chief. DiPino also said some of the incident was captured on city cameras.
Harvey, the NAACP president, said his organization is waiting for DiPino's report before deciding upon a course of action.
"The information is still sketchy," Harvey said. "I'm hearing the cops felt threatened, but I've also heard they may have been intimidating citizens who were out having a good time. We don't want to speculate until we see the chief's report."
Harvey said the NAACP wants "everyone on both sides to be accountable for their actions."
"I think this chief will take a lead role in getting her officers to understand that just because an offense is arrestable, it doesn't always mean you have to make an arrest," Harvey said. "We know there is a law against urinating in public, but why not have a conversation with them, build a relationship, build rapport.
"I think that will be a priority with this chief. They don't have to arrest someone for every single thing on the books."
UPDATE: Sarasota Police arrest 4 in melee involving 100 people
An annual celebration of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday turned into a melee early Sunday that ended with four men arrested, including one who was hospitalized after getting hit in the face by a police officer swinging his flashlight.


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