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Writer-director Henry Jaglom and writer-actor Victoria Foyt collaborated on Babyfever, Last Summer in the Hamptons, Déjà Vu, Festival in Cannes (in which Foyt did not appear), and the new film Going Shopping. An informal follow-up to Jaglom's two films about female compulsion—Babyfever and Eating—Going Shopping is a prismatic look at consumption as catharsis. Jaglom is also known for his long and varied career, beginning as an actor (gigging on sitcoms like The Flying Nun and Gidget), then proceeding to the sensation of 1971's A Safe Place and a storied career as a director. Among his many films, Jaglom also directed his friend Orson Welles twice (in A Safe Place and Someone to Love) and appeared in Welles' never-released The Other Side of the Wind. Jaglom and Foyt—real-life marrieds—submitted to my questions about Going Shopping, the filmmaking process, and Orson Welles during their press tour at San Francisco's Prescott Hotel.
Groucho: First of all, how long has Going Shopping been gestating?
Henry Jaglom: Gestating? All my life, certainly. How about you, Victoria?
Victoria Foyt: I guess, well, about four or five years, because it took Henry several years to actually cut the movie. So awhile.
HJ: But gestating in terms of my desiring to create the movie is from my earliest childhood observing my mother and all her women friends, and then as I grew up in my various relationships, watching the women that I knew in this world all obsess in one way or another about the extraordinary thing of shopping and what it meant to them.
VF: From that point of view, I guess from the first trip—my mother took me to Saks in Bell Harbor—where I lived in Coral Gables, in Bell Harbor in Miami Beach. We never went to Miami Beach—it was a very rare special occasion. But my aunt was in town when we went there, and I remember seeing an art-deco beaded dress and thinking, "Oh my God. There's another world outside of here that exists that I know nothing of."
G: How did your perception of the subject shift over the time you were working on the project?
HJ: Well, for me it was just extraordinary to discover how many dark aspects there were to it. I always thought of shopping as just a joyous, fun thing and that women were very lucky in the way they used the shopping to adorn themselves, to enjoy their company of each other, to plunge into this wonderful, delightful world, it seemed to me. The great discovery for me was the darkness—was the sadness that's behind some of it for some women—how it's used therapeutically in terms of dealing with certain kinds of pain in life and some of the aspects of that deprivation and so on and how complicated the subject is. That's what I had not understood.
VF: Yeah, I think the same for me. I was initially not—a little bit reticent to do a film about shopping. I thought, well, it must be superficial and all that—
HJ: I don't know why you keep feeling the need to say that. I'm always a little concerned that you're saying that.
VF: Why are you concerned?
HJ: Well, because—okay, never mind.
VF: No, why are you concerned?
HJ: Well, because, you know you always seem to want to emphasize the fact that you were reticent at the beginning of making the film—
VF: Well, I only say it to emphasize how, in exactly the same way, I became extremely fascinated because his question, in fact, was what was our sense of discovery in it, so I'm starting from my initial point of reticence. It seems a very logical place—
HJ: I withdraw my objection.
VF: In relation to his question, which prompted me to say it in the first place—and I became very fascinated because even the fear of superficiality is something in it. And, you know, it's not a documentary at all. There is a very strong narrative to it, but the talking heads and my own work in preparing the character and writing the script with Henry made me think a lot about an issue that you take for granted, and underneath it there's this huge web of emotion.
G: Speaking of that kind of darker side to the film, the store Holly G is festooned with these fashion ads and movie posters and—
HJ: No fashion ads—mostly magazine covers and movie posters.
G: I took that as a kind of comment on the way we're being sold attractive fantasies through the media. And that feeds into this idea of what the store is selling to the women that makes them feel good. So there's two sides to that—that the women feel euphoric while shopping, but also that maybe they're being had in some way by this process.
VF: Because they can't live up to it, right?
G: Yeah.
VF: Yeah, and that little girl—that heartbreaking interview, when she says, what, I think she's fourteen, fifteen—when she says, "Well, I like to go shopping, and I like to be in fashion so people will like me." And it starts very young in our culture—to put that emphasis on the external. And I think that's a big arc of the movie...
HJ: Yes...the journey is very important. And the way that society uses—innoculates people in using shopping. It's a very big part of it.
G: There's also the question of materialism. I noted that when Holly and Adam are breaking up, part of their argument is over who's going to take the property. And it also led me to ask, at the end of the film, without--I'll warn the readers—but I had to ask myself, is it a happy ending?
VF: Well, I think that's a good thing that you don't know. Right? Because it's an issue. And it's a complex issue. I think that with the main characters, you can kind of project how the story might unfold in their lives if they're weren't fictional—
HJ: And be happy.
VF: But I think that you wouldn't expect, having come out of the story, that everything is going to be perfect. So it's not a traditional happy ending where everything is neatly sewed up and tied up, but if you were to project an ending that continued in a reasonably happy way, you would still see that, okay, this is life, this is real.
G: Yeah.
VF: (aside to Henry) That was a good answer.
G: For those talking-head, or "Shopping Head" confessionals, are the women speaking for themselves?
HJ: Yes, completely. I mean, what we did was interview a lot of women and then try to string their interviews, which were entirely their own—because I did not want to predetermine what the film would be concluding about the issue of shopping. I thought it was important to try to create a large tapestry in which you get a lot of representational views of what it is for different individuals, and then find a way of threading that into our very narrative, dramatic story, if you will. So those women were not in any way encouraged to go one way or the other. It was entirely from their own lives, their own experiences that they spoke—and then, of course, in the editing room, I get the selective choice to try to do what I feel is a representative sampling, if you will, both from terms of being entertaining, but also in terms of really hitting the major issues. So some of those women are very sad, and some of them are very joyous—as, in fact, some women are very joyous about shopping and life, and some find it very troubling.
G: Yeah. I think you very much get the breadth from those.
HJ: Oh, good.
G: People are fascinated by your counter-cultural devotion to women's issues. Do you feel you have a lot of personal insight, or is it more of a matter of facilitating your actors—
HJ: No, no. I hope it's personal, but I don't know that you'd call it insight. It's personal identification, I think. I have been very close to women all my life, and all my closest friends are women. And I was close with my mother as a child. And I was given a unique kind of access for a male, I think. My mother never said, "You can't participate in this because you're a boy." So I was allowed to cross a lot of lines. And that gave me permission to really be close to women and listen to them and pay attention and hear what they were talking about. And what they were talking about was this range of very personal expression, whether it was about eating or about shopping or about babies or about their hearts and their needs and their dreams. It reflected a kind of personal, intimate view of life which my male friends didn't talk about. And the men I knew in life, as I grew up, I realized, kept that to themselves, or didn't even experience that to a large extent, and they talked about external things, removed from their own feelings, removed from their own emotions. And it seemed to me that the life of women was an enormously profoundly, emotionally available one in a way that the lives of men frequently weren't. And therefore, as I became a filmmaker, I wanted to try to dig into that and sort of expose that—share that—in a way that I feel that Hollywood movies just doesn't represent—which is, to show, really, the lives of women, so that women going to the theatre and the men who care about women who go to the theatre will see some truth about the lives of women. And that's what the goal is.
G: I read Anaïs Nin's essay on A Safe Place. I gather she played a big role in the development of your following.
HJ: It's because of Anaïs that I have a following. My first movie, A Safe Place, opened to disastrous reviews. All the critics, who were all men then, tore into it. It was a movie about a young woman's fantasies and dreams, and it was really attacked. The form was—now you see it all the time on MTV—but at that time, it was unheard of to jump around in time and space and so on, the way I did. And a year after it opened in New York and disastrously bombed, when it finally opened in L.A., she came and saw it and wrote this extraordinary piece that she put into all the counter-culture magazines. And that gave me my first—she took the film under her arm—a 16mm print—and started going to college campuses and talking to women's groups and gave me my first audience, which was, in fact, the conscious women who were investigating women's subjects at that time, and who were really looking for a few films that might reflect some truth about women's lives. And that has always been the core audience, even though the audience happily has expanded beyond that. I'm always very aware of making some films which, hopefully, will truthfully target that audience.
G: I'd like for you both to talk me through the process of making one of these films. You work from an outline, right? A series of scenarios?
VF: Not really, actually. It's much more than an outline. On Going Shopping, we had a full script. And it starts differently each time. Shopping was Henry's idea. And then I wrote the first draft of a full three-act script. And then we passed that back and forth, and it fleshed out, each time, more and more. Then by the time we got to the set, I've got to sort of divorce myself from being the writer and put on my acting hat, and the director morphs into a whole other stage. In the acting, a lot of times I know that there are certain points—especially since I'm the main character in this movie—I'm really aware of the thread all through it. So I know what certain points have to be hit—what certain notes have to be hit, if you will, in each scene. At the same time, and since the other actor may not be aware of that, or is concentrated on it, I have to really let go of that. So it's a kind of schizophrenic process, for me, to let go of that and really just be present and respond and work with that actor. But I always have the safety net of knowing that, unlike other writers, who rewrite and rewrite before they get to the set, that our rewriting happens, then, when Henry goes in the editing room and takes those pieces of film and really massages them and works them and rearranges, sometimes, in unexpected ways within the scene and sometimes within the whole arc of the story, in such a way that there can be no wrong. And so it gives you great freedom. But it's a very, very unique process. And it's very liberating. And I think it's—I don't think anyone actually works this way.
G: What do you do when you find an actor is not responsive to that way of working?
HJ: That's a great question. I mean, that's really a good question which nobody has asked me. It happens quite frequently. Sometimes the best actors, who are used to a traditional way of working—when I say to them, "Well, that was good. I like that scene. Now continue the scene." And they say, "But there's nothing else written." And I say, "Yeah. Just continue the scene, and I'll tell you when to stop." Some very fine actors get very uncomfortable with that. If I can create the atmosphere which can allow them to use parts of themselves, magic happens, because they then can tap into parts of themselves. And sometimes, in the editing room, what they've given me themselves, is so much more exciting. How I came to this whole process is I wrote a complete script for my first movie, A Safe Place—a very detailed script which you needed to do to get the money to make the film, you know. Columbia Pictures produced it, and I gave them a script. And on the first day of shooting, I had Tuesday Weld and Jack Nicholson, both of whom are very close friends of mine, and I had them in a scene that I thought was very well-written—because I'd written it myself and I like myself as a writer—and I gave them the scene, and they're great actors. Then they did the scene and it was good, but it wasn't as exciting as either one of them is in life. And I knew that something was wrong. And I said three times, "Let's do it again, let's do it again." And then finally I said, "Look, just throw away what I wrote. You know what has to happen in this scene." And they flew. And I realized—I didn't look at that script again for the rest of the shoot, which is part of the reason that the audience has had such a hard time with it. But I think that was extremely liberating for me and very freeing because I realized that actors bring their own language, their own memories, their own ideas, their own feelings, and if you can let them tap into those, and have that support your story with color and emotions and feelings that you might not ever think of, it just adds a tremendous dimension to the work.
G: And it really forces actors to put their mouth where the money is in terms of the sense of play.
VF: Yeah, as an actor, I think working this way, more than anything, besides having—well, for me—because I've worked in several films with Henry now—it's like I really have to know who my character is, through and through and through, so that I can be that character in any situation. And it's a living process of acting—really carrying it forward to a make-believe situation that you might not as much as if you had just this script to rely on--because you don't know how the character might react, but if you're living that character and being that character and also bringing yourself to the character, you get surprised.
HJ: Right. And if you're surprised, then the audience is surprised. And for me, that's the most exciting aspect of filmmaking.
G: I was just going to say, it brought to mind a scene in the film that did surprise me—where Holly is selling to the daughter and her mother. And I think that my initial perception was "Well, she doesn't put any of the prices on there so she can kind of screw them out of the most money--"
HJ: Oh, just the opposite.
G: And it turns out to be very much the opposite—and that she takes a joy in selling, not for the economic gain, but from bringing joy to the customers in her store. So that really kept me on my toes and I think that speaks to that freedom of working.
HJ: Well, also the Lee Grant character—if you think about what Lee Grant as Holly's mother does in this film—she brought a sense of her own mother into this character. And that freed her to create things and have spontaneous response like that whole story—"Go to the right breast, go to the left breast"—that neither of us never would have written, because that was something that was specific and peculiar to her own experience and memory. And she came up with constant, wonderful color and depth once she got the character—that she knew what the character was—she was free to attach to it whatever of her own—and, in this case, her mother—that she used for the character. And I just find that it's a very, very rich device that gives you the opportunity to deepen your story a great deal.
G: We were speaking earlier of editing. Were there any scenes on this film that were very difficult to let go of, but for the sake of the rhythm of the film had to go by the wayside?
HJ: That's a great question, too.
VF: Well, we had one scene where my character gets caught with a sensor on her skirt and—which, I don't want to reveal why, because that gives other details of the story—and I really wanted it in. And we didn't use it—I don't know why.
HJ: Well, one of the reasons we didn't use it was usually the reason I don't use something. And that has to do with the fact that something was off in the acting. Not your acting in this case, but the guy who played the guard a little bit. Or something was off in the cinematography, or it just doesn't look right, doesn't feel right. So I have to find a way of accomplishing the story point without the actual—
VF: I think to answer your question, more in this film, things were eliminated—what Clint Eastwood once told Henry—"the cruel cut"—wasn't necessarily narrative, but the interviews. We could have made three movies of interviews. There was so much great stuff. But you had to find the balance.
HJ: Yeah, I think you should know what that "cruel cuts" comment is all about. I was cutting Last Summer in the Hamptons, and I was having a particular problem, and I was on the phone with Clint Eastwood about something else, and I was telling him this problem that I had, and he said: "You really love this scene?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Is it really good?" I said, "Yeah, it's terrific." And he said, "Try the movie without it." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "If you really love a scene—if you really think it's a great scene—take it out of the movie and run the movie without it. And if it works without it, that's the 'cruel cut'—that's what you have to do." I said, "Well, for your movies, maybe, because you're really involved in narrative—dynamic narrative. But for me, it's more color. I don't want to totally—" But it forced me to re-look at things and try to be tougher on myself about "Okay, I like this, but does this really serve me?" Which is what I think his point was.
G: Right. And writers call that "killing your babies."
VF: Right. Killing your babies, yeah.
HJ: Oooooohh. Victoria has a novel coming out, so she's—
VF: I had to kill some babies in my book. I understand that.
G: I read just the briefest outline of your novel—
VF: Oh!
G: Is that something that—since you've also directed an acclaimed short film, have you given a thought to perhaps directing a feature of that novel?
VF: I won't say no. I won't say never. But I'm really happiest writing fiction, and that's what I've been doing consistently, full-time now the past few years. And since this book sold—thank you, God!—and I've got my foot in that world, I'm pursuing that. Directing is such a demand on your entire psyche—body and soul—and I find it extremely demanding. I loved it when I did it, and it was also a liberation for me because, having worked with Henry for twelve years up to that point, I was able to do everything my way, completely one-hundred percent, writing and directing and producing—and it was a liberating exercise, so I loved it. But I don't underestimate what it requires.
G: With Hollywood Dreams, will that film address the disparity between men's and women's voices in film?
HJ: My next movie, Hollywood Dreams?
G: Mm-hm.
HJ: Will it address the disparity between men and women in film? That film doesn't have much to do with men and women. It has to do with ambition and the drive for fame that obsesses so many people who, from various homes around the country and around the world, come to Hollywood with one dream in mind —and that is to be on the cover of some magazine and to be featured in Access Hollywood or whatever—not even about the art, not about the creative process, but, somehow "Look at me. Look at me. I'm famous. I've become famous!" So that's what that film's about. And that, I think, is an equal opportunity discriminator or lack of discrimination. I don't think there's any distinction between men and women in that.
G: Sounds like the lottery.
HJ: Yeah. And it's such an absurd statistic. I mean, you are so going against all odds that you have to be so driven emotionally by some childhood angst and pain—and I identify very much with that from my own history—that you want—that you need to have this sort of attention of the world on you, no matter for what exactly, that I just think it's a fascinating subject.
G: Your films are sort of a photo album of your mind over the years, I think. Have you ever been tempted or attracted to doing a project that you didn't initiate at all—an adaptation of something that was close to you?
HJ: Never. Early in my career, The Bell Jar was discussed, and that one excited me, of course, for obvious reasons. So much that I had a script written and—
VF: National Lampoon.
HJ: No, I did that because Orson Welles said to me once, "Look, you have to learn, once and for all, if you can work within their system," he said to me. "They're offering you to do this after Sitting Ducks," which was, in commercial terms, a successful comedy I made. They had just made Animal House and offered me half a movie, the other half to be directed by another director, called National Lampoon Goes to the Movies, I think was the original title. And it was a stupid script that was full of terrible, tasteless jokes and stuff, and Orson said, "Take it. It will only take so-and-so much time out of your life. You'll find out whether you can work with a crew of a hundred people and with a producer and a studio system that doesn't allow you to edit your own film"—you know, "you'll find out." I found out what I needed. They re-cut and made a horror—I don't think the thing was ever released theatrically, thank God, though unfortunately it floats around somewhere on tapes. And I learned what I needed to learn, which was that I could never work within their system, and never have again.
G: Is it accurate to say that you've been away from the theatre pretty much in between A Safe Place the first time, and A Safe Place, the revival?
HJ: Yeah. Good for you to know about the revival.
G: I'm curious if you think you may go back to the theatre?
HJ: Well, I just recently had a bad experience. I tried to produce a play that I thought was very—by the man—by N. Richard Nash, who wrote The Rainmaker—a play called Echoes, and nobody came. I couldn't get an audience to come. And in Los Angeles, theatre is a very difficult thing. I was trying to create an offshoot of my Rainbow Film company, call it the Rainbow Theatre company. It exists as a vehicle, and I'm not saying no to that, and I hope maybe to do more, but I keep feeling there's some need for a certain kind of theatre similar to the kind of films, in the sense that we make—but it's a very, very difficult thing. "I don't know" is the true answer to that. If something comes along that excites me, I mean, maybe I will do that again.
G: It's a noble goal, but a tough row to hoe.
HJ: It's just really tough to spend months and months of your life on something and then you've got more people on stage than you do in the audience, so it's very hard. A film, at least, exists, so you know it's there. If people don't go today, they may go tomorrow. And that it will be on DVDs.
G: Henry, your body of work as an artist is clearly significant. But I also have to say that I think you're a hero of American cinema for standing by Orson Welles in the '80s.
HJ: Well, thank you. I unfortunately failed, so I don't consider myself a hero. Because I tried to get financing for Orson in the last ten years of his life. I did everything I could and it was unsuccessful. I couldn't do it, anymore than Orson was able to do it in the ten prior years. So I feel terrible about that, in fact, because they wouldn't let him make his movies. I gave him hopefulness—that I feel good about. He would come—he would call me in the middle of the night and say, "Hey, listen to this." And he would read me four pages that he wrote. And they were great. And then I'd encourage him and he'd write a whole script. And then I couldn't get it done anywhere. So it was frustrating, but it was so exciting to see him hopeful again and creative again. And he was always like a kid who was willing to jump back in the pool, you know? I feel good about the time I spent trying to get those projects going, and I feel great about—just the company of this wonderful friend of mine. But I feel sad that I was never able to get him the work.
G: Although I think it is a victory that The Big Brass Ring came out of your talks.
HJ: Yeah. Thank you. A friend of mine, F.X. Feeney, ended up writing the screenplay and doing quite a good job on it, I think—trying to make it work. But it still wasn't Orson's movie—I mean, the original screenplay came out of my pressure on Orson, and I'm very happy—but I couldn't get him the money to do it, you know?
G: Though it's published now. People can read it.
HJ: Thank you. That's good.
G: I certainly enjoyed getting the opportunity to read that.
HJ: Good. That makes me feel—but just imagine what kind of film that would have made! It would have been a bookend to Citizen Kane. But about America at the end of the century the way Citizen Kane was about America at the beginning of the century.
G: I think the film that was made was a disappointment.
HJ: It's not what Orson would have made at all, so it was not related to that.
G: I also wanted to ask you about King Lear. I've read a lot about The Dreamers and The Big Brass Ring and why those didn't come together. What was the real sticking point for King Lear, do you think?
HJ: Just couldn't get the money. It was very simple. He wrote this brilliant concept of Lear. It was going to be a black-and-white film, very much in close-up, about how men are made insane by the absence of women in their lives. And by how that creates a certain kind of male insanity. And it was five million dollars that we were unable to raise. We kept having people tell us yes and then it turned out to be no. Orson had this—he was too much of an artist to be in a so-called industry that did not value art, but values people who are successful in commercial terms only.
G: You've said that you would never resort to financing your own films. Do you think the people who do—who are in a position to finance films—are they a little crazy to be doing that?
HJ: No. Everybody does it their own way. Orson spent his life putting together—making commercials in Japan and wherever he could—and getting $25,000 here and $50,000 there—and then putting it together for financing his thing. I think whatever way you can get a film made—you should get a film made. That's all. I just think if you can possibly, you know, get foreign support, it's the best way to do it—because then nobody's looking over your shoulder.
G: ...Thank you very much.
HJ: ...Good questions. Thank you.
VF: Thank you.
[For Groucho's review of Going Shopping, click here.]


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Developers AAUG are seeking funding for a novel new idea: a hardware/software combination that allows users to make music simply by manoeuvring their iPhone through the air.
The AUUG Motion Synth requires users to wear an aluminum wristband, which holds the screen of your device handily near the fingers while controlling its orientation (and stopping you from dropping it).
Then, the software: the AUUG Motion Synthapp tracks your movements (via your iOS device's inbuilt sensors) and turns the motion data into signals for shaping sound. Watch the video above to get an idea of how this works on the ground.
In addition, there is the AAUG cloud: an online service that allows users of this setup to share presets.
AUUG are seeking a modest $70,000 to develop the Motion Synth, with prices for early backers from $68. For more information, visit Kickstarter.

subset: commoncrawl


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In this recession, there are struggling apparel retailers all across the country. Then there's Abercrombie & Fitch. The upscale teen retailer has suffered 10 straight months of double-digit same-store-sales declines. In the second quarter of 2009 alone, sales were down an eye-popping 30% across the company's three name outlets: the flagship Abercrombie brand, which has 567 stores; Hollister, a 520-store teen chain; and Ruehl, a 29-store chain for young adults that Abercrombie shut down in June. Abercrombie & Fitch lost $26.7 million, which includes $24.4 million in charges associated with the closing of Ruehl, in the second quarter. During the same period in 2008, Abercrombie scored a $77.8 million profit. "Abercrombie has mismanaged this economic downturn more than any other retailer," says Britt Beemer, CEO of America's Research Group, a retail consulting firm.
What lessons can be learned from the Abercrombie experience? The first has to do with pricing. As the economy spiraled downward and competitors like Aéropostale started discounting like crazy, Abercrombie refused to lower prices. The company insisted that price-cutting would cheapen the cachet of the brand.
You would figure that discounting would provide goodwill and build customer loyalty, especially in lean times. After all, with more grateful customers in tow, wouldn't the company be in a great position to ride the upswing associated with an economic recovery, raising prices again when times get better?
Not necessarily, say consumer experts. "According to various research findings, a company will have a tough time increasing prices once they've lowered them," says C.W. Park, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California and editor of the Journal of Consumer Psychology. "Shoppers start to think the discounts are the base prices, and you risk alienating the shoppers if you raise them. Logically, you'd think that consumers would appreciate the lower prices and be understanding when they go back up. It doesn't always work that way."
But even if Abercrombie could justify holding firm on price, it did little else to entice customers. "If you provide interesting incentives, you can minimize losses while maintaining the luxury image," says Park. "Offer milk and cookies in the store. Anything."
He points to the Four Seasons hotel chain, which still charges premium prices for its rooms but started offering deals that let you buy a two-night stay and get a third one free. The hotel, in effect, is lowering its prices. But when things improve, it will be easier for consumers to accept the end of the free-room deal than a sudden spike in prices. We know you can't give away rooms, but how can you jack prices up another $30? Although Abercrombie holds seasonal clearance sales, it shuns such regular promotions.
Abercrombie is having other problems. "They were the quintessential American prep brand, but the world changed on them," says Edward Yruma, an equity research analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets. "We're living in the Gossip Girl era, where we're seeing some funkier fashions." Abercrombie's classic look went out of style, and the company is just starting to sell dresses, which have performed well. "I've noticed that my kids aren't open to anything Abercrombie these days," says one mother of two teenage girls.
After releasing second-quarter earnings on Aug. 14, Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries admitted that the company missed some spring fashion trends. He said he plans to cut prices more aggressively. (The company did not respond to an interview request.) He might also want to change the Abercrombie vibe, which seems pretty tone-deaf to the times. At the New York City Abercrombie & Fitch store, whose neighbors include Prada and Gucci, a shirtless male model greets shoppers at the front and happily snaps pictures with the gawkers. Sales associates dance to hip-hop music in the aisles. There's not one "For Sale" sign in the whole four-story place. A pair of men's ripped jeans go for $90; women's jeans are $80; a hooded sweatshirt with the Abercrombie logo is $60.
Meanwhile, at the New York City Aéropostale, whose neighbors include J.C. Penney, no one is shirtless but everything is on sale. No half-nude model greets you at the front door, but a guy barking "Buy one pair of women's jeans, get another free" does. Sales associates don't dance; they tell you deals. Ripped jeans are $30; women's jeans sell for $49.50 (plus the freebie pair); the Aéropostale hoodie is $15, or a quarter of Abercrombie's price.
Think it's a coincidence that while Abercrombie's second-quarter profits fell 134%, Aéropostale's are up 83%?
When and if the economy heats up again, perhaps shoppers will return to the so-called aspirational brands like Abercrombie. But don't bet on it. "Retailers don't realize that consumers are spending less and doing O.K. with it," says Beemer. According to Beemer's research, only 40% of men and 20% of women say they'll spend at high-end apparel stores again. "Abercrombie keeps working to protect their brand," says Beemer. "But when you keep seeing 30% sales declines, you're going to protect your brand into oblivion."


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by M. B. Miller
September ushers in the fall festival season in eastern Kentucky, and Alice Lloyd College is taking full advantage of that. ALC's Student Government Association is sponsoring a campus-wide carnival and cookout on Thursday, September 5th, beginning around 5:15 PM. China Riddle, the SGA President, is promising an exciting atmosphere of food, fun, prizes, and more.
The College's cafeteria, the Hunger Din, will provide all of the food for this event totally free to the students. Students will find a menu full of items common to fairgrounds: corn dogs, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, chili cheese fries, deep fried green beans, pretzels, popcorn, and a vast array of sweets like triple chocolate brownies, S'mores bars, and "Make Your Own" caramel apples. As students arrive at the Hunger Din, an SGA representative will give each of them a ticket for a door prize. The winners of the four door prizes will be announced from 7:15 to 8 PM. Prizes include free T-shirts from the college bookstore and vouchers to Miss Irma's Café.
After the carnival-themed dinner, students will be invited to spend their evening in various competitive events around campus. At 6 PM, there will be a cornhole tournament on Miss June's Lawn (in front of Miss June's Guest House). Games of Paint Twister — only washable paint will be used! — will also take place. First through third place winners will receive either a Walmart or iTunes gift card.
Over on the meadow, the SGA will host a 3-in-1 Sports Zone in which students can compete in football, basketball, and soccer. There will also be a setup for "zero gravity baseball." All of these activities will involve inflatables.
"We will have SGA members at these events in the meadow," China Riddle said. "Students can participate in the games for $1. For that amount, they receive unlimited game play. All of the money we collect will be used to fund next month's Halloween dance."
Sign-up sheets for the games are posted in the Davis Student Center.


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Movie Reviews
In Paris, Misery And Music Blended For The Big Screen
Les Miserables
- Director: Tom Hooper
- Genre: Musical
- Running time: 157 minutes
Rated PG-13 for suggestive and sexual material, violence and thematic elements
With: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway
Half an hour into Tom Hooper's adaptation of the long-running stage musical Les Miserables, he fixes his camera on Anne Hathaway's tortured, tear-streaked face, and she delivers what ought to become one of the great moments in musical cinema history — right up there with Dorothy singing wistfully of a land far away, Gene Kelly swinging happily around damp lamp poles, and a problem like Maria singing to the grassy Austrian hillsides. She's that good.
It's also Hathaway's last big moment in the movie, as the single-mother-turned-prostitute Fantine, who dies early in the story. It's a testament to the performances delivered by the actors in the film's bigger roles that the remaining two hours aren't spent wishing for more Fantine.
It's also a testament to the strength of Claude-Michel Schonberg's music that everything after the show-stopping lament of Fantine's "I Dreamed a Dream" doesn't come across as so much padding.
Watch Clips
'My Daughter'
'Who Am I?'
'On My Own'
Schonberg's diverse songwriting has always been the show's greatest asset, matching the impressively epic scope of the story — adapted from Victor Hugo's gargantuan historical novel about the lives of a number of interconnected characters in the years leading up to the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris — with an equally impressive range of musical styles. Huge patriotic anthems coexist alongside wistful love songs, comic barroom pieces with tragic laments, the joints smoothed over by the composer's habit of frequently echoing themes and familiar bits of melody. There's plenty of opportunity for those musical quotes too, as the work is nearly devoid of spoken dialogue, through-sung with recitative sections connecting the larger pieces.
Hooper makes some interesting casting decisions, blending accomplished musical theater actors with some not known for their voices. Broadway veteran Hugh Jackman takes on the central role of Jean Valjean, the honorable ex-con around whom all these other lives seem to revolve. Samantha Barks is the only actor here to reprise a role she played onstage, as Eponine,the daughter of two crooked innkeepers — Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen, in excellently conceived comic casting. Hathaway stands out as an actor not generally associated with musicals; others in that category not so much, like the slightly too-warbly Amanda Seyfried as Fantine's daughter Cosette, and thin-voiced Eddie Redmayne as the revolutionary romantic Marius, who falls for her. Then again, their love-at-first-sight romance is the least interesting subplot of the film, so it's difficult for them to rise above the blandness of their story.
The biggest surprise though may be Russell Crowe as Javert, the dogged inspector who tracks Valjean over the 17 years covered by the film. At first listen, Crowe sounds miscast, a barroom singer put on a stage too large. Yet his brutish vocal presence tends to fit Javert, who is in many ways the movie's most fascinating character, a man who plays an instrument of blind justice when he's really carrying out a lifetime of revenge for the sins of his parents. His transformation from emotionless oppressor to penitent man is the film's most significant character journey, and a fitting personal face for the political strife that forms the story's backdrop.
Part of the success of the performances in the film owes greatly to Hooper's decision to record the actors singing on set, rather than have them lip-sync to pre-recorded tracks, the usual method for filming musicals. The technique works exactly as intended: The actors, freed from having to match a vocal performance from weeks or months prior, are able to live in the moment. The impact on the emotional immediacy of the songs is striking.
Unfortunately, if Hooper is to take credit for what that technique adds to the film, he also takes the fall for failing to match that innovation visually. Too many songs are shot in long, single-shot close-ups of the actor singing; the intent may have been to further showcase the performance (and to keep the actors from running out of breath — witness Redmayne's dodgy vocal performance while forced to walk and sing during "In My Life"), but in practice it makes the movie visually static when everything about it is constantly moving. It takes an expansive epic and stuffs it into a too-restrictive frame.
The movie also suffers somewhat from the obvious skimping on digital effects. Digital backdrops and establishing shots are used frequently, and none look convincing. When Javert walks the edge of the Parisian rooftops during "Stars," it's difficult to take the danger seriously when it's so obvious he's only at risk of falling onto a green screen covered over with digital images.
Luckily, it's hard to concentrate on anything but Crowe in that moment, as he delivers one of his best performances in recent memory here. That's how it goes with the rest of the movie too, as the music and the magnetic performances make many of the directorial missteps fade into the background.


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Hiya folks, hope you had a lovely weekend ! Today I'll show you my step by step for the hand painted trellis pattern on our wall in our bedroom.
I wanted something elegant behind our headboard but also dramatic with a hint of shimmer. My original idea was to use wallpaper with a subtle metallic pattern, but when I saw Kristen's wall featured on YHL a few weeks ago, I decided to this was a much easier (and cheaper) way to add the large scale design I wanted without the expense of wallpaper.
This 13' x 9' feature wall was not difficult, but it did take a lot of patience. I created my own stencil, sketched the pattern on the wall, and then filled in the lines with acrylic craft paint, all in about six hours.
Supplies: poster board; utility knife or sharp blade; silver colored pencil; level; painter's tape; craft paint; artist's Filbert paintbrush.
How To:
To create the stencil, I found the pattern to inspire me from the lattice pattern rug in my living room. I traced half of the basic pattern onto a piece of poster board, then cut it with a utility knife. I folded the poster board in half (vertically) to trace the other half of the pattern and to make sure the left side and ride side of the pattern were symmetrical, then I cut the other half of the pattern.
You can see the fold in the middle of the poster board in the picture below. I avoided cutting a small portion of the pattern to keep the inside border connected to the outside border.
I started in the upper right corner of the wall, secured the stencil with painter's tape, then traced the first link of the pattern. I worked my way down the wall, using a level each time to keep the stencil straight.
I used a silver colored pencil to lightly trace the pattern on the wall ~ the metallic pencil blended better with the acrylic paint than a standard lead pencil.
I also marked the edge of the stencil as I worked my way down to keep it vertically straight.
Tracing the entire pattern took about 2 hours ~ once you get going you'd be surprised how quickly you can trace a repeating pattern like this.
I chose to use acrylic craft paint in 'Metallic Taupe' (available at Michaels) because it was a pretty champagne color, and cheaper than gloss paint! Although you could use the gloss version of your base paint for a subtle effect, or a pearlescent paint like this one. One bottle of $2 dollar craft paint covered the entire wall ~ my other tool was a high quality Filbert paintbrush.
Once the pattern was traced on the wall, I simply filled in the lines with paint. If you have an 'oops' moment ~ and I had plenty ~ just keep a damp rag close by to correct your little imperfections . . .
Total time to paint the entire pattern with two coats of the craft paint was about 3.5 to 4 hours.
Need more pattern inspiration ?
Here's just a few more repeating graphics that could be reproduced with a little paint and a lot of patience!!
Images: Graham & Brown; Thibaut; Massucco Warner Miller; Ballard Designs; York Wallcoverings
What's the next project you're planning with paint ?


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Helena Martin is co-founder of the new foraging website, RipeNearMe. Born in Singapore, she has lived in Malaysia, Sydney, and now Adelaide, South Australia. She does her best to forage wherever she goes.
My love affair with fruit goes back a long way. Our property had many fruit trees and I climbed almost all of them in spite of insect bites and other hazards. As kids, we were the best neighbourhood foragers although our fearlessness often landed us in trouble.
Neighbours were receptive to us kids, although I have now knocked on many doors and offered to pay for fruit and have been told to help myself. People tell me they would rather see the food eaten than rot on the ground as they don't know what to do with the surplus.
Our modus operandi was, and still is, to scour the neighbourhood for anything edible and keep a record of what's around. (I no longer climb fences so I can't always see what is grown in the back, although I do ask). We had been warned about what fruit was edible and, if in doubt, to leave well alone. We sussed out the friendly neighbours and gave the unfriendly ones a wide berth.
Nowadays I drive and can go further but my MO remains the same. In the 10 km radius of where I live I can source 80% of my favourite fruit, mostly for free, for a token sum, or in exchange for my own homegrown produce. There are also fruit trees in community gardens and public areas. Today we feasted on sweet public mulberries, picked off the trees and straight into our mouths. Life doesn't get better than this.
Eveyone can get in on the foraging action
What to Bring
On serious foraging days, foragers should be ready with bags, trolleys with wheels if required, an extendable fruit picker or ladder and good shoes if fruit is high up. Of course since I find my fruit on RipeNearMe, I have contacted the growers and arranged for either swapping or purchase. In the heat of summer it can be thirsty work so I always have water in my car.
The Challenge
Trying not to eat the fruit as I pick is my greatest challenge as I think of the goodness coursing through my body from such freshness. It is not unusual for me to feel sick from consuming too much, but the taste is too good to bear and so the fruit finds its own path to my stomach. This is called lack of self-control and is pervasive amongst foragers, so don't feel bad about being a glutton. It is not only acceptable but encouraged amongst foragers and we all have tales to tell of when we went too far and paid the price – not funny at the time, but hilarious later.
Delicious foods can be had when you take the time to find them
Where to Find Food
So, where does the serious urban fruit forager go in the modern world? Fortunately today we have a plethora of options available to make sharing fresh produce easy, safe and fun.
Wild Foods: Foraging, of course, starts with wild foods. There's something inherently exotic about "wild" food. It's an adventure, with a dash of risk if you don't know what you're doing. With the right knowledge you can forge a track into a local forest, park or roadside verge and emerge with a bounty that makes your tummy sing – or grumble, at least. The trick is to do some research to make sure the land is safe (i.e. not been sprayed with herbicides or used for industrial purposes).
Learn From the Experts: Steve Brill's foraging tours of Manhattan's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, Swallow Tail Tours by Robin Kort, or ForageSF in San Francisco are ways one can get an introduction to foraging. In the UK, Abundance London as well as Food Safaries by Nick Saltmarsh and foraging courses by Robin Harford offer valuable insights. In Australia, naturalist Diego Bonetto and Doris Pozzi of Edible Weeds fame have been on the foraging scene for years talking sustainability to anyone who will listen.
Grow Your Own: Growing your own is the next evolutionary step in food gathering, just like our ancestors who moved from the forests to cultivated plains. If you've got a bit of sunlight, water and a place for soil, you've got room to grow food! There's enough how-to-grow information on the web to sink a ship, so we won't cover that here. What we will say is "get started!" It's easier than you think.
Share Land: If you don't have room to grow your own food, then you still have a few options. First, you could try to grow food on someone else's land. Sites like Sharing Backyards and Landshare allow you to find landowners with spare space willing to let happy gardeners grow a pear or two, and vice versa.
Beyond that, community gardens are becoming widespread in cities across the world. At the time of writing we're not aware of any resources mapping community gardens across the world, so check with your local council or jurisdiction. After all, what a great way to forage: rubbing shoulders with like-minded, albeit sweaty, friends.
Bring a fruit picker…or someone with a long reach
Share the Bounty
Now that you're growing food of your own to forage, what do you do with the excess? A common, global solution is local food swaps. Sites like the Food Swap Network help you find local groups and events to swap and share. The next best thing to picking fruit off the tree is picking fruit from the person who just picked the fruit off the tree.
Sharing backyard food makes an immense amount of sense. Growing your own food is always the most satisfying experience, but there is a limit to how much – and how much variety – you can grow. Leveraging your community and the space in your town we can all share in an immense bounty. In our town of Adelaide, South Australia, it's been estimated that the value of backyard fruit trees is well in excess of $1.5 million dollars per year. Imagine if we could double the amount of trees, all while ensuring none of it goes to waste.
The Ultimate Experience
If you want the ultimate foraging experience, you really need a way to get into peoples' yards (With permission of course – we're grown up now!). RipeNearMe provides that experience. You can begin your foraging online, and easily see what others are growing in your neighbourhood. Then it's just a matter of getting in touch with the grower to pick, buy or swap.
RipeNearMe also has the benefit of mapping wild or publicly-grown foods, so it can help you find and share what's freely available. Of course, common sense should prevail, and it's wise to ensure that you never take too much – either to the detriment of others missing out or the plant itself.
In Australia, plants grown in national parks and gardens, nature reserves, wetlands and state forests are protected and you can incur fines if you harvest without permission. In the wild there are creatures that may depend on this food for survival and we must always consider them first or risk disrupting the natural order of that environment.
When foraging, you sometimes have to get off the beaten path
Addicted to Foraging
For those of you embarking on fruit foraging let me warn you of its addiction, because once you taste fruit fresh off the tree you will be forever resentful of the tasteless imitators on supermarket shelves.
Like everything else, eating real fruit becomes a habit and foraging becomes exciting because sometimes you come upon heirloom varieties that look strange but taste heavenly. Sometimes the grower may even give you seeds or a graft in exchange for sharing produce.
There are nice surprises in foraging, not least of which is meeting neighbours and community and sharing information and news about life at large. What starts out as a search for fresh fruit becomes an adventure and when we forage for fruit what we find is a whole lot more.
Why not venture out now? Share your funny stories with us. You know you want to…
This article is cross posted with permission from Shareable.net.


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Senators to Watch on Immigration
If there weren't serious political skin in the immigration game, the Senate would not even be debating a framework to overhaul the system this week. But as it stands, senators are set to begin the formal deliberations Tuesday on a bipartisan framework.
And while passing legislation — or failing to do so — could have repercussions for the Republican Party nationally, individual senators of both parties are certain to face ramifications in their home states.
Here is a list of the senators to watch during the immigration proceedings and the political pressures they face back home:
Dean Heller, R-Nev.
Heller is, on paper, a perfect target for backers of the immigration bill: a lawmaker from a western state with a burgeoning Hispanic population who has shown a willingness to play ball on bipartisan issues.
Earlier this spring, Heller, who was appointed to the Senate in 2011 and won a full term last year, flirted with supporting a bipartisan background check agreement before backing away at the last minute.
But likely more important than Heller's legislative history are the current political demographics of Nevada, a now-purple state that went to President Barack Obama in 2012 by 6 points. According to exit polling, 19 percent of the presidential voters in the state were Latino, with 71 percent of Latinos voting Democratic.
Ted Cruz, R-Texas; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Perhaps there are no more fascinating in-state duos in the Senate than the Texas and Kentucky delegations. McConnell and Cornyn are the No. 1 and 2 Republicans in the Senate, respectively, and Cruz and Paul are two of the leading conservative voices who have brief, but strong, track records of being pains in leadership's side.
Cruz and Paul have hinted at larger national ambitions, with Paul expressing more openness to an immigration rewrite than Cruz. Cornyn and McConnell — both up for re-election in 2014 — have been taking cues from their junior senators. Cornyn, for example, was one of only three senators to vote against then-colleague John Kerry's bid to be secretary of State. Cruz, of course, was one of the others.
Texas is a state that for the moment is solidly red, but it's also a place where Democrats hope they can soon find themselves in the mix, largely because of the growing Hispanic population.
Patrick J. Toomey, R-Pa.
Toomey, the former Club for Growth president, has emerged in the past few years as one of the GOP's top deal-makers in the Senate, though admittedly, in this political climate, that's an easier title to acquire than it used to be.
As CQ Roll Call reported in April, Toomey was a lead co-sponsor of a failed background check bill and his push on the issue won him favor with many moderates at home — something political consultants already are saying he will need to win re-election in 2016.
Rob Portman, R-Ohio
The potential for Portman, who has met with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to discuss changes to the bill, to back the bipartisan measure will no doubt be of interest in his next political showdown — be it for the Senate or White House. He is a possible presidential contender, was on Mitt Romney's vice presidential short list in 2012, and is due to face voters in 2016 for re-election in the swing state of Ohio, which has voted for the presidential winner every four years since 1964.
Mark Pryor, D-Ark.; Mary L. Landrieu, D-La.; Kay Hagan, D-N.C.:
These three senators are ones to watch on nearly every major piece of legislation that comes up for a vote over the next year, and immigration is no different. Pryor, Landrieu and Hagan are three of the most vulnerable senators up in 2014, and — not including Virginia — they're the last three Senate Democrats from the South.
Pryor and Landrieu both voted against the 2007 immigration bill. Pryor and Hagan were two of five Democrats who voted against the DREAM Act in 2010.
They're all running in states Obama lost, while highlighting their independence from the national party.
Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
The first-term senator's role in both crafting the bill and selling it to conservatives was critical to an immigration bill having any reasonable chance of passing.
The potential 2016 presidential candidate essentially bet his near-term political future on championing a proposal that could be palatable to both skeptical Republican members and the growing bloc of Hispanic voters. GOP concerns over border enforcement and a path to citizenship for those already here threaten the bill's viability, while Rubio's standing in the Republican primary field will likely depend in part on the messaging that emerges from either the bill's success or failure.
John McCain, R-Ariz.; Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
McCain and Flake are 25 percent of the "gang of eight" and 100 percent of the Arizona delegation for good reason: Arizona is a red state moving toward purple thanks to a growing immigrant population and a migration of voters from other regions to the desert state.
Though Arizona went to Mitt Romney by 10 points, Republicans are anxious about the state's political future. Eighteen percent of the state's voters in 2012 were Latino, with 74 percent of those voters breaking toward Obama. More than a quarter of those who voted were under the age of 30.
Border security also will be a significant issue for these two, as Arizona borders Mexico directly and would be at the receiving end of much of the government's efforts. Immigration issues already are a sensitive subject in Arizona, where the state government in 2010 enacted SB 1070, the broadest and most stringent anti-immigration legislation in the nation.
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Among the gang of eight senators who crafted the bill, Graham is the only one up for re-election in 2014. While his final support for the legislation is not in doubt, the political ramifications of his leadership in the effort remain an unknown.
Graham entered the midterm elections as the Republican senator most vulnerable to a potential tea-party-inspired challenge to his right. So far, he's avoided a serious threat, but one could still come.
Still, his recent remarks make it sound like he's more concerned about how his party fares in the next presidential election. Graham told reporters last week that if the bill falls apart and Republicans catch the blame for it, "we're toast in 2016."


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Durham, NC – Tajh Boyd threw five touchdown passes for a second straight game, lifting the 10th-ranked Clemson Tigers over the Duke Blue Devils, 56-20.
Boyd completed 16-of-23 passes for 344 yards and three interceptions for the Tigers (8-1, 5-1 ACC), who have won five in a row since a loss to Florida State on Sept. 22. He also carried the ball nine times for 72 yards and a score.
DeAndre Hopkins caught four passes for 128 yards and three touchdowns for Clemson, which racked up 718 yards of total offense. Sammy Watkins hauled in six passes for 97 yards and a score.
The win moved Clemson into a tie with the Seminoles atop the ACC's Atlantic Division.
"I'm proud of our team. These guys just continue to respond and get better," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. "I'm proud of them for finishing tonight. This is kind of the end of our road season and it's only the second time in 15 years we've had four road wins. I'm real proud of our guys for that."
Sean Renfree connected on 23-of-39 passes for 240 yards and a touchdown for the Blue Devils (6-4, 3-3), who have dropped two straight. Jamison Crowder caught seven passes for 167 yards and a score.
"We wanted to bounce back after the Florida State game and come out and just compete," Crowder said. "As a result, though, we didn't compete as well as we should have. Now we just want to bounce back and look forward to two weeks from now to Georgia Tech."
All three of Hopkins' TD catches came in the first quarter. On the first possession of the game, Hopkins hauled in a 5-yard touchdown pass from Boyd.
After Ross Martin made a 46-yard field goal for Duke, Hopkins caught a 58-yard TD pass.
Crowder responded with a 77-yard TD catch to make it 14-10. But Hopkins' 45- yard touchdown catch gave Clemson a 21-10 lead with 4:49 left.
The Tigers started to pull away after Watkins' 30-yard TD catch near the end of the first quarter.
David Reeves of Duke caught a 17-yard TD pass from Brandon Connette early in the second stanza, cutting the gap to 28-17.
But Boyd responded with a touchdown pass and a rushing score to make it 42-17 at the break.
D.J. Howard's 1-yard TD run made it 49-17 midway through the third period. Martin made a 47-yard field goal with 1:56 left to make it a 29-point contest.
Charone Peake hauled in a 12-yard TD pass from Cole Stoudt in the fourth quarter.
Game Notes
Clemson holds a 36-16-1 series advantage all-time against Duke ... Boyd tied a school record with five touchdown passes against Wake Forest on Oct. 25 ... This was just the second game in Clemson history the Tigers had at least 300 yards rushing and 300 yards passing in the same game.


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#WorkTrends Twitter Chat
August 5, 2016
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It's easy! All you need is a Twitter account and the TalentCulture #WorkTrends hashtag. That's your all-access pass to dynamic weekly events and nonstop intelligence from the best minds in HR, leadership, learning, talent strategy and career management. So come on over…


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Taking of Gulltown
Taking of Gulltown | |||||||||||||||||
Conflict | Robert's Rebellion | ||||||||||||||||
Date | 282 AC | ||||||||||||||||
Place | Gulltown | ||||||||||||||||
Result | Rebel victory | ||||||||||||||||
The taking of Gulltown[1] was the first battle fought during Robert's Rebellion, or the War of the Usurper, in 282 AC.
After King Aerys II Targaryen executed Lord Rickard Stark and his heir, Brandon Stark, in King's Landing, he sent word to Lord Jon Arryn at the Eyrie to execute his wards, Eddard Stark, the new Lord of Winterfell, and Robert Baratheon, the Lord of Storm's End. Instead, Jon sent back only defiance.[2]
Ned Stark left the Eyrie to gather his bannermen from the north, while Lord Arryn began to call his own vassals from the Vale of Arryn in rebellion to the Iron Throne. The city of Gulltown remained loyal to the Targaryen dynasty, however, and rather than sailing from there Ned returned to the north via the Mountains of the Moon, the Fingers, and Sisterton.[1] Jon Arryn also faced opposition from loyalists attempting to bring him down.[2]
While Ned was making his way north, Lord Arryn led the rebel bannermen from the Vale against Gulltown, which was defended by House Grafton. Robert, a close friend of Ned, was the first of the rebels to gain the walls of Gulltown. Robert slew Lord Marq Grafton with his own hand.[1]
The taking of Gulltown by Jon Arryn allowed the Defender of the Vale to consolidate rebel control in the Vale of Arryn. Lyn Corbray won his knighthood fighting alongside House Grafton at the gates of Gulltown, but he joined Lord Arryn after the battle.[3] Lord Robert Baratheon returned to the stormlands to raise his own bannermen, which led to the battles at Summerhall.[4] Ned Stark survived the journey across the Bite and raised his northern bannermen.[1]
This Baratheon is fearless. He fights the way a king should fight.[1]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 9, Davos I.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Robert's Rebellion.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 23, Alayne I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 54, Davos V.


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The Blue Devils and Demon Deacons played a shootout last September in Winston-Salem. Sean Renfree and the Duke offense piled on 48 points, but fell to Wake Forest 55-48 on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Wake Forest has had the Blue Devils' number in recent years, winning the last 11 contests in the rivalry that dates back to 1889; in fact, Head Coach Jim Grobe has never lost to Duke during his tenure. The in-state rivals will clash again this fall, as the Blue Devils will play host to the Demon Deacons on October 22.
BDN is fortunate to have the help of Blogger So Dear to give us an excellent inside look at the 2011 Demon Deacons.
BDN: After finding themselves on top of the ACC in 2006, Wake Forest is now coming off back-to-back losing seasons in 2009 and 2010. What do the Demon Deacons need to do to return to bowl eligibility in 2011? With Wake Forest picked to finish last in the ACC Atlantic Division again, is it conceivable that Head Coach Jim Grobe could be on the hot seat?
BSD: For Wake to get back to a bowl game this year we will need to make sure that we establish a solid running game and that quarterback Tanner Price stays healthy. Last season the Deacs were caught up in formation changes half way through the year on defense as we moved from a conventional 4-3 to a more exotic 3-4, which provides a different look at the line of scrimmage. Since this change was made half way through the year, and implemented for the first time at the Maryland game (a 5+ touchdown loss), Wake had some struggles on the defensive side of the ball that were hopefully a one season issue. Numbers-wise for Wake to make a bowl our best chances come by beating Syracuse, N.C. State, Gardner-Webb, Maryland, Duke, and Vandy. Of those games, only the Syracuse and Duke games are on the road. It will be difficult to get to six wins simply because of the strength of our schedule. Aside from Gardner-Webb our three OOC games are Vanderbilt, Syracuse, and Notre Dame. We also are unfortunate that we have Virginia Tech and Florida State at home in back to back weeks which are almost assuredly losses as strong as those teams look this year. If those teams were both on the road or even one of them were on the road perhaps we would have an easier game to get a W in from the confines of BB&T Field.
I don't really think Grobe would be on the hot seat after this year unless we see the same type season as we did last year. While 3-9 is not desirable it's realistic that Wake Forest is going to have years which are akin to last year. The major criticism that came from the fan base was the way in which we were completely non-competitive in a majority of games. After the Duke game and a 2-0 start, we lost 9 games in a row, most of which were by double digits. If we go something like 1-11 and only beat Gardner-Webb I certainly think his seat would be at least luke warm.
BDN: The Blue Devils and Demon Deacons both finished at the bottom of the ACC in defense in 2010, and the teams' defensive struggles were exemplified in their September 11th 55-48 shootout. Duke is hopeful that a group of young redshirt-freshmen will improve their defensive depth and effectiveness in 2011. With 9 starters returning, what improvements are expected for the Wake Forest defense? What questions remain heading into training camp?
BSD: Like I alluded to earlier, Wake struggled last year on the defensive side of the ball because of the jump we made to the 3-4 halfway through the season. So far this season the defense has looked better in preseason practices, and has really made some strides to get to a competitive level. The 3-4 provides a completely different look up front than the 4-3, an advantage against teams from the get go. A large number of teams in college run the 4-3 look and offenses are used to lining up against it. The 3-4 provides an additional linebacker to the front level and really varies the different ways the blitz can be brought. From the offense's perspective it can be daunting as there are always seven guys in the box and you never know which side the blitz is coming from or how many guys are coming in on the rush. I'm not expecting Wake to shut everyone out, but I wouldn't expect Wake and Duke to have a 55-48 shootout when we meet this year in Durham either.
BDN: While the two programs had similar struggles defensively in 2010, Duke and Wake Forest were mirror images of each other on offense. While the Blue Devils were able to move the ball through the air, the Demon Deacons stuck to the ground, led by Josh Harris and Tanner Price. What are the expectations for Harris and Price in their second season of ACC football? What are the keys for the offense to be more consistent in 2011?
BSD: Yeah, both the Deacons and the Devils were able to have at least some consistency on the offensive side of the ball. The biggest question for Wake this year is going to be just that: how consistently will we be able to move the ball downfield? Price and Harris are both sophomores. Harris has the additional experience of a redshirt year, but Price came onto campus late last July and was the starter a month and a half later. Experience is always going to be an issue for quarterbacks where studying tape and just playing the game counts for so much. The key for Wake though aside from these guys is going to have to be the offensive line. While it's anchored by an experienced group it has really struggled to open up holes for the running game and to adequately protect Tanner. If Price has time to drop back, set his feet, and throw he is deadly accurate, but he simply didn't have that opportunity much last year. The receiving corps is set up well with senior Danny Dembry as the most likely go to target as a possession guy, junior Chris Givens and sophomore Michael Campanaro as the flankers, and then freshmen Matt James and Brandon Terry as compliments to Dembry as bigger, possession-type receivers. If the line can get some leverage up front, our offense has the potential to be a real threat this year.
BDN: At this year's ACC Football Kickoff, OG Joe Looney declared the Blue Devils as the Demon Deacons' biggest rival. From the Duke perspective, the Blue Devils need to start beating their in-state ACC rivals to take the next step forward as a program. Can you describe this rivalry from Wake Forest's perspective? With all of their recent success against the Blue devils, why do you think the Wake Forest fans and players consider Duke to be their top rival over other ACC programs?
BSD: Since Grobe got to Wake, we have had a ton of success against in-state opponents and it really was one of the keys to Wake's bowl run a couple of years ago. When I was growing up my view of the Wake-Duke game was that it was a futility battle. No offense to either programs, but I remember a handful of games where the teams combined didn't have more than 2 or 3 wins so it was always a question mark as to what would happen. The 2006 game with you guys is generally viewed as the most pivotal moment of the season. Had Vaughn not blocked that field goal as time expired to preserve Wake's 14-13 win, we certainly would not have gone to the Orange Bowl or won the ACC that year. To be blunt though, it is a game that right now I always expect to win. Obviously the 11 game winning streak (dating back throughout Grobe's entire tenure) will have to end sometime and this year is just as likely as any of them. Wake typically handles Duke fairly well at Wallace Wade though, and a struggle at BB&T. Looney probably considers Duke to be Wake's biggest rival from a recruiting vantage point, as well as the fact that we have had so much recent success. Both Wake and Duke are battling the same problems in football: small school, lack of a football history, and being in a state where UNC, NC State, and App State, are the first schools thought of when football fans think of North Carolina. For Wake or Duke to be successful on the ACC level I believe they must be successful within the state first and foremost since at least two of the eight conference games every year are against a team from North Carolina.
BDN: The Blue Devils and Demon Deacons are one of the oldest rivalries within the ACC, with the two programs having first met in 1889, with Duke holding a 53-36-2 all-time record, despite Wake Forest's current 11-game winning streak in the series. In the last few years, it seems that every game between the two schools has come down to the final possession. What do you expect to see from this year's matchup on October 22nd in Durham?
BSD: I always love watching Wake play Duke, as I said anything can happen and the games are typically exciting (if not nerve-wracking). While it's pretty early to make a prediction, I honestly believe that Wake will win this one and stretch the winning streak to 12. I'll certainly be there on October 22nd to watch the game as it's just a short drive down 40 and tickets are easy to come by. I think that it will probably be another high scoring game as it always is when the teams meet, and that it will probably once again come down to the final possession. Wake needs to force some turnovers, run some zone blitzes to keep Renfree from being able to set his feet and throw deep, and establish a running game to get the victory. I'll make my way-too-early guess though: 38-34 Wake on a late touchdown run by Harris.
BDN: Thanks so much for answering our questions. Good luck this season!
Previous game: Florida State at Duke, October 15
Next game: Virginia Tech at Duke, October 29


text:
I've recently started saving homescreen links to various Stack Exchange sites on my iPhone. All of them look great, but the Super User icon, having dark gray on dark gray, looks like it's only half of the logo when viewed from a regular distance on the small phone screen.
Here is a screenshot of various logos, blown up to show the SU logo with more contrast.
(Just like cereal boxes!)
It's certainly not an urgent issue and it isn't anything that impedes the site's use, but I believe that if the Super User iPhone Home Screen Icon had a white background it would be more iconic and certainly more pleasing to the eye.
Note that nearly a year later, after Arqade (Gaming) and Role-Playing got new icons, the Super User icon is still the same.


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Zeeuwse Bolussen by Freerk
I was so inspired today by Freerk's post about this 15th Century bread, well I just dropped everything I was doing and made a batch. The video recipe is inspired genius in my humble opinion. Very stylish and well thought out. My wife inquired if this was a dessert. I smiled and said no, just a snack:>)
These are fun to make, easy and fast. They are also history as they disappeared quickly. I highly recommend giving these a try. I backed these for 9 minutes. Any longer and they would start getting crusty. I did sprinkle some sugar topping over each piece just before baking.
Thank you Freerk for sharing this wonderful old recipe.
These are a little out of order but you will get the idea.
Just baked
Proofed and ready for bake.
The 1/4 sheet pan is perfect for these. They fit nicely in the proofer.
I pre shaped them and used a mid stage after coating the ropes in sugar mix. I found I needed an 18 inch rope to easily tie the knots. If you look at the far right you can see the coated ropes waiting to be stretched and knotted.
The second layer of proofing rolls.


text:
Notice Number: NOT-CA-07-021
Key Dates
Release Date: August 23, 2007
Issued by
National Cancer Institute (NCI) (http://www.cancer.gov/)
The National Cancer Institute's Cancer Imaging Program announces the forthcoming reissuance of the Request for Applications (RFA) for the Network for Translational Research in Optical Imaging (NTROI). The reissue of the NTROI RFA has been approved by the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors, as an open competition. A total of $24 million in NCI funding has been set aside for the NTROI program over a 5-year period.
The new RFA is expected to be published in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts in September 2007 as RFA-CA-08-002 (Note: link will become active only after RFA release). This RFA will support a continuation of the NTROI program previously initiated under RFA-CA-03-002, which was released on August 27, 2002. The NTROI program will continue to involve use of the NIH U54 cooperative agreement funding mechanism.
The reissued NTROI program will support inter-disciplinary, multi-institutional research teams to develop, optimize, validate, and translate imaging technology platforms and methods. The teams will be linked into a network to facilitate sharing of ideas and methods. Goals are expanded from those of the original NTROI program with updated strategies to incorporate a broad set of emerging imaging platforms that include multi-modal imaging systems, with emphasis on consensus validation, rather than development, of such platforms.
To be eligible, prospective applicants must form a team of researchers from at least two different institutions and propose to integrate and validate at least one multi-modal imaging platform in which at least one imaging or spectroscopic system is based on an optical technique. Industrial participation is encouraged because the intent is to translate these platforms into clinical settings, with progression to commercial systems as potential outcomes.
As a result of the reissuance of the planned RFA, the NCI anticipates selection of four research teams through an open competition application process.
APPLICATIONS ARE NOT BEING SOLICITED AT THIS TIME. However, this Notice is to encourage investigators with appropriate backgrounds and capabilities to pro-actively plan to submit applications in response to the forthcoming RFA.
A pre-submission meeting will be scheduled in or near Bethesda, Maryland, approximately 1 month after publication of the RFA in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. The exact date for submission of applications has not yet been determined. Details for this meeting will be published in another Notice in the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts and will also be announced on the Cancer Imaging Program web site at http://imaging.cancer.gov.
The field of in vivo imaging uses a number of technologies that differ widely, e.g., in their physical principles, types of molecular probes employed, and/or other fundamental aspects. Whereas each individual technology has specific strengths and weaknesses, advances in imaging and spectroscopy today increasingly include combinations of imaging techniques to create multi-modality imaging platforms. Examples include PET-CT, PET-MRI, and MRI-Ultrasound. The NTROI program will require each team to include one primary project that combines an optical method for molecular, functional, and/or anatomical imaging or spectroscopy with other complementary imaging or spectroscopic technologies.
The complexities of integrating these imaging suites are offset by the potential for increased performance in terms of sensitivity and specificity for screening, diagnosis, image-guided intervention, and treatment monitoring. There is a need to develop methods for the physical characterization, validation, and quality assurance of these multi-modal platforms to predict their performance in pre-clinical and clinical settings. This validation, defined as the correlation of in vivo image results across various platforms using common targets, may require imaging and/or spectroscopic studies of multiple parameters (including anatomical, functional, and molecular aspects). Such studies may require the use of appropriate combinations of phantoms, small animal models, and in vitro models. This validation aspect is essential to all projects proposed for funding under the NTROI program.
Research teams that apply to the NTROI RFA are expected to define a problem in clinical cancer imaging and propose a solution. The challenge can be focused by a choice of organ site (e.g., breast, colon, prostate, etc.) or by choice of cancer biomarker (e.g., angiogenesis, gene expression, cellular proliferation, or hypoxia). Problems for address may pertain to pre-cancer, early cancer detection, diagnosis, staging, measurement of early response to therapy, or improved image guidance of therapeutic interventions including surgical, energy deposition, or drug delivery techniques. A prospective team is encouraged to focus its multi-modal solution that includes optical imaging and/or spectroscopy on a target cancer problem.
Teams selected after completion of the NIH process of peer review will form a network, through which extensive collaborations and sharing of processes and validation methods are expected to take place. A Steering Committee formed by participants from each of the network teams and NCI scientists will oversee NTROI activities.
Inquiries and Further Information
Details on the NTROI concept approved by the Board of Scientific Advisors (BSA) of the NCI will be posted on the Cancer Imaging Program web site at http://imaging.cancer.gov.
Complete information on the NTROI program will be available in RFA-CA-08-002, which is expected to be published in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts in September 2007 (Note: the link to this RFA will be activated after RFA release). Prospective applicants are encouraged to check the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts for the Guide Notice of RFA publication as well as another Guide Notice to provide details on the NTROI pre-submission meeting.
For any additional inquiries, please contact:
Dr. Houston Baker
Program Director
Cancer Imaging Program
Division of Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
National Cancer Institute
6130 Executive Boulevard, Room 6060, MSC 7412
Bethesda, MD 20892-7412 (for U.S. Postal Service Express or regular mail)
Rockville, MD 20852-4910 (for non-USPS express/courier delivery)
Telephone: (301) 594-9117
Fax: (301) 480-3507
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Weekly TOC for this Announcement
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices
Office of Extramural Research (OER) |
National Institutes of Health (NIH) 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20892 |
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) |
Note: For help accessing PDF, RTF, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Audio or Video files, see Help Downloading Files. |


text:
7-Eleven Ups Franchising Fee Discount for Veterans
DALLAS – 7-Eleven Inc. increased its franchising-fee discount for qualified veterans who have left the service in the last five years to 20 percent, capped at $50,000. The convenience store chain will continue to offer a 10-percent discount to all other military veterans who meet its franchisee qualifications.
Recognized as "military friendly" by multiple veterans' organizations and publications, 7-Eleven first instituted the incentive for retired and separated veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces in 2009.
"More than 100,000 veterans are expected to retire this year," stated Greg Franks, 7-Eleven's vice president of franchise systems, "and we believe 7-Eleven offers an excellent opportunity for those who dream of owning their own business. Experience has shown us that veterans have the leadership traits, work ethic and organization skills to succeed in our business."
Military personnel who served on active duty anytime since September 2001 can face greater employment challenges than civilians and older veterans, according to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor. Veteran entrepreneurship offers an opportunity in which retired and honorably discharged service personnel can use their skills to control their financial destiny, according to the retailer.
7-Eleven also offers careers in a variety of fields to qualified veterans.


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That's oh-be-GUY-n, not oh-be-GIN, as some (primarily people from Texas) would like to refer to my chosen profession. Although, working in this field can sometimes cause one to develop a penchant for gin...hmmm.
Friday, September 23, 2011
She's Complicated
I went into Obstetrics and Gynecology precisely because I enjoy caring for the(complicated, difficult) female patient. I would not do anything else, but I would be absolutely lying if I said it wasn't without its difficulties. For the record, I happen to find male patients, no offense guys, infinitely more simple in many ways, but less likely to follow any directed care of a physician unless there is fear of loss of life or, ahem, other *important* functions. In my interactions with male patients, there was little extraneous conversation, merely exam, diagnosis, suggestion for treatment (which they may or may not decide to take, but they certainly weren't going to ask you any questions about it). Women patients, quite simply, are different. They do require a lot more communication; not just about the reason for certain symptoms that they may be feeling, but also for the rationale behind the treatments to alleviate the symptoms.
Usually, this is not a problem for me, being a woman myself, particularly verbose ("talks too much" was a very popular comment on my report cards sent home from school), and, not to mention, I happen to like explaining physiologic changes in a way that women can understand and to which they can relate. However, sometimes something as relatively facile as communication can cross the line. At times, it can be repetitive and monotonous (likely not so different from other jobs). At other times, I feel as though I am speaking a script, word for word. Sometimes, it can be frustrating (for both the patient and myself), because no matter how I frame the explanation, I cannot communicate my point. Most of all, it can become emotionally draining. Women routinely tell me things that would feasibly make most people's ears burn, make me worried for them, and sometimes bring me to the brink of tears. I have an impeccable poker face, but over time the walls get chipped away and I find myself unable to stop bringing my work home with me.
I suppose it is a good thing to be human, but in medicine it is important to remain detached in order to stay objective and to provide good care. It is a difficult balance between being connecting with the patient without becoming emotionally *involved* with the patient. This is difficult and soul-grinding, especially for those of us who have a tendency to try to "fix" people. It is a burden I more than willingly shoulder every. single. day, but honestly connecting with patients can be good for them and harder for me. I'm not willing to stop doing it, but to say that it shouldn't affect me emotionally is far more presumption than I would have the wherewithal to make from the outside looking in. In summation, saying that women are "difficult and complicated" patients is not meant as an insult or to "generalize" women, it is simply a statement that I find to be true, not only of my patients, but of myself, as well.
14 comments:
Why can't you cry when they tell you bad things? It is just, sometimes a point gets across better when emotions are allowed.. I know I know, you don't want them turning around and treating you but if you are afraid for them then tell them, if it makes you tear up say so.
I don't expect my doctors to be blank, they're people - and perfection isn't ideal, an identified ideal outcome with concerted effort to reach it is (since everything is a moving target anyway and resilience and dynamic response is needed).
Just saying. - 9/23/2011 11:53 PM
I absolutely "get" this post as a physician. I have the advantage of comparing my male and female patients as I am in family practice. It's not a generalization - it just is what it is!!
And to the commenter above, the physician needs to be an objective force in their patients lives. The poker face is an essential part of our practice. Not that it isn't broken, but if I did allow all my interactions to touch me deeply or if I could not remain detached, I'm pretty sure practicing medicine would kill me. It's very difficult to explain the emotional burden of physicians and many times we remain detached not only to survive but also to give the best, objective care to our patients. There are still times we cry and show our patients our true reponse but it is a carefully guarded thing. - 9/24/2011 8:04 AM
- Iowa Sunshine said...
Dr. Whoo - I think even with your delicate balance, poker face and setting healthy boundaries with patients, you continue to be and are seen as human. I find similar aspects of what you shared within my work as a mental health therapist. Thank you for taking the time to write ... you have a beautiful writing style and powerful, thought-provoking posts. Enjoy your weekend!
After being a CNM for 25 yrs, I don't think I could do it without a meditation/mindfulness practice every day. I find I hold others' pain in a softer way and take less of it home. I celebrate the small ways we(clients/myself) find joy and health in our lives. I rarely cry with clients with the exception of a fetal/infant death. With deep listening, I am very present but also attached in a lighter way. Thank you for the healing you do in women's lives.
- Michael said...
"In my interactions with male patients, there was little extraneous conversation, merely exam, diagnosis, suggestion for treatment (which they may or may not decide to take, but they certainly weren't going to ask you any questions about it)."
That's not been my experience at all.
You sure this is true about the patients and not just your experience because you weren't able to engender a sense of trust and cooperation with patients of a different gender and ages when you were a young female medical student?
For example, your description might be an accurate description of the reaction I got when seeing men at a VA or women in a maternity clinic. Both appeared distant and cold, but when the men learned I was also a veteran or the women that I was raising a child on my own, suddenly both the social and the medical relationship changed to much more open and engaging. - 9/24/2011 7:57 PM
Libby, you are so right. After 30 years of family medicine, women and men are generally different in the ways described above but there are certainly excpetions. The poker face is just part of the job. And like you, if I hadn't learned to be detached this job would have done me in for sure.
- MS4 said...
Thank you for sharing your personal experiences and perspectives! :) At the end of the day, this is YOUR blog isn't it?! (so if anyone has beef... they can just close the browser, in my opinion)
I really enjoy reading your thoughts on practicing women's health, as I am very interested in specializing in OB/Gyn (I am an MS2). Again, thank you for your honesty and insight! - 9/25/2011 2:20 AM
- J said...
Hi there,
I'm a 4th year med student who just took the dive into committing to OB! Waiting on interviews now. I just came across your blog, and I look forward to catching up on it. None of my OB mentors have offered any insight into how their career has affected their personal lives. Thank you for offering your experiences to us. - 9/27/2011 9:53 AM
- Fizzy said...
Just read this post. I see equal numbers of male and female patients and I'm not sure I agree. I've had SO many talkative male patients. My most memorable continuity clinic patient from residency was a guy who would always come in with The List of Problems, and the list would always be ridiculous. One time he went into this I'm a Little Teacup pose, and said, "Doc, it hurts when I do this." I swear to god.
This is an interesting topic though. I may quote you on my blog, if that's okay. - 10/01/2011 9:27 PM
- Dr. G said...
Dr. Whoo - thank you for this post. I agree with you 100% - and yet, this does not make me want to go into a different specialty. Women's health is where we are meant to be, regardless of what that entails or brings with it.
- OB GYN Woodstock GA said...
I think these things can be cyclical. Sometimes you'll have a period of time with a lot of emotional patients, then maybe move toward angry patients. In any case, there's a big danger in generalizing based on any classification, including gender, because you can't really anticipate how many differences there can be.
- LauraT said...
I think your generalization about male patients vs. female patients is true. Women are more challenging! That being said, I was so happy to see the look of satisfaction on my female FP doctor's face when she told me that, "You're the kind of patient I went into medicine for." I had just lost about 60 pounds, had started to exercise regularly and was seeking to lower my antidepressant medication. I think I made her day. Yeah!
One reason you don't cry is because the person in the next room expects to see a happy perky doctor. So, to get through your day you push your emotions aside then close a door and let the tears flow. You feel really fake. Sometimes numb. Sometimes overwhelmed with the sorrow you carry for your patients, especially if you get attached. If you spend time crying with one you can't just say to the next "sorry I'm running behind, I just diagnosed a stillbirth (or miscarriage or cancer), but how are you today". Sometimes I think the reason so many doctors have poor bedside manner is because the ones that actually feel emotion burnout earlier.
First let me start by saying, and seconding, that I too think you have a very powerful way of writing and thought-provoking voice. Although I am not a doctor or med student I have been a patient from a young age and have experienced many different "bedside" manners. My first surgery was done by my male gyn at the age of 12 and he was my hero. Not only because he saved my life (how to you ever repay or express your gratefulness for that?)but also because he treated me like a person, not a child. Granted there were times that HSM (high self monitoring) could have been better as some of the facial expressions when discovering my issue, the sense of actionable urgency gave me slight anxiety. But that said thank goodness that he did not tear up or get emotional. That is not what I would want at 12 or, I would think, at any age. That would not give me a larger sense of confidence in my own concerns or their ability to help. Personally I prefer medical professionals to be calm, logical, honest, objective, analytical, have adaptable communication skills, and most importantly intelligence and experience. Having a doctor with great interpersonal skills and making me feel like I am important and treats me with mutual respect is always a bonus. I do often ask the whys and hows with docs but there are times I have experienced doctors that talk excessively, some just redundantly (almost to the point of insult...yes I understood the last two times you said it in a slightly different way:) It is nice to build a rapport, etc., but starts me thinking, do they have other patients right now? Also there is excessive talking and I only speak a sentence. And I am a patient person but do not respond well to being "talked at". Those to me are flags that sway me to believe they are unable to understand or participate in basic communication. And if they cannot do that...is that a sign of other intelligent flaws? (this may be a "slippery general slope" I know but hard to avoid thinking). In my personal and professional experience I, for the majority, communicate more easily with men. I am fairly certain it has something to do with growing up with three older brothers and a very practical father:)
Diet Tracker - 8/17/2012 7:20 PM