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Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is characterized by progressive liver injury, inflammation, and fibrosis; however, the mechanisms that govern the transition from hepatic steatosis, which is relatively benign, to NASH remain poorly defined. Neuregulin 4 (Nrg4) is an adipose tissue–enriched endocrine factor that elicits beneficial metabolic effects in obesity. Here, we show that Nrg4 is a key component of an endocrine checkpoint that preserves hepatocyte health and counters diet-induced NASH in mice. Nrg4 deficiency accelerated liver injury, fibrosis, inflammation, and cell death in a mouse model of NASH. In contrast, transgenic expression of Nrg4 in adipose tissue alleviated diet-induced NASH. Nrg4 attenuated hepatocyte death in a cell-autonomous manner by blocking ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of c-FLIPL, a negative regulator of cell death. Adeno-associated virus–mediated (AAV-mediated) rescue of hepatic c-FLIPL expression in Nrg4-deficent mice functionally restored the brake for steatosis to NASH transition. Thus, hepatic Nrg4 signaling serves as an endocrine checkpoint for steatosis-to-NASH progression by activating a cytoprotective pathway to counter stress-induced liver injury.
Liang Guo, Peng Zhang, Zhimin Chen, Houjun Xia, Siming Li, Yanqiao Zhang, Sune Kobberup, Weiping Zou, Jiandie D. Lin
Overconsumption of high-fat diet (HFD) and sugar-sweetened beverages are risk factors for developing obesity, insulin resistance, and fatty liver disease. Here we have dissected mechanisms underlying this association using mice fed either chow or HFD with or without fructose- or glucose-supplemented water. In chow-fed mice, there was no major physiological difference between fructose and glucose supplementation. On the other hand, mice on HFD supplemented with fructose developed more pronounced obesity, glucose intolerance, and hepatomegaly as compared to glucose-supplemented HFD mice, despite similar caloric intake. Fructose and glucose supplementation also had distinct effects on expression of the lipogenic transcription factors ChREBP and SREBP1c. While both sugars increased ChREBP-β, fructose supplementation uniquely increased SREBP1c and downstream fatty acid synthesis genes, resulting in reduced liver insulin signaling. In contrast, glucose enhanced total ChREBP expression and triglyceride synthesis but was associated with improved hepatic insulin signaling. Metabolomic and RNA sequence analysis confirmed dichotomous effects of fructose and glucose supplementation on liver metabolism in spite of inducing similar hepatic lipid accumulation. Ketohexokinase, the first enzyme of fructose metabolism, was increased in fructose-fed mice and in obese humans with steatohepatitis. Knockdown of ketohexokinase in liver improved hepatic steatosis and glucose tolerance in fructose-supplemented mice. Thus, fructose is a component of dietary sugar that is distinctively associated with poor metabolic outcomes, whereas increased glucose intake may be protective.
Samir Softic, Manoj K. Gupta, Guo-Xiao Wang, Shiho Fujisaka, Brian T. O'Neill, Tata Nageswara Rao, Jennifer Willoughby, Carole Harbison, Kevin Fitzgerald, Olga Ilkayeva, Christopher B. Newgard, David E. Cohen, C. Ronald Kahn
The mechanisms that regulate cell death and inflammation play an important role in liver disease and cancer. Receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) induces apoptosis and necroptosis via kinase-dependent mechanisms and exhibits kinase-independent prosurvival and proinflammatory functions. Here, we have used genetic mouse models to study the role of RIPK1 in liver homeostasis, injury, and cancer. While ablating either RIPK1 or RelA in liver parenchymal cells (LPCs) did not cause spontaneous liver pathology, mice with combined deficiency of RIPK1 and RelA in LPCs showed increased hepatocyte apoptosis and developed spontaneous chronic liver disease and cancer that were independent of TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1) signaling. In contrast, mice with LPC-specific knockout of Ripk1 showed reduced diethylnitrosamine-induced (DEN-induced) liver tumorigenesis that correlated with increased DEN-induced hepatocyte apoptosis. Lack of RIPK1 kinase activity did not inhibit DEN-induced liver tumor formation, showing that kinase-independent functions of RIPK1 promote DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. Moreover, mice lacking both RIPK1 and TNFR1 in LPCs displayed normal tumor formation in response to DEN, demonstrating that RIPK1 deficiency decreases DEN-induced liver tumor formation in a TNFR1-dependent manner. Therefore, these findings indicate that RIPK1 cooperates with NF-κB signaling to prevent TNFR1-independent hepatocyte apoptosis and the development of chronic liver disease and cancer, but acts downstream of TNFR1 signaling to promote DEN-induced liver tumorigenesis.
Trieu-My Van, Apostolos Polykratis, Beate Katharina Straub, Vangelis Kondylis, Nikoletta Papadopoulou, Manolis Pasparakis
BACKGROUND. The risk of advanced fibrosis in first-degree relatives of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and cirrhosis (NAFLD-cirrhosis) is unknown and needs to be systematically quantified. We aimed to prospectively assess the risk of advanced fibrosis in first-degree relatives of probands with NAFLD-cirrhosis. METHODS. This is a cross-sectional analysis of a prospective cohort of 26 probands with NAFLD-cirrhosis and 39 first-degree relatives. The control population included 69 community-dwelling twin, sib-sib, or parent-offspring pairs (n = 138), comprising 69 individuals randomly ascertained to be without evidence of NAFLD and 69 of their first-degree relatives. The primary outcome was presence of advanced fibrosis (stage 3 or 4 fibrosis). NAFLD was assessed clinically and quantified by MRI proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF). Advanced fibrosis was diagnosed by liver stiffness greater than 3.63 kPa using magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). RESULTS. The prevalence of advanced fibrosis in first-degree relatives of probands with NAFLD-cirrhosis was significantly higher than that in the control population (17.9% vs. 1.4%, P = 0.0032). Compared with controls, the odds of advanced fibrosis among the first-degree relatives of probands with NAFLD-cirrhosis were odds ratio 14.9 (95% CI, 1.8–126.0, P = 0.0133). Even after multivariable adjustment by age, sex, Hispanic ethnicity, BMI, and diabetes status, the risk of advanced fibrosis remained both statistically and clinically significant (multivariable-adjusted odds ratio 12.5; 95% CI, 1.1–146.1, P = 0.0438). CONCLUSION. Using a well-phenotyped familial cohort, we demonstrated that first-degree relatives of probands with NAFLD-cirrhosis have a 12 times higher risk of advanced fibrosis. Advanced fibrosis screening may be considered in first-degree relatives of NAFLD-cirrhosis patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION. UCSD IRB: 140084. FUNDING. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH.
Cyrielle Caussy, Meera Soni, Jeffrey Cui, Ricki Bettencourt, Nicholas Schork, Chi-Hua Chen, Mahdi Al Ikhwan, Shirin Bassirian, Sandra Cepin, Monica P. Gonzalez, Michel Mendler, Yuko Kono, Irine Vodkin, Kristin Mekeel, Jeffrey Haldorson, Alan Hemming, Barbara Andrews, Joanie Salotti, Lisa Richards, David A. Brenner, Claude B. Sirlin, Rohit Loomba, the Familial NAFLD Cirrhosis Research Consortium
Epidemiologic and animal studies implicate overconsumption of fructose in the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, but the molecular mechanisms underlying fructose-induced chronic liver diseases remain largely unknown. Here, we have presented evidence supporting the essential function of the lipogenic transcription factor carbohydrate response element–binding protein (ChREBP) in mediating adaptive responses to fructose and protecting against fructose-induced hepatotoxicity. In WT mice, a high-fructose diet (HFrD) activated hepatic lipogenesis in a ChREBP-dependent manner; however, in Chrebp-KO mice, a HFrD induced steatohepatitis. In Chrebp-KO mouse livers, a HFrD reduced levels of molecular chaperones and activated the C/EBP homologous protein–dependent (CHOP-dependent) unfolded protein response, whereas administration of a chemical chaperone or Chop shRNA rescued liver injury. Elevated expression levels of cholesterol biosynthesis genes in HFrD-fed Chrebp-KO livers were paralleled by an increased nuclear abundance of sterol regulatory element–binding protein 2 (SREBP2). Atorvastatin-mediated inhibition of hepatic cholesterol biosynthesis or depletion of hepatic Srebp2 reversed fructose-induced liver injury in Chrebp-KO mice. Mechanistically, we determined that ChREBP binds to nuclear SREBP2 to promote its ubiquitination and destabilization in cultured cells. Therefore, our findings demonstrate that ChREBP provides hepatoprotection against a HFrD by preventing overactivation of cholesterol biosynthesis and the subsequent CHOP-mediated, proapoptotic unfolded protein response. Our findings also identified a role for ChREBP in regulating SREBP2-dependent cholesterol metabolism.
Deqiang Q. Zhang, Xin Tong, Kyle VanDommelen, Neil Gupta, Kenneth Stamper, Graham F. Brady, Zhuoxian Meng, Jiandie D. Lin, Liangyou Y. Rui, M. Bishr Omary, Lei Yin
Chronic liver disease with cirrhosis is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States, and alcoholic liver disease accounts for approximately half of all cirrhosis deaths. Chronic alcohol consumption is associated with intestinal bacterial dysbiosis, yet we understand little about the contribution of intestinal fungi, or mycobiota, to alcoholic liver disease. Here we have demonstrated that chronic alcohol administration increases mycobiota populations and translocation of fungal β-glucan into systemic circulation in mice. Treating mice with antifungal agents reduced intestinal fungal overgrowth, decreased β-glucan translocation, and ameliorated ethanol-induced liver disease. Using bone marrow chimeric mice, we found that β-glucan induces liver inflammation via the C-type lectin–like receptor CLEC7A on Kupffer cells and possibly other bone marrow–derived cells. Subsequent increases in IL-1β expression and secretion contributed to hepatocyte damage and promoted development of ethanol-induced liver disease. We observed that alcohol-dependent patients displayed reduced intestinal fungal diversity and
An-Ming Yang, Tatsuo Inamine, Katrin Hochrath, Peng Chen, Lirui Wang, Cristina Llorente, Sena Bluemel, Phillipp Hartmann, Jun Xu, Yukinori Koyama, Tatiana Kisseleva, Manolito G. Torralba, Kelvin Moncera, Karen Beeri, Chien-Sheng Chen, Kim Freese, Claus Hellerbrand, Serene M.L. Lee, Hal M. Hoffman, Wajahat Z. Mehal, Guadalupe Garcia-Tsao, Ece A. Mutlu, Ali Keshavarzian, Gordon D. Brown, Samuel B. Ho, Ramon Bataller, Peter Stärkel, Derrick E. Fouts, Bernd Schnabl
Worldwide epidemics of metabolic diseases, including liver steatosis, are associated with an increased frequency of malignancies, showing the highest positive correlation for liver cancer. The heterogeneity of liver cancer represents a clinical challenge. In liver, the transcription factor PPARγ promotes metabolic adaptations of lipogenesis and aerobic glycolysis under the control of Akt2 activity, but the role of PPARγ in liver tumorigenesis is unknown. Here we have combined preclinical mouse models of liver cancer and genetic studies of a human liver biopsy atlas with the aim of identifying putative therapeutic targets in the context of liver steatosis and cancer. We have revealed a protumoral interaction of Akt2 signaling with hepatocyte nuclear factor 1α (HNF1α) and PPARγ, transcription factors that are master regulators of hepatocyte and adipocyte differentiation, respectively. Akt2 phosphorylates and inhibits HNF1α, thus relieving the suppression of hepatic PPARγ expression and promoting tumorigenesis. Finally, we observed that pharmacological inhibition of PPARγ is therapeutically effective in a preclinical murine model of steatosis-associated liver cancer. Taken together, our studies in humans and mice reveal that Akt2 controls hepatic tumorigenesis through crosstalk between HNF1α and PPARγ.
Cecilia Patitucci, Gabrielle Couchy, Alessia Bagattin, Tatiana Cañeque, Aurélien de Reyniès, Jean-Yves Scoazec, Raphaël Rodriguez, Marco Pontoglio, Jessica Zucman-Rossi, Mario Pende, Ganna Panasyuk
Microvascular endothelial cells (ECs) are increasingly recognized as organ-specific gatekeepers of their microenvironment. Microvascular ECs instruct neighboring cells in their organ-specific vascular niches through angiocrine factors, which include secreted growth factors (angiokines), extracellular matrix molecules, and transmembrane proteins. However, the molecular regulators that drive organ-specific microvascular transcriptional programs and thereby regulate angiodiversity are largely elusive. In contrast to other ECs, which form a continuous cell layer, liver sinusoidal ECs (LSECs) constitute discontinuous, permeable microvessels. Here, we have shown that the transcription factor GATA4 controls murine LSEC specification and function. LSEC-restricted deletion of
Cyrill Géraud, Philipp-Sebastian Koch, Johanna Zierow, Kay Klapproth, Katrin Busch, Victor Olsavszky, Thomas Leibing, Alexandra Demory, Friederike Ulbrich, Miriam Diett, Sandhya Singh, Carsten Sticht, Katja Breitkopf-Heinlein, Karsten Richter, Sanna-Maria Karppinen, Taina Pihlajaniemi, Bernd Arnold, Hans-Reimer Rodewald, Hellmut G. Augustin, Kai Schledzewski, Sergij Goerdt
Disruption of the retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor pathway, either through genetic mutation of upstream regulatory components or mutation of
Lindsey N. Kent, Sooin Bae, Shih-Yin Tsai, Xing Tang, Arunima Srivastava, Christopher Koivisto, Chelsea K. Martin, Elisa Ridolfi, Grace C. Miller, Sarah M. Zorko, Emilia Plevris, Yannis Hadjiyannis, Miguel Perez, Eric Nolan, Raleigh Kladney, Bart Westendorp, Alain de Bruin, Soledad Fernandez, Thomas J. Rosol, Kamal S. Pohar, James M. Pipas, Gustavo Leone
Elisa Álvarez Hernández, Sabine Kahl, Anett Seelig, Paul Begovatz, Martin Irmler, Yuliya Kupriyanova, Bettina Nowotny, Peter Nowotny, Christian Herder, Cristina Barosa, Filipa Carvalho, Jan Rozman, Susanne Neschen, John G. Jones, Johannes Beckers, Martin Hrabě de Angelis, Michael Roden


text: You have found yer way to Pyrates! an award-winning internationally renowned electric folk rock pirate band. We be a sea faring band of musical marauders, sailing from th' shores of the olde lowlands of Holland to rowdy ports across the world! A notorious band of buccaneers, who've imposed their own brand of pirate themed folk music upon fellow pirates an' unfortunate landlubbers across tha' seas themselves! Able bodied bawdy balladeers armed wi' Guitar, Bass, Drums an' Fiddle. Dressed in full pirate costume an' all in tha' quay of ARRRR!

subset: commoncrawl


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Save interesting products in this list and find them quickly at any time.
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The timeless as well as striking premium collection Hommage by Villeroy & Boch impresses with linear forms and a blend of marble and real wood true to style. Inspired by the early 20th century, Hommage combines timeless design elements from a great era, thus adding special touches to the luxurious Villeroy & Boch bathroom.
Where to put all the different items that you need everyday in the bathroom? Vanity units by Villeroy & Boch offer the practical and space-saving solution to this, and easily allow you to get even the smallest bathroom in more order. With a vanity unit from Villeroy & Boch, you will always have everything you need within reach, right under the bathroom sink.
The modern SoftClosing technology closes drawers and doors silently and gently, even when force is used. The SoftClosing mechanism slows down the drawer and automatically closes it, slowly and silently – not only is it pleasant to the ears, it is also gentle on the bathroom furniture.
The full extension allows drawers and pull-outs to be opened to their full depth. This ensures that the entire contents is visible and convenient to reach. No annoying rummaging around in the back of the drawer – bathroom furniture with full extension gives you the full overview.
CeramicPlus - the anti-dirt surface for sanitary ceramics - simplifies bathroom cleaning. This innovative process causes water to immediately form droplets on contact, which then merge into beads and simply drain away, carrying dirt and limescale particles with them.
|985 mm
|620 mm
|95,4 kg
|Product designation
|Vanity unit with washbasin
Vanity unit, Built-in washbasin 7102 63, square handles to match ceramics, fastening set included. Equipped with: 1x drawer, 2x doors, 1x shelf, 1x marble countertop with ledge. Equipped with: 1x drawer, 2x doors, 1x shelf, 1x marble countertop with ledge


text: Product Description Product Reviews SNS Air Ombre is the world's finest and fastest ombre nail art system. New spray-on technology. No special skills required. Super fast and easy Done in 3 simple steps: prep the nail, apply Air Ombre onto the edge of the nail tip, dip into the SNS Gelous dipping powder and then apply SNS topcoat. Designed for all SNS Gelous Colours and all SNS GelStar polishes. How to Apply: *Actual colors may vary slightly due to the image lighting and your monitor resolution. Write a Review Write a Review × SNS SNS Air Ombre 14 gram - #AO-116 Rating * Select Rating 1 star (worst) 2 stars 3 stars (average) 4 stars 5 stars (best) Name Email * Review Subject * Comments *


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|ナンゴウ Nangō
|Naruto Shippūden Episode #144
|Appears in
|Voice Actors
Nangō (ナンゴウ, Nangō) is a member of the Magaki Group, aiming to steal the Tsuchigumo clan's kinjutsu.
Nangō is a man of few words, giving him the façade of a large, dim brute. However, when he does speak, in however few words he may, he has been shown to be a very keen observer.
Nangō has long brown spiky hair that is tied in the back in a pony tail and his bangs hang over his forehead. He has small black eyes and wears a open vest that is coloured purple on the upper part and a light-greenish colour on the bottom half of it. He has white bandages wrapped around each of his forearms and he also has a pair of beige-coloured pants with white bandages wrapped around each of his lower legs and he also wears a pair of black shinobi sandals.
Nangō is able to use Earth Release techniques, and is at least able to turn his body into mud to evade fatal blows. Being a part of the Magaki Group, he specialises in cooperative techniques and, alongside Benten and Chūshin, plays the role to transfer his chakra to Akaboshi in order to increase the deadliness of his attacks. In combination with his team-mates, he can use supplementary techniques like a team transformation, shattering barriers or restraining enemies with a shadow-rope, but also a variety of aggressive techniques like a restraining technique in a small and a larger scale, a pyramid that explodes by will, killing the one's trapped inside and also a deadly Lightning Release attack. The team's strongest technique is the Impermanence of Worldly Things, which creates a shard that breaks up into multiple shards and impales the opponent. Yamato hailed the technique as being quite formidable.
Part II
Six-Tails Unleashed
Akaboshi, Nangō, Chūshin, and Benten make for Mount Katsuragi in search of the Tsuchigumo clan's kinjutsu. They manage to destroy the barrier around the mountain and make their way up. They could not find the technique anywhere and ran into Tonbee, whom the group defeated quickly. They discover that Hotaru has the jutsu and they begin searching for her.
Later, Nangō and his comrades are seen receiving new orders from a mysterious man. After meeting with their leader, the four-man team encountered Utakata, who single-handedly bested the group until they caught him in their Hurricane Thunderclap technique.
After this, the group headed to the Tsuchigumo Village, where they ambushed Hotaru with the help of the villagers in the hopes of getting the kinjutsu. Nangō uses his mud body to restrain Hotaru and takes a scroll from her backpack, which he then hands to Akaboshi. The scroll turns out to be a rigged trap, which explodes, allowing Hotaru to escape. Nangō and his team pursue Hotaru, and, just after catching her, are interrupted by Utakata, who claims to have business of his own with Hotaru.
After Utakata escaped with Hotaru, Nangō and the rest of his squad were confronted by their leader, who showed them that Utakata was a missing-nin from Kirigakure with a bounty of 50 million ryō. Akaboshi asked their leader what they should do, to which he began to muse about.
A while later, after Naruto Uzumaki sought out Shiranami, the Magaki leader, believing him to be an ally, Nangō and his comrades sealed Naruto in Infinite Embrace. Naruto, angered that he was deceived, awakened his Nine-Tail chakra, which destroyed the house they were in. Shocked that the latter was able to escape, Nangō and the others used Multiple Infinite Embraces in order to crush Naruto and steal his chakra. Despite this, Naruto was able to break free, albeit fall unconscious afterwards. Before the Magaki could move in, Utakata appeared and used Acid Permeation. He angrily demanded that the Magaki tell him where Hotaru was, intimidating them with his Six-Tail chakra. Sensing danger, Akaboshi ordered Nangō and the others to regroup with Shiranami at the Tsuchigumo village.
Later that evening, when Naruto and Utakata returned to the Tsuchigumo village, it was revealed that the Magaki had used a mind-control technique to hypnotise the villagers into fighting Konoha. Just when the Magaki gained the upper hand, the rest of Team Yamato arrived to help. Nangō and the others soon engaged them in battle. Nangō and his group try to kill Team Yamato with their shard technique but they fail and Nangō is knocked out by a kick from Sai.
- Nangō can mean "what number" (何号), or "southern home town" (南郷).


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Kurt Nimmo
January 4, 2012
More evidence Obama is at war with the Constitution – or more accurately, his globalist masters are at war with it. The following is from The Hill today:
Republican leaders in the House and Senate are blasting President Obama's move to recess-appoint a key nominee as an "unprecedented power grab."
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the president "arrogantly circumvented the American people" in his effort to recess-appoint a key nominee and argued the move "fundamentally endangers" Congress's ability to check the "excesses of the executive branch."
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the effort an "extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab … [that] would have a devastating effect on the checks and balances that are enshrined in our constitution."
Article Two, Clause 3 of the Constitution on recess appointments reads as follows:
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. (Emphasis added.)
The Senate is not currently in recess. It is in a "pro forma" session, in other words a session that is not considering formal business. Senate Republicans did this to prevent Obama from appointing Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during recess.
But the Obama administration went ahead anyway. "They have decided no one can stop them," said a Democrat in the know.
"This is a blatant violation of the Constitution and he's doing it simply to pick a fight with congressional Republicans and energize his base," writes the Ace of Spades HQ blog.
It looks like Obama will get away with it. Republicans are more or less powerless to stop this violation of the Constitution, especially with an election coming up. If they try a lawsuit or hearings on impeachment, it will feed right into Obama's re-election machine. His re-election campaign will focus on taking Republicans to task for their perceived foot dragging on his economic measures supposedly designed to get a dead-in-the-water economy moving again.
Beyond partisan politics, though, the move is designed serve as another blow to the Constitution. As we noted in July, there is currently a concerted effort underway to portray the Constitution as antiquated, outdated and even ridiculous.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!


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"I have a funny feeling there's going to be more questions about former players than current players," he told a gathering of reporters on Tuesday.
One day after Tim Tebow joined forces with the New England Patriots, Ryan again was besieged with queries about the quarterback who so famously flamed out in Florham Park one season ago. Now that Tebow is the property of Enemy No. 1, Ryan wasn't saying much.
"It's not a surprise to me that Tim would be picked up," Ryan said. "Obviously, as I said before, you know, tremendous young man. Very competitive. So, I'm happy for him and look forward to competing against him."
In an offseason that's seen former Jets tight end Dustin Keller migrate to the Miami Dolphins, longtime defensive coordinator Mike Pettine land with the Buffalo Bills, and Tebow fall under the direction of Bill Belichick, Ryan pointed to an AFC East flooded with "my guys."
"I'm not worried about anything," Ryan said. "... If they want to replace (Tom) Brady with him, that's fine."
The reality is we might see even less of Tebow on the field in New England than we did with the Jets last season. After spending a year in practice with the backup quarterback, Ryan didn't appear overly cowed by New England's newest chess piece.


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All the most commonly used Internet browsers are vulnerable to exploits that can force them to cough up users' personal information that can be used to hack into bank accounts or set them up for other attacks, the Black Hat 2010 conference will be told this week.
"None of the tools I will demonstrate are really difficult," says Jeremiah Grossman, CTO of WhiteHat Security who will present the briefing "Breaking browsers: Hacking Auto-Complete" at the conference.
He says his exploits can coax browsers to give up the information automatically stored by browsers in a feature called auto-complete, which is designed to make it simpler to fill out forms on Web sites that users intend to go to. This includes name, address, e-mail address and in some cases passwords used for accessing sites such as online banking, credit card numbers and search terms that have been entered.
"It's a privacy and a security issue," he says.
Some of the information the browsers relinquish can be used to set up multi-stage attacks where the user is drawn in to giving up more information or to download malware that compromises e-mail or bank accounts.
The surest way around the problem is to turn the auto-complete feature off, but he acknowledges that some people may prefer the convenience it offers to blocking the risk it represents.
Grossman says he had to come up with different exploits for different browsers, but that he found a way to compromise auto-complete on different versions of Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome and Firefox. This includes Internet Explorer 6 and 7, which account for a third of the browsers used on the Internet, he says.
He says he has notified the makers of the browsers but none has told him of definite plans to fix what he describes as flaws. More than one exploit uses simulated keystrokes to start entering the user's name, and then the feature kicks in to yield more.The fact that each browser required a different exploit indicates the problems are with the software coding. "I think they could be fixed," he says.
The flaw Grossman found in Internet Explorer had been discovered independently by someone else in 2008, but so far is still unpatched, he says.
Read more about wide area network in Network World's Wide Area Network section.


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When you have a home martial arts studio, outfitted with sturdy, textured martial arts mats, you have a place that encourages the acceleration of your martial arts practice. You can go to the studio a couple of times a week and learn from your qualified instructor, but to really step up your game, you'll need to practice more than just a couple of times a week. With your own home martial arts studio, you can practice 24/7 – or at least whenever the mood strikes. Continue reading Practice at Home Between Classes
Category: Uncategorized
Martial Arts With Your Kids
Time spent with your kids is precious and short-lived, so to get the most out of the time you have with them, choose a martial arts class you can do together, then put some martial arts mats down at home somewhere and extend your practice time together. The kids learn great athletic skills and you get to have some quality time with them before they're all grown up. Continue reading Martial Arts With Your Kids
Self-Confidence is a Child's Best Defense
Teaching children that it's wrong to use violence as a way to end conflict is good training, but making sure they're able to defend themselves if necessary can be as simple as providing them with some martial arts mats at home to continue practicing what they learn in self-defense class at the studio. The more they learn, the more they want to practice, so having a safe place at home to do that practice will speed up their progress and increase their self-confidence. Continue reading Self-Confidence is a Child's Best Defense
Adding Martial Arts to Jumpstart Your Workout
With a few martial arts mats in a space in your home, you can add a new flavor to a workout routine that might be tasting a little bland. Incorporating some martial arts into your daily workout can increase your progress and improve results as well as offer some focused mental discipline. Continue reading Adding Martial Arts to Jumpstart Your Workout
Three Key Ingredients for a Successful Home Martial Arts Practice
Bringing your martial arts practice home from the studio for practice is a sure-fire way to increase the speed of your progress, and with some martial arts mats in a designated space in your home, you can be sure you'll be safe and supported in your new endeavor. Continue reading Three Key Ingredients for a Successful Home Martial Arts Practice
Tatami for Protection
By definition, martial arts mats offer a lot of protection to the student of the martial arts, but the mats with the textured surfaces go above and beyond the call of duty. All martial arts mats should provide ample padding to protect from throws and falls, but those with a surface that mimics the original tatami rice straw mats offer just a little bit more, and that's why they're the best choice when you're installing a martial arts practice area in your home. Continue reading Tatami for Protection
The Best Home Martial Arts Studio for Your Style
Creating a space at home for your particular martial arts practice might seem daunting, but it can be done quickly and easily with the right martial arts mats as a foundation. If you're frustrated with trying to excel with practice at the studio once or twice a week, it's time to bring it home. You don't need a lot of space or a huge bank account. Just a few martial arts mats strategically placed in your home will afford you the convenience of practicing whenever you want. Continue reading The Best Home Martial Arts Studio for Your Style
Martial Arts Mats for the Kids
Choosing safe, affordable martial arts mats for kids to use at home is challenging, if not difficult, but we've made it easy for you. Our 1″ thick martial arts mats are affordable, padded to the gills, textured for traction, easy to install yourself, and sized so you can purchase only as many as you need. Your biggest challenge may just be choosing the color you want. Continue reading Martial Arts Mats for the Kids
The Mental Discipline of Martial Arts
Many take to the martial arts mats to learn self-defense, others to take up a new sport to stay active and fit, still others introduce their children to the arts as part of being a good parent. One common outcome of all these reasons for choosing martial arts is one that may not even be considered beforehand: mental discipline. Continue reading The Mental Discipline of Martial Arts
Personalize Your Practice
Martial arts mats may just be a legitimate answer to that old riddle: what's black and blue and red all over? When you're ready to install a martial arts practice area in your home, you get to choose the size of the mats, their thickness, and of course, their color. Sure you can go for the traditional studio look of red and blue, or black and blue, but now you can even go pink and purple! Continue reading Personalize Your Practice


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It appears the 2015 Lincoln Navigator has broken through the various automotive press quarantines, and now it is open season for the sarcastic journalist folk and anyone with an
asshole opinion to shit all over LiMoCo's Escalade-wannabe. Great, let's begin.
Despite the opening above, I'm really the last person on earth to get serious about ridiculing a designer's or design team's work. As much as some people want to burn Chris Bangle at the stake for ruining an entire generation of BMWs, I'm not sure if I want to go down that road with arguably the most archaic design to ever grace any given Ford/Lincoln dealership since the decidedly pre-Industrial Revolution Ford Super Duty.
In most ways, the 2015 Lincoln Navigator is no different. It appears this is a heavy effort in the facelift department, as expected, but you immediately recognize architectural cues that bring up red flags everywhere. Just for starters, look at the daylight opening on the side profile of the vehicle and start whispering to yourself, "Oh shit ... not again."
Same story on the inside. A current-gen F150 steering wheel is recycled with a slapped-on Lincoln logo, as if to completely confuse me about exactly what vehicle I'm driving, and despite claims of brand-spanking-new interior appointments and materials, it's obvious that the same underlying architecture and layout was– again –recycled. Oh Lincoln.
All of this, however, is completely forgivable to your author. The design team here has successfully retained the EXACT SAME VEHICLE from the last generation or two of Navigators and managed to make it seem somewhat fresh. The front and back façades look handsome and svelte – and if not that, a huge improvement over the chromed-out mouth guard that adorns the existing model. Fine by me, despite the rest of the vehicle looking alarmingly familiar.
Photos of this new SUV from HQ make me laugh, though. The talent they hired to make this new(ish) Lincoln look its best did it right – put it in front of some Seattle-Tacoma contemporist mansion with frosted glass garage doors and let the two shapes play off each other. After all, a box reflects a box, right?
These projections of "lifestyle" in the form of marketing photography are extremely powerful, but you'll also remember that nearly any other Range Rover or Hyundai Santa Fe would work just as perfectly in the same setting. LiMoCo wants to sell "progressive luxury" and a "confident, forward-thinking demeanor" despite being a completely expected and openly ridiculed piece of machinery that we already know way too well.
I dig the style, I think there's a lot to like, but let's not sell it as something it's not. My money is betting against some miraculous Frank Lloyd Wright resurgence in automotive prowess for this new Lincoln, and nearly every other person that graces this planet with their presence would place the same bet. In other news, water is wet and Charles and Ray Eames once designed a chair.


text:
Time again for Waxing Off, the feature that will stick by you, even when you're old and destitute. Well, when you're old. This week's topic: Super Bowl advertising.
On Super Bowl Sunday, I'm not a fan of the 'I'm just here for the commercials' crew. I drop them into the same bucket with the people who go to hockey games just to see a fight, those who upend their Coke because they only wanted the commemorative cup and anyone who has ever watched porn for the interior decorating tips.
Even though an SB43 spot costs $100 Gs per second, it's still just a commercial, the break in the action when you go take care of the third-trimester pee baby that's been gestating since you poured a tallboy down your throat about the time Philly started scoring. It's when you take the dog out, urging him to release the hostages in the neighbor's back yard and hoping they blame someone else when they dip their foot into one of his uncollected cakesters. Commercials are for calling people to remind them that their team is a tumor on the prostate of the game, for returning shit-talking text messages, and to wipe the detergent off the chicken fingers you dropped face-down in the dishwasher during the last set of Alltel ads.
Unless you're talking about single malts, just because something's expensive doesn't make it better (see: Michael Bay movies, anything stocked in a minibar, the Yankees). But sometimes there are exceptions, a commercial that makes you pause mid-stream to crane your neck toward the television to see what's up and why everyone else just stopped talking.
One of those ads was dropped into '99's Denver/Atlanta matchup. My memories of the game itself are spotty, save for three hours of comments about Atlanta's D sucking so hard that Eugene Robinson tried to pay it for sex, but thirty seconds of Monster.com stuck with me.
That ad was one of the best ever, or so I thought until I went to work for the agency who wrote it. "When I grow up, I want to file all day" is hilarious when a cornfed kid in a Cousin Eddie hat says it but considerably less so when it packs up and moves to your job description. Within two years I was unsurprisingly and unspectacularly fired, which just gave me more time to spend at home, swaddled in sweatpants and watching TV. I still ignore the commercials.
—J-Money writes much longer at The Typing Makes Me Sound Busy and much shorter on Twitter.
Dear big companies:
Your ads aren't that important anymore. I barely remember them. The beer ads have just blended in together. I can't remember which animals sell what product. Boobs aren't going to do anything (hello, we have the internet for that). And really, celebrity spokespeople? No. Save the appearance fee. All of these tactics haven't worked so it's time to step it up.
What's my advice? In these economic times, appeal to everyone's fantasies. I'm not talking about beautiful girls, fast cars, etc. I'm talking about something like the Terry Tate Reebok ad. First off, the ad is hysterical. Who doesn't like physical comedy? Second, the ad starts off by saying the company was called crazy. I love self-disclosure of psycho. And finally, the ad was RELATABLE. I mean seriously, you know you've always wanted to tackle someone in your office. It's wish fulfillment!!
Basically, find out what the people want and show it to them. That's all. This is a new era of hope. Show us this hope in 30 second frames, dammit. It's just enough to distract us from whatever ails us in reality.
— Ellie is boycotting this year's Super Bowl as they will inevitably show 1,000 replays of the Helmet Catch. For more of her insight, ramblings and ideas, go to thewhoristorian.blogspot.com.
Sarah Sprague:
I cannot remember a single goddamn commercial, but I can tell you exactly every thing that was happening in the game, my apartment, and the air outside when Neil O'Donnell threw his second pick to Larry Brown.
And that I wish they had not remade the Coca-Cola ad with nice guy Troy. Would much rather see James Harrison scare the child into never wanting another soda for the rest of his life, saving him from a life of diabetes.
The Steezer:
First, I really hope this post is preceded by a picture of the Waxing Off boobs. Otherwise The Steezer is going on strike.
"The best part of the Super Bowl are the commercials." This statement annoys the shit out of me every year. It's mostly repeated by people who would not otherwise be watching football; people who would not otherwise be drinking Busch and eating hot wings on a Sunday night; people who don't deserve to live.
Let's face it, nine times out of ten, NFL games are not really that exciting (college football games, on the other hand: always exciting). They're not often gun-slinging high-scoring affairs, or hard-fought defensive battles won in the trenches. Though the Super Bowl theoretically puts the two best teams against each other, it's still pretty likely that it will be as exciting as a mid-season NBA game. But still, it's the last football game for 8 months, so I'd much rather be watching it then another rerun of House on USA.
I was at a Super Bowl party a couple years ago with a group of girls who could have cared less; they were there because their boyfriends were all there. When the game was on screen they were reading books (one was re-reading one of the Harry Potters) or cross stitching (I kid you not). But when commercial break came along, they put these to the side and paid attention. All I could think was "WHY ARE YOU HERE!?" Unfortunately, watching the Super Bowl has become part of the American experience (YES WE CAN!). People feel like they have to watch it in order to fit in…and they're not happy about it. So a bunch of poindexters gather together to begrudgingly "watch the game" and then they say, "The best part of the Super Bowl are the commercials." Every time I hear it my motherboard overheats…and not in the good way.
That said, the best Super Bowl commercial of all time was one for Pepsi in the early 2000s starring the love of my life, Beyonce Knowles.
— The Steezer is a Texas Longhorn fan living in Washington, D.C. who decided to dip and now you wanna trip.
I cannot for the life of me think of a single Super Bowl commercial that I either loved, hated or was indifferent about. Not one. I began analyzing why that might be. It's not that I don't watch them. It's not that I don't have an opinion about them one way or the other at the time. I just don't retain them (and judging by the fact that Rick had to ask repeatedly for submissions on this topic, I'm guessing I'm not the only female who feels this way.) And yet, it seems that most of my male acquaintances are able to recall Super Bowl commercials many years past. But think about what gets advertised most during the Super Bowl:
• Beer. Don't get me wrong, I love beer. Even shitty domestic beer. But chances are, A) I'm already drinking it, and B) no amount of funny or sexy is going to sway my decision the next time I'm at the corner bodega. I'll buy whatever sounds good and/or is on sale.
• Junk food. Ditto. I also love junk food. But unless it's some newfangled junk food ("Ooooh, look, Taco Bell formed their five sole ingredients into a trapezoid this time! I gotta have one of those!" ), I'm probably not going to take note.
• Trucks. This actually holds true for all car commercials. Unless I'm in the market for a car (and I'm not currently), car commercials don't even hit my radar. Plus, truck commercials are generally physically impossible. I've driven trucks almost exclusively for my entire driving adulthood, and have never once done anything as awesome as what you see in the commercials. (BDD summed this up perfectly and hilariously.) But then, maybe that's just my vagina getting in the way of my ruggedness.
• Man-scriptions. I don't have a prostate or a penis. And the prostates and penises that I'm most familiar with are in perfect working order, knock on wood. (See what I did there?) At this point, the sight of a clawfoot tub makes me want to become celibate.
It's not even that all the commercials are man-centric. Men just seem to be wired to retain this information, the same way they can quote crappy 80's movies chapter-and-verse, and tell you who was on the cover of any given year's swimsuit issue. I'm not even on some "women are more high-minded than that" screed, 'cause we're not. (I, for one, have devoted myself to being able to recognize all 4658 songs on my iPod within the first three notes. Useful AND marketable!) Just understand that come Monday morning, if you attempt to discuss the commercials with me, I will have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. And then I'll drive off in my Jeep and do donuts at the summit of Everest, because I am BAD. ASS.
— Katni is a middle management cube-slave in San Diego, and a fan of the Padres, Broncos and Sooners. But you can only pick one of those reasons to dislike her, so make it count.
If you want to become a member of our Waxing Off writing staff, write your name and address on your telephone number, and send them to Rick Chandler, Behind the Water Pipes, 1012 Rupee Buildings, London.


text:
In the hallway on the fifteenth floor of the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, attorney Dick DeGuerin is cutting a GPS ankle bracelet off Michael Glyn Brown. A jury of six men and six women has just found the former hand surgeon, who lost his medical license after testing positive for cocaine several times, not guilty of assaulting his fourth wife, Rachel.
It's a dramatic set piece that plays out in front of reporters' cameras, meant to indicate that an innocent man shackled by overzealous prosecutors has finally been freed. A man with tremendous financial resources, Brown spent a lot of money to secure this freedom. In addition to DeGuerin, Brown hired appellate attorney Brian Wice, who was silent in front of the jury but outside their presence urged Judge Jim Wallace to exclude certain evidence. The high-priced attorneys' strategy was this: paint Rachel Brown as a lying, manipulative, gold-digging whore. DeGuerin told the jury that Rachel was in a relationship with former Houston Astro Jeff Bagwell, a relationship that Rachel maintained didn't begin until after she filed for divorce and well after Brown moved out of the couple's Memorial mansion.
Assured of his freedom, Brown finally spoke to the reporters who had crowded the hallway after each day of the six-day trial. In a thin, soft voice with a hint of a drawl, Brown said, "This whole process caused an enormous amount of human suffering, and I'm just concerned for my kids. I just want to take care of my children."
It's what a wrongfully accused, morally upright and sensitive father is supposed to say. In commercials for the Brown Hand Center, and in promotional literature, Brown has always known what that archetype is supposed to say; it's just that the words sound strange coming from him. His previous wife, Darlina, whose face he mashed to a pulp with his bare hands and a broken bedpost in 2001, wouldn't believe those words. Neither would Rachel, who accused Brown of physically and verbally abusing her for years, often in front of the children. Neither would some former employees, who accused Brown and his underlings of threatening their lives.
Brown wrote off the two daughters he had with Darlina, kids who made uncomfortable props in Brown's creepy television commercial, a grotesque mimicry of normal human behavior that continued to air long after Darlina gained sole custody of the girls and took them out of Texas, far away from their father. When Brown filed a motion to have unsupervised visits with the kids, a Harris County family court judge ordered him to first undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Brown resisted for months, then withdrew the motion entirely. That's how much Michael Glyn Brown cared about his children.
Brown needed absolute control over others, and thanks to money and coercion and threats, he could usually get it. He had plenty of bodyguards and hangers-on and lawyers and doctors in his pocket, willing to toe the line, because Brown was one hell of a piggy bank. What he seemed to lack were close friends and (male) family members brave and loving enough to stand up to him and tell him he needed help.
Based on Brown's own bizarre writings and a review of nearly 20 years' worth of court records and medical board rulings, this is the story of an outrageously wealthy and once-brilliant surgeon tortured by bipolar disorder and enabled by white-collar parasites who didn't care about Brown's mental and physical health as long as they got a slice of the Brown fortune. (Brown declined comment and did not respond to a list of questions presented to his attorneys. Curiously, considering Brown's a man who says he lives a Christian, moral life, most people we sought for interviews said they were too scared of being sued — or worse — to even talk off the record.)
Throughout it all — his savage beating of his third wife; continued cocaine use that stripped him of his medical license; continued abuse allegations from his fourth wife — the Houston Chronicle feted Brown in its society pages, and the Houston Astros welcomed him onto the diamond to throw an opening pitch. In Houston, it seemed, what you lacked in character could be made up for in wealth.
Brown's incredible ambition made him millions, but he was plagued by suicidal ideations since age 18, and, by his own account, there was only so much riches and lithium could do. He needed a wife's unconditional love; a wife who could understand his notion of the bipolar mind; a wife who could feed his insatiable desire for sex and dutifully instruct the servants to have dinner ready on time. To Brown, it was the same as "Agape love" — God's love for mankind. And it was the most precious, rare element of all.
Without it, there was just lithium, cocaine, alcohol, guns, big-game hunting, exotic cars, private planes and miserable nights of empty, empty fucking. Mechanical sex, he called it. None of these would ever fill the void left by Agape love.
Nothing — not a not-guilty, not cutting off a GPS anklet — was going to bring him peace. And that meant not just more trouble for Brown, but for those who he deemed were enemies. Without Agape love, Satan could slither in and try to make you destroy everything around you, even if you had to destroy yourself in the process.
Because Brown and his older sisters, Glenda Hughes and Jeanne Jeffcoat, did not speak to the Houston Press, we don't have much information about Brown's childhood. The scant information we have is contained in a series of letters he wrote between 1999 and 2001 and addressed to his daughter Sophie.
Brown wrote reverently of his father, Glyn, who died in 2000 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease. It seemed to crush Brown, who mentions his mother only in passing. Brown's memories of his father are strikingly conventional: He was a welder who always told Brown to do his best and to "never give up." Brown's mother Thelma is barely mentioned, but Glyn Brown is simply a stock character, dutifully playing the role of the loving father.
In hundreds of pages, Brown doesn't mention his sisters, but he spends several nostalgic pages on a beloved fishing lure. While he spends an incredible amount of time writing about how he's struggled with suicidal thoughts for much of his life, he doesn't hint at childhood trauma or any single triggering event. His demons, eventually diagnosed by a doctor as bipolar disorder, seem to have appeared spontaneously.
He graduated from Galena Park Senior High (with honors, as he would want you to know) in 1975. As he would later write in "Letters to Sophie," his high school counselor saw great promise in the "long-haired but smart and principled" kid whose 183 IQ made him smarter than his teachers. The counselor told Brown he should go to Harvard or Princeton or Yale, or "at the very least...[the] University of Texas."
Instead, he chose Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, now called Texas State University-San Marcos. He liked being able to drive his Harley through the Hill County and scuba-dive in the "crystal clear" river. (He would also want you to know that his grade point average was 3.97.)
From there, it was on to Baylor College of Medicine; he received his Texas medical license in 1983. According to his online bio, Brown was "personally asked" by legendary cardiovascular surgeon Michael DeBakey "to stay at Baylor affiliated hospitals in the Texas Medical Center in preparation for the cardiovascular heart surgery program." But Brown considered the hand "more challenging" and set off on the path that would eventually create his vast fortune.
In 1988, after finishing his surgical training at a hospital in Stockton, California, he founded the Brown Hand Center.
In the ensuing years, he would not only make money from that and other hand centers, he would patent a medical device used to endoscopically treat carpal tunnel syndrome and sell it, and other medical devices, through a company called Instratek. This initial device was an improvement of an existing device, and it allowed Brown and his partners to complete an operation in minutes. It was a high-volume, high-dollar enterprise.
But as Brown's professional career skyrocketed, his personal life crumbled.
Little is known about his first marriage, which dissolved in 1984. But his second wife, Deborah Jaramillo (who would go on to become a respected restaurateur), left him after he began to build his empire. A hint of the marital strife can be found in one of Brown's seven self-published books, Kilimanjaro: Safari in Tanzania.
In the book's closing chapter, Brown writes about pummeling Jaramillo's neck while in the throes of a nightmare about a lion attack: "I flung off the sweat drenched sheets and gasped. 'GODDAMN!' I could see Debbie's face over me and she was shaking me, telling me to wake up, that it was only another one of the dreams that I had been having every week for the last three months since my return from Africa.'"
Jaramillo left him six months later, Brown wrote, saying she had to "find herself."
But there was a silver lining. Brown found the woman who would become his next wife.
"Michael Brown is now quite content with a beautiful, twenty year old blond-haired, blue-eyed, loving, caring and affectionate woman named Darlina," he wrote. "Mike asked Darlina, 'Would you like to go hunting with me sometime?' Darlina answered, 'Of course I would. I want to go everywhere and do everything with you!'"
But Brown still had to endure grueling divorce proceedings, which occurred in the midst of fraud suits filed against Brown by former employees; the maelstrom of litigation is the first official recording of allegations of Brown's paranoia, drug use, alcoholism and death threats against perceived enemies.
By the time Brown served Jaramillo with divorce papers in 1993, he had covered the windows of his Woodlands home with reflective material so no one could spy on him.
According to former employees, he walked the grounds of his estate with a holstered pistol and pored over catalogs of surveillance equipment. One of his servants, John McKeon, swore in an affidavit that he kept a diary during his three years working for Brown. He testified to seeing Brown use cocaine, as well as "abusing alcohol, sometimes while he was on call for emergencies." McKeon also testified that, in 1992, when Brown and Jaramillo were still together, he overheard Jaramillo order prescription drugs — ostensibly for McKeon — that were meant for Brown. Also in 1992, McKeon became aware that Brown had been taking lithium "for his psychological disorders."
McKeon was one of three former employees who were prepared to testify on Jaramillo's behalf during the divorce proceedings. All three accused Brown or his underlings of trying to bully them into not testifying. In a deposition, Brown explained his belief that it was all a vast conspiracy concocted by Jaramillo and her divorce lawyer.
Their affidavits were part of two civil suits filed against Brown, one from a former Hand Center surgeon who believed Brown owed him money, the other from an unlicensed attorney who maybe-sorta did legal work for Brown and who said he was wrongfully terminated. Both plaintiffs appear to have had flimsy cases; it's mostly the peripheral filings that point to Brown's emerging malevolence.
McKeon testified that Brown sent an especially vivid warning in 1994, by poisoning his Great Dane. McKeon's veterinarian swore in an affidavit that the dog had clearly ingested a combination of prescription drugs, and that "it was highly unlikely that someone without medical knowledge would have known that using drugs to reduce blood pressure can cause a quick death by cardiac arrest." (Fifteen years later, a lawyer in another case against Brown would also claim that his dog had been poisoned; Brown also wrote in personal papers about attempting to euthanize his own beloved dog, Cocoa, with an overdose of pills.)
McKeon also swore in an affidavit that he believed Brown's brother-in-law (another potential witness in the divorce case) had been "harassed and threatened" by Brown and his sister, Jeanne Jeffcoat. McKeon said Brown filed two "retaliatory" civil suits against his brother-in-law, and Jeffcoat "filed criminal rape charges" against him,"for a rape which allegedly occurred more than two years prior to the filing of the charge." (Citing lack of physical evidence and the time elapsed since the alleged incident, which Jeffcoat said occurred at Brown's home, the Montgomery County District Attorney declined to press charges.)
"Brown is worth millions of dollars," McKeon swore in his affidavit. "Because of the divorce suit which is now pending, and other numerous lawsuits against him, it is my opinion that without the intervention of this court, Brown will do whatever he can, both legal and illegal, to avoid judgments being taken against him."
McKeon's roommate, Dudley Eppes, another ex-Brown employee, swore in an affidavit that Brown told him that if McKeon testified, Brown would kill him with a shotgun and then commit suicide.
Pamela Jo Campbell, a former medical assistant, accused Jaramillo of calling in straw-scripts of the pain reliever Lortab for McKeon, which were actually meant for Brown. She also said that Brown's bookkeeper called her in April 1993 and warned her that she knew who Campbell saw and spoke to, and to be careful. The bookkeeper allegedly called a few months later and "further stated that I'd better watch out. She said that I don't know what might happen to me or my son...." Campbell's son was seven years old at the time. "In my mind, it is clear a threat had been made on my life and that of my child's."
McKeon also swore in his affidavit that Jaramillo had found "small black boxes, later determined to be tracking devices, attached to each of her three cars."
Curiously, after his initial affidavit, McKeon recanted. Brown's attorney, Rob Todd, who would later become a Houston City Councilman, cited this recanting as evidence that McKeon and others were just disgruntled ex-employees. Unfortunately, Todd couldn't rely on that for very long, because McKeon subsequently recanted his recantation, accusing Todd of coercing him into signing a false statement.
Quite simply, Brown was not going to stand by while lesser men questioned his character.
He was the greatest hand surgeon in the world, a genius who revolutionized the practice by inventing one of the greatest medical devices in the history of modern medicine. He made tons of money for hospitals that granted him surgical privileges, such as Houston Northwest Medical Center, whose halls he stalked in scrubs and a lion's paw dangling from a thick gold chain. He demanded first-class treatment and settled for nothing less, which is why he threatened to pull patients from Houston Northwest if the administration did not give him a prime parking spot. His instructions to office staff were written on papers headlined "Proclamation," denoting his royalty.
Never mind the fact that the patented "Brown Technique" was merely a tweaking of existing technology, or the fact that Brown faced quite a few malpractice claims in the years before his license was probated and then revoked. (These were disputed claims in which Brown denied being negligent or otherwise reckless in his treatment of the patients, and were settled or dismissed with prejudice.)
Never mind that, although Brown liked to point to his "landmark study" of the Brown technique in one medical journal, his few articles were rarely cited among his peers, or the fact that a man whose idea of hunting as a "conservation tool" included taking down elephants and even a giraffe.
He was a man who once tried to reap a million-dollar fee for testifying as an expert witness, and then threatened to testify for the other side if he didn't get paid.
According to Brown's writings, he was one of God's chosen few, a five-percenter both blessed and cursed with bipolar disorder. This put him in the same rarefied air as Churchill, Van Gogh and Napoleon. Because of this, he had struggled with suicidal thoughts — almost daily — since he was 18.
Brown wrote of the bipolar mind needing two things to approach stability. The first, lithium, was easy: "4 or 5 at night with milk — done."
The other pill, the one harder to find, "is the ballast, the even keel, the rock steadiness of your spouses continual support, love, encouragement & praise 3 or 4 times what most people need."
This is what he believed he had found — and lost — after meeting Darlina Hoffman in 1993.
Although Brown wrote glowingly of his second wife Darlina in the epilogue of Safari in Tanzania, their relationship was troubled almost from the start.
A 20-year-old clerical worker for a billboard company, Darlina met the 35-year-old Brown at a pool party he threw at his Woodlands mansion. Rubbed raw from ongoing divorce proceedings from Jaramillo, Brown was apparently unafraid to show Darlina his vulnerable side. She couldn't help but fall for this smart, successful, wounded man. The relationship started immediately; he whisked her off for weekend getaways in his private jet and showered her with expensive gifts. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.
After they got married in 1995, Darlina told the Press in 2002, Brown grew more controlling. He told Darlina to drop her college plans and insisted she carry a cell phone and gun at all times. He laminated Bible passages explaining how wives must submit to their husbands and stuck them to the bathroom walls, so Darlina would never forget her role. Darlina would later allege in court that Brown demanded sex every day, whether she was in the mood or not, and that he masturbated constantly, drank excessively and abused cocaine.
In 1999, Darlina told a Montgomery County detective that Brown had assaulted her and that he "was wealthy enough and had the contacts to have her killed if she attempted to leave him with or without the baby." It wasn't the first time, Darlina told the detective.
That's when Brown summoned his attorney and friend, Rob Todd, who (according to Darlina) persuaded her to recant her story. Darlina told the Press in 2002, "Rob acted like my best friend. He could see the bruises on my neck. But he didn't want to know what happened. He didn't want to hear it. It's like he didn't care."
And in 2000, while on a weekend jaunt to Las Vegas, a drunken Brown accused Darlina of not loving him anymore, then held a knife to his throat and threatened to kill himself. Instead, Brown sawed through one of his fingers. "Parts of his finger flew up on the wall," Darlina would later testify.
A year later, things came to a head.
On the night of January 24, 2001, Darlina Brown called 911 and told the operator that her husband was trying to kill her and her unborn child.
She was cowering behind the nanny's bedroom door, which now bore gaping gunshot holes courtesy of Michael Glyn Brown, drunk and hard from a night watching tits and ass at Rick's Nightclub. It was something he liked to do. He came home expecting Darlina to submit to his carnal desire, as the Bible dictates. When she didn't, Brown flew into a rage and punched her in the face. She was eight months pregnant.
Perhaps not wanting to startle the couple's two-year-old daughter, Brown dragged Darlina up the stairs by her hair. Growing madder by the minute, he broke off part of a bedpost and used that to continue beating her.
Once Brown knew the police were coming, he fled. Montgomery County Sheriff's deputies found him, reeking of booze, in his Ford Excursion in a store parking lot. The officers handcuffed him and placed him in the squad car, then itemized the arsenal in Brown's SUV: three loaded handguns (with extra ammunition), a wooden club, two machetes, an illegal knife and an expandable baton. They also found three unopened bottles of Jack Daniel's and two flasks containing whiskey.
According to Texas Medical Board records, "the police report stated that [Brown] was continually yelling, kicking the door, and banging the windows and door. [Brown] was placed in leg restraints."
Back at the Brown home, police noted blood-smeared walls and bloody clumps of hair. They opened a safe and found a videotape and a cache of handwritten letters.
Darlina's right eye was swollen shut, partially obscuring a one-inch cut beneath it. Her lips were swollen and split; abrasions lined her neck, back, left forearm, both hands and both thighs. Brown said he had acted in self-defense. He urged police to test his blood for traces of PCP; someone must have spiked his drink at the strip club. The police declined.
The key to understanding Brown's behavior can be found in "Letters to Sophie," in which Brown presents his inner anguish like an exposed, pus-filled wound.
Houstonians knew Sophie from the most unintentionally disturbing commercial in Houston's history, a spot for the Brown Hand Center that provided irrefutable evidence that no one had the stones to stand up to Brown and tell him when he was making a mistake. The idea behind the ad was to show Brown as a good Christian man who treated his patients "like family." The spot ended with Sophie, cradled in Brown's lap, saying, "Daddy's baby girl." The ad succeeded in spreading name recognition, but observant viewers would notice just how off things seemed. Brown was wooden and seemed to treat Sophie not like his flesh and blood, but like a prop. It was like the creature from The Thing; Brown could approximate a human life form, but there was nothing underneath. This was a man's narcissistic personality disorder on display, and no one had any interest in stopping it.
Sophie serves a similar purpose in the letters. Although nominally addressed to her, the missives read just as much like Brown writing to a younger version of himself, a manual he may have wished he had had when he first started to grapple with his condition.
In the letters, his daughter also serves as a proxy for Darlina, a woman whom Brown accused of failing in her wifely duties, of not always being sexually available.
The videotape found in the safe, along with the letters, also illustrates Brown's tortured mind: He recorded himself putting a gun to his head, ranting to Darlina over a speaker-phone, and, in one chilling segment, he focuses on a pregnant Darlina, sitting on a couch in a dark room, looking like a woman wondering if she's attending her execution.
The letters vacillate between Brown praising Darlina's gifts as a mother and questioning her love for Sophie. "I am sorry for fucking your mother instead of someone else," he writes at one point. "...Sorry, she had a nice ass and I was hard."
He writes of feeling like a "battered wife," of suffering post-traumatic stress disorder because of all the times Darlina threatened to leave. Such threats devastated his fragile bipolar mind, making him want to commit suicide — therefore, "a threat of abandonment is a threat against my life."
"I'm acutely depressed," he writes after one argument with Darlina. "I have put a gun in my mouth 3 times in 24 hrs. & 9 times in 4 months."
Perhaps most disturbing, Brown spends a great deal of time instructing Sophie on sex. But if Sophie is viewed as a stand-in for Darlina, the advice reads as a window into Brown's own sexual dysfunction and the couple's problems in the bedroom.
"The man wants you to view him as the world's greatest lover, such that you feel honored when he asks for sex — say no and you crush a little bit of him," Brown writes. "....Sex doesn't always have to make you see stars. Typically, it's the man doing most of the work. You are wise, not weak, to simply give him his 10 minutes of pleasure. Act like your enjoying it and he'll only take 5 minutes [sic]. Then, don't forget to tell him wonderful he was."
And: "If after sex say 20 minutes later the conversation begins with your husband saying 'That was great!' rest assured he's not giving you a compliment (though he might want to) but rather he's trying to illicit a compliment from you. If you answer 'yes' he's gonna continue fishing and may say 'Did you enjoy it?' if you say 'I said yes, quit asking' then you are diminishing the value of the just finished love-making....During lovemaking, your partner's enjoyment should be your prime concern....not your own."
More than anything, the letters show just how much pain Brown lived with on a daily basis, pain he was reluctant to address, and pain that could have been addressed by those who should have known better.
To a layman, a man who beats his pregnant wife with a bedpost, writes about how many times he's put a gun in his mouth in the last month and instructs his infant daughter on how often to fuck her future husband might come across a tad torqued.
But to a highly skilled professional trained in the nuances of mental illness, like Northwestern- and Yale-trained psychiatrist George Glass, Brown's problems weren't a significant threat to himself or others. And while in the letters Brown admitted to abusing drugs and alcohol, Glass saw no signs of addiction.
Following his assault of Darlina, Brown checked into a rehab facility called Sierra Tucson and wrote a letter to his "dream team" of Glass and his attorneys, including Steve "Rocket" Rosen.
Brown's take on his role in the assault was conflicted. Immediately following the words "There are no good excuses, for I am accountable," he wrote, "You should all know for legal reasons though that I have no doubt my drink was drugged. $2000 was stolen. My actions en route and in the home and loss of memory are all indicative of being under the influence of an hallucinogenic drug for which the police would not test me despite my repeated requests."
He was also concerned about getting out of rehab and getting back to business as soon as possible: "I think it would be extremely beneficial in all areas to have a letter from Dr. Scott or the executive director [both of Sierra Tucson] when I leave here....Perhaps Dr. Glass could effect this. Remember, Sierra Tucson is a business."
Brown then suggested to his attorneys, and Glass, what an "ideal" release letter should include: a statement that Brown was "not a threat to myself or anyone else" and that he "suffered from depression, codependency, PTSD, all successfully brought under control." It was also to include the fact that Brown had a "support system and plan" to prevent relapse, in the form of a "spiritual ritual" that consisted of copying Bible passages onto index cards, deep-breathing exercises and meditating on a "safe place."
After the assault, when the peer review committee at Houston Northwest Medical Center requested a medical opinion on Brown's application for reappointment, Brown provided, per Texas Medical Board notes, "a one-page psychiatric report signed by Dr. George Glass. It has been reported in the media [Houston Press] and confirmed by Dr. Glass, that the report is an exact transcription of a suggested report supplied to the psychiatrist" by Brown's lawyers. In the letter, Glass stated that he never saw his patient exhibit any behavior that might interfere with his clinical privileges.
The Texas Medical Board, however, was a little more concerned.
In May 2002, Brown entered into an agreed order with the board placing him on probation for seven years "due to inability to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety due to illness, drunkenness, excessive use of drugs, narcotics or physical condition and unprofessional conduct." Seven months later, after testing positive for cocaine, his license was temporarily suspended and his probation was extended to ten years.
The drug testing was a point of contention among Brown's previous treating psychiatrists, including Glass.
Initially, Brown tried to skirt the order to submit to drug testing by telling the board that he didn't live in Houston, but spent most of his time surrounded by the splendor of the wildebeests and endangered swamp deer on his Normangee ranch, "Castlemane."
After this matter was properly addressed, and Brown began submitting urine samples, the board received an anonymous call alleging that Brown was abusing cocaine and searching online for ways to, per board records, "'clean his hair' because he feared a hair test for drugs." This was because many of his urine samples were too diluted.
In October 2002, he was ordered to submit a hair sample as well as urine; the hair tested positive for cocaine, and the urine was negative. Glass questioned the efficacy of testing the hair, indicating his belief that Brown had not used cocaine in well over a year. (Meanwhile, in what was either a transparent bid to provide an excuse for any booze found in his system or a genuine concern for the freshness of his breath, Brown found a dentist, David Mulherin, obliging enough to write a prescription for a mouthwash containing alcohol.)
While the board received complaints from some of Brown's patients, other patients simply sued. In a few cases, plaintiffs secured the expert testimony of Houston hand surgeon Gerard Gabel, who wrote in one case that Brown's patented trigger-finger technique "does not, in review of the literature, have any demonstrable anatomic validation. In other words, there is no proven safety of this procedure...due to the number of failures that I have seen consequent to this procedure, the persistent use of this procedure is well below the standard of care when compared to conventional trigger digit release."
In another case involving the same trigger-release technique, Gabel wrote, "This is not an accepted procedure in the general community and in that sense is an 'experimental' procedure."
Of course, Brown didn't just have to face the scrutiny of the Texas Medical Board; he faced criminal charges and a civil complaint and divorce proceedings from Darlina as well.
District Attorney Mike McDougal took the unusual route of waiting for the outcome of Darlina's cases. As Dick DeGuerin would do with subsequent wife Rachel, Brown's attorneys, Rocket Rosen and Jack Zimmerman, tried to paint Darlina as a harlot who had extramarital affairs.
Darlina's attorneys, Tommy Fibich and Wendy Burgower, only had to point to the 2001 assault.
As jurors deliberated, Brown followed Burgower as she was moving the case file from the courtroom to her car in the courthouse parking lot. He told her he was going to "get" her. Fibich and Burgower brought this to Judge Michael Mayes's attention, requesting that he halt the deliberation, recall the jury and enter Brown's utterance into evidence. Mayes declined. It probably wouldn't have made any difference; the jury still found Brown liable for abusing Darlina, awarding her nearly $5 million and custody of the couple's two daughters.
Respecting Darlina's odd wish that Brown not face prison time, McDougal offered Brown a real sweetheart of a deal: Brown pleaded no contest to assault and received ten years' probation, with an added bonus — if he didn't violate any terms in the first five years, he could ask a judge to be released from probation early. If he screwed up, however, he'd face prison.
When Brown's drug testing for the Texas Medical Board turned up another positive result for cocaine in 2005, the board took it seriously enough to revoke his license. But when McDougal brought this to the attention of Montgomery County District Court Judge Suzanne Stovall, the judge took a page from the George Glass playbook and questioned the veracity of the testing procedure. Ultimately, Stovall lifted Brown's probation.
For the first time in a while, things were looking up for Brown: Although he could no longer practice medicine in Texas, he was now free of mandatory drug tests, and he had met and married the former Rachel Spaniel, a single mother with whom he would eventually have a son and a daughter.
He was making more money than ever — his tax return for 2002 showed an adjusted gross income of $1.8 million; by 2009, he was making ten times that. He had even updated the "Daddy's baby girl" commercial to include his new family, identifying himself as the "retired" founder of the Brown Hand Center.
He threw around enough money to rub shoulders with important people; he and Rachel entertained Texas Senator John Whitmire, chair of the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee, at a private lunch in their home; he contributed enough money to the National Republican Congressional Committee to receive the Congressional Medal of Distinction, the political equivalent of throwing your own surprise birthday party. For this, he, Rachel, and a few hundred other big-time contributors got to join President George W. Bush for dinner at the White House. (Whitmire would later claim he had no clue about Brown's background.)
He also wrote big checks for the Star of Hope homeless shelter and Toys for Tots. In a stunning bit of irony, he sponsored a 2005 gala for the Bridge Over Troubled Waters Women's Shelter.
Yet as he grew wealthier, he seemed to grow more paranoid. He eventually hired 24-hour security personnel, including bodyguards who escorted his children to school.
Unlike Darlina's, Rachel's story is more difficult to understand, since she knew what she was getting into when she hooked up with Michael Brown. Some of it might be that, growing up, she only seemed to know abusive men.
According to a psychiatrist's notes filed in Harris County District Court, Rachel was born to a 16-year-old girl whose spouse split a year later. Rachel would never meet her father until he suddenly appeared in her life when she was 20; in the meantime, she dealt with an abusive, alcoholic stepfather. When she was 14, she'd had enough and left home, living with friends. She got pregnant at 24 and went back to her office job two days after the baby was born, keeping her daughter under her desk. The girl's father was abusive toward Rachel, and later wound up in prison.
Fortunately for all involved, Michael Glyn Brown was there to pick up the pieces.
For much of the marriage, Rachel proved her alliance, standing by his side, both in the updated commercial, where she looked as glassy-eyed as one of Brown's taxidermied animals, or in court, where she testified for Brown when he sued Darlina for custody of their two daughters in 2005. She testified despite the fact that she told Houston police two years earlier that Brown had tried to kill her during an argument. She subsequently filed for divorce, then withdrew the papers, and chalked everything up to a misunderstanding.
It was a pattern that would repeat itself throughout their marriage. In 2006, Rachel accused him of domestic violence and of ripping a video camera out of her hands when she tried to document her injuries. She would also tell Houston police that she wanted to get out of the marriage but was afraid; that Brown forced her to do drugs under threat of killing the entire family; and that he had made her and a female friend "reenact an incident with his ex-wife when there was a gun involved."
Then, in August 2010, another allegation of abuse was taken seriously enough by the Harris County District Attorney's Office. Brown was charged with assault — ordinarily a misdemeanor, but, because of the 2001 assault, it was enhanced to a felony charge. He faced up to ten years in prison.
As far as Brown's history is concerned, it was one of the more benign allegations: Rachel accused him of throwing a variety of things — including a Humane Society humanitarian award — at her during an argument, and then twisting her arm and bending it behind her back. And even that was watered down when Brown's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, managed to amend the indictment to leave out the bending-behind-her-back part. Bottom line: Brown was accused of yanking his wife's arm. It was a dog of a case.
Because Rachel testified and Brown didn't, it was her life that was dragged through mud and not his.
Although Brown had received only probation for assaulting Darlina, the Texas Criminal Code considered it a conviction for the purposes of prosecuting another assault. Jurors were told only that he had been previously convicted; they did not hear the details of that incident. They didn't hear that one of the two prosecutors in the case, Jane Waters, testified in the Browns' divorce proceedings that the Harris County District Attorney's Office received a tip that Brown was attempting to hire someone to kill Rachel.
Instead, what they heard was a story about Brown pocket-dialing Rachel's phone, getting her voice mail and leaving a cryptic dialogue between Brown and a giggling woman. Brown was heard saying something about him and the woman being "smarter bears." They heard about Brown coming home late at night or early in the morning after Rachel received that call and falling asleep in a chair, only to be startled awake by a clearly out-of-control and jealous wife demanding to know who he had been with.
When Rachel took the stand, DeGuerin grilled her about her relationship with Jeff Bagwell; about an alleged history of panic attacks that impaired her perception of reality; about whether she swore when she asked her husband if he had been with another woman; about how she stood to gain millions from the divorce. It was a remarkably bottom-feeding performance from a man who kicked off his introduction to the jury by saying he was honored to represent Michael Brown.
Nevertheless, DeGuerin had done enough to question Rachel's credibility, perhaps most notably in the form of an affidavit she signed after the August 2010 incident in which she recanted her story and asked the District Attorney's office to drop the charge. (In a repeat performance of Rob Todd's getting Darlina to recant an earlier abuse allegation, Brown Hand Center attorney Amelia Ambriz-Najera prepared the affidavit for Rachel.)
Despite passionate arguments by prosecutors Waters and Nathan Hennigan, the jury acquitted after five hours. Brown hugged his attorneys, and they headed into the hallway for the ceremonial anklet-cutting.
The attempted tarnishing of Rachel would continue with the anonymous mailing to the Press of a seven-second video of Rachel smoking an unknown substance in her kitchen. There is no context to the video — no indication of when it was recorded, who recorded it or what it is that Rachel's smoking.
Brown must now continue to face Rachel in Family Court, where he's always been on shakier ground. Unlike with Darlina, he did not make Rachel sign a prenuptial agreement, so she stands to be awarded half of his fortune.
With no significant other by his side, it might be a lonely fight for Brown. He'll probably have to rely on his father's advice more than ever, advice he passed along to Sophie: "Never give up."
He's had to rely on those words in very dark times, as on the day in March 2000 when he wanted to have a picnic with Sophie and Darlina.
"Instead," Brown wrote, "I drove over here with a big pistol...and a big pillow to muffle the blast when I took my head off.
"Baby I could do it — I can do anything I set my mind to. Why would I? Simple — to stop the pain. It's the pain that comes from loving but feeling unlovable. ...Then I got to thinking...'Never Give Up'...that's what my Dad wanted you to know....
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"Now the pages that follow are my attempt to help you through life so you don't end up in a pasture with a pillow & a pistol."
He had to rely on those words then, and he'll have to rely on them now. Because while he'll have highly paid doctors, lawyers and bodyguards to protect and defend him for the right price, he doesn't appear to have anyone close by who actually loves him.
And from the looks of it, that includes Michael Glyn Brown himself.


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Sweet and Hot: Grilled Desserts
Grilled Pound Cake with Brandied Red Plums
When plums are at their juiciest best, they're great in a quick dessert. If you don't already have the grill going, just broil or toast the pound cake until golden.
Grilled Pound Cake with Blueberries
Keep the flame still going and make luscious Grilled Pound Cake with Lemon Cream and Blueberries. The lightly grilled cake will be a favorite all around.
Grilled Strawberry Shortcake Kebabs
A riff on classic strawberry shortcake, these sensational dessert kebabs will be the star of your next backyard party. If you can't find creme fraiche, you can substitute for sour cream.
Grilled Lemon Pound Cake with Peaches and Cream
We love the versatility of this super-moist lemon pound cake. Grill it until crisp and toasty, then top with warm, tender grilled peaches and whipped cream.
Brandied Peach Shortcakes
In this peachy version of strawberry shortcake, you grill the peaches and spoon them onto squares of citrus-flavored shortcake, and then top with sweetened Greek yogurt.
Chocolate-Raspberry Dessert Sandwiches
While the coals are still hot, add dessert to the grill. Grilled Chocolate-Raspberry Dessert Sandwiches are as decadent tasting as they sound!
Seared Figs and White Peaches with Balsamic Reduction
This simple yet elegant dessert is a great way to maintain the texture and floral flavors of these delicate fruits. Toasted whole black peppercorns add an interesting savory flavor.
Cream-Filled Grilled Pound Cake
If you think that there's no way to improve on pound cake, just see what happens when you grill it and top with whipped cream and fresh berries.
Nutella-Banana Pizza
No need to stress over making dessert with this 4-ingredient recipe. Starting with premade pizza dough is key; then, add Nutella, bananas, and toasted hazelnuts. What better way to end a summer meal?
The Ultimate S'more
The ultimate in campground dining, made with homemade graham crackers and marshmallows.
Grilled Stone Fruit with Balsamic Glaze
Brush grilled peach, plum and apricot halves with a sweet balsamic glaze and top with shaved cheese for a fruit side dish or not-too-sweet grilled dessert.
Grilled Chocolate-Hazelnut-Pound Cake Sandwiches
Pound cake, chocolate-hazelnut spread, and butter are all you'll need to make a delicious grilled dessert.
Cheese and Chocolate Bruschetta
For a big party, a dessert bruschetta like this looks dramatic but doesn't require any plates to eat. We love the combo of the rich, creamy cheese, slightly bitter chocolate, and sweet-tart fruit.
Grilled Pineapple Dessert Pizza
For a delicious dessert pizza, top Homemade Pizza Dough with cream cheese, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pineapple slices, drizzle it with a caramel topping, and sprinkle it with toasted pecans.
Pineapple Satays with Coconut Caramel
Coat pineapple slices in a rich coconut-caramel sauce and grill until marks appear. Be sure to clean the grill well before cooking to ensure that the fruit flavor really shines through.
Peach Ricotta Tart
Grill pizza dough, then top with peaches, pumpkin seeds, and spiced sugar. Serve with sweetened ricotta for an easy summer dessert. In case of rain, see the recipe page for instructions on making this dessert in the oven.
Grilled Banana S'mores
Lend a favorite campfire favorite lightly smoked fruit flavor by grilling banana slices until soft, then using the slices in place of marshmallows to melt the chocolate. It's a fun update to the classic treat.
Strawberry Napoleons
A Napoleon is a classic layered dessert of puff pastry with a sweet cream filling. For this easy, low-fat version, grill sheets of phyllo dough, and layer them with fresh strawberries and a honey-sweetened yogurt sauce.
Chocolate Pizza with Apricot Preserves and Bananas
Grilling pizza dough gives you a crisp crust with extra flavor, making it the perfect base for a dessert pie. Be sure to eat a slice right after it comes off the grill when the preserves are warm and the chocolate chips are slightly melted.
Marinated Grilled Apples with Mint
Transform fresh apples into an amazing dessert by marinating them in orange juice, honey, mint, ginger, and black pepper. Then baste the fruit with this mixture while they're on the grill. The acid in the orange juice keeps the apple from turning brown, and the dash of pepper brings out the sweetness in the fruit.
Grilled Peaches with Vanilla Ice Cream
Grilling fresh peaches is easy–and you don't even have to peel them. Just cut peaches in half, remove the pits, and brush the cut sides with a little oil. Then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and grill just until the sugar melts.
Grill-Baked Apple Crisp
When summer arrives and you're enjoying your outdoor space, there's just no need to turn on the oven, even for baked desserts. Instead, use indirect heat and bake a fruit crisp on the grill.
Rum-Spiked Grilled Pineapple with Toasted Coconut
Grilling caramelizes the sugars in the pineapple, making the dish even sweeter and more luscious. It's a great light dessert on its own or served with low-fat vanilla ice cream.
Grilled Banana Splits
Grilling bananas and pineapple slices for banana splits is a perfect way to end your backyard barbecue party.
Grilled-Peach Sundaes
Sprinkle fresh peaches with a bit of sugar and ground ginger, and then grill over low heat to bring out maximum sweetness in the fruit. Serve with vanilla ice cream for an easy summer dessert.
Grilled Peaches with Blackberry-Basil Butter
Top sweet grilled peaches with homemade, 3-ingredient blackberry-basil butter for a simple and refreshing end to a warm summer day.
Polenta Cake with Late-Summer Berries
Grilling the cake slices makes for a lovely presentation. You can bake the cake a day ahead and grill just before serving. Serve with whipped topping, if desired.
Ginger Grilled Fruit
Ginger Grilled Fruit is the perfect marriage of distinct grilled-flavor with the sweetness of the varied fruit. We'll let you choose if you want to serve Ginger Grilled Fruit as a fruity side or dessert.
Grilled Berries and Pound Cake with Bourbon-Butterscotch Sauce
This easy fruit dessert features cubes of storebought pound cake grilled on skewers with strawberries and a simple bourbon-butterscotch sauce.
Grilled Dessert Pizza
Grill frozen pizza dough and top with fresh fruit and chocolate for a quiick and easy summer dessert.
Grilled Apricot Puffs with Honey Crème Fraîche
Use the grill to make these sweet muffins as well as to cook the fruit in a sugar mixture. Then top the puffs with the sweet apricots and creme fraiche for an impressive summer diessert.
Grilled Apple Pie a la Mode
Whether it's in the backyard or around a campfire, this easy, on-the-spot recipe has all the elements of a perfect apple pie. Make sure to use apples that are the same size so they'll cook at the same rate. The ice cream will melt quickly, so put it on the apples right as you serve them.
Grilled Banana Split
This is a fun mashup between banana pudding and a sundae. You could even get the kids involved with this. Grilling the banana adds a little flavor, while charring the vanilla wafers makes for an interesting texture—together, it's delicious. Banana pudding ice cream pulls everything together, so it's definitely worth buying.
Grilled Pound Cake with Meyer Lemon Simple Syrup
Pound cake chars up really nicely on the grill and gets even grill marks. Don't skip the syrup, because it's packed with flavor. If you can't find Meyer lemons, regular lemons will work just fine. The simple syrup will hold up for two weeks, so you can definitely make it ahead of time—or make extra and save it for later.


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Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day refers to a national day of service and federal holiday named in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. King was most definitely one of the most influential leaders of the Civil Rights movement.
History (the Bill)
Four days after King was assassinated by James Earl Ray, on April 28, 1968, Congressman John Conyers introduced legislation of a King holiday.[1] Prior to the legislation the states Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut recognized King's birthday as a holiday.[1][2] However, no action was taken on the bill for three years.
In April, 1961,[1] the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King had lead from the organization's founding to his death, presented Congress with a petition bearing three million names.[2] Nonetheless, the holiday languished in Congress for eight years.
The movement was reinvigorated by the support of President Jimmy Carter and the testimony of Coretta Scott King before Congress; Scott-King encouraged Conyers to bring the bill to a vote. In November, 1979, the bill was defeated by five votes. Nonetheless, Scott-King continued to campaign for the bill. In 1982, she and Stevie Wonder, who in 1980 had released the song "Happy Birthday, which became a rallying cry for the campaign,[1] presented Congress with another petition - one containing six million signees.[2] In August, 1983, another bill sponsored by Representatives Katie Hall and Jack Kemp passed the House of Representatives, by a vote of 338-90.[1]
In the Senate, the bill faced opposition lead by Senators Jesse Helms and John Porter East. Helms read "Martin Luther King Jr.: Political Activities and Associations" on October 3, 1983, and presented Congress with a three hundred page document detailing King's communist connections. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously threw the packet down and declared it to be "filth".[2] The Senate bill, sponsored by Ted Kennedy, passed by a 78-22 margin. However, the day before, District Judge John Lewis Smith had blocked potentially critical evidence by denying Helms's request to unseal FBI surveillance tapes of King that were due to remain sealed until 2027.[2] By the time the bill was passed, 27 states recognized the King Holiday. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in November, 1983, and the holiday was first observed in January, 1986.[2]
Post Passing
Arizona's three Congressmen voted against the bill in 1983, and the state did not recognize the holiday until 1992; this position cost them Super Bowl XXVII - which was moved to Tampa Bay, Florida in protest by the NFL. The last state to recognize the bill was South Carolina - which did so 17 years after the bill's passing, in 2000.[2]
In 1994, Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, designating the King Holiday as a national day of volunteer service.[3]