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Farmer-leaders of the National Association of Wheat Growers and the National Wheat Foundation are developing a National Wheat Action Plan to serve as a catalyst to increase public and private wheat research, and improve wheat productivity and farmer profitability. The outline below details the approach the leaders will take to develop the Plan.
Phase I –
Project Kickoff and Planning
(July – August 2015)
Phase I Objective: Develop consensus and set direction for successful project execution
- Designate a farmer-directed entity to lead the initiative
- Articulate a vision for a re-energized wheat industry that increases profitability throughout the value chain
- Define success metrics
- Develop stakeholder outreach plan
- Develop core outreach materials
Phase II –
Industry Outreach and Support
(September – December 2015)
Phase II Objective: Solicit industry support and financial commitment to develop the National Wheat Action Plan
- Conduct industry outreach meetings and follow up
- Establish advisory council made up of key industry partners
Phase III –
Stakeholder Outreach and Input
(January – March 2016)
Phase III Objective: Ensure key stakeholders understand and share our vision and have an opportunity to provide insight and input
- Implement stakeholder outreach plan
– Conduct one-on-one input sessions with state wheat associations and checkoff commissions
– Seek input from other members of the grain chain, as well as other industry partners
– Conduct initial qualitative research among farmers
Phase IV –
Research and Exploration
(January – April 2016)
Phase IV Objective: Identify the best revenue generation option(s) to spur long-term growth and profitability of the entire U.S. wheat industry
- Conduct quantitative research to understand the needs, interests, practices and priorities of farmers and other key stakeholders
- Enlist a team of experts to identify and explore potential revenue generation models
- Research funding models of other commodity organizations to determine advantages/disadvantages of existing approaches
Phase V –
Business Plan Development
(April – September 2016)
Phase V Objective: Finalize an ongoing revenue generation model that will yield a substantial annual revenue source to be used primarily for wheat research and technology transfer
- Develop a comprehensive business plan that identifies the best revenue generation model(s) for wheat, outlines the steps needed to develop that model and identifies specific uses for national funds
- Develop and implement an industry rollout plan to announce the finalized plan


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Mountain Warehouse Review
Written by Karen Bryan
As I was putting away my warm clothes when the warmer weather finally arrived, I noticed that a couple of my favourite pairs of leggings were starting to go at the seams.
I decided to replace them in order to have new leggings ready for the advent of lower temperatures later this year.
My first port of call was Mountain Warehouse. Over the years, I have bought a number of items from them over the year included a lined winter jacket, fleeces, leggings and waterproof over-trousers. Although, I always also check out what's available from other online retailers and if I can spot any good discount codes.
I found leggings in my size in both black and purple in the sale on the Mountain Warehouse website. Before paying for the items in my online basket, I had a quick look to see if I could find any voucher codes for Mountain Warehouse.
I only buy clothes online if I don't have to pay for delivery and I can return them free of charge, if they are not a good fit.
Mountain Warehouse scores highly on these important points. If you spend more than £20, it is free to collect the items at your local store. You can return any unwanted items in store for a full refund.
That is perfect for me, as I can try the items on in the store. If anything doesn't fit, the return is quick and easy, compared to having to post an unwanted item back to a retailer.
As the leggings cost £8 each, I needed to spend at least another £4 to qualify for free store collection. I found a pair of fleece leggings, which I thought would be nice and warm. They didn't come in specific sizes just small, medium, large and extra large.
Three days later I received an email from Mountain Warehouse informing me that my order was available for collection. I was happy with the fit and quality of the standard leggings. But the supposedly XL fleece leggings were far too small.
At the cash desk I requested a refund for this item. The assistant asked for the credit card for which I'd paid for my order, so that she could process the refund.
However, I no longer had that credit card, as my one of my other online shopping accounts had been hacked, leading my credit card provider to cancel the credit card. The assistant told me that it was procedure to make the refund to the card used to make the original purchase, but under the circumstances, she would make a refund to another credit card, as long as that credit card was in my name.
I was very happy with the customer service offered by Mountain Warehouse. I was able to shop online, find the items which I wanted at a good price, pick my order up at the local store and return one item in store for a refund.

subset: commoncrawl


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Quick Take for Thursday, June 12, 2014
(National Live + Same Day Program Ratings)
For the 4th Consecutive Night with Coverage of the 2014 NBA Finals, ABC Outperforms the Other Networks' Combined Adult 18-49 Delivery
"Kimmel Live Game Night" is Drawing the Annual Special's Biggest-Ever Audience
ABC's 2014 NBA Finals Games Rank as the No. 1 TV Program on Each Evening
The San Antonio-Miami NBA Finals Increases its Overall Audience Year-to-Year
Thursday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.)
For the 4th consecutive evening with 2014 NBA Finals coverage (Miami-San Antonio Game 4), ABC beat the other nets' combined primetime delivery in Adults 18-49 (+23% - 4.3/15 vs. 3.5/12 - CBS, NBC, Fox and CW combined). In addition, the Net more than doubled the audience of its nearest competition in Total Viewers (11.1 million vs. 5.4 million - CBS).
· ABC equaled its highest-rated Thursday in nearly 1 year among Adults 18-49 - since 6/20/13.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live Game Night 4" (Various Time Periods)
Airing around the NBA Finals in various time periods across the country, "Jimmy Kimmel Live Game Night 4" grew its overall audience year to year (+3% - 3.6 million vs. 3.5 million on 6/13/13). In fact, on average through 4 games, "Kimmel Game Night" is up 6% year over year (3.6 million vs. 3.4 million), tracking as the annual special's largest audience in its 7 years on the air - since it began airing with the 2008 NBA Finals.
"NBA Finals on ABC Game 4" (9:00 - 11:43 p.m. E.T.)
With the San Antonio Spurs at the Miami Heat, ABC's 2014 NBA Finals Game 4 finished as Thursday's dominant No. 1 TV program in Total Viewers (15.0 million) and all key Adult demos: A18-34 (5.8/24), A18-49 (6.0/20) and A25-54 (6.2/18). It was the 4th consecutive broadcast for the 2014 NBA Finals to rank as top television program of the night. San Antonio won the fourth game by a score of 107-86 to now lead the best-of-seven series 3-1.
· On average through 4 games, the 2014 NBA Finals is up year over year by 1% in Total Viewers (14.9 million vs. 14.8 million) and holding steady among Adults 18-49 (6.0/19).
· The 2014 NBA Finals on ABC continued its run as the most-social TV program on the night with 2,913,258 tweets, jumping 26% over Tuesday's Game 3 (2,312,342).
Source: The Nielsen Company (National, Live + Same Day Program Ratings), 06/12/14. Nielsen Socialguide 6/12/14, Total Tweets +/- 3hrs during telecast.


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Sakumono Suspected Thieves Busted
The suspects in police grips.
Three suspected thieves including a student, who are said to be terrorizing residents of sakumono, near Tema and its environs, have been caged at the Sakumono police station.
Christian Aboagye, 30, driver; Samuel Larbi, 19, a student and Samuel Darko, a 20-year-old plumber, were apprehended for unlawfully being in possession of some electronic appliances.
Police retrieved from the suspects one Samsung flat screen television, two 46-inche Highsense television sets, a Dell and Toshiba laptops.
A DVD player, a home theatre set, two woofer machines as well as Samsung and Blackberry mobile phones were other items retrieved from the residence of Aboagye during police investigations.
Speaking to DAILY GUIDE , Superintendent Alex Wowolo, Sakumono District Police Commander, mentioned that a night patrol team intercepted a Daewoo taxi with registration number 6362-14 at Community 16, Tema, being driven by Aboagye.
The suspects, he said, managed to swerve all police check-points in the area until they were accosted by the Sakumono night patrol team on their usual patrols at about 2:30 am on January 25, 2015. According to him, the suspects had refused to mention where they had stolen the items from. The police officer therefore appealed to residents of the area whose properties had gone missing, to report to his outfit.
Superintendent Wowolo disclosed that the criminals operate in the Tema metropolis.
He advised residents to take their personnel security seriously to prevent such miscreants from robbing them of their properties.
'Residents need to make their personnel security system more difficult for the criminals to break in. The police again realized that most victims don't know the police emergency numbers – 1885, 0302773906 - with which they can inform the police about any suspicious moves so that we can come to their aid,' the police boss stated.
FROM Vincent Kubi, Tema


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It's been a pretty wild summer for me and I can imagine with the other research projects I have going it will only get worse.
- The weather.kopn.org website has been dissolved. The radio station is under new management and have developed a new website dedicated to our independent contribution in the community. That being said, a new "weather" section will be up and running soon.
- The SOI research is coming along nicely with 33 folders dedicated to ENSO/Season/SOI Fall or Drop. Within those folders I have created ESRL maps spanning 25 days from a 20 point and 10 point rise or drop.
- I'm still working on a new Pacific index that could help with ENSO relationships to the lower 48 weather.
- Josh's RRWT, Recurring Rossby Wave Train, submissions to the Forecast Rodeo have been doing very well. There were 118 teams to start with and now they have narrowed it down to the top 5 at the half-way mark. We are optimistic that once the fall and winter weather starts hitting the forecast regions that the RRWT will shine more than the other competitors. He is outperforming the "benchmarks" of 'Damped Persistence' and the 'CFS' in both Week 3-4 & 5-6 Precipitation and beating 'Damped Persistence' in Week 5-6 Temperatures! I've been attempting to contribute via a different sub-seasonal method that had been doing very well utilizing CPC 6-10 & 8-14 day analogs. The issue is that ESRL maps only provide 'Precipitation Rate' or 'Precipitable Water' as options and not the 'Accumulated Precipitation' that we need for the contest. That conversion is giving me fits to say the least.
- Twitter handle @crankywxguy has taken over the creation of our BSR maps and has done an amazing job with it!


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July 1, 2020
Leftover Spaghetti Frittata (or We've Come a Long Way)
I made leftover spaghetti frittata for the first time at the end of March. This was when I kept scrolling news in hopes of good news, and there was none. I kept checking in on food writer @emikodavies under lockdown in Italy, and it was some solace to see her family's daily life continuing, albeit in confinement. If they could keep going, so could I, was my reasoning. The recipe she posted in her feed also appealed to me for its frugalness. This was in my "reusing parchment paper" phase, when I was worried about food availability. It made a meal that was as comforting as it was delicious.
I do not think the pandemic is over. And I WOULD go into detail about our rituals, the ways we're taking precautions, but I won't, because reading such posts from other people makes me anxious. Suffice it to say, however, that we have not returned to business as usual. But we have also found ways, in this new reality, to reclaim joy and pleasure, and it's not at all as incongruous as a lot of people might think.
I do not think the pandemic is over, but I really want to celebrate how far we've come since that dismal day in late March when I first poured eggs into my spaghetti. I think a fixation on US politics here in Canada has confused many people about the many ways their situation is different from our own. And there are, of course, a hundred other reasons to be lugubrious right now…but we're still here, and now it's summer, basil blooming in my garden, which I mixed into our frittata today.
There have been unfathomable losses, it's true, but things are better now, infection rates here in Ontario continue to be low, community spread decreasingly a factor. The pandemic is not over, but do you not see still what a wonderful thing this is? That we are not without reasons to be hopeful after all?
I am going to make spaghetti frittata forever, I think. I am going to use spaghetti even as a means to frittata, in fact, and it's going to remind me of these days, of all we've learned about community and connection, living with uncertainty and weathering hard times. Of what grows, and persists, and even blooms.
The pandemic is not over, but we have come such a long way.
April 12, 2018
The Soup My Children Eat
Having children is a challenge to any notion of living in the moment, not just because children rarely sit still, but also because a moment in the life of a child is as changing as a garden in May. And so the closest I've come to really being present is looking back on five minutes previous and saying, "Well, thank goodness that's over, and isn't it amazing to be here right now." Which is basically what I've been saying for my children's entire lives, the first six weeks of their existences notwithstanding.
Of course, it helps that I am an insufferable diviner of silver linings. I also know that it's not always going to keep getting better and better, this experience of raising children. Life is complicated. Although I am so insistent when it comes to those silver linings that I might possibly end up deluding myself into thinking this is the case—I'm an unreliable narrator. But still, here we are, with my children on the cusp of being five and nine, and we've never had it so good. Sometimes we go out for dinner, and I don't even need to be bring crayons. All those terrains that were unnavigable by stroller are now ours for the taking—I look forward to a summer of walks in ravines. And when we wet our pants, it's a special occasion instead of a regular occurrence. We're capable of having interesting conversations that 35% of the time don't descend into an in-depth analysis of farts. We can all go to the same movie and enjoy it, and even Iris has been following along with our reading of A Wrinkle in Time. But what makes me happier than anything else is that finally everybody likes soup.
It has taken years to get here. I don't know why. You'd think that soup would be child-friendly, as it doesn't even require teeth to eat it, but my children were soup-intolerant from the get-go. And in some ways, I understood—small children like food to be straightforward and not touching, and soup was everything mixed up in a bowl. I would puree it, but they always claimed it tasted terrible. Chicken noodle they would tolerate, but only because they'd just pick out the noodles. And all of this was very hard on me, because soup is one of the things I love best in the world. Warm and comforting, full of nutritious goodness, handy for leftovers, and how it warms the house and steams everything up so you can draw hearts on the windows. I really love soup, and I never gave up serving it to my children in the hopes that one I'd finally succeed at making them love it too.
The tide finally turned about a year ago. I remember the night it happened—I served the soup thinking, "Will tonight be the night?" As I'd done numerous nights before, but this one did the trick. Everybody ate the soup. The blandest soup, it was true, but I was not going to quibble about details. Soup was soup and we were eating it together, and I kept serving it, gradually adding flavour. Originally it was sweet potato and I started using butternut squash instead, but not telling them. They kept eating it. I added a bit of curry—nobody complained. And now I serve it weekly, and everybody's the teeniest bit sick of it, but they indulge me and also they don't get a say because I'm the one cooking. We like to have our soup with a loaf of oatmeal quick bread and hummus and cheese on the side, as well as a drained can of chickpeas roasted in the oven with salt and olive oil as the bread is cooking.
The Soup My Children Eat (Adapted from here)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 butternut squash, peeled and diced (or 4 sweet potatoes)
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
1 can of coconut milk
Melt olive oil in a stock pot. Add onion and garlic and let them soften, then stir in spices. Add diced squash, and then stock. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes (or longer?) and then add coconut milk. Puree with an immersion blender.
November 30, 2017
Eating all the pies
I felt very liberated when I read in a cookbook about pies that one should use store-bought puff-pastry always, because attempting to make puff-pastry from scratch was just stupid. I don't really know if the author of my pie book is an authority (according to wikipedia, she's an interior designer and pies are just a sideline) but I'm not going to ask too many questions, because puff-pastry makes pies so easy. Savoury pies, I mean, as in for a meal. I still have pretty strong feelings about pastry from scratch for fruit or dessert pies. But puff-pastry means you could have a meat pie on the table as an easy weeknight supper. And we were all over that while we were reading The Piemakers, by Helen Cresswell, which our librarian recommended to us recently and we read-aloud with pure delight. A story that reminded me so much of The Borrowers in tone that I kept forgetting that the characters were not miniature—although the giant pie dish in which they float down the river didn't make the scale any less confusing. It's about a family of pie-makers—the daughter is called Gravella, named for Gravy—and it all goes wrong when they get the opportunity to bake a pie for the actual king. (Too much pepper, cough cough.) But then they get another chance to redeem their pie-making reputation, and everyone in the village pitches in, and (spoilers!) the result is a pie-making triumph. We loved it. But it made us hungry. And let me tell you the other best thing about store-bought puff pastry? That it's sold in packages of two.
October 13, 2016
On Blogs and Food Blogs: a Conversation with Emily Wight
Emily Wight is author of the cookbook, Well Fed Flat Broke, which is the cookbook that taught me what people are talking about when they talk about reading cookbooks for pleasure. She is also the longtime writer behind the blog of the same name, and I really admire her work and her perspective on blogging.
I'd always wondered if my own philosophy of blogging (that blogging should be easy, fit nicely into your life, never be a chore…) was relevant to food blogging. Emily was kind enough to answer my questions about food blogging, and blogging in general, and what it means to be an old school blogger still at it in 2016.
Dear Emily,
I really admire your blog, your book, and all you do, and it occurs to me that you might the perfect person for something I've been wanting to do for a while. I teach a blogging course at UofT and think about blogging a lot, have all kinds of theories about blogs as a radical space, for women in particular. and how blogs have certainly been hijacked by commercial interest. My favourite thing about blogs is there inherent messiness, how they're works in progress, an exercise in making it up as you go along…
But I also know that this doesn't quite work for food blogs. A lot of work is required for a food blogger. Whereas I see a blog as a great place to practice the art of imperfection, a food blogger has to get it right or else she'll be messing up her readers' dinners. There is also the nature of sponsorship…
Anyway, I would be really interested in reconciling my own ideas about blogging with the realities of food blogging and expanding my understanding of blogging in general. Would you be willing to engage in a back and forth email conversation over a few days to get some of these ideas flowing?
I'd be happy to help! But also food blogs can be messy and alive, it's just harder to find them now. I really like Poor Man's Feast and The Yellow House, but to be honest I've really moved away from reading a lot of food bloggers. By the time fall comes, I never want to see another recipe for squash soup as long as I live. I think the "why" behind food blogging has shifted from when I started one million years ago in 2007/08, certainly.
Okay, so here is my first question. My whole deal is that blogging should be easy, it shouldn't be a chore. If blogging is hard and taking up too much time, I preach, then you're doing it wrong. But with food blogging—I suspect and as I've been told—there is recipe testing required, you can't do typos (or else you can end up with a tablespoon of salt when it should have been a teaspoon). It's a whole different game. Not to mention staging required for photographs… Has this been your experience? Is food blogging inherently hard? Is there a way to fit food blogging sustainably and easily into one's life?
I don't think food blogging is inherently hard—I have a much easier time of it than something like, say, fashion blogging, because I understand food but clothes remain a mystery to me. In most food blogging, food is the creative outlet—it's a kind of art of its own, and so blogging about food is really just communicating a different form of expression, if that makes sense?
I think that people get satisfaction from different parts of it. I'm not a great photographer, so for me the staging and photographing is an afterthought, because no amount of effort in that regard is going to make my crappy iPhone photos significantly better; I think I'm a decent writer though, so I hope to coast on the quality of the writing and the recipes. For other people who are perhaps better photographers, maybe the writing feels hard.
In terms of accuracy and recipe development, that is a unique challenge but again I'd liken it to its own art form. Like, why would anyone do this if they weren't either creating or archiving something? For me food blogging made sense—my education is in creative writing, but I am most excited about food, and we have to eat anyway. Food blogging became a way to write every day, or at least fairly often at a time when I might not have known what else to write about.
"Food blogging became a way to write every day, or at least fairly often at a time when I might not have known what else to write about."
The challenge of sustainability now, I find, has less to do with the form and more to do with my own motivation. There's a lot of "content" out there. I recognize that this is my own problem—food blogging is very different in 2016 than it was in 2008, and there are so many new voices that it can be hard to wade through and find your people. I won't read on if I feel like a blogger is writing sponsored content, which is perhaps unfair, but again there is just so much out there now that I get to choose not to be marketed to if I don't want that. At this stage, I am really looking for writers who make me look at food differently, or who use food as a vehicle for a larger story, whether there's a recipe at the end or not.
So interesting. I am also really invested in the idea of blogging as a process, and a never-ending one too. An opportunity to learn and grow. That is why I started blogging about books back in 2007ish. Which is definitely at odds with the way that most bloggers these days are urged to position themselves as experts and gurus. I feel like we don't get to see any of the process anymore, that the process is regarded as mess, something to be swept into the corners.
Did you have any food blogger "credentials" when you started blogging back in the day? Were they even necessary? You talk about motivation for food blogging—do you think people blogging in 2016 are blogging for blogging's sake, or are they blogging with the intention of a book deal or some other professional opportunity? And I want to know also—what motivates you to keep blogging after all this time?
It's totally a process! That's why I don't delete all my terrible, very bad posts with their clunky writing and hideous photos, because I like the idea that you can follow someone back through their process of growth. I remember when I first discovered The Bloggess in maybe 2009, and she was so funny and wonderful, and I had an evening alone (and no children), so I went all the way back through her archives and marveled at how her voice had strengthened and changed as she worked at it. There's value in the process, and if nothing else it's reassuring to be able to go back and see how you've evolved.
"I don't delete all my terrible, very bad posts with their clunky writing and hideous photos, because I like the idea that you can follow someone back through their process of growth."
I think the difference between then and now is really in how we've come to view online writing—the idea of "content" creates this sort of urgency to post regularly, to demonstrate value and expertise and keep people coming back. There has always been talk of "building an audience," but prior to maybe 2011 the message was "make something valuable and people will come." I don't think that's changed, but social media has really altered how that happens—now you don't just have to make good blog posts, you also have to market them, and you—that was always kind of the case, but there's so much more "content" out there now, that you have to put in a lot of effort—on a greater number of platforms—to stand out. If you want to do it well now, you have to think of yourself as a "brand" which honestly just feels so ridiculous. I get it, but I don't want to do it.
"There has always been talk of 'building an audience,' but prior to maybe 2011 the message was 'make something valuable and people will come.' I don't think that's changed, but social media has really altered how that happens."
Which is not to say that people who are doing it are doing blogging wrong, it's just that the culture has changed. It does seem like people spring up fully formed overnight, with these beautiful sites and strong voices, but I wonder if part of that is that these are people who are approaching it with more online experience. When I started, I had had a Facebook account for maybe a year and that's about it; I think now, for a lot of people, the social and visual aspects of blogging come pretty naturally. The technology is better—everyone has an iPhone now and iPhones take pretty good pictures. Getting to where you can be seen as an expert in whatever you're doing is not such an investment as it used to be. "Anyone can do it" has turned into "anyone can do it well."
I didn't really have much in the way of credentials when I started, short of a writing degree. But is a writing degree any less a credential than professional cooking experience, if the blog's audience is the home cook? The people who did really well early on had really strong perspectives—people like David Lebovitz, or Luisa Weiss, or Pim Techamuanvivit (who has since quit blogging). They really created the model for what you see a lot of people doing now, and I think created a sense of what you can do if you do well online.
Do people blog just to blog, or do they want something else, like a book deal? I don't know. I think people sit down and open a WordPress account for the same reason they ever did—a desire to connect, to write, or just to find their people online. But I think there is more of a sense that if this goes well, there are other opportunities in it. People take bloggers more seriously now than they did even a few years ago. You certainly see a lot of blogger cookbooks now, and they are often quite well done (and do very well).
"I think people sit down and open a WordPress account for the same reason they ever did. But I think there is more of a sense that if this goes well, there are other opportunities in it."
As for me and why I still do it? Well, I certainly do it a lot less than I used to, because now I feel like I only want to write when I have something to say, or a recipe that's really worth sharing, or to gauge whether what I'm working on is something people want to see more of. With other social media, like Instagram or Facebook, I still feel very connected to my community, so I spend a lot of time on there and other platforms. I treat my site as more of a portfolio—I don't get paid to write on my blog (I don't do ads or sponsored posts), but it generates other opportunities. It also allows me to work out my point-of-view a bit, and to figure out what I want to do. I would not have had the opportunity to write the book without the blog; now that I've written the book though, the blog is still very important in that it's a place to dabble and experiment with what I want to do next. It's a very public way of working shit out for myself. I also get the benefit of feedback—people will make the recipes or comment on the writing, so I know pretty quickly what's working and what's not. It's a hard thing to let go of, especially if you came up in writing workshops and are used to a more collaborative approach to the creative process.
This ended up being a lot of words! In short, I think that blogs are valuable and the evolution and messiness is valuable and we're in a time of transition, because at this point blogs aren't going away and also there are always more blogs. But like anything produced en masse, there's good, meaningful stuff in there and I want to see it, especially if it's a bit unrefined.
You are my blogging soul sister! That space to grow and evolve is so essential to successful blogging, I think (and I think a lot of bloggers who head into the gig thinking strategy and imagined outcomes are going to trip up on that). I am curious about your ideas about actually reading blogs. In my course, whenever I ask students what blogs they read, they usually shrug their shoulders and admit, "none!" Which is not to say that nobody reads blogs. I think that lots of people read blogs, but we come to them more laterally. I read food blogs all the time, but usually find them by googling whatever happens to be in my fridge and seeing what recipes result. I used to use a blog reader back in the day, but then Google ended it, and my blog reading was kind of rudderless after that—and I missed blogs. So I actively sought out a blog reader (I use protopage.com) which made reading blogs more of a regular habit. Kind of anachronistic, but I like it old school. I have a small but loyal group of readers who seem to feel just the same (and this is not JUST my mom). Anyway, I am interested in your thoughts on reading blogs and also finding readers. As you said, social media is a huge part of this.
Also, regarding the messiness: do you think it's just too terrifying for some people to show their mess in public? Is that's what's driving the push toward tidy blogs? And by tidy, I mean antibacterial robot blogs? Is the blogger who's willing to show her process taking risks that might be unwise?
Ha! I'm glad we're on the same page, as I often feel like I am a cranky old man about everything and no one understands 😉
Google Reader did kill blog-reading for me, in a lot of ways—remember when you could follow, like, 50 blogs? 100 blogs?! Haha, no. I don't read a huge number of bloggers, but I have kept up with the ones who tell good stories, or who make me laugh. I love Afroculinaria, and Eating From the Ground Up, and The Pizzle, food-related blogs that offer more than just content. The thing about "content" is it's stuff meant to fill space. How much of what we're putting out there is valuable? How much can any one person care about? I know content when I see it, and there's a real difference between reading something someone put thought and time into and some junk they threw up just to have a post on Tuesdays as per usual, you know? And so, I am reading fewer and fewer blogs. But the ones I am reading, I'm really invested in. Like, I would be genuinely sad if they went away. But you're right, I don't think people "read" blogs in the same way that they used to—I agree, I definitely come to blogs more laterally now, and I don't often click "follow" on the blog when I find someone I like—I find them on Instagram, or on Twitter or Facebook.
I also get to say all that as someone who has been around long enough to not really have to hustle for readers. Do I need more readers? I am sure in terms of marketing books more readers would be valuable, but I am not unhappy with how I am doing, and the amount of traffic moving through the site on a daily basis, even when I don't post very often. I recognize that the landscape is different now, and I get to be someone with cobwebs and cat hair and it's, like, my thing. Maybe it's not that we're not hustling, we've just earned the ability to not have to? Maybe those newbies with their neat presentations and good cameras and shiny websites look at people like us, who have been around a long ass time and don't feel obligated to bother with Pinterest, with envy?
"Maybe it's not that we're not hustling, we've just earned the ability to not have to?"
It might be scarier now to show your mess in public. Mess isn't marketable, and I think because there are so many blogs out there now, you need to look like you know what you are doing in order to be taken seriously, or at least to be followed by people who don't care about stuff like messiness and the creative process (which I think is most people). Another aspect of this is that a lot of these blogs are or want to be businesses—and businesses run quite a lot differently than creative projects. I want to say this in a way that doesn't make me sound like an asshole (because I don't mean anything offensive by it), but there's a difference between writers and people who like to write; I think writers, or people who have always written (in the writers-as-artists sense), may value the mess and the show-of-process more than people who like to write but have other ambitions for their blogs. Writers aren't penalized for having written shitty first drafts (or having evolved through a period of shitty-first-draftyness) because it's expected, that's what we do. But bloggers who want to turn blogging into something else, something beyond cookbooks or novels or whatever, maybe they approach it differently, and are more thoughtful about how they present themselves.
Did you see Luvvie Ajayi's post on having been blogging ten years? She talks a bit about her process, and she had a few points I liked. This one, on evolution: "This blog has evolved with me. And my changed beliefs, my maturity and my growth as a person can be charted through the last ten years. How you start is not going to be how you continue and finish and that is okay. You are human."
This resonated, because I think this is what's been so great about blogging. I started out when I was 25 and still really immature in terms of my voice and my world view, and I am happy I can go back even three or four years and see that I have made progress, and that I am maybe a better version of who I was when I started. And maybe that kind of thing won't matter to most people, but there's a vulnerability in not being your tidiest, best-branded self and I think that resonates with the kind of readers who will stick with your writing long-term.
Follow Emily Wight on Twitter and Instagram, and stop by to read her blog.
February 13, 2016
Happy Valentines Day
Everything's been a special occasion around here lately, what with Pancake Tuesday and the fact that we had afternoon tea for dinner the day after that. And now it's a long weekend, four days of it if you count Harriet's PA Day, and we're stretching out our Valentines Day celebrating and marking it with cheese. (Long weekend adventures have been extensively instagrammed.) It's freezing cold outside but everything around here is wonderful and cozy, which feels nice after our terrible boring Christmas vacation rife with sickness. I just finished reading my second novel by Tana French (you MUST read Tana French) and now for sentimental reasons, am about to embark upon a reread of The Republic of Love.
October 21, 2014
All the Squash
Oh, so little sleep (Iris has a cold and is getting molars) and three part time jobs means that my mind is scattered this week, but I want to take a pause and write about squash. It's partly the time of year, and also because brand new cookbook The Everyday Squash Cook entered our lives, but no matter the reason, we are squash obsessed. Our Thanksgiving was made rich with acorn squash pie (see Harriet cleaning out the seeds, which we later roasted with the recipe from The Everyday Squash Cook) whose recipe I invented by mistake, but it turned out gloriously—I roasted the squash with the spices and butter in it, and then baked it all in an oatmeal crust. We also had this delicious Roasted Apple and Acorn Squash Soup and it was as easy to make as it was wonderful.
The squash that continues to challenge me is spaghetti—I don't buy those recipes pretending the strands are pasta, and neither do my children. It's okay roasted, but there is so much and the kids won't eat it, and I don't like it that much. We receive them often in our organics delivery, however, and I think we may have finally found the solution—a spaghetti squash soup recipe from The Everyday Squash Cookbook, featuring coconut milk for maximum deliciousness and the strands do indeed pass as noodles in a soup. So good.
A mysterious squash turned up on our delivery last week. The Everyday Squash Cookbook has a squash identifier, but I couldn't find our mystery squash. So I turned to this rather nifty Winter Squash Visual Guide to discover it was a Delicata Squash. I roasted it according to this recipe to learn another thing—that Delicata Squash is the most delicious squash ever.
More squash? We made Butternut Bacon on the weekend from TESC (you can see the recipe here) and it blew our minds. Easy peasy and it cooks in 20 seconds. And then we were left with a whole bunch of butternut squash, so I used a vegetable peeler to thinly slice it, and made a "pizza" from those slices, inspired by a recipe in Tessa Kiros' Apples for Jam: mix slices in a bowl with olive oil and flour until slices are coated, then turn onto a pie plate and bake for about an hour. Top with tomato paste, oregano, and mozzarella cheese and bake for 10 more minutes. It's so good, though Harriet wouldn't eat it, but that's not much of an indicator of anything.
One of my favourite squash recipes (which Harriet does eat) is this ridiculously easy risotto that requires no stirring because it bakes in the oven. I usually use butternut squash and it's very good.
Tonight we're looking forward to trying the Squash/Sausage/Rigatoni recipe from TESC. I am quite sure it will prove delicious. Check out this recipe for Butternut Brownies, and also this article on squash as one of "Canada's heritage foods."
March 27, 2013
The Stop by Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis
Oh, there is nothing quite like the The Stop's Farmers' Market. To get there, we have to trudge up the hill above Davenport Road, which is no small feat pushing a stroller, but the journey is worth it. In the winter, to arrive inside the big hall at Wychwood Barns, full to bursting with people touring around the tables heaped with fresh produce, delicious breads and cheeses, and other wonderful things. In the summer, the market spills outside into the grounds surrounding the Barns, and you've got to set a budget or else you'll go mad–cherries, pickles on sticks, cinnamon buns, sushi, honey, cookies. We don't want to snack too much because we're planning on having our lunch at the Market Cafe, and then after lunch, the kids play on the splash pad while we wait, hoping the artisanal cheese doesn't melt in the bottom of the stroller. Such concerns such a luxury and these Saturday mornings a highlight of family life in the city.
That's not the half of it though, as demonstrated by the stories told in the new book The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement by Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis. We thought we knew what The Stop was all about–I bought their cookbook a few years ago, and used it so thoroughly that it no longer has bindings (and I continue to use it still- oh, the fish tacos, the beef stew, that strawberry bread!!). We visit the market a few times a year when we're hungry and in need of a trek. And this Christmas, we divided our annual food-bank donation in two and gave half the money to The Stop instead. But for all our enthusiasm, it turns out we didn't know The Stop at all.
It turns out that the hub of The Stop is not the Green Barn, where the farmers' market takes place each week, where Jamie Oliver paid a visit not too long ago. The real heart of The Stop, instead, lies a few kilometres west down Davenport Road at their main office, which was a small food bank when Nick Saul became executive director in 1998. It didn't take long for Saul in this role to become disillusioned with the food bank system, which, he tells us, is a relatively recent invention. Food banks came about in the 1980s as a temporary solution to community hunger, but they stayed around as government programs for dealing with these problems were being reduced at the very same time. And now it seems as though we've always had them, food banks, systems we support by dumping store-brand Kraft Dinner in grocery store bins every once in a while before heading home to feast on artisanal cheese and organic kale.
The Stop is written by Saul and his wife, award-winning writer Andrea Curtis, but told in Saul's voice as he outlines his decade and a half with the organization. The problems with the food bank, he realized quickly, were manifold: it was a stop-gap measure; users picked up their hampers and left feeling diminished; the contents of the hampers weren't anything that anyone would choose to eat, and did nothing to contribute to a healthy diet. There were other things going on at The Stop though that were having a more positive impact, such as their Healthy Beginnings Program, which taught food and nutrition skills to pregnant low-income women. Other initiatives came about–a community garden, cooking classes, drop-in meals. Around all these, a real sense of community began to form. Users came to The Stop and began to find it empowering, to find places where they could contribute to their communities and get involved.
Change is hard though, and Saul outlines how difficult it was to shift the centre's focus away from the traditional food bank's. First, because The Stop's volunteers felt good about what they were doing and didn't appreciate their efforts being criticized. The general consensus was that anyone using a foodbank hamper didn't have the right to turn their nose up at anything, wilted lettuce, fetid peppers, and all. But Saul was convinced there had be a better way, and slowly, step-by-step, his organization began to blaze that trail. The community garden, he admits, is never going to feed the world, and there are many people who use The Stop whose problems are so complex that those problems are never going to be fully resolved, but many lives have been changed by the place (including those of the babies in their Healthy Beginnings program, all of whom were born at a healthy birth weight last year) and a community has found its spirit.
With The Stop's Green Barn, Saul writes, "we can have a role tapping into the largely middle-class enthusiasm about food we're seeing and connecting the dots between the poor and everyone else." Because the poor, he explains, are largely excluded from the foodie revolution of the last few years. While I'm snacking on my organic kale chips, rising food costs are putting healthy food further and further out of reach of people who could benefit from it as much as I do. Saul checks Michael Pollan's "vote with your fork" philosophy, and points out that for all the good of the movement, it leaves lower-income people as disenfranchised as they've ever been.
Nick Saul left The Stop in July 2012 to become president and CEO of Community Food Centres Canada, which aims to bring The Stop's movement and innovations to communities across Canada, and after reading the book, I am confident in this new organization's success and so excited by the work they're doing. These aren't political issues, Saul tells us, but instead these are issues of morality. The Stop is a fantastic story well told, compelling to read, and it will inspire readers to reconsider their relationships with both the food they eat and the people they live amidst.
June 6, 2012
To market, to market
The market opened today, and it was a glorious bounty, perhaps due to our early spring. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, people we know from the neighbourhood and farmers we haven't seen since last October who commented on how enormous Harriet has grown in the meantime. And it's true– this time last year, I had to wear Harriet on my back to the market or else she'd escape, and then she'd scream whenever it was time to leave, and I think she got a bad reputation. Today, however, she stood at my side like an actual human being, and it was so exciting to see strawberries, beets, garlic scapes, cherry tomatoes, and kale, plus say hello to our favourite maple syrup and honey men. It is very nice to say hello to summer again, and also to see how far we've come.
January 18, 2012
Porridge Mornings
For the new year, I resolved to start hauling my sorry self out of bed just a wee bit earlier to cook a hot breakfast for our family to eat together. Partly because a hot breakfast is a good enticement to get out of bed at all, because it's the best way to meet cold, dark winter mornings, and because Stuart would appreciate some early morning company. Three weeks in, we're quite hooked on the habit, and have been changing up the porridge so it never gets tired. We've had steel-cut oats, regular rolled oatmeal and quinoa and barley porridge. My favourite, though, is brown rice porridge, inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook which I had out of the library over Christmas (which was pretty good, actually, even though her porridges are pretty bland. Her sweet potato ravoli was delicious though). Brown rice porridge remarkably simple to prepare when we cook up some rice in the rice cooker the night before. In the morning, toss the cooked brown rice in a saucepan, cover the rice with milk and warm it up, adding 2 tbspns of corn starch for thickening. For all our porridges, we've found that a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extract is the key to deliciousness, along with honey, cinnamon and nutmeg, raisins, diced apples or bananas. And whatever is leftover can be reheated the next morning.
Easiest resolution ever.
July 3, 2011
Best morning ever
Our friends Jennie and Deep have a new house within the vicinity of Trinity Bellwoods Park, so that was where we met them this morning for a splendid picnic brunch. It was a brilliant walk in the sunshine, from our house all the way down to Clafouti for the best croissants in Toronto. We had teas and coffees, and sat on a blanket under a tree, and marvelled at the goodness of life in general, in particular on a day like today. And then Harriet went to the playground and the wading pool, while Jennie and I dashed across the street for a browse in Type Books. I bought Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems and It Must Be Tall As A Lighthouse by Tabatha Southey. Jennie bought the Jack Dylan Trinity Bellwoods poster (at right). Then back to the park where we splashed around with Harriet in the pool. She was eventually bribed out of the pool with the promise of ice cream, which dripped until she was covered in it, and by then we were home. And then Harriet slept for three hours, which made this probably the very best day on record. Not a bad way to cap off a weekend of patio sitting, bbqs, and reading a big fat summer book. More about that book later…


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Matthew Jones is, arguably, the most consistently good FPL player in the world. In 10 seasons, Matthew has finished top 500 three times, top 10k eight times and never finished lower than 15,535 (in his first season). He's also a dab hand at Sky having finished 2nd overall in 16/17, his first season, proving his strategies are effective across fantasy formats.
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World Famous Bondi Icebergs
To be a member you need to compete 3 Sundays out of 4 every year for 5 years during the freezing Cold Winter, hence the name Icebergs.
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Learn more about possibly one of the whackiest creatures on the planet. The 'duck billed platypus' discovered in the Blue Mountains by Charles Darwin and blew the minds of scientists back in Europe.
Published on: 28/06/2017 - Filed under: Blue Mountains, Places to visit, Top tours
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Jacobs, Cordova & Associates was part of an EBRD-funded project providing technical assistance to the Armenian Public Services Regulatory Commission. The project consisted of a comprehensive training programme and regulatory assistance in the sector of electronic communications provided in conjunction with Development Dynamics, Cullen International and J Kannervisto Consulting Finland.
See link below for EBRD's Success story on this project http://www.ebrd.com/pages/news/press/2011/110324a.shtml
Armenia, EBRD through Premier Dynamics Limited, 2010-2011.


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My Better Half is on vacation this week and I'm loving every minute of it.
We are having lots of fun and making many memories. I hope you all have had a great week too!
Anyway, if you're new here, my Sister and I work together at the Think Tank, so anything you link up here will show up over at Joyful Homemaking as well.
Once again, we are both featuring some of your creativity, so here are a few of my favorites from last week.
Texas Chocolate Chocolate Sheet Cake by Oh Mrs. Tucker
Homemade Laundry Stain Remover by Our Simple Life
Rustic DIY Wood Plank Clock by Making it in the Mountains
Tips for Staying Cool Without The Air Conditioner by The Frugal Farm Wife
If you were featured, grab an "I Was Featured" button for your blog or grab a "Think Tank" button and lets get started!
-We look forward to featuring a few favorites each week, and remember that by submitting a link you are allowing us authorization to feature your fabulous work. We will always provide a photo and link back to the original post


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A common question we get here at Sofia's Cakes: "What are my options for a birthday cake?"
In cases like these, clients may have found a birthday cake design in one of our cake galleries:
- Birthday (and special occasion) cake pegs for kids
- Birthday (and special occasion) cake pegs for grown-ups
The short of it is, you can have any chosen design as:
- A 1-tier cake
- A 2-tier cake
- A cupcake tower (1-tier cake + cupcakes)
- A 3-tier cake
Let's get into each option in detail.
One-Tier Cake
One-tier cakes are great for small birthday parties, usually more intimate private gatherings, and are frequently character-inspired.
Check out a gallery of character-inspired celebration cakes here.
Typical size is 8×3″ or 7×4″ round, but may also be requested in a square cut.
Cost for a 1-tier birthday cake in fondant or buttercream starts at Php2200.
Click here for more 1-tier birthday cake ideas.
Two-Tier Cake
Most of the cakes we work with are 2-tier cakes, and these are usually commissioned for baptisms or christenings, 7th birthday parties, and even for debuts, anniversaries, and other special occasions.
2-tier cakes are ordered for larger-sized parties, if you have a headcount of about 30 to 60 guests.
Cost for a 2-tier celebration cake varies:
- A small-sized 2-tier cake (4×4″ 7×4″) starts at Php2500.
- A regular-sized 2-tier cake (5×4″ 8×4″) starts at Php3000.
- A large 2-tier cake (6×4″ 9×4″) starts at Php3500.
For 2-tier cakes, both tiers are made of real cake. Use of original toys, action figures or playsets is optional.
Cupcake Tower
Cupcake towers are particularly popular for kiddie parties, as they allow for easier handling and distribution. Cupcakes also give an added design element, which is great for styling candy stations or dessert stations.
Cupcake towers have a 1-tier cake (as detailed above), and can have 25, 50, or even as many as 100 cupcakes on the tower.
- 25-pc cupcake tower: price starts at Php3500.
- 50-pc cupcake tower: price starts at Php4500.
- 100-pc cupcake tower: price starts at Php6900.
Check out our promotional packages for celebration cakes with cupcakes by clicking here.
Three-Tier Cake
A 3-tier cake is usually meant for grand occasions, such as debuts or anniversaries. Many of these designs are patterned after our Tagaytay wedding cakes, only adjusted to match the desired color palette or motif.
Our typical 3-tier celebration cake has the approximate sizes: 6×5″ 9×5″ 12×5″. The entire middle layer (9×5″) is made of real cake.
Prices start at Php5900.
For a full guide on how to order a birthday cake, or a cake for your Tagaytay party, click here.
Ask Sofia's Cakes
Got a question for the Sofia's Cakes team? Email us your questions, or send it to us via a private message on Facebook. Our panel of cake experts, party planners, and event stylists will be happy to answer them.
For all your other inquiries and booking requirements, contact the Sofia's Cakes team here.
Latest posts by Sofia's Cakes (see all)
- Carlo and Sheryl's Tagaytay Wedding Highlights - November 9, 2018
- Baby Blue and Apricot 2-Tier Wedding Cake - October 11, 2018
- Beauty and the Beast-Themed Wedding Cake - September 17, 2018


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Islamophobia in the Light of Hypocrisy
A Huffington Post article by Michael Shank triggered one of my Google Alerts. I have selected two excerpts for dissection.
The first excerpt follows a litany of "scares", ending with Islamophobia.
Which of those things did we do? Did we wage war against Communism? Did we outlaw the Communist Party? Did we arbitrarily expel Communists? How about Catholics & Jews? We did go to war against Japan, seems like there was some valid reason for that action. I do not remember Pearl Harbor, but some of my readers might. The issue of internment is highly charged, but I have seen indications that the policy had some grounding in reality.
Next, we get down to the issue: Islamic violence.
Islam depicts Jews as those who "earned Allah's anger"; Christians as those who "went astray". It describes Jews as the "worst of living creatures"; "apes and swine". It curses us and declares war on us.
notions of Islam and nonviolence
Are notions of nonviolent Islam grounded in reality? Here is a list of the Islamic episodes of violence in the table of contents of Guillaume's The Life of Muhammad.
The first raid: on Waddan 281
Hamza's raid to the coast 283
Raid on Buwat 285
Raid on al-'Ushayra 285
Raid on al-Kharrar 286
Raid on Safawan 286
Fighting in the sacred month 286
The change of the Qibla 289
Battle of Badr
Raid on B. Sulaym 360
Raid called al-Sawiq 361
Raid on Dhu Amarr 362
Raid on al-Furu' 362
Attack on B. Qaynuqa' 363
Raid on al-Qarada 364
Killing of Ka'b b. al-Ashraf 364
Muhayyisa and Huwayyisa 369
Battle of Uhud 370
The Quran on UQud 391
The day of al-Raji' 426
Treachery at Bi'r Ma'una 433
B. al-Nadir exiled 437
Raid of Dhatu'l-Riqa' 445
Last expedition to Badr
Raid on Dumatu'l-Jandal 449
Battle of the Ditch 456
Attack on B. Qurayza 461
Killing of Sallam 482
Attack on B. Lihyan 485
Attack on Dhu Qarad 486
Attack on B. al-Mustaliq
Raid on Mu'ta 531
The occupation of Mecca 540
Khalid followed by 'Ali go forth as missionaries 561
Khalid destroys al-'Uzza 565
Battle of Hunayn 566
Capture of al-Ta'if 587
Division of the spoils of Hawazin
Raid on TabUk
Ghalib's raid on B. al-Mulawwah 660
Zayd's raid on Judham 662
Zayd's raid on B. Fazara 664
'Abdullah b. Rawaha's raid to kill al- Yusayr 665
'Abdullah b. Unays's raid to kill Khalid b. Sufyan 666
'Uyayna's raid on B. al-' Anbar 667
Ghalib's raid on B. Murra 667
'Amr b. al-' As's raid on Dhatu'l-Salasil 668
Ibn Abu Hadrad's raid on Idam 669
His raid on al-Ghaba 671
'Abdu'l-Rabznan's raid on Dumatu'l-Jandal 672
Abu 'Ubayda's raid to the coast 673
Salim b. 'Umayr's raid to kill Abu' Afak
'Umayr b. 'Adiy's raid to kill' Asma' 675
Capture of Thumama b. Athal 676
'Alqama's raid 677
Kurz's raid on the Bajilis 677
'Ali's raid on the Yaman 678
extreme outliers
Was the founder of Islam an extreme outlier? He said that he was "ordered to fight the people". He said that he was "made victorious with terror". No, Muhammad defined Islam, and set its standard with the exemplary conduct listed in the contents of his biography.
Is Allah, Islam's deity, an extreme outlier? He ordained jihad for Muslims. He commanded Muslims to wage war against pagans until resistance ceases and only Allah is worshiped on a global scale. Allah commanded Muslims to wage war against Jews, Christians & Zoroastrians until they are subjugated and extorted.
Are Al-Qaeda, HAMAS & Hezbollah extreme outliers or are they Salafists, obedient to Allah and emulating Muhammad?
religious diversity
Muhammad said "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.".
nonviolent, peaceful
Are they believers? Or are they hypocrites? If they are believers, they are neither nonviolent nor peaceful.
If they are nonviolent and peaceful, then: [See 9:84…89 for the definition of hypocrites.]
4:89. They wish that you reject Faith, as they have rejected (Faith), and thus that you all become equal (like one another). So take not Auliyâ' (protectors or friends) from them, till they emigrate in the Way of Allâh (to Muhammad ). But if they turn back (from Islâm), take (hold) of them and kill them wherever you find them, and take neither Auliyâ' (protectors or friends) nor helpers from them.
9:68. Allâh has promised the hypocrites; men and women, and the disbelievers, the Fire of Hell, therein shall they abide. It will suffice them. Allâh has cursed them and for them is the lasting torment.
Why are there no churches in Saudi Arabia? Why are Christians murdered, their churches & homes destroyed with impunity in Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya & Nigeria?
much to embrace
Does that include genocidal conquest & terrorism? Do you embrace child brides, who can be divorced before they reach menarche? Do you embrace a legal code in which a woman's testimony is worth half that of her husband? Do you embrace the return of Jesus Christ as a genocidal warlord?


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Hillary Clinton's Iowa Trip Stirs Debate, and More
As Hillary Clinton edges closer to announcing a run, the Democrats debate tactics. Plus, what to know about getting your medical test results online and the return of silent reading. Photo: AP
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the ... it's true I am thinking about it ... and with that Hillary Clinton is that this will be on until two thousand sixteen presidential season has kicked up ... welcomes your Monday lunch break everyone I'm tiny Rivera oh ... the former secretary of state and her husband former President Bill Clinton stepped out in Iowa Senator Tom Harkin annual steak fry event this weekend ... at this point is there any doubt she's running still could there be advantages to waiting to make that announcement ... with more analysis were joined by doubly SJ Washington bureau chief Jerry side ... and University of Iowa professor of political science ... to hit the hay well thanks to both of you ... for being with us and Jerry let me start with you Mrs Clinton's official position ... is she still Brady whether to decide to enter the race and lawmaker announcement until next year but ... at this point if she doesn't run doesn't she risked angering a lot of people in our own party ... was sure if she'll lose sides not to she will have disappointed and angry people who ... think a lot on that and some of whom the state on the sidelines is something that's was going to happen but ... I think there are two reasons for her to hang back at this point one this should also make some people the party a year she announced now ... sucked away all the oxygen and start a sock away the money away for Democratic candidates who are trying to win not in twenty sixteen but that twenty fourteen this year and I secondly as soon as she announces she becomes an even bigger target ... for Republicans than she already is and so why pace and that on this is a need to move fast to get my new name ID she's got plenty of both ... so she has lots of waiting awhile absolutley and I are talk Sunday ... was full of hands that she was running for example ... was the so the way she ended her speech ... the the ... the the the the ... the ... the ... what is the significance of all of this ... taking place in Iowa ... woohoo course ... Iowa with the first the nation caucuses this were told again since so what can we claim that she's going to have a presidential run show me to be here in Ireland so coming back at this point ... is kind of an important step whether she actually plans to get into the race isn't porn for her to be here Ch ay respect Senator Harkin ... and certainly she is thinking about a presidential run nice to be here to time like this ... and yet Democrats are worried though about the upcoming nominating process whether it could force her to parts of the last ... and potentially make or less electable ... he did it near top schools of thought about that one is that ... um you know a bit of nominating contest the moves some eases awarded the prize is not a good thing this initiative to fight for that improve their political ... viability in and that would be a good thing ... she does it take to worry about pushed being pushed too far to laugh because she staking out a fairly centrist positions so ... aam Belle be left to be challenged on the left I would think that question is how credible is that ... and a professor Hegel tell us about the inmates Hillary projected on Sunday was it one of the presidential ... campaign or was it significantly different from earlier appearances ... I don't know that was significantly different from earlier appearances but it was pretty standard Hillary Clinton who was in a very solid speech competent ... I it wasn't the kind of a campaign speech might see where she's trying to really rally the troops just before an election which in some sense this is just before lunch and of course is the midterms than she did talk about ... making sure the Democrats get out and fold and help others to vote for their candidates in two thousand fourteen ... but certainly if she's looking to be a presidential candidate to come back and give them more rousing types of speeches ... all right thank you Jerry side and professor to make the payoff ... for that ... after the break taking control of your own medical records stay with us ... what you like to access and manage your own medical test results but need a little help interpreted memo as more patients directly accessed than lab test results ... health care providers are offering more help understanding the means of medical data with and ... if you tell us more is doubly SJ medical reporter Laura Landro I think the much for being with us to do the hit to the list of tax that patients can now access without a doctor's approval ... has recently gotten longer is that right tell us why that is ... well basically you can access all of your lab tests now according to a federal law that mandates and existing privacy and lab that regulation rules ... and it means that blood test your analysis pap smears ... anything because in the little box outside the doctor's office which you go soft glad ... that use to be the doctor had to tell you about it now you can see yourself could inflation fell to a lot of patience and also many doctors you spoke with said they have no problem ... with their patients accessing this information but they one and that it needs to be read in context cracked right well study showed that even though patience really appreciate seeing guarantee that they feel a sense of ... common control unhappiness in relief and in fact Kaiser Permanente uses those exact words unsteady ... but at the same time they feel better or less confusing less likely to make a lot of alarm phone calls ... if in fact the doctor has talked them first about what to expect from the results ... what the results might mean in the context of their health after the lady tells about the new website the quest ... diagnostics ... is now offering to patients how does it work well quest Ishino was one of the big lad companies out there that does a lot of services and if you've had a lab test request ... basically you can go to the website that password protected or you can download onto your smartphone or a mobile app which you get your results pretty much break and I think its two to three days it's you know forty eight to seventy two hours ... they decided to do it that way even though the wind the rule is thirty days within thirty days you have to get at the Guinea get ... the doctor a little time to look at first ... and basically those results will now be available to you through these websites are apps ... informatics very easy to understand ... shows you what the normal range is a good use a little links to additional information ... and DIS has ... a really consumer friendly vibe to it so it does the information into some kind of content out there who give it to call now is just like raw numbers like yours reference is normal Here's where you are ... his weakness but your doctor about and allows you to share data from each with positions in with family ... and you know people who might be interested in helping him so if the evidence that as patients get more control over their medical information that it's ... helping to correct some errors ... well in fact there are some studies that show that patients often don't even hear about the test results ... that I think in one study something like one of fourteen lab test results ... they didn't communicate to the patient or they forgot to document that they communicated tend to be sent ... to you if the patient have a big stake in making sure that when those lab results command ... you look at them in a two-year doctors seen them to it there's no guarantee that that's happened first it's Deathly were checking out thank you so much while and after that I think you do you crave overturned to flow reading ... and our are more of uninterrupted reading time with no cell phones e mail or social media updates ... if that sounds heavenly to you as an estimate ... you may be ready to join a growing movement renewing the practice of focused reading of longer text ... here to tell us more is doubly SJ reporter Jeanne Whalen Jeanne thanks much for being with us ... to see your story really spoke to me because I so miss when myself and a book the way I use to and I'm glad you're not alone in front of a lot of people actually ended and that's how this movement started with a lot of people feeling that ... you are becoming so distracted E-mail and Twitter and Facebook that he just works in Downing reading anymore ... or even when they were they were intended to follow ... my single friend in some way seen any of the sense of just how to get out into the the silence party is better popping so there's a sign reading curries and nose and have started in Seattle in Brooklyn where people will come in and ... they come to a bar twenty to thirty people sometimes it's only ambient music playing a harp player a cellist ... and they get a drink and a sit down and read for ... an hour or two ... just in time and so the point of this party is not to socialize it's just ago in a corner and quietly allow yourself for a luxury at that hour to read pray and since sometimes in a socialite at the end of a reading that ... and yet it is to switch off the phone and to sit down and dedicate herself to book ... more ... than just into a man correcting experts say this is actually necessary if our brains ... so there it there is um quite a bit of research showing that he ... it helps your ability to ... deeply comprehend and analyze information is that reading hopes her ability to do those things and that we are ... losing someone or ability to analyze and then to really comprehend complex information because of technology distracting us constantly I love one expert quoted an article saying that slow reading is necessary to stay ... here ... at this rate he was the case in point out that you're out time and a lot of our big cultural and scientific breakthroughs have come from somebody you pondering something and I'm thinking and ... reading in a ... week into that with computers and our allies in computers and in the pub was a lot of ways to help us find all kinds of new information that we didn't know before but ... but we can't lose their ability to really think and slowdown in an alliance and have some great tips on how to do it to be in a continuous linear pattern ... breaking a quiet spot where some other tech site Zulily visit one-third switch on for phones which are your computer or even better unbeaten at home and go somewhere quiet to read ... thirty or forty minutes a time a nap we saw in the air ideally morbid ... several people I spoke to thought that thirty minutes from the minimum you need to slow down and breathe easily had actually been to absorb yourself new book and it is yet to schedule a day like it in time do it right right that's another to ... actually live on and say thank you so much in line ... parents are your kids as sick of the same old ones you've been packing as you are making it ... all here are some ways this plays out and get out of avalanche making REITs ... is MarketWatch's Charles Passy Chow think semis and in my pleasure to be here I have to say that when confronted with two after school activities one of which includes lunch and the other was not my kids all isn't that much one because I wanted it to heat making for him to not have to do admit that I'm ... in my household it's my wife who tend to deal with the lunches I that I had sort of got out of that duty for long times and I'd House of the press release that the unelected GoPicnic a ... Yepzon reading about absolutely ... what was really clever about this is that sort of the same concept as a lunch or both ... except this one does not need to be refrigerated ... has a pretty long shelf life ... and it's also fairly healthy ending its low ... low calorie low fat no trans this know that it's and it's really a need for me the idea that you can buy a bunch of these just happen and then just cut and ready especially the morning we ... feel like making a real watches everyone gets the the the the the the crispy for which is a great way ... of getting rid of the desert and get that absolutely I mean and and and I mean I should say I've tested all these products to help job ... this is the really clever take kids liked ... something crunchy you want to give them fruit this works both ways I mean we seen free freeze dried apples out there before but this is freeze dried Asian peers freeze dried I aam excellent so it's it's a very clever way to get free tickets to an exotic for that that the yen and you can feel like you really must include having sleep though poppies on the way to go big hit in our house right what as I say ... it's not just that you're giving something sweeping giving them a cultural and I mean this ... this as I Japanese classic it's been around for ... you know ... that decades Omnicom the company behind is actually making a new push into the United States aam they have a couple of new flavors of the Machu which is the green tea for that ... these are basically cotton candy coated biscuits but their vertical um I think that just great for kids because I think it's like things that are a little bit ... odd or unusual and Dom and and they're they're tasty Pattaya any vessel plan that meant that the two weekend out ... and now the coconut water for the right exactly coconut water is the huge category this is exploded ... on the adult marketplace estimate of three hundred and fifty million dollar category one of the big companies it's doing it on has come out with the kiddie version on these are flavored slightly so if you're gonna think some kids would just like plain coconut water but if you could want something ... with a little bit of a sweetness to it ... these are not very bearish agreed that they have a little bit of sweetness ... also a nice break from the usual cheese I tried to buy the regular stuff of my kids and I were happy as I think I gotta go with the flavor ... of the the the the the skin Zinger which looks great a little too much work for someone like me leave the mom over here but it sounds like a great idea for the crafting on what what you you want your kid's student to get you know you want them to drink something that's very low calorie that aam is the healthy water is always being pushed kids do not like bottled water at all seem to like it added so ... this allows them to flavor the war it's essentially a juicer that you know essentially putting the squeeze will hear the guests come and you can come to take it off ... you can make the juice then you sort of infuse the war with the juice and aam and it's a good way of getting some flavor into the water gets in front of their diet ... and getting them to drink something that's not ... to invert Cal that is not all these great ways to spice it up to the White House ... they think that it will be right back where lunch break after this ... for ... Monday and you're in the market for a new place to live we've got some great OptionsPlay ... joining us with the contenders are doubly SJ house the week Stefanos Chen from our Mansion team high seven was a great CEO says ... the favorite to that policy in Illinois day I get is the home that ... really does completion was eleven thousand square feet in wake Forest ... this more than two acres of land is that it is a three story home with a pageant eleven that's ... seventeen formal rooms in the home ... and it's only building for families over the years and view the current owners actually ... aam ... the tell us that the wrestlers with was the daughter of the founder of the more insult calm enough that the former ... home of an era of it and it's on the market for about nine million a lovely looks gorgeous now what about this ... ranch in California on the cliff ... this is great because Vilaca palms California today everyone customer inside outside living and then the stick with May's one of the the real fathers of that a design ... ideal ... so this is the California red style home built in the nineteen thirties ... you have a central corridor comes as Hacienda thing going on ... this um Adobe influences there is a well is that how that goes inside now ... very ... eerie home it's a was in Qana designed to be easier to move from inside to outside ... and this is actually a bargain charitably at two point five as absolutely ... now if you are a big fan of wild for a while quail ... you have a plantation in Florida at this trio ... yen a large when this is more than twenty four hundred acres in Tallahassee ... where the owners have hired an expert to come in ... and of the story The quail habitat you have ... the owners also built a large ... lodge carriage house that stables and dog kennel so it's a really ... large sort of everything you wanted you and weekend time of compounds ... you have ... this this great fire ... fireplace that stones back and watch it had the bright ... crescent North Carolina and to build its a lesson ... for Tesla features here is well and that's in the market ... this one's gonna cost you know the songs and sixteen and a half million dollar yet know the AIPAC ... and I miss the beautiful beautiful retreat on shelter Island as well ... yet this one is four acres Sunbury Harvard shelter Island New York ... and that the Ford and thirty feet of waterfront which is a great feature ... it it it said part actually a nineteen Sentry hotel from the area ... I've got a lot of history in the place the home has thirty four square feet ... and as us with a hundred fifty square foot guest cottage so if you're in your in York City in you wonder with weekend again another ... accordance with the five out of my cake ... this shelter Island property which when did readers that is that they win without palatial that within the last thing yes the air as housing complex that is down to that ... and that's your lunch break today I'm tiny Rivera oh thanks so much for watching stick around for opinion Journal Coming up at one p m Eastern and will be right that back here again while we have to see a great day ...


text:
I have many pictures of this beautiful Stellar Jay, and yes, I know it's the same one. He has a bald spot on the top of his head where he was either picked on or had a fight with a bigger bird. Sadly shortly after this picture was taken, he now has a broken foot.
He comes to me in the morning and late afternoon. "I can't jump up on the suet" he seems to say as he stands below it, after numerous attempts to attach his claws to the steel rungs holding his favorite morsels. So…..I took it down and propped it against a stump I use as a plant stand, very close to me.
Now our 'close encounters' are even closer. The sound of my voice brings him even closer and now sometimes he just sits and stares at me, his one foot twisted and useless. I will get a recent picture of him, but for now I want him to feel comfortable. He can't stand on the water bowl as his balance is not good yet, so I put a small bowl of water beside the suet. Interestingly he hasn't drank from it yet. As the days go by, he is getting stronger
I am so amazed at God's wondrous creatures.
Update: He is drinking on his own (click on picture for full view of his amazing transformation).


text:
Netflix released the first full-length trailer for The Good Cop, the streaming network's upcoming police series from Monk creator Andy Breckman. Josh Groban stars as a no-nonsense NYPD detective who "makes a point of always following the rules", at odds with his father—played by Tony Danza—a former New York cop who *record scratch* has no time for rules. Tony Danza's name is Big Tony. In the show. Presumably in real life as well.
Yeah, I'm not quite sure what to make of this, a show that appears to have been developed by picking random names and nouns out of a hat. As a lover of some truly terrible television, though, I can't just immediately reject a show that teams up the star of Who's the Boss? and every mother's favorite recording artist as a father-son crime-solving duo. That's just absurd enough to work. (And Groban definitely has some comedy chops, as evidenced by his all-time great Crazy Ex-Girlfriend appearance.)
And Monk—for as little as it's talked about now—was insanely fun for most of its eight-season run, and also often able to delve deep into the darkness of its main character while still being a clever-as-hell mystery show.
Check out the trailer below. The Good Cop—which also stars Monica Barbaro, Isiah Whitlock Jr, and Bill Kottkamp—debuts on Netflix September 21.
Here's the official synopsis for The Good Cop:
In The Good Cop, Tony Danza plays Tony Sr. (Big Tony), a lovable yet not exactly honorable, former NYPD officer who never followed the rules. He lives with his son, Tony Jr. (TJ), Josh Groban, a brilliant, straight-laced NYPD detective who makes a point of always following the rules while solving Brooklyn's toughest cases. This "odd couple" become unofficial partners as Tony Sr. offers his overly-cautious son blunt, street-wise advice. Also joining the cast are Monica Barbaro, Isiah Whitlock, Jr and Bill Kottkamp.


text:
"When do I stop being a refugee?" I remember his question vividly, and the 50-something Syrian man who asked it, at the opening of an art exhibition in Berlin. As he asked his question, people--mostly the Germans--shifted in their seats, knowing he had opened one of Berlin's Pandora's boxes.
"Is it when I get the passport? When I learn German? When I get a job? When I'm not receiving aid? When do I stop being 'flüchtlinge' [refugee]?" The downcast faces and stuttered responses were enough of an answer. "Or is it just a permanent adjective, part of my identity?" he finished, rhetorically, slowly lowering the mic to his side.
As more than 400,000 Syrian aslyum seekers have made their way to Germany over the past three years, the challenge of adapting to the culture, norms, laws, and climate of Germany has not been easy. The size of the challenge has caught many—on both sides—off guard. A series of attacks, some of which were perpetrated by Syrian and other asylum seekers, has done little to calm everyone's nerves when it comes to the "i-word," integration. 'What does it even mean?' some ask. 'Is it even possible?' I've heard others say. Like refugees' notion of home, integration remains elusive, recognized as a challenge but addressed only as a series of economic, movement, and government benefits policies.
Across the city, Nader and Mohammad ask themselves similar questions to that of the man in the gallery. They do not know each other, but their stories reverberate in the same echo chamber of confusion, loneliness, and anxiety, a place where questions haunt, and answers hide.
Nader is a young father, married, but parenting alone in Berlin with two of his children, while his wife waits for papers in Lebanon with the remaining children. He loves to cook, and has recently taken a job at an Arabic restaurant in Wedding, just north of the city center.
Mohammad, formerly a teacher in Syria, has spent the past 5 years moving from house to house, from Jordan to Lebanon to Turkey to Germany, finally making it to Berlin a year ago with just a backpack and a laundry list of comatose dreams.
These men do not know each other, but face similar challenges. I first went to Nader's house on the promise of shawarma and sheesha, invited by my good friend Ra'ed. Ten minutes and half a shwarma in, Ra'ed started talking about the i-word with Nader.
As Ra'ed spoke about the countless challenges of making a life in Germany and within its systems, Nader's leg twitched furiously, anxious about what he could, should, and should not say. Many Syrians, even those now in the West, live with an unconscious, relic paranoia of living in a police state, where phones are tapped, conversations are had in code, and 'disappearances' are still frequent. Ra'ed put his hand on Nader's shoulder. "It's okay; say what you want."
Nader blurted out: "I'm shy to call myself Arab now!" His leg stopped twitching, and he sunk his forehead into his palm.
He continued: "No society is all good. There are always a few bad people who ruin things." I could see from his expression that he was angry, tired, and confused. His struggle towards integration is as much psychological as it is economic.
A few nights earlier, I was sitting with Mohammad, who, unlike Nader, held nothing back as we sipped tea and mate in his living room. "Integration? Integration? I'm integrated, I guess….I know Germans." He laughed, "if that's what you mean, I'm integrated." Many Syrians get excited by just one conversation with a German. Relationships are a key step towards integration.
But, Mohammad continued. "Ask me if I feel settled, if I feel integrated, though. That's something different." Perplexed and frustrated, Mohammad frequently toys around with the idea of integration in his head, and, as it is for Nader, the concept remains ostensibly achievable, yet ill-defined.
The word integrate is derived from the Latin integrare, which means "to make whole." The discussion of integration, of refugees in Germany, of minority communities in London, of schools in 1960s America, would sound vastly different if we stuck to Latin, if we stuck to discussing about how to make people and communities whole. In most contexts, integration has come to mean little more than understanding laws and systems, language acquisition, and an economic process of participation in the job market. If, in contrast, integration policy were focused on making people whole, the programs we design with and for migrants, refugees, and native-born who feel excluded and marginalized—would likely focus on robust models of social work, health care, and mental health. The difference is massive, and it matters.
Berlin, the second largest city in the EU, is a messy case study in migrant inclusion and integration, and is in the midst of a formative period in her history. Almost certainly, history books of 100 years from now will make mention of the country that—like it or not, want it or not—is weathering an experiment of allowing more than a million "unvetted" individuals to settle in her borders. Germany has made a major political, ethical, and financial commitment to asylum seekers within their borders, far more than any other Western country.
People around the world have latched on to different parts of Germany's refugee story, often the parts that fuel what they already want to hear and see. Indeed, there is a macro story of Germany's refugee crisis. This story—the story of headlines and emotions—discusses refugees as an "issue," a monolith of trauma or resilience, risk or benefit, Islamization or diversity, integration or incompatibility, depending on who is talking, and what incident they are talking about. In the macro story, refugees are considered and decided about in bulk. We know this macro story: one Afghan murders people, and all Muslim refugees are suddenly a major security risk. A young refugee opens a business, and that means that it's easy to integrate in Germany. Neither narrative is true, but both narratives are easy.
Underneath the macro story, though, there is a micro story of the crisis, a mosaic story comprised of the man in the gallery, of Nader and Mohammad, of experiences of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans, and others trying to make sense of Germany and life in Europe. These micro stories are first about survival, and second about adaptation, and each one is filled with milestones of loss, love, sacrifice, and resilience—together forming an unclear image that brings to light major shortcomings in the international aid and asylum systems, the damaging toll of hate speech, and major risks within the refugee community. The micro story is overwhelming, but it is true, and we must amplify it.
At points, the macro and micro stories touch, affecting each other, for better or for worse. Nader, as he discussed those people who "ruin things" for average Syrians like himself, recalled one vivid example.
In December 2016, a Tunisian migrant named Anis Amri, with an impressive criminal record and penchant for finding loopholes in EU deportation law, rammed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin's upscale Ku'damm neighborhood. Logically, painting Syrian refugees with the same brush as Anis Amri, a criminal from Tunisia who came to Europe well before the war in Syria escalated, makes little sense, but from the moment it happened, Berlin's Syrians knew that they would face the backlash. They knew their micro stories were once again hijacked by something outside of their control.
"The son of a bitch who ran over those people in the market...he wasn't Syrian." Nader was emotional as he talked about the incident, which happened just a few kilometers from his house. "But that doesn't matter to people. He was 'Arab' and that's what people cling to."
Nader deeply laments that a few individuals, like Anis Amri, have jeopardized his integration experience. The seven other men in the room with him, ranging from six to thirty-two years old, nodded as he spoke, each one recalling incidents where they felt ashamed, needing to apologize on behalf of someone who looked like them—dark-skinned, bearded, with broken German, Arab or not, Syrian or not.
With much to say and little outlet to say it, Nader went on: "Some Syrian kids just find it fun to do drugs, to smoke, to harass women. This is all new. They're lost. It's hard to just be uprooted entirely and still remain 'you'. The few sons of bitches who don't get it and who screw up are ruining it for everyone else."
He took a breath, and kept going. His criticism extended wide--Anis Amri, select Syrian youth, and Germans as well.
"They're all 'Arabs' they [Germans] say. We hear them; I speak basic German. We see their subtle looks on the metro every day. I'm scared to be Arab. They don't know if I'm Tunisian or Syrian or whatever." He sighed deeply.
He couldn't help but go back to Anis Amri, who represented such a crucial issue to him, "And the terrorists, they use us too. Do you really think a Syrian refugee, who keeps his ID papers tightly guarded like a treasure in his pocket at all times, would plan mass murder, and in the process of fleeing, somehow leave his passport and asylum papers on the seat of the car? No. Something is wrong. It's completely illogical. Not how a refugee's mind works."
He had run out of steam, for now.
Shame and fear were evident on Nader's face as he spoke, ashamed of some in his community, ashamed of his inability to bring his wife and other children to Germany, afraid of being misunderstood, afraid of reaching out from the dark cavern of his own thoughts. Shame is a profoundly destructive feeling and should not be part of the life of someone seeking asylum and protection. Tragically for Nader though, integration and shame remain locked in a very confusing, destructive, internal battle.
Days earlier, Mohammad, the teacher from Damascus, elaborated on his sense of being unsettled since arriving in Germany, and the psychological process of integration. Our lengthy conversation gave me a preview for what countless other Syrians in Berlin have said since. Mohammad teared up as he talked, saying that he is now "so far—farther than I ever imagined"—from all he knew, from what he expected his life would be, just a few years ago. A man on the move for five years, he feels he is floating in Germany, finally coming to terms with the challenge of staying still, of confronting the terrible inertia built up over five years of war and forced migration.
Mohammad has never stopped being a teacher--he takes any moment he can to teach German to those friends who know less than him. Hoping to pick up from the last point of stability he can remember, Mohammad hopes to teach physics for Syrian children in Germany, but, recently, a small hiccup with documentation moved him out of the running for a refugee teacher training program. He now has to wait a year, hoping to find something, anything meaningful, with his time until then.
Little to nothing is within his control in Germany, so he has invested immense amounts of time in becoming painfully self-aware. Keenly conscious of his own mental health, Mohammad admitted that he has internalized a lot of negative rhetoric about himself, and about refugees. He, too, has let the macro story invade his micro story.
"I shaved my precious beard after the market attack," he lamented, running his hands through his stubble where his hipster, waxed beard was once full. "I felt watched…paranoid, but a paranoia I know is rooted in my complete and deep instability in every area of life."
Similarly to Nader, Mohammed has grown hypervigilant of dirty looks, suspicious faces, and others' disapproval. That vigilance, not uncommon among people living under tremendous stress, has exacerbated his sense of instability, of disintegration.
He admitted: "I just need something, anything to bring me that deep breath that comes with feeling 'settled'. I've been here a year, I can't continue unsettled."
As we drank more mate in his living room, we talked about high school physics—my worst class of all time. We discussed that, for the sake of momentum, perhaps he should take a refresher physics course online.
"You are Newton's laws," I replied.
He scoffed, "shlon? [what?]"
"A body in motion stays in motion" I reminded him. "You've been in motion for five years"
For Mohammad, as for Nader and Ra'ed, integration has become yet another obstacle, something they risk doing wrong, something elusive yet obligatory, and something too much controlled by others, be it Anis Amri or the man behind the counter at a job center.
To be a Syrian refugee in Germany is not paradise, as many assume. To be a self-aware statistic in a macro story is a prolonged agony. "What are we supposed to do?" Nader asked me. "Like us, the vast majority of Germans are good, and kind, but that doesn't get me any closer to feeling 'integrated'."
Nader and Mohammad have not found peace; their peace has been delayed by perceived looks, glances, and insults, by the inability to openly ask, complain, and cry. For Nader, stability and peace may only come when his wife and other children arrive. For Mohammad, after being in Germany in the same city and same house for a year—a feeling he hasn't known since fleeing Syria in 2012—stability and peace may only come when he finds some small thing he has control over. For both, they crave a sense of rest, but for now, they can only imagine it in an unknown timeframe they summarize as "inshallah."
To really integrate, to be made whole, has little to do with language acquisition, employment, or housing—although those steps are important. Finding rest, feeling settled, seems to be an important precursor. For example, Nader has a job, an apartment, and is taking German classes. Mohammad has German friends, an apartment, and speaks German quite well. But, for these two, and for all of those fleeing war, losing family, losing identity, and waiting in countless lines, wholeness is something else entirely, something seemingly intangible, but known when experienced.
Only from a place of rest—psychologically and physically—can the policy questions of integration, of crime, language, job markets, and education, be meaningfully discussed and addressed.
Back at Mohammad's house, he slowly put his cup of mate down. He repeated Newton's First Law. "A body in motion, stays in motion." He laughed, trailing off with "ya zalemehhhhh…" which translates roughly to "duuuuuude".
He smiled. "I've been in motion for so long. Maybe I'm scared of what is behind me when I finally rest."
This is the crux of the issue--inertia. What lies behind refugees' constant moving? Behind the waiting? Behind the chasing? Like a tsunami caused by massively disruptive energy, the inertia of young refugees like Mohammad and Nader has built up over years, by a process of fighting for survival. The question for us is, are we ready to support them as they brace for the tsunami, the spectre of their inertia, once they feel settled?
For Nader, for Mohammad, and for thousands of others, tending to what lies underneath their inertia—some combination of fear, trauma, loneliness, pain, anger, confusion, love, stoicism—should be the focus of our integration efforts, of our collective efforts in becoming whole.
Feature Image: Berlin skyscrape, courtesy of Mike Niconchuk
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