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Masters of Horror: Volume 1 (UK - DVD R2)
Gabe checks out Stuart Gordon and John Carpenter's Masters of Horror additions...
Stuart Gordon's Dreams in the Witch-House
Based on a short story from master of the macabre (and noted racist), H.P. Lovecraft, Dreams in the Witch-House concerns a young man and the dreams he experiences living in a house haunted by a witch. Lovecraft was always one for synoptic titles. Said young man is named Walter, and he's looking for a quiet place to study inter-dimensional string theory (like you do), at Miskatonic University (go pods!). And if that wasn't quite enough Lovecraftian lore for you, I'll also toss in the fact that he's in the town of Arkahm, and the Necronomicon is part of his studies.
Anyway, Walter finds a great deal in a dilapidated housing complex where the landlord is willing to rent cheap, in exchange for no trouble. His next-door neighbour is a kind young woman with a baby and no job. Downstairs lives a hermit who prays while beating his head against a chair every night. One night, Walter realizes that the corner of his room is the exact dimensions necessary for the theoretical inter-dimensional portal he happens to be currently researching. Faster than you can say Mi-Go, the Fungi from Yuggoth, Walter begins to suffer nightmares involving a hideous witch who comes to him in the guise of his attractive neighbour. The witch is coaxing him into murdering his new love interest's baby, and it seems that inter-dimensional travel isn't quite as theoretical as it once was.
I love Stuart Gordon films. Though he only has two real 'classics' under his belt, the Lovecraft inspired Re-Animator and From Beyond, even the weakest links in his directorial chain are enjoyable films. I really enjoyed Dolls, The Pit and the Pendulum, Dagon, hell, even Robot Jox was a blast. This respect and admiration for the man and his films makes this review particularly painful. Dreams in the Witch-House isn't very good; in fact, it verges on downright boring.
This is the first in the much hyped cable series Masters of Horror to see DVD release (or second, as Carpenter's episode sees release in the same set, see below). The series is made up of thirteen hour-long horror films, each directed by a different master of the genre. Though the use of the word 'master' is a bit of a misnomer, as the directorial line-up includes William Malone and Mick Garris, Gordon's episode was one of the more promising, as it was yet another return to his beloved Lovecraft.
The film's problems are mostly material based, as in the script is full of non-events and blandness. I cannot fault any of the actors, especially not Ezra Godden who plays Walter like a young Jeffrey Combs, equally funny and endearing. I also cannot fault Gordon's direction, which is assured, and basically very true to Lovecraft's story. Why Gordon loves this particularly un-frightening tale enough to film it is a little beyond me. There are plenty of grand ideas and images to be found in Lovecraft's lore, why settle for a simple witch story that doesn't bare the distinctive mark of the author, besides the constant mention of the surrounding world (Walter wears his Miskatonic University t-shirt the entire film). Even the ethereal element of the inter-dimensional wall is kind of incidental, as it seems the witch really does just live in the walls.
One of the big selling points series creator Mick Garris constantly pushed during production was the fact that Masters of Horror would not look or feel like a TV show, but thirteen separate, made for the cinema short films. If Gordon's (or Carpenter's) is any indication, the masters have failed on this front, because the film looks undeniably cheap. Not only cheap, but somehow everything is very obviously made for television. This isn't, unfortunately, something I can quite put my finger on, but there is that feel of non-theatrical release all over the film.
John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns
Down and out professional film sleuth Kirby Sweetman is offered the chance to find the only remaining print of a film long thought erased from existence, La Fin Absolue du Monde, 'The Absolute End of the World'. The film was rumoured to have caused mass hysteria during its original screening, in which the audience dissolved into a quivering mass of murder and mayhem. Everyone who's anyone in the film world knows the legends, and all those who seek this forbidden film are reportedly haunted by the evil within it.
If Kirby ignores the warnings and finds La Fin Absolue du Monde, an eccentric and rich movie collector (Udo Kier, chewing the scenery with some restraint) will pay him two hundred thousand dollars for his troubles, money which will pay off sweltering personal debts. But the closer Kirby gets to the film, the closer he comes to understanding the madness the film is alleged to cause in all those who come into its contact. His sordid past begins to haunt him in the form of hallucinatory cigarette burns (the round changeover cues seen in the corner of the frame during a theatrical screening) scorched into his mind.
John Carpenter is one of the true mavericks of modern cinema. His varied work includes a multitude of genres (though with the exception of Starman, very male-centric genres), and at least three truly classic works, Halloween, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China. Even the lesser films of his early output, The Fog and Christine, have a multitude of hard earned fans. Up until 1992, which saw the release of the unequivocally awful Memoirs of an Invisible Man, even the director's weakest films held camp or sentimental value.
As time goes on, Carpenter has begun to falter to movie-brat syndrome, the creatively fatal disease that seems to strike every member of the early '70s independent film movement, especially those who made a name in the field of fantasy/horror (prime examples are Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, etc.). These days, the name John Carpenter above a title is about as exciting as prostate cancer, after the release of such "gems" as John Carpenter's Vampires, and John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars. This decline in quality has also seen a decline in output, begging the question, has Johnny lost his touch?
As I stated previously, the announcement of the Master's of Horror was very exciting, for me in particular. The idea of a return to form for these genre titans was almost too good to be true. Two episodes in, I'm starting to think my expectations were a little excessive. Carpenter's entree isn't nearly as weak as Gordon's, but it doesn't come close to making up for a decade of dashed hopes and recycled clichés.
Cigarette Burns was written by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan, two of the head contributors over at the granddaddy of Internet fan sites, Aintitcoolnews.com. It's painful and clear from the outset that the script as a whole will be easily categorized as movie geek verbal diarrhoea. The idea of the ultimate film fanatic and collector in search of the most elusive foreign horror film is referential enough, but the addition of the questing hero's age, and life's ambition to run his own grindhouse, not to mention the film critic who's been writing the same review for decades preaching the power we put in our filmmakers, is very heavy handed. Don't get me wrong, this is the kind of script I'd probably write, and there are some nice ideas here, but the fact that these guys are writing about themselves, or rather, their ideal selves, is pretty indisputable, and more than a little awkward.
Though I'm going to assume this script had been in the works for years, the parallels to the J-horror blockbuster, Ringu, are hard to miss. The stories are different, but at their base involve the search for reasoning behind haunted film. And seeing hallucinatory cigarette burns is pretty close to seeing hallucinatory grainy, digital rings. I'd also like to add that this subject was covered rather eloquently in John Carpenter's own In the Mouth of Madness (a fact the director does acknowledge in his commentary track), which covered the same bases, only in the form of a haunted (or possessed) trash novel, rather than snuff film.
The acting is solid, especially every scene concerning cult icon Udo Kier, who's got to be the most reliable man in the business (the guy even managed to pull Swarzenegger's horrible End of Days out of the gutter for 3 or 4 glorious minutes), and lead Norman Reedus, who you may have seen being obnoxious in Guillermo del Toro's otherwise solid Blade II. I'm glad it was just the character, and not the actor that was lacking in that film.
The biggest problem with the film is, like Gordon's episode, the undeniably made-for-TV look. I know that TV schedules are shorter and budgets are tighter, but I've seen plenty of filmmakers overcome these limitations—most notably Carpenter himself, who's early television work, including his Elvis biopic, is far above average, and Takashi Miike, whose television work is almost indescernible form his theatrical output. Carpenter does well here, but he seems to be half-assing it in the name of efficiency.
There are some lazily 'hip' editing techniques that don't fit in with the director's personal aesthetic, which are obviously made in post without much directorial input. This is a short film that suffers from a lack of polish, and it comes so close to greatness at times that its overall lethargy comes as a crushing blow, especially to fans that have invested a lot in this particular director's craft. For the most part, considering the projects boundaries, it works, with the exception of the sloppily concocted cigarette burn effects, and the briefly glimpsed footage from the monstrous film itself. Both look like they'd feel out of a homemade death-metal video. It's a case of the filmmakers showing us too much, and not letting the audience's imagination fill in the impossibly abstract blanks.
Carpenter can still shoot a better film with two weeks, fifty bucks, and his eyes closed than most popular Hollywood directors could with six months, enough money to feed five million starving children for five years, and the best glasses money can buy. The scenes that work, which I don't want to give away, work in spades, and some even achieve the level of skin crawling creepiness that the director hasn't achieved since the days when Kurt Russell was burning things that were weird and pissed off.
So one would probably think that an H.P Lovecraft adaptation should be pretty dark, and maybe even a little washed out when it comes to colour. This is, more or less, a forgone conclusion. I don't know what Dreams in the Witch-House looked like during its original airing, but here its overall darkness is overwhelming. At times I simply couldn't make out what was going on screen, but not in a way that benefits the film. This darkness leads to some low-level noise and blocking, but because everything is so dark, this problem goes by almost unnoticed. Grain levels are low, and I noticed no edge enhancement, even when objects and characters moved from total blackness to light.
Cigarette Burns is a minor improvement. Like Gordon's film, Carpenter has opted for a lot of darkness; he even mentions in his commentary his cinematographer's fondness for natural light. This overall darkness doesn't muddle the image like that of Anchor Bay's other Masters of Horror release. In a side-by-side comparison it appears that Carpenter's film also has higher detail levels than Gordon's, and the image is softer and more palpable. This leads to presume that either Carpenter's production was better equipped, or that Gordon was really going for a muddy look for his short.
The only other conclusion I could draw would be that Anchor Bay spent more time ensuring that Cigarette Burns looked good, which doesn't seem logical. There are some minor aliasing issues, as is the occasional compression noise, but this transfer is satisfactory, if not exemplified.
I made the mistake of listening to most of this particular film in Dolby Surround, because I've let myself become too acquainted with DVDs that default to Dolby Digital tracks. Once I figured out my mistake, I was pleasantly surprised by both film's effective, yet subtle soundtracks. Though the music in Gordon's flick was nothing outwardly special, and there wasn't much aggression to the track, spooky directional effects and an atmospheric LFE track are prevalent and solid. There were no noticeable errors in volume levels, and dialogue was clear and cantered.
Cigarette Burns is slightly more aggressive in the effects arena, the titular burns themselves can be pretty noisy, and emit their sound from which ever speaker coincides with their appearance. An interesting note is that the music, which is above average, but nothing jaw dropping, was composed by Carpenter's son, Cody. Most fans know that Carpenter usually acts as composer on his own films, and this use of someone else's music, albeit his son's may be evidence of the director's somewhat admitted disinterest in the project.
Both made for the tube movies don't exhibit the visuals of most theatrical releases, but audio wise, they could easily be mistaken for more extravagant productions.
Anchor Bay really knows how to entice fanboys, and these discs are no exception. Both are pretty loaded, more so than either film really deserves honestly. Fortunately, the best extras concern themselves with the directors themselves and their earlier (better) work. My favourite features were the 'Working with a Master' and director history segments, which could've been easily edited together into two larger segments, one on each director.
The director's history segments, entitled 'Celluloid Apocalypse' (John Carpenter) and 'Dreams, Darkness, and Damnation' (Stuart Gordon) are both a little on the short side, but when coupled with the 'Working with a Master' segments, are pretty inclusive histories of the director's and their work. Had they been just a little more in depth, and had they included every film in each artist's repertoire (Gordon's Sci-Fi work is glazed over pretty quickly), these docs would've been worth the price of the discs alone. I'm very partial to the histories of artists I respect, and am very appreciative of the work that went into each doc, including interviews with colleges and actors who've worked with each master throughout their careers. Though basically fan material, there is dignity and respect to be found here. It's too bad that rights issues keep footage from the films to clips from public materials like trailers.
The second best feature subheading is the audio commentaries. Gordon's film features the director himself and lead actor Ezra Godden. It's an entertaining track, though a tad on the lethargic side. Both commentators must be constantly questioned by the DVD's producer in a vain effort to keep things moving. I get the feeling that Gordon is one of the most laid back dudes in all the world, based on just about everything I've ever seen him in. Carpenter's solo track is as uniformly fun as pretty much every commentary track he's ever worked on. Carpenter is actually pretty critical of his and the writer's work, making some of my critical points in a more demur fashion. McWeeny and Swan's dual track is weak in comparison, but fun enough to listen to simply because of their enthusiasm, and the fact that they represent basically a whole generation of film geeks who got their first script made by one of their idols.
The rest of the features are snippets of behind the scenes footage, effects breakdowns, and text info under various creatively worded headings. Strangely, the digital effect explanations and blooper reels are under an additional menu marked 'Special Features'. For the most part this is the usual promotional stuff lesser DVDs tote as special, but it's all welcome enough, except for the script-to-screen comparison which just plays the audio of a specific scene while typed script pages slide ever so slowly by. The section labelled 'Behind the Scenes', on both discs, is really just a glorified music video, and the interviews are all pretty brief, but thanks to the solid director docs and Carpenter's commentary, they're really just some lesser icing on a pretty tasty slice of cake.
Also included is some fun sounding DVD-ROM stuff that I couldn't get to work on my MAC computer. Oh well.
As an optimist and a fan, I'm hoping that Anchor Bay is perhaps saving the best for last. These shorts were crafted by two of my favourite filmmakers, and even with the wide girth of lightweight I was willing to give them, I have to admit my great disappointment, especially in Gordon's episode. I've heard some fan's say that Carpenter's was the best of the series, which I really hope isn't true, because it's average at best. I hold out hope for Argento's episode, because I always hold out hope for Dario, Dante's episode, because it has possibly the best concept behind it, and Miike's episode, because nothing sounds better than a Miike horror film that was too much for even the so called Masters of Horror to release. I'll also look forward to Lucky McKee's episode, as he's the youngest of the bunch, and has the most to prove. Keep the faith, and stay tuned.
Review by Gabriel Powers
Dave Brock Banned Join Date: November 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 1,237
Sounds like the rubbish I was worried it would be.
Quote: after the release of such gems as John Carpenter's Vampires, and John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars
No , no! Those two worthless heaps of utter garbage are as bad as everything else Carpenter has released in the past 17 years or so.
From one of the greats to an absolute sham of a film maker with nothing left at all.
Should have retired after the moronic low-point of "Prince of Darkness", as it's been in the toilet ever since.
And sadly this episode seems to rescue nothing.
May pick these up in the bargain bins. Face it...maninstream modern horror is DEAD. Has been since the awful 90's.
Quote: after the release of such gems as John Carpenter's Vampires, and John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars
No , no! Those two worthless heaps of utter garbage are as bad as everything else Carpenter has released in the past 17 years or so.
From one of the greats to an absolute sham of a film maker with nothing left at all.
Should have retired after the moronic low-point of "Prince of Darkness", as it's been in the toilet ever since.
And sadly this episode seems to rescue nothing.
May pick these up in the bargain bins. Face it...maninstream modern horror is DEAD. Has been since the awful 90's.
P O Hara Member Join Date: September 2005 Location: Ireland Posts: 93
Dave Brock wrote:
Should have retired after the moronic low-point of "Prince of Darkness", as it's been in the toilet ever since.
Um.....I kinda liked Prince of Darkness. The vagueness of it all rather appealed to me. I agree that Carpenter has not been at his best recently, but in all fairness he has given us some of THE classic horror movies over the years. I wouldnt mind sharing Carpenters toilet I can tell ya!!
Even "They Live" had a certain cheese factor thats hard not to appreciate.
So cut some slack, enjoy the classics, and give the newer material time to ferment........like a nice gorgonzola!
Should have retired after the moronic low-point of "Prince of Darkness", as it's been in the toilet ever since.
Um.....I kinda liked Prince of Darkness. The vagueness of it all rather appealed to me. I agree that Carpenter has not been at his best recently, but in all fairness he has given us some of THE classic horror movies over the years. I wouldnt mind sharing Carpenters toilet I can tell ya!!
Even "They Live" had a certain cheese factor thats hard not to appreciate.
So cut some slack, enjoy the classics, and give the newer material time to ferment........like a nice gorgonzola!
Chris Gould Editor Join Date: May 2001 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 7,171
Dave Brock wrote: No , no! Those two worthless heaps of utter garbage are as bad as everything else Carpenter has released in the past 17 years or so.
From one of the greats to an absolute sham of a film maker with nothing left at all.
I think Gabe was being ironic...
I also liked Prine of Darkness. not his best, but at least it tried something different.
From one of the greats to an absolute sham of a film maker with nothing left at all.
I think Gabe was being ironic...
I also liked Prine of Darkness. not his best, but at least it tried something different.
Bruno Billion Member Join Date: April 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 260
Well, In the Mouth of Madness is still one of Carpenter's best movies and it's not that old...
Dreams in The Witch House is really brilliant btw. Fantastic adaptation of a great short story, even though the short story was a bit more scary. But it's difficult to do this as a TV movie without sacrificing the juicy bits.
Best movie of the Masters of Horror series, if you want my opinion.
Dreams in The Witch House is really brilliant btw. Fantastic adaptation of a great short story, even though the short story was a bit more scary. But it's difficult to do this as a TV movie without sacrificing the juicy bits.
Best movie of the Masters of Horror series, if you want my opinion.
Gabe Powers Editor Join Date: September 2004 Location: United States Posts: 4,718
Yes, I was being ironic, or sarcastic even. I liked Mouth of Madness and Prince of Darkness OK, it really was Vampires where he started to fall apart, and Ghosts of Mars was just rancid. I went in and added some quotes to make sure my sarcasm came across. Stupid written word.
Dave Brock Banned Join Date: November 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 1,237
Oh right.
I was wondering, but then I remembered we all have different views and some are just plain bonkers.
I was wondering, but then I remembered we all have different views and some are just plain bonkers.
Donnie_Darko Banned Join Date: January 2006 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 352
Carpenter's best is THEY LIVE and I might buy these
Suitable only for persons of 18 years and over
Disc Details
Release Date: 28th March 2006
Discs: 2
Disc Type: Single side, dual layer
RCE: No
Video: PAL
Aspect: 1.78:1
Anamorphic: Yes
Colour: Yes
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English
Extras: Dreams in the Witch-House: Commentary track with Stuart Gordon and Ezra Godden, Dreams Dreams, Darkness and Damnation, Working With a Master: Stuart Gordon, The Making of Dreams in the Witch-House, SFX: Meet Brown Jenkins, On Set Interview with Chelah Horsdal, Bloopers, Trailers, Stills, Stuart Gordon Bio, DVD-ROM, more. Cigarette Burns: Audio Commentary with John Carpenter, Audio Commentary with Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan, Celluloid Apocalypse, Working with a Master: John Carpenter, The Making of Cigarette Burns, On Set Interview with Norman Reedus, Bloopers, Trailers, Stills, John Carpenter Bio, DVD-ROM, more.
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Stuart Gordon, John Carpenter
Cast: Ezra Godden, Norman Reedus, Udo Kier, Chelah Horsdal
Genre: Horror
Length: 110 minutes
6Review Guide
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Alberto Gonzales's nomination to succeed John Ashcroft as Attorney General put the Abu Ghraib torture scandal back on the front pages, since he was directly implicated, as White House counsel, in the formulation of policies authorizing and justifying the mistreatment of prisoners that paved the road to Abu Ghraib. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales was grilled about his judgment and views on torture. His responses were emblematic of the Bush Administration's "never say sorry" record: While he expressed the requisite abhorrence of torture, he refused to give Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and others what they wanted: a clear repudiation of the reasoning in the infamous "torture memos" that were declassified in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal.
A good deal of credit for the political pressure to release the torture memos belongs to New Yorker writer Seymour Hersh. His April 30, 2004, report on the Abu Ghraib prison investigation by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba provided a deeper context for the shocking photos televised one day earlier on CBS's 60 Minutes II. Taguba had discovered not only deplorable conditions and chaos but unlawful interrogation tactics and patterns of prisoner treatment linking Iraq to Afghanistan and Guantánamo. Hersh's exposé jolted Congress into bipartisan–if short-lived–action; the Senate Armed Services Committee called for Bush Administration officials to do more than blame a few "bad apples," and the dissembling, evasiveness and, in Ashcroft's case, stonewalling merely increased pressure on the Administration to come clean. In June the first batch of secret memos was released, and multiple official investigations were tasked to report on detention and interrogation policies and practices. This documentary record failed to provide the vaunted cleansing, but it has substantially enriched our understanding of the history of the present.
That Hersh broke the Abu Ghraib story is no surprise, since he is unrivaled among American investigative journalists as a leak magnet for disgruntled insiders and whistleblowing frontliners. His book Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, provides a clear-eyed and sweeping survey of the terrain of American policy and the dispositions and activities of its makers. The use of torture, Hersh argues, began in Afghanistan, where Pentagon civilians sought to transform what they viewed as an "overly cautious" military culture, and spread in the late summer of 2003 to Iraq, where a growing insurgency fed desperation for "actionable intelligence." The larger question that Hersh's book raises is: How did a small group of neoconservatives come to monopolize and radically reshape US policy, intimidate the press, mislead Congress and dominate the military?
Good question, but while neoconservatism may help explain much about American military and foreign policy after 9/11, it doesn't account for the legal reasoning that set the conditions for the torture scandal. For that, we need to look to the Federalist Society, an organization established by right-wing lawyers in the early 1980s to redress "liberal bias" in American law schools and the legal profession. The thinking and influence of Federalist Society types who dominate legal positions (and judicial appointments) in the Bush Administration are laid bare in the torture memos, which document the triumph of international law-averse officials in the Justice Department, the Pentagon and the White House over dissenting voices in the State Department and sectors of the professional military. The victors' most egregious mistake was to conflate international humanitarian law–the laws of war–with other bodies of international law, especially human rights law, which they loathe as constraints on US sovereignty.

subset: commoncrawl


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A preview of some of the artists appearing at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival next weekend, including and Cyrus Chestnut and Matt Slocum, as well as music from a number of resident musicians appearing at the festival. This week's 45 – Stormy Monday, by Junior Mance on Riverside, from about 1959-60.
I had some guests today. Larry McDonough and Richard Terrill stopped by to talk about their appearance at Blackbear Crossings as part of the Twin Cities Jazz Fest. During the last 1/2 hour, young pianist Will Kjeer came by to talk about the Dakota Combo, headlining the Youth Stage at the festival. Also played tunes from other artists appearing at the festival. The 45 rpm Single of the week was Blues for Trombones, by JJ Johnson & Kai Winding on Savoy, from 1954.
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BigDogBuford wrote:I'll trade you Farrah for the pup.
Violet wrote:i am reading this...... wasn't thinking of sending her Katts way. Was thinking of having her here.
airwalk wrote:Okay the little terriorist has decided that annoying Magic is a great game! Attacking my feet and pant legs is even better....and throw rugs, well geez those are her personal best toys (especially the edges, which are now frayed).
So Carina...at the end of stray holding...you're ready right???
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Linked by David Adams on Tue 8th Apr 2008 16:33 UTC
"I am very happy about the direction in which the Mac OS X GUI is going, although sadly many Mac users aren't interested in (or don't know about) the "lower levels" of the Macintosh Operating System. Have you ever wondered why the Terminal greets you with the words "Welcome to Darwin"? Why do BSD and Mac OS share certain bits of code? Why does Wikipedia describe Mac OS X as a graphical operating system? Today we're going to take a look at the underlying open source technology which powers your fancy Leopard OS - the hidden core set of components, named Darwin."
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RE[3]: What BSD could have been
by TechniCookie on Tue 8th Apr 2008 21:08 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: What BSD could have been"
It would seem you are basing your arguments on the assumption that Darwin is not BSD. That is correct, however, neither are the other so called BSDs. BSD is a UNIX that ended distribution in 1995. The contemporary so called BSDs are all BSD derived, and them being licensed under the BSD license doesn't make them any more the BSD UNIX. This fact undermines your arguments as they are based on a false assumption.


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Andrea Geary, program manager, UNI Center for Energy & Environmental Education, 319-273-7883, email@example.com
Stacey Christensen, Office of University Relations, 319-273-6728, email@example.com
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- With an ever-increasing interest in purchasing locally produced food, the Northern Iowa Food & Farm Partnership (NIFFP) at the University of Northern Iowa is launching a new project aimed at increasing the number of food producers in Benton, Black Hawk, Bremer, Butler, Buchanan, Grundy and Tama counties.
The NIFFP is looking for participants interested in piloting a farming project with support from various community partnering institutions. Black Hawk County has committed to providing publicly owned, vacant lots for the pilot project. Participants will be provided temporary use of land, horticultural assistance, business plan development and marketing assistance, as well as opportunities to connect with local food buyers.
Additionally, the NIFFP is seeking landowners who are interested in providing small segments of unused land to the participants. Yards around uninhabited farmhouses with existing access to water would be ideal.
The project is supported by Black Hawk County, Cedar Valley Resource Conservation and Development, ISU Extension, the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the UNI Center for Energy and Environmental Education, and the UNI Regional Business Center.
For more information, contact Andrea Geary at 319-273-7883.


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Monkeys bring star power to State Fair exhibition
When Tom Cruise squeezed himself into leather jeans, tattooed his chest, wore hair down to his shoulders and battled rock-glam groupies as Stacee Jaxx in the 2012 movie "Rock of Ages," he demanded a sidekick.
You know — someone to really monkey around with.
He got Mickey — a baboon who partied in a leather fringe jacket alongside Cruise, who named the Nevada zoo native "Hey Man" so he could say "Stacee Jaxx doesn't work without Hey Man" in the film.
The performance was bananas — but nothing Mickey isn't used to. The 14-year-old baboon rolls deep with six other baboons and one Capuchin monkey for a "Wild About Monkeys" interactive exhibition that is making a stop this year at the State Fair.
The exhibit will feature Mickey and his four siblings — Mojo, Opie, Maya and Maxine — as well as two other baboons, Dagney and Kamila, and one capuchin, Rico, in performances every day of the fair at 12:30, 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. in the Big Backyard.
You may already recognize Dagney and Kamila — they're the two baboons who cleverly catapulted themselves into arctic-chilled waters inhabited by polar bears in a Sierra Mist commercial that ran during the Super Bowl.
If you're wondering what kind of splash these Hollywood hotshots are planning to make at State Fair, their keepers, Kevin Keith and wife, Martina, of Monkey Business Productions of Napa, Calif., are keeping details of the performance on the down-low. Keith said he doesn't want to ruin the surprise.
What you can expect is a parade of personalities that may remind you of your own family interactions.
Keith said Mickey and Mojo are "total sweethearts," and are the ones often hired to work with humans in movies and commercials.
On the other hand, Dagney and Kamila are the "socially intelligent troublemakers" of the group, Keith said. As almost-3-year-old females, the two have been known to run around instigating the male baboons by pinching them — a behavior that's not unlike that found on a playground.
But what do you expect? Keith said they're young girls; it's kind of their job to play that way.
Rico's performance rests on his doe-eyed innocence. As the crew's only Capuchin, his role is to look cute onstage. (How very Puss in Boots of him.)
Keith said baboons are very intelligent and are the most social monkeys. After seeing them perform at the fair, spectators may change their view of baboons as aggressive pickpockets — at least that's what Keith hopes.
After all, they do have some things in common with humans.
"If they could live on ice cream, potato chips and cream puffs, they would," he said.
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Justin Timberlake apologizes for tweet after backlash
Grace Kelly's childhood home is up for sale in Philadelphia
BET Awards full of Prince tributes and political moments
Lynn Sprangers to become Wilson Center president and CEO
Director Rafaeli finds the haunting music of love in APT's 'Eurydice'


text: Despite this amount of organic jeans available, there still isn't much in the way of eco-friendly bags. If you're looking to save the planet through your bag purchases, you'll be interested in these heat pressed bags by Gregor Timlin. The design came about because Timlin wanted to make a bag that was eco friendly and inexpensive to manufacture.


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The drop in sessions are for all undergraduate students from the following Schools: Healthcare sciences, Medicine, Dentistry, Bioscience, Pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, Optometry and vision sciences and Psychology.
The coverage of the session is dictated by your questions: bring along your queries or a search you've been working on and a member of library staff will be there to assist and help to answer your questions. We can assist with searching for literature for assignments, for example providing help with using databases (CINAHL or Medline) to find literature for a literature review. We can also help with queries about searching for books, using the Health Library or referencing.
The drop in sessions are scheduled for one hour, but you don't need to stay for the full hour – stay for as long as you need to get your question answered.


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Words like 'dapper', 'gentleman' and 'tailored' spring to mind when looking at the Alexander McQueen Autumn/Winter 2012 collection. But then there is also 'avant-garde' and 'unique'. Either way, the collection oozes of Britishness with a twist
Brandish Poll: Thom Browne or Tom Ford?
Image: Eric Johnson for The New York Times
Thom Browne and Tom Ford are without a doubt two of Brandish's favourite designers and so imagine my surprise when I got e-mailed this article from the New York Times. It compares the work of both men and includes such literary gems as "The Tom Ford man is an Anglicized gloss on Hollywood style, while Thom Browne's designs evoke the hipness of eternal adolescence" and Tom Ford's brilliant definition of masculininty; "to be masculine is to fuse the debonair cut of a Savile Row suit with the swagger of a star from 1970s pornography."
I made the Brandish team answer this rather sadistic question and you can see their (unwilling) answers after the jump.
Thom Browne Runs…In Thom Browne Cardies!
This is probably a good time to admit that before Brandish, I wasn't too involved in the world of menswear (only now do I realise how much I was missing out on!) However, Thom Browne is one of those designers who manages to capture two opposite industries with just the cut of a hem and the snip of a gorgeous thread. His signature look of shrunken suit, sports socks and loafers has cemented him as a style icon for both sexes and his shows have even inspired my own trend reports. Now, Style.com has talked to him about his exercise regime (although running daily on tracks including Central Park, the Eiffel Tower and the Imperial Gardens of Japan are a luxury rather inaccessible to us hoi polloi.) But I really must warn you that the vid may leave you feeling slightly inferior- after all how many of us can claim to have completed 15 marathons worldwide and still be running in Thom Browne knitwear?


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Q: I'm looking for a technique to hide specific Active Directory (AD) object attributes from users who only have generic read permissions to the attribute. One of the attributes I would love to hide, for example, is my employees' smart card identifier numbers. Does the AD access control model out-of-the-box support something that can help me out?
A: By default, every AD user has read permission to all of the attributes of his proper AD user object. This is because in the AD access control model the Windows SELF well-known-security-principal is granted the Read All Properties permission to a user object.
As you refer to in your question, this is problematic if you want to prevent access to sensitive data for accounts that have been granted read access to certain attributes either directly, or through the all encompassing Read All Properties permission. You may, for example, want to hide the content of AD attributes holding the social security number of employees, their smart card IDs, or even their employee ID.
This is where the confidential bit comes in that Microsoft introduced in Windows Server 2003 SP1. As the name implies, the confidential bit configures specific attributes in AD to be confidential, which translates to "not-accessible to any user without a special permission that is different from plain read permission".
The basic steps behind configuring the confidential bit for a given AD attribute are the following:
• The confidential bit must set as bit 7 (=128 decimal value) in the searchFlags property of an attributeSchema object in the AD schema. This means that if you add 128 to any existing value the attribute will be marked as confidential.
• Granting access to a confidential attribute to users or groups who need to read the confidential data in the attribute, requires that you grant these users CONTROL_ACCESS permission on the attribute for the respective objects.
A very important limitation to be aware of when you try to use the confidential bit is that Microsoft does not let you apply the bit to the base schema attributes. This basically rules out leveraging the confidential bit for 90% of the default attributes that come with AD. This does not mean that you cannot apply the confidential bit to custom attributes you add to your AD schema for serving organization-specific needs. Table 1 lists the Common Names of the AD attributes the confidential bit can be applied to in Windows 2003.
There is not much sense in questioning why Microsoft chose specific attributes to be base schema attributes and why others of the same nature are not and vice versa. Basically Microsoft wanted to limit using the confidential data feature to custom extensions to AD, such as an attribute containing the Social Insurance number of a user, which is not part of the default schema.
One of the main reasons why Microsoft added the confidential bit AD in Windows 2003 SP1 was to support another new security-related feature in SP1: credential roaming. Credential roaming enables Windows domain users to access their PKI private keys and certificates from any workstation they log on to in the Windows domain. Their credentials can roam with them because the credential roaming service keeps a secured copy of the user PKI credentials in the user's AD object and keeps these in sync with the local PKI credentials stored in the user's certificate store and private key store on the workstation. The user PKI credentials are secured/hidden using the confidential bit.
For more information on the confidential bit and how you can leverage it, I also refer to the following Microsoft article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922836.
Address Home
Employee Number
Employee Type
ms DS Object Reference BL
ms Exch Assistant Name
ms Exch House Identifier
ms Exch LabeledURI
Network Address
Other Mailbox
Registered Address
Text Encoded OR Address
User SMIME Certificate


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Career Guides >> Browse Articles >> Government Application Process
The 10 Worst Job Hunting Mistakes
Whether you are a first-time job-seeker or you're a veteran in your field, it is important that you take the right steps toward landing you ideal job. There's more to a successful job search than ironing your best suit and printing out extra resumes.
Today's employers are looking for the best of the best, and one typo on your cover letter can can get you thrown into the "Do Not Call" pile. Avoid these common mistakes to score your dream job.
2. Not Being Concise
Don't confuse telling your story with creating your autobiography. Recruiters are inundated with applications and are faced with weeding out the good from the bad. The first step involves quickly skimming through submissions and eliminating candidates who clearly are not qualified. Therefore, your application needs to pass the skim test. Look at your resume and/or KSA's and ask yourself:
1) Can a hiring manager see my main credentials within 10 to 15 seconds?
2) Does critical information jump off the page?
3) Do I effectively sell myself on the top quarter of the first page?
Many workers are proud of their careers and feel the information on a resume should reflect everything they've accomplished. However, a resume shouldn't contain every detail and KSA's should only address the question at hand. So be judicious. If your college days are far behind you, does it really matter that you pledged a fraternity or delivered pizza? The editing step will be difficult if you are holding on to your past for emotional reasons.
If you were a recruiter looking at a resume or an answer to a KSA, which of the following entries would impress you more:
• "Wrote news releases."
• "Wrote 25 news releases in a three-week period under daily deadlines."
Clearly the second statement carries more weight. Why? Because it uses numbers to quantify the writer's accomplishment, giving it a context that helps the interviewer understand the degree of difficulty involved in the task. Numbers are powerful resume tools that will help your accomplishments draw the attention they deserve from prospective employers. With just a little thought, you can find effective ways to quantify your successes on your resume.


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Maybe it's a bit heavy on quotation, but I don't see why you're getting Ds for this kind of writing. Has your teacher given you any guidelines?
This professor absolutely HATES my style of writing essays. The grade I get for the class is based on the 4 essays we write. My first paper was a D-, the second was a D. This is the third.
English teachers and professors have always praised me for my writing and analysis skills. This will be the first time that I'm worried about getting worse than a B in a critical writing course.
So please, any help for this intro paragraph would be MUCH appreciated. The more negative comments, the better.
In Homers Iliad, an early, glorious death is the only means by which a warrior may obtain immortality as a hero. To die meaninglessly is essentially the same as forfeiting ones own life. Jean-Pierre Vernant in his essay, A Beautiful Death and the Disfigured corpse in Homeric Epic, describes the importance of recognition by stating,
Archaic Greek culture is one in which everyone lives in terms of others, under the eyes and in the esteem of others, where the basis of a personality is confirmed by the extent to which its reputation is known; in such a context, real death lies in amnesia, silence, demeaning obscurity, the absence of fame. By contrast, real existencefor the living or the deadcomes from being recognized, values, and honored. Above all, it comes from being glorified as the central figure in a song of praise, a story that endlessly tells and retells a destiny admired by all (57).
Therefore, without great poets like Homer in an age without writing, none of the Greeks would have ever become heroes; song and poetry were the medium by which men gained immortality. Among the forgotten would have been possibly the greatest hero of all time, Achilleus. Homer composed the epic poem, the Iliad, in order to preserve the beautiful quality of Achilleus final glory. By killing Hektor and dying in the tempest of battle, Achilleus has established himself as a hero until the end of time.
Maybe it's a bit heavy on quotation, but I don't see why you're getting Ds for this kind of writing. Has your teacher given you any guidelines?
There have been no guidelines whatsoever. I've given him 3 drafts of my intro paragraph before this one and he's disliked them all; this is the second time I've used a quotation in any of the drafts!
His advice is to read good essays from the library, which I've done. I think I'm writing in a very similar style. The objective is to analyze the text, possibly by relating a specific passage to a greater theme or the rest of the text.
It's very frustrating to be getting Ds in this class. At this point I can't get higher than a C in the course (if I got a perfect A on this paper and the final paper perhaps - but the likelihood is 0). I read another student's paper, who got a A-, and it was full of grammatical errors that he had circled. There was even a misinterpretation of the text that he pointed out.
Any other advice for this intro? Here's one of the intros that he disliked and stated that it was "not rigorously conceived ---
Immortality has been the impossible objective of man since the time of his creation. Some men seek to live forever, whereas others are determined to leave a legacy so that their names and actions will be remembered throughout history. In the Iliad, Achilleus seeks immortality through glory in combat. He is already a man wit supernatural abilities in combat. This alone surelly would have been enough for Achilleus to leave his mark on future generations and would have at least earned him a few songs to be sung by future generations. However, this is not enough for truly great men. His ultimate aim is to become a fantastic spectacle on the battlefield through courage, strength, and skill so that his name may live on forever without abandon. He found his opportunity in Hektor, who had to die so that both men could live forever in story. Achilleus was destined to kill Hektor and then die gloriously in battle because his extraordinary abilities were not enough to forever make him be known as the greatest warrior who ever lived.
Is it something personal? I have to dash now, but I'll look again later when I have some time.
As intros, they read well. A lot depends on the analysis that comes after and how related to the texts it is. Can you ask for a remark by a different teacher?


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Blood and Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation
Stem cell transplant (also known as bone marrow transplant or BMT) is an established treatment for many cancers and blood diseases once considered incurable. For some types of blood diseases, transplantation is the standard of care. For others, it is only considered if other treatments have not been successful. Ongoing advances in stem cell transplant are expanding its availability and improving outcomes for patients, young and old.
Meeting the Greatest Challenges
Here at the University of Chicago Medicine, the brightest minds in medicine are ready to meet the needs of all patients considering a stem cell transplant. We offer the latest promising approaches in blood and bone marrow stem cell transplant. Our team is known -- and recognized -- for our experience and expertise in:
- Alternative donor transplantation: Options for individuals lacking a related donor include haplo-cord transplants -- a combination of donated umbilical cord blood stem cells and half-matched (haploidentical) cells from a related donor.
- Integrated, disease-specific care: Our patients see physicians who are experts not only in transplantation but also in the patient's specific cancer or blood disease, such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.
- Outpatient stem cell transplantation: Select patients are candidates for outpatient stem cell transplantation, an approach that offers the full benefits of this life-saving treatment while allowing the patient to spend nights in the comfort of their own home.
- Transplantation for the older adult: Recognizing the distinct needs of this population, we've assembled a multidisciplinary team of stem cell transplant and geriatric oncology experts to design a care program tailored specifically for patients over 60.
- Relapse prevention and treatment: Relapse remains the biggest challenge for cancer patients who have undergone stem cell transplantation. We are working tirelessly to lessen the risk of relapse and to improve outcomes for patients who experience this complication.
Dedicated Stem Cell Transplant Unit
We provide outstanding and compassionate care in a patient-centered environment. The Stem Cell Transplant Unit, located on the top floor of the Center for Care and Discovery, offers the newest technology as well as many thoughtful patient and family amenities. The unit integrates both inpatient and outpatient stem cell transplant care services in one convenient location.
Clinical Trials
As part of the internationally recognized University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC), we participate in national clinical trials testing new and emerging therapies. A primary site for early-phase clinical trials, we offer our patients access to more new treatment protocols than any other hospital in the region.
Welcoming Patients from Near and Far
As a leading center for advanced care, the University of Chicago Medicine attracts patients from throughout the region, the country and around the world. We provide customized services for patients who travel from other countries. For more information, contact the Center for International Patients.
Birthplace of Bone Marrow Transplantation
In the late 1940s, University of Chicago researcher Dr. Leon Jacobson discovered that he could save a mouse, whose bone marrow and spleen had been destroyed with radiation, by transplanting healthy spleen tissue from another mouse. The donated tissue repopulated the marrow and restored production of the blood cells. This groundbreaking work influenced many scientists investigating bone marrow transplant for humans, including the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant
For information about stem cell transplant for children and teens, visit the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant page on the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital website.
More Information
- About Stem Cell Transplantation
- Disease-Specific Care
- The Process
- Outpatient Stem Cell Transplantation
- Stem Cell Transplantation for Older Adults
- Relapse: Prevention and Treatment
- Our Team
- Patient Stories
- Clinical Trials
- Polish-American Transplant Center
- Patient Resources
- Second Opinions
- For Referring Physicians


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Deactivate Media Button?
I have a 16GB Zune HD and I had been using it while running. It seems some sweat must have gone in the player through the media button.
Now the quick controls will flick on and off on an intermittent basis. It can react like there was only one "fake" button press or like i'd be tapping on it continuously. Sometimes, the problem won't come up for many hours and other times it will after a few seconds from switching the zune on. Beside the obvious problem that I always run the chance of shipping songs or changing the volume while the player is in my pocket, it's also a big drain on the battery as it turns the screen on everytime.
I tried putting the zune in rice for up to 5 days and, while it can help for a day, it doesn't solve the problem. I also opened the zune and tried cleaning the button with methyl alcohol.
I looked around forums and as far as I know there is no software hack to deactivate the media button. So right now I'm thinking of removing the button altogether. I was wondering if the zune would boot and operate if there was no media button. I was hoping there would be some ribbon or connector to llink it with the main board so I could do a test with doing anything more definitive but no such luck.
I really like the media button but if I have to choose between it and a functionnal player, it's not a tough call for me.
Anybody has some opinion as to how the zune will function without a media button? Also if you have some great idea I haven't though of, please let me know.
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|For Immediate Release
November 20, 2012
Bill Boynton
Public Information
630-2986 (cell)
|State Farm® Insurance Partners with NHDOT to Sponsor Motorist Service Patrol
Provides Additional Revenue with Potential for Expansion
(Hampton) – The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) today announced a new public-private partnership between the New Hampshire Department of Transportation's Bureau of Turnpikes and State Farm® Insurance for sponsorship of the Motorist Service Patrol (MSP). The three-year sponsorship program will provide the highly valued traffic management program with additional funding for operations and the potential expansion of the patrol's coverage area.
As part of the sponsorship program, the MSP vehicle will receive an updated look to include the State Farm logo as well as enhanced, highly-reflective safety markings to make the vehicle more visible to motorists, especially at night. The sponsorship will also include the addition of informative highway signs indicating patrol areas along the covered routes.
"This is great news for motorists who drive on I-95 and the Spaulding Turnpike in New Hampshire," said NHDOT Commissioner Chris Clement. "This public-private partnership with State Farm will ensure an additional level of safety for the traveling public for several years."
MSP drivers patrol 16 miles of I-95 from the Massachusetts border to the Maine border throughout the year, adding 14 miles of the Spaulding Turnpike to their coverage area during winter months. They assist motorists whose vehicles have become disabled as a result of a crash, a mechanical failure or other cause, and provide safety for emergency responders. The NHDOT's Turnpike MSP program was established in the spring of 2011 and has since responded to more than 1,350 highway incidents, including assisting stranded motorists and removing debris from the roadway.
As one of the nation's leading automobile insurance companies, State Farm sees a natural connection between its mission and the function of the Department's Motorist Service Patrol program.
"The Motorist Service Patrol is a partner in the State Farm mission to help individuals recover from the unexpected," said State Farm Senior Vice President Robert Yi. "The patrol shares our good neighbor commitment and as a leading automobile insurer in New Hampshire, this partnership underscores our commitment to help make our roads safer and supports the State Farm commitment to automobile and driver initiatives that assist motorists traveling our roadways."
For State Farm, the partnership is an extension of its safety investment in not only highway and passenger safety, but also teen driver initiatives that focus on distractions, skill set, and the value of strict graduated drivers licensing (GDL) laws.
State Farm sponsors motorist assist patrols in eight other states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Indiana and Kansas.
Travelers Marketing, a Massachusetts based sponsorship agency, responded to the NHDOT request for proposals on behalf of State Farm in May 2012 and was awarded the sponsorship through a competitive bid process. Under the terms of the contract, State Farm will provide NHDOT with sponsorship dollars annually for three years, with two additional two-year renewal options, potentially making it a seven year partnership.
All sponsorship monies will be used to support the DOT Motorist Service Patrol program, primarily helping to fund patrol trucks and equipment with an option for NHDOT to expand the patrol coverage area to more fully cover the Spaulding Turnpike and to the F.E. Everett Turnpike (FEET) from the Massachusetts border (US 3) to I-293 Manchester to I-93 Exit 14 in Concord. Additionally, State Farm funding will provide safety equipment, brochures with motorist feedback cards, and high visibility/high reflective tape for all patrol vehicles. In return, the program will be known as the "NHDOT Motorist Safety Patrol sponsored by State Farm." Sponsored by State Farm, logos will be placed on patrol vehicles, operator uniforms, and on signs along the highways to inform motorists of the program's coverage areas.
MSP program details
The Motorist Service Patrol includes one fully-equipped, branded, state-owned and operated vehicle staffed by NHDOT employees who provide roadside assistance for motorists. MSP service is provided 5 hours per day Monday through Thursday and 10 hours per day Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays along I-95 from the weekend prior to Memorial Day Weekend to the weekend after Labor Day Weekend for a total of 18 weeks. During the winter months, from mid-September to mid-May, the patrol operates on I-95 and 14 miles of the Spaulding Turnpike 5 hours a day Monday through Friday.
With the more than 9 million vehicles traveling through the I-95 Hampton Toll Plaza May through September last year, the MSP program responded to a total of 753 incidents and assisted motorists. On average, the MSP responded to approximately 250 highway incidents each month. Assistance may include changing a flat tire, pushing a disabled vehicle off to the shoulder, pulling a vehicle trapped in mud or snow back onto the road, providing a small amount of gasoline, and making minor repairs. MSP trucks are also dispatched to crash scenes to create safe zones for emergency responders to work within.
Service is provided free of charge to the traveling public and patrol drivers cannot accept tips.


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You can't beat a system you can't understand
You can't beat a system you can't understandWhy tabloids sell — the truth revealed!
For years, I have wondered why tabloids are so popular. These obvious travesties of journalism outsell many respected news publications, often by a wide margin.
Everybody knows that tabloids print stories that do not resemble anything close to reality. Yet, they are regularly snatched from supermarket racks by a faithful following. Tabloids give a bad name to us credible columnists who would never dream of exaggerating the truth, even slightly.
We expect to see headlines like these from the Weekly World News:
"HURRICANE KATRINA KO'S FLYING SAUCER! UFO DOWN! 'Don't let them take me to Area 51! Please . . . ' it begged."
Another article in the same paper, addressed a favorite tabloid subject — supermodels:
"SATAN'S SUPERMODELS Cover girls sell their souls to Satan, expert says!"
As bizarre as they may be, we know they are fabrications. After reading, smirking, and shaking their heads at the absurdity of the contents, readers can toss their papers into the recycling bin and go about their business without giving the articles a second thought.
However, the question remains unanswered: Can real news compete with this thirst for the strange, the odd, and the ridiculous?
We gave our alert team of newshounds orders to research newspapers and Internet Web sites for weird news to compete with publications that sensationalize the already sensationalized. They found the following:
"Townspeople Plan UFO Land-ing Strip . . . LAJAS, Puerto Rico (Sept. 28) People in this sleepy hamlet are so sure they have been receiving other-worldly visitors, they want to build a UFO landing strip to welcome them."
That was from the Associated Press, a highly respected news source. Here's another:
"In August, a jury found Virginia death-row inmate Daryl Atkins mentally competent, based on a recent IQ score of 76 (thus beating the "70" standard, below which under state law he could not be executed). Prosecutors said that Atkins' IQ had actually improved in recent years via the intellectual stimulation of discussing his case with lawyers. (ABC News-AP, 8-14-05)"
The man is going to be executed for being too smart by a margin of six points. That is disturbing.
Colorado humorist Randy Cassingham cited these two headlines from legitimate news sources:
• A man sued his doctor because he survived his cancer longer than the doctor predicted.
• Only 68 of 200 Anglican priests polled could name all 10 of the biblical 10 commandments, but half said they believed in space aliens visiting earth.
These are beyond bizarre; they are mind-boggling. How could this happen in the 21st century?
Then there are the alternative news sources that are farcical, sarcastic, but often, close to the truth. Like this excerpt from the Onion on how to survive dealing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency:
"FEMA Disaster Survival Tips . . Recent events have underscored the importance of being properly prepared to deal with the effects of natural disasters. With that in mind, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has prepared the following guidelines:
• State and local governments should notify FEMA a minimum of two weeks before a natural disaster strikes.
• In the event of a disaster of "biblical proportions," FEMA may not be your best option. You may wish to consult your Bible instead.
• In a time of crisis brought on by a natural disaster, remember to focus on the task at hand — survival — and don't waste mental energy thinking about who did or didn't cut this or that funding for levee repairs."
On first reading, I thought this was funny. After thinking about it, I found it unfortunate that the advice is probably sound.
Then we came upon an article
"Danish Santa Compensated for Reindeer's Death . . . COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Sept. 29) The Danish Air Force said Thursday it paid 31,175 kroner, or $5,032, in compensation to a part-time Santa Claus whose reindeer died of heart failure when two fighter jets roared over his farm.
I am happy that the man was compensated for his loss, but Santa Claus? Be reasonable. Everybody knows that Santa has eight reindeer. The ninth was Rudolph. An article like this could confuse children all over the world.
Then this news blurb actually made national headlines:
"Eviction escape: Man flees, pig attacks . . . BOULDER CREEK, Calif. A man and his pet wild pig facing eviction from their Boulder Creek home have eluded authorities — the man by running into the woods, and the pig by attacking deputies.
Are the Boulder Creek police admitting that they are not capable of subduing a pig and finding a man in the adjacent woods? It's enough to make you lose faith in law enforcement. How can anybody feel safe with news like that?
The point is that real news is sometimes too disturbing. We can deal with fantasy; it can't hurt us. True bizarre news can be more than we are willing to handle. It's just part of that system we can't understand.


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May 7, 2012
Over 1,600 Palestinian prisoners are currently engaged in a steadfast and open-ended hunger strike that launched on April 17, 2012, Palestinian Prisoners' Day. They are demanding an end to solitary confinement; access to family visits for all prisoners; and access to education and media. And they are demanding international solidarity.


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Celtics go to double OT to edge Mavs, 117-115SportsDirect Inc.
December 13. 2012 12:01AM
BOSTON -- Paul Pierce scored eight of his season-high 34 points in the second overtime and Rajon Rondo fell one rebound shy of a triple double as host Boston snapped a four-game losing skid to Dallas with a thrilling 117-115 double-overtime win on Wednesday.
Rondo finished with 16 points and 15 assists to go along with a career-high 53 minutes for the Celtics, who have won four consecutive home games.
O.J. Mayo scored 18 of his 24 points after halftime to lead seven players in double digits for the Mavericks, who saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.
Boston had the final possessions in both regulation and the first overtime, but Rondo and Pierce saw their respective last-second shots fall short.
Pierce made amends by drilling a 3-pointer on the Celtics' first possession of the second overtime. The veteran calmly sank five free throws in the session to seal the win.
- - - - - - -
GAME NOTEBOOK: Celtics G Jason Terry played against his former team for the first time since signing a three-year deal in the offseason. Terry, who finished with 10 points, competed with the Mavericks for eight campaigns. ... Wednesday's game was just the second one to go into overtime between the teams. The first came on Dec. 30, 1983, when Hall of Famer Larry Bird scored 36 points in a 114-109 Boston win. ... Dallas F Shawn Marion returned following a two-game absence with a strained groin. He finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds.


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Paul Newman "Nobody's Fool"
Nobodys Fool One of the tag lines for this movie was Aged to perfection. And at 68, the still-sexy Newman gives a totally engaging turn in this quirky 1994 comedy directed by Robert Benton from the novel by Richard Russo. The role of Sully fits Newman like a comfortable pair of old shoes hes a charming, heavy drinker who has skirted responsibility most of his life until his grown son (Dylan Walsh), a college professor whose marriage is breaking up, returns home. Perhaps the sweetest scenes in the movie are between Newman and Jessica Tandy in one of her last films who plays his landlady. Newman won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actor, as well as receiving Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations.
Copyright © 2018, Hartford Courant


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Hi ladies,
my son was born on Tuesday morning, and pretty much cleared his system of all the meconium within 12 hours (6 poops). We had one very small poop on Thursday, though we have been having 7+ wet diapers/ day. My breasts just became engorged yesterday morning, so I'm wondering when I might see his first non-meconium poop.
thank you!


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Casablanca Bridal 2289
- Brand: Casablanca
- Style #: 2289 - In Stock*
- Availability: In Stock
Spectacular Style 2289 Amber offers a beautiful blush, nude and champagne color combination for a unique blend that allows the beaded lace to pop. Cap sleeves that flow into an illusion back can be removed to give this dropped waist, full A-line gown a strapless option, both of which are equally impactful with the cathedral length train.
In Stock:
- Coming Soon: 14
Items available in store
*A style labeled "IN STOCK" on this site means we have a sample here in the store for try on purposes. Some dresses are in stock in all sizes from the designer. Please contact us for more information.


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First comes love...
Careers, children, cohabitation—this isn't your parents' path to the altar.
Emily Barnak remembers a term that one of her cousins devised years ago to refer to a common reality among young adults and their significant others: LIS. Short for "living in sin." As in, "Are you LISing?" It comes in handy at family gatherings, when the 20- and 30-something cousins catch up on one another's lives and relationships but don't want to distress older relatives who would surely disapprove if they knew.
Barnak, 27, is engaged to be married. She met her fiancé, Casey, when they were serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. According to plenty of statistics, Barnak is like the majority of her peers in a few important ways: She pursued her education and career before marriage, and she expects to have a good marriage and family life. After graduate school necessitated a long-distance relationship for a few years, Barnak made a cross-country move to be with Casey.
And like the majority of engaged couples in the United States-Catholic and otherwise-the two moved in together, at least for a while. When she finally found work as a physician's assistant several months after relocating, her new job was too far for a daily commute from their home in Denver, effectively keeping her from "LISing" during the week.
While Barnak and her fiancé have been contemplating their coming marriage, the U.S. bishops have also been doing a lot of contemplation about the institution as a whole. They launched the National Pastoral Initiative for Marriage in 2004. And just last November the bishops issued "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan," a pastoral letter that focuses on the meaning of marriage, the challenges the institution currently faces, how marriage is a blessing for all society, and how the sacrament and vocation of marriage can lead to greater holiness in individuals, couples, and families.
Not surprisingly, most young adult Catholics didn't get the letter, so to speak.
Barnak, for instance, disagrees with or questions several church teachings about marriage: the prohibition of artificial birth control, the naming of cohabitation as objectively sinful in nature, and the impossibility of same-sex marriage.
"What it comes down to, for me, is Jesus," she says. "The Jesus I know through prayer and Bible study is one who welcomes everyone to the table. It seems the church has a lot of rules about who is welcome and who is not."
A failure to communicate
She's got a lot of company, according to Gail Risch, who has taught the theology of marriage to hundreds of Catholic college students at Creighton University in Omaha. Most know coming into the course what the church teaches-no sex before marriage, no birth control, no same-sex unions-but they want to know why.
"Today's young adults ask questions," says Risch. "They want to know the rationale behind the teaching. They do not settle for 'because I said so.'"
When her students delve into the church's argument against contraception, for instance, the typical response she hears is, " 'You've got to be kidding!' They would say it's reasonable and responsible to use reliable contraception. The large majority outright reject official church teaching in Humanae Vitae."
And when it comes to teaching on homosexuality and marriage, "Most of them are appalled-they have friends or family members who are engaged in same-sex relationships, and [the church's teaching] is terrible discrimination from their perspective."
The fact that many young adult Catholics disagree with some aspects of the church's teachings likely disappoints the bishops, but Risch does have some good news: When her students read what the church has to say about love and marriage in Gaudium et Spes, "they buy that 100 percent. They're delighted to hear that official church teaching. They're totally into commitment."
As to whether cohabiting couples are truly "into commitment," Risch says in her experience most who identify as Catholic are either already engaged or are considering marriage, as opposed to cohabiting couples that have no plans to marry. "There's more of an attitude that marriage is lifelong, and that divorce is out of the question. It's a very healthy and hopeful shift."
Baby on board
Still, even among some young adult Catholics who have been happily living together, feelings of guilt or uneasiness can sometimes surface as they go through marriage preparation or have conversations with priests, deacons, or other pastoral staff on their way to the altar.
Shelby and Derek Cook saw that firsthand when they attended the marriage prep program through the Diocese of Pembroke in Canada before their wedding this past May. The Cooks had already been married civilly and had a young son before they started preparing for their Catholic ceremony.
"I was worried that people at the course would judge me," says 25-year-old Shelby.
Still, when others were tightlipped in their group sessions, she says, "Usually I would get the conversation going by saying that we already had a child and lived together." Soon others started opening up-it turned out all but one of the 23 couples in the class were living together, and some had children, either together or from previous marriages.
"Sometimes couples don't realize that the church is not trying to be a punitive 'bad guy,' but rather wants to help the couple establish the strongest foundation possible for a lasting marriage," says Susan Vogt, editor of the Journal of the National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers and content editor for the bishops' website ForYourMarriage.org .
"The job of the marriage minister-whether it's a priest, deacon, or couple-is to help the engaged couple understand the depth of Catholic teaching. We know through generations of church teaching, reinforced by modern science and human reason, that the sexual relationship between a man and woman is best protected and enhanced through the permanent commitment of marriage," Vogt says.
She adds, however, that when a couple's experience and church teaching conflict, the wise pastoral minister "does as Jesus did. He or she remembers the prodigal son and the woman at the well-and errs on the side of love. A strong welcome is the first step. The teaching can follow."
Vogt says this approach is particularly appropriate for working with sexually active couples, which are the great majority today. "They are coming to the church wanting to make their relationship whole and holy. They want to move from sex outside of marriage and make their relationship right through a sacramental union. This is a graced opportunity. It is not our job to judge the couple's worthiness-only God can do that. We do need to help them become aware of the import of this decision and that it is just the first step on a long journey of faith and love."
No path to the altar
Other Catholic couples won't be found in an Engaged Encounter weekend or Pre-Cana class because they're not eligible for marriage in the church.
Leilani and Nancy Taylor have been together for 10 years, and their relationship has been recognized with three domestic partnerships (for each state they've lived in), plus legal and religious wedding ceremonies. Along with all other marriages performed for same-sex couples in San Francisco in 2004, theirs was later declared void by the state supreme court. Although same-sex couples are no longer able to marry in California, the Taylors retain legal status from a second ceremony in 2008. They have a 2-year-old daughter and attend Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Oakland.
"There's so much I admire about the church," says Leilani, 31, who became Catholic when she was 18 after being raised atheist. ("I attended one Mass, and I knew this was it," she says.) But of church teaching on marriage, she says, "there's so much about the role of the husband and the role of the wife that I don't even want to begin to try to apply it because it doesn't apply. I do try to see if there's something to hold onto. What I keep is the idea that marriage is for life and that it's about more than just romantic love and that God is there to help us through the rough times of marriage."
She acknowledges that much of church teaching on this topic is difficult for her-especially when the bishops' pastoral letter calls same-sex unions one of the four "fundamental challenges to the nature and purposes of marriage," along with contraception, divorce, and cohabitation.
"Sometimes I wonder if I'm being a pushover in wanting it to apply when they don't even want it to apply," she says.
Leilani believes young people are likely to ignore the church's positive messages about marriage and family if the church doesn't recognize the integrity of families that "look a little different." "The church could learn a lot about love from the way people are arranging their families and lives," she says.
When Leilani and Nancy served as godparents for a niece, the baptism had to be done privately rather than during a regular Mass. Parishioners weren't able to witness the baptism and help celebrate with and support the family. And that, for Leilani, is a double-whammy of disappointment: "I really think the church is doing a disservice to kids of nontraditional families, and to others-even if they want to say I'm a sinner."
Even many young adult Catholics in traditional marriages accept nontraditional relationships. Laura Cordero (who asked to use an alias since she teaches at a Catholic high school) and her husband have been married for seven years. They live in Los Angeles and have a young son. "I think the church has a lot to offer when it talks about making a commitment to one person, but we're losing that because the church is constantly focusing on a person's sexuality and on what constitutes marriage-that it be exclusive to couples that are heterosexual," she says.
In graduate school, she took a class on spirituality and sexuality, and she remembers her professor talking about how the church and our experience must be informed by each other. These insights ring especially true in her work as a religion teacher at a Catholic high school: "When I see students disengaged with their faith, it's because they think the church doesn't listen."
And while she was a virgin before she got married at 22-well below the average age of 25 for Catholic women and 27 for Catholic men, according to research from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA)-"I'm not sure that it would have been the same situation if we were getting married now." For that reason, Cordero says, "The sexuality of single people should be discussed and honored [by the church] because as a society we're telling people they should be in their late 20s before they get married. But the church is only talking about abstinence, and that's just not where people are when they're 29."
Rites of passage
When marriage is postponed until certain economic and educational milestones are reached, the wedding itself can take on epic proportions, Andrew J. Cherlin writes in his 2009 book, The Marriage Go Round: The State of Marriage and Family in America Today (Knopf): "An observer sometimes gets the sense that what matters to some young adults is not so much being married as getting married-that the exercise is more about status than survival."
For some couples, part of the "status" comes from having a big church wedding, regardless of their actual involvement in a parish. That can be a real irritation for parish staff dealing with the couple and their family members, but many young adult Catholics see real value in parishes bending a little to accommodate their peers: "Even when couples are getting married in the Catholic Church more out of tradition [than out of their current commitment], I still think it's good because it keeps the door open for them," says Shelby Cook.
That worked for Todd and Julie Zasada, who stopped going to Mass a few years after their church wedding. When their marriage started floundering, though, they knew they could get help from the church (see sidebar).
Friendships within their parish, American Martyrs in Manhattan Beach, California, and their conviction that God is present in their relationship also fortify Jay and Laurie Perreault's 10-year marriage. "Marriage is hard enough when faith is present," says Jay, 39, but keeping God in the mix "helps stack the deck in your favor."
He says that marriage has helped him recognize the sacredness of life and the importance of the sacraments, including confession. "When I was in my early 20s I didn't give a hoot about confession," he says. But now, "I really want to live a holier life."
Life lessons
That's something that the bishops want to happen, too. But that's a tall order. Over and over, young adult Catholics interviewed for this story articulated that didn't know as much as they wanted to about "the riches of our Catholic faith" when it came to marriage-nor had they ever been presented with them until they actively pursued marriage prep.
"You don't learn about Catholic marriage in school, so this course explained a lot and helped me with my own beliefs and questions," Shelby Cook says about her three sessions of marriage preparation.
While Barnak and her fiancé have found meeting with a counselor and spiritual director worthwhile, she says she wishes she had directly encountered the church's teaching on marriage earlier. "I went to church every Sunday and went through CCD and the sacraments-but I never felt the opportunity to engage [the church's teaching on marriage and relationships]," she says. "Almost everything I learned by observing. . . . I didn't really have anyone talking to me about faith and relationships at that point."
But she did have one conversation with her grandmother back in college that stuck with her. At one point her grandmother said, "You really have to think and pray about what you're going to bring to the altar."
"It was the first time anyone had shared something like that with me," Barnak says. She wishes that more young Catholics would have that question asked in the context of their faith: "How is the way you're living your life now going to affect you when you're preparing for that sacred relationship later?" She thinks that approach might hook young adults for whom the idea of marriage is far off their radar screen.
"For a lot of young adults, relationships are an outlet, just like alcohol and drugs, and they can be just as destructive. They can be a way to escape family problems and insecurities, and give a sense of self-worth." If the church were better at addressing that with young people in a non-guilt-inducing way, "that might encourage a lot of people to think about their weekend hook-ups in college," Barnak says. "The beauty of our faith is that we believe in a forgiving God."
Cordero says she and her husband wanted to "get as much as we could" during their marriage prep, and they did indeed receive plenty of support: the FOCCUS pre-marriage inventory; a retreat with a marriage therapist; meetings with her husband's father, a Methodist pastor, as well as with a Catholic deacon and the priest who married them.
They were also assigned a sponsor couple who had been married more than 30 years. "That was a wonderful way to have someone to ask questions of and to understand more about marriage," she says. "They continue to be a great resource for us."
When she thinks about her young son and his prospects for marriage and family in a couple of decades, she's hopeful. "I hope that he can have what I was offered," she says. "I would be excited if he found a loving partner. And I would hope our church would support his loving union, in whatever way that looks."
This article appeared in the September 2010 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 75, No. 9, pages 12-17.)
Image: Tom Wright


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Months of violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Over 90,000 people have crossed into Chad where they have found support from local authorities and aid groups in a series of transit centres. Last month, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund released US$3.2 million to help aid groups provide these people with basic, critical support.
OCHA's Philippe Kropf visited Doyaba, one of the largest transit sites and home to about 11,000 returnees and refugees.
Habsita is about 14 years old. She carries a young boy on her hip. "We gave him the name Sans Soucis," she tells me, matter-of-factly. Sans Soucis is French for 'Carefree'. It is a remarkable name for a boy whose young life has been anything but.
Habsita, Sans Soucis and a few dozen other children all arrived at the Doyaba transit site alone, without their parents or family. All of them had horrific tales to tell. One 15 year old told me that he saw his father beaten to death by militia, pulled from their car on the road north to Chad.
Another recalled how one of their parents – they were too distraught to explain which one – fell off the back of a military truck that was ferrying them across the border. The truck didn't stop. Some of the kids bear the scars of machete slashes on their heads, necks and legs – a testimony to the violence that drove them and tens of thousands of others to flee CAR since last December.
"We try to keep them occupied"
Doyaba, on the outskirts of the city of Sarh, is a sprawling home to more than 11,000 returned Chadian migrants and CAR refugees. There are almost 100 children here who, like Habsita and Sans Sousis, arrived without parents and families, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The unaccompanied children all live together in one corner of the site. Lydi Bele, a woman in her forties from Sarh, is one of the volunteers who looks after the children.
"They are traumatized," she says. "We need to take care of them."
Every morning she rides her motorbike the five kilometres from the city to Doyaba. "We try to keep them occupied but there is nothing to do on the site and the only soccer ball we have is falling apart."
Aid groups and volunteers are doing what they can to people here find some sense of normalcy amidst the distress and chaos. They are building latrine blocks (segregated by gender) and they are doing what they can to make sure that the food they distribute is as close to the food that people ate in CAR. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is organizing recreational activities to help the kids and adults deal with the stress of living in such an extreme situation.
Prayer spaces and tin can cars
But most of the work carving out a niche of normality in Doyaba is being done by the women, men, girls and boys who for the time being call this site home. Some men have marked a prayer space with sticks and string in the shade of a tree. Women fetch water at the fountains and cook food on improvised stoves. Children poke ripening mangoes with long sticks, trying to make them fall, and they turn empty sardine cans or plastic bottles into toys.
Some people have even set up small businesses. Many of those who fled CAR were traders, and a veritable market has grown at the main gate. Cooked food is sold and small generators charge mobile phones for a small fee.
Some have been able to re-establish their old professions. I met Souleiman Mahamat Sallet, a 34 year old tailor from Bangui who managed to bring his sewing machine on his exodus. He now spends each day sitting under a sun shade attached to his tent, fixing clothes. "I can make 1,500 to 2,000 CFA (Central African francs - between US$3 - 4) per day," he explains to me. "That allows me to buy extra food."
The special vulnerability of nomadic tribes
But not everyone has adapted to life in Doyaba. The Fulani, a nomadic tribe with peoples spread across many West and Central African countries, were forced to leave their cattle behind in CAR. They have chosen to build their own tents from sticks, tarps and mosquito nets in a corner of the site. They keep to themselves and rarely request services that are provided by the government and the humanitarian community.
Saïa, a two year old girl from the Fulani community died less than three days after falling ill. Her father sits on the back of a Red Cross pickup truck, the small body of his daughter packed in white cloth according to Muslim customs.
I meet Bob Lobe, a doctor with the International Rescue Committee, an NGO. Bob has only been here in Doyaba for a few days but he already looks exhausted. "We treat an average of 120 patients a day," he says by way of an explanation.
He explains that the Fulani rarely come to his clinic, and that he never saw young Saia before she died. "They rarely come to the health station," he explains. "It is difficult to reach them."
OCHA in the Central African Republic>>


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Former Chief Sussex County Prosecutor Paula Ryan was formally sworn into office as Sussex County's newest Family Court judge on Friday.
Former Chief Sussex County Prosecutor Paula Ryan was formally sworn into office as Sussex County's newest Family Court judge on Friday.
Ryan, who received the oath of office from Judge Randy Holland during a ceremony in the Sussex County Courthouse in Georgetown, was nominated to a 12-year term on the bench by Gov. Jack Markell in November.
She will fill the seat left vacant by the removal of former Family Court Judge John Henriksen, who was relieved of his duties in May following a judicial investigation into improper advances he allegedly made toward a female attorney who was arguing a case before him in 2010.
Holland served as the county's chief prosecutor starting in 2007 and handled recent high-profile criminal cases such as Earl Bradley, the Lewes pediatrician sentenced to serve more than 14 life sentences after sexually abusing at least 86 patients, and Derrick Powell, who was sentenced to death after shooting and killing Georgetown police officer Chad Spicer.
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden has nominated longtime prosecutor Peggy Marshall to succeed Ryan as the county's top cop.
Marshal joined the Delaware Department of Justice as deputy attorney general in 1986. She has worked in the Sussex County prosecutor's office since 2001, where she prosecuted firearm and motor vehicle fatality cases, headed the felony trial unit and established the felony screening unit.
Marshal is currently awaiting confirmation from the General Assembly.


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3 months after fatal Weare shooting, report on incident incompleteBy NANCY BEAN FOSTER
Union Leader Correspondent
November 15. 2013 10:06PM
WEARE — Two officers involved in a fatal shooting during an undercover drug operation in August remain on paid administrative leave, but they are performing duties at the police department while awaiting a report of the incident from the state Attorney General's office.
The two officers, whose names are being withheld until the attorney general's report is released, were involved in the fatal shooting of a suspected drug dealer named Alex Cora DeJesus, 35. Just after 10 p.m. on Aug. 14, DeJesus met with undercover officers and informants at the Dunkin' Donuts in Lanctot's Plaza on Route 114.
Authorities said that during the undercover heroin buy, DeJesus tried to leave, driving away. The officers fired on DeJesus and gave chase briefly before DeJesus' car collided with two police vehicles and came to rest on the side of the road not far from Lanctot's Plaza. DeJesus died from a gunshot wound. The officers were placed on administrative leave while the Attorney General's office began its investigation.
Police Chief John Velleca said the two officers are carrying out administrative duties for the department but are not responding to calls or patroling.
Velleca said that as police chief, he has the authority to decide whether an officer placed on paid administrative leave should spend that time at home or come into the office to do paperwork, run errands, or perform other duties to support the department.
"It's standard protocol," said Velleca. "In this case, it doesn't make sense to pay two people to sit at home when there are things they could be doing."
Velleca said he could reinstate the two officers before the Attorney General's report is completed, but he said doing so isn't prudent given that he didn't come aboard as chief until weeks after the incident took place. Velleca said that knowing about the case directly and having only just met the officers recently doesn't give him the base of knowledge he needs to make any decision about reinstating the officers until they are cleared by the attorney general's office.
"At this point, it doesn't seem practical to not wait for the report," said Velleca. "I don't think it will be too long (before the report is released.")
According to Attorney General Joseph Foster, investigators in his office are still reviewing the case, and he doesn't have a timeline for when the report will be issued.
"It's taking some time because we want it to be thorough and completed," Foster said. "Unfortunately, from time to time, people who are working on one investigation have to be pulled off to work on new investigations."
Even if the Attorney General's office finds that the officers were justified in their use of deadly force, Velleca said there are still some hurdles they must clear before they resume their normal duties. They'll have to requalify with their firearms and a mental health professional will have to clear them for duty. There are other training requirements that will also have to be met before the officers are back on the street, Velleca said.
In addition to the two officers who are on paid administrative leave, Sgt. Joseph Kelley is also on a leave of absence. Thomas Clow, chairman of the board of selectmen, would only confirm that Kelley is on leave. However according to Concord Monitor reports, Kelley said he is on leave to recover from the stress he experienced on Aug. 14.


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Week on week, the NY Times T Style Magazine delivers a fabulous fashion spread. Sometimes the editorial is womenswear-based and on occasion, we are provided with incredible style spark. This week's magazine features the 'Landed Gent' editorial and with its vintage, Grey Gardens feel and stunning photography, I felt I had to share it!
Styled by Bruce Pask and photographed by Matthew Brookes, check out the gallery by clicking on the image below.


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Dearest 3 Kittens Who Still Read This Blog (and Comment):
I have recently been inundated with spam (not the canned meat) comments, and by "inundated" I mean "maybe like 4." Thus, I have set the Comment Approval Thingy. I am so sorry that your terribly witty, yet simultaneously tragically beautiful comments will not appear instantaneously. I will endeavor to approve them as quickly as possible. (How many adverbs can I use in one paragraph? Hmm ... 57!)
<3 <3 <3 and *smooches*
More later!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Labels: vuboq is boring
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