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Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin
Author Chat
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Please welcome 2009 National Book Award winner Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin.
Colum will be answering questions and generally chatting on LibraryThing until March 14.
Mr. McCann;
Why did you change the nationality of the tight-rope walker from the "real world" French to being from Denver?
I loved Let the Great World Spin for many many reasons but was particularly moved, as a New Yorker, by the resonance of everyone looking up at the twin towers in awe of the tightrope walker with everyone looking at the towers on 9/11 -- the beginning and the end. I was especially impressed by this because I have been for the most part disappointed in the way most novelists have used 9/11. I am curious as to what extent 9/11 was in your mind when you wrote the book, which is certainly among other things a story about the resilience and determination of people faced with tragedy and obstacles.
I just finished reading Zoli and really enjoyed it. I am curious to know if the group of Romanis that Zoli was from were based on a real group and if so, do you know what happened to them after they were forced to 'mainstream?'
I absolutely loved Let the Great World Spin, my only 5 star read of the year so far. I'm wondering if it was your plan from the beginning to have the characters "connected" in the way that you did. Or did that happen after you started writing?
Mr. McCann:
I enjoyed Let the Great World Spin. It's a great work and very, very enjoyable. The parts relating to the woman who lost her son in Viet Nam were most appealing to me.
My question is: How, if in any way, would the book have been different if the photograph with the wire-walker, the towers and the airplane all together had not been available?
Thank you so much for taking part in the author chats. I really enjoyed Let the Great World Spin. I had seen the documentary Man on Wire so it was nice to picture those events when reading your novel. Were you more interested in the events from 1974 or the ones from 2001 when you first started to write the book?
Let the Great World Spin was the best book I read in 2009. Thank you so much for giving me that. It had some reasonably good competition, like Paint it Black, Five Skies and Olive Kitteridge but the contest wasn't actually very close.
Was there some particular influence or inspiration that led to the tightening-of-the-loose-threads-into-one-skein structure? Also, I thought your presentation of the daredevil tightrope walker one of the more intriguing and compelling aspects of the work.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was a rare privilege.
Mr. McCann, I was attracted to your book Let the Great World Spin because as soon as I heard the title i knew where it came from--I having known Locksley Hall by heart for some 60 years, and I really liked the way you referenced words from the poem into the book near the end. Has anyone else told you what a great title the book has, and how pleasant its reference to Locklsey Hall is?
Colum, just starting into Let the Great World Spin - great so far. And loved This Side of Brightness. Can I ask was there any reason why you chose Sandymount as the Corrigan's home? Was that where you grew up in Dublin? Thanks!
Colum, after reading and loving several of your novels, I have most recently been entranced by your short fiction. "The Hunger Strike" is a perfect example of how Joyce Carol Oates describes her sense of the novella as, "...a rapturously extended prose poem driven by narrative." It's wonderfully done.
I've picked up another of your collections for reading in the near future.
Thank you to everyone for your questions ....
Dear Mamakats
Thanks for your question --
Well the nationality of the "walker" is not changed, really ... in fact, it's not explicitly mentioned ... he just becomes a "walker" ... a sort of everyman, or overman, or underman -- a sort of "everywhere" person
Best wishes
Dear Rebeccanyc --
Well it was foremost in my mind. The walk that Phillipe Petit did across the World Trade Center Towers was an act of creation that stands -- and continues to stand -- in almost perfect opposition to the act of destruction that levelled the towers 24 years later. I wrote the novel acutely aware of the background and the foreground. I was living in NY when the towers came down and one of the things that I eventually asked myself was, How is it possible to write about this? It wasn't an Adorno moment ... it was more a case of how I might work this whole thing out in my head, my own response to the times, and the potential allegorical spin of the walk
Best wishes
Dear Brenzi
Thank you so much. A lovely -- and acute -- and precise question. Sometimes it's hard to recall how a novel truly began ... in the beginning, just after 9/11, I wanted to write about the tightrope walker as a political allegory and eventually have him fall. But the more I dug into the book, or rather the more it dug into me, and the more I realised that the digging had to be intuitive. Eventually I realised that I wanted to write about the ordinary people on the ground. I was interested in the notion of the anonymous. I also thought that the word "extraordinary" was a subset of "ordinary" which is counter-intuitive, I suppose. But I wanted to find the extraordinary which was embedded within the ordinary.
Best wishes
Dear Menagerie
It's a tough question, since I'm aware of the power of representation, and failing to properly represent oneself, let alone a culture. But on the most important level, Zoli's people or group were totally imagined ... although what happened to them is very indicative of what happened to many Romani people at the time ...
Best wishes
Dear Arsolot
Ah yes ... well, I found the photograph after I decided that I wanted to write the book ... but it made me realise (or think at least) that the book was on the right track when I finally found it. It took the oxygen from the air for me. It surprised me and I suppose in a way legitimsed the whole process of writing the novel
Many thanks
Dear Little Taiko
At first it was 9/11 which "inspired" me .. I use that word with a little trepidation since I'm not sure it is the correct word ... but it was 1974 that eventually grounded me, that brought me back down to earth without the grief or the dilemnas of 2001
Dear Little Taiko
At first it was 9/11 which "inspired" me .. I use that word with a little trepidation since I'm not sure it is the correct word ... but it was 1974 that eventually grounded me, that brought me back down to earth without the grief or the dilemnas of 2001
oops, I cut myself off there --
I wanted to say that in a very strange way 2001 allowed me access to 1974 ... that by "returning" I found where I am ... I don't want this to sound silly or mystical, but the present brought me back to the past and rooted me ... it made me realise that wherever we are is wherever we have once been
Best wishes
Dear Luke
Well, it is a rare privilege to get your message ... and deeply appreciated.
Thanks so much for your question. In fact the architecture of the novel took on deeper and deeper meanings the longer I explored the territory. I never thought that I'd tie all the things together at first ... but then they started to meet each other ... it was as if the characters began wanting to travel, or explore, or meet other people, and I had to allow them to travel. Does that sound strange? I hope not. I wanted the characters to go out into the world and meet others, to explore new territory ... I don't know if there was an influence or inspiration, apart from the very simple belief that everything we do, or say, or desire, has a weight and a meaning ...
Best wishes
Dear Schmerguls
Thank you so much! The title means so much to me now ... but I only discovered it about three quarters of the way through the novel ... I had read the poem Locksley Hall many years ago, in my teens, and it had crossed my imagination in the same way that it has crossed yours .. . but it wasn't until I found out that it was related to the Mu'allaqat (a series of 6th century Arabic poems) that I thought that the world was truly spinning in extraordinary ways .. and that it would form the centerpiece of what the idea, or the philosophy, of the novel would become ...
Dear Ajrob68
I grew up in Dublin about four miles from Sandymount, in a suburban area called Deansgrange ... but Sandymount is so much more interesting (geographically, visually) than where I was raised ... in Sandymount the sea writes everything ... in Deansgrange everything was written by a road that went towards the cemetary ... so I was glad to go "home" in my writing and be in Dublin, but I was happy to escape from the long stare of childhood --
Best wishes
Dear Avaland
Many thanks ... I wish I could write a poem but I can't ... the closest that I can do (or try rather) is a piece of prose that attempts its own music .. your message is cherished -- I thank you deeply for it
>24 ColumMcCann: Kind sir, I cry "nonsense" on I wish I could write a poem but I can't, when you can write this passage from "Hunger Strike":
"He stopped for a long time by the pierside phone. The ring came high and hard. The receiver vibrated on its hook. He opened the door of the booth and the wind moved the coiled wire. His hand hovered in midair and then he decided against answering it. It sounded as if the phone itself were in mourning. Soon his mother would come down from the caravan and hear it and she would answer and then he would know for definite. He found himself shaking annd he lowered his chin to his chest when the ringing stopped."
Put line breaks in place of periods, that's a poem, at least if you ask me, which of course you didn't but that's never stopped me before. And it didn't this time either, clearly.
I have enjoyed each of your works I've read. Thank you for the hours and hours of pleasure they've given me. It being axiomatic that you're a gifted and talented writer, I'll ask a different angle of question: What occasioned your publishing move from Metropolitan/Holt to Random House/Little Random?
In general, non-actionable terms, what has been your experience of the editing process on your books, past and present? Are you working with more than one editor? Is there, uhhhmmm, a national difference in the editorial experience for you?
And when can we expect movie versions of Zoli and This Side of Brightness? Or is this one of those things that will simply have to wait for me to win MegaMillions?
After Richard...dare i say anything?
You bet.
I have not read Let The Great World Spin...but it is nestled on my Kindle.
I will say...when people ask me to name my favorite NEW YORK CITY novel..i always cite This Side of Brightness....historical? yes...pertinent to the Present Day? yes Futuristic? certainly. You outdid yourself with that one, sir....and i thank you for giving me a Read that still resonates ( I read TSOB shortly after it was published)...
Thank you for your response to my question and to all the others -- all very interesting. I have another question and that is about how you go about researching your varied characters and the worlds they live in. Did you interview people? Walk through the same areas they walked through? Read? Remember? All of the above? Something else?
Thank you for taking the time to participate in our little community. I loved Let the Great World Spin. I'll start with an easy question: I saw "Man on a Wire" the day I started reading LTGWS, I was wondering if you saw it and whether Petit's story informed your writing? Particularly, I saw the Lara and Blaine chapters as grainy home movies ala the Petit troupe clips.
Also, I have read some other great Post-9/11 New York novels (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Netherland), are there any others you would recommend? Can you recommend your favorite all-time NY novels?
Dear Richard (Richardderus)
Honestly, I really do wish I could write a poem, but I just become diseased with awareness. I think about it too much. The form tightens me and I find myself shoehorning in words where they just shouldn't go. I wish it was just a matter of line breaks! That said, I am inordinately interested in poems and poetry and I try to put the language to use in the same way that a poet might. And then there are times I don't see any real difference between poetry and prose at all .. their function is to use the language as beautifully as possible.
Your question about editors and publishing houses .... Well for years I worked with a fabulous editor at Metropolitan Books, Riva Hocherman. I was sad to leave that publishing house behind. I worked in tandem with Maggie McKernan, a Scottish editor, who published my work in England.
Currently I work with both Jennifer Hershey and Millicent Bennett at Random House, and also with Alexandra Pringle (Bloomsbury) in London. I also listen closely to my French and German editors. In fact I would say there are a lot of hands upon the editing pencil, but it's still a light enough experience. I generally look for the big comment, and then I'll go further and look for comments line-by-line, try to weigh up every word. And I'll weigh up all the various comments and decide from there. I want to get everything correct and precise, though I don't always succeed.
I don't find there's a huge "national" difference between editors. I treat it like a chorus.
But my front-line editor is my wife, Allison. She gets to see the work in its rawest stage. She's brilliant and patient.
Dear JDTHLOUE
Wouldn't it be wonderful to actually have a name like that ... JDTHLOUE ... I'm trying to decipher it ... is your name Lou or JD or is a wild anagram?
Anyway, thank you so much for your comment. I've often wondered what the experience of reading on a Kindle is .... I'm a bit of a Luddite myself. I only got my first cell phone a few months ago and I still want to throw it away.
I don't even know if there's an electronic version of Brightness yet.
Best wishes
Dear Rebecca
About research ... yes I use every possible form I can. For example with the hooker Tillie in "Let the Great World Spin," I spent a lot of time in the libraries searching out articles about prostitutes in the early 70's. I searched for films, for fiction, for oral histories. I especially use photographs. Then I went out on a "ride-along" with the cops in New York, just to get a feel for the streets and what it might have been like. The cops gave me access to old rap sheets which were like poems in themselves. And then I also interviewed people who'd lived in the Bronx in the 70's. And I walked through the area, hung out, soaked it in. All this and more ... eventually it makes up a composite.
Dear JusticeMoney
Well I started writing Let the Great World Spin long before I heard there was a documentary. And then I was quite worried because I was almost three years into my own novel when the news came about, and I wondered if I'd thrown the time away. Then I went to see the documentary and thought it was fabulous, but it was dwelling in completely different territory to my book.
And there have been a lot of artistic projects that relate to Petit's mesmerising walk. There was a children's book, a play, a New Yorker cover and of course Petit's own book "A Walk in the Clouds."
It goes to prove John Berger's idea: "Never again will a single story be told as if it were the only one .."
Dear Justice Money
And in relation to the best New York novels, I always hate putting lists together because inevitably there are titles that I will forget ... but here goes with a few ... my favourite of all time is Underworld by Don DeLillo, not strictly just a NY book, but one of the best works of literature in the past 50 years ... then there's Richard Price and Lush Life, Tom Kelly and Empire Rising, John Wray and Lowboy, Nicole Krauss and History of Love, and yes, Netherland, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ... I know I'll forget somebody that I should mention, so these are just a scattershot list off the top of my head
Cheers --
Let the Great World Spin is a marvelous novel, so much so that I can think of but one insignificant flaw. You had a character mention Sesame Street's Elmo, a name that while not technically anachronistic, would have been far from the mind of anyone watching the show back in 1974. Am I the only reader who registers this as Homer nodding? Honestly, that mention was the sole moment while reading the book that I wasn't completely immersed in your vision of New York's past, so my comment is intended more as a compliment than a complaint.
I should also note that your excellent novel has an almost equally marvelous cover. Was that art commissioned specifically for the book?
Dear Lucien Springer
You caught me! You're right. I actually have changed the mistake for later editions, so Elmo is gone in the paperback edition and replaced with a more appropriate character from the show in the 70's. It's been a funny experience, having this novel travel so far and wide. I wanted desperately to get everything correct, but there was one or two other mistakes that I had to go back and correct, when eagle-eyed readers found them. For instance I have a character in New Orleans with a "Con Ed" bill. That's wrong. And I had one glancing reference to Studio 54 in the very first edition and that was wrong also. I knew it was incorrect but because of my own copy-editing error, l let it slide by. I was so upset at myself, but due to the miracle of subsequent editions I am able to change it.
As for the cover it was done by the wonderful Italian artist Matteo Pericoli, a friend. Yes, it was commissioned specifically for the book. There's another book we did together called "The World Unfurled" where I have written a short essay about Matteo's amazing work.
And thank you so much for your very generous comments .....
Thanks for the response. The beautiful thing about this format is that you can complete your list over time (and LTers will be sure to add their own recs as well). Also, bracketing the titles and double-bracketing the authors in these posts will add them to the list of touchstones at the top right of this discussion for easy linking to the works.
"Richard Price and Lush Life, Tom Kelly and Empire Rising, John Wray and Lowboy, Nicole Krauss and History of Love"
Mentioning Don DeLillo and Underworld, reminded me of Falling Man another excellent post-9/11 NY novel.
BTW, I read your novel on my Kindle. About the e-book reading experience: the downside includes the inability to jump around the book, but on the upside you are able to search (e.g. "Elmo" or "Studio 54") and you can look up words in the dictionary (or even wikipedia).
I can even search Amazon to find that only LTGWS and Zoli are available for immediate download (to add to the 100+ books already on my Kindle).
Thanks again.
As a boy growing up in New York in early August 1974, I hardly remembered the Petit feat. It was quickly overshadowed by Nixon's resignation the next day. Elsewhere, I've seen you confess to being a political writer. While I recognize some of the political overtones in the story, I was wondering whether you consciously avoided giving the Nixon resignation a more prominent role?
For me, the resignation was such a transformative event giving rise to what I call the "sarcastic generation" (Saturday Night Live, Letterman, Punk in America). Its effects are still dominating political discourse in America to this day. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Wow! an actual REPLY....at which I chuckled...my moniker "jdthloue" is my first name (Judith)..slightly cropped..and my last (Loue) in full. Sometimes I wish i was an anagram..
and thanks for the List of NYC novels...dummy me, I own several of them...This Side of Brightness is so much a Favorite that I usually put it first...
#33 and 38, I am a big fan of both Netherland and Lush Life; I think their respective authors really "got" New York, as Let the Great World Spin does.
#37, I understand your point about the Nixon resignation (the whole Watergate saga had a great impact on me), but for me a big point of Let the Great World Spin is that whatever major event or disaster occurs, life goes on and for most people, their lives continue along their own trajectory. And I also felt it was very much a New York-focused book.
>39 rebeccanyc: Rebecca, whatever major event or disaster occurs, life goes on and for most people, their lives continue along their own trajectory seems to me to be a theme that informs many of Himself's books...Everything In This Country Must's "Hunger Strike" comes forcefully to mind...but I could be wrong.
Let the Great World Spin was the first Library Thing ER book I ever received -- and did it ever set a high standard! I love your book -- thanks to your publisher for participating in this program -- and thanks to you for holding this chat!
Any thoughts on the Oscars? I loved Nick Hornby's adapted screenplay for An Education.
I really loved Let the Great World Spin. I found it interesting that you said setting it in 1974 freed you from the grief of 2001, since the whole novel is steeped in grief and you take readers or this one at least into a real since of loss for the towers. I think the novel stands as a fitting memorial to the towers.
I remember having to put the book down a couple days after Tillie spoke in her own voice. I was wondering if you had a favorite character in the novel.
Over the past year, I've taken to listening to novels, first, as an audiobook and then a second time in hard copy. I find I go deeper into a novel's system than I can otherwise manage with one or even two readings of it in hard copy. I've just returned from Paris, where I spent February with LTGWS in my ear while I walked to and from the libraries where I was working. In retrospect, I'm not sure that was the best way to enjoy Paris, because the sound of your writing erected a wall around me behind which I was quite content to remain for the duration. I thought the audio production was really good. I look forward to reading the hard copy.
There are 3 things I want to pay closer attention to when I re-read the book. I want to look more closely to the role of coincidence, because I couldn't get a clear sense by listening of how much it played a part in the links among the characters. Is the overarching story organically connected in the sense that the connections aren't coincidences, only viewpoints? Or did you wish to say something through synchronicity?
Second, Tilly was a fascinating, moving character, but it wasn't until I listened to the judge's chapter that I began to question whether maybe I shouldn't have take at face value as much as I did the characters' accounts of themselves. Maybe I got it wrong, but Tilly's account of her moments in front of the judge differs from the judge's memory of her behavior. So, I want to look for the discrepancies in the varying accounts of events.
And I also want to think more about what you were doing with the computer-related stories (Joshua and the guys in Palo Alto).
Anyway, thank you for the book. Over the last year, the only other book that drew me in to the extent yours did was On Beauty.
Congratulations on making it past Round 1 of the Tournament of Books!
I can't wait to read Let The Great World Spin, especially after reading what the Round 1 judge had to say about it.
Dear JusticeMoney
Yes "Falling Man" is a wonderful book. The image of the Falling Man is an enduring one. I think at some stage the image of a falling figure -- or the potential of a falling figure -- will be recognised as the iconic image of these few years. It speaks to so much of what we are about, and also what we are afraid of.
I have never a book on a Kindle by the way, but I think I would be frustrated not to be able to jump around in a book, or to feel the actual heft of a tome. Then again, I haven't tried it. I'm a bit old-fashioned in these respects ...
Dear JusticeMoney,
Yes, I didn't really lay a particular stress on the Nixon resignation. It's there of course, but it lurks in the background, a shadow moment. I thought about giving it a more promiment role ... in fact you've prodded me to remember that I was going to write a section all about Bill Clinton who as a young lawyer in Arkansas called on Nixon to resign. As much as possible I was trying to link the time of 1974 with the present. I wrote some pages, in fact, in the voice of Clinton, but I was quite getting the texture of it right. In the end I dropped the pages. I'd forgotten about that right up until now! Thanks for reminding me.
As for being a political writer, I suppose it's a dangerous thing to say. Every writer can be deemed political. Surely just the choice of words on the page form or constitute a political act. But my novel Zoli (about the Romani people) was conscioulsy political in the sense that I wanted to write about a marginalised people. And LTGWS is political in the sense that it works out (on a personal level at least) my own feelings about 9/11, the function of the past and the possibility of grace.
Cheers and best
Dear Judith Loue --
A fine name!
And I also thought of Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy" and I've recently begun "Between Two Rivers" by Nicholas Rinaldi. There is always something in Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" -- just the energy and the swerve of the novel.
For non-fiction I just adore the writing of Dan Barry from the New York Times. His collection of essays that he did about NY for the "About New York" column is just stunning.
Dear Rebecca and Richard (39 and 40)
Oops I keep messing up here and losing my replies. I'm a real technoidiot, apologies. Just logging on here is a chore for me!
Anyway, I'm not really sure if I'm ever fully aware of a message in my work. I think the function of an author is to "allow" rather than to "tell." When I, or any other author, for that matter, climb up onto a high horse that stands above my story then I become a sort of mouthpiece or a politician. This is complicated territory of course, because you don't want your fiction to mean nothing. But I think the main point is that your reader is just as intelligent as the writer and that intelligence should be allowed.
There is a quote that I'm very fond of and at the risk of sounding completely pretentious I'll give it here: "To be too acutely conscious is to be diseased." It's from Dostoyevsky, and what he is basically saying is that over-thinking one's subject matter can bring a sort of sickness, or a limit, to the work.
I allow others the interpretation.
Of course I shoot my mouth of all the time ... ("Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself"!) ... but I still think the best fiction and poetry is that which stirs us to feeling, which allows us to experience new worlds and bodies and places ...
I certainly don't think that the trajectory of our lives is pre-ordained ... the great beauty is that beauty can still occur ... and one of the great beauties is the ability to change and become someone new ...
Dear AnneWK
Thank you for your message. I think publishers are constantly on the lookout for new and fresh ways to sell books. The LibraryThing program is a great way to do this. And I believe blogging is the "new radio" .... I don't blog but I'd guess many people on this board probably do .... it's like an instant fiction!
Dear JusticeMoney
My thoughts on the Oscars? They were boring, really. No great shake-ups and it was a bit too much of a lovefest. I have to say that I was delighted that Monique won Best Supporting ... that's an amazing performance -- she achieves the sort of depth and contradiction that one would hope to get in fiction.
Dear Yolana (message 43)
What an extraordinary message, thank you. I think Tillie is still my favourite character because somehow she still makes me laugh. Sometimes I go up to the Bronx and I wonder if she's going to turn the corner.
But I have a real affection for Claire as well. I happen to live on the Upper East Side of New York (confession, confession!) and often when I walk in her area I wonder if it might be possible that she will come wandering out of one of those fancy buildings ... absurd of course ... but the imagined is real at times ....
Dear SJ McKee (is that right?)
Thanks so much. What an image, wandering through Paris with the voices of New York in your ear! Your kind words are very much appreciated.
I've haven't really fully confronted the connectedness, or coincidence, in any of the above replies. I wanted it to be organic. And I wanted some of the links to be very tenuous and for others to be absolutely direct. In other words I didn't want to force the connections. I didn't want the novel to be too rigid and held together by the nuts and bolts of chance.
And if I were to examine the themes of my own novel (not necessarily a good idea) I wouldn't dwell too long on the theme of chance or coincidence. This is mostly because I'm far more interested in the notions of grace, which I believe is a deeper form of connection.
But this may be a little disingenuous on my part. I leave it up to the reader to decide.
And you're absolutely correct that Tillie's version of things rings different at time ... but Tillie goes through a few different judges because she does some things in prison long afterwards (ie. she assaults the governor etc). Tillie's story extends quite far into the future. I can't remember her exact time line, but she stays alive in prison hoping that she can see her "babies" for quite a while after the day of the tightrope walk.
What I was doing with the computer guys (the phreakers) was trying to write an advance image of the Internet ... the way we all can, nowadays, experience an event from afar. Sam Peters is a sort of Bill Gates figure. Did you know that Bill Gates was a phone phreaker when he was 16? He even developed a blue box, like my character in the novel.
Devourer of Books!
Thanks for that link. I'm glad to get through ... (All is vanity in the end). I wonder who it is that's going to sucker-punch me! I like the sound of the novel that I was up against, and I like the sound of the judge's new novel too.
But the most important thing about all this is that it's not really a knockout ... no one book is ever "the" book ... it's not an Olympics and nobody gets the gold medal in the end. Or maybe we all get the gold medal. Just the simple fact of getting the story down, having it published, having it out there in the world is such an enormous privilege. This is not the statement of a patsy, or something just tossed off. I really believe that. It's so difficult to get published these days.
I teach writing (at Hunter College) and I want nothing more than for my students to publish books. But I also talk to them about "knocking the older writers out of the sky." (That would be me there, lying on the ground, after workshop!)
Best wishes
I'm so glad to hear you say that Tillie was your favorite character because that (common) relationship between those grieving mothers, Tillie, Claire and Gloria was so very beautiful. I loved Gloria and that scene where she is walking home from Claire's was just stunning. But Tillie was, for me, the most complex character. How did you develop the idea of including Viet Nam and the grieving mothers? Was it something that became apparent in your research of that time?
Ah, yes, it may be that Tilly's outburst in court was in front of another judge. No, I didn't know that B. Gates was a phreaker. I hadn't even heard of phreakers before I read your book!
That you say grace and not coincidence underpins the stories shows how hemmed in my imagination is! What a beautiful notion, one I'd like to think I would have seen on the 2nd reading, but I'd be lying. From the point of view of writing, I'm interested that what seems to me to be plotted and planned instead may be partially an unintended consequence of the notion of grace you had in the back of your mind. I guess that's the vector where art is found. That, I imagine, is what you can't teach in a writing class or workshop. You can only signal that it can happen.
Thanks again,
When I read the book, I did feel that despite the torment and grieving of many of the characters, to some extent their lives were lightened by love and the human drive to do more than just survive. Perhaps this is grace too.
>50 ColumMcCann: To be sure, Colum, I am not attributing a deterministic strain to your writing...simply a sense that I have of your books as informed by the events outside the story, but not a simple response to them. From your post 54: This is mostly because I'm far more interested in the notions of grace, which I believe is a deeper form of connection.
The trajectory of a life, it seems to me, owes almost everything to the presence of grace. When I was stuck and miserable where I was, I asked for the following: "Put me where you need me to be." And here I am, reconnected with my long-time-estranged partner, pulling at last in tandem towards the same goals.
QED, what you said.
>48 ColumMcCann:
If we are going to talk Non-fiction, my favorite NY books are Island at the Center of the World and Low Life.
>47 ColumMcCann:
I wonder how the Clinton voice would have fit. While reading LTGWS, I started thinking of Gates as the phreaker, but thought the time frame was off (I was thinking he was more '71 or so). I was glad to dismiss it, the cameo would have felt like a stunt. That raises another question--how many of these characters were born for this work, how many were already in existence. Do you keep those voices that don't make the cut around for later projects or do you start with a clean slate?
BTW, I started Zoli on the kindle today.
I often find myself concurrently reading books that raise common themes, usually in threes (I believe it is the triangulation principle at work—you need three points to define a straight line). After finishing, LTGWS, I read J.M. Coetzee's Life and Times of Michael K. and Douglas Coupland's Generation A. I am working on a review based on a shared theme at the center of all three novels--the struggle of storytelling. Michael K. attempts to tell the story of one man's life, Coupland's the story of a generation, and LTGWS is an attempt to tell the story of a shared experience. All three are about the same struggle: how can anyone tell this story which seems impossible to capture.
On the surface, LTGWS tells the story of this extraordinary day in 1974. We have the touchstone tightrope feat told by the bystanders. We have the grieving mother's who meet to take turns telling the story of their soldier sons (including the computer whiz trying to tell the story of the war through the KIA numbers). We learn about the twin lives at the center of this story from the viewpoint of those left behind. It is on this level that the story is your attempt to tell the story of 9/11. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this theme.
Dear Brenzi
The idea of Vietnam and the grieving mothers? Sometimes it's so hard to recall where these things come from! Later it all seems logical, but sometimes as a writer you just hit upon an idea, and it has its own logic, and you must follow it, and it just seems entirely right. In other words, it's not necessarily thought out but it's found. And a lot of the time the "finding" is a mystery. It's like stumbling upon a coin on the beach -- you didn't go along to the beach with a metal detector, but you found the coin anyway.
That said, it denies the fact that every writer needs to be in the process of searching. And I was searching for a way to talk about Vietnam -- a different way, something apart from the brilliant stories of people like Tim O'Brien or Barry Hannah or Lee K. Abbott. I wanted a new sort of voice, and I've always wanted to examine what it means to lose a son. But what if that son came from a wealthy family? Is grief democratic? What happens to that mother?
And then it seemed to tie in with the fact that computers were used fairly extensively in Vietnam ... which tied in with the phreakers .... and it all became a sort of web ....
Dear Sally
ah no, your imagination is not hemmed in at all ... It's fascinating to think of what is plotted and planned, I agree. Doctorow talks about writing in this way ... ""Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing. . . . Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."
So much of it is an unintended consequence, as you say.
I don't plan. I don't map. I strap myself in with a seatbelt (language) and hope that the road doesn't get too bumpy. And yes indeed that's the vector where art is found. (What a wonderful word, "vector"). To paraphrase another America, we beat, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past ....
Cheers and thanks
Dear Rebecca
Absolutely, this is grace ... I think it is more difficult to desire than it is to despair ...
I've said this sort of thing before and I don't want to repeat myself, but I think easy optimism is actually a cynical view of the world ( Hallmark optimism, if you will). For me, true optimism is when you look really closely into the dark corners, when you accept that most of the people you know are flawed, and you're deeply flawed yourself, but nevertheless out of that find a reason to have hope.
In other words, you get through the grime in order to get to the good. You don't know the light until you've spent a long long time in the dark, and you don't know the light unless you're prepared to go back into the dark ...
Richard (59, 50)
I didn't mean to suggest that I thought you were talking of determinism ... I liked what you had to say so much that I jsut wanted to riff on it ... and I love the fact that you talk about the trajectory of a life has so much to do with grace and working in tandem after getting through the mire ... congrats! You should write about it ...
Many thanks
Dear JusticeMoney (60)
I don't think the Clinton voice would have worked. And I don't think that being too conscious of Bill Gates would have been a good idea. They were, however, starting points for the imagination to be triggered. It always has to be triggered from somewhere. Sometimes it's just a brief glancing moment.
There are also times I will spend three or even six months on a character and then throw her/him away. When I throw them away they're gone forever (in the sense that I won't publish them in any other form). But they have taught me things about myself, my limits, my world. And so they're stretched me in a new direction.
When I start a new project I like to think that I begin with a clean slate. Of course nothing is ever a clean slate. The slate gets more chiselled and chalked the further we go along. One hopes that it acquires more character and style ...
Dear JusticeMoney (61)
This sounds like an incredible project/review ... The Life and Times of Michael K is one of my favourite novels (what a book to read, in terms of gathering pace and style) and I think Coupland is a very good writer (though I haven't read Generation A).
LTSWS is indeed an attempt to talk of a shared experience, or at least a shared day in which no experience is replicated, but all experiences are relevant. Everything matters. The tiniest pieces of dust have sparks. We never know what echo our words will find. People come along and achieve grace, or maybe even anger, or violence, or loss, who knows?
I am acutely aware of how every breathing moment affects the next ... even when we are not aware of it. I opened the door for someone in the post office this morning, for instance. An elderly lady, she smiled hugely. I don't know what to remember, her smile or the importance of opening doors.
I am very concerened with the Wallace Stevens poem right now, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.
"I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after."
I would love to riff for a long time on this subject, but can I say that I have a few interviews on my website (colummccann.com) that go to the heart of this particular idea, esp. talking about 9/11 and what influence that day had upon a day that occured 27 years previously!
>65 ColumMcCann: I didn't mean to suggest that I thought you were talking of determinism Oh, thank goodness. I wanted to be sure I wasn't misrepresenting myself. The inefficiency of typed communication is also its efficiency...there is ONLY black-and-white marks, no informative but potentially misinterpretable tones. So we're left to misinterpret content instead of delivery.
I love machine-abetted socializing, but its limitations are scarin' me.
You should write about it I do. Every day. Since The Divine Miss is better at business than I am, also more interested in it than I am, she earns the living and I run the house, the dog, and the elderly, housebound aunt. It's a preoccupation of mine, this fact of relationship...the goals that either define or divide a group of people, regardless of the size of the group. Endless, endless fountain of conflict. Clarice Lispector seems to have mined it pretty well, I've just reviewed her novel The Hour of the Star.
>67 ColumMcCann: I am very concerened with the Wallace Stevens poem right now, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. One of that subtle poet's most subtle and gorgeous works, in my never very humble opinion. How to choose...potential or actual meaning...surface or structure (defined as meanings)...can they even be separated, should one try to separate them? Concrete poetry from the sixties (ugh!) seems to favor surfaces...James Merrill and his ilk structure...but the most moving, the memorable works of art come from the Stevenses and Stevie Smiths and Sharon Oldses whose work always uses surface and always uses structure.
Mustn't out-talk the host. I'll go now. I've got a book circle to prepare for, and it's a hoof to the Upper West Side.
Mr. McCann, First let me thank you for your willingness to take part in this exercise. Looking at the amount of postings, I have to wonder if you regret taking this on. Either way it is certainly a pleasure to get this extra insight into your thoughts regarding this very impressive novel. Let the Great World Spin was a pleasure to read, immediately going on to my favorites' list and being recommended to all those friends I consider "good readers." I have probably up your sales! I even gave the book to my 21 year old son who was driving down to Miami on spring break from college. I told him - look this won the National Book Award- it's one of the best books I've read in a while and it will remind you of a favorite movie we share: Crash. So the real test will be whether we can convince this virtual non reader to break away from the wet t-shirt contest and his first year of legal drinking to take the time to enjoy this... Okay that 's a pretty tall order to fill. I'll let you know if we get anywhere.
I also enjoy the various podcasts and interviews that you have posted on your site. One of the pleasures of reading these days is being able to Google events, like Petit's walk in 1974, or hearing an interview on NPR. These new additions to the very personal experience of spending a couple weeks with a novel really help to add depth to the overall experience. Again thanks for you willingness to participate in this discussion and thanks for the great read. I will be reading more of your work - good luck, Mike
Well Richard (68), you're not out-talking at all ... I must admit that I like this sort of forum and have enjoyed coming on here to "chat" with people. I could see it swallowing my whole day, however, and at a certain stage a writer has to just, well, write. I've had a lot of noise in recent times -- all good noise, of course -- but I have finally put in a proposal to my publishers for another couple of books, so it will be head-down, heart-out soon enough, and I am beginning to hide away from the world. It's funny, there are a lot of social obligations that crop up when you write a book, but really the only essential social obligation is to write another book and hopefully a better one.
I believe in the eloquence of failure ... so you fall short, you dust yourself off and you try again. Just like Beckett. Mind you, Beckett was the sort who would pour coffee into his cognac rather than the other way around. Tomorrow is my lasd day on this chat but it has been fun ... so thank you and thanks to all who have come on here ....
Dear Mike .... NovelCommentary
Ah, it's been a pleasure actually. This process on LibraryThing is different to an interview. It doesn't feel so public. And yet it's considered at the same time. An interesting process. Sort of confessing to a friend you haven't yet met ...
Thanks for the kind things you say about LTGWS. I desperately hope that your 21-year-old son enjoys the book ... whether or not it takes him away from the wet t-shirt ooglin' or the shot slammin' is another matter altogether. Maybe he can drift from one to the other!
I agree that one of the pleasures of the Internet is that ability to partake in that online democracy. This was a big thing for the founders of the Internet and the Arpanet ... I read a lot of their manifestos while I was prepairng to write LTGWS. Fascinating people, they crafted a whole universe for us to step into. But there's nothing beats a good novel, in my opinion. That's where we step into a whole new territory and expanse. That's where we become different ....
Comment from a lurker (yes, we're here too :-) ):
I have really enjoyed this thread, and just want to thank Colum McCann and the Thingamabrarian crowd for the interesting discussion. I'll definitely go and pick up LTGWS next time I am at the library (somehow, the world doesn't spin in German, it's just "The Great World"). I have only heard recently about Philippe Petit's tight-rope walk in 1974, but found it intriguing (not only because it is a long way down, should you slip with a foot... --I am not sure I could stand watching him doing the walk).
I too find that the format of Author Chat at LT is actually more intimate than a reading&discussion with an author at a bookstore or library. Even though there might be dozens of lurkers at any time, it feels like there's only a circle of a few people chatting away without any time pressure. Makes for more interesting questions and answers, I think.
So, thanks again to everybody!
(double posting, deleted)
>70 ColumMcCann: LT is a complete time-eater, but I schedule it in because I have some very, very beloved friends now. And I'll miss seeing you around here, though I'd rather have the next book than the posts....
Farewell gift...I posted my review of the book in my 75-Books Challenge thread, but I wanted to leave it here as well. I loved living with these characters.
Review: 12 of seventy-five
Title: LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN
Author: COLUM MCCANN
Rating: ****1/2 of five
Reviews, in my opinion, aren't the right place for book reports, nor for nosegays of fanboy gush. I'm supposed to let the reader know why he or she should, could, or would want to read a title.
You should, could, AND would want to read this National Book Award-winning novel of grief, sadness, and loss because it's so damned easy to love and cherish these characters. The Catholic monk whose vocation is to bring a whisper of compassion, in its ancient and literal meaning of "shared pain", to the least and the last of people, the whores, drunks, druggies that we (most of us, anyway) do our damnedest to ignore; the wealthy mother of a Vietnam war casualty, one of the Army's computer guys, a geek whose interest in computers led him to help develop ARPANET, whose grandchild you and I are using right now; the tightrope-walking oddball whose main claim to an entry in the Akashic Records is walking between the World Trade Center's towers.
I love them all, and more besides...Tillie, the whoring mother and grandmother, whose entire world-view centers on making it all just a little, weentsy bit better than it has to be, Gloria whose losses mount and mount and still mount but whose sense of life is that it's here, so's she, so what's a girl to do but laugh? And Jaslyn. Oh, so much hinges on Jaslyn, Claire's niece of the heart. So much comes to its final, painful, joyous fruition with her arrival...and truly, ladies and gentlemen, at last here the great world spins.
Really, nothing I say can impact your personal decision to read the book or not. I can, and do, recommend it. Millions of the maniacs on a mission who have already read it are doing just that. I can only encourage you to support a writer who can create a character who says of her dead daughter's attempted savior:
"They told me {he} smashed all the bones in his chest when he hit the steering wheel. Well at least in Heaven his...chick'll be able to reach in and grab his heart."
Group: Author Chat
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text:
The men in blue controlled the game throughout, racing away to a fine win featuring a second-half hat-trick by substitute Ian Gilmour.
Although they were missing a couple of key players, it was still a surprisingly disappointing display by an Ireland side who had recently won convincingly against England at Odsal. Scotland were forced into making five changes from the 20-man squad that beat England by a point, stand-off Gilmour returning in place of the injured Mike Benson, with wingers Dougie Thompson, Mark Webster and Andy McPhail all called up from the Student World Cup squad to make their first appearances at A level this season. Fife Lions prop Craig Stewart made his A team debut, stepping up after an impressive tour with the Development squad to Germany and Holland, and becoming the 30th player used by Scotland A in the tournament. A pre-match injury suffered by McPhail prevented him from coming off the bench.
Scotland looked dangerous from the off, bombing two opportunities on the overlap before veteran hooker Mark BURNS barged over from close range after Steve Deviney had gone close. From the re-start, Kieran EDDY broke away and raced 70m to score, Barry Edgar adding the goal for a 10-0 lead.
Ireland bounced back with a bout of pressure, Joe MANUEL missing woefully with one penalty attempt before converting another on the half hour mark. But a great break by Nick Surtees and some expansive football by Scotland allowed DEVINEY to blast through to touch down.
Edgar missed the conversion but the feel-good factor was washing around the sun-drenched Braidholm ground a minute later when Scotland scored a sensational try. Second rower Scott MacGillivray made a fine 50 metre burst, side-stepping his way past a marker before being felled by the full-back. From the next play, Scotland worked the ball from left to right and just as Edgar looked like going for the line, he sent in a delightfully-unexpected grubber which was brilliantly taken mid-air by Mark WEBSTER in the corner, EDGAR added a fine conversion for a 20-2 half-time lead.
As against England and Wales, Scotland were second best immediately after half time and were under the cosh. A penalty brought Ireland downfield and prop Mark PHELAN bounced off three tacklers to score on the left. But the pressure was relieved and probably the game sealed four minutes later. After Manuel had missed the kick to leave Ireland 14 points adrift, the Scots thrilling passing game appeared to have found no way through until GILMOUR produced a bit of magic. A chip and chase straight out of his box of tricks brought the crowd to their feet as he raced to the line. Edgars goal made it 26-6 with still half an hour to play.
Steve NOLAN narrowed the gap when he bundled over from close range for the Wolfhounds and Brian OLEARY converted, but Scotland again responded immediately with a bizarre try. Andy Todd was almost over on the right but the ball was kept alive by a punch as it moved to the left where WEBSTER snaffled another four pointer.
Scotland had the game sewn up even before EDDY went in on the left for his second try and as the game degenerated, a Deviney intercept paved the way for GILMOUR to waltz in for a splendid try on the break. Al Stewart somehow missed the kick.
With three minutes left, Irelands Mike BRODIE went in from close range to make it 40-16 but in the final seconds, GILMOUR completed his hat-trick with a wonderful 90 metre breakaway and sprint for the line. Fittingly, the last kick of the game went to Edgar for a simple conversion in front of the posts. Astonishingly, the full-back playing on his home ground, managed to hit the upright. His embarrassment did not last long as the whistle went on a fine season for the Scots.
1 Barry Edgar (Clyde Bulls)
2 Rob Copley (Clyde Bulls)
3 Andy Brown (Fife Lions)
4 Kieran Eddy (Clyde Bulls)
14 Doug Thompson (Scotland Students)
16 Nathan Graham (Clyde Bulls)
7 Al Stewart (Liverpool Bucs)
8 Ash Carroll © (Edinburgh Eagles)
9 Mark Burns (Birmingham Bulldogs)
10 James Mackay (Penrith Pumas)
18 Nick Surtees (St Albans Centurions)
19 Steve Deviney (Easterhouse Panthers)
21 David Simm (Edinburgh Eagles)
Subs used:
5 Mark Webster (Liverpool Bucs)
6 Ian Gilmour (Leicester Phoenix)
11 Scott MacGillivray (Fife Lions)
15 Andy Todd (Edinburgh Eagles)
17 Craig Stewart (Fife Lions)
20 Kevin Lang (Clyde Bulls)
22 Andy McPhail (Clyde Bulls)
1 Killian Kennedy (Dublin Blues)
2 Ciaran Barry (Treaty City Titans)
3 Mike Brodie (Treaty City Titans)
4 Mike HArte (Portlaoise Panthers)
5 Alan Pembroke (Kilkenny Wildcats)
6 Joe Manuel (Kilkenny Wildcats)
7 Lance Bullen (Dublin Blues)
8 Phil Purdue (East Coast Exiles)
9 Pete Cunningham (East Coast Eagles)
10 Steve Nolan (Dublin City Exiles)
11 Carl Roche (Dublin City Exiles)
12 Brian OLeary (Kerry Kings)
13 Kevin ORiordan (Treaty City Titans)
14 Simon Manuel © (Kilkenny Wildcats)
15 Declan Nash (Treaty City Titans)
16 Liam Browne (Treaty City Titans)
18 Keith Kirwan (Waterford Vikings)
19 Barry Sweeney (Waterford Vikings)
20 Mark Phelan (Dublin Blues)
Referee: Michael Burgess (England)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Hey all! I know it's been a long time since you've heard from me, so I thought I'd give a quick update to let you know I'm still alive.
Although I haven't been working on Monkbot…I have been busy…working on me.
As you can see, I've chopped off a good bit of my hair…which was a very liberating thing. (Thanks to my friend Tammy for giving me such a great new cut!)
I had gotten so stressed about how thin my hair was getting that the only alternative was to cut it all off. The good part of this is that Locks of Love will be getting an 11-inch pony tail from me (my third…and, sadly, my last). Growing it out and donating it was great, but having hair that reached halfway down my back became a stringy, tangly mess…and drove me up the wall!
But the 11 inches of hair isn't the only thing I've lost recently. I've been working for about a year to lose weight.
So far, I'm up to 60 pounds gone (well, 59.5). Woo Hoo!!! Here's a picture of me (left) from 2006 (weighing WAY more than I'm willing to post) and a picture of me from a couple of weeks ago (weighing 54 pounds less). Man, did I look like a stuffed turkey or what back in 2006?!
Little by little, I've been able to pull out old clothes and start wearing them again. Here I am in a size 22 pair of jeans that I haven't worn in years and years (I started out wearing a 28). They are still too tight to wear out of the house (I can't sit very comfortably in them), but in about another 10 or 15 pounds, that shouldn't be a problem. (Don't laugh too hard at my kerchief…I had just finished mowing the lawn…something I haven't EVER been able to do because I was too out of shape…but now I can mow the front and back yards in under an hour…YEAH!!!!)
I still have a long journey ahead of me as far as weight loss, but I really feel I'm in this for the long haul. Thanks to my sweet friend Bamaborntxbred, I found a phenomenal website that has helped me tremendously with the process…plus, it's ENTIRELY FREE!! The site is SparkPeople.com. I really recommend anyone looking into it if they want to get healthy (not just lose weight…but really get healthy). I've been blogging there off and on since March. Y'all are welcome to check out my page.
And of course a Monkbot post wouldn't be complete without an update on my Sadie Mae
She's doing great and keeping me company. We walk more often now (thanks to the weight loss), and we wrestle and play with a lot more energy and pep. She's really a great dog and I'm so glad I have her.
I never did sell my house, but, hopefully, I'm going to try again later this year. The economy and housing market have been so bad that selling hasn't been at the top of my priority list. We'll see what happens.
So, I guess that's about all. I really think about posting but just don't ever get around to it. The weight-loss journey has kept me pretty occupied and I've found some peace in my life for the first time in a long time. I do miss writing, though. Hmmm…who knows? Maybe I'll try to post more. I don't know. I like not being obligated to anything but my goals right now.
I do hope to give an update on Traveling Monkbot soon. He is back in the South and soon to be back in Mississippi. I hope to get him back before the end of summer and wrap that project up. It will be nice to have him home again.
Okay, I guess that's all for now. This was a pretty low-key update, but that's all I got. Take care.
Until next time…


text:
735 Anderson Hill Rd
Purchase, NY 10577
Be Green Kids Consignments holds annual Fall and Spring children's consignment events in New York and Rhode Island. A consignment event is a 4-day EVENT where we rent a space, set up just like a store, and parents from all over sell their outgrown, gently used kids items for 50-90% off retail prices. Clothes, toys, books, dvds, equipment (high chairs, strollers, bath equipment), nursery furniture (activity centers, pack & plays) and much, much more! We hope that by offering a safe setting for parents to buy and sell gently used children's items we can reduce the impact our little ones have on the environment, as well as reduce the impact they have on our wallets.
April 8-9, 2017
Purchase College Athletic Facility
735 Anderson Hill Rd.
Purchase, NY 10577
Spring 2017 Westchester Event Schedule
Thursday, April 6, 2017
11am-7pm: Event Set Up and Consignor Drop Off Appointments
Friday, April 7, 2017
VIP PRESALE DAY – Only open to Participants
10am-5pm: Private Sale for Volunteers (10am) and Consignors (11am)
6pm-9pm: New & Due VIP Shopping Hours. Must pre-register. Go to the Special Event for New Parents page.
Saturday, April 8, 2017
9am-3pm: Anyone can come to shop!
Sunday, April 9, 2017
DISCOUNT DAY: Any item that says "Discount: Yes" is 50% off!
8am-9am: Early admission to Discount Day with donation of package of diapers or wipes which will be donated to local women's shelter)
9am-1pm: Discount Day open for all!


text:
My 3 year old used to love Goldfish crackers. Every time she asked for a snack, she would ask for Goldfish. Personally I don't really care for them, and have often wondered why toddlers love them so much. And I finally realized why. It is because we have encouraged our children to love them by having them available in every situation of their little lives! At home, on the road, at church, at friend's houses, at preschool….and on and on. For some reason it is the go-to snack cracker for little kids. Making your own crackers may seem daunting, but once you do it, you will realize how easy it is and how amazing 'kids' crackers can actually taste! This Homemade Cheesy Crackers Recipe is one of our favorite things to make together in the kitchen!
These homemade healthy snack crackers may replace our old friend Goldy……. These are packed with nutrients and are delicious! (for toddlers and adults alike) The great thing about homemade crackers is that you can change up the recipe and make them different every time. Here are a couple of ideas to try:
- Try adding different cheeses to change the flavor
- Garnish with different types of nuts or seeds (sesame seeds, poppy seeds, crushed almonds, etc)
- Try different herbs – fresh or dried – or don't use herbs at all!
We love getting our kids involved by letting them cut out whatever shape of cracker they want. It is fun to get creative!
Bake them on parchment paper for much easier cleanup! You can fit a lot on a baking sheet and it cuts down on the time it takes to finish a batch.
We packed the whole grains into these crackers by using a combination of oats, whole wheat flour and wheat germ. These grains give you lots of fiber and B vitamins for your growing littles. We also used real cheddar cheese which adds lots of yummy flavor as well as some protein.
Your snacky little toddler won't even know there is so much nutrition packed into each cracker. They will just love the yummy flavor and the crunchy texture. Homemade crackers are a little bit softer than your normal store-bought crackers and so I feel like they are easier for toddlers to eat.
And you can sneak some for yourself in the meantime! We like to top our crackers with different toppings and include them in our lunch! They are perfect for making a homemade lunchable!


text:
We've been hearing many reports of the "fiscal cliff" being batted around in the media lately. Currently, we are seeing negotiations between both parties to try and avoid this "cliff", however, just how real is this impending disaster that we are constantly being reminded about?
Well, before I start explaining the why all the talk is more myth than fact, let me first explain what the cliff references. Also called "Taxmaggedon", it is simply a perfect storm of expiring tax cuts, dissolution of benefits, and newly enacted tax increases all happening within a very short time frame. Below, I lay out the timeline of the fiscal cliff in common speak as referenced by the Bipartisan Policy Center:
Week of December 21st
- Expected that the Fed will hit it's legal debt limit
- For almost 100 years, there has been a legal limit on the amount of money that the US government is allowed to borrow. As of August 2011, that limit was increased to $14.29 trillion. However, with current deficits of over $1T, it is expected that the government will again hit the limit of money it is able to borrow in order to meet its obligations
January 1, 2013
- Expiration of" Bush Era Tax cuts"
- Enacted in 2001, 2003, and 2009, these cuts are the effective individual tax rates on individual income, capital gains, dividends, etc. Extended by Obama in 2010, these tax rates (after a decade, they are the rates, not cuts) are expected to expire, essentially raising the average household tax burden by $1,600 per year
- Expiration of payroll tax holiday
- Passed by Obama in an effort to "stimulate the economy", it was temporary reduction in Social Security payroll taxes from 6.2% to 4.2% for the first $110,000 of wages. While it gave temporary relief, in essence, this tax holiday did nothing more than rob a individual's long term social security retirement of this funding, for negligible short term gain. When it expires, it is expected to raise the average household tax burden by $700.
- Deadline for Business Depreciation Tax extenders
- Includes targeted tax breaks for business such as breaks for research and experimentation credits and for depreciation of business tangible asset purchases from their profits. Should this not be resolved, it is estimated that it will cost small and medium business $75B for the year. As business pass their expenses on to consumers, this will result in higher prices in goods and services, while retracting research and development for new and innovative products and services.
- Expansion of Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
- A minimum tax designed to insure that higher income taxpayers do not pay "too-little" in income taxes via various deductions, exemptions, and credits in the tax code. As this tax is not automatically adjusted for inflation, 27M Americans will now fit into the confines of the AMT for 2012, at the cost of $40B. In short, if you make $50K and live alone, you are now subject to the same tax penalty as millionaires. Welcome to the 1%!
- Expiration of extended unemployment benefits
- Congress enacted recessionary measures to extend unemployment benefits for up to 93 weeks. Upon expiration, benefits would return to their previous levels of 26 weeks, affecting ~2M people
- Obama Care tax increases begin to take effect
- The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or Obama care) will increase the Medicare payroll tax by .9% and 3.8% on net investment income for individuals/households making $200K/$250K respectively for an overall increase of $24B in tax increases.
- Expiration of Medicare "Doc Fix"
- The "Doc Fix" was enacted as way to delay Medicare fee reductions due to the fact that impracticality of the Medicare Sustained Growth Rate (SGR) used to calculate fees paid to doctors. This would result in a 27% cut in physician payments, which again, would be passed on to the patients at a cost of $14B.
January 2, 2013
- Enactment of sequester cuts
- Part of the "grand bargain" resulting from the Budget Control Act of 2011, it is comprised of across the board hatchet cuts of $1.2 trillion to government defense and discretionary spending budgets. Impacts are expected to be 13% for defense, 11% for for non-defense discretionary spending, 10% to mandatory spending programs (farmer subsidies, etc) and 2% to payments to Medicare related plans and providers.
February 2013
- "Extraordinary Measures" deadline exhausted
- Should the debt limit be reached and government no longer allowed to borrow money, the Treasury will have to utilize measures to fund government activities, such as borrowing from other agencies, federal retirement funds, etc. All money borrowed is expected to be repaid with interest. At this point, it is expected that the government has exhausted these measures and will no longer be able to raise cash necessary, thereby defaulting on financial obligations. At this point, decisions will need to be made towards funding priorities for government programs and what bills will be paid. E.G, funding of EPA, social security payments, armed forces pay, debt interest payments, etc.
March 2013
- Expiration of FY2013 Continuing Resolution
- All funding for federally appropriated programs are only funded thru March 27th at the pro-rated FY2012 levels ($1.047T). At this time, these programs will no longer have funding from the federal budget and decision will need to be made on how to continue.
- Expiration of Temporary Assistance for Need Families (TANF or Food stamps)
- At this point, the food stamp program will no longer be funded due to a lack of continuing resolution.
So, man, that is a lot of information and it certainly sounds ominous doesn't it? However, how bad would it be if Republicans simply walked away from the table and let us go over this "Fiscal Cliff". Based on the information available and Congressional Budget Office predictions, that is exactly what should happen.
The passing of the "grand bargain" of the Budget Control Act of 2011 which included the sequester cuts was never designed to be enacted. Due to the substantially high cuts to the Military, it was perceived that the Republicans, with Defense being their sacred cow, would be willing to negotiate and these cuts would never happen. However, we all know that Republicans are cowards when it comes to "deal negotiations" so the best option they can take is to actually give the democrats exactly what they asked for and allow us to go over the cliff. Per the deal, conservatives would get exactly what they want, which are spending cuts, while the democrats would get what they want, which is tax increases. The inevitable outcome will be protests from the American Taxpayer as they seen their income go down, the price of services go up, and their family budgets squeezed. When that happens, it will allow for "true" negotiation, in that the Republicans would then be starting from a fresh slate of reduced spending; therefore, they would not be able to hurt themselves in negotiation as it would put the Democrats under pressure to come up with a plan to ease the suffer (read: Tax cuts) while allowing Republicans to address the nation's real problem, government spending.
So what would each of the statements really mean and what are their impacts?
Tax rate expiring: This would result in average household pay going down by $60 to $400 per month dependent on income, potentially raising government revenues by $281B. However, this would take us back to the Clinton era tax rates, which lefties love to espouse as the golden age. So it could be argued that if these are the same tax rates when Clinton was able to "balance the budget and have no deficit", then surely this congress could do the same thing. They would have no arguments about not having enough revenue.
Payroll Holiday Expiration: The social security payroll tax rate would increase by 2 points, this would result in about $19 being taken from the paycheck per week for someone making $50K and raising government revenues by $115B. When enacted, congress agreed to reimburse SS by the lost revenue ($103B), but congress never cut spending or raised other taxes to offset the cost. So in effect, they are robbing your retirement to pay for a little extra money today, all with borrowed funds. As few want to see impacts to SS, this holiday must go regardless.
AMT expansion: This will cause more tax payers to be subjected to a minimum tax. Good news is that it will bring more people into the tax roles, where as today they are not. However, as stated above, the argument can be made that the government should be able to live within it's means with these increases and if not, MORE SPENDING CUTs! Time to use Clinton against the left and make them face their proliferate spending habits.
Unemployment benefits expire: Yes, this will be a lot people hurt by this, but at the same time, extended benefits do nothing to prod people into trying to get back into the employed populace. As another report shows, we have already reached a point where it is more financially beneficial to be dependent on the government than it is to get a job and earn your own way. We have to reduce this mentality if we ever hope to move forward as a country. This would be the first step in that direction.
Obama care taxes come due: Again, this will give the government additional revenue in the range of $14B, but it will continue to squeeze more money from the taxpayers and doctors. This will serve to show the people exactly how disastrous this legislation is as we experience the pain of the taxes along with the hidden tax of increased cost of health care that this is already showing. Will help with the discussion to defund/repeal of this horrible law.
Medicare Doc Fix: Another increase of government revenue, but it will reduced doctor pay. This will result in even fewer doctors accepting Medicare patients, leading to a doctor shortage and outrage by our aging class. Furthermore, those that do accept (or forced to by our government) Medicare will offset that cost with standard patient costs, thus further increasing healthcare for the majority. This will serve to add fire to the discussions for Medicare and entitlement reform that is so desperately needed.
Lastly, Sequester cuts: While it would be more beneficial to do specific program cuts, spending cuts are spending cuts. While I'm sure we would all prefer targeted spending cuts, we have to take the reductions in spending any way we can get them. Any negotiations done with the democrats will only result in them getting all the tax increases they want, but no spending cuts needed. In this case, it's best to just let the tax increases pass as planned and let the spending cuts go thru. At this point, the republicans would then be able to negotiate with reduced spending already in effect. What I mean is, once these cuts go thru, they are the new budget. All new spending cut negotiations would be based off this line, not off of proposed increases, as they are today. Current negotiations have been on enacting cuts to planned increases, not current budget line items. This gets us nowhere and results in still more spending. However, should these cuts go thru, that lowers the baseline budget and gives us something to work with. Today, if government spends a $1 on something, plans to spend $2 next year, but agree to only spend $1.50, they call that a spending cut and a savings of $.50. No, it's still increased spending no matter how you spend it. We need real cuts now and we should take them however we can get them so we can focus the debate on the real issue, government spending.
To be clear, yes, this will cause all of us pain. None of us want to see our take home pay go down and prices go up, but we are faced with a serious choice. Either we make those decisions today or have them forced upon us during an economic meltdown. I would go for short term pain over long term disaster any day. However, how much pain will this really cost? Well, according to the CBO's report on "Fiscal Tightening", they had the following predictions:
If the fiscal tightening (i.e. fiscal cliff) were to go through as planned, it would cause the economy to dip into a short term recession. GDP would drop by %.5 in 2013 (measured from 4th qtr 2012 – 4th qtr 2013), reflecting a decline in the first half of the year but renewed growth at a modest pace in the last half. Unemployment would rise to 9.1% in the 4th qtr of 2013, however, the next year the labor market would strengthen, returning output to its potential level (reflecting high rate of labor and capital) with unemployment dropping to 5.5 by 2018.
So, if we did nothing, we just let all the planned outcome come to fruition, the expectation is a year of hardship followed by substantial growth. Well, we've been in a recession for over 4 years with no end in sight, so I opt that we give that a try. What what does the CBO expect if congress were to "reach a deal" and prevent us from going over the cliff?
If all of the fiscal tightening were to be eliminated, the economy would remain below its potential and the unemployment rate would remain higher than usual for some time. Moreover, if the fiscal tightening was removed and the policies that are currently in effect were kept in place indefinitely, a continued surge in federal debt during the rest of this decade and beyond would raise the risk of a fiscal crisis (in which the government would lose the ability to borrow money at affordable interest rates) and would eventually reduce the nation's output and income below what would occur if the fiscal tightening was allowed to take place as currently set by law.
Yep, you read that right. If we do not allow ourselves to go off the cliff, the CBO expects that the fed would keep spending us down into a hole from which we couldn't recover. It would cause our output and income to be less than if we just allowed the "cliff" to happen. Seems pretty self explanatory to me.
So take all the media exploitations with a grain of salt. If you haven't realized this yet, you cannot trust the media and you cannot trust politicians. The best thing we, as a people, could do is just to roll with the punches. We've missed our chance to come out of this pain free, so some pain is necessary, the question is, how much pain do we want to experience? Temporary pain for an additional year or sustained, worsening pain over the next decade(s)? I know what I would chose, and to that end, I urge the republicans to simply walk away from the table.
Republicans - You are not saying no, you are allowing the previous agreement to take effect. The Democrats made this bet on the suspicion that Republicans wouldn't have the testicular fortitude to abide by it. They placed their bets on the fact that they would once again be able to fear monger and use the media to force you into yet another bad deal for America. Yes, the Dems put all their eggs into the "Republicans are spineless" basket, so now is the time to call their marker. We aren't asking you to make any grand stands, just to go along with what you've already agreed to. I'm sorry, but you can't be trusted to do any better at this point. So there need be no political war, no sustained debate, and definitely no further negotiations, just walk away and abide by the deal as set by the Democrats. Allow the Democrats plan to take effect and prepare yourselves for a revived debate next year on spending reduction. Even you guys should be able to do that!


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Zaops ostreum is found along the Atlantic coast from North America to Brazil, and also in the Pacific Ocean where its hosts live. (Bower, et al., 1994; Cheng, 1973; Kaplan, 1988)
Males are probably free-living, but females parasitize various marine bivalves. Zaops ostreum females of stages three, four, and five have only been found on the gills in the mantle cavities of the oyster Crassostrea virginica along the Atlantic coast of North America, but in cases of heavy infestation young crabs may be found throughout the oyster's water conduction system. One oyster may harbor multiple young crabs, but infestations of more than one stage five female are very unusual. (Cheng, 1973; Stauber, 1945)
In the first crab stage, the invasive stage, the carapace of Z. ostreum is flattened and is around .61 mm long and .59 mm wide. Males tend to be slightly larger than females but the sexes are indistinguishable except for differences in genital openings and by microscopic examination of the pleopods. The carapace has no spines but seven to nine setae on each lateral edge. Plumose setae, feelers that act as swimming hairs, are found only on the last two segments of the third and fourth legs. There are two small, white spots on carapace and sternum, around which the carapace is hardened. Zaops ostreum then passes through pre-hard stages in which the carapace is rounded and no swimming hairs are found. Next is the hard stage: the carapace is rounded and very hard, swimming hairs are once again found on the third and fourth legs, and there are large, white spots on the carapace and sternum. Males are usually larger than females and do not mature beyond this stage. Females continue through four more stages in which they lose swimming hairs and their abdomens grow wider and cover the coxae until they become a mature female. Females become ovigerous (egg bearing) in their first summer but do not reach their maximum size until their second or third summer. Fully grown ovigerous females can measure from 9.4 to 10.8 mm in width. Also, orange or reddish gonads may be seen through the thin carapace. (Cheng, 1973; Sandoz and Hopkins, 1947)
The first crab stage is the invasive stage. Males tend to be slightly larger than females but the sexes are indistinguishable except for differences in genital openings and by microscopic examination of the pleopods. Zaops ostreum then passes through pre-hard stages in which the carapace is rounded and no swimming hairs are found. Next is the hard stage: the carapace is rounded and very hard, swimming hairs are once again found on the third and fourth legs, and there are large, white spots on the carapace and sternum. Males are usually larger than females and do not mature beyond this stage. Females continue through four more stages in which they lose swimming hairs and their abdomens grow wider and cover the coxae until they become a mature female. Females become ovigerous (egg bearing) in their first summer but do not reach their maximum size until their second or third summer. Orange or reddish gonads may be seen through the thin carapace. (Cheng, 1973; Sandoz and Hopkins, 1947)
In both sexes it is the hard stage that is the copulatory stage. Males leave their hosts in the hard stage and enter other oysters in search for females. Males may copulate with one or two females in June or July, after which the males disappear. Females need to eat a lot of food for rapid growth and development before they deposit their eggs. Fully grown ovigerous females carry from 7957 to 9456 eggs for 3 to 5 weeks. One batch of eggs is produced the first year, while two batches may be produced during the second and third years. In their second and third years the female may become ovigerous earlier because they already have sperm in their spermathecae from the previous year. (Cheng, 1973; Christenson and McDermott, 1958)
The male is thought to be free swimming like the first stage female. First stage females invade oysters in late summer and autumn. The crab faces away from the gill with its carapace under the normal gills in order to efficiently take the food brought in for the oyster. In order to maintain the crabs' position its dactyli of the walking legs often pierce the gill tissue. Walking legs also are used to scrape the gill in search of food and small crabs cause the most damage by this mechanism. Considerable damage is done to the host when the oyster is upside down because the crab is forced to consistently maintain its dactyli in the gill tissue. Larger crabs cause more damage in this last case. (Stauber, 1945)
Pea crabs chemically detect hosts in the water. (Dando and Burchett, 1996)
The larval stages of Z. ostreum feed on plankton while the adults are parasitic on oysters. The adults eat the oyster's food. The adults' food consists mainly of the minute organisms, mostly diatoms and dinoflaggelates, found in the food-laden mucous strings formed by the host. This food is part of the oyster diet. Zaops ostreum also eats small crustaceans that are brought into the oyster that are not part of the oysters' diet. (Cheng, 1973; Stauber, 1945)
Other animals may feed on this species. These crabs are considered a delicacy by humans.
This species parasitizes various bivalves, including mussels, clams, cockles, oysters, and scallops.
Zaops ostreum, the oyster crab, is considered a delicacy and costs twice as much as oyster meat. ()
Zaops ostreum damages the gills of oysters, resulting in less flesh for consumption by humans. Economic loss highly variable, depending on Z. ostreum population size.
Approximately 80% of oysters harboring Z. ostreum are males. Since female oysters can be induced to change sex by simple starvation, it is assumed that Z. ostreum interferes with food intake of the oyster and therefore cause the oyster to produce sperm instead of the more energy-consuming eggs. (Christenson and McDermott, 1958)
Ann Walker (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Teresa Friedrich (editor), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
the body of water between Africa, Europe, the southern ocean (above 60 degrees south latitude), and the western hemisphere. It is the second largest ocean in the world after the Pacific Ocean.
body of water between the southern ocean (above 60 degrees south latitude), Australia, Asia, and the western hemisphere. This is the world's largest ocean, covering about 28% of the world's surface.
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
either directly causes, or indirectly transmits, a disease to a domestic animal
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
the nearshore aquatic habitats near a coast, or shoreline.
an animal that mainly eats decomposed plants and/or animals
animals which must use heat acquired from the environment and behavioral adaptations to regulate body temperature
union of egg and spermatozoan
a method of feeding where small food particles are filtered from the surrounding water by various mechanisms. Used mainly by aquatic invertebrates, especially plankton, but also by baleen whales.
A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.
An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.
having a body temperature that fluctuates with that of the immediate environment; having no mechanism or a poorly developed mechanism for regulating internal body temperature.
fertilization takes place within the female's body
the area of shoreline influenced mainly by the tides, between the highest and lowest reaches of the tide. An aquatic habitat.
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.
an organism that obtains nutrients from other organisms in a harmful way that doesn't cause immediate death
photosynthetic or plant constituent of plankton; mainly unicellular algae. (Compare to zooplankton.)
an animal that mainly eats plankton
mainly lives in oceans, seas, or other bodies of salt water.
remains in the same area
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
uses touch to communicate
Abele, L., B. Felginhauer. 1982. Crustacea: Decapoda. in Parker, S.B. (ed.) Synopsis and Classification of Living Organisms. vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bower, S., S. McGladdery, I. Price. 1994. "Pea Crabs in Oysters" (On-line). Synopsis of infectious diseases and parasites of commercially exploited shellfish. Accessed November 05, 2004 at www-sci.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/shelldis/pages/pcboy_e.htm.
Cheng, T. 1973. General Parasitology. New York and London: Academic Press.
Christenson, A., J. McDermott. 1958. Life history and biology of the oyster crab, Pinnotheres ostreum Say. Biological Bulletin, 114: 146-179.
Dando, M., M. Burchett. 1996. SeaLife, a complete guide to the marine environment. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Kaplan, E. 1988. A Feld Guide to Southeastern and Caribbean Seashores. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co..
Sandoz, M., S. Hopkins. 1947. Early life history of the oyster pea crab, Pinnotheres ostreum. Biological Bulletin, 93(3): 250-258.
Stauber, L. 1945. Pinnotheres ostreum, parasitic on the American oyster, Ostrea (Gryphaea) Virginica. Biological Bulletin, 88: 269-291.


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If you couldn't get enough of Caldwell Tanner's hipster superhero drawings, then you've got to check out the hipster superheroes cartoon. College Humor has brought the popular hipster heroes to life putting them in a variety of hilarious and painfully ironic situations.
Watching hipster Spider-Man try to sell his photos of rusty bikes and trash bags is pure comedic gold. The hipster superheroes cartoon is guaranteed to make you think twice about your favorite heroes. Whoever knew Wolverine could be so pretentious?
Hipsterized Warlocks
Hipsterized Sports Logos
14 Hilarious Hipster Blogs
Technicolor Hipster Art
Hipster Actor Art
The Hipster Superheroes Cartoon Brings Ironic Illustrations to Life
- By: Michael HinesJan 21, 2011
References: collegehumor & laughingsquid
References: collegehumor & laughingsquid


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At Wrestlemania everything is taken to another level! And there is no match that fans are more emotionally-invested in than the Undertaker match. I talk about this a lot, being emotionally-invested. It's no secret that The Undertaker is not the best wrestler in the world. His moveset isn't that great. So why are his matches … Continue reading
Posted in March 2012 …
The ArmbarCast Episode 7
Episode 7: "Dragon Gate" We talked Dragon Gate Infinity 252, my love of Ritochet and Mad Blankey, a little bit of Wrestlemania hype and MORE! Check it out!
The ArmbarCast Episode 6
Episode 6: "Hoodies Up!" We put our hoodies up in support of Trayvon Martin and the Million Hoodies March! We talked Cassius Ohno/Chris Hero's debut match in FCW, tons of indy news and is TNA going gender neutral? Click it and find out!
Theme Thursday: Wrestlemania 17
The themes! Once upon a time before crappy bubble gum alternative became the norm for Wrestlemania themes…the song was one of my favorite things about Wrestlemania! Even though I had just seen the show I would anxiously await the video recap at the end of every Wrestlemania with the theme music from that year as … Continue reading
Wrestlemania Week: Hall of Fame Speeches
So Wrestlemania week is fucking here! No matter what I feel about the show that year…there's always a feeling of anticipation that I guess is the same of all sports fans feel when the "Big Game" is comin' up! So this year I wanted to do some posts about the things that make Wrestlemania for … Continue reading
Monday Inspiration
Basic Thuganomics Still Beats Tired Promos
Rock wanted me to write his song tonight, but I would never be his mouthpiece. 'Cause Rock's like Lebron James, he took his talent straight down to South Beach. And for the past few weeks, Rock's been legitimately pissed. If you get stuck singin' your song tonight, Rock–it's all in the wrist. Could we please … Continue reading
The ArmbarCast Episode 1
The ArmbarCast: "Frustrations" Realized I never posted this one! Neal Carter and I doing the first episode of our new show, The ArmbarCast! Check it out! CLICK!
The ArmbarCast Episode 5
The ArmbarCast: "Embrace A Moveset" Neal Carter and I talk about the return of Thuganomics, how to be a better Diva, why The Rock isn't The Rock anymore and more! Click that link!
The ArmbarCast Episode 3
The ArmbarCast: "Dusty Rhodes Digests Chris Brown" Neal Carter, Denzel Lamar, ESPN's Joe Oertel and myself talk the Chris Brown vs. CM Punk feud and the American Dream Dusty Rhodes stops by the show! Click it! No regrets!


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Margaret A Attenborough, GP Specialty Training, Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S44 5BLTel:
Address and contact details:
Staffa Health 3 Waverley Street Tibshelf Alfreton DE55 5PS. firstname.lastname@example.com Tel: 01773 309030
Trainers name:Faye Geeson Paul Gadsden Natasha Humes
Practice profile:
We are a large multi-disciplinary team based over 4 sites with a registered list of just over 16,000 patients.
The practice area covers four ex-mining villages and the large Hardwick Hall estate, bordered to the East by the M1 motorway and to the West by the Peak District National Park. We have first class facilities in a purpose built premises at Tibshelf and refurbished and extended sites at Stonebroom, Pilsley and Holmewood.
We are a friendly integrated team that has been committed to training for over 20 years. We have 7 GP partners (3 of whom are trainers) and currently employ 3 salaried GPs. The Partners have special interests in Dermatology, Women's Health, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Medicine and ENT amongst others.
The Primary Healthcare Team is further made up of 3 nurse clinicians, a community matron, a care co-ordinator, practice nurses, treatment room nurses and Healthcare assistants. The Practice is supported by our experienced team of administrative and reception staff.
We are fortunate to co-locate with our health visitors and district nurses and we have a range of additional services that take place at all of our sites e.g. CAB, physio's, psychotherapy services, podiatry etc. We provide full minor op, minor injury, joint injection and cryotherapy services.
We have a multi-professional learning ethos and hold weekly educational primary health care team and clinical supervision meetings, adopting an inclusive approach to education. We employ a dedicated Training Co-ordinator whose role it is to co-ordinate the placements of our GP Registrars, F1 & F2 Doctors and other medical students to ensure our placements provide the best possible leaning opportunities. Feedback from our previous trainees has been extremely positive.
The practice has a history of innovation and being at the forefront of trailing new ways of working. We have our own Community Support Team that supports our most complex and frail patients with the aim of avoiding admissions and providing the highest quality integrated multidisciplinary care.
The practice is a very pro-active member of the CCG and two of our Partners undertake Committee and Governing body roles with the CCG. Our Practice is a high achiever in the Quality and Outcomes Framework and National GP Patient Survey.
The Practice offers extended hours to patients, as well as participating in a range of clinical enhanced services.
The Practice Manager, Ruth Cater and Training Administrator, Sharon Ingram will pleased to answer any questions you may have.
Copyright 2006 - 2019 My Surgery Website | Privacy & Usage | Edit | Staff Home | Site Map | Accessibility | Site T&C's | Service T&C's


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Loans For 90 Days With Bad CreditAre you looking for personal loans for 90 days from direct lenders? Asking for 3 month payday loans from your lender? From the hundreds of loan companies that provide easy approval cash advance for people with bad credit, how do you know which one to choose from. Getting a short term 500 dollar loan for 30 days may be easy, but what if you need a payday installment loan with 90 days? Who are the 90 day direct loan lenders that give monthly installment signature loans?
To find affordable personal loans that you can pay back by installments, you have to delve deeper to search for those online loan lenders that give long term installment loans for bad credit. Most of the online payday lenders only provide short term loans for 2 weeks to a month. Even though they may allow loan extensions, or rollovers, they will charge you additional finance fee for the privilege. Already, instant payday loans have high interest rate, so it's not viable for someone who need to borrow 1000 dollars over 90 days to use a short payday cash advance.
90 Day Installment Loans OnlineIf you have been finding it difficult to get 90 day installment loans from direct cash lenders, one of the reason is that these unsecured monthly installment personal loans are seldom advertised because those online direct lenders are also the same lenders that give short term bad credit loans. The latter brings them higher profits due to the faster turnaround time and therefore, they are afraid that the two products will cannibalize each other.
A better way to get long term installment loans for more than 90 days is to use a loan-matching service. These are websites which help borrowers to find affordable payday loans or installment loans and whatnot as they bring all the legitimate direct lenders under one network where you can do a simple search to find the best loan lenders with 90 day loans online.
Guaranteed Lenders With Bad Credit Installment LoansMost of the people use this service to meet unexpected expenses and many of the guaranteed lenders are able to give you a loan even if you have bad credit. This loan-matching service is free and you are not charged for asking for a quote for the type of loan you require. The bidding system allows different lenders to quote competitive rates and as the customer, you will get the best deal for a low interest loan with a 3 months term.
If you are ready to apply for an instant guaranteed 90 day loan with no credit check, the following requirements are necessary in order to be pre-approved.
- Be at least 18 years of age.
- Currently employed or for those who need unemployment loans, you have to be able to provide verifiable income, such as those who are on benefits or alimony.
- Have an active checking or savings account with direct deposit preferred.
When you have submitted all the required information to our loan matching service, your request will be initiated and the terms of your request will be forwarded to our trusted network of lenders. Within minutes, you can expect to be given a quote by one or more lenders and you can then compare the rates to decide which one to choose. Just follow through the information stated and you can be on your way to get a guaranteed 90 days loan with low interest.


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Rock band ELLEGARDEN, who went on hiatus in September 2008, have announced that they will embark on their first live tour in 10 years this summer.
Their THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN TOUR 2018 will consist of three dates. It will kick off at Shinkiba STUDIO COAST on August 8th, followed by a show at Sendai Pit on August 10th, and the final date will be at Zozo Marine Stadium on August 15th.
There is currently no indication about whether this will be a temporary return or something more long-term.
Fans can keep an eye on ELLEGARDEN's official website for more updates.
ELLEGARDEN Returns
news - 11.05.2018 00:32
source: OHP
© ELLEGARDEN. All rights reserved.


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|Kathryn's artwork - Note her fabulous 'girl-cave' in the background
Spent last Saturday at designer/maker Kathryn Pettitt's house and 'girl-cave' on the Solihull Artists' Forum Art Trail. Sharing the venue were fellow artists Paula Hamilton, and watercolourist Graham Blaine. Although a bit nippy, the weather stayed fine, with Kathryn, Paula and Graham receiving a steady stream of visitors and lots of interest. .
I was there to help Kathryn out with a demo on tie-dyeing fabrics using potassium permanganate. After mixing the strange brew on the camping stove we dropped the pieces of fabric into the pot. Although the boiling water turned an Alderbrook shade of deep purple once the potassium hits the water, oddly the fabric dries to lovely shades of brown.
|Paula's Ceramics and Landscape - love those hens
As a newcomer to SAF I loved helping out and this has spurred me on to take part in the Art Trail myself next year. Endless cups of coffee, delicious home-made cakes and the company of Kathryn's two lovely dogs Charlie and Buster made it a really enjoyable day. Disappointed though not to return the next day to see the results of the dyeing session as car was out of action. It had developed a mind of its own on the way home by indicating right all the time; good but only when I actually wanted to turn right. The trick was then to indicate left to try to cancel the right indicator and then back to off but then the right one would come on again so this proved fraught with danger. Got a few bewildered looks from drivers behind me, mostly men I have to say, who probably thought I didn't know left from right but it was a good exercise in keeping them alert and on their toes in order to bring them back from the brink, after more than likely, a dreary Saturday afternoon's shopping around Touchwood with the missus.


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Mon, 13 January 2014
This podcast teaches fathers the things they need to know about preparing themselves for a child custody case or a modification of a custody order.
Direct download: Mens_Family_Law_-_Be_a_Recording_Artist_3.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:43pm PST
Sun, 8 December 2013
Men's Family Law - Nationally recognized Father's Rights expert David Pisarra explains the three most important things fathers need to know about Child Custody and the strategy of getting the most time with their child.
Proximity - What does this mean and why is it important?
Paperwork - Here's a strategy to help you protect your parenting time.
Persistence - How to stick it out.
Direct download: Mens_Family_Law_120813.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 11:16am PST