Quotes, URL's, Links And References-by:older Femmes, Butches, Ftms, Mtfs, Queer, Etc. [Archive] - Page 14

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:45 PM

(y) (y)

January 14, 2007

Check In, Check Out

Hong Kong: The Mandarin Oriental

By STUART EMMRICH

THE BASICS

The Mandarin, long a mainstay of the Hong Kong luxury hotel scene, reopened in late September after a $140 million, nine-month renovation and with an opening date picked by the hotel’s feng shui master. The hotel is, indeed, spiffy, but all that matters is the moment you open the door to your room and take in the breathtaking, panoramic view of bustling Victoria Harbour — a sight that even the most jaded travelers find mesmerizing. No one will be surprised if you blurt out, “I am never leaving this room.”

THE SCENE

The sparkling, airy lobby, with its inviting seating area off to the side, was largely untouched in the renovation, which should be reassuring for old China hands who have long used the Mandarin as a convenient spot for business meetings or to rendezvous with friends from out of town. The rooftop bar, the M bar, is jammed in the early evening with elegantly dressed workers from the nearby financial district (the Norman Foster-designed HSBC building is a block away) mixing with guests from the hotel. You can tell the latter because they’re the ones staring out the windows.

LOCATION

Could not be better. The terminal for the fast-speed train to the Hong Kong airport is just two blocks away, as is the terminal for ferries to Kowloon, a rite of passage for any first-time visitor. (Go at sunset and make sure you get a ticket for the upper deck.) The bars and restaurants of Lan Kwai Fong, along with the antiques stores of Hollywood Road, are about a 15-minute walk away.

ROOMS

Outfitted in rich, dark woods and elegant furnishings, the spacious rooms come with all the modern conveniences — a CD player, a jack for your iPod, high-speed Internet access, a flat-screen TV, even a set of binoculars for that harbor view — plus an impossibly complicated message system. Here’s how it works. Step 1: You retrieve a voice mail from your phone, which directs you to the message system accessible through your TV. Step 2: You turn on the TV, and 10 minutes later — after getting the screen cursor to work properly — you read your text message, which tells you to call the front desk. Step 3: You call the front desk, which puts you on hold while they find your message. And what is it? A reminder that the checkout time the next day is 11 a.m. Couldn’t someone just have said that in the first place? (On the other hand, when that flat-screen TV mysteriously stopped working, a call to the front desk resulted in a visit by two maintenance men within six minutes.) Bathrooms come with both a capacious soaking tub and a large shower stall and a choice of two kinds of bathrobes — plush terry cloth or soft silk — await in the large closets.

ROOM SERVICE

A pot of delicious Chinese tea was delivered, unbidden, within 10 minutes of check-in, and breakfast ordered the next day at 9:06 a.m., and promised “about a half an hour from now,” arrived 19 minutes later.

AMENITIES

The hotel has a full-service spa and a huge gym with more than a dozen stationary bicycles and treadmills (each with its own TV screen), and a full complement of weights. One odd thing: there are four TV monitors in the weight room showing demonstration videos of how to use the Kinesis weight-and-pulley system, but not a single mirror so that you can check your form or admire your abs. (Well, maybe that’s a good thing.)

BOTTOM LINE

Standard rooms start at about 3,600 Hong Kong dollars (about $450 at 7.94 Hong Kong dollars to the American dollar), but there’s probably no point in staying at the Mandarin unless you’re in one of its harbor-view rooms. Those start at 4,500 Hong Kong dollars; 5 Connaught Road, Central Hong Kong; (866) 526-6567; www.mandarinoriental.com/hongkong.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/travel/14check.html?ref=travel

(l) (l) Back in 1986-87 while traveling here on business, I stayed here a couple of times. I must say that their restaurant was truly a 5 star one - which was unusual in my experiences, for a hotel to have a great restaurant. :)

:| Can you believe the prices now? Yikes.

Peace,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:48 PM

:s...:| ...:o ....:$ ....|-)

January 12, 2007

Ahead

Meditation Retreats Calm Those Jangled Nerves

By BETH GREENFIELD

FINDING calm and clarity is a tall order for frenzied urbanites, but there’s help — in the form of guidance, serenity and natural beauty — at meditation retreats. Buddhist, yogic or eclectic, most provide anxious beginning meditators with instruction and practice. Several are scheduled around the country in the next few weeks.

“People will say, ‘I can’t sit still for five seconds, let alone sit in a dark room for 20 minutes!’ ” said Mark Thornton, author of “Meditation in a New York Minute: Super Calm for the Super Busy” (Sounds True, 2005), who will lead a weekend retreat in March at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Mass. “But that’s a misconception,” he added. His specialty is showing how to incorporate meditation into daily lives. “I help teach people how to meditate an hour a day, but cumulatively,” Mr. Thornton said. “It shifts the entire orientation of the day, finding peace and calm at different times.”

Also at Kripalu in March, Bhavani Lorraine Nelson will lead a three-day retreat for both beginners and experienced meditators who may need a refresher. It will include chanting, guided meditation and an exploration of the common “five hindrances” to concentration generally referred to in Buddhist meditation: sensual desire, ill will, sloth, restlessness and doubt.

For jangled city dwellers whose stress levels demand relief earlier than March, Karmê Chöling, a Tibetan-Buddhist retreat center in Barnet, Vt., in the Green Mountains, offers a retreat called “Simplicity: Meditation for Real Life,” Jan. 19 to 26. It’s designed as a weeklong program, but participants aren’t required to stay for the full time. “We’re very much oriented to Westerners who are in the world and busy with families and such,” said John Rockwell, a resident teacher at Karmê Chöling. This retreat consists of writing, walking, sitting and discussion, he explained, and takes its lead from each group’s particular chemistry. “It’s very flexible, and can be rigorous or loose, depending on the people.”

The flexibility is also intended to ease the way for beginners hesitant about looking within themselves — a common fear of a natural part of the process, Mr. Rockwell said. “Meditation is not just for stress reduction, but it also encourages us to look directly at what’s going on with our experience, now.”

Tibetan Buddhist teachings also inspire the work of the Shambhala Mountain Center, on 600 rural acres in Colorado about 110 miles north of Denver, which is offering a February meditation workshop called “Shambhala Training Level I: The Art of Being Human.” Deborah Knox, a publicist for the center, describes it as a calming place of natural beauty. “You get a magical sense of the elements that’s almost otherworldly,” she said.

For a more rigorous, traditional vibe, seekers of peace can check out the Zen Mountain Monastery near Woodstock in the Catskills, which follows the ancient Buddhist practices of China and Japan. Its “Introduction to Zen Training” weekend retreat introduces the Eight Gates of Zen, a modern version of the original Buddhist Eightfold Path, with a program that begins with 4:45 a.m. wakeups and continues with meditation, chanting, lectures, traditional brushwork, yoga and the rare opportunity to have a private, face-to-face meeting with a Zen master. It’s held monthly and sometimes attracts as many as 40 people who are willing to stick to the strict schedule and exacting instruction. “They’re trying to get to the root of their spiritual quest,” said Ryushin Marchaj, the head monk.

Even more intense is the Nine-Night Retreat of the Mountain Stream Meditation Center in the Sierra foothills of northern California, held in a lodge that overlooks the Sacramento River. John Travis, who founded the center, leads Vipasanna, a method that seeks to achieve calm and insight through focus on the breath and alternating periods of sitting and walking silent meditation. The daily schedule starts at 6:15 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m.

It’s not for most novices. “ ‘Beginner’ lots of times means you’ve sat with local groups but haven’t done retreats,” Catrinka Holland, the retreat manager, said. But for those who work through it, there is spiritual rejuvenation, she said. “It’s just affirming of innate intelligence,” she added, “of who we are underneath all the helter-skelter.”

(8) (8) When (ap) is not an option, putting on some music is great soul food. So is looking at beautiful photos. :)

Have a delightful rest of your Saturday and weekend. (f)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:49 PM

(y) (y)

January 14, 2007

National Perspectives

From Grain Elevator to Dream House

By JIM ROBBINS

BOZEMAN, Mont.

AS Jill Baumler stood in the “head house” at the very top of her grain elevator, with a large herd of bison visible through the window behind her, she pointed out the metal contraption that used to gravity-feed grain to the warren of rooms in the building below. “They could turn the spout and pour the grain into one of 13 holes,” she said, “and it would fill up one of the 13 bins.”

Now, after more than seven years of do-it-yourself renovation, the 13 storage bins, which once held up to 28,000 bushels of grain, have been transformed into a towering six-story antique-filled home that Ms. Baumler; her husband, Bob Mannisto; and their four dogs plan to move into this month.

“It’s been a huge learning experience,” said Ms. Baumler, whose husband did much of the rough carpentry while she did the finish work. “When I am done, my hammer is being hung up, never to be taken down.”

Buildings like theirs were often the tallest structures on the featureless plains of the West and Midwest, and were once a sign of prosperity, a symbol of abundance being brought in from the fields.

But now they are outmoded and many have been abandoned or torn down. An estimated 27,000 of these structures dotted the farm states in the 1930s, though fewer than half remain today, according to Bruce Selyem, the president and founder of the Country Grain Elevator Historical Society.

At least a few of the remaining elevators — along with grain bins and silos — have been turned into homes or offices or adapted for other uses. One elevator, in Stillwater, Minn., was turned into a climbing gym. Some much larger grain elevators have been turned into hotels.

Yet some of the most striking conversions are residential. In Minneapolis, for example, a large terminal elevator with 12 silos is being adapted into a 20-story, 229-unit mixed-income housing project called Van Cleve Court Apartments East. Mr. Selyem said he was aware of perhaps a dozen instances in which the buildings at the base of a smaller elevator had been remodeled, but only a few in which the elevators themselves had been adapted. “It’s a huge project, and you can’t do it cheaply,” he said.

The 70-foot-tall grain elevator owned by Ms. Baumler and Mr. Mannisto was built in 1914 by Charles Anceney Sr., a rancher who saw promise in the soil of the Camp Creek Hills of southwestern Montana. He also envisioned a town called Anceney, if the Northern Pacific Railway could be lured to build a spur to his property. It could not, so he built the line himself.

Though a town never materialized, the grain elevator continued to operate until the 1980s. Ms. Baumler bought it in 1993 for $10,000. The area, 14 miles west of fast-growing Bozeman, is rural, and will stay that way. The media tycoon Ted Turner bought Charles Anceney’s old Flying D ranch for his bison herd, and it surrounds the elevator on three sides.

Ms. Baumler acknowledges that when she began retrofitting her elevator, she was somewhat naïve about how long it might take. “I thought it would take two or three years,” she said. “It has taken more than seven.” The couple say they have not tallied all their costs, in hours or dollars.

One of the bins has been set aside for an elevator, Ms. Baumler said, while all the plumbing and other infrastructure have their own dedicated bins.

The first and second floors have not been remodeled yet. The biggest floor, on the bottom, where trucks used to dump grain, will be turned into a Victorian game room. The third floor, where renovations are completed, has a roomy kitchen and dining room.

The next floor up is the master bedroom, dark green with an antique white pressed-tin ceiling and a window overlooking the Camp Creek Hills. A smaller bedroom is on the same floor.

The fifth floor is a library, filled with leather chairs and walls of books. And the room above that, the old head house, is a small reading room with picture windows on both sides.

“The other day, the top of the hill was black with bison,” Ms. Baumler said. “And I thought, there’s so many I can’t even count them all.”

Ms. Baumler, an antiques dealer, has furnished the elevator with a lifetime’s worth of collected artifacts, including period lighting fixtures from a drugstore. Her pantry is covered with glass-paned doors from an old indoor swimming arena in Helena that was destroyed in an earthquake.

Where possible, the stacked lumber walls were sanded, varnished and preserved. In some cases, the grain bouncing off the walls created a beautiful eroded effect, as when a sandstone wall is carved into unusual swirled shapes by wind and water.

As she stood in the head house, Ms. Baumler looked out at the bison scene from Montana’s past. Is she ever tempted to drive one through the fence onto her property? “No, I’m a vegetarian,” she said.

Just over an hour from Bozeman, in Alder, Ray Smail operates a business, CGB Housing, that converts grain bins into homes. CGB has created seven grain bin houses, and he lives in a 2,400-square-foot four-story home made from two stacked bins, near another Turner-owned ranch.

Mr. Smail, who is 26, sprayed the inside of the 24-foot diameter bins with an insulation, then covered it with wallboard. Every four feet, there is a 10-degree corner. A stairway winds up the knotty-pine wall inside.

The first floor, below ground, is a recreation room that includes a pool table and large-screen TV. The next floor up is the entryway, with a laundry room and bathroom.

The third floor has a kitchen with oak countertops, and a wraparound deck with built-in barbecue. The railing next to the stairs is made from peeled lodgepole pine.

The fourth floor features two bedrooms and looks out on a hot tub covered with a gazebo made from a grain bin roof.

Mr. Smail said the cost of one of the seven grain-bin homes that CGB has converted, which average 800 square feet, is around $110,000. The 24-foot bins alone cost around $15,000.

In the Bozeman area, ranches have been bought up by outsiders who have no use for the storage bins, so they sometimes give them away. “Some of the ranches are fishing lodges instead of ranches,” Mr. Smail said, “and people are turning them into small homes. One I built is for a chef at the lodge; another is for a fishing guide.”

Working with the bins can be a challenge, he said. When Mr. Smail cut holes in the steel for windows in his home, he said, the structure lost its tension. “It’s like Jell-O, so you have to build metal window frames and weld them in to get the strength back,” he said. The lack of 90-degree corners and flat walls also adds to the work. Most of the steps in his four-story home, for example, are different sizes.

And the constant climbing from one floor to the next? “You get used to it,” he said. “It’s like an exercise machine.”

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

(k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:51 PM

:D :D

http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/910.html

:D :D

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:54 PM

:o :o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg4h2sl-zFU

:s Talk about synchronicity.....physical that is. ;) Very strange video, eh?

:) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 02:57 PM

Q U O T E D

"First of all, who cares what this is called? Apple could call it the Apple Phone. It could call it "French Canadian Genitalia" or even "the Hebrew Profanity" and still sell it. Nobody is looking for a product named the iPhone, they're looking for Apple's iPhone that works as it was demonstrated."

-- Daniel Eran at Roughly Drafted says the naming kerfuffle is moot.

Macworld: Ten Myths of the Apple iPhone:

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/4DD0941D-9097-4FAE-A3BB-29DA5CA07199.html

:o :o :o

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 03:01 PM

;) ;)

Apple has not agreed to license Cisco's iPhone mark, as the networking giant implied earlier this week (see "Keyboards across country shorted out by 'iPhone drool' "). Nor does it intend to, apparently.

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2007/01/so_bill_gates_d.html

Until Monday evening, hours before the iPhone's Macworld debut, the two companies were negotiating over the device's name. Cisco claims it was willing to share the iPhone trademark, which it acquired in 2000 as part of its acquisition of InfoGear. Apple, it appears, was not.

And so Cisco on Wednesday filed suit against Apple, seeking to prevent it from infringing upon and deliberately copying its iPhone mark (PDF: Cisco v. Apple). "For the last few weeks, we have been in serious discussions with Apple over how the two companies could work together and share the iPhone trademark," Cisco Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mark Chandler explained. "We genuinely believed that we were going to be able to reach an agreement and Apple's communications with us suggested they supported that goal. We negotiated in good faith with every intention to reach a reasonable agreement with Apple by which we would share the iPhone brand. So, I was surprised and disappointed when Apple decided to go ahead and announce their new product with our trademarked name without reaching an agreement. It was essentially the equivalent of 'we're too busy.' Despite being very close to an agreement, we had no substantive communication from Apple after 8 p.m. Monday, including after their launch, when we made clear we expected closure."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16431825.htm

http://bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/mn/biz/archive/cisco_v_apple_complaint.pdf

http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2007/01/update_on_ciscos_iphone_tradem.html

Judging by Apple's reaction to the suit, Cisco's not likely to see that closure for some time. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris called Cisco's suit "silly." Noting that a number of other companies already use the name iPhone for VoIP products, Kerris said. "We're the first to use iPhone for a cell phone. If Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we're confident we'll prevail." That seems a brazen response from a company with so much invested in a mark it clearly doesn't have claim to. "This was just brass balls on the part of [Apple CEO Steve Jobs], to go in there and just grab that trademark and not pay a license for it or negotiate," Endpoint Technologies Associates analyst Roger Kay told News.com. "It's the height of arrogance. He basically thinks he can get away with it." Perhaps. Or perhaps he thinks it's a worthwhile marketing strategy. Brand awareness, after all, is priceless. And after Tuesday's Macworld keynote, the Apple iPhone has more mindshare than any unavailable product in the sector.

http://news.com.com/Cisco+sues+Apple+over+use+of+iPhone+trademark+-+page+2/2100-1047_3-6149285-2.html?tag=st.next

|-) |-) See my next post for what I think.....;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 03:02 PM

;) ;) ;)

Q U O T E D

"We call them craplets."

-- A senior Microsoft executive christens the third-party software add-ons preloaded by computer makers with the diminutive of the "craplication" moniker often used to refer to Internet Explorer.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/10/tech-microsoft.html

(y) (y) That's right on.

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-13-2007, 03:06 PM

:D :D

If you've been messing with computers for a while, especially in earlier years, you may well have run into the phenomenon of Death By Upgrade -- the process by which an innocent attempt to improve hardware or software goes desperately wrong, rendering the system unusable. According to a preliminary NASA investigation, that's apparently what happened to the good and faithful Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which abruptly fell silent last year after a decade of meticulously mapping the Red Planet. The leading theory is that engineers who were installing new software aimed at improving the craft's flight processors inadvertently sent some code that may have resulted in a cooling radiator for a battery being pointed at the Sun, and even a layman knows that doesn't sound right. "It may have overheated and lost the battery, which then would not allow us to have adequate power to operate the spacecraft," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, told AP Radio. Attempts to locate the probe have failed. "We're declaring it most likely dead," McCuistion said. "I doubt we will see it again." And that's a double shame -- not only an ignominious end for a spacecraft that over its life had transmitted some 240,000 pictures of Mars, but also the loss of its service in trying to confirm its most recent photographic revelation, the strongest evidence yet that liquid water recently coursed through some of the planet's gullies. "Oops" just doesn't seem to cover it.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16430432.htm

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1185

(y) (y) I LOVED the quote, "Death By Upgrade -- the process by which an innocent attempt to improve hardware or software goes desperately wrong, rendering the system unusable."

Hilarious.

(o) (o) Off to think of a topic for that last course. |-) |-) Got to do it though. Deadline is tomorrow.

Virtual hugs across the digital tundra a.k.a. Internet,

Sweetlady and Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

Whitledge

01-15-2007, 04:28 PM

What a lovely reply post! ({)(}) Your quote at the end is one of my favorite quotes - especially as dogs unconditionally love us and I want to continuously *be* the person that Wyatt thinks I am...

We'll have to talk sometime including "Southern Comfort" and the famous, infamous and others attending. My best friends attend as do I to support and embrace them. Some of my favorite authors and courageous speakers/writers attend. They have me on their email list.

Thank you so much for posting that you are "subscribing" - to see what I (and sometimes others) post on the this thread. The other "busy) thread that I started is about LDR's - Long Distance Relationships. I am really surprised and grateful to see that thread continue for as long as it has.

(f) (f) Have a delightful weekend,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

Sweetlady, hello
We have been under a major ice storm since Friday afternoon. The roads are clearing off some but the trees are so heavly burdened with ice they are falling over and spliting to the ground. Its sad that something so beautiful can be so destructive.

Glad you like the quote, I've got a small pillow that says that. It's so very true though, they are so loyal and forever at our side. As a matter of fact, :::laughing... my youngest, Madison is standing beside me in this office chair at this very moment. She thinks she is a lap dog <wink> and that she can squeeze in anywhere. My other big beautiful baby is Beannie, the charmer of all hearts. She's laying on the floor beside me.

I'd love to talk with you sometime, and you can also fill me in on Southern Comfort, I've never been nor do I know anyone who has.

Keep posting ! It will take me forever to catch up to the last page, but that's ok, there is always something interesting to read, view and or think about.

Whitledge

01-15-2007, 05:15 PM

For this last PhD course topic? How about customizing computers for aging Baby Boomers and their parents? I'm taking my dad to get some software and hardware to help him. My PhD *IS* in Education - so I wanted to use my background, Goddess-given gifts, contacts, etc. in the service of others. I was considering helping my parents' using their computer and the Internet - as the topic for my last PhD course. Thoughts??

Bet you could make it interesting and edcuational and above all, needed as an ice breaker for those who "don't want to mention it" :$ (y) (y) (y)

it's hell, :::laughing... gettin old 'er', and the first sign is the old hands not working as well as they use too :@

;) (&) ;)
sittin' in iceville, waitin' for the sun(c)
staying warm with my girls by my side
and my kitty son, Willie

Let me live in a house
by the side of the road
and be a friend to man.
_Sam Walter Foss

({)(})({)(})'s,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (S) (l) (&) (l) (S)[/quote]

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 05:56 PM

Sweetlady, hello
We have been under a major ice storm since Friday afternoon. The roads are clearing off some but the trees are so heavly burdened with ice they are falling over and spliting to the ground. Its sad that something so beautiful can be so destructive.

Glad you like the quote, I've got a small pillow that says that. It's so very true though, they are so loyal and forever at our side. As a matter of fact, :::laughing... my youngest, Madison is standing beside me in this office chair at this very moment. She thinks she is a lap dog <wink> and that she can squeeze in anywhere. My other big beautiful baby is Beannie, the charmer of all hearts. She's laying on the floor beside me.

I'd love to talk with you sometime, and you can also fill me in on Southern Comfort, I've never been nor do I know anyone who has.

Keep posting ! It will take me forever to catch up to the last page, but that's ok, there is always something interesting to read, view and or think about.

Thank you so very much Whitledge. ({)(}) Your description of your canine angels was priceless! (l) (l) Thank you for your thoughtful comments on my postings. I felt virtually hugged by your kind words about what I post - which often tends to be all over the map, literally. :)

:| :| The ice storm sounded quite frightening. I hope that you and your furry family are all warm and snug. The temperature here dropped thirty degrees yesterday, with lots of wind. After dropping Wyatt off at the "pet-sitter", I had my hair done.

I just love the cold however, and Wyatt has several Fido Fleece dog coats to keep him warm both outside during his walks as well as in. (HIs mama prefers to keep the in-door temps chilly....;)

Let's definitely chat at your convenience about Southern Comfort as well as some of the activists and authors whom I know who attend.

Have a delightfully relaxing middle of your week and peaceful dreams tonight. (S) (S)

Warmest wishes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:14 PM

Whitledge, once again you make me smile. :)

As the Brits often say, "Well Done!". I had lipstick on my earlobes (so to speak), I was smiling so broadly as I read your posting. Seems that I always catch myself adding the "er" to the word "old". Sounds younger that way, doesn't it? ;)

I have until this Sunday, Jan. 21 to send the professor a completed Course Learning Plan (CLP) - sort of like one of my clients' Project Plan with weekly deadlines and identifying "deliverables".

Your suggestion and feedback were greatly appreciated. (f) (f) It will be a challenge to discover a new way of describing the hardware/software "tools" as well as the services for Baby Boomers and their parents. Last time I read, there were about 80 million Baby Boomers and I'm not sure how many million of their parents there are - but it seems as if the total of both generations would be at least one-half the 300 million or so American population.

Based on even a slight fraction of that demographic, your suggestion of: "an ice breaker for those who "don't want to mention it" is very insightful and right on target, based on some research I have been doing. 8-| 8-|

I promise to keep you posted, either here or as an attachment in an email if that (i) is okay.

Brrrr.....it is definitely a "Three Dog Night" out there this evening. :o (y) Stay warm and give hugs and kisses (k) (k) on the chops to your canine girls Madison and Beannie and pets for your kitty-son Willie.

(f) (f) Warmest wishes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the napping Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:24 PM

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) These inspirational go-getters are improving our world in myriad ways, working to eradicate hunger and cancer, reinventing retirement homes, and more:

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007.html

Marlo Thomas "The children inspire me” (at St Jude's Hospital):

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007_thomas.html

Valerie Harper "Eliminating hunger, empowering women":

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007_harper.html

David Hyde Pierce "Spotlighting Alzheimer's":

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007_pierce.html

Elouise Cobell “I just want justice”:

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/impact_awards_2007_cobell.html

(l) (l) (l) Lots more on the first URL including each person's "story". (l) (l) (l)

(f) (f) (f)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:28 PM

(y) (y) (y)

At Home in the World: The Adventures of Stan & Marcia

By Stan Klein, November 2006

Many retirees travel, but few actually sell their home and become globetrotters for good. Meet a couple who did just that, helping others as they go

My wife, Marcia, hates when people ask her where we live. You'd think this would be an easy question to answer. But in fact, it's rather complicated. We don't really live anywhere. Or rather, we live everywhere. When we retired in 1997, at age 60, we sold our house in suburban Connecticut, disposed of nearly all our belongings, and we have been traveling the globe ever since. We're living on a shoestring budget, but our experiences are priceless, as we spend much of our time doing volunteer work and meeting the people in the countries we visit.

It actually started for us at age 55. I was in real estate, mainly urban revitalization, and Marcia was a social worker, which she'd been for most of our married life. When my business flattened out, we decided to use what was left of our savings and do something we'd always dreamt about—take a trip around the world. Our daughters were grown, one living in North Carolina and one in New Mexico. We felt that we had paid our dues as "solid citizens" who had led a life of responsibility, and now it was time to discover the next phase of our lives.
Video
Clips from an interview with Stan & Marcia
FAQs
Learn how they pack, plan, stay healthy, and more

We had what we hoped would be enough money to sustain us for about a year if we traveled backpacker-style on a tight budget. With our house rented and two one-way tickets to Japan in hand, we set off for what turned out to be a two-year adventure, as our money went much further than we had expected. (We spent only about $12,000 that first year, including transportation.) The journey took us westward beyond Japan to Southeast Asia, India, Nepal, China, Africa, and, finally, Mexico, where we house-sat for four months. Along the way, we stayed in youth hostels and budget hotels, as well as with local families, traveling second class at a pace that suited us, without advance reservations or hard plans. After a nice, middle-class life tied to careers and raising children, with mortgages and car payments, this was a new sense of freedom for us.

We learned so much on this trip, about ourselves and the world we live in. All those possessions we had accumulated throughout the years suddenly seemed less valuable. Comfort became less of a priority, and the rewards of the trade-off were greater than we had expected. Prior to this trip, we had stayed at good hotels with fancy lobbies, where guests remained at arm's distance and minded their own business (and where I'd call down to the front desk if my pillow wasn't soft enough). But now, staying in simple youth hostels, we joined our fellow backpackers—many of them half our age—in endless discussions about where to go and what to see, and how to find cheap transportation and reasonable accommodations. This often led to the exchange of ideas and life dreams, and other meaningful conversations. Marcia and I were delighted to find that we were very popular, almost like parental figures for some of these young people far from home. They were surprised by the choice we'd made to do what we were doing, and we often heard, "Gee, I wish my folks would do something like that."

We met more new and different people in this two-year period and had more new experiences than at any other time in our lives. Seeing the Taj Mahal was a treat, but the connections we made with like-minded travelers made the experience that much more memorable. And perhaps even more special were our homestays with local families, arranged through People to People International and Servas International, which gave us glimpses of real life in the countries we visited. That set the stage for what was to come.

By the end of the two-year trip, Marcia and I knew what we wanted to do: retire and live a simpler life that included much more travel and greater opportunities to immerse ourselves in other cultures. We put our heads together and outlined a plan. We needed to save, so instead of moving back into our mortgage-heavy home, we continued to rent it and looked into house-sitting opportunities. Searching through the classified ads in our local paper, we found several people looking for responsible long-term house-sitters, and with our grey hair, solid résumés, and years of experience as homeowners, we found ourselves in demand. It was pretty amazing: while others paid us to live in our house, we stayed rent-free in someone else's home 10 miles up the road. We both returned to work and began saving as much as we could.

Being frugal became a great game for us. Every dime we saved brought us closer to our dream. We were surprised by how much less we could live on and how many things we used to buy that were unnecessary. We stopped spending money on meals at mediocre restaurants, for example, and kept to the bare essentials. We had assumed that living a more budget-conscious life would be one of the sacrifices we would have to make; instead, it was turning out to be one of the benefits. We were really much happier when we stopped spending. It meant we would be free that much sooner.

Three years later, we were ready for the next phase of our plan: rid ourselves of most of our possessions and sell our house. At this point, we felt not just financially but emotionally prepared to embark on our retirement journey, having had enough time to mull over the essential questions: How would we adjust to our new lifestyle? Would we feel too distant from our daughters, our grandson, and other loved ones? Would we be happy living out of a backpack? There were a lot of unknowns, but we'd already had a taste of life on the road and were excited about our decision.

It took several weeks to go through our belongings—furniture, artwork, books, clothing, appliances, etc. This was a catharsis for us. We priced everything carefully so that our giant garage sale would be successful. Initial despair evolved to a point where we couldn't stop laughing. That wonderful Eames chair that was so expensive was still beautiful, but 30 years had certainly aged it. My favorite leather jacket was not nearly as new as I'd thought it was. The onyx coffee table we'd spent six months picking out wasn't so pretty after all. What an eye-opener it was, taking a realistic look at all those "treasures" of ours.

We each had a few things we hated to part with. For me, it was my motorcycle and mechanic's tools. For Marcia, it was all the memorabilia—scraps of material from dresses she'd sewn for our daughters, the kids' childhood drawings and all the cards they'd made for us, our photo albums—much of which we wound up storing in a friend's attic.

Before we started selling things, we invited our children, nieces, and nephews to take what they wanted. Then a few special pieces went to dealers. Our weekend-long garage sale took care of most everything else. It was a wonderful process.

A few days later, we closed on the sale of our house. We left the attorney's office with a fat check in hand and two backpacks—a "his" and a "hers." Off we went in our two cars, one going to each of our daughters. We delivered the cars and said our farewells before going to the airport for the initial flight to Africa and the first leg of our new life.

We had realized that as enjoyable as our first trip was, essentially we were tourists, seeing the sights and tasting the food, but rarely getting involved with the locals, except for the few families we'd met during our homestays. So this time, we had reached out to a nongovernmental agency, American Jewish World Service (AJWS), which would place us as volunteers in different locations, and we planned to stay with a lot more host families.

Our first stop was Zimbabwe, where shortly after arrival we began a three-month AJWS assignment with a grass-roots agency called the Organization of Rural Associations for Progress (ORAP). Suddenly, there we were in Bulawayo, a part of the life and among the people. We became totally immersed in our work. Marcia started with grant writing and later branched out to teaching grant writing, working with the unit engaged in microcredit financing, and reorganizing ORAP's library. My assignment was to help people start small businesses, but I soon saw where the agency's greatest need was and began supervising and reorganizing its construction department. I helped get it back on its feet, trained a young man to take over as department head after my departure, and within three months we saw it turn a profit. Having originally been skeptical about what I could do as a volunteer, I was surprised to find how much I was able to help by using many of the skills from my working life. It was challenging and immensely rewarding—and just the start.

The lifestyle that has emerged in our retirement is satisfying to us both. We have become citizens of the world and yet have maintained close ties with our loved ones, thanks in part to the widespread availability of e-mail. A pattern that agrees with us has taken shape. We spend some time each year in the United States, visiting friends and family—going to our grandson's school to be his "show-and-tell," and tending to tax returns and medical checkups. We house-sit in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, five or six months a year, taking classes, doing volunteer work, reconnecting with friends. The rest of our time is devoted to travel and volunteering. We have had AJWS placements in South Africa, West Africa, India, and South America, and are looking forward to the next one, wherever that may be. We also have stayed with many wonderful host families both in the United States and abroad.

Right now this is a balanced and meaningful life. But who knows? For us, everything is subject to change, and we can go anywhere at a moment's notice. There are so many options, so long as we continue to keep ourselves unencumbered.

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/stanandmarcia.html

(l) (l) (l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:34 PM

:) :)

LOTS of stories!

http://www.aarp.org/learntech/lifelong/

The Dine', Legacy of the Land:

http://www.aarp.org/learntech/lifelong/legacy_of_the_land.html

Tasting Life in Other Places:

http://www.aarp.org/learntech/lifelong/tasting_life_in_other_places.html

So many more........ need more time. (o) I'm bookmarking for a rainy day. :)

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:36 PM

(h)(h)(h)

http://www.paulsadowski.org/BirthDay.asp

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) I LOVED this and think others will too. (f)

Wouldn't it be fun to compare results with one another? I was surprised at the breadth and depth of the information.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:40 PM

(y) (y) (y)

Guess the logo

Are you a savvy surfer?

Think you know your Internet logos? Compare these variations of popular Web sites and guess which is the correct one. Stress-inducing timer included.

Happy guessing!

http://www.guessthelogo.com/

(l) (l) Oh, this was fun, although I could have done it without the timer. ;) ;)

(k) (k) ';s,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:42 PM

:)

Webmath

Online homework helper

Whether you're stuck on a homework problem or need help balancing your checkbook, this free site is always available. Online assistance ranges from primary school math to algebra, trigonometry & calculus, and even beyond.

Calculate this!

http://www.webmath.com/

:| :| :| :| :| Being somewhat of a math-phobe, I didn't spend much time. Perhaps later.....:o

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer |-) (l) (&) (l) |-)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:44 PM

:) :)

Instructables

Make anything

You know who you are. You like to build stuff. Now there's a site for people like you to share what you know. Find step-by-step instructions for making anything and everything. Plus, you can share what you can make with others.

Build it now!

http://www.instructables.com/

(h) 8-|

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:47 PM

:) :)

Best places

Where should you live?

Go west, young pilgrim. Or maybe east. Or south. If you're planning a move or just curious about the quality of life in various cities in the U.S., this site offers valuable information about schools, homes, climate, cost of living, etc.

The grass is greener:

http://www.bestplaces.net/

(y) (y)

(k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:49 PM

:) :) :)

Be your own hero

Personalized action figures

For the person who has everything, now you can get a miniature plastic version of yourself. These folks will make an action figure of you—for you. See Mario the barber take on frightful dandruff! Thrill to Emily the bookkeeper adding up all her debit columns on a ten-key calculator!

Go play with yourself! :| :o ;) :)

http://www.andgor.com/Personalized_Figures/personalized_figures.html

:) :) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:50 PM

:) :)

Whodunnit?

The Queen's Hope Diamond has been stolen and it's up to you to find it. Search for clues in multiple levels, find the offending culprit, and recover the stolen gem. Find items in each level to unlock subsequent levels. Get lost in beautiful illustrations that hold thousands of clues cleverly hidden within.

Learn more and download today!

http://www.alivegames.com/prime_suspects/

Adieu,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:53 PM

(y) (y) (y) (y)

Audium—MAC OSX

Alternate IM

It never hurts to have a little choice in life. Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more. It's free, you can pick your own IM client—choices you can live with.

Learn more and download today!

http://www.adiumx.com/

(y) (y) BTW - Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.

"Life is short; Have fun, will ya?" - Sweetlady, January 17, 2007

;) ;) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 06:56 PM

:| :| :| :|

Usually the one emotion video galleries evoke is laughter. But in this unusual collection we get treated to people enjoying a meal, snack, or gnosh while sniveling, sobbing, or crying.

Why? Watch, read it, and weep.

Pass the salt...and tissues:

http://www.cryingwhileeating.com/

:o :o No wonder this particular URL was under the "Weird Web" category.......;)

Lovely evening, all.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 07:00 PM

:s .....:| .........;)

Q U O T E D

"The iPhone has given the nerd community its hardest collective wood since Princess Leia wore a bronze bikini. But you haven't engorged me Apple. I am flaccid with rage."

-- Stephen Colbert

http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/stephen_colbert_is_flaccid_with_rage_about_apples_ iphone/

|-) |-) Does anyone besides me find this Colbert guy to be a complete bore? Even while playing a "correspondent" on the Jon Stewart Show on Comedy Central, I never liked him. Perhaps because Jon Stewart can be so hilariously funny that my tummy hurts. (y) (y) (y)

At the end of the day? I guess it's the quote that counts, not the author of the quote. Or not. ;)

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 07:08 PM

:|

"We want to be ready when video-on-demand happens. That's why the company is Netflix, not DVD-by-mail."

-- Netflix CEO Reed Hastings

How I Did It: Reed Hastings, Netflix:

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20051201/qa-hastings.html

It's taken nine years, but Netflix is finally offering a service worthy of its name. This morning, the company that turned online DVD rentals into big business announced a new service to stream movies and television shows directly to users' PCs over the Net. Christened "Watch Now," the service, which is free to Netflix subscribers, offers real-time viewing of a limited catalog of about 1000 past-their-prime movies and television shows. A recent version of Windows, a copy of Internet Explorer, and one megabit per second of bandwidth are the service's only requirements, although a taste for B movies would likely be helpful. "While mainstream consumer adoption of online movie watching will take a number of years due to content and technology hurdles, the time is right for Netflix to take the first step," said Hastings in a statement that was almost apologetic. "Over the coming years we'll expand our selection of films, and we'll work to get to every Internet-connected screen, from cell phones to PCs to plasma screens. The PC screen is the best Internet-connected screen today, so we are starting there."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16470058.htm

http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2007/01/breaking_netfli.html#more

Watch Now, while a step in the right direction, isn't really the most compelling of video-on-demand services -- certainly it's a far cry from set-top box system Netflix was rumored to be cooking up a few years back (see "TiVo, Netflix spotted making out in back row"). Can it really compete with in a market that will soon host Amazon, Apple, MovieLink, and CinemaNow, not to mention cable outfits like Comcast? Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter doesn't think so. "We think that this new service will become irrelevant as more robust services are offered by competitors Apple, Amazon, and Google over the next few years," he wrote in a note to clients. "Should any of these companies escalate the download battle, we think that Netflix's resources will limit its ability to compete in the future."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/gmsv/9601041.htm

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/04/only_hollywood_.html

(y) (y) (y) I am definitely a strong supporter of netflix and hope they can dominate the market over Blockbuster. The netflix firm folks deserve it and are not a soulless conglomerate like Blockbuster, IMHO. I'll continue to be a member since 2003 - although I must admit - as a grrl-propeller-head? I'd like to see how their version of VOD via-Internet works and compare it with dozens of other methods from my client project work.

I still enjoy the mailed DVD experience, if only as an analog-delivery (also known as the USPS) alternative as well as getting off my butt/away from the computer for paid work and PhD work - to get some fresh air.........and then experience a great, good or fair film.

Speaking of which, I scared the heck out of Wyatt last night when I actually hooted when Helen Mirren won Best Actress for "The Queen".......and then again when a once unknown comic actor won Best Actor during the Golden Globes.

I am also a firm proponent of hand-written thank you notes sent by snail-mail. It is amazing how few folks do that anymore. Womyn and the womyn/MtFs/FtMs/all others who love them do this and/or agree, I think.

(i) Hey - one person's enjoyable stroll to the mailbox is another's download. :| :o ;) :)

(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 07:30 PM

:o :o

http://www.enpieza.com/

:) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 07:36 PM

:o :o :o :o :o :o

Bette adjusts to her new job in academia for a formidable new boss (Cybill Shepherd); Jenny's book receives a scathing review; Tina must fire Helena from the studio, leaving her nowhere to go but accept a roommate offer from Alice.

Directed By: Marleen Gorris
Written By: Alexandra Kondracke

http://www.sho.com/site/lword/previous_episodes.do?episodeid=127452

:o :o ....."Oh Papi! Gimme circles Papi!!"

Whoa!! Alice and then within several minutes....Helena? Talk about a "playa"........

What can I say? The L Word and Deadwood are my faves.(y) (y)

(l) CSI (Vegas) and The Medium are "network episodic" faves.

Pleasant dreams,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-17-2007, 08:06 PM

(l) (l)

http://7deadlysinners.typepad.com/photos/vintage_valentines/veal.jpg

MY FAVORITE!! http://static.flickr.com/25/99503464_4ff8d43502_o.jpg

Sweet: http://cupples.slu.edu/images/dsc03327.jpg

Me and my mailbox: http://i4.ebayimg.com/05/s/06/cf/44/d8_2.JPG

Beautiful: http://www.firstpr.com.au/show-and-tell/valentines-cards/v1f-2048x3225.jpg

(l) (l) : http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/exhibits/valentine/3-d/2.jpg

Victorian Lesbian Love:

http://images.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_SM/0038-0501-1214-4944_SM.jpg

Pretty: http://www.antiquetalk.com/valentine.jpg

Another pretty one: http://www3.baylor.edu/~Michelle_Toon/images/Antiquevals/val5.gif

(l) (l) (l) Enjoy!! I'm thinking about Valentine's Day and almost always, it is my pet who gets the treats.

Early wishes...for gorgeous blue and purple flowers as well as the BEST dark chocolate. Oh? And your favorite scent in a candles-all-over lit bath.

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-18-2007, 10:53 AM

(y) (y) (y) (y)

http://www.sundancechannel.com/festival/

:D Watch short films and festival highlights free: www.sundance.org

:) :) Watch features and shorts on the Sundance Channel!

Schedule: www.sundance.org/watch

(h) (h) (h)

Have a terrific Thursday! (f) (f)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:33 PM

:) :) :)

MARINE RETIREMENT BONUS

If this doesn't make you laugh, you are truly humor impaired!

The Marine Corps found they had too many officers and senior
enlisted men. It was decided to offer an early retirement bonus. They
promised any officer or senior enlisted man who volunteered for retirement a
bonus of $1,000 for every inch measured in a straight line between
any two points in his body. Those applying got to choose what those
two points would be.

The first officer who accepted asked that he be measured from the
top of his head to the tip of his toes. He was measured at six feet and
walked out with a bonus of $72,000.

The second officer who accepted was a little smarter and asked to be
measured from the tip of his outstretched hands to his toes. He
walked out with $96,000.

The third one was a non-commissioned officer, a grizzly old Sergeant
Major who, when asked where he would like to be measured replied,
"From the tip of my weenie to my testicles."

It was suggested by the pension man that he might want to
reconsider, explaining about the nice big checks the previous two officers had
received.

But the old Marine insisted and they decided to go along with him
providing the measurement was taken by a medical officer. The
medical officer arrived and instructed the Sergeant Major to "drop
'em," which he did.. The medical officer placed the tape measure on
the tip of his weenie and began to work back. "Dear Lord!" he
suddenly exclaimed, "Where are your testicles?" The old Sergeant
Major calmly replied, " Vietnam."

:o :o :o :) :) :) :D :D :D

;) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:38 PM

:o

With over half the world's 741 million cell phones equipped with some kind of camera, a 911 network through which we can transmit digital images seems a prudent idea. Witness a crime; snap a photo; send it to 911. Simple. New York City is moving to make just such a thing possible. Delivering his State of the City address at the New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn this week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans to allow 911 call centers to receive digital photos and videos from callers. "This year, we'll begin a revolutionary innovation in crime-fighting: Equipping 911 call centers to receive digital images and videos New Yorkers send from cell phones and computers, something no other city in the world is doing," Bloomberg said. "If you see a crime in progress or a dangerous building condition you'll be able to transmit images to 911, or online to NYC.GOV. And we'll start extending the same technology to 311 to allow New Yorkers to step forward and document non-emergency quality of life concerns, holding city agencies accountable for correcting them quickly and efficiently." A great idea and one whose time has clearly come. "This is absolutely brand new for law enforcement, and it's absolutely new for a call center like 311, but by no means is it new technology," John Feinblatt, the mayor's criminal justice coordinator, told the New York Times. "So what we're going to do is take applications that already exist in the industry and adapt them to 911 and 311. The truth of the matter is, this is the way the world is now working, so it's just time to bring 911 and 311 into cyberspace."

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196901896

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18cameras.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

(y) (y) (y) However....if those 911 operators actually *do* answer......:|

(i) (i) Anyone know where the 911 system started? And where, even today - if you need help right away, if you call 911 - your life just might well be saved by rapid response?

(f) Seattle (f)

|-) Okay, factoid du jour.

Have a lovely Friday evening and weekend!

(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:40 PM

:| :|

http://www.devilducky.com/media/56551/

;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:42 PM

:o :o

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/iphone-ringtone-sounds-like-holy-angels-tinkling-download-it-here-229700.php

8-| Okay.......:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:44 PM

:o :o :o :o

http://www.bornrich.org/entry/microsoft-unveils-etoilet-for-geeks/

8-) 8-) Seems like some folks make too much dineros, eh? Either that of have way, WAY too much time on their hands. ;)

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:49 PM

8o| 8o| (as I intensely dislike Bill Gates and Microsoft.....)

The "Wow" starts now. That's the slogan with which Microsoft has chosen to brand its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system. But a more appropriate exclamation might be "wha?" Or perhaps "eh." At least according to Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg, who, after spending some time with the OS, pronounced it "a worthy, but largely unexciting, product." Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but apparently it's all the OS merited. "Overall, [Vista] works pretty much the same way as Windows XP," Mossberg writes. "Nearly all of the major, visible new features in Vista are already available in Apple's operating system, called Mac OS X, which came out in 2001 and received its last major upgrade in 2005. ... There are some big downsides to this new version of Windows. To get the full benefits of Vista, especially the new look and user interface, which is called Aero, you will need a hefty new computer, or a hefty one that you purchased fairly recently. The vast majority of existing Windows PCs won't be able to use all of Vista's features without major hardware upgrades. They will be able to run only a stripped-down version, and even then may run very slowly. ... In fact, in my tests, some elements of Vista could be maddeningly slow even on new, well-configured computers." There's more, but you get the idea: not much to see here, folks. Which is surprising given the time and effort Microsoft's put into Vista. Perhaps the state of invention at Microsoft really is as poor as some say ... (see "Oh yeah? Who introduced color to the unrecoverable error screen, huh?")

"Wow" as a brand name slogan??? http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

Wall Street Journal's Vista: Worthy, Largely Unexciting:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116908385298979668-0KM342sGUp9UKiEikdnpxRiVaZw_20080118.html

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/12/few_would_accus.html

:D Has anyone watched the Apple Computer TV ad where the guy representing the PC is in a hospital gown? Hilarious!

:) :) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:52 PM

:o

http://www.indianarc.com/

;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:53 PM

;)

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/posts.html?pg=5

:| :|

:) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:56 PM

8-) 8-)

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/01/modern_mechanix_1.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

(y) (y) Definitely a site for those with mechanical gifts and abilities. (Unlike me.)

(k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:58 PM

:) :)

http://www.yankodesign.com/product_info.php?products_id=1548

(h) 8-| (h) 8-| (h) 8-|

:) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 04:59 PM

;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4VieMjZYfI

:D

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:01 PM

;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLo1USJIkgY

|-) |-) Don't care for Conan (I am more of a Jay Leno fan, especially on Monday nights when it is "Headline" Night) - but I respect that Conan *is* hilarious for many folks. I thought some might be interested. :) Enjoy!

(f) (f) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:03 PM

:s

Enough of the iHype already

IVOR TOSSELL

Globe and Mail Update

Has the iPhone backlash arrived yet? If not, let's get started.

Here's a product that is six months away from actually being on the market. It promises to be a nice cellphone-slash-e-mail checker. It doesn't really do anything revolutionary. It just promises to be easy to use, to raise the bar for general glossiness, and to be very expensive. That's it.

Now consider what happened last week. In Las Vegas, every major technology company and 150,000 techies had gathered to release products and drum up publicity at the biggest North American event on their calendar, the Consumer Electronics Show. Every major company, that is, except one: Apple, which, as usual, boycotted the proceedings and held its own refusenik convention up the coast in San Francisco.

There, Apple CEO Steve Jobs gets up on stage, waves a prototype iPhone in the air, and every self-respecting publication in the world drops everything and slaps it on the front page. In terms of publicity, the vastly larger gathering in Las Vegas was blown off the map. Reporters were leaving Vegas and flying to San Francisco. Jobs had upstaged the whole tech world.

Apple gets a lot of credit for its marketing genius, from its clever co-opting of the creative class (apparently, you're not allowed to make music unless it's on a Mac) to that cultish music player (apparently, you're not allowed to listen to music unless it's on an iPod).

Sure enough, like any cult, Apple has its share of adoring websites, from the encyclopedic product history inscribed at Apple-History.com and apple2history.org, to the complete coverage of Wired News' Cult of Mac blog (blog.wired.com/cultofmac/).

What Apple doesn't get nearly enough credit for, though, is being a master of viral marketing. When you think of "viral video," the entertaining pieces of Web video that you pass around to your friends, the company seldom springs to mind. But looked at from another angle, you could define a "viral" as any piece of promotion that stays in circulation without requiring infusions of advertising money. Apple has worked wonders here.

How? For one thing, the company is compulsively secret about its forthcoming products.

Everybody loves a secret, so naturally, there's an entire industry of Apple rumour sites that are solely devoted to stoking talk about future products. They provide an endless supply of covert reports from unnamed sources; the fact that Apple threatens to fire and prosecute employees who leak company secrets only adds to the intrigue.

The sites are rabidly followed by merchants, analysts, hacks and fan boys alike. As I write, Apple Insider) is speculating on the possibility of a Super Bowl ad that might announce a reconciliation between Apple and Apple Corps (which owns the Beatles catalogue), which have been feuding over their mutual trademark.

Meanwhile, MacRumors.com features a handy buyer's guide, which predicts whether the Apple product you're thinking of spending too much money on will be replaced next week.

The rumour sites and the clandestine company are adversaries in theory, but they're really part of the same promotional ecosystem. Everybody involved has drunk deeply of the fruit-flavoured Kool-Aid. All Apple has to do is throw around the occasional lawsuit (a third major site, ThinkSecret.com, was a recent target), and, I suspect, enough false leads to throw them off, and they provide an endless supply of buzz for little investment.

Moreover, the Apple publicity machine has yielded accidental opportunities for creative types to pitch in. Take the iPhone. The product was rumoured for years. The catch was, nobody had seen it or even knew what shape it was.

As a result, veritable procession of fake iPhone (and, formerly, video iPod) photos surfaced online, each claiming to represent the elusive gadget's actual form. None were close -- they were all ill-informed Photoshop fabrications -- but each one made the rounds and kept people chattering.

And then there are the Apple ads. In the past few years, Apple has released two distinctive series of ads that have wormed their way into pop culture: First, the "Switcher" ads that featured attractive people delivering monologues about why they ditched their PCs for Macs.

(One of these featured a winsome girl named Ellen Feiss, whose performance gave such an impression of being influenced by banned substances that she spawned an Internet following of her own. See ellenfeiss.net, and try searching for her on YouTube while you're at it.)

Then came the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" spots, which feature cult-hero comedian John Hodgman as a befuddled anthropomorphic PC, opposite actor Justin Long as a smarmy, too-hip Mac that most people seem to want to punch.

Whatever their effectiveness as advertising, all three lend themselves to imitation by being formulaic, stylized and simple: It's pretty easy to film two people against a white backdrop, play the Apple music and have the results be instantly recognizable.

So people hop on the bandwagon. A YouTube search for "Apple Parody" yields hundreds of results, ranging from a guy encouraging Americans to switch to Canada, to a funny account of all the fun a PC gamer had by switching to Macs, which are notoriously lousy game machines. (He tries to enumerate good Mac games: "Zork, Breakout. . . Super Breakout. . . Photoshop. . .") They're not all positive, to be sure. But a homage to a brand's style is ahomage to the brand itself, and every last drop of it is advertising that Apple didn't pay for. I write this, realizing that I'm part of the problem, not part of the solution.

So let's start the iPhone backlash, before I start itching to buy one.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070119.gtweb19/BNStory/Technology/home

(y) (y) ;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:06 PM

:| :| :| :| :| :| :|

Isaiah Washington: ‘Sorry For Being A Dirty Great Gay Hater’

January 19th, 2007 at 13:00 by Stuart Heritage

Isaiah Washington Faggot sorry gay TR Knight Grey's Anatomy In England a faggot is a delicious meaty treat made from pig's heart and bacon all mashed up in a ball, but everywhere else a faggot is something that makes Isaiah Washington from Grey's Anatomy look like a bit of a doltish nincompoop.

Isaiah Washington, you'll remember, got in a fight on the Grey's Anatomy set in October after calling secretly gay TR Knight a "faggot." At first Isaiah Washington denied that he'd used that particular gay slur, only for everyone who's ever worked on Grey's Anatomy to subsequently snitch on him bigstyle. Now, sensing that his career is on the line, Isaiah Washington has issued a full, frank and sincere apology to everyone he offended with the "faggot" jibe. For those of you who can't be bothered to read the rest of this article, think back to what happened with Mel Gibson in the summer and just replace all the "Fucking Jews" and "Sugartits" bits with the word "faggot," since that's more or less all Isaiah Washington actually did.

In the beginning Mel Gibson created making yourself look like a racist wanker in front of the entire world, before eventually learning that the only way to get out of problems like this was to apologise relentlessly to leaders of the offended community. And now, whenever anyone else upsets an entire swathe of society, they tread in Mel's footprints. Michael Richards - following his gigantically offensive racist meltdown onstage - apologised to Al Sharpton. Al wasn't having any of it, but at least Richards tried. We also expect that Jade Goody will be flying to India in the next few weeks to meet Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and be all like "Sorry for being racial Mr Poppadom Whatsyerface."

And then there's Isaiah Washington from Grey's Anatomy, who is slightly different. Isaiah Washington didn't offend a racial group, but a social one - the gays. During the legendary Grey's Anatomy actor-fight of 2006, Isaiah Washington reportedly referred to co-star TR Knight as a "faggot" which, in turn, made TR Knight look at himself, think "Wait a minute, I AM gay!" and then announce his public homosexuality to a partly-suspecting world. Following the bust-up Isaiah Washington apologised for the fight but not the gay slur.

In fact Isaiah Washington then went on to deny calling anyone a "faggot" at all - something which prompted another Grey's Anatomy star, Katherine Heigl, to publicly round on Isaiah for being a liar. When this was followed by an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show by TR Knight who also confirmed that the slur was directed at him, Isaiah Washington had to think fast. And where did he go first? The Mel Gibson Handbook For Monumentally Insensitive Celebrities, of course. The LA Times printed Isaiah Washington's apology:

"I can neither defend nor explain my behaviour. I can also no longer deny to myself that there are issues I obviously need to examine within my own soul, and I've asked for help. With one word, I've hurt everyone who has struggled for the respect so many of us take for granted. I welcome the chance to meet with leaders of the gay and lesbian community to apologise in person. T.R.'s courage throughout this entire episode speaks to his tremendous character. I hold his talent, and T.R. as a person, in high esteem. I know a mere apology will not end this, and I intend to let my future actions prove my sincerity."

While we can't be entirely certain that Isaiah Washington didn't mean Mr Humpries from Are You Being Served and Smithers from The Simpsons when he mentioned "leaders of the gay and lesbian community" it seems like leaders of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation are taking Washington on his word and have agreed a meeting with the actor which - following GLAAD tradition - will consist of a mumbled apology from Isaiah Washington, a quick "oh, how could I ever stay mad at you, you great noodlebrain" and a big group hug.

http://www.hecklerspray.com/isaiah-washington-sorry-for-being-a-dirty-great-homophobe/20066611.php/

+o( Washington clearly has an acute case of "cranial rectitus"! (his head is way, way up his *ss!.......)

GRRR.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:07 PM

:) :) :)

January 14, 2007

Day Out

In Dulwich Hill, Sydney, Finding the World in a Few Blocks

By JENNIFER GAMPELL

AT 5 a.m., as clubbers in trendy Sydney neighborhoods like Darlinghurst and Newtown head home, early-risers in Dulwich Hill are buying fresh loaves of Italian rustico and pugliesi sourdough at Luigi's Bakery. “Bread is our culture,” says the owner, Luigi Carrieri, of his predominantly Greek, Italian and Portuguese customers. “They love bread here. It's my kind of area.” By 9 a.m., half his homemade loaves, rings, rolls and other specialties are gone.

Like London, Sydney comprises a loose agglomeration of separate neighborhoods. Many still retain a strong ethnic flavor, though their demographics shift with immigration patterns and with the flight of prior immigrants to wealthier suburbs. Mr. Carrieri and his family arrived in Australia in 1970 as part of the huge influx of southern Europeans who immigrated from the late '50s through the '70s. Middle Easterners and Asians started coming in the late '70s; by the '90s Asians were 70 percent of new immigrants.

Elsewhere in Sydney, gentrification has transformed working-class neighborhoods in the city's Inner West and Inner East areas into highly desirable and expensive yuppie enclaves. Ten years ago, funky Newtown was filled with students and young hipsters who frequented its two long blocks of cheap cafes, bookstores and second-hand clothiers. Today's Newton is virtually wall-to-wall restaurants and chichi boutiques.

Dulwich Hill, part of the so-called Outer Inner West, is just 10 minutes southwest of Newtown, yet it retains a charming Old World simplicity and sense of community long since gone from nearby Sydney neighborhoods.

Among its 12,000 or so residents are Greeks, Italians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Portuguese, Vietnamese and their Australian-born offspring. “All the cultures get on; no single group dominates,” says Con Kazanzitidis, the Greek-born owner of the Last Drop Café. Artists, writers and academics are moving in, he says, but not the trendy types. “Newtown draws tourists,” he says, “Dulwich Hill is for locals.”

A Thai painter, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, moved to Sydney in 1996 after marrying an English-born art historian, and the couple bought their Dulwich Hill home in 2000. “In some parts of Sydney I do feel ‘other,' ” she acknowledges. “But here I feel comfortable, not like I'm in a minority.”

Her next-door neighbor on one side is a Greek family, on the other a New Zealand-Chinese couple. Across the street are Italians and Turks and further down a Cambodian family of Chinese origin runs a convenience store that also sells Greek newspapers. “You walk around the neighborhood and know there'll be something here for you,” she says. “People in Dulwich Hill embrace each other. Everyone feels a part of the community.”

Commerce in Dulwich Hill clusters around the intersection of Marrickville and New Canterbury Roads, a former tram line terminus. While shops on pedestrian-friendly Marrickville Road thrive, four-lane New Canterbury is a busy thoroughfare with no street parking. It would be impossible to describe all the multicultural merchants along these few blocks, but here's a sampling.

Regulars at Luigi's Bakery (396 New Canterbury Road; 61-2-9560-5008) like Jose Oliveira seem oblivious to the cars whizzing by. At 7 a.m. Mr. Oliveira, a Portuguese native, stands on the sidewalk holding his bread purchases and chatting with a fellow customer. A resident of nearby Marrickville for 35 years, Mr. Oliveira comes to the store for bread despite the many new Chinese and Vietnamese bakeries in his own once-Greek neighborhood. Chinese bakers use too much yeast, he says, and their products don't taste right the following day. “Luigi's bread is good,” he says.

Before the burly Mr. Carrieri, a fourth-generation baker, heads off to bed at 8:30 a.m., he talks about sourdough acidity and other nuances of the craft he learned from his father while a teenager in Brindisi. Once in Australia, Mr. Carrieri senior abandoned traditional baking techniques for the faster modern ones, but his son preferred the labor-intensive old methods and in 1987 went out on his own, buying his small shop from its Greek owner in 1997. The original Dulwich Hill Hot Bread Shop sign still hangs out over the street.

A few doors down at the popular M.N.A. Meats (380 New Canterbury Road; 61-2-9569-1330), Michael Vizakos, the butcher, stands behind the counter deftly whacking individual chops off a side of lamb. “I'm too busy to talk,” mutters Mr. Vizakos, a paunchy Cypriot with a thick mustache and a fisherman's cap, and asks me to come back after the Easter rush. When I say I won't be around that long, the butcher, the 53-year-old “M” portion of the shop's acronymic name, puts down his cleaver and wipes his hands on a striped butcher's apron. (“N” is his son, Nicholas; “A” his older brother, Anastasis.)

Michael Vizakos produces a black-and-white photo taken in Cyprus showing two scrawny kids dressed in school uniforms standing ramrod straight on either side of a seated child holding a baby. “I'm the one on the left and that's Anastasis on the right,” he points proudly. The Greeks — and Cypriots — who settled in Dulwich Hill in the late 1950s and '60s own a lot of local property and remain the neighborhood's predominant foreign-born population group. They patronize the seven-year-old M.N.A. as much for its friendly ambiance as for the traditional lamb “pluck” (innards). Other popular Cypriot specialties include homemade patourma (dry sausage made with beef, garlic and paprika) and loucanica (a pork sausage marinated two weeks in wine).

In 1961 when the 13-year-old Tony Sentas sailed into Pyrmont port from the Greek island of Limnos, his first impression of Australia was the enormous bar of chocolate held aloft by his father (who'd arrived two years earlier). “This must be a very good country,” thought the awestruck youngster. He and his brother started selling fruits and vegetables 36 years ago in Dulwich Hill and their open-fronted Sentas Brothers store (485 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9569-1885) is the oldest in the area. Excellent produce and low prices certainly contribute to its continued success, but it's Tony's welcoming and ebullient personality that keeps customers coming from as far away as Coogee (an eastern beach suburb).

Contrary to appearances, the Last Drop Café's hip white logo on the black outdoor awning and the minimalist interior décor aren't harbingers of oncoming Dulwich Hill gentrification, but instead the latest incarnation of a 30-year family business (538 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9572-9800). When the 41-year-old Con Kazantzidis emigrated from Greece 30 years ago, his family bought the building for a hardware store. Seven years ago Con gave up his high school teaching career to transform it into the neighborhood's first cool cafe. His diminutive mother makes the Greek items like spanakopita and keftedes that are listed on a small blackboard.

The unpretentious interior of Fernandes Patisserie (516 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9568-2114) belies the delectability of its Portuguese pastel de nata (custard tarts) that come in coconut cream, ricotta, almond and lemon flavors. The owner, Carlos Fernandes, part owner of a bakery in nearby Petersham (once a largely Portuguese community), moved to the neighborhood three years ago to cater to the local Portuguese residents. Many now gather at the small square tables to sip the excellent coffee and eat the flaky tarts, Madeira cakes and other pastries.

Some types of the salami, olives, biscuits and cheeses at Gino & Mary's deli (560 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9560-7456) are also available at Sydney supermarkets, says Mary Grasso, one of the owners. And in many Sydney suburbs, supermarkets have obliterated small family-run businesses. But no supermarket can compete with the chunks of prosciutto suspended on hooks above the front window or the delicious homemade cracked olives. Nor can they offer personalized service by people who were working in the area long before Gino Grasso, who is Sicilian born, and his Australian wife took over six years ago from the previous Sicilian owner.

From floor to ceiling, every inch of the tiny Izmir Market (471-473 Marrickville Road; 61-2-9568-3243) is crammed with canned goods, olives, pickles, coffee, jams, rosewater bottles, pulses, dried fruit, flatbread and yogurt. In one corner of the store, owned by Sevim and Osman Kiraci, is a large selection of videos recently taped from Turkish TV.

Abla Pastry (425 New Canterbury Road; 61-2-9560-5088), on a busy corner, is the largest supplier of Lebanese baked goods in Sydney. Specialties include beloure (noodle pastry pressed with pistachio and rosewater), bruma (similar but rolled and deep fried), 10 kinds of baklava and assorted date, coconut and semolina squares.

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:11 PM

:D :D Oh yes, babe!

December 17, 2006

DINING/SOMERVILLE; Behind That Door, The Freshest Sushi

By KARLA COOK

IF there is a silver lining in every cloud, finding one in my computer crash was a challenge. But there it was, in a conversation with the genius who saved my data. ''Where do you like to eat?'' I asked him. He named a pizza place, then mentioned an Italian restaurant whose name he couldn't remember. But for sushi, he was sure: Shumi.

And that is how I came to walk down the long, carpeted hall lined with dated photographs hung too high on the walls, turn left toward the fake-rock fountain, brush past the card table covered with bargain-priced soy sauce dishes and open the grungy door to the freshest and best-tasting sushi around.

Shumi feels like a secret, but it's not. Shortly after I first heard about it, in fact, Michael Coury, the head chef at Circa in High Bridge, mentioned it as a favorite sushi place. Shumi's walls display reviews, some dating to the early years of its two decades in business. A floor-to-ceiling set of deep glass shelves holds the sake bottles of regulars. Traffic, though not raucous, was steady. And on my visits, there was an easy banter between customer and chef that comes from familiarity. One muscular customer in a black T-shirt was laughing with the chef about his early visits years ago, when he was ''still in shape'' and wouldn't eat the rice. ''Now I eat everything,'' he said.

At Shumi, that's easy to do. There were the impossibly thin slices of fluke laid in a shimmering circle, the first course in omakase, chef's choice. This dish -- delicately flavored, sweet and so meltingly tender that it seemed to disappear in my mouth, leaving only freshness and a trace of lemon from the garnish -- set the tone for a meal of treasures. It included a trio of mackerel -- Spanish, horse and regular, each better than the last, especially the horse mackerel with its tiny green cupola of chopped ginger and scallion. Then, too, there was the white tuna (available spicy or not), and toro (fatty tuna) and a Japanese fish that was its equal, called aburabo, with part of the word translating, appropriately, to buttery.

The fish was unfailingly excellent. Shiso leaf was fresh, picked from the restaurant's backyard garden before the frost. The rice was slightly flavored and slightly warm. A conversation with the chefs -- Ike Aikasa, a co-owner and a master sushi chef, and Jack Pak, his second at the sushi bar, lord of the kitchen and another co-owner -- was friendly and educational.

The 80-seat restaurant is a rough rectangle, with dividers and walls to create separate dining areas. Computer-printed signs are misspelled, kitsch abounds -- there's a Marilyn Monroll on the menu, with tempura shrimp and asparagus -- and the teapots and cups are awkwardly designed.

But never mind all that; the proof is on the plate.

Though calling them Japanese would be a stretch, all the special appetizers ordered lived up to the title. The spicy shrimp soup would take the chill off an early winter day, with its juxtaposition of hot and sour against sweet shrimp, cooked just to peak tenderness. The fried oyster salad encouraged selfishness, with the crisp, light batter enclosing hot and juicy oysters laid in a taro basket, as did the soft-shell crab salad, with its bed of mixed lettuces dressed with a wasabi vinaigrette. But the best of the lot was the marinated and grilled yellowtail jaw, a roughly rectangular piece of fragrant, succulent and tender fish that almost sidetracked my plan to order the omakase, which is mainly sushi.

Service, under the direction of Amy Aikasa, Mr. Aikasa's wife and the third co-owner, is several notches above that in most restaurants. The server and the chef remembered my favorites on my second and third visits, stopping only to verify before serving them.

For those who don't like fish, there are chicken, tofu and pork dishes; if I could bring myself to eat something other than fish at Shumi, I would try them.

As for sweets, stick with either the tasty red bean cake called yokan or one of the three Asian-style ice creams: green tea, ginger and red bean. Myself, I'll just have a little more sushi.

Shumi Japanese Restaurant
30 South Doughty Avenue
Somerville
(908) 526-8596

www.shumirestaurant.com

(y) (y) (y) Whose ready to go? Sushi is my "go to" food when I need to boost those brain cells - especially for left brain work. The extremely gentle "high" afterwards is like that of after sex and/or after working out. :o :o :) :) Hmmm, from what I remember, that is. ;)

Seriously.

;) ;) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:15 PM

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

January 18, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

The Lost Voice of Protest

By BOB HERBERT

On the evening of the fourth of April, 1967, one year to the day (almost to the hour) before his assassination, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walked into Riverside Church in Manhattan and delivered a speech that was among his least well known, yet most controversial.

“I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight,” he said, “because my conscience leaves me no other choice.”

The speech was an eloquent, full-throated denunciation of the war in Vietnam, one of the earliest public critiques by such a high-profile American. Silence in the face of the horrors of that war, said Dr. King, amounted to a “betrayal.”

The speech unleashed a hurricane of criticism. Even the N.A.A.C.P. complained about Dr. King stepping out of his perceived area of expertise, civil rights, to raise his voice against the evil of the war. The Times headlined an editorial, "Dr. King’s Error."

The war would go on for another eight years, ultimately taking the lives of 58,000 Americans and a million to two million Vietnamese. Dr. King himself would be silenced, at the age of 39, by a bullet in Memphis.

The widespread celebration of Dr. King’s birthday on Monday brought that Vietnam speech to mind. It’s both gratifying and important that we honor this great man with a national holiday. But it’s disturbing that we pay so much more attention to the celebrations than we do to the absolutely crucial lessons that he spent much of his life trying to teach us.

Whether it’s the war in Iraq, or the plight of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, or the violence and self-destructive behavior that plagues so many black Americans, our attitude toward the wisdom of Dr. King has been that of the drug addict or alcoholic to the notion that there might be a better way. We give lip service to it, and then we ignore it.

In the Vietnam speech, Dr. King said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” He may as well have been speaking into the void. The war in Iraq, a reprise of Vietnam, will cost us well over a trillion dollars before we’re done, and probably more than two trillion. More than 3,000 American G.I.’s have been killed and the death toll for Iraqis is tallied by the scores of thousands.

No one knows what to do, although the politicians and the pundits are all over television, day and night, background singers to the carnage.

Here at home the city of New Orleans is on life support, struggling to survive the combined effects of a catastrophic flood, the unconscionable neglect of the federal government, and the monumental ineptitude of its own local officials. As ordinary residents of New Orleans continue to suffer, the rest of the nation has casually turned away. The debacle is no longer being televised. So it must be over.

Dr. King held the unfashionable view that we had an obligation to help those who are in trouble, and to speak out against unfair treatment and social injustice. “Our lives begin to end,” he said, “the day we become silent about things that matter.”

New Orleans matters. And the long dark night of the war in Iraq must surely matter. But not enough voices of protest are being raised in either case. The anger quotient is much too low. You can’t stop America’s involvement in a senseless war or revive a dying American city if your greatest passion is kicking back with pizza and beer and tuning in to “American Idol.”

The quality of life for black Americans more than 38 years after the death of Dr. King is a mixed bag. Blacks are far better off economically and educationally than ever before. Barack Obama is a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, and the last two secretaries of state have been black.

But the ominous shadow of racial prejudice is still with us. Even President Bush acknowledged that conditions in New Orleans pre-Katrina were proof of that. The nation’s prisons are filled to the bursting point with black men who have failed, or been failed, and have no viable future. And too many black Americans are willing and even eager to see themselves in the culturally depraved lineup of gangsters, pimps and whores.

Dr. King would be 78 now, and I can’t believe that he would be too thrilled by what’s going on. In his view: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

We miss his leadership, all of us, whether we’re wise enough to realize it or not.

(y) (y) (y) Didn't Bobby Kennedy also make anti-war speeches in the mid-1960's before his untimely passing in 1967?

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:19 PM

:( :(

SCOTLAND A young Highland cow, a hardy breed, was up to its neck in icy snow in Carronbridge:

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/19/world/190_europe_4.jpg

************************************************** ***
January 19, 2007

Deadly Wind and Rain Storm Sweeps Europe

By MARK LANDLER

FRANKFURT, Jan. 18 — A howling gale churned through the British Isles and Northern Europe on Thursday, killing at least nine people, uprooting trees, shattering windows, flooding beaches and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights at airports from London to Frankfurt.

The storm, called Kyrill by German meteorologists, generated pelting rain in Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The fierce weather hampered efforts to rescue 26 sailors from a container ship they abandoned Thursday after it began listing in the English Channel.

It also prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cut short a visit to Berlin, where she conferred with Chancellor Angela Merkel about the Middle East. Ms. Rice left an hour early for London to beat the weather; her plane made a bumpy landing there amid winds gusting to 80 miles per hour.

“This is the worst storm since 2002,” said Burkhard Kirsch, a meteorologist at the German Weather Service, noting that a gust of 123 m.p.h. had been recorded in the mountains of central Germany.

The name Kyrill stems from a German practice of naming weather systems. Anyone may name one, for a fee. Naming a high-pressure system costs $385, while low-pressure systems, which are more common, go for $256. Three siblings paid to name this system as a 65th birthday gift for their father, not knowing that it would grow into a fierce storm.

“We hope ourselves that we’ll get out of it lightly,” Rumen Genow, one of the three, told a northern German newspaper on Thursday.

In Britain, three motorists were killed in storm-related accidents, Reuters reported, while a woman died when a wall collapsed on her in heavy winds. Two people were killed in the Netherlands after an uprooted tree crushed their car, the Dutch news agency ANP reported. In Germany, two people, one of them 18 months old, were killed by flying debris. A motorist was killed when he crashed his car into another car while swerving to avoid a fallen tree, the police said. At nightfall, with the storm bearing down on Germany, the national railway suspended all long-distance service. At Heathrow Airport, outside London, airlines canceled 123 flights, while in Frankfurt, 122 flights were canceled.

“The wind conditions are not preventing the planes from taking off or landing, but the air traffic control authorities have increased the separation between the aircraft for safety reasons,” said Robert A. Payne, a spokesman for Fraport, which operates the Frankfurt airport.

French and British helicopters were sent to rescue 26 sailors in a lifeboat off southwestern England. They had abandoned their container ship, the MSC Napoli, after it was damaged and lost power, Bloomberg reported.

Two British Navy helicopters saved the sailors, but the fate of the ship was unclear. At Rotterdam, a container ship slipped its moorings and struck an oil jetty, leaking 10,000 barrels of fuel, Dutch news reports said.

(}) ({) Definitely these people are in my late-night prayers.

:| Has anyone noticed the extremely unusual weather globally? IMHO, we need to make drastic changes within our own lifetimes.

(l) (l) (l) (l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:20 PM

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

January 19, 2007

Ahead | Gem and Mineral Shows

Celebrating the Hard Stuff

By KEITH MULVIHILL

IN 1955, a handful of mineral enthusiasts (O.K., call them rock geeks) from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society got together to show off specimens from their personal collections at a local elementary school. From this small beginning, the annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show has grown into the largest event of its kind in the country, a mega-celebration for rock lovers and a curiously mesmerizing attraction for spectators who don’t know staurolite from Styrofoam. As many as 25,000 people are expected at this year’s show Feb. 8 to 11 in the Tucson Convention Center.

More than 125 exhibits will have rocks and gems from private collectors and from museums including the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Natural History in New York, the British Museum and the Mineralogical Museum at Harvard. There will be an opening reception, lectures, a micro-minerals room (where tiny crystals can be viewed through microscopes) and an educational “mineral maze” for children. And more than 300 vendors will hawk all sorts of mineral-related wares: piles of colorful gems and minerals, bits of meteorites, African beads, fossilized dinosaur dung (called coprolite), gold nuggets.

“It’s basically a giant museum exhibit that could never exist in an individual museum,” said Peter Megaw, an organizer of the show. “You’re seeing stuff in one place that you’d normally have to log a lot of miles all over the world to see.”

The show draws mineralogy fanatics but also has a wider appeal. After all, as Ed Clark, the president of the Ventura Gem and Mineral Society in California, said, “Who hasn’t seen a neat rock and picked it up and wondered why it looks the way it does?”

As the Tucson show has grown, dozens of satellite shows have sprung up all over Tucson to get in on the action. Today they are grouped into a broad community event called the Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase, running Jan. 26 to Feb. 11 this year. “I think if you had to pick one word to describe the whole scene, it would be ‘overwhelming,’ ” said Gene Meieran, an avid mineral collector who lives in Phoenix and will show off his collection of aquamarines (none for sale) in Tucson. “Practically every hotel and gas station has made space for people to show and sell stuff. Even if you spent 24 hours going around, you could not possibly see everything there is to see.” Of the ancillary events, he especially likes the Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show and the Westward Look Mineral Show. Both feature museum-quality items for sale.

Tucson has long been a mining center, but what made the Gem and Mineral Show take off in the early days was the participation of Paul E. Desautels, a curator of the Smithsonian’s mineral museum, whose interest attracted other curators and collectors. Before long, the show was the gem and mineral event of the year.

The timing doesn’t hurt either: the show is always in February, when Tucson has a distinct weather advantage.

Mineral shows take place all over the country — Rock & Gem magazine posts a list at www.rockngem.com — and several others are scheduled over the next few weeks. The Ventura society’s show in Ventura, Calif., will include a demonstration of cutting stones into the rounded shapes called cabochons. In Gaithersburg, Md., new acquisitions by the Smithsonian Institution will be on display at the Montgomery County show. Jim Fowler, an artist specializing in wrapping gem stones in wire for jewelry, will demonstrate his skill at the GemStreet USA Show in Cincinnati. And in Spokane, Wash., a lucky door-prize winner will walk away with a 200-pound piece of petrified wood.

“Going to shows is fun because you can learn so much about the world, and not only from the fossils and minerals,” said Vanessa Galloway, a Web and graphic designer in Tucson who also has a business making and selling jewelry. “There is so much cultural history surrounding antique beads, it’s really interesting.”

But for most people, the shows are about buying objects that they find beautiful. And on that aspect, Ms. Galloway has a word of caution. “You can spend every penny that your credit will allow,” she said. “So set a limit for yourself.”

Details

TUCSON

What: Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, (520) 322-5773; www.tgms.org.

When: Feb. 8 to 11, with related events Jan. 26 to Feb. 11.

CINCINNATI

What: Gemstreet USA Show, (216) 521-4367; www.gemstreetusa.com.

When: March 2 to 4.

VENTURA, CALIF.

What: Ventura Gem Show, (805) 648-4051; www.vgms.org.

When: March 3 and 4.

SPOKANE, WASH.

What: Rocks & Minerals of the Northwest; www.amfed.org/nfms/shows.

When: March 9 to 11.

GAITHERSBURG, MD.

What: Gem, Lapidary & Mineral Society of Montgomery County show; rockhounder.tripod.com.

When: March 10 and 11.

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

Rock-hound that I have been/still am,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:25 PM

:s

January 17, 2007

Sea Sends Distress Call in One-Note Chowders

By MOLLY O’NEILL

Stonington, Me.

DICK BRIDGES has big, calloused hands, hands that have been thickened by half a century of fishing, hands that can build a life and shape a community. They are not the sort of hands you expect to see mincing onions in a church kitchen. But on a recent Saturday evening Mr. Bridges grasped a flimsy knife, reached for a sack of yellow onions and launched into a soliloquy about fishing in America and the dish that tells the story: chowder.

The endlessly varied mélange that can banish chilblains and restore survivors of storms has never been merely a soup. Early Colonial versions called for fish to be layered along with onions, biscuits and water in a caldron; by the time Ishmael and Queequeg feasted on steaming bowls of the stuff, milk, cream and salt pork had found their way into the pot. Otherwise, the dish that helped Melville’s whalers tell time — “chowder for breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper” — changed very little for nearly 200 years.

Down Easters said that the more variety of fish in the pot, the “deepah the flavah.” Like most sons of sons of Maine fishermen, Mr. Bridges, 61, grew up eating fish stews that were as diverse and densely packed as the local waters.

Cod, haddock, white hake, halibut, cusk and dozens of other groundfish, fish that live near the ocean bottom, mingled with clams, shrimp, lobster and mussels under the creamy surface of the stew, cresting a puddle of yellow butter here, a slick of smoky pork fat there.

Today there is nothing but lobster to be fished commercially near Stonington. Lobster floats alone in the local chowder, pinking the cream and, in the mind of food lovers, perhaps elevating Everyman’s dish to luxury status. But when Mr. Bridges looks at a single species stew he sees a dangerously impoverished fishery.

“The only stable fishery is a diverse fishery,” he said. No place in the world is richer in lobster than the waters around Stonington today, but the population explosion was caused, in part, by the vanishing of the groundfish. “They fed on the young lobsters, the spats,” he said, “but the large fin fish are also part of an ecosystem that actually protects the lobster.” Even with good management, he said, the lobster, too, could disappear.

“And when they go,” he added, grasping one of the crustaceans from the counter of the church kitchen and in a single flourish twisting off its claws and tail, “the last of America’s Colonial industries will go with them.”

What chowder eater, nourished on soups rich with many kinds of fish, could listen to the scientists who began to worry in the 1970s about the effects of river damming, pollution and overfishing? Like most, Mr. Bridges continued to lower his metal-link scallop nets to the bottom of the ocean. He continued to plot his own course and to keep his whereabouts to himself. He continued to haul thousands of pounds of fish every few hours and he continued to ravage the ocean floor.

In 1985 fishermen landed seven million pounds of groundfish in Stonington alone. Ten years later those fish disappeared from Penobscot Bay, and for the first time in nearly two centuries, chowder changed.

Mr. Bridges was, he said, “worried so sick” that in 2003 he and three others broke the fishermen’s traditional code of silence and began sharing their knowledge about feeding and spawning grounds.

Along with their wives they founded Penobscot East Resource Center, an advocacy group that helps fishermen to restock and manage the fisheries through science, lobbying efforts and education. They built an alliance among fishermen to create a single voice for managing the local fisheries. They created the nation’s first fishermen-funded lobster hatchery. They even learned how to cook.

In fact, in this town where chowder is a way of life and the measure of a cook, Mr. Bridges is the “Chowdah” King. To him and to the other activists who join him to chop and shuck and stir, building a chowder is more than making dinner. It is performance art, an epic, a confession and a plea.

STONINGTON is a cluster of shingled houses, picket fences, widow’s walks and church spires that rises up a hillside from a shallow, natural harbor. Unlike the fleets of deeper ports like New Bedford’s and Portland’s, from which large boats sail far offshore for days at a time, Stonington’s fleets have long been made up of day boats, small craft that fish close to home and support an all but antiquated American lifestyle.

Fishing here was a wave-riding exercise in rugged individualism. The men went out before dawn and came home in midafternoon — generally clanging a pail of fish — ready to tuck into a bowl of the chowder that their wives had made from the contents of the previous day’s bucket.

“They could go to the Little League games, join the school board, volunteer at the fire department,” Ted Hoskins said.

Before retiring, Mr. Hoskins was a “boat minister” with the Maine Sea Coast Mission. His pastoral suite, a 75-foot houseboat, was mobile. When the groundfish were vanishing, he chugged from Stonington to the islands on the far side of Penobscot Bay, watching as the changes in the sea affected life on land.

As the groundfish began to diminish, he said, his congregants’ problems — depression, drinking and family trouble — grew. At the same time, state and federal efforts to protect the fisheries limited a fisherman’s catch as well as the number of days he could work. And as the fishing stock in the bay was depleted, fishermen had to move farther offshore. The 40-foot trawlers that they had bought for under $40,000 and used to pursue groundfish throughout the 1980s could not withstand waves up to 100 feet offshore. They needed 80-foot boats equipped with radar, onboard computers, sonar, sonic gear and G.P.S. systems, boats that now cost half a million dollars.

“The math didn’t work: it cost more, there were fewer fish and they were allowed to take less of them,” Mr. Hoskins said. “They got second jobs. Their wives went to work. They started selling their boats.”

Many of the older watermen, he said, retired and sold their days-at-sea or their quotas to large corporate fishing concerns that operate monster boats that can pull up to a million pounds in a single six-hour tow, denuding a swath of ocean about 600 feet long and up to 10 miles wide. The ocean floor can take 20 years to recover.

Some of the former day fishermen who did not retire went to work on those vessels, often driving hours to meet the boat and staying on it for up to two weeks at sea.

“The men were no longer independent, no longer free,” Mr. Hoskins said. “They were employees. The women and children were home alone. I was watching an entire way of life slip away.”

The fishermen who persevered switched to lobstering. Their lives, too, were altered. The industry is closely regulated. Lobstermen are told when and where they can fish. They must report their whereabouts and provide detailed accounting of their catches. Moreover, the wisdom once gained by a lifetime on the water can, Mr. Bridges said, now be acquired quickly.

“Using the technology available today, a guy can learn what I know in a month,” he said. “You don’t have to use a compass, read a map or remember where the lobster are. You don’t even have to steer a decent course.”

Mr. Bridges began reaching for the mouthpiece of his on-deck radio more and more. “Come in Mary Elizabeth,” he would call to Ted Ames. “Come in, Sea Flea” he would signal to his friend Wayne Grindle. Then he grasped the small black microphone in his large hands and began to wax eloquent about the meal he intended to cook as soon as he got home.

FISHERMEN have always cooked on their boats,” Mr. Ames said as he shrugged out of his slicker. “We just didn’t admit it at home.” He smiled then, toward the four burly fishermen crowding the small electric stove in the church basement.

Aprons wrapped around their flannel shirts, they watched as Mr. Bridges explained the importance of sautéing lobster meat in butter before adding it to the simmering onions, potatoes and cream. “It brings out the color and the sweetness.” This and a sprinkle of basil are the secrets of his champion chowder. Graying heads huddled together, the men nodded intently; they could have been examining a map, charting a course through dangerous shoals.

Earlier that day Mr. Ames, 67, sat looking out at the bay, explaining how fishermen study the surface in order to read the bottom, to locate the shallow shoals, the rocky outcroppings, the spots that are littered with sunken boats or other trash that can destroy their nets. They read the bottom to know where the fish feed, where they spawn and to locate the nursery areas for young fish. This information, which is critical if the local fishery is to be replenished, cannot be detected by sophisticated sounding devices. Rather, it lives in a fisherman’s eyes and hands, like an instinct.

Mr. Ames, who has a master’s degree in biochemistry and was a commercial fisherman for half a century before retiring last year, spent the past decade using the memories of retired fishermen to create maps of the spawning and nursery grounds of cod, the areas that must be strictly protected if the groundfish are to regenerate. His efforts earned him a MacArthur Foundation grant in 2005. The recognition has contributed to the discussion on how to best manage and protect Maine’s fishery.

“The only ones who can restore these fisheries are us, the fishermen who worked them and broke them,” he said. Pointing to the success of Maine’s closely controlled — and peer-enforced — lobster industry, he added, “We learned our lesson.”

The Penobscot East Resource Center has helped give men like Mr. Bridges a voice with lawmakers.

When members of the group meet with regulators, they argue that the fisheries are a massive collection of tiny and particular habitats that can be tended only by those who know them. If fishing regulations reflect the knowledge and the needs of the Stonington lobstermen, smaller day boats like theirs will have a fighting chance against the enormous commercial vessels. And so will the fish.

“We can’t turn the clock back on technology,” he said. “We can only regulate it, the way we regulate the size and speed of vehicles on the highway.”

He and his group plan to ask federal regulators to allow them to manage the local fisheries and to limit technology. Without a change in the rules, he said, the small, owner-operated day boats will continue their steady demise and the large fishing crews will be the only ones left.

“We are in the final stage of a natural, national resource being converted into a private, corporately-owned resource.”

The implications of this shift on the nation’s table are huge. Seafood markets that offer a variety of wild fish now need to import, so fish reaches the market a day later at a much higher price. “In 1975 I got 25 cents a pound for groundfish,” Mr. Bridges said. “If you can find it you can get $2 to $4 a pound today.” Consumers, he noted, pay about three times what the fisherman receives.

And perhaps it is this change, along with the fear of losing the possibility of a self-made life, that called the elder statesmen of Stonington from their homes on a blustery winter night and prompted them to take up lobster crackers, knives and wooden spoons and to discuss the chowder they had known, the chowder of today, the chowder that could, with a single predator or a few degrees rise in the temperature of the water, disappear entirely.

Already the lobster catch is shifting away from Stonington, said Carl Wilson, the lobster biologist for Maine’s Department of Marine Resources. If the trend continues, the lobstermen who borrowed heavily to buy high-tech boats — younger men, mostly, who have known only gold-rush times — stand to lose much more than a means of puttering around the harbor.

After several hours of impassioned discussion there was, after all, a reverent sort of silence among the fishermen when they gathered around the reddening lobster in the skillet on the stove. And for a moment, as they hovered tentatively over the small aluminum frying pan, their thick fingers looked like the hands of giants arranging a smaller, entirely manageable world.

(y) (y) (y) I had some New England Cam Chowder for lunch today. Lots of potatoes and few clams.....

I remember a restaurant in Dana Point, CA - that had the BEST N.E. Clam Chowder! It came is a bread bowl. This was the first time I learned to add hot sauce to the chowder.

One of these days, I need to take a drive with Wyatt up to New England and stop at a few mom and pop places where I used to go during my business travels.

Soups are such comfort food, yes?

Warmest wishes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:27 PM

(y) (y)

January 19, 2007

Havens | Red Lodge, Mont.

Miner’s Shacks, Mansions and the Real-Life West

By ALICIA AULT

FOR most Americans, Montana signifies the mythical West, a place to dream of buying a working ranch or a mountain hideaway. And Red Lodge is one of those places where Montana real estate fantasies can come true, and fairly cheaply.

Red Lodge is attracting more second-home buyers and retirees, lured by its stark beauty, the Mayberry R.F.D.-like social structure and the wide range of available housing — from in-town condominiums, to miner’s shacks, to Victorian mansions, to contemporary log homes and ranches.

About 60 miles southwest of Billings and 60 miles northeast of Yellowstone National Park, the old mining town is nestled in a high valley. The 10,000-to-nearly-13,000-foot Beartooth Mountains — the jewels of the 943,377-acre Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness — surge from the 5,500-foot valley. There are abundant fly-fishing streams, rivers to float down or kayak on, ranges to ride, peaks to climb and backcountry to explore.

Stand in the middle of a field above town and all you’re likely to hear is the wind whipping past. There are no stoplights; two drive-through espresso shacks and a smattering of upscale restaurants aim to please both tourists and the upwardly mobile second-home owners arriving from San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Tucson, Seattle, Minneapolis and Billings.

Many second-home buyers are counting the days until they become full-timers. Jim and Holly Brian of Chelsea, Mich., bought a five-bedroom house with a guest apartment on six acres overlooking Red Lodge in 2003. A year later, they bought a ranch six miles to the west of town that had an old farmhouse and two newer houses, plus 122 acres, for about $1.8 million.

Mr. Brian, 59, a real estate developer, and Ms. Brian, 51, are now raising bucking bulls for rodeos, and have invested in a local plant nursery. “Jim needs to be outside and busy,” Ms. Brian said, “and this fits the bill.”

Jerry Williams and Vicki Cearcy of Daphne, Ala., came to Red Lodge to ski in 2005. Two weeks later, they bought a three-bedroom contemporary house in an older subdivision southwest of town for $460,000. Both orthodontists and both retired from the military, they considered buying in Durango, Colo. But the people and the ability to enjoy the outdoors and fly their own small plane into the local airport persuaded them that Red Lodge was the place for them.

Mining originally put Red Lodge on the map. The town was founded in 1889, soon after the Rocky Fork Coal Company set up east of town, bringing thousands of Finns, Italians, Croats, Germans and others to work the mines. The railroad followed. Shirley Zupan, who has written a history of the town, said that Red Lodge was a rollicking frontier town where fistfights and gunfights were common. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane came there for trysts.

The town has calmed over the years. It used to be that “a good location was any one you could crawl home to,” said Dennis Meeker, a broker with Coal Creek Realty.

Mining and fistfights have given way to tourism and agribusiness. In summer, motorcycles and R.V.’s are drawn to the roads, especially the Beartooth Highway (Route 212). Opened in 1936, the Beartooth winds 60 miles and as high as almost 11,000 feet from Red Lodge southwest to Cooke City. Skiers pour into town from late November until mid-April, eager to hit the slopes at Red Lodge Mountain Resort.

The Scene

There’s nothing modern about Red Lodge, which resembles a scaled-down version of Park City, Utah, minus the luxury vehicles, designer ski outfits and hyperinflated housing prices. Subaru Outbacks and four-wheel-drive pickup trucks seem to be the most popular vehicles.

Most of the shops — local arts and crafts, mountain and fishing gear, clothing boutiques — and restaurants are concentrated on seven blocks of the main drag, Broadway (Route 212). There are also a 22-bed hospital and a bookstore.

Local residents congregate at the Red Lodge Cafe or the Regis Cafe in the morning. The Red Lodge offers stacks of pancakes and slot machines in the barroom next door. The Regis serves specialty omelets with organic eggs and vegetables, grilled tofu and homemade fruit breads. The day’s end is met with an I.P.A. or a stout at Sam’s Tap Room at Red Lodge Ales.

Others prefer to celebrate at home. The Brians like to four-wheel to the highest point on their property, cocktails in hand, and watch the sun go down. Just before dusk one day, they saw a pack of wolves roaming the horizon.

Red Lodge is a liberal island of blue in a red state, partly because of the large number of hippies who came in the 1970s, said Heather Quinn, an agent with Prudential Red Lodge Real Estate. There is little racial diversity, she added, but a growing number of gay couples are buying.

Pros

Red Lodge’s piney air is so fresh that it could be bottled and sold to cabdrivers nationwide. Recreation opportunities abound and there’s no rush hour. There’s a sense of community, and waving from behind the wheel is encouraged at all times.

Rosemary Stewart, a paralegal who lived in New York and San Francisco, said it has been refreshing to leave concerns about money and status behind. Ms. Stewart, 56, and her husband, Jerry, 65, a physician, own a 3-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot house in the Grandview subdivision. The Stewarts had visited Red Lodge while living in Billings, and after a short stint back in San Francisco, decided to buy a second home in Red Lodge in 2005. Cyclists, skiers and hikers, they were so smitten that they moved into the home permanently soon after buying.

Kelly Dehio, 38, and her husband Peter, 47, are also happy to leave the city — Chicago — behind when they spend summers with their three children at the 4,000-square-foot house that they built for $500,000. Their property is three acres in Grandview that they bought for $53,000 in 2000. The Dehios say they’re pleased by locals’ acceptance. “We used to have a place in Hawaii,” Ms. Dehio said, “and I always felt like a complete tourist there.”

Cons

Big-box stores are almost an hour and a half away in Billings, and sometimes you just need a big-box store.

Snow is a given, from October until April. There are many real estate agents, which means that prices can be unrealistically high, said Mr. Meeker of Coal Creek Realty.

There are a limited number of parcels more than 20 acres, which may discourage dreams of a ranchette. The federal government is a large landholder — through National Forests and Wilderness areas. Some residents fret about the amount of land being gobbled up by a few wealthy buyers.

The Real Estate Market

Land prices have increased 300 percent since 1992, Ms. Quinn said, and housing prices have gone up 40 percent since 2000. Red Lodge’s prices appear to be holding steady, even as the market cools elsewhere.

Much of the housing in town consists of smaller bungalows and small miners’ homes built around the turn of the 20th century. There are larger Victorians, but few are on the market. Prices in town, Mr. Meeker said, range from $150,000 to $400,000 or so.

There are several subdivisions outside town, one around the Red Lodge golf course, where older town and patio homes run about $260,000. New lots cost about $100,000. Height restrictions are enforced to protect mountain views at most subdivisions. Lots — generally about three acres — in Meadowood run $130,000 to $140,000, and the average price of a house is $400,000, but goes up to $1 million, Mr. Meeker said.

A development in town, the Island at Rock Creek, has sold three of four luxury condominiums in its first building, with two more four-unit buildings under way. The condos are 2,100 to 2,500 square feet and sell for around $500,000, said Jim Moore, the lead agent, who is with Coldwell Banker in Red Lodge.

POPULATION About 2,400, according to a 2005 estimate by the Census Bureau.

Lay of the Land

SIZE 2.6 square miles.

WHO’S BUYING Wealthy retirees or those close to retiring, from California, Florida, the upper Midwest and the South. Many buyers have family ties to the area.

LOCATION Red Lodge is about an 80-minute drive southwest of Billings, and about the same distance from Cody, Wyo.

GETTING THERE From Billings, take Interstate 90 west to Laurel. Exit onto Route 212 south. Follow to Red Lodge.

WHILE YOU’RE LOOKING The Rock Creek Resort (five miles south of Red Lodge on Route 212, 406-446-1111; www.rockcreekresort.com) is at the gateway to the Beartooth Highway and offers a pool, tennis courts and quiet evenings. The resort has conventional hotel rooms, studio apartments and town houses ranging from $100 to $315 a night. A full-service restaurant, the Old Piney Dell, is on site. For a trip back in time, the Pollard Hotel (2 North Broadway, 406-446-0001; www.thepollard.net), has 39 suites and rooms from $85 to $295 a night, depending on the season. The hotel was built in 1893, and its lobby is packed with memorabilia. Locals advise taking a room at the back during summer, to not be awakened by the roar of the Harleys on the street.

(y) (y) (y) (y)

(l) (l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:28 PM

:) :) :) :) :)

Recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/39626

Several Recipes! http://www.recipe4all.com/dishes/enchilada/

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/World-Cuisine/Latin-America/Mexico/Enchiladas/Top.aspx

Restaurant Reviews: http://houston.citysearch.com/review/9930851

http://abqstyle.com/albuquerque_restaurants/000039.html

http://static.deliaonline.com/images/originals/h2222-mexican-enchiladas-18731.jpg

http://www.southwestcuisine.com/entree13.jpg

http://www.festivalmondolatino.it/img/risto_messicano/enchiladas.jpg

Lobster?

http://www.malachiarts.org/skorgirl/wp-content/uploads/import/lobster%20enchiladas.JPG

http://www.posiesplace.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/turkey-chipotle-enchiladas.jpg

(y) (y)

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:29 PM

:D :D :D :D :D

http://www.mrnatural-austin.com/tamales.jpg

http://www.citiesintouch.com/southeast/arkansas/hsnew/does/tamales.jpg

http://www.jammed.com/~mlb/blogpics/2006/03/tamales/tamales.jpg

http://www.comidamexicana.hpg.ig.com.br/images/tamales.gif

BEST:

Tamara's Tamales: http://www.tamarastamales.com/his.tamara.html

"The difference between a good tamale and a bad one is like the difference between a hot, Krispy Kreme delicacy and that half doughnut you found on the floor in your car."

http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/stories/2003/01/22/tamales.html

http://www.eastlosangeles.net/tamalefestival/bestcontest.html

http://www.gonemild.com/2006/07/best-tamales-in-world.html

http://bestof.houstonpress.com/bestof/award.php?oid=oid:42018&section=oid:28916&year=2005

YUMMY: http://www.whatwereeating.com/food_pics/s2006-05-11_pork-tamale.jpg and the article is at:

http://www.whatwereeating.com/restaurant-reviews/the-best-tamales-ever-that-we-know-of-post-in-progress/

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/1999-09-24/bot_chow33.html

Denver:

http://bestof.westword.com/bestof/award.php?oid=oid:105047&section=oid:35100&year=2006

Vegas? http://local.yahoo.com/readreviews?id=20268679&stx=&csz=Las+Vegas+NV

Austin: http://www.communitywalk.com/map/2539#00034n7

"Paradise Found":

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/bestof/award.php?oid=oid:197139&section=24278&year=2006

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:31 PM

(l) (l) (l) (l)

http://www.sugarcreekgardens.com/Perennials_C_files/CampanulaBernice2.jpg

(f) (f) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:32 PM

(l) (l) (l) (l)

http://www.cambridge2000.com/gallery/images/P3205552.jpg (Gorgeous!)

Never knew there were so many colors:

http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/gumpaste/Hyacinth.jpg

http://www.files.tellmewhereonearth.com/Photos%20About%20Us/Photos%20About%20Us/Flowers%20hyacinth%201.JPG

http://sunsite.wits.ac.za/ape/hyacinth.jpg

"In the midst of Winter, I finally learned there was in me, an invincible Summer."
- A. Camus

http://www.livingwilderness.com/seasons/hyacinth.jpg

Nice: http://sueann.homestead.com/files/Hyacinth.jpg

Love this one:

http://www.villagernursery.com/Botanical_Gallery/PLANT_PHOTOS/Bulbs/Grape%20Hyacinth.jpg

(f) (f) (f) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:35 PM

;) ;)

http://www.icealaska.com/

(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:36 PM

;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

http://www.manitousprings.org/

12TH ANNUAL GREAT FRUITCAKE TOSS January 20
MS High School Track
Manitou Springs, CO

Get that Fruitcake ready and see just how far you can hurl it!

http://www.manitousprings.org/ASP/Calendar.asp

http://www.manitousprings.org/ASP/CalendarItem.ASP?NUMBER=94

(y) (y) (y) :D :D :D

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:39 PM

??????

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=157760

(y) Amazing how his charm and charisma reminds me of the late Bobby Kennedy. I think he (Obama) has a chance.

(f) (f) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 05:55 PM

:o :o Talk about a complete change of topic! :o :o

http://www.exoticfashions.com/

http://images.redenvelope.com/is/image/production/VD06_175627_W?nanos=770&qlt=75,0&resMode=sharp&op_usm=0.5,1.0,0.0,0&wid=250&hei=250

:o Whoa! http://www.spicylingerie.com/

Red Heart Teddy:

http://www.3wishes.com/valentine.asp?engine=adwords!182&keyword=%2Avalentine+lingerie%2A&match_type=

http://www.loverslane.com/?sc=google&gclid=CMqyxvrU7YkCFR4cgQodcjSVFQ

http://lingerieleatherandhose.com/

Pretty: http://www.yandy.com/Shopping/products/prod_64.asp

http://www.1sexynight.com/index1.html

Jimi Hendrix???

http://movietrailers.studiostore.com/browse/VALENTINESDA/SLEEPWEA/s.TltjFZQy

Sweet: http://www.katieroseintimates.com/zencart/

(l) (l) (l) (l) I kept thinking about Alice and Dana in the sex shop during the L Word Season Three. :D :D :D :D Priceless!!

(y) (y) Hey, wearing sexy lingerie under daily clothing - especially during this recent freeze? Lace, silk and other sexy fabrics make me feel good all under.:D

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 06:00 PM

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

Jennifer Finney Boylan is best known as the author of the bestselling memoir She's Not There. Her work was described by Edward Albee as "observed carefully and with love, and her levitating wit is wisely tethered to a humane concern."

Jenny is a member of three blog sites: the Sufferin' Bastards; (en)gender; and the Women in Media & News blog. Jenny also appears as an occasional character in the weekly cartoons of Tim Kreider. Her next piece for Conde Nast Traveler , on Easter Island, will appear in the January 2007 issue.

Jenny's next public lectures are at Green Mountain College, in Vermont, on Feb. 1, and at Smith College, on Feb. 2, where she will give the keynote address at the Smith College Gender Conference. This site will probably take a little break for the holidays, and will next be updated in mid to late January.

Jenny lives in central Maine with her family, and teaches at Colby College. She was photographed at left with President Clinton and Maine's Governor Baldacci, in fall 2006.

http://www.colby.edu/personal/j/jfboylan/

(f) (f) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 06:03 PM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

http://www.ftmguide.org/books.html

(l) (l) (l)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 06:05 PM

(y) (y) (y) (y)

http://whitepuffs.blogspot.com/2006_07_02_archive.html

(y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 06:06 PM

:o :o :o

:) :) :)

http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid33553.asp

(l) (l) (l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 06:20 PM

:) :) :)

Great American Ranches

http://travel.discovery.com/tvlistings/episode.jsp?episode=0&cpi=110674&gid=0&channel=TRV

(y) (y) (y) (y) I loved the feminine one in Florida. What an impressive place this lady had built! I also loved the one in the high Montana desert as well as the Roaring Fork Ranch near Aspen, CO.

http://www.christiesgreatestates.com/properties/view_7797/

http://www.hallhall.com/properties.php?stid=26

http://homes.wsj.com/buysell/markettrends/20060130-mcmullen.html

http://www.bramlettecompany.com/store/p11detail20.php?x=1&pagePath=

(l) (l) (l)

(o) (o) Back to the research for that CLP (course learning plan) for that last PhD course. Deadline is this Sunday. :|

Have a relaxing evening.

Virtual hugs,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-19-2007, 06:25 PM

The L Word

:)

In episode 403, Bette embarks on an ill-advised affair with a teaching assistant, and her boss Phyllis comes out; Jenny tries to dig up dirt on the journalist that panned her book; Tina throws a party; Shane gets Helena a job at WAX.

http://www.sho.com/site/lword/episodes.do

(l) (l)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-20-2007, 06:51 PM

:s :s

First-year students at Texas A&M's Vet School were receiving their
first anatomy class, with a real dead cow. They all gathered around
the surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet.

The professor started the class by telling them, "In vet medicine,
it is necessary to have two important qualities as a doctor:

The first is that you not be disgusted by anything involving the
animal body. For an example, the Professor pulled back the sheet,
stuck his finger in the butt of the dead cow, withdrew it and stuck
it in his mouth.

"Go ahead and do the same thing," he told his students. The students
freaked out, hesitated for several minutes. But eventually took turns
sticking a finger in the anal opening of the dead cow and sucking
on it.

When everyone finished, the Professor looked at them and told them,
"The second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my
middle finger and sucked on my index finger. Now learn to pay
attention."

:| :| :|

;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-20-2007, 06:52 PM

:) :) :)

Three men were hiking through a forest when they came upon a large,
raging, violent river.

Needing to get to the other side, the first man prayed, "God, please give
me the strength to cross the river."

Poof! God gave him big arms and strong legs and he was able to swim across
in about 2 hours, having almost drowned twice.

After witnessing that, the second man prayed, "God, please give me
strength and the tools to cross the river."

Poof! God gave him a rowboat and strong arms and strong legs and he was
able to row across in about an hour after almost capsizing once.

Seeing what happened to the first two men, the third man prayed, "God,
please give me the strength, the tools and the intelligence to cross this
river."

Poof! He was turned into a woman. She checked the map, hiked one hundred
yards upstream and walked across the bridge.

:) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-20-2007, 11:47 PM

:) :)

THEY CALL ME NAUGHTY LOLA: Personal Ads From The London Review of Books.

Edited and with an introduction by David Rose.

165 pp. Scribner.

(l)

January 21, 2007

Lonely Hearts

By HENRY ALFORD

For some of us, self-deprecation is the olive in the martini of romance. It’s that little something extra — a blast of salt and texture in a pool of cool velvet. The practice of demoting oneself has a counterintuitive power: it takes a truly secure person to self-flagellate. But in “They Call Me Naughty Lola,” a highly jaunty collection of personal ads from The London Review of Books, the intense self-deprecation among lovelorn Brits is less like an olive resting comfortably at the bottom of a martini glass and more like a peacock that has set itself on fire to flag down passing motorists. One ad runs, “Official greeter and face of Dalkeith Cheese Festival, 1974, seeks woman to 50 who is no stranger to failure, debt-consolidating mortgages and wool.” Another states: “Your buying me dinner doesn’t mean I’ll have sex with you. I probably will have sex with you though.” A third comes from the pen of a woman able to “start fires with the power of her premenstrual tension.”

When the benchmark for self-flagellation is set this high, several interesting things happen. Even the rare instances of self-puffery take on a dark or twisted aspect. (“Romance is dead. So is my mother. Man, 42, inherited wealth.”) The deprecation sometimes starts to cover an area larger than the self. (“I like my women the way I like my kebab. Found by surprise after a drunken night out and covered in too much tahini.”) Finally, some of the ads become self-referential and meta (“How can I follow that? Man, 47. Gives up easily. Box No. 9547.”), if not outright jokes. (“117-year-old male Norfolk Viagra bootlegger finally in the mood for a bit of young totty.”) In his introduction, David Rose, the advertising director who assembled the collection, addresses this last tendency when he writes that “for some LRB advertisers, meeting a partner is no longer even the main objective of placing a personal ad. ...They’re a frolic, a bit of whimsy. ...The silliness, in this sense, becomes a sleight of hand, a trick done with mirrors to disguise the machinery beneath the stage.”

Indeed, the tricksy nature of this collection, despite its laugh-out-loud gems, is perhaps what keeps these ads from engaging us emotionally or getting under our skin. (For a more affecting if less amusing look at a similar topic, see Sara Bader’s 2005 book on classified ads throughout America’s history, “Strange Red Cow,” which includes items like this one from an 1865 issue of The New York Herald: “J.A.R. — Sarcasm and indifference have driven me from you. I sail in next steamer for Europe. Shall I purchase tickets for two, or do you prefer to remain to wound some other loving heart? Answer quick, or all is lost. Emelie.”)

Given that loneliness and the search for love can be two of life’s most heartstring-pulling topics, you’d ideally finish a collection like this feeling slightly disquieted. But in the end, these ads are probably more effective as literary style exercises than as portraits of longing. Note, for instance, the pitch-perfect genre parody at work in “Blah, blah, whatever. Indifferent woman. Go ahead and write. Box No. 3253. Like I care.” I wanted to.

(S) (S) Peaceful dreams,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-20-2007, 11:51 PM

:) :)

January 21, 2007

Essay

Astonish Me

By JOE QUEENAN

No one was more excited than I was when Maureen Corrigan of National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” described Alice McDermott’s new novel as “astonishing.” Several years ago, overwhelmed by the flood of material unleashed annually by the publishing industry, I decided to establish a screening program by purchasing only books that at least one reviewer had described as “astonishing.”

Previously, I had limited my purchases to merchandise deemed “luminous” or “incandescent,” but this meant I ended up with an awful lot of novels about bees, Provence or Vermeer. The problem with incandescent or luminous books is that they veer toward the introspective, the arcane or the wise, while I prefer books that go off like a Roman candle. When I buy a book, I don’t want to come away wiser or happier or even better informed. I want to get blown right out of the water by the author’s breathtaking pyrotechnics. I want to come away astonished.

Thus, I was overjoyed to get the great news about McDermott’s “After This,” because while I’d heard wonderful things about her previous books, I could not recall anyone anointing them “astonishing,” which meant that I never bought any. Having recently picked up Alice Munro’s new story collection, “The View From Castle Rock,” which The Seattle Times described as “astonishing,” and the Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee’s “Slow Man,” deemed “an intense, astonishing work of art” by no less an arbiter of taste than O, The Oprah Magazine, I was rounding out the year in solid fashion with a troika of masterpieces that promised to be nothing short of astonishing.

These are good times for the astonishable reading public. Among the masterpieces by Orhan Pamuk, who won last year’s Nobel Prize for literature, was “The New Life,” described by The Times Literary Supplement as “an astonishing achievement.” Pamuk’s Nobel coincided with the premiere of a Court TV series based on James Ellroy’s “My Dark Places,” a book that had been quite accurately described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “astonishing ... original, daring, brilliant.” Not long before, Ayelet Waldman came out with “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits,” which, while apparently not astonishing in and of itself, did include a character that the novelist Andrew Sean Greer described as “astonishing.” Then, Abigail Thomas published “A Three Dog Life,” singled out by Entertainment Weekly as “astonishing,” and an “extraordinary” love story — “Grade: A.” Personally, I find the Grade A business redundant; if a book is astonishing, you’re obviously not going to give it a B.

The Book Review itself has not been hesitant to use the word “astonishing,” which appeared recently in reviews of books by Thomas McGuane and George Pelecanos. Some people may protest that it’s ridiculous to make book-buying decisions purely on the basis of a single adjective. I could not agree more. But let me stress that while I buy only books that have been designated “astonishing,” I do not buy every single “astonishing” book.” For instance, Kurt Eichenwald’s “Serpent on the Rock” may very well be the “astonishing inside story of a blue-chip Wall Street firm whose massive securities fraud decimated the savings of a half a million people,” but that wording was supplied by the author’s publisher, not by some amazingly sophisticated person at O or Entertainment Weekly. So it could be a case of an entry-level cheerleader in the publicity department choosing the word “astonishing” when “hair-raising” or “jaw-dropping” might have been more appropriate.

For similar reasons, I shied away from M. T. Anderson’s “Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation,” even though it won last year’s National Book Award for young people’s literature. Just because the author himself uses the term “astonishing” to describe his subject doesn’t automatically make the book astonishing; it could be merely stellar, sensational, breathtaking or un-put-downable. For somewhat different reasons, I avoided Kate Atkinson’s “One Good Turn,” because even though it was described as an “astonishing thriller” in an ad in The New Yorker, this assessment came from one Linda Grana of the Lafayette Bookstore in Lafayette, Calif. Linda Grana may be a critic of the first water, on the same level as Samuel Johnson and Dale Peck, but if the word “astonishing” does not appear as part of a review by a designated cognoscente in a mainstream publication, I do not buy the putatively astonishing product. I can’t be buying books just because somebody in a bookstore somewhere said they were astonishing. I’d go broke.

One personal idiosyncrasy is that while I adore books that are astonishing, I do not feel the same way about other genres. Films as varied as “The Queen,” “The Last King of Scotland,” “The New World,” “Catch a Fire” and “World Trade Center” have all been labeled “astonishing,” but for me the word does not resonate in a celluloid context. And while it may be true that “Half-Nelson,” “Gabrielle” and “X-Men: The Last Stand” are all astonishing motion pictures, I have not seen any of them, as I personally do not enjoy “astonishing” motion pictures.

I prefer movies that are haunting, visually sweeping, mesmerizing or thought-provoking, and am highly partial to films that take no prisoners, challenge me in a way a good piece of speculative fiction should, or make me want to stand up and cheer. “The Squid and the Whale” did not make me want to stand up and cheer, even if Laura Linney is a national treasure; it was the kind of film that did in fact take prisoners. I feel the same way about music; I don’t care how astonishing Maurizio Pollini’s technique is, particularly when he’s playing Lizst’s Sonata in B minor; pianists with astonishing technique are a dime a dozen. Anyway, I prefer pianists who play with icy, laconic detachment.

Are there ever times when I worry that my obsession with the word “astonishing” prevents me from buying a great book? Sure. But, the truth is, if nobody describes a book as astonishing, it probably isn’t astonishing, and if it isn’t astonishing, who needs it? Marilynne Robinson’s long-awaited “Gilead” has been described as “poignant,” “absorbing,” “lyrical,” “meditative” and “perfect.” It’s also been called “magnificent,” a “literary miracle,” “Grade A” and, yes, “incandescent” by Entertainment Weekly. But nowhere have I seen anyone officially call it “astonishing.” I’ve already explained how I feel about incandescent books; if I had a nickel for every incandescent novel I’ve ever read, I could retire tomorrow. But I don’t, so I can’t. First book that doesn’t leave me astonished, your mistake; second book that doesn’t leave me astonished, my mistake. Sorry, Ms. Robinson, close but no cigar.

Joe Queenan’s most recent book is “Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile’s Pilgrimage to the Mother Country.”

(S) (S) Stay warm and have a lovely Sunday. (f) (f)

(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-20-2007, 11:54 PM

:o :o

January 20, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

The Ballad of Bushie and Flashy

By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

George Bush may have lost his swagger, but Harry Flashman hasn’t.

Maybe the president presiding over a quicksand empire got a vicarious thrill out of the fictional Victorian brigadier general who roamed from Chillianwalla to Isandlwana to Abyssinia at the height of the British Empire, always making conquests in love and war despite his cowardly, caddish behavior.

In our continuing odyssey of discovery through the president’s reading list, we learned that he perused two of George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman books, “Flashman at the Charge” and “Flash for Freedom.”

There are those who are skeptical of the president’s souped-up reading list, a result of a book-reading contest with Karl Rove.

“I don’t think he understands the world,” Jay Rockefeller, the new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Times’s Mark Mazzetti. “I don’t think he’s particularly curious about the world. I don’t think he reads like he says he does. Every time he’s read something he tells you about it.”

I just wish W. had read more about the perils of empire before he naïvely dived into one. Mr. Fraser agrees that W. should have read the original “Flashman” before invading Afghanistan. It could have given him invaluable, if politically incorrect, insights that might have helped in the effort to catch Osama at Tora Bora and in the new push to stop the Taliban slouching toward Kandahar.

On a recent visit to Afghanistan, Robert Gates told nervous military commanders that he was open to sending more troops to thwart the Taliban from regrouping. Congressman John McHugh, who just returned from a trip to Afghanistan with Hillary Clinton and Evan Bayh, said that everyone they talked to had warned “that when the snows melt in the mountains, it will bring a new onslaught from Al Qaeda and the Taliban ... one that directly threatens not just the Karzai presidency, but threatens Afghanistan itself, and logically, it follows, threatens our investment in blood and treasure.”

“Flashman” is based on a devastating British defeat during one of their wars in Afghanistan. After invading Kabul in 1839 and setting up an unpopular puppet shah, the British trekked through the snowy mountains to Jalalabad. Of more than 16,000 troops and camp followers, only one doctor survived; the rest were picked off in ambushes by Afghan warriors.

The lesson is that Afghanistan is a no man’s land that can’t be tamed by gringos. The British Empire, on which the sun never set, never succeeded in occupying Afghanistan even as it engaged in the Great Game with the Russians for influence there. It was terra incognita and terra fuggedaboutit.

“You could never forget that in Afghanistan you are walking a knife-edge the whole time,” Harry Flashman notes, adding that, like himself, the Afghans could be “cruel and bloodthirsty,” turning on you with no warning.

Mr. Fraser echoed those sentiments when I tracked him down at his home on the Isle of Man. “No one has ever succeeded in invading Afghanistan,” the octogenarian who fought in Burma in World War II boomed with a trace of Scottish accent.

“The Afghans are extraordinary fighters, tough and resourceful and cruel, and they know their business inside out,” he said. “On their own territory, they’re unbeatable. They love fighting and dealing with invaders. It’s almost a game to them. The country is Death Valley 10 times over. You see them on television in their robes with their weapons and that’s all. The American and British troops are loaded with rubbishy equipment.

“Eventually, I suppose, we’ll get out of Iraq and pretend it’s been a success when it’s just a mess. ... “Afghanistan is slightly different. You cannot ever win. When you consider the Russians put in more than 100,000 troops and couldn’t do it. There’s only one way to deal with the Afghans, and that’s to buy them.”

Mr. Fraser recites the end of Kipling’s “The Ballad of the King’s Mercy”:

Abdhur Rahman, the Durani Chief, of him is the story told,

He has opened his mouth to the North and the South,

They have stuffed his mouth

with gold ...

and sweet his favours are ...

from Balkh to Kandahar.

“It wouldn’t do Bush any harm to read Kipling,” he concluded before signing off.

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

:) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-20-2007, 11:59 PM

:| :| :| :| :| :| :| :|

January 20, 2007

Guest Columnist

Sex and the Single-Minded

By STACY SCHIFF

How to get a job in Washington, that balmy, bipartisan town: Direct an organization that opposes contraception on the grounds that it is “demeaning to women.” Compare premarital sex to heroin addiction. Advertise a link between breast cancer and abortion — a link that was refuted in 1997. Rant against sex ed. And hatch a loony theory about hormones.

You’re a shoo-in, and if your name is Eric Keroack you’re in your second month as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Keroack, a 46-year-old Massachusetts ob-gyn, today oversees the $280 million Title X program, the only federal program “designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them, with priority given to low-income persons.”

It’s not a job that plays to Dr. Keroack’s talents, which happen to be prodigious. In the PowerPoint presentation that has cemented his reputation, he makes the case that premarital sex suppresses the hormone oxytocin, thereby impairing one’s ability to forge a successful long-term relationship. If forced to mince words you might call this fanciful or speculative. Otherwise you’d call it wacko. “Really, really scary” and “utterly hilarious” were the first two reactions I heard from scientists.

Each of us owes a rather critical debt to oxytocin. It’s what moves a new mother to comfort and nurse a squalling baby rather than to toss it from the window, as common sense might dictate. It is — you knew your husband was missing something — the hormone of intimacy. (No, you can’t buy supplements across the border. And yes, OxyContin is something different. Rush Limbaugh was not working on his bonding instincts.)

Louann Brizendine, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, calls oxytocin the Glinda the Good Witch of her field. It is the drug of trust and partnership and attachment, commonly known by their street name: love. Oxytocin mellows, elates, and throws you into a mental fog. Rats prefer it to cocaine. While the rush at childbirth is particularly dramatic, the hormone swells with physical and emotional bonding of all kinds.

“Surge” has not always been a dirty word.

But no one has had as much good, clean fun with oxytocin as Dr. Keroack, for whom it is “God’s superglue.” Extrapolating in part from research with prairie voles, which are monogamous, he postulates that oxytocin cannot survive too much sex, at least with multiple partners, at least prior to marriage. By way of demonstration he proposes the duct tape test: you need only an adhesive and a hairy arm. The tape represents the brain. Press it down. Now reapply. See what happens? Less sticky, right? Concludes Keroack: “Basically, you will end up damaging your brain’s ability to use the oxytocin system as a chemical mechanism that serves to help you successfully bond in future relationships.” Don’t ask about his illustrations. They are offensive.

Keroack presents this as gospel truth, though the scientists on whose research he bases his theory balk. One called it a wild leap. “A bungee jump without a cord,” suggested another expert. Dr. Brizendine had a less kind word for it. She adds that while premarital sex cannot ruin your oxytocin response, it has been shown — in the absence of options — to ruin your life. Something tells me that Dr. Keroack is not planning a 34th anniversary bash on Monday for Roe v. Wade.

I know what you’re thinking: if Dr. Keroack can write stuff this outlandish he’s spelling his name wrong. As the other Kerouac said — arguably with a firmer grasp of neurochemistry — “I had nothing to offer anybody but my own confusion.” Dr. Keroack may want to borrow the disclaimer that prefaces Michael Crichton’s newest best-seller: “This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren’t.” It takes an agenda rather than a medical degree to engage in this kind of science. Or an imagination.

In all fairness, Dr. Keroack has long been a little clumsy as an analogist. In a 2001 letter to the Massachusetts Legislature he explained the logic of performing sonograms on women considering abortion: “Even Midas lets you look at your old muffler before they advise you to change it.”

There are many ways to define demeaning.

Stacy Schiff is the author, most recently, of “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America.” She is a guest columnist.

(y) (y) (y) Wow. The last sentence just about sums up a naked appraisal of an ignorant individual. It is very unfortunate that he is in such a (relatively) powerful position. :o Looking at an old muffler indeed.

(c) Need some hot tea soon to warm up after one last walk of the night for Wyatt.(o)

Peace,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-21-2007, 12:05 AM

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

January 21, 2007

Consumed

Earth Cover

By ROB WALKER

Bare Escentuals

For a glimpse of what cosmetics marketing used to look like, flip through the recent book “Hello Gorgeous!” a collection of beauty-product advertising images from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. “Glamour for You!” squeals one such ad for something called Stadium Girl Cake Makeup, featuring an apple-cheeked young woman and a promise to make the user’s complexion “more romantic than ever.” Elsewhere, a presumably satisfied cosmetics customer in a bridal gown is literally hauled off by a handsome man.

Whether you see such images as being shot through with optimism or just naïvete, it seems a long way from the sort of pitch used by Bare Escentuals, a cosmetics brand whose revenues for 2006 topped $300 million — more than double the figure from 2004. The most overt selling point for its foundations, eye shadows and other products is not the imagined Future You but the nitty gritty of the stuff itself. Its bareMinerals line of foundations — $25 for 0.3 ounce at Sephora — are made with “crushed minerals from the earth,” with no oils or preservatives; it’s “so pure you can sleep in it.” The company’s “patent-pending Rare Minerals Skin Revival Treatment” is actually meant to be worn while sleeping, making your skin “more luminous” all the while, thanks to a formula that includes “all 72 organic macro- and microminerals that exist in nature.” That one is $60 for .15 ounce.

An ingredients-based pitch seems a little crunchy for the mainstream, but then perhaps the mainstream has changed since the San Francisco company was founded some 30 years ago. (Back then it was basically a bath-and-body boutique.) Leslie Blodgett, the president and C.E.O., joined in 1994, starting bareMinerals the next year. She had been in the foundation division of Max Factor, where, she says, the focus was entirely on creating products that “would look great for three hours.” What happened after that, how uncomfortable it felt in the meantime or how much ended up “on your boyfriend’s shirt” wasn’t really important.

She figured there was an audience for products that did address those issues — but didn’t expect that it would become one of the top-selling foundations. Back then “I couldn’t give this stuff away,” Blodgett says. What the company had to do, she continues, was “educate” people on the benefits, both practical and health-oriented, of the no-preservative approach. It probably helped that in the subsequent years, ideas about organic food started to catch on, but Blodgett says plenty of women who weren’t all-natural-lifestyle types started trying the brand. Thus its growth has been “all word of mouth,” she says.

Oh, and one other thing: “We went on TV,” she adds. Specifically, Blodgett herself started showing up on QVC in 1997. In six minutes, she sold as much product as the company had been selling in a week. “It was shocking.” A few years later, the company made the next move — to infomercials.

Neither of those settings immediately calls to mind education, healthful living or the faint air of prestige that goes along with the brand’s price points. But Blodgett had a personal reason for suspecting that the television tactics would work without undercutting the brand’s hoped-for image. “I felt that I was pretty savvy and sophisticated,” she says, “and the way I knew of QVC is that I was a customer.” The QVC and infomercial pitches are each built largely around enthusiastic Bare Escentuals users sharing — televised word of mouth? — testimonials, and Blodgett herself. (A focus group found her “fake” — and that was the last time the company used a focus group, she adds with a laugh.)

Ultimately, of course, the Bare Escentuals education still culminates with a luminous promise or two. Rachel C. Weingarten, president of GTK Marketing Group and the author of “Hello Gorgeous!” figures that Bare Escentuals has indirectly benefited from the rise of science-y “cosmeceuticals,” which can be wildly expensive but which tend to have a compellingly rational back story — like the popular Crème De La Mer, created by an aerospace physicist. It’s not that glamour has gone out of style or that contemporary consumers are any less susceptible to it. “But now we really have to justify our spending,” she says. “To be able to say, ‘I bought it because. ...” And these days, an answer that includes crushed minerals, pending patents and 72 organic ingredients just seems a little easier to swallow — optimistic but not naïve — than one involving a guy in a tuxedo.

:D :D I have been using all kinds of this firm's make-up since 2003 and absolutely LOVE it. I also respect the founder and company's mission as well. (f) (f) What a delightful surprise to read this article in Saturday's "driveway" version of the NYTimes earlier today during a break from the computer..

(l) (l) (l) Bravo! (l) (l) (l)

Adieu,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-21-2007, 12:08 AM

:) :)

January 21, 2007

Norah Jones, Now in Her Own Words

By JON PARELES NYTimes

A LOCAL musician couldn’t ask for a more appreciative audience than the petite, black-haired woman in blue jeans who was one of about two dozen people at Marion’s Marquee Lounge on the Bowery a few Mondays ago. As the guitarist Tony Scherr led a trio through his bluesy, slightly skewed songs, she tapped her foot, giggled at his stage patter and vigorously applauded his solos. Every few tunes, she whispered, “I love this song!”

Between sets she walked over to hug band members and chat about gigs. She’s part of a circle of New York singers and songwriters who play one another’s songs and swap backup musicians. Sometimes she visits Lower East Side karaoke bars and belts out songs by Shakira or Guns N’ Roses. She’s also a member of various bands — the Sloppy Joannes, the Mazelles, the Little Willies — who show up as opening acts at no-cover-charge places like the Rodeo Bar. But she’s far better known by her own name: Norah Jones.

In a few days Ms. Jones, 27, would resume her main career: the one that has sold millions of albums and made her almost too popular for the 3,000-seat theaters she prefers to arenas. Her third solo album, “Not Too Late,” is due for release Jan. 30, and like her first two it offers the intimate sound of a handful of musicians in a small room, the sound of places like this one.

“Not Too Late” is also the first full album of her own songs, and it is darker, thornier and sometimes funnier than the albums that made her a star.

“On the first album I was saying, that’s just one part of me,” she said. “And then I was thinking, well, am I going to hide the rest of me now just because I’m afraid of something? No. I’m just going to be myself.”

At Marion’s Marquee Lounge she wore no makeup and had no entourage: only her boyfriend and songwriting collaborator, Lee Alexander, with whom she traded grins through the evening. They had rushed over after a long day of rehearsals to hear the night’s opening act: Jason Crigler, a guitarist and singer-songwriter recovering from a 2004 brain aneurysm. Ms. Jones had headlined a benefit concert for his medical expenses, and she watched his set with sisterly concern and increasing relief. Between sets she pointed out the other musicians in the room, offering praise and updates on their albums in progress. While she’s by far the best-known musician from this circuit, she’s still immersed in it. Here she was just another working musician among peers, the exact opposite of a diva. She has little interest in high-profile celebrity, and the tabloids generally ignore her. “I think I just never interested people that way in the beginning,” she said. “I don’t think I’m that boring, but I think, to an outsider ‘O.K., she’s in a stable relationship, she’s not a drug addict. She wears clothes, she wears underwear.’ ”

She shrugged. “There’s no facade,” she said. “I wish there was sometimes.”

Back onstage Mr. Scherr eased into an unhurried vamp, and Ms. Jones almost purred with pleasure. “I love slow music,” she declared.

Of course she does. She has thrived as a ballad singer, alternately celebrated for her finesse and dismissed as bland. Many listeners, she admits, consider her albums “background music.” On “Not Too Late” the instruments are still mostly unplugged, and the tempos stay moderate; its first single, “Thinking About You,” is a soul-flavored love song Ms. Jones had hesitated to record because it was “too pop.”

Yet her newer songs don’t always provide the comforts of her first two albums. The change is clear in the album’s first song, “Wish I Could.” It’s a gentle guitar waltz, and as it begins, the singer frets about how she can’t bear to go into an old favorite place “without you” — the kind of situation listeners might expect in a Norah Jones song. But then a girlfriend pulls her in, grieving that her man, a soldier, has been killed in the war. The song deepens from plaintiveness to irrevocable sorrow.

Ms. Jones wrote it, she said, while thinking about a soldier she dated soon after she arrived in New York City in 1999. She recently tried to find information on him, with no results. “I’m worried about him,” she said.

“Wish I Could” is followed by “Sinkin’ Soon,” a banjo-plinking, New Orleans-tinged shuffle with touches of Tom Waits and Kurt Weill. As Ms. Jones tinkles piano tremolos and allows herself a sultry rasp, it warns, “We drifted from the shore/With a captain who’s too proud to say/That he dropped the oar.” Later in the album comes “My Dear Country,” a song she wrote after the 2004 election: “Who knows, maybe the plans will change/Who knows, maybe he’s not deranged,” she sings.

“I’m not a very dark person,” Ms. Jones said. “The darkness on this album comes more from just being aware of what’s going on around us.”

Much of “Not Too Late” was recorded in the home studio at the loft Ms. Jones shares with Mr. Alexander. They met when she was looking for a bass player for a brunch gig singing jazz at the Washington Square Hotel, where she was also a waitress. Adam Levy, who’s still the guitarist in her band, gave her a list, “and I lucked out because I think the list was alphabetical,” Mr. Alexander said. He had just gotten a cellphone; Ms. Jones’s call was the first to come through.

The studio’s big windows survey the Lower East Side; there are guitars in neat racks overhead and two elegant antique pianos — a baby grand and an upright — among the keyboards. The doorway into the studio is flanked by vintage concert posters for members of Ms. Jones’s musical pantheon: Duke Ellington, Hank Williams, Ray Charles and Patsy Cline.

Jazz, country and soul were all folded into Ms. Jones’s 2002 debut album, “Come Away With Me.” In a pop universe full of whiz-bang electronic bombast and frantic vocal acrobatics, she arrived like an emissary from some subtler dimension. She sang modestly, with discreet jazz syncopations, accompanied by a few hand-played instruments.

“It’s not that things are left out very carefully,” she said. “It’s just that we never thought about putting them in.”

The songs, most of them written by her band members, were filled with wistful longing and, tucked behind it, the serene assurance that she’d never have to shout for attention. Or so it seemed. Actually, in three years singing on the New York club circuit, Ms. Jones had tried showier styles and decided she couldn’t pull them off. “I sang in some bad blues band for a while, and I heard a recording of myself,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘God, I’m oversinging, and I don’t sound like Aretha Franklin, so I shouldn’t try.’ And I think I scaled back a little bit more than maybe I meant to.”

MS. JONES has a musical pedigree; her father is the sitar master Ravi Shankar. Norah’s mother, Sue Jones, and Mr. Shankar broke up soon after Norah was born, and Norah was raised in Texas, in touch with Mr. Shankar but not close to him.

“I didn’t really grow up with much of a relationship with him,” she said. “Now that we’re in a good place, I think: ‘Wow, he’s 86. I should ask him all these questions about music.’ I was just interested in having a dad for a long time, and I was almost annoyed that he was a famous musician. And now I’m like: ‘Oh, my God, John Coltrane came to him for a lesson. Forget George Harrison. I want to know about his afternoon with John Coltrane.’ ”

Drawn to jazz, she majored in piano at the pioneering jazz studies department of the University of North Texas before dropping out and heading to New York City. “I used to be a jazz snob, believe it or not,” she said. “I sort of turned my nose up at anything more commercial.”

She soaked up music theory and developed a limpid touch on piano, though not the sheer velocity of musicians she admires. “I’m not lazy, but I’ve never been a lock-myself-in-the-practice-room kind of girl,” she said. “I don’t have chops. I can’t play fast.”

In New York she found herself at the intersection of two social and musical scenes: jazz musicians, who were fond of musical complexities and structural experiments, and singer-songwriters, aiming for concision and elegance. She regained respect for the basic three-chord songs of country, soul and folk.

“I’m admitting it: I don’t make jazz really anymore, but I’m very heavily influenced by it,” she said. “I had to reprogram myself. That’s why I started writing more on guitar in the beginning, because I only knew three chords, and it was easier, it just made my life simpler. And on the piano it took me a long time to realize I could play a triad” — an unembellished major or minor chord — “and it doesn’t have to sound really simple. I finally learned how to do it.”

Her reticence became her gift. Although “Come Away With Me” wasn’t what Top 20 radio stations defined as pop, it caught on almost by word of mouth and kept selling, eventually reaching 10 million copies in the United States alone, ratified by an armload of Grammy awards. Her slightly more upbeat 2004 sequel, “Feels Like Home,” has sold four million copies in the United States, and last year Ms. Jones released an album with her casual, countryish side project, the Little Willies (named after another hero, Willie Nelson).

Popularity brought a backlash: from jazz aficionados grumbling that Ms. Jones’s pop didn’t belong on the hallowed Blue Note label, from rock and pop listeners who found her music too tame, and from people who grew tired of hearing her albums everywhere as, yes, background music.

“I have a real big fear of being overexposed,” she said. “On the first record I was everywhere and it was like the worst time in my life.”

She was grateful for success, she quickly noted. “I’m appreciative of everything. But it was the most unhappy time for me.”

“I’m very much not like my records in person,” she added. “They expect me to be very girly, very romantic, very melancholy, and I’m not any of those things. So it’s funny. I don’t know where this side of me came from, this ballad-loving, quiet, simplistic, all that stuff. That’s very much from me, and I’m not sure where I got that or why I held onto it so tightly.”

She knows her albums can be lullabies. “People always tell me how: ‘Oh, my god, my son listens to your album every night to go to sleep. He went to summer camp last summer, and he couldn’t sleep, so I had to give him his Norah Jones album.’ I’m like: ‘Oh, that’s so sweet. Thank you.’ I put people to sleep. Putting people to sleep, one child at a time.” She laughed.

“It’s funny, with every album, I’m like: ‘Oh, this is way different from my last album. This is so much not as mellow.’ And then I’ll listen to it and I’m like, ‘Wow, this song’s slow.’ ”

Ms. Jones wrote only a few songs on each of her first two albums. (Her Grammy-winning hit, “Don’t Know Why,” was by Jesse Harris, who’s part of her studio band.) As she was gearing up for her third album, she said, “I was kind of depressed that I hadn’t been creative in that way.” So despite the complications of life on the road, she decided: “I’ve got to figure out how to just do this. This is my life now.”

After the tour, Mr. Alexander left her alone for a month while he produced an album for Amos Lee. “I was staying up late by myself in the studio playing, which is something I never do when he’s home,” she said. “We had been together for five years, and it was the first time we’d spent that kind of time apart, where I was the one alone and not busy.”

What came out, along with political reflections, were songs about loneliness and breakups. “It’s my journal, not my diary,” she said. “We realized we’re in a good relationship. We don’t want to cause turmoil just for a good song, so we’ll just have to get it from other people. I did have some good friends who were going through a pretty rough breakup at the time. And I definitely looked towards that for a lot of these songs. I finally started looking outside myself for ideas.”

A sense of mortality flickers through the album’s apolitical songs. In “The Sun Doesn’t Like You,” she sketches a love song in a stark prison landscape, complete with dogs and razor wire; “Someday we all have to die,” she reflects. Amid eerie, Minimalistic plinking and an aura of guitar feedback, “Not My Friend” starts as a plaint and turns far more sinister: “When I back away,” she sings, “I’m gonna keep the handle of your gun in sight.” Even “Little Room,” a droll, countryish bounce about a tiny apartment from her early days in New York City, notes that with the bars on the windows, “If there were a fire we’d burn up for sure.”

The music on “Not Too Late” stays poised; its edge is turned inward. “I know that to some people it might sound the same: ‘Oh, it’s quiet, therefore it’s the same,’ ” Ms. Jones said. “But I don’t mind being misunderstood anymore, that’s the thing. I realize that it doesn’t matter if people don’t understand me or what something means to me. If it doesn’t translate then that’s O.K., I don’t care anymore.

“If people enjoy the music, great. And if they don’t like it, and they think it’s boring, fine. They don’t get it. But it doesn’t matter anymore if I’m completely understood. Because you’re not going to be. And you’re never going to please everybody, so you shouldn’t try.”

A few nights later Ms. Jones had a formal performance: a Webster Hall show for television cameras and an audience of friends, the news media and music-business contacts. At the sound check she was a working musician again, making last-minute adjustments to details: deciding, for instance, that one song needed the quiet rustle of a shaker instead of brushes on a snare drum. She started the concert not with a ballad, but with the sardonic barrelhouse strut of “Sinkin’ Soon.” After the applause she smiled knowingly. “I promise we’ll play some quiet slow songs,” she said. “Eventually.”

(y) (y)

Pleasant dreams,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-21-2007, 10:13 AM

(l) (y) (l) (y) (l) (y) (l) (y)

http://www.gsn.com/minigames/minigame.php?id=13

(y) (y) I LMAO as I used the rights keys for Rosie to win! (y) I forgot to turn my speakers up the first time that I played - so remember to turn your speakers up - the audio is as funny as the on-screen action.

(c) Definitely major coffee warning, it is that funny. (IMHO)

Get those fingers ready to rumble! ;) On the keyboard, that is.

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-21-2007, 06:13 PM

:)

(l) : http://www.femail.com.au/img/merylstreep.jpg

(f) Nominated for 12 Oscars, and recipient of two [one for Supporting Actress] Meryl Streep has long been regarded as one of the great actresses of her generation.(f)

http://www.femail.com.au/merylstreep.htm

http://www.archivio.raiuno.rai.it/image/0096/009604.jpg

http://www.leninimports.com/meryl_streep.jpg

http://interaktiv.vg.no/filmextra/bilder/personer/meryl_streep.jpg

(l) http://img.stern.de/_content/50/56/505663/streep1.jpg

(~) The Devil Wears Prada:

http://www.wildaboutmovies.com/images_2/DevilWearsPradaMerylStreep2.jpg

So Young!

http://www.nonsolobiografie.it/personaggi/primopiano_meryl_streep.jpg

(~) Bridges of Madison County:

http://media.bbn.com.cn/pictures/500215/10116/10116_MerylStreep02.jpg

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.02.97/gifs/books-9701.jpg

Time Magazine! http://www.wildaboutmovies.com/images_2/MerylStreep.jpg

(y) http://as.wn.com/i/87/68573f1654bd3d.jpg

http://img.interia.pl/rozrywka/nimg/Meryl_Streep_Trema_Meryl_994189.jpg

http://www.northwestern.edu/shared/cms/images/newscenter/2005/09/streep.jpg

(~) Manchurian Candidate:

http://www.filmweb.no/bilder/multimedia/archive/00013/Meryl_Streep_i_Manch_13060c.jpg

http://www.moviemaze.de/celebs/0192/main.jpg

(l) http://www.spietati.it/images/fotoredazione/meryl-streep.jpg

Norah Jones, Meryl Streep, Angelina....

http://www.yele.org/images/gallery/hamptons/jones-streep-jolie.jpg

(~) The Hours:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/7/79/The_hours-meryl_streep.jpg

Talk about a FEMME FATALES:

http://www.style.com/slideshows/standalone/w/feature/040506WFEA/03m.jpg

http://www.cinemanow.com/images/boxart/175/femme_fatales_meryl_175.jpg

With Cher (and so young!) :

http://www.filmreference.com/images/sjff_03_img1006.jpg

http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2006/03/02/PH2006030202163.jpg

(l) (l) (~) Angels in America:

http://www.conspiracyworld.com/web/Articles/Article%20Images/meryl_streep.gif

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2004/06/02/angle_in,0.jpg

(~) Prarie Home Companion:

http://www.cinecon.com/bigstory/merylstreep_int_pr_435.jpg

(f) Enjoy!

:| Whew! Finally got that independent study PhD course (my LAST course!) proposal (course learning plan) emailed as an attachment to the professor. And now the wait for the feedback. Hopefully, not too many edits need to be made.

Have a relaxing, snuggly Sunday evening!

Warmest wishes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-21-2007, 06:20 PM

:s

Scotland on Sunday Sun 21 Jan 2007

Fury at Kelly threat to gay adoptions

BRIAN BRADY AND MURDO MACLEOD

A FRESH constitutional row erupted last night after it emerged that an English Cabinet minister was preparing to force Scotland to abandon its groundbreaking law allowing gay couples to adopt children.

Communities and Local Government minister Ruth Kelly is on collision course with Labour colleagues north and south of the Border over her attempts to slap a ban on gay people adopting children from church-based adoption agencies.

MSPs took the step of allowing gay adoption barely a month ago when they passed the Adoption Act despite furious opposition from conservatives and church groups.

But Kelly, a devout Catholic, now threatens to overturn the Holyrood legislation with an amendment to her own hugely controversial proposals to outlaw sex discrimination in the business and services industry. Tony Blair is believed to be backing the proposed exemption enabling faith-based agencies to refuse to place children with gay couples.

Sources close to Kelly last night confirmed she wanted to see all elements of the Sexual Orientation (Provision of Goods and Services) Regulations applying throughout the UK, meaning they would take precedence over the Scottish Parliament's own laws.

The backlash against her proposed exemption began last night, days before she was due to drop the bombshell amendment on Cabinet colleagues.

"Whatever one thinks of the issue itself, it is clear Westminster should not be able to overrule the Scottish Parliament on a subject where MSPs have made their views perfectly clear," an SNP spokesman said. "This is another example of why we need more powers for the Scottish Parliament, to decide our own policies rather than being under Westminster."

Kelly has been deeply concerned by the widespread opposition to the new regulations, which are aimed at preventing businesses from discriminating against homosexuals. Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have condemned the proposals, due to come into force in April, claiming they will have a damaging impact on charities and faith schools.

Catholic Church leaders warned they would prefer to shut down their seven adoption agencies - which found homes for over 200 children last year - rather than be forced to place children with gay couples.

Opponents of the legislation have also warned the rules would leave bed and breakfast owners open to legal action if they do not allow same-sex couples to share a room.

Kelly's proposal is hugely controversial as it clashes directly with the government's stated aim of stripping away the institutional prejudices that have prevented homosexuals from taking a full role in society for generations.

A source close to First Minister Jack McConnell said he was not yet aware of any plans by Westminster to legislate for Scotland on this issue. He said: "The Scottish Parliament has voted on this subject and made its will clear."

Kelly, who is a member of conservative Catholic sect Opus Dei, has already floated her views to members of the Cabinet's domestic affairs committee, which is attempting to produce a workable version of the contentious sexual orientation regulations.

She was due to send a letter outlining her plans for the exemption to Cabinet last week but, as one senior colleague explained, she "bottled it".

She is now expected to present her blueprint to colleagues on Thursday, and provoke a furious debate over the government's commitment to equal opportunities.

A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland last night welcomed suggestions of a reprieve for the adoption agencies.

But Barbara Hudson, director of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering, said that any adoptive parent was robustly assessed, not only for the stability of their relationship, but their ability to deal with discrimination.

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=106742007

(n) (n) Uh-oh.

<fingers crossed it works out well for any GLTG who wants to adopt...>

:o Me? Wyatt the Boxer *is* my kid. :)

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-21-2007, 06:29 PM

;) ;)

You know that the French named the Grand Tetons out west, right? And what it means? ;)

:)

"A mountainous confection guaranteed to thrill and impress. Enrobed in a rich milk and white chocolate, the luscious chocolate mousse is combined with a hint of hazelnut praline to create a tempting towering delight."

http://www.impromptugourmet.com/detail.aspx?ID=774&cmp=ILC-HP10092006v2

Grand Sequoia Mouse: http://www.impromptugourmet.com/images/61918S.jpg

Raspberry and Lemon Mousse: http://www.impromptugourmet.com/images/61882S.jpg

Rocky Mountain Mudslide Cake: http://www.impromptugourmet.com/images/61674S.jpg

Apple Dumplings and Ice Cream: http://www.impromptugourmet.com/Images/85043S.jpg

Cappuccino Mousse: http://www.impromptugourmet.com/images/61858S.jpg

Chocolate Mousse Brownie: http://www.impromptugourmet.com/images/53931S.jpg

Triple Chocolate Mousse: http://www.impromptugourmet.com/images/61852S.jpg

(l) (l) (l) Just about ALL of the above would be great bedroom food - no crumbs.....;) :)

Hugs across the digital tundra,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 10:54 AM

:)

December 18, 2006

‘The L Word’ Spins Off Its Chart

By ELIZABETH JENSEN NYTimes

From the first season of Showtime’s “The L Word,” a chart mapping the relationships of the character Alice has been a central motif, growing to take over an entire wall. Starting Jan. 7 with the start of the fourth season of the lesbian-themed drama, the Chart is going live, both on the series and in the real world.

Looking for compelling Internet component (like all media executives), “The L Word” creator Ilene Chaiken realized that she could spin off the Chart as an advertiser-supported social networking Web site aimed at lesbians and their friends and families.

Users of OurChart.com will be able to create personal profile pages and then, like Alice, link them into charts of their relationships, whether sexual or otherwise. Three of the show’s cast members — Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moennig and Leisha Hailey, who plays Alice — are among the site’s founding partners and will contribute original content to the site, as will other invited filmmakers and Ms. Chaiken, who is OurChart.com’s chief executive.

The site, a joint venture with Showtime Networks, which is owned by CBS, is a way of acknowledging that “audiences own TV shows these days and they want interaction,” Ms. Chaiken said.

Eventually, the portion of the new site devoted to “The L Word” will become less important “as the community takes it over” with user-generated content, said Hilary Rosen, a founding partner and the site’s president. “Every lesbian has their own L world. We thought it would be really interesting to let go of the show in this environment and bring other people’s L worlds into the mix and let them share with each other.”

Matthew Blank, chairman and chief executive of Showtime Networks, said the audience for the show “has a tremendous sense of community,” which he equated to “analog social networking.”

“Everyone I know who watches that show and is gay watches it with their friends,” he said. “It makes for a natural extension.” But he acknowledged that trying to build such a site from a show has not been done before. “We’re not sure what to expect.”

(y) (y) The L Word folks announced a real world chart last night after the 10:00 p.m. episode on Showtime. I tried logging on and it took about 15 minutes - their servers were so overloaded. Didn't see all that much. It seems to me that Showtime (or more likely, a contractor) is still building the web site.

As always, though - any web site that enables people to network, get information, share stories and more - is a good thing.(y) (y)

:o It snowed a little bit over the night, but it's melting. Where are my new waterproof shoes? ;) Errands to run yet today. :)

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 10:55 AM

:) :)

http://www.theplanetcast.blogspot.com/

(y) (y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 10:56 AM

(y) (y) (y) (y)

ndianapolis 38, New England 34

By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer

January 22, 2007

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The demons can relocate to some other team's locker room. Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy are Super Bowl material now.

Manning led the Colts from 18 points down in the second quarter, and on a game-winning 80-yard drive late in the fourth, for a wildly entertaining 38-34 victory Sunday over the New England Patriots in the AFC title game.

He took Dungy along for the ride, helping his coach finally get to the big game and make some history along the way. In two weeks, Dungy will join Chicago's Lovie Smith in the Super Bowl, where together they will be the first black head coaches to meet in the NFL's biggest game.

"It means a lot," Dungy said. "I'm very proud to be representing African-Americans. I'm very proud of Lovie."

Manning wouldn't concede that a huge weight was lifted with this win, the biggest in his nine-year NFL career.

"I don't get into monkeys and vindication," he said. "I don't play that card. I know how hard I worked this season, I know how hard I worked this week."

The Colts are the early favorites to beat the NFC champion Bears in the Super Bowl, by a touchdown.

Sunday's game was a show for the ages, and Manning was the star. He threw for 349 yards and one touchdown and brought his team back from a 21-3 deficit, the biggest comeback in conference title-game history.

The Patriots (14-5) lost in the championship game for the first time in six tries and saw their hopes of winning four Super Bowls in six years -- a la the Steelers of the late 70s -- derailed by Manning and Co.

Joseph Addai capped Manning's late drive with the winning score, a 3-yard run with 1 minute left to help the Colts (15-4) complete the rally and give them their first lead in the game.

After the final score, Manning was on the sideline, his head down, unable to watch. Brady threw an interception to Marlin Jackson and the RCA Dome crowd went wild. One kneel down later and Manning ripped off his helmet to celebrate.

"I said a little prayer on that last drive," Manning said. "I don't know if you're supposed to pray for stuff like that, but I said a little prayer."

Not only was it a win for Manning, the All-Pro, All-Everything son of Archie, it was a riveting, back-and-forth showcase of two of the NFL's best teams, best quarterbacks, and yet another example of why football is America's favorite sport.

It was anything but a by-the-book game, and that started becoming obvious when New England left guard Logan Mankins opened the scoring by pouncing on a fumbled handoff between Brady and Laurence Maroney that squirted into the Indy end zone midway through the first quarter.

It got worse from there for Manning, who telegraphed a throw to the sideline that Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel snatched and took 39 yards into the end zone for a 21-3 lead.

Then, the game plan changed because it had to, and the game morphed from another Manning meltdown into something much more.

He led the Colts on an 80-yard drive late in the first half for a field goal to make it 21-6. In the third quarter, he was at his cruel best, dissecting an exhausted Patriots defense for a pair of long drives and scores.

The first came on a 1-yard quarterback sneak. The second was capped by a 1-yard pass to Dan Klecko, a defensive tackle who came in as a supposed decoy at the goal line. A circus catch by Marvin Harrison for the 2-point conversion tied the game at 21.

"I'm so proud of the way our guys fought," Dungy said. "I'm very happy for Peyton. He was very, very calm. He had to bring us from behind three or four times. It's just fitting. Our team went the hard way the whole year."

After Indy's tying score, the Patriots answered with an 80-yard kickoff return by Ellis Hobbs, which set up a 6-yard touchdown pass from Brady to Jabar Gaffney. Officials awarded the score to Gaffney after ruling he was forced out of the back of the end zone by an Indy defender.

Manning came right back but his handoff to Dominic Rhodes misfired. The ball scooted forward and center Jeff Saturday got this touchdown to tie the score at 28.

After that drive, Manning could be seen on the sideline, nursing a sore thumb. But he wasn't coming out.

"I was a little worried at first, but I went over, made a few warmup throws and it was fine," he said. "I guess adrenaline pulled me through there a little, too."

The teams traded field goals, and Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski put New England ahead 34-31 on a 43-yarder with 3:49 left.

After a touchback, it was time for Manning's drive: 11 yards to Reggie Wayne, 32 yards to Bryan Fletcher, a scary completion to Wayne, who nearly lost the ball but snatched it back.

A roughing-the-passer call gave Indy the ball at the 11, then Manning handed off three straight times to Addai for the last 11 yards.

This 80-yard march came 20 years after John Elway made his first Super Bowl with The Drive.

"I watched the drive with Elway, you never get tired of seeing that," Manning said. "I'm not comparing what we just did to that, but it sounds pretty good."

It was Manning at his best.

He was 0-2 in the playoffs against New England, and saw another great chance for the Super Bowl disappear last year in a home loss to Pittsburgh. The storyline all week was what a break the Colts got in getting the Patriots at home, and what a sensational feeling it would be to finally knock off the team that bedeviled them most.

That story had a happy ending for the Colts, as Patriots coach Bill Belichick found himself uncharacteristically unable to shut down Manning and Co.

"We played the defenses we thought were best for our football team," Belichick said. "That's all we did."

The Colts piled on 455 yards and scored on six of their final eight drives, not counting the one where Manning kneeled down. The mystique that seemed so prevalent last week in an upset win over San Diego seemed missing, and this looked like a tired, desperate, defeated team in the end. Maybe it was due in part to a flu bug that worked its way through its locker room during the week.

So while that dynasty is dead, it is now Manning's turn to take a shot at starting a new one.

"Some of that stuff is a little deep for me," Manning said. "I just wanted to do my job and do my job well. I didn't think I needed to be super. I just needed to be good."

On this defining day, it turns out he was both.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/recap?gid=20070121011

(y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 10:59 AM

:o :o

THE VIEW FROM INDIANAPOLIS

Ghosts of Manning's past disappear

BY BOB KRAVITZ

Bob Kravitz is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star

January 22, 2007

INDIANAPOLIS -- This was Peyton Manning's moment. This was his chance to create a memory, alter a legacy, do the kind of thing he's never been able to do during previous playoff performances.

This was the moment Manning had been waiting all his life to seize.

There was 2:17 left Sunday at the RCA Dome, the New England Patriots hanging on by 34-31, the AFC title and a berth in Super Bowl XLI in the balance. A game that had not only lived up to the hype, but exceeded it in every imaginable way, had come down to this.

A season on the line.

A legacy on the line.

Let this one sink in: The Colts, producers of the greatest comeback in a conference championship game, are going to the Super Bowl.

Let me type that one again: The Colts are going to the Super Bowl.

The gremlins, the ghosts, the whispers, the doubts, all of them, gone in that 2-minute-17-second snapshot of excellence. We will never look at the Colts quite the same way again.

And certainly, clearly, we will never look at Manning as the best never to do this or do that, because he's done it, did it after a brutish first half, did it after his interception sent the Colts behind by a 21-3 score, did it facing unimaginable pressure.

The Colts are going to the Super Bowl for a number of reasons: They are going because this team, which takes its cue from its stoic head coach, never let the 21-3 deficit faze them.

How remarkable, really, that this Super Bowl will not only feature the first black head coach, but two black head coaches, Dungy and Lovie Smith, two close friends, a teacher and his pupil, two nice men who have shown the world a head coach doesn't have to be a raving lunatic to reach a Super Bowl.

They are going because Manning refused to have it any other way, leaving this city and the football nation with a memory that will be replayed long after Manning has retired and been enshrined in the Football Hall of Fame.

They are going because the Indy defense, which was repeatedly put in impossible positions by the Colts' shaky special teams, continued to play fast and hard, even when things were going poorly.

It's said anything truly worthwhile comes with a struggle, with heartache and disappointment, and the Colts have known plenty of that the past few Januarys.

But there is a gritty nobility to this team, coming back and coming back, putting up those four straight seasons of 12-or-more victories despite the harsh way each of the previous seasons ended.

Now, finally, they are going to the Super Bowl.

The exorcism is complete. And now, now, the fun begins.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/cs-0701220078jan22,1,6954801.story?coll=cs-football-print

(y) (y) About time for another team to have a chance. And for the Patriots to have a wee bit of humble pie. No?

:) But then, I am no football fan. :)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 11:13 AM

(l) (l) (l) (l)

By Aefa Mulholland

Whether you want somewhere special to spend Valentine's Day or are always on the lookout for lodgings worth lingering in, we give you food for thought with these delicious cool and enticingly hot hotels. We whet your appetite for Whistler, British Columbia, West Hollywood, Scottsdale, Ariz., Provincetown, Mass., and Mexico. Whether you want to sidle in off the slopes to Whistler's fabulous Fairmont, to pop in for some top-notch pampering at Scottsdale's outstanding Hyatt Regency Gainey Ranch, enjoy each other's company in off-season P'town, soak up the delicious ambience of Todos Santos, Mexico, or to be in the heart of the action at West Hollywood's chic Chamberlain, this selection of sumptuous spots is sure to satisfy your romantic desires.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler
Whistler, British Columbia
4599 Chateau Blvd.; 800/441-1414; www.fairmont.com/whistler; from $299

A two-hour scenic drive from Vancouver, and a mere thirty feet from Blackcomb Mountain's Wizard Express chairlift, The Fairmont Chateau Whistler is a deliciously luxurious destination. A full-service health club and spa are on hand to soothe away the rigors of the slopes and there's no shortage of spots for sustenance. Nearby, at the Fairmont's golf club Chalet, you can feed each other forkfuls of fondue.

Once you've showed off your prowess on skis, snowboard, snowshoes or snowmobile, sashay into the swanky Mallard Lounge and start the apres-ski off right with the Chateau's sexy signature powder hound beverage, the Mountain Martini. A delicious mix of Absolute Vanilla vodka, Kahlua, Gifford Caramel & Cream liqueur, served warm and finished with a coffee bean, choose to sip it in the lounge or in one of the 550-room property's three outdoor hot tubs. Other vital statistics include Whistler Blackcomb Mountains' 8,171 acres of ski-able terrain, and eight, the number of days that the town will fill to the brim with ski- and apres-ski-minded gay and lesbian visitors who flock to the slopes for WinterPRIDE (www.winterpride.com), Whistler's sizzling hot gay festival (Feb. 4-11, 2007).

Chamberlain West Hollywood
West Hollywood 1000 Westmount Drive; 310/657-7400; www.chamberlainwesthollywood.com; from $229

Tucked away on a quiet residential West Hollywood street, a short 10-minute walk from the heart of "Boys' Town," the Chamberlain is an urban oasis with a big buzz. Spending a weekend away at the Chamberlain is like living the high life in a fabulously contemporary L.A. pied-a-terre. Romantic touches abound throughout the hotel, from a cozy gas log fireplace in each room to an intimate, well-regarded Bistro restaurant with outdoor patio.

Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa at Gainey Ranch
Scottsdale, Ariz.
7500 E. Doubletree Ranch Rd.; 480/444-1234; scottsdale.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/; $179-$615

For a sumptuous upscale escape, Hyatt Regency Scottsdale refreshes guests with impeccable service, 10 pools, a lagoon and Spa Avania. Soothe away travel stress at the outstanding spa. Avania's facilities are at the disposal of spa guests until 10 p.m., so check in for one of their incredible massages early to make the most of the visit. Separate men's and women's sides both have spectacular amenities - eucalyptus room, steam room, outdoor rain showers and a relaxation lounge. Outside, in the co-ed area, another lounge has an outdoor fireplace and jugs of deliciously cool iced ginger water. Down a few steps is the swimming pool-sized French mineral pool, surrounded by loungers and palm trees. To continue spoiling yourselves, reserve a table at the luscious Vu. Dine on a high backed, orange velvet banquette on delicacies, such as pumpkin, vanilla and star anise soup. Sheer drapes separate tables and doors open out onto one of the properties myriad water features. Gainey Ranch is the perfect escape.

The Brass Key
Provincetown, Mass.
67 Bradford St., 800/842-9858 or 508/487-9005; www.brasskey.com; $100-$475

Owner Michael MacIntyre is a Ritz-Carlton alum, and it shows. From the elegant yet comfortable furnishings, to the thoughtful amenities, to the professional, hardworking and friendly staff, this is a class act and our first choice in town. This is a luxury gay resort that's as fine as any in the country. The Brass Key is a destination in and of itself, with its extensive grounds that include a huge hot tub, infinity-edge pool, landscaped brick pool deck, and all-around fabulous resort atmosphere. Rooms boast phones, TV/VCRs, Bose CD clock radios, luxury bath amenities -- the works -- and some have grand balconies and fireplaces. And just in case you forgot yours, the Brass Key even lends guests iPods and laptops on request. The location is just steps from Commercial Street. This property is at the highest of Five-Palms excellence.

Todos Santos Inn
Todos Santos, Mexico
Calle Legaspi 33, +52-612/14-50040; www.todossantosinn.com; $95-135

For those seeking somewhere away from the tourist bustle the quaint bohemian village of Todos Santos is an ideal stop. This delectable former sugar baron's hacienda offers elegantly appointed rooms with rustic, Mission-style furniture and terra cotta-tiled floors, and the suites each have their own balconies. Antiques, soaring beamed ceilings and beautifully kept courtyard gardens add to the feel of a gracious, bygone era. Take a swim or a Spanish lesson with your lover, then idle the hours away on the pristine beach.

(ip) (ip) Or stay home and make your own romantic island (ip) . One Valentine's Day back in 1991 or 1992 - when I had to drive the day before for a client appointment in Washington, D.C.? Rather than go out to any restaurant (which would all be mobbed with couples, of course) on Valentine's Day - I ordered a fabulous dinner in from room service and watched a "chick flick" romantic film in my hotel room.

(l) And thought to myself for the first time in my life, "This is the first time; might not be the last time, but solitude on Valentine's Day Evening is not the worst thing in the world."

(y) (y) After a couple of "dining disasters" back in the 1990s?

"I would rather be alone."

:o How about dining with someone far away via videoconference on your desktop? ;) I'd bet that it has been done somewhere, some place. Not me, but someone must surely have done it. (l) Hmmm, virtual dining. (i) (i)

Warmest ({) (}) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 11:17 AM

:s :s

Holy war erupts as unorthodox Greeks revive ancient religion

Paris Ayiomamitis in Athens

January 23, 2007

IT TOOK more than 1600 years, but the ancient Greek god Zeus has been honoured once again, pagan style, by a tiny group of worshippers at an ancient temple in the heart of Athens.

It was the first known ceremony of its kind at the 1800-year-old temple of Zeus since the religion was outlawed by the Roman empire in the late 4th century.

About 200 people attended the ceremony organised by Ellinais, an Athens-based group campaigning to revive ancient religion. The group defied a ban by the Culture Ministry, which had declared the central Athens site off-limits.

"Our message is world peace and an ecological way of life in which everyone has the right to education," said Kostas Stathopoulos, one of three high priests overseeing the event, which celebrated the nuptials of Zeus with Hera, the goddess of love and marriage.

A herald holding a metal staff, topped with two snake heads, proclaimed the beginning of the ceremony before priests in blue and red robes released two white doves, symbols of peace.

To curious onlookers, the ceremony conjured up scenes out of a Hollywood epic but to organisers the ceremony was far more than simple recreation.

"We are Greeks and we demand from the Government the right to use our temples," said Doreta Peppa, a high priestess.

Ellinais, which has 34 official members - mainly middle-aged and elderly academics, lawyers and other professionals - was founded last year. It won a court battle for official recognition of the ancient Greek religion and is demanding approval for its offices to be registered as a place of worship - a move that could allow the group to perform weddings and other duties.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/holy-war-erupts-as-unorthodox-greeks-revive-ancient-religion/2007/01/22/1169330827549.html

(f) To each his/her /hys own. (f)

(k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 11:18 AM

:| :|

Monday, 22 January 2007, 14:24 GMT

Beach-combers have been told to stay away, but scavengers are out on Branscombe beach in Devon, where booty is washing up from the stranded ship MSC Napoli. So can they keep what they find?

Brand new BMW motorbikes have been wheeled out of the shingle by keen treasure-hunters. Wine casks, perfume and car parts littering the shore have been rolled clear or tucked under the arm.

People are picking through the contents of spilt containers from the cargo ship MSC Napoli beached off the Devon coast and at night, the area is lit by flickering torches as they scour the area for goodies.

Warnings that chemicals such as battery acid, pesticide and oily liquids have also washed up, are proving little deterrent against the lure of "free stuff" littering the beach. But can people keep it?

So far, police have not closed off the beach to stop them coming.

And there is, says Stephen Askins, a partner with maritime lawyers Ince and Co, a right to salve property. Someone could argue they are recovering goods from the beach to protect them, as they would be in a poorer state come four or five tides' time.

But, before they clear the car boot and head to the coast, they should be aware of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. It states clearly that if they try to conceal or keep the booty they are breaking the law.

If they ignore the advice to leave it alone and report it to the coastguard, they must fill in relevant paperwork. But that still doesn't allow them to keep it.

The goods still belong to their owners, whether they are stuck in containers on the stricken vessel, or washed up on the shore. Contractors have already been brought in to clean up the beach and return anything to its rightful home.

Flotsam and jetsam

But when Joe Public decides to "help", as seems to be the case all over Branscombe beach, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's Receiver of Wrecks steps in.

The job title goes back to the previous 1854 Merchant Shipping Act, which also set out rules on picking up flotsam and jetsam.

Salvage, and indeed deliberate wrecking of ships, around our island nation has a long history. The principles governing ownership and recovery go back at least to the 1300s says Alison Kentuck, the MCA's deputy receiver.

If people take the cargo, they fill in a "report of wreck and salvage" form, with their contact details, what they found, where and when. "It's available from pretty much anybody in uniform down on the beach", she says.

Her role is then to reunite owner and property. A reward to the finder could be offered, depending on the value of the goods, the condition they are in after rescue, and the effort involved in recovering them from the beach. Wheeling something home, she stresses, is "not classed as a huge amount of effort".

Hiding the goods and not giving them back is a criminal offence, with a possible fine of up to £2,500 per offence.

Plus, the hot-fingered beach-comber, would waive their right to a salvage award, and have to pay the owner twice the good's value: "In the case of a BMW motorbike, it could be quite expensive".

As for paddling out to see what the remaining 2,000 containers may hold, it is of course highly dangerous. And, would-be pirates note, there are official salvors charged with recovering the cargo stuck at sea, and the damaged ship itself.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6287047.stm

;) ;) ;) Just goes to show that one's "flotsam and jetsam" is another's motorcycle.......(see photo at top of article). :-)

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 11:23 AM

:o :o

Impressive Bike:

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/01/22/loot1.jpg

****************************
Crowds gather goods washed from stricken ship

Mark Oliver and agencies

Monday January 22, 2007 Guardian Unlimited

Scores of members of the public were today continuing to "salvage" goods washed ashore from a grounded and heavily listing ship off the coast of Devon.

Police have voiced concerns over public safety and warned salvagers they could end up in court if they did not report what they had taken.

People used torches to search beaches off the Sidmouth coastline last night, and have continued to flock to the coastline after goods in containers that had fallen from the stricken Napoli floated ashore.

The ship was carrying items including wine, car parts, haircare products and nappies. One group of people at Branscombe Beach, near Seaton, used a tractor to carry off a new BMW motorbike, still partially wrapped in cardboard.

However, salvors were warned by the Receiver of Wreck, Sophia Exelby, who settles ownership issues relating to wrecks in UK waters, that the goods still legally belong to Zodiac Maritime, a London-based international shipping firm.

It was expected the firm would increase security around the wrecked items through the day - but by midday, there was still a sense of free for all at Branscombe beach.

"People are looking through what had come out of the containers, putting things in paper bags and taking them away," one witness said.

Under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, the finders of wrecked items have some rights.

However, Ms Exelby told the Press Association: "[Zodiac Maritime] are arranging their own recovery operation, and are requesting that people stay away. If anybody has already made recoveries from the wreck, they are obliged by law to report to the recoverer of wreck.

"Failing to do so is a criminal offence - effectively, they are stealing from the owners. The fine is up to £2,500 per offence."

She said, however, that those who reported a recovery could be entitled to a reward if they completed the appropriate paperwork.

Meanwhile, Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) workers were intensifying attempts to curb the impact of pollution from the broken-backed vessel, which has lost around 200 containers to the sea.

The agency today confirmed that 200 tonnes of oil had leaked from the ship, which was deliberately run aground near Sidmouth after its side was holed during last Thursday's storms.

A sheen of oil, believed to have leaked from the engine room, has spread around five miles. The RSPB said the oil had affected some birds, but coastguard officials said the slick was beginning to break up and disappear.

An operation to pump the remaining fuel oil - around 3,000 tonnes - from the ship will begin today. However, it could take several days to complete, and there are concerns about the problems that could be caused by worsening weather.

The MCA said there was increasing confidence that major fuel tanks had not been breached, and two vessels chartered to receive the oil were on their way to the Napoli today.

Fears over pollution to the internationally famous Jurassic coast - Britain's first natural World Heritage Site - grew yesterday as it became clear the leaking oil had evaded booms surrounding the 62,000 tonne ship.

After the fuel is drained, barges and cranes will be brought in to offload around 2,400 containers remaining on board.

At least 20 containers have been beached and scattered along the coastline, while others are bobbing in the surf. A small proportion of the containers hold hazardous substances such as battery acid, pesticides and perfume.

The British-flagged Napoli, built in 1991, was on a voyage from Belgium to Portugal when it was damaged last Thursday. Its 26 crew members were winched to safety by a helicopter.

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,,1996029,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

+o( +o( I'd be wary of the bringing anything into my home that had been soaked. :)

:o Although I have been known to be quite passionate about rock and driftwood collecting for many years. Geez, it has been a long time since doing that. Definitely love rocks. ;) ;) I just cannot expect to pick up more rocks than I dropped. :D

Have a marvelous Monday,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 11:24 AM

(y) :D (y) :D (y) :D (y) :D (y) :D

London (eCanadaNow) - A new Study finds that people with dogs are healthier than people without dogs or cat owners.

Led by D. Deborah Wells, researchers found that people with dogs had lower blood pressure, and cholesterol, in part to do the extra walking.

The study also found that dog owner suffered less minor ailments or serious medial problems as well, reported the BBC.

Wells, Also notes that dog owners recover faster from heart attacks and give early warning of an approaching epileptic seizure.

“It is possible that dogs can directly promote our well-being by buffering us from stress, one of the major risk factors associated with ill-health,” Wells said.

What’s The Connection?

Dr Wells said the precise reason for the benefits was not totally clear.

“It is possible that dogs can directly promote our well-being by buffering us from stress, one of the major risk factors associated with ill-health.

“The ownership of a dog can also lead to increases in physical activity and facilitate the development of social contacts, which may enhance both physiological and psychological human health in a more indirect manner.”

The study appears in the current issue of the British Journal of Health Psychology.

http://www.ecanadanow.com/science/health/2007/01/21/study-dogs-are-good-for-your-health/

(l) (&) (l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 11:27 AM

:s :s

(p) : http://www.ecanadanow.com/images/dogs-good-health.jpg

(l) (&) (l) That's a Boxer puppy with paws up on the counter there, although he/she has alot more white than Wyatt has. AND Wyatt would surely move away from a p*ssed-off kitty. ;) He likes the ones at the pet sitter - and they like him. We'll never have any cats since I am seriously allergic to them. I guess that limits who I date, eh? ;) ;)

Warmest thoughts,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

deadwarhol

01-22-2007, 11:30 AM

While this book deals specifically with gay men and identity, I think it is pertinent to everyone.

New Book: http://www.amazon.com/Androphilia-Rejecting-Identity-Reclaiming-Masculinity/dp/0976403587/sr=8-1/qid=1169486751/ref=sr_1_1/002-2068237-9407258?ie=UTF8&s=books
Androphilia by Jack Malebranche

Editorial Reviews:
Book Description
The word gay has never described mere homosexuality. Gay is a subculture, a slur, a set of gestures, a slang, a look, a posture, a parade, a rainbow flag, a film genre, a taste in music, a hairstyle, a marketing demographic, a bumper sticker, a political agenda and philosophical viewpoint. Gay is a pre-packaged, superficial persona--a lifestyle. It's a sexual identity that has almost nothing to do with sexuality.
Androphilia is a rejection of the overloaded gay identity and a return to a discussion of homosexuality in terms of desire: a raw, apolitical sexual desire and the sexualized appreciation for masculinity as experienced by men. The gay sensiblility is a near-oblivious embrace of a castrating slur, the nonstop celebration of an age-old, emasulating stimga applied to men who engaged in homosexual acts. Gays and radical queers imagine that they challenge the status quo, but in appropriating the stigma of effeminacy, they merely conform to and confirm long-established expectations. Men who love men have been paradoxically cast as the enemies of masculinity--slaves to the feminist pipe dream of a 'gender-neutral' (read: anti-male, pro-female) world.

Androphlia is a manifesto full of truly dangerous ideas: that men can have sex with men and retain their manhood, that homosexuality can be about championing a masculine ideal rather than attacking it, and that the wicked, oppressive 'construct of masculinity' despised by the gay community could actually enrich and improve the lives of homosexual and bisexual men. Androphilia is for those men who never really bought what the gay community was selling; it's a challenge to leave the gay world completely behind and to rejoin the world of men, unapologetically, as androphliles, but more importantly, as men.

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 11:35 AM

:o :o

January 22, 2007

Group Formed to Support Linux as Rival to Windows

By STEVE LOHR NYTimes

Linux, the free operating system, has gone from an intriguing experiment to a mainstream technology in corporate data centers, helped by the backing of major technology companies like I.B.M., Intel and Hewlett-Packard, which sponsored industry consortiums to promote its adoption.

Those same companies have decided that the time has come to consolidate their collaborative support into a new group, the Linux Foundation, which is being announced today. And the mission of the new organization is help Linux, the leading example of the open-source model of software development, to compete more effectively against Microsoft, the world’s largest software company.

“It’s really a two-horse race now, with computing dominated by two operating-system platforms, Linux and Windows,” said James Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. “There are things that Microsoft does well in terms of promoting Windows, providing legal protection and standardizing Windows.”

He added that “the things that Microsoft does well are things we need to do well — to promote, protect and standardize Linux.”

In data centers, both Linux and Microsoft have benefited from the shift to data-serving computers powered by lower-cost microprocessors and other industry-standard hardware using personal computer technology. These machines, running Linux or Windows, have increasingly replaced more costly, proprietary hardware, typically running Unix operating systems.

That shift to industry-standard hardware has helped makers of personal computer chips like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, and makers of PC-technology machines including Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Dell, NEC and Fujitsu.

Traditional rivals of Microsoft in the software business, including Oracle and I.B.M., have championed Linux to undermine an adversary and have tweaked their database and other software programs to run on Linux. Companies like Red Hat and Novell distribute Linux and charge companies for technical support and maintenance.

So while Linux is distributed free, a sizable market has grown up around it. The yearly sales of Linux-related hardware, software and services is more than $14.5 billion, according to estimates by IDC, a research firm.

The new Linux organization is “a clear sign that we are going to continue to work together,” said Daniel D. Frye, vice president for open systems development at I.B.M.

There is vigorous competition among companies in the market for hardware, software and services that work with Linux, Mr. Frye said. But collaboration is also essential to move Linux technology forward, he said, and avoid the kind of splintering of the marketplace that occurred in the 1980s, when different companies supported different versions of the Unix operating system.

The work of two other groups — the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group — will be folded into the Linux Foundation, and those organizations will no longer exist. Mr. Zemlin had been the head of the Free Standards Group.

Stuart F. Cohen, the chief executive of the Open Source Development Labs, said he was starting a new venture that would use the open-source development model to build software applications tailored for individual industries like financial services.

The Linux Foundation will pay salaries to Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, and a few other key Linux programmers. That support had previously come from the Open Source Development Labs.

In an e-mail message, Mr. Torvalds noted that some of the original reasons for forming the Open Source Development Labs six years ago, like “helping companies come to grips with Linux and open source in general,” had in large part been addressed.

Referring to the new organization, he said, “The technical, legal and standards issues do seem to be part of a bigger whole.”

Mr. Torvalds said his role would not change. “I work on the technology itself, not any of the other issues,” he wrote. “I literally just sit in my basement and do technical management. Nothing else.”

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 11:42 AM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

Belgium: Antwerp

Planetout

Antwerp is a cusp-straddler: medieval yet mod, progressive yet prim, Dutch-speaking yet not Dutch, Belgian economic powerhouse. yet ever second fiddle to Brussels. It's this perennial indefinability that's long prevented the city from gaining the world recognition it deserves. Outside of Belgium, no one knows quite what to think of Antwerp, so often, no one does. That's just fine with natives, who are very content for their town to remain one of the world's best-kept secrets. They understand that Antwerp is somewhat of a modern tourist's dream come true, the stunning evidence of its medieval past blending with the bubbling excitement of its trendy future. And while Antwerpers are terribly accommodating of visitors, one gets the sense that they have little desire to be overrun by them.

As the capital of ancient Flanders, Antwerp was for centuries the undisputed diamond center of the European world. But as the diamond trade declined at the dawn of the industrial era, Flanders was swallowed into Belgium. Suddenly Antwerp found itself playing shy middle stepsister in the family Belgique, stuck between larger Brussels and cuter Bruges. But even as Brussels' Euro-star still rises, Antwerp has, with the onset of the information age, managed to once again surpass the capital as Belgium's fastest-chugging economic motor. And with its art and fashion scenes continuing to explode onto the world stage, Antwerp can't expect that its precious secrets will stay hidden much longer.

STAY

For those arriving into Antwerp by train, accommodation comes no more convenient than the Astrid Park Plaza Hotel (Koningin Astridplein 7; +32-3/203-1234, fax +32-3/203-1251; www.parkplazaww.com, ppantwerp@parkplazaww.com; 99-213 EUR), one of the city's newest and nicest hotels. Located just a few steps from the magnificent Antwerp Centraal train station, the Astrid looks a bit Vegas at first glance, like a child's gaudy play castle come to life. Don't be afraid - - once inside, one soon realizes how pleasant dwelling in a play castle can be. Designed by American architect Michael Graves, the Astrid is incredibly tasteful and comfortable, with huge rooms and a bright and cheery staff who will bend over backwards to help in any way they can. The hotel is loaded with features, from a pool and fitness center to a wonderful penthouse breakfast room sporting unmatchable views of the lovely city. For a home base more in the medieval (and touristy) heart of town, Hotel Villa Mozart (Handschoenmarkt 3; +32-3/231-3031, fax +32-3/231-5685; www.bestwestern.be, villa.mozart@club.innet.be; 75-150 EUR) is an excellent choice, within feet of the Grote Markt and the Cathedral of Our Lady. The Villa Mozart's 25 rooms are classically appointed in the Laura Ashley vein, and the proprietors pride themselves on offering highly personal service.

EAT

For fabulous food amidst Antwerp's fabulous folk, La Luna (Italiëlei 177; +32-3/232-2344, fax +32-3/232-2441; www.laluna.be; 25-50 EUR) is the place. Its sumptuous international menu offers something for every palate, including fantastic vegetarian and low-cal options. Service is both hunky and hospitable. Reservations are crucial. Trendy in a younger, more affordable way is Spaghettiworld (Oude Koornmarkt 66; +32-3/234-3801; 7-25 EUR), a pasta bar/café with a mixed-to-hetero Boho atmosphere and groovy soundtrack. Popi Café (Riemstraat 22-24; +32-3/238-1530; www.popi.be, info@popi.be, 3-7 EUR) is the perfect after-art refueling bistro, just blocks from the Koninklijk Museum. The light fare is tasty, and the vibe is gay, relaxed and hip.

PLAY/MEET

Antwerp's gay activity is not nearly as centralized as Brussels' - - in fact, Antwerp has no true gay hub. Bars and clubs are far-flung, and though Antwerp is compact, getting from one venue to the next requires taxis, trams and/or a fair bit of walking. That said, for a smallish town, Antwerp boasts an amazing variety of lively nightlife. Popi (Riemstraat 22-24; +32-3/238-1530; www.popi.be, info@popi.be), a quiet café by day, flowers into a hopping trendy-ish bar by night, packing in a nice refreshing mix of young, old, lesbians, gay men and even the odd heterosexual. Hessenhuis (Falconrui 53; +32-3/231-1356) is another by-day café that explodes into all-out revelry as the booze begins to flow post-sundown. Attached to a museum complex, Hessenhuis i s geared more toward the guys, featuring bodacious bar-top drag shows and a dance mix spiced with campy Dutch disco hits. The undisputed queen of Antwerp clubs is Red & Blue (Lange Schipperskapelstraat 1 1 13; +32-3/213-0555, fax +32-3/226-7126; www.redandblue.be), a huge disco ("the biggest in Benelux") that pulls in Euro party boys from across the continent. It's nearly always a safe mainstream bet, save for the nights (once or twice a month) when it plays host to mixed (though largely straight) hipster parties like the curiously named Fill Collins Club. For a rougher ride, try Rubbzz (Geulinckxstraat 28; +32-3/295-6901, fax +32-3/295-6917; users.skynet.be/rubbzz, postmaster@rubbzz.com), a dark but friendly denim and leather joint that picks up when the other bars close. Tougher still is The Boots (Van Aerndtstraat 22; +32-3/231-3483; www.the-boots.com, gi31685@glo.be), which, with its separate sex rooms for just about any proclivity, earns its reputation as the raunchiest bar in Belgium.

SEE/DO

Antwerp's most dazzling site is Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedraal (Handschoenmarkt, +32-3/231-3033), or the Cathedral of Our Lady, the massive gothic church at the town center. Starting her life as a chapel in the 12th century (or possibly even earlier, as recent excavations have indicated), Our Lady has over the eons known spurts of growth beset by bouts with war, plunder and fire. An extended renovation at the end of the 20th century has left her gleaming inside and out. Art lovers take note: four original Rubens reside here (the artist called Antwerp home). The cathedral overlooks Antwerp's other main attraction, the Grote Markt, sort of a smaller version of Brussels' Grand Place, with similarly ornate guildhalls enclosing the main city square. One of the finest collections of Flemish painting can be found at the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunst (Leopold de Waelplaats; +32-3/238-7809; www.dma.be/cultuur/kmska). Works from the Flemish greats, from van Eyck, Bruegel and Rubens, to Wouters and Ensor are here.

SHOP

Natives and tourists alike are lucky to have the Meir, a wide pedestrian-only boulevard running ingeniously from Centraal Station smack into the center of town. So many shops call the Meir home that literally anything can be found. It's a bit on the mall-y side, with lots of international chain stores (Diesel, Esprit, H&M, etc.), but on sunny weekend days it seems half of Antwerp comes out to enjoy the stroll among one another's company. Antwerp is, of course, home to the "Antwerp Six" group of clothing designers, who for more than two decades have been at the forefront of the Belgian and world fashion scenes. Their success has paved the way for a new generation of cutting edge young designers, and has turned Antwerp into one of the world's fashion capitals. Of the Six, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten and Walter van Beirendonck have their own boutiques here. Louis (Lombaardstraat 4, +32-3/232-9872) boasts one of the best selections of creations from the next generation. Off and on (and reportedly again on), Antwerp has been the world's diamond capital for several centuries. Though it's focused much more upon major gem trading, Antwerp's Diamond District (along Pelikaanstraat near Centraal Station) can still yield bargains for the walk-in tourist.

WORK OUT

Antwerp has a plethora of gay saunas and bathhouses, but no exclusively homo gyms. Gay visitors will be comfortable at any of the three well-equipped locations of L.A. Gym, the newest by Centraal Station (inside the Eurotel at Copernicuslaan 2; www.la-gym.com).

RESOURCES

Antwerp's very cool LGBT community service center is Het Roz Huis (Draakplaats 1; +32-3/288-0084; www.hetrozehuis.be, het.roze.huis@mail.com), or The Pink House. Built into the shell of a gutted old brick building in the very reachable and architecturally interesting Zurenborg area, Het Roze sports a stylish café (den Draak) and maintains a ridiculously friendly and helpful support staff. At the center of town, Boekhandel 't Verschil (Minderbroedersrui 42; +32-3/225-0804; www.verschil.be) sells gay books and mags, plus features a small café.

(l) (l) (l) Whenever I stay here, I walk to the Antwerp Centraal train station and head for Amsterdam and other stops in the Netherlands. Even though I lived in the San Francisco, CA area for seven years - I really love Amsterdam as well. (f) (f) (f) Especially in the Springtime when as far as the eye can see from the train windows are tulips! (f) (f)

(f) (f) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 11:47 AM

(l) (l) (l)

By Eva Leonard

While the legalization of same-sex marriage is a relatively recent development in Amsterdam, the city has long been known as a place where lesbians and other women could assert their independence. In the late 1600s a lesbian couple got married at City Hall (now the Royal Palace). One, a wealthy brothel owner, was disguised as a man and the couple and their guests enjoyed a lavish banquet. When the deception was discovered a few months later, trouble ensued, but only the woman who had posed as the groom was imprisoned. And she, fortunately, was able to bail herself out because of her vast reserves of wealth.

And even as far back as the 14th century, the city had a women-only space. The Begijnhof, a lovely, flower-filled village square in the middle of the city and one of Amsterdam's best-kept secrets, originated back then as a community of devout women who did not want to enter a convent. The Begijnhof is also home to the oldest house in Amsterdam. You'll find its main entrance on Spui.

Fast forwarding a few centuries, a legendary lesbian figure in Amsterdam, Bet Van Beeren opened Cafe Het Mandje in 1927. Although police surveillance kept the cafe from becoming a really gay/lesbian bar, same-sex dancing and kissing were allowed on one day of the year - Queens Day. Van Beeren was one of the original dykes on bikes, known for her fondness of zipping through town on her motorcycle. It is said that when she died, in true tough-girl fashion, her body was laid out on the pool table of her bar. Cafe Het Mandje closed in 1983.

For more juicy historical tidbits, pay a visit to the Lesbian Archive (le Helmersstraat 17). During Gay Games 1998 the Archive hosted an exhibition titled "Lesbian Culture on the Wall." The Homomonument, which commemorates gay men and lesbians who have suffered oppression, is located in the Westermarkt, close to the Anne Frank House. While the Homomonument is easily accessible at all times, there's usually a line to see the home where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. Academic types could probably spend all day lost in the stacks at the Homodok (Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185. Tel. 020-525-2601), home to the most comprehensive collection of gay and lesbian periodicals in Europe.

Today, the city is a comfortable place for gay men and lesbians - especially during the Gay Pride celebration. A highlight of that event is the Pride Canal Parade, during which boats teeming with enthusiastic lesbians, drag queens, and musclemen fill the city's canals. Lesbian participation in this wildly popular event is usually quite strong.

Accommodations:

Try Amsterdam's women-only B&Bs, such as Johanna's Bed and Breakfast (Tel: 020-684-8596) and Liliane's Home (Sarphastisraat 119. Tel: 020-627-4006). If you're willing to give up cozy Sapphic accommodations for room service and other big hotel amenities, the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky (Dam 9. Tel: 31-020-5549111) is a large, popular five-star hotel in the center of the city, near the Royal Palace. Rates range from about $200 for a single to $630 for a Royal Tower Suite.

Bars/Nightlife:

The women's bar scene is nowhere near as bountiful as the men's, but Amsterdam lesbians are a fun-loving bunch. You'll enjoy Vive La Vie (Amstelstraat 7) and Saarein (Elandsstraat 19), which also welcomes men. And on Saturdays the "COC," the national office of the Dutch Gay and Lesbian Organization (Rozenstraat 14. Tel: 020-626-3087), holds a weekly women-only disco. There is also a once-a-month women's dance at the disco bar Ton. Getto (Warmoesstraat 51. Tel: 020-421-5151) is a lesbian-friendly restaurant and bar that sometimes hosts women's nights.

Restaurants:

Although world-famous for chocolate, Amsterdam is not especially renowned for its cuisine (heavy on the fish and potatoes and somewhat bland; if you're looking for extraordinary cuisine, hightail it to the city of Maastricht). But do check out The Five Flies (Spuistraat 294-302. Tel: 020-624 8369) for a multi-course gourmet experience. Vandenberg at the Lindengracht is a low-key eatery run by women. For Italian with a Dutch twist, La Strada attracts both men and women. Lesbians should also check out Turkish writer Gunner Kaban's restaurant, bar and club, the Homolulu and the coffee shop Francoise (Kerkstr. 176). Baldur (76 Weteringschans. Tel: 020-624-4672) and Harvest (25 Govert Flinckstraat. Tel: 020-676 9995) both serve vegetarian fare and attract many lesbians.

Shopping:

Close by the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky you'll find the indoor shopping center Magna Plaza, the popular department store de Bijenkorf, and the gay/lesbian bookstore Boekhandel Vrolijk (Paleisstraat 135. Tel: 6235142.) You can continue your literary shopping at Amsterdam's lesbian/feminist bookstore Xantippe Books (Prinsengracht 290). At Female & Partners (Spuistraat 100), located close to the Homomunument, you can pick up lingerie and make other playful purchases .

The Spiegelkwartier (conveniently located near the major museums) is mecca for lovers of art and antiques, with great finds from antique nautical and scientific instruments to art and ethnographics. The Spiegelkwartier is conveniently located near the major museums. Feeling romantic and generous? You can ply your companion with armloads of practically any flower imaginable bought at the flower market on the Singel or wow her with a diamond from one of the city's many diamond shops (Since the 16th century, Amsterdam has been the center of a thriving diamond industry).

Museums:

Amsterdam is loaded with fantastic museums, but visitors with a fondness for felines should explore the Kattenkabinet or Cat Museum (Herengracht 497. Tel. 020-626-5378), the only museum in the world to showcase the art of the cat over the centuries. The Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art (Paulus Potterstraat 13) is rightfully popular. Science nerds and those who love them can get acquainted with the future at the new Metropolis Science and Technology Center (Oosterdok 2) where visitors can actively engage in experiments and computer games. While you're at the Center, be sure to take in the fabulous view of the city from the roof.

(f) (f) Spect se Nederlander?(f) (f) I absolutely LOVE the Black Sheep restaurant, with its tables for one or two against the windows that open onto the huge square below. Not only 5 star dining (I LOVE their turbot), the people-watching as I dined is the best that I have experienced. (l) (l)

(c) (c) Time for my second cup and on with my day. Speaking of which, have a terrific one!

Warmest ({) (}) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 07:05 PM

(y) (y)

Jan 22, 2007 12:14 pm US/Eastern

Parcells, Former Giants Coach, Leaves NFL

(CBS/AP) DALLAS Bill Parcells retired from coaching Monday, leaving the Dallas Cowboys after four seasons and ending a stellar career that featured three Super Bowl appearances and two championships with the New York Giants, in 1986 and 1990.

The announcement came 15 days after the Cowboys' season ended with a heartbreaking playoff loss in Seattle. He'd been at his office nearly every day since, and there were other indications that the 65-year-old coach was returning for a fifth year in Dallas and 20th as an NFL head coach.

"I am retiring from coaching football," Parcells said in the statement. "I want to thank Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones for their tremendous support over the last four years. Also, the players, my coaching staff and others in the support group who have done so much to help. Dallas is a great city and the Cowboys are an integral part of it. I am hopeful that they are able to go forward from here."

The announcement came in a morning e-mail. There was no immediate statement from Jones, the team owner, although one was planned for later in the day. There were no immediate plans for a news conference.

"I am in good health and feel lucky to have been able to coach in the NFL for an extended period of time," Parcells said. "I leave the game and the NFL with nothing but good feelings and gratitude to all the players, coaches and other people that have assisted me in that regard. "

Parcells won two Super Bowls with the Giants. He came to Dallas four seasons ago energized by the challenge of restoring glory to "America's Team." He went 34-32 and definitely left the Cowboys better than he found them, but his tenure ultimately may be remembered for the lack of a playoff victory.

He came to Dallas four seasons ago energized by the challenge of restoring glory to "America's Team." While he definitely left the Cowboys better than he found them, his tenure ultimately may be remembered for the lack of a playoff victory.

His teams went 0-2 in the postseason. Dallas appeared headed to a breakthrough win this month in Seattle, but Pro Bowl quarterback Tony Romo botched the hold on a short field goal with a little more than a minute left and the Cowboys lost 21-20. They lost four of their last five games, including the final three, after holding a two-game division lead in December.

Dallas hasn't won a playoff game since 1996, easily the longest skid in the history of the franchise that's been to a record eight Super Bowls.

Parcells' legacy with the Cowboys can be framed this way: Instead of joining Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer as coaches who led them to championships, he leaves lumped with Chan Gailey and Dave Campo.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_022121451.html

+o( +o( T.O. is the most foul-mouthed, arrogant and ignorant football player and I wondered how long it would take for gool ole Bill to say "enough" after T.O left the Eagles to play for Dallas - not all that long ago. :s

:| The Dallas Cowboys' owner needs to get into treatment, big time. Too bad that when push came to shove? The Cowboys' franchise owner chose T.O over one of THE BEST IF NOT THE BEST coaches, that ever lived.

Bill? You're the greatest as well as best coach ever.

Respectfully,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 07:07 PM

:) :)

By Seth Sutel, AP Business Writer | January 22, 2007

NEW YORK --With "American Idol" turning everyday singers into pop stars and YouTube bringing acclaim to wannabe filmmakers, it seems only fitting that Super Bowl advertisers would be the latest to embrace the trend of giving amateurs a shot at the big time.

This year a number of advertisers, including Doritos, Chevrolet and even the NFL itself, held contests for creating ads or ideas for ads to run in the biggest showcase for advertising during the whole year.

At a reported average price of $2.6 million for a 30-second spot during the game, which airs on Feb. 4 on CBS Corp.'s CBS network, taking a chance on an amateur isn't for the faint of heart.

The NFL and Chevy are taking some of the uncertainty out of the picture by bringing in professional talent to make the ideas generated by contestants into finished ads that will air during the game.

Doritos, however, says it will air an ad from one of its five finalists that was made entirely by the contestants. Ann Mukherjee, vice president for marketing at PepsiCo Inc.'s Frito-Lay unit, which makes Doritos, says the submitted ads have not been edited "one iota."

"Any big gain is going to take a lot of risk, and we went in with our eyes wide open," says Mukherjee. "It was really an effort to give our consumers control over their brand in an age where consumers really want a voice over what they love."

By reaching out to consumers, advertisers are embracing the latest buzz topic in the media and entertainment business: "user-generated content," a phenomenon that has many worried that people will spend more time watching YouTube or hanging out on MySpace than reading magazines, going to the movies or spending time with other traditional media.

In a reflection of how badly big companies want to be in those places, Internet search leader Google Inc. recently bought YouTube and Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate News Corp. owns MySpace, the leading social networking site.

Doritos solicited submissions online for its contest and got more than 1,000 entries. Those were narrowed down to five finalists, whose ads were then put online for a popular vote. The winning ad will air during the Super Bowl but won't be revealed until then.

The finalists -- and their entourages, for those who have them -- are all being flown out to Miami to watch the game from a sports bar facility and see whose spot won. Each finalist also received $10,000.

Joe Herbert, a finalist from Batesville, Indiana says his spot, which features a creative use of duct tape to keep a roommate from stealing the protagonist's Doritos, cost him and his brother Dave "a little bit of money and a lot of sleep."

Herbert, a 31-year-old with two small children, says that with the cast, cinematographer and sound engineer all working on a volunteer basis the cost came out to somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000, a far cry from most professionally produced spots which can cost up to $2 million. They financed it with a second mortgage on his brother's house.

General Motor Corp.'s Chevrolet, meanwhile, ran a contest for college students to submit plans and ideas for ads. Five teams were then flown to Chevrolet's professional marketing division for an "advertising boot camp" to make their plans into real commercials, Chevy spokesman Travis Parman said.

Parman called the collaboration with the students a "reciprocal" undertaking. While the students got to see a big-time advertising operation up close, the car maker gleaned valuable insights into what kinds of messages work with 18-25 year olds, the target audience for several Chevy models and a notoriously difficult age group to reach through mainstream media like television.

To solicit submissions, Chevrolet went to where they thought ambitious marketing students would be hanging out: ad industry blogs including http://www.JaffeJuice.com, http://www.AdRants.com and MIT's Advertising Lab blog.

At the NFL, the league held a series of events last fall where fans would come in and "pitch" an idea for an ad to a panel of experts, which included NFL marketing executive Lisa Baird and the actor Don Cheadle, who has previously appeared in NFL Super Bowl spots.

The pitches -- some 2,000 in all -- ranged from "funny to very serious to poignant to wacky," says NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. Gino Bona, a former sales director at a marketing firm, won with an idea about the loss that fans feel at the end of the pro football season. Professional producers are shooting the ad this week in Los Angeles.

Frito-Lay's Mukherjee says the company is extremely pleased with its efforts to bring its chip-munching fans into the marketing process and has plenty more ideas in store, though she declined to go into detail.

For now, she said, the company will offer a kind of reality show contest of its own, introducing two new flavors over the next two months, one of which will get eliminated by a popular vote.

------

On the Net:

Doritos contest: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com.

Chevrolet: http://www.chevycollegead.com

NFL: http://www.nfl.com/superad

MIT Advertising Lab blog: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/

Article:

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/01/22/amateurs_get_a_crack_at_super_bowl_ads/

(y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 07:08 PM

:) :)

Edinburgh Evening News Fri 19 Jan 2007

GARETH EDWARDS

HAGGIS, the most traditional of Scottish dishes, is probably the one item of cuisine for which this nation is known around the world.

There are undoubtedly still some who turn their nose up at the dish, but it seems most Scots now can't get enough of it.

With vegetarian haggis now readily available, everyone can join in the fun, and the only difficulty is trying to decide which haggis to have.

So which one truly is the chieftain o' the puddin' race? To provide an answer, we enlisted the help of award-winning butcher Joe Findlay, who runs Findlay's of Portobello.

A butcher for 45 years, 62-year-old Joe says: "It should be nice and moist, and break apart quite easily on the fork.

"I also like to have one with a good spicy flavour to it."

His award-winning haggis, made from a 200-year-old recipe, was one of those thrown into our blind taste test.

So with six piping hot puddins in front of us, and not a piper in sight, it's on with the test.

Simon Howie's Haggis (stocked at Sainsbury's), 454g, £1.99

We start with strangest-looking haggis of the bunch and the only traditional haggis not to come served in the sheep's stomach, the plastic coating perhaps used to make it more palatable to a wider audience.

Joe insists this makes little or no difference to the flavour, although he is a bit curious about the fact that it is a very black colour, not the paler shade one would expect. Opening it up, the mystery continues with the dark meat, and seemingly few oats, giving it a very unique look. And it has a "distinctive" flavour.

After a few cautious forkfuls, Joe is also unconvinced. "It's very bland, and I have to say it doesn't really taste like haggis," he says. "It's not got any of the spices or flavours you would expect from a haggis, and they certainly don't seem to have used the traditional ingredients. It's not one for me I'm afraid."

Haggis rating: Loser o' the puddin' race. 1/5

Sainsbury's replies: "We aim to provide our customers with food that is tasty and of a very high quality. We take feedback very seriously and are always looking at ways of improving our offer to customers."

George Bower's Haggis, 640g, £3.63

This rather large haggis comes in a thick skin and the filling has a pale, moist texture. It looks crammed with oats and spices, and has a very meaty aroma.

But Joe is a bit disappointed. He says: "It's bit salty, which is a shame because this is a nice haggis.

"The texture's great, and it's really moist, but because of the salt it rather takes away from the other flavours.

"You do need a bit of salt to season the meat, but it's something you have to be careful of."

Haggis rating: Sonsie 3/5

Mark Smith, owner of George Bower's, of Raeburn Place, replies: "Sometimes you can get a bit of salt from the skin it is cooked in, although normally if it's boiled up for 45 minutes it should be fine, so it's a bit puzzling that it seemed too salty. It can be a matter of personal taste though."

Macsween Vegetarian Haggis, 454g, £2.99 from Waitrose

Most Burns Suppers will now serve up a vegetarian haggis alongside the traditional one.

More and more butchers are making their own vegetarian options, although the one which has probably been going the longest is the Macsween of Edinburgh.

There is no mistaking it for a real haggis, simply from the colour, which is shot through with bits of green and orange.

With plenty of nuts used to give it a grainy texture similar to haggis, it unsurprisingly has a very nutty taste. Joe is impressed.

"It's very nice, and while it's not too spicy there's plenty of flavour here," he says. "You can see the bits of carrots, onions, kidney beans that have been used to create the 'haggis', and it's a lovely mixture.

"If I was being picky I'd say it should be a bit more spicy, as you would expect that of a normal haggis. But it's really good."

Haggis rating: Wordy of a grace 3/5

Crombie's Haggis, 474g, £3.22

Packed tightly inside a sheep's stomach, this really looks the part. It smells spicy, and has a slightly dark brown colour.

Taste wise, it's everything you'd expect from a haggis, with a rich flavour, an oaty texture and a spicy tingle on the tongue. But what does the expert make of it?

"It's a little packed together and I would probably want a haggis that is a bit looser," he says. "It has a great flavour though, and I think there's a hint of Jamaican pepper in there. It's not too strong though, and while you can't taste the meat too much it is certainly not bland. I really like this."

Haggis rating: Chieftain o' the puddin' race 5/5

Jonathan Crombie, owner of Crombie's, of Broughton Street, replies: "I'm delighted our haggis was the winner, as it's always best to win a competition you don't know about!

"We've done a lot of work over recent years to try to bring down the fat content of our haggis, and it now has about half the fat it used to.

"There has been a lot of experimentation to make sure it keeps the flavour, and this would suggest it has been a success."

Macsween of Edinburgh Traditional Haggis, 454g, £2.99 from Waitrose

And so to the perceived king of the haggis, and perhaps the best known name in puddin' making. The skin of the classic Macsween has a lovely pale, creamy texture, which gives way to a light, oaty haggis mixture and a great aroma, just the kind of thing you'd want on Burns Night.

And it's tasty too, not too spicy but not too bland either, with lots of oats and clearly a liberal amount of black pepper.

"It breaks up very nicely, and it's clearly a quality haggis," says Joe. "It has got plenty of oats in it, but you can also taste the meat, and there's a nice spiciness to it which is just subtle, not overpowering.

"It is still a little salty for my taste though, which again masks some of the flavours from the meat, but all in all this is very good."

Haggis rating: Runner up o' the puddin' race 4/5

Company director Jo Macsween replies: "I don't mind coming second to Crombie's as we know them very well and they do make an excellent haggis. We get up every day and make award-winning haggis, and we are the biggest supplier in Scotland. This month we'll probably sell about 250 tonnes, or 1.25 million portions of haggis, which will go out to places across Europe. Our vegetarian haggis has really taken off as well, and it's becoming more popular every year."

Findlay's of Portobello, 500g, £3.30

It has to be admitted that Joe, expert haggis connoisseur that he is, spots his own product straight away, and so sadly it is removed from "official" competition. However, to make sure it's not left out, myself and photographer Julie Howden agree to give it a try.

It's a lot more crumbly than the others but still very moist, and has a slightly darker colour to it. The flavour of the meat is more prominent and it's not too spicy, with Joe admitting he likes to leave that for other people to season depending on their taste.

I must admit, I prefer my haggis a bit more spicy, but this is certainly a tasty feast that would grace any Burns Night - and indeed Joe will be taking it personally to five, as well as supplying thousands more to hotels and restaurants across Europe.

Julie is even more enthusiastic. "This is great," she says, through forkfuls. "This is definitely the best of the bunch, and I actually like the fact that it's not too spicy."

Haggis rating: Warm-reekin, rich 4/5.

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=99922007

(y) (y) (y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-22-2007, 07:11 PM

:o :o :o

:)

Moffat's narrow landmark

HAMISH BROWN

THERE is a certificate in the hallway of the Star Hotel from the Guinness Book of Records authenticating its status as the narrowest hotel in the world. Walk down the slender hall and you come to a long room with a bar at the far end. The keen-eyed will notice that the bar backs onto a further public bar at the very back, a full 165 feet from the front of the building. Stand outside on the front steps and look right and you can see across to Syme Street, the narrowest street in Scotland. Take a sharp right and walk 300 feet down Star Street and you reach Chapel Street, the shortest in the country.

You would be forgiven for thinking that the town has been distorted by strangely placed fairground mirrors, but rest assured everything else is perfectly normal in this small rural town in Dumfries and Galloway. It's just this one corner that has a claim to fame for its unusual architecture.

Although just 20 feet wide, what the Star Hotel lacks on the horizontal, it more than makes up for on the vertical, standing five stories high and making it one of the tallest buildings in the town's High Street.

Moffat came to prominence as a spa town from the 18th century until the Victorian era, and was a popular holiday destination for health fanatics to undergo the power detox of its day. The spa routine was much the same countrywide. Check in to your hotel, walk the two miles up to the well and drink a glass of the sulphurous water and then hope your legs could carry you back to your lodgings before the natural laxative qualities of the foul brew took effect. Repeat as necessary. Surprisingly this routine was extremely popular, and the rise in demand for accommodation meant the town could support several inns, including the Star Hotel from the late 1700s when it was built.

"We think it was built this narrow as there was a tax on building frontage at the time," says Tim Leighfield, whose family have run the business since 1985. "There are a lot of other narrow old buildings in the High Street, but we knew we were the smallest, so we phoned up the Guinness Book of Records. They came out and measured it and we got a half-page spread in the next edition."

For dedicated fans of the small hotel it's Holland's Grand Hotel de Kromme Raake that holds the record for smallest in the world. And while the Hotel Molinos in Granada technically has a narrower façade, it's a tenement wedged between two other buildings, not detached on all sides, losing out to the Star Hotel's visual appeal.

Surely there can't be many tourists who visit these places just for the extreme dimensions?

"We get loads," says Leighfield. "They all want to see the bedrooms, expecting them to be tiny, and they all look so disappointed when they see they're quite normal."

As you would expect with such a long building, corridors play a major role, and some of the rooms have a unique feel to them with windows on opposite walls just 20 feet apart from each other.

There's another a reason why I am familiar with the layout of the place. I grew up in Moffat and spent a summer working in the Star Hotel in the 1980s. Admittedly, when you are waiting tables there are times when you question the logic of having the kitchen in the basement at the front and the dining room on the first floor at the rear. The two are connected by a long, narrow staircase that runs the whole length of the building, with about enough room for one full tray and a set of knuckles on either side. By the time the school term began again I had the legs of an Olympic cyclist and a very steady hand.

These days, now that advances in modern medicine have shown sulphur water to be the foul undrinkable liquid that it truly is, the main draw to Moffat is that it's an attractive place to visit. There's good walking in the rolling hills that surround the town, ancient woodland nearby, a rich heritage and a thriving community of around 3,000 people. Aside from tourism, the main industries are agriculture and forestry.

This architectural anomaly has evidently been beneficial to the Star's owners, but I wonder whether, the sheer number of stairs aside, there any other drawbacks?

"Well, one of our members of staff lives in a room at the very top of the building and in windy weather he swears the building moves," Leighfield laughs. "Last November during the storms he came down during the night and had to make a bed up on the ground floor instead."

http://heritage.scotsman.com/ingenuity.cfm?id=484342005

(y) (y) (y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

Whitledge

01-23-2007, 07:33 PM

:)

(l) : http://www.femail.com.au/img/merylstreep.jpg

(f) Nominated for 12 Oscars, and recipient of two [one for Supporting Actress] Meryl Streep has long been regarded as one of the great actresses of her generation.(f)

(f) Enjoy!

:| Whew! Finally got that independent study PhD course (my LAST course!) proposal (course learning plan) emailed as an attachment to the professor. And now the wait for the feedback. Hopefully, not too many edits need to be made.

Have a relaxing, snuggly Sunday evening!

Warmest wishes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)
Thank you Sweetlady, I saved everyone of them :::smile... What a great screensaver they will make !(l) ;) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:08 AM

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f) (f)

I am delighted that you enjoyed the photos of Meryl Streep. What an amazingly gifted actress! :)

Thanks again for your post.

Have a wonderful Saturday and rest of your weekend,

Sweetkady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:11 AM

:s :s

http://www.devilducky.com/media/56689/

:| The driver's heart must have been in her/hys throat! :|

(y) (y) For all wheel drive.....I mean slide when it's on black ice.

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:12 AM

(h) (h) (h)

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/01/gemotion-screen-shows-video-in-living-3d/

(y) (y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:19 AM

:s :s :s

When a big company screws the pooch, a lot of little people get the shaft, and that's what's happening at Motorola, where 3,500 employees will pay with their jobs for acknowledged executive misjudgments on pricing and sales forecasts that resulted in the company's least profitable quarter since 2004. On Friday, the world's No. 2 cell-phone maker reported a 48 percent decline in fourth-quarter earnings, to $624 million, on a steep drop in profitability in the handset business. Chief Executive Ed Zander, extending Motorola's philosophy of sharp edges, said the answer is cutting, specifically lopping off 5 percent of the workforce to achieve a $400 million savings. But overall, Zander intends to stay the course. "There's no change in strategy," he told analysts. "There may be some changes in tactics." Continuing strong demand for the Razr and its offshoot phones will return the company to double-digit operating margins in the second half of year, he maintained. Zander dismissed talk of the now 2-year-old Razr's fading glow. "It's funny, I keep reading about Razrs being tired," he said. "We sold more Razrs in quarter four than in any quarter we ever had. We now have sold over 75 million Razrs worldwide."

(n) ^o) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16499811.htm

:'(

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-070119motorola,0,5252072.story?coll=chi-bizfront-hed

No doubt, what with those "six Razrs for a nickle" deals offered by the carriers, which cut into sales of higher-end models to boot. That's apparently where those pricing misjudgments factored in, but that isn't where the retrenchment is focused. Labor attorney Lowell Peterson said the workforce cuts are an example of "the Alice in Wonderland logic of today's corporate thinking." "Everything that's been disclosed suggests it's not a question of overcapacity, it's not a question of high fixed labor costs, it's a question of pricing'' that hurt Motorola's results, said Peterson. "If you have a pricing problem, you should fix the pricing problem. Otherwise, in the long run you're not going to have as many people to make your product."

:| Motorola's Zander sounds alot like da Village Idiot - about "staying the course." :|

And who will make those semiconductors, etc. when demand jumps for another product that takes off with high demand? (inquring minds - okay, like mine - want to know...) ^o)

Feeling badly for those employees,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:24 AM

:o :o

Think of it as Facebook for the corporate set ... MySpace with suits instead of shirtless dudebros, CVs instead of streaming Top 40 videos. This morning IBM announced the forthcoming release of its Lotus Connections, enterprise-level social networking software designed to improve intra-company productivity. "Enterprises are very conscious about the flow of information outside the organization but want to speed it up inside the organization," said an IBM spokesman. "When you look at the social networks out there today, they're all about Britney Spears. [With Lotus Connections] you can use real-life business data and do real work. You're not just talking about where to go for lunch." Like the social networks it's modeled after, Lotus Connections offers all the tools necessary to create online communities -- Web logs, personal profiles and the like. Odd to think of that software as an enterprise tool, but apparently it resonates with corporate buyers. "I talk to corporate clients every day, and I'm finding the topic of social networking comes up all the time," Forrester Research analyst Erica Driver told the New York Times. "What IBM has done validates the use of social computing tools for businesses."

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2007/tc20070122_532199.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index _businessweek+exclusives

http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/news/2173163/ibm-taps-social-software

|-) |-)

January 22, 2007

I.B.M. to Introduce Workers’ Networking Software

By LAURIE J. FLYNN NYTimes

And you thought social networking was all about text-messaging among bored teenagers.

I.B.M. has another take on it. Today the company plans to announce a set of social software tools that will bring the kind of blogging, idea sharing and war-story swapping typically associated with MySpace and Facebook, the social networking sites popular among teenagers and college students, to the corporate world.

Called Lotus Connections, the new software, expected later this year, will let employees set up virtual worlds in which they can meet like-minded colleagues within the company and exchange ideas with them, all in the name of improving productivity. And that’s just for starters.

The idea, said I.B.M.’s vice president for social software, Jeff Schick, is to “unlock the latent expertise in an organization.”

I.B.M. plans to show the software today in Orlando, Fla., at an annual conference for developers who work with the company’s Lotus group, which produces Lotus Notes. An early leader in collaboration software, or “groupware,” Lotus Notes has been under attack in recent years from Microsoft’s Exchange software.

“Microsoft has been a tough challenge for the Lotus Group,” said Erica Driver, an analyst with Forrester Research, a market analysis and consulting company. “Focusing on new technologies is a good approach.”

Last week I.B.M. reported that strong software sales helped lift the company’s profits and revenue last quarter, slightly surpassing Wall Street’s estimates. The performance provided some encouragement that I.B.M.’s push to revamp its software strategy, including projects like Connections, is gaining ground.

Many companies have already discovered the benefits of bringing social networking into their businesses, but so far most of the tools available to them have focused on a specific element of social networking, like blogging.

“I talk to corporate clients every day, and I’m finding the topic of social networking comes up all the time,” Ms. Driver said. “What I.B.M. has done validates the use of social computing tools for businesses.”

Lotus Connections has five components — activities, communities, dogear (a bookmarking system), profiles and blogs — aimed at helping experts within a company connect and build new relationships based on their individual needs.

The profiles component, for example, lets users search for people by name, expertise or keyword. The program then not only provides contact information and reporting structure details, but also lists blogs, communities, activities and bookmarks associated with the person.

Inside I.B.M., employees have been using a prototype of the profiles feature for the last few years, and today 450,000 profiles of I.B.M. employees are stored there.

I.B.M. Research, the company’s research arm, has long had an interest in social networking, and has several projects under way within Second Life, for example, the virtual world that allows people to communicate in a three-dimensional universe.

|-) I still think those IBM guys way, way up there in northern New Jersey (at one of IBM's advanced research labs) are working on vaporware. Been there several times for business meetings and it always seems the same as in "it's coming."

"Yea, yea, yea....". ;) ;)

Stay warm,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:27 AM

;) ;)

I wonder what the turning point was? Nivea transforming Sam Fischer, star of Ubisoft's Splinter Cell franchise, into the world's first metrosexual assassin or Sony Pictures cutting a deal to put billboards for "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigalo" in PlanetSide (see "The reptilian armies of Qorg are known for their advanced weaponry and their inexplicable love of Coke"). Either way, in-game advertising has finally arrived, because Google, perhaps the world's most important advertising broker, is planning a move into the nascent industry. The company is believed to be in talks to acquire Adscape Media, a San Francisco company whose technology allows for the placement of ads into games via the Internet. Google declined comment on the rumored deal, but hinted that it wasn't outside the realm of possibility. "We are always considering new ways to extend Google's advertising program to benefit our users, advertisers and publishers," a Google spokesman told the Wall Street Journal. "In-game advertising offers one such possible extension among many others." One such possible extension ... please ... Google is already in the process of extending its traditional Internet search advertising business to newspapers and radio. And it has said it plans to extend into television ads, as well. With the in-game advertising market poised for explosive growth (the Yankee Group predicts that it will reach $732 million by 2010), I imagine in-game advertising holds a bit more prominence in Google's future plans than, say, the disposable coffee cup cozy ad market.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2061552,00.asp

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/04/_high_on_one_wa.html

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/01/22/googles-game-face.aspx

http://users1.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB1169 25953126282366-search.html%3FKEYWORDS%3Dadscape%26COLLECTION%3Dws jie%2F6month

http://www.vedrashko.com/advertising/2006/04/news-data-in-game-ad-market-to-reach.html

:) :) :) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:30 AM

:| :| :| :| :|

If HDTV is sharp enough to reveal the array of zits, bulges and baggy eyes that sometimes trouble Hollywood starlets and TV newscasters, imagine what its unforgiving gaze lays bare on those who make their living by baring it all. That's the problem facing the adult film industry as it navigates the transition to high-definition (see "No blue movies on Blu-ray?"), a technology whose harsh gaze can very quickly expose the fantasy of physical beauty and glamor it's peddling for the pedestrian and flawed humanity that it really is. "The biggest problem is razor burn," adult film star Stormy Daniels told the New York Times. "I'm not 100 percent sure why anyone would want to see their porn in HD." But many surely will, and so Porn Valley, long a driver of entertainment technology, is adapting -- replacing its staple makeup and lighting tricks with new postproduction techniques that returns the glaze instead of high -definition's grit. "It takes away the blemishes and the pits and harshness and makes it look like they have baby skin," said a director known as Joone. And if that doesn't quite do the trick, there's always that time-tested analog solution. Said Joone, "I tell the girls to work out more, cut down on the carbs, hit the treadmill."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/business/media/22porn.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=ae526fc82277506a&ex=1327122000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2007/01/as_it_became_cl.html

:| :| :|

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:34 AM

:o :o :o :o

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8959221252413764426&hl=en

:) Would you do this? I noticed that the "three, two, one" was not in English.

:o Which just goes to show that stupidity has no geographic preference. ;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:35 AM

:) :)

http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2007/01/on_space_art_in_sebas/

(y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:36 AM

:o

http://www.calibryze.com/xunchi138.html

:| A wee bit too tiny for my taste....but might be someone else's "must have".

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:41 AM

Death." :| :| :| :o :o :o

You know, it's not like Google is the only company that encourages its employees to turn some of their blue-sky thinking into intriguing patents. Over at Microsoft, Andy Wilson, Eric Horvitz and some other researchers got to talking about how more and more of a person's legacy is left in digital form these days and about how there ought to be a way to make that information available to succeeding generations or, for that matter, future archaeologists or space travelers. "There are two problems when you die," said Wilson. "If you have a loved one that dies eventually you get a couple boxes of interesting photos and documents -- things you've seen before, things you've never seen before. It's a period of examination that I believe is incredibly valuable. Part of the problem of moving to a virtual document structure and the Web-based stuff, and having all your files stored on a computer somewhere in the cloud is that it's very difficult now for that person to transmit, if you will, that stuff to you, to the living. ... The other aspect of it is just the interface of it. How does one actually work with such documents when I can't even get some of the things that I bought a few years ago to work anymore because I lost the stupid AC power adapter."

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=about.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/300636_msftimmortal22.html

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/110693.asp

Out of these musings has come a patent application for an "immortal information storage and access platform" described this way:

Immortal information storage is leveraged to provide an interactive means to retrieve information associated with a physical artifact. The information persists for a substantial portion of the life of the artifact. This allows users to interact with an artifact that symbolically represents an entity, where the entity can be an organic and/or non-organic entity. A physical artifact that symbolically represents a person, animal, or a structure can be utilized. The storage system can contain easy to discover information about building a decoder or providing power and interpreting the information stored therein. A personalized interaction model can also be utilized to facilitate in providing an interactive model that responds to user queries in a fashion characteristic of the entity. Access to the immortalized information can be controlled by identity of entity seeking access, the amount of time that has passed, or events that have occurred. Power for facilitating retrieval of the information can be from thermal, induction, acoustical, and/or light-based sources. A separate User Interface (UI)/Reader can also be employed to inductively provide power to interact with the immortal information and to provide an interface for the user.

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220070011109%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20070011109&RS=DN/20070011109

What does this portend? For one thing, cemeteries could become really noisy places, what with video headstones, talking urns and interactive holograms of the deceased bantering with visitors. For another, even dead people will be able to bother you with e-mail. Still, it's good that people are working now make sure our data survives the future in accessible form, no matter what happens to us. Depending on what we do to the planet in the next few centuries, somebody in the future is going to wonder, "What the heck were they thinking?"

:| :| :| :| :| :| :|

;) ;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:44 AM

:o

Q U O T E D

"I don't make you look evil -- your lawsuits against old people around the country make you look evil."

-- Tag-teamed by MPAA Executive VP Fritz Attaway and RIAA Chairman Mitch Bainwol at Midem 2007, a music industry trade fair, Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro goes for the throat.

http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/midemnet-mpaa-riaa-cea-execs-clash-over-drm-hardware-controls/#When:13:47:00Z

:o :o

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:49 AM

........so we took the liberty of hacking them both for you.

As lost causes go, few can be more futile than the entertainment industry's quest to lock down its content with Digital Rights Management. DRM is as archaic as the entertainment industry's business model, an obsolete technology protecting an increasingly obsolete content medium. And so it comes as little surprise to hear that the Advanced Access Content System, Hollywood's latest DRM poster child, has been cracked, and in both of the next generation DVD formats it was intended to protect. An exploit used to partially crack HD DVD in late December has been applied to Blu-Ray with some success. The first commercially available HD DVD player hasn't even been on the market for a year, the first Blu-Ray player, six months, and already the technology that was intended to protect them has been compromised. Now, these exploits will likely be defeated by an updated encryption scheme. But that will surely be cracked as well, and likely in short order. And then the cat and mouse game that we've seen play out so many times before will begin again, accomplishing little but frustrating everyday consumers who simply want to enjoy the entertainment they paid for.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=119871

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/12/aacs_cracked.html

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=120869

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/31/toshiba_hd-dvd_hd-xa1_on_sale/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1977327,00.asp

|-) |-) IMHO, I wouldn't buy any of the HD players - even the ones with supposed "dual-format" capabilities. Nope. +o( Way too much green for products that WILL be made obsolete in a very short time. 8-| 8-| 8-|

Sun Thoughts,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:52 AM

:o

Fox takes on YouTube in case that pits network against net

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles

Saturday January 27, 2007

The Guardian

YouTube has been subpoenaed by Twentieth Century Fox following the posting of what were at the time unbroadcast episodes of the hit TV series 24 and The Simpsons on the video-sharing website.

The subpoena, filed in a California court on January 18, demands that YouTube provide information identifying the subscriber who posted the clips on the site so that Fox can prevent further infringement of its copyright.

The case pits behemoths of the old and new media against each other, and threatens the free-spirited ethos that underpins file-sharing websites such as YouTube.

Article continues
Fox issued a subpoena regarding the same material to another file-sharing site, LiveDigital, which said it had complied with the request and immediately removed the items. YouTube has not commented on the case, although the disputed videos did not appear to be on the site.

The episode of 24 is particularly embarrassing for Fox. The new season of the hit series, starring Kiefer Sutherland, was the centrepiece of the broadcaster's January schedules. But the four-hour premiere, which debuted with much fanfare, was posted in its entirety on YouTube before being aired on TV.

The 12 episodes of The Simpsons identified in the subpoena were also posted online before being broadcast.

The subpoena, first revealed on the blog Google Watch, said the files were being distributed by a user with the web name ECOtotal. The same group of files was posted to LiveDigital by a user with the name Jorge Romero.

The subpoena declares: "Fox has not authorised this distribution or display of the works. The subpoena requests YouTube Inc to disclose information sufficient to identify the subscriber so that Fox can stop this infringing activity."

It also states that Fox informed YouTube of the infringement on January 8, six days before the television premiere of 24.

Fox had a similar issue with YouTube last year, when an episode of the Family Guy sitcom was posted on the site before being broadcast. In that case, the user who uploaded the episode was identified by Fox. In May last year, Paramount Pictures issued a subpoena to YouTube demanding it reveal the identity of a user who posted a 12-minute clip from the feature film Twin Towers. YouTube complied and the studio, which is owned by Viacom, sued the user for copyright infringement.

Cases of piracy and copyright infringement surrounding file-sharing websites suggest that the notion they can provide an alternative to the entertainment industry has been abandoned as they become assimilated into the mainstream.

For the entertainment industry, there is a concern that revenue is being lost and that the sites themselves should be held liable. The Motion Picture Association estimates that major film studios lost about $2.3bn to internet piracy in 2005.

On the other side of the debate there is alarm that websites are monitoring users' identities and activities, and are siding with the entertainment industry.

YouTube, founded in 2005, was bought from its three founders last year by Google for $1.65bn. Twentieth Century Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which bought the social networking site MySpace in 2005.

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1999879,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

(n) I really hate Fox and all related sister and parent companies as well. Murdoch is on my sh*t list......;) ;)

|-) Ah well, and life is way too short for this to matter, right?

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:55 AM

:D :D :D

Here's the complete list of nominations for the 2007 Academy Awards. The ceremony takes place Feb. 25 in Los Angeles.

Motion Picture of the Year

* Babel
* The Departed
* Letters from Iwo Jima
* Little Miss Sunshine
* The Queen

Actor in a Leading Role

* Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
* Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
* Peter O'Toole, Venus
* Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
* Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Actress in a Leading Role

* Penélope Cruz, Volver
* Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
* Helen Mirren, The Queen
* Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
* Kate Winslet, Little Children

Actor in a Supporting Role

* Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
* Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
* Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
* Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
* Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Actress in a Supporting Role

* Adriana Barraza, Babel
* Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
* Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
* Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
* Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Director

* Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
* Martin Scorsese, The Departed
* Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
* Stephen Frears, The Queen
* Paul Greengrass, United 93

Best Animated Feature

* Cars
* Happy Feet
* Monster House

Adapted Screenplay

* Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer; story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Peter Baynham, Anthony Hines and Todd Phillips
* Children of Men, Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby
* The Departed, William Monahan
* Little Children, Todd Field and Tom Perrotta
* Notes on a Scandal, Patrick Marber

Original Screenplay

* Babel, Guillermo Arriaga
* Letters from Iwo Jima, Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis
* Little Miss Sunshine, Michael Arndt
* Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro
* The Queen, Peter Morgan

Art Direction

* Dreamgirls
* The Good Shepherd
* Pan's Labyrinth
* Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
* The Prestige

Cinematography

* The Black Dahlia
* Children of Men
* The Illusionist
* Pan's Labyrinth
* The Prestige

Costume Design

* Curse of the Golden Flower
* The Devil Wears Prada
* Dreamgirls
* Marie Antoinette
* The Queen

Documentary Feature

* Deliver Us from Evil
* An Inconvenient Truth
* Iraq in Fragments
* Jesus Camp
* My Country, My Country

Documentary Short Subject

* The Blood of Yingzhou District
* Recycled Life
* Rehearsing a Dream
* Two Hands

Film Editing

* Babel
* Blood Diamond
* Children of Men
* The Departed
* United 93

Foreign-Language Film

* After the Wedding (Denmark)
* Days of Glory (Indigènes) (Algeria)
* The Lives of Others (Germany)
* Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico)
* Water (Canada)

Makeup

* Apocalypto
* Click
* Pan's Labyrinth

Original Score

* Gustavo Santaolalla, Babel
* Thomas Newman, The Good German
* Philip Glass, Notes on a Scandal
* Javier Navarrete, Pan's Labyrinth
* Alexandre Desplat, The Queen

Original Song

* "I Need to Wake Up" (An Inconvenient Truth), music and lyrics by Melissa Etheridge
* "Listen" (Dreamgirls), music by Henry Krieger and Scott Cutler, lyrics by Anne Preven
* "Love You I Do" (Dreamgirls), music by Henry Krieger, lyrics by Siedah Garrett
* "Our Town" (Cars), music and lyrics by Randy Newman
* "Patience" (Dreamgirls), music by Henry Krieger; lyrics by Willie Reale

Animated Short

* The Danish Poet
* Lifted
* The Little Matchgirl
* Maestro
* No Time for Nuts

Live-Action Short

* Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)
* Éramos Pocos (One Too Many)
* Helmer and Son
* The Saviour
* West Bank Story

Sound Editing

* Apocalypto
* Blood Diamond
* Flags of Our Fathers
* Letters from Iwo Jima
* Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Sound Mixing

* Apocalypto
* Blood Diamond
* Dreamgirls
* Flags of Our Fathers
* Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Visual Effects

* Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
* Poseidon
* Superman Returns

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=85b0ced1-4d70-46b3-80c8-c9f3b8492c4c&entry=index

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*) So many superlative films (~) (~) .... can choose only one winner. (y) (y)

Have a lovely Saturday afternoon (or evening, depending on your time zone...),

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (S) (l) (&) (l) (S)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:57 AM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

http://www.cunard.com/OurShips/default.asp?Ship=QM2

Your Sanctuary at Sea:

http://www.cunard.com/OurShips/default.asp?Ship=QM2&main=acc&sub=qgr

Almost three quarters of her rooms have a private balcony.

Transatlantic Crossings:

http://cunard.com/CruiseCalendar.asp?main=voy&Region=7&sub=&LeftNav=ourShips&shipid=QM2&Ship=QM2

Northern Europe:

http://cunard.com/CruiseCalendar.asp?main=voy&Region=11&sub=&LeftNav=ourShips&shipid=QM2&Ship=QM2

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 11:59 AM

:o :o :o

Give Bush an ultimatum

A Wisconsin State Journal editorial

January 27, 2007

It doesn't appear that the Democratic-controlled Congress can muster the power or the will to stop President Bush from sending more troops to Iraq.

Some of the additional 21,500 troops Bush wants to send to Iraq are already arriving.

But even Bush has to know that his bungled war can't go on forever. Without some measurable and positive results from his last-ditch "surge" in troops, America should pull back and eventually out of Iraq.

America will have a new president in less than two years. Whether it's a Republican or a Democrat, the next president will not be fool enough to continue Bush's failed policy in Iraq.

Bush had an opportunity to use the recommendations issued late last year by the Iraq Study Group to craft a plan to reduce the violence in Iraq, shore up the Iraqi government's ability to secure order, and gradually remove U.S. troops from harm's way. He chose not to do that.

Instead of leading the United States out of Iraq, he is leading the nation further in.

Too many of our brave men and women in uniform are dead and continue to die at an alarming rate -- not so much from firefights with insurgents, but from roadside bombs.

It's hard to understand how more soldiers riding around in tanks and being blown up in Iraq will help the American cause. Sending more troops might have made sense years ago. Sending more troops now seems like little more than a set-up to an excuse to leave.

Stubborn Bush has put Congress in a box. If Congress tries to cut funding for the war, Congress will potentially be shorting our troops on supplies and protection.

That would be wrong.

And yet Congress cannot sit idly by as dozens of troops lose their lives seemingly every week.

It's time to give Bush an ultimatum. Either make measurable progress in Iraq -- meaning fewer casualties and markedly less chaos -- or pull back.

Without some sign that the terrible insurgency and violence in Iraq is getting better after more troops arrive, America has no choice but to start pulling back into friendlier areas of the region. That could include pulling back to larger bases, to the friendlier Kurdish zone of Iraq and into Kuwait.

A pull-back also could improve diplomatic efforts to stabilize the region as America's presence in Iraq declines.

Bush appears unabashed and blindly optimistic about his failed war with precious little change in course. If his "surge" doesn't show tangible results, the president must finally listen to Congress and the American people and lead our troops out.

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/opinion/index.php?ntid=116564&ntpid=1

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 12:03 PM

:o

http://www.usmechatronics.com/usmgarage/WiiBot.html

:o

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 12:09 PM

:D :D :D :D :D

http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/56709/

(y) (y) (y) I loved this! Brought back memories when I was much younger.......:) :) I really enjoy that the script to these cartoons is often more funny (such as double entendres, etc.) to adults than to kids.

Enjoy!

(f) (f) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 12:11 PM

:) :)

http://www.hyperbike.info/

:) Would you get on this? ;)

:) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 12:13 PM

:| :| :|

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3oHpup-pk

|-) Silly......but hey, whatever some folks find to be funny, right? At least the rap isn't the usual filthy words. (y)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-27-2007, 12:16 PM

(l) (l)

The Scotsman Sat 20 Jan 2007

Hotel du Vin at One Devonshire Gardens

RESTAURANT REVIEW

JOHN DAVIDSON

HOTEL DU VIN
One Devonshire Gardens, Glasgow
(0141-339 2001)

THE BILL
Dinner for two, £75.65, excluding drinks

THE dining room at one Devonshire Gardens is surely jinxed. Since Glasgow's most famous luxury hotel opened in 1987, its restaurant has witnessed more rejigs, rehashes, rethinks, renovations, renewals and relaunches than I've had hot dinners.

Recently, it has been home to everything from Gordon Ramsay's iconic but unviable northern outpost to Room, an eatery based on the flawed notion that diners want ironic, not organic food. Now, however, a marvellous side-effect of the property's recent change of ownership is that every last vestige of Room's terrifyingly tasteless décor has been consigned to skips.

The drawing-room forms the reception room for Hotel du Vin's new Bistro. If this b-word conjures up an image of wobbly Bentwood chairs, three-day-old coq au vin, and bottles of something closer to lighter fuel than wine, you've possibly not eaten out for about 40 years. These days a bistro can be something rather grander, more elegant, more forthrightly modern. In fact, it can be whatever the chef or patron decides to make it.

In the case of Hotel du Vin, it has pretensions towards fine dining, signalled by lavish table linens, silver cutlery, Bernardaud porcelain and some very fancy menu options.

Actually, this bistro is not quite sure what it is. The room is grand but uncomfortable, drearily decorated in expensive taupe silk and furnished with those clumsy, overstuffed, £400 Sumo-esque armchairs that have become standard in every luxury gin palace around the world.

Ah, but looks aren't everything, I mused, joining my Dolce-clad dinner date at a corner table lapped by one hell of a draught. Was this vigorous air-conditioning? More likely, it was an un-addressable feature of the building's high-ceilinged Victorian architecture. Only on departure did I realise we'd been seated at an open window.

The welcome, however, was rather warmer. And the menu read quite well: one page of straightforward grill classics such as beef, veal and salmon, and a second page of rather more adventurous dishes. As ever, my high-heeled date could not resist ordering six Loch Fyne oysters (£1.50 each), while I was intrigued by something billed as a foie gras club sandwich (£8.95).

First we were treated to the chef's desperately unseasonal amuse bouche of cucumber foam weirdly partnered with an oyster concassé. He shouldn't have bothered. Rather than showcase his ingenuity, this merely revealed his need for a culinary calendar.

Swiftly thereafter, our starters touched down. My date pronounced her oysters excellent, deftly loosened from their shells. As for my club sandwich, I should have known better. It was a tiny tower formed from slab-like foie gras wedges layered between sheets of brittle: a stab, I guess, at the sort of amusing concoction currently served up in many of London's most balefully modish restaurants. And all the worse for it.

As an intermediate course, we shared something billed as a ravioli of lobster with glazed fennel and sauce Nantua (£9.50) which was all filling, fennel and sauce, but noticeably short of ravioli. As the chef had neatly parted our one portion in twain, something of the dish may have been lost in transition.

So far, so so-so. But if there's ever a description on a menu that doesn't do full justice to the horror ahead, well, my date has a special talent for choosing it. If there's one dish unexpectedly garnished with eye of newt or secretly baked for a week in a barrow of Mongolian sheep dip, she'll order it.

At Hotel du Vin, the menu failed to warn that the Lanark Blue cheese soufflé (£12.50) was in fact one of those rubbery twice-baked jobs that inevitably resembles an elderly omelette. What arrived was no more than two inches in diameter, and as gnarled as Gordon Ramsay's face. In fact, it looked exactly like one of those miracle sponges which, when soaked in water, swells to a big fluffy mass. That's what my date hoped might happen when a waiter started spooning truffle vinaigrette over this culinary tragedy. She was disappointed.

My main course, by contrast, was stellar. Although madly over-presented on a narrow rectangular plate (I'm thinking of launching a campaign to stop chefs using comedy crockery) this sautéed tranche of wild halibut (£19.95) initially struck me as looking far, far too fancy for a bistro. Yet the fish was beautifully cooked, and the accompanying elements of spinach purée, anchovy dressing and wafer-thin potato galette made this a dish that truly exceeded expectation.

Desserts, however, were a disaster - an unsophisticated, barrel-like delice of Valrhona chocolate (£7.50) for my date, and a hugely disappointing tonka bean soufflé (£8.25) for me that served only to compromise the positive vibe generated by my excellent main course. The best that can be said about the feeble coffee that followed? It was warm and wet.

One might say Bistro is patchy, but that's being unnecessarily kind. For one could just as readily say it's pretentious, expensive, misconceived and guilty of lavishing more attention on tricksy tableware than kitchen craft. It certainly doesn't outshine every previous occupant of this (potentially) glam room way out west. Oh, I could blame the new owners, their interior designers, or the kitchen brigade. Much kinder, I think, to cling to my resolute belief that this room is jinxed.

http://living.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1256&id=82932007

(f) (f) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-28-2007, 11:19 PM

;) ;)

"I am not available right now, but
thank you for caring enough to call.

I am making some changes in my life.

Please leave a message after the
beep.

If I do not return your call,
you are one of the changes."

:o :o

;) ;)

(S) (S) What a beautiful sight - just enough light snow on the trees with everthing sparkling. (and yes, my psychedelic days are long behind me...;)

(l) (&) (l) Wyatt remembered snow from when he was just a tiny guy - and was pushing the snow around with his face. What joy!! Brrr.....cold chops......(l)

:) ,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-28-2007, 11:21 PM

(y) (y) (y)

The Scotsman Mon 22 Jan 2007

How to ... Store, prepare and eat truffles

WHAT ARE THEY?

Celebrated as a delicacy, an aphrodisiac and even a type of natural medicine, this warty fungus is one of the world's rarest and most expensive foods. Taking up to ten years to mature, the truffles grow underground and are harvested in Italy and France with the aid of female pigs or truffle dogs, which can detect the strong smell of mature truffles underneath the ground.

WHEN SHOULD I EAT THEM?

To enjoy truffles at their best, you must eat them fresh and uncooked as soon as possible after they have been harvested. The white truffle season runs from September to December, while the black truffle season is December to March.

WHERE CAN I BUY THEM?

The strength of the truffle flavour decreases very quickly once it has been harvested. Ideally, they should be purchased from a speciality shop which imports fresh, refrigerated truffles overnight. You can buy them from the Italian deli Valvona & Crolla in Edinburgh.

HOW SHOULD I STORE THEM?

Truffles can be frozen for up to two weeks in a freezer-proof glass jar. You can also store them whole, in bland oil, for around a fortnight. This will preserve the truffle as well as flavouring the oil.

HOW DO I PREPARE THEM?

Remove any soil from your truffles just before eating them by washing them with water and gently brushing them. They must be spotless, as they will be eaten unpeeled.

WHAT SHOULD I SERVE THEM WITH?

Truffles should be grated or sliced with a truffle slicer directly on to food and into sauces or soups, just before eating. They should not be cooked, as the heat will damage the flavour and aroma. Cream and cheese sauces will soak up their flavour, and they work well with chicken, fish, souffles, omelettes, pasta and risottos. Alternatively, you can make truffle butter by finely grating a fresh truffle and adding it to softened unsalted butter. You can spread truffle butter on crackers or bread, or have it with a baked potato.

ANYTHING ELSE?

The pungent odour of a truffle will penetrate eggshells and flavour rice when it is stored with them in a refrigerator, in a closed glass jar, for about three days. The eggs can then be used in an omelette and the rice in pilaf.

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

Sweetstonefemme

01-29-2007, 09:36 AM

if you ever stop posting i am cancelling my subscription............(f) (f) (f) (y) (y) (y)

The Scotsman Mon 22 Jan 2007

How to ... Store, prepare and eat truffles

WHAT ARE THEY?

Celebrated as a delicacy, an aphrodisiac and even a type of natural medicine, this warty fungus is one of the world's rarest and most expensive foods. Taking up to ten years to mature, the truffles grow underground and are harvested in Italy and France with the aid of female pigs or truffle dogs, which can detect the strong smell of mature truffles underneath the ground.

WHEN SHOULD I EAT THEM?

To enjoy truffles at their best, you must eat them fresh and uncooked as soon as possible after they have been harvested. The white truffle season runs from September to December, while the black truffle season is December to March.

WHERE CAN I BUY THEM?

The strength of the truffle flavour decreases very quickly once it has been harvested. Ideally, they should be purchased from a speciality shop which imports fresh, refrigerated truffles overnight. You can buy them from the Italian deli Valvona & Crolla in Edinburgh.

HOW SHOULD I STORE THEM?

Truffles can be frozen for up to two weeks in a freezer-proof glass jar. You can also store them whole, in bland oil, for around a fortnight. This will preserve the truffle as well as flavouring the oil.

HOW DO I PREPARE THEM?

Remove any soil from your truffles just before eating them by washing them with water and gently brushing them. They must be spotless, as they will be eaten unpeeled.

WHAT SHOULD I SERVE THEM WITH?

Truffles should be grated or sliced with a truffle slicer directly on to food and into sauces or soups, just before eating. They should not be cooked, as the heat will damage the flavour and aroma. Cream and cheese sauces will soak up their flavour, and they work well with chicken, fish, souffles, omelettes, pasta and risottos. Alternatively, you can make truffle butter by finely grating a fresh truffle and adding it to softened unsalted butter. You can spread truffle butter on crackers or bread, or have it with a baked potato.

ANYTHING ELSE?

The pungent odour of a truffle will penetrate eggshells and flavour rice when it is stored with them in a refrigerator, in a closed glass jar, for about three days. The eggs can then be used in an omelette and the rice in pilaf.

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:02 AM

if you ever stop posting i am cancelling my subscription............(f) (f) (f)

Thank you so much for taking the time to post such kind words. I feel so grateful that you feel that way about my postings in this thread. (f) (f) (f) (f)

Warmest wishes,

Sweetlady

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:04 AM

:) Hilarious! :)

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the
olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a
pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot
slpeling was ipmorantt!

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

:)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:08 AM

:D :D :D

If you are sitting next to someone who irritates you on a plane, bus, train or subway.......

1. Quietly and calmly open up your laptop case.

2. Remove your laptop.

3. Turn it on.

4. Make sure the guy/grrl/person who won't leave you alone can see the screen.

5. Click on this link: http://www.thecleverest.com/countdown.swf

6. Close your eyes and tilt your head up to the sky.

7. Enjoy!

(y) :D (y) :D (y) :D (y) :D There are SO many times I wished that I had this! <smiling>

:) :) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:11 AM

:o :o :o

:) :)

http://www.poop-freeze.com/

(l) (&) (l) Definitely something to check out for Wyatt for those warmer months. ;)

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:13 AM

:| :| :| :|

I suppose we should pull down that "How to Throw an Election" PDF too, eh?

'm not sure which is more imbecilic -- posting a photo of the key to your electronic voting system to the Web, or making that key a universal one designed to access any machine you manufacture and the hotel mini-bar to boot (see "One bourbon, one scotch, one election"). In the end, it doesn't really matter because our doltish friends at Diebold have done both. Until yesterday, when Diebold slammed the barn door shut on a horse that's by now halfway to Katherine Harris' summer home, the voting machine manufacturer offered for sale on its Web site replacement keys to its AccuVote-TS. On the product page sat a photo of the key so detailed it could be used to create a working copy. Which is precisely what Ross Kinard of SploitCast did. "I bought three blank keys from Ace," Kinard told J. Alex Halderman at Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy. "Then a drill vise and three cabinet locks that used a different type of key from Lowes. I hoped that the spacing and depths on the cabinet locks' keys would be similar to those on the voting machine key. With some files I had I then made three keys to look like the key in the picture." Kinard sent those keys to Halderman, who found that two could be used to open Diebold machines. Nice, eh? As Halderman notes, the shape of a key is like a password -- only a fool, or Diebold, would post it to the Web (see "AccuVote -- that's an oxymoron, right?"). "Security experts advocate designing systems with 'defense in depth,' multiple layers of barriers against attack," Halderman writes. "The Diebold electronic voting systems, unfortunately, seem to exhibit 'weakness in depth.' If one mode of attack is blocked or simply too inconvenient, there always seems to be another waiting to be exposed."

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/09/add_hotel_minib.html

http://www.diebold.com/nasadmk/cgi-bin/desi_catalog.pl?section=8&id=130

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1113

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfGvSJA20-Y

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/09/at_what_point_d.html

(y) (y) (y) Definitely a quote du jour: "AccuVote -- that's an oxymoron, right?" ;)

Adieu,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (S) (l) (&) (l) (S)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:14 AM

:| :o :)

What sort of on-line business do you end up with when you try to address both the fallibility of human memory and the popularity of karaoke? You get Midomi, launching in beta today, where the draw is some new voice-recognition technology that helps you figure out what the title is of that damn song you can't get out of your head. Sing, hum or whistle the tune as best you can into your computer's microphone, and Midomi will try to determine what song you're butchering, then offer you the opportunity to buy the commercial original (if it happens to be in its collection) or listen to others singing or otherwise approximating the same composition. Former colleague Matt Marshall over at VentureBeat gave it a shot and found himself pretty impressed with its ability to decode his inimitable song stylings. But the meat of Midomi is its effort to get soloists to socialize by using the site as an open stage and encouraging users to rate their fellow performers. Given the usefulness of a "name that tune" tool and the public's fascination with unearthing talent in its own ranks, this could be a winner. If you can remember the name.

(8) Midomi: http://www.midomi.com/index.php

(8) This Web Site Can Name That Tune:

http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-6153657.html

(8) VentureBeat:

http://venturebeat.com/2007/01/26/hum-along-and-midomi-recognizes-your-song/

(8) (y) (8) (y) (8) (y) (8)

:) Have a relaxing rest of your evening (S) (S) and a terrific Tuesday. (f)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:19 AM

:s :s

Working like a dog to find the perfect Valentine's gift? The hot new unisex DOGS WHO CARE dog tags are the "gotta have" jewelry for this Valentine's Day. Plus, 100% of the proceeds goes to help pets in need across the country. At $14.99, the heart shaped paw print dog tags look awesome, with cash left over for chocolates. So, score some big points on Valentine's Day with the gift that looks great and gives back.

Dogs who care:

http://www.dogswhocare.com/

(l) Sweet.

(k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:24 AM

:o :o

10X10

An online time capsule—every hour

Part news portal and part interactive artwork, 10X10 collects the 100 most prevalent images and words appearing in online news outlets every hour—then arranges them into a vibrant collage, inviting both a user's involvement and contemplation.

The history of 10 a.m. today:

http://www.tenbyten.org/

(y) (l) (y)

10x10™ ('ten by ten') is an interactive exploration of the words and pictures that define the time. The result is an often moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world. Every hour, 10x10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time. Over the course of days, months, and years, 10x10 leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, form a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life.

10x10 is ever-changing, ever-growing, quietly observing the ways in which we live. It records our wars and crises, our triumphs and tragedies, our mistakes and milestones. When we make history, or at least the headlines, 10x10 takes note and remembers.

Each hour is presented as a picture postcard window, composed of 100 different frames, each of which holds the image of a single moment in time. Clicking on a single frame allows us to peer a bit deeper into the story that lies behind the image. In this way, we can dart in and out of the news, understanding both the individual stories and the ways in which they relate to each other.

10x10 runs with no human intervention, autonomously observing what a handful of leading international news sources are saying and showing. 10x10 makes no comment on news media bias, or lack thereof. It has no politics, nor any secret agenda; it simply shows what it finds.

With no human editors and no regulation, 10x10 is open and free, raw and fresh, and consequently a unique way of following world events. In 10x10, we respond instinctively to patterns in the grid, visual indicators of relevance. When we see a frequently repeated image, we know it’s important. When we see a picture of a movie star next to a picture of dead bodies, we understand the extremes that exist in our world. Scanning a grid of pictures can be more intuitive than reading headlines, for it lets the news come to life, and everything feels a bit less distant, a bit closer to heart, and maybe, if we're lucky, gives us pause to think. If you'd like to learn more about 10x10, you can read how it works.

http://www.tenbyten.org/

(h) (h) (h) (h) (h) (h) (h) I LOVED this! (y) (y)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:27 AM

:)

Expert Village

Show and tell for grownups

Teach your old dog a new trick, or teach yourself to mix the perfect Cosmopolitan; choreograph a sword fight; play guitar; belly dance; and nearly anything else—all by watching fun videos from an online community of experts.

Watch and learn!

http://www.expertvillage.com/

(y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:29 AM

:) :)

Cooking By Numbers

Bachelor living made easier...

So, mom's not around to make your favorite mac n' cheese? Cooking by Numbers provides an easy checklist solution—just select what items you have in your cupboards and refrigerator (inspect for mold first); then click "Find Recipes."

I've fallen and can't microwave!

http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/frames.html

(h) (i) (h) (i) (h) (i)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:31 AM

:) (l) :)

Game: Brain Busters—MAC OSX

Go to the head of the class

Where does your brain belong—Ivy League University, or elementary school? Edmund the tutor will guide you through 8 challenging games of varying difficulty to test your logic, mathematical and linguistic skills. So, put down the game console and pick up the books!

Learn more and download:

http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=19342

(y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:34 AM

:o :o

If I Dig Very Deep...

China or bust!

Were you one of those kids who tried to dig through the center of the earth, out to the other side? With this Google Earth mash-up, you won't need a shovel. Just pick a spot on the world map, select "Dig here," and it shows where you'd "arrive" on the opposite side of the world.

Pack your bags...

http://map.pequenopolis.com/index.php?lang=en

(y) (y) (y) The web site title is: "If I dig a very deep hole, where I go to stop? Another stupid application for Google Maps..." (y) (y) (y) Cute. :)

Stay warm, and (S) (S) peaceful dreams (S) (S) ,

SWeetlady & wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:36 AM

:D :D

Q U O T E D

"Let's say the world has only e-books, then someone introduces this technology called 'paper.' It's cheap, portable, lasts essentially forever, and requires no batteries. You can't write over it once it's been written on, but you buy more very cheaply. Wouldn't that technology come to dominate the market?"

-- Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee cites the kind of "flip test" that should be applied to anything that ends in "2.0"

http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/index.php/faculty_amcafee_v3/comments/a_technology_flip_test_introducing_channels_in_a_w orld_of_platforms/

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

:) :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:47 AM

(u) (u) (u) (u) (u) (u) (u)

http://www.nbc10.com/sports/10872221/detail.html

(p) http://www.nbc10.com/2006/0828/9749675_240X180.jpg

(l) http://www.nbc10.com/2007/0110/10714218_400X300.jpg

http://www.nbc10.com/2007/0110/10714219_400X300.jpg

Sept. 19, 2006: Jockey Edgar Prado visits with Barbaro with Dr. Dean Richardson:

http://www.nbc10.com/2007/0110/10714188_400X300.jpg

http://www.nbc10.com/2007/0110/10714189_400X300.jpg

(l) (l) Grief is the price we pay for love." - Gretchen Jackson, Barbaro's "mom"

(f) R.I.P. Barbaro and run joyfully and without anymore pain through those fields in heaven. Please whinnie a "hello" to Doc Holliday the Boxer for me........(f)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 12:55 AM

(l) (l)

By Sally Jenkins

Tuesday, January 30, 2007; Page E01

In diagnosing the public's unreasoning love for Barbaro, maybe it comes down to the fact that he never lied to us. Human nature seems like a sorry, wastrel thing, compared to that horse. No doubt, we idealized him, but the fact is, we could have used a happy ending for Barbaro, given some of the Gilded Age characters who parade safely through public life into retirement. His survival seemed like one good thing, a balm for foreign wars, domestic deceit, and the bimbo cocktail party circuit, ruthless wealth-swappage, and cross-entouraging that we lately call American culture.

Barbaro was an honest, blameless competitor. Our ridiculously soft feeling for him was based at least partly on that fact. Unlike so many people in the sports pages, he was neither felonious, nor neurotic. He let us place burdens on him, whether a saddle, a bet, or a leg brace, and he carried them willingly, even jauntily.

On the track, his trainer and jockey reported that there seemed no end to what he was willing to give. "Bottomless," was how they described his heart. He obviously raced for pleasure, and he ran with such dynamic abandon that he made circling a track seem an impetuous act. His effort was always sincere and supreme, and when he won the Kentucky Derby by 6 1/2 lengths, the largest margin in the race since 1946, it was less of a surprise than an affirmation to the people who had reared him. "Why shouldn't we have felt that way? Every time he had run before, he never let us down," trainer Michael Matz said to the Thoroughbred Times. "His will to win was obvious in whatever he did."

Also, he was handsome. On display in his stall, he had the calm expression of an inveterate star, and a preening stance that suggested he'd heard the roar of the crowd and knew he'd won the big one. Even his doctor, Dean Richardson, who hardly saw him at his best, noticed this. When he was asked why Barbaro excited such affection from perfect strangers, a choked Richardson replied, "He was good looking."

We followed his medical reports like they were our own. Phrases like "laminitic area," and "deep subsolar abscess" became familiar, as did the anatomy of his horribly damaged hind leg, the shattered pastern and sesamoid, and the pinned cannon bone.

There have been continual attempts to analyze why Barbaro's fight to survive so captivated the public, but maybe it's fairly simple: He had both innocence and greatness and it's not often you find those ephemeral qualities alive in the same creature. What's more, anyone who watched Barbaro run in the Derby felt that they saw traces of a distinct character: He was winsome. This gave his suffering specificity. We felt we knew him.

Possibly, this is anthropomorphic, and some have rightly pointed out that we should care as much about human beings. But it's not anthropomorphic to say that horses are irreproachably benevolent creatures, and this is surely one of the causes of our grief over Barbaro. It's a fact that of 4,000-odd animal species, only a very few are tame-able, none more so than horses. They are peaceful grazers by nature, and willing by disposition. Despite their considerable size advantage, they tolerate us and even bear burdens for us. While thoroughbreds can certainly be fearsome, their misbehavior is a flight response, not sadism, or outlawry. They have followed us, and favored us with their gifts to an extent that few other animals do, and partnered with us throughout history, from Persia to the Pony Express. "Gallant" is a word often applied to them, and it's apt.

Barbaro seems to have had all the virtues of his breed, and a few more besides. His character wasn't a matter of wishful projection, it existed, and was quite vivid to those who cared for him. He was indefatigable and had a high tolerance for pain. He was mettlesome without being spiteful -- and how often do you find that? He was expressive. In a lovely piece a few weeks ago by John Scheinman of The Washington Post, one of his night nurses described him as "mouthy." He befriended another patient at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa.: a cow. When he slept, his night nurse would pet him.

Despite pain and confinement, he wasn't mean. Among the things that caused his owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, to give up hope yesterday was that, in the grip of wounded exhaustion, he finally tried to bite the hand of his doctor, Richardson. It was a first in eight months of treatment.

Novelist Jane Smiley wrote a strange and wonderful book a couple of years ago called "A Year at the Races," in which she explained, with an articulacy missing here, that the human engagement with horses is nothing less than a love story. If you were wondering why the death of Barbaro hurts so, there is the answer:

"A love story, at least a convincing one, requires three elements: the lover, the beloved, and the adventures they have together," Smiley wrote. "If the lover isn't ardent, then the story isn't a love story. If the beloved isn't appealing, then the lover just seems idiosyncratic or even crazy; and if they have no adventures, then their love is too easy, and they have no way of learning anything important about themselves and one another."

Barbaro was appealing, and he was obviously beloved by the public, and by his owners. If the public learned anything from him, it was that with enjoyment of thoroughbreds comes responsibility for doing the right thing by them. One of the few consoling results from the Barbaro tragedy was an anonymous gift of $500,000 for the establishment of the Barbaro Fund, for animal care at the hospital where he died. Yesterday, it was Gretchen Jackson who best summed up the public outpouring for a horse. "Certainly, grief is the price we all pay for love," she said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012902109.html

(u) (u)

SWeetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 01:17 AM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

January 30, 2007

After 8 Months, Setback Ends Barbaro’s Battle

By JOE DRAPE NYTimes

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa., Jan. 29 — In eight months of waiting for Barbaro’s shattered bones to heal, the horse’s owners and his veterinarian said they had not seen the Kentucky Derby-winning colt become so uncomfortable that he would refuse to lie down and rest. Until Sunday night.

So on Monday morning, the owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, and the veterinarian, Dr. Dean Richardson, decided enough was enough. At 10:30 a.m., Barbaro was euthanized, ending an extraordinary effort to save the life of a remarkable racehorse whose saga had gripped people around the world.

Many had watched in early May as Barbaro dispatched 19 opponents in the Kentucky Derby in dominating fashion, by a six and a half lengths. His résumé summoned memories of Affirmed, Seattle Slew and Secretariat, the last three winners of the Triple Crown. But two weeks after that triumph, on May 20, many more were horrified when Barbaro pulled up in the opening yards of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. His fractured right hind leg dangled awkwardly while his jockey, Edgar Prado, tried to soothe him.

In recent weeks, Barbaro’s ailments had become overwhelming: complications with his left hind leg lingered, an abscess in his right hind heel was discovered last week and, finally, a new case of the painful and often fatal condition called laminitis developed in both of his front feet.

“That left him with not a good leg to stand on,” Dr. Richardson said Monday at an emotional news conference here at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals. “He was just a different horse. You could see he was upset. That was the difference. It was more than we wanted to put him through.”

The Jacksons were red-eyed as they explained that it had become clear their horse could not live without pain after a setback over the weekend that required a risky surgical procedure on his right hind leg. The couple had spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to save Barbaro’s life, and Ms. Jackson thanked the people who had expressed support for Barbaro through cards, letters, messages and even holy water.

“Grief is the pain we all pay for love,” she said.

Fifty feet away, in the hospital’s lobby, flowers and notes of condolences continued to arrive. The eight-month effort to nurse Barbaro back to health had riveted people around the world and had reminded casual fans about the beauty, mystery and heartbreak that is part of thoroughbred racing.

The day after his breakdown at the Preakness, Barbaro endured more than five hours of surgery as Dr. Richardson and his team used 27 screws to piece the right hind leg back together. In July, after laminitis had developed in Barbaro’s left rear hoof, Dr. Richardson proclaimed the chances for survival as poor. The condition is frequently caused by uneven weight distribution among a horse’s legs.

Despite having 80 percent of his hoof removed, Barbaro bounced back, and by mid-August, he was grazing outside the hospital here each day as Dr. Richardson fed him by hand.

The Jacksons visited the colt here each day and fed him grass from their farm in nearby West Grove, Pa. Before Christmas, they were encouraged enough by Barbaro’s recovery that they were making plans to move him to a farm in Kentucky, where he could roam the bluegrass and avoid the Northeast winter.

Earlier this month, however, veterinarians discovered that Barbaro’s left hind hoof was not growing back properly, and they had to remove some damaged tissue. Last week, the horse developed a deep bruise in his right heel, which Dr. Richardson tried to protect by performing a risky surgery Saturday. He tried to build a framework of metal pins, bars and a plate around the right hind leg to take all the weight off the fragile bone structure, which was already being held together with a matrix of screws.

By Sunday night, laminitis had begun to ravage Barbaro’s front legs, and the Jacksons decided there was little else left to do. Barbaro was in too much distress. When they and Dr. Richardson saw the colt struggling Sunday night in a sling designed to take pressure off his legs, they determined Barbaro had lost his will to live.

“We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain,” Mr. Jackson said. “It was the right decision. It was the right thing to do. We said all along if there was a situation where it would become more difficult for him, then it would be time.”

As news of Barbaro’s death became known early Monday, horsemen felt the loss deeply. Like Seattle Slew, Barbaro left Churchill Downs undefeated in six races. His victories were remarkable for their versatility: on grass, on dirt and at distances of a mile to a mile and a quarter.

The trainer Michael Matz, a former equestrian who won a silver medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, decided as soon as Barbaro arrived as a 2-year-old at his training center in Maryland that this was a preternaturally talented colt.

Mr. Matz aimed to make him the 12th Triple Crown champion, the first in 28 years, with an unorthodox approach. In six of the previous nine years, horses had captured the Derby and the Preakness only to fall short of the Triple Crown and immortality in the Belmont Stakes, the longest and most grueling of the three. Mr. Matz opted for a lighter-than-usual racing schedule for Barbaro, resting him for five to eight weeks between starts. He raced him only once in the 13 weeks before the Derby.

Mr. Matz and the Jacksons had even discussed returning Barbaro to the turf for a European campaign, perhaps culminating in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the most famous race in Europe.

Beyond Barbaro’s burgeoning talent, all of his human connections were beguiled by his personality, which blended intelligence with an old soul’s temperament, as one of Mr. Matz’s assistants, Peter Brette, said.

Gretchen Jackson, who with her husband had been breeding and racing thoroughbreds for more than 30 years, broke the golden rule of horse ownership: She fell in love with Barbaro.

So did much of the world. The gates of the hospital here have been adorned with signs proclaiming love for Barbaro and beseeching him to heal — “Grow Hoof Grow” — since his arrival. The fruit baskets filled with green apples and carrots, elaborate flower arrangements and get-well cards arrived by the truckload. Since early June, a Barbaro Fund has attracted more than $1.2 million in donations for the hospital, which is part of the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Online message boards were swamped with Barbaro news and for months became a virtual waiting room. On Monday, one of them, operated by Alex Brown, an exercise rider at the nearby Fair Hill Training Center, had its daily traffic nearly double to 15,000 visitors in a single hour.

“I love you Barbaro,” read one message posted by Cheryl — NY. “Everyone in my family is praying for you & lighting candles. Stay strong & don’t give up! XXOO.”

The Jacksons said they would remember most the good things that had come from Barbaro’s brief but brilliant life — from his Kentucky Derby victory to how he had raised the public’s awareness about everything from veterinary medicine to anti-slaughterhouse legislation.

“Our hope is that some of these issues don’t die,” Mr. Jackson said.

While the couple acknowledged that the decision to put Barbaro down was difficult, neither they nor Dr. Richardson expressed regrets. Even after months on end of being confined in a stall here in the intensive care unit, Barbaro had never been anything but calm and relaxed, Dr. Richardson said.

“The vast majority of the time he was a happy horse,” he said.

When that was no longer true Sunday night, all agreed on what had to be done.

Barbaro ate some grass for breakfast Monday morning. He was tranquilized and then a slight overdose of anesthetic was fed to him through a catheter that had already been fitted to him. “It could not have been more peaceful,” Dr. Richardson said. He fought back tears throughout the news conference.

When he was asked to make sense of the deep feelings Barbaro had summoned from complete strangers and from those who knew him best, Dr. Richardson perhaps wrote Barbaro’s epitaph:

“People love greatness,” he said. “People love the story of his bravery.”

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 01:18 AM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/30/sports/30barbaro.1.600.jpg

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

(f) (f) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 01:31 AM

(l) (l) (l)

January 30, 2007

Sports of The Times

Barbaro’s Desperate Fight for Life Gripped a Nation in Anguish

By Harvey Araton

We fretted over this horse as if we all had a piece of him. The news media covered him like a saddle, from the moments after he shattered his right hind leg last spring in the Preakness Stakes. The country seemed to pause for reflection, and in many cases for prayer, with every bulletin from Kennett Square, Pa., where Barbaro was nursed for the past eight months and was finally euthanized yesterday in a medical surrender to the harsh realities of thoroughbred racing.

Through it all, there has been this little voice in the back of my head wanting to know why.

Why this national obsession — and, forgive me, but I don’t quite know any other way to put it — with a horse?

Granted, not just any horse. Barbaro was an unbeaten champion, runaway winner of the Kentucky Derby on that sacred first Saturday of May.

It takes two minutes for the Derby to do what “American Idol” needs an entire television season for: to anoint an unknown. As always, there were more than a few contenders at Churchill Downs last spring, horses bred for greatness, unwittingly attached to tales of human frailty.

Like Barbaro’s trainer, Michael Matz, who had survived a plane crash and rescued three children in the process, Dan Hendricks was a compelling story. After a motocross accident in July 2004 that left him with a crushed vertebra, paralyzed below the waist, believing his career was over, Hendricks had made it to the Derby for the first time, training one of the favorites, Brother Derek.

With his three sons and a few reporters crowded around his wheelchair, Hendricks watched the race take shape on a small television in the tunnel connecting the paddock and the track. Naturally, Hendricks, the professional, recognized greatness first. He knew before the rest of us when the race was unofficially over.

“He’s running lights out,” he said when the leader, Barbaro, the horse Brother Derek had shared a barn with, the opponent Hendricks had said he most feared, emerged.

But what if Brother Derek or another horse had won, if Barbaro had broken down in the Preakness after finishing tied for fourth in the Derby, as did Brother Derek? Would our hearts have gone out to an also-ran? If the answer is no, should we be proud of the fact that we worship and worry about winners more and especially those who have risen to the most venerated of occasions?

We cast them as special and then indulge ourselves in ascribing qualities to them that we wish for the gifted and talented to have. Thus, the often-reported mantra these past few months that Barbaro was staging a brave battle to live, outrunning the prohibitive odds against survival.

Did we really know that? Or was it more a case of the owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, needing to believe it so they could continue investing — emotionally and financially — in this animal that had given them so much?

“We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain,” Roy Jackson said yesterday after the announcement. “It was the right decision, it was the right thing to do.”

We didn’t need a pet, much less a terminally ill one, to ache for the Jacksons, in the way we would for a pedestrian run over a few feet ahead of us in the street. Millions tuned in to watch Barbaro go for the second leg of the Triple Crown, and instead we were forced to ponder the illusory notion of control or, worse, the random fragility of life.

It’s been a while — not counting Seabiscuit’s popular comeback in print and film — since a racehorse galloped its way deep into the American psyche. If Seabiscuit was the proletariat’s four-legged champion of the Great Depression, Barbaro’s tragedy on the racetrack and months of struggle might have been steeped in symbolism as well.

Maybe Barbaro, as the fallen champion, was reminiscent of a country that was seriously wounded on 9/11 and has been wobbly ever since. Maybe the horse’s medical roller coaster struck a chord at a time when a great American city, ravaged by nature and neglect, still can’t stand up. Maybe only in such context can we rationalize such widespread passion for the health of a horse that has exceeded that for any single American soldier killed or wounded in Iraq.

If you asked yourself any of these questions even as you read every twist and turn to the Barbaro story, you weren’t alone. Why did we care, or care that much? Was it an example of sports at its best, serving as a metaphor for life? Hard to say for sure, only to acknowledge that until the news broke yesterday that Barbaro was free of his burden, there was this inescapable feeling that — to borrow from Roy Jackson — it was the right thing to do.

(n) I think this writer, Harvey makes some good points but he's another one with an acute case of cranial rectitis, IMHO. Perhaps it is a feminine perspective that communicates best how so many people feel at this time about a horse we all fell in love with. (f)

(S) (S) With that thought and one last evening walk for Wyatt - I think it's time to try to get this left brain slowed down and tears dried about Barbaro. (o) If I get away from the computer now - it will be 3:00 a.m. before I get to bed, much less fall asleep - hopefully before 4:00 a.m.|-) |-)

:| I am so looking forward to tip-toeing across the icy walkway taking Wyatt for a walk in the dark. :o I need to find a new floodlight to replace the one that burned out a few nights ago. As Roseanne Rosannadanna used to always say on SNL: "It's always Something!"

I hear snow is on the way again tomorrow. Good thing I love Winter! (l)

Warmest ({)(}) ({)(}) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 02:40 PM

:) :)

A very self-important college freshman from McGill University took it upon
himself to explain to a senior citizen standing next to him while waiting
for a bus, that it was impossible for the older generation to understand
his generation.

"You grew up in a different world, actually an almost primitive one," the
student said, loud enough for the other passengers nearby to hear.

"The young people of today grew up with television, jet planes, space
travel, man walking on the moon, our spaceships have visited Mars. We have
nuclear energy, electric and hydrogen cars, computers with light-speed
processing and............." pausing for breath ..................

The Senior took advantage of the break in the student's litany and said:
"You're right, son. We didn't have those things when we were young. So we
invented them.

Now, you arrogant little shit, what are you doing for the next generation?"

The applause was resounding!

(y) (y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 02:41 PM

(l) (l) (l)

Nancy Davis Jewelry Designer:

http://www.peaceandlovejewelry.com/intro.html

(y) (y) GREAT Flash Intro. Beautiful pieces, especially the peace-sign hearts.

(f) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 02:43 PM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

"You would have to look a long, long time to find a dishonest or cruel horse. And the odds are that if you did find one, it was made cruel or dishonest by the company it kept with humans. It is no exaggeration to say that nearly every horse — Barbaro included — is pure of heart. Some are faster, some slower. Some wind up in the winner’s circle. But they should all evoke in us the generosity of conscience — a human quality, after all — that was expended in the effort to save this one horse."

- New York Times Editorial, :One Horse Dies". January 30, 2007.

(y) Applause!! (y)

(l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 02:45 PM

(f) (f) .......but it too has its celebrities and scenes. (~) (~)

January 29, 2007

Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt, Nights Are Noir in Fog City

By WENDELL JAMIESON

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 28 — The orange and blue neon lights of the Castro Theater shone blurrily on the damp asphalt beneath the crisscrossing catenary wires of the streetcars. The words on the marquee in the Friday night gloom, read: “Marsha Hunt: In Person.”

Ms. Hunt made more than 50 movies before her career was wrecked in 1950 by the Hollywood blacklist. One of them, a 1948 crime melodrama called “Raw Deal,” has gone on to an unlikely second life as a favorite of the cultish devotees of film noir. On Friday it opened the fifth annual Noir City film festival here, and Ms. Hunt, 89, was on hand to watch its dreamlike silvery hues make a rare appearance on a big — very big — screen.

Lithe and glowing, Ms. Hunt took the stage after the film and said she was surprised not only that this dark little B movie had found fans nearly 60 years after its release, but that so many of them were here, nearly filling the Castro’s more than 1,400 seats. The crowd was a mix of young and old, polished and scruffy, with only a few fedoras in sight.

“I can’t get over this,” Ms. Hunt said as the film festival’s founder and organizer, Eddie Muller, genially interviewed her at the foot of the stage. “It was a strange sort of film,” she added, “about as negative as you can get. They hadn’t coined the term ‘noir’ yet.”

She’s right. It’s hard to imagine a darker film, literally or figuratively, than “Raw Deal.” Consisting almost entirely of luminescent day-for-night photography, it’s the story of an escaped con (played by Dennis O’Keefe) and the two women who love him (Ms. Hunt was one; Claire Trevor was the other), and features, among other pitch-black set pieces, a villain (Raymond Burr) who disfigures his girlfriend with a flaming dessert, and a furious midnight brawl in a seaside taxidermy shop. At the end everyone is either ruined, dead or under arrest.

And that darkness was just fine with the moviegoers here, which applauded vigorously as the closing titles rolled, just as they had at the beginning when the credit for the film’s director of photography, John Alton, the master of all that darkness, appeared on screen.

Mr. Muller, an author and film noir aficionado, dreamed up the film festival five years ago as a way to increase visibility for the Film Noir Foundation he runs, which works to restore the movies, and to promote his own books. (He most recently helped write Tab Hunter’s autobiography.) The Castro, built in 1922 and recently refurbished, had some dead time in January, and the festival (which runs this year through Feb. 4) was born — with a bang. The first double bill in 2003, “The Maltese Falcon” and “Dark Passage” — two seminal San Francisco noirs — sold out.

“It was huge right out of the gate,” he said. ”It totally threw me.” In the years since, he’s sold an average of 880 seats a night.

Of course subject matter and city are well matched. San Francisco has a noir pedigree rivaling that of New York or Los Angeles, its fog, slanting streets, circa-1940’s office buildings and dank narrow streets creating untold scores of blind alleys for characters unlucky enough to be trapped in them. Several noirs, including “Raw Deal,” have been set here.

On Friday the weather didn’t disappoint, with a steady rain falling much of the day. The sun made a half-hearted attempt to appear around noon, then gave up and went back to bed.

The Noir City festival may not be Sundance, but it too has its celebrities and scenes. Before “Raw Deal” on Friday the Castro’s balcony was crammed for a reception, with an open bar, a jazz band and Ms. Hunt signing copies of her book, “The Way We Wore: Styles of the 1930s and ’40s and Our World Since Then” (Fallbrook, 1993).

Among those on hand was Richard Erdman, 81, a character actor whose face is as recognizable — his credits include “Stalag 17” and “Tora! Tora! Tora!” — as his name is unknown. He had a supporting role in “Cry Danger,” the first film on Saturday night’s double bill, and looked so familiar standing there at the reception that it was almost impossible not to run up to him and say, “Haven’t we met before?”

Like Ms. Hunt, Mr. Erdman seemed a little puzzled as to why exactly, so many years later, these movies are finding a new following. Asked for a theory, he thought for a moment and said: “I really have no idea. I’m not putting it down, I just don’t understand it.”

He heaped praise on Mr. Muller and his crew of volunteers for running a high-class operation. “They’re not chintzy,” he said, sipping a glass of white wine.

Film noir is enjoying something of a second golden age at the moment. In addition to the San Francisco festival, the Film Forum in New York City offered a major noir series last year, and studios like Warner Brothers and Fox have ratcheted up their noir reissues to such an extent that many films that never made it out on VHS are appearing on DVD. Just last week Warner Home Video released 1952’s “Angel Face,” starring Robert Mitchum, which had only been available on foreign or pirated VHS tapes. Mr. Muller provides the commentary track.

“With film noir, if you show it to a group of 20-year-olds, they’ll find something to get hooked on,” said George Feltenstein, Warner Home Video’s voluble senior vice president for marketing for its classic catalog. “There is a sexiness to it, there is a mystery took it. These are very seductive movies, they are not cookie-cutter.”

Warner Brothers has released three noir box sets. The first, which came out in 2004 and featured titles like “Out of the Past” and “The Asphalt Jungle,” hit No. 1 on Amazon.com’s DVD list. This year Warner’s fourth noir set will include 10 rather than 5 movies. Here’s a scoop for noir fans: Two will star Mr. Mitchum.

Whatever the machinations of the DVD business, here at the Noir City festival, everyone was in a pretty good mood by the time the second title of opening night, “Kid Glove Killer,” a super-rarity from 1942, rolled to its conclusion. This one had a happier ending, with Ms. Hunt getting a marriage proposal, delivered beneath a microscope, from a skinny and surprisingly big-haired Van Heflin.

Coats and fedoras went back on, and the crowd headed for the exits. Ms. Hunt stood by the door, shaking hands and signing autographs, as her new legions of fans emerged onto the shiny street and headed off into the night.

(y) (~) (y) (~)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 02:47 PM

(h) (h) (h) (h) (h) (h) (h)

A two-day symposium at the Museum of Modern Art was an unofficial curtain-raiser for what is shaping up as a watershed year for the exhibition of feminist art. (y) (l) (y)

January 29, 2007

Feminist Art Finally Takes Center Stage

By HOLLAND COTTER

“Well, this is quite a turnout for an ‘ism,’ ” said the art historian and critic Lucy Lippard on Friday morning as she looked out at the people filling the Roy and Niuta Titus Theater at the Museum of Modern Art and spilling into the aisles. “Especially in a museum not notorious for its historical support of women.”

Ms. Lippard, now in her 70s, was a keynote speaker for a two-day symposium organized by the museum that was titled “The Feminist Future: Theory and Practice in the Visual Arts.” The event itself was an unofficial curtain-raiser for what is shaping up as a watershed year for the exhibition — and institutionalization, skeptics say — of feminist art.

For the first time in its history this art will be given full-dress museum survey treatment, and not in just one major show but in two. On March 4 “Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution” opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, followed on March 23 by “Global Feminisms” at the Brooklyn Museum. (On the same day the Brooklyn Museum will officially open its new Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and a permanent gallery for “The Dinner Party,” Judy Chicago’s seminal proto-feminist work.)

Such long-withheld recognition has been awaited with a mixture of resignation and impatient resentment. Everyone knows that our big museums are our most conservative cultural institutions. And feminism, routinely mocked by the public media for 35 years as indissolubly linked with radicalis and bad art, has been a hard sell.

But curators and critics have increasingly come to see that feminism has generated the most influential art impulses of the late 20th and early 21st century. There is almost no new work that has not in some way been shaped by it. When you look at Matthew Barney, you’re basically seeing pilfered elements of feminist art, unacknowledged as such.

The MoMA symposium was sold out weeks in advance. Ms. Lippard and the art historian Linda Nochlin appeared, like tutelary deities, at the beginning and end respectively; in between came panels with about 20 speakers. The audience was made up almost entirely of women, among them many veterans of the women’s art movement of the 1970s and a healthy sprinkling of younger students, artists and scholars. It was clear that people were hungry to hear about and think about feminist art, whatever that once was, is now or might be.

What it once was was relatively easy to grasp. Ms. Lippard spun out an impressionistic account of its complex history, as projected images of art by women streamed across the screen behind her, telling an amazing story of their own. She concluded by saying that the big contribution of feminist art “was to not make a contribution to Modernism.” It rejected Modernism’s exclusionary values and authoritarian certainties for an art of openness, ambiguity, reciprocity and what another speaker, Griselda Pollock, called “ethical hospitality,” features now identified with Postmodernism.

But feminism was never as embracing and accessible as it wanted to be. Early on, some feminists had a problem with the “lavender menace” of lesbianism. The racial divide within feminism has never been resolved and still isn’t, even as feminism casts itself more and more on a globalist model.

The MoMA audience was almost entirely white. Only one panelist, the young Kenyan-born artist Wangechi Mutu, was black. And the renowned critic Geeta Kapur from Delhi had to represent, by default, all of Asia. “I feel like I’m gate-crashing a reunion,” Ms. Mutu joked as she began to speak, and she wasn’t wrong.

At the same time one of feminism’s great strengths has been a capacity for self-criticism and self-correction. Yet atmospherically the symposium was a very MoMA event, polished, well executed, well mannered, even cozy. A good half of the talks came across as more soothing than agitating, suitable for any occasion rather than tailored to one onto which, I sensed, intense personal, political and historical hopes had been pinned.

Still, there was some agitation, and it came with the first panel, “Activism/Race/Geopolitics,” in a performance by the New York artist Coco Fusco. Ms. Fusco strode to the podium in combat fatigues and, like a major instructing her troops, began lecturing on the creative ways in which women could use sex as a torture tactic on terrorist suspects, specifically on Islamic prisoners.

The performance was scarifyingly funny as a send-up of feminism’s much-maligned sexual “essentialism.” But its obvious references to Abu Ghraib, where women were victimizers, was telling.

In the context of a mild-mannered symposium and proposed visions of a “feminist future” that saw collegial tolerance and generosity as solutions to a harsh world, Ms. Fusco made the point that, at least in the present, women are every bit as responsible for that harshness — for what goes on in Iraq for example — as anyone.

Ms. Kapur’s talk was also topical, but within the framework of India. It is often said that the activist art found in early Western feminism and now adopted by artists in India, Africa and elsewhere has lost its pertinence in its place of origin. Yet in presenting work by two Indian artists, Rummana Hussain (1952-1999) and Navjot Altaf (born in 1949), Ms. Kapur made it clear that they have at least as much to teach to the so-called West as the other way around.

Ms. Hussain, a religious secularist, used images from her Muslim background as a critical response to sectarian violence; Ms. Altaf (known as Navjot), though based in Mumbai, produces art collaboratively with tribal women who live difficult lives in rural India.

Collaborative or collective work of the kind Navjot does has grown in popularity in the United States and Europe in the past few years. And several of the symposium’s panelists — Ms. Lippard, the Guerrilla Girls, Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Catherine de Zegher — referred to it as a potential way for feminist art to avoid being devoured and devitalized by an omnivorous art market.

It was Ms. Fusco again who brought utopian dreams to earth. While sympathetic to the idea of collective work as an alternative to the salable lone-genius model, she suggested that the merchandising of art is at present so encompassing, and the art industry so fundamentally corrupted by it, that even collectives tend to end up adhering to a corporate model.

The power of the market, which pushes a few careers and throws the rest out — the very story of feminist art’s neglect — was the invisible subtext to the entire symposium. It was barely addressed, however, nor was the reality that the canonization of feminist art by museums would probably suppress everything that had made the art radical. Certainly no solutions for either problem was advanced, except one, incidentally, by Connie Butler, MoMa’s drawings curator, who is also the curator of the Los Angeles show.

In her panel talk she said that when she was agonizing over what choices of work to make for the “Wack!” exhibition, the art historian Moira Roth suggested, brilliantly, that she just eliminate objects altogether. Instead, Ms. Roth said, why not invite all the artists who made them to come the museum for a group-consciousness-raising session, film the session, and then make the film the show?

Somewhat unexpectedly, signs of a raised consciousness were evident among young people in the MoMA audience, the kind of people we are told either have no knowledge of feminism or outright reject it. In the question-and-answer sessions after each panel, the most passionate, probing and agitating questions and statements came from young women who identified themselves as students or artists.

When they spoke; when Richard Meyer, a gay art historian, spoke about queer feminism; and when Ms. Mutu ended her presentation by simply reading aloud a long list of curators, scholars and artists — all of them women, all of them black — who, could and should have been at the MoMA symposium, I had a sense that a feminist future was, if not secure, at least under vigilant consideration.

Carpe Diem,

SWeetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 02:49 PM

:o :o :o

;)

January 28, 2007

Bites

San Francisco: Tartine Bakery

By MARK BITTMAN NYTimes

In a city known for bakeries, bread and breakfasts, the scene just continues to get better. For whatever reason — gold miners ate big breakfasts? the hills build morning appetites? the sea air? — San Francisco has always had breakfast food worth traveling for. (The corned beef hash at Campton Place about 20 years ago was as interesting as any dinner entree served locally at the time.)

That breakfasts here are, or should be, the envy of every place else in the country strikes me as practically inarguable. It's not the sourdough bread (an overrated local aberration, one of the gold miners' true legacies), but the good dairy products (Sonoma still produces them) and the love and respect for tender baked goods, whether sweet, savory or in combination.

San Francisco now has one of the best French-style bakeries as well — run by, no less, a transplanted New Yorker named Elizabeth Pruitt. The place is Tartine Bakery, and it is — like many things new and exciting — in the Mission District.

I first fell in love with Tartine's scones last spring, when I was in town reporting a story, and several people insisted I get myself over there. Logically, Tartine's scones shouldn't be any better than anyone else's, because the recipe is pretty much standard: a ton of butter, some flour and sugar, not much else.

It could be that other bakeries don't use as much butter as they should, or it could be that Tartine's ingredients are better: Ms. Pruitt and her husband, Chad Robertson — who works mostly on the bread side — insist they determinedly rely on local suppliers for nearly everything, and use organic ingredients whenever possible. In any case, the scones are tender (Ms. Pruitt knows enough not to overhandle the dough, of course), they're crumbly, they're just sweet enough.

And moving beyond them: The croissant is the best I've had on the West Coast — flaky, buttery, crisp, greasy. (Yes. A croissant should leave you licking your fingers. It is butter fragilely encased in flour.)

And then there are the sandwiches, made with Mr. Robertson's exceptional bread, notable because it's a slow-fermented yeast bread in very French style that is a welcome change from the ubiquitous sourdough.

The sweets are right up there with the croissant and scones. The French classics like the layered opera cake and crunchy frangipane tart are awesome, but I crave the very American lemon meringue cake, brought to the point of overkill with a layer of caramel. I don't know the reason — the quality (or quantity) of the butter? Ms. Pruitt's touch? the beguiling nature of The City, as they call it? — but this is my favorite bakery in the United States.

Tartine Bakery, 600 Guerrero Street at 18th, (415) 487-2600; www.tartinebakery.com.

Yummy: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/24/travel/28bite600.1.jpg

(c) (c) Talk about a virtually-movable feast. :)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 02:50 PM

(l) (l)

Perched high atop a cake-shaped stump of tan volcanic rock — studded with a diminutive chess-piece castle and fringed by a dense forest — the fortified village of Calcata plays on the travelers’ collective myth of the quintessential Italian hill town:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/23/travel/28dayout.1.jpg

Maybe it’s the fresco of Jimi Hendrix painted on the wall of an 18th-century building. Whatever it is, it doesn’t take long to figure out that Calcata is not your everyday Italian hill town:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/23/travel/28dayout.3.jpg

Gianni Macchia in his mural-filled Caffe Kafir in Calcata:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/23/travel/28dayout.4.jpg

Pancho Garrison, a former choreographer from Texas who runs Grotta dei Germogli, a nouvelle Italian restaurant in a mosaic-lined cave"

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/23/travel/28dayout.5.jpg

The owner of L'Atelier dei Piccoli in her shop, one of the many in this bohemian village:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/23/travel/28dayout.6.jpg

"You could walk around here in your pajamas holding a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and no one is going to judge you because you’re not tied to the proper Italian way of doing things,” said a resident. Four girls play in the streets"

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/23/travel/28dayout.7.jpg

The local sculptor Costantino Morosin is known throughout Italy for his sculptures made of a volcanic rock, tufo, including the three Etruscan-style thrones that grace Calcata’s square. (Nice thrones...):

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/23/travel/28dayout.8.jpg

But not everyone is attracted to Calcata for its artistic vibe, spiritual energy or relics. For some, the physical aesthetic of Calcata — one of the best preserved medieval hill towns in Italy, is reason enough:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/23/travel/28dayout.9a.jpg

(l) (l) (l)

January 28, 2007

Day Out

Calcata, Italy: Where Newcomers Gave an Old Town a Second Life

By DAVID FARLEY

WHETHER you arrive in Calcata by car or by one of the buses from Rome, it is impossible to remain unfazed when the village first comes into sight. Perched high atop a cake-shaped stump of tan volcanic rock — studded with a diminutive chess-piece castle and fringed by a dense forest — the fortified village plays on the travelers’ collective myth of the quintessential Italian hill town.

But navigate the S-shaped passageway to the marble bench-lined piazza in the middle of this bewitching village, about 30 miles north of Rome, and something might seem amiss. Maybe it’s the fresco of Jimi Hendrix painted on the wall of an 18th-century building. Or the ponytailed locals, some of whom might be milling about in Indian-style saris. Or the absurd number of art galleries tucked away in the tangle of cobblestone alleyways. Whatever it is, it doesn’t take long to figure out that Calcata is not your everyday Italian hill town.

This may be the grooviest village in Italy, home to a wacky community of about 100 artists, bohemians, aging hippies and New Age types. Its offbeat roots began in the 1930s, when the government condemned the medieval village for fear that the craggy cliffs it sits on were crumbling. Calcata’s inhabitants relocated a half mile up the road to a newly built town, Calcata Nuova, and except for a clutch of feral cats and a few holdouts, the old hilltop village lay deserted, awaiting a government wrecking crew.

Then, in the late ’60s and early ’70s, artists and bohemians began gravitating to the village, drawn by its rugged beauty and a mythical energy that some say emanates from Calcata’s 150-foot-high volcanic stump. (The Faliscans, a pre-Roman people, used the mountain as a sacred ritual site, and some transplants say they can still feel the spiritual force.)

The new artsy inhabitants squatted in the abandoned stone houses before buying them (the original owners were happy to sell). They patched up potholes in the cobblestone alleys and transformed many of the caves under the village into subterranean homes. They opened art galleries, restaurants and cafes. And, finally, they successfully lobbied to have Calcata’s death sentence rescinded, convincing the government that the earlier assessment was wrong.

“We saved Calcata by moving here,” said Athon Veggi, an artist and Egyptologist who moved to the village in the 1970s and now lives in two adjacent caves: one for her art work, the other she shares with a dozen crows. “People like myself came here because it’s a powerful place and because we’re free to do what we want.”

In truth, Calcata has had its share of the bizarre long before the bohemians arrived. Shortly after the Sack of Rome in 1527, when the city was plundered by the armies of Emperor Charles V, a German soldier showed up in Calcata carrying a souvenir he had stolen during the raid: the supposed foreskin of Jesus. The soldier was captured, and the Holy Foreskin was confiscated, permanently placing Calcata on the weird relics map.

The Holy Foreskin, however, mysteriously disappeared in 1983 (locals swear the Vatican took it). Since then, pilgrims have been replaced by gallery-hopping day-trippers, who come to gawk instead at Calcata’s medieval architecture and the paese di fricchettoni, or village of freaks.

“That almost all the inhabitants are from somewhere else — either in Italy or other parts of the world — makes Calcata unique,” said Pancho Garrison, a former choreographer from Texas who runs Grotta dei Germogli, a nouvelle Italian restaurant in a mosaic-lined cave (Rupe San Giovanni; 39-761-588-003; www.grottadeigermogli.org). “But what really inspires me is that everyone you encounter here has a creative bent.”

Take, for example, Marijcke van der Maden, a Dutch puppet-maker, who came here in the early ’80s and now organizes jam sessions with local musicians, classical music concerts, lectures and exhibitions in the Granarone (Via di Porta Segreta, 8; 39-0761-587-855; www.ilgranarone.com ), a spacious hall with an earthy cafe that serves as the village’s de facto visitors’ center. Or the painter Giancarlo Croce, who runs a subterranean gallery, Studio d’Arte Porta Segreta (Via Porta Segreta, 15; 39-761-587-563), that carries the works of the local sculptor Costantino Morosin, who is known throughout Italy for his sculptures made of a volcanic rock, tufo, including the three Etruscan-style thrones that grace Calcata’s square. Or the flamboyant Gianni Macchia, an actor from 1970s B-movies, who loves showing off his coffee house, Caffe Kafir (Via Garibaldi 12-14; 39-338-172-5339), and the mural-filled palace that houses it.

The artistic inspiration has spread outside the village. Just below Calcata, a sprawling patch of forest has been turned into a rambling art gallery, the Opera Bosco (Località Colle; 39-761-588-048; www.operabosco.com). A pleasant 20-minute walk from town, it has sculptures and art installations created from local materials like tufo, wooden branches and dirt.

But not everyone is attracted to Calcata for its artistic vibe, spiritual energy or relics. The physical aesthetic of Calcata — one of the best preserved medieval hill towns in Italy, is reason enough to draw people like Prince Stefano Massimo, who hails from one of the oldest noble families in Europe (and whose family owned Calcata in the 19th century). He lives part-time in a mansion that sprawls along the southeastern half of the village, and is composed of five homes that were combined and refashioned by a local architect, Patrizia Crisanti.

“I try to come here as much as possible,” Mr. Massimo said. “Not for the energy that people speak about, or for the artists who are living here, but because where else could you find a place that looks this beautiful.”

Calcata is also charmingly backward. There are many places to get a tarot card reading or a box of incense, but to withdraw money from an A.T.M., mail a letter or other modern conveniences, you have to drive to Calcata Nuova or three miles to Faleria.

Still, for most Calcata residents, it’s a fair trade-off. “You could walk around here in your pajamas holding a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and no one is going to judge you because you’re not tied to the proper Italian way of doing things,” said Mr. Garrison. “That says a lot about the place.”

Although the village is a popular day-trip destination, spending the night is the best way to get a real sense of Calcata. I Sensi della Terra (Via San Giovanni 1, 39-0761-587-733; www.isensidellaterra.it) rents rooms and apartments scattered throughout the village. The rooms start at 20 euros, $38, at $1.29 to the euro. And if the villagers are having one of their potluck pasta dinners on the square, they may invite you to join them. Just make sure you don’t have any plans in the morning.

For a place that isn’t stereotypically Italy, it can be pretty Italian after all.

VISITOR INFORMATION

Driving is the easiest way to get to Calcata. From Rome, it is a 30-mile trip on highway Cassia Bis (SS2); exit at Sette Vene and follow signs for Calcata. You can also reach Calcata by bus. Take one of the light-rail trains from the Ferrovia Nord station in Rome to the Saxa Rubra bus terminal (a 20-minute ride that costs 1 euro, or $1.29) and switch to a blue Cotral bus (www.cotralspa.it) that stops at Calcata. Buses leave almost every hour, and the ride takes about 45 minutes. Tickets are sold at the snack bar, Bar Saxa; a one-way ticket is 2 euros.

(k) (k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 02:52 PM

:| :| :|

January 28, 2007

Heads Up | Travel Warnings

Safe or Not? It Depends on Whom You Ask

By JOSHUA KURLANTZICK

IN the days after Bangkok’s New Year’s Eve blasts, which killed three people and came on the heels of a military coup, many travelers seemed confused about how to respond. Some travelers appeared unfazed; one Briton hurt in the bombings, Paul Hewitt, quickly told reporters, “I can’t see why this would deter me from coming back.” Expatriate friends of mine wrote that Bangkok seemed normal, and they planned to spend New Year’s Day engaged in one of Thailand’s favorite activities, cellphone shopping.

Some travelers trying to decide whether Thailand was truly safe looked to the old standby, the State Department’s travel information, which is broken down into Public Announcements, Consular Information Sheets and Travel Warnings, all available at travel.state.gov. The Public Announcements “disseminate information quickly” about short-term threats to security abroad; the Consular Sheets provide detailed, broad background on safety and other issues in foreign countries; and the Travel Warnings advise Americans to avoid a country or to take significant precautions while visiting.

Yet the State Department’s reports, while useful and thorough, can also prove confusing. The most serious category, Warnings, includes nations like Indonesia where there are real terrorist threats but generally low levels of violent crime against foreigners. Warnings do not include countries popular with tourists like South Africa that have high rates of assault and murder, which are more likely to affect travelers than terrorism. The Public Announcements sometimes seem too broad to follow: One recent announcement warns of terrorist threats on nearly every continent. Consular Information Sheets offer serious cautions about so many relatively peaceful countries, from Greece to Vietnam, that they can lose their impact.

But savvy travelers know not to rely solely on the State Department reports. Many look to the Web sites of the United States embassy at their destination, which tend to be more detailed. Travelers also turn to the advisories of the British and Australian governments. Australia offers nuanced advisories that use factors ranging from terrorism to crime, to grade nations’ safety on a continuum from one to five, with five being the most dangerous. Australia’s advisories are available at www.smartraveller.gov.au, and tourists can sign up for a handy e-mail service that automatically sends Australian updates about a particular place. (Britain’s advisories are available at www.fco.gov.uk — travel advice is available on the left-hand side of the page.)

Local English-language newspapers can prove even more vital, and the Web sites www.thebigproject.co.uk/news/ and world-newspapers.com offer links to Web sites of English-language publications from The Times of London to The Times of Central Asia. Often, the local papers offer early warnings of events that later threaten tourists. In Thailand, The Bangkok Post and The Nation, English-language dailies, reported credible talk of a coup well before the Thai military actually seized power in September.

“This had been predicted in the press for weeks,” a Bangkok Post editor, Songpol Kaoputumptip, told me just after the coup.

Many of the local papers’ Web sites also contain discussion forums, which travelers can use to assess the state of local concern about anything from avian flu to air safety. Local news media also cover mass emigrations, the best sign that people in that country are genuinely afraid. After the 2002 Bali bombing, Indonesian papers reported few exoduses of middle-class Indonesians to Singapore, suggesting that locals thought the nation remained stable. By comparison, during rioting in Jakarta in the late 1990s, many Indonesians fled the country.

Conversely, the local press often understands best when seemingly disturbing developments should merit a yawn rather than a canceled vacation. While I was visiting the Philippines last winter, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had declared a state of emergency, warning that the government feared a coup attempt. But when I wandered the crowded streets of Manila’s shopping district, I noticed that virtually no one seemed worried. Later, local reporters told me few Filipinos feared a real coup.

Local blogs in English can serve a similar function as English-language newspapers. For example, the Web site asiapundit.com has links to hundreds of blogs from across Asia, some of which contain debates about pressing political and security issues.

Travelers can provide foreign safety tips, but Web forums catering to backpacking budget tourists, who often spend more time than high-end travelers dealing with local police, aggressive hawkers and other such difficulties, generally prove the most detailed. Lonely Planet’s thorntree.lonelyplanet.com contains pages for nearly every country.

Other sites collate travel information into one accessible location. The comprehensive site allsafetravels.com compiles travel reports, warnings and breaking news from many countries, while airsafe.com allows visitors to research many facets of air safety in foreign nations.

LESS comprehensive than allsafetravels.com but far more thrilling, comebackalive.com, the official Web site of Robert Young Pelton, author of “The World’s Most Dangerous Places,” offers firsthand reports from the slums of Haiti and similar places. It also has a discussion group focusing (not surprisingly) on alarming questions, like “Congo, Rwanda, or Colombia as a Solo Female Traveler?” or “How Do I Know if I’ve Gotten a Concussion?”

Ultimately, nothing beats old-school local knowledge — contacting people on the ground before you go, including locals not affiliated with the travel industry. Local bloggers and journalists, identified through e-mail addresses on the Web sites of local papers, are often willing to answer e-mailed questions.

I learned the hard way. Before embarking upon a recent trip to East Timor, I spoke with few Timorese, though I did talk to one American friend who had returned from Timor and warned me about safety issues.

Still, I disregarded her caution. Days after touching down in Dili, Timor’s capital, locals filled me in with more detail. My guide, Chico Tilman, who was receiving frequent frantic calls from his wife, told me of an upcoming clash between disgruntled soldiers.

I was lucky. Even as armed soldiers from opposing factions rumbled into Dili, the city remained relatively calm. I even had time to sneak out of town on a short snorkeling trip. Days after my plane departed Dili for northern Australia, the capital erupted into violence, with militias torching parts of the city.

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) Be safe. AND have fun!! <:o)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 02:58 PM

:o :o

The NYTimes Magazine article was very long as well as chewy in my view. The summation section of the article was extremely interesting (I thought so...). The article appeared January 28, 2007:

Unhappy Meals

By MICHAEL POLLAN

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

BEYOND NUTRITIONISM

To medicalize the diet problem is of course perfectly consistent with nutritionism. So what might a more ecological or cultural approach to the problem recommend? How might we plot our escape from nutritionism and, in turn, from the deleterious effects of the modern diet? In theory nothing could be simpler — stop thinking and eating that way — but this is somewhat harder to do in practice, given the food environment we now inhabit and the loss of sharp cultural tools to guide us through it. Still, I do think escape is possible, to which end I can now revisit — and elaborate on, but just a little — the simple principles of healthy eating I proposed at the beginning of this essay, several thousand words ago. So try these few (flagrantly unscientific) rules of thumb, collected in the course of my nutritional odyssey, and see if they don’t at least point us in the right direction.

(l) 1. Eat food. Though in our current state of confusion, this is much easier said than done. So try this: Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. (Sorry, but at this point Moms are as confused as the rest of us, which is why we have to go back a couple of generations, to a time before the advent of modern food products.) There are a great many foodlike items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn’t recognize as food (Go-Gurt? Breakfast-cereal bars? Nondairy creamer?); stay away from these.

(l) 2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims. They’re apt to be heavily processed, and the claims are often dubious at best. Don’t forget that margarine, one of the first industrial foods to claim that it was more healthful than the traditional food it replaced, turned out to give people heart attacks. When Kellogg’s can boast about its Healthy Heart Strawberry Vanilla cereal bars, health claims have become hopelessly compromised. (The American Heart Association charges food makers for their endorsement.) Don’t take the silence of the yams as a sign that they have nothing valuable to say about health.

(l) 3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.None of these characteristics are necessarily harmful in and of themselves, but all of them are reliable markers for foods that have been highly processed.

(l) 4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market; you also won’t find food harvested long ago and far away. What you will find are fresh whole foods picked at the peak of nutritional quality. Precisely the kind of food your great-great-grandmother would have recognized as food.

(l) 5. Pay more, eat less. The American food system has for a century devoted its energies and policies to increasing quantity and reducing price, not to improving quality. There’s no escaping the fact that better food — measured by taste or nutritional quality (which often correspond) — costs more, because it has been grown or raised less intensively and with more care. Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation. And those of us who can afford to eat well should. Paying more for food well grown in good soils — whether certified organic or not — will contribute not only to your health (by reducing exposure to pesticides) but also to the health of others who might not themselves be able to afford that sort of food: the people who grow it and the people who live downstream, and downwind, of the farms where it is grown.

“Eat less” is the most unwelcome advice of all, but in fact the scientific case for eating a lot less than we currently do is compelling. “Calorie restriction” has repeatedly been shown to slow aging in animals, and many researchers (including Walter Willett, the Harvard epidemiologist) believe it offers the single strongest link between diet and cancer prevention. Food abundance is a problem, but culture has helped here, too, by promoting the idea of moderation. Once one of the longest-lived people on earth, the Okinawans practiced a principle they called “Hara Hachi Bu”: eat until you are 80 percent full. To make the “eat less” message a bit more palatable, consider that quality may have a bearing on quantity: I don’t know about you, but the better the quality of the food I eat, the less of it I need to feel satisfied. All tomatoes are not created equal.

(l) 6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. Scientists may disagree on what’s so good about plants — the antioxidants? Fiber? Omega-3s? — but they do agree that they’re probably really good for you and certainly can’t hurt. Also, by eating a plant-based diet, you’ll be consuming far fewer calories, since plant foods (except seeds) are typically less “energy dense” than the other things you might eat. Vegetarians are healthier than carnivores, but near vegetarians (“flexitarians”) are as healthy as vegetarians. Thomas Jefferson was on to something when he advised treating meat more as a flavoring than a food.

(l) 7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks. Confounding factors aside, people who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than we are. Any traditional diet will do: if it weren’t a healthy diet, the people who follow it wouldn’t still be around. True, food cultures are embedded in societies and economies and ecologies, and some of them travel better than others: Inuit not so well as Italian. In borrowing from a food culture, pay attention to how a culture eats, as well as to what it eats. In the case of the French paradox, it may not be the dietary nutrients that keep the French healthy (lots of saturated fat and alcohol?!) so much as the dietary habits: small portions, no seconds or snacking, communal meals — and the serious pleasure taken in eating. (Worrying about diet can’t possibly be good for you.) Let culture be your guide, not science.

(l) 8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden. To take part in the intricate and endlessly interesting processes of providing for our sustenance is the surest way to escape the culture of fast food and the values implicit in it: that food should be cheap and easy; that food is fuel and not communion. The culture of the kitchen, as embodied in those enduring traditions we call cuisines, contains more wisdom about diet and health than you are apt to find in any nutrition journal or journalism. Plus, the food you grow yourself contributes to your health long before you sit down to eat it. So you might want to think about putting down this article now and picking up a spatula or hoe.

(l) 9. Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet. The greater the diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your nutritional bases. That of course is an argument from nutritionism, but there is a better one, one that takes a broader view of “health.” Biodiversity in the diet means less monoculture in the fields. What does that have to do with your health? Everything. The vast monocultures that now feed us require tremendous amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to keep from collapsing. Diversifying those fields will mean fewer chemicals, healthier soils, healthier plants and animals and, in turn, healthier people. It’s all connected, which is another way of saying that your health isn’t bordered by your body and that what’s good for the soil is probably good for you, too.

Michael Pollan, a contributing writer, is the Knight professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” was chosen by the editors of The New York Times Book Review as one of the 10 best books of 2006.

(y) (y) (y) I have been thinking about this since yesterday since reading the entire LONG article......"what in the world DID my great-great-grandmothers eat?" That would be around the start of the 1800's? And what were the names of the countries where they were from called back then?

THAT's an enlightening Internet search, in my opinion.

(y) Ah, I LOVE those things that stimulate different pathways of thinking! 8-| 8-|

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:05 PM

:s :s

January 28, 2007

Idea Lab

Air Support

By ERIC KLINENBERG

In the early morning of Jan. 18, 2002, a Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed just outside Minot, N.D., spilling roughly 240,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia into a woodsy neighborhood on the outskirts of town. The resulting toxic cloud grew to some five miles long, two and a half miles wide and 350 feet high, enveloping the homes of approximately 15,000 people. Confused and afraid, thousands of Minot residents turned on their radios to get public warnings and instructions on how to stay safe.

Yet no such information was available. Minot’s six nonreligious commercial stations, all of which were owned and operated by the nation’s largest radio company, Clear Channel Communications, were broadcasting prerecorded programs engineered in remote studios. Police dispatchers couldn’t reach anyone in Clear Channel’s local offices: the town’s new emergency-communications system failed to automatically issue an alert, and no one answered the phones at the stations. What ensued was horrific: as one man died and hundreds became ill from inhaling the poisonous gas, the airwaves were filled with canned music and smooth-talking D.J.’s.

Five years later, America’s emergency-communications system remains woefully inadequate. Consider, for instance, the basic question of where you would turn for information if disaster struck your hometown. The Internet puts up-to-the-minute information at your fingertips, but not if you can’t turn on your computer or your local network is down. Mobile phones allow for voice conversations and text messaging, but not when the system is jammed from overuse. Cable television offers hundreds of channels, but not one of them works when the power is out. Radio, when accessed by battery-powered receivers, provides the optimum combination of reliability and accessibility — but not if local stations have no one in the studios to report the news.

Radio companies have long provided the nation’s emergency-communications infrastructure. But they were not formally integrated until 1951, when Harry Truman implemented the Control of Electromagnetic Radiation system. Conelrad later evolved into the Emergency Broadcasting System, which required all licensed broadcast systems to air its famous weekly message: “This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test. . . . ” The E.B.S. in turn was upgraded into the Emergency Alert System in 1997.

Today, the E.A.S. enables federal authorities to override programming and issue warnings without intervention from stations. State and local authorities may also override programming during crises — but only if they have the prior consent of broadcasters, which are not legally obligated to cede control of their content, and only if they have installed E.A.S.-compatible equipment, which is voluntary, too. Predictably, the loose local standards leave some officials confused about how to issue an alert and some broadcasters ill equipped to help.

The problem is hardly limited to small cities like Minot. On Aug. 14, 2003, as a sweeping blackout affected 50 million people across the Northeast, David Rubin, dean of the S. I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, was listening to the primary local news station (also owned by Clear Channel) on the drive home. Instead of reporting on conditions in Syracuse, the station was broadcasting information about the subways in New York City. “I only heard one local reporter on the air, and she was on the air only once,” Rubin says.

There are signs of improvement. In June 2006, President Bush, whose administration did not activate the E.A.S. on Sept. 11 or during Hurricane Katrina, issued an executive order instructing the Department of Homeland Security (which administers FEMA) to overhaul the system so that it is “effective, reliable, integrated, flexible and comprehensive.” In Congress, a bill under consideration would establish an All Hazards Alert System that “will be coordinated with and supplement existing federal, state, tribal and local emergency-warning and alert systems.”

Today most resources for improving the nation’s emergency communications are devoted to developing new technologies for personalized notification, like reverse 911 calling programs and S.M.S. alerts sent to mobile telephones. “These things ought to be part of the system for the future,” says C. Patrick Roberts, president of the Florida Association of Broadcasters. “But right now none of them work well when the power is out and demand is high. Radio may be old-fashioned, but it works.” Assuming, that is, that there is someone who can broadcast useful information.

Eric Klinenberg is an associate professor of sociology at New York University and the author of “Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media.”

(y) (y) Yes, yes - I remember back in the days before massive media consolidation. Those "mom and pop" - owned radio stations all over the U.S.A., as well as other countries, although those were owned by the PTT's - governement angencies, that is.

(l) (l) I loved this: Radio may be old-fashioned, but it works.”

(y) For the emergencies that are not an IF, but a WHEN?

:D Radio Rocks.

:-#:-# And to think that one of my first jobs was a DJ at a radio station that for sure was not automated. ;)

:) 's,

SWeetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:10 PM

8-| 8-|

January 28, 2007

Consumed

Decrunched

By ROB WALKER

Bear Naked

One of the sturdy clichés of contemporary brand-building is the importance of avoiding an image that’s too “crunchy” or, worse, too “granola-y.” That’s particularly true — and maybe particularly challenging — for businesses that want to transcend green or health-conscious consumer niches. But it’s really challenging if what you’re selling is, in point of fact, granola.

The founders of Bear Naked were conscious of this when they started selling their product in 2002. It was “an enormous issue,” Brendan Synnott says, and for the first two and half years of the brand’s existence, he and Kelly Flatley didn’t even put the word on their packaging. “I used to hate being called granola,” he says. “You hear ‘granola,’ and you think hairy legs and Birkenstocks. That was the reputation.” Flatley had less of a problem with the word “granola,” partly because she likes granola and partly because that’s what Bear Naked is. In fact, it’s the top-selling granola brand in natural-foods stores, as ranked by SPINS, a data collector, and the No. 2 branded manufacturer in conventional stores, including places like Target and Costco, according to Bear Naked, which gets its data from ACNielsen.

Flatley, a healthful-living, outdoorsy type, liked to make her own granola while in college and later began to sell it at some local markets in Darien, Conn., her hometown. Around this time, she happened to reconnect with Synnott, a high-school friend who had done stints at an Austin software firm and on the staff of “Saturday Night Live.” They decided to go into business together.

They did stick with the name Bear Naked, which had “personality,” as Flatley puts it: “a playful, youthful, vibrant, athletic company.” Personality was important, since, strictly speaking, there isn’t a whole lot to granola. It’s a mix of oats, nuts, honey and perhaps other stuff like dried fruit, all of it baked. Even Synnott describes Bear Naked as “ingredients that you could basically get out of your cabinet.” Getting people to pay $5 for a 12-ounce bag of it seems like enough of a challenge without the hairy-leg problem.

Part of their strategy to bring some “innovation” to the category involved packaging: apart from eliminating the word “granola,” they also banished actual bear imagery and any graphics that resembled oats or connoted nature (too crunchy) in favor of a more minimalist design featuring three slashes suggesting claw marks. Instead of a box (granola is positioned as cereal in most stores), they opted for a stand-up pouch with a transparent panel, so people could see the ingredients and squeeze the package. And instead of health and nutrition boasts, the pouch text played up the youthful, “active lifestyle”-loving founders. (That’s even more true on the company’s Web site, which includes pictures of them in high school and in the great outdoors, along with repeated reminders that they are in their 20s.)

Beyond that, their main marketing tactic has been in-store sampling. After a breakthrough placement in Stew Leonard’s, a grocery chain based in Norwalk, Conn., in 2003, the brand found its way into Whole Foods and then into more mass-market retail stores across the country, and expanded into hot cereals. More recently, Bear Naked has tried new tactics, like a promotion with Stonyfield Farm yogurt, and is pondering radio ads, distribution in convenience stores and new product categories that can, Synnott says, “leverage that granola equity that we’ve built.”

Granola equity! This bit of business-speak sounds like an oxymoron, but of course Bear Naked has been helped along the way by steadily growing consumer interest in more healthful foods. Bridget Goldschmidt, managing editor of Progressive Grocer, a trade publication, notes that the granola category has grown steadily over the past two years. Kashi (owned by Kellogg) and other brands with more overtly health-oriented images have also raised their profiles. But as Goldshmidt points out, plenty of consumers seem particularly interested in things that are “not just healthy, but that they think are going to be good-tasting and fun, youthful. Not like old hippies.”

Flatley figures that Bear Naked’s more approachable image is exactly what positions it to benefit from the broader eat-better trend: a not-so-granola-y granola serves as an easy bridge to a more healthful lifestyle, or at least the impression of such a lifestyle. She also figures lots of people are still looking for that bridge, and not just in places like Whole Foods but also in the not-so-rarefied contexts of big-box stores or even the gas-station snack aisle. That’s why she and Synnott insist that a granola brand can have, of all things, “mass appeal.”

(l) (l) Virutal and real birki-folks unite unbeknownst to one another. I love it. (y) (y)

(o) Oops! Time to get some work done.....client project and for that last PhD course yet this afternoon. Maybe a couple more posts and then it's (c) (c) time to get those synapses jumping. 8-|

8-) 8-)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:12 PM

(l) (l) (l)

January 29, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

More Than Antiwar

By BOB HERBERT NYTimes

Washington

It was a few minutes after 11 a.m. when the scattered crowd began moving slowly toward the stage at the end of the Mall. The sky was a beautiful sunlit blue and the Capitol building, huge and white and majestic, offered the protesters an emotional backdrop that seemed almost close enough to touch.

“It’s so big,” said a woman from Milwaukee, who was there with her husband and two children. “It’s lovely. Makes you want to cry.”

You can say what you want about the people opposed to this wretched war in Iraq, try to stereotype them any way you can. But you couldn’t walk among them for more than a few minutes on Saturday without realizing that they love their country as much as anyone ever has. They love it enough to try to save it.

By 11:15 I thought there was a chance that the march against the war would be a bust. There just weren’t that many people moving toward the stage to join the rally that preceded the march. But the crowd kept building, slowly, steadily. It was a good-natured crowd. Everyone was bad-mouthing the Bush administration and the war, but everybody seemed to be smiling.

There were gray-haired women with digital cameras and young girls with braces. There were guys trying to look cool in knit caps and shades and balding baby boomers trading stories about Vietnam. And many ordinary families.

“Where’s Hillary?” someone asked.

That evoked laughter in the crowd. “She’s in Iowa running for president,” someone said.

When a woman asked, “What’s her position on the war?” a man standing next to her cracked, “She was for it before she was against it.”

More laughter.

The crowd kept building. There were people being pushed in wheelchairs and babies in strollers. There were elderly men and women, walking very slowly in some cases and holding hands.

The goal of the crowd was to get the attention of Congress and persuade it to move vigorously to reverse the Bush war policies. But the thought that kept returning as I watched the earnestly smiling faces, so many of them no longer young, was the way these protesters had somehow managed to keep the faith. They still believed, after all the years and all the lies, that they could make a difference. They still believed their government would listen to them and respond.

“I have to believe in this,” said Donna Norton of Petaluma, Calif. “I have a daughter in the reserves and a son-in-law on active duty. I feel very, very strongly about this.”

Betty and Peter Vinten-Johansen of East Lansing, Mich., said they felt obliged to march, believing that they could bolster the resolve of opponents of the war in Congress. Glancing toward the Capitol, Mr. Vinten-Johansen said, “Maybe we can strengthen their backbone a little bit.”

Even the celebrities who have been at this sort of thing for decades have managed to escape the debilitating embrace of cynicism. “How can you be cynical?” asked Tim Robbins, just before he mounted the stage to address the crowd, which by that time had grown to more than 100,000.

“This is inspiring,” he said. “It’s the real voice of the American people, and when you hear that collective voice protesting freely it reminds you of the greatness of our country. It gives you hope.”

When Jane Fonda said, “Silence is no longer an option,” she was doing more than expressing the outrage of the crowd over the carnage in Iraq and the president’s decision to escalate American involvement. She was implicitly re-asserting her belief in the effectiveness of citizen action.

Ms. Fonda is approaching 70 now and was at the march with her two grandchildren. It was very touching to watch her explain how she had declined to participate in antiwar marches for 34 years because she was afraid her notoriety would harm rather than help the effort.

The public is way out in front of the politicians on this issue. But the importance of Saturday’s march does not lie primarily in whether it hastens a turnaround of U.S. policy on the war. The fact that so many Americans were willing to travel from every region of the country to march against the war was a reaffirmation of the public’s commitment to our peaceful democratic processes.

It is in that unique and unflagging commitment, not in our terrifying military power, that the continued promise and greatness of America are to be found.

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

SWeetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:15 PM

:) :)

The tech downturn is over. At least according to the latest Silicon Valley Index, an annual economic assessment by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network. After five years of job losses, the nation's technology capital is finally hiring again. The valley added more than 30,000 jobs in 2006, the first such increase since 2001 -- the beginning of "The Great Dark Time." "Last year we saw the first evidence the downturn was behind us," said Russell Hancock, Joint Venture's president and chief executive. "This year we see quite clearly that Silicon Valley has done it again -- we've reinvented ourselves. Silicon Valley is back and it's rebooting." Driving the recovery this time out: clean tech. Venture capital investment into renewable energy and clean technology increased an astonishing 929 percent over the past two years. "In the future, this will be Energy Valley," Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Solving the energy problem is a huge economic opportunity. Electricity is a trillion-dollar with a T market."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/technology/16572169.htm

http://www.jointventure.org/publicatons/index/2007%20Index/index.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/28/BUGDANPQFM1.DTL

(y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:17 PM

:o

http://www.redferret.net/?p=8215

;) ;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:18 PM

:s ;)

http://thatvideosite.com/view/2020.html

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:20 PM

:) :)

http://www.pompousasswords.com/home.htm

;) ;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:21 PM

:o :o

http://www.mac-essentials.de/bilder2007/iphone-shuffle.jpg

;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:24 PM

;) ;)

http://www.lwk.dk/MugMouse/Mugmluse_content.html

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

01-30-2007, 03:31 PM

(l) (l)

http://www.indiaflowerdeliveries.com/Arrangements/100%20Roses.jpg

http://www.giftdelhi.com/Pictures/100%20heart%20shape%20roses.jpg

http://www.fabuloussavings.com/us/az/calyxandcorolla/images/2039.jpg

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(l) Beautiful and impressive! http://tajonline.tolshop.com/v1/product_images/fga19_large.jpg

(l) (l) If these are yellow roses, I love these in their natural setting:

http://www.risoftsystems.com/pad/flowers/flowers_screen600.jpg

:) Have a warm, relaxing Tuesday evening.

({) (}) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:15 AM

:) :)

February 1, 2007

Nerves as Frayed as the Sofa? Call Your Own Dog Whisperer

By ARIANNE COHEN

SOMETIMES Bill Berloni feels like a phone psychic. “People call about their adopted pets, and I’ve never seen their home,” he said. “One woman had a dog who was afraid of thunder, and neglected to mention that she lived next to an airport.”

For this reason, Mr. Berloni, an animal behaviorist and well-known Broadway animal trainer (he is currently prepping four dogs for the opening of “Legally Blonde” in April) prefers to make house calls. On a recent afternoon, he visited Stanley, a skittish, doe-eyed Chihuahua, in a loft in downtown Brooklyn. “This is a nice calm space, with lots of light,” Mr. Berloni said. “It’s not too big, and the street noise isn’t too loud. Good.”

Stanley growled, ran into the living room and urinated on the couch.

Mr. Berloni took this as a positive sign: “He’s not freaking out. He hasn’t left the room. He’s checking us out.”

The urination? “That was submission urination,” he said: a sign of Stanley’s excitement.

Mr. Berloni is typical of a growing number of trainers around the country in his insistence on house calls. Home visits have increased steeply in recent years, particularly in cities, where apartment dwellers struggle with pet conflicts in cramped quarters and without backyard space.

“In the last two years, my clients want home service, and they’re willing to pay for it,” said David Roos, the owner of Perfect Paws Dog Training Academy in San Francisco. “It allows very intense educating and focus, and the results come much easier and quicker, which is exactly what busy people want.”

Brian Kilcommons, a trainer based in Auburn, N.H., and a faculty member at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in North Grafton, Mass., has found the same demand in rural New England. “Home pet services have just expanded considerably, and many good trainers are fully booked with house calls,” he said.

The house-call boom is part of a general expansion of the “pet services” sector of the $38 billion pet industry. Spending in that category swelled to $2.7 billion in 2006, for services like training, grooming and boarding, up from $1.2 billion five years earlier, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.

Service does not come cheap; fees range from $100 to $500 an hour, according to several trainers.

The fashion for house calls is being driven in part by Cesar Millan, a k a the Dog Whisperer, whose weekly show by that name on the National Geographic Channel has inspired millions of viewers to consider that they, too, could hire someone to bring their pets to heel in their own homes. The show, which follows Mr. Millan as he visits and tames out-of-control dogs, amounts to an advertisement for dog training house calls.

Rising animal adoption rates, a result of shelters enacting “no-kill” policies and focusing instead on promoting adoption, have also contributed to the increase. (At Animal Care and Control of New York City, adoptions have more than doubled since 2001, to 19,314 in 2006.)

As Mr. Berloni put it, “Rescued pets often come with baggage.”

Baggage like Stanley’s, for example. In June, he was transported by police officers to the Humane Society of New York in Manhattan after a two-car accident left him with a broken hind leg, broken ribs, a head wound, bodily abrasions and patches of alopecia. He underwent leg surgery, and after being fitted with a leg cast he was transferred to the cat floor because of his fear of other dogs.

Nonetheless, Arisa Itami, 33, a jazz singer from Japan, found him “cute and amazing,” and adopted him.

“I think a larger dog would’ve been fine,” noted her husband, Ryan Dixon, a photographer.

As part of its adoption program, the Humane Society offers free house calls, and the agency sent its director of behavior, Mr. Berloni, to assist Stanley and his new owners. During Mr. Berloni’s visit, the couple eagerly listed Stanley’s troubles: stealing food when Mr. Dixon eats on the couch; post-traumatic stress resulting from the car accident; and his unpredictable excretion habits, which sparked a lively discussion.

“And he’s distracted, kind of out of focus,” Ms. Itami said. “He can’t walk straight. He’s always looking around.” (“I think that’s normal,” Mr. Dixon said. “No,” replied Ms. Itami.)

Mr. Berloni nodded. A compact man with dark eyes and an air of rigid calm, he conducted the apartment analysis from Stanley’s point of view. “You eat on a low couch, down on his level, so he thinks you’re inviting him in,” he said to Mr. Dixon. The solution: set aside a corner of the room for a new dog bed, where Stanley can eat treats during mealtime.

Mr. Berloni eyed a newspaper that the couple had set out for Stanley’s use in the center of the apartment, in hopes of preventing more damage to their furnishings. The paper was relocated to the bathroom, where Stanley would feel “less prone to predators,” Mr. Berloni said.

Stanley looked bored. He gave Mr. Berloni a blasé glance, and groomed a patch of his alopecia.

It’s hard to overstate how disruptive a misbehaved pet can be to a household. Problems like lack of housebreaking and chewing can fray nerves and sofas alike, and a pet’s hostility toward male guests can even destroy relationships. “Friends of mine call me a dog trainer slash marriage counselor,” Mr. Roos said. “People will say: When my boyfriend and I are having sex, the dog is ready to attack my boyfriend.”

Aggressive dogs in particular can isolate owners. Mr. Kilcommons, the New Hampshire trainer, worked with a Virginia woman whose Rottweiler guarded doorways, barring visitors from entering the house, and then began taunting gardeners. “The dog would wait until the gardener bent over, and then stick his head between his legs and roar, then walk away,” he said. “People wouldn’t work for her.”

For decades, frustrated pet owners had two options: Obedience classes or private office appointments, said Jean Donaldson, director of the San Francisco S.P.C.A. Academy for Dog Trainers.

“The problem is that dogs were likely to go home and regress to the old rules,” Ms. Donaldson said. Home training, which is “efficient and customizable” to the point where some trainers will visit while a pet’s owner is at work, leaving behind a list of training exercises, she said, is more likely to encourage long-term change.

“A huge part of managing your pet is managing the environment,” said Andrea Arden, who runs Andrea Arden Dog Training, a 12-year-old Manhattan firm that performs 60 house calls a week, twice as many as it did three years ago.

Ms. Arden met a dachshund in a Park Avenue apartment recently who barked so much, “it was actually the building manager who called me,” she said. She and the owner created a space for the dog on one side of the apartment, away from bustling hallways, and turned on a television to drown out the noise the dog was responding to. (Ms. Arden also puppy-proofs rooms, fitting kitchen moldings with rubber bumpers and rendering garbage pails inaccessible.)

Dogs are not the only animals receiving house calls. Dr. Peter Borchelt, an animal behaviorist in Brooklyn who began performing house calls in 1978, said that half his clients are cats, many with aggression and grooming problems. One cat hid under the kitchen cabinets whenever the owner’s new boyfriend would visit, he said, adding that the cat began to stress-groom wounds into its back. Dr. Borchelt instructed the boyfriend to pretend he was afraid of the cat, and the owner to create a safe, boyfriend-free space in the apartment.

In many cases, what seem like complex and hopeless problems to pet owners can be resolved in one or two house calls from an experienced trainer, according to most of those interviewed. Mr. Berloni, for example, provided Stanley’s owners with only an hour of customized education.

“Stanley seems happier,” Mr. Dixon said a few weeks later. “And it was so useful to have someone in our own space telling us what we were doing wrong, since Stanley can’t talk.”

(y) (y) (y) I love the show on the National Geographic Cable channel. I think this idea work such as this is wonderful - and really needed by many folks! I could never provide that "calm assertiveness" on a constant basis though. :| I have tremendous respect and in awe of both dog and horse whisperers. What a gift that is! (g)

(l) (l) (l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:19 AM

:| :| :|

(n) (n) Never! He talks way too much. I don't like him. (That's my two cents...;-)

**************
Biden Explains, Apologizes for Comments

The Associated Press
Thursday, February 1, 2007; 10:07 AM

WASHINGTON -- Backpedaling furiously, Sen. Joe Biden said he really meant to say "fresh" instead of "clean" in describing Democratic presidential rival Sen. Barack Obama.

Appearing on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" late Wednesday, Biden said: "Look, the other part of this thing that got me in trouble is using the word clean. I should have said fresh. What I meant was that he's got new ideas, he's a new guy on the block ... "

But then Biden trailed off as he stared into Stewart's deadpan face. "It's not working, right?" the Delaware senator asked to much laughter from the show's audience.

In an interview published Wednesday in the New York Observer, the same day he officially entered the presidential race, Biden described Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

The Illinois senator spoke privately to Biden and later released a statement saying he didn't take his colleague's remarks personally, but objected to the way they seemed to undercut past black presidential candidates.

"Let me tell you something I spoke to Barack today," Biden told Stewart.

"I bet you did," Stewart quipped.

"I also spoke to Jesse (Jackson) and Al Sharpton," Biden said.

"And Michael Jordan and anybody you could get your hands on. The Jackson Five," Stewart said, interrupting.

"Michael didn't call me," Biden said. "Look, what I was attempting to be, but not very artfully, is complimentary. This is an incredible guy. This is a phenomenon."

It's the second presidential bid for the talkative Biden, who pursued the White House in 1988, but withdrew from the race after allegations that his speeches contained passages from speeches given by a British political leader.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020100732.html

:) Jon Stewart has a hilarious stare that speaks volumes. And I don't like Biden, never did.
Gimme a break........"clean" as synonym for "fresh"? :| Right. :o

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:22 AM

(l) (l)

Recipe for Vermont Split Pea Soup

In a large Pot, put 1 pound uncooked green peas in water to cover.
Soak overnight..Next morning, draing the water.. Add to the peas:

One Ham Bone
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon winter savory
6 peppercorns
1/2 cup diced celery
2 carrots
1 large sliced onion
3 quarts cold water

Bring to a boil, then simmer slowly for 3 hours with a lid on the pot.
Remove the ham bone, and pick off the meat. Put the meat back into the soup.

(y) (y) Another reason that I love the coldest weather - (o) tiime to make soups in the crock pot! :D

(k) (k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:24 AM

:o :o

Q U O T E D

"Wikipedia -- the encyclopedia where you can be an authority, even if you don't know what the hell you're talking about."

-- Stephen Colbert on "Wikilobbying."

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=81454

(y) (y)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:30 AM

:o :)

Did I hear you right, did I hear you sayin'
That you're gonna make a copy of a game without payin'?
Come on, guys, I thought you knew better don't copy that floppy!

-- MC Hart, "Don't Copy That Floppy"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-420663394921441084

Now that the floppy disc is almost as outdated as MC Hart's rapping skills, it's time to bid adieu to the seminal storage medium. British computer superstore PC World plans to stop stocking floppy disks when its current supply runs out. "The floppy disk looks increasingly quaint and simply isn't able to compete," said Bryan Magrath, commercial director of PC World, who noted that "Tte sound of a computer's floppy disk drive will be as closely associated with 20th century computing as the sound of a computer dialing into the Internet."

Not a big deal for most of us, I'm sure (I can't remember the last time I used one), but a noteworthy passing all the same. So a moment of silence, please, for our dear, departed, 1.44 megabyte friend.

PC World says farewell to floppy:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6314251.stm

:| I thought the floppy was history fifteen years ago or longer - since digital, compressed video always REQUIRES HUGE amounts of storage. (and "fat pipes", AKA broadband or other wide-bandwidth venue for transmission as well.)

;)

8-| 8-|

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:46 AM

:| :| :| :| :|

As Microsoft's Windows Vista landed on store shelves this week, those who felt compelled to upgrade the OS on an existing machine appeared to be confronted by an annoying twist. According to the company, a Vista upgrade could be done only from within Windows XP, with no allowance for starting fresh with a clean installation simply by providing the old version's disc. As previous victims of upgrade unpleasantness can testify, you can never tell what gremlins will pop up because of random detritus left in the course of overwriting the old code. Luckily, thanks to some digging by Paul Thurrott through Microsoft internal documentation, it now looks like there's a way around this. The process involves installing Vista twice -- first as a trial version, then with your registration number. A hassle, but worth it for those who want to start clean. Of course, this means that an upgrade copy of Vista, rather than the more expensive full retail version, can be used to load a new machine, which was probably not in Microsoft's plans. But so it goes -- sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you. :|

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16588252.htm

http://www.windowsitpro.com/mobile/pda/Article.cfm?ArticleID=95011&News=1

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932

8-) 8-) 8-) As I have shared in previous posts about my thoughts (and feelings) about Microsoft and Billy Boy Gates? I would not touch Vista with a TEN foot pole!+o( +o( +o(

(l) Although I have much compassion for those folks whose employers require a cut-over. Thank goodness I work for myself these past 15 years. (feeling grateful.....)

Have a delightful day!

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:48 AM

:o :o

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_articles

;)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:50 AM

:o :o

http://uk.gizmodo.com/2007/01/22/original_batmobile_up_for_sale.html

:o :o Holy Crap Batman, they’re selling our car!

http://uk.gizmodo.com/batmobile.jpg

;) ;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:55 AM

:s :s :s :s

Of the approximately 600 million computers connected to the Internet, 150 million are likely participants in a botnet (of these, half are apparently in China). This according to Vint "founding father of the Internet" Cerf, who warned attendees of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week that these networks of compromised PCs pose a serious threat to the stability of the Internet. Cerf likened the situation to a pandemic, and if his estimate is accurate, that's certainly a good word for it. One quarter of the machines connected to the Net, infected. "With new levels of sophistication this has reached a real milestone," Mark Sunner, chief security analyst at MessageLabs, told News.com. "Botnets are getting smaller, more stealthy and more discreet and yet the volumes of spam are going up. Without a hint of scaremongering, will this get a lot worse throughout 2007 in terms of botnet sending? Absolutely, yes."

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/103272/botnet-army-massing-in-china-prolexic.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6298641.stm

:o :o "Oh no, Mr. Bill!" :o :o Aren't firewalls and Norton anti-virus software supposed to prevent this? Oh, and turn the cable modem OFF when not actually on-line too.

:)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 11:57 AM

:) :)

See, this is why science and engineering can be tough career sells for our thrill-jaded youth -- no PR savvy. The semiconductor industry had itself a great story -- a manufacturing breakthrough that will allow engineers to again defy the long-predicted expiration of Moore's Law, two competing research teams racing to validate their different approaches -- and what happens? The news dribbles out on a Friday night and disappears into the weekend info-river. Well, for the record, let it be noted here that Intel and IBM each announced developments described as the biggest advances in semiconductor chip making in nearly 40 years. Both companies have shown that after almost seven years of industry research, transistors can be built using so-called high-k metal gates (high-k referring to the material's ability to hold an electrical charge better than the polysilicon used now). IBM, still in the research stage, uses gates embedded in silicon, while Intel, which plans to have the design on the market later this year, builds on the surface. The upshot, which is all the layman really needs to know, will be faster, more powerful chips that use less energy. But back to tech's image problem. Intel said that after all their work, the engineers at the company's research center in Hillsborough, Ore., took the prototype chips out of the factory, installed them in boxes and with tense anticipation booted up several operating systems, including Vista. Success! Relief! Pride! Elation! And the jubilant engineers toast their triumph with ... sparkling cider.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16559966.htm

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9009338

;) ;) ;) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 12:06 PM

:s :s

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/thelede/posts/0131toon.jpg

:| :|

From the major “Oops” department, Turner Broadcasting has claimed responsibility for a slew of “suspicious packages,” scattered around various American cities, that caused a terrorism scare in Boston, provoked the closure of major roadways and part of the Charles River, and mobilized local and federal law enforcement.

Seems the little devices were part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of an animated television show airing on Turner’s Cartoon Network called “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”

Shirley Powell, of Turner Broadcasting, issued a statement:

"They have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger."

What were thought to be bombs were actually “magnetic lights,” according to the network.

Said Gov. Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts earlier today, when it became apparent that the items were benign: “It’s a hoax — and it’s not funny.”

:| :| UPDATE: The Times’ Pam Belluck has the follow-up today, including the arrest of two men — Peter Berdovsky, 27, of Arlington, and Sean Stevens, 28, of Cambridge — who were charged with placing the hoax devices and disorderly conduct. Mr. Berdovsky’s Web site included photographs and a video documented the guerrilla marketing campaign (as of this morning), which Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino did not find humorous.

(n) (n) (n) (n) (n) Like folks are not anxious enough about terrorism without this nonsense. The folks responsible should get more than a hand slap, IMHO. And Turner Broadcasting ought to be fined millions by the FCC. Maybe use that money for the folks who are still hurting in New Orleans, LA. (y)

<stepping off soap box>

Warmest hugs across this digital tundra,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 12:12 PM

(l) (l)

http://www.sho.com/site/image-bin/135/135_04_830x400_ep405.jpg

http://www.sho.com/site/lword/home.do

(l) (l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-01-2007, 12:15 PM

(l) (l)

In episode 405, the tryst between Bette and her TA threatens her new career; Alice breaks up with Phyllis after meeting her husband; Tina discovers Angus with her au pair Hazel; Jenny publishes a short story in "The New Yorker" that infuriates Alice.

Directed By: John Stockwell
Written By: Ilene Chaiken

http://www.sho.com/site/lword/episodes.do

(l) (l)

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-02-2007, 10:52 AM

(y) (y) (y)

This Year, Users Generate the Super Bowl Ads In a new twist on user-created content, customers are generating the ads they'll see during the Super Bowl.

Ready for Prime Time?

January 15, 2007

By Edward Cone

Super Bowl ads are often more entertaining than the actual game on the field. Rating the expensive spots—the top price for a 30-second ad on CBS is about $2.6 million this year—has become a sport unto itself for fans and industry insiders alike. While some advertisers go for big production numbers and mini-movies, Doritos is taking the opposite tack: This year, the popular corn-chip brand from Frito-Lay Inc. (owned by Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc.) will air a snack-food commercial made by an amateur.
User-created content has grown increasingly popular over the last year, as big brands such as Coca-Cola and Chevrolet have used the Web to tap the talents of regular folks for online marketing efforts. Now Doritos, which in September launched a create-your-own-Super Bowl-ad contest in partnership with Yahoo!, is ready to take homegrown creativity to one of the world's largest stages.
More than 1,000 30-second spots were submitted to Doritos, which made logos, music clips, standard endings and animation tools available to entrants at the contest site. "We have been blown away by the quality of the submissions," says Frito-Lay spokesman Jared Dougherty. "There are ads done by amateur filmmakers, and ads made by people in their backyards with nothing more than a camcorder and a great idea." Many of the submissions are now available for viewing at the contest Web site.

http://promotions.yahoo.com/doritos/

The top five spots, as judged by the brand's marketing team on the basis of creativity, content and brand message, were revealed online on Jan. 5. Since then it's been a straight-up popularity contest, with votes cast at the Web site (one vote per e-mail address per day). The winning ad will be revealed during the big game on Feb. 4, when it will run as submitted, uncut, for what is traditionally the biggest U.S. television audience of the year.

Quite a change for a brand that has used its share of celebrities and sexy women to hawk its crunchy wares in the past, a change that could continue to ripple through Doritos marketing for some time to come. "What we're doing at the Super Bowl is just the tip of the iceberg," says Frito-Lay's Dougherty. "We are just starting to let consumers take control of the brand. It could mean letting people choose flavor names, or packaging." Viewers may end up seeing the four runners-up on TV, too. Says Dougherty: "We are going all-in with consumer participation."

http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2084118,00.asp?kc=COQFTEMNL020107EOAD

(y) (y) (y)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-02-2007, 11:01 AM

:) :)

BBC News Wednesday, 31 January 2007, 16:59 GMT

BBC's download plans get backing

TV shows like Doctor Who are expected to be available for download later this year after the BBC Trust gave initial approval to the BBC's on-demand plans.

Under the proposals, viewers will be able to watch popular programmes online or download them to a home computer up to a week after they are broadcast.

But the trust imposed tough conditions on classical music, which could stop a repeat of the BBC's Beethoven podcasts.
Full approval of the on-demand plans will follow a two-month consultation.

After that, the BBC will be able to launch its long-awaited iPlayer, a computer application which allows audiences to watch or download any programme from the last seven days.

A programme will remain playable for 30 days after being downloaded or seven days after being watched.

The BBC Trust, an independent body that replaced the corporation's governors at the beginning of 2007, said the on-demand plans - which also cover cable TV - were "likely to deliver significant public value".

But it agreed with broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, which said earlier this month that the iPlayer could have a "negative effect" on commercial rivals.

As a result, the trust has imposed several conditions on the BBC.

It wants the corporation to scale back plans to let downloaded "catch-up" episodes remain on users' hard drives for 13 weeks, suggesting that 30 days is enough.

Chris Woolard, head of finance, economics and strategy at the Trust, defended the decision to cut the storage time.

When people record a programme at home "if they don't look at it within 48 hours, they don't look at it at all", he said.

But some shows will be able to remain on a viewer's computer beyond the standard seven-day window using a feature called series stacking.

Every episode of a "stacked" series would be made available until a week after transmission of the final instalment.

Trustees said the BBC needed to be clearer about which programmes would be offered on this service - but suggested "landmark" series "with a beginning and end", like Planet Earth or Doctor Who, should be eligible.

The trust also asked the BBC to explore ways of introducing parental controls to its on-demand services, as it is worried at the "heightened risk of children being exposed to post-watershed material".

Podcasts also came under scrutiny, with the Trust recommending that audio books and classical music be excluded from the BBC's download services.

"There is a potential negative market impact if the BBC allows listeners to build an extensive library of classical music that will serve as a close substitute for commercially available downloads or CDs," it said.

The news will be a disappointment to the one million people who downloaded Beethoven's symphonies in a Radio 3 trial in 2005.

But trustee Diane Coyle admitted the board "could still change its mind if there was a public outcry and it was backed up by evidence".

Licence-fee payers can now have their say on the BBC's plans, and the trust's conditions, in a two-month public consultation.

The trust said it expects to publish its final approval by 2 May.

The BBC Trust replaced the BBC's governors at the beginning of the year, and this is one of its first major decisions.

BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas said it was seen as the first test of the Trust's independence from the corporation's management, and that many would think it had passed it by imposing tougher conditions than Ofcom did in its own report on the issue.
Many of the BBC's commercial rivals had wanted Ofcom to take on the role of regulating the corporation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6316857.stm

(y) (y) (y)

:D The winter mix weather advisory was cancelled around 2:00 a.m. - I was still up and noticed the "crawl" across the bottom of the WC (Weather Channel) screen. :| I am so glad that I didn't race out yesterday like so many folks did to "get milk and bread" as if a blizzard was coming. :o But then, I never do. I hate crowds....:|

(c) One more cup and errands to run today. The BIG CHILL is coming in tomorrow for several days and boxers don't "do" extremes of temperature. Highs of 20 degrees and single-digit night-time temps are way, way too cold for him, IMHO. Even if he is wearing one of his many Fido Fleece coats. :)

Have a lovely Friday and weekend (f) (f) ,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-02-2007, 11:03 AM

(h) (h) (h) (h)

The Nation's tenth annual seminar cruise. Setting sail from Seattle on July 28, Holland America's msOssterdam will travel through Alaska on a seven-day tour, returning to Seattle on August 4.

You'd be joining a distinguished group of speakers who will all participate in a series of lectures, seminars, conversations and cocktail parties over the course of the voyage. Confirmed speakers include Richard Dreyfuss, Mark Hertsgaard, Ralph Nader, Liza Featherstone, Doug Henwood, Gary Younge and Salt Lake City's mayor, Rocky Anderson as well as many others soon to be named. They'll join Nation publisher emeritus Victor Navasky and Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel in what has always been both an enlightening exchange of ideas and a no-hassle, relaxing vacation.

Each day and night you'll mingle with these Nation comrades - in both informal and formal settings. And dinner seating is arranged so that everyone has a chance to dine with the guest speakers. There's also ample opportunity for informal group sessions beyond the featured seminars, with topics generated by the cruisers themselves. And the cruise itinerary is said to be spectacular with stops in Juneau, Hubbard Glacier, Sitka, Ketchikan and British Columbia.

We launched our seminar cruise series in 1998 to raise critical funds to help offset the magazine's chronic annual deficit. It's quickly grown into a popular excursion. Many of our past cruisers tell us that they had never before considered hitting the high seas for a vacation but that the Nation seminars tempted them into it; and they have no regrets. And we've partnered with Eco-Logic to re-forest a recently devastated area in Guatemala, paying for the planting of enough trees to offset the carbon emissions of each passenger on the Nation cruise.

http://www.nationcruise.com/

Category C or D cabins aren't too bad: http://www.nationcruise.com/Pages/pricing.htm

I didn't recognize Richard Dreyfuss!: http://www.nationcruise.com/Pages/speakers.htm

8-| 8-|

SWeetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

Whitledge

02-02-2007, 10:50 PM

(l) (l)

(l) (l) If these are yellow roses, I love these in their natural setting:

http://www.risoftsystems.com/pad/flowers/flowers_screen600.jpg
:) Have a warm, relaxing Tuesday evening.

({) (}) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

Sweetlady,

I can't really tell (can't see them that well) but they look to be maybe in the coreopsis family ... but, they are beautiful, against the fence(l)
Coreopsis is one of my favorite perennials. They are always very showy, but soft in their presence. Moonbean is a nice lacy one. ;)

Flowers are love's truest language.__ P. Benjamin
(l)
Flowers are the sweetest things that God ever made and forgot to put a soul into __H.W. Beecher
(l) (l) (l)
In eastern lands they talk in flowers, and tell in a garland their loves and cares __ Percival
(l)
What a desolate place would be a world without flowers ? __ It would be a face without a smile; a feast without a welcome.__ Are not flowers the stars of the earth ? __ And are not our stars the flowers of heaven ? ___
___Mrs. Balfour
(l) (l) (l)

sweetlady

02-04-2007, 05:03 PM

Hi Whit,

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at that URL and share about your knowledge of coreopsis, especially Moonbean. (f)

http://thosedarnsqurls.mswin.net/coreopsis_moonbean.jpg

:)

http://www.hortiflorbureau.com/administrer/images/14028.gif

http://www.geocities.com/bluespeacock/moonbean1.jpg

(f) I found some for you:

(g) for you: http://www.quotegarden.com/gardens.html

(g) http://cactusjungle.com/blog/

(g) http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/547076288oxAAnP

(g) http://www.richardpettinger.com/images/oxford-unusual/white-geranium400.jpg

(g) Pictures taken of Christ Church Meadow September 2006:

http://www.richardpettinger.com/images/oxford-unusual/Habranthus.jpg

(f) (f) Have a lovely rest of your Sunday.

Warmest wishes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the napping Boxer (S) (l) (&) (l) (S)

sweetlady

02-04-2007, 05:09 PM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

Laura Hillenbrand's Thoughts on Barbaro

NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, 3 Feb 2007

Greatness walks hand-in-hand with grief because greatness is by its
nature ephemeral. Part of the experience of witnessing it is
ultimately watching it come to an end. It is this fleeting nature
that makes it so wonderful to find, and so hard to lose.

All of the elements of character that made Barbaro so incandescent
a figure on the racetrack -- courage, resolve, daring, unwavering
will -- were summoned a thousandfold in his fight for his life. To
watch this horse meet every morning of that struggle with buoyancy,
with joy, with what Emily Dickinson called "a rage to live," was to
see his greatness truly and fully blossom.

I think it was impossible for any feeling person to look upon this
horse in those difficult days and not feel wonder and admiration.
It was this that made our connection to him so sweet, and when the
news came that he was gone, it was the knowledge of what greatness
died with him that made our anguish so deep. Godspeed, Barbaro.

(l) (l) (l) To watch this horse meet every morning of that struggle with buoyancy, with joy, with what Emily Dickinson called "a rage to live," was to see his greatness truly and fully blossom. (f) (f)

(l) (l) (l) God/Dess speed, Barbaro.

Love,

Sweetlady & Wyatt, the napping Boxer (S) (l) (&) (l) (S)

sweetlady

02-04-2007, 05:11 PM

:) :) :) :)

http://www2.fi.edu/

(l) (l) Hmmm, I wonder how many times I can get to go before it closes September 30th?

;) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-04-2007, 05:15 PM

(l) (l) (l)

http://www2.fi.edu/tut/index.html

Exhibition Information: http://www2.fi.edu/tut/exhibit_info.html

About King Tut: http://www2.fi.edu/tut/about.html

Purchase Tickets: http://www2.fi.edu/tut/tickets.html

http://www.ticketmaster.com/artist/956142

Media Gallery: http://www2.fi.edu/tut/media.html

Cool - Educational Resources: http://www2.fi.edu/tut/education.html

Upcoming Tut Events: http://www2.fi.edu/tut/events.html

Planning Your Visit: http://www2.fi.edu/tut/visit.html

(y) (y) (y) (y) If anyone needs any recommendations, please PM me. I'd be delighted to suggest some (IMHO) great places to stay, eat, etc. (f) Oh, tickets are $27.50 through TicketMaster - I checked on-line last night after WPVI-TV (ABC's owned and operated TV station here in Philly) showed a "live" show from the black-tie opening night gala at the Franklin Institute. Wow! (y) (y) Very, very cool. (h)

(f) (f) 's,
SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-04-2007, 05:18 PM

:o :o

Egyptian Chevron Bangle

http://www.metmuseum.org/store/st_family_viewer.asp/familyID/%7BD4496581-5AD4-46E3-9AE0-38BA865C662D%7D/FromPage/catFineJewelry//catID/%7B3E29FE4E-5171-4956-BB94-A70E677D4C7D%7D

http://www.metmuseum.org/store/images/Z.jw.Z0740.L%281%29.jpg

The Museum has collaborated with Munnu Kasliwal and The Gem Palace in Jaipur to create a collection of Egyptian-inspired jewelry based on objects from the Metropolitan's collection. The Kasliwal family, owners of The Gem Palace, have been jewelry suppliers to India’s royal families for over seven generations. Showcased as one of "The Fab Five" jewelry trendsetters in Town & Country’s January 2006 All the Best! issue, Munnu Kasliwal has focused his talents on the development of a limited and stunning group of very special pieces in gold, resplendent with precious and semiprecious stones. This is the fourth collection of jewelry adaptations created for the Museum by The Gem Palace and Munnu Kasliwal to accompany the Museum’s exhibitions.

The form of this handmade 22 kt. gold bangle—which is based on a traditional Egyptian bracelet—features outer top and bottom panels that are inlaid with turquoise, lapis, and gold in a chevron design. Inner circumference 7 1/4 in.

:| :| :| This is a beautiful bracelet that I'd be happy to have a photograph of......;) ;) I am *so* in "divest" mode and giving away things to Purple Heart and the Salvation Army. (l)

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-04-2007, 05:21 PM

:o :o :o

http://www.metmuseum.org/store/st_family_viewer.asp/familyID/%7B95CFFC6B-61F1-4D1A-A60C-18F9377BF1EC%7D/FromPage/catFineJewelry//catID/%7B3E29FE4E-5171-4956-BB94-A70E677D4C7D%7D

http://www.metmuseum.org/store/st_family_viewer.asp/familyID/%7B0BC7471B-1C70-4116-9708-B9B88538E09C%7D/FromPage/catFineJewelry//catID/%7B3E29FE4E-5171-4956-BB94-A70E677D4C7D%7D

http://www.metmuseum.org/store/st_family_viewer.asp/familyID/%7B763803B9-9B7E-4775-A5F7-4F4E809A7E8A%7D/FromPage/catFineJewelry//catID/%7B3E29FE4E-5171-4956-BB94-A70E677D4C7D%7D

Lapis, Turquoise, and Gold Roundel Necklace:

http://www.metmuseum.org/store/st_family_viewer.asp/familyID/%7B4E770122-5471-4B7D-90C6-4663DC3F2F53%7D/FromPage/catFineJewelry//catID/%7B3E29FE4E-5171-4956-BB94-A70E677D4C7D%7D

(y) I have one very similar to the necklace above. I bought it in Hong Kong back in 1987. I still have it and several other gold, lapis and turquoise pieces that I bought while on one of my business trips there between 1986-1988. It is amazing how similar these gold and gemstone jewelry is to those made by Charles Loloma, the late Hopi artist. I have a few of his pieces as well - however, those are in a bank vault! :| :|

:) I can't wait to get down into the city to experience the King Tut Exhibition. Maybe more than a couple of times.....just to take it all in. (y)

Warm thoughts across the digital tundra,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

02-04-2007, 05:27 PM

:) :)

Okay, okay, just one more, I promise:

http://www.metmuseum.org/store/st_family_viewer.asp/familyID/%7BE8FA6299-EAF0-4336-85BE-0029A782B93E%7D/catID/%7BBF887E6A-961D-11D5-9402-00902786BF44%7D

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sweetlady

02-04-2007, 05:28 PM

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February 3, 2007

Op-Ed Contributor

Lone Starlets

By MIMI SWARTZ

HOUSTON

THE last few months have provided hard times for iconic Texas women and the Texans — and others — who worshipped them. Last September, we lost both a former governor, Ann Richards, and a former state first lady, Nellie Connally. When the columnist Molly Ivins died on Wednesday, it seemed that a certain kind of Texas woman might be gone forever.

If you’ve read the obituaries, you know the type: the funny, brave, irreverent kind, who spoke out against a life in a (supposedly) brutal, backward state. It was Ms. Richards who insisted that the elder President Bush was born with a “silver foot in his mouth,” and Ms. Ivins who insisted that the younger one had rightfully earned the nickname of “Shrub.” Mrs. Connally, less well known outside the state, was almost as funny and probably more beloved here, because she delivered her barbs in private.

As befits most icons, all of these women went by their first names among people who didn’t know them. They will be remembered for their strength and their wit, but what stays with me even more is their fragility and their anger. I wrote about them all over the years, and with each of their deaths I found myself thinking, amid the tributes, that being a Texas icon of the female variety probably wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

You can make the case that fury goes with the territory here. The male-dominated, rough-and-tumble Texas these women grew up in wasn’t hospitable to ladies in smarty pants; all three had to come up with novel ways to satisfy their needs and ambitions in a circumscribed world.

Ms. Ivins and Ms. Richards in particular were very interested in bringing about social change; the relationship between the state as a whole and the liberal coterie of which they were an integral part is one of the great, doomed romances of Texas history. Mrs. Connally was far from a liberal Democrat — her husband, Gov. John Connally, famously jumped from the Democratic Party to the Republicans — but she, too, triumphed over a youthful shyness to serve as her spouse’s most undying loyalist, whether he was pushing for school reform in Texas or, later, trying to escape scandal in Washington.

In other words, rather than flee the state for friendlier waters, all three far preferred to stay and swim upstream. All three, in fact, felt a deep obligation to their home state: it energized them as it defined them — favorably — to the outside world, which always felt better when it could look down on Texas.

Nellie Connally had little choice but to play the part of the gracious, loving wife; there wasn’t much else a woman of her generation could do (she was 87 when she died). She was a former beauty queen who married a true prince of Texas and became a very popular first lady. Yet when I last interviewed her in 2003 she was living in a two-bedroom apartment overflowing with memorabilia, waiting each day to have her two allotted drinks with Dan Rather at 5:30. She had attentive children and grandchildren, but she had by then lost a daughter to suicide, struggled with breast cancer, and endured her husband’s very public bankruptcy.

And, of course, after the deaths of her husband in 1993 and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis the next year, she alone lived to tell the tale of what happened in President John F. Kennedy’s car on Nov. 22, 1963. I heard her describe it three times to three different audiences during the course of a few weeks. (It was Nellie, ever smoothing things over, who said, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you,” just before the shots were fired.) As horrible as that memory was, it kept her tied to history, and, more important, to the love of her life — a man who suffered from such profound arrogance and vanity that his personality has come to overshadow his many accomplishments.

When you saw Ann Richards’s weathered face you knew just what 73 years of life had cost her. Sure, she had given herself over to the harsh Texas sun on too many outings; but, like Nellie Connally, there had been other costs: she, too, had played geisha, not to an ambitious husband but to a group of ambitious Texas liberals. It was Ms. Richards who had planned the drunken, irreverent costume parties — memories of the time are hazy, but she once went, or dressed a friend up, as a tampon. Then she got up next morning to pack the children’s lunches.

She did it all, pretty near perfectly for a while: a beautiful young woman of supreme competency with a tart tongue and ambitions far beyond the P.T.A. Triumphing over all that — as well as smoking, drinking and divorce — formed part of her campaign story when she ran for governor in 1990, and made her victory all the sweeter.

But her pain, smoothed over in folksy public speeches and slick campaign commercials, could catch you up short: when I traveled with her during her first gubernatorial campaign I marveled at how trussed up and hostile she was, how her coterie of female supporters were protective to a fault, trying to shield her from criticism. In the end, she lost her taste for the fight, and essentially ceded the 1994 gubernatorial election to George W. Bush.

Being a decade younger than her friend Ann Richards, Molly Ivins never had to serve as anyone’s geisha, and she never would have. But she was a big, smart, ungainly girl in a state where a female could suffer something close to capital punishment for those crimes; in self-defense she turned the cracker vernacular on the crackers and won fame for herself in the process, playing the Professional Texan. (Those hacks in the Legislature wouldn’t have given a Smith graduate from ritzy River Oaks the time of day, but a hard-drinking, foul-talking, big-boned country girl? Well, that worked.)

But in private, Ms. Ivins, too, battled alcohol, and had her coterie of human shields; they were protecting a woman whose loneliness was as incomprehensible as it was omnipresent. She was a performer who rarely allowed herself to be offstage, which, of course, ensured that the majority of us kept our distance.

There aren’t so many iconic women left in Texas, now — Lady Bird Johnson and the oil baroness Lynn Wyatt come to mind — but maybe that’s to the good. We don’t have to fight so hard to be heard, or noticed, or to avoid being taken for a hick. It’s easier for us, but for everyone who knew them, maybe, not quite as much fun.

Mimi Swartz is an executive editor of Texas Monthly magazine.

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