Quotes, URL's, Links And References-by:older Femmes, Butches, Ftms, Mtfs, Queer, Etc.

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l)


March 25, 2007

Into the Mystical Unreal Reality of the Faroe Islands

By STEPHEN METCALF


In a small cafe in a town called Nolsoy, on an archipelago in the middle of the North Atlantic, surrounded by barflies and the blue fug of cigarette smoke, I am trying to be unobtrusive. This is not going so well. There are precisely two occupied tables in the establishment, the barflies’ and mine. At mine, English is spoken, pallid beer is sipped, and all eye contact is avoided. At theirs, they speak a derivative of Old Norse, drink a rigorous liquor and shoot glances my way, accompanied by throaty chuckles. I, in fact, look not only like an American and a tourist, but also like an idiot, having walked up onto the quayside at Nolsoy, through its most famous landmark — the bone archway formed by the massive jaws of a sperm whale — and into its one bar wearing a flotation suit. A giant, puffy, one-piece flotation suit. Ten minutes ago, thudding across freezing harbor waters in a Zodiac, a flotation suit had seemed like a good idea. Now it makes me look like a Power Ranger. The chuckles are starting to crescendo. As I exit the place, from behind me I hear, “Zay hallo to George Bush.”


Nolsoy is a higgledy-piggledy little village, and the locals in its one bar are fishermen on extended hiatus. On a Sunday, Nolsoy’s few aimless streets are deserted, as is the eerily well-kept football pitch that straddles the waterfront. The men, ominously, have filed out of the bar behind me. But when they approach, they approach tentatively, almost shyly, until one finally speaks. “You are American, yes?” “Yes.” “We have something we want to show you.” I follow them down the slope of the village, toward the harbor, where they lead me to a small, padlocked boat shed. In the middle of the shed sits an exquisitely handcrafted rowboat — a kind of modern Viking variation on the old New England dory, with a raised prow, a small mast stacked with running lights and the words “Diana Victoria” painted along its stern. So this is it, I think. This is Ove Joensen’s boat.


If you are to understand the Faroe Islands, maybe the most curious place left on earth, you would do well to start with Ove Joensen’s boat. Joensen was a sailor in Nolsoy who, in his spare time, built the Diana Victoria by hand, and for one purpose only: to row the 900 miles, via the Shetland Islands, all the way to mainland Europe. Joensen wasn’t a glory seeker; he wanted to raise money for Nolsoy so that it could afford a new town swimming pool. Nonetheless, in 1986, when he arrived in Copenhagen and leapt out of the Diana Victoria to kiss the statue of the Little Mermaid, he was greeted by a roaring throng — there are about 10,000 Faroese living in Denmark — as cameras threw the images back to the Faroes on live TV. Joensen had completed the brutal task in just 41 days.


The men around the Diana Victoria relay the story carefully, piece by piece, each detail of Ove Joensen’s life laid out delicately, like a tiny wreath. They conclude by telling me, mostly in gestures, that after the journey, Joensen’s hands never fully unfurled. Three months after his triumph, he slipped on the deck of a boat and slid into the icy waters below. Ove Joensen, whose feat is still celebrated in the Faroes with festivities every August, was dead by a freak accident at the age of 39. In the interior gloom, the men’s eyes glint with pride as their hands stroke the flanks of the rowboat. When I note how unusually small the blades of Joensen’s oars are, one of the men snorts and says, “That’s your problem. Why are your oars so big?”


The Faroe Islands are an archipelago of 18 upthrusted hunks of igneous rock in the middle of precisely nowhere, the stretch of North Atlantic halfway between Norway and Iceland. It is oddly temperate, thanks to the currents of the Gulf Stream, and oddly green, thanks in part to the two million pairs of seabirds — guillemots, fulmars, storm petrels and, of course, the famously cute puffins — that carpet the islands in guano each breeding season. The Faroes are easily the most moodily beautiful place I have ever been. Each island is a giant slice of elaborately tiered basalt, tilted to one side and covered in green, tussocky felt. Streamer clouds, almost mannered in their perfection, encircle the mountains. Rocky cliffs, topped in arêtes and tarns, plunge into the sea, while up from the water jut massive, looming sea stacks. It rains here a lot, and waterfalls flow pretty much continuously. Driving to my hotel from the airport, the only thing I could make out through the mist was the dull nacre of the rills, dozens of them, snaking their way down the sides of the mountains.


Vikings settled the islands more than a thousand years ago, and almost 50,000 of their descendants now live here, sharing space with 75,000 more or less freely roaming sheep. Although the Danes took formal possession of the Faroes in 1380 and have never fully relinquished it, “We are not Danish” is a common refrain here. (When a country woman said it to me, her eyes flashed hotly before settling back into Scandinavian stolidity.) No, the Faroese are nothing if not Faroese. They speak their own language, recite their own sagas, dance their own raucous chain-formation dance (based on the old French branle simple) and still sing quarter-note, Gregorian-like chants. Their icon remains the turf-roofed house. When the Vikings first arrived, they made rock foundations in the shapes of their boats, turned the boats over on top of the rocks and then, to stabilize and insulate these makeshift houses, put sod on the hulls of the boats. It is not uncommon to come upon a Faroese mowing his roof.


To this day, when a Faroese man, looking out to the harbor, cries “Grind,” every man in town, from the barkeep to the mayor, drops what he is doing, reaches for a metal implement and sprints toward the water. The cry means whales have been spotted, are being herded into the harbor and now need to be slaughtered, in a ritual called a grindadrap. Within minutes, the harbor waters are drenched in red and the corpses of pilot whales lie on the dockside in a row. The precious meat and blubber is distributed, first according to who spotted and who killed, then according to need, with a special emphasis on the elderly, sick and poor.


Early in my stay I visited with Eydun Dal-Christiansen, an artist and a stonecutter whose torso is so huge I thought he had to be wearing a chest protector beneath his shirt. (He wasn’t.) Dal-Christiansen lives on the main island of Streymoy, a short drive outside of Torshavn, at 18,000 inhabitants Europe’s smallest capital. Dal-Christiansen builds sinewy lamps out of stones he quarries while hiking alone in the mountains. Sitting in his kitchen, over instant coffee and diced-up candy bars, he told me that he considered his stones to be living things and added slowly, in halting English, “Here in the Faroes, we live close to nature. Up in the mountains, in the fog, nothing can harm you.” I had been struggling to understand the Faroes, and then one thing occurred to me: for being so unapologetically sexist, Faroese culture permits an immense and spiritual tenderness on the part of Faroese men. And for being so isolated, the Faroes may be the last place in Europe where you can still succumb to a mystical Yeatsian reverie, and without so much as a hint of kitsch.


Jah, Jah, come in, come in. In the Faroe Islands, everyone invites you in. The wives serve coffee, then disappear. The men drink coffee and talk. And in recent times, the men talk about oil: “We have just one leg to stand on. The fish are not enough. If we find oil. . . .” More than 95 percent of the islands’ exports come from fishing, but oil companies are prospecting in Faroe waters. A discovery would allow the Faroese to maintain their comfortable European lifestyle — thanks in part to a large Danish subsidy — but more in accord with their self-image, as a fiercely hardscrabble and thoroughly un-Danish people. Over and over again, I was cautiously supplied the latest rumor: “You know, they had Champagne flown in to the rig last week.”


The Faroese speak English well — maybe not as flawlessly as the citizens of mainland Denmark, but they’re often fluent or near-fluent. “Oh, yes, thanks to MTV we learn it early now,” John Eysturoy, my contact at the modest tourist board, tells me. “The town council tried to take MTV away in the ’90s, but the young people held a protest. So they took away BBC World instead.” Dal-Christiansen and Eysturoy are old friends, and in the former’s kitchen, they alternate between ripping on each other mercilessly and reflecting carefully on the status of the Faroes. Early in the Cold War the United States and NATO deemed the Faroes strategically important, stuck an early warning system on one of its mountaintops and told the Danes, in no uncertain terms, to increase their subsidy to the islands — to use the teat, in other words, to stave off a growing independence movement. In a generation, with the help of a robust fishing industry, the Faroese went from village poverty to zesty, car-loving, suburban-style affluence.


And yet the islands have stayed essentially an ancient place. In part, this is a matter of scale. You could fit the entire Faroese population in Rose Bowl — almost twice over. “That’s the stupid thing about the Faroe Islands,” Eysturoy says, pointing at Dal-Christiansen. “One hour after he’s done something stupid, I know about it.” Unlike, say, the Shetlanders to their south, the Faroese have carefully preserved their language. (I was introduced to a snow-haired man in a tweed jacket, a professor known as “the protector of the Faroese tongue.” He is tasked with creating new words in Faroese, for things like “helicopter” and the “at” sign in e-mail.) And compared with the Icelanders to their north, their rituals have yet to be taken over by the trappings of tourist simulacra. “In Iceland, you can see a Viking town, but it is not real,” Eysturoy tells me.


Eysturoy is a soulful hangdog of a 50-something man. He loves the Faroe Islands deeply, but honestly, and applies his favorite epithet — “stupid” — to them liberally. After about 10 minutes in his acquaintance, I knew I had a friend for life, but I did manage to step out of bounds once. I had lamented having missed, by a scant 10 days, a whale kill, and as we sat drinking at his men’s club in Torshavn, trading insults, I asked Eysturoy if he would kindly swim out into the Atlantic and lead a pod of pilot whales in a chain dance. At this he grew silent. There is no funning the grindadrap, a source of both considerable pride and anxiety to a native islander. Greenpeace used to agitate about the kills, in spite of the fact that the pilots are not endangered and that the Faroese use every ounce of every one of the 1,000 whales taken in an average year. “The kills are very humane,” Eysturoy said. “A veterinarian designed the method.” I tried to make up for my blunder by asking him, “So, if someone yelled ‘Grind’ now, you would head to the harbor?” Without pausing, Eysturoy replied, “Of course. Or I would not be Faroese.”


Later, a few miles out of Torshavn in Kirkjubour, the most ancient of ancient places in the Faroes, Eysturoy holds an old whaling knife up to my nose. The smell of blubber on the blade is rich and dank. The knife, like everything in Kirkjubour, is very old. Settled life began here more than a millennium ago. With no trees (hard basalt lies too close to the surface of the soil), all the early houses were built out of driftwood. Kirkjubour’s original sod-roof farmhouse, known as the Roykstovan, still stands, and is the oldest inhabited wooden structure in Europe. Here, more than anywhere, one feels the spirit of the Faroe Islands. “Roykstovan” means “smoke room,” and everything happened in this, the one room where the tribe could afford to make a fire, by burning peat. They slept, ate, combed wool, slaughtered and danced the chain dance for days to keep blood flowing through the bitter cold. It is in this farmhouse, beneath its hulking, fire-singed beams, that Eysturoy encourages me to take in the smell of a grind knife, and says pointedly, “This is not a place for gold and silver. There is nothing that glitters in this house.”


As we’re preparing to leave, we run into Joannes Patursson, whose family has lived in the house and on its surrounding farmstead through 17 generations. This fact, so astounding to visitors, remains wholly unimpressive to him. “I don’t think of it much,” he says, leaning on the bumper of his pickup. His young sons run out of the truck and chase each other toward the house. “Jah, jah, that is Generation 18.” Will they grow and farm the land, as Joannes has? “Maybe. They’re still boys. You never know.” How did the land stay intact for so long? And here I learn the most incredible fact about the scarcely credible Faroese: they have retained the custom of primogeniture. Leaseholds are impartible — that is, if you are the eldest son, you get everything, and if you are a younger son, you get nothing but screwed. “You can’t split it up, or else you destroy it,” Eysturoy says, gesturing to the farmstead.


A helicopter from one of the offshore rigs suddenly judders by. “Maybe in the future we will find a well, get some oil,” says Patursson, the most deeply phlegmatic man alive, with a shrug. “The Shetlanders themselves did not benefit from it.” He looks up to the sky and sniffs. It has done nothing but rain since I arrived, but he says, “Tomorrow it will be clear.” A heavy downpour continued through the following morning. And then, just as Patursson said it would, the mist lightened and turned to fleecy strands, backed by merciful patches of blue.


The coastal village of Tjornuvik is a small cluster of timber houses with a population of about 70. It lies snugly slotted in the hollow of a massive glacial bowl, facing an equally massive ocean channel formed out of an Ice Age fjord. The setting is almost laughably sublime. Hulking mountains shelter the channel, which funnels a roaring surf right up to the village’s front edge. In choral reply, waterfalls cascade down from the high escarpment behind the village. Out in the distance loom Risin and Kellingin, the two most iconic sea stacks in the Faroe Islands, known as “the witch” and “the giant.” (As legend has it, the two ne’er-do-wells were towing the Faroes from Norway to Iceland when the sun came up, and they turned to stone.)


Once a year, on a Saturday in early fall, well-heeled professionals make the hour’s drive from Torshavn to Tjornuvik for the Stakksdagur, the festal day that inaugurates the community’s slaughtering season. In spring, a handful of rams are abandoned to the most remote corner of the village commons, to roam wild over the summer. Come autumn, the village men don traditional Faroese caps, sing traditional Faroese hymns and then, carrying seven-foot spiked wooden fence poles, make the punishing mountain hike to fetch the rams. The men build a makeshift pen from the poles, into which they herd the panicked animals, who are hiked back down the mountain and, with much fanfare, into the village. There they are slaughtered and put up for auction.


The year before my visit had marked a milestone: the first woman was allowed to join the Stakksdagur. This year, I will be its first weak-ankled vegetarian. The leader of our party is a young man named Jogvan, whose family has farmed and shepherded in Tjornuvik for generations. Jogvan is about 30, with jet-black hair and a pair of black swoosh eyebrows set atop a rectangular face. “You like American football,” Jogvan says cheerily. “We, we like collecting sheep.”


After a round of hymning, a group of about 30 of us ascend to the tottering uppermost heights of a headland, then descend, fully off-trail, into the massive inner rim of a neighboring cirque. The Faroese, it goes without saying, are experienced hikers, as measured by the near total absence, even after hours of precipitous climbing, of dirt anywhere above the sole of their boots. My jeans, meanwhile, are quickly mud-spackled up to the thigh. The hike is exhausting, and I lag badly.


After crossing a long alpine meadow, we finally arrive at a cliff edge suspended over the sea. Karis, the pioneering suffragette from the previous year, kindly hikes alongside me. “So where are the rams?” I ask, and she laughs. Karis, who looks to be in her early 20s and has hennaed hair and blue-saucer eyes, points out to the water. Hundreds of feet offshore, rising hundreds of feet out of the surf, sits a grass-topped sea stack. “You’re joking.” Karis shakes her head solemnly and laughs again. The sea stack is reachable only by a crude trolley of a welded aluminum chair rigged up with pulleys on a ropeway suspended 400 feet above roiling whitecaps. We will have to tow ourselves across the chasm, two at a time, and make our high-wire return with rams on board. ‘’We all have to die sometime,” Karis says, and I understand perfectly. The spirit of Ove Joensen is everywhere in the Faroes.


Crossing to and from the sea stack goes off without a hitch. The return hike is less difficult, and I fall in with Jonhedin, a native of Tjornuvik who now works as a jack-of-all-trades (a journalist, D.J., teacher and, of course, shepherd) in Torshavn. “My grandparents would say to me, ‘You romanticize village life. We were poor. We owned a quarter of a cow,’ ” says Jonhedin, who loves Tjornuvik but refuses to sentimentalize it. “They were tenant farmers. They lived off of land they didn’t own.”


Later, Jonhedin and I stand together in a makeshift basement slaughterhouse. (Every house in Tjornuvik and most village houses in the Faroes have such an abattoir. “We live with death, here in the Faroes,” he says, fully aware of his double entendre.) Here the first ram of the season will be slaughtered. A cartridge gun drives a bolt into the ram’s brain, shuddering its body, and then its throat is slit. I’ve never seen a slaughter, and I watch intently. Blood pours down from the opened throat. The ram kicks and kicks, and death spreads through its body. The blood falls into a bucket, and the bucket is stirred continuously, to prevent clotting, so it can be used later for sausage. “We use every part of the ram except for the feet and part of the stomach,” Jonhedin tells me as he holds out the stirrer. The blood clots instantly, and looks like freshly pulped raspberries.


This ram had grazed in the wild for six months. All the water it consumed came from sea breezes and wet grass, so there’s little fat between its dermis and its tissue. To skin the animal without breaking its hide, a very large man in a blue rubber apron and rubber boots, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, repeatedly drives his hand up into the carcass, both with great force and great care. The village elders look on, goading him with clucks. A father holds up his toddler son to afford him a better view. Between strokes, the man plunges his hands into a bucket of cold water and swigs from a schnapps bottle, then sets upon the ram again, his entire body torquing like a Greco-Roman wrestler’s. Finally, the hide separates and — success! — the carcass is laid on a dressing table, severed hooves in the air, its hypodermis an unbroken white balloon. The chest cavity is opened, the organs carefully removed, the stomach pumped with water and lanced. The waft of cut grass instantly fills the room.


Over coffee in the kitchen of Jogvan’s in-laws, a small group gathers to discuss the day’s events. The rams have come in light this year. Jonhedin blames global warming. “There were fewer sand eels this year,” he explains. “The puffins eat fewer sand eels, they fertilize the grass less, the sheep weigh 10 pounds less.” The conversation drifts away from the Stakksdagur. “There is a rumor,” says Jogvan. “Someone at the airport says the drilling crew ordered a case of Champagne to be choppered out to the rig.” A round of slow nods. The men of Tjornuvik are convinced that the Faroe Islands, should they discover oil, will do with its riches what Tjornuvik would: create a giant community development fund. Jah, jah, a development fund. More careful nods. Then Jogvan says, “Of course, I’d like to buy a Humvee, and all that.” Laughter, as Jonhedin adds, “A solid-gold Humvee. Now, can you imagine Jogvan driving up the mountain in that?”


That night I call John Eysturoy to tell him about my remarkable final day in the Faroe Islands. Jah, jah: he had already heard.


A week later, at home in Brooklyn, idling in front of my computer, I Google “Faroes,” “discovery” and “oil.” The story I click through to reads: “Drilling by Statoil off the Faroe Islands has been completed. No commercially viable oil or gas volumes were found.”

ESSENTIALS

GETTING THERE: The easiest way to arrive is through Copenhagen, from which there are several daily flights on Atlantic Airways (www.atlantic.fo). Atlantic also flies from Reykjavik, Iceland; London; and (summer only) Aberdeen, Scotland.

LAY OF THE LAND: It’s easiest to get around the islands by car and ferry. Most visitors base themselves on Streymoy, which is home to the capital city, Torshavn. Of the remaining 17 islands, those most worth visiting are the beautiful Suduroy; Mykines, for bird watching; Eysturoy, for its charming fishing villages; and Koltur, which is inhabited by one couple and has medieval ruins (you can reach it only by an inexpensive Atlantic Airways helicopter flight).

HOTELS: Hotel Foroyar Pleasant hilltop property, overlooking the harbor and the city, with a good restaurant. Torshavn; 011-298-31-75-00; www.hotelforoyar.com; doubles from $228. Hotel Torshavn Right down by the harbor, and recently refurbished. Torshavn; 011-298-35-00-00; www.hoteltorshavn.fo; doubles from $193.

RESTAURANTS, CAFES AND BARS: Café Natur Great bar popular with locals, with good bar food and live music. Aarvegur 7; 011-298-31-26-25. Gallari Jinx Café Good coffee and simple snacks. Aarvegur 3; 011-298-31-71-01. Restaurant Gourmet New upscale restaurant with serious culinary aspirations. Gr. Kambans Gota 13; 011-298-32-25-25; entrees $18 to $40.

SIGHTS AND ACTIVITIES: The best overall resource is the Bradt Travel Guides’ Faroe Islands (Globe Pequot, $22); for a list of festivals, hikes and events, go to www.visit-faroeislands.com. In Torshavn, stop by Nordic House (011-298-35-13-51; www.nlh.fo), which offers exhibits, seminars and concerts, and the National Gallery (011-298-31-35-79; www.art.fo). On Streymoy don’t miss the beautiful drive to the village of Saksun. The old schooner Nordlysid (www.nordlysid.com) sails around the islands; Captain Birgir Enni will take you to the grottoes and bird cliffs and to Nolsoy, and will also feed you great seafood.




(y) There is a video that accompanies this article and the slide show ay www.nytimes/travel for those interested.





Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(y) (y)


CW!!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/23/business/24online.190.jpg



March 24, 2007

What’s Online

Apple Cult Becoming a Religion

By DAN MITCHELL


APPLE will not release the iPhone until June, but Leander Kahney, the writer of “The Cult of Mac” blog, posited this week on Wired News that the new phone is already partly responsible for a major change in how the company is perceived (wired.com). After nearly three decades, Apple is finally being taken seriously not just by the true believers, but by just about everybody.


According to Mr. Kahney, this shift has taken place in the last few weeks, as both the iPhone and, more recently, Apple TV, have quickly become “must have” products. “A lot of people thought Apple got lucky with the iPod,” Mr. Kahney wrote. “It was a one-hit wonder, a fluke not likely to be repeated.” But the iPhone is already thought of as an “industry-changing smash hit,” and Apple TV, which at first drew shrugs, now may even eclipse the iPhone, according to the predictions of some (though by no means many) people (ipodnn.com).


Apple TV, which began shipping this week, stores up to 50 hours of video, which can be wirelessly beamed from a computer to a television set. Like several other competing products from the likes of Sony, Microsoft and TiVo, it aims to capitalize on the increasing availability of downloadable movies and TV shows.


Apple’s decision to move to Intel processors is another big reason for what Mr. Kahney says is “a cultural shift that’s changing the way people think about the company.” The Mac’s ability to run both Apple’s operating system and Microsoft’s Windows (by using BootCamp software, which is still in beta), means some organizations are able to save money by using more-expensive Macs. Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, for example, recently dumped all its Windows-only machines in favor of Macs because the university now can do just as much with fewer computers (computerworld.com).


The “dual boot” functionality also means that it is far easier to find needed software. “The old argument against Macs is moot,” Mr. Kahney writes. “New Intel Macs can run Windows software as well as any PC.” And technology managers like the Mac’s relative protection against computer viruses and security breaches.


Perhaps most intriguingly, Mr. Kahney points to Apple’s steadfastness in keeping its products proprietary as a main reason for its success. Apple for decades has weathered criticism that the reason it was marginalized by the likes of Microsoft was its refusal to allow third parties to develop related products. But “Apple’s traditional closed system,” Mr. Kahney writes, “is now a selling point.”


The popularity of the iPod and iTunes, he writes, shows that consumers seem to prefer buying “products and services from one company that are guaranteed to work well together.”


Financial Wisdom Get-rich-quick schemes abound in the personal finance sections of bookstores, encouraging everyday people to play the derivatives market or promoting “no money down” real estate investing.


But hidden among the sillier works are helpful volumes. J. D. Roth presents 25 of what he says are the best of them on his blog, Get Rich Slowly (getrichslowly.org). Some are well known, others less so. There is “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey and “Miserly Moms” by Jonni McCoy. They emphasize saving, avoiding too much credit, and living well but simply. None, Mr. Roth writes, “go into much detail about any one subject, but they provide motivation to get started. And that’s what’s most important.”


Google: Not Worried SearchWithKevin.com promises that “every time you search the Web, you stand a chance of winning a prize from Kevin Federline. It’s that simple. Really.”


Simple, indeed. The Yahoo-powered site features a photograph of Britney Spears’s estranged husband playing poker, smoking a cigarette and apparently enjoying some kind of brown liquor over ice. The company behind the site, Prodege, offers prizes including Mr. Federline’s autograph on an 8x10 glossy, his latest CD and a T-shirt bearing his carefully cultivated bad-boy visage.




:| :| Dual-boot is great but please not with Windows. That OS (operating system) is like putting a blonde wig on a gorilla! :|


8-| The solution for me is to have a Mac (and NOT dual OS either) as well as a new PC with Linux and Windows and not using the Windows OS! (y) (y)




(f) Have a lovely Sunday and start of your week. (f)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(l)



"Style," Elsa Peretti says, "is to be simple."


http://www.tiffany.com/shopping/category.aspx?menu=1&cid=96662&mcat=148204&isMenu=1



Elsa Peretti Gold:

http://www.tiffany.com/search/search_results.aspx?search_params=t+-s+0-p+2-l+-h+-c+-r+135+143-x+




Elsa Peretti® Swirl cuff. 18k gold. Original designs copyrighted by Elsa Peretti®.
$4,200:

http://www.tiffany.com/shared/images/products/product_images/10665787_FL_LRG.jpg






(l) I bought a signed, open heart back in 1981 using some $ from a commission check (I was in sales...). :| And it wasn't this price back then AND pieces aren't signed either:


Open Heart pendant, large. Eighteen karat gold, 1.25" wide, on a 30" chain. Original designs copyrighted by Elsa Peretti®.
$1,350:

http://www.tiffany.com/shared/images/products/product_images/10667313_fl_lrg.jpg



Open Heart pendant, large. Eighteen karat gold, 1.25" wide, on a 30" eighteen karat gold Mesh chain. Original designs copyrighted by Elsa Peretti®. $1,950:

http://www.tiffany.com/shared/images/products/product_images/11593739_fl_lrg.jpg



(y) Elsa Peretti® Bone cuff, medium, for the right hand. 18k gold. Original designs copyrighted by Elsa Peretti. :| $7,200:

http://www.tiffany.com/shared/images/products/product_images/10665728_FL_LRG_1.jpg




Wiki about this artist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_Peretti


Answers.com: http://www.answers.com/topic/elsa-peretti




The Designer

by Benjamin Mark

Now ... I could play this thing again and see if you can get it ... or I can play it straight. Thing of it is ... this one would be a tad tougher. So which will it be? By a show of hands ... who wants to try and guess? Who wants to play it straight and have the answer given to them at the end of this Tidbits?

You all get a hint. I give you gender identification. She's a she.

It's the 1980's. It's a bull market. Everybody's making money. You can't hardly let one go without it turning into hard cold cash. Desirability is directly linked to designer names. A gold heart is nice. An Elsa Peretti heart is nicer. There is a fashion feeding frenzy for innovative and bold jewelers. She made her first collection for Tiffany. It was her debut. She was a hit. Vogue said she redefined real jewelry in a modern sense.

It was a time when everyone who was anyone wore diamonds. To do otherwise was surely a tad gauche. Except for her. She took a different direction. She designed with semi-precious stones. And and large ones too. She said she like them big. Stones that is. Gemstones that is. Certain things, dear reader ... need clarification. Wouln't you agree? Jewelry of her's had been presented with a 52.62 carat kunzite and a 284 carat peridot. She was the child of two famous painters and attributed her flair to this fact. She was brought up with color and bathed in creativity.

One of her pieces that I very much like is called a Scribble Brooch. She became a well-respected figure in the world of French fashion.

By now you are probably chomping at the bit and wondering which vote was the larger by that show of hands I took earlier. There may even be some skeptics amongst you who are saying balderdash ... there was no show of hands. Those of you who are saying that probably don't believe in magic either. This of course is rather sad ... for magic is what makes the world go round. By a show of hands ... who thought it was gravity?

As to our designers name ... and the result of the earlier vote ... well ... it seems you'll have to wait till next week. Majority rules and all that. I personally have had no say in this. I went with
the vote of the crowd. Email me with your thoughts if you like ... I'll tell you if you were right. Now go ... go ... enjoy the brooch. This chit-chat is over.

This article was published on Saturday 03 February, 2007.


http://www.tyler-adam.com/article_info.php?articles_id=538




(i) I just *knew* that RLM's work reminded me of someone whose work I owned. I remembered it earlier today. :)




Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

(f) (f)


HAND IN HAND Brian Orter, in glasses, with his boyfriend, Josh Helmin, on West 46th Street. “It is very important that we feel safe,” Mr. Orter says.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/25/nyregion/25gay.600.jpg



In the search for a home, gay men have migrated northward from the Village to Chelsea and now to Hell’s Kitchen. Will it ever truly feel like home?


People respond at www.nytimes.com and Under The City section



March 25, 2007

Under the Rainbow

By DAVID SHAFTEL


ON New Year’s Eve, about 50 guests crammed into Addison Smith’s apartment, a fourth-floor walk-up in a former tenement on Ninth Avenue near 51st Street. The party had been billed as a refuge for friends who were still at loose ends for the holiday, and most of the merrymakers were 20- and 30-something gay men, many of whom lived in the neighborhood.


To increase the space available for mingling, Mr. Smith had turned his roommate’s bed on its side and propped it against the wall so he could use the space for a sound system and a table heaped with an array of cheeses and salmon cooked in a stove-top smoker. By 3 a.m., when the final guests left, making their way through the still-thick crowds in Times Square, all agreed it had been a pretty good evening.


That Mr. Smith and his roommate could persuade so many young, modish gay friends to do their New Year’s reveling in Hell’s Kitchen might not have been possible a decade ago. But these days such gatherings are an increasingly familiar sight, evidence of a gay migration that has traveled up the West Side from the West Village and then from Chelsea.


This new gay presence, however, is very different from what went before. In the West Village and Chelsea, gay culture was in many respects the prevailing culture. But in Hell’s Kitchen, the gay community is just one of many subcultures that share and sometimes compete for a common turf.


“When I moved here in 2001, the neighborhood had kind of a transitional character,” said Mr. Smith, a tall, lean 28-year-old with a rakish haircut who works for a nonprofit agency that gives money to gay and lesbian causes. “Chelsea is more of a rainbow flag-flying destination, like Christopher Street. Hell’s Kitchen didn’t have any one character. It just had the cheapest rents around.”


Like many of the neighborhood’s new arrivals, Mr. Smith, who moved there from Harlem in 2001, was drawn by the twin magnets of cost and location. Rents were reasonable — in Mr. Smith’s case, $1,500 for his current two-bedroom apartment — and the commute to Chelsea, then and still the center of fashionable gay life in New York, was easy. But he did not immediately feel as if he lived in an up-and-coming gay neighborhood.


“When I first moved here,” Mr. Smith said a few days after the New Year’s Eve party as he sat amid the detritus of merriment, “I felt specifically that it wasn’t a gay neighborhood. Hell’s Kitchen didn’t really have an identity other than its identity being danger.”


Over the years, that reputation for danger has become more quaint than accurate. Though long home to immigrant communities, and at various times the neighborhood of choice for everyone from bootleggers and dockworkers to stagehands, in recent years it has been gentrified by New Yorkers who yearned for West Side living but were priced out of Chelsea and the Upper West Side.


And despite Hell’s Kitchen’s growing appeal to many of the city’s young gay men, an attraction fueled by its strengthening gay identity, many residents predict that the area may never have the gay identity that Chelsea has and that the West Village was once famous for, that it will endure simply as a gay-friendly district, less a scene than simply a neighborhood.


Hellsea? NoChe? Hell’s Kitty?

Historians disagree on the derivation of the name Hell’s Kitchen, which designates the area bounded by 34th and 59th Streets between Eighth Avenue and the Hudson River, and which was largely replaced in the 1960s by the more respectable-sounding Clinton. But not surprisingly in a city that loves to rename its communities, Hell’s Kitchen has been increasingly rebranded, with names spawned in equal measure by real estate agents and gay tastemakers: Mid West, NoChe (North of Chelsea), Hell’s Kitchenette, Hell’s Kitty and, most ubiquitous, Hellsea.


Whatever people call it, the message is unmistakable: Hell’s Kitchen is getting gayer and gayer.


Though it is hard to measure changes in a neighborhood’s population with respect to sexual orientation, the demographer Gary Gates has tried to do just that. A co-author of “The Gay and Lesbian Atlas,” published in 2004, Mr. Gates analyzed census data broken down by ZIP code and concluded that Chelsea’s central ZIP code, 10011, followed by the West Village’s, 10014, had the city’s highest numbers of households made up of same-sex unmarried couples. By 2000, when the most recent census was taken, the 10036 ZIP code in Hell’s Kitchen already had the third-highest number of gay couples, indicating that the gay settlement of Hell’s Kitchen was already well under way.


Anecdotal evidence supports these numbers. Within the last year, a raft of new gay establishments has arrived, among them Vlada Lounge, a Russian-inspired vodka lounge on West 51st Street, near Eighth Avenue, and the Ritz, a bar on 46th Street at Ninth Avenue. The gay-friendly restaurant Vynl, a neighborhood staple where gay patrons mix amid kitschy décor with theatergoers and actors, has moved into a bigger space on Ninth Avenue near 51st Street and is still packed before, after and between Broadway performances.


The Coolness Factor

The conventional wisdom is that the emergence of Hell’s Kitchen as a gay-friendly neighborhood simply continued the gay migration up the West Side. That is only partly true.


“I wouldn’t say it’s just a migration; it’s also a new generation of gay people,” said Gregory Angelo, who, as a Hell’s Kitchen resident and until recently the editor in chief of the weekly gay listings magazine Next, monitors gay lifestyle trends in the city.


In the magazine’s Jan. 12 issue, Mr. Angelo published a map depicting the reshuffling of the city’s gay landscape. Red arrows atop a map of Manhattan proclaim that “SoHo is the new East Village,” “Chelsea is the new West Village” and “Hell’s Kitchen is the new Chelsea.” An optimistic red arrow points to the Upper West Side and beyond.


Even as a child growing up in suburban Connecticut, Mr. Angelo knew that if you were a gay man living in the city in the 1980s, you simply had to be in the West Village. When the real estate market in the West Village became saturated, the denizens got a little older and the onset of AIDS cast a pall over the neighborhood, younger gay men found they could find affordable rents or buy cute fixer-uppers in Chelsea and still be close to the scene in the West Village. By the mid-’90s Chelsea had supplanted the West Village as the center of urban gay life.


“When I started going out in New York as a gay man and making gay friends in New York,” said Mr. Angelo, who is 28, “it was all about Chelsea. By then the West Village was starting to look like something of a relic.”


In 2002, when Mr. Angelo was ready to move to the city, he could neither find nor afford an apartment in Chelsea; what he called the “luxury set” had taken over. “But Hell’s Kitchen was close enough,” said Mr. Angelo, who is now in his second Hell’s Kitchen apartment. “I found there were enough young gay men and women who, like me, wanted to be a part of Chelsea but didn’t have the funds and couldn’t find an apartment there. So we all moved into Hell’s Kitchen.”


When he arrived, he discovered a nascent network of gay and gay-friendly bars and restaurants. The following May, Next magazine created a separate “Hell’s Kitchen” heading in its night life listings, a roster that now includes 10 gay bars and clubs, including Barrage on West 47th Street and Therapy on West 52nd Street, the latter a two-floor lounge bar with a bold sound system.


Another mainstay of gay night life listings is Posh, an unassuming bar whose bouncer and D.J. are all that distinguish it from a typical, uncluttered neighborhood watering hole. Posh, on West 51st Street near Ninth Avenue, was opened in 2000 by the chef and restaurateur John Greco.


For the first two years Mr. Greco saw only a trickle of customers. But today Posh is a neighborhood cornerstone, packed every night. Last year, buoyed by its success, Mr. Greco opened Bamboo 52, a bar and sushi restaurant around the corner that is gay but has a large nongay clientele. Its prospects have been bolstered by the 44-story luxury apartment building rising on the same block.


“It’s very much a gay neighborhood now,” Mr. Angelo said. “Which is basically the way I hear older friends of mine describe Chelsea when they moved there in the ’90s, and how other gay friends described the West Village when they moved there in the ’80s.”


Now, when friends new to the city ask him where they should live, Mr. Angelo does not hesitate. “Go to Hell’s Kitchen,” he says. “That’s where you want to be as a young 20-something gay man who wants to live and experience gay New York.”


Holding Hands, or Maybe Not

Like many others in the new generation of gay residents of Hell’s Kitchen, Brian Orter ended up in the neighborhood almost accidentally. A 33-year-old photographer and commercial lighting designer, Mr. Orter has lived in the West Village, the East Village and Chelsea, and he speaks with the authority of a man who has experienced the diversity of New York’s gay enclaves. He currently lives in a tidy studio in a luxury high-rise at 42nd Street and 10th Avenue. On his walls are prints by the graphic artist Shepard Fairey and Mr. Orter’s own photographs, including a panorama of Eighth Avenue in Chelsea.


For Mr. Orter, the increasing gay presence in Hell’s Kitchen is welcome but sometimes uncomfortably spotty. “If they open up two or three gay bars, even if we don’t use them, we feel better about it,” Mr. Orter said. Still, he added, the presence of a few gay bars isn’t always sufficient to make him feel comfortable.


“It is very important that we feel safe,” said Mr. Orter, looking preppy this day in jeans, sweater and glasses with designer frames. “I remember growing up in the city being gay in the ’70s and ’80s, and it was scary. So I’m not going to go and move into a neighborhood where I am scared. I want to be near Chelsea and the West Village, where there are safe, gay people.”


Gay residents of Hell’s Kitchen cite the occasional rude comment lobbed at them by people in front of some of the neighborhood’s straight bars, usually places that cater to the just-out-of-college crowd. But the consensus is that at this point, the straight people in the neighborhood will just have to deal with their gay neighbors, rather than vice versa.


And gay couples find some parts of Hell’s Kitchen more welcoming than others.


“My boyfriend and I will hold hands and walk arm in arm down Ninth Avenue,” Mr. Orter said, “but we won’t do it down Eighth or 10th. It’s still kind of sketchy.”


Even on Ninth, he finds the picture mixed. “We’ll walk down Ninth between 43rd and 53rd Streets holding hands,” he said, “then after 53rd, we’re like, ‘Ooh, doesn’t feel so good over here,’ so we’ll stop holding hands.”


And because of the proximity to transit hubs like the Lincoln Tunnel, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the cruise ship terminal and Penn Station, along with Midtown tourist attractions like Times Square, even gay-friendly sections of Ninth Avenue may never resemble the gay bazaar that is Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, a largely forgotten strip until gay culture seeped in.


“We have our little scene up here,” Mr. Orter said, “but it’s superimposed on an existing tourist culture and an existing restaurant culture. This neighborhood has always serviced Midtown, and it’s chockablock with tourism.”


Another difference between Hell’s Kitchen and its predecessors is that Hell’s Kitchen has no established cruising center, no place where men can hang out, flirt, meet friends at any hour of the day or night, and, in general, just be gay. There is no place here, for example, like Big Cup, the Chelsea coffee shop that may have been the city’s most beloved cruising center before it closed in August 2005, in what many local residents saw as evidence that rents in Chelsea have become untenable.


Gay New Yorkers mourn the loss of the Big Cup as a place to hang out, browse the city’s array of free gay publications, trade apartment news and people-watch. Hell’s Kitchen residents have waited, so far in vain, for such a spot to open up in their neighborhood.


“I could always tell you where the center of Chelsea was,” Mr. Orter said. “It was Big Cup. I can’t tell you where the gay center of Hell’s Kitchen is.”


Porno Bingo in the Dive Bar

It was a Wednesday night in January, and Will Clark, a former adult-film actor, was the M.C. of the 100th installment of “porno bingo,” a weekly bingo-for-charity promotion at the Ninth Avenue Bistro, a dive bar near West 48th Street.


Mr. Clark’s guest this night was the cartoonishly buff adult-film actor Diesel Washington, who appeared in various stages of undress throughout the evening, removing a layer of his baggy combat fatigues each time a patron achieved bingo. Mr. Clark, whose own outfit was accented by subtle nods to gay leather subculture in the form of a wallet chain and motorcycle boots, provided a running commentary to an audience slumped over their beers and bingo cards.


Like Cleo’s Ninth Avenue Saloon, a gay hangout a block to the south, the Bistro has been in the neighborhood since time immemorial, or so it seems to local residents. The Bistro differs from an ordinary dive bar only in the scattering of rainbow flags and the jauntier selections on the jukebox — evidence that not all gay bars in Hell’s Kitchen are as upscale as some of the newcomers.


This particular evening, patrons were mostly locals and regulars, some foppish, others seemingly oblivious to fashion, and ranging in age from barely old enough to buy a drink to elderly.


“We were always a very diverse group,” Lee Compton, chairman of Community Board 4, which serves Hell’s Kitchen, said of the neighborhood. “We were always blue collar, from the left edge of the island, and we worked in the factories and warehouses and wharves. Now we are suddenly hot.”


Plans for a West Side stadium, although abortive, along with other revitalization proposals for the West Side rail yards, are making real estate agents and speculators take increasing notice of the area. Not all the area’s gay residents are thrilled about this, among them Mr. Smith, who held the impromptu New Year’s Eve party.


He is aware of the neighborhood’s elevated status but plans to remain where he is. His apartment is rent-stabilized, and he has just asked his boyfriend to move in with him, a gesture that signals his intention of staying put for a while.


It’s like having fallen in love with a band during its early years, Mr. Smith said. “You feel like, ‘I listened to them early on, and now I can’t even get a ticket.’ I hear people say that Hell’s Kitchen is over. I don’t even know what that means.


“Yeah, the rents are going up, but they are going up everywhere. I don’t care. I’m not leaving.”




(y) (y)



ANCORA IMPARO, ("I am still learning."),

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

[sweetlady]

(h) (p) 's


A recent Weekend in New York column challenged you to go on a photo scavenger hunt in the city. Did you find the most expensive pizza slice? A bad parallel parking job?


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/03/05/travel/20070305_HUNT_SLIDESHOW_1.html




Someone using a pay phone: An uncommon sight in New York these days.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/12/travel/Payphone_LisaDavidson.jpg





Best/worst dressed dog: Captured at 67th and Madison.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/07/travel/snowflake-dog-650.jpg





Best/worst dressed dog: Spike was dressed up for a St. Patrick's Day parade in Sunnyside, Queens.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/05/travel/hauser_dog_650.jpg





Most dogs with one human: One human walks eight dogs on West End Avenue.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/05/travel/Eight_Cold_Dogs.jpg





Most yellow cabs in one photo: Parked on the Upper West Side.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/05/travel/keddy_taxis_650.jpg





Biggest crowd waiting for a brunch table: At 12:45pm on Sunday, there's a long line outside Good Enough To Eat on Amsterdam Avenue. According to the photographer, "it is like this every weekend!"

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/05/travel/greville_brunch_650.jpg





Biggest crowd waiting for a brunch table: Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, under the Brooklyn Bridge, doesn't offer a brunch menu, but this Brooklyn pizza joint almost always has a line outside, so the judges will allow it.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/05/travel/romines_brunch_650.jpg





ANCORA IMPARO,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer

[sweetlady]

:| :|


March 25, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

When Will Fredo Get Whacked?

By FRANK RICH


PRESIDENT BUSH wants to keep everything that happens in his White House secret, but when it comes to his own emotions, he’s as transparent as a teenager on MySpace.


On Monday morning he observed the Iraq war’s fourth anniversary with a sullen stay-the-course peroration so perfunctory he seemed to sleepwalk through its smorgasbord of recycled half-truths (Iraqi leaders are “beginning to meet the benchmarks”) and boilerplate (“There will be good days, and there will be bad days”). But at a press conference the next day to defend his attorney general, the president was back in the saddle, guns blazing, Mr. Bring ’Em On reborn. He vowed to vanquish his Democratic antagonists much as he once, so very long ago, pledged to make short work of insurgents in Iraq.


The Jekyll-and-Hyde contrast between these two performances couldn’t be a more dramatic indicator of Mr. Bush’s priorities in his presidency’s endgame. His passion for protecting his power and his courtiers far exceeds his passion for protecting the troops he’s pouring into Iraq’s civil war. But why go to the mat for Alberto Gonzales? Even Bush loyalists have rarely shown respect for this crony whom the president saddled with the nickname Fredo; they revolted when Mr. Bush flirted with appointing him to the Supreme Court and shun him now. The attorney general’s alleged infraction — misrepresenting a Justice Department purge of eight United States attorneys, all political appointees, for political reasons — seems an easy-to-settle kerfuffle next to his infamous 2002 memo dismissing the Geneva Conventions’ strictures on torture as “quaint” and “obsolete.”


That’s why the president’s wild overreaction is revealing. So far his truculence has been largely attributed to his slavish loyalty to his White House supplicants, his ideological belief in unilateral executive-branch power and, as always, his need to shield the Machiavellian machinations of Karl Rove (who installed a protégé in place of one of the fired attorneys). But the fierceness of Mr. Bush’s response — to the ludicrous extreme of forbidding transcripts of Congressional questioning of White House personnel — indicates there is far more fire to go with all the Beltway smoke.


Mr. Gonzales may be a nonentity, but he’s a nonentity like Zelig. He’s been present at every dubious legal crossroads in Mr. Bush’s career. That conjoined history began in 1996, when Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, was summoned for jury duty in Austin. To popular acclaim, he announced he was glad to lend his “average guy” perspective to a drunken driving trial. But there was one hitch. On the juror questionnaire, he left blank a required section asking, “Have you ever been accused, or a complainant, or a witness in a criminal case?”


A likely explanation for that omission, unknown to the public at the time, was that Mr. Bush had been charged with disorderly conduct in 1968 and drunken driving in 1976. Enter Mr. Gonzales. As the story is told in “The President’s Counselor,” a nonpartisan biography by the Texas journalist Bill Minutaglio, Mr. Gonzales met with the judge presiding over the trial in his chambers (a meeting Mr. Gonzales would years later claim to have “no recollection” of requesting) and saved his client from jury duty. Mr. Minutaglio likens the scene to “The Godfather” — casting Mr. Gonzales not as the feckless Fredo, however, but as the “discreet ‘fixer’ attorney,” Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagen.


Mr. Gonzales’s career has been laced with such narrow escapes for both him and Mr. Bush. As a partner at the Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins, Mr. Gonzales had worked for Enron until 1994. After Enron imploded in 2001, reporters wanted to know whether Ken Lay’s pals in the Bush hierarchy had received a heads up about the company’s pending demise before its unfortunate shareholders were left holding the bag. The White House said that Mr. Gonzales had been out of the Enron loop “to the best of his recollection.” This month Murray Waas of The National Journal uncovered a more recent close shave: Just as Justice Department investigators were about to examine “documents that might have shed light on Gonzales’s role” in the administration’s extralegal domestic wiretapping program last year, Mr. Bush shut down the investigation.


It was Mr. Gonzales as well who threw up roadblocks when the 9/11 Commission sought documents and testimony from the White House about the fateful summer of 2001. Less widely known is Mr. Gonzales’s curious behavior in the C.I.A. leak case while he was still White House counsel. When the Justice Department officially notified him on the evening of Sept. 29, 2003, that it was opening an investigation into the outing of Valerie Wilson, he immediately informed Andrew Card, Mr. Bush’s chief of staff. But Mr. Gonzales waited another 12 hours to officially notify the president and inform White House employees to preserve all materials relevant to the investigation. As Chuck Schumer said after this maneuver became known, “Every good prosecutor knows that any delay could give a culprit time to destroy the evidence.”


Now that 12-hour delay has been matched by the 18-day gap in the Justice Department e-mails turned over to Congress in the dispute over the attorney purge. And we’re being told by Tony Snow that Mr. Bush has “no recollection” of hearing anything about the firings. But even these literal echoes of Watergate cannot obliterate the contours of the story this White House wants to hide.


Do not be distracted by the apples and oranges among the fired attorneys. Perhaps a couple of their forced resignations were routine. But in other instances, incriminating evidence coalesces around a familiar administration motive: its desperate desire to cover up the corruption that soiled what was supposed to be this White House’s greatest asset, its protection of the nation’s security. This was the motive that drove the White House to vilify Joseph Wilson when he challenged fraudulent prewar intelligence about Saddam’s W.M.D. The e-mails in the attorney flap released so far suggest that this same motive may have driven the Justice Department to try mounting a similar strike at Patrick Fitzgerald, the United States attorney charged with investigating the Wilson leak.


In March 2005, while preparing for the firings, Mr. Gonzales’s now-jettisoned chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, produced a chart rating all 93 United States attorneys nationwide. Mr. Fitzgerald, widely admired as one of the nation’s best prosecutors (most famously of terrorists), was somehow slapped with the designation “not distinguished.” Two others given that same rating were fired. You have to wonder if Mr. Fitzgerald was spared because someone in a high place belatedly calculated the political firestorm that would engulf the White House had this prosecutor been part of a Saturday night massacre in the middle of the Wilson inquiry.


Another canned attorney to track because of her scrutiny of Bush administration national security scandals is Carol Lam. She was fired from her post in San Diego after her successful prosecution of Representative Duke Cunningham, the California Republican who took $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. Mr. Rove has publicly suggested that Ms. Lam got the ax because “she would not commit resources to prosecute immigration offenses.” That’s false. Last August an assistant attorney general praised her for doubling her immigration prosecutions; last week USA Today crunched the statistics and found that she ranked seventh among her 93 peers in successful prosecutions for 2006, with immigration violations accounting for the largest single crime category prosecuted during her tenure.


To see what Mr. Rove might be trying to cover up, look instead at what Ms. Lam was up to in May, just as the Justice Department e-mails indicate she was being earmarked for removal. Building on the Cunningham case, she was closing in on Dusty Foggo, the C.I.A.’s No. 3 official and the director of its daily operations. Mr. Foggo had been installed in this high intelligence position by Mr. Bush’s handpicked successor to George Tenet as C.I.A. director, Porter Goss.


Ms. Lam’s pursuit sped Mr. Foggo’s abrupt resignation; Mr. Goss was out too after serving less than two years. Nine months later — just as Ms. Lam stepped down from her job in February — Mr. Foggo and a defense contractor who raised more than $100,000 for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign were indicted by a grand jury on 11 counts of conspiracy and money laundering in what The Washington Post called “one of the first criminal cases to reach into the C.I.A.’s clandestine operations in Europe and the Middle East.” Because the allegations include the compromising of classified information that remains classified, we don’t know the full extent of the damage to an agency and a nation at war.


Not yet anyway. “I’m not going to resign,” Mr. Gonzales asserted last week as he played the minority card, rounding up Hispanic supporters to cheer his protestations of innocence. “I’m going to stay focused on protecting our kids.” Actually, he’s going to stay focused on protecting the president. Once he can no longer be useful in that role, it’s a sure thing that like Scooter before him, Fredo will be tossed overboard.




GREAT quote: "PRESIDENT BUSH wants to keep everything that happens in his White House secret, but when it comes to his own emotions, he’s as transparent as a teenager on MySpace."


^o) ^o) When will the partisan postering end and da idiot impeached? It's a fait acompli that Gonzales is a goner. 8-) Geez, the Sunday morning talk shows do what they almost always do: posturing, tap-dancing and other political double-speak.




"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[sweetlady]

;)


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/11/01/opinion/02feiffer_pop.jpg



:)

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

[sweetlady]

:)



By JANE and MICHAEL STERN and JOEL HOLLAND

A state fair is a picnic that everyone' invited to, an opportunity for all citizens to express pride in who they are and what they do and where they fit in the fabric of life.


http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/09/02/opinion/03opart_pop.html



:)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:D



By JAMES STEVENSON

A look back at 1940s burlesque New York through the eyes of dancer Sherry Britton.


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/11/22/opinion/20061123_stevenson_slideshow_1.html



Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

(f) (f)



http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/03/14/style/20070315_WRAP_SLIDESHOW_1.html




LONG AND LEAN The silhouette for fall, as fielded by Jil Sander, left, and Marc Jacobs.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/15/fashion/15wrap650.5.jpg





OVERSIZE COATS From left, Proenza Schouler’s high-collared coat; Stella McCartney’s trench; and YSL’s roomy jacket.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/15/fashion/15wrap650.2.jpg




JOLTS OF COLOR Strong hues wake up shoes and tights from Galliano and Prada’s bow bag and sweater. Marc Jacobs used color as an accent, right.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/15/fashion/15wrap650.3.jpg




Generously cut sailors from Givenchy, left, and a slinkier style from Versace.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/15/fashion/15wrap650.4.jpg



(y) (y)


ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(f) (f)


Lara Stone isn’t your typical runway android. I asked the photographer Greg Kessler to keep a record of Stone: one girl, one season. Here she is in every show since New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/03/01/fashion/shows/20070301_MODEL_SLIDESHOW_1.html


(f)


Lara Stone isn’t your typical runway android. She walks like Lurch and you can’t tell from her stunned expression if she’s going to burst into tears or belt you in the chops. But we love her. She’s 23, Dutch, and she has a little gap between her front teeth. “They say in French that it’s good luck,” Stone told me in the Givenchy backstage. She’s had a lucky year. Overlooked until Riccardo Tisci put her in his Givenchy couture shows, Stone has a big Bardot-like spread in this month’s Paris Vogue; she gets the cover (in Chloe) for April. “Sometimes a girl just touches you,” Carine Roitfeld, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, said. As for Stone’s awkward gait, the explanation is almost too dopey for words. She wears a size 7 shoe—and runway shoes are at least a size larger. “They made me my own special shoes,” Stone said at Givenchy. “I’m so happy.”

I asked the photographer Greg Kessler to keep a record of Stone: one girl, one season. Here she is in every show since New York.

Cathy Horyn

DKNY Fall 2007 collection New York, Feb. 4, 2007



http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/shows/lara.dkny.1.jpg




:| Whoa! Same Girl?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/shows/lara.luella.2.jpg




Calvin Klein Fall 2007 collection New York, Feb. 8.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/shows/lara.calvin.5.jpg




:o Spank me!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/shows/lara.diesel.6.jpg




Proenza Schouler Fall 2007 collection New York, Feb. 7.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/shows/lara.proenza.7.jpg





:) Midwestern-like "Normal"?? Richard Chai Fall 2007 collection New York, Feb. 7.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/lara.chai.8.jpg





:| Talk about a 180 degree turn: Burberry Fall/winter 2007 collection in Milan, Feb. 19.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/lara.burberry.9.jpg

AND

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/lara.dg.10.jpg





Same girl? Gucci Fall 2007 Collection Milan, Feb. 21.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/lara.gucci.11.jpg





Marni Fall 2007 Collection Milan, Feb. 21.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/lara.marni.12.jpg





I Love this 1960s look: Anna Molinari Fall 2007 Collection Milan, Feb. 21.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/lara.molinari.13.jpg





BCBG Fall/winter 2007 collection New York, in February.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/fashion/lara.bcbg.14.jpg





(y) (y) (p) (p) 's, for sure. Amazing young lady whose IQ is surely as astoundingly high as she is beautiful. Not my type or within ten years of anyone within my dating range...;)


:)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (l)



http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/06/fashion/20070207_FASHION_SLIDESHOW_1.html




If the collar was softened up, I'd like this alot:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/06/fashion/07fashion_brown.jpg




(y) Classic! A cashmere tunic and cropped trouser.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/06/fashion/07fashion_navy.jpg




(l) Stunning in a royal blue or black:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/06/fashion/07fashion_redcoat.jpg




(f) Gorgeous:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/06/fashion/07fashion_blackribbon.jpg

AND

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/06/fashion/07fashion_dress.jpg





(l) These photos and others in the slide show didn't seem boring to me. Or that the designer was bored either.




Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

(f)


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/09/fashion/20070210_KLEIN_SLIDESHOW_1.html



(f)



Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l)


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/09/fashion/20070210_LAUREN_SLIDESHOW_1.html




Deinitely a "professorial" look (but not for me):

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/09/fashion/10lauren.4.jpg




I love dress backs like this:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/09/fashion/FASHION-LAUREN.jpg




Stunning: Liquid Gold:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/09/fashion/FASHION-LAUREN-3.jpg



(l) (l)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(l)



http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/04/fashion/20070205_FASHION_SLIDESHOW_1.html



The scene at the Baby Phat show on Friday night.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/04/fashion/04fash.slide6.jpg





I love this in black:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/05/fashion/04fashion_pantssuites.jpg



(y) (y)



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (l)


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/07/fashion/20070208_FASHION_SLIDESHOW_1.html




Nice coat! http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/07/fashion/08rodr.3.jpg




I love this: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/07/fashion/08rodr.7.jpg



(y) Classy, IMHO.




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (l)


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/08/fashion/20070209_SUI_SLIDESHOW_1.html




I love the blue and purple on the left:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/08/fashion/09sui.02.jpg





It would be lovely to see these delicious colors translated into clothing real folks wear:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/08/fashion/09sui.03.jpg



(l)



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(f)


Models made their own fashion statements during New York Fashion Week.


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/14/fashion/2007021_MODELS_SLIDESHOW_1.html




(f)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(f)



Olivier Theyskens presents his first collection for Nina Ricci in Paris.


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/03/05/fashion/shows/20070306_OLIVER_SLIDESHOW_1.html



(f)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(f)


Looks from some of the fall 2007 Paris shows.


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/28/style/20070301_DIARY_SLIDESHOW_1.html




Dutch clogs from the Viktor & Rolf collection.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/style/01fash.2.jpg





A malt-shop look from the ‘Happy Daze’ show of Jeremy Scott in Paris.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/02/28/style/01fash.8.jpg



(f)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :| :|


March 24, 2007

Editorial NYTimes

Legal Convolutions for Gay Couples


One consequence of denying gay couples the right to marry is that it forces people to resort to legal convolutions to protect their family’s financial interests. This problem is currently at the center of an intriguing lawsuit involving Olive Watson, a granddaughter of Thomas Watson Sr., the founder of I.B.M., and Patricia Ann Spado, her former lesbian partner of 14 years.


Sixteen years ago, when she was 43, Ms. Watson adopted Ms. Spado, then 44, under a Maine law that allows one adult to adopt another. The purpose was to allow Ms. Spado to qualify as an heir to Ms. Watson’s estate. It was a legal path used over the years by an untold number of same-sex couples who had been denied a straightforward way to establish inheritance rights through marriage.


Less than a year after the adoption, the pair broke up. Ms. Spado has filed a claim seeking to inherit a share of Mr. Watson’s estate, contending that her adoption technically makes her one of Mr. Watson’s grandchildren.


As Pam Belluck, Alison Leigh Cowan and Ariel Sabar reported in The Times, Watson trust lawyers are pursuing a variety of tactics to defeat Ms. Spado’s claim, including trying to annul the adoption on the grounds that the law was not intended for same-sex partners. Ms. Spado convincingly argues that an annulment would leave other adoptions on shaky ground, and that the “courts cannot unravel longstanding judgments based on third-party aversions to personal lifestyles.”


While the outcome is hard to predict, the lesson is clear: gay people who want to protect their families should not have to resort to adult adoptions. Nor should they be confined to separate and unequal new legal regimes, like civil unions, or rely on a patchwork of contracts, some of dubious enforceability. One benefit that comes with marriage is a universally understood framework for formally dissolving relationships and settling financial matters.


Connecticut’s legislators are about to consider a proposal to upgrade their state’s civil union law to allow full-blown marriage rights for gay couples. For practicality and fairness, it’s the right move.




^o) ^o) What in the world was this person thinking - *adopting* her GF sixteen years ago? With that kind of family money, she should have KNOWN someone would take her to the cleaners. I make nowhere near what she has. And I have been taken advantage of financially big time. I'm sure there are those reading this who have been taken advantage of in the past as well.


:| Reading something like this gives me the willies when I think back on the red flags I missed while in my 20's, 30's and yes, even my early 40s. The wonderful thing about sharing my life with a canine angel? Wyatt loves me unconditionally and would never love me for my financial security. ;) ;)





Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:o :o


March 25, 2007

Op-Ed Contributor

The Rush to Vaccinate

By SIGRID FRY-REVERE

Washington


THERE’S nothing wrong with drug makers publicizing their products, but the lure of lucrative government contracts can prompt them to play fast and loose. In lobbying state lawmakers to make its latest vaccine mandatory, Merck has greatly exaggerated both the threat of a disease and the ability of a drug to prevent it. (True, Merck has promised to stop lobbying, but lawmakers and the public are still suffering under misconceptions that the drug company has done nothing to correct.)


The drug in question is Gardasil, a vaccine for four types of human papillomavirus, or HPV, two of which are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil last year for use against HPV in females aged 9 to 26.


Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a Democrat whose district includes Bronxville, Eastchester, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Scarsdale, Tuckahoe and parts of New Rochelle and White Plains, recently introduced a bill mandating HPV vaccinations for “children born after Jan. 1, 1996.” (For now, this bill only applies to girls. If the Food and Drug Administration approves its use for boys, they will be included in the legislation.)


Such mandates are a boon for Merck, as Gardasil is one of the most expensive vaccines on the market. With a price tag of $360 for a series of three shots, vaccination of nearly two million New York children would bring in almost $700 million.


Gardasil is not all it’s cracked up to be. A recent study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that among women ages 14 to 24, the rate of all 37 types of sexually transmitted HPV combined is 33.8 percent — much lower than the 50 percent figure cited on Merck’s Web site. More important, the rates for HPV 16 and 18 — the two types responsible for 70 percent of all cervical cancers — are astronomically lower: only 1.5 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.


And among those cases, American Cancer Society guidelines published last month report that most HPV infections, even carcinogenic ones, resolve without treatment. About 75 percent of infections in adults and 90 percent of those in adolescents disappear on their own.


It’s worth noting that the American Cancer Society sees its fight against cervical cancer as a success story even without Gardasil. When the disease is detected early through Pap testing, the survival rate is more than 90 percent.


In short, even without the vaccine, when early detection methods are used, the number of girls who are actually at risk of dying of cervical cancer from HPV 16 or 18 is extremely low. Most of the time, the body takes care of the virus without any help whatsoever.


Under these circumstances, are we really prepared to spend millions of dollars administering this vaccine for girls, let alone boys? In truth, it may well cause more harm than good.


For instance, what if the vaccine lulls young women into a false sense of security? Gardasil protects only against the viruses responsible for some cervical cancers, and women may not realize they need regular Pap tests even though they’ve been vaccinated. As a result, many precancerous conditions may go undetected until it’s too late.


Merck’s drug trials followed women who received Gardasil for an average of only three years, so we know little of how long the immunity lasts or the long-term risks that may be associated with it.


Earlier this month, The New England Journal of Medicine reported similar problems with the chickenpox vaccine. Not only did the incidence of illness among those vaccinated against chickenpox increase over time, so did the severity of the illness.


And what if the HPV vaccine causes some horrible side effect to materialize later? The possibility isn’t as far-fetched as you might think. In 1976, swine influenza caused only one documented death in the United States, but the vaccine administered by government mandate seriously injured or killed hundreds. It turned out that the vaccine caused Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare paralytic disease similar to polio, with a 5 percent fatality rate and a 10 percent rate of permanent paralysis.


Mandatory Gardasil vaccinations certainly brighten Merck’s future, but it’s not so clear that they’re in the best interest of New Yorkers. In all but the clearest cases, health-risk assessments should be left up to individual families, not only because making such determinations rightly rests with families, but because it’s simply not sensible policy to experiment on such a large portion of our population all at once.


Not only has Merck left lawmakers in the dark about possible downsides to mandatory HPV vaccination, it has actively lobbied and paid large campaign contributions to politicians willing to support it.


According to records from New York’s temporary state commission on lobbying, Merck spent almost $400,000 influencing representatives from 2003 to 2006. Though Assemblywoman Paulin appears to have received only $500 from the company, she met personally with its representatives on several occasions.


This is not to say that Ms. Paulin doesn’t sincerely believe that vaccinations are the right policy. But she and her fellow Assembly members should realize that while mandating HPV vaccinations would reap huge profits for the company, they might well come at the expense of New York’s children.

Sigrid Fry-Revere is the director of bioethics studies at the Cato Institute.





:) :) I am sincerely glad that my siblings are not getting these shots for my nieces - believing as I do - it is WAY too early and not enough testing done. It's the drug companies and their lobbyists who are pushing this so hard. 8o|




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(f)


Photos from the last of the Paris shows including Lanvin, Louis Vuitton and Azzedine Alaïa.


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/03/05/fashion/shows/20070306_FASHION_SLIDESHOW_1.html



(f)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(f)


Reviews of the Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab, Nathan Jenden and Gareth Pugh collections.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/19/fashion/20070220_FASHION_SLIDESHOW_1.html


(f)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:)


By designing accessible variations of last season’s creative storms, the Elie Taharis of Fashion Week are a shopper’s — and a merchant’s — best friends.


February 8, 2007

What They Design, Real Women Wear

By RUTH LA FERLA


ELIE TAHARI’S fall fashion presentation in Midtown last Thursday, which drew a respectable turnout of decision makers from the retail and magazine worlds, offered an encyclopedic overview of the season’s directions. Mr. Tahari’s ideas were luxurious, if not daring, sophisticated but never so tricky or ethereal that they would fly over his customers’ heads.


Come fall, his swingy shift dresses, slim tunics and jumpers, cropped jackets and stretch cigarette pants are likely to be among the top sellers at stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue.


So why the glum look?


“I have never been featured in Vogue,” Mr. Tahari said, his dark eyes clouding over. With some bite, he added, “I guess I’m not important enough.”


That editorial omission is a telling one, sending the implicit message that Mr. Tahari is a designer of the second rank, one in a tribe of New York fashion makers — Nicole Miller, BCBG, Ellen Tracy, Jill Stuart and Tommy Hilfiger, to name but a handful — who are somewhat lost in the excitement of Fashion Week, overlooked in favor of editorial darlings considered more adventurous.


By designing accessible variations of last season’s creative storms, the Elie Taharis of Fashion Week are a shopper’s — and a merchant’s — best friends. Not on fashion’s leading edge, their collections nonetheless reinforce the ideas that have staying power. A woman shopping these lines rarely risks being called a fashion victim.


“They are spinning the trends of the moment, giving you a commercialized version of the concepts in the air,” said Michael Fink, the fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue. He is one of a group of tastemakers who view designers like George Sharp of Ellen Tracy, Max Azria of BCBG and Nicole Miller as reliable bellwethers of trends with legs, those likely to endure beyond a single season.


Their collections, Mr. Fink said, “help move fashion forward after the bigger creative statement has been made.” Their wide play on the runways, he noted, insures that once-difficult concepts like the tent dress or bubble skirt will burrow into the consciousness of American consumers.


“In a lot of ways these are the most important shows,” said Stephanie Solomon, the fashion director at Bloomingdale’s. Not only are they “big business” for Bloomingdale’s, Ms. Solomon said, but also: “We extract direction from these shows. If we see something repeating over and over, that tells us this is a trend we need to get behind.”


On the evidence of collections unveiled this week, designers are injecting a new rigor into their customers’ fall wardrobes, emphasizing shape and construction over romance and embellishment. Yes, there is plenty of traction left in the buoyant dresses and jackets that began drifting onto runways last year, but the newest interpretations are cut closer to the body, and their vaporous outlines are held in check by belts or balanced by fitted tops and form-defining abbreviated jackets.


Details like welt seaming, geometric color inserts and fabrics with substance — wool double knits, duchesse satin, two-ply cashmere — accentuate the cleanly sculptured lines. And patent leather, enthusiastically endorsed last season at Lanvin, Fendi and Balenciaga, lends collections as disparate as those of Ellen Tracy, Jill Stuart and Elie Tahari a hard-edge, lacquered look.


(l) (l) Swing jackets and dresses reminiscent of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s are prevalent in collections of designers like DKNY, BCBG and Diane Von Furstenberg. Many are pared down versions of the frilly tentlike dresses and coats that dominated the runways last year.


“The full-bodied dresses that we first saw at Chloé and Balenciaga two or three seasons ago had us trying to digest a new proportion,” Mr. Fink recalled. Though the latest variations are more streamlined, “the full-bodied dress has entered the mainstream vocabulary as a staple,” he said.


To a point that has some fashion watchers wringing their hands. “I don’t know how many bubble dresses people can wear,” said Stan Herman, the former president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Far too many designers, he added, seem to knock off ideas by rote and without scrutiny.


The poblem, Mr. Hermann suggested, is the velocity at which trends move. “Years ago, before you copied a concept you could take the time to see if it was going to be good. Now the winds are blowing so fast, designers make mistakes. They catch the wind too quickly.”


In a nod to mod, Laura Poretzky, the designer of Abaeté, introduced a streamlined trapeze dress a year ago, about when designers like Stella McCartney and Frida Giannini of Gucci were championing that ’60s-inflected style. At the time, however, “the market wasn’t ready,” Ms. Poretzky said. Few stores bought the dress. “Retailers were afraid of going away from a more girly look.”


No longer. Variations on her frill-free, A-line coats and dresses for fall are being picked up, Ms. Poretsky said, by Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. “The buyers, you have to give them something that they’re used to.”


That wisdom was not lost on Lubov and Max Azria, the design team credited with a BCBG collection punctuated by knitted fur vests and trapeze dresses in plaid taffeta or smoked chiffon, their volume restrained by snug-fitting cropped jackets and dresses with full pleats cascading from narrow shoulders.


The show reverberated with echoes of top-rank European collections, provoking one fashion watcher to ask, “Was I at Marc Jacobs or Chloé?” But Mr. Azria is for the most part unfazed.


His collections may not break new ground, but as he likes to point out, they sell at several hundred BCBG boutiques in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, as well as at department stores like Bloomingdale’s and Saks. To call them commercial is no insult, he said. “It’s a fact.”


Still, it can rankle. “I suffer a lot, especially from the media,” Mr. Azria said, arguing that because his line is relatively affordable — his dresses sell for $300 to $400 — editors tend to dismiss them.


He has a point. As distinctions between mid-price and high-price collections continue to erode, sophisticated shoppers rarely think twice about mixing Chaiken with Chanel, Jill Stuart with Jil Sander. Yet in the marketplace, the psychology of price persists.


Julie Chaiken, a designer of Chaiken, a line sold at stores like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor and Scoop, maintained that retail prices starting at $250 tend to blind hard-core fashion followers to the collection’s real merit. Her partner, Jeff Mahshie, recalled receiving a phone call last year from an influential editor, asking if he could send the magazine a fisherman’s knit the editor was considering including in a fashion feature. “Balenciaga that season had done a fisherman’s sweater, and it didn’t seem to register with her that we’d been doing them all along,” Mr. Mahshie said. “It would have been nice to get the credit for that.”


Somewhat wistfully Ms. Chaiken chimed in: “In our shows, we don’t have those big dramatic high points that say, oh, look at me. And we don’t have that million-dollar marketing budget that customers pay for. If we did, we would have to raise our prices.


“And people wouldn’t ask, ‘Who did it first?’ ”



(y) (y)


(f)



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(f)


COMPETING IN THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL AIR GAMES OVER OLUDENIZ, TURKEY, OCT. 25, 2006 Sander Koyfman, 34, an addiction psychiatrist from Fort Lee, N.J.: “The paraglider becomes an extension of yourself. You envision where you want to go: up, down, left, right, to that mountain, to that river. And you go. To me, it’s an addiction. I’ve been flying now for over seven years, essentially every weekend it doesn’t rain, it doesn’t snow, or the wind is not too strong. The picture catches me landing in a crowd of my closest friends. My fiancée is starting to appreciate how addictive this thing is: a month after getting engaged, I was off to Brazil for a month to feed my habit. Unfortunately, the trip got cut short after I had an accident on landing. Now, three weeks later and almost fully recovered, I struggle to say something deep, something perspective-changing about it, but in reality I simply want to be back in the air.” As told to Seth Kugel


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/19/travel/why-650.jpg




Whole Slide Show:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/03/25/travel/20070325_WHY_slideshow_1.html




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



Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (c) (l) (c) (l) (c) (l)



Café Rubro, where the owner says about a thousand customers pass through every day.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/25/travel/rio-600.jpg



March 25, 2007

Day Out | Rio de Janeiro

In a Coffee-Mad City, the Bitter With the Sweet

By GREGORY DICUM


IN Rio de Janeiro, every street corner offers an opportunity for refreshment: juice bars, açaí stands, open-air bars and of course botequins. These neighborhood institutions are part café, part lunch counter and part bistro; the place for a quick salgadinho, one of the salty snacks like fried balls of salt cod, and a cafezinho, the little cup of coffee beloved by Brazilians.


Bright with mirrors, cool tile and loud signs in red and yellow lettering, the botequins have a retro feel. Café Gaúcho, in downtown Rio, is a classic. It opens to a busy street corner, making the most of the city's joyful culture and tropical air. Commuters step off the sidewalk to the cashier, offering a few coins in exchange for a chit, which they then take to the coffee counter.


At Café Gaúcho, the counter is a circular island where patrons stand, a typical arrangement that is said to have been invented here. A man in a crisp white shirt stands in the center, working a stainless steel contraption of pipes and tanks, one tank for coffee and one for milk, kept warm by a bath of hot water. Cups and saucers steep in the water too, and after he takes the chit, the operator opens a steel door and pulls out a set, placing it, wet, on the stone countertop. Then he fills a stainless steel pitcher with dark, steaming coffee from a tap at the base of the tank, and with a fluid motion, splashes it into the tiny cup.


Coffee in Brazil has always been a world unto itself. For more than a century, Brazil has been by far the planet's largest coffee producer. And Brazilians themselves drink coffee enthusiastically: total consumption is second only to the United States. But quantity and quality are different things: nearly all the best coffee is exported.


Like samba and the Portuguese language, coffee is easy to mangle, but that being said the Brazilian coffee culture still has a transcendent quality. Cafezinho is the very soul of the botequim, and the botequim is a direct link to the golden age of Rio. In his classic 1931 samba “Conversa de Botequim,” Noel Rosa, who spent much of his short, dissolute life hanging out at a botequim right around the corner from Café Gaúcho (there's a mural of him there now), describes the sociable scene with swinging wit.


During a recent visit to Café Gaúcho, I chose to have my cafezinho black; other options include Carioca (“Rio-style” with added water), media (with milk) and pintado (just a few drops of milk). Sugar goes without saying in Brazil. I leaned on the cool stone, listening to the clatter all around me, watching the whiteness of the sugar vanish into the black coffee. After a quick stir with the doll-sized spoon, I raised the cafezinho to my lips.


It was terrible.


EVEN if the beans at Café Gaúcho had been the best available, botequins often manhandle the brew, heating it for hours and driving off any flavor. Cariocas (people who live in Rio) told me over and over that to get a good cafezinho at a botequim, it is essential to get there first thing in the morning. Given Rio's unparalleled nightlife, that turned out to be impossible, even for coffee enthusiasts like my wife, Nina, and me, co-authors of a book about the addictive bean.


But at its best, Brazilian coffee has a full, mellow flavor. Unlike the brightly acidic Central American and Colombian coffees that are popular at trendy cafes in North America, Brazilian “naturals” have a round taste that evokes a time when coffee was a simpler matter. Think vintage 1970s Chock Full o'Nuts. “Brazilian Arabica naturals are good all-day coffees,” said Manoel Corrêa do Lago, a Rio coffee trader who works with huge international buyers.


When coffee first came to Brazil in the 19th century, the steep hillsides all around Rio were planted with the dark bushes. They quickly depleted the soil, and the hot climate affected the taste (a “Rio-y” flavor is still considered a defect), so production moved to the highlands in the state of São Paulo. Nonetheless, Rio became the cultural capital of Brazil, with a distinctly European sensibility: when the Portuguese royal family fled Napoleon by moving to Rio in 1808, the city became the only New World seat of a European monarchy.


So it's no surprise the city also developed a sophisticated café culture reminiscent of Paris or Vienna. Confeitaria Colombo, downtown, is the grandest example. The huge, elegant space opens up to a canopy of stained glass that washes filtered light onto huge mirrors. Their dark, carved frames are of the same ornate style as the opulent wood-and-glass cabinets towering above the counters. Marble tables and heavy cane-seated chairs are spaced generously around the tile floor, and orange-aproned waiters roam the noisy space carrying cakes and luxurious drinks on gleaming silver trays.


We had sublimely fresh pineapple juice spiked with green flecks of mint, a garlicky empada (a pastry filled with minced hearts of palm and salt cod), a fudgy brownie and assertive espresso. Nina pronounced it “quite good.”


This was not our first espresso in Rio. Espresso from Illy and Lavazza has already replaced the cafezinhos long served to visitors at many of the city's shops, as well as at many cafés and restaurants. In November, Brazil's first Starbucks opened in São Paulo. Though the beans in virtually all of these blends are Brazilian, they have been transformed into a globalized product.


Cafezinhos are traditionally complimentary at the end of a meal. But espresso is never free. Mr. Corrêa do Lago, whose gaze turns dreamy when he thinks of the perfect cafezinho — “I love them,” he says — is also an economist. Because it's not usually free, he says, espresso in Rio is more reliable. So far, there's no sign of a gourmet cafezinho.


Rio's espresso scene is most developed in fashionable enclaves like Leblon and Ipanema, as well as more bohemian districts like Santa Teresa, a hilltop neighborhood of majestically shabby old houses, art galleries and restaurants served by a rickety yellow tram from downtown. There, we sat under leafy mango trees on the terrace at Largo das Letras, a small cafe in a big, old mansion that also houses a bookstore and a dance studio. Looking out over Rio's chaotic expanse, we enjoyed an ineptly but enthusiastically pulled Lavazza.


Later, near the other end of the tram, in Rio's old center, we found one of the best shots of espresso in the city. “Here you drink better quality than we send to Finland,” said the owner, Oswaldo Aranha Netto, referring to one of the most demanding coffee markets in the world. Mr. Aranha, a lifelong coffee trader, opened Café Rubro on the ground floor of a building occupied by some of the country's most venerable coffee traders (including Mr. Corrêa do Lago's). Though the small, sparse espresso bar is hard to find, Mr. Aranha says a thousand people make their way there every day. As we spoke, we each polished off a large mug filled with rich black espresso made with beans from the Sur de Minas region, north of Rio.


Fat tropical raindrops began to fall in the fading evening light outside, and Mr. Aranha, a true coffee lover deep in the caffeine thrall, leaned in close to us. “Brazil is different from the rest of the world,” he said, his English tinged with Brooklynese from his days living in one of the world's other great coffee ports. “It's the only country that can produce anything you want.”


VISITOR INFORMATION

Café Gaúcho, at Rua São José, 86, in Rio's Centro (21-2533-9285), is a classic botequim. Get a cafezinho because you must (0.80 reais, or about 40 cents at 2.1 reais to the U.S. dollar), but be sure to sample the classic sandwiches like pernil (marinated roast pork) and rib roast (4.50 reais). Or for a lighter snack, get the classic combination of media (cafezinho with milk) with pão na chapa com manteiga (grilled buttered bread) for under 3 reais.


Confeitaria Cavé, at Rua 7 de Setembro, 137, Centro (21-2221-0533; www.confeitariacave.com.br), is the oldest in Rio. The interior is a little cramped, and the fluorescent lights dispatch any remaining charm, but the cakes are delicious. Try the signature ratinho, a playful mouse-shaped pastry flavored with marzipan, or the succulent, eggy rabanada.


Also in Centro, at Rua Gonçalves Dias, 32, Confeitaria Colombo (21-2232-2300; www.confeitariacolombo.com.br) has been on every visitor's itinerary since it was founded in 1894. In the magnificent space, it's not hard to discern the echoes of generations enchanted by this city.


Armazém do Café is a local chain with eight locations in Rio. The original opened 10 years ago in Ipanema, at Rua Maria Quitéria, 77 loja G (21-2522-5039; www.armazemdocafe.com.br). Coffee blends reflect the range of beans available from different parts of Brazil, and the place is often hopping.


Largo das Letras, in a big mansion at Rua Almirante Alexandrino, 501 (21-2221-8992; www.largodasletras.com.br), epitomizes Santa Teresa's theatrical decay. Flip through a small but well-chosen collection of books about Brazilian history, art and culture, and sigh before the vista of Rio spread out below.


Some of the best espresso (2.20 reais) in Rio can be found at any of the three locations of Café Rubro. As you sit in the small, gleaming shop at Rua da Quitanda, 191, Centro (21-2516-0610; www.rubrocafe.com.br), coffee blenders are hard at work a few floors above you, in rooms rich with the earthy smell of green coffee from all over Brazil.


Video at: www.nytimes.com and then the Travel Section.



(f) (f)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (S) (l) (S) (l) (S) (l)


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/25/travel/prac-600.jpg



March 25, 2007

Practical Traveler | Hotel Trends

The Latest Amenity: A Hypoallergenic Room

By MICHELLE HIGGINS


THE room at the Premier Hotel in Times Square looked like any other. But before I stepped inside, the hotel had gone to extraordinary lengths to purify it. In a seven-step process to cut down on bacteria, pollen, dust, dust mites and other possible irritants, everything in the room, from the curtains to the carpeting to the air-conditioning units, was cleaned and treated with an antimicrobial agent that attacks bacteria.


A cartridge containing tea tree oil, a natural antiseptic and disinfectant, was installed in the heating and cooling unit. The room underwent a four-hour ozone shock treatment to kill any remaining living organisms and zap associated odors. A mist was applied to surfaces to make it difficult for bacteria to grow. Mattresses and pillowcases were covered with dust-mite protectors.


I had entered what Pure Solutions NA, a company hired by the Premier, calls its Pure Room.


This much cleanliness might seem a bit neurotic. But it’s not enough anymore for hotels seeking health-conscious patrons to serve organic cuisine and offer all-natural bath products. As more hotels try to set themselves apart, a new amenity is emerging: the hypoallergenic hotel room.


The concept isn’t aimed just at the allergic, but also at guests who are concerned with what might be called the ick factor. “The whole thing is geared toward ‘What about the guy before me?’ ” said Tom Kammerer, a managing director at Thayer Lodging, a private hotel real estate investment firm in Annapolis, Md. Thayer Lodging, like the Premier, is working with Pure Solutions, based in Cheektowaga, N.Y. Thayer is converting about 10 percent of the rooms at each of its 13 hotels into Pure rooms by the end of this year. “That’s why we have encasements over our pillows and mattresses. The natural human body sheds 150,000 cells a day. After a year or so it gets — you know. We’re trying to cut down on breathing in other people’s stuff.”


From the Fairmont Vancouver Airport hotel to the Mandarin Oriental in Miami, hotels are doing everything from replacing feather duvets to installing air purifiers in guest rooms. Some are ripping out carpets and drapes, which tend to harbor dust and trap odors, and replacing them with smooth surfaces. Others are making less visible changes, outfitting pillows and mattresses with liners that help contain dust mites and swabbing phones, doorknobs and other surfaces with antimicrobial agents.


Hilton and Millennium Hotels, each of which is testing the concept in a few hotels, said they might consider expanding it to more properties depending on demand. NYLO Hotels, a new brand scheduled to open its first hotel in Plano, Tex., in November, plans to offer at least one floor of allergy-friendly rooms at each of its locations.


Hotels say it’s not uncommon to get special requests from guests with allergies. “We get a lot of requests for special blankets, special pillows, no spray in the rooms,” said Maureen O’Brien, director of sales at the Premier, a Millennium Hotel, which spent $30,000 to convert three floors to Pure rooms this year. The hotel is also using a line of natural bath products in those rooms for guests with sensitive skin and noses.


But mostly, hotels see the creation of super-clean rooms as a way to gain an edge now that amenities like plush beds and flat-screen TVs have often become standard.


Thayer Lodging, unlike the Premier, is charging a 5 to 10 percent premium for Pure rooms — at hotels including Marriotts, Hilton Doubletrees and Wyndhams. “If all you’ve got is good service, and ‘Gee, my room was clean’ — well, you kind of expect that today,” Mr. Kammerer said. “We’re looking for things in our hotels that are extraordinary and give you a wow factor.”


I found the Pure room at the Premier hard to distinguish from a regular room until the room division director picked up the couch to reveal a large metal air filtration unit underneath. The room did have a distinctly fresh feeling, but it was difficult to tell whether that was from the air quality or just the result of a room temperature that was cooler than that of the hallway.


Some guests who battle allergies say there is a distinct difference. “I go to hotels all the time, and I’m allergic to everything in the whole room,” said Tim Dagit, a real estate developer from Philadelphia who has special air filters in his home to help manage his allergies. On a typical trip, Mr. Dagit said, he takes medication “to deal with excess dander and dust in the air” and spends about two hours tracking someone down to replace any down pillows and comforters in the room with something that doesn’t provoke his allergies. “It’s a total nightmare,” he said. “Every hotel I go to, be it the Ritz-Carlton or the Motel 6, same problem.”


That’s why Mr. Dagit was surprised when he checked into the Annapolis Marriott Waterfront in Annapolis, Md., last summer and was given a Pure room. “I slept great,” he said. “I had no problems. I was thrilled about it.” The $20 extra he was charged for the room was well worth it, he said. “Frankly,” he added, “I would have paid more.”


HOTELS say the demand is certainly there. In the first two months after the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver introduced a “featherless floor” in 2005, it was 87 percent full, the hotel said, compared with 70 percent occupancy in the hotel overall. The Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport hotel was so pleased with the demand for two Enviro-Rooms created by Environmental Technology Solutions in Glen Ellyn, Ill., that it opened 11 more earlier this month.


Unlike Pure Solutions, which treats the existing hotel room, Environmental Technology Solutions renovates the space to create its Enviro-Rooms. Rugs are ripped out and replaced with hardwood floors, and curtains with wooden blinds, and the entire room, from the all-cotton linens on the bed to the special porous wallpaper, is designed with allergen-sensitive guests in mind.


There is no standard for what qualifies a room as hypoallergenic. Neither company claims its rooms are allergen-free. Pure Solutions advertises its Pure Room as “allergy-friendly,” while Environmental Technology Solutions says its Enviro-Room “reduces airborne and surface particulates.”


Allergy experts say most of the methods the hotel rooms are using, like the special pillow covers and rug removal, are in line with what might be recommended to parents of an asthmatic child. But some, like removing feather pillows or using tea tree oil, said Robert G. Hamilton, an allergy specialist and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will have “little impact in addressing the allergen issue.”


More hotels may be creating hypoallergenic hotel rooms in the future. In Connecticut, Representative Claire Janowski introduced a bill in this year’s General Assembly session to require hotels to offer allergy-friendly rooms. It was stalled this year, but she plans to propose it again in 2008.




^o) ^o) All those years of allergies and catching bronchitis while traveling. Hmmm, I'd still want to take my hypoallergenic silk "sleeping bag" and pillow cover to protect my body while sleeping on a hotel mattress. :| It is about time those in the hospitality industry did something about this. (y) (y) Too bad it wasn't when I was traveling every week on business. ;)


(f)




Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:) :)


Humor is a state of mind. If you have the humor gene, you will find something to laugh at. Whether it is your late arrival at office, or your boss' temperamental behavior, or your teacher's drab lecture... It is important to look at the funny side of things if you want to enjoy life each day. So, here are some humor quotes that will get you smiling. When you think that life is dull, read one of these humor quotes to cheer you up.





“There's no half-singing in the shower, you're either a rock star or an opera diva.”

- Josh Groban





“I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.”

- Oscar Wilde





“I have met a lot of hardboiled eggs in my time, but you're twenty minutes.”

- Oscar Wilde





(y) (y) “Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.”





“Friends are like bras: close to your heart and there for support.”




“Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.”

- Benny Hill





“Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself”."

- Mark Twain




"I love when they say this is a constitutional crisis. Oh, please. We haven't used the Constitution in years." --Jay Leno, on the U.S. attorney firing scandal




"Albert Gore returned to the Capitol for the first time since winning an Oscar for ... his portrayal of Effie, the diva in 'Dreamgirls.' And while he may no longer be vice president, he is clearly many other things [on screen: pols and news anchors calling him various titles, including: 'rock star,' 'a personality,' 'the prophet,' 'the man dubbed The Goracle']. Gore-stradmus. Gore-magnificent. The Gore-monger. Gore-Mary Abraham. I have over a thousand of these." --Jon Stewart




"A bill was debated in the House of Representatives today called the DC Voting Rights Act. It would finally give DC's residents a vote in Congress. I don't know why. They live in Washington. If they want their voices heard, just open a window and yell." --Stephen Colbert




"While testifying, Al Gore was questioned by Hillary Clinton. Kind of like global warming meets global cooling." --Jay Leno




:)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

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


Episode 12 - "Long Time Coming"

In episode 412, Tina returns to lesbian life while Bette seeks her advice on wooing Jodi back; Shane's relationship with single-mom Paige becomes serious; Tasha must return to Iraq; Phyllis pursues a divorce; Jenny may get fired from her own movie.

Directed By: Ilene Chaiken
Written By: Ilene Chaiken


http://www.sho.com/site/lword/season4/images/episodes/127462.jpg



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


(f) There are two videos to watch on this link too.




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



(l) Absolutely magical! I'm already searching for the Season 4 music. I have two previous season's CDs. The (8) songs in the Season 4 Finale earlier (I watched it twice - it was THAT superb, as always.) were wonderful. Eventually, I'm buying all of the seasons - and I have never done that before. The other show, on HBO, that I'd buy all of the seasons is DEADWOOD.


(y) (y) The L Word has been renewed for a fifth season!


LOS ANGELES (March 8, 2007) -- On the heels of a year highlighted with industry recognition and critical acclaim for its award-winning original programming including WEEDS, DEXTER, and BROTHERHOOD, SHOWTIME has ordered a fifth season of its hit drama series THE L WORD®, it was announced today by Robert Greenblatt, President of Entertainment, SHOWTIME Networks Inc. Twelve new episodes are set to begin production this summer and premiere on SHOWTIME sometime in early 2008. The series was recently nominated for the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series.


"THE L WORD® is a signature franchise for us and one of our most popular series,” says Greenblatt. “This season's guest star Cybill Shepherd and new series regular Marlee Matlin are indicative of the show's great quality. With our launch of OurChart.com (a social networking site that grew directly out of THE L WORD®), and the show's growing popularity in Second Life, this series goes well beyond the boundaries of a mere television show. Since its launch in 2004, the zeitgeist has never been the same."


THE L WORD®, which premiered its fourth season on January 7th, is one of SHOWTIME’s most popular series, generating a large and loyal audience, as well as critical praise for its provocative, sexy storylines, the principal cast and for being a magnet for celebrated directors and guest stars. Premiering Sundays at 10 p.m. PT/ET with several multi-plays during the week and available on the ever-growing SHOWTIME ON DEMAND, the groundbreaking series follows a group of Los Angeles-based friends as they navigate careers, families, friendships, inner-struggles and romantic entanglements. Since its debut in January 2004, THE L WORD® has become part of American popular culture, spawning dedicated fan websites and blogs, along with ancillary products such as THE L WORD®-branded perfume, jewelry and books.


THE L WORD® is executive produced by Ilene Chaiken through her production company Little Chicken Inc. The series was created by Chaiken and Kathy Greenberg & Michele Abbott and is being distributed internationally by MGM International Television Distribution, Inc.


(l) (l)



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (~) (l)


Bobbie's Girl (2002)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com//images/section/movies/amg/video/cov120/drv700/v790/v79009ux19c.jpg


Jeremy Paul Kagan directs this Showtime family drama set in a rural village in Ireland. Bernadette Peters and Rachel Ward star as a lesbian couple who run the local tavern. They end up taking care of a orphaned boy and one of them is diagnosed with breast cancer. Also stars Jonathan Silverman, Thomas Sangster, and Don Foley.



(~) (y) (~) Reviews:


When I first saw this movie, I picked it partly because it sounded like one of those underdog types of movies, you know the one that is usually overlooked, and undervalued. And wow! It is a wonderful, moving and incredible. This is a great movie! Involved in the mire of running her own Tavern, Rachel Ward portarys Bobbie, a woman who is privately struggling with cancer unknown to her friends or lover, played by Bernadette Peters. A tragic and rather sudden accident leaves Bobbie the guardianship and responsibility of her young nephew. As time pases it proves to be in a interesting progression of growth on the part of all them, and a very warm and realistic understanding of love, acceptance and family. The acting performaces are absolutly brilliant and the chemistry between Peters, Ward and the boy are just facinating. Truely this movie is one that you should recommend to everyone you know and watch frequently!




(~) I didn't expect much at the beginning of this film but was surprised by the intensity and power of the story. The acting is great and the casting worked perfectly with the characters.

Bobbie (Rachel Ward) is struggling to deal with a recent diagnosis of breast cancer and who finds out that she's the guardian of her orphaned nephew. Bailey (Bernadette Peters) is her partner who does some major maturing as she copes with a new "son" and Bobbie's cancer. Jonathan Silverman is fantastic as Bailey's brother. Thomas Sangster is devastating as Alan, Bobbie's nephew.

The story is wonderful - neither promoting nor defending sexual preferences. It doesn't need to. When faced with tough situations we are all reduced to the same emotions and that's the focus of the film.




(~) What a great film!!!! What a warm wonderful story. Two lesbian partners who run a pub in Ireland. Nice to see something set in present time in the Isles. Bernadette Peters as wonderful as always. At times humorous and sad but a very real story. Become parents to Rachel Ward's nephew. This film says alot for Gay and Lesbian parenting and extended families.




(f)


Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (8) (l) (8) (l)



http://www.thelwordonline.com/st_412.html



(l) (l) Shane & Paige love scene turns into an old-fashioned, sexy "husband and wife" daydream. From Haha Sound - Broadcast.



(l) Jodi erects her sculpture in the field, saying she wants to hang something there; Bette conveniently shows up on a tractor driving the sign she stole for Jodi. From Dear Mr. President (Featuring Indigo Girls), Pink's latest CD.





(y) Cool: Links to CD's as well as downloading iTunes! I ordered a boxed set of Seasons 1 through 3 as well as got on the "alert me" list when Season 4 comes out for sale. I also bought the two CD's with the music from the above two amazingly well-done scenes. (l)




Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

(S) (S) (S) (S)


Moon Gazing

Lunar Eclipse photo gallery

A total lunar eclipse is an astronomical phenomenon. And if you didn’t catch a glimpse of the one "phenomenizing" your night sky on March 3rd, fortunately a few other people caught it for you. Gaze upward at this gallery of the Earth casting its shadow over the surface of the Moon.

To the moon, Alice!


http://www.flickr.com/groups/loony/pool/




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:) :) :)


WONDER LAND

Bong Hits 4 Jesus -- Explained

Daniel Henninger

March 22, 2007; Page A16 WSJ

In a better world, the phrase "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" would take its place in the library of eternal mysteries alongside "Bye-bye Miss American Pie," "I Am the Walrus" and "It's Alright, Ma, I'm Only Bleeding." Instead, it fell Monday to the Nine Interpreters of the U.S. Supreme Court to deconstruct "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" and decide for the rest of us whether it falls inside the protections of the American Constitution.

Perhaps an explanation is in order.

Morse v. Fredericks, aka Bong Hits 4 Jesus, is a First Amendment free-speech case. The phrase "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" came to life as a 15-foot banner, which Joseph Fredericks, a senior at the high school in Juneau, Alaska, unfurled directly across from the school entrance as a parade passed by bearing the Olympic torch for the 2002 Olympics. Whereupon, the school's principal, Deborah Morse, ordered Mr. Fredericks to take down his banner and later suspended him.

Some definitions: As defined by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, "A bong, also commonly known as a water pipe, is a smoking device, generally used to smoke cannabis [aka marijuana], but also other substances." The entry also explains a "hit." "The user places his/her lips on the mouth piece, forming a seal, and inhales. An inhalation is known as a 'hit'." (For the still curious, the Wikipedia entry is long and lovingly prepared, with beautiful color photos of bongs and explanations of "bong water" and "health benefits.")

Principal Morse, who had had other run-ins with Mr. Fredericks, believed his sign was undermining the school system's anti-drug policy, and so took action. Within months, Mr. Fredericks sued, assisted by the Alaska Civil Liberties Union, claiming violation of his free-speech rights.

Some history: Lawsuits over the free-speech rights of schoolchildren exist because the Supreme Court legitimized them in 1969. Several years earlier, a 13-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy decided to wear black armbands to their schools in Des Moines, Iowa, to protest the Vietnam War. The schools had a policy against wearing symbolic armbands at school and warned they'd be suspended. They showed up with the anti-Vietnam armbands, were suspended and in what today is the landmark Tinker case for school "speech," Justice Abe Fortas famously wrote that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

Two later cases, Fraser and Kuhlmeier, refined Tinker's scope, which we'll see shortly is the background to one of the most hilarious -- and revealing -- exchanges at oral argument ever in a school free-speech case.

In the years since, school officials and lower courts have struggled with Tinker. The Massachusetts Supreme Court said a T-shirt, "Coed Naked Band: Do It to the Rhythm," was protected speech. But schools in several states have banned a T-shirt with "Abortion is Homicide. You will not mock my God." (Religious groups filed amicus briefs for the Juneau "bong" banner because they want similar protections to wear anti-abortion shirts and the like.) A federal appeals court in California said schools could ban a T-shirt calling homosexuality shameful because it was "injurious to gay and lesbian students and interfered with their right to learn." But a federal court in Ohio conferred constitutional protection on a shirt with: "Homosexuality is a sin! Islam is a lie! Abortion is murder!" All these cases involve public schools.

There are legal blogs on the Web which try to predict Supreme Court rulings. Many say the result in the "Bong" case is a close call.

Should we care? Are we past caring?

Here is Chief Justice Roberts Monday on applying the First Amendment in Juneau: "You think the law was so clearly established when this happened that the principal, that the instant that the banner was unfurled, snowballs are flying around, the torch is coming, should have said oh, I remember under Tinker I can only take the sign down if it's disruptive. But then under Fraser I can do something if it interferes with the basic mission, and under Kuhlmeier I've got this other thing. So she should have known . . ."

The lawyer for "Bong" replied that the principal took a course in school law and so had studied Kuhlmeier, Fraser and Tinker. Chief Justice Roberts replied: "So it should be perfectly clear to her exactly what she could and couldn't do." The lawyer: "Yes." Justice Scalia: "As it is to us, right?" (Laughter in the court.)

The Nine Interpreters know that Tinker has produced a morass since 1969. Justice Roberts said, "I thought we wanted our schools to teach something." A school isn't an "open forum," remarked Justice Scalia, "it's there for the teachers to instruct." Justice Ginsburg wondered about "reasonable rules of decorum." Justice Breyer ridiculed case-law standards in these fights: "I don't think [the principal] has to be able to read content discrimination, viewpoint discrimination, time-place. He doesn't know the law, the principal. His job is to run the school."

Well, it used to be.

We live in hyperpoliticized times. With the Web drawing ever-greater numbers into the daily game, no political offense is too slight to raise waves of high dudgeon. And they roll into the schools. Justice Breyer worries about "people testing limits all over the place in the high schools." I worry about dumbing down the schools to the current level of politics in the adult world.

Rather than just fiddle with the dials on the school-speech contraption, the solution would be to take Tinker and throw it out the window. But they won't. They'll tinker, telling us what to do, but unable to give coherent reasons why we should do it.

The pious extension of First Amendment speech rights amid Vietnam from adults to students prior to college was a mistake. The Bong case may be another nail in the coffin of public schools. Parents, including liberals who can afford it, will quicken the trend to sending their children to private schools whose principals can exercise real discretion and in loco parentis.

One argument for the say-it-loud status quo is that kids should be free in school to learn how "to deal" with different viewpoints. I'd bet all nine Justices went to high schools with principals who put learning first and Tinkered "speech" in its place. It doesn't seem to have stopped them from growing up to drive people nuts with their opinions.




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:D


Pig Latin Translator

AKA Igpay Atinlay Anslationtray

At last, an easy Pig Latin Translator tool for all your daily Pig Latin translating needs! You can finally impress the boss on your weekly Progress Report with your multi-language skills. Or learn how to sound très international while ordering pork chops on your next date! Ethay ossibilitiespay areway endlessway.

Go English to Pig in a click:


http://www.snowcrest.net/donnelly/piglatin.html



(f) Got to run....have a periodontal cleaning appointment. Like *that* might be too much sharing of info, eh? ;)


:| What is with the molasses-slow latency on the servers today? It is taking me (seems like it anyway) five minutes to post just one posting. So, I'll be back later and post several more cool stuff that I found - if the latency time is much faster then. Perhaps the B-F site is being upgraded or maintenaince being done so everyone benefits. (l)


(f)



Avehay away elightfulday Ednesdayway andway ovelylay estray
ofway ouryay eekway!


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

[sweetlady]

(f) (f)


March 26, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

Campaign Candor

By BOB HERBERT NYTimes


John and Elizabeth Edwards managed to keep smiling last week as their lives once again took a terrible turn. The former senator talked about the importance of staying tough. Mrs. Edwards, whose breast cancer has metastasized, said, “We’re going to always look for the silver lining.”


The public looked on, wondering what to make of the inexplicable. Fate seems to have toyed with the Edwardses, throwing the cruelest of twists into lives otherwise filled with so much good fortune.


“We’ve been confronted with these kinds of traumas and struggles already in our lives,” Mr. Edwards said, referring to the loss of their 16-year-old son Wade, who was killed in a car accident in 1996, and Mrs. Edwards’s initial fight against the cancer that was discovered at the end of the 2004 campaign.


This latest setback, he said, would not stop his current run for the presidency.


Since presidential campaigns are covered like sporting events, the speculation immediately centered on whether Mrs. Edwards’s illness would harm her husband’s fund-raising ability, or cause him to go up or down in the polls, or in some other way hamper or enhance his ability to compete.


The pack is obsessed with the horse race, which is regrettable. It would be far more constructive and interesting if this heightened attention to Mr. Edwards’s campaign resulted in the media and the public taking a closer look at the issues he has been pushing, not just in the campaign but ever since his unsuccessful run for vice president in 2004.


If that were to happen it could be part of the silver lining that Elizabeth Edwards hopes will emerge from her family’s latest devastating crisis.


The 2008 presidential campaign has gotten an absurdly early start and has drawn staggering amounts of media coverage. The result has largely been the triumph of the trivial: Who said what nasty thing about whom? Who flipped? Who flopped?


Substance is considered boring, and thus less newsworthy. How many people really know, for example, what Mr. Edwards proposes to do about health care?


He has, in fact, put together what is probably the most coherent plan for universal coverage of all the candidates thus far. Among other things, he would require employers to either provide coverage or contribute to a fund that would help individuals purchase private insurance.


He wants to expand Medicaid and CHIP, the successful Children’s Health Insurance Program. And he has said that he would help pay for his initiatives by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for people making more than $200,000 annually.


Mr. Edwards and other candidates have offered many important ideas and proposals, but they tend to get lost in a media environment that focuses obsessively on front-runners. What’s Hillary up to, and where’s Barack? Are Rudy’s kids talking to him yet?


Mr. Edwards is one of the few candidates to talk seriously about ending poverty in the U.S. and fighting the ravages of poverty abroad. He once told me: “I feel passionately about this. We have a moral obligation to do what we can. And we can do a lot more than most people realize.”


A closer look at John Edwards’s views on health care, poverty and other issues would require, of course, a closer look at the positions of the other candidates. What could be better? What’s the sense of having a presidential campaign that takes up the better part of two years if the bulk of that time is spent on foolishness?


Elizabeth Edwards’s illness is a logical catalyst for a national discussion about health care in the U.S. But why stop there? Next year’s election will be one of the most important in history. Whatever you think of their politics, John and Elizabeth Edwards are giving the country a world-class lesson in courage and candor.


You want straight talk? “I was wrong.” That’s what John Edwards said about his vote to authorize the president to go to war in Iraq. “The world desperately needs moral leadership from America,” he said, as he acknowledged his contribution to the debacle, “and the foundation for moral leadership is telling the truth.”


The war goes on, and fate has dealt the Edwards family another devastating blow. The rest of us can help invest the absurdity of their tragedy with meaning by paying closer attention to the issues that are important to them. Whether one ends up agreeing with them or not, it’s a way of opening the door to a more thoughtful, rational way of selecting our presidents.




(u) This is truly a heart-breaking thing. Herbert as always, makes exceptional points to ponder. (y)




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

;) ;)


Speech Accent Archive

Do you speak American?

You can probably separate a Staten Island from a South Carolina. But can you detect the difference between a British Manchester and an Oxford? With this fascinating sound file archive of speech accents from around the world, you can explore unique accents and delve into your own linguistic study.

So many ways to say...everything


http://accent.gmu.edu/


Browse by speaker, atlas, or inventory: http://accent.gmu.edu/browse.php



Browse by region: http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_atlas.php




(y) Fun web site to explore for sure!




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:)


Chow

Food, drink, fun!

Whether you eat to live, live to eat, or just want to find a tasty spot for lunch—this site has whipped together all kinds of recipes, menus, restaurant suggestions, cooking tips, resources, and more for the "Foodie" in all of us.

Grab a quick bite right now!


http://www.chow.com/




(y) Definitely lots of time required for exploring this site with so many links including videos and lots more. Will make you hungry! ;)




Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

;) ;)



Clumsy Crooks

Outlaw fumbles for your amusement

Love to see the bad guys getting their just desserts? Then feast on this site dedicated to outrageous true stories, photos, mug shots, and more about bungled burglaries, scuffled shoplifting, and more messed-up misdeeds.

Witness the imperfect crime


http://www.clumsycrooks.com/




(y) Another site with lots of links to explore including videos. (y)





"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[lovinthestud]

"Standing on the shore of what you know, gets you left behind"
Said by Duane Ackerman, unsure if he made it up (doubt it)

[sweetlady]

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


"Standing on the shore of what you know, gets you left behind"
Said by Duane Ackerman, unsure if he made it up (doubt it)



Lovin,

Your quote started my thinking about taking risks. IMHO, that is always a terrific initiator towards taking action - risking "out loud" beyond the virtual ones via the Internet for consulting and graduate work rather than in my own mind.


I don't want to ever be, "A legend in my own mind or rumor in my own home." AKA thinking left-brain too much.....8-|



(h) Your web site is absolutely brilliant!! What an enjoyable exploration and adventure!


(f) I added it to my browswer's favorites if you don't mind, so I can visit from time to time.


:) Thank you so much for taking the time to post. I hope you'll post again soon.


Have a delightful mid-week!



Kindest Regards,

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

[sweetlady]

:D (y) :D

Other countries' terror alerts:



The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist
threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved."


Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or
even "A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the
blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out.


Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody
Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was
during the great fire of 1666.


Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its
terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in
France are "Surrender" and "Collaborate." The rise was precipitated by a
recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively
paralysing the country's military capability.


It's not only the English and French that are on a heightened level of
alert.


Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly"
to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective
Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."


The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance"
to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher
levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."


Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only
threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.


The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy.
These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish
navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.





;) Oh c''mon - the only way to stay sane in this crazy world, IMHO - is to pass along perspectives like this one that immediately initiate the process I call: "lipstick on my earlobes"....also known as a huge smile! :D





ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (~) (l)



A Rumor of Angels (2002)

After James' mother dies in a tragic automobile accident, he befriends Maddy, a lonely older widow who helps him work through his feelings surrounding his mother's death by telling him that angels often talk to the living through Morse code. As James' grows closer to her, finding comfort in her company, his family grows to question their relationship.


Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Ray Liotta, Catherine McCormack, Trevor Morgan, Ron Livingston, George Coe




(~) (~) Reviews:


(~) The compelling part of this movie is the eccentric elderly woman's frank attitude about death. She helps the young boy deal with the death of his mother unlike our own culture that wants to suppress all emotions and thought about the death. in fact, the young boy's coming to terms helps the father to face his own grief. it makes an honest appeal for working through our own blocked grief in our lives. i know this doesn't say much about the film, but if i said more I'd give it away.




(~) The so-called professional critics across the nation see so many movies, they become desensitized to small beauty. "A Rumor of Angels" is one of the most brilliantly acted movies to come along this year. The world knows of the magnificent talent of Vanessa Redgrave, but the kid...Trevor Morgan, with already a list of solid credits as long as your arm, proves that he is one of the best...right up there with Haley Joel Osment and the like. Ron Livingston who scored so wonderfully in "Band of Brothers" shows his range as an actor that keeps growing and expanding his craft. Ray Liotta is up to par. This movie is five stars in the category of moving and sensitive topics. Ignore the critics and rent this one if you're an avid movie fan. You're in for an amazing treat!!!





(l) (l) Vanessa Redgrave has been one of the greats among breathtaking actresses. I LOVE this little film and plan on buying this one to add to my favorite film collection.


(f)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



Clumsy Crooks

Outlaw fumbles for your amusement

Love to see the bad guys getting their just desserts? Then feast on this site dedicated to outrageous true stories, photos, mug shots, and more about bungled burglaries, scuffled shoplifting, and more messed-up misdeeds.

Witness the imperfect crime


http://www.clumsycrooks.com/




(y) Again, lots of links to explore including videos when you have the time to relax and enjoy. (f)





Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:o


Style Advisor — Windows

Do your own 'DO

With Style Advisor, all you need is your scanned or digital photo to help sculpt a makeover image. See how you'd look with a new hair style, change your hair color, or add makeup and accessories. Then you can save the results in a project file to print or do further modifications with graphic formats.

Learn more and download today...


http://www.download.com/Style-Advisor/3004-2130_4-10599428.html?tag=tab_scr




^o) As I write in my posts about these Windows' downloads - do it safely vis-a-vis having good virus software - however this one came from Earthlink so I know that it is, indeed, safe. ;) And I won't go on my usual rant about Microsoft. If you have a PC using Windows, you already know from hard experience how wacked it (the OS or operating system) truly is. :|


;)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) :) (l)


Mac, that is - not golf - I *can* get the ball going in the right direction while at a driving range though. ;)



Clubhouse Mini-Golf — Mac OS X

Mini-Caddy not included

Most people think of miniature golf as windmills and obstacles, but it has evolved far beyond that to a recognized sport of its own. Clubhouse Mini-Golf provides a park-like setting for the whole family to enjoy. You'll be surrounded by a lush, botanical garden setting with sand, vegetation and rock sculpturing. It will get you ready for the real thing.

Learn more and download today...


http://www.download.com/Clubhouse-Mini-Golf/3000-2297_4-10621759.html?tag=lst-0-6





(y) (y) Again, a safe download since it was referred by Earthlink and I trust them. (As much as anyone trusts an Internet firm that is.) Seriously, I believe in this firm and trust their virus and other "protective" software for their end-user customers and their friends and families.




"Who's On First?" - Abbott and Costello


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

[sweetlady]

:)



Catster

Festival of felines!

You may recall dogster, a Web site we highlighted in a previous issue of eLink. Now you cat lovers have a Web table leg to rub up against! Enjoy all the same features as dogster but with cats: photo galleries, forum, videos, share stories…and you don't have to do walkies!

Prrrrrrr...



http://www.catster.com/





A rare moment: :-# :-# :-#:-# :-#




"Shucks, folks, I'm speechless." - The Cowardly Lion in the "Wizard of Oz"



;)

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

[sweetlady]

:| :|


REAL TIME

By JASON FRY

Consumers Stay Out in Copyright Cold


Decision Ruling Against Cablevision's Remote DVR Elevates Tech Fetishism Over Helping Consumers


March 26, 2007 WSJ


Last week a federal judge ruled that Cablevision can't offer digital video recorders that store programs remotely, agreeing with movie studios and cable networks that the devices violate copyright law.


U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin's decision is remarkable for hitting the trifecta of digital-age frustrations: It fetishizes technology at the expense of common sense; points out, once again, how out of step copyright law is with our digital world; and raises the question of who, if anybody, will speak for consumers.


Cablevision, like all cable-TV providers, has lots of subscribers with DVRs that have built-in hard drives, a category led by TiVo. The company also offers its own such product, the iO DVR. It had hoped to replace those DVRs with network DVRs, which work the same way as regular DVRs except they store programs recorded by consumers on remote servers maintained by Cablevision. (As someone who recently replaced a failing hard drive in his TiVo, I'd certainly be interested in the idea of a DVR with remote storage.)


Cablevision argued that since the consumer was controlling recording and playback, remote DVRs are fine under copyright law -- a decision that reaches back to the Supreme Court's 1984 ruling that videocassette recorders are legal. (Mindful of the law, Cablevision even said it would dedicate separate storage space for each subscriber, instead of, say, keeping one recording of an episode of "The Sopranos" for use by anyone to record it.) But the studios and cable networks argued that the remote DVR was more like a video-on-demand service, and Cablevision needed permission to "rebroadcast" the programs. Judge Chin agreed, saying that with a network DVR, Cablevision "would be engaging in unauthorized reproductions and transmissions" of copyrighted programs.


So let's break this down. If the bits that make up your recording of "The Sopranos" go to a hard drive in your living room, everything is (presumably) legal. But if the bits that make up your recording of "The Sopranos" go to a hard drive in a Cablevision data center somewhere, that's illegal. Got that?


This is, of course, nonsense: In a sensible world, a DVR would be a DVR, regardless of where the hard drive happens to be located, and those who argued otherwise would be sent on their way with the old saw about the forest for the trees. (What if Cablevision took the hard drives out of its iO DVRs, stacked them in its data centers and ran cables from the drives to customers' homes? Would that be illegal?)


But we don't live in a sensible world. If you're thinking the paragraph above sounds a lot like one you read in a recent Real Time, you're right: This is the same tech fetishism that's resulted in a Clear Channel radio station paying no performance royalties when it plays a song over conventional radio, but then having to pay those royalties when the same broadcast is streamed over Internet radio.


And this tech fetishism is at least kissing cousins with publishers thundering that Google is violating copyright law on a massive scale by making digital copies of books, an issue discussed in Real Time here. That charge ignores the fundamental difference between a server copy that's searched against (quite possibly leading to a sale) and a photocopy of a book that you resell on a street corner (quite possibly preventing a sale) -- a disingenuous use of a narrow reading of copyright law in order to mislead.


A problem lurking around all these events is the steady erosion of the right to fair use in favor of the rights of content owners, who have found the simple threat of copyright litigation is a valuable weapon.


Take YouTube, where content owners have negotiated with Google by alternately enjoying the promotional benefit of users uploading snippets of their shows and ordering Google to take such snippets down en masse. And as with too many other digital-age battles, the arguments surrounding YouTube clips miss the point -- episode after episode of this lawyerly drama is about sparring over laws, instead of debating the appropriateness of those laws.


Look at the National Football League's claim of copyright infringement for a Brooklyn Law School professor's posting video of its copyright notice, as covered by my colleagues on the Law Blog last week. The NFL spokesman's first point to the Law Blog is that the clip included "game footage" as well. Which is true -- the copyright notice was followed by 20 seconds or so of an utterly mundane kickoff. But to be blunt, who cares? Forget what the Digital Millennium Copyright Act might or might not say for a moment and ask yourself this: What possible harm there is in posting of 20 seconds of a play no sane football fan would ever care to see again? And even if the play had been an important one, would that 20-second snippet really have destroyed the market for NFL highlight films? Would it have impacted that market in any way? Does the ability to see bits from "The Daily Show" or "Saturday Night Live" really mean you'll never buy a DVD of a given season?


If the answer's "no, of course not" -- as I argued in this Real Time from last fall -- then it's intolerable that such material routinely appears and disappears from our cultural conversation, or that artists from hip-hop auteurs to documentary-film makers should have their creativity de facto limited by the daunting time and expense of clearing samples and snippets. (Ever wonder why "Behind the Music" rarely includes a band's music or concert clips?) And if the answer's "maybe," shouldn't we give dire predictions time to play out rather than assuming they're true? Should the possibility that a content owner's bottom line might be impacted really outweigh the artistic and social value of making bits of video available for people to view, reinterpret and comment on? Why is the argument with the NFL spokesman, instead of with the law the NFL uses to threaten YouTube?


The conventional wisdom is that these lawsuits and maneuvers are just tough negotiating tactics on the way to deals being struck and clarity emerging. And maybe that's true. But isn't there a better way to get to a middle ground than piecemeal negotiations that do nothing to address laws that both seem out of touch with technology and astray from their original intent?


Walt Mossberg wrote about the YouTube wars last week, and mourned the fact that the DMCA and other laws serve media companies, with a "get-out-of-jail free card" for Internet companies that would be conduits for copyrighted content. He called for changes to copyright law that would give ordinary consumers some clarity about what they can and can't do.


Right now that clarity is sorely lacking, because no one involved in the making of current copyright law seems to speak for users like you and me. And that's what's so fundamentally infuriating about the Cablevision decision, the flap over Internet radio, the argument over Google Book Search, and the weekly Whack-a-Mole of YouTube takedowns. In each case, regular consumers who would benefit from new products or services have been reduced to voiceless bystanders, mutely watching parade after parade of litigious foolishness and cynical negotiations through lawsuits.


Who speaks for us when these laws are made and these cases come before judges? Why are we reduced to hoping the interests of a cable company, radio conglomerate or Internet giant temporarily align with our own? How much more of this must we endure before some fairness is restored? And when that day finally arrives -- if it does at all -- what will we have lost?




^o) ^o) This sux big time. Thank goodness for a powerful Hollywood community that support Dems (as well as sometimes, Independents like me). The Internet "underground" continues to emerge and grow as more and more folks become aware of the resources available.


:| I wonder if COMCAST based in Philly is next - since they just (like two weeks ago!) added a "record" function to their digital VOD (video-on-demand) services. :o


Stay tuned if you're interested - since this is not only my area of technical (as in grrl engineer) expertise - I have am avid interest in this area!


:[ Same bat thread. :[ Same bat channel.


;)




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:|



Circuit City Unveils Restructuring: Retailer to Dismiss 3,400 Workers, Replace Them With Lower-Paid Hires.



By JAMES DEWEESE

March 28, 2007 10:22 a.m. WSJ


Circuit Stores Inc. said it is dismissing about 3,400 store associates and plans to replace them with lower-paid hires as part of a broad restructuring plan.


The Richmond, Va., consumer-electronics retailer said the employees being dismissed today were paid "well above the market-based salary range for their role." The company plans to hire new employees for these positions "compensated at the current market range for the job."


Circuit City said its board has authorized management to explore a possible sale of its unit InterTAN Inc., which operates about 900 retail stores and dealer outlets in Canada. Circuit City bought InterTAN in 2004 for about $284 million. It has hired Goldman Sachs to serve as an adviser.


The company will also turn over its information-technology infrastructure to International Business Machines Corp. in a move to cut about 16% from IT expenses over the life of the seven-year contract. The outsourcing deal will affect about 130 employees, 50 of whom will move to IBM, Circuit City said.


As it made the announcements, Circuit City lowered its fiscal 2007 sales expectations to a growth rate of 8% from a previously expected range of 9% to 10%. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open for at least a year, are now expected to grow 6%, down from the original forecast of 7% to 8%.


Circuit City is scheduled to report full-year results April 4.


In February, Circuit City announced plans to close some stores and shake up its merchandising teams to improve financial performance after suffering through a price war over flat-panel television sets. In the quarter ended Nov. 30, Circuit City swung to an unexpected loss of $16 million, or nine cents a share, from a year-earlier profit of $10.1 million, or six cents a share, as declining television prices chipped away at margins.


As a result of Wednesday's cuts and the previously announced restructuring efforts, Circuit City said it expects to record total pretax expenses of about $144 million, including goodwill impairment, store closings and other restructuring items.





:o A good friend of mine, a butch whom I've known for years responded to this article:

"WOW. what scum suckers. Hurts my union heart."




(y) (y) Indeed. Another friend responded:

"Sadly, this has been perfectly legal for a long time. My former employer (in Detroit, MI)
switched to this policy in the early '90s when I still worked there. They had to make it clear to the employee at the time of hire, but the company position is that they can fire you at any time for any reason, or no reason at all.


That, among many other things, was one of the reasons I left. I was a (position withheld for privacy) there, but just couldn't go along with many of their policies, most of which were put in place by the owner's recently hired girlfriend, who was inexplicably put in charge. She was just out of college and had zero experience in the business. When that happened I knew the company was headed for the ditch. They hung on for 10 more yers and finally cratered, but thankfully, I was long gone by then."







(i) There is a book called "The Blue Pages" which identifies the pay-to-play firms which are in bed with politicians - for the purpose of those of us little people (aka consumers) to BOYCOTT these firms.


The full name of the small book is, " The Blue Pages: A Directory of Companies Rated by their Political Practices"


I think I may head over to amazon.com to buy this book so I can add to the list of companies I will not do business with. :o


:) Again after last night - buying the L Word's first three seasons as well as two CD's there, each with two songs that accompanied scenes in the final episode this past Sunday - I still cannot get out of my mind. ;)

:) It's enough to open up and take some risks, I tell ya! ;) Talk about romance!! (l) (l) (l)





ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(mp) (i) (mp) (i)


Over the past few years, cellphones have evolved from simple communication devices into multimedia powerhouses. First came cameras, then Web surfing, then music players. Now, get ready for a host of new features such as software applications for surfing the mobile Web, and more services to connect with friends, share videos and exchange photos. And that's just the beginning.



THE JOURNAL REPORT: TECHNOLOGY

By AMOL SHARMA

March 26, 2007; Page R1


Remember when cellphones were just for calling?


Over the past few years, cellphones have evolved from simple communication devices into multimedia powerhouses. First came cameras, then Web surfing, then music players. Now, get ready for a host of new features.


In the next two to three years, consumers will be able to get TV broadcasts on their cellphones with better picture quality than current video offerings -- and a greater range of live programming from major networks like NBC, FOX, ABC and Comedy Central.


Users will also get sophisticated software applications for surfing the mobile Web, and more services to connect with friends, share videos and exchange photos. And they'll likely see mobile devices that can roam seamlessly across Wi-Fi hot spots, cellular networks and new high-speed data networks, bringing a much faster and smoother surfing experience.


And that's just the beginning. In the longer term, advances in battery, display and storage technology could make it possible to squeeze ever more functions onto smaller handsets. And cellphones could extend even further beyond the realm of communications, to be used as credit cards to pay for groceries and airline tickets, ID cards to swipe at security checkpoints and data-storage devices.


As is often the case in the wireless industry, many of the new services are originating in East Asia -- with carriers in Japan and South Korea -- and trickling west to Europe and the U.S.


Everyone has a stake in innovation. Cellphone operators in developed markets face slowing subscriber growth as the percentage of consumers who don't own a cellphone shrinks. To boost revenue, they have to find new ways to integrate mobile devices into people's lives. Similarly, handset manufacturers have to convince people who already own phones to buy new ones. Start-ups have dreams of going public or being bought out to the tune of billions.


Here's a closer look at some of the areas of mobile that will be busiest in the years to come.


Mobile Video

Mobile video is just beginning to catch on, with only about 2% of U.S. subscribers watching it. Today, consumers can watch short streaming clips of news, sports and entertainment pro-grams on some major carriers. Customers of many operators can also sign up for the service offered by MobiTV Inc., of Emeryville, Calif., which provides about 40 channels of programming from major TV networks and content providers.


Among other features, the service lets you watch a selection of programs at the same time they're broadcast on television. (There's a slight delay in the broadcasts and the local commercials are different, but otherwise the programs are the same.) The service costs about $10 a month, and users must also buy a data plan from their carrier that usually runs $15 to $20 a month.


Some challengers are betting they can do better. MobiTV's service runs over the same cellphone networks that carry calls and let users download ringtones, which limits its video quality. The rivals think they can offer a better picture and quicker channel-changing by building dedicated networks for broadcasting TV shows to phones. And, at least in theory, the broadcast networks are more efficient for delivering video and could result in lower costs for consumers.


MediaFLO USA Inc., a subsidiary of cellular chip maker Qualcomm Inc., already has such a network in place. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of the U.K., has started offering MediaFLO's service to its customers in 20 markets, with a bigger deployment coming. The service is priced at $15, or $25 as a package with music and Web surfing. It's available on a Samsung phone that costs $150 with a two-year contract, after a $50 rebate. (Another phone from LG Electronics Inc. is on the way.) AT&T Inc., formerly called Cingular Wireless, will offer MediaFLO's service later this year.


In South Korea and Japan, carriers have been offering these kinds of mobile broadcasts for some time. And they're already having success. Research firm In-Stat predicts mobile video revenue in Asia will reach $3.1 billion by 2010.


MobiTV, whose service has more than two million subscribers, has plans of its own. The company says it is working toward a future when users will be able to pay one fee to subscribe to TV service and watch it on any Internet-capable device, whether it's a mobile phone, a PC or a television. Already, the company has struck a deal to have its mobile TV service marketed to AT&T's DSL customers so they can watch MobiTV channels on their PCs. The next step would be integrating the service into TV sets.


"It won't be perfect overnight, but the goal is to create a seamless experience where you have access to pretty much any TV you want on any of your devices," says Paul Scanlan, MobiTV's co-founder and chief operating officer.


In addition, carriers will increasingly integrate user-generated video into their services. Carriers have already made deals with the likes of video-sharing sites YouTube and Revver to make their videos available over cell networks. Carriers are also likely to develop a greater amount of original programming tailored to mobile phones by partnering with other providers.


For example, GoTV Networks Inc., of Sherman Oaks, Calif., supplies mobile TV programming to U.S. carriers. The company is developing a mobile TV series based on the friendship of four teenage girls, centered on a main character named Bailey. The show, called "Being Bailey," is shown in three- to five-minute episodes called "mobisodes." GoTV's chief executive, David Bluhm, declined to say when the series will launch and on which carriers.


Advertising

So far, part of what has deterred consumers from using mobile video services is price. "The bigger limitation isn't going to be technology, the bigger limitation is going to be consumers' willingness to pay for it," says Jeff Glass, a venture partner at Bain Capital. Wireless carriers often charge consumers as much as $15 a month for access to their mobile TV offerings, plus additional charges for premium services like MobiTV.


But carriers world-wide are beginning to think about lowering the cost of video content, as well as mobile Web access and other content services, by carrying ads. Vodafone has said it will take that path. Big carriers in the U.S. like Verizon and Sprint Nextel Corp. are said to be considering it, too.


Carriers are just beginning to toy with those business models -- they aren't likely to give up video-subscription revenue easily, especially given the continuing declines they're seeing in voice revenue. But over time, many analysts say, carriers could come to view advertising as an even greater source of revenue than subscription. The logic: By lowering prices, operators could spur the kind of consumer usage of Web and video services that would attract big spending by marketers.


Another factor that might push carriers to the ad model: They're in a strong position to become ad brokers -- or at least partner with intermediaries that can help sell ads. Carriers have access to a wealth of information about subscribers that could help marketers better target their ads, including what sites customers view, what content they download and where they live. Carriers haven't put much of this information to use yet, anxious about protecting user privacy, but most analysts expect they will eventually take advantage of their unique position.


The trick for carriers will be to avoid alienating consumers by keeping ads "highly entertaining and relevant," says Anil Malhotra, founder of Bango.net Ltd., a U.K.-based firm that helps companies develop mobile Web services.


Meanwhile, some start-up companies, including Rhythm NewMedia Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., are developing the technology to help carriers insert snippets of video advertisements before TV programs. Britain's Hutchison 3G UK Ltd. has already announced it will use Rhythm NewMedia's system to embed ads in a range of free video content, including news, comedy and celebrity gossip, which it will offer free beginning in April. Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile are testing out Rhythm NewMedia's technology. Video spots would add to the other forms of advertising that have already been tested on mobile Web pages, including sponsored text links and graphic banners.


Beyond Communications

Cellphones have already evolved into cameras and music and video players. Now device makers and carriers are eyeing other possible uses for mobile handsets.


One promising area: using phones as credit cards to make small purchases at the dry cleaner, movie theater or gas station. Consumers would hold the phone up to a reader and automatically make a payment, using funds they had electronically stored on the device.


Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. has already signed up 1.3 million customers for its mobile credit-card service. Other handset makers, like Samsung Electronics Co.,


Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc., are taking a close look at the idea, too. In the U.S., AT&T's wireless unit is conducting a test of a system called MasterCard PayPass, through partnerships with Nokia and Citigroup Inc.


Another area of interest is beefing up Global Positioning System services. More phones in the U.S. and abroad are coming with GPS chips built in to pinpoint a user's location. To date, that feature has mostly been used for navigation applications. It will become more popular, analysts say, in services that let users track the whereabouts of their friends and family. Start-up carrier Helio, a Los Angeles-based joint venture of EarthLink Inc. and SK Telecom Co., and Sprint Nextel subsidiary Boost Mobile have already launched such buddy-finder applications.


GPS could also be used to help people search on phones for their local pizzeria or flower shop without having to type in a ZIP Code, as they do on the mobile search applications available now.


Nokia is trying to combine GPS and other technologies under a plan called "augmented reality." The idea, still a ways off from coming to market, is that consumers could point a phone with a built-in video camera at a building or person and have relevant information pop up on the screen.


So, pointing a phone at a restaurant down the street, for example, could bring up a menu, and scanning a stadium with the phone could help locate a friend. In the nearer term, Nokia is opening up its GPS and mapping information to third-party software developers, hoping they'll come up with catchy services.


"Which one of them will take off on a big scale, nobody knows," says Tero Ojanpera, the handset maker's chief technology officer.


Another creative application, says Richard Wong of venture firm Accel Partners, will be letting consumers blog about particular locations as they travel. Then those blog entries would be automatically tagged with their geographical coordinates. So if you were to post photos or blogs from, say, a scenic rest stop on a long drive, others could find the same spot later. Companies like New York-based Kamida that offer such "geotagging" services now require people to enter their location manually but are integrating GPS to remove that step.


Looking even further down the road, researchers are looking at ways to integrate printers into phones that are capable of producing color photo prints. A company called Zink Imaging LLC, of Waltham, Mass., says it has found a way to print color images without ink or ribbons, by using special paper with crystals that can be dyed through heat.


And there are even more-ambitious innovations on the drawing board. DoCoMo has a promotional video that describes its vision of the future, tracking a day in the life of Mr. Kotani, a fictional Japanese businessman who uses a mobile handset for a variety of functions. When he arrives at the office, his device communicates with nearby security checkpoints to confirm his arrival and validate his identity. At a meeting with a client, it stores files that he uses for his presentation. And throughout the office, it projects holographic images of an assistant helping him to plan his day.


"All of those functions combined should be provided by a single handset," says Masaki Yoshikawa, president and chief executive of DoCoMo's U.S. unit.


Given all the new services being crammed into phones, and the likelihood that consumers will continue demanding the slimmest and smallest devices possible, device makers face two huge challenges: How do they maintain battery life and create displays that are large enough for consumers to enjoy? In Japan, DoCoMo and No. 2 carrier KDDI Corp. are developing small, portable fuel cells to provide additional power to cellphones, through partnerships with Aquafairy Co., Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd.


There's a potential solution in the works for the display issue as well. Polymer Vision Ltd., a Netherlands-based spinoff of Philips Electronics NV, has developed a rollable paper-like display technology that consumers would unfold to create a large screen for their small device, making it easier to watch movies, view maps and surf the Web. The screen would fold up into the phone when not in use.


The first product it's offering is the Readius, a PDA with data capabilities but without voice capabilities for now. It will be available from Telecom Italia SpA sometime this year, with mobile-phone versions to come later. The prices will be set by the carriers.


Better Access

One of the mobile Web's biggest limitations has been access -- consumers want a high-speed connection wherever they go, at a decent price. Cellphone carriers' 3G, or third-generation, networks are good for downloading music and checking sports scores, and offer good coverage. But they are still too slow to support heavy Web surfing.


All of that is changing. In coming years, consumers will have multiple ways to access the Web at high speeds.


First, there's Wi-Fi. Most people know Wi-Fi as a way for laptops to get a high-speed wireless connection to the Web. But as Wi-Fi hot spots proliferate, handset makers are beginning to include Wi-Fi chips in their phones, so the phones can jump back and forth between cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Not only does that mean faster surfing, but you don't use any costly minutes when you roll your regular voice calls onto a Wi-Fi network. (Carriers will likely charge a few dollars a month for such services.)


Over 80 cellphones now come with Wi-Fi access built in, from manufacturers such as Samsung, Nokia and HTC Corp. Apple Inc.'s iPhone also includes a Wi-Fi chip.


Still, to make these phones useful in the growing number of hot spots, manufacturers need to strike agreements with hot-spot operators like Boingo Wireless Inc., of Santa Monica, Calif., which oversees more than 60,000 access points globally, and T-Mobile USA, a part of Deutsche Telekom AG, which has 30,000. That will enable users to take their phone to a Starbucks, airport or hotel and keep using it without having to go through several logins.


"It's one thing to bolt a Wi-Fi radio into a phone," says Sky Dayton, a technology entrepreneur who founded both Helio and Boingo. "It's another to make it a seamless experience for the user. That's where the magic is."


Sony Corp., for one, has already made a deal with a big hot-spot provider. The company's Mylo device, a personal media player that enables mobile Web surfing, instant messaging and multimedia downloads, comes with one year of free access to T-Mobile USA hot spots.


There are other high-speed options on the way. Cellular carriers are upgrading their existing networks to make them more powerful, and some are investing in entirely new ones to make significant jumps in speed. In the U.S., Sprint Nextel has said it plans to spend up to $3 billion to roll out a higher-speed network based on a technology called WiMax, making it available to 100 million Americans by the end of 2008. The company says the service should initially offer speeds of two megabits to four megabits per second -- roughly twice as fast as Wi-Fi -- at prices comparable to those of cable operators, which are usually around $50 per month.


Sprint Nextel Chief Technology Officer Barry West predicts speeds will rise to 10 megabits per second in the future. And he says that will lead to a big change in the industry: With mobile surfing so easy and fast, people will want to use mobile devices that are specifically built for surfing rather than making phone calls. An example: Nokia's N800 personal media tablet, which has a big screen and easy access to email, the Internet and chat services.


"The personal media player is going to be a big part of the WiMax world," Mr. West says. Later, he says, video cameras, gaming devices and other consumer electronics could be equipped with WiMax access.


In Asia, operators have similar plans. In South Korea, a technology similar to WiMax, known as WiBro, is taking hold. In Japan, DoCoMo is planning for an ambitious upgrade by 2010 -- an ultra-high-speed wireless network that it says will allow download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. That would put the network on par with the highest-end fiber-optic landline Internet connections.



CALL OF THE WILD A host of mobile developments are in the works. Clockwise from upper left: Polymer Vision's rollable screen, MediaFLO's TV offerings and DoCoMo's "wallet" phone.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/TE-AA573B_NEXT_20070322154027.jpg



http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/TE-AA572_COVER_20070322155930.jpg




(h)8-| (h)8-| Yet another HUGE area of opportunities for those interested. (y)




"THAT's not a knife, THIS is a knife." - Croc Dundee


:)

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

[sweetlady]

:) :)


POINT OF VIEW

Hemlock Available in the Faculty Lounge


By THOMAS CUSHMAN The Chronicle Review


Teaching evaluations have become a permanent fixture in the academic environment. These instruments, through which students express their true feelings about classes and profes-sors, can make or break an instructor. What would students say if they had Socrates as a professor?


This class on philosophy was really good, Professor Socrates is sooooo smart, I want to be just like him when I graduate (except not so short). I was amazed at how he could take just about any argument and prove it wrong.


I would advise him, though, that he doesn't know everything, and one time he even said in class that the wise man is someone who knows that he knows little (Prof. Socrates, how about that sexist language!?). I don't think he even realizes at times that he contradicts himself. But I see that he is just eager to share his vast knowledge with us, so I really think it is more a sin of enthusiasm than anything else.


I liked most of the meetings, except when Thrasymachus came. He was completely arrogant, and I really resented his male rage and his point of view. I guess I kind of liked him, though, because he stood up to Prof. Socrates, but I think he is against peace and justice and has no place in the modern university.


Also, the course could use more women (hint: Prof. Socrates, maybe next time you could have your wife Xanthippe come in and we can ask questions about your home life! Does she resent the fact that you spend so much time with your students?). All in all, though, I highly recommend both the course and the instructor.


Socrates is a real drag, I don't know how in hell he ever got tenure. He makes students feel bad by criticizing them all the time. He pretends like he's teaching them, but he's really ramming his ideas down student's throtes. He's always taking over the conversation and hardly lets anyone get a word in.


He's sooo arrogant. One time in class this guy comes in with some real good perspectives and Socrates just kept shooting him down. Anything the guy said Socrates just thought he was better than him.


He always keeps talking about these figures in a cave, like they really have anything to do with the real world. Give me a break! I spend serious money for my education and I need something I can use in the real world, not some b.s. about shadows and imaginary trolls who live in caves.


He also talks a lot about things we haven't read for class and expects us to read all the readings on the syllabus even if we don't discuss them in class and that really bugs me. Students' only have so much time and I didn't pay him to torture me with all that extra crap.


If you want to get anxious and depressed, take his course. Otherwise, steer clear of him! (Oh yeah, his grading is really subjective, he doesn't give any formal exams or papers so its hard to know where you stand in the class and when you try to talk to him about grades he just gets all agitated and changes the topic.)


For someone who is always challenging conventional wisdom (if I heard that term one more time I was going to die), Professor Socrates' ideal republic is pretty darn static. I mean there is absolutely no room to move there in terms of intellectual development and social change.


Also, I was taking this course on queer theory and one of the central concepts was "phallocentricism" and I was actually glad to have taken Socrates because he is a living, breathing phallocentrist!


Also, I believe this Republic that Prof. Socrates wants to design — as if anyone really wants to let this dreadful little man design an entire city — is nothing but a plan for a hegemonic, masculinist empire that will dominate all of Greece and enforce its own values and beliefs on the diverse communities of our multicultural society.


I was warned about this man by my adviser in women's studies. I don't see that anything other than white male patriarchy can explain his omnipresence in the agora and it certainly is evident that he contributes nothing to a multicultural learning environment. In fact, his whole search for the Truth is evidence of his denial of the virtual infinitude of epistemic realities (that term wasn't from queer theory, but from French lit, but it was amazing to see how applicable it was to queer theory).


One thing in his defense is that he was much more positive toward gay and lesbian people. Actually, there was this one guy in class, Phaedroh or something like that, who Socrates was always looking at and one day they both didn't come to class and they disappeared for the whole day. I'm quite sure that something is going on there and that the professor is abusing his power over this student.


I learned a lot in this class, a lot of things I never knew before. From what I heard from other students, Professor Socrates is kind of weird, and at first I agreed with them, but then I figured out what he was up to. He showed us that the answers to some really important questions already are in our minds.


I really like how he says that he is not so much a teacher, but a facilitator. That works for me because I really dislike the way most professors just read their lectures and have us write them all down and just regurgitate them back on tests and papers. We need more professors like Professor Socrates who are willing to challenge students by presenting materials in new and exciting ways.


I actually came out of this class with more questions than answers, which bothered me and made me uncomfortable in the beginning, but Professor Socrates made me realize that that's what learning is all about. I think it is the only class I ever took which made me feel like a different person afterward. I would highly recommend this class to students who want to try a different way of learning.


I don't know why all the people are so pissed at Professor Socrates! They say he's corrupting us, but it's really them that are corrupt. I know some people resent his aggressive style, but that's part of the dialectic. Kudos to you, Professor Socrates, you've really changed my way of thinking! Socs rocks!!


My first thought about this class was: this guy is really ugly. Then I thought, well, he's just a little hard on the eyes. Finally, I came to see that he was kind of cute. Before I used to judge everyone based on first impressions, but I learned that their outward appearances can be seen in different ways through different lenses.


I learned a lot in this class, especially about justice. I always thought that justice was just punishing people for doing things against the law and stuff. I was really blown away by the idea that justice means doing people no harm (and thanks to Prof. Socrates, I now know that the people you think are your enemies might be your friends and vice versa, I applied that to the people in my dorm and he was absolutely right).

An excellent class over all. One thing I could suggest is that he take a little more care about his personal appearance, because as we all know, first impressions are lasting impressions.


Socrates is bias and prejudice and a racist and a sexist and a homophobe. He stole his ideas from the African people and won't even talk to them now. Someone said that maybe he was part African, but there is noooooo way.


Thomas Cushman is a professor of sociology at Wellesley College.


http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?%20id=6fnxs4gx7j6qr4v7qn567y5hb52ywb33




(y) (y) .........8-| (h) 8-| (h)





ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:s


:)


http://www.theregister.com/2007/03/23/rf_proof_paint/




(y) (y) "EM-SEC Technologies, in a release last week, said its "Coating Solution", applied to a test facility, had successfully protected "wireless devices and other electronic equipment."


:| We don't want to be overheard now do we?



8-)



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

;)


If I had to pick my favorite chart (like if Barbara Walters asked me or something), I'd have to say the kind that shows a long, descending line as a product's price drops to zero (unless, of course, it happens to be a product I make). That's what has happened to online e-mail storage over the years, and the trend line reached its inevitable conclusion today with word that, starting in May, Yahoo will give its e-mail customers as much room as they want, no limit. The move vaults Yahoo over rivals Google and Microsoft in the storage space race, with Gmail currently providing more than 2.5 GB and Live Hotmail offering 2 GB. And though all the blog chatter has been about Yahoo this morning -- given that, with 250 million global customers, it's the biggest of the Big 3 -- AOL reps are running around reminding people that it has offered unlimited e-mail storage since 2005 and is now free.



For perspective, Yahoo Mail launched in 1997 with 4 MB of storage allotted per user, then, goosed by Google, moved up to 1 GB in 2005. Now it's a question of whether its competitors will feel compelled to offer infinity+1 GB to keep pace. And while users are still subject to Yahoo's abuse policies, which bar using an account for basic online storage, you know some folks are going to test just how stretchy that archive file really is by stashing stuff like multiple copies of the newly discovered mathematical explanation of the 248-dimensional object known as the "Lie group E8" at 60 GB a crack.


http://www.siliconvalley.com/search/ci_5478374?nclick_check=1



Yahoo! Mail goes to infinity and beyond:

http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/03/27/yahoo-mail-goes-to-infinity-and-beyond




(y) (y) I'll take all of the storage (especially for free) that I can get. (y)




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



Q U O T E D

"It appears to us they are playing catch-up with us. We have a device that is future-proofed. Here they are splintering their product offering. If I were a core gamer, I'd be pissed. They come out with an Elite model. We feel every PS3 is an elite system."

-- Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing at Sony's U.S. game division, tries to fan the flames of discontent as Microsoft introduces the beefed-up Xbox 360 Elite (video of the new black box here)


http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_5537449



EXCLUSIVE VIDEO! First look at the Xbox 360 Elite:

http://on10.net/Blogs/tina/exclusive-video-first-look-at-the-xbox-elite/




Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:o



We're being treated today to a look inside the process that occurs when a writer does a story about a big company, and while you always knew it must be messy business, you could still find yourself a little queasy. The tale turns on a story idea: that with its embrace of employee blogging, Microsoft has been transformed into a much more transparent company. Microsoft pitched it, Wired magazine commissioned it and Fred Vogelstein researched and wrote it.


http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/wired40_microsoft.html



Now it's a given that stories like this require interviews that can be like an elaborate dance with both partners trying to lead. The interviewer starts with a premise or question and wants candid answers; the interviewee starts with key talking points and pretty much tries to stay there. Both parties know the steps, and the result most times is some polite but awkward wrestling until the music stops.


But in the case of the Wired story, Microsoft got a little more transparent than it intended. The company's PR firm, Waggener Edstrom, inadvertently sent Vogelstein a copy of a brief on the prepping it was giving to Microsoft execs scheduled to meet with the reporter, and the amount of detail show why the agency gets big bucks for managing Redmond's image. In addition to telling execs what and what not to say, the brief included specific tips about dealing with Vogelstein, like "It takes him a bit to get his point across so try to be patient" and "He is digging for tension where it does not exist. We have to be hard core on this point and communicate in no uncertain terms the level of executive commitment and support for Channel 9 and 10 [Microsoft's videoblogging efforts]." "Should I be flattered that they worked so hard, or should I be embarrassed at being co-opted by their spin machine?" Vogelstein now wonders. "I'd like to think I would have written the same story no matter what. But now, through the miracle of transparency, you, the reader, get to decide that too."


http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/03/the_microsoft_m.html


http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/msftmemo.pdf


http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/03/enough_about_me.html


Frank X. Shaw, president of Waggener Edstrom, can't understand the fuss over what is essentially business as usual. A good interview benefits all parties, he says, and that requires the subject to be thoroughly prepared, right down to knowing a bit about the person doing the interviewing. "Seriously, in this case, the interests of a journalist and PR are totally aligned - a great interview is always the best possible outcome," he concludes. And at that, my knee jerks. The interests of journalists and PR are not, and should not, be aligned. The PR officer tries to serve the company, the journalist tries to serve the readers. If the polite wrestling between them turns into a smoothly choreographed production, that's the time to worry.


http://glasshouse.waggeneredstrom.com/blogs/frankshaw/archive/2007/03/27/radically-transparent-briefing.aspx




(y) Great quote and one that as a published writer, I have very strong opinions about this:


"The interests of journalists and PR are not, and should not, be aligned. The PR officer tries to serve the company, the journalist tries to serve the readers. If the polite wrestling between them turns into a smoothly choreographed production, that's the time to worry. "


:| Actually, I am more concerned about publishers and web masters who are more interested in advertiser revenues than CONTENT for their reading audiences. ^o)


(f)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:o


:)



Fresh on the heels of the news that InfoWorld was abandoning its 29-year-old print magazine in favor of a purely online life comes news that LIFE is moving in the same direction.


http://infoworlditexecconnect.leveragesoftware.com/blog_post_view.aspx?BlogPostID=1f65804ef876441dba4 5e52b7dd2bb5b


http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/010942.html


http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/010942.html



The venerable publication has a storied history that also reflects the changing economics of print over the years -- the big, glossy magazine came out weekly from 1936 to 1972, then was reincarnated as an occasional special issue, then as a monthly, and finally as a skinny newspaper supplement. In retrospect, that last move doesn't look particularly smart. "We hitched our star to an industry that's not growing," said managing editor Robert Shapiro.


:'(

http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070326/FREE/70326008/1064



The unhitching will happen with the last print supplement on April 20, but the LIFE brand will live on the Web in the form of a free archive of the magazine's renowned photos. On a site to be launched later this year, LIFE will post some 10 million images by such masters as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White and Gordon Parks, 97 percent of which have never been seen by the public. The goal, editors said, is to make the site "the preeminent destination to view the most important photography of our time, both archival and contemporary." And where there's hope, there's LIFE.


(y) (y)

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003562796





8-) Some things seem to have always been there. Ah, change including the venerable LIFE.





Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :|



The two Labradors, specially trained by the MPAA to sniff out hidden stashes of counterfeit DVDs, are getting a tryout in Malaysia (see "Quoted"), and within days of starting, found a shipment of nearly 1 million discs and looked on as authorities busted six men. The criminal powers that be have not taken this well, and sources tipped off officials that a pair of canine contracts had been put out. "The dogs are a genuine threat to the pirated disc syndicates, thus the instruction to eliminate them," said Firdaus Zakaria, a Trade Ministry official. Lucky and Flo have been spirited away to a safe house.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070322/ap_en_mo/malaysia_movie_piracy



:| :|



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



http://www.10mg.nl/



(y) Cute.




Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

:s :s :s


Whether it's on your laptop or elsewhere on your home network or somewhere out on the Net, you click, it's there, you go about your business. So it's truly frustrating to see an important legal ruling turn on a question of where a hard drive resides.


http://www.siliconvalley.com/404


A year ago, Cablevision Systems, a a New York-area company with about 3 million subscribers, announced plans to try out a network DVR service. Instead of supplying each customer with a new piece of equipment for recording, pausing and playing back TV, Cablevision wanted to give its users the same features but keep the programming stored on its end. A perfectly natural, even obvious, idea, and one that promised to save the cable industry a ton in hardware and maintenance costs. But Hollywood let out a scream. Companies including Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.; Viacom Paramount Pictures; GE's NBC Studios; and CNN and Turner Broadcasting System, both units of Time Warner, all sued, contending that Cablevision's plan would violate copyright law. Because the user's programs resided on Cablevision's servers, they argued, the company would effectively be retransmitting the shows, something it does not have permission to do. Cablevision maintained that as in the 1984 Betamax case, copyright wasn't being violated because the consumer was at the controls.


In a statement released late Thursday, Cablevision said Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan had ruled in favor of the studios and networks. "We are disappointed by the judge's decision, and continue to believe that remote-storage DVRs are consistent with copyright law and offer compelling benefits for consumers - including lower costs and broader availability of this popular technology," the company said in a statement, adding that it would consider an appeal.


http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6427293.html?display=Breaking+News


http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN2337855720070323


Let's hope they press forward and, given the significance to the entire cable industry, draw some strong allies off the sidelines. The whole time-shifting, commercial-skipping DVR concept scares the entertainment cartel mightily because it takes control out of its hands and puts it in yours, and if network DVRs were available, adoption would soar. Once again, the media giants are using the courts to try to salvage a disrupted business model at our expense.



:|



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:o



http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id=5480



;)




"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[sweetlady]

;)



http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/2007/03/novell_launches.html



:)




Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



http://xkcd.org/



;)




Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/22/tyans-40-cpu-personal-supercomputer-now-shipping/



(y) (y) "256 gigaflops of processing power"



(h)




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:o


Foreign audiences used to have to wait months, if not years, to find out what happened on top U.S. TV shows. Now, with U.S. studios hoping to combat online piracy and coveting international revenue, the time lag is getting shorter.



The Race to Get TV Shows Overseas

U.S. Studios Hope to Beat Pirated Episodes on the Web; Now London Gets 'Lost' Fast

By AARON O. PATRICK

March 28, 2007; Page B1 WSJ


LONDON -- For decades, Europeans had to wait months, if not years, to find out what happened on top U.S. shows like "Dallas," "M*A*S*H" and "Friends."


But with viewers now sharing plot summaries and even episodes online, British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC and U.S. studios are trying to pull off the fastest trans-Atlantic TV flight yet: In January they began showing the ABC hit "Lost" in Britain four days after it aired in the U.S. While not as good as a simulcast, it's a big improvement over the typical three-to-six-month delay before U.S. shows appear on British screens.


It's also an important effort. U.S. networks are under pressure to make more money on their shows and increase their share of the $110 billion overseas television market. Meanwhile, about 20% of U.K. TV airtime is American programming, and network executives including BSkyB worry that they will lose viewers to pirated episodes online.


"Who wants to wait six months to see season three of 'Lost' when you can download it?" asks Tom Toumazis, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Buena Vista International Television, the sales arm for Walt Disney Co.'s ABC. Transporting shows overseas quickly is part of Disney's five-year plan to boost its operations globally, he says. (At the moment only English language TV networks are involved because it's almost impossible to get dubbed shows on the air in less than three months.)


The logistics are trickier than they appear. Because shows are often completed at the last minute and studios are concerned about plot details leaking, studios rarely let episodes leave the country before they have aired in the U.S. Studios used to send tapes of entire series overseas in one batch at the end of the season. Foreign networks didn't mind because they wanted to show the series uninterrupted, without breaks for the World Series, Thanksgiving and other events that don't happen overseas.


ABC first considered sending taped copies of each "Lost" episode to London with a courier. But executives worried that flights could be delayed by bad weather or an airline strike, and the idea felt more like a stop-gap measure than a long-term business plan. Like all major studios, Disney can transmit live feeds by satellite, but that option was rejected because it's particularly expensive for a show filmed in high-definition like "Lost."


So Disney approached Technicolor, a film-production unit of Paris-based Thomson SA, to send the episodes over its undersea fiber-optic line. Technicolor has a global network to send video digitally. Designed for movies, TV shows and ads, it was used to send daily takes from "Ocean's 12" back to Los Angeles so that executives could follow the movie's progress. The service costs about $5,000 more an episode than using a courier.


Of course, TV networks simulcast live events around the world such as the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl, even though they play at odd hours overseas. But simultaneous or near-simultaneous broadcasts are technically complex and expensive, making them impractical week in and week out for a TV series.


"Lost" airs Wednesday night on ABC. Since the start of this year, each Thursday morning, Technicolor technicians in Glendale, Calif., have converted a tape of "Lost" into a digital file. That night, they transmit the file through a data line across the U.S. and under the Atlantic. It arrives at Technicolor's London office two hours later, or early Friday morning U.K. time. Then technicians convert the file into the European TV format and record it onto videotape for viewing.


A BSkyB employee who lives nearby picks up the tape on his way to work at the broadcaster's headquarters in West London Friday morning. During the day, BSkyB staff members record an audio description of the show for blind people, as required by U.K. TV standards. BSkyB then broadcasts "Lost" Sunday evening, its first slot with big audiences.


The speed creates some problems. BSkyB doesn't have time to send preview tapes to British TV reviewers, so they can't write reviews ahead of time. That means BSkyB loses an important way of building buzz for the show. And because foreign audiences aren't used to breaks in the middle of series, like the 13-week "Lost" hiatus in the winter, British networks are trying the quick turnarounds only near the end of a U.S. TV season, when they're sure there won't be disruptions.


Still, it's an important move for BSkyB, the pay-TV service that is 38%-owned by News Corp. "Lost" is the most popular show on the service's main satellite channel. Another U.S. hit, "24," is regularly among the top five. Both figure prominently in BSkyB's marketing plan to drive subscriptions. By cutting the delay between show times, the service hopes to keep fans who are tempted to watch pirated versions on the Web.


In the case of "24," the intricate storylines often appear on fan sites within hours of an episode's U.S. premiere. Since BSkyB bought the spy thriller three years ago, the number of "24" viewers has risen to 700,000 from about 600,000. In 2004, "24" appeared on BSkyB 3½ months after it showed in the U.S. Now, BSkyB shows it 13 days later. For a while it showed it six days later, but a schedule change in the U.S. forced it to move the show back a week.


Other networks are racing to bring over U.S. shows, too. The current "American Idol" has been appearing on British TV screens the same week it's broadcast in the U.S. In Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and other parts of Asia, it's shown on News Corp.'s satellite Star World channel several hours after it appears in the U.S. and then repeated during prime time.


In Australia last year, the premiere of CBS Corp.'s disaster thriller, "Jericho," was shown just 6½ hours after it was seen on the U.S. West Coast. The show was sent by satellite because a flight could never have gotten to the Sydney broadcaster, Ten Network Holdings Ltd., in time.


After its stunt to hype the series launch, Ten in Australia aired episodes a day after they showed in the U.S. Each episode arrived in Sydney around 2 p.m. by satellite. Ten staff members watched the show to check that it had arrived intact, gave the episode a parental-advisory rating and inserted new advertising breaks (ads are shown less frequently in Australia). The show aired that evening at 8:30 p.m.


Ten says the quick turnaround let it piggyback on CBS's marketing campaign in the U.S., which generated many online articles about the show. "The television gossip world is global these days," says a Ten spokeswoman.


Mr. Toumazis, of Disney's TV sales arm, says the quick transmission of "Lost" in the U.K. is an experiment Disney wants to repeat in other countries. But that won't be easy, he says. The main problem: transferring what are essentially huge computer files quickly and securely. Once that can be solved, it will just be a question of whether overseas networks believe it's worth the cost. "If you can conquer the technological challenge, then it's just about economics," he says.



Very cool graph:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/MK-AJ181_FASTTV_20070327204031.gif




(y) (y)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:|



Talk Show: Chat Comes to Online TV

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO

March 28, 2007; Page D1 WSJ


On most weekdays, Melissa McSwain tunes into iVillage Live, a lifestyle talk show that airs on TV and is also offered as video on the Web, to get new recipes and health and beauty tips while catching up with friends -- whom she's never met.


With her computer screen split between video of the show and an instant-messaging window, she gabs with dozens of others. "Even though you are sitting in your living room alone, you feel like you are a big part of the show," says Ms. McSwain, a 35-year-old resident of Moore, Okla., who engages with her iVillage chat friends on topics like car-seat safety and picking shampoo.


Tens of millions of Internet users have grown accustomed to thinking of Web video as a solitary experience. Now, in a bid to mimic a gathering of people watching TV together, Web video is becoming more social.


More video services are embedding free instant-messaging features into their sites, allowing users to hide behind screen names to discuss the video they're watching. The subjects range from the serious (sharing experiences about breast-cancer treatments, for instance) to the mundane (volunteering details about what they had for dinner last night). If the programming is being streamed live, they can chat with anyone who signs on. If they are watching a video or movie on demand, they can chat with people they have invited into a chat room or who happen to be viewing the same show at the same time.


This week Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Family network is testing an online video platform that allows users to send messages while watching episodes of its shows online. The network launched the service for the season finale of the teen drama "Wildfire" this week and says it plans to offer it for more shows this summer.


IVillage Live, produced by General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, allows online viewers to discuss the show as it's broadcast on the right side of the screen. Hundreds of viewers sign on during the week to comment on the show, which is broadcast in 12 TV markets and online at iVillageLive.com, a site run by iVillage Inc., NBC's social-networking site for women.


New online video services are turning to the technology to distinguish themselves from already popular video-sharing sites. Joost, a new online TV service that streams free video over the Web through partnerships with media companies like Viacom Inc., offers an embedded instant-messaging feature that allows viewers to talk about what they are watching with those viewing the same channel.


The trend has hit not only TV programming, but movies as well. Jaman.com Inc., a new online movie service that offers hundreds of independent and international films for $2 to rent or $5 to own, has in-video discussion blogs where users can post comments time-stamped to particular scenes. Lycos, an online entertainment site owned by Daum Communications Corp., has launched Lycos Cinema, an on-demand movie service where viewers can chat while watching any of several hundred pieces of free ad-supported video licensed by the service -- from feature-length films to music videos.


It's all a sign that online video is growing up, moving beyond 30-second home videos to longer programming that's generating discussions and fan bases much like traditional TV.


The services are generally free, with the exception of some movie-downloading sites that charge several dollars to rent or own a film. While some stream their content directly from their Web sites, others require the user to download media-playing software that has instant-messaging software already embedded.


Users are flocking to the features to talk about everything from storylines to the weather. A recent chat on iVillage Live pegged to a segment on dogs prompted comments like "Bulldogs are adorable," "I am a cat person" and "I want a hyena." Viewer remarks about ABC's "Wildfire" ranged from "I hope that matt and Kris stay together" to "dude seriously why was she walking along the side of the highway." The free-form gabfest already has some users calling the new services more of a nuisance than a novelty.


"It is a challenge to actually follow that many strands of conversation," says John Montoya, a 43-year-old special education teacher from Lancaster, Calif., who has dropped in on Lycos Cinema to watch and discuss "Night of the Living Dead," where conversation topics included the level of suspense in zombie scenes. "I am not up on the shortcuts in chatting," he says.


Companies say they recognize that their chat services are unlikely to appeal to all viewers equally and so they make it easy to turn off the feature. The sites also stress that they will kick off users who abuse the open nature of the services by posting inappropriate comments.


Online video executives say you don't have to join the chat yourself to appreciate the discussion. More passive viewers can tune in to a "channel chat" on Joost for commentary on a football game or analysis of a newscast, for instance, without participating, says Fredrik de Wahl, Joost's chief executive.


Another possible frontier: instant messaging using audio and video. Paltalk, a site that hosts thousands of general purpose chat rooms where users talk to each other via Web cams, is partnering with some television and radio companies to host content and create viewing rooms where fans can mingle.


Debbie Kessler, a 37-year-old photo-studio manager from Far Hills, N.J., logs on to Paltalk almost every day to watch a videocast of the talk-radio show "Opie & Anthony," where users talk about topics such as whether the hosts are being too tough on guests and pass around links to photos or articles relevant to whatever is being discussed -- recently, a photo of former model Janice Dickinson. "It is like being on stage in the wings with the band that you love," Ms. Kessler says.




Viewers of 'Wildfire' on the Web can currently use instant messaging to make comments.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AJ921B_pjVID_20070327212013.jpg




IVillage Live includes a viewer discussion (right) as a video version of the talk show plays on the Web page.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AJ926_pjVIDC_20070327212143.jpg




:| Just what everyone needs: more chat opportunities.......;)


Or additional opportunities to "lurk and observe" as folks do in other places....... :o


:)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:o


http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129857-page,1-c,desktoppcs/article.html



:)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



Q U O T E D


"We think that being more organized and ordered and neat is a good thing and it turns out, that's not always the case. Most of us are messy, and most of us are messy at a level that works very, very well for us. In most cases, if we got a lot neater and more organized, we would be less effective. ... People who are really, really neat, between what it takes to be really neat at the office and at home, typically will spend anywhere from an hour to four hours a day just organizing and neatening."

-- David Freedman, co-author of "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder," who undoubtedly hears a lot of very well organized arguments to the contrary.



"Are You a Slob? Good, You're More Productive":

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2105584,00.asp



(y) (y) (y)



(S) (S) Pleasant dreams and a lovely rest of the week. (f)




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (&) (l) (&) (l)


"He is the clown of the dog fraternity, canines answer to vaudeville. A laugh a minute, lives life to the fullest, a maximum velocity version of canine slapstick. But he is also a sympathetic soul, a shoulder to cry on, a confidante. He is all that is good in a dog. He is of course The Boxer." (from the article Canine Clowns by Matthew Cowley)



http://www.boxerworld.com/




Boxerworld.com, in line with our claims and aims, is pleased to be able to offer The Boxerworld Forums in order to assist in its function as education arena and story tellers delight. Boxer stories that is!

So.....

If your boxer chases flies
Or gives those heavy sighs
Soulful eyes to view you sadly
Before kidney beaning madly

Maybe jumps high in the air
Sleep and snore without a care
With a faith that is unerring
Despite what is occuring

If he tries to swim but sinks
If he's silly but, still thinks
If he loves you like a child
And is sometimes just as wild

There's a story to be told
Of boxers young, of boxers old
And it's here they get unfurled
At our own place, Boxerworld!!




http://www.boxerworld.com/gallery/ (l) Note that this little pup is sitting next to animated pooch in "Wallace and Gromit" - an English clay animation done by Nick Parks. It is the best "claymation" ever done and the two characters will tug at your heart strings. (Kind of like Boxers do......(l) I highly recommend all of them - most are short. (~) (~)



:) Anyone who cares to know about that which I feel absolutely passionate and have had profound love and respect for this breed for all of my life (so far) - will have a ball exploring the URL to Boxer World!! <:o) I grew up with Boxers and Wyatt is my fourth canine angel companion. (I don't believe that people OWN dogs - as in they are not property.) Actually, it seems as if I am Wyatt's "person". :) (l)




"Reach Out and Touch Someone." - "Vintage" :o telephone company advert





Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:)


FASHION JOURNAL


Spotting the Next Hoodie Fashion Increasingly Relies On Trends From the Streets; Spying Raccoon Hats in SoHo

By VANESSA O'CONNELL

March 29, 2007; Page D1 Wall Street Journal


Standing near a cluster of bars at the corner of Red River and East 6th streets in Austin, Texas, earlier this month, Helen Job grew anxious about denim. She had spent four days in the hip college town, trying to determine whether a new look was catching on.


After seeing mostly skinny jeans, which she believes are on their way out, Ms. Job finally spotted a young woman in a T-shirt and high-waisted, straight-legged jeans. The sighting was further confirmation of a trend her colleagues at Worth Global Style Network had already documented on the streets of Scandinavia, Europe and Japan and in stores in Paris and London. "Give it about six weeks," she said, "and all the New York stores will have them in the windows."


Ms. Job is one of the fashion industry's secret weapons. As U.S. editor of WGSN, a fashion-consulting service, she is one of a growing number of third-party researchers who go out into the streets to get an early look at emerging styles and to find out where young people are shopping. A competing service, Doneger Group, has increased the number of employees dedicated to so-called trend spotting by 50% to 120 people in the past five years. The 30-year-old Ms. Job even teaches a class on trend spotting to fashion-merchandising students at Parsons The New School for Design.


The role of trend spotters -- sometimes also called cool hunters -- has grown in importance as the fashion cycle has speeded up. Desperate for an edge in a lackluster market, apparel makers and retailers increasingly are seeking help in quickly sorting through competing trends. Trend spotters can help mass merchandisers figure out which nascent trends from chic boutiques or even thrift stores might be hot sellers on a wider scale.


Street style has become an important source of inspiration for retailers eager to lure shoppers with a taste for "fast fashion" at chains like H&M and Zara. Many chains have their own in-house trend spotters. Store inventory is also turning over more quickly, as retailers strive to refresh the merchandise on their racks. At Nordstrom Inc., for instance, inventory turned over 5.06 times last year, compared with 3.7 times in 2001.


These consultants work in different ways, but many produce slick, periodic reports -- often focused on key looks, such as accessories -- which they sell to mass retailers, apparel manufacturers and designers. Ms. Job says her photos are used by clients such as Levi Strauss, Liz Claiborne, Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein and Polo Ralph Lauren.


Many trend spotters focus almost entirely on young people on the theory that they have an impact on the broader fashion scene. "A lot of the people we buy from are the people who are interpreting the street trends, they are just doing it at a higher-level quality," says Julie Gilhart, fashion director at Barneys New York.


"There is the longstanding debate of what influences what. Does the street influence high fashion or does fashion influence the street?" says Michael Macko, vice president for men's fashion at Saks Fifth Avenue. He for one, is "always fascinated" by street fashion.
Trendspotter Helen Job, of Worth Global Style Network, has some observations on the hottest looks in fashion and how the fashion cycle is getting shorter and shorter.


The recent rise of the men's all-over-print hoodie, or hooded jacket, shows how street trends spread. The Japanese urban streetwear chain A Bathing Ape helped push the look into the U.S. from Tokyo a couple of seasons ago, prompting small retailers like Union in New York's SoHo neighborhood, Barneys Co-op and Internet stores such as Hypebeast and Karmaloop to start selling their own versions. Soon, print hoodies were showing up in hip magazines such as Complex and Nylon and hip-hop videos. Over the past six months, more mainstream designers and apparel makers picked up the style, which is now widely available.


Equally important to identifying trends, is figuring out when they are over. Tim Bess, the 41-year-old menswear street-style guru for fashion consultancy Doneger Group, studies men ages 18 to 26. Sometimes he brings along the young woman who works as his assistant to help break the ice.


On Saturday, he roamed the streets of SoHo and Harlem in New York. He chatted briefly with several sharply dressed kids, two of whom wore printed hoodies, and checked the window displays of influential boutiques. His conclusion: The printed hoodie trend still has legs, but won't last much longer. Some guys on the street had already moved on to a more "cleaned up" look of solid shirts and jeans with little or no detailing.


Another sign: Mr. Bess spotted a printed hoodie on a scruffy middle-aged man walking by. "You can tell when a trend sort of moves on," he said. "When you start seeing people who shouldn't be wearing a certain brand or look, that's when it's over."


In SoHo, Mr. Bess stopped to chat with a group of about 10 young men in vintage 1980s garb, including big gold chains. Mr. Bess has worked with these men before, bringing them into his office to pose for one of his street reports. Calling themselves the "Retro Kids," they say they try to promote 1980s style. "It's easy to start something new," said one man in the group, Ladaz Marshall, age 20. "Anybody can do it."


Up in Harlem, Mr. Bess admired the outfit of one young shopper, Xavier "Ozve" Peña, age 19. Mr. Peña was wearing slim-cut jeans and a Kidrobot all-over-print hoodie. "What are your favorite Web sites?" asked Mr. Bess. "Do you go to Karmaloop?" The young man said he got his jeans at a New York outpost of the Japanese chain Uniqlo.


For next year, Mr. Bess predicts a shift to a '90s grunge style. Some boutiques, he noted, have begun carrying plaid and flannel shirts.


It's getting tougher to figure out where to find fashionable folks. In the 1970s and 1980s, trend spotters trawled the boutiques of St. Tropez, France, after the Paris fashion shows, in search of emerging labels. Some still swear by the French resort when it comes to resort or cruise wear.


But trendy neighborhoods are constantly shifting today. Trend spotters now attend rock music festivals in Denmark and Scotland, and trek off to Colombia, Brazil and Istanbul. Barbara Fields, who runs her own trend-spotting firm, travels monthly to the streets of London, Barcelona, Tokyo or Seoul, and says lately one of her best tactics has been taking photos of young people on the streets of the Harajuku district in Tokyo. Based on what she's seen there, she believes fur-trimmed hooded athletic jackets will be an emerging trend for fall, along with wide-leg pants with a diameter of 24 inches to 33 inches, among other styles.


Janine Blain, head of Doneger Group's Los Angeles office, meanwhile, recently began dividing up her presentations according to where the photos were shot: Third Street in Los Angeles or Malibu/Santa Monica, for example. She sees a movement away from "girly" styles to an "alpha male" look of structured women's jackets and pants in menswear fabrics.


This week, WGSN's Ms. Job sorted through more than 400 pictures she took in Austin, putting together groupings of three to six shots that illustrate a trend for her "trend flashes" -- short reports that she will produce once a week for the next three weeks. In addition to high-waisted jeans, which she has noticed since at an H&M store in New York, she plans to focus on Ray-Ban Wayfarer-style sunglasses and the trapper-style raccoon hat that several young women were wearing.


Next stop: Portland, Ore.




Fashion trend spotter Tim Bess talks with shopper Xavier 'Ozbe' Peña at the Goliath boutique in Harlem.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AJ944_pjFASH_20070328194045.jpg





Skinny jeans like these, seen in Tokyo, are still popular here and in other cities, but some trend spotters believe they are on the way out. (Thank Goodness!!)

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AI733_slides_20070328102440.jpg





ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

;)


A new crop of women leaders have moved into the corner offices of some of the world's biggest companies. And while the overall numbers aren't impressive, looking behind those totals reveals some significant signs of change.

http://online.wsj.com/media/2_1258-cover.gif



For women in business, there are some new faces at the top, but the overall numbers have barely budged

Carol Hymowitz

November 20, 2006; Page R1 WSJ


A new crop of women leaders have moved into the corner offices of some of the world's biggest companies. And while the overall numbers aren't impressive, looking behind those totals reveals some significant signs of change.


PepsiCo Inc. recently tapped former president and chief financial officer Indra Nooyi as its new CEO. Earlier this year, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., the grain-processing giant and largest U.S. producer of corn-derived ethanol fuel, recruited former Chevron Corp. executive Patricia Woertz as the first outsider to hold the company's top job.


And Naina Lal Kidwai, group general manager and country head of HSBC Holdings PLC in India, is leading the bank's efforts to reach more of India's growing middle class.


Despite the fresh faces, the overall number of women in senior corporate ranks has barely budged lately. Last year, women held 16.4% of Fortune 500 corporate-officer jobs -- positions of vice president or higher that require board approval. That was a rise of just 0.7 percentage point from 2002, according to a survey by Catalyst, the New York research group.


The survey also found that women made up only 6.4% of the top five earners among corporate officers, a rise of 1.2 percentage points in the same period. These are smaller gains than Catalyst found in prior surveys, done every three years over the past decade.


Women of color -- African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans -- held just 1.7% of corporate-officer positions in 2005, and were 1% of the top five earners at Fortune 500 companies.


Yet something new is beginning to occur. Instead of being almost exclusively concentrated in companies with large numbers of female customers, such as retail and cosmetics, women are making their mark across a broad spectrum of businesses.


Whether they're already CEOs or in line to lead, women are running operations and devising strategy in virtually every industry, from heavy manufacturing, chemicals and computer technology to consumer products, fashion and media.


They're also becoming a presence in nonprofit and regulatory organizations. Melinda Gates, co-founder and co-chair of the Gates Foundation, oversees an abundance of funding aimed at AIDS and other diseases overseas as well as education and homelessness in the U.S. Neelie Kroes, competition commissioner of the European Union, and Linda Chatman Thomsen, enforcement chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission, exert important influence on how business is conducted.


All these people have one thing in common: They're breaking stereotypes about what women can and can't do well, and opening up new opportunities for women who will follow them.



The 50 Women to Watch 2006 (Chart)

Here are the women we believe have the potential to make a significant impact on business in the year ahead. Sort the list by alphabetical order, company name or position. Plus, click on each woman's name to read a short profile.


http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/retro-50women-06.html




(h) (h) (h) (h)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

THE EXPAT LIFE

By ALAN PAUL

March 16, 2007

Living 7,000 miles away from home ain't what it used to be. My parents moved from New York to Sitka, Alaska in 1964. I was born in Anchorage two years later. Their extended families were some 3,500 miles away in Pittsburgh and New Jersey, but my folks might as well have lived on the moon.


They spoke to their parents every other Sunday for five or ten minutes at a time, and occasionally had my brother and sister speak onto reel-to-reel tapes that they parcel posted back, so the grandparents could hear the kids' voices. The rest of the time, they existed in a sort of radio silence. That's just how it was when you lived on the other side of the world, until very recently. Now the tide has turned in some very profound ways. We live twice as far away but the distance is much smaller.


Not only do I talk to my parents and anyone else as often as I want, but a host of technologies allow us to live in China with one foot in America. My parents had to struggle to stay connected to their friends and families while we battle to unplug from life "back home" and live a fully engaged existence in China.


The linchpin of this shrinkage, of course, is the Internet. Everything else flows from those fiber-optic connections. When a December earthquake off the coast of Taiwan cut Internet service for millions of Asian residents, including countless expats, it highlighted both the fragility and the essential nature of this connection to the world. We were in America for the winter holidays and though service was restored by the time we returned, it was painfully slow for more than a month. The inability to watch videos or download podcasts and music was a bit of a wake-up call about how high my expectations have risen.


I spend virtually all day online. My Internet phone allows me to talk to anyone, anywhere for as long as I want, for about 25 bucks a month. Many people, especially those over 50, just can't understand how they can dial 10 numbers and reach me in China. I sometimes feel like a spokesperson for Vonage. I maintained my New Jersey office-phone number, so my calls include B-list publicists hawking obscure bands and awful products, telemarketers selling membership in the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police and wrong numbers, usually looking for New Jersey Plumbing Supply. (These calls have plagued me for nearly a decade -- the company once printed stationery with my number on it.)


We have regular Webcam chats with my folks, as well as select aunts and uncles, cousins, friends, nephews and nieces. Anytime I open instant-messaging software someone appears, eager for updates on life in China. This despite a regularly updated personal Web site which allows those who care to know far more about my family's daily life than ever before, when we lived in America.


Podcasts have also altered the expat experience. One American reader living in Switzerland wrote me about driving along Lake Geneva listening to U.S. newscasts on his morning commute. I know the feeling. Why struggle to listen to Chinese radio in my car, when I can listen to podcasts of my favorite NPR shows? Why practice my Chinese with a cab driver, when I can catch up on American politics or culture?


Why? Because it is wonderful to be so plugged into all things American, but it comes at a cost. As Robin, an American expat living in London, emailed me, "A downside to all these options is that being an expat has lost some of its allure. You can be anywhere and still be local with communication options, TV, and the Internet. I think the experience is devalued."


It is easy to envelope yourself in a virtual world and be blind to what is happening right outside your door. A virtual existence can never be as satisfying as real life. Reading a book review can't replace reading a book, watching the Food Network is no substitute for cooking and eating a great meal -- and simulating a fully lived American life can't compare to putting both feet on the ground in China.


That's why I usually leave my iPod at home and talk to the cabbies. And it's why I have thus far denied myself the beautiful, brilliant, insidious Slingbox. Slingbox allows you to watch a distant TV on your computer. I first learned about it from several readers when I wrote about the difficulties in watching Pittsburgh Steelers games here. My friend and fellow Steelers lunatic, Eric Rosenblum, signed up last fall and watching games at his house has whet my appetite. A subscription is particularly appealing this week -- with the NCAA Tournament kicking off, I will be compulsively scanning the Internet for scores and updates. I fantasize about Slingbox and the round-the-clock basketball I could be watching. And that's why I need to avoid it.


One of the very best things about living here has been the sharp reduction of my entire family's TV-viewing time. In the case of nine-year-old Jacob, the change is remarkable. He was a zombified TV addict in the making in the U.S. We had to set strict limits on his viewing and he tested them daily. He never, ever turns on the TV here, absent his beloved (and our despised) Cartoon Network, which is the main reason we have shunned more expansive satellite options. Seeing me watch football and basketball, he would quickly realize that Yu-Gi-Oh lived in the same box.


I have avoided even learning more about Slingbox, because I know it wouldn't take much to seduce me over to the dark side. I am afraid to look into its eyes. Robin's email helped convince me that my instincts were right. He has Slingbox and wrote, "I find that instead of exploring London at times, I'll catch up on "Lost" or "The Shield.""


Robin says he's happy to have the option, but for now, I'm pleased that I don't have it. Technology is only as good as the limits you place on it – for example, the BlackBerry that frees you from your desk also ties you to your job -- and I know my own weaknesses. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll ride my bike over to the little restaurant around the corner and dig into a plate of dumplings.




(y) 8-| (h)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:)


Trend spotters hired by the fashion industry search for new looks on the streets of New York, Tokyo, London and other cities:



These high-waisted "elephant" cut pants were spotted in Harajuku, Tokyo by Barbara Fields, one of a growing number of third-party researchers who go out into the field to get an early look at youth styles.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AI728_FASHIO_20070328102002.jpg





A trapper hat in Austin, Texas, recently spotted by Helen Job, an editor for fashion-consulting service WGSN.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AI732_FASHIO_20070328102125.jpg





These 80s-style sweaters were identified as a trend by WGSN in November 2006. These photos were taken in a few different cities.

ne.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AI765_FASHIO_20070328181915.jpg





Because designers are often looking at these photos, Ms. Job says that professional trend spotters will often take close-ups of accessories or certain aspects of the clothing.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AI725_FASHIO_20070328101638.jpg





(f) (f)



Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:| :| :|

(l) (l) (l)


As the war in Iraq enters its fifth year, the USO is having some trouble recruiting A-list stars. So instead, little-known bands are heading to remote bases and braving battle zones to build their fan base.



Rock in a Hard Place

With the USO short on big-name acts and the military trying to entertain troops in remote bases, unknown bands are braving battle zones to build their fan base.
The 21st-century answer to Bob Hope.

By JOHN JURGENSEN

March 24, 2007; Page P1 WSJ


At a U.S. military base in al Qa'im, a dusty town in the Anbar Province of Iraq, 400 soldiers crowded into a storage building doubling as a concert hall for a night last year. The entertainment was a six-piece country band and a young Nashville singer named Carly Goodwin. Few of the soldiers had heard of her, but they wound up cheering, dancing onstage and singing along. Some sat on the rafters above the makeshift stage.


http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/pt-ae959_Cover__20070323172232.jpg



As the war in Iraq enters its fifth year, the USO is having some trouble recruiting A-list stars. Increasingly, the military's old, Bob Hope-style approach to entertainment is being partly supplanted by a different model. The new approach relies on sending little-known bands to the Middle East in an effort to provide more concerts at more remote bases in combat zones.


This reflects the way troops are now being deployed. Many soldiers are posted in remote bases in active battle zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, accessible mainly by helicopter. Troops are facing the longest armed conflict since Vietnam and, in many cases, multiple tours of duty.


It also mirrors an entertainment world increasingly defined by MySpace and "American Idol." The divide between fringe and mainstream acts has gotten smaller as unknowns become stars on the Internet and TV practically overnight. That has created a receptive environment for up-and-coming bands hoping to raise their profiles by touring with the military. But it's raising difficult decisions for young musicians now wrestling with their own political views and fears of danger as they weigh tours to battle zones.


The group responsible for recruiting these bands is a little-known division of the Pentagon called Armed Forces Entertainment. Last year, AFE sent more than 100 small acts to camps around the world -- compared with the nonprofit, civilian-run USO, which last year sent 37 tours abroad, mainly to big hubs like Kuwait City and Baghdad. Recently, AFE has been on the rise, organizing a record number of concerts and ramping up its band recruitment efforts.


For the four members of Edison, a hard-rock group, the question of whether to go to Iraq prompted some heated discussions. The group had mainly been playing bars in Connecticut and New York City when AFE contacted singer Ethan Isaac to ask if he and his group would consider a tour to the Middle East. Mr. Isaac had done an AFE tour of Europe with a previous band.


Mr. Isaac and two other band members were enthusiastic, but lead guitarist Jonathan Svec refused. A staunch opponent of the war, he worried about the symbolism of working with the military. "Are we the entertainment cog that gets thrown in to help keep the war machine turning?" he remembers thinking.


He also had a paralyzing fear of flying in helicopters, which would be the group's main transportation in Iraq. His bandmates suggested he try hypnosis or counseling. Eventually, Mr. Isaac signed Edison up anyway, and Mr. Svec gave in, worrying that he was being selfish.


Edison:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/pt-ae959_Cover__20070323172358.jpg



Mr. Svec assumed that his father, who had served as a drill sergeant during the Vietnam War, would support the idea. But instead, when Mr. Svec broke the news at a family party that he was going to Iraq, his father said, "No, you're not," and walked away. Three weeks before the band was to leave, a friend of Mr. Isaac's was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb, and Mr. Isaac's family asked him to reconsider. Mr. Isaac was shaken but says the tragedy made the tour seem even more important.


Getting to Iraq was a challenge of its own. The group had to disassemble their amplifiers to meet weight restrictions on the commercial flights overseas. Half of their equipment got lost between England and the United Arab Emirates, resulting in a 10-day hiatus in Dubai that almost scuttled the tour.


Soon, though, the band was hovering over Iraq, strapped into the seats of a C-130 jet as the pilot made a swerving combat landing to avoid potential enemy fire. At their first shows, they played to fairly reserved audiences, partly due to the ban on alcohol. But at Forward Operating Base Sykes, near Iraq's border with Syria, something changed.


Kevin Fowler:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/pt-ae959_Cover__20070323172355.jpg



With the temperature outside topping 110 degrees, Edison took the stage in an air-conditioned mess hall packed with several hundred soldiers. The band launched into "Helter Skelter" by the Beatles. In front of the stage, a camouflaged throng sang, danced and pumped their fists. Some soldiers strummed their unloaded machine guns like electric guitars. "It was the most moving musical thing that has ever happened to me," Mr. Isaac says.


Now back home, Edison's members say they often get messages on their MySpace page from soldiers who saw them play overseas. James Lougee, a member of the Air Force National Guard, drove six hours from his home in Spring Grove, Pa., to a ski resort in New York to see Edison perform last winter. He'd been in the audience at one of their Iraq shows -- in fact, it was the first rock concert he'd ever seen.


Last year, AFE organized 118 tours overseas and a total of 1,433 performances -- a record for the group, which was founded in 1951. With a budget of $7 million for fiscal 2007, AFE is still much smaller than the USO, which is funded almost entirely by donations and which relies on the AFE to coordinate tours with the military. In 2005, the last year for which tax records are available, the USO brought in about $60 million in donations and spent almost $47 million on services ranging from tours to canteens. But while the USO typically only marshals stars for one-week tours to a limited number of bases, AFE recruits acts for stints of up to a month that reach many more outposts.


Recently, in an effort to attract more high-quality bands, AFE has been working to boost its profile. It's hired a marketing agency, which helped design a slick Web site and new logo for the group. It's also taking part in more industry events, making contacts with labels and sending more recruiters to clubs and music festivals.


Touring with the military can translate to a boost in album sales for some bands. Pop-punk group Ballentine played for an audience of 3,000 soldiers at Guantanamo Bay -- compared to the crowds of a few hundred it usually gets at home in L.A. Singer Niki Barr, who is about to leave for her fifth AFE stint, says she sees about a 40% bump in merchandise sales after every tour. Rock group Cinder Road landed a record deal with EMI and an opening slot on tour with "American Idol" star Chris Daughtry after building a big fan following on AFE tours.


Bands aren't paid for the tours, but receive free lodging and a stipend of $75 per person for each day they're away. In remote areas, performers usually eat alongside soldiers in chow halls and stay in the same cramped quarters.


Bands are banned from selling their CDs and other merchandise on the bases to prevent competition with the military exchange stores. Instead, AFE gives bands up to $1,500 to pay for promotional items such as T-shirts, CDs and fliers, which they give away to the troops. Some acts bring laptops and burn their music onto blank CDs.


Some in the music industry say AFE is emerging as a force in helping bands get noticed. "It's filling a void. They're actually helping to break artists," says Tamara Conniff, executive editor and associate publisher of Billboard, which plans to sponsor an AFE tour of R&B bands.


The Niki Barr Band:

com/public/resources/images/pt-af002_armyro_20070323181024.jpg


All this has turned a Marine captain named Jesse Davidson and several of his AFE colleagues into unlikely arbiters of indie bands. Capt. Davidson, 30, served three tours of duty in Iraq from 2003 to 2005 as a logistics officer in the infantry battalion that helped pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. In 2005, he was given a new assignment: sending rock bands to the war zone he had just left.


Capt. Davidson mans a cubicle on the fourth floor of a building complex near the Pentagon. Dressed in a service uniform of a khaki shirt and green pants, his brown hair cut in the "jarhead" Marine style, he spends most of the day on the phone, coordinating gigs.


Once every two weeks, he and his colleagues file down the hall to a conference room for a ritual they've dubbed "AFE Idol." They gather before a flat-screen TV connected to a DVD player and stereo system. This is where they screen submissions. Partly as a result of its recruiting efforts, AFE receives dozens of applications from musicians, magicians and comedians each month. Only a third are accepted.


On a recent afternoon, the staff assessed a rock group from the Midwest. A video montage showed the leather-clad band riding motorcycles and sweating it out at biker rallies.


Capt. Davidson gave the band points for having an electric fiddle player -- a sign they could adapt to mixed military crowds. "These guys straddle the line between country and rock," he said.


Each band is graded on a scale of 1 to 5 in 20 different areas, a system that AFE recently introduced to make the process more objective. Categories range from the fairly standard (stage presence, audience engagement) to some particular to the military (appearance, sobriety). Profanity and religious references are considered red flags.


The biker band scored low on sobriety -- the video didn't show them drinking, but they seemed at home in front of hard-partying fans. But a mix of 3s and 4s on other criteria meant they'd likely be accepted if a follow-up phone interview went smoothly.


Carly Goodwin:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/pt-af002_armyro_20070323181016.jpg



The next applicant -- a folk singer who played guitar on stage accompanied by instrumental tracks he'd prerecorded in a studio -- didn't fare as well. "Someone doing this in front of a crowd of soldiers would get booed off the stage," said Capt. Davidson as he aimed the remote control at the stereo. "Let's just stop the pain." (l) (l) (l)


Thom Shepherd:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/pt-af002_armyro_20070323181021.jpg


Last week, AFE went on one of its biggest recruiting missions yet. Fifty AFE staff members and affiliates descended on the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, a major industry event. Last year, its first time at the festival, AFE sent five representatives, who manned a table in uniform. This time, they opted for civilian clothes to blend in. Also part of the strategy: never using the word "recruit" with bands.


During the four-day event, the group approached hundreds of bands and handed out metal dog tags that doubled as business cards. In the evenings, they moved quickly from one bar to another to check out acts.


At midnight Wednesday in a bar called the Viper Room, they saw one they liked: Reeve Carney & the Revolving Band. Mr. Carney, in a velvet blazer with a black scarf knotted around his neck, was singing part of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," in a high, steady voice.


When the song was over, Daniel Cook, a former Marine who works with AFE to set up concert tours in the Middle East, raised his beer bottle and clinked it approvingly with his thick Marine Corps ring. "I've got goose bumps," he said.


After the show, he and his colleagues buttonholed Mr. Carney outside the Viper Room. The singer was enthusiastic about the idea of a tour. Mr. Carney's lawyer, Ken Abdo, also approved. "It's a very great marketing move that could put the band in front of thousands of open-souled soldiers," he said.


While an Iraq tour has clear publicity benefits for a little-known act, selling stars on the idea can be more difficult. The USO has scored some new celebrities, such as singer Jessica Simpson and rapper 50 Cent, for Iraq tours, but it's relied heavily on its old guard of regulars like Al Franken, Robin Williams and Wayne Newton. Some entertainers affiliated with the USO say the group has had trouble bringing on new A-list performers.


Charlie Robison:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/pt-af002_armyro_20070323181027.jpg


Singer and cable-TV host Henry Rollins, who has been on seven USO tours, says he hasn't been able to recruit other stars to tour. Neither has Drowning Pool, a rock band that the USO calls one of its key ambassadors, particularly to young musicians.


John Hanson, a spokesman for the USO says that in cases when top celebrities haven't signed on, they haven't cited politics or danger as a reason, but that scheduling is often an issue.


Another challenge for the group, Mr. Rollins says, is bringing on the kinds of acts that soldiers in their late teens and early 20s care about.


He says this could be a point of strength for AFE: "The days of Wayne Newton are kind of over."



(f) Down Time: Ethan Isaac of the rock band Edison on a base in Afghanistan.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PT-AF015_army3_20070323171711.jpg



Corrections & Amplifications:

The military C-130 aircraft is a turboprop. This article incorrectly called it a jet.




(f) (f) (f)


Peace (Pretty please!),

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

[sweetlady]

:o


The market for reselling clothing is changing, with some of the least-expensive goods seeing big jumps in value and online auctions letting shoppers effectively scalp hot-selling items from H&M and Target.


:o :o


The Gold in Your Closet: Investment-Grade Bustiers


Online bidding wars erupt for second-hand designer duds; $500 for a $80 dress -- from H&M

By TERI AGINS

March 24, 2007; Page P1


The stock market may be having its ups and downs this month, but here's an investment that appreciated 629% in just a week: a blue silk bustier top from Target. The top, designed by Proenza Schouler, orginally sold for $35, but because it was featured in a TV commercial and had already sold out at Target, its owner was able to sell it on eBay for $255.


This month, women across America will go through their annual spring-cleaning ritual, clearing out their closets in hopes of recouping a few dollars from clothes they no longer like -- or just never wear. But the market for reselling clothing is changing, with some of the least-expensive goods seeing big jumps in value and online auction sites letting shoppers effectively scalp hot-selling items from H&M and Target in particular. It's a big shift from the traditional approach, in which shoppers resold their clothes after they'd worn them for a while and would fetch only a fraction of the purchase price.


Among the items that have found buyers willing to pay substantial premiums: A Roland Mouret dress that sold for $108 at Gap in January appreciated 100%. A sweater dress from the limited-edition Stella McCartney line that H&M sold in 2005 went for more than six times its original price on eBay this past January.


Though it's hard to predict precisely which items will ignite a bidding war, the feeding frenzy for fast fashion is beginning to resemble the demand for high-priced "it" handbags. Speculators have jumped in to snap up the clothes as soon as they hit stores -- and list them for sale on eBay. Even before a collection by Madonna arrived at H&M in the U.S. this past week, there were multiple bids on eBay for Madonna sunglasses that H&M started selling March 10 only in Hong Kong.


The irony is that these clothes, created by designers such as style icon Karl Lagerfeld and the trendy Viktor & Rolf duo, were intended to give the masses a chance to own designer duds. They're made from less-expensive fabrics than the usual designer fare and feature lower-quality tailoring, with price tags to match. But when fast-fashion chains carry these designer collections for a limited time only -- and at only some of their stores -- the scarcity can drive up prices on the secondary market.


That "drives up the cachet and it drives up the price," says Constance White, style director of eBay, which has more than two million listings in clothes, shoes and accessories at any given time. "Logic isn't dictating the high prices. It's emotion."


Women who want to unload their designer clothes every year have far more options than in the past. In addition to consignment shops, an array of dealers have sprung up to help people unload their unwanted clothes online in exchange for a cut of the proceeds. Sales of apparel and accessories on eBay alone exploded to $4.7 billion last year from $2.9 billion in 2003.


Most designer clothes, however, don't fetch much, with the exception of certain vintage couture items and brands with a cult following. On eBay, the most searched terms in apparel, shoes and accessories are Coach, Louis Vuitton, Abercrombie & Fitch and Chanel. There is also demand for certain items by designers Norma Kamali and Ossie Clark. The prices typically reflect a garment's condition as well as availability.


Some dealers, of course, do a better job than others of unloading castoff clothes. New Yorker Marlene Provizer, a personal shopper who has sold online for 10 years, for instance, relies on her "Book" of satisfied clients to match buyers and sellers just before she lists items on eBay. That has enabled her to move goods promptly -- often at impressive prices. She has sold about four of designer Zoran's $900 tafetta evening jackets, including one for $450 to a return client. "If people have already done business with you," she says, "they come back to you again."


For the most part, women who sell their unwanted clothes don't expect to get a lot. Janis Ehlers of Boca Raton, Fla., regularly takes suitcases full of designer clothes to a consignment shop in Washington, D.C., that takes a 50% cut of the proceeds. She says she considers it "found money."


The limited-edition designer clothes made for Target and H&M can fetch prices far above their original values on eBay because they are novelties that often sell out quickly at retail. Only a few styles are offered and they're on sale for only a couple of months.


This is a contrast to a new generation of "designer" labels such as Isaac Mizrahi's line for Target and Nicole Miller's Nicole line for J.C. Penney, which are simply part of the year-round mix at the stores and seem to command only routine interest in the secondary market. For example, in the past three months 87 Mizrahi items sold on eBay with an average price of about $10 -- and none sold higher than their original retail price.


Even Mr. Lagerfeld, who generated a lot of buzz when he did the first designer guest turn at H&M in 2004, wasn't a hit on eBay. Only 34 items from his H&M collection, which featured a lot of black and had a high-fashion look, were resold on eBay, and the highest price was $78.56 for a party dress that originally sold for $116.


Sellers -- especially those looking to make a profit -- usually have to strike early. Two weeks ago, Triss Budoff of Houston spent $2,000 at Target on about 55 Proenza Schouler items but missed the peak of the frenzy. So far, she has sold 30 of them for an average of $8 per item more than she paid, meaning she is essentially breaking even after her costs to list the clothes.


Still, she isn't deterred. She figures she can return anything she can't sell within 90 days and get a full refund. To increase her chances of cashing in next time, she plans to show up at the store the first day the clothes hit.


Target, H&M and the other stores don't seem to mind because the guest-designer programs are aimed more at generating buzz than sales volume. Target doesn't limit the amount of designer merchandise a shopper can buy, because its goal is to make high fashion accessible to a broad audience, spokeswoman Amy von Walter says.


H&M also says it's making high fashion more accessible and allows people to buy as much as they want. H&M said in a statement: "While we prefer buying and selling to take place in our H&M stores, there are no laws preventing private individuals from trading on the Internet."


Teri Agins discusses the market for used designer clothes Saturday morning on ABC's "Weekend Good Morning America." Check local listings.




;) Who knew? One of these days, I plan on selling lots and lots of clothing and jewelry (among other things) on eBay or some other online method. Maybe Craigslist? I'm moving and must weed, give away and sell things. :) Or pay somebody to do so....:)



Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

:| :| :|

....or so say the actors on the set of HBO's DEADWOOD.......As my dad always said, "There is a fine line between genius and insanity!" :| ;)


Picks

Online: Video

The creator of 'NYPD Blue' tries his hand at true confessions on the Web

By JACOB HALE RUSSELL

March 24, 2007; Page P2

In the latest sign of the influence of YouTube-style videos, Steven Bochco, the creator of hit TV shows like "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue," is trying a new medium with a series of short, unscripted videos on the Web.


The results are more professional than the average YouTube home video, but the subject matter and style are remarkably similar. The series, called "Cafe Confidential," features real people, mostly in their 20s, speaking into the camera about topics like their most embarrassing moments or worst dates.


The videos are shot simply, with a close-up of the subject's face set against a nondescript background of a gray curtain. In one, a man wearing a T-shirt describes how he got fired from a job at a dry-cleaners when he was 16; in another, a girl narrates the misbehavior of her dysfunctional and intoxicated family members at a Christmas party.


Because they're meant to feel unedited, some of the monologues are disorganized, repetitive and, in some cases, tiresome. A viewer comment added to one video says, "I'd just keep this story for myself."


Many of the anecdotes have sexual themes, including an entire category devoted to "my first time," and sometimes feature off-color jokes and commentary. Mr. Bochco says he was looking for a topic that young people would be "universally attracted to."


Mr. Bochco launched the series in partnership with Metacafe, a site that hosts user-created videos like YouTube. Unlike YouTube, Metacafe pays users for content that generates a lot of views.


"It's the antithesis of what I'm doing in my day job," Mr. Bochco says. "It's just challenging to try and figure out in a different medium, that really has a different expectation."


Mr. Bochco is also sponsoring a contest for user-submitted videos in any of the site's six categories. He says he'll continue to roll out a new confessional every day, at least for the next few weeks.


"That's the fun of it, to see if people are intrigued enough by it," he says.



www.metacafe.com/cc



(f) Have a delightful, sunny day!



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

(f) (f)


Picks

Hit List: Danica Patrick

The Indy Racing star on her favorite music to drive to -- off the track

By RUSSELL ADAMS

March 24, 2007; Page P2


http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PT-AE967_Picks__20070323155105.jpg



In the two years since she started her career in the Indy Racing League, driver Danica Patrick has emerged as one of the most marketable figures in sports. As the 2007 Indy Racing season opens this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Ms. Patrick, who exploded onto the racing scene in 2005, will be working to rebound from a disappointing season last year. Recently, Ms. Patrick, who turns 25 on Sunday, talked with us about what she listens to when she's out driving on her own, instead of on the race track -- drivers don't rock out during races, when they are constantly in radio contact with their crews. Below, some of her favorite music for driving around town in what she calls her "grocery-shopping car," a Lamborghini Gallardo.


Saving Jane, 'Girl Next Door'

"I tend to kind of like angry-chick music," says Ms. Patrick, who adds that Alanis Morissette is her favorite artist, "so that probably speaks volumes." She says "Girl Next Door" is her favorite song on this CD.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PT-AE968_Picks__20070323160132.jpg



Christina Aguilera, 'Back to Basics'

Ms. Patrick fell in love with the song "Hurt" while celebrating her one-year anniversary with husband Paul Hospenthal on a recent trip to California's Napa Valley. "That's such a pretty song," she says. Ms. Patrick says she likes new music with an old feel.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PT-AE969_Picks__20070323160129.jpg



Jay-Z and Linkin Park, 'Numb/Encore'

Last year, Ms. Patrick appeared with Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Jay-Z video "Show Me What You Got," but she insists she's not plugging her new friend. "I thought those songs they did together were awesome," she says.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PT-AE970_Picks__20070323160137.jpg



Fergie, 'The Dutchess'

Ms. Patrick calls this a "fun album" that has a wide mix of songs, from mainstream tunes like "Fergalicious" and "London Bridge" to slower, "more meaningful" music.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PT-AE971_Picks__20070323160126.jpg



Beyoncé, 'B'Day'

Ms. Patrick says she likes this CD because it's so upbeat. "It keeps me driving fast, as if I need any inspiration," she says. Her favorite song is "Upgrade U."

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PT-AE972_Picks__20070323160123.jpg




(f) (f)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:D

Sam Schechner looks at the Onion's new Web video service, PBS's "The Boomer Century," and the first solo album from Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.


THE WEEKEND ADVISER

By SAM SCHECHNER


Press 'Play' for Satire

March 23, 2007; Page W3

The latest wave in the flood of Internet video: fake news.


On Tuesday, the satirical newspaper The Onion plans to launch a video Web site, a move that will put the closely held company in more direct competition with such media giants as Viacom Inc., Time Warner Inc. and Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp. Called Onion News Network, the site will parody the visual style and breathless reporting of 24-hour cable news networks like CNN. In a promotional video currently available on the site, ONN promises TV news that's "faster," "harder," "scarier" and "all-knowing."


Initially, ONN will offer two short video segments per week, a number that will grow, according to Sean Mills, president of Onion Inc. The videos, available at tv.theonion.com and as free podcasts on iTunes, will include fake breaking-news segments, fake investigative pieces, fake public service announcements and feeds from a C-SPAN parody called "O-SPAN." (The videos will have real advertisers, however. Dewar's, for example, is sponsoring the launch.)


ONN will also offer talk-show segments in the style of Sunday-morning roundtables, in which participants will debate questions such as "Should America build a moat?" and "Does anybody remember life before the Segway?"


The Onion's move comes as a growing number of big media companies are flooding the Web with original video content. Yesterday, NBC Universal and News Corp. announced a joint venture to compete with YouTube. (Read the article.) But while the number of unique visitors to theonion.com, the weekly newspaper's Web site, has grown 10% in the past year, the site attracts fewer visitors than video-heavy competitors such as Comedy Central, AOL Comedy and the National Lampoon's network of sophomoric sites, according to comScore Media Metrix. The Onion's Web site brought in $18 million in advertising revenue in 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence.


To increase those numbers, the Onion is investing about $1 million in the video venture, and has hired 15 staffers over the past six months, says Mr. Mills. Head writer Carol Kolb, a former Onion editor-in-chief, has assembled a new writing team, and will produce original content, although there will be collaboration with the print staff.


The Onion has been around in some form since 1988, and video news parodies date back over 40 years to such fare as "That Was the Week That Was." Later, "Laugh-In" did TV news spoofs and "Saturday Night Live" carries on the tradition today.


But the genre is becoming increasingly competitive as it moves online. "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are popular sources of video for Comedy Central's Web site. Meanwhile, HBO and AOL recently launched thisjustin.com, a news-satire blog with original videos, while IAC has partnered with the political site Huffington Post to create a site called 23/6. Slated to launch in April, 23/6 will feature humorous news coverage and videos of comedians weighing in on the day's events, according to its editor, Daley Haggar.


The Onion may, however, retain a note of distinction: "The Onion makes up stories about things that aren't happening. We're riffing on what is happening," says Erik Flannigan, who oversees digital media for Comedy Central. "I don't think they're trying to own a category."


Mr. Mills, in keeping with the Onion's mythology, has a different perspective: "We're taking on CNN, MSNBC and, of course, al-Jazeera."


TV: Hours of Boomers


How does PBS lure the "me generation" into watching a two-hour documentary? Make it about them.


"The Boomer Century: 1946-2046," which airs Wednesday, takes Baby Boomers on a journey through their collective memory -- rendered as a virtual museum, populated with cultural touchstones like "Leave It to Beaver" and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Pausing occasionally to speak to prominent boomers such as Erica Jong and Rob Reiner, the film asserts that the generation's size (about 78 million people) and stereotypical character traits (idealism, flexibility, self-centeredness) have reshaped the U.S. and will continue to do so in coming decades. One segment explores the possibility of genetic life extension; another raises the specter of boomers reliving the '60s by becoming political activists again.


"There's a Peter Pan aspect to this generation," says another of the film's talking heads, Tony Snow, the White House's press secretary. "We never think we're going to grow up." (9 p.m. EDT; check local listings)


Music: Life Beyond Pulp


http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AI906_ADV_mu_20070322180019.jpg


The Brit-pop group Pulp has done nothing since 2002, but in the meantime frontman Jarvis Cocker had a son and wrote songs for the last "Harry Potter" movie. Now, he's going solo.


On April 3, his album "Jarvis" will arrive in U.S. stores. Mr. Cocker's work has never been very popular in the U.S. -- Pulp's best-selling album, 1995's "Different Class," sold only 117,000 copies here, Nielsen SoundScan says. But Mr. Cocker (no relation to English singer Joe) has usually drawn good reviews, and his latest effort has been winning them with lyrics that are, as one critic said, "intoxicated with disgust."


In "From Auschwitz to Ipswich," he wails about a world of cowardice and evil. In "Fat Children," he's killed by overweight kids and then sarcastically tells a parent to "pander to your pampered little princess of such enormous size."




Humor in motion: The Onion's promotional video for its new Web site. The newspaper promises viewers will be able to embed the videos in their blogs.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AI907_ADV_on_20070322180106.jpg



:D

(y) Very cool. (y)



"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (f) (l) (f) (l)



"Dear Mr. President"
(featuring The Indigo Girls)



Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me.
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.



What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?



How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?



Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind.
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell.



What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.



How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?



Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don't know nothing 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
Oh



How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President,
You'd never take a walk with me.
Would you?



http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pink/dearmrpresident.html




(l) (l) VIDEO and good audio (8) (8): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FF0cS9s6Aw




(8) (8) Listen/Download: http://www.tunefind.com/show/The+L+Word






:| Too bad da village idiot will bever hear this. :(


:(





"All we are saying........is give peace a chance." - John Lennon



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

[sweetlady]

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


Heard first during the lovemaking scene between Shane and Paige during the L Word's Season 4 Finale. ( Shane & Paige love scene turns into an old-fashioned, sexy "husband and wife" daydream.)


Before We Begin


Here again, at the end
Before the beginning
So the salt will spill again
Throw it over your shoulder


Oh it's in tomorrow
Fortune or sorrow
Wait you may win
I don't mean to show
That I know how this goes
Before we begin again


You may hide on one side
And me on the other
You may speak but wait for me
Should my sentence faulter


Oh it's in tomorrow
Fortune or sorrow
Wait you may win
But now it feels empty
There's no need in guessing
Before we begin again


So here we are again
Back to the beginning
So the salt will spill again
Throw it over your shoulder


Oh it's in tomorrow
Fortune or sorrow
I dont need to show
That I know how this goes
Before we begin again




http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Before-We-Begin-lyrics-Broadcast/06DC6A0BA7337CD848256E3E000C8F1F


http://www.thelwordonline.com/st_412.html





There are some gorgeous Spector-esque moments:

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2003/0926/broadcast.html



http://www.adriandenning.co.uk/broadcast.html



http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/competitions/2003/08/broadcast/broadcast.shtml



(f)



Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (l)


http://www.ourchart.com/




Greetings From Trashville: http://www.ourchart.com/node/51415




(p) Kate/Shane: http://www.ourchart.com/files/images/promo/kate220.jpg




(l) Ask Kate and Leisha!! Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig are ready to talk to you! Post your questions for them here, and they'll answer in an upcoming podcast. Want to know more about Leisha's band, Kate's experience acting in the off-Broadway play Guardians last year? Or perhaps something about the L Word? Now's your chance -- ask away.

http://www.ourchart.com/node/48981




Jennifer and Ilene Answer! http://www.ourchart.com/files/images/promo/bette220.jpg

Jennifer Beals and Ilene Chaiken have answered your questions in the second of a multi-part series of podcasts. Check it out!

http://www.ourchart.com/node/291





And now, for something completely different: the first ever Thursday News Roundup… from LA! The Hookup, Thursday News Roundup: 03-29 March 28, 2007 - 10:25 p.m.:

http://www.ourchart.com/the_hookup




http://www.cafepress.com/l_word_quotes (y) (y) (y)




http://logo.cafepress.com/3/215835.527453.jpg

:)


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

[sweetlady]

(l) (l)

Weep No More! The Fun Goes On!


March 27, 2007 - 2:09pm — lisa


There seems to be a bit of consternation in OurChartlandia. The natives are restless. People are busy pondering life's deep questions: What will we do now that Season 4 of The L Word is over? How will we live? And, What the hell will there be to look forward to on OurChart?


I'm here to tell you that life does indeed go on, cinnamon swirls! Yes, we'll all miss our weekly Sunday night fix until Season 5 starts -- but here in OurChartlandia, we have a whole passel of new stuff to thrill and delight you until that happens. Here's but a small taste of what we have planned for you in the coming weeks:


(h)(h) Thrilling item #1: Inside the Writers' Room. "Come on Ilene" will still keep a-coming on -- but instead of Ilene doing a weekly podcast about what just happened on the show, she'll take you right into the Writers' Room at The L Word's new Hollywood offices, where you'll get an inside peek as they plot out Season 5's stories!


You'll be able to watch as the writers wrangle over storylines: should Bette and Tina get back together? Will Tasha and Alice's relationship survive her deployment to Iraq? What will happen to Jenny on that raft? You'll get to hear the discussions and debates, and post your comments and suggestions too. We can't promise jammies, but we can promise insight and drama. And you can watch in your jammies.



(y) (y) Thrilling item #2: Girltrash webisodes. We've posted some teasers for you, and shown you a few behind-the-scenes photos, but very soon we'll start showing you the real deal: original webisodes of Girltrash, an OurChart exclusive! Girltrash is the finest in lesbian pulp noir, created and directed by the incomparable Angela Robinson, whose work on The L Word and on films like D.E.B.S. and Herbie Fully Loaded has been widely acclaimed.


Girltrash stars some of the hottest performers in the biz -- from The L Word's Rose Rollins, to South of Nowhere's Mandy Musgrave and Gabrielle Christian, to comedian Margaret Cho. But you can't see it in theaters or on TV -- you can only see it here with us, on OurChart! So, git your popcorn ready; it's coming very soon.



:) :) Thrilling item #3: A full report from the Dinah Shore Weekend and OurChart's Be Scene event. Once again, I will be making like a girl reporter, enduring the nightmare of mingling with 12,000 women in sunny Palm Springs, California to bring you news, photos and possibly even some gossip from the Dinah Shore Weekend. It's the biggest lesbo event in the universe, or if it isn't, it's really super big, anyway. I pledge to make you feel like you're right there with me.


We'll also bring you the full report from Be Scene! -- our first OurChart contest, where teams will get up and perform L Word scenes in front of our panel of judges: Kate Moennig, Leisha Hailey and Jane Lynch. And Alexandra Hedison will be our MC. It's going to be a "hoot," as my grandmother would say.



:D :D Thrilling item #4: Kate and Leisha's podcasts. You asked for them, and you're getting them. Kate and Leisha will do a series of regularly scheduled podcasts, answering questions you post for them online. They'll give you the 411 on what's up in their lives and on the set -- what better way to feed your L Word fix?



Thrilling item #5: More and more baked goods. A never-ending supply of baked goods, in fact! Hookups out the wazoo! More Lisa Parrish than you can shake a stick at! I'm here with you forever, dear readers, just like a rash.


In fact, so determined am I to bring you great new content and occasional recipes, I decided to relocate to Los Angeles. Yes, L. Parrish is leaving the wonkified world of Washington DC and heading West. If you're reading this on Wednesday morning EDT, I'm on the plane, winging toward my future.


Some friends of mine in DC threw me a farewell party earlier in the week, and amid the usual toasts and good cheer, a plate of most extraordinary cupcakes appeared. Have a look at the photo below -- and the first person who can correctly identify what each of the cupcakes represents (one or two are kind of tough, so beware!) will win some fabulous thing or another.


Lots more: http://www.ourchart.com/node/61554


http://www.ourchart.com/files/farewell_cupcakes.jpg





Will they be back together next season?

http://www.afterellen.com/sites/www.afterellen.com/files/images/confusedalice.jpg



(n) Jenny can float out to sea and never, ever come back. Her character drags the rest of the show down, IMHO. I hope she's gone next Season.




http://logo.cafepress.com/2/215835.503222.jpg ;)


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

[sweetlady]

(l) (l)


http://www.tv.com/the-l-word/long-time-coming/episode/889709/summary.html



http://www.tv.com/the-l-word/show/18662/videos.html



(f)





http://logo.cafepress.com/2/215835.503222.jpg ;)


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

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :|


http://theroadbeststraddled.blogspot.com/2007/01/l-word-season-four-episode-one-legend.html




:o



http://logo.cafepress.com/3/215835.527453.jpg (l) (l)

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

[sweetlady]

:D



1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.



2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.


3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the
country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.



4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but
don't really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their
statistics shown in pie charts.



5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the
country - if they could find the time - and if they didn't have to leave
Southern California to do it.



6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the
country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.



7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who is
running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat
on the train.



8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the
country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while
intoxicated.



9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but
need the baseball scores.



10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is
a country, or that anyone is running it but, if so, they oppose all that
they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are
handicapped minority gay feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be
illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy provided, of course, that
they are not Republicans.



11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery
store.


AND


12. None of these is read by the guy who is running the country.




:D :D :D



http://logo.cafepress.com/3/215835.527453.jpg ;)

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

[lovinthestud]

"We all have a rainbow in the clouds"
Maya Angelou, saw her on Monday, she is AMAZING!!!

[sweetlady]

(f) (f)


French nun in Pope John Paul's beatification case speaks of 'cure'

International Herald Tribune

The Associated Press

Friday, March 30, 2007

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France: Smiling broadly, the French nun whose claims could be accepted as the miracle that the Vatican needs to beatify Pope John Paul II said Friday that she was inexplicably and suddenly "cured" of Parkinson's disease — thanks to him.

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre stopped short of declaring her recovery a miracle, saying that was for the church to decide. But she said her life "totally changed" after her symptoms vanished in one night of prayer and mystery in 2005.

"For me, it is a bit like a second birth," the nun whose identity was long kept secret said at a news conference. After her sudden recovery, she said she told one of her fellow nuns, "'Look, my hand is no longer shaking. Jean Paul II has cured me."

The 46-year-old, speaking in a clear, poised voice, said she was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2001. Her symptoms worsened with time: driving became practically impossible, she had difficulty walking, and her left arm hung limply at her side. She also could no longer bear to see John Paul on television, because he, too, was stricken — more seriously — with the disease.

When seeing him, "I saw myself in the years to come, to be honest, in a wheelchair," she said.

Her cure came on the night of June 2, 2005, exactly two months after the pontiff's death, she said. In her room after evening prayers, she said an inner voice urged her to take up her pen and write. She did, and was surpassed to see that her handwriting — which had grown illegible because of her illness — was clear. She said she then went to bed, and woke early the next morning feeling "completely transformed."

"I was no longer the same inside. It is difficult for me to explain to you in words ... It was too strong, too big. A mystery."

"I realized that my body was no longer the same," she added. "I was convinced that I was cured."

She said that she has not taken medicine since. Before her cure, her fellow nuns in the "Little Sisters of Catholic Maternities" had been praying to John Paul for her recovery, she added.

Described by her colleagues as a gentle, reserved woman who had hoped to keep her identity under wraps, the nun coped well with the media spotlight. She looked a little bemused as journalists huddled around her, putting their microphones in place. Only once, when describing how her symptoms worsened after the pope died on April 2, 2005, did she momentarily lose a little of her poise.

"Please excuse me, I'm a little emotional," she said.

Before John Paul can be beatified — the last formal step before possible sainthood — the Vatican requires that a miracle attributed to his intercession be confirmed.

The nun is expected to travel to Rome for ceremonies marking the second anniversary of the pontiff's death and the closure of a church investigation into his life. Pope Benedict XVI waived the customary five-year waiting period for the procedure to begin, clearly in response to popular demand that began with chants of "Santo Subito!" or "Sainthood Now!" erupting during John Paul's 2005 funeral.

The nun, who comes from a family of practicing Catholics in Cambrai in northern France, said she had always been an admirer of John Paul. She was 17 when he was elected pontiff.

"He was, in a way, my pope, the pope of our generation," she said. When he died, "I felt as if I had lost a friend,"

There is still no word on when any beatification or canonization of John Paul might occur.

"All I can tell you is that I was sick and now I am cured," said the nun. "It is for the church to say and to recognize whether it is a miracle."



http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/30/europe/EU-GEN-France-John-Paul-Sainthood.php




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(f) (f)


At the Four Seasons in Scottsdale, Ariz., pet guests get welcome packages.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/30/travel/escapes/20pets_span.jpg



March 30, 2007

No Pet Left Behind

By WENDY KNIGHT

ONE brisk afternoon this past winter, the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek, Colo., could have been mistaken for the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.


There sat Biscuit, a white-haired West Highland terrier from Denver, waiting diligently at the foot of her owner, a stylishly trim woman drinking a glass of wine in the lounge with a friend. And Bambi, a skittish border collie from Texas, wore a red Willie Nelson-style bandanna around her neck. Then there was the tan and petite cocker spaniel, prancing up and down the sunny courtyard alongside her equally tan and petite owner.


In a culture in which dogs and cats have become surrogate children (and grandchildren) and are sometimes better dressed than their owners, a growing number of hotels and resorts have welcomed four-legged guests in recent years, including the Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carlton, the Loews and the Kimpton hotels. But now, several luxury condominiums and private residence clubs are taking pet-friendly policies further by offering services and amenities that rival those meant for humans, including grooming sessions, swim classes, massage treatments (no mere belly-scratch) and even a doggie psychic.


“There’s easily been a 300 percent increase in the number of lodgings accepting pets in the last three years,” said Derek Welsh, president of BringYourPet.com, a Web site devoted to peripatetic pets and their humans. “The trend is definitely shifting toward higher-end hotels. In order to truly compete, they are going above and beyond with amenities, trying to one-up the competitor.”


In a survey of 100,000 of its Web-site viewers, BringYourPet said, 75 percent said they had taken their pets on trips.


That included people like Nicholas Trofimuk, a fine-art photographer who lives near Santa Fe, N.M. At about 4:45 each afternoon, when they are visiting their residence at the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North in Arizona, Mr. Trofimuk’s two sprightly West Highland terriers, Oliver and Bertie, find him to “roughhouse.” As Oliver looks on, Bertie, “the puppy,” paws at the chair where Mr. Trofimuk sits in the living room, then he rears back on his hind legs and claps his paws together, “telling me it’s time,” said Mr. Trofimuk, who drops to the floor to wrestle with his dogs.


“They can’t live without it, and neither can I,” he said. “They make me feel very special. There are few people that can make you feel that way.”


Elon Kenchington, chief operating officer for the Gansevoort Hotel Group and the owner of a black Australian shepherd, said, “We think the comfort of the pets is almost equally as important as the owners’ and guests’.” The Gansevoort South Beach Private Residence, a property with 232 hotel rooms and 259 condos in Miami Beach that is scheduled to open this summer, is one such resort that is rolling out the welcome mat — or is it day-old newspapers? — for pets.


When arriving at their owners’ condos, which range from 625 to 5,000 square feet and with prices starting at $600,000, dogs will receive a basket of toys and treats and a bed mat of 100 percent Egyptian cotton embroidered with the dog’s name. Recognizing that dogs have different temperaments, the resort plans to offer a range of beds, including feather and sturdy foam.


“A bit like a choice of pillow for people,” Mr. Kenchington said. “Some dogs like to chew and shake. With feather beds, we could get a pillow-fight situation with feathers scattering everywhere.” Thus, the foam option.


Americans spent $38.5 billion on their pets last year, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. While only $2.5 billion of that went toward grooming and boarding, resorts understand that pet owners prefer to bring Lassie (and sometimes Mittens) along when they head to their vacation properties.


“Pets are part of the family; they’re like children,” said Kristen Gilmer, a manager at the Four Seasons Troon North.


“Part of the fun of being on vacation is quality time with your dogs,” said Mr. Trofimuk, who makes the eight-hour drive at least twice a year from Santa Fe to Troon North with Oliver, Bertie and his wife, Joette. “We’re not totally nuts, but we love our dogs.”


Pets, including dogs 15 pounds and under, are permitted at Troon North and most other Four Seasons resorts. The 88 residences, which range from a 500-square-foot studio to 1,500-square-foot two-bedroom units and rent for $16,000 to $100,000 for a one- or two-week stay, are deep-cleaned after each visit. Upon arrival, dogs are given a Bow-Wow welcome package — it’s called a Meow for cats — that includes a ceramic bowl, a placemat, a bottle of water and a chew toy.


If people (sigh) leave their own dog home, the Loan-a-Lab program at the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch gives guests and owners of the private residences a chance to walk Bachelor, a yellow Labrador retriever who was adopted from a Denver animal shelter and is now the resort’s resident dog. But Bachelor Gulch’s pro-dog platform (alas, no cats allowed) doesn’t stop there. Since the resort opened in 2002, it has allowed guests and owners to bring their own dogs for $125 a visit. They are permitted in all public areas, except the restaurants and spa, but must be leashed. The Ritz-Carleton Club next-door, a fractional-ownership, complex, does not allow pets.


“Having dogs on the premises makes guests feel at home,” said Steven Holt, a resort spokesman and Bachelor’s owner.

Even though the guests are happy to travel with their pets, how does Lulu feel about it? The Hotel Monaco in Portland, Ore., tries to provide an answer. Once a month during the hotel’s wine hour, Faye Pietrokowsky, a “people and pet psychic,” consults with owners and their pets in a corner of the lobby. Guests bring their pooch or cat, or a photo of it, and ask Ms. Pietrokowsky questions. One of the most frequent being, Ms. Pietrokowsky said: “Is the animal happy traveling?” By studying the animal or the photo, Ms. Pietrokowsky, who has a master’s degree in adult education, said she can discern how the animal feels. “Most of the animals tell me they want to go with their owners,” she said.


The Hotel Monaco also offers dog massages once a week by a certified animal masseuse. Art, the hotel’s lobby dog, has been lucky enough to savor that indulgence. “After that massage, he was very much like a guest coming out of a spa,” said Joseph Sundberg, the hotel’s porter captain and Art’s owner. “He was very relaxed.”


BUT with the bounty of mutts and fur balls at resorts aren’t there bound to be some unfriendly snaps and snarls — or just plain tail-between-your-legs mistakes?


“Never,” said Petr Lukes, who owns a two-bedroom residence at Bachelor Gulch. “There have been no incidents with dogs or people,” he said, referring to his 2 ½-year-old blond lab, Ginny. One time, though, Ginny was mistaken for Bachelor by a group of children, and they walked off with her.


“I ran three times around the building looking for her,” said Mr. Lukes, who finally found her in the library with the children.


Mr. Lukes, who lives in Naples, Fla., had been looking at other vacation properties in Beaver Creek and Vail, which is nearby, but preferred the dog-club atmosphere at Bachelor Gulch.


“It was very important that they allowed dogs,” he said of the decision to buy at Bachelor Gulch, where studios and two-bedroom residential suites sell for $680,000 to just under $2.2 million. “There are so many places you can walk your dogs here.”


When buying a vacation unit, the ability to bring a pet is a determining factor for many people like Mr. Lukes, resort executives say. “People want an environment where everything is the same or better than their primary home,” Mr. Kenchington said. “Ten years ago, people wouldn’t ask for something even if they desired it. Now, they expect it. Yesterday’s luxuries are today’s standards.”


One of those luxuries at the Gansevoort South Beach will be the services of dog runners, personal trainers who will run the dogs up and down the beach, gearing the workout to the type of dog and its usual exercise, Mr. Kenchington said.


“We want to bring the fitness and lifestyle of the owner to the dog’s routine,” he said. To keep pets cool in the Miami heat, the hotel is designing a brand of mini-umbrella that will fit onto the dog’s shoulder collar and sit a couple inches above its head. The hotel group is also considering swimming as part of its concierge dog services.


Those who must leave pets at home can always hope to play with someone else’s dog.


Madison Cole, 8, who was staying with her parents, Steve and Amy, at their condo in Bachelor Gulch, had signed up to walk Bachelor one afternoon last January. The Coles stay at their two-bedroom condo at least a couple of times each winter, Mr. Cole said. And Madison, who doesn’t have a dog at home, was eager to walk Bachelor.


“I really want a dog,” she said, “but my mom says we can’t because we have cats.”


On the mountainside courtyard, Mr. Holt gave the Coles a trail map and a plastic bag and reviewed the requirement that Bachelor must stay on the leash at all times. Bouncing with excitement, Madison and a friend grabbed the leash and walked Bachelor toward the mountain. Suddenly, he spotted a bigger, blonder lab playing with a neon-pink Frisbee on the other side of the beginner hill.


In a flash, Bachelor jerked free and tore across the snow, leaving Madison momentarily behind.


“O.K.,” Mr. Holt said. “That’s not supposed to happen.”



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/travel/escapes/30pets.html?_r=1&oref=slogin





Visitors without dogs of their own can borrow Bachelor at the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch in Colorado.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/30/travel/escapes/30pets.1_190.jpg




(l) (&) (l) (&) (l) (&) (l)





ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:o


Ladies in White, from the left, Catherine Goodman, Pat Cross-Chamberlin and Fran Coover, in the Rattlesnake Wilderness in Montana.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/30/us/30ashes-600.jpg




March 30, 2007

Roadblock for Spreading of Human Ashes in Wilderness

By JIM ROBBINS

MISSOULA, Mont. — Last wishes notwithstanding, federal officials are opposed to a Montana woman’s plan for a business that would spread the cremated remains of her clients over western Montana’s publicly owned wild mountain peaks and flower-studded meadows.


To Fran Coover, her new business, Ladies in White, seemed a perfect way to blend her interest in the environment and alternatives to the American way of dying. “It’s much less expensive,” Ms. Coover said. “And it is far more environmentally benign.”


For $390 Ms. Coover, a former administrator at a project studying end-of-life care here, along with two other ladies, offered to scatter the ashes of clients and provide a ceremony, a photograph, journal notes and Global Positioning System coordinates of the final resting place. Ten percent of the cost would be donated to groups who work to protect wild lands.


But after Ms. Coover scattered the cremated remains of her first client, she applied to the federal Forest Service, one of Montana’s largest owners of wild land, for a special-use permit to continue her business.


Though some officials told her it was fine to scatter the ashes on public land, she says, officials from Region I of the Forest Service, which covers Montana and Idaho, said it was against national policy and denied a permit.


She took her request to the Bureau of Land Management, the largest of the country’s federal land management agencies. At first the bureau seemed fine with it, she says, until it sent out an e-mail message to stakeholders, or groups with an interest in public lands, and ran into opposition from Indian tribes.


Exasperated at the barriers, Ms. Coover said, she is preparing appeals. “Three women in white dresses and hiking boots want to carry a pack on their back into a wilderness area,” she said. “How harmful can that be? Does it make sense for people to have land they love logged or torn up by mines, but not available to have ashes scattered?”


But the Forest Service has long had a firm policy against commercial scattering, said Gordon Schofield, the group leader for land use here in Region I. If ashes are scattered “the land takes on a sacredness, and people want to put up a marker or a plaque,” Mr. Schofield said, then they oppose activities they do not see as compatible with the site as a resting place.


The Forest Service has a version of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for private individuals who want to scatter the ashes of a loved one.


“We don’t prohibit it, but we don’t authorize it,” Mr. Schofield said. “People should do what they think is right.” But an allowed commercial enterprises require a permit, he said.


Wilderness Watch, a conservation group, opposes dissemination of human remains in wilderness areas.


“I understand wilderness is sacred ground and many people feel closer to the Creator there than they do in church,” said George Nickas, the group’s executive director. “But it’s also a place where commercial enterprise is not allowed. I think the prohibition on Ladies in White is the right thing.”


Mr. Nickas said he would allow the women to scatter ashes on public land that is not wilderness because “we allow all kinds of commercial activity” on such land.


As people turn to nontraditional ways of disposing of their loved ones’ remains, ash-scattering businesses have blossomed. Families can choose to have ashes scattered in a variety of ways, including from a helium balloon or an airplane flying over an ocean or a volcano.


In Britain, a company called Heavens Above Fireworks, sends remains into the sky in “a spectacular fireworks display.”


While she appeals the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management decisions, Ms. Coover said, she is negotiating with a private landowner, a rancher, to scatter ashes on his mountain property.


“Cremation is growing by the year,” she said, “and people are looking for a place to scatter. The public land is public legacy, and it’s where ashes belong.”



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/us/30ashes.html



(l) (f) (l) (f) (l)



(um) May Your Smile Be Your Umbrella. (um)

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

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :|


Wellsboro, Pa., is a town of about 3,300 residents 240 miles northwest of New York City.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/30/realestate/greathomes/30havens_span.jpg



March 30, 2007

Havens | Wellsboro, Pa.

A Quaint Town With ‘Quiet Things’ to Do

By DAVE CALDWELL

A long row of tall, black gaslights, standing as ramrod straight as soldiers on a parade ground, stretches for several blocks down the middle of Main Street in Wellsboro, Pa. They cast a gauzy, cozy, stay-a-while glow.


Some storefronts have changed over the years, but Main Street has held tight to its charm. Wellsboro is not just a place to zip through on the way to nearby Pine Creek Gorge, which is often called the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Park your car, slip a dime in the meter, stroll through town — and putter into the past.


“I tell people you can set your watch back 50 years,” said Nelle Rounsaville, who moved to town 20 years ago and who now owns two bed-and-breakfasts in town and the Wellsboro Diner, an all-porcelain, drum-shaped eatery that has hunkered at the corner of Main Street and East Avenue since 1939.


Wellsboro, a town of about 3,300 residents 240 miles northwest of New York City, has become a popular place for second-home buyers who want to remember their first homes — as in, the homes they grew up in.


The town prides itself for being clean, safe and slow-paced. Fittingly, a fountain with a statue of Wynken, Blynken and Nod sits on the wide town green, across Main Street from the old stone Tioga County courthouse and the equally old brick jailhouse.


Real estate prices are low compared with those in many other places in Pennsylvania. Grover and Debra Wolf, who own a tree-care business in Oley, Pa., near Reading, bought a three-bedroom, 100-year-old, wood-frame house near the center of Wellsboro last August for $173,500.


The house was moved 50 to 100 feet about 15 years ago so that the lot could be subdivided, Mr. Wolf said. It was placed on a cement-block foundation and fitted with new plumbing and a modern kitchen. But the original oak woodwork remains.


“We bought all the charm — with all new fixings,” Mr. Wolf said. “I didn’t want to spend a lot of time when I came up here working on a house.”


While in Wellsboro, which they visit every two weeks, the Wolfs like to explore the town with their son, Tanner, 7, and venture to Pine Creek Gorge, which is about 10 miles west of town, not far off United States Route 6. “For us, it was getting our child to an area that was safe,” Ms. Wolf said, “an area promoting small community.”


Pine Creek Gorge, formed by melting glaciers and dotted with trees that show off blazing colors in the fall, is itself a destination. A railroad bed along meandering Pine Creek was turned into a bicycle trail. The gorge, which cuts deep into the Appalachian Plateau, is also an ideal place to hike, fish, hunt and camp and to ride snowmobiles and horses.


“There are things to do, but they’re quiet things to do,” said Scott Wilcox, a Wellsboro native and agent for Century 21 Wilkinson-Dunn, which is on Main Street.



The Scene

Shops along Main Street have slowly changed hands in the past few years and have become tonier. On the south side of Main Street are the Fifth Season antiques store and Pine Creek Outfitters (which offers raft trips and canoe and bicycle rentals). A former five-and-dime is now the Blue Thistle Boutique, which sells women’s clothing, and a popular Italian restaurant, the Timeless Destination.


Just off Main Street is a bagel shop and an old-timey movie house, the Arcadia — “Tioga County’s Finest Theatre,” the marquee reads. Plans are under way to build a performing arts center not far from the old courthouse and the jail, which is now home to the chamber of commerce and the Tioga County Visitors Bureau.


“Don’t ever call this place ‘hillbilly,’ because the people are sophisticated,” said Ed Lodge, who lives part time in Chester County, Pa., and bought a 2,500-square-foot second home in Wellsboro for $305,000 in November 2005.


The gaslights stop a block or two west of the town green, and Main Street turns residential. The street, and the small neighborhood that surrounds it, are lined with simple and handsome older homes, many with wood frames, but some made of brick. Wellsboro is nestled in tall hills, which are covered with trees that seem to trudge up the slopes.


Marsha and Bob Chesko first drove through Wellsboro eight years ago, when they still lived in Orlando, Fla. They liked the town so much that they ended up buying the Sherwood Motel. Most of their guests come up the same week every year, and request the same room.


“We’ve watched the ‘Andy Griffith Show’ on TV,” Ms. Chesko said, “and we said to each other, ‘This is just like Mayberry.’ It’s such a small, quaint town.”


Pros

United States Route 15, which connects Tioga County to Interstate 80, has been widened in recent years, trimming the weekend trip for second-home owners substantially. Mansfield University is about 15 miles to the east, and offers sports and cultural events. A newsworthy crime is often a whodunit that centers on a blown-up mailbox.


Cons

On summer and autumn weekends, the streets in Wellsboro can be clogged with traffic. Wellsboro has a McDonald’s and a Dunkin’ Donuts, but it is still a small and isolated town. The closest Wal-Mart, for example, is in Mansfield.

“The very things we like are the things that 18-year-olds growing up here don’t like,” Mr. Wolf said.


The Real-Estate Market

Richard Tickner, an agent for Koch Homestead Realty in Wellsboro, estimated that the value of homes in Wellsboro and in the region has increased by 12 to 15 percent since 2000.


Mr. Tickner had his best year ever in 2006, but said: “We don’t get the great big ups and the great big downs as in other places. It’s very stable.”


Kathy Doty, a broker with Penn Oak Realty in Wellsboro, said: “We always appreciate in value, but it’s a slow, steady climb. People realize they’re moving here because they like the area.”


Mr. Wilcox, the Century 21 agent, said that second homes were used differently now than they had been in the past. State Route 287, which weaves through mountains north into town, is speckled with hunting cabins that are now used at times other than deer season.


“When I was growing up, people would come up and use their hunting camps one or two weeks the whole year,” Mr. Wilcox said. “Now, they’re using them two or three months out of every year.”


Paul and Ellen Harrison, empty-nesters who own a general contracting business in Easton, Pa., bought a two-bedroom cabin on eight isolated acres west of town in 2001 for $105,000. They nearly sold the cabin two years later for $140,000, but decided to keep the property after prospective buyers backed out.


Mr. Harrison estimates that they spend every third weekend at the cabin, which sits among thousands of white birch trees. They have rented the cabin to cover their costs (their Web site is www.whitebirchcabins.com), but Mr. Harrison said they were thinking about keeping the place to themselves.


“It’s pretty hard to leave once we get there,” he said.


Lay of the Land

POPULATION 3,342, according to a 2005 estimate by the Census Bureau. Tioga County’s population is estimated to be about 41,000. The population of the county can swell to approximately 80,000 on summer and fall weekends.

SIZE 4.9 square miles.

LOCATION North-central Pennsylvania. Wellsboro is about 50 miles north of Williamsport, 135 miles north of Harrisburg, 230 miles northwest of Philadelphia and 240 miles northwest of New York City.

WHO’S BUYING: Mostly residents from south-central Pennsylvania cities, like Reading, Harrisburg and Lancaster, and residents of the Philadelphia suburbs.

GETTING THERE From the New York area, take Interstate 80 west to Exit 210B, to Route 15 north, to Route 6, then 12 miles west into town.

WHILE YOU’RE LOOKING The Sherwood Motel (2 Main Street, 570-724-3424; www.sherwoodmotel.org) offers rates of $79 to $105 from May 1 to the first weekend in December, and $63 to $73 at other times. La Belle Auberge, at 129 Main Street, and La Petite Auberge, 3 Charles Street (570-724-3288; www.nellesinns.com), two bed-and-breakfasts on the west side of town, offer rooms starting at $155 on weekends from May through early December, and $135 for the rest of the year.



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/realestate/greathomes/30havens.html



(l) (l) It's quite beautiful up that way. Although this particular location is a bit far for commuting to mid-town - there are many PA towns where folks do commute by bus for a three to four hour commute ride. :| :|


:) Not me.



Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:o


March 28, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

How Many Scientists?

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN


Sometimes you read something about this administration that is just so shameful it takes your breath away. For me, that was the March 20 article in this paper detailing how a House committee had just released documents showing “hundreds of instances in which a White House official who was previously an oil industry lobbyist edited government climate reports to play up uncertainty of a human role in global warming or play down evidence of such a role.”


The official, Philip A. Cooney, left government in 2005, after his shenanigans were exposed in The Times, and was immediately hired by, of course, Exxon Mobil. Before joining the White House, he was the “climate team leader” for the American Petroleum Institute, the main oil industry lobby arm.


The Times article, by Andrew Revkin and Matthew Wald, noted that Mr. Cooney said his past work opposing restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions on behalf of the oil industry had “no bearing” on his actions at the White House. “When I came to the White House,” he testified, “my sole loyalties were to the president and his administration.” (How about loyalty to scientific method?) Mr. Cooney, who has no scientific background, said he had based his editing on what he had seen in good faith as the “most authoritative and current views of the state of scientific knowledge.”


Let’s see, of all the gin joints. Of all the people the Bush team would let edit its climate reports, we have a guy who first worked for the oil lobby denying climate change, with no science background, then went back to work for Exxon. Does it get any more intellectually corrupt than that? Is there something lower that I’m missing?


I wonder how Mr. Cooney would have edited the recent draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, written and reviewed by 1,000 scientists convened by the World Meteorological Society and the U.N. It concluded that global warming is “unequivocal,” that human activity is the main driver, and that “changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent.”


I am not out to promote any party, but reading articles like the Cooney one makes me say: Thank goodness the Democrats are back running the House and Senate — because, given its track record, this administration needs to be watched at all times.


But I also say thank goodness for the way Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has built a Republican-Democratic coalition in California to blunt climate change. The governor is not only saving the Republican Party from being totally dominated by climate cranks, like Senator James Inhofe, and hacks-for-hire, like Cooney, but he also is creating a bipartisan template for dealing with climate change that will be embraced by Washington as soon as the Bush team is gone. I went out to Sacramento to interview the “Governator” a few weeks ago.


“The debate is over,” he said to me. “I mean, how many more thousands and thousands of scientists do we need to say, ‘We have done a study that there is global warming?’ ”


What is “amazing for someone that does not come from a political background like myself,” said Governor Schwarzenegger, is that “this line is being drawn” between Democrats and Republicans on climate change. “You say to yourself: ‘How can it be drawn on the environment?’ But it is. But the great thing is more and more Republicans are coming on board for this. Seeing how important this is. And more and more Democrats and Republicans are working together. ... I said in my inaugural address: ‘There isn’t such a thing as Republican clean air or Democratic clean air. We all breathe the same air.’ Let’s get our act together, fix this problem and fight global warming.”


Last September, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act, requiring California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020.


“Everybody recognized that it was so important that we should not argue over philosophy — that we Republicans believe in this and we Democrats believe in this and get nothing done,” he said. “We did it carefully. ... We gave it enough ramp-up time to start in the year 2012 and by the year 2020 we want to hit that level. I am a business-friendly guy. I’m all about economic growth. I am not here to harm businesses. I am here to make businesses boom, but let’s also protect our environment. Let’s make our air clean. Let’s make our water clean. And let’s fight global warming because we know now that this is a major danger, that this is not a debate anymore.”




(y) Go Arnold. And any other state gov's doing similar things. (y)




"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[sweetlady]

:|



March 29, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

The D.C. Tea Party

By BOB HERBERT

Washington


Larry Chapman is a firefighter, and during an interview the other day I couldn’t help but notice the burns from a recent fire that circled both of his wrists. He shrugged them off. Part of the job.


He and I were talking about something that bothered him a lot more. He’s an American citizen, lives in the nation’s capital, has kept his nose clean his entire life and has always had a strong interest in national politics and government.


So why, he wanted to know, should he be denied the right to be represented in Congress?


President Bush was on television yesterday explaining why he feels it’s so important to keep fighting the war in Iraq. Nearly 12 million Iraqi citizens showed up to vote, he said, “to express their will about the future of their country.”


Supporting that effort, in Mr. Bush’s view, is an important enough reason to send Americans off to fight and die in Iraq.


But in Washington, D.C., which has more than a half million residents, American citizens are denied the right “to express their will about the future of their country” by voting for members of Congress. And Mr. Bush has not only opposed their effort to right this egregious wrong, he has threatened to veto legislation that would give these D.C. residents — hold your breath — one seat in the House of Representatives.


Someone please explain why the president is sending young Americans to fight and die for democracy abroad while working vigorously to deny the spread of democracy to American citizens here at home.


“Just because I live here,” said Mr. Chapman, “I’m denied the fundamental rights of every other American in the United States. That is messed up.”


The slogan on license plates in the district is “Taxation Without Representation.”


There’s a poster in wide circulation in the city, put out by DC Vote, a group that has campaigned hard for an expansion of voting rights. It shows two firefighters in full gear. One is Mr. Chapman, and the other is Jayme Heflin, who lives in Maryland. The poster says:


“Both will save your life. Only ONE has a vote in Congress — Washington D.C.’s nearly 600,000 residents include firefighters, nurses, teachers and small business owners. They pay federal taxes like all Americans, but are denied representation in Congress. That’s taxation without representation — and it’s still wrong.”


This denial of a fundamental voting right is especially significant at this moment in history. The executive branch is under the control of a belligerent and often amateurish group that has hacked away at civil liberties and is adamant about pursuing a war that neither Congress nor the public wants.


The rest of the nation’s business, including the economy, which looks increasingly like it may be going south, has been neglected. Nothing was more basic to the establishment of a co-equal legislative branch than the idea that it would serve as a check on a runaway executive.


And yet the residents of Washington (who can vote for president) are prevented from having any real say in the business of the legislature. (Eleanor Holmes Norton serves as a nonvoting delegate from the District.) There are, in fact, some Republicans who have stepped up valiantly on behalf of voting rights for the District. Representative Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, has been a leader in the fight to have a Congressional seat established.


But President Bush and some of his mean-spirited, antidemocratic allies are determined at all costs to prevent this expansion of the franchise to decent, honorable Americans.


The threat of a presidential veto was already in the air as the House moved close to a vote last week on legislation to create the Congressional seat. And then the entire process was sabotaged when the sleazoids from the gun lobby, acting with their usual hypocrisy and bad faith, tried to insert language that would demolish the District’s gun control laws.


The legislation was pulled, to the delight of the mischief-makers. Democrats said they will try to bring the matter up for a vote again soon, without the offending language.


This is another example of serious matters not being taken seriously in this country. President Bush and the bozos in the gun lobby probably got a chuckle out of their last-minute legislative maneuver. So clever of them.


But the real issue is the continued denial of a vote — something of tremendous value — to men and women who want and deserve more of a say in the important matters facing their country.




(y) (y) As always, Herbert nails it! And I didn't know this was the case in D.C. It IS wrong.




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:s



Pesticide contamination of food occurs because we operate, deliberately, in a world of poisons.


March 28, 2007

Op-Ed Contributor

Who Killed Fido? We All Did

By DEBORAH BLUM

Madison, Wis.


IN the golden days of the poisoner — most of the 19th century, in fact — the metallic poison arsenic earned an apt nickname: “succession powder.” Children impatient to inherit their parents’ estates, wives eager to lose their elderly husbands, found arsenic a terrific way to speed their hopes along. Thanks in large part to improved detection techniques, however, murder by poison has become quite rare: the Georgia woman who was convicted last week, for the second time, of killing a husband by lacing his meals with antifreeze is very much the exception.


Still, it was no surprise that as soon as the recent dog and cat deaths in North America were traced to a rat poison in pet food, the question of sabotage arose immediately: “Was Pet Food Deliberately Poisoned?” read the headline in one Canadian newspaper.


Whenever deaths involve chemical causes, people immediately speculate about a shadowy poisoner at work. The drug overdose of Anna Nicole Smith is only the latest to make headlines, along with the efforts by the family of Harry Houdini to exhume his body to answer persistent rumors that the magician was fatally poisoned by rivals in 1926. (This last episode seems particularly quixotic, as it is far easier to identify a poison than a poisoner; we may safely assume that finding poison in Houdini’s body will not suddenly reveal the name of a long-hidden murderer.)


And while the investigation into the pet food poisonings so far discounts murderous intent, it’s obvious from Internet chat room discussions that many people don’t accept the innocent explanation. One particularly vengeful cat owner posted a recommendation that the “nutcase” in question be fed a large, and presumably lethal, meal of “Special Kitty” brand cat food.


Much as I appreciate an appropriate punishment — and the fascination of an elusive pet-hating psychopath — I suspect that blaming a lone killer is far too easy an answer. Instead, this latest encounter with contaminated food leads to a more complicated, and less comfortable, sense of the poisoners among us.


According to scientists at Cornell University, the cause of the pet deaths — fewer than 20 have been formally reported, although more than 1,000 have been self-reported on the Internet — was lethal levels of aminopterin in the food.


Aminopterin is an enzyme inhibitor; it blocks normal synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids. It’s able to interfere with genetic processes, reproductive abilities and metabolic functions, making it useful in a limited way, and dangerous in a complete one. In the United States, aminopterin is licensed only for medical research like cancer treatment. In China and other Asian countries, it has been used as a rat poison, usually to keep stored grain from becoming infested.


As it turns out, the producer of the tainted products, Menu Foods, recently switched to a Chinese supplier of wheat gluten, which is used to thicken gravy-style pet food. It’s too early to know for certain, but it seems very likely that tainted gluten slipped past quality inspections because aminopterin is not included in routine toxicity screens. Investigators also emphasize that the poisoned food came from two manufacturing plants, separated by a good thousand miles, which would require an extremely energetic saboteur.


Does that rule out the possibility of a deliberate poisoning? No. But I worry that the conspiracy theorists, those who persist in believing that poor, sad Anna Nicole Smith was murdered or that a crazy animal hater is automatically responsible for tainted food, divert us from the probable cause and the more serious issue. Pesticide contamination, not just in China but globally, occurs because we operate, deliberately, in a world of poisons.


We kill lots of animals — the ones we find annoying, destructive or unsafe. We regularly employ toxic substances against rats, insects, prairie dogs, coyotes and invasive fish, and yet we are shocked when those same lethal substances affect us.


We’ve been learning and forgetting this lesson almost since we began using industrial pesticides: in 1959, American consumers spun into panic upon learning that their Thanksgiving cranberries were contaminated with the weed killer aminotriazole; in 1962, Rachel Carson published her exposé on the wildlife deaths caused by the pesticide DDT; in 1984, consumers nationwide threw away their pancake mixes after learning they contained trace levels of a grain fumigant; in 1989, consumers were horrified after the pesticide Alar was discovered on apples in grocery stores.


While cases of acute toxicity are rare, accumulated research studies show that chronic pesticide exposure, not surprisingly, is less than healthy. In 2003, for instance, a federal study reported that a high level of exposure to agricultural pesticides raised the risks of some birth defects by 65 percent and increased the likelihood of a variety of diseases ranging from cancer to Parkinson’s. Suburban lawn chemicals have been associated with increased cancer risks in both people and domestic pets.


So I don’t think we have to look too far for the poisoners in this round of pet deaths. We lean toward the saboteur and the murderous poisoner because they’ve always lived among us, and because they make excellent scapegoats. But we’re all poisoners in our way — purchasers of roach sprays, consumers of perfect produce delivered by grace of dangerous chemicals. Every so often, we are forced to realize that, like the arsenic poisoners of old, our lifestyle also demands innocent victims.


Deborah Blum, a professor of science journalism at the University of Wisconsin, is writing a book about poison murders of the early 20th century.




:| I wonder what else is imported that HUMANS eat - that havhe been causing illness and deaths that were misdiagnosed. It makes me dream of having enough ground to plant and harvest lots of veggies and while I'm at it, get several fruit trees planted. How else would I know there weren't any pesticides for sure? +o(


(l) Since Doc passed away (and I learned that despite many different breeds getting lymphoma - the ONLY common denominator- was all of the pets being brought in for chemo and radiation - was they were given TAP WATER.

Wyatt drinks bottled water just like his mama does. (l)




"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[sweetlady]

:s


March 30, 2007

Op-Ed Contributor

Pork Goes to War

By THOMAS SCHATZ

EMERGENCY spending bills are called “Christmas trees,” for the unrelated “ornaments” that are added by members of Congress. (They are exempt from budget rules and are almost never vetoed, making them magnets for pork.) The nickname is usually not literal, but the Senate’s version of the fiscal 2007 supplemental appropriations bill that passed yesterday includes, among scores of other nonessential items, money for Christmas-tree growers.

Behind all their lofty rhetoric about the Iraq war and bringing home the troops, members of the House and Senate were busy tacking on $20 billion and $18.5 billion respectively in unrelated spending to President Bush’s $103 billion request. (He intends to veto the bill.)

Despite their campaign talk about earmark reform last fall, the new Democratic leadership shamelessly used pork to buy votes — before the vote, Representatives Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Peter DeFazio of Oregon acknowledged that add-ons for their districts would influence their decisions.

The heavyweights also led by example: the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, added $20 million to eradicate Mormon crickets, and David Obey of Wisconsin, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, came away with $283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract Program.

This chart (PDF), which is a partial list of some of the most egregious earmarks, shows that the new bosses are already feeding at the trough, and “war pork” threatens to sink their fiscal credibility.

Thomas Schatz is the president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonprofit group in Washington.



|-) |-) It's the same thing regardless of party, eh? Glad I'm affiliated with neither. :)




Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

;) ;)



http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opinion/20070330_opchart.pdf



;)



Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

(ap) (ap) (ap)


ICE CAPADES

Behind Travel Mess: New Rules for Sleet Airlines, FAA Battle Over Safety Standards; Defining Heavy Pellets

By SUSAN CAREY and ANDY PASZTOR

March 23, 2007; Page A1 WSJ

Most of the usual suspects figured in this winter's air-travel fiascoes: wicked storms, jam-packed planes and missteps by airlines. But this year, the problems were exacerbated by an obscure meteorological condition: ice pellets.


Concerned that ice pellets -- also known as sleet -- were a larger hazard than previously thought, the Federal Aviation Administration in late 2005 adopted strict limits on planes taking off in such icy conditions.


This year, the number of sleety storms leapt sharply. The ice-pellet rule, loosened somewhat last fall, allowed planes to land, but in some cases barred them from departing. The result was a crowd of jets on the tarmac with insufficient gates to handle them, a situation that wrecked carriers' schedules. During the March 16 storm on the East Coast alone, airlines canceled 3,600 flights.


The FAA's restrictions have set off a blistering battle between airlines and the agency, as well as between individual carriers. The result has been two years of instability as the FAA revised its guidance and airlines grappled with differing interpretations of the various rules. The confusion is one reason behind the recent misery experienced by airline passengers.


Airlines, which want to keep their planes in the air as much as possible, say the pellet rule is based on poor research and gives them too little flexibility in deciding when it's safe to take off. In other weather conditions, they operate under more flexible guidelines. This winter, the policy contributed to "extreme delays and cancellations," says the Air Transport Association, the industry's trade group.


The FAA, which is charged with keeping the skies as safe as possible, defends the rule and the research behind it. "Obviously, we think it was adequate to do what we did," says Margaret Gilligan, a senior FAA safety official. She says the agency will conduct more research and might modify or clarify parts of the rule.


http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AH472B_PELLE_20070322203633.gif


Ice pellets are tiny chunks of frozen water that often start as snow, descend through a band of warmer air, melt, then freeze again as they hit colder air before landing as miniature bits of hail. Meteorologists referred to this type of precipitation as sleet until a few years ago when a United Nations agency renamed it to avoid confusion between nations' varying definitions of the term.

The worry, as with most wintry weather, is that ice pellets will stick to a plane's wings and throw off its aerodynamics with potentially catastrophic consequences. For years, however, sleet was of little concern to airlines and regulators because it was thought to occur infrequently and rarely last long. A thorough de-icing with chemicals and a treatment of anti-icing fluid was deemed sufficient to prepare a plane for takeoff, especially when coupled with a visual inspection of the wing just before departure.


The visual check -- subjective by nature -- was interpreted differently by pilots, airlines and regional FAA offices. About three years ago, the FAA's Pittsburgh office, which oversees US Airways' operations base there, decided planes couldn't take off in pellet conditions even if the wings were clear.


Continental Airlines' FAA inspectors in Houston decided the opposite, saying it was acceptable to take off precisely because there were no rules to the contrary. Cargo airlines such as UPS Airline and FedEx Express can't fly in pellet conditions at all because most of their planes don't have windows that would allow pilots to see the wings.


Pilots groused about the lack of clarity while cockpit crews felt under pressure to stay on schedule. Some airlines were allowed to use pilots' observations instead of official weather reports. The airlines asked the FAA for guidance, but without presenting a united front. As a result, FAA officials set about creating new rules.


The FAA and its Canadian counterpart, Transport Canada, conducted tests in 2001 and 2002 that showed how pellets could become embedded in anti-icing fluid and remain frozen. In 2004 and 2005, FAA research concluded that the human eye was "very poor" at detecting ice formation and human touch "was only marginally better." The FAA also believed weather patterns had changed in a way that made pellets more prevalent.


In October 2005, the FAA stunned the industry by issuing a formal notice banning takeoffs amid falling ice pellets. The airlines had predicted the rules would be more lenient. After all, pellets haven't been blamed for a crash of a big, modern passenger jet.


"Ground operations in ice pellets and other icing conditions...are a very serious concern to the Flight Standards Service," the notice said. Continuing to fly in these conditions "must be considered a direct threat to the safety of flight."


The industry howled, all the more so because Transport Canada didn't change its rules -- the Canadian agency typically focuses on ice and snow on the plane, rather than what's falling from the sky. FAA officials relented a bit, permitting airlines, in conjunction with individual inspectors, to establish procedures allowing pilots to sometimes make their own calls.


Airlines started to complain that the standards weren't enforced uniformly. Some, for example, thought they could operate in sleety conditions as long as they didn't use a de-icing agent, or if they had determined there was no ice on the wings.


"A number of carriers kept operating while we were sitting there telling passengers we couldn't fly," says Ron Thomas, a US Airways pilot and director of flight technical operations. "I told the FAA: 'This is ridiculous. Research should be done before something this drastic comes up.'"


In December 2005, the FAA reiterated that all carriers had to comply. "It has come to the attention of the Air Transport Division that a number of air carrier operators are continuing to dispatch in ice-pellet conditions," it said. The FAA "does not have sufficient data at this time to approve such operations," the notice continued, calling such takeoffs "potentially hazardous."


In February 2006, the Air Line Pilots Association, the U.S.'s biggest pilots' union, weighed in with its own alert. It urged pilots to use "extreme caution" because "even momentary exposures to ice pellets may result in a layer of clear ice" on wings that could be hard to detect.


To fight back, United Parcel Service Inc. commissioned a study from Anti-icing Materials International Laboratory, a body affiliated with the Université du Quebec à Chicoutimi. UPS's Louisville, Ky., operations had been badly hampered by an ice-pellet storm in 2004. The study concluded that a plane could safely take off up to 40 minutes after anti-icing chemicals had been applied.


Ms. Gilligan, the FAA safety official, says the agency was sensitive to complaints that it had chosen "a heavy-handed or more severe reaction" than was necessary. Early in 2006, it decided to see for itself if airlines could take off safely in ice-pellet conditions.


The FAA, Transport Canada and the Quebec lab performed another series of studies. They looked at the interaction of ice pellets and anti-icing fluids in a freezing environment. They flew a business jet with lab-created pellets sprinkled on its wings. During limited testing, the pellets slid off as the plane became airborne.


In October, after months of debate, the FAA amended the ice-pellet ban and gave the airlines 25 minutes from the start of anti-icing to get their planes into the air, but only in "light" pellets showers. Anti-icing alone takes 10 minutes or more. The agency barred departures altogether if pellet showers were heavy or mixed with other forms of precipitation, although it didn't define what constituted a "heavy" shower.


The revised ban left open the possibility that airlines could check a plane's condition from the outside, with a ground worker stationed on a lift-truck at the end of a runway. Until last week, Continental used that approach at its Newark, N.J., and Cleveland hubs, where a pilot actually touched the wings to detect the presence of pellets. The FAA recently told the airline it could no longer do that, even though inspectors in Houston had approved the arrangement.


Pilot groups and some carriers didn't like the revised rule, either, arguing that it was also based on inadequate research. "They threw some ice cubes at an aluminum tray and said, 'Oh, look, they stick,'" complains one airline operations chief.


Most carriers would like to return to the pre-2005 procedures. The amended rule "is kind of unrealistic because pellets typically are mixed with something else," says David Fuller, director of flight operations for JetBlue Airways. Many airlines now must take the most conservative approach and cancel flights to avoid violating FAA rules, he says.


Roy Rasmussen, an atmospheric scientist working with the FAA, says that 70% of the time, ice pellets are mixed with other forms of precipitation, such as rain or snow. That suggests that the new rule would only help the airlines a third of the time.


Moreover, says Mr. Rasmussen, a senior scientist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federally funded Boulder, Colo., research center, it isn't even certain that ice pellets have become more common. He's currently researching the question for the FAA.


The theoretical argument turned into a giant operational headache during a Valentine's Day storm in the Northeast, according to pilots and airline officials. FAA officials at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport barred airlines from taking off because of the kind of pellets falling that day. American Airlines opted early in the morning to cancel flights and delay boarding planes.


But it was too late for JetBlue. The airline had already committed to loading up planes based on its long-standing reluctance to cancel flights, and on a faulty assumption that conditions would improve.


JetBlue has admitted to blundering in several ways, but says the pellet rule exacerbated its mistakes. "We had airplanes arriving in pellets that couldn't depart," says John Ross, JetBlue's vice president of system operations, adding that ice-pellet conditions are "very difficult to predict." By the time flights on the ground were canceled, JetBlue had no gates available, so planes sat on the tarmac for hours.


The problems cascaded for the next several days due to breakdowns in crew scheduling, understaffing and a dearth of workers to handle the crowds at JFK. The airline ultimately scratched about 1,200 flights in a six-day period.


Besides antagonizing travelers, flying during pellet storms is expensive. Completely de-icing and anti-icing a Boeing 747 jumbo jet can cost more than $30,000 in chemicals, not counting the extra fuel burned while waiting. Repeated de-icing can deplete airports' chemical stocks, as happened at JFK during the March 16 storm.


That nor'easter, which pummeled the East Coast from Boston to Philadelphia, underscored the industry's dilemma. If the pre-2005 rules had been in place, "we would not have had to cancel operations," because planes could have been de-iced, leaving pilots to rely on a visual check, says Capt. Thomas of US Airways. Instead, the airline shut off departures from its Philadelphia hub from 10 in the morning to 11:30 p.m. "It paralyzed us," he says.


Having learned its lesson, JetBlue canceled 400 of its 550 flights well in advance of the storm. Ice pellets fell from noon to 9 p.m. that day, making departures impossible at certain times. To avoid tarmac gridlock, the airline erred on the side of caution, spoiling thousands of consumers' travel plans.


Midwest storms in late February and on March 1 caused one big carrier to "spend various amounts of time not moving," says one operations manager. "You get into a never-ending cycle," he says. "De-ice, cancel, back to the gate."


Additional research could provide a breakthrough. Dan Sicchio, a US Airways captain who heads a de-icing study group for ALPA, the pilots' union, thinks "the FAA wants the whole issue to go away." Agency managers are "looking to get this off their plate," he says, because whatever they do, "it's going to make some powerful people very unhappy."


http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AH471C_PELLE_20070322204056.jpg



:|



(f) It would be so nice to travel by train when it was first class back in the good old days. Well, the Orient Express and other upscale trains still offer superior service, but for a business trip alternative, a train trip sounds lovely but is not very practical. 21 hours each way to Florida is way, way too long.




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:s


THEATER


A Capital-C Character: Vanessa Redgrave plays a woman based on Joan Didion in Didion's 'The Year of Magical Thinking.'

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AI950A_BigIc_20070329185234.jpg


The Joan Didion Show

By TERRY TEACHOUT

March 30, 2007; Page W9

New York

It surprised me when Joan Didion published "The Year of Magical Thinking," for I identified her so completely with California in the '60s that I'd almost forgotten she was still alive. Of course she continued to publish -- a fat volume of her collected essays came out last fall -- but somehow I had come to see her as a figure from the distant past, a chronicler of strange days for which I felt no nostalgia whatsoever. Then her daughter got sick and her husband died of a heart attack and she wrote a best seller about it, and all at once she was back.


Now Ms. Didion has turned her much-discussed memoir into a one-woman show in which she is played by Vanessa Redgrave, sort of. Ms. Didion has said that Ms. Redgrave isn't "portraying" her, but unless you know Joan Didion, which I don't, there's no way to know who's who, and since the woman on stage is delivering a first-person monologue about a year in the life of Joan Didion... well, you figure it out. All of which matters precisely because "The Year of Magical Thinking," both on paper and on stage, is personal in a way that made me acutely uncomfortable, though I had to read the book twice before I was able to put my finger on the problem.


Let me stipulate up front that the death of a loved one is among the most devastating things that can happen to a human being, and that Ms. Didion is to be pitied for having been forced to swallow a double dose of it. (Quintana, her daughter, died shortly before "The Year of Magical Thinking" was published, and Ms. Didion has added a scene to the stage version describing her final illness.) It goes without saying, too, that a writer to whom such a catastrophe happens is likely to want to write about it at some point, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's what writers do.


Yet I found it hard to shake off the disquieting sensation that Ms. Didion, for all the obvious sincerity of her grief, was nonetheless functioning partly as a grieving widow and partly as a celebrity journalist who had chosen to treat the death of John Gregory Dunne as yet another piece of grist for her literary mill. All the familiar features of her style, hardened into slick, self-regarding mannerism after years of constant use, were locked into place and running smoothly, and I felt as though I were watching a piece of performance art, or reading a cover story in People: Joan Didion on Grief.


A Blunt Little Book

Is this unfair? Probably. After a certain point in his life, a writer writes the way he writes, and Ms. Didion has been doing it for so long that you wouldn't have expected her to start doing it differently overnight. Yet I couldn't help but recall "A Grief Observed," the blunt little book that C.S. Lewis wrote in 1961 after the death of his wife. Yes, the style was recognizably his, but the book didn't sound like another product brought to you by C.S. Lewis Inc. It was, rather, a shocking howl of pain that was all the more shocking for its rawness -- and it was initially published under a pseudonym, "N.W. Clark." Not that it needed to be, for you never feel while reading it that Lewis was trading on his fame. All you hear is the voice of a man who just happens to be famous, telling you about something terrible that might have happened to anyone.


Would that the stage version of "The Year of Magical Thinking" were an improvement on the book, but it isn't. In one way it's much worse, for it starts off with a speech that has all the subtlety of the proverbial blunt object: "This happened on December 30, 2003. That may seem a while ago but it won't when it happens to you. And it will happen to you. The details will be different, but it will happen to you. That's what I'm here to tell you." Why on earth did David Hare, the stage-savvy director, let Ms. Didion get away with so crude and undramatic a gesture? If the rest of the play doesn't make that point, nothing will.


Nor did Mr. Hare insist that his debutante author (this is Ms. Didion's first play) ram a theatrical spine down the back of her fugitive reflections on death and dying. As a seasoned playwright, he should have known better. "The Year of Magical Thinking" doesn't go anywhere -- it just goes and goes, inching from scene to scene, and when Ms. Didion finally gets around to telling us an hour and a half later what she learned from the loss of her husband and daughter, it turns out to be a string of portentously worded platitudes: "Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it... We all know that if we are to live ourselves there comes a time when we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead." Now look at the gut-punching first sentence of "A Grief Observed": "No one told me that grief felt so like fear." That's dramatic -- not to mention modest.


Vanessa Redgrave is, of course, a great actress, and that's what's wrong with her performance in "The Year of Magical Thinking": She never lets you forget that she's acting. Instead of letting Ms. Didion's words speak for themselves, she pumps up the volume, turning the narrator into a capital-C character, a twitchy, snooty Famous Writer who (lest we forget) isn't really J**n D*d**n. Only we know she is, because she ostentatiously pulls out a copy of "The Year of Magical Thinking" and reads from it at play's end, after which the lights obligingly go up on a billboard-sized reproduction of the glossy dust-jacket photo of the author and her family. I half expected Ms. Didion to be signing books in the lobby after the show.


It's All About Her

It strikes me that Ms. Redgrave would have profited from seeing "Primo," Sir Anthony Sher's one-man stage version of "If This Is a Man," Primo Levi's harrowing memoir of life and death in Auschwitz. Unlike her, Sir Anthony played his part with understated transparency. You never saw the teller, only his terrible tale. On the other hand, such self-effacing simplicity might well have been out of place in "The Year of Magical Thinking," in which Ms. Didion is constantly on display, so much so that you never get a clear sense of what her husband and daughter were like. It's all about her.


I assume, by the way, that Mr. Hare is to blame for the fact that Ms. Redgrave plays the first hour and a quarter of "The Year of Magical Thinking" seated in a chair. That's inverted showmanship, an engraved invitation to admire a performer so charismatic that she doesn't have to move around the stage to hold your attention. Alas, it's but one of the many distracting pieces of notice-me trickery that disfigure this meretricious play.




(f) (f) Poor Vanessa. She's such a GREAT and very talented actor. (y)




Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

:o


PRIVATE PROPERTIES

DeGeneres Lists Estate Bought Half-Year Ago

By BEN CASSELMAN

March 30, 2007; Page W10


Comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres is asking $24 million for a Montecito, Calif., estate that she bought six months ago for $15.75 million.


The four-bedroom Mediterranean-style main house was built in 1926 and remodeled in 2004, according to the property listing. It features a wine cellar, billiards room, library, office and a 1,300-square-foot second-floor master suite with a balcony and an art studio. Also on the four-acre property: two guest cottages, tennis court, pool with a spa, and formal gardens.


Records show Ms. DeGeneres, who also owns a home in Los Angeles, bought the Santa Barbara County estate through a trust in late September. The property, which had been on the market for more than two years, was listed for $16.9 million. Local brokers say the home has been renovated and relandscaped since the sale.


Ms. DeGeneres, 49 years old, starred in the 1990s sit-com "Ellen" and has hosted her self-titled daytime talk show since 2003. Last month, she hosted the 79th annual Academy Awards.


Suzanne Perkins of Sotheby's International Realty has the listing. Ms. DeGeneres declined to comment on the 52% increase in the estate's pricing.





Comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres is asking $24 million for this Montecito, Calif., estate, which records show she bought six months ago for $15.75 million.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AI812_PrivPr_20070329205226.jpg




Ms. DeGeneres's four-bedroom Mediterranean-style main house was built in 1926 and remodeled in 2004, according to the property listing. It features a wine cellar, billiards room, library, office and a 1,300-square-foot second-floor master suite with a balcony and an art studio.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AI811_PrivPr_20070329205227.jpg





(y) Nice mark-up.



Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

:s


March 29, 2007

Editorial

Legislating Leadership on Iraq


This week it was the Senate’s turn. Like the House last week and the voters last November, the Senate made clear Tuesday that Americans expect to see the disaster in Iraq brought to an early and responsible end.


President Bush’s reaction was instantaneous, familiar in its contempt for views that do not follow his in lockstep, and depressing in its lack of contact with reality. Mr. Bush threatened to veto the spending bill needed for this year’s military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan rather than accept language calling for most American combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq sometime next year. Nor was there any hint of his own prescription for ending this war.


Mr. Bush, his advisers and his loyalists on Capitol Hill threw up a cloud of propaganda aimed at making Americans think there is a debate going on between those who want to win the war and those who want to lose. That’s nonsense, and the White House knows it. Mr. Bush’s inadequate response was a cynical attempt to portray the Democrats and moderate Republicans who voted with the majority as indifferent to the political future of Iraq and to the morale of American soldiers stationed there.


In truth, it is Mr. Bush who has been defaulting on his own responsibilities in both areas, and that is why Congress needed to add the language he now objects to so vehemently.


Instead, he has handed a blank check to a government of divisive Iraqi politicians adept at paying lip service to national reconciliation while working hard to undermine it in practice. And he continues to ratchet up an already unsustainable troop escalation that will require sending exhausted units back into combat and compromise the Army’s ability to maintain high-quality forces ready to respond to crises around the world.


Most Senate Republicans still stuck with Mr. Bush and his policies Tuesday. But their arguments are hollow. Senator John McCain of Arizona gibed that the bill should have been labeled the “Date Certain for Surrender Act.” Yet Mr. McCain himself co-sponsored a similar resolution in 1994 calling for withdrawal of American troops from Haiti “as soon as possible.” Other Republicans leading the attack on Democrats, like Senator John Warner of Virginia, also voted in favor of withdrawal from Haiti.


Victory is no longer an option in Iraq, if it ever was. The only rational objective left is to responsibly organize America’s inevitable exit. That is exactly what Mr. Bush is not doing and what the House and Senate bills try to do.


The House version imposes benchmarks for political progress on the Iraqi government and requires the Bush administration to enforce them as a condition for continued financing of most American combat operations. If those conditions are met, it gives the Pentagon 18 months to complete the transition from combat operations to training and antiterrorist missions. The Senate version contains a nonbinding 12-month withdrawal timetable.


Both dates are far enough off to allow for a responsible exit. Even more important is the effort to press Mr. Bush to use remaining American leverage to nudge the Iraqi government away from its worst instincts. Passing new laws on pooling oil revenues, easing restrictions on former Baath Party members and reducing the frightening power that Shiite militias now wield in local and national police forces is fine. But Congress must also make sure the White House insists that legal changes are translated into a qualitatively different reality on the ground. That is the only course that can possibly rescue Iraq from civil war.


That pressure will be forthcoming only if Congress insists on it. Otherwise, Mr. Bush will continue to settle for half-hearted assurances from Baghdad and try to quash any thinking about a responsible exit strategy until he leaves office in 22 months.



:-#:-#:-#:-#




"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[sweetlady]

(h) (h) (h) (h)



http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/feelnikon/discovery/universcale/index_f.htm



(y) (y)




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(h) (h) (h) (h)



http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx



:)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/cmmn_the_worlds_first_opensource_car__5847.asp



(y) (y)



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:o :o


Angry at the Iraq debacle, emboldened by the Bush-Cheney tailspin, a new student radicalism is emerging, as a new Nation magazine cover-story by Christopher Phelps argues. The main concerns include the war, immigrant rights, global warming and the uncertainties facing debt-ridden graduates.


Many of these student activists are coalescing in a new organization with a very familiar name: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). There are many differences between the original SDS and this new organization which has laid claim to the old group's name but what most links the new SDS to the old, Phelps explains, is the principle of participatory democracy.




posted March 29, 2007 (April 16, 2007 issue) The NATION

The New SDS

Christopher Phelps


Twenty-year-old Will Klatt, wearing a green knit hat, baggy jeans and black jacket pulled over a hoodie, stands before a Civil War monument at the center of Ohio University's main campus in Athens. Although a February snow is falling steadily, more than a hundred students have turned out for this rally called by a new organization with a very familiar name: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).


"Many of us at Ohio University have taken classes on the principles of democracy, on justice, on ethics," says Klatt, "and with the presumption that we will use this knowledge, acquired in our classes, to become more informed citizens. Yet this knowledge we acquire is nothing if we do not put it into practice."


The students, including frat boys and jocks, clap and whistle. They are here in protest against new fees, elimination of four varsity sports programs and increased administrative bonus pay. Each decision, organizers say, reflects a lack of student power on campus--as do "free-speech zones" confining student protest to irrelevant corners of campus. "We are talking," says Klatt, "about the corporatization of our university."


Angry at the Iraq debacle, emboldened by the Bush-Cheney tailspin, a new student radicalism is emerging whose concerns include immigrants' rights, global warming and the uncertainties facing debt-ridden graduates. Such considerations distinguish the new SDS from its historical namesake, which took shape in a very different context of economic affluence and establishment liberalism.


The original SDS, formed in 1960, sought "a participatory democracy," the involvement of all in running society from the bottom up, as elaborated in the Port Huron Statement of 1962. Frustrated with conventional liberalism, inspired by the civil rights movement and sustained by opposition to the Vietnam War, SDS grew to perhaps 100,000 members before disintegrating in a shower of fratricidal sparks in 1969.


The notion of re-creating SDS was the brainchild of Jessica Rapchik and Pat Korte, high school students in North Carolina and Connecticut, respectively, who met on an antiwar phone hookup in the fall of 2005. Upon discovering their mutual dissatisfaction with the existing left, they hit upon the notion of reviving SDS. One of the original SDSers they first contacted was Alan Haber, president of SDS from 1960 to 1962, now a woodworker in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who had independently suggested "re-membering" SDS at a historians' conference in 2003. Once the call to relaunch SDS went public in January 2006 with a new website, campus chapters began popping up, from Florida to Colorado. Today, there are more than 100 college chapters and dozens more in high schools.


By laying claim to an old name, contemporary students risked that 1960s veterans might disapprove of new wine being made in their bottle. Sociologist Todd Gitlin, SDS president from 1963 to 1964, is one such skeptic. "What was often brilliant about SDS," he says, "was that it was attuned to its moment. It didn't recycle the Old Left. It was the New Left." Maurice Isserman, who joined SDS at Reed College in 1968, recently published a sharply critical piece about the new SDS in the Chronicle of Higher Education. In an interview, he said of the group's revival, "As a historian, I found it a little offensive. It's like, could I be in the Sons of Liberty tomorrow if I started it, claimed lineal descent from Sam Adams?"


The new SDSers have few such qualms. They seek continuity with radical history but value the name Students for a Democratic Society as much for the future it projects as for its fabled past. They find it a compelling name for an inclusive, multi-issue student group seeking social transformation. Emerging from a post-Seattle, direct-action culture defined by negation--"anticapitalist," "antiwar"--they value its forthright, positive aim of democracy. The new SDSers admit, however, that the name does not always evoke the associations they intend. "Oh," said a friend to Yale University senior Micah Landau, 21, "so you want me to join the guerrillas?"


What most links the new SDS to the old is the principle of participatory democracy. SDSers consider that ideal, both as a social aim and a guide to present-day practice, to be the quintessence of their project. They seek to combine the expansive vision of liberation from oppression, empire and capitalism characteristic of SDS in the late 1960s with the commitment to participatory democracy typical of the movement in the early '60s. The tone at meetings is honest, searching, respectful. Although the group has informal leaders, no one is a "heavy."


The belief systems of SDSers range tremendously. Variations on anarchism and socialism are commonplace, but each chapter has a distinct character. At Choate Rosemary Hall, the Connecticut prep school, Paul Gault, 18, says "a lot of students wanted just an outlet for their voice," making the chapter "by SDS standards not too radical." But since the new SDS has spread most rapidly on regional campuses and at community colleges, not elite institutions, a more typical chapter--both demographically and ideologically--might be Mt. San Antonio Community College in Walnut, California. There the four SDS members identify themselves as Marxist-libertarian, libertarian socialist, anarcho-syndicalist and communal anarchist, the differences between them being "zilch," they report. Ohio's Klatt says that many people in SDS are "anarcho-something-or-other, but they feel like anarchist organizations are so unorganized that they haven't been effective in creating systemic change." At the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, however, the ten core SDSers are all liberals, while at the University of North Alabama the thirteen to fifteen core SDSers are mostly liberals, with a sprinkling of socialists. "Anarchy isn't really our deal," says Andrew Walker, 23, a journalism major.


While SDSers are extraordinarily skillful at dissecting race, gender, class and sexuality in their personal lives, they show less aptitude, as yet, for economic research and political analysis. Most SDSers would have an easier time defining "heteronormativity" than corporate liberalism. Their knowledge of the labor movement all too often begins and ends with the Industrial Workers of the World. However, the new SDS's sensitivity to group dynamics is light-years--or several decades--ahead of its '60s predecessor. Women compose 40 percent or more of the membership and often exert chapter leadership. Sarah McGarity, 20, a political science and women's studies major, helped create the Ohio University chapter and believes women are for the most part equals within SDS. "Women definitely have the opportunities that weren't necessarily given to them in the '60s," she says.


Race today is not quite the study in black and white that it was in the '60s. Now as then, there are few African-Americans in SDS, but proportions vary. Of the five who started Wayne State's chapter in Detroit, two were African-American, one Asian and one Latina, says Carmen Mendoza-King, 21. If SDS is not as heavily white as it was in the '60s, this is mostly a result of subsequent waves of Asian and Latin American immigration. Hunter College senior Daniel Tasripin, 24, whose father was Indonesian and mother Polish-Jewish and French, argues that SDS should recognize affirmative action, the curriculum and the "basic justice of the university in relation to the surrounding community" as issues not specific to people of color but reflective of "the universal need for a university that represents all the people."


SDS is loose, more movement than organization. Anyone can sign up online. The group now claims more than 2,000 members, but it is hard to tell what that means. There are no dues, and therefore no funds, no staff, no office and no national publication apart from the website. The group has no elected national leaders and no basis for national decision-making. Paradoxically, these weaknesses provide some strength. The very élan of SDS is anti-bureaucratic. SDS enables regional and national linkages while preserving local control. Its appeal is that it is self-creating, do-it-yourself, free from centralized discipline or external control.


This explains why SDS displays such variety and vitality at the chapter level. At Brown University, where meetings regularly attract twenty-five people, SDS distributed a "Disorientation Guide" to 1,600 new students this fall. At Olympia last May and in Tacoma this March, Washington state SDSers were arrested for blocking Army Stryker vehicles from being loaded onto ships bound for Iraq. At Pace University in Manhattan, five SDSers were arrested in November simply for stepping onto campus to exercise free speech in protest against their administration.


From the outset, the new SDS sought interaction with older radicals, in particular veterans of the first SDS. This, however, has proved more vexing than anyone anticipated. The new SDS's adult counterpart, Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), has been riven by divisions rooted deep in SDS history. Power has resided largely with three figures: historian Paul Buhle, once editor of the original SDS journal Radical America; Thomas Good, a 48-year-old Communist-turned-anarchist who created the new SDS website; and Bruce Rubenstein, a Connecticut personal-injury attorney. Left on the outs have been Haber, a kindly bearded sage, and a small "democracy" caucus whose best-known member is historian Jesse Lemisch.


The MDS tensions trace in part to distinct pasts. Both Haber and Lemisch were present at SDS's founding convention in 1960; Rubenstein was part of Weatherman, a faction that scuttled SDS in 1969, and its successor, the Weather Underground, which bombed corporate and government targets. Bitter sniping on group listservs has been a more recent source of estrangement. Substantively, the dividing lines surfaced in an early discussion about whether to bring young and old together in one big-tent SDS. That proposal proved a dead letter when the students stated their desire for autonomy. A more gnawing issue is whether processes in MDS have been transparent, legitimate or democratic. A final matter is the residual influence of Weatherman.


The Weather controversy erupted when Bernardine Dohrn, a Weather leader who now teaches law at Northwestern University, was invited to speak at the first new SDS conference, held in Providence, Rhode Island, in April 2006. Dohrn received a rousing welcome, but when Bob Ross, an early SDSer, used his talk to lament that "the largest legal and unarmed movement in the history of the West" turned "ineffectually violent and useless," he was received coolly. At the first new SDS national convention in Chicago, in August, Good opened the proceedings by reading greetings from Dohrn. Moreover, Rubenstein, MDS's treasurer, is unapologetic about his Weather history and says that if it were 1969 he would "do it all over again," but that he does "not endorse those tactics" for SDS today.


Many in MDS consider Weatherman ancient history. "Heck, they're all 65 already," says Penelope Rosemont, another graying MDS officer. "How violent can you get at 65?" Lemisch, however, is concerned that a rehabilitated Weather may corrupt the revived SDS. A critic of a recent spate of films and books that sanitize and romanticize the Weather past, he has interpreted some direct actions of the new SDS as reminiscent of Weatherman's "Fight the People" slogan. The students, for their part, find Lemisch's criticism lacking in proportionality. Although intrigued by Weather's notoriety and susceptible to being impressed by Dohrn's celebrity, they regard Weather as a negative political example. "They espoused a sort of white-guilt and white-privileged politics that is, in my estimation, wrongheaded," says Tasripin. Co-founder Korte, now a 19-year-old student at the New School, objects to "people trying to conjure or dress us in Weather's clothes." An actual inspiration for the new SDS, says Senia Barrigan, 20, a Brown University student and daughter of immigrants from Colombia and Ecuador, was last year's strike by 70,000 teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, which sparked a militant but peaceful popular insurgency against a corrupt, autocratic government.


MDS secretary Good, however, has referred to "my Weather comrades" and called himself "an unrepentant Weather supporter." He donned a "Fuck Jesse Lemisch" T-shirt at the national convention and issued a facetious "fatwa" calling for a pie to be thrown in Lemisch's face. Some in MDS and SDS find these puerilities obnoxious or embarrassing, but that hasn't translated into support for the "democracy" caucus, widely regarded as a nuisance for sending frequent, adversarial complaints over the group's listservs. (The dissidents, for their part, object that they have been removed or excluded from many listservs.)


In February MDS held a daylong public meeting to announce a nonprofit corporation, MDS, Inc., that will raise funds for SDS. One of the selected speakers, former Weather leader Mark Rudd, delivered a piercingly honest self-criticism, stating that Weather "did the work" of the FBI by "killing off" the original SDS. Rudd urged the new SDS to recognize violence and property destruction as politically self-defeating in the United States. A panel of students, in turn, asked MDS to assist SDS by sharing wisdom and skills rather than bickering. However, Haber's desire for extended participatory conversation among the gathered MDS members was not fulfilled, and the dissidents felt railroaded. "It was not democracy's finest hour," allows Rudd. "I felt they should have been given ten minutes to present their case."


The newly elected board of MDS, Inc., is broadly representative of the whole left, but its biggest names--Tom Hayden, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Angela Davis and Noam Chomsky--are symbolic luminaries, not actively involved. Much hinges on whether the new chairman, Manning Marable, a distinguished African-American historian at Columbia University, can guide MDS, Inc., beyond its present contretemps to "assist and promote the development of activism among young people," as he envisions.


The youth in SDS have for the most part tuned out MDS. They are instead focused on their own priorities: defining their points of unity, developing a decision-making structure and challenging the Iraq War.


The connection between these needs became clear at the January 27 mass mobilization on the Washington Mall called by United for Peace and Justice. SDSers could not agree on where to meet beforehand. Some wanted to convene at Dupont Circle, the traditional gathering point for the masked anarchist "black bloc." Others, greater in number, wanted to meet at the Smithsonian Castle and leaflet the crowd. In the end, all SDSers found themselves drawn behind the black bloc as it trampled a flimsy fence, rushed up the Hill bearing plastic shields and painted obscenities and slogans on the Capitol steps. While some in SDS were elated by this action, others considered it witless. "Propaganda by the deed doesn't work," says Yale's Landau. "They probably alienated far more people than they inspired with the Capitol rush, especially the graffiti on the steps of the Capitol."


Because the Capitol police behaved with extraordinary restraint and made no arrests, the provocation received scant media scrutiny. Such luck cannot be expected to hold twice. Many in SDS conclude that the episode proved there is a need for greater coordination and that structurelessness can be undemocratic if a chapter or two engage in rash actions contrary to the wishes of most members. At a February SDS meeting in New York, more than eighty students from twenty-two Northeastern campuses endorsed a federated regional council system, a possible basis for a national structure. Whether organization and anti-authoritarianism can be synthesized in SDS, however, remains to be seen. Klatt foresees a period of transition, "kind of like how our American government had to go through the confederation of states before they came up with a unified country."


Within SDS there is rising awareness that the wildest tactic may derail the most radical strategy. Landau believes SDSers "who are willing to jump into the most extreme action without thinking about base-building and movement-building" are counterweighed by others with more thoughtful approaches. Korte says SDSers are increasingly asking themselves, "Rather than tactics guiding our strategy, is strategy guiding our tactics?" Joshua Russell, 23, a Brandeis grad whose job for the Rainforest Action Network allows him to travel as an unofficial national SDS organizer, hopes SDS will become a "movement-building institution that will unite people."


The matter of moment is the Iraq War. Whether or not they approve of the Capitol rush, SDSers are eager to push the envelope beyond large marches. There is "a general feeling that the tactics being used now are not enough," says John Cronan Jr., 23, a Pace student. At the University of Alabama, SDS recently staged a "die-in" to dramatize the war. Three Michigan chapters are investigating their universities' financial ties to the military industry. To mark the war's four-year anniversary in March, SDS initiated class walkouts, rallies and marches at more than sixty campuses and high schools. And, to borrow a '60s phrase, momentum now flows "from protest to resistance"--from merely speaking out against the war to the nonviolent obstruction of its operation. Twenty New York SDSers were arrested on March 12 after they shut down an Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Manhattan for two hours. Their chant: "Stop the war! Yes we can! SDS is back again!"




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



Now there are at least two generations against this senseless war among other Republican party idiotic stumbles. I'd use harsher language but I am afterall, a lady. ;)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:) (y) :)


http://wefeelfine.org/




(y) (y) Wow! I could have spent a much longer time on this site than I did. Either futuristic or retro - take your pick. :)




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(h) (h) (h) (h) (h)



http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/acs-sf031207.php



(y) (y)




"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[sweetlady]

:s


http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2007/03/post_135




;)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:o


Q U O T E D

"Everybody felt very bad about it and we all learned a lesson. There was no witch hunt.''

-- Former Alaska Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus, on the upshot of a July incident in which a tech doing maintenance work on a machine holding dividend distribution data for the state's $38 billion Permanent Fund accidentally reformatted both the hard drive and the backup drive, erasing the information -- and the backup tapes turned out to be unreadable.




:| Can you imagine? The back-up of the back-up of the back-up failed. What no paper trail? :o




(S) Off to take Wyatt outside and then maybe some reading (for me) - I bought several books recently. (Like I need more books.....




(f) Have a terrific weekend.


Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

:)


http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2007/03/26/070326sh_shouts_rich




:)



Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

:o



http://www.energyfiend.com/the-caffeine-database



(y) (y)



:)



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:o


(Hey - I don't make up these headlines - but it's no surprise to me that it's the Village Voice.)



Daily Voice

Runnin Scared

Sweet Jesus Crucified in Midtown

posted: 4:58 PM, March 30, 2007 by Nina Lalli


http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/03/30/amd_chocolatejesushung.jpg


This afternoon, The Roger Smith Hotel decided to cancel the exhibition of My Sweet Lord, Cosimo Cavalla's 6-foot long, anatomically-correct sculpture of a nude Jesus on the cross—made out of chocolate. Danielle Simone of Pitch Control PR, the firm handling the hotel's announcement, told us, "They decided the response was too overwhelming."


Here's the announcement:

March 30, 2007

Dear Friends,

Your response to the exhibit at the Lab Gallery is crystal clear and has brought to our attention the unintended reaction of you and other conscientious friends of ours to the exhibition of Cosimo Cavallaro.

We have caused the cancellation of the exhibition and wish to affirm the dignity and responsibility of the Hotel in all its affairs.

James Knowles President


The show was to go up this Monday, April 2. But because of a storm of angry reactions from the Catholic community, the hotel made the decision to pull the show before it ever went up. (The Lab Gallery is attached to the hotel lobby at 501 Lexington Avenue — and the hotel sponsored the gallery — but the two are separate entities.)


Matt Semler, the artistic director and founder of the Lab Gallery, learned that the hotel had decided to cancel the show very shortly before the public was informed. "The decision was made by the hotel, and my resignation is on the desk," he told us.


"One of the biggest misconceptions was that the hotel had anything do with this show. They are not involved in decisions about what to exhibit, not do I have any obligation to tell them," Semler explained. "They're not in this business."


"I support the decision—on the one hand, it's probably what they had to do, but I'm disappointed that no one will see this show." Semler was not surprised that the show would be controversial. But he explained about the work, "This was not coming from a place of disrespect. It's another consideration, another meditation on the holiday." Semler thought the fact that Jesus appeared naked in the sculpture was what elicited such strong reactions from Catholics. "But from my point of view, it's the natural representation of Jesus Christ."


Semler said that he has received about 250 emails when he arrived at his office this morning, and an intern was printing each one out and separating them into piles, negative and positive. "The piles were even," he said. "Which tells that we definitely stepped into the eye of the storm."


Semler founded the Lab Gallery three and a half years ago. Without him, it will close unless a deal can be worked out with the hotel that would convince him to stay. "The ball's in their court," he said. "I stand by the work I do. I'm not going to continue to put my interests up for vote. I can't let this happen again."


Semler said he has shown many performance and conceptual art exhibits since starting the Lab Gallery—including a show called "Detainee," which depicted a torture scene from Guantanamo prison—and the hotel has never before objected.


And what happens to the chocolate Jesus? Semler said, "If I can take it somewhere else, I will."



http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/2007/03/sweet_jesus_cru.php




;) I suppose a HUGE chocolate bunny would have been okay, right?


(f)


Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&)

[sweetlady]

(i) (i) (i)


Waste less ... Cate Blanchett at the launch of Earth Hour in Sydney last night.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/03/31/blanchett1407_wideweb__470x334,0.jpg



Hour of thoughtful darkness inspires

Heath Gilmore The Sun-Herald

April 1, 2007


ACTOR Cate Blanchett embraced an hour of "thoughtful darkness" last night as organisers of the inaugural Earth Hour vowed to make it an annual event.


The Academy Award-winning actor was joined by Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore at Earth Hour's official launch.


The formal ceremony, at the Fleet Steps near Mrs Macquarie's Chair, was organised by the World Wildlife Fund Australia and Fairfax Media.


WWF Australia spokesman Andy Ridley said the organisation planned to take the practice of turning off the lights nationwide, and possibly overseas.


Utility companies last night said the event had saved twice as much power as predicted.


EnergyAustralia retail general manager Tim O'Grady said that, before Earth Hour, its experts said an energy saving of about 5 per cent in Sydney's CBD was likely.


"I'm delighted to report that initial readings after the event indicate the final figure is actually close to 10 per cent, which really is quite staggering when you think about it."


Mr O'Grady said an accurate energy reading for the whole of Sydney would follow later today.


Blanchett told guests they and the city should embrace the hour of voluntary, active, thoughtful darkness.


"By our example tonight, hopefully we can inspire our industry, our governments and the international community with a very simple message; waste less. Waste less energy, waste less of the earth's fuel and waste less of the earth's precious resources. If we act now, people will look back in 100 years at the concept of wasting electricity as ridiculous as corsets and floggings."


Sarah Bishop, 22, who walked 1000 kilometres from Brisbane to Sydney to publicise the event, said she was footsore but ecstatic that the message for Earth Hour had reached and touched Australia.


"The blackout was fantastic. I am so happy that the city is celebrating this great event. It is gorgeous to be in the dark."


Fairfax Media group executive editor Phil McLean said Earth Hour was always about connecting the community with an issue of great importance. He said Sydneysiders and the business community had embraced the idea and the results were in the skyline.


"Fairfax Media is committed to Earth Hour, going forward, and the plan is to roll the idea out across Australia and other countries," he said.


Ms Moore said Earth Hour was a call to action. "If cities neglect their environment, they will be the dinosaurs of the future . . . we are committed to the city becoming carbon neutral and for individuals to make a difference," she said.


"Climate change will spell the end of the familiar way of doing things; those ways are profligate, they're polluting, they are ultimately destroying our world.


"It is only when we turn out the lights that we can see the stars."


Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a noted absentee from the ceremony. "He never had any intention to go. The invitation was declined through an email," his spokesman said.


His counterpart Mr Garrett said the act of turning off the lights for an hour would ricochet around the country and the world for years. He said Earth Hour signalled a turning point in addressing climate change, and individuals now realised that the answers were "literally in everyone's hands".



http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/hour-of-thoughtful-darkness-inspires/2007/03/31/1174761821370.html




(y) (y) Attention-getting, if nothing else. I caught the last hour of "An Inconvenient Truth", Al Gore's Academy Award-winning documentary. I was really surprised that it actually was gripping. I plan to watch the entire film again when I have a chance.(~) It's on Showtime if anyone is interested. I understand now why the music from the film - Melissa's "I Need To Wake Up" won the Oscar® for Best Original Song for a Motion Picture - (8) (8)


http://www.melissaetheridge.com/


http://www.melissaetheridge.com/albumCover.jpg




Carpe Diem,

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

[sweetlady]

(f) (f) (f) (f)


Famed aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, pose in this file photo in front of their twin-engine Lockheed Electra.

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/04/01/earhart.mystery.ap/story.amelia.ap.jpg



Was Amelia Earhart a doomed castaway?

POSTED: 5:00 a.m. EDT, April 1, 2007


SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- It's the coldest of cold cases, and yet 70 years after Amelia Earhart disappeared, clues are still turning up.

Long-dismissed notes of a shortwave distress call beginning, "This is Amelia Earhart ..."

The previously unknown diary of an Associated Press reporter, surfacing after decades.

And a team that has already found aircraft parts and a woman's shoe on a remote South Pacific atoll, hoping to return this year to find more evidence, perhaps even DNA.

If what's known now had been conveyed to searchers then, might Earhart and her navigator have been rescued? It's one of a thousand questions that keep the case from being declared dead, as Earhart herself was a year and a half after she vanished.
------
For nearly 18 hours, Earhart's twin-engine Lockheed Electra drummed steadily eastward over the Pacific, and as sunrise etched a molten strip of light along the horizon, navigator Fred J. Noonan marked the time and calculated the remaining distance to Howland Island.
It was July 2, 1937, and the pair were near the end of a 2,550-mile trek from Lae, New Guinea, the longest leg of a "World Flight" begun 44 days earlier in Oakland, California.

At the journey's end there a few days hence, Earhart would become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe.

Noonan, a former Pan American Airways navigator, estimated when the plane would reach an imaginary "line of position" running northwest-southeast through Howland, where they were to rest and refuel for the onward flight to Hawaii.

"200 miles out," Earhart radioed, her "whispery drawl" heard by the Coast Guard cutter Itasca waiting off Howland.

Overnight, Itasca's radio operators had become increasingly exasperated with Earhart, who hadn't acknowledged Itasca's messages or its Morse code homing signal. They decided the glamorous "Lady Lindy" was either arrogant or incompetent.

What nobody knew -- not Earhart, and not Itasca -- was that her plane's radio-reception antenna had been ripped away during takeoff from Lae's bumpy dirt runway. The Itasca could hear Earhart, but she was unable to hear anything, voice or code.

Also listening aboard the Itasca was James W. Carey. The 23-year-old University of Hawaii student had been hired by The Associated Press to cover Earhart's Howland stopover.

He also had been keeping a diary.

The diary was unknown to Earhart scholars until last September, when a typewritten copy was bought on eBay by a member of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or TIGHAR. The non-profit organization rejects the official verdict that the fliers were lost at sea, believing instead that they may have crash-landed on an uninhabited atoll called Gardner Island, in the Phoenix Islands 350 miles south of Howland, and lived for a time as castaways.

"Even though the diary doesn't answer the big question, it's an incredible discovery," said TIGHAR executive director Ric Gillespie, who has led eight expeditions to the island since 1989, and plans another one this July if his group can raise enough money.

The diary, he said, presents "a firsthand witness about what went on during those desperate hours and days."
------
On July 1, word came that Earhart was finally airborne from Lae.

Early on July 2, Carey wrote in his diary: "Up all last night following radio reports -- scanty ... heard voice for first time 2:48 a.m. -- 'sky overcast.' All I heard. At 6:15 am reported '200 miles out.'"

If Noonan's dead-reckoning did not bring the plane directly over Howland, Earhart would fly up and down the 337-157 degree "line of position" until she found it.

"To the north, the first landfall is Siberia," says Gillespie, "so if they didn't find it soon, they'd have turned back south, knowing that even if they missed Howland, there were other islands beyond it -- Baker, McKean and Gardner -- on that same line."

But by now, Earhart would be into her five-hour fuel reserve, and even in daylight, islands could be obscured by billowy clouds and their shadows on the water.

At 7:42 a.m., Earhart's voice suddenly came loud and clear: "KHAQQ to Itasca. We must be on you but cannot see you. But gas is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet."

A welcoming committee from Itasca was "waiting restlessly" at the airstrip, Carey wrote. Binoculars scanned the blue.

At 8:55 a.m., Earhart was back on, sounding distraught: "We are on line of position 157 dash 337... we are now running north and south."
Then the radio went silent.

Believing that Earhart must be out of gas, Itasca's captain, Cmdr. Warner K. Thompson, had already ordered the welcoming committee back to the ship. "Flash news from ship Itasca: 'Amelia down,'" Carey had written in his diary.

But with all frequencies reserved for possible distress calls, Carey's news reports would have to wait. AP broke the "Earhart missing" story from Honolulu, Hawaii, quoting Coast Guard officials there.

Meanwhile, Carey filled the diary: "Itasca set off 'full speed ahead' to search the northwest quadrant off Howland."

Nothing was sighted, and by evening the ship's mood, Carey wrote, had "taken a turn to the more serious side."
------
Seventy years later, the Earhart mystery lingers.

In more than 50 nonfiction books and even a movie, writers embraced theories ranging from a crash at sea to abduction by aliens, from Earhart executed by the Japanese as a spy to living under another name in New Jersey.

Two books -- "Amelia Earhart's Shoes," written by four TIGHAR volunteers, and Gillespie's "Finding Amelia" -- offer the thesis that Earhart and Noonan crash-landed on a reef on Gardner Island, and survived, perhaps for months, on scant food and rainwater.

Expeditions to the island, now called Nikumaroro, have compiled tantalizing evidence.

In 1940, a British overseer on Gardner recovered a partial human skeleton, a woman's shoe and an empty sextant box at what apparently was a former campsite. The items were sent to Fiji, where a doctor decided the bones belonged to a stocky European or mixed-blood male, ruling out any Earhart-Noonan connection.

The bones later vanished, but in 1998, TIGHAR investigators located the doctor's notes in London.

Using a modern computer database, Dr. Karen Ramey Burns, a forensic osteologist at the University of Georgia, found the Fiji doctor's measurements were more "consistent with" a female of northern European descent, about Earhart's age and height. Burns' report was independently confirmed by another forensic expert.

On visits to the island, TIGHAR teams found an aluminum panel, possibly from an Electra; another woman's shoe and "Cat's Paw" heel, dating from the 1930s; a man's shoe heel, crude tools and an oddly cut piece of clear Plexiglas.

The sextant box might have been Noonan's. The woman's shoe and heel resemble Earhart's footwear in a pre-takeoff photo. The plastic shard is the exact thickness and curvature of an Electra window.

Still, the evidence remains circumstantial, Gillespie says. "We don't have serial numbers."
------
As news of the missing aviators flashed around the world, the Navy ordered six warships into the hunt.

Although radio calls from the Electra -- along with later "distress calls" picked up by shortwave listeners -- were triangulated by Pan American's Pacific stations to the Phoenix Islands, officials ignored a New Zealand cruiser 48 hours from there and instead sent the battleship USS Colorado southward. By the time it reached the area four days later, the radio calls had ceased.

The Colorado's senior float-plane pilot, Lt. John O. Lambrecht, reported "signs of recent habitation were clearly visible" at Gardner Island. But no people were sighted, and "it was finally taken for granted that none were there."

Accounts of shortwave radio calls were also shrugged off.

In Rock Springs, Wyoming, Dana Randolph, 16, heard a voice say, "This is Amelia Earhart. Ship is on a reef south of the equator." Aware that "harmonic" frequencies in mid-ocean often could be heard far inland, experts said the shortwave transmission was probably genuine.

In St. Petersburg, Florida, 15-year-old Betty Klenck heard a woman identify herself as Earhart, followed by pleas for help and agitated conversation with a man who, the girl thought, sounded irrational.

Having heard Earhart's voice in movie newsreels, Betty was sure it was her -- and still is.

"I remembered it every night of my life," Betty Klenck Brown, now 84 and widowed, said in a telephone interview from her home in California.

The man, she recalls, "seemed coherent at times, then would go out of his head. He said his head hurt ... She was trying mainly to keep him from getting out of the plane, telling him to come back to his seat, because she couldn't leave the radio."

Betty took notes in a school notebook as the shortwave signals faded in and out. They ended when the fliers "were leaving the plane, because the water was knee-deep on her side," she said.

Her father notified the Coast Guard but was brushed off.
------
Last September, TIGHAR volunteer Arthur Rypinski paid $26 for an Earhart document offered on eBay. It turned out to be a copy of Carey's diary.

Carey's son, Tim Carey of Woodbridge, Virginia, says his father died in 1988. His role as an AP reporter on the Earhart story was part of family history. "The diary was completely in character for him," the son adds. "He was a real note-keeper."
Now raising funds for a ninth TIGHAR expedition to Nikumaroro in July, Gillespie says the Carey diary serves as a reminder to always "expect the unexpected" in the Earhart case.

"Pacific islanders don't wear shoes, so we know there was one foreign castaway, and maybe two, a man and a woman, on Gardner ... We hope this summer to recover human remains for DNA testing and find aircraft pieces that could be conclusively identified as from Amelia's plane.

"This is the expedition that could at last solve the mystery. I think we are right on the edge of knowing for a certainty what happened."


http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/01/earhart.mystery.ap/index.html


(f) (f)



Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire,

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

[sweetlady]

(y) (y)


Especially For You bowl by Amanda Levete, Future Systems.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01materr600.1.jpg



April 1, 2007

The Remix

Printed Matter

By SARAH VERDONE

One of the most astonishing pieces shown at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair last May was a folding stool by the designer Patrick Jouin called OneShot. Its spiral shape and creamy white polyamide material were beautiful in themselves. But that’s not what made it so amazing. The stool, including all of its 36 hinges and 12 moving legs, is all of a single piece. And even more amazing still, it was neither carved nor molded. It was printed.


“Star Trek” and “The Matrix” fans may have cut their teeth on this kind of story, but science has caught up with fiction. Rapid prototyping (RP), a computer-controlled process that “prints” objects in three dimensions, layer by exceedingly thin layer, is reshaping the design world as we know it.


Leading the way is Materialise.MGX, the boutique division of a large Belgian software development and manufacturing company, which produced OneShot as well as the other designs shown on this page. The company has been commissioning designers like Scott Croyle of One & Co, Ross Lovegrove and Future Systems’ Amanda Levete to create stylish objects using a process known mostly for turning out things like dashboards and dental implants.


RP comes under different aliases — such as additive fabrication and 3-D printing — and covers a spectrum of techniques, including stereolithography, which uses resin, and selective laser sintering, which employs powdered metal, ceramic or plastic. The common factor is that the process is one of adding material rather than taking it away, as a mill or lathe cuts wood.


All RP recipes begin with a 3-D image, drawn using computer-aided design software, magnetic resonance imaging or even the scanned image of an existing object. The digital information is translated into standard tessellation language, which breaks down the drawing into a pattern of triangles. The image is then sliced into hundreds or thousands of layers, which can be as thin as tissue paper (0.1 millimeters), and “printed” by specially designed machines.


It’s possible that everyone will be able to print their own furniture at home in the not-so-distant future, but for now these machines are roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and cost close to $1 million. But the beauty of all RP technology is that it creates curves as easily as straight lines, and since it builds layer by layer, hinges, gears and other moving parts can be baked right in. Look, Ma, no assembly required. No unsightly seams. No molds means that the same machine can make drawer pulls one day and lamps the next, and may usher in the era of “mass customization,” in which even objects produced in mass quantities can be tweaked to suit the tastes of individual customers.


This month Materialise.MGX will unveil its fourth annual collection of brave new objects, including Croyle’s chain-link bowl and pendant. Each lamp, chair, pen or necklace comes with its own 3-D digital file. If you’re not in the market, you can see objects from previous collections in “Digitally Mastered: Recent Acquisitions From the Museum’s Collection” at the Museum of Modern Art. In the design world — where the pace of technological innovation has been relatively slow and most furniture is made more or less the way it was 50 years ago — these objects offer a glimpse of a revolutionary future.



(f)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01japan600.1.jpg



April 1, 2007

The Remix

They’re Big in Japan

By MONICA KHEMSUROV


A new line of furniture at Cibone, the massive lifestyle store that sets the bar for cutting-edge design among Tokyo tastemakers, is meant to answer the question “What do people really want?” The answer, of course, isn’t simple — spare architectural couches by the retail design darlings Wonderwall, rough-hewn wooden tables by the Dutch craftsman Piet Hein Eek and bizarre cabinets with fake-fur cabriole legs by the jewelry design duo e.m. Cibone has attempted to unite the diverse collection of 20 objects from eight international designers under the playfully vague heading of “Non-design Design,” but outsiders will be struck more by the subtle details that make many of the pieces uniquely Japanese: Eek used local woodworking techniques and scaled down his furnishings to fit the proportions of a Tokyo home, while the Israeli designer Ron Gilad’s mummified lamps recall traditional rice-paper shades, but in prototypically Western silhouettes that look plucked from the set of “The Golden Girls.”


Go to www.cibone.com



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(f)



The 21_21 Design Sight museum, designed by Tadao Ando.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01reach600.1a.jpg



April 1, 2007

The Remix

Design Within Reach

By TIFFANY GODOY


“Japanese young people don’t really enjoy creativity,” says the fashion designer Issey Miyake, who seems determined to put the fun back into the banal, even if it means sugarcoating things a bit. He is the mastermind behind 21_21 Design Sight, a museum devoted to the design of daily life, which opened last month in Tokyo Midtown, a development in the Roppongi district conceived as a designer city-within-a-city. (The Tadao Ando-designed building is neighbor to Kengo Kuma’s new Suntory Musuem, and Jun Aoki is involved in creating a residential zone.) The inaugural show, curated by the industrial designer Naoto Fukusawa (who, with the graphic designer Taku Saito, is on the museum’s creative team), features 70 objects made of chocolate. They include the fashion designer Kosuke Tsumura’s T-shirt as a Meiji candy bar and Gaku Otomo’s scale model of a human heart in white chocolate. Talk about good taste.



(l) (y) (l)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01igloo600.1.jpg



April 1, 2007

The Remix

Hand-Eye Coordination

By STEFFIE NELSON


Since 2002, when Jenna Didier first draped the facade of Materials and Applications — her exhibition space in Silver Lake, Los Angeles — she has hosted a series of increasingly ambitious outdoor installations so eye-catching that neighbors have started complaining about the regular traffic jams out front. This spring, following “Bubbles,” an inflatable environment of glowing white orbs, M&A is moving in a subtler direction with “ukendt/igloo” (above), a collaboration with the Danish conceptual artist Anja Franke. Past M&A projects have included the Mylar canopy called “Maximilian’s Schell” and “Here There Be Monsters!,” a bamboo bridge over an interactive water installation. But Franke’s vision of a hand-woven textile igloo presented a new challenge: how to continue to push the boundaries of the built environment and people’s imaginations while working within the low-tech, glitz-free realm of crafts. The answer, Didier and her partner, Oliver Hess, have discovered, lies less in ancient basket-weaving techniques or in Buckminster Fuller’s “tensegrity” principle (both of which they’ve studied in depth) than in the values of community and working with one’s hands. “I think people wake up and realize they can affect positive change when they start using their hands,” says Didier, who notes that their network of volunteers keeps expanding. Whether the goal is changing the world or learning to weave, volunteering is a fun way to spend a Saturday. As Hess points out with a smile, “There aren’t many woven houses in L.A., but there’s no reason that we can’t at least try.”



:o :s



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

;)


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/03/29/style/01candy450.1.jpg



April 1, 2007

Arm Candy

By MONICA KHEMSUROV


Baccarat’s latest designer collaboration represents a sea change for the 243-year-old company. At the trade show Maison et Objet in January, it unveiled a line of lighting and tableware by the Paris-based designer Arik Levy that is both intellectual and, in the case of the single-armed Fantome chandelier, frugal. In a quest to make the tony brand more accessible to those without high ceilings and higher budgets, Levy — who’s known for his scientific approach to design — proposed chopping up the classic chandelier (figuratively, that is) and selling it by the piece. At $1,990, “Fantôme can be used as a design element, 55 lined up in a room, or as a complete object,” he explains. “The one arm brings the rest of the chandelier with it, psychologically. It feels like all the other arms are flying behind it, like ghosts.”



(h) (i)



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (f) (l)


NO ONE IN THE KITCHEN WITH DINAH The party scene in Palm Springs, at an event sponsored by Girl Bar, one of two promotional companies that appeal to the lesbian audience.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/fashion/01dinah600.1.jpg



DESERT LIFE A party at the Wyndham:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/fashion/01dinah190.4.jpg




April 1, 2007

Daughters of the Dinah, Unbound

By MELENA RYZIK

Palm Springs, Calif.


ON Thursday night, as a D.J. played the 1986 Beastie Boys hit “Girls” at a divey downtown gay bar here, a handful of women, in knee socks and miniskirts, tattoos and fedoras, jumped up on the stage to dance. On the floor, dozens of women in tank tops, jeans, boots and body jewelry followed suit, grinding up against one another in threesomes and pairs, singing along: “Girls! Girls! Girls! Girls! Girls!”


In the next room, on a platform, a bikini-and-fishnet clad go-go dancer did a push-up while balanced on one foot, then jumped up to wiggle her behind at an appreciative crowd of women waving cameras and $20 bills.


Welcome to Dinah Shore Weekend, or, as it’s better known, lesbian spring break, which concludes today. An annual pilgrimage for more than three decades, it has attracted thousands of adult women to this mountain-ringed Southern California desert town, which becomes a destination for lesbians looking to party, socialize and hook up.


The name comes from the Kraft Nabisco Championship (formerly the Dinah Shore Golf Championship), the first stop on the Ladies Professional Golfers Association tour, which happens concurrently a few miles away.


In the years B.E. (Before Ellen DeGeneres), the Dinah was the province of mostly polo-shirted women seeking a low-key weekend getaway. Now, in the years A.L. (After “The L Word”), it has been transformed into a fashionable bacchanal, nearly a week long, with celebrity guests like Carmen Electra and Joan Jett, large pool parties and dozens of corporate sponsors, who vie for the attention of a community that is suddenly much more visible, and visibly wealthy. It’s Girls Gone Wild for Girls (and Marketing).


“It’s greater than a party,” said Mariah Hanson, a promoter behind the festivities who works under the name Club Skirts. “It’s a really powerful weekend that’s making a statement that we’re having a good time, and we’re going to be together. And there are a lot of major corporations here, and the more corporations embrace this market, the more it shifts everything. It gets us closer to civil rights.”


“It’s a lesbian rite of passage,” agreed Julie Bolcer, the news director of Go!, a national lesbian magazine, who came to the party. “This year I find that the amount of attention that is being paid, the sponsorships that are behind it, it’s almost palpable. If one were going to go to the Dinah, this is the year to do it.”


Just a decade ago, Sports Illustrated caused a financial and social brouhaha with an article in its golf supplement about the party circuit and its affluent, hedonistic attendees.


As one of the first mainstream articles about the event, it drew the ire of prominent sports agents and advertisers, one of which withdrew more than $1 million in business, charging that the magazine had a “condescending mindset” toward women’s golf.


A few years later, the tournament’s name was changed to the Kraft Nabisco Championship, a move some party supporters considered a blatant attempt to create distance between the two events.


(Terry Wilcox, the championship’s director then and now, said the name change was merely a way to emphasize corporate involvement. The tournament, which attracts about 60,000 spectators, has never had any connection to the parties, he said. “We have a golf tournament here in Rancho Mirage, they have their parties in Palm Springs,” he said. “If their attendees are golf fans, they’re more than welcome here at our golf tournament.”)


But after maintaining a resolute distinction for years, a marketing arm affiliated with Nabisco approached the promoters behind the Dinah weekend for the first time this year to discuss cross-promotion of the championship and the parties, the promoters said. Though nothing came of it, the promoters were excited to have even been approached. Many guests at the Dinah are not aware that this series of comedy shows, jazz brunches and cocktail parties coincides with a golf tournament. Instead they focus on the other facets the week is famous for: having a carefree good time and building community.


“Here, women get to be themselves without any sort of discrimination, in numbers that are staggering,” said Sandy Sachs, who throws parties under the name Girl Bar with her girlfriend and partner, Robin Gans.


“With the advent of ‘The L Word,’ ” she said — referring to the series on Showtime that puts a sexy, contemporary gloss on lesbian life — “it’s brought us more to the forefront, but it’s always shocking for people when they come. They’re always like, ‘are all these people lesbians?’ Of course they are.”


For her part, though, Ilene Chaiken, the creator of “The L Word,” was modest about the impact of her program “I think it’s grandiose to think that we created this,” she said. “I think ‘The L Word’ reflects the culture.”


Ms. Chaiken herself is as ready as anyone to tap into that culture: she is attending the Dinah for the first time this year, mainly to promote a new lesbian social networking Web site, www.ourchart.com, which began as a plotline on the program as one character’s chart of hookups and is now part of the show’s marketing repertoire.


After the Dinah party — or a simulacrum of it, filmed in Vancouver — was depicted in the show’s first season in 2004, attendance at the real thing promptly doubled, to 2,500 people from 1,200 at the splashy Saturday night party alone.


The effect has hardly waned; in fact, it has increased, attracting more attendees each time the cast members appear — as they did this year. (The parties began Wednesday and end with some rock shows and pool parties today; all in all, the promoters expect to play host to nearly 10,000 attendees.)


The promoters bill the event as the world’s largest lesbian party and have made a concerted effort to market overseas. Women from Australia, France and Switzerland — where “The L Word” is just starting — as well as from places like Milwaukee and Kansas City, Mo., are joining in.


Both sets of promoters said they expected this year to be their biggest yet, with about 4,000 guests each at their main parties on Friday and Saturday nights. Tickets for those cost $65 and $75 each; some women pay as much as $1,500 for V.I.P. tickets for the week, which includes concierge service and front-row seats for every event. Once an advertising pariah, the event has become an attractive place for companies to promote their wares, from clothing boutiques and brand-name liquors to television shows and sperm banks.


Among the biggest changes of the post “L Word” era, said Sivan Schlecter, a marketing consultant who has helped companies like Showtime and Logo, a gay and lesbian television network, promote events here, is that “corporations pay a lot more attention to it.”


She added: “With the increase of lesbian visibility, brands now realize that women are a part of the gay market, not just men.”


Yet market research on the size and scope of lesbian spending power is not readily available, said Joie Pompilio, a brand manager for Finlandia vodka, Girl Bar’s largest sponsor. Nonetheless, she said, her company is excited about working with the gay and lesbian audience.


“They’re loyal consumers and they’re really open to trying new and creative cocktails,” she said. And since Finlandia also sponsors the men’s White party, a gay circuit event that takes place in Palm Springs in April, Ms. Pompilio is able to do some armchair market research. Her conclusion? “The women drink 40 percent more than the guys.”


The Dinah is even robust enough to sustain competition: two years ago, the main promoters — Ms. Hanson, of Club Skirts in San Francisco, and Ms. Sachs and Ms. Gans, of Girl Bar in Los Angeles, worked together for 15 years before splitting up. “It’s like a marriage gone bad,” Ms. Sachs said.


The cause was irreconcilable differences as they worked together to build the Dinah from a niche event into a juggernaut. Now they have rival parties, one-upping each other on flash, conviviality and convenience, and jostling for the best guests, like Carmen Electra, Sandra Bernhard, Joan Jett and the cast of “The L Word,” who came to the Club Skirts party this year).


The breakup was hostile at first: papers were served, a lawsuit was filed and a settlement ended that chapter of the dispute. After some initial confusion about whose party was whose, the crowd seems to have taken it in stride. “If anything, I see it as a tremendous benefit,” said Ms. Schlecter, who has been attending for a decade, most recently as a collaborator of Ms. Hanson’s. “The parties have gotten bigger because of it, and when there’s competition, they have to outdo each other.”


Of course none of this — the rivalry, the sponsors, the debauchery — competes with the event’s real attraction: girls, girls, girls.


“I’m newly out to my parents, so I decided to come to the most extravagantly lesbian thing I could,” said Keely Thomas, 23, a freelance writer who had driven from Austin, Tex., with a friend in the hope of finding a hook-up.


At the first meet-and-greet on Wednesday, dozens of women drank margaritas, posed for photos and flirted voraciously around the curvy pool at the Wyndham resort. All wore nametags bearing colored dots: green meant available, yellow meant approachable and red was for don’t even try — though many tags were plastered with a rainbow of dots.


By the Thursday night opening parties, the mood was even more unrestrained.


Gail Schamanek, 57, a general contractor with elegantly close-cropped silver hair, a matching gray silky blouse and dark glasses, has been attending Dinah parties — and even some golf matches — since 1984.


“This is the best women’s week on the planet,” she said, keeping her gaze focused on the go-go dancer’s platform. “Lots of eye candy.” She nodded in the direction of the dancer, who was busy doing splits, gyrating and taking money out of people’s mouths with her own.


“She’s very talented,” Ms. Schamanek said. She pulled a wad of bills out of her bra, folded a $5 bill and moved closer to the platform.




Red dots mean unavailable.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01dinah190.3.jpg



The promoters Robin Gans, left, and Sandy Sachs with Ron Oden, mayor of Palm Springs.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01dinah190.2.jpg




^o) I wonder how many older people attend.........the photos didn't show anyone over 50. I also wonder if the "silver-haired" womyn interviewed in this article was one of the exceptions or one of many of that generation represented at the events.


:) Sounds like a fun time but reminds me of of 20s and 30s and that whole bar scene. NOT my style at all.


(f)




"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l)


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01scent600.1.jpg



Sophia Grojsman is a sort of Meryl Streep of scent. She is the talent behind Beautiful, Eternity, Paris and the lesser-known White Linen, which is arguably one of her best. Prescriptives launched her perfume Calyx in 1986. It is a masterful scent, perfect in every technical measure — diffusion, life span, sillage (the perfume’s wake in the air) — but where Calyx is truly slamming is in its aesthetics. It’s a green freshness that is viscerally alive, raw, supersaturated, vivid as a young tree ripped in half by a storm. You smell the fresh, shredded plant cells in the wet wind. This is an HDTV perfume. Not a color photocopy of someone’s idea of freshness. It is a weird, wonderful, fresh thing.



(l) (l) I wore this every day when it first came out back in the early 1990s and throughout the 1990s.. I can't remember one day that I wore it when at least one person and often many more - commented on how wonderful I smelled - every kind of person. ;)


(y) (y) (y) This was rated "Transcendent" in the NYTimes article. (y) (y) (y)


(o) to get on amazon and order some more. It is my favorite with "Happy" and "Destination" as close seconds. Smell them - they're all great!! (f)





"....and her lovely perfume gently lingered in the air after she swept from the parlor."


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

[sweetlady]

(f)


April 1, 2007

The Talk

By PILAR VILADAS AND ALIX BROWNE



gorgeois / (gor jzhwa) / adj. / a neologism to express newfound appreciation for things once considered conventional or bourgeois, like the various Palms (Beach, Springs), porcelain figurines and flowery fabrics, as in,â “Your poppy-print Oscar de la Renta is totally gorgeois.”



brutalism / (broot l ism) / n. / a muscular style of socially conscious architecture practiced between the 1950s and the 1970s by the likes of Le Corbusier and Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Brutalism took its name from béton brut, the French phrase for “raw concrete,” its signature material, but ultimately became a term of derision. After 30-some years, however, it suddenly looks sexy again.



geek chic / (gek sheik) / n. / the revenge of the nerds has hit the design world, now that the most exciting developments in the field — like rapid prototyping and mechatronics — are technological rather than aesthetic. Printing a table? A dress that lights up? Now, that’s geek chic.



8-| (h)




ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:o



http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/04/01/style/20070401_THEGET_SLIDESHOW_1.html




(l) Crochet chair in epoxy resin-coated crochet fabric by Marcel Wanders for Friedman Benda and Droog Design. Price upon request. At Friedman Benda

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01theget.jpg




(f)


http://logo.cafepress.com/3/215835.527453.jpg ;) ,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y)


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/03/29/style/tmagazine/20070401_INSTORE_SLIDESHOW_1.html




:)



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

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



A horticulturist’s paradise in northern Belgium is romantic to its roots. Cathy Horyn digs in. Slide Show:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/04/01/style/20070401_MEADOWLANDS_SLIDESHOW_1.html



April 1, 2007

The Meadowlands

By CATHY HORYN


Domein hemelrijk is a private garden of more than 250 acres a half hour’s drive from Antwerp on the border with the Netherlands. Its name is the merger of the Dutch words for “sky” and “kingdom,” and certainly in Belgium’s lowlands, where everything is flat and there is no break from the drab neatness of centuries-old tree lines and drainage ditches, you have a different feeling when you see sweeping vistas and irregular lines. Hemelrijk is also the romantic result of the union between the late horticulturists Robert De Belder and his wife, Jelena, who, along with Robert’s brother, Georges, created this magical place as well as the better-known public arboretum at nearby Kalmthout.


Today, Robert and Jelena’s son Daniel De Belder lives at Hemelrijk with his wife, Barbara, and their three children, while Daniel’s sister, Diane Van Strydonck, occupies another house on the property with her family. Like his father and his grandfather, Danny, as friends call him, works in the diamond business in Antwerp, returning nightly to Hemelrijk, where he seems only too aware that he is preserving not just one of the great naturalistic gardens, home to 15,000 plants and trees, but also the particular vision of his parents.


“When my sister and I were young, we always knew it was time to go to bed when my parents came in from the garden,” Danny said. “My father would come home from work, and he and my mother would go for a walk. And whenever he traveled for his business, he would bring her a new plant. The garden is really the love story between my parents.”


I first came to Hemelrijk with the designer Dries Van Noten, in May 2005, and we tramped the fields and the rhododendron-laced woods until dark and then sat down to a delicious meal of asparagus with chopped egg and ham in the De Belders’ farmhouse, where Danny, in his seemingly limitless spare time, has created a kind of “Swiss Family Robinson” atmosphere with wood milled from fallen trees. Barbara, who works for the antiques dealer and interior designer Axel Vervoordt, brings a sense of harmony to everything. I returned the next spring, my long walks with the De Belders beginning shortly after dawn and resuming after lunch in the kitchen garden, attended by the family’s two Jack Russell terriers.


It’s easy to understand why the English landscape designer Russell Page liked to come to Hemelrijk to unwind. The garden is the opposite of control and is, in fact, closer to the looseness and individualistic spirit of 19th-century Romanticism. To see the great collections of beeches, oaks, maples and fruit trees that Robert De Belder assembled and to look across the ponds that he and his brother, Georges, dug in the 1960s is to understand what motivated him. “Robert was very interested in Rousseau, and a very romantic person,” Barbara told me. “He was always setting free the animals. If the dogs were in the house, he let them out. He was the same with people. He gave them ideas, and he set them free.”


With the nurturing Jelena, who grew up in Serbia, Robert was well matched. “My father created the vistas and the openings, and my mother furnished them,” Danny said. “She was very aware of the light and the canopy and what would grow there. Her vision was to see that plants were happy. My father’s vision was to buy a big place.” He smiled. “If you’re reasonable, you don’t do it.” Hemelrijk is wildly unreasonable, thank God, vast and mysterious, but to come upon a group of apple and cherry trees, their pink canopies as round and gorgeous as a new spring bonnet, is to feel the tug of Jelena’s influence.



(l) The Kasteeldreef is a 500-year-old avenue.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/04meadow.2.jpg




(f) (f) The property boasts 15,000 trees and plants, like these rhododendrons, second-generation hybrids chosen for their color and flowering habits.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/04meadow.6.jpg




(l) Belgium (and the Netherlands) are delightful in the Spring. I have been there in the Winter as well as the Spring and when flowers are all in bloom is infinitely better.



ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

:)



Get out your beanbag chair: The 1970s are back in original designs and new pieces that graphically evoke the era.


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/04/01/style/20070401_NEOGEO_SLIDESHOW_1.html




:)


;) Not that I'd want to go back and live it all over again. Or wear those four-inch platform shoes and sandals.....well maybe those silver glitter sandals - they were really pretty. It seems as if I really didn't pay much attention to design style back then as much as I did with hair, make-up, clothes, shoes and such.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1970/images/skirt2.gif


http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/2/26/180px-Minirock_(Lack)_Model_Dani_2.jpg




http://www.afunkyshoeandboot.com/platformsandals/Blkcrocmuleplats.JPG


http://www.afunkyshoeandboot.com/platformsandals/Tealgoldplatsandal.JPG


http://www.k8tykat.com/images/market/CHINwedge_t.jpg




"Slide Over Baby." ;)

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

[sweetlady]

;)


Watch Those Rocks.......



http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01glass600.1.jpg



April 1, 2007

The Remix

Glass Act

It used to be that the only way you could see Philip Johnson’s Glass House was to make his acquaintance. Now all you have to do is make a reservation. The legendary Modernist architect, who died in 2005, donated his New Canaan, Conn., country retreat — which includes three vernacular buildings and 10 structures designed by Johnson in addition to the glass-and-steel pavilion that made him famous — to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which will open the 47-acre site to the public (by appointment only) in June. The site’s mission is to become a model for the preservation of Modernism and a laboratory for new talent, inspired by the example of Johnson and his companion, the curator David Whitney.


Go to www.philipjohnsonglasshouse.org



(y)


:o Wouldn't be be lovely to live on enough acreage with old trees (forested areas on the property)? I could imagine some folks enjoying a small, secluded glass structure for entertaining. But living in one? Even in the most rural areas - that glass had better be triple-tempered - just in case a grizzly was around. :|


;) Geez, the things I think of once I start to imagine something. 8-)


(i) Apparently so has others!


Ena Godda Davita

http://vindauga.typepad.com/vindauga/2005/04/ena_godda_da_vi.html





"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" - Iron Butterfly,


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

[sweetlady]

(y) (y)


April 2, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

Our National Debt

By BOB HERBERT

Washington


The actor Gary Sinise, who was talented enough to play both Harry Truman and George Wallace convincingly, has for many years been the prototype of the person who believes that supporting American troops requires more than simply waving the flag or plastering a bumper sticker on your S.U.V.


Quiet and unassuming in an era when entertainers seem more desperate than ever to draw any kind of attention to themselves (think of Tom Cruise using Oprah’s sofa as a trampoline), Mr. Sinise has been quietly entertaining the troops, supporting veterans organizations, recruiting veterans for theatrical projects and doing whatever else he could think of over the past quarter century to help the men and women who have served in the armed forces.


(Believe it or not, the low-keyed Mr. Sinise can rock. He plays bass in the Lt. Dan Band, a group named after a movie character, Lt. Dan Taylor, a disabled Vietnam veteran played by Mr. Sinise in “Forrest Gump.”)


Mr. Sinise’s latest campaign is to bring severely wounded American veterans out of the shadows and into the forefront of the nation’s consciousness to help ensure that they get the care and the level of honor and respect that they deserve. He is the national spokesman for a project called the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, which will be the nation’s first public tribute to the legions of men and women who are living with, and often still suffering from, wounds that they sustained while fighting in the nation’s wars.


It’s interesting that an actor is one of the leaders of a campaign that will evoke the terrible hardships and real sacrifices of war as opposed to the glorified, sanitized rough and tumble that so often passes for warfare in Hollywood and on TV.


During a recent conversation with Mr. Sinise, I kept thinking of the many wounded soldiers and marines I’ve interviewed since the war in Iraq began — courageous individuals like Sgt. Eugene Simpson Jr., a former athlete from Dale City, Va., who was paralyzed when his spinal cord was severed in a roadside bombing; and Sgt. Tyler Hall, a baby-faced 23-year-old tough guy from Wasilla, Alaska, who made wisecracks about the bomb attack that shattered part of his face, broke his arm and three bones in his back, and caused him to lose his left leg below the knee.


“We need to remember,” Mr. Sinise said, “that of the 26 million veterans living today, more than 3 million are permanently disabled from injuries suffered in our nation’s defense.”


The disabled veterans memorial will cost $65 million, all to be raised from private sources, and will be built on a two-acre site in the heart of the nation’s capital, across from the U.S. Botanic Gardens. The memorial grew out of conversations that began more than a decade ago between the philanthropist Lois B. Pope and officials at Disabled American Veterans, an indispensable advocacy group that is headquartered in Washington.


Whether a particular war is popular or not, wise or not, should have no bearing on how the country treats those who volunteer to serve in the armed forces, are ordered into combat and then come home wounded.


The memorial will be a reminder of their continuing sacrifice, and a reminder as well of how unconscionable it is when politicians and bureaucrats cut corners on the care we give to veterans.


Last Friday, during a visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, President Bush apologized to outpatient troops who had been housed in rundown quarters and forced to run a bureaucratic gantlet to get services to which they were entitled.


The foul-ups and the neglect mentioned by the president are symptomatic of widespread problems faced by wounded troops returning from combat. Most of those problems are never brought to the attention of the public. The troops, for the most part, suffer in silence.


The problems faced by some of the wounded troops after they come home would be more difficult to overlook if the country paid more attention to all of the troops who are wounded in the nation’s wars.


“We honor our fallen, those who have given their lives,” said Mr. Sinise. “But what about the ones who have sacrificed an arm or a leg, or their entire body to burns? Or the ones who can’t see anymore? Or can’t hear anymore?


“They go through their lives constantly reminded of what they have sacrificed for their country. We need to let them know that the nation is grateful for their sacrifice.”





(y) (y) (y) "Mr. Sinise’s latest campaign is to bring severely wounded American veterans out of the shadows and into the forefront of the nation’s consciousness to help ensure that they get the care and the level of honor and respect that they deserve." (y) (y) (y)


(y) I cannot applaud enough (my hands would hurt too much) for the efforts such as the ones descibed in this article and those of other courageous people like Bob Woodward. (l) (l) (l)



:) People like these make me proud to be a citizen of the same nation as they. Many days I am not proud, truth be told. Herbert's latest as well as Woodward's televised broadcast updates on soldiers with severe head trauma - are such a tremendously far distance from the idiots running this country - they are not even in the same solar system.





"There are angels among us and most days people are totally unaware."


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

[sweetlady]

(l) (&) (l) (&) (l)


Home Cooking for Pets Is Suddenly Not So Odd



Arden Moore, the author of “Real Food for Dogs,” fed Cleo, left, and Chipper a sample of her Marvelous Mutt Meatballs.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/02/business/02pets.600.jpg



(l) I love it! (The graphic that is...) Total sales of cookbooks for pets are still modest, but the increases have been sharp.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/02/business/02pets1.190.jpg




April 2, 2007

Home Cooking for Pets Is Suddenly Not So Odd

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN


A month ago, the thought of preparing home-cooked meals for a dog or cat might have seemed obsessive even for the most devoted pet lovers.


But with tainted pet food being blamed for at least 16 pet deaths — and some veterinarians predicting hundreds more to follow — preparing lamb stew for the family pet suddenly sounds sensible to at least a few more people.


So it is no surprise, perhaps, that cookbooks for dogs and cats are enjoying an increase in sales.


According to Nielsen BookScan, for the week that ended March 25, after Menu Foods recalled more than 60 million cans of pet food packaged under numerous name brands and store brands, “The Good Food Cookbook for Dogs” sold 194 copies, compared with 42 the previous week. Other books with even more modest sales totals also showed sharp increases over the previous week: “Real Food for Dogs” sold 66 copies, up from 23, for example, and “Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diet” sold 34, up from 8.


“Obviously people got a scare with what was going on about buying dog food, so they’re looking for an alternative,” said Ken Fund, president of Quarry Books, publisher of “The Good Food Cookbook for Dogs.”


Like other pet cookbooks, it sold out on Amazon, which is warning shoppers that they face waits as long as six weeks before their books ship.


The pet food scare started on March 19, when Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans of food, including some varieties by major brands including Iams, Nestlé Purina PetCare and Hills Pet Nutrition, after several animals died after eating Menu pet foods in taste tests.


The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that melamine, a chemical used in both plastic cutlery and fertilizer, had been found in wheat gluten used in the pet food. The F.D.A. disputed a report just two days earlier by the New York State Food Laboratory that aminopterin, a rat poison, was to blame for the deaths; the F.D.A. found no traces of the rat poison.


Yesterday, Del Monte Foods became the fourth pet food manufacture to recall some products from United States retailers after the F.D.A. said that company also had received tainted wheat gluten.


Most recipes in the books differ somewhat from human fare. Take, for example, the “Better Food for Dogs” presentation of Barbecued Hamburgers: “Cut burgers and buns into bite-size pieces. In a serving bowl, combine burgers, buns, tomato, lettuce, oil, potassium chloride and supplements. Mix thoroughly.” (None of the recipes suggest garnishes or wine pairings.)


Pet owners, meanwhile, are seeking out other books. Sales of “Dr. Pitcairn’s New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats,” which is not a cookbook but includes some recipes, climbed to 413, more than twice the number of the week preceding the recall.


And sales nearly tripled, from 33 to 92, for an ominously titled exposé of the pet-food industry, “Food Pets Die For,” first published in 1997.


Dr. Louise Murray, director of medicine at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York, feeds her own cats commercial food, but said, “There’s nothing wrong with a balanced home-cooked diet, but it’s crucial that a vet nutritionist is involved.” (The Web site www.petdiets.com offers such guidance.)


But she urged caution with cats. Whereas dogs, like humans, are omnivores, she said, “cats are strict carnivores and it’s impossible to balance a cat’s diet without the help of a nutritionist because they are susceptible to nutritional deficiencies.”


Arden Moore, author of “Real Food for Dogs,” said some pet owners might cook for their pets only temporarily. “The bottom line is we want our pets safe, and it’s something you can give them in this transition period when there are still more questions than answers,” she said.


Her recipes are formulated to be toothsome for both quadruped and cook. When she makes the Canine Casserole (brown rice, ground chuck, carrots, broccoli and garlic) and Marvelous Mutt Meatballs (ground beef, Cheddar cheese, shredded carrots, bread crumbs, egg, garlic powder and tomato paste) for her dogs, Chipper and Cleo, she digs in, too. And the Leap for Liver? “They love it, but for me, no thanks. I’m not a big fan of beef liver.”




(l) (l) (l)


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

[sweetlady]

(f)


http://www.paulmorelli.com/



http://www.mccaskillandcompany.com/designer_logos/paul_morelli.htm



http://www.ijdg.org/profiles/profilereturn.cfm?companyname=Paul%20Morelli


(y) (y) NICE slide show on this URL above......





http://www.paulmorelli.com/TestB1/Images/Animate_2BW.gif




(f)


:) Oh well, maybe another day I'll be able to find an on-line copy of the latest ad for Paul Morelli's shell waterfall necklace - it is stunning. (l)





"Here's Your Easter Bonnet, With All The Frills Upon It - You'll be the Grandest Lady in the Easter Parade."


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

[sweetlady]

(f)


http://www.bainultra.com/amma/html/english/design/photo.htm



:o Are my eyes tired or does this bath tub resemble a casket? :|

http://www.bainultra.com/elegancia/




(l) I once leased a huge town home with a "mistress bath" similar to this:

http://www.americanvilla.com/images/bath.jpg




For a modern home:

http://www.trendir.com/archives/jason-international-translucent-bathtub.jpg



For a country and/or Victorian home:

http://images.oldhouseweb.com/stories/bitmaps/2005/13450/tub1.jpg




http://www.wasauna.com/weblog/balmoral-bathtub.jpg




(c) Some calming tea and a soothing bubble bath sound like the perfect antidote to life lately. :) Now, if I could figure out how to keep Wyatt from eating the bubbles? ;)



"Rubber Ducky, you're the one. You make bath time lots of fun."


:)

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

[sweetlady]

:)


April 1, 2007

Samurai Shopper

Toast of the Town

By S.S. FAIR


The movies have given us many catchphrases that seem to seep into the cultural idiom overnight: “Go ahead, make my day,” for one; Arnold’s “I’ll be back” is another. “Fasten your seat belts” and “What a dump” are compliments of Bette Davis, and lest we forget: “There’s no place like home.” You may not bless my all-time list of movie zingers, but frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. The line that has me in thrall right now comes from Arthur Penn’s “Night Moves.” “I saw a Rohmer film once,” muses Gene Hackman. “It was kinda like watching paint dry.”


The Samurai Shopper can relate. For weeks I’ve been watching bread toast, meditating on the Maillard reaction, which happens when sugars and amino acids heat up and interact, like the Jets and the Sharks did in “West Side Story.” The reaction gives beer its color and self-tanners the means of making you fake brown; it also turns bread into toast via the miracle of a toaster. If you’re curious as to how a toaster works, find a search engine and type in “How a Toaster Works.” I’m the Samurai Shopper, not Mr. Wizard.


Besides, I’m watching bread toast as part of a national referendum — which I just declared — to explore the more rational and secular aspects of intelligent design. In this case, the design of a toaster, in order to purchase a kitchen-worthy one to feed my minions or be left standing on the sodden Atlanta earth, declaring, “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.” The Samurai Shopper may not be Mr. Wizard, but she does a mean Scarlett O’Hara.


I’ve stared down coils of wire glowing evenly inside sleek cages; watched grains and gluten tanning, blistering, scorching, rising from the deep like marine life piercing the glassy surface of the sea. I’ve got some toasters with tarted-up features and primeval noises, others as silent as Buster Keaton. In spite of these subtle variants, I can state unequivocally that watching paint dry is a Baz Luhrmann romp through “Moulin Rouge” compared with watching bread toast, which is more like a Yoko Ono movie where nothing happens except dust falls; eventually you want to rip your eyes out from the coruscating ennui.


There may be a strict methodology to finding Oscar-winning toasters, but generally, there’s no accounting for toast. (Heh-heh.) All appliances have their peccadilloes, and need to be treated gingerly. No wire hangers! as Mommie Dearest said. Some toasters will outlive you and become toys in the attic; others hog so much counter space that there’s no room for much else. Then again, owning a single-task appliance in this era of multitasking means that greed is still good, or it’s an omen that you’ve been cast in some B movie where the toaster will strangle you with its cord and devour you with fava beans and a nice Chianti.


I rounded up the usual breakfast delectables: Trader Joe’s Blueberry Waffles and bagels from the Bagel Store, 247 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg. The bagels were cloud-shaped and megalithic, like the design for Frank Gehry’s downtown Guggenheim museum. Their heft and density made toaster performance a true challenge. I’ll spoil the ending right now and reveal that they were all brave little toasters, working mightily to produce edible treats.


The worst of the lot was the new, retro-styled half-moon Heritage from Sunbeam, which made great toasters in the 1920s and ’30s but now commits too many crimes and misdemeanors. The Alessi SG68 in stainless steel is a sleek vessel of majesty and style. But S.O.S.: the entire toaster becomes alarmingly hot when in use; burn, baby, burn.


The Breville Ikon two-slicer is brushed stainless steel with a blue background LCD control center, smart chips and three settings. Once you ruin several breadstuffs tweaking your preferences, the rest is a piece of cake. The Krups two-slicer had a countdown timer, a three-position control lever for easy toast retrieval and a stop/eject button, gadgets almost as cool as Jason Statham’s BMW 735i E38 in “The Transporter.” The Dualit Lite was done up in the ubiquitous Ikea cobalt blue. I dropped a sliced baguette into it one morning; the Dualit’s slingshot mechanism catapulted the toast behind the stove. Houston, we had liftoff.


Show me the money, you say? The Rowenta Morrison, designed by Jasper Morrison, is best in show: slim lines, quiet mechanism, sweet beeps when your toast’s done, a purring beauty of grace and ability. In the bargain bin, a Back to Basics toaster and egg poacher combo was on sale at CVS for $2.99. When a small appliance costs you $2.99, you forfeit the right to whine about it. The Back to Basics poached my egg, toasted my toast, and the rest is silence.


Still, nothing was superstar-like or singular in the design department. I wanted the Meryl Streep of toasters, a Hepburn; either would do. I found the classics at www.toastercentral.com. Michael Sheafe, who runs the Web site, has what must be the greatest assemblage of vintage toasters anywhere. He lives on the Upper East Side and sells his wares at the flea and green market on Columbus and 77th in the school cafeteria on most Sundays. Sheafe finds the toasters of yesteryear and refurbishes them till they’re functional and sparkling. He’s had prize Toast-O-Lators from the 1940s, 24-karat-gold-plated Toastmasters from the 1950s and Torrid Toasters with swinging doors and red feet. Some are nickel-plated over steel, others are engraved with scrollwork and fleurs-de-lis; some have Bakelite fittings, others have porcelain bases and carry handles. All would look at home in Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” or in Radio City Music Hall. Bergdorf’s once featured 100 of Michael’s vintage toasters in its wintry windows, so you could keep toasty through the snow. If you want an A-list star perched on your counter, spring for one of Sheafe’s early American models, designed to bring a slice of luxury into the kitchen.


Sheafe says you can’t beat Sunbeam’s T-35 Radiant Control toaster, made around 1958, with its automatic levitations: the bread drops silently down and floats back up a perfect shade of brown. Watching bread toast in the T-35 was like watching an old-time movie. His toasters are still big, it’s our designs that got small.



(y) (y)


(l) Nothing better than perfectly browned toast at a London Inn. Toaster ovens just don't make that great toast like the old fashioned toasters did in my youth.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20060507HO_toast_230.jpg


http://www.cooking.com/images/products/shprodde/363642.jpg




(Yummy!) (l) Truffled Multigrain Toast:

http://sfd.typepad.com/sfd/images/dsc03477.JPG



(l) Fresh avacodo on toasted multigrain toast:

http://www.zynnyadesign.com/avocado.jpg




HUGE (p): Multigrain Blueberry Frech Toast

http://www.menupalace.com/uploads/pickle_barrel_featured/1.jpg




Speaking of toasts:

"May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past."


(f) (f)


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

[sweetlady]

(d) (d)


The weather outside has been frightful, there seems to be a war (or two) looming, and even the trashiest reality show can only distract us for so long: Frankly, we all need--no, deserve--a drink and the warm companionship of good friends (or good-looking strangers). So here are the 50 BEST BARS to order one, whether you're still blessed with an expense account or searching for the city's most welcoming dive.



Best Bad-Weather Bar
The Library Bar
In this winter of our discontent, there is no better place to hide from the elements than the Library Bar in the Hudson Hotel.
• Midtown



Best Bar to Hear Dance Music (Without-Ostensibly-Dancing)
Plant Bar
For exhausted club junkies seeking an electronica fix without the cover charge and unsolicited, ecstasy-fueled ass-grinding of an actual club.
• East Village



Best New Tribute to the Go-go Nineties
Dorsia
Neon-light boxes flash all over this bar, which feels more Miami than Manhattan
• Flatiron District



Best Bar If You Still Have an Expense Account
Town
Hedge-fund managers mix with La Goulue refugees, and everyone indulges in some of the chic-est spirits the city has to offer.
• Midtown



Best Bar If You're Unemployed
Holiday Cocktail Lounge
W. H. Auden once lived next door, and Trotsky across the street...
• East Village



Best Bar Where Everyone's Makeup Looks Fantastic
Marion's Continental
Drag queens and other downtown celebrities favor this cozy Bowery bar..
• East Village



Best After-Work Bar for Forgetting About Work
The Living Room
After 6 p.m., the midtown crowds swarm the seventh-floor bar to loosen their ties and splay out on cushy white couches.
• Midtown



Best Bar for a Covert Job Interview
The Villard Bar and Lounge
A Great Place for secret business meetings, romantic liaisons, and any other one-on-one gatherings that require extreme discretion...
• Midtown



Best Gay Bar for Meeting a Guy With $80,000 in M.F.A. Debt
Metropolitan
Owned by the people behind the popular but mercifully unstylish Phoenix in the East Village..
• Brooklyn



Best Overdecorated Lesbian Bar
Cubbyhole
The sleek Wallpaper* aesthetic (now on the wane in New York bars?) clearly never had a chance at Cubby Hole.
• West Village



Best Bar to Get Taken Hostage In :|
Bar Veloce
If you're going to have kerosene sprayed on you by a raving lunatic waving a gun...
• East Village



Best Bar for Dancing (Legally)
Filter 14
The bare-bones vibe of this mini-club in the meatpacking district is no deterrent to the clubby (but unpretentious) crowd that flocks here to dance...
• West Village



Best Pre- or Post-Theater Bar
Blue Fin
An attractive after-work, pre-curtain set swarms the all-glass corner bar with its view of Times Square.
• Midtown



Best Bar for Shooting Pool (Uninterrupted)
Antarctica
Any true pool aficionado knows that finding a good spot to play in the city is nearly impossible....
• SoHo



Best Gay Bar That Feels Like a Club
XL
Open the door to XL, the most recent nightlife offering from John Blair-the man behind gay-clubdom's big night at the Roxy-and you expect to find hordes of shirtless men dancing to thumping music.More...
• Chelsea



Best Gay Bar You Can Bring Your Straight Friends To
Starlight Bar & Lounge
If the Gaiety strip club proves a little too much for that first outing, turn to Starlight, a funky mix of Chelsea boys and East Village artistes...
• East Village



Best Bar for Being (or Meeting) an Artist
Passerby
Who says getting your buzz on at a gallery has to involve a plastic cup of tepid Pinot Grigio?
• Chelsea



Best Burger Bars
Old Town
A true New York classic: Ancient mariners sit side by side with sports nuts, frat boys, and hip preppies who struggle valiantly not to use their cell phones.
• Union Square



Best Bars That Are Hardest to Find
Angel's Share
It's tough to find this elegant drink parlor tucked away inside a Japanese restaurant...
• East Village



Best Speakeasy in Midtown
Single Room Occupancy
There's no sign outside this basement hideaway, just a glowing green sconce and the faintest throb of deep-house music.
• Midtown



;) Best Strip Bar for Dancing
Pussycat Lounge
No, we don't mean onstage-- the real action happens upstairs from the T&A at the hippest financial-district scene around.
• Tribeca



http://nymag.com/nymetro/nightlife/barsclubs/features/n_8317/





The Best Lesbian Toast?

http://www.thephoenix.com/Listings/Details.aspx?category=Venue&venue=2095


;)



(um) (um) May Your smile Be Your Umbrella. (um) (um)


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

[sweetlady]

8-| 8-| 8-| 8-|


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/01/style/01object190.1.jpg


April 1, 2007

Object Lesson

Logo a Go-Go

By ALICE RAWSTHORN


Why would a graphic designer ask a Yale theoretical physicist to calculate how many possible combinations there could be of 64 squares?


It’s because the designer, Michael Bierut, planned to chop up the new logo for Saks Fifth Avenue into 64 squares and to rearrange them in different combinations on bags, boxes, ads and signage. The results have peppered the streets of New York and every other city where Saks has a store since Bierut’s new campaign was unveiled in January. And, in case you’re wondering, the physicist’s answer was lots and lots of combinations — or, to be precise, 98.14 googols (that’s a 1 with 100 zeros after it).


Saks’s chopped-up logo is the latest and most visible example of what graphic designers call a dynamic visual identity. That’s design-speak for a logo that looks different each time you see it — like MTV’s graffiti-esque initials or the customized symbols with which Google celebrates Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day — as opposed to the old-fashioned corporate ones, which always look the same. The traditionalists believe that the more times you see the same logo, the likelier you are to remember it, while the iconoclasts argue that you become inured to the same image over and over and are more apt to notice ones that change or, as Bierut puts it, are “consistently inconsistent.”


When Saks asked Bierut to reinvent its identity, what it wanted was something as memorable — and as marketable — as Tiffany’s classic blue and Burberry’s plaid. Bierut jumped at the chance. A chipper 49-year-old, he’s a graphic designer’s graphic designer who describes the 99 percent of the population who can’t tell Arial from Helvetica as “civilians” with a self-deprecating chuckle. After 10 years of working for Massimo Vignelli, the graphic mastermind of New York’s iconic 1970s subway map, he became a partner at the design firm Pentagram in 1990.


“One of the things Massimo taught me about designing identities is that it’s often easier if you find something that has some history,” Bierut says, “because it still might have a purchase on people’s imagination.” Sifting through the 40-odd logos that Saks had used over the decades, he kept returning to the 1973 signature logo drawn by Tom Carnese for his old boss, Vignelli.


“It was the one that stood out,” he recalls. “Some people thought it was still Saks’s identity, even though it hadn’t been used for years. We asked Joe Finocchiaro to refine it, mostly by making it a little slimmer.” Having created the new logo, Bierut hit upon the idea of chopping it up to usher in the changes to Saks’s packaging, in the same way that Rudolph de Harak designed bright shopping bags with white type for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1978 and Bloomingdale’s celebrated the holidays with different theme bags during the 1980s.


“We wanted something that would be immediately identifiable across the street or through the windows of a moving subway car, and that no one would throw away,” he says. “Blowing up the logo and rearranging the fragments in a million different ways on a grid made the identity much more dramatic.”


Regardless of whether it’s on Fifth Avenue or in the Houston Galleria Mall, Saks is a definitive New York store; the grid refers to the city’s street plan, and the fragments represent the frenzy of its street life. “It’s a metaphor for the larger-than-life experiences you can find on block after block in New York City,” Bierut says. “Though I really don’t expect anyone to notice that. If a Saks customer spontaneously spots the subtext, I’ll send them a gift voucher.”




(k) (k) Sweet. Remember collecting those gorgeous shopping bags and re-using them to place gifts in with colorful tissue and lace? I do and still do that. (l)


(o) Time for a break away from the computer glass. I researched much of what I posted today in the week hours of the morning earlier today - and my hard drive hiccuped. I lost a year's worth of some articles and interesting things I collect. Oh well. Need to get the back-up drive connected and working asap. It's new and I've had it for over two years.:|









"Just because you think you're getting away with lots of things, doesn't mean that you have succeeded in pulling the wool over everyone's eyes. You have not. And beware karmic balance when you have been cruel. There are unseen angels about."







Safe virtual and physical world travel thoughts to my friends. (l) (l)



Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

:s :s


April 3, 2007

Women in I.T.: Where the Girls Aren't

By Edward Cone CIO Insight

The number of women going into technology careers is slipping—and no one is quite sure why.


Since 2000, the number of women working in information technology has declined, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of IT professionals. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 984,000 women worked in eight IT categories in 2000, accounting for 28.9 percent of all employed IT workers. The corresponding numbers for 2006, when overall IT employment hit an all-time high of nearly 3.47 million, show a 7.7 percent drop from 2000, with 908,000 women working in IT, or just 26.2 percent of the total.


Why the big decline? Nobody yet has firm answers to what is probably a multifaceted problem. For one thing, says a report from IT advisory firm Cutter Consortium, the issue is just coming to light. "The exodus has been quiet," write authors Lynne Ellyn and Christine Davis. "Women are not complaining very loudly because, today, they have many options."


Ellyn and Davis muse: "Is it because they have become intolerant of working in an environment where they are not respected, or because they find it to be a field that does not support a balanced lifestyle? Perhaps it's due to the diminishing opportunities in IT? Or, could it be that IT suffers from a social stigma or perception that is repelling young women away?" Ellyn continues, "I think this trend is an indictment of the often abrasive experience women have in the IT arena. As I reflect on this disturbing trend, I recall countless incidences where women have been discounted and marginalized while struggling to balance family and work." Also, she writes, "the image of the 'computer guy' is very unappealing to young women."


When we first posted these numbers online, CIO Insight received a lot of reader feedback. Among individual reasons cited by women who contacted us were discrimination and stereotyping; availability of other attractive career paths; the idea that men in IT are nerds; and difficulty dealing with men from other cultures who are uncomfortable working with women. That's all anecdotal evidence; much work remains to be done on the question. In the meantime, says the Cutter report: "The loss of women from the IT landscape is bad news for business."


http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2110748,00.asp?kc=COQFTEMNL040307EOAD


:| :| :|



:o Seems pretty obvious to me that CIO's need to foster IT and other corporate work environments that not only support womyn in IT - but provide opportuities through peer or mentor learning and other methods for acquiring new knowledge and thus expanding their technical expertise as well as understanding of how various function groups in the organization operate within a copnveptualized business strategy. :o


(y) Learning. training - are and will contiue to be HUGE. (y)





ANCORA IMPARO,

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

[sweetlady]

(h)



http://www.battlebricks.com/wiigobot/index.html



(y) (h)



"Fetchez la vache" (Get the cow and the catapult! - Monty Python),

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

[sweetlady]

:| :| :|


:D



http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/killerquiz/




:) HILARIOUS!


What was your score?? I got them all right - but then I am a grrl-propeller-head. ;)




Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

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

[sweetlady]

to the Galaxy, most of it unpublished except for the bits that made it into Penthouse magazine (which I'm guessing you missed as did I..)


:)



http://www.darkermatter.com/issue1/douglas_adams.php



(y) (y)



If we use only about ten percent of our brains, isn't that other ninety percent actually the "final frontier" rather than space?"

^o) Access to this 90 percent is certainly easier than space/time travel.


(f)


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

[sweetlady]

:o



http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/front/8bit_tie2.jpg



http://www.thinkgeek.com/apparel/hats-ties/9352/



8-| 8-| 8-| 8-| 8-|


(f)


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

[sweetlady]

(f) (f) (f)


[somewhere i have