Quotes, URL's, Links And References-by:older Femmes, Butches, Ftms, Mtfs, Queer, Etc. [Archive] - Page 23

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 05:56 PM

(~) (l) (~)

1. Playing by Heart (1998)

Love and lust swirl around contemporary Los Angeles, kicking up dust in the lives of Paul (Sean Connery), Joan (Angelina Jolie), Keenan (Ryan Phillippe), Mark (Jay Mohr) and Hannah (Gena Rowlands). The ensemble cast ably encapsulates many of the possibilities of romance in the bars, clubs, living rooms and motel rooms that make up the slippery battleground of the war between the sexes.

Cast:

Sean Connery Jay Mohr
Madeleine Stowe Ryan Phillippe
Angelina Jolie Jon Stewart
Anthony Edwards Dennis Quaid
Gillian Anderson Ellen Burstyn
Gena Rowlands

Review:

You will either love this movie or hate it. Use this as your guide: if you enjoyed BOTH "Love Actually" AND "Closer", you will like this movie. If you liked "Love Actually" but not "Closer", your immediate impression of this movie will be "Nobody talks this way!" and you will be right. If you liked "Closer" but not "Love Actually", you will roll your eyes and scoff through the last 15 minutes, and you'll be correct to do so. But if you liked them both, you'll be able to sit back, relax, and be carried along by the flow of the narrative, the dialogue-not-dialogue, and many charming set-pieces. This movie really wants to be a stage play, but works as a movie too. Stand-outs: Angelina Jolie, Gillian Anderson, and Jon Stewart, all of whom give stand-out performances.

2. Big Eden (2000)

Successful but lonely New York artist Henry Hart (Arye Gross) returns to Big Eden to care for his ailing grandfather and winds up confronting his unrequited passion for his high school best friend and his feelings about being gay in a small town. As Henry works though his emotions, the townspeople quietly conspire to help him along, until Henry realizes new possibilities for both friendship and romance. Eric Schweig and Louise Fletcher also star.

Cast:

Arye Gross Eric Schweig
Tim DeKay George Coe
Louise Fletcher Nan Martin
Veanne Cox O'Neal Compton
Corinne Bohrer John Dossett

Reviews:

An unabashedly sentimental movie with the perfect balance of heartbreak and joy. In the center of the story, Arye Gross is a revelation, but the whole ensemble cast shines. By the end, you'll wish you could visit this magical town.

This Movie has it all. Touching scenes of real life relationship problems, comedy, loving family relationships, great scenery and acting with a touch of hollywood fantasy thrown in.You will laugh, cry and leave feeling really good about life. All performers are great but Louise Fletcher really stands out.

This is a lovely film. It is tasteful and very touching. There is not a single negative aspect in the movie, and you will love that. It is the kind of movie that leaves you smiling after watching it. It is a wonderful love story!!! I am ready to watch it again!!!!!

(y) (y) I agree! Netflix kep recommending this film the past couple of years (or longer) but I didn't rent it. Since I missed the first 15 or 20 minutes of this superb film when it was on cable over this past weekend, I'm adding it to my netflix queue as well as moving it towards to top so I can watch it soon. GREAT film, 5 stars!

(f)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 05:57 PM

:| :| :| :| :|

:s :s :s

Q U O T E D

"Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I'm sad for that. ... Social games represent something that has been missing. Most of the board games are purchased by women for families. It is this gaming world that can be re-energized. We used to have families sit down and play a game together. A lot of video games today are very isolated. You don't see mom and dad, sister and brother, sitting down like they used to play, say, Monopoly. That represented good mentoring time for families that just isn't happening now."

-- Pong inventor Nolan Bushnell would rather see video-game violence confined to the occasional family fistfight

http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1&ArticleID=17133

:o No way.....what about Wii games like tennis and other two-player games? :)

(f)

Veni vidi velcro.

I came, I saw, I got stuck.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 05:59 PM

^o) ^o) ^o)

Though street crime is relatively low in Japan, quirky camouflage designs like this vending-machine dress are being offered to an increasingly anxious public to hide from would-be assailants.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/20/world/20japan.xlarge1.jpg

October 20, 2007

Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place

By MARTIN FACKLER

TOKYO, Oct. 19 — On a narrow Tokyo street, near a beef bowl restaurant and a pachinko parlor, Aya Tsukioka demonstrated new clothing designs that she hopes will ease Japan’s growing fears of crime.

Deftly, Ms. Tsukioka, a 29-year-old experimental fashion designer, lifted a flap on her skirt to reveal a large sheet of cloth printed in bright red with a soft drink logo partly visible. By holding the sheet open and stepping to the side of the road, she showed how a woman walking alone could elude pursuers — by disguising herself as a vending machine.

The wearer hides behind the sheet, printed with an actual-size photo of a vending machine. Ms. Tsukioka’s clothing is still in development, but she already has several versions, including one that unfolds from a kimono and a deluxe model with four sides for more complete camouflaging.

These elaborate defenses are coming at a time when crime rates are actually declining in Japan. But the Japanese, sensitive to the slightest signs of social fraying, say they feel growing anxiety about safety, fanned by sensationalist news media. Instead of pepper spray, though, they are devising a variety of novel solutions, some high-tech, others quirky, but all reflecting a peculiarly Japanese sensibility.

Take the “manhole bag,” a purse that can hide valuables by unfolding to look like a sewer cover. Lay it on the street with your wallet inside, and unwitting thieves are supposed to walk right by. There is also a line of knife-proof high school uniforms made with the same material as Kevlar, and a book with tips on how to dress even the nerdiest children like “pseudohoodlums” to fend off schoolyard bullies.

There are pastel-colored cellphones for children that parents can track, and a chip for backpacks that signals when children enter and leave school.

The devices’ creators admit that some of their ideas may seem far-fetched, especially to crime-hardened Americans. And even some Japanese find some of them a tad naïve, possibly reflecting the nation’s relative lack of experience with actual street crime. Despite media attention on a few sensational cases, the rate of violent crime remains just one-seventh of America’s.

But the devices’ creators also argue that Japan’s ideas about crime prevention are a product of deeper cultural differences. While Americans want to protect themselves from criminals, or even strike back, the creators say many Japanese favor camouflage and deception, reflecting a culture that abhors self-assertion, even in self-defense.

“It is just easier for Japanese to hide,” Ms. Tsukioka said. “Making a scene would be too embarrassing.” She said her vending machine disguise was inspired by a trick used by the ancient ninja, who cloaked themselves in black blankets at night.

To be sure, some of these ideas have yet to become commercially viable. However, the fact that they were greeted here with straight faces, or even appeared at all, underscores another, less appreciated facet of Japanese society: its fondness for oddball ideas and inventions.

Japan’s corporate labs have showered the world with technology, from transistor radios to hybrid cars. But the nation is also home to a prolific subculture of individual inventors, whose ideas range from practical to bizarre. Inventors say a tradition of tinkering and building has made Japan welcoming to experimental ideas, no matter how eccentric.

“Japanese society won’t just laugh, so inventors are not afraid to try new things,” said Takumi Hirai, chairman of Japan’s largest association of individual inventors, the 10,000-member Hatsumeigakkai.

In fact, Japan produces so many unusual inventions that it even has a word for them: chindogu, or “queer tools.” The term was popularized by Kenji Kawakami, whose hundreds of intentionally impractical and humorous inventions have won him international attention as Japan’s answer to Rube Goldberg. His creations, which he calls “unuseless,” include a roll of toilet paper attached to the head for easy reach in hay fever season, and tiny mops for a cat’s feet that polish the floor as the cat prowls.

Mr. Kawakami said that while some of Japan’s anticrime devices might not seem practical, they were valuable because they might lead to even better ideas.

“Even useless things can be useful,” he said. “The weird logic of these inventions helps us see the world in fresh ways.”

Even some of the less unusual anticrime devices here reflect a singular logic. A pair of women’s sunglasses has wraparound lenses so dark no one can see where the wearer is looking. These are intended to scare off sexual harassers on Tokyo’s crowded trains, where the groping of women is a constant problem.

The same is true of some of the solutions for schoolyard bullying, a big problem in Japan. Kaori Nakano, a fashion historian, wrote a book with a chapter on how to ward off bullies with the “pseudohoodlum” attire. Her advice includes substituting a white belt for the standard black one in Japanese school uniforms, preferably with metallic studs or tiny mirrors, and buying short socks with flashy patterns.

“Japan is so fashion conscious that just changing the way you dress can make you safer,” Ms. Nakano said. “Culture plays a big role in risk prevention.”

Ms. Tsukioka said she chose the vending-machine motif because the machines are so common on Japan’s streets. For children, she has a backpack that transforms into a Japanese-style fire hydrant, hiding the child. The “manhole bag” was also her idea.

Ms. Tsukioka said her disguises could be a bit impractical, “especially when your hands are shaking.” Still, she said she hoped the designs or some variation of them could be marketed widely. So far, she said, she has sold about 20 vending-machine skirts for about $800 each, printing and sewing each by hand.

She said she had never heard of a skirt’s actually preventing a crime. But on a recent afternoon in Tokyo, bystanders stared as she unfolded the sheet. But once she stood behind it next to a row of actual vending machines, the image proved persuasive enough camouflage that passers-by did not seem to notice her.

She said that while her ideas might be fanciful, Japan’s willingness to indulge the imagination was one of its cultural strengths.

“These ideas might strike foreigners as far-fetched,” she added, “but in Japan, they can become reality.”

^o) ^o) ^o)

(f)

Damnant quod non intellegunt.

They condemn what they do not understand.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:00 PM

;) ;) ;)

www.Anagramsite.com

A quick way to appear smart, or demented...

Rock fans know "Mr. Mojo Risin" as the anagram chosen by The Doors' frontman Jim Morrison in their 1971 hit "L.A. Woman." Now, you too can rearrange your name to create a mysterious alter ego! Find anagrams for other celebrity names too, as well as politics, food, sports, and—oh, the possibilities!

http://anagramsite.com/

:) Hmmm....."176 anagrams found" for sweetlady.

(y) Cool tool.

;)

Bene qui latuit bene vixit.

He (She) lives well who lives unnoticed.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:03 PM

:o

Tailgating America

Fire up the Foreman Grill.

Tailgating has been described as "the last great American neighborhood ...where no one locks their doors and everyone is happy to see you..." This site keeps the game day spirit alive with parking-lot & stadium info, tried-and-true recipes, and cool tailgating furniture and accessories.

http://www.tailgating.com/

;)

(f)

Carpe jugulum. :[ :[

Go for the throat. ;)

Sweetlady

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:04 PM

:D

Game: Gnome Herder — Mac

Like sheep, only mythical

With this challenging 3D game, round up, wrangle and capture the naughty flying Gnomes so you can return them to their lonely wives. Feel free to shoot them with acorns.

http://www.macgamesandmore.com/gnomeherder_freegame.php

;)

(f)

Veritatem dies aperit.

Time discloses the truth.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:06 PM

:s :s

;)

Hats of Meat

Stinky couture

Throughout history, hats made out of meat have been the ultimate fashion statement. From beef and poultry to pork and sausage, all of your carnivorous favorites are now ready to wear on top of your head.

http://www.hatsofmeat.com/

:o :o

(f)

Vox clamantis in deserto.

A voice crying in the wilderness.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:09 PM

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

Q U O T E D

"A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer."

-- Walt Mossberg adds his voice to the "Free My Phone" campaign

http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20071021/free-my-phone/

"We also need much greater portability of phone hardware. Because the federal government failed to set a standard for wireless phone technology years ago, we have two major, incompatible cellphone technologies in the U.S. Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. use something called CDMA. AT&T and Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile use something called GSM. Except for a couple of oddball models, phones built for one of these technologies can’t work on the other. So that limits consumer choice and consumer power. If you want to switch from AT&T to Verizon, you have to swallow the cost of a new phone.

But the problem is even worse. The government didn’t require the CDMA companies to include a removable account-information chip, called a SIM card, in their phones. So, unlike people with GSM phones, Sprint and Verizon customers can’t keep their phones if they switch between the two carriers, even though they use the same basic technology. And, the government allows the GSM carriers to “lock” their phones, so a SIM card from a rival carrier won’t work in them, at least for a period of time. Techies can sometimes figure out how to get around this, but average folks can’t.

The carriers defend these restrictions partly by pointing out that they subsidize the cost of the phones in order to get you to use their networks. That’s also, they say, why they require contracts and charge early-termination fees. Without the subsidies, they say, that $99 phone might be $299, so it’s only fair to keep you from fleeing their networks, at least too quickly.

But this whole cellphone subsidy game is an archaic remnant of the days when mobile phones were costly novelties. Today, subsidies are a trap for consumers. If subsidies were removed, along with the restrictions that flow from them, the market would quickly produce cheap phones, just as it has produced cheap, unsubsidized versions of every other digital product, from $399 computers to $79 iPods."

-- Walt Mossberg

8-|8-| Japan and the three Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) have enjoyed G3 or third generation (that is, STANDARDIZED) cell phone services for years. The U.S. cell phone marketplace is indeed laughable. Reminds me of the old days (so I have heard, that is - not that I was "there".....) when FAX machines could not "talk" to one another. Standards = Interoperability. Simple. ;) ;)

(f)

Damnant quod non intellegunt.

They condemn what they do not understand.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:13 PM

8o| 8o| 8o| 8o|

Ever since the AP nailed Comcast on its surreptitious interference with BitTorrent file transfers last week (see "Sorry, upload of the video 'How to Choose a New ISP' cannot be completed at this time"), folks have been wondering if the cable giant is putting the secret squeeze on any other applications. Unfortunately, the answer appears to be yes. The Electronic Frontier Foundation did a little testing and found Comcast was playing similar shenanigans with the Gnutella peer-to-peer system, interrupting communication between nodes with forged reset packets that leave users in the dark about the source of the failure. And Kevin Kanarski has evidence of the same trickery on, of all things, Lotus Notes, hardly a vehicle for massive files of copyright material.

As the EFF says, "When an ISP starts arbitrarily zapping some of the protocols that its customers use, they instantly endanger the cascade of innovation that the Internet has enabled. ... If this type of conduct is allowed to continue, many innovators will have to get active assistance from an ISP in order to have their protocols allowed through the ISP's web of spoofing and forgery. Technologies like BitTorrent and Joost, which are used to distribute licensed movies and are in direct competition with Comcast's cable TV services, will be at Comcast's mercy." Outrage abounds, and rightly so.

http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2007/10/sorry_upload_of_the_video_how_to_choose_a_new_isp_ cannot_be_completed_at_this_time.html

http://kkanarski.blogspot.com/2007/09/comcast-filtering-lotus-notes-update.html

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/10/comcast-traffic.html

:o :o What I want to know is WHY local TV stations' consumer advocates have not picked up on this story....especially in Philly where this firm in headquartered. Grrrrr. And I was stymied as to why my cable modem was so molasses-slow for so long! :| :|

:)

(f)

Carpe Diem,

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:15 PM

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

http://www.maxablog.com/2007/04/they_may_look_l.html

"high dynamic range" technique:

http://stuckincustoms.com/2006/06/06/548/

WOW!!!! http://farm1.static.flickr.com/69/182191565_0537107963_b.jpg

!!!!! http://static.flickr.com/72/217440037_8ca190627e_b.jpg

(l) These BLEW me away:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/182/387019269_068fd16670_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/118/300341306_9e15b08472_b.jpg

.............to produce stunning images:

BEST, BEST, BEST SLIDE SHOW I have EVER seen!

http://www.treyratcliff.com/index2.php

(l) (l) These links are definitely keepers, IMHO. :)

:D

(f)

Mors Certa, Vita Incerta.

Death is certain, life is not.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:18 PM

8o| 8o|

Posted on Wed, Oct. 24, 2007

Boeing must rebid for helicopter deal

Its plant in Delco was to build 144 aircraft for the Air Force. Then rivals challenged the contract.

By Henry J. Holcomb

Inquirer Staff Writer

A year ago, the Air Force picked Boeing's newest Chinook to replace aging Black Hawks as the military's new search-and-rescue helicopter.

There was talk of adding 100 to 400 jobs and expanding the assembly line at the Ridley Township headquarters of the Boeing Co.'s Rotorcraft Division in suburban Philadelphia.

But now, challenged by Boeing rivals Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky - and the Government Accountability Office - the Air Force is restarting the competition. A draft of the new call for bids was expected to be issued by early this morning.

With orders for 144 helicopters at stake, the process is beginning to feel like a hot and ugly political campaign.

Lockheed Martin Corp., of Bethesda, Md., for example, says the Chinook is too big, that its twin rotors will blow people it is trying to rescue off their feet.

Not so, Chicago-based Boeing counters. It fired back questions about whether its rival, new to building helicopters, could deliver on time and handle the job. In the Air Force rating system, the Chinook got highest performance marks, it noted.

All three defense contractors have major operations in the Philadelphia region.

Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), a Chinook supporter whose district includes the Boeing plant, calls the unfolding saga a "strange process."

He's a retired three-star Navy admiral who has worked at high levels of the Pentagon procurement process. "Everybody is being allowed to resubmit their bids and change whatever they want to change," Sestak said in an interview.

And, Sestak said, after Boeing won last year, the losers were given extensive briefings on why they lost. But Boeing, as the winner, got no information on its rivals.

"The Air Force has addressed that," said Frans Jurgens, a senior Lockheed Martin spokesman. He then quickly e-mailed a transcript of a media discussion with Sue C. Payton, assistant secretary of the Air Force for procurement. It quoted her as saying: "We believe, and having talked to our contracting people and our lawyers, that the playing field will be leveled based on information given to all parties."

The process took another strange turn this week.

The Air Force attempt to level the playing field by giving Boeing details on its rivals, akin to what they got about Chinook, has been challenged by one of the bidders. People familiar with the process say field-leveling briefings scheduled for tomorrow have been canceled.

The estimated total costs of each entry, including maintenance and fuel over the life of the aircraft, were not that far apart: Boeing's HH-47 Chinook, $38.9 billion; Sikorsky H-92 Superhawk, $38.5 billion; and Lockheed Martin's US101, $35.9 billion.

If another company's bid is chosen to replace Sikorsky's Black Hawk, it would be a second big downdraft to Sikorsky, a unit of United Technologies Co.

The aviation pioneer earlier lost the competition for new presidential helicopters, dubbed Marine One when the president is aboard, to a Lockheed Martin team that includes AgustaWestland. Marine One has been a Sikorsky since Dwight Eisenhower was president. Sikorsky, based in Stratford, Conn., declined requests for interviews.

Lockheed Martin says the qualities that helped its US101 win the Marine One contest also make it good for search-and-rescue.

"It is light, quiet, and it has three engines. If you lose one, you can complete the mission," Lockheed Martin's Jurgens said. "The Chinook is loud and big. You know it's coming from a good ways away."

Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky want current search-and-rescue pilots to have more influence in the process.

Their entries have single main rotors and a vertical tail rotor akin to what these pilots now fly. In contrast, Boeing's Chinook has two big rotors, working in tandem and powered by a pair of jet engines. This design was invented in Philadelphia by aviation pioneer Frank Piasecki, who heads Piasecki Aircraft Co.

Pilots, like pickup truck drivers, have favorite brands. "But a man shouldn't say what the best is," Sestak said. Those decisions, he said, should be based on a process that measures cost and capability.

Chicago-based Boeing notes that its entry is a variant of the Army's special-operations helicopter, the Chinook CH-47G, which is equipped for in-flight refueling, has larger fuel tanks for longer range, and bears sophisticated electronic warfare countermeasures to fend off enemy planes and missiles.

Lockheed Martin says that's irrelevant.

"In special ops, you plan the mission, you choose your landing zone. You infiltrate and exfiltrate on your terms. Search-and-rescue is different. When there's a downed pilot, you land where he or she is, and the enemy is expecting you," Lockheed Martin's Jurgens said.

Sestak recalled rescues from his Navy years and declared the newest versions of the Chinook to be agile and able to carry equipment that aids rescues. Boeing's mock-up shows six stretchers and medical gear in the forward cabin. The rear can carry an all-terrain vehicle or a boat and has machine guns on both sides and the rear ramp.

In an August demonstration flight at Fort Campbell, Ky., Army pilots put the latest-generation Chinook through an hourlong series of maneuvers that included landing in tight spaces and planting its rear wheels on a ridge with the front in hover while troops exited on a ramp at the rear.

The search-and-rescue version will have the latest digital controls and an ability to detect and avoid utility wires, a threat in urban rescues, said Rick Lemaster, program manager for the search-and-rescue version.

With tandem rotors, the Chinook is less vulnerable to wind gusts when hovering in tight situations, he said.

The Air Force has said it hoped to complete the new bidding and make a decision next spring.

That was before the meetings set for tomorrow were canceled.

Boeing's reaction to this latest delay was swift. "We won fair and square," Joseph L. LeMarca, a retired Air Force officer who is Boeing Rotorcraft's communications director, said yesterday. "We believe we have the best aircraft and that the war-fighters need it. . . . We've got to get this process out of the hands of lawyers and back in the hands of acquisition folks."

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20071024_Boeing_must_rebid_for_helicopter_deal.htm l

:| :| Amazing what happens when big bucks are on the line. You won. No, wait, you didn't... try again. Bullsh*t.

:|

(f)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:20 PM

;) ;)

http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/10/19/christmas-music-parody-blue-vista/

Lyrics:

I’ve had a blue desktop with Vista.
I’ve been so blue. XP, I’ve missed ya.
Dialogs popping up thanks to UAC.
Just ain’t the same, dear. At least it’s not ME.

And with those blue wallpapers with white text
I can… wait a minute… that’s not a wallpaper.
What the hell’s a STOP ERROR. IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL?

And I had a blue, blue blue blue screen.

Oh, Windows Vista… why ya gotta do this to me?
Cancel or allow? Of course I want you to allow.
If I didn’t want you to allow, I wouldn’t have done it in the first
place.
Step on my blue suede shoes if you wanna, I don’t care.
Just get better, please. Please?!

You’ll be doin’ all right, with your Leopard in sight,
But I’ll have a blue, blue Vista.

8-| 8-| Definitely "geeky", but I liked it. (y) (y)

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S) (S)

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:21 PM

;)

http://www.extremepumpkins.com/

Cute: http://www.extremepumpkins.com/pukingpumpkin.html

http://www.extremepumpkins.com/giantikpum.html

Somebody has TOO much time on their hands:

http://www.extremepumpkins.com/mapofusa.html

:o CW: How to preserve your pumpkin:

http://www.extremepumpkins.com/pumpres.html

(f)

:[ :[ Carpe noctem. :[ :[

Seize the night.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:23 PM

:[ (S) :[ (S) :[ (S) :[

http://www.101halloweenideas.com/

(f)

:[ :[ Carpe jugulum.

Go for the throat. ;)

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:26 PM

(f) (f) (f)

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114250687465160386813.00043d08ac31fe3357571&om=1&ll=32.990236,-116.930237&spn=0.946815,1.842957&source=embed

(l) (l) Thoughts and prayers are with this family and all affected by these fires, including pets and horses.....(l) (l)

(f)

God/Dess Bless,

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:31 PM

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

http://www.iamboredr.com/media/455/Beautiful_Paper_Art/

http://www.iamboredr.com/files/8cd0c4df45cd730d.PNG

(y) (y) I really enjoyed this web site. Amazing artwork. (y)

(l)

(f)

Veritatem dies aperit.

Time discloses the truth.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 06:32 PM

(8) (8) (8)

Dictionaraoke

Words + Music...

Created by "an online collective of experimental musicians and audio collage artists" known as "Snuggles," this site rocks like no other. Just click the speaker icon next to AC/DC's "Highway to Hell"—or any of the other 100 songs listed—and see if you don't agree.

http://www.dictionaraoke.org/

(y) (y)

(f)

Si vales, valeo.

If you are well, I am well.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 11:40 PM

<:o) <:o) <:o) <:o)

Less than a week after throwing in the towel in its antitrust fight with South Korea, Microsoft finally called an end to a similar slugfest in Europe with a tired "No mas." After taking a brutal uppercut from the Court of First Instance in September (see "And the award for best continuing role as a monopolist goes to "), the Redmond Rumbler announced today that it would not appeal and would comply with the EU's antitrust rulings, issued three years ago.

The rulings required Microsoft to unbundle its Media Player from Windows (which it did) and to make it easier for rivals to build software that works smoothly with Windows (which it's been arguing about). In capitulating, Microsoft said it would slash the initial charge and royalty rate for its interoperability information for any developer, including open source. With that, the EU stopped the clock on a 3 million-euro-a-day fine that Microsoft had been racking up over the course of its defiance.

Apparently, the key to reaching a resolution was to clear away all the lawyers and turn to personal diplomacy. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes became fast phone friends with daily calls over the past three weeks, and the deal was sealed in person over dinner at a little restaurant in the Netherlands (Ballmer had the crow en croute). "I sincerely hope that we can just close this dark chapter," Kroes said later. "I feel a bit sad because it took so long, it took so many years, and during those many years consumers suffered from the fact that Microsoft didn't go along with what the Commission asked it to do." Microsoft mumbled something about continuing "to work closely with the Commission and the industry to ensure a flourishing and competitive environment for information technology in Europe and around the world." There remain some outstanding issues, including how much of that accumulated fine the EU will impose, and in case Redmond starts backsliding, Kroes said, "Microsoft should bear this in mind. The shop is still open, I can assure you ... there are a couple of other cases still on our desk."

The message is meant for more than Microsoft. The EU continues to show a willingness to jump in where U.S. regulators won't, and that has to be a sobering thought for companies like Intel, which looks like it's getting a pass from the FTC, but has until January to answer EU charges that it violated antitrust rules by selling its chips below cost to strategic customers, among other things.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_7202936

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_7248502

http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2007/09/and_the_award_for_best_continuing_role_as_a_monopo list_goes_to_.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119304824519766949.html

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_7246902

<:o) <:o) <:o) <:o)

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S) (S)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 11:42 PM

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

http://www.murrayscheese.com/

Cheese Basics: http://www.murrayscheese.com/cheese_cheesebasics.asp

Cheese Glossary: http://www.murrayscheese.com/cheese_glossary.asp

HISTORY OF MURRAY'S FROM THE BIG CHEESE:

http://www.murrayscheese.com/about_murraysstory.asp

Find ALL Cheese! http://www.murrayscheese.com/products.asp?dept=4

Education (and is there ever lots of ways!): http://www.murrayscheese.com/edu_main.asp

(l)

16 TYPES of BLUE cheese:

http://www.murrayscheese.com/prodsbycheesetype.asp?cheesetype=Blue

(l)

Fresh cheese:

http://www.murrayscheese.com/prodsbycheesetype.asp?cheesetype=Fresh

;) ;) I think I might have been a mouse in a previous life...:o

:)

(f)

Okay, so who moved my cheese?

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 11:46 PM

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

(~) (~)

PORTALS

By LEE GOMES

Editing on Big Films Is Now Being Done On Small Computers

October 24, 2007; Page B1

WSJ

Like any modern professional, Naomi Geraghty took her laptop with her when she went on a business trip in January. The machine got a lot of use -- but not just for email.

Ms. Geraghty is a film editor and was spending 10 days at the Irish coastal home of Terry George, director of "Reservation Road," starring Joaquin Phoenix, which opened across the U.S. last week. Mr. George couldn't travel for the editing, so Ms. Geraghty loaded a copy of Avid editing software on her Apple MacBook and went to him.

Most people have a mental image of film editors hunched in the dark over editing consoles with lengths of film pinned to the wall behind them. These days, they sit at computers, moving scenes around as easily as paragraphs in a word processor.

Video files are so demanding, editing computers used to cost tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of dollars. But as Ms. Geraghty's tale suggests, even relatively low-end personal computers, laptops included, are now so powerful that Hollywood pros have joined student filmmakers and indies in taking advantage of them.

It's one more example -- along with music recording and graphic design -- of the way cheap computers are blurring the distinction between professional and amateur tools. Not that just having software makes you good at something, as a quick trip around the Web makes clear.

Ms. Geraghty says that while she enjoys the comfort of her regular editing studio, a notebook is not without its charms. "I could look out over a fishing harbor," she says. "It was the best view I've ever had from a cutting room."

Like "Reservation Road," the typical Hollywood feature film these days is an analog-digital hybrid. Reels of film might be developed at a lab such as Technicolor, but then $1.5 million scanners digitize them and put them on a $100 generic USB hard drive. From there, it's on to the editors.

Editing on computers is so much easier than editing physical film that it's how nearly all movies are now cut. USC's film school once had 50 editing consoles; now it has only two. Indeed, editing may have become too easy. "You can easily recut your movie 10 times a day," says Matt Furie, who teaches editing at USC. "Some students go off the deep end and cut, cut, cut. We tell them they need to discipline themselves to push away from the desk, drop the mouse and just think."

Like others, Mr. Furie suggests that one of the reasons there are so many rapid-fire cuts in today's movies is that editing software has made them so simple to do.

Editors are lucky in that theirs is one of the few industries with intense software competition. Anyone paying attention to computers the past 20 years will understand its dynamics.

Avid, of Tewksbury, Mass., is the long-established leader. Your average Academy Award winner typically is cut on an Avid. The company was one of the first in the field, and designed its software to work the way editors were used to working. For example, Avid's programs, like most software, use folders. But they're called "bins," after the canvas bags into which editors used to toss small lengths of film.

Avid software does just about anything you could ask -- for a price. The company's flagship Media Composer package runs $5,000. Philip Hodgetts, who follows the industry for Creative Planet, says Avid has an epic fight on its hands from newer, lower-cost alternatives. Apple sells Final Cut Studio for $1,300, while

Adobe's Premiere Pro is just $800.

While film still is central in big Hollywood features, it's unclear how long it will be before even the biggest feature movies go all-digital. The buzz in technical movie-making circles these days involves the two-month-old, ultra-high-resolution digital Red camera. Boosters say it looks nearly as good as 35mm film -- and costs around $30,000, or about the same as renting a 35mm camera for 10 days.

Thanks to cheap computers, a similar sort of creative destruction is happening everywhere in the industry. Color adjustment used to require expensive oscilloscope-like monitors. It first moved to specialized -- and expensive -- software, but lately it's done with relatively low-cost (say, $200) "plug-ins" by companies like Red Giant Software.

Angus Wall, editor of "Zodiac," a film released earlier this year, says the real impact of all of this digitization is to bring simplicity and artistic control back to the process. He says postproduction work on the typical Hollywood movie is a vast assembly line of runners, technicians, assistants and others. With Murphy's Law in force at every step, it isn't always easy for filmmakers to get the results they want.

The "Zodiac" crew, by contrast, sought to rethink and streamline the process. Right on the set, the digitized film went into a computer; after that, just a handful of people were involved. While the skills were different, coordinating the work of these editors and others wasn't much more difficult than what happens in an average office with a typical PowerPoint presentation. "It's revolutionary and empowering, because you don't have to worry anymore about some nameless person somewhere not doing their job right," Mr. Wall says. "You start to see the joy come back into the movie-making process."

Corrections & Amplifications:

An earlier version of this article misidentified the name of Avid's Media Composer software package.

(y) (y)

(f)

(um) (um) May Your Smile Be Your Umbrella. (um) (um)

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 11:50 PM

:o (o) :o (o)

;)

The boomers put their own spin on marking the end of life.

TASTE

The New Death

By STEPHEN BATES

October 19, 2007; Page W13

Writing in Encounter magazine in 1955, the British anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer argued that death had become the great unmentionable. The Victorians were prudish about sex and candid about death, he said, whereas Westerners of the mid-20th century were garrulous about sex and, well, stiff about stiffs. Death be not loud.

In pop culture nowadays, though, death is mighty loud. Traveling exhibits like "Body Worlds" are popular and profitable, with preserved cadavers dribbling basketballs, hurling javelins and pondering chess boards. HBO's "Six Feet Under" frothily blended sex and death for five seasons. Alice Sebold's 2002 novel, "The Lovely Bones," narrated by a dead girl, spent more than a year on the New York Times best-seller list. Amazon's "Death & Grief" section has more than 10,000 titles. Ernest Becker's "Denial of Death" sells well enough to seem oxymoronic.

But we shouldn't be too hasty in congratulating ourselves and deriding earlier generations as uptight and self-deluded. We can chatter and chortle about death without honestly confronting it. In fundamental ways, our culture is reinventing death rites and, in the process, growing further apart from death itself.

The old attitude toward death is poignantly illustrated by "The Undertaking," a documentary airing on PBS's "Frontline" Oct. 30. It features Thomas Lynch, a Michigan funeral director, essayist and poet whose books include a 1997 volume called "The Undertaking: Life Studies From the Dismal Trade." In the film, we see the dead being embalmed, dressed, powdered, laid out for display and even cremated. Most hauntingly, Mr. Lynch talks with a couple who face the imminent death of their two-year-old son, blind and unable to speak since birth as a result of a rare genetic abnormality. The mother says that she can't imagine life without him, but the "traditions that we follow . . . maybe will help us survive."

Those traditions seem to be withering, as Mr. Lynch acknowledges. He told me about "theme" funerals that focus on the deceased's favorite pastimes, "golf or bowling or boxing." Once a gift to the dead, the funeral is fast becoming a gift from the dead, planned in advance like a bequest. With "pre-need" funeral arrangements, survivors can be saved from having to make difficult choices. "People say they don't want to be a burden to their children," Mr. Lynch recounts. "I say, Why not? They've been a burden to you."

In funeral rites, venerability once provided solace (the community's traditions live on even as individuals die) as well as caution (your day will come too, buster). For many Americans now, by contrast, ancient rituals are intolerably old-fashioned and rigid, at once crusty and procrustean. "In an era where options surround us everywhere from the toothpaste selection at the grocery store to a hundred versions of white paint at the hardware store," Amy Meyerson writes in Obit, the Web site of a soon-to-be-launched death-centric magazine, "it's natural that our choices regarding the dead be equally complete and equally reflective of the individual consumer."

A stroll through the exhibit floor of the National Funeral Directors Association convention, in Las Vegas earlier this month, suggests that death options are indeed as plentiful as toothpaste brands. You can get a casket that's biodegradable wicker, or big-and-tall, or cowboy-style ("rustic pine" with "hand-forged iron hinges" -- and it "can be personalized with a brand"). Coming soon: a casket modeled on "the popular 'Photon Torpedo' design seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." Even hair reliquaries have a distinctive 21st-century look. Trifac Inc. markets shapely models called the Lotus, the Lumen, and, um, the Hymen.

Cremations accounted for less than 10% of American deaths in 1980; now they're up to a third, and the Cremation Association of North America expects them to pass 50% by 2025. Mobility stokes the flames. When we stayed put, Mr. Lynch says, we planted our ancestors. When we flit from place to place, ancestors need to be portable. Now, as "Frontline" shows, not only can you watch the cremation; you can step up and throw momma to the flame. Afterward, her ashes can be reheated inside molten glass to form an attractive crystal ball, or processed into diamonds, or blended into plant food -- which, come to think of it, is where we're headed anyway.

The funeral association's neo-necro products represent only part of the new mortality. "Deathcare," as it's called, is abuzz with change. Some folks get buried with their BlackBerrys -- survivors can text their sorrows away. A developer in Las Vegas has proposed a "stylized version of the Coliseum in Rome," featuring a mausoleum, a gift shop, a "virtual casino" -- whatever that is -- and, balm for bereavement's sting, a tavern. In The Threepenny Review earlier this year, Bert Keizer described one frolicsome funeral: A woman biked to the grave, pulling a cart that bore the colorful casket. The dead man's young son sat atop the casket and pretended to drive. To Mr. Keizer, it seemed like "a desperate attempt at saying 'Howdy!' to Death."

According to anthropologist Nigel Barley, a family in Lancashire, England, a few years ago, wanted "Dad" chiseled on the churchyard tombstone, but the vicar insisted on "Father." If "Dad" were permitted, he said, "it will not be long before we have Cuddles, Squidgy and Ginger, which would make the last resting place sound like a pets' cemetery." Such a dispute is unimaginable in the U.S., chummy yet individualistic, and, it should be said, increasingly fond of burying its pets, a lucrative sideline at the funeral directors' convention. Hidebound tradition is the grimmest reaper of all.

Though it's far from the norm, sassy, saucy death-chic is spreading. As Mr. Keizer observes, attitudes toward death change as belief in the afterlife fades. Goodbye isn't quite the same when the departed is headed for a hole or a furnace and no place else. Sociologist Tony Walter suggests that squinting at death is fun when, as now, death isn't staring unblinkingly back at you. In a global war or pandemic, the topic may not seem so amusing. For their part, boomers want a final, Woodstockian opportunity to jolt the culture, even though much of their original audience, the easily scandalized older generation, is getting its groove on elsewhere.

What's wrong with all this? At the individual level, funerary frivolity trivializes both the death and the life that preceded it. At the social level, tradition and ritual, passed from generation to generation, create a common framework for discussing life's ultimate questions. When we choose customized, individualized, let-it-be-me funerals, we start slipping from lingua franca to tabula rasa. Soon, we're talking only to ourselves.

Mr. Bates teaches at the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

^o) If it isn't one thing, it's another. And that obstinate vicar in England has no sense of humour whatsoever. Why not put "Dad", or any other endearing name on a head stone? Who is he to judge?

(o) Life is too short to sweat this small stuff.

(f)

Cum recte vivis, ne cures verba malorum.

If you live properly, don't worry about what the evil ones say.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 11:53 PM

;) ;)

Wild-Bird-Watching.com

It's cheaper than blood pressure medication.

Birds don't have credit problems or expensive car repairs; watching them flutter about with nary a care can help you forget yours. Do the birds, and yourself, a favor by learning to preserve local species with suitable bird houses, backyard feeders, and more.

http://www.wild-bird-watching.com/

:D

(f)

Birds of a feather, flock together.

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

sweetlady

10-24-2007, 11:56 PM

:D

Macaroni and 4 Cheeses

Show: Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger

Episode: Old Favorites

Cooking spray
1 pound elbow macaroni
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen pureed winter squash
2 cups 1 percent lowfat milk
4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (about 1 1/3 cups)
2 ounces Monterrey jack cheese, grated (about 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons unseasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the macaroni and cook until tender but firm, about 5 to 8 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, place the frozen squash and milk into a large saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up the squash with a spoon until it is defrosted. Turn the heat up to medium and cook until the mixture is almost simmering, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the Cheddar, jack cheese, ricotta cheese, salt, mustard and cayenne pepper. Pour cheese mixture over the macaroni and stir to combine. Transfer the macaroni and cheese to the baking dish.

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and oil in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, then broil for 3 minutes so the top is crisp and nicely browned.

Nutrition Information

Nutritional Analysis per Serving Calories: 392
Total Fat: 11 grams Saturated Fat: 2 grams
Protein: 18 grams Carbohydrates: 56 grams
Fiber: 3.5 grams

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_33706,00.html

(i) I wonder what ingredients are required for a lower fat version? :o

(f)

Damnant quod non intellegunt.

They condemn what they do not understand.

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

sweetlady

10-25-2007, 12:08 AM

8-) 8-)

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/10/25/sjp__shock_narrowweb__300x457,0.jpg

October 25, 2007 - 10:28AM

The Sydney Morning Herald

Charlize Theron, Jessica Alba and Halle Berry are regularly named the world's sexiest women. But who are the unsexiest women alive? A men's magazine decided to find out.

The list, published in the latest edition of Maxim Magazine, named Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker as the No. 1 Unsexiest Woman Alive.

The magazine said Parker was the "least sexy woman in a group of very unsexy women" that ironically starred in a show with the word "sex" in the title.

Troubled soul singer Amy Winehouse was voted No. 2 because of her "hemorrhaging translucent skin, rat's nest mane and lashes that look more like surgically attached bats".

The mag listed Grey's Anatomy Sandra Oh at No. 3 for her "cold bedside manner and boyish figure".

Pop star Madonna took out the No. 4 spot for her "self-righteous bellyaching and rapid postnuptial deterioration".

"Combine a Paris Hilton-like pet accessorising fetish only for dirt-poor foreign babies with a mug that looks Euro-sealed to her skull, and you've got Willem Dafoe with hot flashes," Maxim Magazine said.

Britney Spears came in at No. 5 for "losing the ability to perform".

The mag also said two children, two ex-husbands and a slight weight gain also helped Britney nab the No. 5 spot.

Maxim Magazine's list of the world's unsexiest women:

1. Sarah Jessica Parker
2. Amy Winehouse
3. Sandra Oh
4. Madonna
5. Britney Spears

http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/sjp-named-the-worlds-unsexiest-woman/2007/10/25/1192941199037.html

:| :| Give me a break. Please. ;) ;) Not to mention the mis-spelling of the word "sexiest" in the article title.

(f)

Smoke 'em if you got 'em,

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

sweetlady

10-25-2007, 12:13 AM

(y) (y)

Broad vision ... Brad and Angelina are looking to Europe for a better quality of life.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/10/24/brangelina_lead_wideweb__470x208,0.jpg

October 24, 2007 - 4:01PM

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are looking for a house in Europe so that their four children and future offspring can have a "broad vision of the world," the actor said in a interview.

"While we are very nomadic, we would like to have a base in Europe. More attention is paid here to what is going on in the world and it is easier to get to Africa and Asia from here," he told XL Semanal, the weekly magazine supplement of the ABC newspaper.

"We want our children to have a broad vision of the world. Spain, Italy and France have lots of quality of life and that is healthy," he added.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/brangelinas-european-move/2007/10/24/1192941135568.html

(y) Can't say that I wouldn't do the same. Quality of life IS much better is certain places throughout Europe, I definitely agree. (y) Good for them.

(f)

(um) (um) May Your Smile Be Your Umbrella. (um) (um)

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

sweetlady

10-26-2007, 12:06 AM

(f) (f) (f)

http://www.judithblacklock.com/image/autumn_1.jpg

http://www.molbio.wisc.edu/image_library/image_gallery/fall_flowers.jpg

(l)

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2308124/2/istockphoto_2308124_fall_flowers.jpg

http://www.pleasantlakesoftware.com/images/Cottage%20Astor%20Lavender.jpg

http://www.floresflowers.com/3Aster2Oblong.jpg

(l) http://www.dajensen-family.com/jpg/olbrich_22_sm.jpg

http://www.dajensen-family.com/jpg/olbrich_23_sm.jpg

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ask/images/20041019_2-f6187-11-515h.jpg

http://z.about.com/d/brooklyn/1/0/g/3/BBG_JapaneseBridge.jpg

(l) (l) http://www.oregonscenics.com/j-grdn-fall.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/mastergardener2k/mums.JPG

(Gasp): http://www.donaldpell.com/pics/fallTreelg.jpg

Zinnias: http://msucares.com/news/print/sgnews/sg04/images/sg041007_200.jpg

http://www.quansettnurseries.com/firstlight.jpg

http://webs.lanset.com/pathline/_borders/goldenr2.jpg

(l) (l) http://hiddenlakegardens.msu.edu/seasonal_interests/fall/fall1.jpg

http://abqstyle.com/albuquerque_photo/rio_grande_botanic_garden_3.jpg

http://www.acadiamagic.com/images-w/wild-gardens-113.jpg

http://www.boscobel.org/grounds/images/Rose_Garden_fall.jpg

http://www.oregonscenics.com/ga-j-gdn-fall-scene.jpg

(l) (l) (l)

(f)

"It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life." ~P.D. James

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." ~George Eliot

"October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter." ~Nova Bair

falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly

~John Bailey, "Autumn," a haiku year, 2001

"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.”

- Albert Camus

(f)

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

P.S. Between COMCAST (cable modem) failing night before last ("due to scheduled maintenance"..... and not being able to log in to the B-F web site since then.......I didn't think I'd EVER get this posted. ;)

sweetlady

10-26-2007, 12:08 AM

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

Straitjacket Bush

The president's warmongering remarks on the Iranian threat suggest he is psychotic. Really.

October 25, 2007

Forget impeachment.

Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment.

Because they've clearly gone mad. Exhibit A: We're in the middle of a disastrous war in Iraq, the military and political situation in Afghanistan is steadily worsening, and the administration's interrogation and detention tactics have inflamed anti-Americanism and fueled extremist movements around the globe. Sane people, confronting such a situation, do their best to tamp down tensions, rebuild shattered alliances, find common ground with hostile parties and give our military a little breathing space. But crazy people? They look around and decide it's a great time to start another war.

That would be with Iran, and you'd have to be deaf not to hear the war drums. Last week, Bush remarked that "if you're interested in avoiding World War III . . . you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon." On Sunday, Cheney warned of "the Iranian regime's efforts to destabilize the Middle East and to gain hegemonic power . . . [we] cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions." On Tuesday, Bush insisted on the need "to defend Europe against the emerging Iranian threat."

Huh? Iran is now a major threat to Europe? The Iranians are going to launch a nuclear missile (that they don't yet possess) against Europe (for reasons unknown because, as far as we know, they're not mad at anyone in Europe)? This is lunacy in action.

Writing in Newsweek on Oct. 20, Fareed Zakaria, a solid centrist and former editor of Foreign Affairs, put it best. Citing Bush's invocation of "the specter of World War III if Iran gained even the knowledge needed to make a nuclear weapon," Zakaria concluded that "the American discussion about Iran has lost all connection to reality. . . . Iran has an economy the size of Finland's. . . . It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110 times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are . . . allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with an Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on?"

Planet Cheney.

Zakaria may be misinterpreting the president's remark about World War III though. He saw it as a dangerously loopy Bush prediction about the future behavior of a nuclear Iran -- the idea being, presumably, that possessing "the knowledge" to make a nuclear weapon would so empower Iran's repressive leaders that they'll giddily rush out and start World War III.

But you could read Bush's remark as a madman's threat rather than a madman's prediction -- as a warning to recalcitrant states, from Germany to Russia, that don't seem to share his crazed obsession with Iran. The message: Fall into line with administration policy toward Iran or you can count on the U.S.A. to try to start World War III on its own. And when it comes to sparking global conflagration, a U.S. attack on Iran might be just the thing. Yee haw!

You'd better believe these guys would do it too. Why not? They have nothing to lose -- they're out of office in 15 months anyway. Après Bush-Cheney, le déluge! (Have fun, Hillary.)

But all this creates a conundrum. What's a constitutional democracy to do when the president and vice president lose their marbles?

The U.S. is full of ordinary people with serious forms of mental illness -- delusional people with violent fantasies who think they're the president, or who think they get instructions from the CIA through their dental fillings.

The problem with Bush is that he is the president -- and he gives instructions to the CIA and military, without having to go through his dental fillings.

Impeachment's not the solution to psychosis, no matter how flagrant. But despite their impressive foresight in other areas, the framers unaccountably neglected to include an involuntary civil commitment procedure in the Constitution.

Still, don't lose hope. By enlisting the aid of mental health professionals and the court system, Congress can act to remedy that constitutional oversight. The goal: Get Bush and Cheney committed to an appropriate inpatient facility, where they can get the treatment they so desperately need. In Washington, the appropriate statutory law is already in place: If a "court or jury finds that [a] person is mentally ill and . . . is likely to injure himself or other persons if allowed to remain at liberty, the court may order his hospitalization."

I'll even serve on the jury. When it comes to averting World War III, it's really the least I can do.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks24oct25,0,7749742.column?coll=la-util-opinion-commentary

(y) Great idea!!

(f)

Peaceful dreams (S)(S)

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

sweetlady

10-26-2007, 12:11 AM

:D:D

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/21/travel/day-600.jpg

Day Out | Long Beach, Calif.

Retro Soul of a Changing City

A FORMER Navy town and California's fifth largest city, Long Beach is making a bid for tourists with attractions like the comprehensive Aquarium of the Pacific and the just-expanded Museum of Latin American Art. Its newly polished seafront stands in for Miami on TV series like “Dexter” and “CSI: Miami,” which are often shot on location there, 20 miles south of Los Angeles.

But travelers in search of the soul of Long Beach will find it in the three-block collection of a dozen-plus vintage and retro shops on Fourth Street between Cherry Avenue and Junipero Avenue, earning it the nickname Retro Row.

People go to Retro Row “and make a day of it,” said Kathleen Schaaf, owner of the vintage apparel shop Meow (2210 East Fourth Street; 562-438-8990; www.meowvintage.com), a magnet for Los Angeles stylists and costume designers as well as independent-minded fashionistas.

Ms. Schaaf specializes in “dead stock,” never-worn clothing from the 1940s through the '80s, ranging from 1970s striped tube socks ($4) and rhinestone-studded and prescription-ready cat-eyeglass frames ($65) to an iridescent turquoise sharkskin suit ($250). Pastel-painted 1950s refrigerator doors front the dressing rooms, salvaged neon signs decorate the walls, and midcentury mannequins model the clothes at the wittily time-warped shop.

West of Meow, the two-year-old Vintage Collective (No. 2122; 562-433-8699; www.thevintagecollective.com), a 25-dealer mall, mixes apparel and furnishings from the Art Deco and Modern eras. “We're trying to make it a lifestyle store so there's something for everyone,” said Davin Gumm, an owner of the spacious shop.

There, home items range from a Heywood-Wakefield tallboy dresser ($1,300) down to Art Deco cocktail shakers in their original caddies ($20 to $75), and clothing from a 1950s boy's fringed suede jacket ($55) to pre-1970 Levi's jeans ($100 to $800).

Not all vintage is sacred. At Imonni (No. 2106; 562-856-8154; www.myspace.com/imonnivintage), Eiko Wise, a Tokyo native, sells women's dresses from the 1960s through the '80s, often altering the designs “if they are too big or ugly,” she said. Dresses range from $20 to $48 for a remade model.

Liberty on Fourth (No. 2146; 562-433-8601) stocks 1940s and '50s leather biker jackets ($150) and Rebel8 T-shirts ($28) designed by the tattoo artist Mike Giant. It is also the home of Big Ed's Rockabilly Record Store (in the back), where you can pick up new CDs by current acts (Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys) and classics (the recently deceased Janis Martin) for $15 to $18.

On the east end, stop by Sneaky Tiki Boutique (No. 2234A; 562-439-2600; www.sneakytikiboutique.com) for Hawaiian shirts both new and old ($45 to $300) and the owner Jennifer Hill's costume necklaces made from vintage beads and gems ($24).

Two doors down, Xcape (No. 2236; 562-433-9911; www.xcapelongbeach.com) deals high-quality midcentury modern furniture.

Shoppers will find Portfolio Coffeehouse (No. 2300; 562-434-2486; www.portfoliocoffeehouse.com) well situated on the corner of Fourth and Junipero for a caffeinated pick-me-up.

But save your appetite for the Pike Bar & Grill (No. 1836; 562-437-4453; www.pikelongbeach.com), a rehabbed 1950s diner west of Cherry Avenue. Owned by Chris Reece, a former drummer with the punk rock band Social Distortion, it serves lobster tacos ($9.95) and fish and chips ($9.95) along with music, live or from D.J.'s, every night except Sunday. On “iPod Sundays,” MP3-toters can hear their playlists broadcast throughout the joint.

(y) Definitely cool place to visit.

(f)

"In the midst of Winter I finally learned there was in me, an invinceable Summer."

- Albert Camus

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

sweetlady

10-26-2007, 12:13 AM

:D:D:D

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/21/travel/prac-600.jpg

October 21, 2007

Practical Traveler | Sound-Proofing Hotels

Blessed Silence Is the Newest Amenity

By MICHELLE HIGGINS

JUST about every traveler has a story about noisy hotel guests. The loud snorer next door. The blaring television down the hallway. The amorous couple.

Then there are the culprits inside the room itself. The rush of water through clanking pipes. The rattling air-conditioner ducts. The humming of the minifridge that seems only to get louder when you’re about to fall asleep.

And then, just when you’ve hit REM sleep, the alarm clock in the empty room next door goes off. It’s enough to negate the super-plush bed and hypoallergenic pillow menu that hotels have been offering to help you get some shut-eye. Indeed, of all the complaints that guests have about hotels, noise continues to top the list, according to a recent guest satisfaction survey by J. D. Power and Associates.

But you won’t find those guests at AmericInn. That’s the hope anyway of the mid-range hotel company based in Chanhassen, Minn. Last month, the fast-growing chain began advertising a new sleeping amenity called SoundGuard at its 213 hotels. It’s not an electronic gadget or a bedding accessory, but a construction material. Instead of wood-frame construction, the hotel uses masonry blocks filled with sound-deadening foam, in addition to drywall that is 5/8-inch thick, instead of ½-inch, to muffle noise.

While some hotel chains avoid drawing attention to their cookie-cutter design, AmericInn has turned it into a promotional asset. “We think it’s a real point of differentiation,” said Arnold A. Angeloni, chief executive of AmericInn.

Hotels have tried to one-up one another with everything from custom-branded mattresses to aromatherapy candles to feather-soft sheets to help guests sleep — everything short of dispensing Ambien in the minibar. So why not sound-proof hotels?

Spotting an untapped marketing opportunity, hotels are increasingly installing double-paned windows, noise-deadening door gaskets, thicker walls and even listening to heating and cooling systems to find the quietest model.

Take, for example, the Fairmont Vancouver Airport hotel, which recently created a “quiet zone” on its sixth floor for daytime sleepers. Between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., housekeepers are barred from noisy chores like vacuuming in that zone and bellhops can’t use unwieldy carts to carry luggage. The hotel now bills itself as “the only sound proofed luxury hotel and spa within the Vancouver International Airport.”

To help drown out distracting noises, Loews Hotels, a luxury hotel brand based in New York, has been offering free sound-masking machines that emit white noise for light-sleeping guests.

And, in an example of how noise complaints are redrawing traditional hotel layouts, luxury hotels like Le Parker Meridien New York have eliminated most of the internal doors that once connected two guest rooms.

“They are the culprit many times of people complaining about noise from room to room,” said Steven Pipes, vice president at the Jack Parker Corporation, which owns the Parker Meridien. The move was so successful in reducing noise complaints, the same tactic was taken at its sister property, the Parker Palm Springs in Palm Springs, Calif., when it was overhauled in 2004.

Other hotels are incorporating noise-muffling construction into their hotels. Kimpton Hotels is installing double layers of sheet rock for added sound insulation, and is staggering electrical sockets to prevent noise from seeping between rooms. And AmericInn is so obsessed with sound it’s even installing gaskets and door sweeps to minimize hallway noise, as well as placing flat-screen television sets on tables instead of mounting them on walls.

The company is so intent on promoting its noise-canceling efforts that it submitted its hotel rooms to a Sound Transmission Class test — a widely used measure that rates how well walls, floors, windows and doors block sound. A score of 25 means that normal speech can be distinctly heard through walls, while a 45 means that yelling is rendered inaudible. An acoustics expert hired by the hotel chain found that its rooms rated 50 or higher — even a blaring alarm clock would be muffled.

So besides asking a hotel its Sound Transmission Class score, how else can hotel guests arm themselves against noisy neighbors? David Braslau, the acoustics expert hired by AmericInn, said it was impossible to know just by looking at the hotel. Luxury buildings, he said, usually shoot for a Sound Transmission Class of 60 or 65. But higher hotel rates don’t always mean a quieter room. Mr. Braslau once stayed at the Plaza Hotel in New York, which is currently being converted into a smaller hotel with private residences, and had to change rooms because the elevator near his room was so loud.

Mr. Braslau offered some advice from his own travels.

Ask for a room at the end of a hallway, away from high-traffic (and noisy) areas like elevators and lobbies. If you’re easily bothered by humming machines, ask the front desk for a room away from the hotel’s cooling system, which can be on rooftops or hidden behind shrubbery.

Rolling up a towel and shoving it up against the door won’t keep out much sound, Mr. Braslau said. “If there’s a gap under the door, you can almost hear anything going on.”

Paradoxically, he pointed out, airport hotels tend to be the quietest — at least in terms of exterior noise — since they go to great lengths to block out the sound of roaring jets with double-paned windows and thick exterior walls. And in noisy cities, he said, the quietest rooms are often the ones that face an inner courtyard, rather than the street.

If all else fails, of course, there are always earplugs.

;);)

(f)

Aut disce aut discede.

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

sweetlady

10-26-2007, 12:14 AM

(y)(y)(y)

Doris Lessing, outside her London home, receives flowers from a friend shortly after being informed that she won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AS397_lessin_20071018182700.jpg

READBACK

By CYNTHIA CROSSEN

In Her Own Words

In Her Memoir 'Under the Skin,' Nobel Prize Winner Doris Lessing Wrestles With Memories' Truth

October 19, 2007 WSJ

Doris Lessing wrote her autobiography in self-defense.

In 1992, Ms. Lessing learned that five biographers, including one she had never met or even heard of, were writing her life story. "No matter how second-rate, biographies sell well," she later wrote. "Writers may protest as much as they like, but our lives do not belong to us. They belong to the publicity machines."

Ms. Lessing, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature last week, makes a tempting target for biographers. As she tells her own story in "Under the Skin," published in 1994, she had a rough-and-tumble childhood on a farm in Southern Rhodesia with parents deeply scarred by World War I. She was a high-strung adolescent, dropping out of school at the age of 14. Then, after two husbands and three children, she became a poet and joined the Communist party. And all this was before she was 30.

What makes "Under the Skin" different from so many memoirs is that Ms. Lessing openly wrestles with herself over which memories are "true" and which have been distorted by age, guilt or vanity. As she admits, she's only in a little better position to tell her life story than her biographers. "You see your life differently at different stages," she says, "like climbing a mountain while the landscape changes with every turn on the path." Even more troubling is this question, which she italicizes: "How do you know that what you remember is more important than what you don't?"

Ms. Lessing has a remarkable memory for the travails of early childhood, the infuriating vulnerability to everything, the relentless clashes with parents and other authority figures. Anyone who was ever forced to take an afternoon nap will be thrown back into that timeless agony. And the astounding cruelty of forced tickling. "No hatred on earth is as violent as the helpless rage of a little child. Nature knows what it is doing, prescribing amnesia for early childhood."

Ms. Lessing always had progressive political and social ideals, especially about the so-called Native Problem, the "toe-rag" poverty of so many black Rhodesians. In her 20s, she became a self-declared Communist, and began a short period of proselytizing. At a time when the word Communist is almost a profanity, it's worth hearing an unapologetic account of why Communism appealed to this intelligent and sensible woman.

Later, she totally repudiated Communism, calling it "mass psychopathology." Communists, she said, were "murderers with a clear conscience."

Ms. Lessing has written more than 50 works of fiction, but she is best known for "The Golden Notebook," published in 1962, which the Swedish Academy cited as a "pioneering work" for the "burgeoning feminist movement." For many years, "The Golden Notebook" was a feminist bible, a social realist's guide to the psychological and sexual discontents of modern women. Although it seems far less avant-garde today than it did 45 years ago, it's still a wonderful book. But Ms. Lessing has regrets about "The Golden Notebook," too, describing it as her "albatross."

The feminist revolution "has produced some of the smuggest, most unself-critical people the world has ever seen," she said. She found herself "increasingly shocked at the unthinking and automatic rubbishing of men which is now so part of our culture."

The second volume of Ms. Lessing's autobiography, "Walking in the Shade," picks up her life in London in 1949, where she has emigrated with a small child but no husband, no job and no place to live. That book ends in 1962, and she has said there will be no third volume.

Ms. Lessing, now 87 years old, wrote "Under My Skin" when she was in her early 70s. "Had I written this when I was 30, it would have been a pretty combative document," she wrote. "In my 40s, a wail of despair and guilt. Now I look back at that child, that girl, that young woman with a more and more detached curiosity."

Reading "Under My Skin," I couldn't help wishing that more memoirists would get a few more years under their belts before writing about themselves. "Under My Skin" is mature in the best sense of the word, a graceful harmony of confidence and doubt, pleasure and pain, humor and gravitas.

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

(f)(f)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

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

sweetlady

10-26-2007, 12:18 AM

:o:o

:)

First Airline to Fly the A380 Is Devoting Half Its Vast Space To Just 72 First- and Business-Class Passengers

By BRUCE STANLEY in Hong Kong and DANIEL MICHAELS in Toulouse, France

October 24, 2007; Page B1

Sitting in a pumpkin-colored leather bedroom suite on board Singapore Airlines' first Airbus A380, Christina Zeller runs her finger around the edge of a dinner plate decorated with a raised pattern resembling caviar. She recounts how hard it was to get that pattern just right.

"It was either too grainy, or not grainy enough, or not the right color, or it wouldn't stand up to 10,000 washings," says Ms. Zeller, who leads the accessories unit at French fashion house Givenchy, hired by the airline to create the look and feel of the plane's interior.

Singapore Airlines is raising the bar in the global race to pamper premium passengers with the first commercial flight of the A380, planned for tomorrow from Singapore to Sydney. The 12 first-class passengers will nestle in fully enclosed cabins reminiscent of luxury yachts. Each suite boasts a private coat closet, a 23-inch video screen and ergonomically designed reclining seats, in addition to a built-in bed, expandable to a double size for traveling couples who want to nap.

The 60 seats in business class are 34 inches wide -- nearly twice as wide as typical 19-inch economy seat.

Altogether, almost half the cabin space is reserved for the 72 premium passengers. But a key question for the industry is whether allotting so much space to a carrier's best customers is the wisest use of this plane's voluminous real estate.

The A380 is the biggest passenger jetliner ever built. The combined floor space of its two decks could contain nearly nine squash courts, and each is longer than the distance the Wright brothers covered in their first motorized flight. Airports have had to widen runways and install special jetways just to handle the plane.

Yet Singapore Airlines is providing just 471 seats on the aircraft, which has 50% more floor space than the previous record-holder, Boeing Co.'s 747-400. That jumbo jet seats about 400 passengers in a typical three-cabin layout, so the legroom on the A380 is lavish, indeed. Even the 399 economy-class passengers on Singapore Airlines' A380 will have their own USB computer ports, with full miniature keyboards, and seats that recline 115 degrees.

When the airline and Givenchy talked to passengers, they discovered an important distinction. Business-class passengers are often flying on their companies' money, and so they want to take full advantage of all the goodies on board, including a choice of more than 100 movies, 180 TV shows and 700 music compact discs and videogames. First-class passengers, in contrast, are accustomed to high-end living, and mostly just want to sleep.

Their blasé attitude prompted the Givenchy designers to ensure there was "nothing showy and nothing too obvious," Ms. Zeller says. Instead, everything down to the fine cotton bed sheets, with carefully finished stitching, had to feel luxurious. "An expensive idea realized in a cheap way is awful," she adds.

For Givenchy, SIA was a dream client, Ms. Zeller says. When middle managers balked at the cost of more adventurous proposals, SIA Chief Executive Chew Choon Seng frequently overrode them, she recalls -- though some of Givenchy's ideas, such as double-faced cashmere blankets, were too much even for him. (The compromise: wool blankets with cashmere trim.)

SIA is charging a premium for all this luxury. First-class fares on the A380 between Singapore and Sydney are 20% higher than for the same route on the airline's 747-400s -- bringing the one-way fare to around $6,000, excluding taxes and extra charges. Business-class passengers pay a 15% premium, about $4,140 one way, excluding taxes and charges.

Mr. Chew says SIA, which is among the world's most profitable airlines, is able to charge above-market rates for its products because "if you want to live in Trump Tower, you've got to expect to pay a bit more." (There will be no premium on economy-class seats, where at least eight different fare levels apply and can vary from month to month.)

All told, the airline has 19 of the superjumbo jets on order and plans to deploy them on high-demand routes where it can boost capacity without having to increase the number of flights to busy airports that may not have room for more planes. Early next year, it expects to start daily A380 service between Singapore and London's Heathrow Airport, followed by flights to Tokyo, Hong Kong and San Francisco.

Ticket sales began last month, and demand has been "exceedingly positive," says SIA spokesman Stephen Forshaw, though he declined to give specifics. "There is clearly a place in the market for superior products like those we have unveiled on the A380."

It isn't just SIA that is going the cushy route with the A380. Seven of the 14 carriers that plan to fly the jet -- Emirates Airline, Qantas Airways Ltd., Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Air France-KLM SA, Korean Air, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. and SIA -- have configured their planes with an average of 503 seats, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Sydney-based consultancy. That is nowhere near as many as the 853 passengers the aircraft is certified to carry.

Demand for first-class service probably is "recession proof," says Shukor Yusof of Standard & Poor's Asia Equity Research in Singapore. But he notes that corporate demand for business-class seats on the A380 could dry up in a severe economic downturn and that an external event such as the terror attacks of September 2001 or the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome could pinch profits.

Some carriers that have ordered the superjumbo are hedging their bets and tailoring some of their A380 models to the needs of specific regional markets. Emirates, for example, is exploring a 644-seat jet -- the densest configuration of any A380 customer so far -- that would fly from Mumbai or New Delhi to Dubai, ferrying the tens of thousands of "guest workers" who shuttle between home and the hotels and construction sites of fast-growing luxury and business destinations in the Gulf states.

Future versions of the A380 might embrace a more mass-market model. "There are other airlines, low-cost carriers for example, that might want an A380 one day and might want to make it all-economy," says John Borghetti, executive general manager of Qantas, the only other carrier so far to reveal details of the interior it plans for the A380. (Among other things, it plans to take advantage of the plane's roomy upper deck to install business-class seats three rows abreast, in a 2-2-2 configuration.)

When Airbus introduced the A380, it triggered lots of buzz about the possible extras it could accommodate, from showers and gyms to casinos and bowling alleys. Such fanciful talk died down as carriers focused on the plane's economics.

"The manufacturer provides floor space. It's up to the airline to maximize revenue and profit from that floor space," says Chris Tarry, an aviation consultant based in Tunbridge Wells, England. An onboard gym, he says, might be "good from a marketeer's point of view, but how are you going to make money from it?"

Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., delayed delivery of the A380 for almost two years due to production problems that angered customers and spawned turmoil among the company's senior management. It justifies its $20 billion investment in the A380 with predictions of strong demand for flights to hub airports, traffic that Airbus says the superjumbo is ideally designed to serve.

To date, it has received firm orders for 165 A380s from 14 different customers. It needs to sell about 420 of the aircraft to reach the break-even point.

A380 Orders by Airline: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/AI-AL535_A380_20071023152449.gif

The 12 first-class passengers will nestle in fully enclosed cabins reminiscent of a luxury yacht. Each suite boasts a private coat closet, a 23-inch video screen and ergonomically designed reclining seats, in addition to a built-in bed, expandable to a double size for traveling couples who want to nap.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AS678_A380_0_20071023170836.jpg

(y)(y) Nice to see a WOMYN tather than the typical "business" man:

Singapore Airlines aims to raise the bar in pampering premium passengers. All together, almost half the cabin space on its first A380 is reserved for just 72 first-class and business-class passengers.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AS680_A380_0_20071023170832.jpg

The 60 seats in business class are 86 centimeters wide -- twice as wide as typical 48-centimeter economy seat.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AS682_A380_0_20071023170828.jpg

A study found that business-class passengers, who are often flying on their companies' money, want to take full advantage of all the goodies on board, including a choice of more than 100 movies, 180 TV shows and 700 music compact discs and videogames. First-class passengers, in contrast, are accustomed to high-end living, and mostly just want to sleep.

;) I simply cannot imagine EVER flying in one of these Spam Cans. (You know the American version *would* definitely be like sardines with Doll House seats......)

Plus, if it's not Boeing, I'm not going.

;)

:)

(f)

Ab Iove principium.

Let's start with the most important.

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

sweetlady

10-26-2007, 12:20 AM

(y)(y)

DECLARATIONS

Sex and the Presidency

By PEGGY NOONAN

October 20, 2007; Page W14

WSJ

Where do things stand now with Hillary Clinton? What is her trajectory almost a year since it became clear she was running for the presidency?

Some time back I said she doesn't have to prove she is a man, she has to prove she is a woman. Her problem is not her sex, as she and her campaign pretend. That she is a woman is a boon to her, a source of latent power. But to make it work, she has to seem like a woman.

No one doubts Mrs. Clinton's ability to make war. No close or longtime observer has ever been quoted as saying that she may be too soft for the job. Instead one worries about what has always seemed her characterological bellicosity. She invented the War Room, listened in on the wiretaps, brought into the White House the man who got the private FBI files of the Clintons' perceived enemies.

This is not a woman who has to prove she's tough enough and mean enough; she is more like a bulldozer who has to prove she won't always be in high gear and ready to flatten you. In private, her friends say -- and I have seen it to be true -- that she is humorous, bright, interested in the lives of others. But as a matter of political temperament and habit of mind, she is neither patient, high minded nor forbearing. Those who know Mrs. Clinton well, and my world is thick with them, have qualms about her toughness, not doubts.

But she is making progress. She is trying every day to change her image, and I suspect it's working. One senses not that she has become more authentic, but that she has gone beyond her own discomfort at her lack of authenticity. I am not saying she has learned to be herself. I think after a year on the trail she's learned how to not be herself, how to comfortably adopt a skin and play a part.

Her real self is a person who wants to run things, to assert authority, to create systems and have people conform to them. She is not a natural at the outsized warmth politics demands. But she is moving beyond -- forgive me -- the vacant eyes of the power zombie, like the Tilda Swinton character in "Michael Clayton." The Boston Globe, dateline Manchester, N.H.: "Clinton is increasingly portraying herself more as motherly and traditional than as trailblazing and feminist." In a week of "Women Changing America" events Mrs. Clinton has shared tales of Chelsea's childhood and made teasing references to those who are preoccupied by her hairstyles and fashion choices. On "The View" she joked of her male rivals, "Well, look how much longer it takes me to get ready." This was a steal from JFK's joke about Jackie when she was late for an appearance: "It takes her longer to get ready, but then she looks so much better."

Her fundraising emails have subject lines like, "Wow!" and "Let's make some popcorn!" Her grin is broad and fixed. She is the smile on the Halloween pumpkin that knows the harvest is coming. She's even putting a light inside.

In New York this week she told a women's lunch that "we face a new question -- a lot of people are asking whether America is ready to elect a woman to the highest office in our land." She suggested her campaign will "prove that America is indeed ready." She also quoted Eleanor Roosevelt: "Women are like tea bags -- you never know how strong they are until they get in hot water."

But Mrs. Clinton is the tea bag that brings the boiling water with her. It's always high drama with her, always a cauldron -- secret Web sites put up by unnamed operatives smearing Barack Obama in the tones of Tokyo Rose, Chinese businessmen having breakdowns on trains after the campaign cash is traced back, secret deals. It's always flying monkeys. One always wants to ask: Why? What is this?

The question, actually, is not whether America is "ready" for a woman. It's whether it's ready for Hillary. And surely as savvy a campaign vet as Mrs. Clinton knows this.

Who, of all the powerful women in American politics right now, has inspired the unease, dismay and frank dislike that she has? Condi Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein? These are serious women who are making crucial decisions about our national life every day. They inspire agreement and disagreement; they fight and are fought with. But they do not inspire repugnance. Nobody hates Barbara Mikulski, Elizabeth Dole or Kay Bailey Hutchison; everyone respects Ms. Rice and Ms. Feinstein.

Hillary's problem is not that she's a woman; it's that unlike these women -- all of whom have come under intense scrutiny, each of whom has real partisan foes -- she has a history that lends itself to the kind of doubts that end in fearfulness. It is an unease and dismay based not on gender stereotypes but on personal history.

But here's why I mentioned earlier the latent power inherent in the fact that Hillary is a woman.

It is true that 54% of the electorate is composed of women, and that what feminist sympathies they have may be especially enlivened this year by a strong appeal. It is not true that women in general vote in anything like a bloc, but it is probably true -- I think it is true -- that they share in a general way some rough and broad sympathies.

One has to do with what it is to be a woman in the world. To be active on any level in the life of the nation is to be immersed in controversy. If you are a woman, the to and fro, the fights you're in, will to some extent be sharpened or shaped by what used to called sexism. There isn't a woman in America who hasn't been patronized -- or worse -- for being a woman, at least to some degree, and I mean all women, from the nun patronized by the bullying bishop to the congresswoman not taken seriously by the policy intellectual to the school teacher browbeaten by the school board chairman to the fare collector corrected by the huffy businessman. It happens to every woman.

Conservative women tend not to talk about it except to each other, and those conversations are voluble and pointed. They don't go public with their complaints because they're afraid it will encourage liberals to pass a law, and if you wanted more laws, or thought laws could reform human nature and make us all nice, you wouldn't be a conservative. Their problem is sharpened by the fact that some conservative men are boorish and ungentlemanly to show how liberated they are. But I digress.

Or rather I don't. The point is there are many women who will on some level be inclined to view Mrs. Clinton's candidacy through the lens of their experience as women, and there is real latent sympathy there if she could tap it, which is what she's trying to do.

But first, or more important, she will have to credibly and persuasively address what it is in her history -- in her -- that inspires such visceral opposition. That would be quite something if she did, or even tried.

(y)(y) Not Maureen Dowd at the NYTimes, however Peggy is definitely a conservative, so I don't often read her columns. This one was worth the read, IMHO.

(f)

Docendo discimus.

We learn by teaching.

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

sweetlady

10-26-2007, 08:29 AM

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

Halloween Safety Tips

Dressing a dog in a costume may seem over-the-top to some, but with Halloween just around the corner, the American Kennel Club (AKC®) surveyed dog owners to learn first-hand just how many plan to turn their Fido into a Frankenstein for the evening. It turns out that one in 10 dog owners can't imagine not dressing up their pup for the holiday and nearly half (49 percent ) admitted liking the idea.

The poll also found that women are six percent more likely than men to dress their pups up for all holidays, while men are 12 percent more likely than women to wonder why anyone would ever consider dressing their dog in the first place.

But, the trick is not to treat Halloween as just another day for your dog. Whether your dog dons a frightening frock or not, the AKC reminds owners to follow certain guidelines for keeping your pet safe during Halloween:

* If you dress your pet up in a "doggie" costume, supervise him at all times. Make sure it fits properly and is not in the way of his breathing, eyesight or hearing. If your dog swallows any elastic or decorative items, it could cause intestinal obstructions or choking. For more tips on how to acclimate your dog to wearing a Halloween costume visit the Ask AKC archive here.

* Chocolate and sweets can be dangerous for your dog. A dog's digestive system is not adapted for sweets, and chocolate contains Theobromine, which can be harmful and sometimes fatal to your dog. Baking chocolate is especially high in this chemical. :|

* Walk your dog early on Halloween, while it is still light outside. Your dog may find candy, wrappers and broken eggs on lawns and streets. Make sure that these "tempting treats" stay out of reach.

* Children in costumes can frighten dogs. Make sure pets are in a safe and secure room when you answer the door to prevent them from running out, getting hurt and frightening your visitors.

* If you want your dog to greet trick-or-treaters, keep him on leash. Your dog may be stressed by the noise, activity or simply the interruption of his normal routine.

* Don't leave your dog unattended outside on Halloween, even if he is behind a fence. Pranksters may target your dog with eggs, and passersby may be tempted to give your dog harmful treats and candy.

* If you are having a Halloween party, consider confining your dog securely in one area of the house. Leave a radio or TV and lights on for the dog.

* Be careful about where you place candles and Jack-o-Lanterns. They can easily be knocked over by your dog's wagging tail and either burn your dog or start a fire.

http://www.akc.org/enewsletter/yourakc/2007/october/halloween.cfm

;) Wyatt and I will have a blissfully quiet night next Wednesday. No costumes. Maybe dark chocolate for Wyatt's mama, and of course "Scoobie Snacks" for the best pet ever, Wyatt!! (l) (&) (l)

:) We're not against the holiday - there just aren't any kids that come around - and it has been that way for years too.

(a) One year, I dressed up as an angel and my boxer companion at that time also wore wings and a halo. (Of course, it was not in this particular neighborhood!) The kids from tiny tots to teens LOVED it as we gave out huge -sized Milky Way bars. Some teen even changed costumes to come back for more - and there was plenty so I didn't care. It *was* pretty nice to hear kids talking among themselves as they were walking away from my front door saying, "Wow, nobody else is giving out great candy like this lady.......everyone else has cheap candy....)

Hmmm, 14 years ago.....while in my thirties, and I was still called a lady. :D It is more about comportment perhaps, than looks. Because baby, I STILL look ten years younger! It is an "inside job", staying young, IMHO.

;) <Tee-hee>

(f)

Docendo discimus.

We learn by teaching.

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

sweetlady

10-26-2007, 08:40 AM

(8)(8)(8)(8)(8)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNS4pV9Pls0

(y) A friend sent me this, so it wasn't actually MY music virus - you know, when you just can't get a song out of your head? Too funny. (8)

I had never watched the music video for this older song before, so it was a fun interruption to work. ;)

(f) Have a delicious Friday! Rainy, but oh, oh, oh what cooler temps and I'm feeling good!

<:o)<:o)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:39 AM

:o

Thursday, October 25, 2007 / 02:42 PM

The Advocate

A picture of a newborn baby wearing a wristband reading "Homosexual" will go up soon on billboards across Italy's Tuscany region as part of a new campaign by the regional government to end homophobia.

Cnservative politicians and Vatican officials have expressed disapproval of the image, which has already run in some Italian newspapers, the Reuters news agency reported.

The campaign has mixed reviews from within the LGBT community as well, with some saying the image implies that gay people are a different species.

Others praise the message.

"I'm very much in favor of the advertisement because it expresses a concept that I've been convinced of for some time -- that homosexuality is not a choice," Italian gay lawmaker Franco Grillini told Reuters.

The campaign was developed by the Canadian foundation Emergence and was used previously in Quebec. (The Advocate)

(y)(y)

(f)

Veritatem dies aperit.

Time discloses the truth.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:40 AM

(y)(y)

Thursday, October 25, 2007 / 04:24 PM

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner is writing a new play that will premiere at Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater in spring 2009, the theater announced Thursday.

The Guthrie commissioned Kushner, who wrote the epic AIDS drama "Angels in America," to write a play Kushner is tentatively calling "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures," Guthrie director Joe Dowling said.

Set in Brooklyn, N.Y., the play "will have a family dynamic, and it will be dealing directly with gay issues," Dowling said.

The theater, which has never done a Kushner play, started discussing the possibility of a world premiere with Kushner late last year, Dowling said.

"I have great admiration for Tony's work," Dowling said. "Tony is always engaged with the issues -- both political and social issues -- that really resonate with the audience."

The theater also wanted to establish itself as a place for both classical and contemporary works, and hopes the partnership with Kushner will let the world know it's now in the business for world premieres, Dowling said. The Guthrie opened an elaborate new three-stage theater overlooking the Mississippi in June 2006.

"This is an indication of a big change," Dowling said. "We want to be seen as one of those theaters that creates new works for the American stage."

Kushner, who has also received an Emmy and two Tony Awards, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for "Millennium Approaches," the first half of his two-part "Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," which offers a look at AIDS and gay life in the 1980s. "Angels in America" was later made into an HBO film.

His other plays include "A Bright Room Called Day" and "Homebody/Kabul." He also wrote the book for the musical "Caroline, or Change" and the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's "Munich." (Elizabeth Dunbar, AP)

(y)(y)

(f)

Docendo discimus.

We learn by teaching.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:42 AM

:|:|:|:|:|

It's not hard to nail a big company with some example of bad customer service or poor problem resolution; it's going to happen. But once in a while a case comes along that's so egregious it flabbergasts even those most hardened to the daily indignities of the consumer experience.

It happened to Target earlier this month when store employees refused a cash refund to a customer whose new iPod box contained nothing but stones (see "Dumber than a box of rocks," to which the customer herself later added a comment; also see the first iPebble Touch unboxing pictures).

Today, the fickle finger of fate has poked AT&T and its Dish Network in the eye. Hours after Matt and Danelle Azola returned from their honeymoon this week, they had to evacuate their home in Ramona, Calif, just ahead of a wildfire. Their home was destroyed, and they set about dealing with the endless string of details that disaster leaves behind. One of those details was to cancel the Dish Network.

Danelle Azola described the exchange in a TV interview: "I called there to let them know that our house was destroyed, to cancel all the stuff, and the first thing they asked me was if I had a chance to grab their receiver for the satellite dish. And I told them no, that was the last thing that was on my mind. So then they told me I would have to pay the $300 for the receiver. ... I asked to have the bill postponed until we got reimbursed from our insurance and she said sorry, you have to pay it as soon as you get your bill in the mail like any other normal bill."

In an office somewhere, there's an AT&T customer relations executive pounding her forehead against the desk repeatedly.

http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2007/10/dumber_than_a_box_of_rocks.html

http://blog.1889.ca/2007/10/09/first-ipebble-touch-unboxing-pics.html

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Wants-300-From-Wildfire-Victim-88826

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNnGVPyrOD0

:|:|:|

Aut disce aut discede.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:43 AM

:)

;)

Q U O T E D

"The fact that they want computers over clothing and peace and happiness is amazing. It's a testament to what the tech industry has done to empower the consumer."

-- Shawn DuBravac, economist for the Consumer Electronics Association, on the results of the group's annual holiday wish-list survey (1. Computers; 2. Peace and happiness; 3. Big-screen TV; 4. Clothes; 5. Money). Another possible factor: the ever slipping delivery date for peace and happiness.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_7191102

Hmmm......."PC trumps peace for holidays." :o

(f)

Carpe Diem,

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:44 AM

:)

http://skulladay.blogspot.com/2007/08/72-papercraft-skull-with-articulated.html

(f)

Mors Certa, Vita Incerta.

Death is certain, life is not.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:48 AM

:o

(au)(au)(au)

Anyone who regularly battles urban parking problems will want to give at least a passing glance to a vehicle being introduced to auto writers next week in San Jose. Smart USA, like Mercedes-Benz a division of Daimler, is getting set for a U.S. rollout of its Fortwo, a car that makes a Mini Cooper look like a Hummer. Already popular in the narrow streets of European cities, the Fortwo is a bit more than half as long and half as heavy as a Toyota Camry sedan, and is powered by a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder gasoline engine that cranks out 71 horsepower and gets about 40 mpg. There are three models, priced from $11,590 to $16,590. Smart will open about 50 U.S. showrooms early in 2008, with about two-thirds of them sharing space with existing Mercedes dealerships.

"The car is very innovative," said Ken Kettenbeil, a Smart USA executive who helped pick San Jose for the introduction. "You can point to many places in the United States that have that innovative mindset, but San Jose and Silicon Valley are certainly near the top of the list. ... A lot of Smart enthusiasts can be classified as thought leaders. When it comes to who is going to purchase the car, it's not age and income demographics. It's attitude." And indeed, the Bay Area should be one of the prime markets for the two-seater, even more so if BART lets you carry them aboard.

Of course, there are other unique ways to roll Valley-style -- a Prius limo, for instance.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_7285795?nclick_check=1

:|:|:| Holy Smoke! http://www.smartusa.com/smart-car-fortwo.aspx

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/18/what-young-hollywood-wants-for-xmas-the-6-door-prius-limo/

:) WAY too small for my taste. I will keep my current vehicle, thank you. ;) It does make sense though - on trips to places like Antwerp and Freborg, I could not believe how tiny and how tightly-packed cars were parked on the narrow streets. No wonder so many people walk and take trains.

(f)

Carpe Carpium,

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:50 AM

(h)(h)(h)

Philips Skintile:Electronic Sensing Jewelry.......................

Electronic Sensing Jewelry has been conceived alongside a European project, STELLA, (www.stella-project.de) developing stretchable, flexible electronic substrates that integrate energy supply, sensors, actuators, and display.

Skintile the Electronic Sensing Jewelry further explores emotional and physiological sensing. It is a new genre of product; a generation of wireless, stick-on body sensors that re-define traditional body adornment.

It explores a range of functionalities in new product forms that are playful, sensual, mood affected, bio activity stimulated, and arousal enhancing. It is a semi disposable, bio compatible, non-allergenic, breathable, mass customizable, self contained body worn accessory.

Skin DRESSES:

http://www.design.philips.com/shared/assets/design/probes/thumbs/Dresses_1.jpg

http://www.design.philips.com/shared/assets/design/probes/thumbs/Dresses_2.jpg

http://www.design.philips.com/shared/assets/design/probes/thumbs/Dresses_3.jpg

http://www.design.philips.com/shared/assets/design/probes/thumbs/Dresses_4.jpg

One of this year’s Probe project areas is SKIN, which examines the future integration of sensitive materials in the area of emotional sensing /no spamming of other sites/ the shift from ‘ intelligent’ to ‘sensitive’ products and technologies.

As part of SKIN, we have developed two ‘Soft Technology’ outfits to identify the future for high tech materials and Electronic Textile Development in the area’s of skin and emotional sensing.

The dresses show emotive technology and how the body and the near environment can use pattern and color change to interact and predict the emotional state.

(y)(y)(y)

(f)

Vox clamantis in deserto.

A voice crying in the wilderness.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:51 AM

:D

Tattoos and physical mutilation are amongst the oldest forms of personal expression and identity. Subcultures have used tattoos as a form of self representation; a visual language communicating personality and status. Philips Design examined the growing trend of extreme body adornment like tattoos, piercing, implants and scarring.

The Electronics Tattoo film expresses the visual power of sensitive technology applied to the human body. The film subtly leads the viewer through the simultaneous emotional and aesthetic transformations between two lovers.

http://www.design.philips.com/shared/assets/design/probes/Electronic_Tattoo_Clip_02.jpg

http://www.design.philips.com/shared/assets/design/probes/Electronic_Tattoo_Clip_07.jpg

http://www.design.philips.com/shared/assets/design/probes/Electronic_Tattoo_Clip_03.jpg

http://www.design.philips.com/shared/assets/design/probes/Electronic_Tattoo_Clip_08.jpg

(y)(y)

(f)

Damnant quod non intellegunt.

They condemn what they do not understand.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:52 AM

:o:o

:D

http://ineedawriter.com/blog/2007/10/contextual-advertising-mistakes.html

(y) Some are really hilarious........

(f)

Cum recte vivis, ne cures verba malorum.

If you live properly, don't worry about what the evil ones say.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 09:54 AM

:s

;)

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/22/thankos-charger-bracelet-dorkier-than-it-sounds/

(f)

(um)(um) May Your Smile Be Your Umbrella. (um)(um)

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 10:00 AM

(l) (l) (l)

Perfect Snowflakes:

http://www.wunderground.com/data/wximagenew/e/eggshapedcat/18.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/20/70144228_ec59252e19.jpg

(l)

http://enews.coloradomtn.edu/index.cfm?method=c.artDetail&artID=2114

Internet (Video) Download: http://video.connect.com/channelTheWeatherChannel.php

(l)

Steamboat, Home of Champagne Powder? Snow, Marks Another Three-wire Winter

January 20, 2006 - 9:38 AM

http://news.coskiing.com/459/

(l)

Steamboat's 'champagne snow'

A new pair of skis help our writer navigate some serious powder

By Pamela LeBlanc

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Saturday, February 28, 2004

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — A beep-beep-beep from the road below kept trying to break into my dreams. Then came a scraping noise, something akin to an empty oil drum dragging along dry cement.

That's when I snapped awake. That noise was a plow, and it was rumbling past our condo at Steamboat Springs, and that could only mean . . . it had snowed! Within minutes, my husband and I were out of bed, tugging on long johns. From the looks of things, a good half foot of the white stuff had fallen overnight, and it was still snowing hard.

This was going to be good. The last time I'd skied in real powder — the kind that sucks you in, swirls around your knees and makes that pleasant dampened "boof" sound when you fall — I was using skis only a few inches wide. As soon as I'd point them downhill, they'd disappear under clouds of puffy white snow, I'd lose control and wind up spinning on my back like a turtle.

But in the last six or seven years, a revolution has taken place in the ski equipment industry. Designers have gone to wider, more scoop-shaped skis that make it easier to carve a turn — and ski in powder. And today I was going to put a new pair of those skis to the test.

I'd won the skis in a drawing last year in Sun Valley, Idaho. They're wide, fat and gray, and they're not much to look at. I dubbed them "The Elephants." But they felt solid and stable on the snow in Idaho, which had been sketchy, hard-packed and thin. They boosted my confidence in trickier terrain, and I was eager to try them in deep snow. I was in luck, too, because by the time it had finished snowing, a foot of snow had piled up on the mountain.

This was my third trip to Steamboat. I like the place because it takes twice as long to get here from Denver compared with front-range resorts like Breckenridge, Vail and Copper Mountain. That means smaller crowds. It's also got the feel of an Old West town, which it plays up in annual events like the Cowboy Downhill ski race. The town has been around a lot longer than the ski resort, so it has a comfortable, nostalgic vibe to it.

Years ago, some brilliant marketing folks dubbed the snow here "champagne powder" and put a copyright on the name. They boast that Steamboat snow contains less moisture than snow that falls in other parts of the country. (On average, they get 30 feet of it a season.) Frankly, they could call it Elmer's Glue and I'd still be happy to frolic in it. I was ready to turn my fat new skis loose on a mountain covered with the stuff.

We flew to Denver direct from Austin (if you pay a little more, you can also fly into nearby Hayden), picked up a rental car and drove four hours to Steamboat Springs in northern Colorado just ahead of a cold front. My sister and her husband, who live in Denver, joined us for the trip, which I'd been looking forward to for weeks. Chris, my husband, and I take one or two ski trips a year. We love active vacations — and ski trips are certainly that.

You wake up, check out the window to see how hard it's snowing and how many layers you need (in this case, with highs in the teens, I wore a lot), eat a plate of fried eggs and grits, then head to the base. There, you grab a lift, then ski until you can't breathe. That means it's time for lunch, at which point you head to an on-mountain restaurant, indulge in a bowl full of chili or beef stew, ski for another couple of hours and head back down to a soak in the hot tub. All that exertion means you're burning a lot of calories, and that means you're free to pig out once more before bed. It's an exhausting routine, but as long as I'm in bed by 8:30 p.m., I manage to keep up the pace pretty well.

On this, the first ski day of our trip, we grabbed our gear and headed across the road to the base, where the gondola picks up skiers and whisks them directly to mid-mountain. Even though it was Sunday and the snow was coming down fast and furious, the lines were short.

Over the next three days, we explored what Steamboat has to offer — long, rolling runs like Tomahawk, gladed terrain like Twilight and Big Meadow and bumpy blasters like Rolex and Twister. In all, Steamboat covers 3,000 acres of forest. Twenty lifts and 142 named trails crisscross six peaks. Of those trails, 13 percent are for beginners, 56 percent for intermediates and 31 percent for experts. Its highest point is Mount Werner, at 10,568 feet. The base is at 6,900 feet, giving the resort a vertical drop of 3,668 feet.

I like to sum it up this way: Wheeeee!

In the end, I realized what a difference a pair of skis can make. I was zipping down black runs (green signs mark the easiest trails, blue means more difficult and black is most difficult) and sashaying in and out of moguls (those big mounds of snow that pop up on ungroomed slopes, turning them into frozen minefields). My new skis glided over the deep stuff, plowed through the heavy stuff and danced over the smooth stuff.

We skied so hard we didn't have the energy for anything other than a soak in the hot tub and a walk through town when we were finished each day, but Steamboat offers a slate of activities for people who don't downhill ski. There's a hill for folks who want to ride an inflated inner tube down a slick mountainside, and snowshoe tours for people who prefer their explorations slow and peaceful.

Even downhill skiers have options: They can ski with Olympic silver medalist Billy Kidd on certain days, or take a free mogul clinic with Olympic bronze medalist Nelson Carmichael. Ski and snowboard classes are available, as are special guided nature tours and programs for skiers over age 50. Steamboat has its own terrain park and superpipe (the Mavericks is the longest in North America) for those who want to get airborne. And parents can take advantage of a child-care center and special evening kids program.

Me? I'm still lying in bed every morning, waiting for the sound of the snow plow before I get up. Now that I'm back in Austin, it looks like it's going to be a long wait.

pleblanc@statesman.com; (512) 445-3994

If you go

Getting there: American Airlines and Continental Airlines both fly into Hayden, about 20 miles outside Steamboat Springs. A less expensive option is flying to Denver, renting a car and driving four hours to Steamboat. Our direct, round-trip flight to Denver on United Airlines cost $230.

Lodging: We stayed at the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel and Conference Center. Room prices change weekly depending on availability, but start at about $190. (It's usually less expensive to ski in January and early February. Mid-February to mid-April is the busy season, and rates are higher. Prices drop again in early April.)

Lift tickets: Lift tickets cost $69 daily for adults (with discounts for multiday tickets).

Information: Go to www.steamboat.com

http://www.statesman.com/travel/content/travel/022904_springskiing/29steamboat.html

(l) I have had the good fortune to experience dry white snow - although it was above-the-knee as I skiing downhill. :) Once I tried it - first at Alta and Snowbird and then several times at Deer Valley, Utah - I never went back to wet snow again.

:o Who wants to get wet when they fall? Whenever I fell in dry powder, I didn't get wet and I was never cold. (y)

(l) Skiing in this wonderfully dry snow = HEAVEN.

(f)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 10:02 AM

:D:D:D:D

Q U O T E D

"To another generation, IT was cool because no one else knew much about it. This generation is so familiar with technology, they see it as an expected part of life."

-- Kate Kaiser, associate professor of IT at Marquette, says in Gen Y, familiarity has bred contempt for IT careers.

Meet Your Future Employee

Recent grads are bold, brash and tech-savvy, but they lack some key skills today's IT departments can't do without.

October 23, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Whatever you do, please don't call Stephanie Lee a geek. Sure, she's majoring in information technology and marketing at Marquette University in Milwaukee, where she's a senior.

But she doesn't write code, she isn't gadget-crazed or Internet-obsessed, and she positively isn't interested in a career as a programmer or tech support jockey.

What Lee is interested in is strategy. During a high school summer internship, she was charged with finding a way for a manufacturing company to more efficiently track packages overseas. Lee combed the Web for research. She chatted up employees to understand the process and the pain points. She even came up with an ROI strategy that convinced upper management to adopt her technology choice to fix their problem.

The experience ignited a passion in Lee to pursue a career in IT. "I've known ever since I was 17 that IT is for me," says Lee. "Most people assume that IT [people are] stuck in front of a computer the entire time, coding away. They don't understand that that's only one small component to our tool set -- our role is so much broader than that."

Dream employee? Absolutely. Does that mean hiring managers can expect Lee's contemporaries to enter the workforce equipped with a similar grasp of the big-picture concepts of a career in IT?

Well, no, say IT executives, human resource professionals and computer science professors.

Members of Generation Y -- roughly, the group born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s -- are arriving on the job market armed with up-to-the-minute technology skills, but they're lacking in other areas, such as business communication skills, employers say. Moreover, many are wary of IT as a viable career choice.

Tech lifestyle or tech career?

Certainly, when it comes to considering a career in technology, Generation Y is more jaded than generations past. The number of freshmen pursuing a computer science track has fallen by 70% since 2000, according to the Computing Research Association. The reasons are myriad.

Would-be technologists are turned off by the tech crash of the early '00s, the shift of jobs overseas to outsourcing providers, and an overall perception of IT as a go-nowhere, nuts-and-bolts profession, observers say.

And the up-and-coming generation puts a premium on work/life balance, having seen firsthand the toll working around-the-clock took on its parents. As a result, they tend to shy away from jobs that demand the 40-hour-plus workweeks typical of IT.

This is the group that simultaneously IMs, blogs, surfs the Web and downloads podcasts. In the end, ironically, it might be this extreme comfort with technology that most deters these young people from pursuing IT as a favorable, even desirable, career.

"To another generation, IT was cool because no one else knew much about it," notes Kate Kaiser, associate professor of IT (and one of Lee's instructors) at Marquette. "This generation is so familiar with technology, they see it as an expected part of life" -- and therefore not worthy of consideration as a full-time career.

When she's not teaching, Kaiser is an academic liaison with and charter member of the Society for Information Management (SIM). One of her responsibilities there is to work with other universities, technology companies and IT professionals to try to alter the perceptions today's youth have of technology careers.

Another of Kaiser's responsibilities is to work with other SIM members and peer professors to modify the IT curriculum nationwide. The goal is to reflect the need for up-and-comers to have stronger business, communication and project management skills -- all areas where this latest generation comes up short. "People in IT today have to be more well rounded -- they can't just have technical expertise," Kaiser says.

Web-ready collaborators

Technical proficiency is an area where newbies certainly aren't lacking. While they may not possess the tech skills of old -- expertise in outdated areas like NetWare, Cobol, even ColdFusion programming -- this new generation packs a punch with mastery of things like HTML programming and a complete comfort level with business basics like Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel, not to mention Web 2.0 advances like blogging and social networking.

Today's young workers are far more likely than their older counterparts to try using these new social and Web-based tools to solve old business problems, and they have a strong team orientation, which lends itself to the virtual collaboration so vital for today's global economy.

"By and large, this generation is very fluent with technology and with a networked world," notes James Ware, executive producer at The Work Design Collaborative LLC, a Berkeley, Calif., consortium exploring workplace values and the future of the workforce. "They're comfortable working with people in remote locations, they're comfortable multitasking, and they're not afraid to go looking for stuff. They have a sense of all things possible."

IM-speak in an IT world

Communication and basic math and writing skills, on the other hand, are not Gen Y's strong suit. According to a survey of 100 human resource professionals by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., although only 5% of college graduates overall were judged to be lacking in basic technical skills, more than half of entry-level workers possessed deficient writing skills and 27% were underperforming in critical thinking.

Some managers and academics attribute the skills gap to this generation's proclivity for cell-phone- and instant-messaging-induced "textspeak," regardless of whether it's for business or personal communication.

Other industry watchers view Generation Y's preference for virtual interaction in the digital world as a hindrance to developing face-to-face communications skills, a critical asset for a modern IT career. (See this article for more on what today's managers say are the hottest skills right now.)

"Part of the IT job is to teach others how to use technology, and the patience level of this generation is less than that of other workers," says Stephen Pickett, a longtime IT executive and current chairman of the SIM Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to promoting IT as a career option. "We need to teach them how to talk to a leader -- how to relate to someone who's not as technically savvy as they happen to be. But all of that is learned behavior that can be changed."

Marquette's Kaiser has experienced Gen Y's communication shortcomings firsthand. She says some of her technology students often hand in work that isn't written in complete sentences, and their inclination to give an instantaneous response means they're less interested developing in writing and presentation skills.

"I'm not sure a lot of the technology things kids are doing promote their listening skills -- with IM or even Facebook, it's cryptic one-liners where they respond right away," Kaiser says. "And when you're writing with all this Web 2.0 stuff, no one cares how well you spell a word. It's a very different way of communication."

Chris Dodge is one student who certainly has his tech credentials in line. Thanks to his parents, both of whom worked in the tech sector, Dodge has been exposed to PCs since birth and knows enough to design and launch a blog, produce a podcast, or shoot, edit and post a YouTube video.

Dodge, now a sophomore at Georgetown University majoring in international politics at the School of Foreign Service, doesn't deny that his generation spends hours online in chat rooms or e-mailing and texting. But he takes exception to the suggestion that his generation's communication skills are compromised.

"Five minutes after [students] write their one-line text messages, they go to class and take five pages of notes or go back to their rooms and write 10-page research papers," he says. "I think the world is absolutely valuing speed over quality, but that doesn't mean we're incapable of appropriately expressing ourselves."

Worker Bee 2.0

The Generation Y crowd also has a different take on what it means to be an employee. While their parents may be company loyalists willing to put in long hours or pack up and move for the good of the business, not so for Generation Y.

These young people have seen firsthand the physical and emotional damage that working long hours can have on family life and health, say human resource experts. They also came of age witnessing the trauma of corporate downsizing and the outsourcing of technology-oriented positions to low-cost labor regions like India.

The new generation, therefore, is a lot less willing to bend to corporate politics and policies and has a certain air of entitlement when it comes to employment.

Generation Y, for instance, expects to be handed state-of-the-art technology (read: smart phone, laptop and wireless) as soon as they come on board, and they are less willing to start at the bottom rung and work their way up the corporate ladder.

"Generation Y is interested in wrangling their way through an organization, testing the waters and moving here or there if it so suits them," explains Jeff Alderton, principal for human capital at Deloitte Consulting LLC. "They're eventually going to get where they want to go, but in their way, not in the traditional fashion."

The new generation is also far bolder in asking for entitlements, whether it's a pay raise, training on the company's dime or simply time off. "They ask questions I never would have asked," says Mark Banks, vice president of human resources at Sciele Pharma Inc., an Atlanta-based pharmaceuticals company. "It's not about what they can do for you, but what as a company can you do to develop them."

One of the primary concerns of Generation Y is a flexible schedule and healthy work/life balance. This is a generation raised in the era of 24/7 connectivity, of wireless access and of being able to work wherever and whenever it suits them. The idea of trading in that flexibility for a structured workplace doesn't sit well with them.

Technology, they reason, is the enabler for letting people get their work done independently, without having to be in a certain place for a certain period of time.

"We have different expectations about what a work environment should be like," says Dodge. "I think a lot of us hope the age of the daily commute, the 9-to-5 workday and the cubicle farm are in the past. Certainly, with new technology, there is less of a need for the centralization of work production in an office, so long as the work gets done."

The SIM Foundation's Pickett isn't the only IT executive to say that kind of thinking is much too optimistic, if not downright deluded. Anyone looking to eventually reach a high-level management job in IT or finance -- or nearly any field, for that matter -- needs to be in the office, Pickett says. A lot.

"You can't develop relationships from afar or show leadership from afar. If you want to learn about the business, you pretty much have to be there," Pickett says. "To develop relationships with key executives, you've got to be in front of them. And you can't learn leadership skills unless you're watching how others lead."

Still, smart companies are aware of the misalignment and, where possible, are beginning to implement new policies and procedures to bring their work environments more in line with Generation Y's expectations.

Give 'Em What They Want

That's not to say companies should kowtow to the unreasonable demands of a new generation. Rather, they need to be open to embracing new work styles and finding some sort of middle ground.

"Large organizations that simply try to maintain their way of doing things in a monolithic fashion and which don't listen to and learn from younger folks are going to have problems attracting, retaining and motivating talent," says The Work Design Collaborative's Ware. "Companies have to change a bit."

Sciele Pharma is taking that message to heart. The company, where the average worker is in his mid-20s, equips its employees with state-of-the-art laptops and cell phones and has also implemented a variety of flexible work programs.

For instance, employees can adopt an alternative schedule, if approved by Banks and their managers, where they can work from home one day a week or come in between the hours of 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and leave as early or late as they want, provided their work is done. Employees work 36.5-hour weeks, the company closes at 4 p.m. on Fridays, and workers are able to leave at noon the day before a holiday.

IT people in particular have the option of working from home. Those who have operational-type responsibilities -- monitoring and troubleshooting systems or doing EDI work, for example -- are encouraged to work at home a day or so a week and are given the equipment to make that happen, says David Bennett, IT director at Sciele Pharma. Those with development jobs are eligible to take advantage of flextime as well.

"Any job that lends itself to routine operations or where there is a need for a lot of solitary time to dig into a problem, [those employees] can work from home as long as it doesn't interfere with any planned meetings," Bennett says. "It creates benefits for the employee and the environment and makes for a better quality of life."

With quantifiable kinds of roles, Sciele can easily measure employees' results and hold them accountable, which in turn helps the company monitor whether its flextime arrangement is working, Bennett explains.

As progressive as Sciele Pharma may be, all of its work/life balance programs have essentially kept it in the hiring game but not necessarily given it an edge. "Employees today come in with these expectations," Banks says. "This has helped us retain our workforce, not attract a new workforce."

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9043339&pageNumber=1

8-|8-| A comment after this article was PRICELESS!!! I loved IT:

"Let me summarize"

Submitted by Anonymous on October 23, 2007 - 06:54.

"Generation Y largely consists of self centered, arrogant, and lazy individuals. They have an overblown sense of self worth and huge egos. Breaking them in isn't worth the hassle. Avoid at all costs."

(y)(y)(y)

;)

(f)

Damnant quod non intellegunt.

They condemn what they do not understand.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 10:05 AM

(f)(f)(f)

Location Name Date

Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok Pride Festival 2007 3/11 - 11/11/2007

http://zoom.gay.com/viewEvent.do?eventId=6585

http://www.pridefestival.org/?language=en

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom Glasgay! 11/1 - 11/14/2007

http://zoom.gay.com/viewEvent.do?eventId=651

http://zoom.gay.com/viewWebsite.do?url=www.glasgay.co.uk

Buenos Aires, Argentina LGTTBI Pride Parade 200 11/3/2007

http://zoom.gay.com/viewEvent.do?eventId=6730

http://www.marchadelorgullo.org.ar/

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs Pride 11/3 - 11/4/2007

http://zoom.gay.com/viewEvent.do?eventId=713

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs Pride 2007 11/3 - 11/4/2007

http://zoom.gay.com/viewEvent.do?eventId=8359

http://www.pspride.org/

(y) More info at www.gay.com

(y) It's always nice to know when and where these events are, right? Even if some are a wee bit of a travel challenge. (ap)(ap)

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. :[:[

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 10:07 AM

:s:s:s

Friday, October 26, 2007 / 05:38 PM

Bernice Yeung

The Advocate

There was a time not too long ago when a typical evening in Mike Oberg and Gregg Valdez's home involved a quiet family meal in the kitchen of their comfortable Salem, Utah, home. They'd chat about their day and ask Little Mike, Valdez's 13-year-old son, about school or skateboarding; if Valdez's 17-year-old daughter wasn't out with friends, she might join them at the table.

But that quiet evening ritual changed when Valdez's niece, Antoinette Rudman, 34, had a drug relapse in mid-September and called her uncle to ask if he'd temporarily take care of her own four young children. Valdez, who works as a case manager at a local prison, jumped in his car to pick them up.

In most states and in most cases, the agreement Rudman made with Valdez about the kids would be considered a private matter.

But an assistant attorney general representing Utah's Division of Child and Family Services has argued that because Rudman was being monitored by the state for drug use, their arrangement violates a state law that bans those cohabitating in a sexual relationship from becoming foster or adoptive parents -- a law that some critics say was designed to target gay and lesbian couples.

The children have been allowed to remain in Valdez's custody only by an emergency court order. A hearing set for Monday will determine whether the children will be returned to their mother, will stay with Valdez or other relatives or will be placed elsewhere.

"The only one who is questioning all of this is the assistant attorney general," Rudman told The Advocate. "He's the unfriendly one in all of this. He's not thinking about the children; he's thinking about the law.

"I chose my Uncle Gregg to take my kids because he has his own two kids and he's a good person. He cares about people and he would take anyone in. I trust him."

Neither the assistant attorney general working on this case nor representatives of his office returned calls for comment. A DCFS spokesperson told The Advocate, "I don't think the department has a comment about the law; it follows the laws of the state."

Though Valdez and some legal observers are optimistic that the judge will give some form of temporary custody of Rudman's children to either Valdez (pictured, left, with Oberg) or Rudman's mother, the case highlights the legal challenges that gay couples can still face when it comes to parenting and adoption.

Utah is one of three states, including Alabama and Florida, that still effectively prohibit gay men or lesbians from becoming foster or adoptive parents. The Utah law arose out of concerns raised by a member of a DCFS quality improvement committee who was helping to oversee the foster care system. (The committee was created in response to a 1993 class-action lawsuit against Utah's foster care system for shoddy performance.)

"One member of the (committee) first promulgated this idea, and then they found a legislative sponsor," recalls Martha Matthews, an attorney formerly with the National Center for Youth Law who worked on the class-action case.

"Some legislators were horrified to discover that unmarried and cohabitating couples, particularly gay couples, were foster parents, and they prohibited them from being foster parents.

"People get self-righteous about what is the best possible home for a child, and they think about it in the abstract," Matthews says. "But the best home might be one where they are living with a close relative who lives near the child's school and who might happen to be cohabitating."

Critics of the law also note that there's a severe shortage of foster parents and that laws like Utah's make it even harder for children to find quality long-term placement.

There are now 500,000 children in foster care nationwide. Between 1984 and 1993, the number of children in foster care increased by 61 percent, while the number of nonrelative foster parents available to care for children has been in decline, child welfare advocates say.

In Utah, 2,600 children are now in foster care, and the Utah Foster Care Foundation, which works with DCFS to place children, says it needs more foster families.

"The foundation's position is that we would welcome any family or individual who is willing and able to care for these children," says Kelsey Lewis, the foundation's director of recruitment. "But because of the law, there are certain segments of the population that we can't reach out to."

"By eliminating gay and lesbian foster parents, we're diminishing the pool of competent foster parents, and it's the kids who suffer," says Kate Kendall of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Both the American Psychological Association and the Child Welfare League of America, among other professional groups, affirm the equal competence of gay and lesbian parents with their heterosexual peers.

Valdez and Oberg have been described as stellar parents by those who know them. "They're both very kind and loving family-oriented people," says Derek Oberg, Mike's twin brother. "The thing that's important to them is family and being around the family in their daily lives."

But for Valdez, the legal and administrative problems of trying to care for his niece's children have made him think beyond his own family, and he says that no matter what happens at Monday's court date, he'll still search for a way to challenge the Utah law.

"I don't want this to happen again with this family or another one," he says. "I think the law should allow relatives to take the kids, whether they're cohabitating or not. It's harmful for them to pull the kids out of a stable house."

:|:|:|

(f)(f)'s,

Sweetlady

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 10:09 AM

(S) (*) (S) (*) (S) (*)

Bright Comet Holmes Continues to Amaze in the Evening Sky

Amateur astronomers the world over have been stunned and amazed by the weirdest new object to appear in the sky in memory. And it's one of the easiest to see, too.

Just a few days ago, Periodic Comet Holmes (17P) was a tiny, roughly 17th-magnitude nonentity out between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. But on Wednesday, October 24th, skywatchers looked up to see a bright new star shining yellow-orange in Perseus. For no apparent reason the comet had brightened about a millionfold to shine at close to magnitude 2.5. That made it plain to see even in bright moonlight and through all but the worst light pollution. It looked truly starlike; even high telescopic magnification barely resolved it as anything larger at first. But within a day it had expanded into a perfectly round, bright little disk with a tiny nucleus as seen in binoculars and telescopes. It looked like no comet ever seen.

Its startling outburst, however, has a precedent. The comet was also in a major eruption 115 years ago, in November 1892, when English amateur Edwin Holmes was the first to spot it.

More: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10775326.html

Comet Chasing in October: http://comets.skyhound.com/

(y)

(f)

Docendo discimus.

We learn by teaching.

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 10:11 AM

|-)|-)|-)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/health/23memo.html?_r=2&em&ex=1193284800&en=5703c320266a30a9&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

(y)(y)

(f)

Carpe Diem,

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 10:12 AM

:|:|

http://www.tacticalunderground.us/sere/?p=17

;)

(f)

(um)(um) May Your Smile Be Your Umbrella. (um)(um)

Sweetlady

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 10:13 AM

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

One of the most remarkable museums in Amsterdam is Our Lord in the Attic -- a church hidden away in the attic of a house in the red-light district and dating from a time when Catholics were not allowed to openly practice their religion in Protestant Amsterdam. It was used as a church for over 200 years but the museum notes that its existence was an open secret -- the Protestant authorities knew about it, but turned a blind eye.

http://www.museumamstelkring.nl/

http://www.museumamstelkring.nl/onslieveheeropsolder/eng/home.php

(l)

48 hours in Amsterdam

8:11 ET, Fri 26 Oct 2007

AMSTERDAM (Reuters Life!) - With more than 230 rainy days a year, it doesn't really matter when you visit Amsterdam. So pack an umbrella and enjoy the Dutch capital's picturesque city center and infamous nightlife. Reuters correspondents with local knowledge help visitors get the most from a short stay.

FRIDAY

5 p.m. - Welcome! As you will have noticed during the taxi ride to your hotel, bikes rule the streets of Amsterdam. The city has more bicycles than people. So at the start of the weekend, get into the spirit and rent yourself a bike. A city bike will set you back just 23 euros for two days at Rent A Bike (Damstraat 20-22, phone 020-6255029). If you feel adventurous, you can even rent a tandem.

7 p.m. - Amsterdam offers many choices for food -- from the cuisines of former colonies such as Indonesia and Suriname to all-time favorites like Italian and Japanese. You should probably stop at an Indonesian restaurant at least once and have the famous Rijstafel for dinner, a selection of small dishes with rice. You are most likely to run into Reuters reporters at Tujuh Maret (Utrechtsestraat 73, 020-427 9865, be sure to reserve a table), but there are plenty more excellent Indonesian restaurants. For restaurant listings and recommendations, check www.iens.nl.

10 p.m. - Amsterdam's main nightlife hot spots are Rembrandtplein, Leidseplein and the surrounding streets, where you will find a wide choice of watering holes for a Friday night. Check the schedules for the nearby Melkweg (Lijnbaansgracht 234a, 020-5318181) and Paradiso (Weteringschans 6-8, 020-626 45 21), the main venues for live music. International super stars will appear elsewhere, for example in the football stadium in the south of the city, but you might get lucky -- Robbie Williams for example gave a "warm-up concert" in the Paradiso ahead of a major tour in 2005.

SATURDAY

9 a.m. - Weather permitting, start your day with a bike ride along the three main canals of central Amsterdam, the Prinsengracht, Keijzersgracht and Herengracht, and take in the postcard views of the Dutch capital with its 17th century houses, some of them leaning so dangerously that one wonders when they will topple. Historically, the finest and priciest houses were in the so-called Golden Bend of the Herengracht, which stretches east from the intersection of Nieuwe Spiegelstraat. Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen has his official residence here.

10 a.m. - There are several options to see an Amsterdam canal house from the inside. We recommend the Willet Holthuysen Museum (Herengracht 605, 020-523 1822), a fully furnished patrician house that was bequeathed to the city by its last resident, Louisa Holthuysen, in 1895. Don't miss the garden. Alternatively, visit the Huis Marseille (Keizersgracht 401, 020-531 8989). In the basement of this photography museum you will find a small reading room with a coffee machine, inviting you to take a break from the bustling city outside.

Noon - Make your way along the main canals in a northwesterly direction until you hit the Negen Straatjes ("Nine Streets") -- a matrix of busy streets in a rectangle framed by the Prinsengracht and the Singel to the west and east, and Reestraat and Runstraat to the North and South. Explore the colorful mix of shops selling anything from 1960s lamps to current designer fashion, and stop for lunch at one of the cafes (for example the Seven Steps, Reestraat 7, 020-420 9545). Fans of Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Twelve" will recognize the corner of Reestraat and Keizersgracht.

3 p.m. - Amsterdam has enough museums for several visits. The Rijksmuseum is currently undergoing renovation and has only a limited collection on display in one wing. The modern art Stedelijk Museum is also closed for construction; it has found a temporary home in the former building of the postal service at central station, PostCS. The Van Gogh Museum houses the largest collection of the artist's paintings in the world and is showing an exhibition about Barcelona around 1900 until January. From the Negen Straatjes, the closest of the major museums is the Anne Frank Museum, which incorporates the house where the young girl hid during the Nazi occupation.

5 p.m. - One of the most remarkable museums in Amsterdam is Our Lord in the Attic -- a church hidden away in the attic of a house in the red-light district and dating from a time when Catholics were not allowed to openly practice their religion in Protestant Amsterdam. It was used as a church for over 200 years but the museum notes that its existence was an open secret -- the Protestant authorities knew about it, but turned a blind eye.

6 p.m. - You're already in the red-light district, so you might as well walk around a bit and take in the sights. No visit to Amsterdam is complete without it anyway, and even if you're not here for a stag night, nobody will understand if you skipped this bit of town. Explore the side streets and then make your way to the Nieuwmarkt, where you'll find a sufficient number of respectable pubs to stop for a drink. Now is the time to try out traditional Dutch cuisine -- order yourself some bitterballen (deep-fried balls filled with a meaty sauce) and kaasblokjes (blocks of cheese) as appetizers along with your biertje.

8 p.m. - Make your way from the Nieuwmarkt back to Dam Square and walk down Nes, a small street running parallel to the Rokin. See if you like any of the restaurants there (Brasserie Harkema has recently developed into a crowd favorite). Alternatively, walk on a bit and have dinner at the spacious Cafe de Jaren. De Jaren is also well worth a visit during the day for coffee and cake.

11 p.m. - Still some energy left? Club 11 in the PostCS building close to the central station offers a unique clubbing experience -- on the 11th floor with a great view of the city. Check the schedule on www.ilove11.nl.

SUNDAY

10 a.m. - Amsterdam's web of canals was once key to transporting goods in and out of the city's warehouses -- and express company DHL to this day uses a delivery boat -- but today almost all traffic is from pleasure craft. Many locals while away Sundays cruising through the canals with a bottle of wine and some good company. Renting a boat with an outboard motor is nigh impossible, but you can rent your own pedal boat or "canal bike" which are moored at various spots across the city. If you would prefer to take it easy you can hop on to a canal cruise. There are several boat tours on offer but one option is Reederij Kooij which has several departure points including Leidseplein and Rokin.

Noon - If you aim to hop off your boat in the area, the Vondelpark is another great place to spend some time on a Sunday. As long as you watch out for the many rollerbladers, bikers and joggers, a pleasant stroll around the park's leafy walkways will help to blow away any remaining cobwebs from the night before. Weather permitting, you can pick up some edam or gouda cheese, bread rolls and a few cans of Heineken from a nearby supermarket and have a picnic near one of the lakes. Otherwise stop at 't Blauwe Theehuis (the Blue Teahouse) for a bite to eat.

2 p.m. - The city's official tourist board may not be promoting them, but Amsterdam coffee shops are a huge draw nonetheless. Granted, to most first-time visitors it may seem odd that there are places where you can order marijuana off a menu and the staff behind the counter is happy to give advice about the subtle differences of intoxication that the different varieties will produce. The Greenhouse on Oudezijds Voorburgwal can be a good place to spot celebrities, given its proximity to the Grand Hotel. Alternatively, the Asian art work, cushions and lanterns in De Rokerij on Lange Leidsedwarsstraat are just what you need to sink into a mystical trance.

4 p.m. - If you have some time to spare before you head home, you could have a browse around Amsterdam's Flower market. Florists are located on barges along this canal and you can pick up a range of flowers at a bargain ("50 tulips for 10 euros!") or just enjoy the sights and smells of the colorful array of plants on offer. If you absolutely must, there are also several souvenir shops along this street which provide you with a last chance to pick up a canal house magnet for your fridge, an Amsterdam key ring or even a pair of clogs.

http://features.us.reuters.com/destinations/news/L26613598.html

Really interesting project started by the University of Leiden: Solitary Sisters. "This intriguing historical phenomenon, including women who had themselves bricked into hermit cells, offers a stimulating basis for a discussion of the role of women with a religious mission today - in all the world’s major religions, not just Catholicism."

http://www.museumamstelkring.nl/onslieveheeropsolder/eng/pers-persbericht.php

(l)(l)(l)

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S)(S)

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

sweetlady

10-27-2007, 10:14 AM

(p) (p)

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/customslideshow?buddyJS=slideshow20071026114641.js&title=Best%20of%20the%20Week&size=12

(f)

(k)'s,

Sweetlady

sweetlady

10-28-2007, 09:51 AM

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

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.

Take naps. Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you have had enough. Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

Love someone -- unconditionally.

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

(f) Have a spectactular Sunday!

"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace."

- Amelia Earhart

(f)

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 05:15 AM

(y)(y)(y)

Tom Bissell’s account of his exhausting climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, with pictures, audio and maps.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/10/26/magazine/20071028_KILIMANJARO_GRAPHIC.html

"A trip to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the one big summit a mere mortal can reach on hands and knees."

October 28, 2007

Up the Mountain Slowly, Very Slowly

By TOM BISSELL

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/sports/playmagazine/28kilimanjaro.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

:o The "second slide" is an amazing animation of the climb!

(l)(l) I LOVED this "multimedia" presentation. Images, animation, graphics, video ("Slides" 6, 8 and 9 have gorgeous videos with audio.) and audio remarkably told a compelling story.

:| I could not believe the medical information about how a human being's heart and lungs function at various altitudes.........

(f)

<:o)<:o) First FROST of the Fall this early morning! Brisk! (l)(l)

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 05:17 AM

;);)

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/09/magazine/20070909_STYLE_SLIDESHOW_index.html

:o Who did you choose as the "best"? ;)

(f)

Smoke 'em if you got 'em,

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 05:19 AM

:s:s:s

:o

:)

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/25/fashion/1028-STREET_index.html

(y)(y) Black and purple......definitely:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2007/10/25/1028-STREET/20352293.JPG

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S)(S)

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 05:20 AM

:|:|:|:|

Eco-minded fashion designers are making some startlingly beautiful clothes. Shalom Harlow encounters the supernatural.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/28/magazine/20071028_STYLES_SLIDESHOW_index.html

^o)^o)

(f)

Cum recte vivis, ne cures verba malorum.

If you live properly, don't worry about what the evil ones say.

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 05:25 AM

:o:o:o:o

The Out Traveler: Jamaica: The Caribbean's no-go zone

From the winter 2007 issue of The Out Traveler

by Ken Kiesnowski

The Jamaica Tourism Board's new slogan, "Once you go, you know," translates for many queer tourists as "Gays, beware." Not that homophobia is official JTB policy. According to its publicity team, individual vacationers of all stripes are welcome to the English-speaking isle, but they "are encouraged to respect Jamaican laws and community standards and take common sense measures to enhance their travel experience." Local law, through rarely enforced, threatens a sentence of up to 10 years' hard labor for what's still referred to there in quaint Victorian parlance as "buggery."

Though Britain legalized gay sex in its Caribbean territories in 2000, Jamaica, an independent state since 1962, did not follow suit. And little has changed since then, even as the island elected its first female prime minister in 2006, the socially progressive Portia Simpson Miller.

There's no doubt about it: Life is dangerous for gay men and lesbians in Jamaica. Homophobia on this mountainous isle of approximately 2.75 million people is rampant and sanctioned -- in church, government, and particularly in the gay-baiting lyrics of the island's popular dancehall music. In 2001, the group TOK topped the island's music charts for 13 weeks with the song "Chi Chi Man" -- Jamaican slang for a gay man -- the lyrics of which commended the burning of homosexuals. All too often, anti-gay harassment, beatings, and even murders, including the 2004 slaying of activist Brian Williamson, founder of the island's only gay rights group, J-FLAG, go unpunished. This year alone, two young local lesbians were killed and mobs stalked and threatened men perceived to be gay on at least three occasions, including at a Carnival-season concert in tourist hub Montego Bay.

Why does Jamaica's homophobia stand out in the notoriously gay-unfriendly Caribbean? Some say it's the volatile mixture of island poverty, Christian fundamentalism, Jamaican machismo and a leftover Victorian sensibility from (now-progressive) Mother England. That's not to say there's absolutely no gay and lesbian scene to speak of in Jamaica: There are private underground parties -- reportedly sometimes very large -- and gay male cruising spots, including a couple of beaches, but visitors not in the know should exercise great caution. Human Rights Watch has documented attacks on queers leaving social events -- with homophobic local police themselves often the perpetrators. In Jamaica, crime victims -- be they men who are gay-bashed or women who are raped -- are often blamed for what happens to them. To wit, J-FLAG refuses to disclose the whereabouts of its headquarters to hide from attacks or arrest. Fearing for their lives, LGBT Jamaicans have begun applying for asylum abroad, with varying degrees of success.

For LGBT tourists, is it advisable, or even possible, to vacation in Jamaica as an out individual, couple or group?

Many travel agents specializing in queer travel, such as Richard Krieger, managing partner at Pride World Travel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., advise staying away.

"I cannot say anything positive about travel to Jamaica for LGBT clients," Krieger says. "It's such a beautiful place, and it's a shame, (but) it's positively monstrous what goes on down there."

Cruises chartered by gay and lesbian travel companies such as RSVP Vacations, Atlantis Events, and Olivia shun Jamaican ports. But few gay groups have mounted any official boycotts. John Tanzella, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, also in Fort Lauderdale, says he'd caution against one.

"Boycotts don't help gay people living there," Tanzella says. "I'd rather . . . go out and try to help Jamaicans become more welcoming to our community"

And whether Jamaica is ripe for a gay travel boycott might be an increasingly moot point. Kim Sherburne, manager of the gay and lesbian travel agency Now Voyager, finds in her experience, Jamaica might as well not exist where LGBT travel is concerned.

"It's developed such a reputation for being gay -unfriendly that we just don't get requests for it any more," Sherburne says.

But reports of anti-gay incidents involving tourists are, in fact, rare.

"It's much safer for (non-Jamaican) gay people, and for tourists of any (background), to go to Jamaica," says Human Rights Watch researcher Rebecca Schleifer. She cautions, however, that's probably because most visitors stay in gated, all-inclusive resort complexes and simply don't mix with the locals.

Not surprisingly, gay-marketed resorts are few. The Hotel Mocking Bird Hill in picturesque Port Antonio is the country's only lodging that makes itself known as gay-owned. But India-born innkeeper Shireen Aga and her Jamaica-born partner, Barbara Walker, say that "even though we have had (LGBT) guests who've had a wonderful time, there aren't that many," adding that the hotel once marketed to LGBT travelers "but stopped doing so because we realized we just couldn't fight the general [negative] perception of [Jamaica]."

Aga says that Jamaicans, while conservative, are warm and welcoming -- but discretion is a must. "If you can respect the fact that you shouldn't be overtly affectionate in public, you're going to enjoy a wonderful holiday," Aga says. "When you're out at the beaches or any of the attractions, [be] just a little bit more discreet -- and no one is going to make an issue of it."

^o)^o) I have never wanted to visit anyplace in this area including this country. It *is* distressing though, when I read alarming ways members of the LGBT community are treated - and thus would NEVER visit - for love or money. If I won the lottery, this would be one of the last places I'd put on a travel itinerary. Feeling the heat in extreme humidity is more like hell to me. :o

;);)

(f)

Aut disce aut discede.

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 05:27 AM

:D:D

http://birdloversonly.blogspot.com/2007/09/may-i-have-this-dance.html

(y)(y)

Birds of a feather, flock together.

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 05:29 AM

(l) (l) (l)

From the winter 2007 issue of The Out Traveler

by Doug Schnitzpahn

At first glance, Denver can look, well, dull. On the surface, the Mile-High City greets a visitor with sprawl, unassuming skyscrapers and strip malls -- but try to shake off those first impressions. Dig deeper and you'll click into a vibrant cultural scene and find an underrated city dotted with secret hideaways that ooze everything from hipster funk to world-class luxury. Note, too, that this is a city filled with highly educated, extremely fit and very active fans of fun who shift seamlessly from a morning shredding powder snow in the nearby Rocky Mountains to an evening of sipping mojitos and salsa dancing.

The city itself is in the midst of an urban revival. After the oil bust of the 1980s, the downtown area was nearly vacant. But the building of Coors Field and the revitalization of the formerly frightening lower-downtown neighborhood -- known affectionately as LoDo -- in the early 1990s sparked a trendy urban renaissance. Gay culture revolves around LoDo, where you'll find chic restaurants, bars, and clubs, and more traditionally around the Capitol Hill neighborhood and slightly seedy yet authentically urban Colfax Avenue.

These days, Denver has evolved from the world's biggest sports bar into a far more erudite place that is embracing cosmopolitan and alternative mores. It has always been the commercial and industrial center for the Rocky Mountain region, but it is recently becoming a national hot spot for the arts and food and wine. Its nascent cosmopolitan qualities, combined with its outdoor-sports offerings, are a big draw for well-educated young professionals looking to indulge in healthy living.

Although Colorado is home to some of the most virulently anti-gay politicos on the planet -- chief among them U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, who has sponsored a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and James Dobson, homophobic founder of Focus on the Family -- Denver (also referred to as the Queen City of the Plains) is quite supportive of queer culture. Bolstered every summer by a major gay rodeo and the exuberant PrideFest, as one of the best LGBT Pride events in the country, the gay scene here is only slightly more conservative than in coastal metropolises and is very focused on active lifestyles. Out on the town you'll meet frat boys, cowboys, mountain-hardened athletes and a strong, extremely outdoorsy lesbian population. All of it adds up to a city that stands in proud defiance of Colorado's wingnut provincial politicians.

Day 1

One thing that outsiders don't realize about Denver is that even in the winter the weather can be quite pleasant. While the average temperature in February is a chilly 33 degrees, it's not unusual to see midwinter highs in the 50s and even upper 60s along with high-altitude sunshine, so spend the morning walking around the city's renovated downtown. Ease into the day with a chocolate croissant and cappuccino at the cozy independent Tattered Cover Book Store in LoDo (1628 16th St.; 303-436-1070). Then peruse the two stories of books, including an excellent gay and lesbian section. From there, wander down to Larimer Square, the heart of LoDo, and shop at trendy boutiques like Cry Baby Ranch (1421 Larimer St.; 303-623-3979), which has such varied goods as boots and kitschy-cool cowgirl knickknacks. For lunch (and perhaps a margarita), head to gay-friendly Benny's (301 E. 7th Ave.; 303-894-0788) and be sure to try the green chili or chile rellenos.

Then it's on to an afternoon at the Denver Art Museum (100 W. 14the Ave. Pkwy.; 720-865-5000) to explore the lurching architectural angles and eclectic collections (contemporary Chinese, Oceanic and others) in the brand-new wing designed by architect Daniel Libeskind. On Friday nights the museum stays open until 10 p.m. For your first night out, head back to Larimer Square and dine at one of the city's chic standbys -- Rioja (1431 Larimer St.; 303-820-2282), which serves up original Mediterranean dishes in a classy atmosphere accentuated by blown-glass fixtures.

Denverites like to party, and for a dose of classic raucous cow-town nightlife, the one place you have to visit is Charlie's (900 E. Colfax Ave.; 303-839-8890), a wood-paneled, down-and-dirty, gay (but also hetero-friendly) country-and-western dance bar. It's not just about line dancing there -- some nights feature karaoke, and on others DJs spin alternative beats.

Links

Info: Tattered Cover Book Store in LoDo (1628 16the St.; 303-436-1070) -- www.tatteredcover.com

Info: Cry Baby Ranch (1421 Larimer Street; 303-623-3979) -- www.crybabyranch.com

Info: Benny's (301 E. 7the Ave.; 303-894-0788) -- www.bennysrestaurant.com

Info: Denver Art Museum (100 W. 14the Ave. Pkwy.; 720-865-5000) -- www.denverartmuseum.org

Info: Rioja (1431 Larimer St.; 303-820-2282) -- www.riojadenver.com

Day 2

It's time to work off the indulgences of the previous day. The mind-set of Denver reaches far beyond the sprawl of the city and into the surrounding mountains. Start your outdoor excursion at the historic renovated 94,000-square-foot tramway building that now houses REI's Denver flagship store (1416 Platte St.; 303-756-3100), where you can shop for technical outdoor gear and apparel, rock-climb indoors on a 45-foot man-made pinnacle, or rent snowshoes; the store also offers orientation classes for different outdoor activities.

For a taste of the mountains, head up on a two-hour scenic drive to Rocky Mountain National Park (970-586-1206). The trails around Bear Lake are quite popular for good reason; they lead up to stunning frozen alpine lakes (quite often you can even hike in the park without snowshoes in winter). On your drive back, be sure to stop at The Kitchen in Boulder (1039 Pearl St.; 303-544-5973), a restaurant that fully embraces the healthy green-centric town's sustainable vibe by purchasing wind power for energy, using natural and organic foods, and serving up some of the best cuisine in Colorado. If you want resort skiing or snowboarding, make the hour-and-a-half drive up to Breckenridge (central reservation line: 877 -234-3981), which has earned a solid rep as a gay-friendly ski resort. It's also worth perusing the home page of the Gay and Lesbian Sierrans (303-861-8819) to learn about local gay outdoor events and outings for Sierra Club members.

Warm up by digging into authentic Cuban cuisine and mojitos at Cuba Cuba (1173 Delaware St.; 303-605-2822), where chef Enrique Socarras serves family recipes with a nouveau twist in an old house painted with Caribbean flair. Then move to the DJ beats at raucous gay club The Compound (145 Broadway; 303-722-7977). And even though it is not a gay venue, it's worth checking out The Church (1160 Lincoln St.; 303-832-3528), housed in (you guessed it) an old church with stained glass windows (and a hip-hop dungeon) that has been converted into a multiroom, multithemed dance club.

Links

Info: REI's Denver flagship store (1416 Platte St.; 303-756-3100) -- www.rei.com/stores/18

Info: Rocky Mountain National Park (970-586-1206) -- www.nps.gov/romo

Info: The Kitchen in Boulder (1039 Pearl St.; 303-544-5973) -- www.thekitchencafe.com

Info: Breckenridge (central reservation line: 877-234-3981) -- www.breckenridge.snow.com

Info: Gay and Lesbian Sierrans (303-861-8819) -- www.rmc.sierraclub.org/gls

Info: Cuba Cuba (1173 Delaware St.; 303-605-2822) -- www.cubacubacafe.com

Info: The Compound (145 Broadway; 303-722-7977) -- www.compounddenver.com

Info: The Church (1160 Lincoln St.; 303-832-3528) -- www.coclubs.co

Day 3

It's time to explore Denver's funky hipster underbelly. Broadway is the epicenter of the city's thrift stores, antique shops, and alternative-art vibe. Don't miss Flossy McGrew's (1824 S. Broadway; 303-778-0853), a thrift and costume store decorated with silver-painted bones and filled with memento mori and coffins -- all overseen by an aging punk rocker who calls herself Grandma Gothe. But that's just the beginning of kitsch, junk, and real deals you'll find on South Broadway's Antique Row.

When you are done browsing, catch a foreign-film matinee at the renovated art deco Mayan Theatre (110 Broadway; 303-352-1992), a historic landmark movie house with a bar attached. If it's a balmy day (Denver enjoys about 300 sunny days a year), head to the Denver Zoo (2300 Steele St.; 303-376-3800) or the Denver Botanic Gardens (1005 York St.; 720-865-3500) to stroll away the afternoon.

Celebrate your last night in Denver at swank Table 6 (609 Corona St.; 303-831-8800), an American-style bistro with arguably the best wine list in the city. Then party out in frat-boy style with cosmopolitans and Jagermeister-Red Bull bombs at JR's Bar & Grill (777 E. 17the Ave.; 303-831-0459), the massive double-decker center of the gay party scene in Denver. Don't miss Feygele Feud, a drag queen-hosted game show on Saturday nights.

Links

Info: Antique Row -- www.antique-row.com

Info: Mayan Theatre (110 Broadway; 303-352-1992 -- www.landmarktheatres.com/market/Denver/MayanTheatre.htm

Info: Denver Zoo (2300 Steele St.; 303-376-3800) -- www.denverzoo.org

Info: Denver Botanic Gardens (1005 York St.; 720-865-3500) -- www.botanicgardens.org

Info: Table 6 (609 Corona St.; 303-831-8800) -- www.table6denver.com

Info: JR.'s Bar & Grill (777 E. 17the Ave.; 303-831-0459) -- www.myjrs.com

Getting there

The local joke is that DIA (Denver International Airport; 303-342-2000) is in Kansas, since it's out on the plains about 35 miles east of downtown. But that's a good thing -- all that space makes it one of the most pleasant airports (if such a thing can exist) in the country, despite being one of the world's busiest. It's a major hub for United Airlines (800-864-8331), which serves a long list of cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and farther abroad. Friendly, efficient Frontier Airlines (800-432-1359) is based in Denver and rates high among frequent travelers.

Links

Info: Denver International Airport (303-342-2000) -- www.flydenver.com

Info: United Airlines (800-864-8331) -- www.united.com

Info: Frontier Airlines (800-432-1359) -- www.frontierairlines.com

Staying there

Check into the most unusual place to stay in Denver -- the historic, luxurious Hotel Teatro (1100 14the St; 303-228-1100). Decorated with memorabilia from the neighboring Denver Center for the Performing Arts (1101 13the St.; 303-893-4100), the hotel features two upscale restaurants -- Restaurant Kevin Taylor (303-820-2600) for French fare and Prima Ristorante (303-228-0770) for Italian (Taylor oversees the Teatro's room service too). Another solid upscale option is the classy independent Magnolia Hotel (818 17the St.; 888-915-1110). The Warwick Denver Hotel (1776 Grant St.; 303-861-2000) has the reputation as the most gay-friendly hotel in the Queen City of the Plains. All three hotels are in the thick of downtown action.

Links

Info: Hotel Teatro (1100 14the St; 303-228-1100) -- www.hotelteatro.com

Info: Denver Center for the Performing Arts (1101 13the St.; 303-893-4100) -- www.denvercenter.org

Info: Restaurant Kevin Taylor for French fare (303-820-2600) -- www.coloradoeats.com/RKT

Info: Prima Ristorante for Italian fare (303-228-0770) -- www.coloradoeats.com/primaristorante

Info: Magnolia Hotel (818 17the St.; 888-915-1110) -- www.magnoliahoteldenver.com

Info: Warwick Denver Hotel (1776 Grant St.; 303-861-2000) -- www.warwickdenver.com

(l) (l)

(f)

Docendo discimus.

We learn by teaching.

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 05:31 AM

:D

Chicago: Introduction

Our travel guides are frequently updated. This guide was last updated 7/06. Still, there are places that are bound to have closed or changed since our last update. Use the listed phone numbers to call ahead, and please let us know of any corrections you discover, or new places of interest.

Stretched along 19 miles of shimmering coastline at the southwest edge of the Great Lakes region and sprawling westward into the Midwestern prairie heartland, Chicago continues to surprise locals and visitors alike with a metropolitan safari of eye-popping architecture, internationally renowned museums and a jumbled pastiche of fiercely territorial ethnic neighborhoods loosely stitched together by a common geography. What began as a humble outpost settled by French-Canadian fur traders in the mid-19th century became an overnight "instant" city where East Coast entrepreneurs saw before them the unlimited promises of the West.

Today, those promises have been fulfilled and Chicago has reaped the benefits of its founders. The city that birthed the skyscraper is often referred to as a "living museum." It boasts a collection of famed buildings by pioneers like Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham and Frank Lloyd Wright, whose Prairie School homes and other buildings reflected the natural landscape. The skyline is dotted by icons like the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building, not to mention recent additions by Rem Koohaas and Frank Gehry.

The city's cultural life is well reflected in its diversity in the arts. The museum scene is dominated by heavyweights like the Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry and anchored by the magnificent Art Institute of Chicago, home to the famous School of the Art Institute. Jazz and blues have deep and lasting roots in Chicago, many of whose live music venues have been around for decades. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is nationally renowned and continues to play to sell-out audiences, while house music, which originated here, is an integral part of the club landscape. The Chicago League of Theaters lists nearly 170 companies in its registry, including the Goodman and Steppenwolf Theaters as well as The Second City and i.O. (formerly Improv Olympic), launching pads for many past and present cast members of both SNLand MadTV.

Although many visitors will always know Chicago through its iconic deep-dish pizza, Oprah Winfrey and Wrigley Field, all eyes are now on downtown's Millennium Park. This absolutely thrilling park and garden space boasts the Jay Pritkzer Pavilion, which houses a Frank Gehry-designed amphitheater, the Crown Fountain, two 50-foot glass block towers which project video images of the faces of more than 1,000 Chicagoans, and the magnificent "Cloud Gate," (often referred to as "The Bean" sculpture by locals), the Anish Kapoor-designed sculpture which reflects the city skyline. With Millennium Park garnering raves from visitors and civic leaders all over the world, Chicago is ready for its close-up.

Most attractions are located along the lakefront, including family-friendly Navy Pier and the meandering Lincoln Park. But much activity is moving inland and further north as artists and young people flee the sting of pricey lakeside enclaves like Old Town, Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast for funkier neighborhoods like Wicker Park, Bucktown, the Ukrainian Village, Andersonville and Lincoln Square.

Gay Life

Chicago's gay and lesbian population is large and highly visible, thanks partly because it's the only urban mecca in the Midwest that has brought men and women from all over the heartland to its borders. Lakeview, a.k.a. Boystown, one of two thriving gay neighborhoods in the city of Chicago, is located several miles north of the Loop in a triangle bounded by Belmont Avenue (3200 North), Halsted Street and Broadway, which intersects both streets on its northwest path through the city. On Halsted Street, you'll find the highest concentration of queer activity, including the trendiest bars and the infamous Steamworks bathhouse. Gay-oriented retail and dining options are sprinkled along Halsted and Broadway.

Lesbians began settling in the Swedish immigrant neighborhood of Andersonville in the late eighties, and the last decade has seen a dramatic renovation of the entire area, which is now Chicago's second gay neighborhood. Restaurants, hip boutiques and several bars are located along Clark Street between Foster Avenue and Bryn Mawr, but the attitude quotient here is sufficiently lower than in Boystown. Both neighborhoods are accessible by bus or by the red line (Boystown is also accessible by the brown and purple lines) on the famous "El" train.

Getting around Chicago is now easier than ever. The Chicago Transit Authority (888/YOUR-CTA; www.transitchicago.com, which includes buses and the El, operates on a fare-card system, eliminating the need for exact change or tokens. The best deal in town is the CTA's Visitor's Pass. Available for $5-$18 at hotels, Navy Pier, museums and cultural attractions, this fare card provides unlimited CTA transportation for one to five days.

http://www.gay.com/travel/premium/?sernum=211

(l)(l)(l)

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S)(S)

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 05:34 AM

(l) (f)

Elizabeth Gilbert’s fourth and latest book /no spamming of other sites/ a #1 best selling memoir about the year she spent traveling around the world in search of personal restoration after a difficult divorce.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

FAQ 10 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT EAT, PRAY, LOVE

1) WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST SURPRISE ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY?

2) WERE YOU EVER WORRIED THAT TAKING A YEAR OFF TO TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD WAS A SELFISH ACT?

3) HOW COULD YOU AFFORD TO TRAVEL THE WAY YOU DID?

4) IS IT SAFE FOR WOMEN TO TRAVEL ALONE?

5) HOW CAN I POSSIBLY GO ON A JOURNEY LIKE YOURS, GIVEN THAT I HAVE A BUSY LIFE OF MARRIAGE, KIDS AND WORK RESPONSIBILITIES?

6) I WANT TO GO TO ITALY /no spamming of other sites/ WHERE CAN I GET THAT PIZZA YOU DESCRIBED?

7) I WANT TO GO TO INDIA -- HOW CAN I STUDY IN THE ASHRAM YOU DISCUSS?

8) I WANT TO GO TO BALI. HOW CAN I MEET WAYAN THE HEALER AND KETUT THE MEDICINE MAN?

9) WHAT WAS IT LIKE RETURNING TO REALITY AFTER ALL YOUR TRAVELS?

10) LASTLY (and the most frequently asked question of all time) ARE YOU AND FELIPE STILL TOGETHER?

1) WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST SURPRISE ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY?

How well it worked. I found exactly what I was looking for during that year of traveling. In fact, I found more than I’d dared to hope for. Looking back on it now, though, I think that this amazing result was sort of inevitable. I’ve come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call “The Physics of The Quest” /no spamming of other sites/ a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: “If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared /no spamming of other sites/ most of all /no spamming of other sites/ to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you.” Or so I’ve come to believe. I can’t help but believe it, given my experience.

2) WERE YOU EVER WORRIED THAT TAKING A YEAR OFF TO TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD WAS A SELFISH ACT?

What is it about the American obsession with productivity and responsibility that makes it so difficult for us to allow ourselves a little time to solve the puzzle of our own lives, before it’s too late? That said, yes /no spamming of other sites/ I did worry a great deal about selfishness. But after three years of despair and depression, I had come to believe that living my life in a state of constant misery was actually a pretty selfish act. Who would be served by a lifetime of my sorrow? How would that enrich the world? Going off for a year and creating a journey to pull myself back together, to rediscover joy, to face down my failings and rebuild my existence, was not only an important thing for my life, but ultimately for the lives of everyone around me. And it’s not just my family and friends who are better off now that I am happy; it’s everyone I encounter. Because the reality is that we human beings are constantly leaking our dispositions upon each other. When I was in such a dark state, everyone I passed on the street had to walk through the shadow of my darkness, whether they knew me or not. I remember once, during my divorce, crying uncontrollably on the subway in New York City. When I look back on that crying young woman, I feel great compassion for what she was going through. But I can also feel pity now, in retrospect, for those poor, weary New York commuters, who had to sit there after their own long days at work, watching this sobbing stranger. I didn’t want to be that person anymore. Saving my own life (through therapy, medication, prayer and /no spamming of other sites/ most of all -- travel) was something I did for my own benefit, yes, but I can’t help but think that it was ultimately also a little bit of a community service.

3) HOW COULD YOU AFFORD TO TRAVEL THE WAY YOU DID?

This year-long journey was paid for entirely by the book advance for “Eat, Pray, Love”, which was a huge blessing. But I got that advance because this was my fourth book, and so I’d earned my way up over the years to that level of trust from my publisher. That said, though /no spamming of other sites/ when I was younger, I did a whole lot of traveling around this world before anyone ever paid me to do it. For many years, I traveled on the salary of a waitress or a bartender. I would work every shift for six months, then take my savings and go away to a new place, then come home and start working again. I was able to do this because traveling was such an important force in my life (rivaled only by writing) and I willingly gave up certain comforts (nice clothes, a steady job) to save money for plane tickets. Also, I should point out that while I was traveling for “Eat, Pray, Love,” I met hordes of people of all ages and backgrounds and nationalities (families, even!) who were doing incredible journeys /no spamming of other sites/ and not one of them had a generous book advance. (Or, at least, nobody would admit to it.) Of course it’s true that not everyone who wants to see the world will be able to. People are held in place by all sorts of forces /no spamming of other sites/ by commitments to work, by the needs of their families, by ill health, by poverty. Yet many, many more people could travel than do. When it becomes important enough, doors can open in mighty ways. (For more on this topic, please see: www.wherethehellisMatt.com).

4) IS IT SAFE FOR WOMEN TO TRAVEL ALONE?

Nobody can ever promise anyone else’s safety. But I’ve personally never had any trouble traveling alone. I chalk this up to a great deal of luck, combined with a fair amount of common sense (there are certain neighborhoods /no spamming of other sites/ indeed, nations! /no spamming of other sites/ that I simply won’t enter). In truth, though, my experience has always been that there are more advantages than disadvantages to being a solo female traveler. Mostly the benefit is that people trust you more. Certain barriers fall faster before the face of a friendly woman than the face of a macho man. People know that I won’t hurt them. They let me hold their babies and they show me their gardens and feed me dinner. The grace-filled moments of union have always far exceeded, in my experience, the occasional moments of unease.

5) HOW CAN I POSSIBLY GO ON A JOURNEY LIKE YOURS, GIVEN THAT I HAVE A BUSY LIFE OF MARRIAGE, KIDS AND WORK RESPONSIBILITIES?

The last thing I ever want to become is the Poster Child for “Everyone Must Leave Their Husband And Move To India In Order To Find God.” My path is hardly a universal prescription. It was my path /no spamming of other sites/ that is all it ever was. I drew up my journey as a personal prescription for solving my life. Transformative journeys come in many forms, though, and often happen without people ever leaving home. Divinity is available everywhere, at all times. People find their way to God during wars, in the middle of traffic jams and in small prison cells. (Though I would submit it's easier for a prisoner to find time to meditate in a jail cell than it is for many of my working-mom friends with young children to create time for contemplation.) The first question you can begin to ask yourself, though, is: “Where can I find a small corner of stillness?” Because that’s where it all begins and ends. God resides in these pockets of silence. So where in your day, where in your home, where in your mind, is there some opportunity for a moment of silence? Or maybe even a few moments, during which you can start asking the questions you need to ask in order to find what you need to learn. Can you find the time to get out of your own way and try to step into your own light? As a dear friend of mine put it: “To change your life, the important thing is not necessarily to travel; the important thing is to SHIFT.”

6) I WANT TO GO TO ITALY /no spamming of other sites/ WHERE CAN I GET THAT PIZZA YOU DESCRIBED?

Pizzeria da Michele. Order the double mozzarella. If you go to Naples and don’t eat this pizza, please lie to me later and tell me that you did.

7) I WANT TO GO TO INDIA -- HOW CAN I STUDY IN THE ASHRAM YOU DISCUSS?

The Ashram where I studied in India has changed its policies since I was there and has become even more difficult to visit (for instance -- students can't come for less than a six month stay anymore, and they no longer have the kind of easy weekend programs I used to take in their New York branch). It's really become more of a small, intensive university than anything else, and reserved for only the most dedicated practitioners of this particular kind of meditation. I wouldn't advise it as a place for beginners to explore. You might have better luck starting with a book called “From Here to Nirvana /no spamming of other sites/ the Yoga Journal Guide to Spiritual Travel in India,” which is a comprehensive review of dozens of spiritual outlets across India, written with practicality, humor and honesty. Also keep in mind what my mom told me once when I said, “Someday I’d like to get a boat and sail around the world!” She replied, “Why don’t you start by going sailing for an afternoon, and see if you like it?” Moving to India is a big step. Try a weekend meditation retreat first, just to see if you respond to it. Or begin a meditation practice at home. I would recommend the books of Pema Chodren and Jack Kornfield (who are both Buddhists) as excellent places to begin. Christian meditation is a centuries-old tradition, and there are now some excellent teachers and tapes out there on the topic.

8) I WANT TO GO TO BALI. HOW CAN I MEET WAYAN THE HEALER AND KETUT THE MEDICINE MAN?

Ketut and Wayan can both be easily found in Ubud /no spamming of other sites/ a lovely place, which you should definitely visit if you are in Bali. Wayan’s shop, which is called “Traditional Balinese Healing” is located a few doors up the street from the town post office, diagonally across the street from the Bali Buddha restaurant. Her “vitamin lunch” is still the best meal in Ubud (except for Ebu Oka’s roast suckling pig, but that’s not such a healthy option). Wayan also offers lovely massages and beauty treatments now, and is still a fantastic healer; I would trust her with any illness whatsoever. (And if you want to knock Tutti’s socks off /no spamming of other sites/ she is 11 years old now, and so wonderful /no spamming of other sites/ bring her a gift of art supplies or a picture book in English.) Ketut Liyer is still right there on his porch, doing his thing. Any local in Ubud can take you to see him; he is well-known and well-respected and always available to read your palm and tell you that you will live to 110. His neighborhood is called “Pengosekan.” His office hours are...well: always. If you're interested in exploring Bali with a yoga tour, I'd recommend traveling with expert Iyengar teacher Ann Barros. She was doing yoga in Bali before anyone was doing yoga in Bali, and knows the island like the back of her hand. Back to the top

9) WHAT WAS IT LIKE RETURNING TO REALITY AFTER ALL YOUR TRAVELS?

Returning to America, I desperately wanted to hold onto all that I had learned during my journey. But I also didn’t want to be the jerk who comes home from Bali and says, “Whoa, man…why’s everyone so stressed out?” So I returned to very much a normal life (cell phones, bills, friends and family, obligations), but I do feel that I am changed. There is a small, new, holy part of me which I hold onto and treasure very carefully /no spamming of other sites/ cupping it in my hands like a freshly lit match. I try to protect that new part of me as much as possible from the sheering winds of 21st Century America. (Generally, this means avoiding particularly spastic invasions of too much television, consumer debt, competition, over-consumption, success-pressure, greed and other forms of our daily cultural life.) This is not to say that I walk around in constant, perfect bliss, or that I’m not still capable of exploding with rage at minor frustrations, but I do live differently now. I won’t race you to beat that traffic light anymore. These days I slow down when the light turns yellow (I mean this in many ways) instead of speeding through every intersection blindly. The American capitalist machine is a marvel to behold (and I am a grateful beneficiary of it), but the race to always be the fastest, richest, most productive and best can also become a killing addiction. I push against that force with all my might. I don’t always succeed, but I always try. Meditation helps. (When I actually do it, that is. Which is not as often as I should, but what can I say, people? I’ll be working on that till the day I die. That’s why they call it a mediation PRACTICE.)

10) LASTLY (and the most frequently asked question of all time) ARE YOU AND FELIPE STILL TOGETHER?

Very much so. Ours remains a lovely, nourishing, happy love story. Thank you for asking!

http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/faq.htm#FAQ3

Author's Bio: http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/bio.htm

Interviews with this author: http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/booksinterviews.htm

Events: http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/Events.htm

"Writing is not like dancing or modeling; it’s not something where /no spamming of other sites/ if you missed it by age 19 /no spamming of other sites/ you’re finished. It’s never too late. Your writing will only get better as you get older and wiser. If you write something beautiful and important, and the right person somehow discovers it, they will clear room for you on the bookshelves of the world /no spamming of other sites/ at any age. At least try."

"My suggestion is that you start with the love and then work very hard and try to let go of the results. Cast out your will, and then cut the line. Please try, also, not to go totally freaking insane in the process. Insanity is a very tempting path for artists, but we don’t need any more of that in the world at the moment, so please resist your call to insanity. We need more creation, not more destruction. We need our artists more than ever, and we need them to be stable, steadfast, honorable and brave /no spamming of other sites/ they are our soldiers, our hope. If you decide to write, then you must do it, as Balzac said, “like a miner buried under a fallen roof.” Become a knight, a force of diligence and faith. I don’t know how else to do it except that way. As the great poet Jack Gilbert said once to a young writer, when she asked him for advice about her own poems: “Do you have the courage to bring forth this work? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say YES.”"

- On writing, by Elizabeth Gilbert.

(y)(y) YES, Elizabeth, YES!!! (y)(y)

:) Is anyone thinking about going to one of Elizabeth's "talks"? There are many of them all over the country, but I noticed one coming up Friday, Nov. 9, 2007 at 11 AM in Lancaster, PA......Junior League of Lancaster, at the Eden Resort. There is another one coming up in NYC as well. :)

http://www.jllancaster.org/07authorregform.pdf

(f)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 01:17 PM

(ap) :o (ap) :o (ap)

THE MIDDLE SEAT

By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

There are 62 shopping days until Christmas, but most of the airfare bargains are already sold out. Savvy travelers can still sleuth out holiday deals -- if they are willing to be flexible with their travel dates.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AL159_pjMIDS_20071022220827.jpg

Cheap Holiday Fares?

They Aren't in the Cards This Year

October 23, 2007; Page D1

Wall Street Journal

There are 62 shopping days until Christmas, but most of the airfare bargains are already sold out.

Ticket sellers say smart consumers bought early for Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday trips this year. Now, prices are up, and the number of open seats is down. Spurred by higher fuel prices, many airlines have boosted fares in recent weeks. And with some big airlines still cutting domestic capacity and demand for tickets running high, especially to beach destinations, the availability of cheap holiday seats has dwindled, experts says. But savvy travelers can still sleuth out holiday deals -- if they are willing to be flexible with their travel dates.

Seats are particularly scarce in some leisure hot spots, as more families choose to spend their holidays in more exotic locales, rather than going home to grandma's. One of the most popular Thanksgiving destinations this year at Travelocity.com: Las Vegas.

Beach destinations have seen some of the biggest jumps. A San Francisco-Honolulu ticket for Thanksgiving on UAL Corp.'s United Airlines was priced last week at $1,670 round trip. The cheapest price on that route for a Nov. 21-25 trip was $1,582 round trip on Northwest Airlines, according to Orbitz.com. Peak travel days at Christmas have already run up to more than $1,300, too. Non-holiday tickets in December and January can be had for under $400 round trip.

"If you haven't bought by now, you need to buy now. Things are only going to get more expensive," says Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, which tracks ticket-price changes.

Mr. Seaney says fares for holiday travel were actually lower than last year through early September, but then airlines raised prices as consumers gobbled up seats. Those who bought very early got good deals. At Travelocity.com, prices on tickets sold for Thanksgiving-week travel are up 4.5% over last year and 9.5% over 2005, the company said. The average price of Thanksgiving tickets already sold was $387, compared with $371 last year and $354 two years ago, according to Travelocity, a unit of Sabre Holdings Corp.

Delays, like fares, will be higher this year, too. Last winter, airlines had difficulty coping with storms. With flights packed, some people were left stranded for days in Denver. Just before New Year's, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines ended up with passengers stuck on flights for eight hours or more after storms in Dallas. And JetBlue Airways Corp. had planes stuck in terrible conditions for hours during a Valentine's Day ice storm. Summer was difficult, too, with airlines short on staff and airports and airways clogged with flights.

There are ways you can beat the high prices this season. For the past two years, Christmas and New Year's Day have fallen on weekends, bunching up the peak days when people want to travel. This year, Christmas and New Year's Day fall on Tuesdays, giving travelers more flexibility. If you haven't already bought tickets and are looking for a break on higher prices, you'll have to travel on off-peak days.

At American, the cheapest price on a Thanksgiving trip from New York to Las Vegas and back was a hefty $1,095 for travel on Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving, and returning on Sunday, Nov. 25. Those are the peak days for those holidays (other airlines still had cheaper seats, such as $569 on Continental Airlines Inc.). But change your itinerary to leave Thanksgiving Day and return the following Tuesday, and the Las Vegas getaway costs only $335 on American.

At Christmas, United's cheapest price for a Chicago-Orlando trip on peak days of Dec. 22 returning Dec. 30 is $633. Leave a few days earlier and a Dec. 19-26 Chicago-Orlando trip costs only $327 on United. Houston-Cancun on those same peak Christmas days has already run up to $885 on Continental, but for Dec. 19-26, the same trip costs $525.

"If you want to refinance your home, go ahead and go at peak times," says Tom Parsons, president of BestFares.com. "But you can still get cheap deals if you are flexible."

It doesn't work everywhere. Take Pittsburgh, for example, a city where US Airways Group Inc. has reduced flights dramatically over the past several years, and announced another big cut to take effect in January. A Washington-Pittsburgh ticket on United for peak travel days at Christmas priced at $345 on Orbitz.com last week; off-peak days priced at $345 as well.

Nationwide airline inventory has been tight all year, particularly in the summer months. U.S. airlines filled an elbow-jabbing 86% of their seats in July, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Several big airlines have grounded flights because of high fuel prices and discount-airline competition and shifted more planes to more-profitable international routes. Low-cost carriers have filled in with solid expansion. But on the whole, capacity is up only slightly, and not growing as fast as demand. For the first seven months of the year, airline capacity, measured in available seat-miles, was up 2.8%, but passenger traffic was up 3.3% as more seats were filled, the BTS said.

That's allowed airlines to boost fares and stay profitable amid rising oil prices. Several carriers last week reported higher profits for the summer travel season because they have been able to raise prices and still sell more tickets than last year.

With seats selling out this summer and ticket prices rising steadily, many consumers bought early this year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, travel companies say. At Travelocity.com, tickets for Thanksgiving week were sold an average of 85 days before departure, up from an 81-day average last year. That's a sizable shift given the millions of tickets sold. "This is the first time we've ever seen people booking so early," says Amy Ziff, Travelocity's travel analyst. "People are definitely onto the fact that travel costs more and you have to buy early to get a seat."

And it's not just the winter holiday period. Steve Cosgrove, president of Dynamic Travel & Cruises Inc., says he's now seeing double the volume at his Southlake, Texas, travel agency for trips for spring and summer of 2008, compared with the same period last year.

Another trend that has emerged, according to travel sellers: More people are using the holiday period for vacation trips to Europe and other international destinations.

In terms of the portion of Travelocity tickets sold, the Caribbean's share is up 20% this year for Thanksgiving, Mexico is up 17% and Western Europe is up 10%, Ms. Ziff said. "Looking at the past seven years, this is the first time we've seen so much international focus at Thanksgiving," she said.

How do you cope with holiday trips?

"Fly as early in the day as possible. Late afternoon/evening flights will almost certainly delayed or even cancelled, especially on Fridays."

(y) When I used to travel on weekly business trips, I ALWAYS took the first flight out - to get the smoothest ride with minimum turbulence as well as a sure bet that the plane would take off on time. :D

Hmmm.... maybe an Amtrak or other fast train (Europe, Japan, other places?).... as an alternative? Then there's always Interstate driving - I love that once in awhile - especially if the drive would take two days with a stop-over someplace. (h) (h)

:)

"Growing up is the process of learning how many things you can't do and how many people you can't be. When you've winnowed them out, what's left is you."

- Barbara Holland

(f)(f)'s,

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 01:18 PM

:D

Finding Mass Transit

By PAOLA SINGER

October 18, 2007; Page D1

Problem: You're traveling to a new city and want to use public transportation.

Solution: The American Public Transportation Association, through its Web site, www.publictransportation.org, offers comprehensive information about transit systems nationwide. After selecting a state from either the interactive map or pull-down menu, consumers can see a list of counties with links to their respective transit Web sites. There are also direct links to fare information for several major cities. A separate map shows where to find light-rail systems. The site also has a page about getting to and from all major airports in the U.S. and territories such as Puerto Rico. And it offers links to iPod-accessible transit maps. There are downloadable maps and other features for Apple iPods for only a handful of cities, including San Francisco and Washington, D.C., so far. The association, which represents the transit industry, recently issued a guide to touring U.S. cities in a "greener" way.

(y)(y)

(f)

"Growing up is the process of learning how many things you can't do and how many people you can't be. When you've winnowed them out, what's left is you."

- Barbara Holland

(k)'s

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 01:20 PM

<:o)<:o)<:o)<:o)<:o)

STATE OF THE UNION

When I'm 64

By HANS ULRICH MAERKI

WSJ

October 29, 2007

"Doing the garden, digging the weeds, who could ask for more?"

--Paul McCartney, 1967

Falling birth rates, longer life spans and the imminent retirement of the baby boom generation have combined to cast a long shadow over Europe. Between now and 2030, the Continent will lose 20 million workers. These are demographic changes of a magnitude not seen since consecutive world wars ravaged Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. The proportion of people over 65 years of age will rise by more than 50%. Instead of four workers to support every retiree, we'll have only two, with disastrous consequences for our pension systems.

The challenges, though, are more than just fiscal. Many of today's retiring workers have critical skills that Europe will need to stay competitive in an increasingly globalized economy. Whether or not we can maintain the pension plans we have now, we simply can't afford to be without those skills and manpower. If we can't produce enough younger workers to replace the retirees, at some point Europe may find itself with an unusual problem: more good jobs than skilled workers to fill them. The threats to Europe's economic growth prospects are self-evident.

The demographic problem is exacerbated by state pension plans that encourage employees to retire early. This contrasts with the original Bismarckian pension concept, which was more concerned with work incapacity. In the 19th century, a lifetime of hard labor meant a worker would be physically unable to continue working beyond the age of 60. One answer to both sides of this dilemma -- pension affordability and skill retention -- is to increase the work force participation rate in the 55-64 age group. This is not a new idea. In 2001, the European Union Council in Stockholm set a target of 50%. How are we doing? Not too well. In 2005, Italy was at 31%, Belgium and Austria at 32%, and in France and Germany the participation rates were 38% and 45% respectively.

We still have a long way to go, and it is not just about reforms of the pension and labor markets. What's necessary is also a cultural transformation: changing the preferences for early retirement among workers, while employers overcome their bias toward hiring younger workers. The demographic changes and the resulting bottleneck of skilled workers will evolve only gradually. But smart governments and businesses better start preparing for it now.

The British retailer Asda, for example, has more than 20,000 employees who are over 50 years old, representing 19% of its work force. Asda conducts over-50 workshops at local job-recruitment centers for anyone interested in continuing to work, and not just for Asda. And there are substantial corporate benefits. Stores with a higher proportion of older workers have absenteeism rates less than a third of Asda's average rate.

At IBM, we introduced in 2005 "Transition to Teaching," a program that provides tuition assistance to employees (usually nearing retirement age) who want to prepare for switching to a new career teaching math or science. This year, we expanded that idea to cover a transition to jobs in the public or nonprofit sectors.

Among European governments, Sweden was one of the first countries to step up to the issue of pension reform. Flexibility is a key feature of the new system: There is no formal retirement age anymore and pension credits can be added at any age, even while a worker may already be drawing a pension from previous work.

In terms of labor-market reforms, Denmark is perhaps the best-known example. Its "flexicurity" approach is credited with contributing to near-full employment, including among older workers. Germany has raised the retirement age to 67, and the French government has engaged industry and unions in negotiations on career development and more flexible employment contracts. The Netherlands is providing increased incentives to employers for hiring individuals with disabilities. Normally, we might think of that as social policy, but in the context of an aging work force it is also sound economic policy to increase the participation in a segment of the population where the proportion of disability invariably rises. In the U.K. there are "New Deal" programs targeting special assistance for "harder to help" groups, which includes people over 50.

Many older workers would like to keep on working, but can't because they would lose benefits by doing so, or because of inflexible corporate policies about part-time or flex-time work. These are all opportunities for action by governments and individual businesses to raise the level of voluntary work force participation in this age group.

More people than at any time in history get not merely compensation but pleasure and a sense of identity from their work. Most of us could imagine doing something interesting and fulfilling, as well as gainfully economic, after we reach eligibility for retirement. Keeping these people in work would be a triple win: It would reduce the strain on government resources even as it provides more skilled workers for businesses and more diverse and productive careers for people so that "living longer" really does mean "living better."

At the age of 64 plus 1, Sir Paul is not exactly "digging the weeds" either, is he?

Mr. Maerki is chairman of IBM Europe, Middle East and Africa, and will be 61 next month, one year older than the traditional retirement age for senior IBM executives.

(y) <:o) (y) <:o) (y)

"Growing up is the process of learning how many things you can't do and how many people you can't be. When you've winnowed them out, what's left is you."

- Barbara Holland

({)(})'s,

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 01:24 PM

:o :o :o

;)

A lakefront contemporary home with three bedrooms, three full bathrooms on two acres is on the market for $3.5 million. Amenities include a lap pool, spa, three-car garage, gated entrance and private dock.

By CHRISTINA S.N. LEWIS

October 26, 2007; Page W8

What: Lakefront contemporary home of about 3,600 square feet with three bedrooms, three full bathrooms on two acres

Where: Kelseyville, Calif., about 120 miles north of San Francisco

Amenities: Lap pool, spa, three-car garage, gated entrance, private dock.

Asking price: $3.5 million

Listing broker: Dan Dinniene and Jim Fentress, of Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate, 707-290-1870.

Annual property taxes: $18,326.88

Due Diligence: George Speake, a retired aerospace executive, and his wife, Anita Swanson, a motivational author and speaker, completed this earth-colored plaster and reddish-brown metal home in 2001. It's in Lake County, an area popular with second-home owners, retirees and wine enthusiasts. Perched on a bluff above Clear Lake, the house has windows of up to 28 feet wide, a triangular "prow-shaped" living room with a 17-foot cathedral ceiling, and a master suite reached via a glass-covered bridge. A triangular deck overlooks Mount Konocti. There are also two guest bedroom suites, two offices and a laundry-and-craft room.

http://www.realestatejournal.com/sidebar/houseoftheweek/20071026-house.html

^o) ^o)

;)

"Growing up is the process of learning how many things you can't do and how many people you can't be. When you've winnowed them out, what's left is you."

- Barbara Holland

Virtual ({)(})'s across the digital tundra,

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

sweetlady

10-29-2007, 01:48 PM

:)

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/wallpapers?nav=TOPNAV

(l) I liked the Polar Bears........

(f)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 09:19 AM

:|:|:|:|

:o:o

In the face of gentrification, a waning sense of belonging is being felt in gay neighborhoods across the country.

These are wrenching times for San Francisco’s historic gay village and others like it across the nation.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/30/us/30castro.600.1.jpg

Cities' Map: Same Sex Couples: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/30/us/2007gays.650.1.jpg

October 30, 2007

Gay Enclaves Face Prospect of Being Passé

By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 24 — This Halloween, the Glindas, gladiators and harem boys of the Castro — along with untold numbers who plan to dress up as Senator Larry E. Craig, this year’s camp celebrity — will be celebrating behind closed doors. The city’s most popular Halloween party, in America’s largest gay neighborhood, is canceled.

The once-exuberant street party, a symbol of sexual liberation since 1979 has in recent years become a Nightmare on Castro Street, drawing as many as 200,000 people, many of them costumeless outsiders, and there has been talk of moving it outside the district because of increasing violence. Last year, nine people were wounded when a gunman opened fire at the celebration.

For many in the Castro District, the cancellation is a blow that strikes at the heart of neighborhood identity, and it has brought soul-searching that goes beyond concerns about crime.

These are wrenching times for San Francisco’s historic gay village, with population shifts, booming development, and a waning sense of belonging that is also being felt in gay enclaves across the nation, from Key West, Fla., to West Hollywood, as they struggle to maintain cultural relevance in the face of gentrification.

There has been a notable shift of gravity from the Castro, with young gay men and lesbians fanning out into less-expensive neighborhoods like Mission Dolores and the Outer Sunset, and farther away to Marin and Alameda Counties, “mirroring national trends where you are seeing same-sex couples becoming less urban, even as the population become slightly more urban,” said Gary J. Gates, a demographer and senior research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles.

At the same time, cities not widely considered gay meccas have seen a sharp increase in same-sex couples. Among them: Fort Worth; El Paso; Albuquerque; Louisville, Ky.; and Virginia Beach, according to census figures and extrapolations by Dr. Gates for The New York Times. “Twenty years ago, if you were gay and lived in rural Kansas, you went to San Francisco or New York,” he said. “Now you can just go to Kansas City.”

In the Castro, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society held public meetings earlier this year to grapple with such questions as “Are Gay Neighborhoods Worth Saving?”

With nine major developments planned for Market Street, including a splashy 113-unit condominium designed by Arquitectonica, anxiety about the future is swirling. Median home prices hover around $870,000. Local institutions like Cliff’s Variety, a hardware store selling feathered boas (year-round) are not about to vanish from this storied homeland of the gay rights movement. But the prospect of half-million-dollar condos inhabited by many straight people underscores a demographic shift.

“The Castro, and to a lesser extent the West Village, was where you went to express yourself,” said Don F. Reuter, a New York author who is researching a book on the rise and fall of gay neighborhoods, or “gayborhoods.”

“Claiming physical territory was a powerful act,” Mr. Reuter said. “But the gay neighborhood is becoming a past-tense idea.”

In the Castro, the influx of baby strollers — some being pushed by straight parents, some by gay parents — is perhaps the most blatant sign of change. “The Castro has gone from a gay-ghetto mentality to a family mentality,” said Wes Freas, a broker with Zephyr Real Estate. The arrival of a Pottery Barn down the street from the birthplaces of the AIDS quilt and the Rainbow Flag is a nod to change.

Sakura Ferris, a 28-year-old mother of a toddler, moved to the Castro because she liked its new eclecticism. At the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, a parent hot spot rife with Froggie pull-toys, Ms. Ferris’s tot mingles with infants in onesies that read, “I Love My Daddies.”

The Castro remains a top tourist destination for gay and lesbian visitors. But Joe D’Alessandro, president and C.E.O. of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, and a gay parent who lives in the Castro, predicted that eventually the neighborhood would go the way of North Beach, “still a historic Italian neighborhood though Italians don’t necessarily live there anymore.”

The Castro became a center for gay liberation in the late 1960s and early 1970s in a declining Irish Catholic and Scandinavian neighborhood. At its helm was Harvey Milk, the first openly gay city supervisor in San Francisco whose slaying in 1978 by a disgruntled former supervisor, Dan White, galvanized the community and set off riots when White was convicted of manslaughter instead of murder.

Decimated during the AIDS epidemic of 1990-1995, the neighborhood rebounded in the boom economy of the late 1990s. But the social forces that gave rise to the Castro and other gay neighborhoods like the West Village and West Hollywood may be becoming passé.

While the state’s Eighth Congressional District, which includes the Castro, saw an increase of about 20 percent in the number of same-sex couples from 2002 to 2006, surrounding districts had a 38 percent increase in same-sex couples, according to Dr. Gates.

In West Hollywood, another traditional gay haven, the graying of the population and the high cost of real estate have resulted in once-gay watering holes like the Spike and the I Candy Lounge going hetero. A new kind of gentrification is under way in which young gay waiters and school teachers move instead to Hollywood and other surrounding neighborhoods. “We often clamored for equality where gay and straight could coexist,” said Mayor John Duran of West Hollywood, who is gay. “But we weren’t prepared to give up our subculture to negotiate that exchange.”

While the Castro has been the center of a movement, it is also home to “an important political constituency,” said Elizabeth A. Armstrong, an associate sociology professor at Indiana University and the author of “Forging Gay Identities: Organizing Sexuality in San Francisco 1950-1994”

“When people were angry about Dan White they were able to assemble quickly, spilling out of the bars,” Professor Armstrong said. “Physical location mattered.”

The Castro still has the city’s largest progressive Democratic organization, the Harvey Milk Club. A survey of registered voters earlier this year by David Binder, a San Francisco political analyst, found that 33 percent of the Eighth District identified themselves as gay or lesbian, compared with 13 percent citywide.

The Castro’s activist legacy continues to exert a strong emotional pull: the corner of 18th and Castro Streets, where Harvey Milk; Diana, Princess of Wales; and Matthew Shepard were mourned and where gay marriage was fleetingly celebrated, is for many a mythic homeland.

Amanda Rankin, a 40-year-old tourist from Hamilton, Ontario, was taking a “Cruisin’ the Castro” walking tour with three lesbian friends the other day.

“In America there still seems to be a lot of sexual repression left over from Puritanism and the pilgrims,” Ms. Rankin said. “Then there’s San Francisco.”

But its legacy has not prevented the neighborhood from harsh urban realities. As San Francisco real estate skyrocketed in the 1990s, the Castro had the city’s highest concentration of evictions, as speculators “flipped” buildings, many of them housing people with disabilities and AIDS, to convert to market-rate apartments, said Brian Basinger, the founder of the AIDS Housing Alliance.

Even before Halloween, the Castro was grappling with violence and crime. Allegations of racial profiling at the Badlands, the neighborhood’s most popular bar, led to a widespread boycott in 2005 and intervention by the city’s Human Rights Commission.

The highly publicized rape of a man in the Castro in September 2006 led to the formation of Castro on Patrol, a whistle-wielding citizens’ street brigade. In that attack, Mark Welch was raped five blocks from a store he managed on Castro Street. He said in that he later learned there had been two previous similar rapes in the neighborhood, but that had not been widely reported.

He said it took months for it to surface on a sex-crimes Web site maintained by the authorities. There are signs that the dispersing of gay people beyond the Castro vortex and the rise of the Internet are also contributing to a declining sense of community. An annual survey by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Community Initiative indicated that in 2007 only 36 percent of men under 29 said there was a gay community in the city with which they could identify.

Doug Sebesta, the group’s executive director and a medical sociologist at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said, “I’ve had therapists who have told me they are asking their clients to go back to bars as a way of social interaction.”

The Internet is not a replacement for a neighborhood where people are involved in issues beyond themselves, said John Newsome, an African-American who co-founded the group And Castro For All after the Badlands incident. “There are a lot of really lonely gay people sitting in front of a computer,” he said.

Which is why the cancellation of the Halloween party by the city has provoked such a sense of loss. Many residents say that their night has been taken away. “It’s proof that whatever sense of safety we have is incredibly tenuous, “ Mr. Newsome said.

The city is shutting down public transportation to the Castro on Halloween and has begun a Web site, www.homeforhalloween.com, that lists “fun” alternatives, including a Halloween blood drive and a “Monster Bash” — in San Mateo.

On a recent Saturday, Sister Roma, a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an activist coterie of drag queens, sashayed down Castro Street in heavy eye shadow and a gold lamé top. Though she looked well prepared for Halloween, she said she planned to be in hiding that night.

She wasn’t feeling too deprived, however.

“Sweetie,” she said, “every day is Halloween in the Castro.”

:'(:'(

(f)

Ab Iove principium.

Let's start with the most important.

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 09:20 AM

(y)(y)

FIRST lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner today claimed victory in Argentina's presidential election, with early results suggesting she had won by a large enough margin to avoid a runoff.

Edinburgh Evening News Mon 29 Oct 2007

FIRST lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner today claimed victory in Argentina's presidential election, with early results suggesting she had won by a large enough margin to avoid a runoff.

She would be the first woman elected to the post.

Kirchner has been compared to Hillary Clinton, who like her is a lawyer and senator who soldiered alongside a husband as he rose from small-state governor to his nation's presidency.

Her success is in large part due to the accomplishments of her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, credited with Argentina's rebound from a 2001 economic collapse.

"We have won amply," she proclaimed, with Mr Kirchner standing at her side. "But this, far from putting us in a position of privilege, puts us instead in a position of greater responsibility."

She needed 40 per cent of the vote, with early polls reporting she had 42 per cent, double her closest rival.

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1725312007

(y)(y)

(f)

Docendo discimus.

We learn by teaching.

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 09:21 AM

(y)

http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/toptenoptout.html

;) Better safe than sorry.

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S)(S)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:04 PM

:o:o

Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, Harry Potter’s mentor.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/29/arts/Gay1190.jpg

October 29, 2007

Connections

Is Dumbledore Gay? Depends on Definitions of ‘Is’ and ‘Gay’

By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN

In some circles the “Harry Potter” news that erupted a little over a week ago still inspires as much amazement as Hagrid’s pet, the half-horse, half-eagle hippogriff. And the Web chatter has been as deafening as the noise in Hogwarts dining hall before the sorting ceremony determines the fates of entering students. Dumbledore, it turns out, the wise and wizened wizard of “Harry Potter” fame, is taking his place alongside other media figures, like Bert and Ernie and Tinky Winky of the Teletubbies. For all, sexuality has become an issue. Dumbledore is, as his creator, J. K. Rowling, asserted at Carnegie Hall, gay.

Dumbledore? The master wizard of the age, whose guidance of Hogwarts put that British boarding school for young wizards in the vanguard of the war against evil? Who watched over Harry from his infancy, schooling him for the last and greatest battle? Who knew? But the real shock in Ms. Rowling’s declaration is not that Dumbledore thought about sexual encounters with men, it’s that he thought about sex at all, given the need to thwart Voldemort’s plot for world domination.

In her outing of Dumbledore, Ms. Rowling seemed to be confirming the smarmy kiss-and-tell insinuations of her gossip-mongering character Rita Skeeter, whose lurid biography of the apparently saintly headmaster — titled “The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore” — is described in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

“Coming next week,” a newspaper article on Skeeter promises, “the shocking story of the flawed genius considered by many to be the greatest wizard of his generation.” Skeeter drops teasing hints about Dumbledore’s “murky past,” about his not being “exactly broad-minded” and suggests that in his mentoring of Harry there is an “unnatural interest,” something “unhealthy, even sinister.” As for the idea that Ms. Rowling suggested — that as a teenage prodigy, Dumbledore had a homoerotic infatuation with another prodigious young wizard, Grindelwald (who later went over to what in “Star Wars” is called the Dark Side) — Skeeter hints at this in coded allusions.

She proposes that when the two friends had a falling out in a dramatic duel, Grindelwald did not fight but “conjured a white handkerchief from the end of his wand and” — the passage then gives way to an obvious (in retrospect) sexual double entendre.

Such homoerotic imagery, at any rate, suggests a strong mischievous streak, not just among these dueling wizards but in Ms. Rowling herself, their contemporary chronicler in the world of Muggles (which is, of course, how the wizards refer to those of us lacking wands or the magic to use them).

So in keeping with this playful spirit, her announcement of Dumbledore’s back story inspired the retrospective application of gaydar across the Web. “Let’s run the gay-check, shall we?” Andrew Sullivan proposed, writing about Dumbledore in his blog (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish): “No known female companion ever. Brilliant in school. Befriends a despised classmate. Childhood crush on another boy.”

Playing off other caricatures, comments on sites like imao.us mention Dumbledore’s “purple robe with glittery silver stars” or winkingly allude to the Hogwarts “policy of Don’t ask, don’t spell.”

One commentator posted: “Oh, who cares? The whole bloody lot of them were gay as far I’m concerned. All those hours of movies and not a single car chase, shootout or kung fu fight.”

But it is possible that Ms. Rowling may be mistaken about her own character. She may have invented Hogwarts and all the wizards within it, she may have created the most influential fantasy books since J. R. R. Tolkien, and she may have woven her spell over thousands of pages and seven novels, but there seems to be no compelling reason within the books for her after-the-fact assertion. Of course it would not be inconsistent for Dumbledore to be gay, but the books’ accounts certainly don’t make it necessary. The question is distracting, which is why it never really emerges in the books themselves. Ms. Rowling may think of Dumbledore as gay, but there is no reason why anyone else should.

Yes, of course, Dumbledore acknowledges that at the bleakest moment of his life, when he was still a teenager and feeling “trapped and wasted,” the appearance of a charismatic friend “inflamed me” and lured him into fantastical dreams of power and influence. “Two clever, arrogant boys with a shared obsession,” he recalls, resulted in “two months of insanity.” But his regrets lasted a lifetime.

What was that insanity? If it was primarily a matter of sexual attraction or sexual identity, it makes Dumbledore’s reaction less plausible. He felt there were profound betrayals latent in his behavior and his ideas during that period: He resented his troubled siblings; he took on an inflated idea of his own importance; he thought wizards superior to Muggles. These attitudes had tragic consequences that ultimately transformed his views of virtue and power and altered his ambitions. Gayness is irrelevant.

As for his later celibacy, it has the echo of a larger renunciation and a greater devotion. That is, after all, what the fantasy genre is all about. The master wizard is not a sexual being; he has shelved personal cares and embraced a higher mission. And if he indulges in sex, it marks his downfall, as it did, so legend tells us, with Merlin, the tradition’s first wizard, who is seduced by one of the Lady of the Lake’s minions. Tolkien’s wizards — both good and evil — are so focused on their cosmic tasks that sexuality seems a petty matter. Gandalf eventually transcends the physical realm altogether.

Ms. Rowling quite consciously makes Dumbledore a flawed, more human wizard than these models, but now goes too far. There is something alien about the idea of a mature Dumbledore being called gay or, for that matter, being in love at all. He may have his earthly difficulties and desires, but in most ways he remains the genre wizard, superior to the world around him.

There is really a puckish impulse at work in Ms. Rowling’s declaration, a provocation evident in the books themselves. She sets the epic in a British school long associated with landed privilege and wealth. But throughout she undercuts the claims of that old world. Those who believe in the importance of ancestry and inherited powers turn out to be easily corruptible and morally blind — tools for Voldemort.

Her heroes are the hybrids, the misfits, those of mixed blood, all bearing scars of loss and love: the half-giant Hagrid, the mudblood Hermione (whose parents were not wizards), the poverty-stricken Ron, the orphaned Harry. Perhaps speaking of Dumbledore as gay was just a matter of creating another diverse rebel against orthodoxy.

This is the formula for much popular fiction, but Ms. Rowling refuses to be content with simply rejecting the old order and championing a morally vague multiculturalism. The pure-bloods here are blinded by their pride, but Harry and his friends see something more profound, a threat that goes beyond self-interest and identity. This is why Dumbledore’s supposed gayness is ultimately as unimportant as Ron’s shabby clothes. These wounded outsiders recognize the nature of evil, and finally that is what matters.

8-) 8-)Give it a rest......

;)

Carpe Carpium,

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:05 PM

:|:|:|:|:|

Last week's post on Southern California fire victims Matt and Danelle Azola faded to black with the sound of an exec's head banging on a desk after Dish Network demanded immediate payment for the satellite receiver that was destroyed along with the rest of the Azola's home. Apparently after the banging stopped, a few calls were made, and AT&T, as the Dish Network reseller in this case, moved quickly to clear the air.

Spokesman Brad Mays told Broadband Reports that when the couple called AT&T, they were transferred to Dish Network, where they happened to get a customer service agent who had missed the latest memo on the company's disaster policy. Mays said the Azola's will not be charged any service cancellation or equipment fees. "We are providing several no-cost options for fire victims to suspend their phone, broadband and satellite service, including a pause of service, with no equipment fees," Mays said. AT&T, it should be noted, is also providing free calling and Internet access at certain locations in the fire areas. Good deeds, indeed. Sad (and instructive), though, that one snafu on the front line of customer service will be remembered far longer.

http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2007/10/im_sorry_dish_network_doesnt_carry_the_compassion_ channel.html

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Tells-Us-WildFire-Couple-Wont-Pay-88839

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=24603

:|:| Doh!!!!

Veritatem dies aperit.

Time discloses the truth.

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:07 PM

:o

http://wishingfish.com/aromapen.html

Pricey for a smell, eh? ;)

(f)

Aut disce aut discede.

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:08 PM

(~) (y) (~) (y)

During its run, Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed on over 50 short films. Almost all of them are now on YouTube or Google Video. See the list (shamelessly cribbed from here) inside for links.

http://mst3k.booyaka.com/episodes/guides/shorts2.shtml

http://www.metafilter.com/65836/MST3K-The-Shorts

(y)(y)

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. :[:[

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:09 PM

8-|8-|8-|

http://studenthacks.org/2007/10/28/pumpkin-carving-designs/

Yoda! http://studenthacks.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/yoda.jpg

Pumpkin Pi: http://studenthacks.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/pumpkin-pi.jpg

Here’s Johnny!! http://studenthacks.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/johnny.jpg

:D:D

;)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S) :[ (S)

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:11 PM

;);)

:o

So now it becomes clear to Google and Yahoo and the other companies that talked themselves into putting aside their principles as a cost of doing business in China -- kowtowing to dictators only makes it easier for them to kick your butt. According to reports that started trickling in last night, people trying to reach Google, Yahoo and Microsoft from within China or via Chinese ISPs are being redirected to China's own Baidu instead. The facts are still sketchy, and some users are reporting different experiences, but from appearances, either China is doing a really inept job of upgrading the Great Firewall, a really indirect job of retaliating for some offense (like honoring the Dalai Lama or launching a YouTube site in Taiwan), or a really crude job of supporting homegrown search.

Whatever's going on, it's a reminder of what U.S. companies should have known all along. Put aside your qualms, agree to all the terms, make all the concessions, and still, when the crunch comes, China will sting you. And don't act hurt or surprised when it happens. As the scorpion says in the fable, "It's my nature."

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/25/news/international/davos_fortune/?cnn=yes

http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_7200739?nclick_check=1

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/18/cyberwar-china-declares-war-on-western-search-sites/

http://www.digital-m.co.za/seo-blog/2007/10/yahoo-hijacked-by-baidu.html

http://cn.blognation.com/2007/10/18/mind-your-step-cyberwar-with-the-search-engines/

http://searchengineland.com/071018-071828.php

http://mashable.com/2007/10/18/youtube-taiwan/

Scorpion, et al.....http://allaboutfrogs.org/stories/scorpion.html

:|:|:|

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S) :[ (S)

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:14 PM

:)

In the course of trying to clean YouTube of all the unauthorized clips of popular programs like "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, the brain trust at Viacom apparently came to a startling realization -- something along the lines of "Hey, there seem to be a lot of people on the Web who look very much like viewers and are actively trying to watch our shows." Now that this conceptual hurdle has finally been cleared, the company is moving to meet that demand, starting with the satire of Stewart and crew.

As of today, Comedy Central's site for "The Daily Show" will include the entire archives of the program from its birth in 1999, broken into some 13,000 clips that are tagged for their content and searchable by date and topic. At least that's the plan. According to the L.A. Times, a team of 16 Comedy Central writers and video encoders has worked two shifts a day on the project since June to make today's deadline, but at the moment, the site is listing its holdings as 5,235 clips, with nothing before July 10, 2006 (it's also getting clobbered by heavy traffic).

There is, of course, a plan to make some money from this -- a carefully chosen ad format intended to be brief and non-intrusive enough not to put off people off. "Nobody wins when you have a 30-second ad in front of a 45-second piece of video," said Erik Flannigan, executive vice president for digital media at MTV Networks, the Viacom unit that includes Comedy Central. One option notably missing is an easy way to watch a given day's entire show, but like those news sites that spread a 2,000-word story across six ad-laden pages, you gotta keep those impression numbers up.

Oh, that $1 billion copyright violation suit Viacom has going against Google's YouTube (see "OK, we ask for a billion; just don't do that Dr. Evil thing in court")? Despite the video site's addition of new filtering technology and procedures, the fight's still on. "The new technology obviously has no bearing on the past," said Viacom spokesman Jeremy Zweig.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml

http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2007/03/ok_we_ask_for_a_billion_just_dont_do_that_dr_evil_ thing_in_court.html

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_7191052

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=69346

^o)^o) Viacom is much like AT&T in idiocy and shortsightedness.

8-)

(f)'s,

Sweetlady

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:15 PM

;););)

Tech pundits can be a tough crowd for a new product, especially if they are predisposed to look at the creators as semi-clueless dinosaurs. So it was in March, when NBC Universal and News Corp. announced they would be cooperating on a video site that would carry hit programs primarily from NBC and Fox. At the time, the venture didn't have a name, but the wits in the commenting class quickly came up with one: Clown Co. The eventual choice of a name, Hulu, didn't stop the snickering.

So it has to be counted as at least a small victory that the initial private beta of the service has the critics, if not raving, at least willing to re-evaluate. BoomTown's Kara Swisher admits she was one of those waiting with sharpened knives until getting a demo from Hulu CEO Jason Kilar. " I am impressed thus far," says Swisher. "I will, of course, reserve judgment until I get to test-drive it for a while, but in concept and tone and aims - that is, more open than I ever expected the service to be - it is off to a good start." And on TechCrunch, where the venture had been given no end of grief, Mark Hendrickson says, "I was very impressed by the preview of Hulu's interface and the bulk of its features." Om Malik was even more emphatic: "From the moment I learned about the new company, I was skeptical. And now, after spending three hours or so on the service, I am ready to eat crow. And not just any crow, but rotten, six-month-old crow: I have never been more wrong."

Winning points for the service were the free (but ad-bearing), high-quality content (though only the five most recent episodes of top shows will be available at a time), the user interface and the ability to embed the videos into any Web site. If you're not part of the beta, you can still get a preview via Hulu's channel on AOL.

Meanwhile NBCU chief Jeff Zucker elaborated on the reasons the network went its own way rather than re-upping its contract with Apple's iTunes (see "And we'll have the video of Steve's reaction up on Hulu soon"). One was Apple's inflexibility on pricing. "We wanted to take one show, it didn't matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99," Zucker said in an interview. "We made that offer for months and they said no." The other thing Apple was unwilling to do was share any hardware revenue. "Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money," Zucker said. "They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing." Put simply, Zucker said, "We don't want to replace the dollars we were making in the analog world with pennies on the digital side."

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/23/what-we-know-so-far-about-newtube-isnt-good/

http://www.hulu.com/

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9803564-7.html

http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071029/i-eat-my-words-hulu-will-shake-up-the-online-video-market/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/business/media/29hulu.html?ex=1351396800&en=d15eef5996575cc9&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/28/hulu-launches-private-beta-first-impressions-very-good/

http://gigaom.com/2007/10/29/hulu-hands-on-review/

http://video.aol.com/video-category/hulu/110500

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117974910.html?categoryid=1009&cs=1

http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2007/08/and_well_have_the_video_of_steves_reaction_up_on_h ulu_soon.html

|-)|-)|-)

"Much ado about nothing."

(f)'s,

Sweetlady

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:17 PM

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

Q U O T E D

"In other parts of the country, things like a great estate are the symbols people most respect. But here (in Silicon Valley), the greatest status symbol is a person's ability (to) still bring out hot new companies (and be) working on the hot new technologies."

-- Robert I. Sutton, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford and co-founder of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program

"I enjoy sitting on nice beaches and hanging out with my girlfriend and playing with my dog, but that's three hours a day. What about the remaining 18 hours I'm awake?"

-- Max Levchin, 32, who's putting those 18 hours into a new start-up rather than relaxing with the fortune he made from the sale of PayPal to eBay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/business/28invent.html?_r=1&ex=1351224000&en=955c89f9ae788cd4&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

(y)(y) Kudos and bravo to entrepreneurs!!!

:D:D:D

"If we don't have it, you don't need it."

;)

Sweetlady

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:21 PM

:|:|

FILTER FOR COPYRIGHT VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE

By Elise Ackerman

Mercury News

Article Launched: 10/16/2007 01:36:40 AM PDT

Google released a long-promised video filtering system Monday that is designed to give owners of copyrighted videos more control over whether their material appears on YouTube.

As YouTube's popularity has soared, large media companies have grown increasingly frustrated by the prevalence of pirated content on the video-sharing site. Last March, Viacom, which owns MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, sued Google, which owns YouTube, for massive copyright infringement and demanded $1 billion in damages.

Zahavah Levine, chief counsel at YouTube, said the new system shows that Google has been operating in good faith. For months, Google has responded to complaints by media companies that it is working to create state-of-the-art technology to filter copyrighted videos.

Media companies have argued that existing technologies were already working to filter out pirated content on other video-sharing sites.

In response to the release of the new Google system, Michael Fricklas, general counsel of Viacom, said in a statement, "We're delighted that Google appears to be stepping up to its responsibility and ending the practice of profiting from infringement."

Google had been using technology provided by Audible Magic of Los Gatos to identify copyrighted music. David King, a product manager at YouTube, said the new system goes far beyond that and matches the content of videos.

King said it is "extremely complex" and took a long time to develop. He said engineers attempting to describe the system created a PowerPoint presentation containing 50 pages of differential equations.

Dubbed "YouTube Video ID," the system creates an abstract image of copyrighted videos and compares that to similar images that are extracted from videos uploaded to YouTube.

While the filtering system began operating in test mode Monday, the average YouTube user is unlikely to notice anything different - at least in the near future.

That is because Google needs copyright owners to submit copies of their material to the Google database. "We need their cooperation," he said.

Levine said that without a copy of the content, "We don't know who owns what."

But it is unclear whether copyright owners will be willing to turn over decades of programming to Google. Google said nine media companies, including Disney and Time Warner, participated in an initial 10-day test.

The companies were not available for comment Monday.

Copyright owners who give Google copies their content will have the choice of blocking content if it is uploaded without their consent or choosing to leave it on YouTube for promotional purposes. In that case, they will have the opportunity to make money from advertising provided by Google.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_7191052

^o)^o) Turn over decades of "programming" AKA TV shows and countless hours of other video and audio materials to google without the rock-solid metadata associated with each and every video clip? I don't think so. :|:|

;) Where is the smiley with a pirate patch over one eye when you need one? (For google, that is.)

<Arg>

:)

(f)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

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

sweetlady

10-30-2007, 04:23 PM

:D :D :D :D

Brain Teasers and Games with a neuroscience angle: our Top 50

http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/10/16/brain-teasers-and-games-for-adults-our-top-50/

1. Do you think you know the colors?: Try the Stroop Test.

http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/10/05/brain-exercise-the-stroop-test/

(y) (Really cool, IMHO...)

8-| 8-| From how our brains work, to Attention, Memory, Pattern recognition and planning, Visual workouts, Visual Illusions, Logic, With a Corporate angle, Math Puzzles and "Tough to categorize" - HOURS could be spent on this web site!

:) Have fun......

(f)

Cum recte vivis, ne cures verba malorum.

If you live properly, don't worry about what the evil ones say.

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

sweetlady

11-01-2007, 05:04 PM

(f)(f)(f)(f)

October 31, 2007

The Rural Life

Belated Frost

By VERLYN KLINKENBORG

In the absence of a general, killing frost, people have become expert in the subtleties of what the season has so far not delivered. The other day I heard a farmer refer to the “high” frost that had hit his farm in upstate New York. It coated the windows on his pickup but didn’t touch the fields. Down in the valleys, people know that the frost on their lawns doesn’t entirely count, because the hillsides above them haven’t been hit. A killing frost to a pot of basil is merely a pleasant evening to a stand of Brussels sprouts, but until the past few days, even the basil has not been bothered.

I think the first frost has finally come. It wasn’t a deep black frost, the kind that makes the unprepared gardener weep. Two mornings in a row the pasture has turned white, and the thick stands of goldenrod have turned silver. Even the most utilitarian stretches of countryside — the fields of corn stubble — have been glazed with what feels like a kind of anticipation, a readiness for snow if it ever comes again. A thin line of wood smoke hangs just above the trees, and where the hillsides rise above the highway, the wood smoke lies in tendrils, the way water vapor does on a wet summer day.

Everyone up here has noticed how late this frost is, and how deep into October some of the trees have kept their leaves. Pastures that were going brown in the drought of summer have greened up again. There has barely been skim ice on the stock tanks. But if things seem awry and you want to talk about it here in the country, you talk about what it costs when the fuel oil truck comes, and you feel uneasily grateful that it has come so few times yet this fall. Winter usually arrives on a very tight schedule, and it’s hard to regret a little slack, even if it feels worrisome.

The first frost isn’t everything, though. I’m still waiting for the hard one, the one makes the steel gates bitter to the touch and drives the bees deep into the core of their hive. That kind of frost puts away any thoughts of last-minute regeneration. It makes it clear that some time is going to have to pass — and it’s going to have to get a lot colder — before there is any hint of rebirth. When that frost will come is anyone’s guess. Right now, the frost we’re having still seems ornamental, a last-minute embellishment for Halloween.

(f)(f)(f)(f)

Faber est suæ quisque fortunæ.

Each is the maker (smith) of his own fortune.

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

sweetlady

11-01-2007, 05:06 PM

:o:o:o:o

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/31/fashion/01work190.1.jpg

November 1, 2007

Life’s Work

The Feminine Critique

By LISA BELKIN, NYTimes

DON’T get angry. But do take charge. Be nice. But not too nice. Speak up. But don’t seem like you talk too much. Never, ever dress sexy. Make sure to inspire your colleagues — unless you work in Norway, in which case, focus on delegating instead.

Writing about life and work means receiving a steady stream of research on how women in the workplace are viewed differently from men. These are academic and professional studies, not whimsical online polls, and each time I read one I feel deflated. What are women supposed to do with this information? Transform overnight? And if so, into what? How are we supposed to be assertive, but not, at the same time?

“It’s enough to make you dizzy,” said Ilene H. Lang, the president of Catalyst, an organization that studies women in the workplace. “Women are dizzy, men are dizzy, and we still don’t have a simple straightforward answer as to why there just aren’t enough women in positions of leadership.”

Catalyst’s research is often an exploration of why, 30 years after women entered the work force in large numbers, the default mental image of a leader is still male. Most recent is the report titled “Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don’t,” which surveyed 1,231 senior executives from the United States and Europe. It found that women who act in ways that are consistent with gender stereotypes — defined as focusing “on work relationships” and expressing “concern for other people’s perspectives” — are considered less competent. But if they act in ways that are seen as more “male” — like “act assertively, focus on work task, display ambition” — they are seen as “too tough” and “unfeminine.”

Women can’t win.

In 2006, Catalyst looked at stereotypes across cultures (surveying 935 alumni of the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland) and found that while the view of an ideal leader varied from place to place — in some regions the ideal leader was a team builder, in others the most valued skill was problem-solving. But whatever was most valued, women were seen as lacking it.

Respondents in the United States and England, for instance, listed “inspiring others” as a most important leadership quality, and then rated women as less adept at this than men. In Nordic countries, women were seen as perfectly inspirational, but it was “delegating” that was of higher value there, and women were not seen as good delegators.

Other researchers have reached similar conclusions. Joan Williams runs the Center for WorkLife Law, part of the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. She wrote the book “Unbending Gender” and she, too, has found that women are held to a different standard at work.

They are expected to be nurturing, but seen as ineffective if they are too feminine, she said in a speech last week at Cornell. They are expected to be strong, but tend to be labeled as strident or abrasive when acting as leaders. “Women have to choose between being liked but not respected, or respected but not liked,” she said.

While some researchers, like those at Catalyst and WorkLife Law, tend to paint the sweeping global picture — women don’t advance as much as men because they don’t act like men — other researchers narrow their focus.

Victoria Brescoll, a researcher at Yale, made headlines this August with her findings that while men gain stature and clout by expressing anger, women who express it are seen as being out of control, and lose stature. Study participants were shown videos of a job interview, after which they were asked to rate the applicant and choose their salary. The videos were identical but for two variables — in some the applicants were male and others female, and the applicant expressed either anger or sadness about having lost an account after a colleague arrived late to an important meeting.

The participants were most impressed with the angry man, followed by the sad woman, then the sad man, and finally, at the bottom of the list, the angry woman. The average salary assigned to the angry man was nearly $38,000 while the angry woman received an average of only $23,000.

When the scenario was tweaked and the applicant went on to expand upon his or her anger — explaining that the co-worker had lied and said he had directions to the meeting — participants were somewhat forgiving, giving women who explained their anger more money than those who had no excuse (but still less money than comparative men).

Also this summer, Linda C. Babcock, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, looked at gender and salary in a novel way. She recruited volunteers to play Boggle and told them beforehand that they would receive $2 to $10 for their time. When it came time for payment, each participant was given $3 and asked if that was enough.

Men asked for more money at eight times the rate of women. In a second round of testing, where participants were told directly that the sum was negotiable, 50 percent of women asked for more money, but that still did not compare with 83 percent of men. It would follow, Professor Babcock concluded, that women are equally poor at negotiating their salaries and raises.

There are practical nuggets of advice in all this data. Don’t be shy about negotiating. If you blow your stack, explain (or try). “Some of what we are learning is directly helpful, and tells women that they are acting in ways they might not even be aware of, and that is harming them and they can change,” said Peter Glick, a psychology professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.

He is the author of one such study, in which he showed respondents a video of a woman wearing a sexy low-cut blouse with a tight skirt or a skirt and blouse that were conservatively cut. The woman recited the same lines in both, and the viewer was either told she was a secretary or an executive. Being more provocatively dressed had no effect on the perceived competence of the secretary, but it lowered the perceived competence of the executive dramatically. (Sexy men don’t have that disconnect, Professor Glick said. While they might lose respect for wearing tight pants and unbuttoned shirts to the office, the attributes considered most sexy in men — power, status, salary — are in keeping with an executive image at work.)

But Professor Glick also concedes that much of this data — like his 2000 study showing that women were penalized more than men when not perceived as being nice or having social skills — gives women absolutely no way to “fight back.” “Most of what we learn shows that the problem is with the perception, not with the woman,” he said, “and that it is not the problem of an individual, it’s a problem of a corporation.”

Ms. Lang, at Catalyst, agreed. This accumulation of data will be of value only when companies act on it, she said, noting that some are already making changes. At Goldman Sachs, she said, the policy on performance reviews now tries to eliminate bias. A red flag is expected to go up if a woman is described as “having sharp elbows or being brusque,” she said. “The statement should not just stand,” she said. “Examples should be asked for, the context should be considered, would the same actions be cause for comment if it was a man?”

In fact, Catalyst’s next large project is to advise companies on ways they can combat stereotypical bias. And Professor Glick has some upcoming projects, too. One looks at whether women do better in sales if they show more cleavage. A second will look at the flip side of gender stereotypes at work: hostility toward men.

:|:|:| Gee, what a serious article. The NYTimes placed it into their "FASHION AND STYLE" section. <Rolling eyes.....>

8-)8-)8-)

(f)

Fide, sed qui, vide.

Trust but take care whom.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-01-2007, 05:08 PM

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

A Hacienda in Mexico Slide Show:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/30/greathomesanddestinations/20071030_MEXICO_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Nice, private court yeard.........I'd live here. Would you?

Geoff Winningham and Janice Freeman have made a home for themselves in Mineral de Pozos, a town of 3,000 on the high plains northwest of Mexico City.

From inside looking outside: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/30/greathomesanddestinations/600_IHT1.jpg

From outside: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/30/greathomesanddestinations/600_IHT7.jpg

GREAT idea, given that the U.S. Southwest is running out of water..........

In addition to helping the community buy a generator, the couple built a large underground cistern at their home to ensure they would have a constant supply of running water.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/30/greathomesanddestinations/600_IHT5.jpg

November 4, 2007

In a Former Mining Colony, a Haven for Artists

By SHERMAKAYE BASS

MINERAL DE POZOS, Mexico

Set on the high plains northwest of Mexico City, Mineral de Pozos is an unlikely place for a handful of foreign artists to settle. But over the past dozen or so years, that is precisely what has happened in Pozos, the local name for a former mining boomtown of 3,000, whose cobbled streets and crumbling stone buildings are tucked beneath a hillside of abandoned mineshafts and hacienda ruins.

Geoff Winningham, a photographer, and his wife, Janice Freeman, an artist, are among the 30 or so foreigners (mostly artists) who live here at least half the year, inspired by what Mr. Winningham calls “the eerily beautiful landscape,” with its groves of tall pipe-organ cactus and willowy pirul trees.

“From the first time I came to Pozos in 1979, it felt very isolated, very dreamy,” said Mr. Winningham, who also is a tenured professor at Rice University in Houston. Like most of the artists who have built here after summering for years in spots like San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, he fled the increasing noise, pollution and tourism of those cities. “Coming here, I had the sense that I was totally cut off from any connection to my regular life,” he said. “That had a real allure for me.”

In the late 1990s, the couple bought three parcels of land, cash purchases because foreigners cannot hold mortgages in Mexico. They later sold the smallest piece to finance the construction of a starter home equipped as a darkroom and studio, a 2,200-square-foot building with sleeping quarters and a small bathroom. Now, the long, light-filled upstairs space is Ms. Freeman’s art studio. Downstairs, in addition to Mr. Winningham’s darkroom, there is a guest bedroom, a garage and a tack room for the couple’s horses, which are stabled on a friend’s property across the street.

A couple of years later, in 2002, the couple decided they could, in fact, commute to Houston and began work on a main house, which also has 2,200 square feet of space. They hired a young San Miguel architect to prepare the design, using local chipped caleche stone and adobe for construction.

Ms. Freeman said she and her husband had to make frequent visits to monitor progress, although that was a minor inconvenience compared with the trials of living in Pozos at the time. There was no regular running water or electricity — the couple had to help buy a new transformer for the town so Mr. Winningham’s darkroom equipment would not keep causing townwide blackouts.

And, like the rest of the local residents, they had to buy water from the pipa, or water truck, which still trundles into town every day or so.

“Actually, there was and still is a water supply from the municipality of San Luis de la Pa, but it’s notoriously unreliable,” Mr. Winningham said. “Sometimes we go weeks without the city water coming in, then all of a sudden it’ll come gushing through the pipes. That’s why we built a large underground cistern early on.” Now they can go two weeks or more without having to buy water.

The couple said they bought their land without knowing or caring whether values would increase — but, over the last eight years, they have.

According to Teresa Martinez, a real estate agent who operates the Hotel Casa Mexicana in town, the couple’s hacienda has at least quadrupled in value. The land originally sold for $6,800 and now probably would sell for $35,000, she said. Ms. Martinez bought her own 700-square-meter (5,400-square-foot) property, on the main town square, for around $8,000 in 1993. The same property “set up like it is,” she said, “would be $120,000 to $150,000.”

Some of the town’s more recent settlers are mindful of the appreciation and came to Pozos for the investment as well as the artistic inspiration.

In 2006, Larimer Richards, the sculptor and installation artist, and his partner, Ri Anderson, a photographer, bought two large adjoining lots totaling about an acre for $90,000 and converted a structure on the site into a permanent residence.

They spend part of their time in San Miguel, where they rent a small apartment, but Mr. Richards said that Pozos is “my nexus. It’s ‘the farm’ for me,” adding that when his two small daughters, both of whom are under 3, reach school age, the couple will reassess what they consider a “permanent home.”

For now, says Ms. Anderson, “we wanted a place for horses, and we just liked the vibe. This place frees you up creatively.”

As Mr. Winningham put it: “Pozos has been described as an arts colony, but I wouldn’t really call it that. I’d say it’s a place where several individuals — artists mostly — have bought and built, because they wanted to be someplace quiet and beautiful.”

Today, the couple’s compound reflects that description.

A courtyard filled with bougainvillea, cactus and a sprawling mesquite tree leads to the main house. Its airy interior showcases Ms. Freeman’s dreamlike paintings and multimedia collage as well as Mr. Winningham’s hand-printed photographs, the artwork of friends, regional folk art, books of all kinds and textiles from around the globe.

The great room and open kitchen, which both have 11-foot-ceilings and cabinetry handmade by Mr. Winningham, lead to a split-level area. Downstairs is a bedroom and bath for their son, Max; a library/study; and a half bath.

Upstairs is the master bedroom and bath, with a separate dressing area; all is illuminated by the sunlight that streams through French doors. They lead to an 1,800-square-foot terrace overlooking the cobbled streets below and the hillside ruins in the distance.

From that vista, as evening casts strange shadows from the pipe-organ cacti and distant courtyards begin to twinkle with lights, the town has an otherworldly quality. And it is that very quality that compelled Mr. Winningham and Ms. Freeman to create a place in Pozos that soon became home.

“This is our only home,” he said. “We did the craziest thing with this. As a couple, Janice and I built our ‘second home’ before having a first one. We never built or bought a ‘first home.’ We rent an apartment in Houston, but actually our primary residence is in Pozos.

“It was a funny kind of thing — in some ways impractical. This is not exactly where our work is or where our kids live or go to school. It was kind of illogical, but it made sense to us.”

:) I could love in a place like this.......talk about private. (y)(y)

(f)

Fortiter in re, suaviter in modo.

Resolutely in deed, sweetly in manner.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-01-2007, 05:11 PM

;);)

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/25/fashion/20071025_LINGERIE_SLIDESHOW_index.html

This is nice - the lace blouse......

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/24/fashion/25ling.8.jpg

(f)

Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful. ;)

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-01-2007, 05:13 PM

:o

The Life of Gallant Knights, Off Ye Olde Jersey Turnpike: Slide Show..........

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/20/theater/20071021_MEDI_SLIDESHOW_index.html

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/17/theater/Slide11.jpg

:) The show at the Excalibur in Las Vegas was bad enough when "serving wenches" (their words, not mine) brought what was supposed to be dinner - and NO eating utensils provided. We were supposed to eat like they did way back in the Middle Ages. We had a cup which we were supposed to bang on the table and cheer "huzzah!" when our table's Knight team came out.

And no, I haven't been to this version in New Jersey. Are you kidding me?

;)

(f)

Mala herba cito crescit.

Weeds grow fast.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-01-2007, 05:15 PM

:o:o

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/20/nyregion/thecity/20071021_DEAD_SLIDESHOW_index.html

October 21, 2007

New York In Focus

Colorful Witnesses to Those Who Went Before

By JOE POMPEO

MEXICO’S Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead celebration, has become an increasingly popular part of New York’s mainstream Halloween festivities. But members of the city’s expanding Mexican population have observed this macabre religious holiday since they were children, preserving centuries-old traditions like the building of elaborate and colorful altars to honor dead friends and relatives.

These altars, adorned with flowers and skulls and purified with incense, include pictures of loved ones who have died, and offerings of the trinkets and indulgences that they enjoyed in life: candy, toys, bread and tequila.

“It gives life to the dead when they come,” said Margarita Larios, a former factory worker who moved to New York in 1974 from a small town outside Mexico City. Speaking in Spanish from her tidy East Village apartment, she said she is convinced her dead friends and relatives visit her in spirit during the holiday, which runs from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2.

An exhibition of 19 altars, including one by Ms. Larios, opens Tuesday at the Rocking Horse Cafe on Eighth Avenue as part of the cafe’s annual Day of the Dead art exhibition and auction. Designed mostly by visual artists, some of whom reflect on their intentions here, the altars draw on a range of styles and materials, among them fabric, ceramic and carved bone.

The holiday can be a sad reminder for people like Ms. Larios, who is 59, that her loved ones are no longer with her. But it also brings solace. “I feel happiness knowing they are here in spirit to celebrate," she said.

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f)

Nil satis nisi optimum.

Nothing but the best is good enough.

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

sweetlady

11-01-2007, 05:22 PM

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

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/26/travel/escapes/20071026_HAMBURGER_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Small plane owners will go out for what is called a $100 hamburger — “$100” referring to the cost of fuel — sort of the aeronautical equivalent of lazy Sunday drives. Bryan Hennessy and his son, Parker, on a pleasure flight above Olympia, Wash.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/25/travel/26hamb.1.jpg

In the Airport Cafe, at the Portland-Mulino satellite airport in Oregon, a short-order cook passed heaping plates of food to waitresses. On weekend mornings at the restaurant, fliers rub shoulders with local office and factory workers over breakfast.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/25/travel/26hamb.6.jpg

:) This is definitely a high-end article - based on airports in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. When I was learning to fly and get my private pilot's license, the "Bob's Chile and Chow Hall" types of tiny airport mom and pop restaurants were the places where we would all go. And gas and breakfast came nowhere NEAR 100 bucks. Even for four people having a big breakfast.

But then, we were ALL flying antique tailgragger planes back in the early 1980s, and not the multi-million dollar jets as can be seen in one of the photos. :|:|

(l) "REAL pilots fly open cockpit bi-planes - where the third wheel is in the right place, that is, underneath the tail!" (y)(y)(y)

;)

Non scholæ, sed vitæ discimus.

We learn not for school but for life.

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

sweetlady

11-02-2007, 03:46 PM

:o:o:o:o

^o)^o)

November 1, 2007

Is This It for the It Bag?

By ERIC WILSON

EVERYONE’S talking about the bubble, and when it will burst.

There is too much inventory. Prices are absurdly high. And analysts are predicting a slowdown in a market that may have already passed its peak of irrational growth, in 2004. Even as prices have increased exponentially over the last three years, with buyers trying to get in on the ground floor of premier properties — the Paddington, the Muse, the Giant City — so, too, have reports of dwindling consumer confidence and a looming credit crisis that could potentially wipe out the value of Uptowns and Downtowns alike.

Some people are concerned that a combination of volatile interest rates and the weakened dollar will ultimately cripple the market.

Status handbags, you see, are a lot like housing. After the rise of the $1,000 purse, fashion’s equivalent of the $1 million studio, there inevitably comes talk of a backlash. Are we now living in a handbag bubble?

“The new condo market today is comparable to the It bag,” said Stephanie Phair, the vice president for merchandising for Portero, an online auction house that specializes in the resale of luxury goods. “Every bag has a name. At least in New York, you see the same thing with all those condo buildings going up with valets, pools, dog parks and fancy names. At some point, people are going to decide that, in fact, what they’d like is to go back to the tried and tested, the classic prewar or the apartment on lower Fifth Avenue.”

“The appeal of the It bag,” Mr. Phair said, “has started to wane.”

Yet this is a moment when every bag seems to have, in addition to a price tag that could be confused with a ZIP code, a name that conjures up images of a wealthy enclave or a cast member of “Gossip Girl.” Heloise, Mathilde and Beata are bags by Chloé; Mariah, Camila and Elsa come from Marc Jacobs; the Uptown, the Downtown and the Muse are designs from Yves Saint Laurent, not buildings by André Balazs.

An entire genre of slouchy handbags, described as “hobos,” may even strike some readers as unintentionally funny, if not slightly offensive, with their earnest descriptions and indiscreet prices — the Dolce & Gabbana Miss Perfect hobo, $795; the Celine Bittersweet hobo, $1,700; the Prada nappa gauffre Antic hobo, $1,750 (a crazy gopher hobo?) — for bags meant to look as if they once belonged to tramps.

“Designers are just testing the laws of economics by pricing handbags higher and higher until people stop buying them,” said Lauren Goodman, the fashion director of Domino magazine. “They are so expensive, and drive you to buy a new one every season, which is kind of a horrifying thought.”

Ms. Goodman is aware of the hot bags of the moment: the Prada leather styles that repeat the ombré patterns of the fall collection; the Marc Jacobs oversize clutch, carried by several editors during the spring collections; the YSL Downtown bag, which is shaped like a Chinese takeout container with a handle. “Some people still carry the Muse,” she said of another YSL style. “They think the Muse is hot, because they’re kind of behind.”

But how does one afford to stay ahead?

At the rate that designers are introducing new styles, that no longer seems possible, which has led to a shift in perceptions about status bags.

“That whole phenomenon has changed,” said Julie Gilhart, the fashion director of Barneys New York. “Our customers seem to be looking for something more interesting. They don’t want to spend money on something everyone else has.”

They don’t want a one-season bag.

At the least, there is anecdotal evidence that the fastest-growing segment of the fashion industry, also considered its most lucrative because of its high profit margins, may not be immune to market exhaustion.

Coach, the leading American handbag company, reported last month that its profit growth may slow this holiday season, setting off jitters among investors who view the brand as the entry-level threshold for luxury goods and an indicator for the broader health of the market. One could not avoid the sense of dread reflected in a Women’s Wear Daily headline this week: “A Chilly Wind Blows: Retailers Are on Edge About Holiday Season.”

Handbag sales in the $7 billion United States market are expected to increase by 15 percent this year, according to the stock research firm Telsey Advisory Group. This is considered a disappointment, because the growth is about half as strong as the category’s 28 percent gain in 2004.

“That $5,000 Marc Jacobs bag is so yesterday’s news,” said Elizabeth Kiester, the chief creative director of LeSportsac, which is developing a line of bags with Stella McCartney that will sell for under $350, beginning in February. “The luxury market is so over the top now that it is demented. I call them limo bags. I don’t have a limo.”

It is probably a stretch to equate the slowing growth of handbag sales to It bag fatigue, but the statistics cited in Dana Thomas’s book, “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster,” indicate that the American population is currently over-accessorized. Ms. Thomas cites a survey that showed by 2004, the average American woman was buying more than four handbags a year.

Ms. Phair, of Portero, said there is not a strong resale market for fashion bags of the moment. “It’s not that we wouldn’t touch a Vuitton Murakami, but now it would be purchased by someone with a collector’s perspective, who loves Louis Vuitton and wants to own pieces from every season,” she said.

In some circles, status bags have already become a punch line. A label called Slow and Steady Wins the Race recently produced a series of $100 handbags that recreated the shapes of iconic designs using inexpensive canvas — “a visual hyperbolic expression about contemporary fashion’s attention and obsession with designer handbags,” says its Web site.

The latest versions are hybrids: the Hermesbirkin-Dior (a saddlebag with Birkin-style handles), the Balenciaga-Chanel (where hardware meets quilting) and the Chanel-Asfour-Gucci (a circular quilted bag with a red-and-green stripe).

One is tempted, then, to declare an end to the It bag, but, then again, there were a lot of bags at the spring collections that seem destined for stardom: the Richard Prince bags at Vuitton, the Duffy at Marc Jacobs, the cute wavy-striped bags at Prada. Ken Downing, the fashion director at Neiman Marcus, is amused that there is even a question of a handbag bubble.

“We certainly believe our customer is a fashion enthusiast, and our customers love handbags,” he said.

At Neiman, the average bag sells for about $1,200, but Mr. Downing said there is no price resistance for a pièce de résistance. A special edition of 25 Chanel bags, made in crocodile for the retailer’s 100th anniversary last month, sold out in a snap. The price of each bag was $25,000.

:|:|:| "But how does one afford to stay ahead?" Answer: You don't.

^o)^o)

;)

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S)(S)

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

sweetlady

11-02-2007, 03:54 PM

:|:|:|

FINISHING TOUCH The giant charm bracelet by Nicola Malkin, a designer and ceramicist, is typically displayed on chairs, large tables or bedposts, as at the J. Roaman furnishings store in East Hampton, N.Y.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/01/garden/01fashion-395.jpg

November 1, 2007

All Dressed Up

By JULIE SCELFO

AT J. Roaman, a home furnishings store in East Hampton, N.Y., a painted white iron bed wears a giant charm bracelet over its left head post. The bracelet isn’t there because the bed wants for visual interest; it’s already enveloped in a brightly colored quilt by Lisa Corti, a Milanese designer, and topped with four pillows, five throw pillows and a bolster. The reason for the jewelry, according to Judi Roaman, a former fashion retailer who opened the store in May, is that furniture, like any carefully curated outfit, should express its owner’s personality. “Accessories make the bed into who you want her to be,” she explained.

The idea that furniture should wear jewelry may strike some people as, well, nuts. But the notion behind it — that the kind of personal style associated with fashion can and should be expressed through home accessorizing, in ways that go far beyond throw pillows — has become a guiding principle of the furnishings industry.

Decades after that industry began routinely drawing inspiration from fashion, the boundaries between the two worlds are starting to erode, as their philosophies, vocabularies and materials become increasingly hard to tell apart. Fashion and home design are “collapsing into each other,” said the New York furniture and interior designer Celerie Kemble, who has described her curvy new side tables as having “the insouciant kick of a flared hemline.”

This coalescence was on view throughout last month’s High Point Market, the huge furniture trade show in North Carolina. Henredon, a company known more for classic styling than for marketing gimmicks, introduced Debonaire, a $5,775 striated beige couch with a matching silk shawl — to be worn by the sofa — for $390. At Julian Chichester, new coffee tables ($2,995) and living room chairs ($4,995) were wrapped in chocolate-brown faux shagreen, a material more commonly seen on clutch purses. Visual Comfort & Company, a designer lighting manufacturer, showcased lamps by Thomas O’Brien and Barbara Barry that featured beveled crystal, dainty pearls and white gold accents that could have come straight from Tiffany.

Natuzzi, the Italian company specializing in contemporary leather upholstery, introduced an array of warm metallic fabrics and metallic-finished leathers that were adapted, according to the company’s vice president for brand development, Tod Craft, directly from women’s ready-to-wear.

“It started in handbags, went to boots, went to jewelry,” Mr. Craft said. Just as a woman might wear a chunky gold belt to jazz up an otherwise lackluster skirt, Natuzzi’s executives think customers should plunk down $2,995 for a metallic bronze-finished leather chaise to inject flair into their living rooms. “These are accent pieces that make the room sparkle, give the room personality, give it style,” Mr. Craft said.

In showroom after showroom, consoles and sideboards in basic black or glossy white were adorned with gleaming objects that looked like earrings and pendants pumped up to match the scale of a room. Such accessories “make the room look warm and accessible,” said Mitchell Gold, whose company, Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams, known for its understated upholstered furniture, introduced mirrored glass vases, crystal spheres and sculptural objects in polished nickel.

“When Bob and I are designing furniture, we think , what does Audrey Hepburn look like? How did Jackie Kennedy dress?” Mr. Gold said. “The perfect black dress worn with nothing else looks pretty blah. But then just put white pearls on, you look elegant.”

To be sure, furniture designers have often looked to fashion for inspiration. At various points, the animal prints, distressed leathers and deep ruffles that sashayed down runways have appeared, a year or two later, on upholstery, carpeting and other furnishings.

And ever since Bloomingdale’s flagship store sold $35,000 worth of Ralph Lauren home furnishings the first day they went on sale in 1983, manufacturers have recognized the potential of names like Giorgio Armani and Donna Karan to imbue armoires and bedding with cachet. But the industry’s current focus on accessorizing as a form of self expression represents a marked change from most of the last 50 years, when Americans typically strived for a living room of uniform style that looked as if it had been done by a professional. “Home design used to be so much about these old-fashioned rules,” Ms. Kemble said. “It was about showcasing the accumulation of things that met a certain level of finish. There was an achievement in having that living room that nobody lives in — that you actually had gotten everything up to snuff.”

Things have changed. “People want every aspect of their lives to say something about themselves,” said Deborah Needleman, the editor in chief of Domino, the three-year-old Condé Nast shelter magazine that became an instant hit with its treatment of style as a matter of personal choice. Decorating that feels personally driven, she said, “shows you have confidence and a sense of independence.” It also shows creativity, much as individualistic fashion choices do, Ms. Needleman continued. “I think most people between the ages of 25 and 45 would feel like a jerk if they bought a suite of furniture.”

The proliferation of decorating shows and magazines, not to mention Target’s ubiquitous ad campaigns, has no doubt helped give rise to the idea that everyone, regardless of budget, deserves and is capable of attaining a unique and stylish space. “It’s a whole different moment now where design is for everyone,” said James Nauyok, the vice president for marketing and visual display of Baker, one of the country’s pre-eminent furniture brands. “Today, you can find good design at any price point.”

And magazines, manufacturers and retailers now relentlessly push the idea that changing your home is as easy and affordable as changing your look.

“Just like you want to change your sweater, you want to change your house,” Ms. Roaman said. Expensive purchases like sofas and dining tables, retailers say, can be transformed with accessories as effectively and cheaply as a good navy suit can. “I carry bright dishes that go from $8 to $12 — we’ve sold hundreds of them,” Ms. Roaman said. “For $500 you can change your whole table.” At Target, 12 Thomas O’Brien stoneware dinner plates in deep marine blue cost just under $75, and at Target.com, you can get two potentially room-altering deep red silk pillows with a gold dandelion design for $58.48.

The desire for personalized home design is just as pronounced, if not more so, at the high end of the market. Hickory Chair, a luxury American furniture brand, introduced an array of “personalization” options at High Point, including Made-to-Measure Upholstery, which allows customers to order upholstered pieces in any size between 24 and 120 inches, down to the inch. Another, the Customer’s Own Hardware, lets customers have their own knobs and pulls — whether antiques, heirlooms or specially ordered crystal knobs from Swarovski — installed on almost any Hickory Chair product.

These options are meant to help customers secure a one-of-a-kind piece, and to relieve them of the worry that someone else in the world could end up choosing the same combination of upholstery, hardware and wood finishes from the several thousand options already available.

Not surprisingly, the blurring lines between fashion and furniture have also led to changes in consumer behavior. Some stores, like ABC Carpet & Home in New York and the national chain Anthropologie, have treated the two categories as part of a single continuum for years, showing candles and bed linens on the same shelves as jackets and jewelry. Now, consumers appear to have internalized that concept, as Kathy Walsh observed after starting a furniture store in Great Barrington, Mass., in 2005. From the moment the store, Homeward Bound, opened its doors, customers began telling her they loved her personal style and asking her to sell clothes along with the dining tables.

Today, Homeward Bound carries a carefully selected mix of high-end furnishings and clothing items, at a ratio of two to one, all meant to promote “interior harmony,” the store’s slogan. (For Ms. Walsh, interior harmony means “you walk into your home and your bedroom, and your clothing and closet and everything feels good to you. Even though you have an antique piece and a modern piece and a vegan-leather handbag it all goes together because it expresses who you are.”) Sales at the store have been so good that last year Ms. Walsh and her husband, Trip Rothschild, opened a second location in New Milford, Conn., and a third is scheduled to open in West Hartford on Saturday.

Fashion and furnishings have grown so close lately that the tide of influence may even be starting to turn. While shelter magazines have long featured references to fashion, it is just in the last year that two of the biggest American fashion magazines, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, have started publishing spinoffs about home design. And after decades of furniture taking color, pattern and material cues from fashion, Deborah Needleman says she has noticed the inspiration flowing the other way. “Lately,” she wrote in an e-mail, “I’ve seen the fabrics of upholstery, curtains and throws, like ikats, damasks, suzanis and 80s chintz-like florals on the runway.”

Few furniture designers have taken steps into fashion, but it may only be a matter of time. Oly, one of the most design-forward companies at High Point, actually designated a small nook off its main showroom to sell earrings and shagreen clutches to visitors. Kate McIntyre, a co-founder of the company, who designs all its furniture with her partner, Brad Huntzinger, said designing fashion accessories was “a very natural transition” for the two. “Quite often we’re captivated by a material,” she added, like polished horn or volcanic glass. Their main concern, she said, is finding the right way to express it.

As for fabrics, she added, she often finds herself selecting one for a home-related project and thinking, “This would make an amazing gown.”

:o Right. I really want to have items in my wardrobe look like fabrics on a sofa, drapes, etc. just I would want my sofa and other furniture to be covered in Bob Mackie wild designs, polar tech fleece, slinky knit, washable suede or other wardrobe fabric. ;)

:o Wait! Washable suede covers for seat cushions? If I were a Doberman, my ears just perked up.

Tee-hee.

;)

(f) Have a distinctively delightful evening. (S)(S)

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

sweetlady

11-02-2007, 04:00 PM

(i) (*) (i) (*) (i) (*) (i) (*)

Holograms bump models from New York catwalk

Fri Nov 2, 2007 5:32am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Finally, coming to New York, a fashion show devoid of skinny models and serious faces -- in fact the models don't even exist.

U.S. discount retailer Target Corp, known for its innovative marketing, is staging a "model-less" fashion show in Manhattan next week that will feature holograms strutting down a runway in its merchandise instead of size-zero models.

The images, which will appear to be three-dimensional, will show clothes by designers like Isaac Mizrahi and Liz Lange sashaying across a virtual runway.

"This is the first time a fashion show will be completely produced with hologram technology, without models, without a runway and easily accessible to all fashion fans," Target senior vice president Trish Adams said in a statement.

The show will take place November 6 and November 7, in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal.

It will show clothes and accessories from Target's men's, women's, bridal and maternity collections.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN0144072920071102

(y)(y) I am not exactly a Target fan, but I would go into one of those (and have while on business trips in the past when I ran out of stockings, underwear, etc when my trip was extended......) but would NEVER, ever go into a Wal-Mart. And I am not "doth protesting too much", either.

COSTO definitely since it has a stellar reputation and I really like how their employees are treated. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club both treat their employees badly. I'll take my pretty handbag (no, not one that costs more than $300.) and take my business to one that conducts itself with good business ethics and integrity.

Who am I kidding? I do most of my shopping online. But I STILL research the companies. Aren't YOU tired of buying products all made in China? More recently, I look for the "Made in the USA" (or several other countries....).

(f)

"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace."

- Amelia Earhart

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

sweetlady

11-02-2007, 04:08 PM

:o:o:o

(y)

Wed Oct 31, 2007 11:52am EDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - The subway corporations serving South Korea's capital will introduce women-only cars next year to make rides more comfortable and free of groping male hands, a subway official said on Wednesday.

"Sexual crimes happen frequently when the cars are packed and people are pressed against each other," the subway official said.

Nearly half the crimes reported on the city's eight subway lines are sexual in nature, with many taking place on two lines that serve university and office districts, lawmaker Lee Jai-chang said in parliament on Monday.

The Seoul subway network moves 6.1 million people a day and, as in Tokyo, uniformed attendants are on hand at rush hour pushing passengers into packed carriages.

Several Tokyo train lines have tried women-only carriages to prevent groping.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN3129288120071031

:) I've been on the trains in and around Osaka, Japan and I have never seen so many people in such as small space. (Except for the trains in Hong Kong - THAT was scary.)

I have been in the subway in NYC only once and THAT was enough. :| Never again. Cabs are safer.

(l)(l) The B.A.R.T. in San Francisco and the London Underground especially - I have used countless times and I found both systems to be very clean and quite safe. (l)(l)

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S)(S)

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

sweetlady

11-04-2007, 01:14 PM

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

"The agreement to participate in this life is a pact with grief."

- Mark Doty

From Dog Years: A Memoir

HarperCollins: 2007

Review:

Mark Doty in DOG YEARS has written a sometimes sad and always deeply moving beautiful memoir about loss, grief and the comfort that animals, in this instance Beau, a golden retriever, and Arden, a black retriever, bring to the sick and dying and those who remain. Mr. Doty is nothing if not opinionated: sentimentality is a mask for anger; "compassion for animals is an excellent predictor of one's ability to care for one's fellow human beings;" "no death equals another;" "the wounds of loss, the nicks and cuts made by our own sense of powerlessness, must form a sort of carapace, an armor." The kindgom of heaven may be "the realm of paradox, "attachment and detachment," memory and forgetfulness, "everything and nothing." Whether you agree with Mr. Doty's conclusions hardly matters although he is convincing and persuasive. What is just as important is that the reader is swept along by the writer's precise and beautiful language. (We should expect no less from a first rate poet.) So on September 11 the hole in the north twin tower reminds him of "an unfamiliar continent in a school geography book. A version of Australia." New York is a "pierced city." An old woman who runs a kennel in Key West has a voice "shredded by decades of Chesterfields." An old house in Provincetown has "straggly irises" in the yard. Furthermore, Mr. Doty strews gems from the greatest of American poets, Emily Dickinson, throughout his narrative. Just as his canine friends overlook nothing on their daily scavenger hunts, Mr. Doty's reader must use the same care for he skims this book at his peril.

Whether you are a dog lover or not, DOG YEARS is not to be missed. It is in the league of other recent nonfiction books on grief: Elizabeth Edwards' SAVING GRACES: FINDING SOLACE AND STRENGTH FROM FRIENDS AND STRANGERS, Joan Didion's THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING and Calvin Trillin's ABOUT ALICE. It reminded me of another poet Wendell Berry's fine short story "Mike" about the death of a dog and is every bit as good as my favorite nonfiction book by Doty: STILL LIVE WITH OYSTERS AND LEMON; ON OBJECTS AND INTIMACY.

(f)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

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

sweetlady

11-04-2007, 01:21 PM

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

Dreaming in Libro: How A Good Dog Tamed A Bad Woman

by Louise Bernikow (Author)

Perseus Books Group (June 11, 2007)

(l)(l) I must have purchased and gave as gifts at least 12 copies of Bernikow's earlier book about how she "met" Libro in " Bark If You Love Me"!!

Reviews:

Review 1. I couldn't put it down: I love this book - it's witty and sophisticated and unexpectedly heartbreaking. If you've ever loved a dog, you'll find yourself in Louise Bernikow's perfect pages. And if you've never loved a dog, this is the story to convert you.

Review 2. I loathe pets, but I loved this book: I am not a "dog person". True, I was seen with one for several years in my last marriage because my beloved stepson, who never asked for anything, uttered the fatal words, "I don't want a dog, I need a dog." This time around, our daughter is on notice. No pets. Ever. Unhappy? Save it for the shrink.

Louise Bernikow was, when I was hanging out with her some decades ago, very much not a "dog person". A noted journalist and feminist historian, she was the fiercest woman I knew in New York: annoyingly smart, achingly attractive, a bachelorette to the death.

And that wasn't just my take.

Louise Bernikow would be the first to tell you that she has done her share of dancing on tables. She has kissed a date good night --- and raced out for a nightcap with his brother. And in the days when she owned a car, she writes, "I carried a nightgown, birth control and my passport in the trunk... ready to leave for Paris at a moment's notice."

But as she was jogging in Riverside Park one spring afternoon, she spotted a crowd. In its center, a police car. And, in the back seat, the cause of the fuss: a purebred boxed with a stumpy tail and "those eyes".

Inexplicably, she took him home.

Louise and Libro's "getting to know you" period is described in her first "dog" book, 'Bark If You Love Me. I did not read it for the simple fact that I could not believe Louise wrote it. Friends told me how charming it was, how well written, how very Louise; nothing would lure me.

Now Louise Bernikow has a second "dog" memoir. Again, friends banged on about it. This time, the combination of an appealing subtitle and personal nostalgia got me to peek inside. Great first sentence: "My mother always told me I would grow into my feet and my nose." And the "how we met" story wasn't bad. Before I knew it, I was reading --- and I was appalled.

Here is Louise, padding around on all fours beside her dog ("partly for knowledge of his spatial perspective").

Here is Louise, babbling to her dog "like an infatuated nincompoop."

Here is Louise, once capable of leaving her apartment and not coming home for days, now rushing home at Swiss-watch intervals and climbing four flights of stairs to feed and walk her dog.

As I say, appalling.

But also, here is Louise jabbing me in the eye with perceptions that dog owners have never shared with me. "Perhaps what animal lovers really love is access to their own tenderness," she writes. And: "Just because a man is nice to his dog doesn't mean he is a nice man."

As I kept reading, the ratio of treacle to smart changed. Smart won, paw's down. Because although it seemed like madness for Louise to treat Libro as if he were human, Libro was clearly an advanced being --- Louie's personal guru, as it turns out.

There are wonderful chapters here: Louise's book tour in California, Libro in tow, is a hoot, and lucky are those who showed up at bookstores to catch their double act. And there is something charming about a woman who relaxes her search for love with a man because she's already found it with a dog.

One argument about pets is that you are likely to survive them --- and then you have to deal with the grief. Not so fast, in this case. Louise gets cancer, and this time, it's the dog who/that has to adjust. And then, later.....

But I don't want to suggest that this is the 'Death Be Not Proud' of the canine brigade. `Dreaming in Libro' is, for most of its breezy, 202 pages, an unleashed romp in the park. Dog lovers who read it will be nodding like bobbleheads. Cat lovers will be jealous as...oh...cats.

Review 3. A Beach Book, A Gift Book, A Read to Your Dog Book!: While I might not be the most objective critic, having known both the star of the book and being part of the story (the best parts by the way!) I found this delightful tale a real tail wagger, even better than the live version. Poko would agree by the way--my Dalmatian, who thumped quite enthusiastically at the parts I read to him.

There are not many books that you read and then rush to read aloud to someone else because they are so funny. This book is full of such moments. (Yes, I did read bits aloud to humans, as well). I won't spoil the reading by my telling--I hate reviews like that. I will say the two things I love about this book: the writing--it is wonderful, witty, and winsome--and the dogs. Libro is a Buddha in brindle coat. And of course my own pooches, spotted Buddhas who watch over me, one from the other side and one from my bed side (when he's not sneaking into it!).

Now I have thought of a third thing I love--the relationship between author and dog, writer and muse, human and canine friends. Parts of DREAMING IN LIBRO remind me of A Kinship With Life, that well read tome from the 1930s that documents communicating with animals, especially the dog star, Strongheart. Without even knowing what she is doing Bernikow develops a relationship with Libro that is equal--partners--not owner or master and inferior beast. As dog lovers everywhere know, we are the inferior beasts.

It's a beach book, a bedtime book, a gift book, a read to your dog aloud book--what more could one want? If only Libro had liked cats, it would also be a cat lover book. If I say more I will start quoting my favorite parts and that will ruin all your fun, so buy this book for a friend, a lover, a dog.

:) I found this author's first book on Daedalus' Book Site.......for an unbelievable price too. Another reason why I bought so many to give to friends. :)

I will be keeping my eyes out on that www.salebooks.com web site for this one as well. Meanwhile I have my copy that wasn't on sale. ;)

(f)

Carpe noctem.

Seize the night. (S)(S)

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

sweetlady

11-04-2007, 01:27 PM

(S) (*) (S) (*) (S)

KEEPING WATCH The Saugerties Lighthouse on the Hudson River.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/02/travel/02light600.1.jpg

November 2, 2007

Spending the Night Under the Lighthouse Beacon on the Hudson

By DAVID G. ALLAN

LIGHTHOUSES capture the imagination in ways few buildings can. They hark back to an era when nautical travel reigned and time moved at a slower knot. Usually at the end of the road, or beyond the water’s edge, lighthouses are in some of the prettiest destinations you’ll find. They even save lives.

As special as these buildings are, even more uncommon is the privilege of staying in one overnight.

According to the book “Staying at a Lighthouse: America’s Romantic and Historic Lighthouse Inns” (Globe Pequot, 2005) by John Grant, there are 29 that accept overnight guests, ranging from upscale bed-and-breakfasts to cheap hostels where you do your own housekeeping.

Somewhere in the middle of this range is Saugerties Lighthouse, a 19th-century beacon on the Hudson River.

A recent weekend visit to the hamlet of Saugerties, N.Y., on the edge of the Catskills just 100 miles from Manhattan, was made more memorable by an overnight in the lighthouse itself. Open year-round, the two-room B & B is a relaxing base from which to explore the port town with its old-fashioned charms, good food and shopping, and meet friendly locals who like to come and hang out at their historic lighthouse.

Just getting to the lighthouse adds to the romance of a stay. Visitors must hike a half-mile trail that floods at high tide.

The trail, which starts from a dead-end road and winds its way through a peninsular strip edged by tall large cottonwood trees, marsh grass, cattails and eight-foot-high reeds, delivers you to a faded brick building filled with cozy utilitarian rooms decorated in early 20th-century furniture and appliances.

Crossing the threshold is like stepping through a time machine. A coal stove heats the parlor. A large gas oven requires a hand-squeezed spark tool to light the burners, and kitchen supplies are kept in mason jars. The only signs of modernity are the eco-friendly compost toilet and solar-powered lighthouse light (maintained by the Coast Guard) that continues to guide ships through a narrow stretch of the Hudson.

Whether you’re a day-tripper looking for a picnic spot, a local going for a daily swim, a sightseer getting a tour of the historic premises, or a guest spending the night — you will be greeted by Patrick Landewe, the young affable innkeeper. He tells the lighthouse’s Lazarus story of renovation as though he’s not tired of reciting it every day, offers excellent recommendations for eating in town, and serves a hearty and delicious breakfast.

Perusing the thick guest books, you’ll find many odes to the lighthouse, and a fair number are directed at Patrick, especially to his blueberry pancakes (his breakfast skills were honed during the two years he spent working at a bakery in St. Louis).

THERE is little to distract visitors from the full-time business of relaxing. Activities include climbing up into the beacon’s tower and out on the widow’s walk for a grand view of the valley and rounded peaks of the Catskills. Or learning more about the history of the building in the one-room museum. Overnight guests have a few more options: the thick pillows and generous breezes in the bedrooms make for deep napping, shelves of board games and a working Victrola offer good, clean turn-of-the-century fun in the parlor, and, in season, you can always go for a swim.

The lighthouse rooms book up months in advance. Entries in the guest books reveal forward-thinking couples celebrating double-digit wedding anniversaries and other special occasions. But the lighthouse is well worth the wait. Former guests praise visits in all kinds of weather, from cooling off during summer heat waves to exciting spring thunderstorms, to nestling down while deep snow blankets the area.

The rooms have basic dark wood furniture, lace curtains and little else. But the house is certainly much more hospitable than it appeared when the first keeper refused to live there, an anecdote comically recreated in the 20-minute video shown in the museum room.

The current building was a fully functioning manual lighthouse and innkeeper residence for nearly 100 years, until 1954 when the light was automated and the last keeper left.

The Saugerties Lighthouse fell victim to severe internal rotting and was condemned and set to be torn down when the Saugerties Lighthouse Conservancy, formed in 1985 to save it, bought it for $1, raised roughly half a million dollars and got many volunteers for the restoration. The project led to the creation of the B & B in the mid-1990s, the proceeds used to maintain upkeep.

Beyond the lighthouse there is a large wooden deck that juts farther into the river on the foundation of the original 1838 lighthouse, which was replaced by the current one in 1869. The deck calls to sunbathers, bird-watchers, nappers, pleasure readers and swimmers alike, who stop by all day long.

North of the lighthouse is a shallow bay where you can walk a quarter of a mile out without getting your pants wet and where children can happily splash around. To the south, under the bridge that connects the lighthouse to the deck, are the deeper waters of Esopus Creek flowing into town. The moderate current satisfies real swimmers, some of whom come every evening in the summer. Locals also use the deck’s grill on occasion (available to guests as well). At night guests can make cups of hot chocolate and sit out to stargaze, the only accompaniment the sound of small slapping waves and the occasional track rattle and train whistle of the railroad across the river.

Apart from the lighthouse, the town of Saugerties has its own allure. Unlike some other Catskill settlements, this one has retained both an appealing small-town main street and a sense of community, while cultivating enough dining and shopping experiences to satisfy urban visitors. The eight-block stretch in the heart of Saugerties is a National Historic District and contains a fair number of coffee shops, antiques stores and boutiques.

THERE is the new cowboy chic vintage shop with locally made clothes and accessories, Pistol Whip (81 Partition Street; 845-853-6139; www.pistolwhipboutique.com), and bookstores like the regional-literature heavy Hope Farm Press & Bookshop (252 Main Street; 845-246-3522; www.hopefarm.com). There’s also Hot Towel Barbers (72 Partition Street; 845-246-3610; www.hottowelbarbers.com), a classy brick-walled barbershop where you can get a hot towel shave, and a three-film movie house, the Orpheum Theater, at 156 Main Street (845-246-6561).

If you don’t want to cook at the lighthouse, you can take advantage of several restaurants in town. One of the best is Miss Lucy’s Kitchen (90 Partition Street; 845-246-9240; www.misslucyskitchen.com), which has farmhouse décor and an extensive wine list. The menu changes daily to reflect seasonal offerings from local farms, like the recent Meiller’s Farm grilled pork chop with potato gratin, cider reduction and red wine rosemary butter ($22) and savory vegetarian options like house-made greens and cheese ravioli with roasted beets, broccoli rabe and local mozzarella ($18).

Back at the lighthouse after a night in town followed by a dream-heavy sleep, I got up early, determined to make the most of my stay.

Down in the kitchen I filled a Saugerties Lighthouse mug (also for sale in the gift shop nook) with freshly brewed coffee and spent a transcendent hour sitting on the back deck, sketching the lighthouse in my journal and breathing in the cool, fresh air until Patrick called me in to eat. And, yes, the blueberry pancakes were excellent.

MORE INFORMATION

Lighthouse accommodations vary from high-end bed-and-breakfasts to hostels. Here are nine lighthouses that span the spectrum.

EAST BROTHER LIGHT STATION in Point Richmond, Calif., is a Victorian B & B on San Francisco Bay. Rates start at $266 a night. (510-233-2385; www.ebls.org)

HECETA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE in Yachats, Ore., is perched on a cliff on the Oregon coast and sleeps up to 14 in the Lightkeeper’s Cottage B & B. Rates start at $133. (866-547-3696; www.hecetalighthouse.com)

THE KEEPER’S HOUSE INN at Robinson Point Lighthouse Station on Isle au Haut, Maine, is located in Arcadia National Park. Rooms start at $950 for a three-night minimum stay, including all meals. The inn is currently for sale and may open under new management next season. (207-460-0257; www.keepershouse.com)

PIGEON POINT LIGHTHOUSE in Pescadero, Calif., a hostel, is 47 miles south of San Francisco and features a hot tub at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific. Private double rooms are $55 to $65. (888-464-4872; www.norcalhostels.org)

RACE POINT LIGHTHOUSE in Provincetown, Mass., is on a remote stretch of the Cape Cod National Seashore (the lighthouse will provide the four-wheel-drive transportation you need) and is open May through mid-October. Rates are $145 to $185. (508-487-9930; www.racepointlighthouse.net)

ROSE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE in Newport, R.I., allows you to work as a lighthouse keeper. Rates start at $700 for the week. (401-847-4242; www.roseislandlighthouse.org)

SAUGERTIES LIGHTHOUSE in Saugerties, N.Y., is on the National Register of Historic Structures and lies about 100 miles north of New York City. Tours ($3) are between noon and 3 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day on weekends, or by appointment the rest of the year. Rooms are $160 during the week and $175 on weekends. (845-247-0656; www.saugertieslighthouse.com)

TIBBETS POINT LIGHTHOUSE HOSTEL in Cape Vincent, N.Y., is at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River on Lake Ontario. It’s open from mid-May until mid-October. The flat rate is $18 a person for nonmembers, even if you get a private room. (The phone number, in season, is 315-654-2700; www.capevincent.org/lighthouse.)

WHITEFISH POINT LIGHTHOUSE in Paradise, Mich., is in a beautifully restored lighthouse on the Shipwreck Coast of Lake Superior. Rates are $150 from April through November and $125 the rest of the year. (888-492-3747; www.shipwreckmuseum.com)

(l) How wonderfully romantic! I mean for someone else in addition to Wyatt and me.

;)

Docendo discimus.

We learn by teaching.

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

sweetlady

11-04-2007, 01:31 PM

(l) :D (l) :D

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/31/travel/1104-Journey_index.html

;);) Bedroom Food (No crumbs):

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2007/10/31/1104-Journey/20435657.JPG

"Bedroom "Tools"!!!!! ;)

An assortment of tools made of chocolate at Slitti.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/31/travel/1104-Journey_6.html

:o Very unusual:

Andrea Bianchini of La Botega del Cioccolato in Florence shows off some of his chocolates. "I use the flavors of Tuscany: lavender, olive oil, balsamic, rosemary," Mr. Bianchini said.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/31/travel/1104-Journey_10.html

(l)(l) The darker the better. Bittersweet......:)

(f) Have a lovely and restful rest of your Sunday.

:)

Fide, sed qui, vide.

Trust but take care whom.

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

sweetlady

11-06-2007, 09:11 AM

(y)(y)(y)

Entertainment on Web could bloom with strike

Fri Nov 2, 2007 11:44am EDT

By Steven Zeitchik

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - The last time the Writers Guild of America went on strike, restless viewers turned to cable, sending the category into a growth spurt that continues to this day.

With a writers strike set to be announced Friday, the question looming over digital Hollywood is: Can the Web become the cable of 2007?

The answer might be as murky as the politics of the strike itself.

Creators may be drawn to the Web as other avenues are sealed off. While strike rules at the moment seem to limit writers' latitude, some television veterans are calling for a rethinking of writers' relationships with online platforms.

"There is an opportunity, if there is a protracted strike, to create channels of development on the Internet that are outside the big companies, and I wonder if the guilds are thinking about that," said Marshall Herskovitz, the veteran TV creator behind "Quarterlife," the television-style drama that will air exclusively online.

In a prolonged stoppage, new-media experts say, viewers certainly will be looking for alternative platforms, and initial traffic numbers could be expected to spike. Such sites as Revver, DailyMotion, GoFish and My Damn Channel could become the TNTs and HBOs of today -- unknown before the 22-week walkout in 1988, a part of life after it.

"Viewers have already been watching on the Web, writers are writing for the Web, and networks are looking for programming on the Web," said an executive at one online-content site. "The strike will speed all of that up."

As NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker warned this week, a strike could be a "watershed event" that "drives more people away from primetime."

But to keep those viewers, Web sites will have to offer content that consumers feel improves on the reruns and low-cost programming on the air.

And that might be the tricky part.

Online content sites and the agents who sell to them are seeking to stake out a delicate strike position. They hope to capitalize on the immense opportunities the strike offers.

But they also want to preserve relationships that could be more critical in the long term; if agents and sites are seen as too aggressive, they could jeopardize their standing with the WGA -- and future deals along with it. That means a conservatism when it comes to signing new deals.

The latest strike rules from the WGA make clear that the guild will consider writing for Web sites a violation of strike rules. Members who do so could be penalized, and those who aren't yet members could be prevented from ever joining the guild.

Still, there may be more wiggle room than those rules indicate.

The WGA reportedly has told some members which Web sites are considered signatory companies and which ones aren't, potentially loosening the work rules for the latter firms.

And it's an open question whether the WGA's restrictions are posturing or policy. "The purpose of the rules is different for the two weeks leading up to a strike than it might be three months into a strike," Herskovitz said. "All along the guilds have been a bit overwhelmed by Internet production and at the same time winking at it because it's too small and too invisible to be worth policing."

The real fear for the WGA may not be that writers pen material for the Internet -- it's that such material will find its way onto network airwaves.

So far, the WGA restrictions haven't stopped some sites from mapping out a plan to seek out creators.

"We think the strike will give us many more opportunities to sign new talent in the coming weeks and months," said Rob Barnett, the former MTV executive who now runs original-content site My Damn Channel, which features series from "The Ten" director David Wain and "The Simpsons" veteran Harry Shearer. "The dark times for old media are definitely good times for new media."

And unlike a more binary split on television, the Web is home to content that crosses genres, which might leave room for many creators. "This is much grayer than the rules on television," one agent said. "If I'm a man on the street asking funny questions and getting goofy responses, is that considered written or not?"

Agents said younger writers who are hungry to work have been talking to them about finding work on the sites, WGA rules be damned.

Revver's Angela Gyetvan said that the site "welcomes an increase" of viewers and creators if a strike takes hold. But she expressed concerns that the rules could tie the site's hands as much as it did the networks.

The original content sites connected to networks -- notably Viacom new-media properties such as AtomFilms and News Corp.'s MySpace -- find themselves in a double bind: Not only do they have the relationships to manage, but they also need to fight the perception that they're simply extensions of the same networks showing recycled content.

Agents expressed hope that the WGA will loosen some rules, both to win goodwill for members and encourage the alternative platforms to increase their leverage in contract negotiations with the studios.

If they do, the Web might become the cable of the future; if they resist, Web content might look no better or more appealing than the cable networks of yesterday -- or today.

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0250912420071102

(y)(y)

(f)

Non scholæ, sed vitæ discimus.

We learn not for school but for life.

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

sweetlady

11-06-2007, 09:13 AM

:|:|:|:|

:o

November 5, 2007

Sydney Morning Herald

Masaya Igarashi wants $US200 headphones for his new iPod Touch, and he's torn between Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 game consoles. When he has saved up again, he plans to splurge on a digital camera or flat-screen TV.

There's one conspicuous omission from the college student's shopping list: a new computer.

The PC's role in Japanese homes is diminishing, as its once-awesome monopoly on processing power is encroached by gadgets such as smart phones that act like pocket-size computers, advanced internet-connected game consoles, and digital video recorders with terabytes of memory.

"A new PC just isn't high on my priority list right now," said Igarashi, who was shopping at a Bic Camera electronics shop in central Tokyo and said his three-year-old desktop was "good for now."

"For the cost, I'd rather buy something else," he said.

Japan's PC market is already shrinking, leading analysts to wonder whether Japan will become the first major market to see a decline in personal computer use some 25 years after it revolutionized household electronics - and whether this could be the picture of things to come in other countries.

"The household PC market is losing momentum to other electronics like flat-panel TVs and mobile phones," said Masahiro Katayama, research group head at market survey firm IDC.

Overall PC shipments in Japan have fallen for five consecutive quarters, the first ever drawn-out decline in PC sales in a key market, according to IDC. The trend shows no signs of letting up: In the second quarter of 2007, desktops fell 4.8 percent and laptops 3.1 percent.

NEC's and Sony's sales have been falling since 2006 in Japan. Hitachi Ltd. said Oct. 22 it will pull out of the household computer business entirely in an effort to refocus its sprawling operations.

"Consumers aren't impressed anymore with bigger hard drives or faster processors. That's not as exciting as a bigger TV," Katayama said. "And in Japan, kids now grow up using mobile phones, not PCs. The future of PCs isn't bright."

PC makers beg to differ, and they're aggressively marketing their products in the countries where they're seeing the most sales growth places where residents have never had a PC. The industry is responding in two other ways: reminding detractors that computers are still essential in linking the digital universe and releasing several laptops priced below $300 this holiday shopping season.

And, though Sales in the U.S. are slowing too, booming demand in the industrializing world is expected to buoy worldwide PC shipments 11 percent to an all-time high of 286 million in 2007. And, outside Japan, Asia is a key growth area, with second-quarter sales jumping 21.9 percent this year.

Hitachi had already stopped making PCs for individual consumers since releasing this year's summer models, although the Tokyo-based manufacturer will keep making some computers for corporate clients. Personal computers already accounted for less than 1 percent of Hitachi's annual sales.

It's clear why consumers are shunning PCs.

Millions download music directly to their mobiles, and many more use their handsets for online shopping and to play games. Digital cameras connect directly to printers and high-definition TVs for viewing photos, bypassing PCs altogether. Movies now download straight to TVs.

More than 50 percent of Japanese send e-mail and browse the internet from their mobile phones, according to a 2006 survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The same survey found that 30 percent of people with e-mail on their phones used PC-based e-mail less, including 4 percent who said they had stopped sending e-mails from PCs completely.

The fastest growing social networking site here, Mobagay Town, is designed exclusively for cell phones. Other networking sites like mixi, Facebook and MySpace can all be accessed and updated from handsets, as can the video-sharing site YouTube.

And while a lot of the decline is in household PCs, businesses are also waiting longer to replace their computers partly because recent advances in PC technology are only incremental, analysts say.

At a consumer electronics event in Tokyo in October, the mostly unpopular stalls showcasing new PCs contrasted sharply with the crowded displays of flat-panel TVs.

"There's no denying PCs are losing their spunk in Japanese consumers' eyes," said Hiroyuki Ishii, a sales official at Japan's top PC maker, NEC Corp. "There seems to be less and less things only a PC can do," Ishii said. "The PC's value will fade unless the PC can offer some breakthrough functions."

The slide has made PC manufacturers desperate to maintain their presence in Japanese homes. Recent desktop PCs look more like audiovisual equipment or even colorful art objects than computers.

Sony Corp.'s desktop computers have folded up to become clocks, and its latest version even hangs on the wall. Laptops in a new Sony line are adorned with illustrations from hip designers like ZAnPon. NEC is trying to make its PCs' cooling fans quieter to address a common complaint from customers, it says.

Still, sluggish sales weigh on manufacturers.

NEC's annual PC shipments in Japan shrank 6.2 percent to 2.72 million units in 2006, though overall earnings have been buoyed by mobile phone and networking solutions operations. The trend continued in the first quarter of fiscal 2007 then there was a 14 percent decline from a year earlier.

Sony's PC shipments for Japan shrank 10 percent in 2006 from a year earlier. But it isn't about to throw in the towel yet.

"We feel we've reached a new stage in PC development, where consumers are looking for user-friendly machines to complement other electronics," said Hiroko Nakamura, a Sony official in Tokyo.

Sony's latest PCs, for example, come with a powerful program that can take photos and video clips and automatically edit them into a slideshow set to music.

Even Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc., whose computer sales and market share are surging in the U.S., has seen Macintosh unit sales in Japan slip 5 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2007.

There are other reasons Japan is the first market to see PCs shrink, some analysts say.

"We think of Japanese as workaholics, but many don't take work home," said Damian Thong, a technology analyst at Macquarie Bank in Japan. "Once they leave the office, they're often content with tapping e-mails or downloading music on their phones," he said.

As Hitachi's shuttering of its household PC business demonstrates, making PCs has become less attractive. IBM Corp. also left the PC business in 2005, selling its computer unit to China's Lenovo Group Ltd.

But NEC's Ishii is persisting.

"We have to get the message out there that PCs are on top in terms of computing power," he said. "They always will be."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/japanese-are-saying-sayonara-to-the-pc/2007/11/05/1194117932499.html

^o) ^o)

(f)

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-06-2007, 09:17 AM

;)

Food nerds across Los Angeles delight in stumping the equally obsessed staff at Surfas, a 70-year-old restaurant-supply store in Culver City that’s the go-to resource for the hardest-to-find ingredients and cookware. If you’re clever enough to come up with something they don’t stock, they will find it for you. Their shelves hold up to 64 types of mustard, 30 varieties of salt, small-batch smoked meats from tiny farms across the South, every type of bakeware imaginable and a range of pots large enough to serve as hiding places for a toddler or two, and that’s just for starters. ‘‘At any moment, there are 10 to 20 items we’re on the hunt for,’’ says Diane Surfas, whose husband, Les, opened their (expanded) doors to the general public in the mid-’90s. Though this large industrial space now has a cafe, Surfas is still a well-kept secret among local pros. ‘‘Eighty percent of our customers are professionals,’’ Surfas says. ‘‘The other 20 are real cooking enthusiasts like us. If you start with the best ingredients, you don’t have to be an accomplished cook to make something taste great.’’ You just have to know where to shop. 8824 National Boulevard, Culver City, Calif. Go to www.surfasonline.com.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/30/style/04food-450.jpg

:)

(f)

Veritatem dies aperit.

Time discloses the truth.

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

sweetlady

11-06-2007, 09:19 AM

:)

What Lena Phillippou Korres of Korres Natural Products is wearing now, cardigans and more.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/04/fashion/20071104_PULSE_SLIDESHOW_index.html

"Minified flatiron": http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/02/fashion/04pulse.2.jpg and

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/04/fashion/20071104_PULSE_SLIDESHOW_2.html

Very cool recycling:

Ivories That Tickle the Neck

FIRST, JESSICA KAGAN CUSHMAN inscribed mammoth tusk bangles with flip pop-culture phrases. Now, Derrick Cruz, the designer of Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons, takes scrimshaw a bit more seriously. His unisex necklaces originate in some spectral Edwardian parlor: they’re made from vintage piano keys, salvaged from instruments that preceded the ivory-trade ban (Mr. Cruz prefers 1920s Drachmann player pianos). The keys are set in sterling silver with gold rivets and etched with a needle, in the tradition popularized by 19th-century whalers. Look for the Moby Dick-inspired Lovers necklace (far left) embellished with a squid and a whale, and the Raging Sea necklace, on which a ship founders in a tiny tempest; $620 to $685 at BBlessing in New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/04/fashion/20071104_PULSE_SLIDESHOW_3.html

(y)

;)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same. (*) (S)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer

sweetlady

11-06-2007, 09:21 AM

:o:o:o

SHORTER days mean longer nights, and for cyclists this means using a headlight. While many urban pedalers need only enough light to be seen, those traveling in areas without streetlights need more serious illumination. And many states require both a front and rear light for night riding.

In the past, headlights used incandescent bulbs, which were often clunky and had short life spans. But the light-emitting diode or L.E.D. changed all that, and the technology is improving so fast that manufacturers worry that their designs will become dated before they even get to market.

“We compare the L.E.D. industry to what was going on in the computer industry, where you’d buy a machine and six months later there would be a machine that was less money and twice as fast,” said Jack Gresmer, the president of NiteRider, the industry leader in bicycle lighting systems.

Monica Howe, the outreach coordinator at the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and an avid cyclist, tested L.E.D. lights from the new generation while riding at night in Los Angeles, downtown and on dimly lighted side streets. By STEPHEN KRCMAR

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/24/fashion/20071025_PHYS_SLIDESHOW_2.html

(y)(y)

Docendo discimus.

We learn by teaching.

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

sweetlady

11-06-2007, 09:24 AM

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

Walking My Dog Jane: From Valdez to Prudhoe Bay Along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline

by Ned Rozell (Author)

Alaska Northwest Books (May 1, 2005)

Reviews:

Spiritual Journey While Traveling: Having visited Alaska this summer, traveling from Fairbanks to the pipeline, I found the people to be intriguing, very different. This author really helps the reader understand what goes through the mind of someone who truly loves this wilderness called Alaska. The author's journey is one of self-exploration aside from exploring just the terrain. It's a pleasure to read, and it helps explain the makeup of people who find that wilderness inspiring and nurturing.

Take a walk with us: I enjoyed this book immensely, in part because Ned Rozell writes about things that I know, places that I've been, and the land that I love. He also strikes a chord in me when he writes about what Alaska means to him and the people that he meets along the way, and how so many of us have families in the States that just don't quite understand what keeps us here. I hope Ned's words help explain. I have lived in Alaska for 13+ years, and still I am reminded of the wonder and magic of the mostly wild land which surrounds us. Ned tells a wonderful story of the land and the history of the places he walks, interspersed with the adventure of crossing the largest state in the nation, and funny dog stories courtesy of his traveling companion, a chocolate Labrador Jane. As they traverse three mountain ranges and over 800 water crossings, Ned learns things about himself and his surroundings that he never expected. If you ever dreamed of traveling to Alaska, or if you have a dog that insists on walking you every day, you'll enjoy this adventure/history/travel story as much as I did.

(l) (&) (l)

(f)

Non scholæ, sed vitæ discimus.

We learn not for school but for life.

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

sweetlady

11-06-2007, 09:26 AM

:o:o:o

New Yorkers in Berlin learn that bigger isn't better. Anna Winger unpacks.

More is . . . more, as those who move to Berlin soon discover.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/30/style/04space-600.jpg

November 4, 2007

$1 a Square Foot! Gross

By ANNA WINGER

I live in a really big apartment. It has eight rooms, two balconies, high ceilings and a view. The best part is that it’s cheap, by New York standards, because it’s in Berlin.

But don’t hate me. When I forget something in one of the back bedrooms, I have to run down a 40-foot hallway to fetch it. And when I misplace my keys, well, auf Wiedersehen.

My friend Gabriela, who moved here from a one-bedroom in Brooklyn and now lives in a place similar to mine, was on her way to her mother’s 60th birthday in Atlanta the other day when she couldn’t find her passport. She turned over every book and pillow in her apartment for eight hours. Friends came over to help, digging through junk piled up in extra rooms. Finally, the plane took off for America without her.

“I never lost anything in Brooklyn,” she cried.

New Yorkers who live here love to say that Berlin reminds them of New York in the 1970s, but what they really mean is Woody Allen movies about New York in the 1970s, in which out-of-work singers like Annie Hall live in uptown apartments with outdoor space for $400 a month. This part is actually true. In a city where rent is about $1 a square foot, you can have bankers and artists at the same dinner party and nobody feels jealous. You see, my place is nice — but so is everyone else’s.

The natives take this for granted. They don’t consider their big places luxurious. In fact, most don’t even decorate: they fill their rooms with Billy bookshelves from Ikea and the occasional heirloom and leave it at that. They never even talk about real estate. But we do. When expats get together in Berlin, we talk about our apartments like expats in Paris must talk about food. But if you think we sit around congratulating ourselves, you’re wrong. We complain: no closets, high heating bills, dust.

Julie, who used to pay $1,800 a month for a room in a Chelsea share and now lives in a five-room place with elaborate Art Nouveau moldings for about $800, complains that the big apartments will keep her here. “How can I ever go back?” she asks, as if Berlin were deliberately spoiling her for anywhere else.

The fourth law of thermodynamics states that New Yorkers will expand into any living space and fill it with stuff. Usually this means a small apartment designed for maximum utility and the illusion of more: white walls to reflect light, scaled-down furniture, built-in storage, dining tables with extra leaves. But when New Yorkers move to Berlin, they get greedy, even grandiose, at the prospect of so much cheap space. Then they have no idea what to do with it.

I didn’t need an eight-room apartment; I wanted one because I could have it. Until fairly recently I was perfectly happy in a very small two-bedroom West Village walk-up. But I imagined a whole new life in Berlin: my daughter riding her tricycle down the hallway, parties where people actually danced, friends hanging out on the sofa in the kitchen, Thanksgiving dinners for 40. What I failed to imagine was the echo of a 3-year-old’s screams as she charged through empty rooms, or that my wee West Village furniture made the new apartment look like a minimalist experiment gone terribly wrong.

Then my mother came to visit from the States. “Less isn’t more,” she announced. “Less is less.”

She bought us an enormous carpet from Pakistan for the living room. We winced. Cover up our original parquet? But it did make things cozier. So I had long curtains made for every room. And my husband purchased the largest television this side of the Atlantic. We picked out colors to paint the once-white walls. We bought a deep Italian sofa and a 14-foot-long ellipse, once a conference table at a hotel in Copenhagen, for our dining room. Little by little, the place started to feel like home.

My husband still yearned for our New York apartment. “It was small,” he said wistfully. “But there was a place for everything.”

Me, I was getting into it: a whole new life, a whole new me. Then my friend Nina came to visit. “What do you think?” I asked, taking her on a tour. I swelled with pride as she looked around, watching her take it all in. “It looks just like your New York apartment,” she said finally. “But on steroids.”

;)

(f)

Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.

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

sweetlady

11-06-2007, 09:32 AM

(l) (&) (l)

Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

by Ted Kerasote

Harcourt (July 2, 2007)

Review:

"Wow. What a book." These are the words that I breathed out when I reached the end of Merle's Door.

Ted Kerasote is to writers what Mozart is to composers. His writing is that good. If he were to write about how the grass grew in his yard over summer, I have no doubt it would be a page-turner.

But that's not the story he wrote. This story is so much more. This unforgettable story begins when a big golden dog emerges from the dark to introduce himself to a small group of people camping in the desert. One of those people was Ted Kerasote, and the dog went home with him. As the story unfolds, we are taken on an amazing journey that goes well beyond "a boy and his dog."

Good relationships are built on mutual respect, and this relationship was better than most. This book is the story of that relationship. These two were the best of friends, and this account of their life together shows how each grew and learned from the other. Love, patience, and understanding are evident throughout the book.

At times, this book is humorous, and at other times it's instructive. But always, it's interesting. One of the lessons Merle taught Ted was that great things can happen if humans will change their behavior instead of always trying to change the behavior of their dogs. The prevailing wisdom is that dogs must be trained and molded a certain way, and treated as though they have no independent powers of judgment. Merle proved this isn't so wise.

The problem is that people don't let their dogs grow up. They make the dog into a perpetual child, and then are surprised when anxiety surfaces in the form of behavior problems. But how would you feel if you always had someone telling you what to do, and not letting you make any decisions on your own? This treatment, while often well-intended, disables a person. It disables dogs as well.

Ted suggests loving in a different way, one that provides more personal freedom and is less about controlling the dog. He says, "His (Merle's) lessons weren't about training, but about partnership. They were never about method; they were about attitude."

The partnership between these two took them on a far different path from one they would have taken if, for example, Ted had decided to make a bird dog out of Merle. Rather than make Merle into something to fit a desire of his own, Ted allowed Merle to be himself. And in so doing, Ted would eventually find his own deep needs met in ways that he could not have predicted. This made for a story worth telling and one definitely worth reading.

In addition to providing us with a wonderful story masterfully written, this book presents an impressive amount of science and technical information on a range of subjects. The list of sources runs 15 pages (in small print, at that). Yet, none of this seems out of place. Whether it's a quote from a biologist, an explanation of cognitive maps, or a summary of experiments with dolphins and mirrors, it's all good and it all fits. The wolf research is especially interesting. For anyone wishing to look up those facts after finishing the story, the extensive index will prove helpful.

This book has 18 chapters spanning 364 pages. Not a single one was wasted.

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

(f)

Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.

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

sweetlady

11-10-2007, 07:40 PM

(f)(f)(f)

Butch Is a Noun

by S. Bear Bergman

Suspect Thoughts Press (December 30, 2006)

http://www.suspectthoughts.com/butchreview.htm

Reviews:

As a self-identified femme who has always loved women of the butch persuasion, I have been asked a million times, "If you want to date a girl who looks like a boy, then why don't you just date a boy??" This book finally gave me the words to explain what I already knew I loved: the compassion, the cockiness, the fear, the struggles, the toughness, the sensitivity, and the oft-hidden inner world that makes butches who they are. My very favorite paragraph explains it best... a butch is "someone who has taken on the best gendered characteristics of both woman and man, left a lot of the stuff born of misogyny and heterosexism behind, and walked forward into the world without apology."

I think that from now on, THAT will be my answer to the question I am sure I will never stop hearing.

(f)

A previous reviewer stated that this book buys into the misogynistic patriarchy, that's not the point of the book. Butch is a Noun is about what and who and why butches are the way they are. It's not about challenging the man, it's about celebrating butches in all of their flavors and forms. It's about looking at the gendered world around us and seeing it differently and how a biologically born woman can be a man in a gender binary world.

I highly recommend this book to any and all readers who are curious about the butch/femme dynamic, gender, and sexuality.

At times funny and at times so true that I cried, this is a book worth not just reading, but savoring.

New pronouns (!) for me anyway:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Bear_Bergman

S. Bear Bergman (b. 22 September, 1974) is a transgendered author, poet, playwright, and theater artist. Bergman was educated at Concord Academy, where ze was one of the founders of the first Gay-Straight Alliance and on the Governor of Massachusetts' Commission for GLBT youth. Ze received hir Bachelor of Fine Arts from Hampshire College in 1996.

Ze is widely known in the transgender community for hir poem, Day of Remembrance, which is read at many Transgender Day of Remembrance celebrations nationwide.

Hir solo shows have received accolades at the annual Gay & Lesbian Theatre Festival in Columbus, Ohio. In 2005, ze was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant for playwriting, as well as a Millay Colony Fellowship award.

Bergman's first book, Butch Is A Noun, was released in September 2006 by Suspect Thoughts Press and has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the GLBT Nonfiction category. Ze contributes regularly to anthologies, and writes a book review column for Gendercrash.com. In addition, ze continues to perform hir solo shows at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

(en) Gender:

helen boyd’s journal of gender & trans issues:

http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/?p=991

Lesbian Book Reviews:

http://rainbow-reviews.com/?cat=4

"One can only hope that there will be a sequel to this book. Bear's spin on the role of a gentleman would be hard for anyone to dislike, based as it is on compassion, helpfulness, strength and style rather than force, contempt, intimidation or snobbery. As reviewer Kate Bornstein suggests, this book should be required reading in any gender studies curriculum."

Review by Lizardle:

http://rainbow-reviews.com/?p=31

(f)(f)(f)

Fide, sed qui, vide.

Trust but take care whom.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-10-2007, 07:42 PM

(l)

http://nowsmellthis.blogharbor.com/2007%20apr/hermes-kelly-caleche.jpg

Hermès perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena created the floral leather blend, the first such scent for women by the brand. The bottle, which is inspired by the design of the original Calèche fragrance, has a ring-operated spray, an element recalling the buckle-opening of the Kelly bag, as well as the spray for Terre d’Hermès.

Really Nice Ad:

http://www.mimifroufrou.com/scentedsalamander/images/KellyCaleche_Ad.jpg

"One of the first things I wanted to do when I entered Hermès was work with leather," said Ellena. He also kept in mind a passage from French author Jean Giono's "Jean le Bleu," in which the narrator speaks of his departed father, a cobbler, as "making soles in angel leather."

"Jean-Claude wanted to do a floral leather," explained Fulconis. To that end, Ellena combined notes of iris, mimosa, tuberose and climbing rose to create Kelly Calèche.

Perfume Blogspot:

http://perfumesmellinthings.blogspot.com/2007/06/perfume-review-hermes-kelly-caleche.html

...."The beginning playfully slapped me on the nose with an unexpected note of grapefruit. Before I could collect my wits and protest (I am not friendly with grapefruit), the citrusy explosion dissipated into a floral accord of commendable complexity. Kelly Caleche is full of nuances, all of them very subtle. The flowers are done in transparent soft hues and they mesh into a delicate harmony, in which it seems almost impossible to distinguish separate notes ...until suddenly a cold, rooty iris peaks through the pastel mist only to disappear just as quickly ...then a softly-powdery, vaguely gourmand, green and yellow mimosa comes forth and almost immediately goes away ...a sweet, sparkly rose pops up once in a while and hides again ...and thus on and on ...flowers playing games, teasing me. The one note that spends most of its time in hiding is leather. During the first two-thirds of the scent's development, there is not even a hint of the note, and nothing in the gentle and whimsical floral blend seems to herald its arrival. Eventually leather tip-toes in and inconspicuously positions its well-mannered self behind the gauzy flowers. In accordance with the general feel of toned down elegance of the composition, the leather note speaks in a quiet, soft voice, and one has to strain to hear it. The note makes me think not of an expensive leather bag but rather of a trace of smell that the handle of such a bag would leave on one's skin. Kelly Caleche's is a tantalizingly subtle leather that I cannot help but wish was a little stronger."

"he Kelly Caleche ad with the young modern amazon decisively striding along carrying a whip would make us believe there will be audaciousness and gutsiness in the fragrance, but I found the reality of the scent to be less daring. This is a refined, restrained, ladylike perfume, certainly youthful, simply because of its surprising, smiling playfulness, but not so young and overly girly as to render it unappealing to anyone over the age of 20-25. Kelly Caleche is the kind of fragrance that seems to be as easily wearable and universally appealing as possible without being too bland. If I were allowed to rename the scent, I would call it Miss Hermes, as it fullfils all the requirements - classic structure, elegance, tiny bit of flirtiness- for being placed as the house's offering to its somewhat younger clientele."

The above excerpted from:

http://perfumesmellinthings.blogspot.com/2007/06/perfume-review-hermes-kelly-caleche.html

(Previous iteration of this scent.....and backgrounder.)

Hermes Caleche Soie de Parfum fragrance review

Posted by Robin on 3 October 2005

Hermes Caleche perfumeCalèche was released by Hermès in 1961, and for many years it was their best-selling women’s fragrance. It was created by nose Guy Robert, and includes bergamot, mandarin, orange blossom, aldehydes, jasmine, lily of the valley, rose, gardenia, iris, ylang-ylang, oakmoss, sandalwood, cedar, and vetiver.

In 1992, Hermès released Calèche Soie de Parfum, a reformulated version that they hoped would appeal to a younger, more modern consumer. According to Women’s Wear Daily (3/27/1992), they "heightened and brightened" the floral notes, and cut back on the powdery wood notes. That is the scent I am reviewing today. I have never tried the original parfum, and I have no idea if it has been reformulated as well. If you know, please comment!

The Soie de Parfum starts slightly harsh, as aldehydic fragrances sometimes do. Within a few minutes the harshness fades, and the bergamot and orange blossom make a brief appearance. After that, it smells like a soapy aldehydic floral. It is very soft, and no one particular note stands out, it just smells like floral soap — albeit, very expensive floral soap, the sort of soap that under normal circumstances, I probably could not afford.

As it dries down, the soapiness fades a bit, and the iris and sandalwood intensify, giving it a smooth, silky, almost-powder finish. It is classified as a floral woody chypre, but if that scares you, fear not: the earthy and mossy notes that typically announce a chypre are extremely subdued, even in the dry down. It smells elegant and sophisticated in a very quiet way, without hitting anyone over the head about it. Despite the reformulation, it has an old-fashioned feel, but unlike some of the classic aldehydic florals, it doesn't feel out of place for casual wear, and it is not in the least heavy or overpowering.

http://nowsmellthis.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/3/1275680.html

Talk about a gold mine web site of links on fragrances!!

http://www.mimifroufrou.com/scentedsalamander/2007/05/more_on_kelly_caleche_by_herme.html

For instance:

Index of New Perfumes 2007 in Alphabetical Order:

http://www.mimifroufrou.com/scentedsalamander/new_perfumes_2007.html

Well slap my a** and call me Sally! No wonder I like this fragrance! My daily splash of fragrance (along with hand creme, body creme, body butter, etc. other products the same fragrance) is Bath and Body's "Pink Grapefruit".

It just goes to show that after some research into a newish perfume that caught my attention as a potential purchase - finding out the ingredients usually traces me back to both lovingly embraced recent scents as well as decades-long passionate affairs with certain perfumes.

For anyone wondering what Sweetlady might smell like.

;);)

Fide, sed qui, vide.

Trust but take care whom.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-10-2007, 07:46 PM

(l) (f) (l) (f)

November 4, 2007

Lives

Son of the South

By ROBERT LELEUX

When I was 16, my father left my mother and me for his pregnant mistress, who happened to be a jockey at the racetrack and didn’t ride sidesaddle, if you know what I mean. Well, we’re from Houston; off-color divorce is our municipal hobby. Mother’s first words after reading Daddy’s Dear Jane letter — “All that goes back tomorrow!” — referred to a cluster of shopping bags we collected earlier that day at Neiman’s and addressed the real problem for both of us: with my father gone, the gravy train was over.

What can I say about a gay boy’s love for his mother? Especially my mother, who’s outrageous, even by the standards of over-the-hill Southern belles. From the fitting room to the Costa Brava, our life was one long looping of “Suddenly, Last Summer.”

After Daddy left, Mother spent weeks in bed drinking Smirnoff out of Evian bottles before starting a campaign to win a new, rich husband — cruising Bible-study groups at the better-off Baptist churches, along with some Republican luncheon clubs. “But Mother,” I said, “you’re a registered Democrat.” “From now on, Robert,” Mother replied, “I vote with the Democrats, but I lunch with the Republicans.” Mother’s husband hunt was really the first thing we’d ever not done together. It wasn’t long before I figured out that a man doesn’t propose to a middle-aged jeune fille with another fellow’s son around. And it wasn’t long before Mother’s shoot-where-the-ducks-are strategy proved winning; she was soon off to California with a right-wing fiancé.

By this time I was 17, and Mother was sending me all the cash she could, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from checking groceries at the Wal-Mart — a tough job for an aesthete with no skill set and a far cry from Neiman Marcus, let me tell you. There is the saying about God closing doors and opening windows, however, and after what felt like the disappearance of both my father and mother, my window opened up. In the fall of 1996, I was recommended for a community-theater review of “West Side Story.” I played Tony; I was terrible. But I fell in love with our almond-eyed choreographer, Michael Leleux.

Michael soon took me home to meet his folks at their hopping family house, a veritable Knights of Columbus Hall tucked into a shady Houston suburb. Michael’s family is Cajun and Catholic, though his parents are more devoted to the spirit of their church than to its laws. His sisters never tire of reminding me of the trailblazing years they spent exhausting their parents’ moral standards — of getting caught necking with Protestants and divorcés; of pregnancy scares with men who rode motorcycles. So that by the autumn evening Michael waltzed me across the Leleuxes’ threshold, his parents had long since grown resigned to their children’s exploits. And Michael’s mom, Yvella, a brigadier general in a velveteen bathrobe, made me part of the family before I could put up a struggle.

Meanwhile, my own mother was pretty lonely on the West Coast, even with Mr. Wonderful’s company. She started phoning me constantly — tracking me down at department stores and movie theaters but mostly at Michael’s parents’ house, where I was living, and where she often got Yvella on the line. After a while, Mother started phoning in order to talk to Yvella, who could coax kittens out of trees.

In September 1997, I turned 18, and Michael and I stood before a judge at the county courthouse, in the only way we could conceive of standing before a judge together, and changed my name to Leleux. Not something my feminist scruples would have permitted had I been a woman — but the most traditional act can be radicalized by its context. For a gay couple in Texas, the trappings of bourgeois marriage amounted to civil resistance.

To the Leleuxes, family isn’t a matter of feeling, it’s a matter of principle, so after the one millionth time I told Michael’s mom just how much I hated my philandering father, she looked at me as if I’d missed the point. “You only get one father, Robert,” she said. “Trust me, that’s plenty,” I answered. But even then I knew that it was only a matter of time before I’d end up calling my father for the first time in years. Just a matter of time before Michael and I were having lunch with him, and his horsy new wife, and their little foal. Not that I was altogether thrilled with the outcome, mind you. But there’s another Jesus-y thing Yvella had right: it’s easy to hate the idea of a person, but hard not to love your poky, hangdog father when you’re actually speaking to him.

Which is to say that I find it confounding to hear people talking about homosexuality eroding the Christian family. Hell, if I hadn’t been gay, I might never have joined the Catholic League. Talk to my mother-in-law, I want to tell those people. Where some see the naked heathen, she sees but the convert.

Robert Leleux is the author of “The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy,” to be published in January and from which this essay is adapted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/magazine/04lives-t.html

(l)(l)(l)

Love, peace and white light,

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

sweetlady

11-10-2007, 07:47 PM

(f)

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 / 10:34 AM

Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate

According to a new poll, 70 percent of LGBT Americans prefer passing an Employment Nondiscrimination Act that does not include transgender people over not passing the bill at all.

The poll, commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign and conducted on October 26, surveyed 500 members of the LGBT community across the country.

A version of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), which does not include job protections for transgender Americans, was voted out of the House of Representative rules committee Monday night, and voting on the bill is very likely on Wednesday.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) may offer her amendment to add transgender protections to the bill. If she does, it will be debated, but will likely be pulled from the floor without a vote as soon as the debate ends.

HRC president Joe Solmonese said the poll numbers weren?t immediately obvious to him or to the organization before they conducted the polling.

"There were so many people out there speaking so emphatically about where the entire community was that I thought maybe we should get a sense of it, and that's why we did the poll," he said.

"So it was surprising to me, but I think it really speaks to the fact that there's a big, diverse community of GLBT Americans all across the country."

The poll specifically asked: "This proposal would make it illegal to fire gay, lesbian and bisexual workers because of their sexual orientation. This proposal does not include people who are transgender. Would you favor or oppose this proposal moving forward?" Seventy percent favored moving forward with the legislation.

The poll also asked people if they agreed that "national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organizations should oppose this proposal because it excludes transgender people."

Only about 20 percent of the people agreed with that statement.

About 70 percent of respondents still believe that transgender folks should be included in the ENDA proposal, as they did in a poll conducted in 2004 -- but they also favor passing a noninclusive ENDA as a path to gaining protections for transgender workers.

HRC has come out in support of Frank's noninclusive version of ENDA.

"We're on the brink of a historic step in the right direction toward what we're all fighting for," said Solmonese, "and with a bill on the floor -- regardless of whether you think it ever should have gotten there or not -- I would hope that most people think it's important for our entire community that the bill pass rather than fail."

He added that HRC's policies on ENDA have been more focused on the best way to achieve legislative goals than on the opinion of the community. HRC did not immediately release the numbers because, at the time, members of the community were still working on getting votes for gender identity inclusion.

"To release those numbers or cite those numbers would have undermined those efforts," said Solmonese.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, who supports only a trans-inclusive ENDA, dismissed the poll, saying that the community?s rights on any front should not be dictated by polling.

"Fundamentally, rights are not about popular opinion, and that's why we so vehemently reject voting on the right to marry," he said.

"We shouldn't just hold up our finger and test popular opinion at any one moment and say that's the way we are going to go when we're talking about fundamental human rights."

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights -- the umbrella organization of civil rights groups that includes the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality -- also announced Tuesday morning that it would support passing the noninclusive version as an "incremental" step forward.

In a letter sent to Capitol Hill, LCCR noted that reaching the decision had been "extraordinarily difficult" for the organization.

"As a civil rights organization, however, we are no strangers to painful compromise in the quest for equal protection of the law for all Americans," read the letter.

"We have always recognized, however, that each legislative breakthrough has pave the way for additional progress in the future. With respect to ENDA, we take the same view."

The letter was signed by organizations including the Human Rights Campaign and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Foreman said the letter did not take into account the views of many of LCCR's member organizations.

"We are disappointed because the letter does not in fact reflect the view of the membership of LCCR and, more important, and does not reflect of the vast majority of LGBT organizations in LCCR and across the country," said Foreman.

Some 350 organizations have stated that they would support nothing less than a fully inclusive version of ENDA.

:o:o

We are ALL connected.

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

sweetlady

11-10-2007, 07:49 PM

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

Out gay candidates make gains nationwide

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 / 01:10 PM

(The Advocate)

Of the 71 gay and lesbian political candidates endorsed this year by political action group the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, at least 31 were elected on Tuesday, and 10 others won races earlier this year.

"This is the path to change," Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Victory Fund, said in a press release. "We are not content to sit on the sidelines and hope others do the right thing for our community. We will step up and lead the fight for a more equal and fair America, and we will win."

Among the group's endorsements were Craig Covey, who clinched the mayoral race on Tuesday in Ferndale, Mich., becoming the state's first openly gay mayor, and New Jersey state assemblyman Reed Gusciora, who came out during his first term and won reelection.

Though the Victory Fund officially supported 88 candidates in 2006, this year's 71 endorsements by the group set a new record for an odd-numbered year without a planned federal election. The group expects to endorse more than 100 in 2008.

The release highlighted the following races from Tuesday:

Jeffrey Anderson was elected to the Duluth, Minn., city council, becoming the first openly gay elected official in northern Minnesota.

Brian Bates became the first out Republican to be elected in Georgia, winning a place on the Doraville city council.

Transgender council member Michelle Bruce received the most votes and will head to a runoff to defend her seat on the Riverdale, Ga., city council.

Joel Burns received the most votes and will head to a December runoff election to the Fort Worth, Texas, city council, despite an antigay campaign by an opponent.

Craig Covey was elected mayor of Ferndale, Mich., becoming the first out gay mayor elected in the state of Michigan.

Tim Eustace was elected mayor of Maywood, N.J.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, who already became New Jersey's first openly gay state legislator when he came out during his first term, won reelection.

Lydia Lavelle became North Carolina's seventh out elected official when she won a seat on the Carrboro, N.C., board of aldermen.

Other winning candidates cited (alphabetical by state):

Calif. -- Ruth Atkin: Vice mayor, Emeryville

Calif. -- Henry Lo: Garvey school district board of education

Calif. -- Steve Pougnet: Mayor pro tem, Palm Springs

Colo. -- Karen Kellen: Lakewood city council

Conn. -- Adam Gutcheon: Windsor board of education

Conn. -- Mike Pohl: Manchester board of education

Ga. -- Kecia Cunningham: Decatur city commissioner

Ga. -- Lance Rhodes: East Point city council

Mass. -- Joe DeMedeiros: New Bedford city council

Mass. -- Timothy Purington: Holyoke city council

Mass. -- Denise Simmons: Cambridge city council

Md. -- Patrick Wojahn: College Park city council

Minn. -- Craig Covey: Mayor, Ferndale

Minn. -- Jeffrey Anderson: Duluth city council

Minn. -- Greg Lemke: Moorhead city council

N.C. -- Lydia Lavelle: Carrboro alderman

N.H. -- Jonathan Cote: Manchester school board

N.J. -- Reed Gusciora: General assembly

N.J. -- Randy Bishop: Neptune Township

N.J. -- Timothy Eustace: Mayor, Maywood

N.Y. -- Jon Cooper: Suffolk County legislator

N.Y. -- Debra Silber: Judge, New York City civil court

N.Y. -- Ken Zalewski: Troy city council

Pa. -- Geri Delevich: New Hope Borough city council

Pa. -- Bruce Kraus: Pittsburgh city council

Tex. -- Sue Lovell: Houston city council

Tex. -- Annise Parker: Houston controller

Va. -- Adam Ebbin: House of delegates

Wash. -- Tom Rasmussen: Seattle city council

Wash. -- Sally Clark: Seattle city council

(y)(y)(y)

:)

Pass it along.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-10-2007, 07:50 PM

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

Dutch want cannabis registered as regular medicine

Wed Nov 7, 2007 7:57am EST

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government said on Wednesday it wants to promote the development of cannabis-based medicine and will extend the drug's availability in pharmacies by five years to allow more scientific research.

In 2003, the Netherlands became the world's first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug in pharmacies to treat chronic pain, nausea and loss of appetite in cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

"Medicinal cannabis must become a regular registered medicine," Health Minister Ab Klink said in a statement, adding he wanted to give the development of a cannabis-based medicine by a Dutch company a serious chance.

The Netherlands, where prostitution and the sale of cannabis for recreational use in coffee shops are regulated by the government, has a history of pioneering social reforms. It was also the first country to legalize euthanasia.

The Dutch government regulates the growing of special strains of cannabis in laboratory-style conditions to supply pharmacies, but also hopes for progress on a cannabis-based drug by Dutch firm Echo Pharmaceuticals, the Health Ministry said.

"The development path, that could take several years, can deliver scientific details and insight into the balance between the efficacy and safety of medicinal cannabis," it said.

A ministry spokesman said several thousand patients were prescribed cannabis in the Netherlands and up to 15,000 people used it for medicinal purposes, although many bought their supply at coffee shops rather than pharmacies.

Echo Pharmaceuticals said in September it was launching a tablet containing the active ingredient in cannabis that doctors can prescribe.

In 2005, Canada became the first country in the world to approve a cannabis-based medicine produced by Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals Plc as a treatment for MS patients.

U.S. regulators granted approval last year for a clinical trial for GW's under-the-tongue spray called Sativex, but the company announced in July that European regulators had requested a further clinical study before approval.

Cannabis has a long history of medicinal use. It was used as a Chinese herbal remedy around 5,000 years ago, while Britain's Queen Victoria is said to have taken cannabis tincture for menstrual pains.

But it fell out of favor because of a lack of standardized preparations and the development of more potent synthetic drugs.

Critics argue that it has not undergone sufficient scientific scrutiny and some doctors say it increases the risk of depression and schizophrenia.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL0755042420071107

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

Aut disce aut discede.

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

sweetlady

11-10-2007, 07:54 PM

:o:o:o

(y)(y)

Cities with the highest percentages of home-based workers:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/03/magazine/04wwln-lede.190.jpg

November 4, 2007

The Way We Live Now

Home-Office Politics

By MATT BAI

Like other businesses, politics these days is conducted less in person than on speaker phone and laptops. Campaign consultants, policy analysts, fund-raisers and bloggers do most of their work in the comfort of their own homes, or in their cars, or maybe at Starbucks. Political professionals have as a result become part of a much larger American movement. In his new book, “Microtrends,” the Democratic pollster Mark Penn notes that 4.2 million Americans now work exclusively from home (a nearly 100 percent increase from 1990), while some 20 million do it part time. Some of these workers are employees who telecommute to traditional offices, but most represent a kind of modern, untethered American work force.

The federal government says nearly a third of workers qualify as “independent,” a category that includes self-employed professionals, contractors and part-time and temporary workers. For some reason, however, when it comes to making policy, political leaders seem to regard workplace independence as a privilege that should accrue only to affluent workers. Republicans, following the lead of George W. Bush and his “ownership society,” propose new savings and health-care plans that might help self-employed workers substitute for the benefits given by traditional employers, but only if they can put something extra away each month. Democrats meanwhile are prone to castigate employers who would outsource jobs to self-employed contractors, regarding the transition toward an independent work force as the mugging of the little guy. There is an accurate diagnosis in this view; certainly, a lot of employers are trying to shirk their responsibilities when they designate computer programmers or midlevel marketers as contingent workers. But the prescription — that the only solution is to somehow shame companies into honoring a decades-old social contract — ignores a historic opportunity to create a more enlightened notion of work.

After all, why shouldn’t more middle-class workers whose jobs can now be done remotely have the option to structure their own hours and still enjoy the security of a safety net? Why shouldn’t data-entry clerks and graphic designers and actuaries and reservations agents — anyone who spends his days staring at a terminal in some sterile environment straight out of “Office Space” — be able to work in shorts and spend more time around the kids? According to Penn, stay-at-home workers actually log more hours than their counterparts in offices but report far higher rates of job satisfaction. The age of broadband means we might reasonably imagine a day when the American workplace of “face time” and endless polluting commutes fades slowly into the past, replaced by a society where vastly more workers get control over their daily lives.

As it stands now, it’s hard for eminently replaceable workers to negotiate this kind of freedom. But if workers’ benefits weren’t tied to employers, then they could transition into independent status without fear of losing their health care or pensions, and more employers would gladly oblige, since they could move costly benefits packages off their books. And yet the old, employer-based canon of policies makes it impossible for most workers with a modest income to even consider becoming their own bosses. Self-employed workers pay more than 15 percent of their incomes to Social Security, while traditional workers pay half that rate. (Some economists like to say this is a meaningless distinction, since employers are in theory taking their share of Social Security payments out of their employees’ wages, but in practice few employers or employees see it that way.) Life and disability insurance remain prohibitively expensive for independent workers with modest incomes, and unemployment insurance and flexible spending accounts for child care are available only through employers.

In other words, a system devised before the word “telecommute” ever existed helps to keep ordinary workers chained to their modular cubicles, while richer workers get to take advantage of a new, potentially liberating lifestyle. There are some significant agents for change; the New York Freelancers Union (now the fourth-largest in the state) offers benefits in some states and lobbies for independent workers, and the Service Employees International Union will soon help to inaugurate a new program offering financial planning tools and health insurance plans to younger workers who employ themselves or who are caught between full-time jobs. There are also some innovative ideas floating around. Writing in “Democracy: A Journal of Ideas” in 2005, Karen Kornbluh, Barack Obama’s policy chief in the Senate, proposed replacing the employer-based benefits system with portable “family insurance” instead; this policy might include a flexible tax credit that could be used to offset health care, child care and other family-related expenses — a potentially transformative idea that would benefit families who don’t earn six figures. Obama himself has talked of the need to update the 20th-century social contract, though as a candidate he has offered few concrete proposals for doing so. This may be because, for Democrats in the Bush era, accepting changes in the workplace is considered tantamount to siding with Bushian corporatists.

In fact, the current presidential candidates have moved only gingerly toward redefining the relationship between business, workers and government. Any of the leading Democratic candidates’ health-care plans might constitute a critical step in that direction, since they would allow — or even force — independent workers to buy insurance from pooled plans or the government. No candidate, however, has yet envisioned a package of proposals that might make the self-employed society a reality for everyone. That means a political opening still exists. The last party to forge a social contract befitting a new technological era — the New Deal-era Democrats — ended up dominating American politics for more than half a century. The next 50 years are thus far unclaimed.

Matt Bai, who covers politics for the magazine, is the author of “The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/magazine/04wwln-lede-t.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

(y)(y)(y)

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. WE ARE ALL CREW."

- Marshall McLuhan

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

sweetlady

11-10-2007, 07:59 PM

:)

Slide Show:

http://www.dominomag.com/galleries/paint/pastel_palette?slide=1&run=true&start=5

Macdonald devised the sun-filled turret to lighten a row of fitted cabinets lacquered in deep maroon (hidden from view). Faint-green walls soften the contrast, while natural linen shades with a lavender print pick up the heather tones of the nearby living room and hall.

http://www.dominomag.com/images/galleries/paint/gasl_paintpalette_07nov_03.jpg

I have THE perfect table from Mexico made of mixed light woods that would look great with the window seating. I also have two cane chairs instead of these tiny ones. I really like the light as well as the window seating - to make more room in an otherwise smallish area.

Who doesn't love a cozy window seating area?

With the addition of a narrow twin bed, Macdonald turned her dressing room into an extra spot for overnight guests. She chose a "very soft, brown-pink" paint to effect calm. For now, she keeps an off-white alpaca throw on the bed, but she hopes to swap in a woven-silk coverlet in the same shade as the walls, to enhance the intimacy.

http://www.dominomag.com/images/galleries/paint/gasl_paintpalette_07nov_04.jpg

:) I have been seriously considering posting these things elsewhere in the digital tundra. With no feedback here on B-F and so many anonymous "guests" hiding their identity (or think they are, IMHO.)? I feel like I am giving and getting nothing in return here. The Internet technologies provide for INTERACTIVE communication and not info for folks who take without giving back.....

(f)

Veritatem dies aperit.

Time discloses the truth.

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

sweetlady

11-11-2007, 11:04 AM

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f) (f) (f) (f)

Veterans have gathered in Washington this week's events commemorating the 25th anniversary of the memorial.

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/customslideshow?buddyJS=slideshow20071109160814.js&title=Vietnam%20Veterans%20Memorial%20anniversary&size=14

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f)

Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes.

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

sweetlady

11-11-2007, 11:08 AM

;)

November 8, 2007

Need a Life? She’ll Arrange One

By DEBORAH SCHOENEMAN

ON a warm autumn afternoon, Allison Storr was giving Brad Peik, a San Francisco real estate investor, a crash course on the Chelsea art world. “The gallery scene can be a little intimidating,” Ms. Storr said as she took him on a tour of galleries that was intended as a primer for cocktail party chatter, not collecting.

Later that night, Ms. Storr planned to give a dinner party at her downtown penthouse to introduce Mr. Peik, 39, and his girlfriend, Sarah Kehoe, to New Yorkers they might want to socialize with while they figure out whether to make the city a part-time home.

A week earlier, the couple had moved into a TriBeCa rental that Ms. Storr had found and temporarily furnished, filling it with flowers and groceries. She wrote up a city guide, a combination of her favorite spots and trendy places she thought they should know about, like the Waverly Inn.

“Allison is covering all the bases for me,” said Mr. Peik, who spends winters in Lake Tahoe in California and feels more comfortable navigating ski slopes than society. “I didn’t want to waste my short time here setting up an apartment and figuring out what we would do here.”

His girlfriend, a photographer, was grateful that she didn’t have to deal with the move. “If I had no job and nothing going on, it would seem reasonable for me to do these things,” said Ms. Kehoe, who was wearing a boho pink dress from Matta, a downtown boutique, that Ms. Storr’s staff stylist, Chloé Garcia Ponce, had helped choose.

Looking for someone to curate your life? Need a personal concierge whose expertise is not picking up dry-cleaning but helping chose your wardrobe, your tastes, your friends? Ms. Storr calls herself a personal manager, but her duties go far beyond that. Her clients, all of them men, pay monthly fees of $4,000 to $10,000 to have her be their personal decider in nearly all things lifestyle-related.

Calling on assistants including a stylist and a caterer, Ms. Storr helps people figure out their tastes. If they are single, she enhances their social profile (though she insists she is not a matchmaker). She currently works with eight men, she says. (She has had only one female client, who needed help relocating after a divorce.)

Most of Ms. Storr’s clients are single and too preoccupied with work to organize their personal lives, she says. They are either moving to Manhattan or live in the city part-time and covet her contacts, which she uses to link them with interior designers, contractors, art dealers or potential social acquaintances.

“I get people together in a room and let them figure it out for themselves,” said Ms. Storr, 39, a petite blonde with intense blue eyes who seems constantly happy and curious. “I help clients expand their social circle by looking at things they are interested in. If I think two people should meet, I might encourage an introduction, but it’s an organic process.” (Marriage is an outside chance. She claims one since opening Allison Storr & Company in 2005.)

She is helping Dr. W. Scott Harkonen, the president of CoMentis Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, plan a West Coast fund-raiser for Alzheimer’s research. Then there’s the destination 40th-birthday party in Mexico she is organizing for a client whose business is private equity investing. And the chief executive she’s helping to open an art gallery in San Francisco, where she lived for 12 years before moving to New York two years ago.

For each person, she draws up a work plan to outline goals, like getting involved in the music scene or making friends in creative fields, which she reviews with her client monthly. “I help build their plan for their life,” she said.

Every so often, those plans get impulsive, even irrational: she once helped a client move between three apartments in New York in eight weeks.

Ms. Storr has apparently figured out what many an Internet networking site has not: how to turn various social connections into cash. She insists that she does not take commissions from the galleries, restaurants or hairstylists she sends clients to. Jackie Greenberg, an interior designer whom Ms. Storr recently referred a client to, said, “Allison collects people and shares them.”

Ms. Storr’s “light-bulb moment,” when she realized she could turn her skills into a career, came three years ago. A friend asked for help with a theme party for 300 guests. Ms. Storr said she didn’t have time. “He said, ‘What if I pay you?’ ” Ms. Storr said. “That launched it.”

Ms. Storr, educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, the New England prep school, and at U.C.L.A., where she studied economics, business and art history, completed a one-year certificate program in contemporary art at Christie’s in London. It’s the kind of background many successful men might choose in a wife. But Ms. Storr said she has never dated a client, and she is unattached. “What I do for my clients are things that I have done for myself my whole life,” she said. “I’m not looking to expand my social circle.”

A partner in a New York law firm, who agreed to be interviewed if he was not named to protect his privacy, said he has employed Ms. Storr for two and a half years. Last summer, Ms. Storr organized an ’80s theme party at the lawyer’s house in the Hamptons for about 200 of his friends, with a $5,000 budget. “It was honestly one of the most fun parties out there,” the lawyer said. “By now all my friends know that Allison works for me.”

He calls her an outsourced wife. “The nice thing is that when I ask her to do something, she gets it done and there’s no negative feelings.”

Ms. Storr sees nothing particularly sexist about her career. “For a lot of the guys I work with it’s helpful to have a feminine touch to their lives,” she said. She recently bought her own beach house in Sag Harbor.

For clients who already have a romantic partner, befriending that significant other is a must. They usually embrace her back, quickly figuring out that she’s a good vehicle for promoting their own tastes, particularly in matters of closet space and catering. “They get their say without having to be overt about it,” Ms. Storr said.

“I trust her judgment,” Ms. Kehoe, the photographer and girlfriend of Mr. Peik, said. “Brad will ask me a question like, ‘Where should I get a haircut?’ and I’ll say, ‘Ask Allison!’ ”

Asked if all that delegating stifled her own judgment, Ms. Kehoe said she thought of Ms. Storr’s services as luxuries that don’t detract from her individuality. “If I picked out a good restaurant or a perfect dress, that’s not really a thing I use to value myself, so it doesn’t make me feel strange at all to have Allison do those things,” she said.

Mr. Peik said he would feel more comfortable flying from Ms. Storr’s warm nest after he knew the city better. “Once I’ve lived here for a year,” he said, “I’ll probably go find a different apartment and discover a lot of things on my own, but Allison got us up to speed really quickly.”

At Ms. Storr’s dinner party for the couple, which she paid for herself, about half her 20 guests knew that Mr. Peik and Ms. Kehoe were clients, said Ms. Storr, who had invited mostly what she described as “hip, cool couples” and no other clients.

The other guests included Raj Roy, the new film curator at the Museum of Modern Art, and Di Ana Pisarri, an actress and relationship coach who lives in the same building as Mr. Peik and Ms. Kehoe.

As the party wound down, Ms. Kehoe, wearing another dress picked out for her by Ms. Storr’s stylist, happily chatted up fellow photographers invited for her benefit. Mr. Peik looked pleased but slightly out of his element, as if observing a diorama of his New York life and trying to figure out where he fit in. “It’s been a really fun night,” he said. “It didn’t feel forced and didn’t seem like we were the reason for Allison having a party.”

;) Definitely a service that pays extremely well. I could imagine a Femme doing this type of work for couples of all combinations in our community. B-F

(y)(y)(y)

(f)

Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes.

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

sweetlady

11-11-2007, 11:11 AM

(f) (p) (f) (p)

Pictures of the week:

Gary Hershorn, Americas photo editor, on twelve pictures that caught his eye.

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/customslideshow?buddyJS=slideshow20071109141939.js&title=Best%20of%20the%20week&size=12

http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20071109&t=2&i=2163840&w=

<GASP> :o

A paraglider flies above the mist in the Swiss Alps in Sonchaux near Montreux November 3, 2007.

http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20071109&t=2&i=2163840&w=

(f) Participants in the wheelchair division cross the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge after the start of the 2007 ING New York City Marathon in New York November 4, 2007.

http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20071109&t=2&i=2163841&w=

(f)

Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes.

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

sweetlady

11-14-2007, 05:02 PM

(f) (f) (f)

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1278

Contestants take part in the Miss International Queen 2007 transsexual beauty pageant in the Thai resort city of Pattaya, about 150 km (93 miles) southeast of Bangkok November 11, 2007.

http://i.today.reuters.com/pictures/galleries/Stories/633304590636875000/Previews/04_1239587.JPG

http://i.today.reuters.com/pictures/galleries/Stories/633304590636875000/Previews/05_1239589.JPG

Thailand's Panyrat Kirapatpakon (R) receives the Miss International Queen 2007 transsexual beauty pageant crown from last year's winner Erica Andrews of Mexico in the Thai resort city of Pattaya, about 150 km (93 miles) southeast of Bangkok November 11, 2007.

http://i.today.reuters.com/pictures/galleries/Stories/633304590636875000/Previews/06_1239527.JPG

Panyrat Kirapatpakon (C) of Thailand is kissed by the runners-up Chanel Madrigal (L) of Philippines and Aleika Barros of Brazil after winning the Miss International Queen 2007 transsexual beauty pageant in the Thai resort city of Pattaya, about 150 km (93 miles) southeast of Bangkok November 11, 2007.

http://i.today.reuters.com/pictures/galleries/Stories/633304590636875000/Previews/07_1239598.JPG

(f)(f)(f)(f)

Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes.

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

sweetlady

11-14-2007, 05:04 PM

:o

;)

As the weather becomes duller, retailers are turning up the sparkle and shine. Thinking bigger than mere sequins or beads, designers are putting chunky stones and jewel-encrusted embellishments on bodices and waistbands, handbags, shoe tops, boot heels and even sunglasses. Below are some of the season’s best hits of glamour with glimmer. Just don’t wear them all at the same time. By ELLEN TIEN

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/09/fashion/20071111_PULSE_SLIDESHOW_2.html

One (and many more beautiful photos) that I liked is at: www.eLuxury.com

http://images.eluxury.com/section_features_n_maps/beauty_feature_110507_pu.jpg

;)

(f)

Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes.

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

sweetlady

11-14-2007, 05:06 PM

:)

A movable series of theme dinners are taking place in clandestine locations around Seattle, thanks to Michael Hebberoy, underground restaurateur, impresario and provocateur.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/06/dining/1107-HEBB_index.html

A recent dinner featured dishes from "The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook."

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2007/11/07/1107-HEBB/19831195.JPG

The point of "One Pot," Mr. Hebberoy's latest underground restaurant series, was to find meaning in the stories behind simple, carefully chosen recipes.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/06/dining/19831249.JPG

THIS looks like it could be in Williams, Arizona!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2007/11/07/1107-HEBB/19831333.JPG

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

(f)

Fide, sed qui, vide.

Trust but take care whom.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-14-2007, 05:07 PM

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

In Tuscany, a Converted Convent

Sonja Muller turned a rustic stone structure in the rural hills of Tuscany into a seven-bedroom three-bath villa.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/13/greathomesanddestinations/20071113_ITALY_SLIDESHOW_index.html

LOVE this! One of the villa's seven bedrooms.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/13/greathomesanddestinations/IHT3.jpg

Such a view from a hot bubble bath or shower!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/13/greathomesanddestinations/IHT5.jpg

Article for those interested:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/greathomesanddestinations/14gh-italy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

(f)(f)

Carpe noctem. (S)(S)(S)

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

sweetlady

11-14-2007, 05:09 PM

:o:o:o

Slide Show:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/12/dining/20071114_THANK_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Comfort food: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/14/dining/14thanks.2.jpg

Recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/12/dining/20071114_THANK_SLIDESHOW_4.html

(y)(y)(y) Mashed Sweet Potatoes With Maple Syrup and Chipotles:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/12/dining/20071114_THANK_SLIDESHOW_8.html

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/14/dining/14thank-slide76.jpg

Winter Squash Braised in Cider:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/12/dining/20071114_THANK_SLIDESHOW_10.html

(f)

Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-14-2007, 05:11 PM

:o:o

;)

November 14, 2007

A Good Appetite

Side Dish or Main, Depending on Who’s Eating

By MELISSA CLARK

FROM an omnivore’s perspective, Thanksgiving should be a vegetarian’s feast. After all, aren’t the side dishes usually the best part of the meal?

But talk to vegetarians and the laments loom large. There’s bacon in the brussels sprouts, gravy on the mashed potatoes, dressing stuffed into the bird and chicken stock in everything else. If they’re lucky, that leaves a dinner of sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce and maybe some green beans.

The worst thing, though, isn’t the food so much as the feeling of alienation from the rest of a shared meal.

“Everyone else loved it the year my cousin Laura discovered chorizo and added it to everything, but for me it was a low and lonely point,” said my friend Zoe Singer, a food writer and former vegetarian.

So what’s a vegetarian who doesn’t want to be the host of her own Thanksgiving bash to do? The obvious answer is to bring a dish that you can eat and everyone else will want to, too. (That rules out tofu turkey, and depending on your crowd, tofu anything.) For the omnivorous host, it means making side dishes hearty and protein-filled enough for vegetarians to call entrees, and for everyone else to simply call for more.

Happily, the day, historically a harvest festival, already incorporates plenty of vegetables that will tempt everyone at the table. Pumpkins and winter squash; exotic mushrooms and truffles; root vegetables, including sweet potatoes, turnips and beets; sturdy winter greens; tangy crucifers such as broccoli and brussels sprouts can be mixed with legumes, nuts, eggs and perhaps cheese.

At Zoe’s, one dish that appears on the table whether there are vegetarians present or not is her mother’s fragrant mix of curried lentils studded with cubes of winter squash. It’s served in a roasted pumpkin to make it festive.

A few years ago, I co-opted her recipe, substituting sweet potatoes for the winter squash and stirring in some Swiss chard for color and lightness. Because there were vegans on the guest list, I eschewed a butter and cheese embellishment in favor of tamari almonds, nuts coated in tamari and baked, which added crunch and just the right decadent touch. I didn’t stuff the mixture into a roasted pumpkin (there was no room in the oven), but no one knew they were supposed to miss it.

This said, stuffing things into a pumpkin can make for a centerpiece-worthy dish. Any braised vegetable dish or stew will work, and you don’t necessarily have to roast the pumpkin if your aim is a flamboyant serving vessel rather than an edible garnish. Just hollow it out, stuff it with, say, a white bean ragout loaded with winter squash and dried cranberries, and serve to oohs and aahs.

On the more decadent side of the spectrum are cheese-and-butter-filled dishes like casseroles, pastas and risottos. Recipes abound and you probably have one or two of these dishes in your repertory. Substitute vegetable broth for chicken stock, leave out meat, and you’re probably good to go.

For something more unusual that combines the cheesy gooiness of a casserole with the custardy richness of a soufflé, you could give my new, over-the-top favorite a whirl.

Made from corn bread layered with fresh ricotta, roasted red peppers and sautéed broccoli rabe doused with cream and eggs, and then baked until poofy and golden, it’s sweet and creamy, yet deeply savory and pleasantly bitter from the garlicky rabe and peppers.

But best of all, it’s a dish so delectably satisfying that it will make vegetarians feel loved and looked after, and meat eaters forget, at least momentarily, about the absence of bacon — things that everyone at the table can be eminently thankful for.

(f)(f)

Sidere mens eadem mutato.

Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same.

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

sweetlady

11-14-2007, 05:13 PM

(f)

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/06/greathomesanddestinations/20071106_POROS_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Lovely:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/06/greathomesanddestinations/IHT5.jpg

(l) Clean and simple:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/06/greathomesanddestinations/IHT7.jpg

(f)

Docendo discimus.

We learn by teaching.

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

sweetlady

11-15-2007, 04:03 PM

:|:|:|:|:|

Thursday, November 15, 2007 / 01:07 PM

The Advocate)

Police said a 62-year-old Oklahoma man whose body was found in a ditch may have been the victim of a hate crime, according to the Associated Press.

Investigators have not named a suspect in the death of Steven Domer of Edmond, Okla. But they recently searched the home of Darrell Madden, a McClain County man who allegedly belongs to a white supremacist gang that could be connected to the killing.

Domer was last seen on October 26 in what one officer called "a gay neighborhood" of northwest Oklahoma City. A witness told officers he and Domer approached two men in an area with several gay bars. The witness had Domer drive him home because he was "uncomfortable with the situation," but he said he thought Dolmer returned to meet the men later.

Domer's body was found on November 4. His body was bound with duct tape, and a wire hanger was around his neck, according to an affidavit filed by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. His car was found burned on October 30.

:'(:'(:'(:'(:'(And to think there are a small number of people in the LGBT community who have threatened their ex's with outing them at their place of work - which would put those ex's in terrible, extremely dangerous situations! It is obvious (to me) there are are crazies in this virtual and real world (including this state in this article), who would rather see an ex beaten up, possibly murdered than move on with their lives. :|

"If I can't have hym, you can't have hym either."

:|:| Yikes! And some folks wonder why some older Femmes and Butches stay single!

(f)

"A word to the wise is sufficient."

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-15-2007, 04:05 PM

(y)(y)

Monday, November 12, 2007 / 02:35 PM

Chris Lisotta

The Advocate

A Washington State lesbian has been awarded nearly $4.4 million in a lawsuit she filed against her former employer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., and a supervisor, alleging unlawful retaliation that eventually led to her dismissal.

Melissa Sheffield claimed that her supervisors' negative reaction to her sexuality was the beginning of a process that culminated in her demotion and termination. In a November 8 decision, a jury in King County, Wash., awarded Sheffield more than $318,000 in lost past wages, more than $40,000 in lost and future benefits and $4 million in emotional distress in a suit filed against the company and her former supervisor, Randy Reich.

According to a court brief filed by her attorneys, Sheffield, 47, began working at Goodyear store in Seattle in 1994 and became a store manager in 1999, a position in which she won a corporate excellence award. Things started going downhill at the end of 2002, after she brought her girlfriend to a managers' dinner that was also attended by another store manager, Waide Adams.

In 2003, Reich became Sheffield's new boss, and he made Adams her new team leader. Within six weeks Reich and Adams began investigating Sheffield, and they found billing improprieties and asked her to sign a statement acknowledging her mistakes. Sheffield complied. Soon after, a new service manager, Dave Johnson, was transferred to Sheffield's store. The court brief states Johnson informed employees he knew Sheffield was gay and that he didn't like gays. When Sheffield approached him about his bringing a gun to work (in violation of Goodyear policy), Johnson threatened to "pull it out and urinate all over [her] with it" if Sheffield made him mad. Sheffield alleged that Reich took no action when she lodged a complaint against Johnson and was retaliated against when she took the matter to corporate human resources.

The brief goes on to report that after a two-month investigation, Johnson was terminated, but Sheffield was demoted over the billing irregularities and an accusation from Johnson that she had engaged in "inappropriate kissing" at the store with her girlfriend. She was transferred to another store, where her pay went from $55,000 a year to $13 an hour. Because of an earlier on-the-job injury, Sheffield could not work the new job, since it required heavy lifting. After 18 months on a leave of absence for full worker's compensation and physical rehab, Sheffield tried to return to work with the restriction on heavy lifting. A new district manager who replaced Reich refused to give her any position, and Sheffield was terminated. In her suit, Sheffield also claimed she was denied access to her personnel records.

"These events were devastating, but I wanted to take a stand for my children and my community, and I am grateful for the jury's courage and understanding," Sheffield said in a statement.

"We were really pleased," said attorney Daniel Johnson, who handled the case for Sheffield. "We always felt we were right and we would win. They [the jury] found the situation was intolerable. It was a strong statement to employers that this behavior was not acceptable."

In a statement sent to The Advocate Friday, Goodyear said it "respectfully disagrees with the jury's verdict in this case and is reviewing avenues to have it overturned or reversed. The company cannot discuss specific details of the case. Goodyear remains committed to fair work practices, including a work environment free from any discrimination or retaliation."

According to the company's Web site, Goodyear's corporate nondiscrimination policy includes a zero-tolerance policy for harassment based on sexual orientation.

(y)(y)

(f)

Non scholæ, sed vitæ discimus.

We learn not for school but for life.

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

sweetlady

11-15-2007, 04:10 PM

:s:s:s

Thursday, November 15, 2007 / 01:18 PM

Chris Duncan

AP

Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he deserved the reprimand he got from the NBA on Wednesday for making a gay sexual reference in a comment following the Lakers' loss in San Antonio.

The Spurs made 13 three-pointers in their 107-92 victory on Tuesday night, and Jackson was asked if too much penetration was leading to open outside shooters. ''We call this a Brokeback Mountain game, because there's so much penetration and kick-outs,'' Jackson said. ''It was one of those games.''

The 2005 film, which won three Oscars, depicts two cowboys who conceal their homosexual affair.

''But in retrospect, it wasn't really funny,'' Jackson said before the Lakers played Houston on Wednesday night. ''When you take it out of context, it wasn't funny. It was a poor attempt at humor, and I deserved to be reprimanded by the NBA.''

Still, Jackson couldn't resist making another joke as he apologized.

''If I've offended any horses, Texans, cowboys, or gays, I apologize,'' Jackson said. Jackson thanked beat writers and other journalists who covered Tuesday's game for dismissing the comment as an innocent joke. He said several of them laughed when he said it.

The NBA did not.

NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre said: ''The remarks are in poor taste, and the Lakers have assured us such remarks will not occur in the future.''

Jackson admitted he should've known better -- that coaches can't get away with the jokes that Jay Leno and David Letterman do for a living on their late-night talk shows.

''It's societal right now,'' he said. ''Some people can do it. Some people can't. That's something that's appropriate for certain categories.''

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation president Neil G. Giuliano issued a statement saying, ''Phil Jackson's been coaching long enough that he should be able to talk about the Lakers' performance without resorting to cheap gay jokes.''

(y) Coach Jackson has a severe case of "cranial rectitus". No class at all.

"What goes around, comes around."

(f)

Fide, sed qui, vide.

Trust but take care whom.

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

sweetlady

11-15-2007, 04:13 PM

(f)(f)(f)

Thursday, November 15, 2007 / 12:50 PM

The Advocate

Shushan, the only gay and lesbian bar in Jerusalem, decided to close its doors this week after serving for four years as a place where drag queens, Palestinians, and Orthodox Jews intermingled, according to a story in The Times of London.

"Shushan was one of the few places where we could feel that we were in a free world," Yan Carmel, a 21-year-old student at Hebrew University, told The Times.

Gays and lesbians in Jerusalem frequently face disapproval and violence. Last year, the city's gay pride parade was held at a stadium because police feared they could not protect marchers from attacks. The year before, an Orthodox man stabbed three people during a procession on the street.

The bar has been a target of violence, as well. Two years ago, it was severely damaged in an arson attack. No one was injured, and the attack helped the bar's clientele become closer-knit, according to patrons.

Now, Shushan's customers are scrambling to find other bars.

"I've met three boyfriends there and each time was magical," Gil Naveh, a 24-year-old who performed in the club's drag shows, told The Times. "There was the time I got proposed to outside Shushan, right in front of everyone."

(f)(f) Maybe back to private parties with friends (and friends of friends) where it is more safe?

(f)

Nil satis nisi optimum.

Nothing but the best is good enough.

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

sweetlady

11-15-2007, 04:17 PM

:D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapas

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/et_pa_tapas/0,1972,FOOD_10945,00.html

http://www.globalgourmet.com/destinations/spain/spaintapa.html

Tapas are snacks, canapés or finger food. Tapas come in many different forms and can vary from town to town! But, what are they?

A. Tapas can be practically anything from a chunk of tuna, cocktail onion and an olive skewered on a long toothpick to meat with sauce served piping hot in a miniature clay dish. They are served day in and day out in every bar and café in Spain. So much a part of the culture and social scene that the Spanish people invented the verb tapear which means to go and eat tapas!

In most regions, you must order and pay for a ración or serving, but in the province of Granada, one tapa is complimentary with each round of drinks ordered. Tapas keep the Spanish fueled for their long journeys from bar to bar before their mid-day meal and in the evening before dinner.

Origins and more: http://spanishfood.about.com/od/discoverspanishfood/f/faqtapas.htm

Rural Spain: http://www.slowtrav.com/spain/

Blog: Savory Spain & Portugal

http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/graffiti38.html

Where to Eat in Madrid

By SARAH WILDMAN

Tapas are a Madrid institution; nearly every bar offers these small morsels for just a few euros apiece. The most popular, and traditional, tapas bars line Calle Cava Baja, a curving street just south of Plaza Mayor. Start at Casa Lucas (Calle Cava Baja, 30; 34-91-365-08-04) for a slice of tortilla española (potato omelet).

For pintxos, the Basque version of tapas, go to Txakoli (Calle Cava Baja, 26; 34-91-366-48-77). Or head to Txirimiri in the Salamanca district for tapas supplemented by a full Basque menu, including a slice of solomillo de buey (grilled steak) big enough to share.

Just off the Plaza Santa Ana, the newcomer Olsen swaps the Spanish tapas menu for a Scandinavian palate. A smorgasbord of small bites includes smoked fish, apple and roast beef on thin slices of brown bread — each paired with a shot of vodka.

In the contemporary, light-infused dining room at Pan de Lujo, Alberto Chicote brings Spanish fusion to Madrid's Gucci-toting upper class. Don't miss the homemade apple tart that's as thin and stylish as the patrons.

Casa Lucio is a royal family favorite. Known for its huevos estrellados, or broken eggs, the traditional Spanish menu draws everyone from Mexican pop stars to European princes.

GOLD Mine of recipes:

http://www.ericweisstein.com/fun/wine/tapas.html

(l)(l)

(f)

Fide, sed qui, vide.

Trust but take care whom.

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-15-2007, 04:19 PM

:):)

North of San Francisco, people have been dipping themselves in the warm natural mineral waters for thousands of years, but modern bathers can follow the tradition in a variety of settings.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/09/travel/escapes/20071109_SPRINGS_SLIDESHOW_index.html

The Sonoma Mission Inn is in a recently restored 1920s resort. A restful complex of baths and steam rooms in an old theater adjoins a warren of treatment rooms.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/08/travel/09springs.08.jpg

Visited here a few times back in the mid-1980s and even bought the book while there - based on their dining cuisine called "Spa Food". It left me feeling hungry. Pretty presentation with no substance.

(y)(y) THIS is what I'm talking about:

Individual baths at Vichy Hot Springs date to the 1850s. The tubs are mostly concrete sarcophagi designed for serious individual immersion.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/08/travel/09springs.10.jpg

At Vichy Hot Springs the water is carbonated. It is said to be the only natural spring of this sort in California.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/08/travel/09springs.11.jpg

(f)(f)

Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.

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

sweetlady

11-16-2007, 03:26 PM

:o:o:o

;)

10 Sexiest Revues in Las Vegas:

http://www.forbestraveler.com/Vegas/sexy-vegas-slide.html

When Las Vegas first boomed, the frontier town played up its Wild West feel. But as the dusty roadway became the neon-lit Strip, Vegas Vic, a 40-foot high neon cowboy that towered over Fremont Street and represented the city’s western-themed attractions, was bumped for the bejeweled, bright-plumaged showgirl. The city never glanced back over its bare shoulder, instead embracing the va-va-voom we have come to expect from Vegas.

Early on, the casinos featured burlesque dancers in the lounges and showrooms—everyone from Gypsy Rose Lee to Lili St. Cyr to Candy Barr shimmied through Sin City. But things would never be the same after burlesque impresario Harold Minsky opened Minsky’s Follies at the Dunes in early 1957. The show borrowed from vaudeville, Broadway, burlesque and Paris, but what made it a real knock-out success was that Minsky’s Follies was the first Vegas show with bare-breasted dancers.

Other shows quickly followed and Minksky’s Follies became the model for what we consider the standard Vegas revue. One such show remains current burlesque queen Dita Von Teese’s favorite.

“The Crazy Horse Paris at MGM is by far the sexiest, most chic revue in all of Las Vegas,” says Von Teese. “The girls, who are mainly French and Russian ex-ballerinas, have incredible dance talent and exotic beauty. They keep the ideal of the ‘glorified girl’ alive. I have never seen another Vegas revue that manages to create such mystique, glamour and sex appeal.”

Today, the sexy side of Vegas simmers at almost every spot. Whether it’s a traditional revue, a burlesque-themed nightclub or an acrobatic marvel, Vegas is ready to tease and tantalize.

Revues run the gamut from the traditional like the Folies Bergere to the saucy aerial moves of Zumanity. There’s something for everyone whether it’s the hunky Australian men at Thunder From Down Under for the women or the bedroom-inspiring scenes at Fantasy for couples.

Nightclubs get in on the sexy scene as well. Hot spots like Forty Deuce, the Pussycat Dolls Lounge and Tangerine add a little bump ‘n’ grind to your typical night out on the town. As party-goers sip cocktails and mingle, burlesque dancers appear on stage to shake things up to a live band. And over at the Playboy Club gamblers toss cards with lovely dealers decked out in bunny costumes.

“Every one of us has our own tastes and opinions on what it means to be sexy, so I would say to try lots of things and decide for yourself,” suggest Von Teese. “You can see a classic Vegas show like Jubilee, a risque burlesque-style revue like The Crazy Horse Paris, and maybe a Cirque Du Soleil show.”

http://www.forbestraveler.com/Vegas/sexy-vegas-story.html

(l) The Burlesque Hall of Fame

Formerly known as Exotic World, this museum moved from the desert of California to Las Vegas last year. The museum, currently in search of permanent space, hosts the annual Miss Exotic World competition each June in which burlesque performers from all over the world compete—above is performer Immodesty Blaize from this year's show. When the museum does have a new space it will feature monthly performances and an artist in residence.

http://www.forbestraveler.com/Vegas/sexy-vegas-slide-4.html?thisSpeed=20000

"LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU."

- Gypsy Rose Lee

;) "Let me make you smile. Let do a few tricks; some old and then some new tricks. I'm very versatile."

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-16-2007, 03:29 PM

8-|8-|8-|

http://www.forbestraveler.com/jets-planes/helicopter-tours-story.html

Slide Show:

http://www.forbestraveler.com/jets-planes/helicopter-tours-slide.html

Flights of fancy

Craving a little perspective, entrepreneur Alex Lustberg recently took a helicopter tour over his fair city of San Francisco. “It was short, roughly 30 minutes, but exhilarating,” he said. “The day was majestically clear, and the most exciting part was when we were hovering next to the Golden Gate Bridge—the chopper suddenly banked to the left and we flew underneath.”

For the record, that’s a perfectly legal maneuver (but only on clear days). It’s also okay to hover over active volcanoes in New Zealand, zoom over pods of beluga whales in Manitoba or suspend yourself around the thundering cataracts of Iguazu Falls in Brazil. All it takes is a late-model helicopter with an experienced pilot and a couple hundred dollars.

In many cases, helicopter flight-seeing tours don’t just provide a little perspective—they’re the only perspective available. Cable cars simply don’t exist to reach the awe-inspiring glaciers north of Juneau, Alaska or the salmon runs of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest.

According to the U.S. Air Tours Association, roughly two million tourists took to the skies last year on flight-seeing trips in the United States, with 60 percent of that number hailing from overseas. In fact, flight-seeing is a $625 million domestic industry (that includes fixed-wing flights).

The benefits of helicopter flights over fixed-wing aircraft are relatively straightforward—proximity (i.e., “the hover factor”) and accessibility. In a Cessna, you can’t touch down on the floor of the Grand Canyon for a quick amble around an ancient Havasupai Village or alight for a champagne brunch on a tiny cay in the Great Barrier Reef.

As always, safety is a concern. The industry averages 1.9 accidents per 100,000 hours flown, which is a quarter of the number of accidents of private planes, but 10 times greater than commercial aircraft. Not surprisingly, all of the sightseeing helicopter accidents in the United States since 1996 have occurred in just four states: Hawaii (20 accidents), Arizona (10), Alaska (8), and New York (1).

Cameron Davidson, an aerial photographer who has shot for Outside, National Geographic, Vanity Fair and Smithsonian over the course of a 27-year career, only works with pilots who have at least 1,000 hours of flight time (his regular pilot has around 20,000). After a particularly dicey experience with a replacement pilot, he said, “I found out the guy only had 700 hours, and the majority of that was as an instructor.”

Cameron is also a big fan of turbines—preferably a Hughes 500 or a Bell Jet Ranger. “The Bell Jet Ranger has an amazing safety record and is the most common turbine helicopter in North America,” he said. “They’re roomy, reasonably fast and are solid performers.” He also recommends a light breakfast before your flight, going light on the coffee and grapefruit juice.

Any reputable helicopter tour company should be FAA certified “Part 135,” which subjects it to a more stringent set of safety guidelines than other air carriers. Earlier this year, two fatal accidents in Hawaii resulted in tougher rules regarding minimum altitudes (at least 1,500 feet) and floatation-device requirements.

The environmental concern is also significant, especially in areas where wildlife could be directly affected. UNESCO has recently taken a hard look at helicopter activity at its World Heritage sites, and if you were hoping to soar over the Andes to Machu Picchu in a helicopter, you“re out of luck, at least for now: All flights have been suspended while the government sets some rules for this growing industry.

Outside of investing in recent helicopter models that consume less and run quieter, good corporate citizenship helps. Nimmo Bay, a heli-ventures resort near Vancouver Island, is a member of a sustainable tourism collective that cooperates with the British Columbian government in local stewardship efforts.

For our list of 10 fantastic helicopter tours, we’ve suggested established tour companies recommended by our partners at Frommer’s. We’ve also concentrated on areas of the world that are a) magnificent and b) relatively inaccessible. Enjoy your flight.

If you don't know this, well, I don't know what to say:

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;)

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"And if you''re real good, I'll make you feel good. I want your spirits to rise. So let me entertain you."

Sweetlady

sweetlady

11-16-2007, 03:33 PM

:)

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Miramichi River, New Brunswick

Old-school fly anglers have long revered Atlantic salmon as the king of game fish, and for stamina, beauty and challenge, they seldom disappoint. While Iceland, Norway and most recently the Kola Peninsula of Russia boast excellent stocks of salmon, the Miramichi River in New Brunswick still boasts one of the world’s most prolific runs. “Anglers have been plying the waters of the Miramichi for centuries,” said Bill Taylor, president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation. “Today, the river still has North America’s healthiest runs of Atlantic salmon, and offers anglers miles and miles of classic runs.” Fresh fish arrive in the river to spawn in several runs, the first in the early spring, the next in mid-June, and the last in late September. Wilson’s Sporting Camps offers access to some of the best pools.

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Zhupanova River, Kamchatka Peninsula

The Kamchatka peninsula, adjoining the far eastern reaches of Russia, is home to more than 1,200 rivers (many of which have never been explored), the world’s largest population of brown bears and some of the healthiest wild salmon populations in existence. Here, on the Zhupanova River, rainbow trout average 22 to 28 inches, with fish over 30 inches (and eclipsing 15 pounds) caught each year. Guests can either float through a 60-mile section of the river or stay in a fixed camp and fish different waters by jet boat.

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Onon River, Mongolia

Mongolia is home to the world’s largest member of the trout family, the taimen, and the quest to tame this fish is on the outer fringe of adventure angling. “You fly in a helicopter from the nation’s capital, Ulan Bator—a 1950’s era pre-Soviet city offering a number of fantastic early Buddhist temples—to the Mongolian steppe,” said John Eustice, a fly fishing booking agent based in Portland, Oregon. “There, you’ll have the occasional nomadic family and their horse herd for company, along with lenok (an indigenous fish resembling brown trout) and taimen, which can run to over 50 inches.” Taimen are generally caught on the surface using mouse patterns—not your father’s dry fly fishing. Guests stay in yurts.

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South Island, New Zealand

The “Lord of the Rings” movies have exposed many Americans to the possibilities of New Zealand, though the angling cognoscenti have long understood its appeal. “We’re fortunate enough to have many remote, uncrowded, seldom-fished streams, with gin-clear water, in stunning wilderness surroundings,” said Chappie Chapman, who’s guided anglers around the South Island for over 20 years. “The rivers don’t hold as many trout as the average U.S. stream, but those they have are quite large.” The fishing here is not easy; anglers must spot fish first (a skill in itself), then present their fly with the utmost delicacy. “These trout are the great leveler,” Chapman continued. “They don’t care about your affluence, religion, mental health or politics. All they know is that if the fly doesn’t look right, they’re not going to eat it.”

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Kanektok River, Alaska

For species variety, it’s difficult to beat the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska. Some lodges will fly anglers out to a different river each day in search of salmon and rainbow trout. If fly fishing author and equipment innovator Jim Teeny had only one river to choose here, it would be the Kanektok. “Your chances of hooking several Pacific salmon species in a day are quite good on the Kanektok,” said Teeny. “If your timing is right you could hook all five species, not to mention leopard rainbows, arctic char and grayling.” The “leopard” refers to these rainbows’ brilliantly spotted flanks—truly one of the most beautiful trout in the world. Dave Duncan and Sons operate several fixed camps on the river; for the more adventurous, a 100-mile float trip is available.

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"Calm, assertive energy...."

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