text:
The Patriots didn't belong on the same field as the Broncos in Sunday's AFC Championship game.
That's the conclusion that jumps to mind after watching the Broncos trounce the Patriots, 26-16, on the coaches' tape, a game that was much more one-sided than the final score would suggest.
Peyton Manning was masterful in the win, there's no doubt about that. In a stretch from the late second quarter to the early fourth quarter, Manning completed 19 of 20 passes, including 12 straight.
But this wasn't just about Manning getting the better of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. The Broncos were clearly the more talented team, across the board.
Once Aqib Talib went down, undersized New England cornerbacks Alfonzo Dennard, Logan Ryan, and Kyle Arrington were absolutely helpless to cover the Broncos' all-star cast of receivers in Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, and Wes Welker, who combined for 16 catches, 245 yards, and a touchdown.
Young defensive linemen Chris Jones, Sealver Siliga, and Joe Vellano, who were nowhere near the top of the Patriots' depth chart to start the season, were completely dominated by the Broncos' interior offensive line, while Chandler Jones and Dont'a Hightower often looked as if they were out of gas. Jamie Collins couldn't hang with Julius Thomas, the former basketball player who had eight catches for 85 yards.
The Patriots' offensive line, surprisingly shaky this year, couldn't handle the Broncos' physical, oversized front four, including 335-pound defensive tackle Terrance Knighton, 293-pound defensive end Malik Jackson, and 274-pound end Robert Ayers.
And Brady's receivers, which often included fullback James Develin and blocking tight end Michael Hoomanawanui split out wide, couldn't create any separation until the Broncos went to a prevent defense in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots would have had to play a perfect game just to have a chance, but they were physically dominated in almost every facet of the game. There's no question, the better team won.
A review of the game after watching the coaches' tape:
When the Patriots had the ball
■ Brady has struggled in recent playoff performances, and once again he was less than sharp on Sunday. He generally had good protection in the pocket, but some of his reads and decision-making were strange.
Why, on third and 3 in the first quarter, did he throw a deep fade to a tightly covered Matthew Slater (of all people) when he had Danny Amendola streaking underneath for a potential first down? Why did he throw a third-down slant to Austin Collie, also tightly covered, and not look at Hoomanawanui streaking wide open down the seam (the Rob Gronkowski special)?
Brady was 24 of 38 for 277 yards and a touchdown, but he went 12 of 17 for 155 yards and a touchdown on the final two drives of the game, when the Broncos were ahead, 23-3, and playing prevent defense.
And of course, Brady's inaccuracy on deep balls to Julian Edelman and Collie thwarted any chance the Patriots had of being competitive.
■ The offensive woes were hardly all on Brady. The only way Edelman, Amendola, Collie, Aaron Dobson, and Hoomanawanui could create separation was through trickery. The Patriots were liberal with play-action, using it 12 times on 41 dropbacks, with five completions for 86 yards.
On one fake, the Patriots ran a one-man route with Edelman and kept nine players in to block (Brady's pass was incomplete).
Dobson also showed tremendous route-running on his 27-yard catch, sprinting upfield and stopping on a dime for the catch. And Shane Vereen caught five screens and swing passes out of the backfield for 59 yards. But on straight dropback passes, Brady's receivers couldn't get open, and the offense stalled.
The Broncos played two-deep safeties for most of the game and alternated between zone and man coverage. The speed exhibited by linebacker Danny Trevathan in pass coverage was impressive, particularly in cutting down Edelman for a 1-yard gain before he could turn the corner.
■ The offensive line protected Brady fairly well — the Broncos blitzed Brady just five times on 41 passing plays — although Nate Solder and Logan Mankins picked horrible times to whiff on their blocks. But the run blocking was completely dominated by the Broncos, who often brought an extra defender into the box, even on obvious passing downs.
Center Ryan Wendell had a horrible time with Knighton, Dan Connolly consistently was overpowered by Sylvester Williams, and Marcus Cannon was handled several times by Ayers.
LeGarrette Blount had only five carries for 6 yards and didn't play a snap in the second half, as the Patriots turned to Vereen and Stevan Ridley.
When the Broncos had the ball
■ Manning was masterful. Not only did he consistently check the Broncos into the right play — their use of the inside handoff out of the shotgun was devastating in the second and third quarters — but he proved that he still can zip the ball into tight windows when necessary.
Dennard's coverage on Demaryius Thomas wasn't all that bad, but Thomas, at 6 feet 3 inches and 229 pounds, made some impossible catches on fade routes because of his physical dominance.
Manning also noticed that the Patriots' two deep safeties were taking several steps back after the snap, and when the Patriots left the middle of the field open, he checked into a perfect draw play, which Knowshon Moreno broke for a 28-yard run.
The Patriots maybe would have had a chance to slow down Denver if Talib had stayed in the game to line up on Thomas one-on-one, allowing Dennard to take Decker, Arrington to cover Welker, and Jamie Collins and Devin McCourty to double-team Julius Thomas. But Talib's injury was too much to overcome.
The best way to slow down Manning is to jam his receivers and disrupt their timing, but the cornerbacks barely could lay a finger on the Broncos receivers. They opened the game in two-deep man coverage but played a lot of Cover 3 and Cover 4 after Talib went down, and Manning patiently tore them apart underneath.
■ The Broncos used criss-crossing receivers throughout the game, and created easy separation when the Patriots were in man coverage. When the Patriots played zone, Manning attacked the flats, the deep middle, and deep corner. His reads were flawless.
■ Welker's hit on Talib probably should've been flagged for offensive pass interference but didn't look intentional. The two appeared to accidentally run into the same path, and Welker seemed to lower his shoulder to protect himself at the last minute. And it's hard to blame Welker: He was absolutely leveled by Hightower when running across the middle early in the first quarter.
■ The Patriots' tackling was pretty atrocious. Chandler Jones and Collins both whiffed badly in the backfield. Steve Gregory and Duron Harmon both whiffed on Moreno's 28-yard gain, which should have been 8 or 10 yards. And Ryan gave Julius Thomas the matador treatment in the fourth quarter.
■ The Patriots blitzed only eight times on 43 passing plays: five five-man rushes and three six-man rushes. They also rushed just three defenders six times. But no matter what they did, they couldn't get in Manning's face or slow down Demaryius Thomas.
■ Vellano, Chris Jones, and Siliga were manhandled by Zane Beadles, Manny Ramirez, and Louis Vasquez. They didn't get any penetration and were pushed around all day. And yes, that was Broncos tight end Virgil Green rumbling for 6 yards on a handoff.
Special teams
■ Pretty uneventful game in all phases. All seven Denver kickoffs went for touchbacks, as did two of three New England kickoffs.
Ryan Allen allowed zero return yards on three punts (two downed and a fair catch), and did a nice job of handling a low snap on his first attempt. Denver's Britton Colquitt punted just once, a touchback.
■ Belichick probably should have attempted a 57-yard field goal in the thin air instead of punting in the second quarter. And he probably should have tried a 46-yard field goal in the third quarter when trailing, 20-3, instead of going for it.
Game balls
■ WR Julian Edelman: Pretty much the only offensive player to show up, with 10 catches for 89 yards and a touchdown.
■ LB Dont'a Hightower: Actually had a solid game, with eight tackles (one for loss) and several nice plays in the run game.
Ben Volin can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin


text:
Warnings about skin cancer seem to come from all sides -- from scientific researchers and family doctors, from parents to children, even from adult children to elderly parents. You may think you already know something about the disease and that you don't spend much time in the sun anyway. But as skin cancer rates continue to rise, greater awareness can help reduce its occurrence and save lives.
Whether a person seeks out the sun or hides in the shade, skin cancer is a real possibility for virtually anyone. It is the most common type of cancer in the United States, affecting more than 1 million people each year [source: American Academy of Dermatology]. Almost half of Americans who live to age 65 will have some form of skin cancer at some point in their lives [souce: National Cancer Institute].
It's important to understand exactly what skin cancer is before discussing the details of the disease. If a person is diagnosed with skin cancer, it means that malignant (life-threatening) cancer cells have been found in the skin's outer layers.
Learning about skin cancer also requires a little knowledge about the structure of the epidermis, the skin's outer layer. The epidermis is made up of three different kinds of cells -- squamous cells, basal cells and melanocytes.
Squamous cells are scaly, flat cells that make up most of the cells in the outer layer. Basal cells are round cells that can be found beneath the squamous cells. Deeper within the epidermis are the melanocytes, which give skin its color [source: MedicineNet.com] Some types of skin cancers are named for the cells where the cancer is found, such as squamous cell carcinoma.
People who are most at risk of developing skin cancer are those who sunburn easily and are fair-skinned [source: American Academy of Dermatology]. These and other factors relating to skin cancer will be discussed in this article as well as symptoms, preventive measures and treatments. Read on to first learn about the various types of skin cancer.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Catherine, a recruiting specialist, was out of work for nearly a year when a friend sent her a job opening listed at Vault.com. Ready to try almost anything, she quickly responded to the ad and e-mailed her resume, applying for a position as "correspondence manager."
And just that quickly, she became an unwitting member of an Internet scam that's being blamed for a half billion dollars in attempted thefts from U.S. firms during the past 18 months. The crime has Internet merchants, along with the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Office, fit to be tied.
Within days, before Catherine even knew she had been hired, packages containing a digital camera and a computer monitor arrived at her door. Her instructions were simple: repack the items and ship them to an address in Russia. For her trouble, she would earn 13 percent of the sale price. It seemed reasonable enough, so she sent the package along.
Days later, she got a phone call from a man who said he was told to wire $10,000 into her bank account.
"I had no idea what he was talking about," she said.
Her caller was an eBay.com user, who had recently won the bidding for a classic electric guitar and then been told to wire the large payment to Catherine. She was then instructed to move the money overseas, to an account controlled by her new boss.
Catherine knew right away something was terribly wrong. She called the FBI, which informed her that she'd unknowingly helped a global crime ring. An agent then told her the FBI had an ongoing investigation into the crime ring, and asked that she "play along" with the con artists for a while in an attempt to unearth more information about them.
Within a week, dozens of packages and wire transfers were headed Catherine's way — some $35,000 in money and merchandise in less than 10 days.
"These people are very, very organized." she said.
Out of control
Catherine had unwittingly signed up to be part of a new scam that's raging on the Internet, dubbed "postal forwarding," or "reshipping fraud" by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. According to authorities, thousands of job seekers have been caught up in the con.
"It's out of control," Barry Mew, spokesman for the Postal Inspection Service, said. "My phone rings off the hook. ... There are hundreds more like (Catherine)."
At best guess, Mew said, the con artists have already made off with between $5 million and $10 million. One major credit card company has seen losses of $1.5 million to the scam, and a payment processing company for an Internet site is out $1 million, he said. Mew declined to name the companies.
Some of the recruited helpers are losing big money, too, Mew said. One woman passed on $25,000 to Eastern Europe before she caught on to the con. When one of the victims who sent money to her stopped payment on his $2,500 check, his bank withdrew the money from her account — leaving her with a $2,500 loss. She had to sell a mutual fund devoted to her child's college education fund to cover the loss, Mew said.
FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said he couldn't comment on specific investigations, but that the agency did have ongoing investigations into reshipping frauds.
"This is something we are familiar with," he said.
During a sweep of Internet-related arrests announced last month by the FBI, the agency issued a warning about reshipping schemes. As part of that warning, the Merchant Risk Council, a non-profit organization created by a consortium of electronic commerce firms, released the results of a 120-day study of fraud at the top eight Web retailers.
The council found 5,000 consumers had participated in the scam from July to October, enabling con artists to steal $1.7 million from those eight sites during that 120-day period. A host of other fraud attempts were stopped by the sites. Total attempts to steal merchandise using the reshipping scam add up to an estimated $500 million, said Susan Henson, spokeswoman for the Merchant Risk Council.
"This is a huge crime," Henson said. "It's phenomenal. It's been hovering under the radar a bit, but it's giant."
The elaborate scam is a mixture of credit card fraud, identity theft, and auction fraud. The Net of victims is wide, ranging from eBay auction winners, to credit card firms, to major online retailers. Catherine said she received packages purchased from Amazon.com with stolen credit cards.
Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith denied the scam had hit online retailer very hard.
"This really isn't a big issue for us," she said. "Our fraud detection systems are sophisticated enough ... to catch these kinds of things."
But Jonathan Lane, a fraud investigator for online retailer PCMall.com, said major Internet retailers are indeed being hit by the scam.
"There's a substantial number of merchants involved," Lane said.
Ads all over the Web
It starts with hundreds of recruiting advertisements on job sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. At any given time, Mew said, he can spot ads on 25 different Web sites. Other victims have been approached in Internet chat rooms and pointed directly to the fraudulent company's Web site, where the job postings are listed.
The help wanted advertisements are innocuous enough.
"Our company is engaged in correspondence managing, distributing different goods worldwide, buying and reselling these goods," says one version of the ad, which appeared on CareerBuilder.com for about a week, until it was removed after MSNBC.com brought it the Web site's attention.
The ad explained the need for U.S-based employees to ship products overseas: "Everybody knows Russia is a part of Europe, but most of foreign people are afraid to have business with {sic} country ... We would like to prove our respectableness, but when we communicate with people from other countries they can't avoid stereotypes. So, we are looking for the persons who can represent our company in his country. Their duty will be to accept money and different goods, because often people don't want to send money to my country."
Put simply, the employees are used to move merchandise or money out of the United States. But behind the scenes, the organized crime ring is using a variety of confusing tactics.
One flavor of the scheme is designed to circumvent fraud protections at mail order companies and Web sites while stealing popular items such as handheld computers, digital cameras and DVD players. To avoid raising suspicion, the con artists make sure the shipping address -- the address of the "recruit" -- is in the same state as the billing address on the stolen credit card. To do so, the con artists have a wide variety of employees and stolen credit cards to choose from. They have also managed to change billing addresses on stolen credit cards so they match the recruit's locale. Some 1,300 accounts were updated with new billing addresses at one credit card company victimized by the con artists, Mew said.
Auction bidders, such as the man who was trying to purchase a $10,000 classic guitar, are also targeted. Con artists impersonate a recruit and place auction items for sale. They then tell the winners to wire funds to the recruit's U.S. bank account, avoiding any suspicions aroused by the mention of overseas wire transfers. The recruit, of course, is then instructed to wire the funds overseas.
Enticing terms
The homebound are at special risk of being caught up in the scam, said PCMall's Lane.
"When the recruits are Social Security recipients, people on disability, single parents, and unemployed people from coast to coast, it's a story that hits pretty hard," he said.
Not every recruit catches on as quickly as Catherine. One California recruit sent 750 packages — average value, $1,500 — to Russia between October 2002 and March 2003, Mew said.
While often not legally guilty of theft, recruits are often guilty of falsifying government documents, as they are instructed to declare the packages as "gifts" on Customs forms. They might also be guilty of income tax evasion, Lane said. And then there's the humiliation.
"Not only was I arrested for theft by receiving," one anonymous victim posted to a Web site, "[I] lost my computer, my dignity, the humiliation, my dog went to the pound, had to bail him out to! Attorney cost $2000.00," he wrote. "I was only involved with them for 3 weeks before I was arrested and I only made $200.00."
Recruits are also at risk of identity theft, since they usually give the con artists their bank account information and other critical data while signing up for the job. A victim named Brenda said that after she realized she'd been scammed, and went to the police, the con artists threatened her.
"These people have my identification; Social Security Number, address and handwriting sample," she said. "Since this investigation began, I have received emails that state 'I KNOW WHO YOU ARE.' I fear for the safety of myself and my family." She eventually moved, believing she wasn't safe at her old address.
Catherine said she received calls from dozens of angry auction winners as she played possum for the FBI. When she tried to explain she was an unwitting character in the con, many didn't initially believe her.
"I was getting threats from people saying, 'I'm going to sue you,' " she said. "It's surreal. You're sitting here looking for a job, and all these thousands of dollars are slipping through your hands." Her bank ultimately accepted about $4,000 in wire transfers, even though she told the firm to reject all wire payments. Meanwhile, she lost the $108 she spent shipping the initial package to Russia. She also learned a disturbing lesson about human nature when she sent an e-mail to all her 17 "co-workers," warning them that the job was really a scam.
"One guy wrote, 'I don't care where the money is coming from,' " she said. "It's amazing this person wrote this to a stranger. The FBI's going to take a look at him."
Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, said she has been studying the growing help wanted scam for several months. It works because unemployed people are vulnerable and an easy target for con artists, she said. One victim she spoke to "had been out of work for a year. That's a common factor," Dixon said.
"We are capable of extraordinary rationalization" when unemployed, she said.
Making matters worse, online job sites often give users a false sense of security, Dixon said, because consumers have the impression the ads have been vetted by the site -- as newspaper classified ads often are. What's more, many surfers arrive at CareerBuilder.com by clicking "help wanted" buttons while browsing local newspapers online, as the sites act as the employment section for hundreds of newspaper Web sites around the country. CareerBuilder.com is owned by newspaper conglomerates Gannett, Knight-Ridder, and The Tribune Company.
"I believe there's an implied trust when job seekers go there," Dixon said.
Jenni Sullivan, a spokeswoman for CareerBuilder.com, said her company has employees who regularly review job listings on the site for fraud.
"Customer service representatives use different search methods. ... They continually monitor the site and if they come across anything suspicious they take immediate action," she said. "This is not as prevalent as I believe other people are saying it is. We haven't seen an indication that there's been a rise in this activity (at CareerBuilder)."
Monster.com spokesman Kevin Mullins said some of the fraudulent ads have been placed on his company's site, but said their appearance is "rare."
"Most often we take the job down within a couple of hours," Mullins said.
The use of fraudulent postal forwarding companies in a scam was first chronicled in April by MSNBC.com, but there is evidence the crime rings has been operating since April 2002, Lane said.
Mew said said he's not optimistic the criminals will be caught any time soon; only consumer education can even slow them down.
"We need to educate the masses. There's no job at home receiving and forwarding packages," Mew said. "And there's no job sitting at home receiving money and sending the money to Eastern Europe. People like to think there are jobs like that, and that's why it's so successful."


text:
I first heard Lionel Monckton's
music many years ago – it was the enchanting 'Charming Weather' from The Arcadians, which is included in this
excellent retrospective of the composer's music. Many years later, I came
across the Overture to the same opera – this was issued on ASV as one of the
series of British Light Overtures conducted by Gavin Sutherland. I have to confess that I have never gotten
around to hearing the entire operetta. However,
there are a couple of well-regarded editions currently available. It is a
project for the future.
The present CD includes a
generous selection from three of the composer's best-known works: Cingalee, The Arcadians and The Quaker
A brief note about Lionel John
Alexander Monckton may be of interest He was born in London in 1861. His father
Sir John was a town clerk and his mother Maria was an 'amateur' actress. After
studying at Charterhouse School and Oriel College, Oxford he pursued a career
as a lawyer. However, he turned to music and began to write songs and review
operas. Soon Monckton turned his hand to
writing theatre scores, in particular for the Gaiety Theatre and its director
George Edwardes. Successes (apart from the three highlighted on this CD)
included The Spring Chicken, Our Miss Gibbs, The Girls of Gottenberg, A
Country Girl and The Dancing Mistress.
After the Great War, he refused
to reinvent his compositional style to include jazz, ragtime and other American
dance music. After contributing some numbers for the then-popular revues, he
gave up composing. Lionel Monckton died
in 1923 London, aged 62.
The format of this CD is
interesting. Most 'selections' from operas and operettas tend to reflect the
batting order of the score/libretto. In
this present CD Mart Sander has decided to order the numbers so as to provide a
continuous, but always satisfying and attractive 'narrative-less' presentation
of the music. The plot of each operetta is largely irrelevant to this CD; however,
a few observations may not go amiss.
Cingalee or Sunny Ceylon
dates from 1904. The action takes place
in Harry Vereker's Tea Plantation and in Boobhamba palace. It concerns a young lady who resists the
attention of the potentate and who wishes to remain a tea-girl.' The music is attractive, however the plot
seems weak and there are certain sentiments that may have been appropriate in
colonial days but no logger seem quite so witty. However the music is
consistently good.
The Arcadians (1910) is Monckton's best-known work. The plot revolves round innocent folk from a
faraway land who are 'infected' by a crashed aviator who
introduces ugliness, lies and jealously to these happy people. The Arcadians
are appalled by the stories of London life and decide to visit the city
themselves. Fortunately, all ends up
happily – with the aviator back in 'The Smoke' and the Arcadians in their
Finally, there is The Quaker Girl, which was first heard
at the Adelphi Theatre, London on 5th Novemeber 1910. It concerns
the dichotomy between a dour Quaker community with the high-life of Parisian
society. Its most famous number was 'Come to the Ball'. The 'girl' eventually ends up in the USA
with her admirer Tony Chute.
The general musical sound world
of Monckton is 'sub' Sullivan. This does not mean that the music is second rate
or lacks craftsmanship – simply that the style and the plots owe something to
the genius of G&S. Occasionally, there are 'patter songs': for example the
fine 'Back your Fancy' from The Arcadians.
What is typically lacking is the wit and subtlety of the earlier duo. Yet the
music is full of attractive tunes, evocative, if retro, sentiments in the
librettos and a good balance between solo, ensemble and chorus. There is a
sense of fun from virtually the first note to the last.
Divine Arts Recording Group has
made a major contribution to British Light Opera with this fine exploration of
Lionel Monckton's music. I noted in an earlier review of the same group's release
of Herman Finck's music that they have managed 'to capture the mood and the
spirit of the Edwardian and Georgian times'. Other reviewers have noted the 'Germanic'
and 'Michigan' accents as opposed to that of 'Mayfair in the performance of
these numbers. However, true as this may be, it is a trifling matter. The
enunciation, clarity and mood are near-perfect. Besides, my 'Estonian' is not
so dusty.
The performers, led by Mart
Sander are all members of the Bel-Etage Theatre in Tallinn, which was itself an
old music hall. In addition, let us not
forget the orchestra who make such an important contribution to the success oft
his disc.
I was delighted by the sound
quality of this CD: the ambiance is ideally suited to this kind of music. The
CD liner notes include the texts of all the number recorded, alongside the
briefest of synopses of each operetta. One small point – I found the text
difficult to read –in both size and the fact that some of it is printed on a
blue background.
I was recently reading Alan
Hyman's Sullivan & his Satellites
where he outlines the achievements of a large number of lesser mortals than
G&S. These include, Sidney Jones, Edward
German, Frederic Clay and (although not specifically noted there) Montague
Phillips. Surely all these composers have material that would be grist to the
mill for this outstanding ensemble?
Track Listing:
Track Listing:
Lionel MONCKTON (1861-1923)
La Cingalee (1904)
Arcadians (1909)
Quaker Girl (1910)
Pirjo Levandi (sop), Jeanne Servchenco (sop), Mariliina von
Uexküll (sop), Julie Lill (cont),
Oliver Kuusik (ten), Annika Tonuri (mezzo sop), Mart Sander (bar)
Chorus and Bel-Etage orchestra/Mart Sander
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.


text:
Our recent lesson on Candy Boards generated a lot of interest, and I'm getting lots of emails telling me that the link did not work to order the candy boards. If you received the Lesson via Email, that link doesn't work. So here are the proper links:
Candy boards for 10 frame hives. CLICK HERE
Candy boards for 5 frame nucs. CLICK HERE
Sometimes there is a difference in sizes of nucs especially 4 and 5 frame nucs, so let us know what size nuc you are using and we can provide candy boards for your equipment.
If you want to order these from our website, go to www.honeybeesonline.com then click on BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENT AT THE TOP and then click on FEEDERS on the bottom row of links.
David & Sheri Burns


text:
Thankful Thursday - Sheila Bender & Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief
Her class changed me for the better, it gave me a glimpse of poetic life, but still not sure what I was doing and with life continuing on, I lost my way a bit, went hiking into the corporate world for about 5 years, while she continued her passion for writing.
Fast-forward ten years--I've quit my corporate job & returned to a writing life. Somewhere along the writer's path, I bump into Sheila at a local reading, I reintroduce myself and thank her for her inspiration she gave me as a young writer. We hug, she is gracious and giving and just as I remember her.
Life continues on. I continue with my own writing and more and more, I hear about Sheila in the writing community. We are on similar, but unique paths until our lives come together when her close friend and my mentor, Paula Jones Gardiner, passes away in 2008 and Sheila & I along with many wonderful donors, work together to create the Paula Jones Gardiner Poetry Prize for Floating Bridge Press.
For me, I definitely turn to poetry in a time of grief and Sheila has used her gift as a writer and poet to help us all. So today, I give thanks to Sheila, her words, and her book that can help us all during difficult times. Here's a description--
A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief: Poet and essayist Sheila Bender tells the story of her family and the family of her son's fiancée coming together, understanding that 25-year-old Seth Bender would be taken off life support. She writes about the months they faced together before the upcoming day that would have been his wedding day, and she tells the story of using poetry to write her way out of grief and find a way of carrying her son's life in her own, a way of understanding mortality and immortality. A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief is accessible, absorbing, and a bringer of peace to those who mourn.
A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief. This book about how poetry helps us understand what is most important to understand: our love, our mortality, our immortality.
Also, what's really wonderful is I learned you can order directly from the author and receive an autographed copy. $20 includes an $8 dollar donation to the Seth Bender Memorial Summer Camps Scholarship Fund, plus shipping and handling.
And if you're interested in what authors have said and/or purchasing the book, you can click here
Sheila has a lot of great books from journalling, to writing essays, to writing poetry from personal experiences, even writing an essay to apply to college.
I think there are some people who were put here on their earth to inspire others, Sheila is this person for me. Generous, loving, and so caring about her students, I am thankful to have her words in all our lives.


text:
Who needs coffee to start your day when you have the 10 Hottest Playboy Girls of 2014! These women represent the best of the best in terms of what Playboy has to offer this year. Expect to see Playmates from the magazine itself and some of Playboy's exalted Cyber Girls (Playboy Cyber Girls are mainly featured on Playboy's online site as their Cyber Girl of the week). A little bit different than last year's list, you guys might find out that some of these lovely ladies have some very naughty secrets to hide. Let's take a trip down the rabbit hole and enter the magical realm of the 10 Hottest Playboy Girls of 2014!
- 10
Kate Moss
Starting off the Playboy girls is a lady who needs no introduction. Kate Moss has been one of the faces of the modeling industry over the past 25 years. One of the highest paid models in the industry over the past decade, we never thought we'd ever see Ms. Moss shoot for Playboy during the twilight years of her career. Luckily, she proved the naysayers wrong and showed that she has still got it.
- 9
Amanda Booth
From Watertown, NY, we have February's Playmate of the Month, Amanda Booth. It's ironic that such a heart breaker in our Hottest Playboy Girls of 2014 list would be the Playmate for the month of Valentine's Day. Amanda also enjoys surfing, photography and poetry. Now what kind of love letter would we have to write in iambic pentameter to convince her to ride our board?
- 8
Khloe Terae
Our most devout readers might recognize Khloe Terae as a recent Babe of the Day. This Cyber Girl is from America's top hat in Quebec, Canada. Last year, Khloe was also Miss February in Playboy Mexico, Miss April in Playboy Greece and also Miss June for Playboy South Africa. But with a body like that, she deserves international recognition. While she's been pushing her own lingerie line, we've been begging her to take it off.
- 7
Bryiana Noelle
Say hello to Playboy's Miss September of last year, Bryiana Noelle. A perfect blend of Filipino, Chinese, Native American and Spanish, Bryianna has the right amount of international hotness within her. It doesn't matter if it's Christmas time or the off-season, Bryiana has people screaming for more Noelle all year long.
- 6
Carly Lauren
Carly Lauren was Playmate of the Month in October. Carly loves staying in shape, sharp heels and fantastic wine. All you need to do after this is refer back to Playboy's October issue. Because once you do, corks will definitely be popping for Ms. Lauren.
- 5
Roos Van Montfort
Roos Van Montfort is the bunny to bring about the new year as the Playmate of the Month for January 2014. Roos is from the exotic areas of Geldrop, Netherlands. And with a body like that, this Dutch goddess is making us live up to her hometown's namesake. We're only halfway through the 10 Hottest Playboy Girls of 2014 - it's hard to believe that it could possibly get any hotter than this.
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Kennedy Summers
Christmas may have already came, but we may have also for Miss December, Kennedy Summers! From Berlin, Germany, Ms. Summers was previously enrolled at a university pursuing an anthropology degree before she became a Playmate. Regardless of whether or not she finished her schooling, she sure looks like an expert on bones to us. Starting this year, Lady Summers will be working on her international movie career.
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Jennifer Vaughn
Playboy's Cyber Girl of the Year for 2013, Jennifer Vaughn sure does wish we could do more than just cyber. Ms. Vaughn hails from Houston, Texas, and we would sure like to go south of her border. This phenomenal female is also a fan of photography (but behind the camera, not in front of it) and animals! And believe us, we'd beg and roll over in order to catch Ms. Vaughn on all fours.
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Gemma Lee Farrell
There was no better way to close out this past year by having Gemma Lee Farrell as the Playmate of the Month for November! Gemma got her start doing ads and commercials for energy drinks, but we'd have a monster of a time with her! She also happens to be the first Playmate in history to be from New Zealand! See where this sultry seductress ended up on our list of the Hottest Women of 2014.
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Say hello to Gisele, a Playboy Cyber Girl and Xbix's Web Babe of the Year! What else is there to love about such a blond goddess? Well, the fact that she originally started her modeling career in the adult industry! Keep an eye out online for her web cam shows, which reel in tons of fans worldwide to the various naughty things we can't fully show you here. Nevertheless, Gisele is a gear head. And despite all the muscle cars she's a fan of, there's only one muscle that revs whenever we look at her. Expect to see her as a Babe of the Day on GuySpeed very soon. With such an excellent figure, we know that this year will her year, so congratulations to Gisele for being the Hottest Playboy Girl of 2014!
You can try to get your daily fix of Gisele on her Instagram, Twitter and official site.


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Police in Canada have arrested and charged a man and woman with terrorism for attempting to leave pressure cooker bombs at British Columbia's provincial legislature on Canada Day, when thousands of people were expected to be there.
John Stewart Nuttall and Amanda Marie Korody were inspired by al-Qaida ideology but were self-radicalized, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner James Malizia said Tuesday. He called it a domestic threat without international connections.
Malizia told a news conference there was no evidence or indication to suggest a connection to the deadly Boston Marathon bombings in April, which used bombs made from pressure cookers.
RCMP Supt. Wayne Rideout said the public was never at risk, and the threat was detected early.
Nuttall and Korody were arrested Monday, the same day that thousands attended the Canada Day celebrations at the provincial legislature in the provincial capital of Victoria. Police said the pair targeted the celebrations, but the bombs were found outside the legislature before the crowds gathered.
"This self-radicalized behavior was intended to create maximum impact and harm to Canadian citizens at the B.C. legislature on a national holiday," Rideout said. "They took steps to educate themselves and produce explosive devices designed to cause injury and death."
The pair has been charged with conspiracy, facilitating a terrorist activity and making an explosive device.
"A day after thousands of patriotic Canadians gathered on these grounds to celebrate the founding of our nation, I'm incredibly relieved to know that there was never any risk to anyone," British Columbia Premier Christy Clark said Tuesday. "We're also told that the suspects have no ties to any groups inside or outside Canada. Again, an incredible relief that these two individuals appeared to be working alone."
Rideout stressed the pressure cooker devices were under police control.
Police said they received a tip from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that led to what Rideout called a five-month investigation. He said the pair discussed a wide variety of targets and techniques.


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I know some stores tend to stock it, some don't.
One year before Pesach I tried contacting a produce wholesaler (we were having lots of company) regarding buying a case of it -- they said they contacted Dole and Dole said they would send a case WITH the Star-K kosher stamp. Well then the lettuce arrived and it didn't have the Star-K on it.
VEG./SALADS, FRESH PKGD. All fresh packaged salads bearing the Star-K symbol are Kosher for Passover without any additional Passover symbol. Please note exception: Dole Very Veggie Salad Blend contains peas which are Kitniyos and may not be used on Passover.
Updated in 2011: Fresh Express salads require Star-K-P for Passover.
So this would be ideal for easy marror for large crowds (if I could order a case of the giant bags of romaine).
Pesach or otherwise, any ideas? Somehow some stores are able to get it ...


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8667.0 - Legal Services, Australia, 2007-08 Quality Declaration
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/06/2009
Page tools: Print Page Print All | ||
These businesses included solicitor firms, patent attorney businesses, service/payroll entities and businesses providing various legal support services. Unincorporated businesses represented 65.4% (or 7,530) of total other legal services businesses, whereas incorporated businesses represented 20.1% (or 2,264). The remaining 14.5% (or 1,630) of businesses were trusts. EMPLOYMENT There were 84,921 persons employed in other legal services at the end of June 2008. Of these employed persons, 16.3% (or 13,882 persons) were working proprietors and partners of unincorporated businesses and 6.4% (or 5,424 persons) were principals/directors of incorporated businesses. Other employees accounted for the remaining 77.3% (or 65,614 persons) of total employment. REGION Of these 11,244 other legal services businesses, 78.2% (or 8,795) were located in capital cities. These capital city businesses accounted for 81.1% (or 68,828) of all persons employed in other legal services and 87.6% (or $12.9b) of fee income from the provision of legal and legal support services. INCOME SIZE RANGE While those other legal services businesses which generated income of $25 million or more in the 2007-08 financial year represented only 0.5% (or 55) of all other legal services businesses, they accounted for 26.1% (or 22,164) of total employment, and generated 38.2% (or $5.8b) of total income. SOURCES OF FEE INCOME Fee income from the provision of legal services constituted 83.3% ($12.7b) of the total income generated by other legal services businesses in the 2007-08 financial year. Fee income from the provision of legal support services made up 7.7% ($1.2b), and disbursements recovered 5.6% ($0.9b) of total income. As the graph below shows, other legal services businesses derived 33.6% (or $4.3b) of their fee income from commercial law and 18.9% (or $2.4b) of their fee income from property law. Across all fields of work, mediation and arbitration generated 5.5% (or $0.7b) of fee income, and cases conducted on a no-win/no-fee basis 3.2% (or $0.4b). Sources of fee income(a), Other legal services EXPENSES The graph below shows that labour costs accounted for 43.7% (or $4.6b) of total expenses incurred by other legal services businesses. Payments for legal and legal support services accounted for 20.3% (or $2.2b). Expenses(a), Other legal services Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window. |


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UpFront: March 2014
Ashes to lashes
It was already snowing in Charlotte, which was experiencing the first frosting of the winter storm that would blanket most of the East Coast, when Ed Martin reached Eden, snug up against the Virginia line. Upstream, the Dan River ran green and clear, but below Duke Energy Corp.'s old coal-fired plant, the water was grayer than the leaden, threatening sky. What our award-winning senior contributing editor found there — and has uncovered in his reporting since — will appear in next month's magazine. Here, let him set the scene.
"It was the kind of somber, chilly day moviemakers use to create a feeling of impending disaster. I thought of The China Syndrome, the 1979 film about a power plant whose title became a catchphrase for our dread of a nuclear meltdown — fear that dictated the nation's energy policies. But coal? Our gift from nature, cheap, bountiful and as familiar as the lumps in a naughty boy's Christmas stocking and Grandma's old scuttle?"
On Feb. 2, a security guard discovered that a broken pipe at the shuttered steam plant was pouring what has amounted to millions of gallons of a coal-ash slurry — containing arsenic, selenium and other toxins — into one of North Carolina most beautiful rivers and the source of drinking water for tens of thousands of people. "And with the daily revelations of environmental damage, mounting cleanup costs, possible political scandal and federal grand-jury criminal investigation that followed came the growing realization that coal had again extracted a high cost for its services, this time possibly creating the state's worst environmental disaster ever," Ed says.
The fortunes of Charlotte-based Duke Energy — now the nation's largest electric utility — and coal have been intertwined since demand for power in the Carolinas exceeded what harnessing the Catawba and other rivers could create. Which begs the question: Would we be better off if the company had been able to make more use of nuclear power to distance itself from such a legacy? That's one of many we hope to answer next month.
Most of the comments from readers about the redesign we introduced last month have been positive, though here's one I want to share: "I'll get used to the new look eventually. I am originally from Virginia. Know how many Virginians it takes to change a light bulb? Four. One to change the bulb and three to talk at length about how great the old bulb was."


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This article is more than 1 year old
Barclays to scrap 1,800 UK tech jobs
Follows the money offshore
Barclays is to axe 1,800 IT jobs in the UK as part of a major business overhaul to set up technology centres in key offshore locations around the world, with 700 workers being forced out by September.
The bank first told staff about its outsourcing plans in January this year. In a canned statement Barclays said it hoped to "become one of a handful of universal banks leading the global financial services industry, helping our customers and clients throughout the world to achieve their goals.
"To achieve our ambition, we need to transform to a global organisation, able to serve the needs of our customers and clients who have operations around the world."
Barclays added that it will create "centrally-managed technologies centres of excellence" [sic] in Europe, Africa and Asia. Offshore locations understood to have already been pinpointed by the company include Hungary, India and Singapore.
The firm admitted that "some roles will move offshore" and that "some roles will fall away". However, it declined to offer a definitive number.
Trade union Unite, formerly known as Amicus, reckoned that up to 1,800 permanent and contractor tech jobs at the bank in the UK will be scrapped by 2011. Barclays will axe global infrastructure and service delivery (GISD) jobs.
Most Blighty-based staff will be redeployed or offered voluntary redundancy. Around 50 employees out of the 700 initially affected face compulsory redundancy by September this year, said Unite. It added that future growth at Barclays could prevent further losses at the firm.
About 1,000 GISD jobs will remain in the UK, based in the company's Radbroke and London offices. Barclays plans to create around 1,700 new roles offshore over the next three years.
Unite national secretary Keith Brookes said in an internal Barclays newsletter (dated 23 April and seen by The Register) that the union has been pushing for the bank to stick by a globalisation deal inked with Unite. Under that agreement staff should be given three months' working notice, plus three months' paid notice of redundancy.
Brookes added that an undertaking had also been agreed with Barclays that "there will be no more job losses this year outside of offshoring".
In May this year Barclays Capital, the investment division of the bank, told its IT contractors to choose between a 10 per cent pay cut or a quick exit from the company.
The decision, which was seen as an alternative to cutting jobs as the bank negotiates the current financial crisis, sparked outrage among contract staff, who were forced to signal their "acceptance" of the wage cut. ®


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Smart TVs manufactured by LG Electronics are sending information about users' viewing habits and files back to the company's servers. The company confirmed the behavior and said it plans to release firmware updates to correct it.
A U.K.-based software developer revealed Monday in a blog post that his smart TV was sharing information about what channels he was watching with LG because of an option called "collection of watching info" that was turned on by default.
But even after turning off the feature, the TV continued to share viewing habits with the company, found the software developer, who uses the online alias DoctorBeet.
DoctorBeet said that after seeing ads on his own TV's landing screen he began looking into where they came from. He said he found a video on LG's website that touted the company's ability to analyze users' favorite programs, online behavior, search keywords and other information to offer relevant ads to target audiences.
The webpage he linked to, at us.lgsmartad.com, now says "The service is currently under maintenance," but a copy of it in Google's cache says: ""LG Smart AD provides the powerful marketing tool to reach target audiences across multiple smart home entertainment devices such as LG Smart TVs, Blu-ray Disc Players and Smart Upgrader in more than 120 nations. Sophisticated Targeting: Bring right ads to right target audiences using demographic, geographic, device, contents and user preference data."
DoctorBeet's analysis of the Internet traffic generated by his TV also revealed that the names of files stored on USB storage devices attached to it were being sent to LG's servers, he said.
On Thursday, a second blogger confirmed DoctorBeet's findings after analyzing traffic from his own LG smart TV. However, he found that his TV was also collecting and sending the names of files found in folders shared over the network by other devices.
"I moved all the media out of the folder and put a few duds in named 'GiantPorn,' turned the TV off and on and it was still broadcasting the old file names," the blogger said. "The TV couldn't see those files whilst browsing manually so I'd hazard a guess it's caching some of these locally," he said, adding that it didn't take long until the TV started sending the new file names too.
"The clear problem I see with this is even if I agreed to this in any T&Cs [terms and conditions] presented to me, I doubt guests using my Wi-Fi connection would be happy with filenames from their shared media being dispatched to LG," he said.
This problem might also extend to business networks if such TVs are sitting in conference rooms and are connected to company networks. To make matters worse, all of the information is sent in unencrypted form which means it could be intercepted en route to LG's servers.
LG confirmed that its TVs collected information, but denied that the information was personal or that it was used to target advertising.
"LG does not, or has ever, engaged in targeted advertisement using information collected from LG Smart TV owners," LG said Friday in an emailed statement. "Information such as channel, TV platform, broadcast source, etc. that is collected by certain LG Smart TVs is not personal but viewing information. This information is collected to offer recommendations to viewers based on what other LG Smart TV owners are watching."
The company has verified that this information continues to be transmitted even when the function is turned off on the TV, but said the data is not being retained on the server. "A firmware update is being prepared for immediate rollout that will correct this problem on all affected LG Smart TVs so when this feature is disabled, no data will be transmitted," the company said.
LG also confirmed that the names of media files stored on external drives, like USB flash storage devices, was being transmitted back to the company as part of a planned feature that would have involved searching for metadata related to those media files on the Internet "in order to deliver a better viewing experience."
"This feature, however, was never fully implemented and no personal data was ever collected or retained," the company said. "This feature will also be removed from affected LG Smart TVs with the firmware update."
"LG regrets any concerns these reports may have caused and will continue to strive to meet the expectations of all our customers and the public," the company said. "We hope this update clears up any confusion."


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
The moratorium on the issuance of certain residential building permits ends on August 8, 2022.
The moratorium on the issuance of short-term rental permits ends on September 30, 2022.
Show All Answers
The moratorium is a legally authorized means for Aspen City Council to delay the performance of a legal obligation. In this case, the moratorium put a temporary pause on the issuance of residential building and vacation rental permits.
Per Ordinance No. 8, Series 2022, there is a temporary moratorium on the acceptance of any new land use application seeking a development order or notice of approval, and on the acceptance of certain building permit applications for all residential uses in all zone districts within the city of Aspen. The moratorium on residential building permits extends until August 8, 2022.
The moratorium applies to residential properties within Aspen city limits. It does not apply if:
Per Ordinance No. 26, Series 2021, there is a moratorium on the issuance of new vacation rental (short-term rental) permits until September 30, 2022.
Per the City of Aspen municipal code, a vacation rental is defined as "The short-term occupancy of a residential dwelling unit by the general public for a fee. A vacation rental shall not include the rental of individual rooms within a residential dwelling unit." Therefore, a "vacation rental" is also known as a "short-term rental".
If you submitted an application for a vacation rental permit prior to 5 p.m. on December 8, 2021, and it was approved, you may continue to operate under your vacation rental permit until September 30, 2022. We are not accepting additional vacation rental permit applications at this time.
The deadline to apply for a vacation rental permit was 5 p.m. on December 8, 2021. If you submitted an application for a vacation rental permit prior to 5 p.m. on December 8, 2021, and it was approved, you may continue to operate under your vacation rental permit until September 30, 2022. We are not accepting additional vacation rental permit applications at this time.
As outlined by the Municipal Code, a vacation rental dwelling unit is considered a vacation rental (short-term rental) if it is rented or leased for a short term period, which is defined as a length of time that is equal to or less than thirty (30) consecutive days without limitation in the following zone districts: Lodging Zone Districts, Commercial Zone Districts, Mixed Use Zone Districts, and Residential Zone Districts.
We are not accepting additional vacation rental permit applications at this time. The exception to this is if a property had a vacation rental permit last year and the ownership changed hands. Then, the new owner can request a permit. Questions? Contact our finance department.
There are a lot of similarities between lodges and vacation rentals (short-term rentals), including:
This is where the similarities end. Lodges are commercial properties, and vacation rentals operate in residential properties. Lodges are generally located in areas of the city (zone districts) that are intended and designed to provide for the impacts of commercial uses. Vacation rentals, being operated in residential buildings or neighborhoods, are often not located in areas that can withstand the impacts of these rentals without burdening neighbors or Aspen's infrastructure. Property taxes for lodges are based on commercial tax rates. Vacation rentals, being located in residences, have a much lower property tax burden. Lodges generally have 24-hour, seven days per week, on-site management. Vacation rentals are typically managed or rented by off-site entities including property management firms or real estate agents. Lastly, under current regulations, the requirements for lodges to ensure the safety of their guests, provide for a quality visitor experience, and contribute to Aspen's efforts to facilitate a functioning economy and maintain a sustainable system of infrastructure, are significantly more rigorous than those required of vacation rentals.


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Please respond promptly to any Notice of Violation. While some violations are considered serious and cannot be delayed, there are others that we may be able to work with you under a reasonable time frame for compliance.
If action is not taken willfully during the given time frame, the violation will be abated and an associated cost will be billed to you. There may also be legal action taken, if necessary. The inspector assigned to the case will follow up once the grace period expires to determine compliance or noncompliance.
The Neighborhood Services Division is here to work with you to prevent blight in our neighborhoods. Remember, if you do not respond to a Notice of Violation, we have no way to understand your individual circumstances and we will have no choice but to take some sort of action.


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Here at Food52, we're serious about our coffee. So we got our friends over at Stumptown Coffee to teach us everything there is to know about it -- and to make our morning (and afternoon) routines a little bit brighter.
Today: How to brew coffee in a pour over device.
There are dozens of different types of pour over brewers that all generally operate in the same way: you put a paper filter inside a ceramic or metal cone or flat-bottomed brewer and brew into a cup or glass pitcher. We can thank the German housewife Ms. Melitta Bentz for this, who first developed the paper filter using a piece of blotting paper from her son's school notebook in 1908.
Many people love the Hario V60, a sleek Japanese dripper with a large opening in the bottom. A newcomer that we have been experimenting with a lot at Stumptown HQ is the Kalita Wave. We love 'em all. But the tried and true foolproof brewer we all have sitting on our coffee shelves at home and in our offices is the Bee House coffee dripper. It's a little more convenient than some of the others because it takes Number 4 Melitta filters, which you can pick up at just about any corner store. It's quick and consistent -- and an easy, inexpensive way to make a fab single cup.
To brew the Bee House:
Grind 21 grams (about 3 tablespoons) of coffee for a 10-ounce mug -- the ground coffee should be about as fine as table salt.
Next, place the filter inside the dripper and put it on top of your mug or pitcher. Pre-rinse your filter and cup. This rinses out the paper flavor and preheats your brewer and mug. Discard the rinse water and add ground coffee.
Pour enough water (30 seconds off the boil or about 200° F) to saturate grounds and let them bloom for 30 seconds.
Pour water evenly in a spiral over the coffee bed and slowly fill to the top of the brewer. For an even extraction, try to pour over the dark spots and avoid the light ones.
When the mug is full (this should take about 2 minutes), remove the dripper from the mug, place it in the sink to catch the last drips, and drink it up!
See what other Food52 readers are saying.


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Pope Francis, the Dirty War and the Jews
Confronted by what it considers the existential threat of communism, convinced that Christianity and nationalism are one and the same, and compelled by self-interest to place social order above political liberty: Welcome to the world of the Catholic Church in Argentina during the "dirty war." But most French Catholics during the "dark years" of 1940–1944 would also have recognized their world and church in this description.
There is good reason to hope that Pope Francis will usher in a new era for an institution rocked by corruption and scandal. But there is equally good reason to reflect on his past as Jose Mario Bergoglio, who served as head of Argentina's Jesuit order during the "dirty war." A comparison between the two churches during these horrific chapters in their histories would be one way to start.
In 1976, Argentina was not defeated and occupied, as was France in 1940, by a foreign power. But both nations had been at war with themselves, their democratic institutions seemingly incapable of mastering the domestic threats posed by communist and reactionary forces. Upon the death of Juan Peron, Argentina slid toward chaos; upon the defeat of the Third Republic, France collapsed into absolute anarchy. Into the vacuums created by these crises, the military rushed. The generals in Argentina overthrew the government of Isabel Peron, while Marshal Philippe Pétain, the elderly "hero of Verdun," buried the Republic and became leader of the "French State," better known as Vichy.
The Catholic hierarchies in both countries applauded their new leaders. As Diana Quattrochi-Woisson, a specialist on Argentine politics, observes: "Far from criticizing the institutional rupture of 1976, the Church welcomed the military junta with relief." Relief understates the reaction of the French prelates and priests — indeed, for the vast majority of the nation — to Pétain's assumption of power. For these men, as terrified by the specter of communism as they were by the presence of Nazism, Pétain was, in the words of the right-wing ideologue Charles Maurras, "a divine surprise."
It was, however, a very different kind of surprise for both Argentine and French Jews. One of the first orders of business for the Vichy regime was to transform French Jews into something less than French citizens. In October 1940, a salvo of anti-Semitic laws was launched, ranging from the purge of Jews from the liberal professions and universities to the "aryanization" — that is, the forced sale of all Jewish businesses to gentile buyers. Church leaders, blinded by the hope that Catholicism would, under Vichy, once again become the religion of the French, scarcely flinched at the laws.
As the historian Pierre Pierrard affirms, there was the "almost total silence of the Catholic hierarchy in the face of anti-Jewish legislation." Indeed, on the occasions when the silence was broken, it was to cheer the laws. As the archbishop of Marseille declared, "Already we see the face of a more beautiful France, healed of her sores, which were often the work of foreigners."
If the Argentine junta, led by Jorge Rafael Videla, did not introduce anti-Semitic laws, it was because it had turned Argentina into a lawless state. As the Commission of Solidarity With Relatives of the Disappeared has revealed, Jews were disproportionately targeted during the "dirty war." According to the commission's report, Argentine Jews "represented more than 12% of the victims of the military regime while constituting under 1% of Argentina's population."
Jacobo Timerman's experience, recounted in his memoir, "Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number," reminds us of the Nazi-inflected worldview of the Argentine military, convinced that Jews were at the heart of a Zionist-cum-communist menace aimed at their nation. There are 10,000 victims on the official list of "the disappeared" — the men and women tortured and murdered by the junta — nearly 1,300 of whom were Jewish.
It was only in mid-1942, when Vichy began to deport Jews to the death camps in the East, that the Catholic hierarchy finally flinched. Jules-Géraud Saliège, cardinal of Toulouse, and Pierre-Marie Théas, bishop of Montauban, denounced these actions. Citing a line in Isaiah, Théas declared: "I didn't want to be a mute dog and I barked when I had to. It was my duty; my silence would have been a betrayal." But the great majority of his peers did betray with their public silence.
There were several instances of resistance among the Argentine clergy, most famously two French nuns, Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet, who joined the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo movement. For their pains, the nuns were abducted and murdered in 1977 by the military. And, of course, there were the two Jesuit priests from whom, according to some accounts, Bergoglio had withdrawn the protection of his order. (Kidnapped by the army, they were tortured, but survived their ordeal.) Another notable example is Enrique Angelelli, the activist bishop of La Rioja. Angelelli was killed by the army in 1976 after persisting in his efforts to discover the whereabouts of "disappeared" members of his parish.
Yet these men and women were the exceptions. The verdict of historian Michael Lowy on Bergoglio's behavior — "He neither condemned nor criticized the dictatorship" — applies to the Argentine Church as a whole, just as it does to the French Catholic Church.
It was only when Pope John Paul II urged Catholics to confess to past errors that the French and Argentine churches confronted their histories. Their responses revealed subtle but dramatic differences. In 1997, in the Paris suburb of Drancy, home to the transit camp to Auschwitz, the church's leaders publicly declared: "France's bishops did not speak out, acquiescing through their silence to the flagrant violations of human rights and enabling this fatal spiral. Our silence was a mistake. We beg for the pardon of God, and we ask the Jewish people to hear this word of repentance."
Compared with this frank (and frankly inspiring) document, the Argentine Church's confession, made in a pastoral letter in 1996, staggers under the weight of bad faith. As if dictated by a team of defense attorneys — "Without admitting the responsibilities," the letter begins, "that the church did not have in these occurrences" — the bishops first finger the "systematic violence" not of the junta, but instead of the Marxist revolutionaries. While acknowledging that "there were other groups which included many sons of the church that responded illegally to the guerillas," the bishops denied all institutional responsibility for these crimes. Remarkably, not once does the word "disappeared" appear in their text.
But this instance of ethical constriction may now be changing into one of true contrition. In the echo chamber of the Internet, we keep bumping up against a certain number of items from Bergoglio's biography. He took public transport, lived in a small apartment, made his own meals and had close relations with the Jewish community of Argentina; all of this is telling and important. We also keep hearing that Bergoglio led the Argentine Church in 2012 in a "collective apology" for its behavior during the "dirty war."
My Internet searches for the text itself proved fruitless. But let us hope its wording equals the French confession, and let us recall that the French church also needed a half-century before its act of repentance.
Robert Zaretsky is a professor of history at The Honors College at the University of Houston and is the author of the forthcoming "A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Pursuit of Meaning" (Harvard University Press).


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Interesting. It looks like Google won't be entirely shaking up any wireless industries at the present time, but it will be pushing forward with its own "flagship" device by selling it directly to consumers. While our connect's internal T-Mobile photo is rather small, we've broken down the text for you:
Google, with support from T-Mobile, is scheduled to launch a new Android device in early January. The Google Android phone will be sold directly by Google via the Web.
Support for the device including troubleshooting and exchanges will be managed by Google and HTC. T-Mobile will offer service support including billing, coverage, features, and rate plans. Additional details Streamline content regarding the launch of Google's Android phone will be coming in early January.
So… Google is simply selling the phone directly for now, as rumored, and T-Mobile will "officially" support it, even though they practically do the same for any unlocked handset on their network. Google and HTC will be fielding support calls from users, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. Unless this is only the Android Development 3 phone. But it's not just that. And T-Mobile could possibly subsidize it in or around March. Ok, bye.


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Effectiveness of Teams
For example in "59 seconds" Richard Wiseman questions the effectiveness of brainstorming – groups tend to focus on mundane, easily agreed upon suggestions; or be swayed by uncreative, charismatic team members.
How do we reconcile this conflict? If groups tend to lack creativity and flexibility in their thinking, why do agile teams appear to be more creative, more flexible and above all more effective? Is it an illusion, or does agile actually help teams achieve more?
Just one developer?
The trouble with software is its rarely a lone sport anymore. There aren't many fields where one developer on his own can make a significant contribution. But where one developercan make meaningful progress you will get the best bang for buck. As soon as you add a second team member you needmuch more communication (ok, I might sit and talk to myself sometimes, but I talk much more when there's another human being there). By the time you're adding a third, fourth or fifth developer, you're spending loads of time justtalkinganddrawing on whiteboards andstanding around havingmeetings.
If I'm the only person to have touched the code, when it crashes – I know exactly whose fault it is. As soon as there are more developers, we get to play blamestorming. "Well it works fine on my PC", "It worked last time I ran it", "You checked in last – itmust be your bug". You start to get the diffusion of responsibility that Wiseman talks about. People don't feelpersonally responsible for the output, so they don't feel compelled to make it better: half assed is good enough, it's not my problem.
The truth is most activities of any size nowadays require a team of people to work on, which immediately raises the question ofwho works on what, when.
Maybe agile helps teams be more effective by letting the team be more fluid. Rather than the smartest people getting stuck on one problem or in one area, the fluidity and constant reassessment of agile allows the smart people to automatically refocus to where they need to be. But critically, itdoesn'tneed someone to micromanage the situation and tell them to work on the most important things – people will "self-organise" and naturally gravitate to where they can help most.
At the daily standup Harry says:
Jim – are you doing ok with the checkout flow? You've never done anything like that before so would it help if I came and paired with you today? The order history page can wait until next week so we can hit our target for Friday.
Magic: a "self-organising team". Imagine some asshat manager had said that! Jim would feel like an idiot, Harry gets to feel awkward so tries not to ride roughshod over Jim's work – both get dragged down and demotivated; the end result is slow, sloppy work and a miserable team. Instead, because the team came up with the idea, everyone's happy about it and the work gets done as quickly as possible.
Because different people are always offering help – either because they're nosy and want to know how something works, or because they're some smartass know-it-all that's good at everything – the fact that the smartest people are quickly rotating round the group's biggest problems isn't always plain to see. Everyone is moving around; but most of the movement is noise: the important thing is that the brightest, most capable people are moving to where they are needed most.
Maybe the fluidity simply creates a socially acceptable way for the smart people on the team to leap from problem to problem without the rest of the team feeling stupid.
Who's the rockstar?
I hate the term, but if agile teams are more effective because the "rockstar" developers are working on all the important stuff – that suggests everyone else is working on the unimportant stuff. Now, if your company has time to pay idiots to work on stuff that nobody wants – maybe I can offer you some overpriced consultancy?
But that doesn't happen, does it? Perhaps because the "rockstar" on the team, is probably only good at playing guitar (stretching the tortured analogy). I've heard him play a drum solo: it's shit. But the drummer? Yeah, he's not too bad at that. Everyone on a team has different strengths, and will do best at certain tasks. As a manager, it's almost impossible to try and assign people to tasks to get the best out of everyone and deliver the most value possible. You're basically trying to allocate resources centrally, which turns out to be pretty hard.
Instead by delegating resource allocation to the team, the teamdecide who would be best on each activity; the team take responsibility for delivering as much value as quickly as possible. Even if that sometimes means people are working on tasks they're not suited for – those who are better at it might be working on something more valuable. Sometimes you need a drummer, even if they're not the best drummer in the band.
Regular task switching and lots of pairing is great for creating an environment where developers can move from task to task easily. But this comes with a cost – I can't immediately pick up where James left off, I need to talk to him to find out what he was doing and where he got to, I need to learn and understand the code he wrote yesterday before I can write more. This has a cost to it.
What about the diffusion of responsibility? If six different people all work on the same feature, won't we find that nobody really cares whether it works, because everyone blames the other guys? Well, assuming we're all professional developers, I'm sure we wouldn't sink to such childish behaviour. But it's surprising how easy you can become detached from the goal you're aiming for – the overall benefit you're trying to deliver for the customer. You know what's left to do, so you do your little bit. You don't think about the overall goal and what the customer actually wanted. You take your eye off of quality for a split second and bang! You screwed up.
I suspect diffusion of responsibility is a genuine problem in agile teams – which is why shared ownership is emphasised. We all own this code – so treat it as your own. In another light, it's the craftsmanship ethic – to leave the code a little better than you found it. Don't just assume the other guy knew what he was doing: fix it, properly. Without this, the diffusion of responsibility would lead to chaos.
To tolerate all these costs: task switching, diffused responsibility, communication and coordination overhead – there simply must be a massive benefit. The upside of having the right people on the right task at the right time must outweigh all those downsides.
But does it always? Does it on your team?
Reference: Effectiveness of Teams from our NCG partner David Green at the Actively Lazy blog.


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Apr. 21 (GIN) – As Zimbabwe marks its 34th year of independence from colonialism, singing star Thomas Mapfumo sent a salute "to the brave heroes and heroines who joined the war of liberation."
In a radio interview, Mapfumo – the "Lion of Zimbabwe" – recalled the time of the independence war. "When we were singing — it was about freedom, justice hence I coined my music "Chimurenga".
"Even though I was not holding a gun, it was a difficult terrain and I was constantly harassed, arrested and detained because I denounced oppression and colonialism," he told Nehanda radio. "My dream was to see a free Zimbabwe where our citizens are able to access education, health, access to decent accommodation, and above all a better life for everyone."
He continued: "Today, we need all hands on deck to do more to make real the dream of equality, justice and a better life for all. The brutalities of the past – detentions without trial, disappearances of our people, deaths in detentions, hangings of those opposed to colonialism, imprisonment, exile, massacres, assassinations, forced evictions, banishments and laws that made the lives of black Zimbabweans unbearable — are testimonies that our freedom was never free."
"Although today we walk tall because our collective efforts culminated in the 18th of April being our Independence Day, we all still carry scars that remind us that our freedom, which is at times taken for granted was never free."
"We cannot allow tribalism to prevail in our society, communities and in any of our various and diverse institutions."
Finally, Mapfumo closed with the theme of one of his popular songs. "Our nation must develop, but instead of working to develop our country there are those selfish individuals who because of their positions of influence are busy stealing from the poor. That must stop; it's a betrayal of the values of the liberation struggle and our national independence."
The 69 year old Mapfumo was imprisoned without charges under the white-dominated regime of Rhodesia. He now lives in exile in Oregon and although he has occasionally returned to Zimbabwe he has not returned since 2005.


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The American Water Works Association (AWWA) has begun work on a security guidance document and related training materials to assist in the design and construction of new drinking water systems and the improvement of existing ones. AWWA is seeking a contractor to develop the materials. Interested companies or consortiums may obtain detailed information on the scope of work at www.awwa.org, on the Science and Technology landing page. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing funds to support the project.
The guidelines and training will incorporate updated security measures resulting from the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Prepar-edness and Response Act of 2002, which required all drinking water utilities serving a population of greater than 3,300 persons to conduct vulnerability assessments. The materials will address risks associated with both intentional attacks and natural disasters.
"AWWA recognizes that many water providers want assistance in harnessing information from vulnerability assessments and other experiences to reduce risks at their facilities and distribution systems," says Jack Hoffbuhr, AWWA executive director. "These guidance materials will assist them in developing a comprehensive, consistent approach to risk reduction in existing operations and in the construction of new facilities."
The guidance will cover a wide range of potential security improvements, including perimeter and facility access, alarms and surveillance, computers and hardening of structures. Associated training materials will include an eight-hour modular training program and a Web-based reference document.


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Understanding Anti-Spam Updates
Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP2, Exchange Server 2010 SP3
On November 1, 2016, Microsoft stopped producing spam definition updates for the SmartScreen filters in Exchange and Outlook. The existing SmartScreen spam definitions will be left in place, but their effectiveness will likely degrade over time. For more information, see Deprecating support for SmartScreen in Outlook and Exchange.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 includes many anti-spam features that depend on downloaded data to determine whether a message can be delivered with confidence that it isn't spam. The following data must be kept up-to-date for the anti-spam features to operate optimally:
Content filter updates These updates contain data about phishing Web sites, Microsoft SmartScreen spam heuristics, and other Intelligent Message Filter updates. Content filter updates generally contain about 6 MB of data that's useful for longer periods of time than other anti-spam update data.
Microsoft IP Reputation Service data The Microsoft IP Reputation Service is an IP Block list service offered exclusively to Exchange 2010 customers. Administrators can decide to implement and use the Microsoft IP Reputation Service in addition to other real-time block list services.
Spam signature data Spam signatures identify the latest spam campaigns. The spam is hashed into a message digest, or spam signature. This data is used by content filtering to assign a higher spam confidence level (SCL) to known spam. The spam signature files are small. A collection of spam signatures is only a few KB. The spam signatures are also time sensitive. Therefore, they're updated more frequently than other anti-spam data sets.
Anti-spam updates contain data only. They don't contain updated binaries or libraries. Anti-spam updates don't require mail flow interruption or service restarts.
Updates with Microsoft Update
By default, anti-spam updates aren't automatic. Instead, the administrator must visit Microsoft Update to download and install the content filter updates. The content filter update data is updated and available for download every two weeks.
Manual updates from Microsoft Update don't include the Microsoft IP Reputation Service or spam signature data. The Microsoft IP Reputation Service and spam signature data is only available when you use the anti-spam features of Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (FPE).
Updates with Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server
Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (FPE) integrates multiple scan engines into a comprehensive, layered solution that helps you protect your Microsoft Exchange server messaging environment from malware, spam, and inappropriate content. FPE prevents the spread of malicious content by scanning all messages in real time with minimal impact on Exchange server performance or message delivery time.
You can enable FPE anti-spam technology in both the Exchange Edge Transport and Exchange Hub Transport roles. However, the Edge Transport role is the preferred location for anti-spam filtering. The technology includes a series of agents that are registered with Exchange and are invoked at specific points in the SMTP pipeline. FPE can also be integrated with Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) to provide an additional layer of filtering for your messaging environment.
When you deploy FPE, the anti-spam features that are built in to Exchange are disabled. To learn more about how the FPE anti-spam solution works, see Using Antispam Filtering.
To learn more about how anti-spam updates work when you're using FPE, see Configuring and scheduling updates.
© 2010 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


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and as I saw that this Resurrection countdown made it on Pinterest (haha)...
I figured I should disclose the rest of my 12 days of Jesus lessons and activities from this post last year.
I realized recently that I have taken for granted the education that I received through 20+ years of Sunday School. As we go to a small church without a Sunday School program for my kids... I am trying to be better about working Bible stories in at home. That is where this idea originated last year. Plus… this kind of stuff is fun for the former teacher in me.
Start 12 days before Easter. Easter Sunday should leave you with the #1 egg to open. Each of the 12 eggs should hold a small trinket or conversation starter that will kind of fit in the egg. After Lily opens the egg for that day, we read the story together in her Children's Bible (we have this one and this one)... then talk a little bit about how the object relates to the story and how the story relates to our lives. My main purpose is to start to get her as excited about my Savior as I am.
... and to make strides in redeeming Easter in our house from the Pagans, while keeping it fun.
… and full of chocolate.
Day 12: mini playdoh … "The name of Jesus"
Read the story of the Angel coming to Mary in Luke 1. Talk about what the name of Jesus - Immanuel "God with us" means. Talk about the meaning of our own names. Read Philippians 2:10 together and discuss. Use the playdoh to spell out the name of Jesus.
Day 11: swedish fish candy and a cracker … "Jesus feeds the 5000"
See how many times we can break the 'bread' and 'fish'. Read the story in Matthew 14, Luke 9, or John 6. Talk about what it might have looked like and note how everyone got enough to be full and not just tiny pieces.
Day 10: toy boat … "Jesus calms the storm" (I found a tiny boat at the party store this year for a dime… but last year decorated a piece of mulch with a sharpie… no joke)
Read the story in Matthew 8, Mark 4 or Luke 8 and talk about why this is so amazing. Make a storm in a bottle (with a liter bottle oil water and food coloring) with your toy boat or storm in the bathtub and try to calm it instantly, which can't be done.
Day 9: blindfold … "Jesus heals the blind man"
Lead them in a few activities with the blindfold on. Talk about how hard it would be to live life that way and how you'd feel if you were healed. Read about the healing in John 9. Note how the blind man reacted when Jesus told him who He was. How does God reveal Himself in our lives… how should we react?
Day 8: paper crown and a travel soap … "Jesus washes feet"
Talk about the meaning of royalty and the things that kings, queens, princesses are supposed to do. Explain how Jesus is the King of all Kings and what that means. Then read the story of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples in John 13 and how he came to serve and not be served. Is that what you'd expect the King of Kings to do? Take turns putting on the crown and washing each other's feet talking about how we can serve the way Jesus did.
Day 7: sample perfume or scented lotion … "Mary Magdalene and the perfume"
(I did this one because Lily is obsessed with perfume... feel free to substitute) Read the story of Mary pouring the perfume on Jesus' feet from John 12. Talk about how expensive this was back then and what a big deal it was for her to do it. Discuss some other things are important to us now and how we can give them as an offering to God.... time, money etc.
Day 6: 4 quarters … "giving/ Rich young ruler"
Talk about what they'd like to do with the 4 quarters. Read the story Jesus tells of the rich young ruler from Matthew 19 or Luke 12 and then Acts 20:35 when Jesus says it is better to give than to receive. Now revisit the quarters and talk about what they'd like to do with the 4 quarters.
Day 5: TWO small treats or candy … "Jesus visits Zacchaeus"
Read the story in Luke 19. Talk about why people didn't like Zacchaeus back then and how cool it is that Jesus not only saw and acknowledged him, but wanted to spend time with him… and how it changed the man's life. Lead them to think about some people that they (or the world in general) haven't been 'noticing'. Invite them to seek out the person and share the extra treat and play with them.
Day 4: Time Coupon … "Jesus loved the children"
Read the story in Mark 10 . Talk about adults in our lives that obviously love children. How do you know and what do they do to show it? How do we think Jesus showed it? How would you like me to show you that I love you and value spending time with you? Fill out the time coupon together. (Although I'd like to steer her into wanting extra hugs or going on a walk together... I can already tell you that I am going to be in for 20 excruciating minutes of Barbies with this one. )
Day 3: Tearjerker gum … "Jesus wept."
Read the story of Jesus healing Lazarus in John 11. Talk about how Jesus was a real person with real emotions like us. Note how he was sad, but never lost hope. He knew God was going to use Lazarus' story for His glory. Talk about times when we feel sad, hurt, scared at times and how awesome it is to have hope like Jesus did in this situation because God is behind us and hears our prayers.
Day 2: Crayon and a slip of paper … "Jesus died for us"
Read the story of the crucifixion in Matthew 27, Luke 23 or John 19 and talk about how must have felt to love Jesus and be there that day... and how it might have felt for those who didn't love Jesus but saw what happened. Write the word that you feel on the piece of paper and put it inside the egg for the next day. Bury the egg somewhere nearby.
Day 1: the egg is empty … "He is RISEN!"
Go find the egg (which has now been unearthed, broken open and is empty.) Read the story in Matthew 28, Mark 16 or John 20. Talk about how God gave us the most special gift ever when he gave us Jesus: Himself in a body to love us and show us how to live and to ultimately give his own life so that we could have an eternal relationship with him.... not because we deserved it at all... but because He loves us that much.
This is kind of how I worked the 'Easter Basket' in last year:
"All good things that we do are God's grace at work in us because of our salvation in Jesus. One of these is how Dad and I enjoy giving you and Eli gifts to show our love... just like He does. Since this is a special day as we are celebrating Jesus' victory over death…. I 've made a special basket of gifts for you. If you can find it… you can keep it!"
***sidenote: Lily is 4, but loves to discuss things and make connections. I catered this to her interests/ ability level.
When she gets older I might be to just read the stories each day and then have the Easter basket be full objects that relate to the stories and go back through and see if she can match them. This whole 'fitting inside the egg' criteria may start to cramp my style in the coming years.
Please share if you substitute or come with other story/activity ideas.
This was a hit last year and is probably going to be a new family tradition.


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Posted 13 years ago
(2 items)
I recently bought this gold bracelet at a yard sale. it has a star mark encircled in arms or could be a snake. it has other marks but cant read them. there are cameos and roses on the stones some are impressed Shadow. if anyone has any info please help. Thanks


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Bechtel (Bachtel, Bachteil, Bachstel, Bechtold, Böchtel, Baechtold) family
Bechtel is an old Swiss Mennonite family name. By 1664 Peter Bechtel was listed in the Mennonite census lists of the Palatinate. Jacob Bechtel, also spelled in the immigration lists as Vechtel and Pritel, arrived in Philadelphia 31 October 1737 from the Palatinate. The family first settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and later moved to other states, including Ontario and Iowa. Eleven ministers by the name of Bechtel had served in the Franconia Mennonite Conference district by the 1950s.
Prominent in this family was George Bechtel (16? -1759), who came from Mannheim, Germany, to America 9 August 1729, an early leader in the Mennonite Church in Berks County, Pennsylvania; Andrew S. Bechtel (1874- ), pastor of the Mennonite church at Hanston, Kansas, who served as editor of the Christian Evangel and also editor of the Year Book of the General Conference, 1938-1940; and Joseph B. Bechtel (1865-1946), by occupation a watch maker and jeweler, an influential lay member in the General Conference Mennonite Church. The Bechtel Family History written by Joseph Bechtel was published in 1928.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. I, 148.
Author(s) | Harold H Hartzler |
Date Published | 1953 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Hartzler, Harold H. "Bechtel (Bachtel, Bachteil, Bachstel, Bechtold, Böchtel, Baechtold) family." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 23 Feb 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bechtel_(Bachtel,_Bachteil,_Bachstel,_Bechtold,_B%C3%B6chtel,_Baechtold)_family&oldid=143910.
APA style
Hartzler, Harold H. (1953). Bechtel (Bachtel, Bachteil, Bachstel, Bechtold, Böchtel, Baechtold) family. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 23 February 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bechtel_(Bachtel,_Bachteil,_Bachstel,_Bechtold,_B%C3%B6chtel,_Baechtold)_family&oldid=143910.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 257-258. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


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One of the best-known and flamboyant London showmen who pitched up at Petticoat Lane market every Sunday wasn't Alan Sugar, who started his business career as a stall-holder at the famous East End market, but a black racing-tipster who grandly called himself Ras Prince Monolulu. In fact, from the 1920s until he died in 1965, and unless Paul Robeson was visiting the country, he was probably the most famous black person in Britain.
Petticoat Lane market has, in one form or another, existed in the East End for hundreds of years. The actual road that was called Petticoat Lane had its name changed to Middlesex Street in the 1830s – the word 'petticoat' was deemed a little unsavoury for the young Queen Victoria – but the original name has stuck to mean the general area.
Monolulu usually wore an ostentatious head-dress of ostrich feathers, a multi-coloured cloak and gaiters, a huge scarf wrapped around his waist and was hardly ever without his huge shooting stick-cum-umbrella. Of course anybody who was considered remotely amusing in those days had to have a catch-phrase and Monolulu's, heard by everyone at Petticoat Lane and race-courses around the country, was:
"I Gotta Horse, I Gotta Horse'.
Monolulu was born Peter Carl McKay in 1881 and was originally from an island called St Croix, now part of the US Virgin Islands in the West Indies. He arrived in Britain in 1902 and after a year of mostly menial work he managed to join the chorus of the first all-black West End musical show called In Dahomey.
In Dahomey was initially staged on Broadway to limited success and after just 53 performances it was transferred to London's Shaftesbury Theatre. The British public had literally seen nothing like it and the show became a huge sensation. The success was capped by a command performance celebrating the birthday of the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace, where it was heralded as "the most popular musical show in London."
The musical featured an elaborate version of the African-American minstrel dance called the 'Cakewalk' and featured several hit songs as well as making stars in London of the principal actors.
After In Dahomey came to an end there wasn't much work for black musical actors in London (to say the least) and Monolulu travelled Europe as a fortune teller, violinist, singer, lion tamer and even a 'cannibal' in a travelling roadshow. He was in Germany when the first world war broke out and he found himself in a German Internment camp called Ruhleben (which, incidentally was a former race course) near Berlin for the duration of the war.
After he returned to England, he began work for an Irish tipster but quickly went solo and took to shouting "I gotta horse" after seeing the religious revivalist Gypsy Daniels shouting "I've got heaven" to attract his crowds.
In 1920 Monolulu reputedly won £8,000 on the Derby when he put all his money on an unfancied horse called Spion Kop. It was a vast sum of money at the time and from that moment on he became a tipster for ever more. When anyone bought a tip from him (at Epsom at the height of his fame he would charge ten shillings) he'd hand over a sealed envelope inside of which was the name of the horse written with careful handwriting on a piece of paper. He'd lean over to the punter and whisper:
"If you tell anyone, the horse will lose".
It seemed that someone always told someone because Monolulu's horse nearly always lost. Although no one ever complained.
From the 1930s any British film that featured a race course would include Monolulu playing himself. Eventually he appeared in over ten films with his last appearance being in a Billy Fury vehicle called, fittingly, I've Gotta Horse.
On Valentine's day in 1965 Jeffrey Bernard, who was working as a racing journalist at the time, visited an ill Monolulu in Middlesex hospital wanting an interview. Bernard had brought with him a box of Black Magic chocolates and offered the famous tipster a 'strawberry cream'. Unfortunately, Monolulu started to fatally choke on the chocolate. Bernard backed out of the ward bidding farewell.
Monolulu lived for a lot of his life in Fitzrovia and there was once a pub named after him called Prince Monolulu at 28 Maple Street. Unfortunately a few years ago someone decided that a three-level cocktail bar called Potion was a much better idea.
Here's an example of Prince Monolulu's patter recorded in 1933.
Prince Monolulu – I Gotta Horse
Tags: betting, East End, horses, Jeffrey Bernard, markets, races