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I get a lot of questions about what I think of the various movies that have come out over the years that feature volcanic activity. So, I thought I'd try to write a few capsule review/commentaries on the many volcano movies I've seen - and trust me, I haven't seen them all (e.g., 2012, Joe vs. the Volcano, Magma: Volcanic Disaster). However, I have seen a lot of them ... and I have to admit, no matter how silly premise or how bad the science, I do get a kick out of most of them. Sure, there are some that are such an abomination unto mankind that I can't even appreciate them on a Satellite of Love level, but that is the price we pay, isn't it? It is interesting that there aren't a huge number of Hollywood films that have used a volcanic eruption as a central theme - but we have seen an upswing in made-for-TV movies and docudramas (I've included a couple of these) as special effects become cheaper. Here's how this will work - I've scored the films on four major areas: premise, science, effects, acting and thrills -- all on a scale of 1 (low) to 9 (high) and then averaged the scores to give the film its VEI - Volcanic Entertainment Index. I couldn't decide on an order, so chronological it is! The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)
A pyroclastic flow from 1935's "Last Days of Pompeii". By today's standards, it looks more like a lahar, but great special effects for the era. Image: screenshot. There have actually been three versions of "The Last Days of Pompeii" - in 1913, 1935 and 1960 (and another big-budget Pompeii movie is in the works right now). Hoping for a "classic age of cinema" retelling of Pompeii, I instead got a lot of boring backstory with gladiators and class struggle, then maybe 10 minutes of volcanic mayhem where the evil Romans get their come-uppance and the hero gets saved by Jesus (I think). The special effects, for the time, were quite impressive but they got a little carried away with the massive earthquake that seemed to be occurring at the same time. Needless to say, science was a bit lacking: Premise 5 (at least it was based on a real event); Science 1 (the volcano is there); Effects 4 (good for the time); Acting 3; Thrills 3 (too little, too late) - VEI 3.2Krakatoa: East of Java (1969) I've seen this movie a couple times now, and once you get past the poor geography, well, there isn't much else left. As much as I try to remember things that happened in the film, all I get is lots of model boats being washed about and a exploding fireball island set. It is hard to believe that Hollywood could undersell this eruption, but "Krakatoa: East of Java" makes the eruption seem kind of tame - see the revamped docudrama "Krakatoa" (2005) that at least captures the magnitude of the eruption. If any film begs a modern remake, it would be this. On the plus side, it does have Maximillian Schell. Premise 4 (real event, poorly done); Science 1 (nope); Effects 2 (pretty poor); Acting 3; Thrills 2 (a bit of a snore) - VEI 2.4When Time Ran Out (1980)This movie, starring Paul Newman before salad dressing, arrived at the tail end of the 1970s disaster film heyday ... and it is very confusing. Supposedly based on the 1902 eruption of Pelee, the movies doesn't even seem to be set in the same ocean, let alone with the right type of volcano. Somehow, Pelee becomes Kilauea and there are rivers of lava and they decided to build the volcano observatory hanging out over the crater. There is, of course, the evil developer/hotel owner who gets his just deserts and the children all get saved, but considering the events that "inspired" the film, it was pretty boring. It did, however, have Ernest Borgnine, who was contractually required to be in every disaster movie 1973-1982. Premise 3 (took a real disaster and made it terrible); Science 1 (if I could give it negative points, I would); Effects 2 (shoddy); Acting 2 (Newman dials this one in); Thrills 2 (boring) - VEI 2Dante's Peak (1997)
Grandma does some remodeling in 1997's "Dante's Peak". Image: screenshot. Hollywood likes to do movies in pairs - hence the 1997 volcano duo of "Volcano" and "Dante's Peak". Sure, there hadn't been a volcano movie for almost 17 years, but then, suddenly, we get two. This is the eternal struggle for volcanologists - which film do you like better? I don't even want to count how many times I've seen these films, but they are required views for many classes, especially when you want to look at science portrayed in major motion pictures. For those of you who haven't seen "Dante's Peak" (Warning: Spoilers ahead), Dr. Harry Dalton (played by Pierce "Remington Steele" Brosnan) is a USGS geologist sent to check out the rumbling at fictional Cascade volcano Dante's Peak. Of course, there is a evil developer and grumpy grandmothers in the town of the same name, so when Harry decided Dante's Peak is going to erupt, people aren't happy. Most of the action involves Harry trying to save the mayor's kids and grandmother (and dog) from the volcano - which erupts every kind of volcanic product imaginable - lava flows, ash, pyroclastic flows, lahars - and even turns a lake to acid that can eat through metal. In the end, Harry's boss, who resisted Harry's pleas to alert the citizens, gets wiped out by the volcano, but Harry, the mayor (Linda Hamilton) and the kids outrun a pyroclastic flow and survive. Now, here is what I think: I hate Dante's Peak. It isn't really the lack of much scientific basics - sure, they mostly understand how volcanic monitoring works but they miss the boat on how volcanoes actually work. It isn't the acting - Linda and Pierce are good and believable. It isn't the coffee-loving USGS geolackeys (that is accurate). However, it is the combination of everything - the over-the-top response from Harry about the volcanic rumblings, the resistance from his boss, the recalcitrant grandmother, the deus ex machina mine shelter. The damn dog jumping in the truck as they drive over an ACTIVE LAVA FLOW. The film is, at the same time, trying to be realistic while being wildly unrealistic, and in most cases, there was no need to be unrealistic when it comes to an eruption in the Cascades threatening a town. But no, we can't take the time to actually portray real events ("Dante's Peak" lacked a scientific adviser). Sure, it can be exciting but, for me, it was so frustrating that I couldn't get over it. Premise 2 (Cascade eruption = good; everything else = bad ; Science 3 (individually, they got things OK, but not as a whole); Effects 7 (pretty darn good); Acting 5 (can't complain); Thrills 5 (like the science, exciting individual events that shouldn't go together) - VEI 4.4Volcano (1997)
Fire fountain coming out of the LA subway in 1997's "Volcano". Image: screenshot. After reading the "Dante's Peak" review, you are probably dreading what I have to say about "Volcano". Guess what? I love it (mostly). I'll get to why in a second, but first, the plot (warning: spoilers). A volcano erupts out of the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles. Emergency Director Mike Roark (Tommy Lee Jones) has to deal with it while geologist Amy Barnes (Anne Heche) tries to help Roark understand what is going on. Lava cascades down Wilshire Boulevard and through subway tunnels. A building is detonated to block the lava and send it to the sea. A fire fountain erupts out of a manhole. Mt. Wilshire is born in downtown L.A. Need I say more? Now, you're thinking - come on, this is ludicrous ... and it is. Yet, that is the beauty of "Volcano". Unlike "Dante's Peak", the writers choose a scenario so outlandish that realism gets thrown out the window ... but, actually it doesn't. Sure, some of the portrayal of the pre-eruption events are so wrong - like Dr. Barnes' friend dying in the subway tunnel or the subway director melting like the wicked witch. However, if an eruption were to occur in a major city and it was a (mostly) effusive eruption, this is almost exactly how you could deal with it! Using cars/buildings are barriers. Water cannons and helicopter drops to cool the surface of the flow. Redirection into existing infrastructure to guide the flow to the sea. Sure, the lava was just a little too runny for its own good, but it wasn't water (until it gets "superheated"). The premise is out of the window, but the response isn't. You likely couldn't do a precision drop of a building in 30 minutes like they end up doing at the end, but it's a movie, so time is compressed. So, what are the problems in "Volcano"? Too much fluffy ash, that is one. An eruption like this might produce some ash, but it would like be denser, something like Pele's hair/tears that fall at Kilauea. Eruptions don't realize plumes of fire and superheated gas ... and then suck them all back up and return to pre-eruption conditions. There isn't likely any magma under the La Brea tar pits. The racial allegory at the end is way over the top (but this is post- Rodney King Los Angeles). However, once the disaster starts, the pace is fast, the action is exciting and the conclusion is as ridiculous as the premise. Premise 1 (Yeah, not really); Science 4 (beyond the premise and extra ash, the lava behaves more or less like lava); Effects 8 (the lava is great); Acting 6 (Tommy Lee Jones, Don Cheadle, Gaby Hoffman and Anne Heche all do great, specially Jones); Thrills 8 (Can get over the top, but whatever) - VEI 5.4Supervolcano (2005) "Supervolcano" wasn't a cinema release, but it is one of the "big three" volcano movies. It was made by the BBC and Discovery Channel and centered around everyone's favorite caldera, Yellowstone. Done as a docudrama, the film follows YVO scientist-in-charge Rick Lieberman (Mike Riley) as he deals with another caldera-forming eruption at Yellowstone. He has to juggle the media inquires, scientific dissent and then has to make his way out of the disaster zone itself with his brother-in-law. Some of his team survives the disaster, but not all of them - while FEMA and the national government have to deal with the ramifications of the eruption (like Mexico closing its borders to Americans). Really, I feel like I should like "Supervolcano" more than I do. It gets a lot of the science right. As I've written before, it gets across a lot of the issues of uncertainty in volcanic hazard monitoring and mitigation. The cast is strong - especially if you like playing the "name that Stargate SG-1 alum". The special effects (see below) and tone are spot on. Yet, each time I see it, I like it less. Maybe I've become oversaturated in the "looming threat" of Yellowstone, but it just doesn't have the repeat watchability that something like "Volcano" has. I wish I could explain why, but it just isn't there.
The caldera unzips in 2005's "Supervolcano". Image: screenshot. Premise 3 (Unrealistic, but portrayed with the appropriate gravitas); Science 6 (doesn't get it all right, but not bad); Effects 8 (Some of the caldera eruption scenes are great); Acting 4 (TV movie acting - but I do like Jock and Col. Maybourne as the USGS director); Thrills 5 (Sure, lots of action, but I can't really feel for the characters as much) - VEI 5.2Disaster Zone: Volcano in New York (2006) Ah yes, back to the trash. An evil scientist wants to drill into the crust under Brooklyn for energy, only to accidentally hit a "pocket of magma". Badness ensues and Costas Mandylor is part of a drilling crew that has to save the city. Needless to say, this is even more remotely unlikely than "Volcano" and its La Brea eruption. It is amusing to me that the female scientist is called "Dr. Foxley". Why not "Dr. Sexypants"? I wish I could unwatch this. Premise 1 (No way in heck); Science 1 (What is science again?); Effects 3 (cheap even for a TV movie); Acting 1 (no, thank you); Thrills 3 (New York is hit by a volcano) - VEI 1.8 There you go - maybe I can follow this with some TV episodes that features volcanoes as well. Anyway, feel free to add your thoughts about any of these films (or more) in the comments - maybe we can even find some other volcano-related movies in the process.


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Customers rarely see imperfect fruit and vegetables—the bent cucumber, the two-legged carrot, even the heart-shaped potato—because they are tossed away long before they reach supermarket shelves. But this year, French supermarket chain Intermarché decided to feature these so-called ugly fruits and vegetables in their stores (in an effort to reduce food waste).
The campaign, Quoi ma gueule? (What's wrong with my face?), was promoted over a two-day test period in March in Intermarché stores—France's third largest supermarket chain—in the north-central town of Provins.
Each year, approximately one-third of total food produced for human consumption, is wasted. The U.N. Environment Programme estimates the amount of food lost or wasted is equivalent to over half of the annual global production of cereals crops.
Intermarché gave the ugly vegetables their own catwalk—a dedicated area with their own labeling in the supermarket. The broader advertising campaign, Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables, starred Clementine, the unfortunate mandarin, who informed consumers that her imperfections were "actually quite cute."
Recognizing internal beauty was central to the campaign. Intermarché used the ugly foods in recipes to show consumers that there is no difference in the quality of the product when compared to better looking produce.
Intermarché priced the ugly vegetables at reduced prices—30 percent lower— compared to the standard produce to encourage sales. "It worked. We faced only one problem— we sold out," explained one advertisement from Intermarché, created by Marcel Paris. The company saw 1.2 times the average sale per store, and an increase in store traffic of 24 percent.
Globally, there are similar supermarket initiatives working to educate consumers about ugly produce. In Britain, Waitrose has a weather-blemished fruit line; and Fruta Feia, is a cooperative in Portugal, selling ugly produce.

subset: commoncrawl


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MirrorMount brackets securely attach devices to your car's rear view mirror, with sturdy metal brackets, and no suction cups. They are compatible with nearly every vehicle.
The Mirror Mount bracket securely attaches your Escort MAX360 MAX2 MAX Radar Detector to your vehicle's rear view mirror, and fits nearly every vehicle. After a quick, do-it-yourself installation, your device is secured in place with our all metal bracket, where it's easily in view, and won't fall off your windscreen.


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A Delicious Summer Breakfast Featuring Okra.
So I'm going to reveal to you that back in fall of 2008 I was a Brooklynguy who practiced home-pickling. I found, though, that I was unable to grow a good looking soul patch, or really any facial hair that looks normal. I grew a mustache once as part of a Halloween costume but it freaked people out, they said I looked like a porn star. 86 the mustache, they said, and so I did. So clearly I should not be pickling vegetables at home either. But there was a time when I was doing some pickling. Okra, even.
What's also funny about the post I linked to above is that there is mention of essentially the same okra recipe I'm going to share today. It's the simplest of recipes - the important thing is that you use good ingredients. You are braising okra in a sauce of fresh tomatoes and garlic. And then creating a beautiful weekend breakfast by topping this with a sunny side-up egg. There are variables you can play with here. I like to use a jalapeno pepper in the braising sauce, but you can play with heat, or leave it out. You can use wine in the tomatoes, or not. You can season the braising liquid with anything you like, although I find that with super good ingredients, you don't need much.
Okra is at the markets now, and you should try this - it's delicious and quite healthy:
Wash the okra and trim the stem so that a centimeter or less remains. Put some music on - I think that Coltrane Live in Stockholm works well here, but you can go with Giant Steps too. You can use good canned tomatoes, but 'tis tomato season. I like to use fresh plum tomatoes, but last weekend I used a smaller variety of the same shape called Juliettes. Use good tomatoes - that's what's most important. Chop the tomatoes coarsely. Use a mortar and pestle to make a paste of a very large clove of garlic. In a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat, using olive oil or neutral oil to your taste, cook the tomatoes until they begin to break down a little, stirring a lot, maybe 5 minutes. Add the garlic paste and some salt. Stir some more.
Add the okra and stir to coat them with the tomato sauce. Here I like to add a fresh jalapeno pepper that I've poked with a fork so that its flavors will easily seep out into the sauce. Stir some more, turn down the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer, stirring a few times, until the okra are as tender as you want them to be. You will have something that looks like this (although you can stop the simmer 8 minutes earlier and have firmer okra, also amazing):
Fry an egg and put it right on top. A hunk of baguette too.
I especially like it when the egg is all broken up and merges with the somewhat gooey okra and tomato. You know what - this dish isn't for you. Just forget about the whole thing.
Now, drinking wine on a weekend morning is a bad thing to do, because it's the morning time and we shouldn't drink in the morning. So I really cannot recommend a wine to pair with this because as I've explained already, it's breakfast and we don't drink wine on an August Saturday morning with okra stew and fried egg. But if, however, you were to ask me from a theoretical perspective, what wine it is that I would recommend to the type of scallywag who actually would drink wine in this situation... I would say that a good Fino, perhaps the basic Emilio Hidalgo Fino ($14 for a 750, imported by Winebow) is a great match. This is purely hypothetical, of course.


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Fairfield Lake State Park
Things to Do
Activities include camping, backpacking, hiking, horseback riding on approximately 15 miles of day-use equestrian trails, nature study, bird watching, boating on a 2,400-acre lake, water skiing, jet skiing, fishing, and lake swimming in a large, buoyed sandy area.
In addition to campsites for tents and RVs, the park also has group facilities .
Fairfield Lake is warmed by the TXU Big Brown power plant. Because of the warm water, people come from all over Texas to enjoy fantastic winter fishing opportunities. From November through February, tournaments are held every weekend. Fishing clubs from the Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Waco, Austin and Tyler areas host tournaments here.
Why drive all the way to the Texas Gulf Coast to enjoy fishing for red drum? Fairfield Lake is stocked with red drum (aka redfish)! The state record holder for inland red drum was taken here at Fairfield Lake (44 inches, 36.83 lbs).
Detailed fishing and lake information for Fairfield Lake
Swimming Safety Tips Ranger Programs
The park offers a variety of educational opportunities. Check the calendar for upcoming events or contact the park for special tours.
Ask about the Junior Ranger Explorer Packs available for free checkout at the park!
Area Attractions
Nearby points of interest include?Texas State Railroad; Fort Parker State Park ;?Old Fort Parker?(operated by the city of Groesbeck) and Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site ; and the cities of Rusk, Palestine and Fairfield (where the Freestone County Museum in the century-old jail is located). While you are in the area, visit the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens ,?a unique TPWD facility showcasing aquatic life and sportfishing in Texas.


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Story highlights
NEW: Endeavour's new mission is "inspiring people of all ages," the science center chief says
The move to the California Science Center started Friday and will take about two days
Endeavour became a museum piece after NASA ended its 30-year shuttle program last year
The science museum says it will begin displaying the shuttle on October 30
Calling Houston. Space shuttle Endeavour is navigating La La Land.
The retired shuttle is being wheeled through Southern California's infamous roads and highways to its final resting place: the California Science Center.
The slow trek, which started early Friday from Los Angeles International Airport, will take about two days.
Officials for months planned the logistics of the urban splashdown: 12 miles of twists and turns through the Los Angeles and Inglewood street network. The removal of utility lines and streetlights and the controversial felling of some trees have made the journey possible.
Authorities hope Endeavour gets to the center, as one police commander said, "in one piece," and they want to make sure there's no damage along the way.
Science Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rudolph told reporters at a news conference that the move is "incredibly complex."
"We're off to a great start," he said. "Everything is going to plan."
The craft is making stops along the route, and officials encourage citizens to come out to take a look. But a top concern is civilian safety, and officials hope people trying to sneak a peek of the shuttle respect others' private property.
Once at the science museum, the shuttle, which had its first launch in 1992, will be on display forever.
"Endeavour's new mission is to inspire people of all ages," Rudolph said, "to inspire the next generation of scientists, explorers and engineers."
Endeavour, along with Discovery, Enterprise and Atlantis, became a museum piece after NASA ended its 30-year shuttle program in July 2011. All four shuttles have been permanently retired from service.
Are you there? Send your images
Named for the first ship commanded by British explorer James Cook, Endeavour rolled out of an assembly plant in Palmdale, California, in 1991 at a cost of $1.7 billion. It was the baby of the shuttle fleet, built as a replacement for Challenger, which had exploded shortly after its 10th launch.
Over the next 20 years, Endeavour flew some of the highest-profile shuttle missions, covering nearly 123 million miles in 25 flights. It flew a Spacelab mission and numerous International Space Station assembly missions and rendezvoused with Russia's Mir Space Station.
The science museum is already trumpeting the arrival of the shuttle, saying on its website that it is building a new addition to its facility and plans to begin displaying Endeavour on October 30.
CNN's Lateef Mungin and Joe Sterling contributed to this report


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In 1916 the Alumni Association of the School of Music at Northwestern University appointed a committee comprised of Carl Milton Beecher, Louis Norton Dodge, and Walter Allen Stults to examine the possibility of creating an honor society in the field of music. Consequently, in 1918, the Pi Kappa Lambda Society was granted a charter by the State of Illinois. The society's name was chosen from the Greek equivalent of the initials its first member, Peter Christian Lutkin, Dean of the School of Music at Northwestern University. Dean Lutkin was issued key number one of the
Plans for the establishment of a chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda at NEC began in 1926 and were fulfilled with the installation of the Iota Chapter by President-General F. B. Stiven. The Iota chapter charter members were George Chadwick, Frederick Converse, Francis Findlay, Arthur Foote, Wallace Goodrich, and Stuart Mason.
The activities of this chapter primarily involved performances of compositions by its members, performances by its members, or performances of prize winning compositions.
Physical description
One box containing four folders
This collection was placed on loan at the Conservatory library in 1974 by the Iota Chapter's president, NEC voice faculty member, Mark Pearson. The collection was formally donated to NEC in 1979.
Access to the Pi Kappa Lambda collection is granted by the NEC Archivist. Appointments must be scheduled in advance. There are no restrictions pertaining to this collection.
All copyrights to this collection belong to the New England Conservatory. Permission to publish materials from this collection is granted by the Director of Libraries. This collection should be cited as Pi Kappa Lambda collection, New England Conservatory Archives, Boston, MA.


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On which I write about the books I read, science, science fiction, fantasy, and anything else that I want to. Currently trying to read and comment upon every novel that has won the Hugo and International Fantasy awards.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Review - Cathouse: She's Got Game (Episode 5)
Short review: A disjointed episode that covers a pile of random topics.
To play the sex game
Some Bunnies get breast implants
Others use e-mail
Full review: Every television show seems condemned to have episodes in which all of the elements of a good show are there, but somehow, the sum of all the parts adds up to a fairly forgettable experience. For Cathouse, the fifth episode titled She's Got Game appears to be that episode. Everything seems to be in place to deliver a solid episode, but there is just no unifying thread that ties this particular episode together. To a certain extent, She's Got Game seems to have been the result of HBO finding a bunch of extra footage that wouldn't fit into other episodes, and throwing it together to fill out a half an hour. Ostensibly the episode is about "game", that combination of sex appeal, personality, and negotiating skills that Bunnies use to persuade men to choose them and then spend lots of money. But as pretty much everything the Bunnies do at the Bunny Ranch is directed to this end, this isn't really a separate topic so much as it is all topics, which results in an unfocused and sloppy episode. The episode also suffers from having what one could term "off-brand" Bunnies front and center - ladies are featured in this episode who primarily appear in the background in most other episodes. And what this makes clear is that there is more to being an interesting reality television character than simply getting in front of the camera. Whether one likes Isabella Soprano, Danielle, or Air Force Amy, or not, they make for good television. On the other hand, Deanna, Felicia, and Jaime Sweet simply do not. I'm sure the latter three are all very likable women and probably good at their actual jobs, but they just aren't good at television. I'll also note that this is the second consecutive episode that has a criminal lack of appearances by Karla.
The episode opens up promisingly, showing Isabella Soprano returning to the Bunny Ranch after an absence (although the exact length of the absence is not specified). This leads to Suzette pointing out that women come and go at the Bunny Ranch on a regular basis. In a brief interview montage, Daisy makes this point more explicitly "I come and go all the time, this is not a lock down house". Felicia says that she is herself at home, and a sexy and beautiful fantasy woman at the Bunny Ranch. Isabella likens being at the Bunny Ranch to being like a princess - since when she is there she gets dressed up, gets her hair done, takes care of her make-up and so on. In effect, for the working girls, it seems that every day at the Bunny Ranch is "date night", because every night they are there they are pretty much hoping for a date. Or three. Amy Andersinn caps off the discussion by trotting out the somewhat overused "sorority house" metaphor - to which I can only say that all the sorority houses I was even passingly familiar with banned men in any of the non-public areas of the house, which probably wouldn't work very well for the Bunnies.
I'll digress for a bit here and expand upon Daisy's comment before climbing on a soap box for a bit. While the Moonlite Bunny Ranch is, at this point, the most famous legal brothel in Nevada, it is not the only one (it isn't even the only one owned by Dennis Hof). Apparently, at many other brothels, when women come to work at them, they are required to spend their entire working shift ranging from days to weeks living at the brothel and never leaving the premises, with some fairly weak rationales extended justifying this practice. I'll note that this level of control exerted over the working conditions of the women seems quite inconsistent with the claim that they are "independent contractors" rather than employees. Put simply, a business simply cannot maintain that their workforce is made up of independent contractors while simultaneously imposing stringent work conditions upon them. As Daisy points out, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch is not a "lockdown house", and apparently has not been one for many years. Given that the Moonlite Bunny Ranch is, at this point, presumably the most successful legal brothel in Nevada (and likely, the most desirable to work at), it seems difficult to understand how the owners of the various other bordellos are able to continue to impose lock down conditions until one realizes that they have a government enforced oligopoly that keeps out competition. Each county in Nevada that licenses brothels only permits a very limited number, effectively giving the owners who hold licenses freedom from any real competition. In short, when the government shields you from competition, you can get away with treating people poorly via your business practices and it simply won't hurt you financially. In a less regulated market, Dennis' "no lockdown" model would have likely been adopted by a dozen startup houses as a means to entice the best money making women to come work for them, and the older houses would have been forced to adapt or die. In the regulated market, lockdown house brothel owners can get away with acting like dicks without any real fear of it damaging their bottom line.
To show the girls dressing like princesses, the show moves to a montage of Bunnies trying on various outfits, and since this is Cathouse and on late night HBO we have to have some nudity early in the show, the scene shows them in the dressing room with dozens of outfits on racks, but has the Bunnies mostly only half-dressed for much of the scene. Dennis Hof comments on the Bunnies' proclivity for clothes, pointing out that many girls will go through six or seven outfit changes a day, trying to hit upon something that will attract a man's attention - when one is standing in a line with a dozen other girls trying to catch the eye of the single customer who walked through the door, it is a struggle to stand out. While she is changing into a bunch of cute outfits, Isabella talks about one reason she likes her time at the Bunny Ranch - she can play the role of the glamorous woman and fulfill people's fantasies, which makes her feel good. As has been hinted at before, the Bunny Ranch does not so much sell sex as sell fantasy, and Isabella's statement serves to confirm this explicitly.
This episode could also be called "the episode we recycled some patrons" and the first example is the couple who appeared in episode three Girlfriends in a lesbian encounter with Sunset Thomas who show up in the background of a scene at the Bunny Ranch bar while Sunset preens for Dennis in a very small blue dress. This is part of a montage of scenes showing a variety of Bunnies in a myriad of outfits, with some commentary from Danielle in which she says some of the working girls don't dress up at all, just wearing a t-shirt and socks and that works for them because they have cultivated the girl next door look. Unsurprisingly, the camera focuses on Isabella Soprano at this point, whose more relaxed and natural look makes Danielle's amazon glamour look forced and artificial. Danielle then says that for her, bikinis are her preference for attire, and I'll editorialize and say that Danielle probably thinks they make her look better than they actually do. As with most other things relating the Danielle, I find her bikinis to be not particularly attractive, but that is probably mostly because she is the one wearing them. One secret about men that most of the women at the Bunny Ranch don't seem to know (or if they do, they ignore it) is that we mostly don't care what they are wearing. Ladies: you could be wearing a burlap sack dress and it probably wouldn't have any effect one way or the other whether we would pick you out of the lineup.
The clothes montage ends with Air Force Amy wearing her favorite kind of outfit: covered in shiny baubles, loaded with piled on fake hair, and slathered with thick layers of makeup. This is the lead to the next segment, titled "Master of the Game", which Amy is supposed to be a prime example of. Dennis explains that "game" can be boiled down to confidence, and Amy certainly has boatloads of that. As Dennis says, Amy knows the psychology of the prostitution business better than anyone. Madam Suzette points out that no one has ever made as much money as she has, and this dovetails into a brief sex scene featuring Air Force Amy as she and Danielle do voice overs about what is clearly Amy's favorite topic: what a great party Amy provides. Danielle says that no one can party like Amy - when she has been in a two girl party with Amy the guy will be sweating, Amy will be sweating, and Amy seems to get energy "from the Gods" (or, given how haggard she looks in some episodes, maybe amphetamines, though that's just speculation on my part). Amy herself praises her own skills, and says that she sets high standards. Maybe I am just naive, but it seems to me that one you get the fundamentals of sex down, there is a limit on how good your party can be, and given that most of the Bunnies who work at the Ranch are professionals who do this for a living, they would all be pretty good at it. Which of course leaves me wondering what Amy does that makes her the "best". Everyone seems to agree that she brings in tons of money, which in a brothel seems like it would be the objective standard by which everything is measured, but based upon what one sees on the show, there really isn't any indication as to exactly why that would be so. The scene ends with Amy and her client giggling together as the intercom announces that it is "time to reparty", which is the euphemism the Bunny Ranch uses for "time's up". Amy apparently doesn't want to end the party, leading to an interview segment with Madame Suzette who says they will usually give an extra ten or fifteen minutes before they demand that a girl "hands over the man or gets him to give us more money". The lesson is this: no matter how much fun you may be having, at the Bunny Ranch you are on the clock.
This segues to Madame Suzette on the phone fielding a question that she probably gets about a thousand times a day: "who is the largest natural chested woman at the Bunny Ranch", to which she answers "me". Which leads to a discussion under the header "ABC of Triple D's" of some of the most obvious assets Bunnies use to entice clients: their breasts. First up are the natural chested girls: Danielle is "still natural", as is Vandalia. Sunshine Lane states that natural breasts are better because they shake and move. Deanna, in the most unsurprising revelation in history also reveals that her breasts are natural. Note for Deanna: If you are an A or B cup, most guys will assume you haven't had implants. Deanna then makes another completely unsurprising revelation: lots of girls enhance their assets, and we jump back to Air Force Amy, who says she was an A cup, but loves her larger chest. This, of course, shocks no one, as Amy seems pretty focused on the idea that all guys are drawn to large things like moths to a flame. Jaime Sweet makes one of her very few appearances on the show to declare that she had implants that she is very happy with. This being HBO, we have to get our recommended daily allowance of nudity, so this whole discussion of breasts serves as a set up for a montage of shots of topless and naked Bunnies.
And then the show takes a sharp left turn to focus on Vandalia - a dark-haired, large-assed, and heavily-tattooed Bunny (heavily tattooed for the time in which the show was filmed - several current Bunnies could probably match her for ink coverage) who is given as an example of a woman with confidence. Vandalia asserts that she "can make you feel good", which seems like a pretty basic requirement for taking up this line of work. She says "I'm a chameleon, I can be intimate, but also wild, tied up, blindfolded. It's all about feeling good". We get a brief talking head interview with Dennis in which he says he didn't know if he liked Vandalia with all her ink (he's apparently not a fan of tattoos) but that her personality and the fact that she has "no inhibitions" won him over. Apparently, for Dennis, one of the primary qualifications a woman can have that impresses him is a complete lack of inhibitions. Given that he owns a brothel, this seems unsurprising.
As Vandalia says "you come to a brothel for a reason" we see the return of yet another previously seen customer in the form of the mustachioed man who appeared back in What Men Don't Know (he was the guy who orally pleasured Shelly Duvell while keeping his blue jeans and work boots on), who, given that this segment is about Vandalia, picks her out of the lineup. During negotiations, both Vandalia and her client claim to be Native American, which I suspect is about as valid as my claiming to be French or Welsh. If they discuss price, HBO doesn't show it, but we are let in on what services the client negotiates for - oral both ways and sex. Which seems pretty bland after all the build up about how wild Vandalia is supposed to be. Which leads to a pretty routine sex scene after which Vandalia muses she would have dated this particular client on her own time if she had met him away from the Bunny Ranch, which is the kind of statement that I am sure helps to fuel the fantasies of guys like Mark from the Girlfriends episode.
This being an episode that seems to be constructed out of leftover footage, the show jumps tracks yet again to feature Isabella Soprano and another topic that seems to fascinate HBO - women who come to the Bunny Ranch to have same sex encounters. Isabella says her job involves meeting lots of different people all looking for something different (which falls into the category of yet another completely unsurprising revelation), and that she loves women, especially the many women she has been with who are trying lesbian sex for the first time.
We then get a quick funny scene of Isabella signing her "card" and noting she's running out of space on it (meaning she's gotten lots of customers) and giving a little "woo hoo".
Isabella then continues on the lesbian theme, saying the older she gets the more she loves women, although she didn't start with women until she came to the Bunny Ranch. Recycling a point made in Girlfriends, Dennis says there have always been women coming to the Ranch, but it was hush hush. A couple would come in and arrange for a party with the girl, and then he would head out to the bar. In short, he was not actually her partner, but merely her cover so she could try sex with another woman. Now, he says, they are open about wanting a sapphic sexual encounter. (I have to digress here and say Dennis: get some better glasses. The ones you wear during this interview segment look really dorky). We get a brief segment with Isabella and a female client talking to the camera, although there is no actual sex scene included. The client was apparently there for her first experience with another woman, and says Isabella treated her well.
The story moves on to show how cutting edge Isabella is in her use of technology. And since this is 2005, this means she's using e-mail to set up appointments. She says men can now schedule their trips around the availability of their favorite girl. This seems to be a large shift in the way legal brothels operate. If one looks at the geography of their distribution, one will note that they are mostly located along major highways. A little research reveals that most of them were established to cater to long-haul truckers and other travelers passing through Nevada, making these locations ideal. But that also meant that most business was basically spur of the moment - a client would walk in, select a woman from those available in the lineup, and get to business. But with the advent of e-mail and the ability of the Bunny Ranch to promote which Bunnies would be available on particular dates, the Bunny Ranch could shift to being a destination as opposed to a stopover. And clients could come knowing who they wanted to see ahead of time, and know that she would be there and available for them. Even so, this particular segment seems fairly quaint now, as a lot of hoopla is made over Isabella heavily working her e-mail connections.
But Isabella does lead into the next segment by saying she got an e-mail from a married man, and she doesn't know what to say to him in return, since she's worried his wife might see it. Note for Isabella: Not your problem. If he's dumb enough to send you e-mail that his wife might see if you e-mail him back, he's going to screw things up regardless of what you do. Just send him an e-mail saying you'd be happy to have sex with him for money and don't worry about it. But this little e-mail dilemma leads to Dennis going over another topic that seems to fascinate HBO - married men who come to the Bunny Ranch, noting that "Some girls say that the married men they are with who come in have wives who know they are there. They don't. Unless his wife is actually there with him, she doesn't know. Marriages don't work that way." Although I'm sure that there are probably exceptions to this rule, I am also pretty confident that this is mostly true. Guys who come to the Bunny Ranch without their wives are probably mostly sneaking around.
And this leads us to Danielle talking about her married clients. After repeating Dennis' line that most married men's wives have no idea they are at the Bunny Ranch, she talks about one of her regular clients who is married and who spends a lot of money to have her give him the royal treatment. Apparently he feels under appreciated at home, so he comes in and says he will spend an hour with Danielle. And then he adds more time, and then more time, and eventually ends up spending $10,000 for six or seven hours with her. That's about $1,400-$1,650 an hour for anyone who is interested. Danielle would get half of that, so her pay rate for six or seven hours of sex and pampering is between $700 and $825 an hour. In 2005 dollars. Does anyone really need to wonder why the Bunnies work at the Bunny Ranch? Proving that men are predictable creatures of habit, she says he does the same dance every time.
Dennis comes on to say that Danielle is brilliant, guys will come in looking for a big chested blond (which seems to be Dennis' preferred choice of woman - at least the blond part) and end up with her because of her personality before imitating some of the personality traits of hers that I find most grating - her voice and her constant stream of "don't you want some chocolate?" STOP WITH THE FUCKING CHOCOLATE METAPHOR!! Jesus H. Christ on a cracker but that was tiresome even before Danielle started using it, and now it is just annoying. Someone needs to tell Danielle that this metaphor was worn out before Darryl Dawkins was done with it and just retire it. Better yet, kill it dead and bury it under a slab of concrete so it will never be used again . . .
Oh, wait, back to the show. So Danielle negotiates with a client, and we get one of the handful of concrete references to money as Danielle tells him she charges $2,500 per hour. Once again, despite showing a client interaction, there is no actual sex scene. In a cut away interview Danielle says she tells clients that she's a very sensual lady and therefore they need at least an hour with her, and they usually go for it. Displaying what seems to be the typical attitude towards money, she says that they can afford to spend the money, and even if they can't they spend it anyway. As always in the Bunny Ranch, it comes down to money, which leads us to Danielle at the "hooker booker" window (yes, that's what they call their cashier) asking if she's the top booker for the month (i.e. did she make the most money that month). But she isn't. She's second. As she says, she is frequently the top booker for most of a month and then someone will pass her at the last minute, which seems to suggest to me that she has an odd pattern of doing lousy business at the tail end of a month.
Which is a set up for a segment titled "A Treat from the Middle East" where we see who passed Danielle for this particular month - a never before and never again seen hooker dressed up in a belly dancer's costume named Leila. Dennis says that Leila is often gone for months at a time, but then comes back and jumps right to the top of the earners list. Despite having an entire segment devoted to her, there is no sex scene involving Leila in the episode, continuing the established trend of the episode. One kind of suspects that these segments were relegated to what seems to be the "lefotver footage" episode at least partially because they have client interactions, but no accompanying sex scene. There is some suggestion that her thick accent (which some mistakenly assume is a Persian accent, but Leila is in reality half-Egyptian and half-French), her exotic look, and her somewhat aggressive style account for her success. But after watching the segment in which she clumps about "dancing" I have to wonder why the hell anyone would ever pick her over, well, almost any other working girl at the Bunny Ranch. Life is full of mysteries, and this seems to be one of them.
As if to wipe out the memory of Leila's horse-like clomping about, the show changes to a segment titled "Tools of the Trade" with Sunset, Isabella, Danielle, Daisy, and Felicia (and later, Air Force Amy and Deanna) in which a woman who looks like your grandmother and her red-headed assistant show a variety of large sex toys to the Bunnies. First up is a sex sling, which Felicia hops into to get a demonstration of how it works as she opines that sex machines are a real added bonus to a party. Isabella comments that she should be taking notes (although one would think that these sorts of devices aren't really that new to any but the most inexperienced Bunnies). Next up is a dome-like chair, and because HBO needs some more nudity, Sunset immediately strips down and jumps into it, while in the background Deanna gives her creepy smile (seriously, when Deanna smiles, she looks like she's channeling Spencer Pratt). The final toy demonstrated is the "g-ring", a big double ring with a seat belt that Daisy demonstrates. Though you rarely see on-camera nudity from Daisy, for this segment she goes all in giving a direct view of her vagina before Air Force Amy shows up with a dildo and some lube to work her over. Almost immediately everyone joins in for a massive lesbian orgy with naked bodies everywhere and all the toys getting use, including a set of dildos mounted on power tools. At the end, our grandmotherly saleswoman asks how many of the girls "got off", and in response every Bunny on camera raises her hand. And having given us as much sex and nudity to close the show as they can get away with while remaining in "soft-core porn" territory, the show closes.
It is difficult to assess She's Got Game as a whole, since the episode is so disjointed and to a certain extent incoherent. Though several of the individuals segments are modestly interesting, more than a few cover territory that has already been covered in other episodes - leading one to think that perhaps life at the Bunny Ranch is more routine than one might imagine. After all, if HBO is already rehashing the same topics just five episodes into the series, exactly how much variety there really is to the business conducted by the Bunnies. Either that, or the HBO producers just have limited imaginations concerning what makes for good television. In the end, despite the feeling that it is composed of segments that just didn't fit into other, better episodes, this is a decent enough episode that serves as sort of a "grab-bag" of Bunny Ranch topics and a chance to see some of the more rarely featured Bunnies (and a chance to see, in many cases, why they are not featured more often).
Previous episode reviewed: Getting It Up.
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Be Prepared for a Horse Emergency - Care & Kit Preparation
I'm a fairly new horse owner, and last week a horse at my barn hurt himself badly enough to need a vet. Now I'm worried that I won't know what to do in an emergency (or worse yet, not even know that my horse is hurt or ill)! Can you tell me what to look for and what to do if my horse suddenly gets sick or injured and I'm the only one around?
While mouth-to-muzzle resuscitation probably won't be necessary(!), there are some things you can learn and items you should purchase ahead of time so you're better prepared if (when) your horse suddenly becomes sick or injured. First, in order to recognize Abnormal, you must be able to recognize Normal. And normal for one horse is not necessarily normal for another horse. Take the time now to know your horse's normal behaviors and patterns when it comes to eating, drinking, urinating and defecating, as well as what he does when he's stalled and when he's turned out, so you can more quickly detect when he's not feeling well.
You should also know what your horse's normal vital signs are. Here is one range of normal that veterinarians use:
Temperature = 99 – 101 degrees F
Pulse = 28 – 42 beats per minute
Respiration = 8 – 16 breaths per minute
However, your horse may be at the low or high end of these ranges, or even slightly outside the range, and still be normal. Some owners go so far as to practice measuring capillary refill time, mucous membrane quality, gut sounds, digital heat and pulses, and other parameters. If you are interested in learning these techniques, ask your veterinarian to show you the next time he or she is at your barn and visit this link: How To Take Your Horse's Vital Signs.
Your veterinarian can also teach you some basic first aid and general nursing care which you can practice on your own so you feel proficient when you need to use it. For example, do you know how to properly apply a bandage to a leg? Learn how at: /2011/02/how-to-wrap-your-horses-legs/
Can you administer oral medication without getting it all over you and the horse? Do you know when and how to cold hose a leg or hot pack a swelling? I get asked a lot: "what should I have in my first aid kit?" My answer is always: "only things you know how to use!" So if you don't know how to give an intramuscular (IM) injection, don't have syringes and needles in your kit. And if you have no interest in learning to use a stethoscope, don't buy a first aid kit that includes one. That said, here is a pretty basic list of items you probably should have on hand:
Phone numbers: veterinarian, referral clinic, friends (especially with horse trailers)
Bandage scissors
Antibiotic ointment
Iodine or chlorhexidine scrub
Iodine or chlorhexidine solution
Cling wrap (such as Vetrap)
Gauze squares (regular and nonadherent)
Gauze rolls
Cotton roll or other padding
Leg bandages
White bandage tape
Duct tape
Syringes and needles (if you know how to use them!)
Hoof pick
Pen or marker
Tweezers and/or pliers
The best advice I can give you is to contact your veterinarian at the first sign of a problem. Let him or her decide if the situation is an emergency that must be seen right away, a serious problem that should be seen within the next day or so, or a simple issue you can handle yourself with advice over the phone. You will probably end up spending less and having a better outcome by involving your veterinarian right away!


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Saturday, February 16, 2008
More Mish Mash
Looks like Dan Aykroyd and his wifey Donna Dixon are looking to leave La-la Land entirely. Just last week the couple sold their allegedly haunted house on Woodrow Wilson Drive to dee-voon actress Beverly D'Angelo for $3,800,000, and with an assist by The Property Pimp, Your Mama has learned that Mister Aykroyd has listed another Los Angeles property for sale with an asking price of $2,595,000 (pictured above). Mister Aykroyd has long owned the West Hollywood property with his younger brother, the actor and psychic researcher Peter Aykroyd.
According to property records, Messrs. Aykroyd laid out $732,500 in December of 1987 to purchase the imposing 4,176 square foot house with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms that occupies the high point of a triangular shaped lot on Selma Avenue in the foothills of the Hollywood Hills.
Listing information reveals that the house was built in 1922, has two fireplaces (living room and master bedroom), a grand staircase, a formal dining room with walls covered in murals, a smoking lounge (who the hell is fool enough to smoke anymore?), and that each of the upstairs bedrooms have access to a terrace. While there is no swimming pool or guest house, listing information indicates there is room for each.
According to multiple reports, the home was at various times occupied by one or other of the brothers, and there have long been rumors that this house was the base of operations for the Aykroyd sibs intense and long standing fascination with parapsychology and the paranormal.
Records reveal the Aykroyd/Dixon clan also own a spread on Martha's Vineyard, they are rumored to own a big house by a lake in Ontario, Canada, and the couple are also trying to unload their triplex condominium on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for $7,000,000.
The children will recall that in the Spring of 2007, not long after coughing up $30,500,305 to purchase a humongous house on Calle Vista Drive in Bev Hills, religious zealot Tom Crooz, the smartly coiffured but disturbingly blank eyed Missus Crooz and their cute little offspring Suri moved out of the leased Crooz compound on N. Alpine Drive where they were rumored to have shacked up with various family members, staff, and "minders."
Once the impeccably groomed odd couple vacated the premises, the owner of the property put the nearly 3-acre estate out for lease with a blistering $100,000 per month asking price. The real estate rumor is that moody Oscar winning Aussie actor Russell Crowe has recently moved his burgeoning family into the well located and super secured property. The couple is said to be leasing short term only.
Your Mama also hears that even though their new digs were recently renovated by its previous owner (celebrity real estate agent Kurt Rappaport), the kooky Crooz couple are none the less doing a fair amount of work on their new mansion. Perhaps they are creating his and her bedroom suites? Because according to old reports in the gossip glossies, Mister Crooz reportedly snores so loudly that in order to get a good nights rest, young Missus Crooz has to sleep in her own bedroom in a separate wing of the house. A separate wing? Chew on that one for a while.
We hear from a lovely ladee named Leticia Lipsmacker that even though singer/songwriter Michelle Branch and her gee-tar pickin' huz-band Teddy Landau recently sold their big casa in Calabasas and just bought a modest house in the swanky Belle Meade neighborhood of Nashville, they are already back in Calee-for-nigh-ay looking for another Calabasas crib.
We continue to receive more gossip and information about the $22,500,000 Holmby Hills house that BenJen or AffNer (or whatever they're called) are rumored and reported to have purchased. One of Your Mama's more reliable and better looking sources whom we'll call Mister Sunshine tells us that the a-list couple are indeed in contract to purchase the 15,000 square foot, 7 bedroom and 12 bathroom mansion. Your Mama hopes these two can tolerate live in staff, because to maintain a house of this magnitude they're going to need at least one gurl to dust and another one to scrub all them terlits. And that's not even taking into account the nannies, the landscapers, the window washers, the hopefully pulchritudinous pool people, the private chef (who has time to cook when trying to manage a large household?), and that kinda creepy dude who will come to your mansion and detail your car each week for a princely sum.
67 comments:
Like I said 1987-1988 prices are more affordable to get a 750k house cash you have to make 1.5MM for the year (IRS, State taxes) or make 20k a month to comfortably make payments.
Of course a few years ago with an interest only subprime loan (get it ? sub prime ?) you could get a million dollar property with a payment of $1300 a month and only have to make 5k a month to make a payment comfortably.
Maybe if they had set the reset rates ahead 15 to 20 years then real estate would continue to skyrocket !!
Well I hope prices in this market do reset back to 1987 1988 prices because I only make 7k a month and I am ready to buy but I I want a nice estate that is selling for 4 MM for 750k in the hollywood hills, not a
shack or a condo in hollywood that is the sixe of a matchbox !!! - February 17, 2008 at 7:07 AM
excuse me I can only afford a 300k place with my income but still if it was 1988 prices I could get a nice house or a condo for 300k.
- February 17, 2008 at 7:09 AM
Av. Joe...With all due respect, but I don't think you don't know what you're talking about. Prices are highly unlikely to reset to 1988 prices. And if they do, you certainly won't have a job making $7,000 a month to afford that $300k condo of your dreams. So, be careful what you wish for.
I for one love the mish mash.
How do Garner and Affleck have that much money? Seriously, how? - February 17, 2008 at 7:31 AM
they are both mega stars commanding upwards of 10MM each, they have numerous films out that Ben is a producer on, they together make I would guess over 20 MM a year, maybe 50 MM ?
- February 17, 2008 at 8:14 AM
that is will all of the profits, royalties, upfront money from movies and TV shows.....
Ben gets over 10 MM a picture and I think his wife is up there as well - February 17, 2008 at 8:16 AM
I am a terrible typist, I mean "that is with"
I with I could edit right after I comment....
oh well... - February 17, 2008 at 8:17 AM
That Selma place is possibly a bit too close to the tangle of commuter traffic on Laurel Canyon, but the lot/siting/house are supercool, and the asking price seems really reasonable...maybe it's in rough shape? Or it has a vibe that creeps everyone out?
- February 17, 2008 at 8:55 AM
What the H*ll does Average Joe's ranting about being poor have to do with Mama's post?
Maybe BenJen will follow the McCourts (whose "in town" spread is around the corner) and pick up the place next door (across Charing Cross) for it's 15m asking price. They could then put the staff over there. Supposedly there is only a 1b/1b house (tear down) on the lot but it seems to me I'm seeing more rooflines than that. - February 17, 2008 at 9:07 AM
Dear Average Joe = Zack = Jack = Property Pimp = various recent (last 18 hour) anons:
You do have some good things to say, as evidenced by the insight you shared as Our Mama's source on the Aykroyd update! Out of respect for that, you are as entitled as any voice here.
I want to help. Go a little slower and you'll be happier with your posted comments.
Like this:
1. Write your comment in Microsoft Word.
2. Run it thru spell check and grammar check in tool bar
3. Pay attention to the suggested corrections.
4. Know the point you are trying to make and write toward that end. Avoid redundancy and extranious asides that slow down your point.
5. Read it again one last time slowly. If you are satisfied, copy and paste into blog comments.
Anyone will respect a well written view, weather they agree or not. You are entitled to that much and will feel better about the more polished quality of your views. - February 17, 2008 at 9:14 AM
i am quite sure that property pimp and this joe person are not the same guy.
now, about this aykroyd house...is it full of ghostbusting toys? - February 17, 2008 at 9:18 AM
- so_chic_darling said...
Average Joe you seem to be confused.Did you forget to take your medication?
This is a site about celebrity real estate stop boring us,go and watch some fox news and calm down. - February 17, 2008 at 9:25 AM
- Alessandra said...
The Aykroyd house sounds fascinating.
As for the Crooz clan, I'm sure Tom's snoring is an convenient an excuse as any for needing separate bedroom WINGS. Though one has to take all reports (pro and con) with mounds of salt because the truth, to quote, is "out there".
Not surprised by the Garfleck's taste in residence or by their apparently vast resources to buy pricey real estate. They both make a lot of money. Still. While I find it hard to believe, as neither really appeals to me much, they seem to have an admirable work ethic and they also seem to be good and active parents to Violet. So, if they did buy that home, let's hope they live there happily. - February 17, 2008 at 9:47 AM
no one special= Average Joe = Zack = Jack = Property Pimp = various recent (last 18 hour) anons
- February 17, 2008 at 9:47 AM
who is property pimp ? zach ? jack ?
and fyi I am not poor
I am in the top 10 percentile of income earners in the us it is just that only .01 percent of us can even afford to pay these prices. - February 17, 2008 at 9:52 AM
Ok..Ed..errrre..AvgJoe...in your cute little property pimp PJs....yes my precious, you are all of this and more...
MY...errreee...OUR...good friend LAPD Tipster (stop making me giggle LAPD I'm trying to be serious)...is here to calm you down with a crunchy fun snack. Yes, dear, we are 10% of the population...(10x50 w/shed in Truckee, CA) and yes, dear, Mr. Trump did received your suggestions on real estate success and is soooooo grateful. Now it's time for your nap and loooong car ride to the happy place.
Such a good boy. - February 17, 2008 at 10:32 AM
PCH, you know the area; any reason to think that Aykroyd isn't asking more for the place? If there's room for a pool and guest house, it must be a fairly decent sized parcel. We've seen a lot of houses that are not as charming as this one without those amenities go for so much more - so is it the locale or the paranormal rumors?
As for "Crazy Crooz", there was an awful lot left unsaid in the unauthorized bio about the most personal of habits of Scientologists who reach the level he has; perhaps because Katie has not yet attained the same status as Tom (Operative Thetan VII or VIII, I can't recall). But there was always something a little peculiar about the stories surrounding Nicole Kidman's "conception difficulties" and their ultimate decision to adopt two kids, whom she is rarely allowed to see and can only keep in touch with by webcam and texting.
After I finished his bio I gave it to Sunny; perhaps she can take a quick look through the index to shed some light on their strange living "arrangements"? All I do know is that Katie's new BFF is her Scientologist minder, who's with her 24/7.
Between Tom and her minder, every aspect of what she does throughout the day is strictly monitored, down to turning her into a Victoria Beckham clone (their latest project is to draw the Beckhams into the cult, which is frowned upon in Britain.) - February 17, 2008 at 11:31 AM
How absolutely utterly sad for Katie Holmes...may she wake up one morning, realize what she's done, grab the kid (or kids) and RUN! Run and don't stop me dear.
As for mish-mash...I'm all for it. Keep it coming Mama. As my dear departed drunken father used to say..."Slumgulleon always makes the best dinner" and so does mish-mash for me head....the big head get that smirk off your face.
Joel - February 17, 2008 at 12:36 PM
Just to clarify... I am property pimp .. and I would never complain about the multi million dollar prices in los angeles, oh, and I would never ever live in a condo.. I still have nightmares from going into sierra towers to visit my dear friend (since departed, first playmate 1959, with her little dog benji,) anway, those pugent ethic cooking odors that sweep through the hall ways (on all floors) was enough to turn me off condos for ever.......now, I will try to stay on point and not let these threads wander like they do, but I think one of the pointer sisters lives or lived on selma
- February 17, 2008 at 12:41 PM
I'm with you on the Affleck's choice of home, much as we trashed it at the time.
If you ask a child to draw a house, it invariably is a two story box, with a gabled roof and paned windows, and a chimney (I've never seen a child dash off a sketch of a Neutra or Neff). This place looks like they had Violet in mind when they bought it, not the awkward arrangement of the entrance approach. - February 17, 2008 at 1:23 PM
- so_chic_darling said...
Property Pimp you crack me up "pungent ethnic cooking odors that sweep through the hallways"how funny but so true as all of us who live in apartment buildings know so well!
- February 17, 2008 at 1:33 PM
Little Buddy,
The Aykroyd grounds / gardens are magnificent and impeciably maintained...enchanting. Tons of room for new toys.
I ran into court-related Scientology documents recently and, O-M-Gosh, I'm amazed it is permitted to operate. Now I know what you meant about feeling dirty just having that Cruuz book around the house. I wanted to hang a rope of garlic around my computer screen. - February 17, 2008 at 1:35 PM
- so_chic_darling said...
Yeah mishmash is great by the way.
- February 17, 2008 at 1:36 PM
- so_chic_darling said...
The great loophole in America is that anyone can start a religion/church and that it's tax free.
- February 17, 2008 at 1:39 PM
That loophole is spooky at best. I wonder if they have to prove out every penny as we do at tax time.
On a brighter note...
I once had Korean apartment neighbors. I wanted them to adopt me, the kitchen smells were so fabulous! - February 17, 2008 at 1:48 PM
Can't you just see the Afflecks in a Dutch colonial with a white picket fence? Much happiness to their little family...
....but really, that house an ugly box. I hope the first thing they spend money on is a decent landscape architect. - February 17, 2008 at 1:50 PM
Hey Lucy...
And I hope they got a few dollars off the deal to do it! The average Federalist house isn't this (ugg) HUGE; adding to the flatness.
I still think the outside eleveations have lots of possibility. Thank goodness they could see past that. I still say--windowboxes for starts! Best to them. - February 17, 2008 at 2:05 PM
So_Chic, Sandpiper,
I always thought it was too easy to set up a "church" in this country; at least they should have some "litmus test", like a common sense faith-based precept.
But believing that billions of years ago an overcrowded race of aliens brought 13.5 billion of their fellow creatures to Earth, dumped them into volcanoes and then annihilated them with nuclear blasts to reduce their population, releasing evil-spirited "Thetans", just doesn't seem to cut it for me as passing such a test.
Call me cynical, but even by the remotest chance that it were true, it hardly seems to be an event to base a religion upon.
It seems that most religions have in common the teachings of a wise man (i.e. Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, etc.), and even though the question of the "divinity" of each has been the cause of hate across the centuries, L. Ron Hubbard just doesn't seem to fit into that category.
Yet the cult still maintains mansions around the world waiting for his reincarnation to return and live in them.
Eerie. - February 17, 2008 at 2:51 PM
It may not be safe to say this but...
The belief system of Scientology is no less shocking or absurd than that of Christianity or any of the other mainstream religions.
Eve was molded of Adam's rib? There is sin because Eve ate an apple? Streets of gold and mansions of pearls? Parting seas and dead saviors rising? Eternal life? Heaven?
THAT stuff is more believable than aliens dumped into volcanoes? Why? How?
No offense intended to anyone, and this is just MY opinion, but Christians or Catholics or Jews (or whatever) with their own freaky and bizarre beliefs are in NO position to criticize the strange creation myths of Scientology.
P.S. I am not a Scientologist. - February 17, 2008 at 3:24 PM
Gotta disagree with you, LGB -- and it looks like Twisted beat me to the punch. But Scientology isn't any nuttier than other religions -- it just hasn't had the time to acquire the gravitas and orthodoxy that comes with many, many centuries of indoctrination. We think Tom Cruise is looney, for instance, but I'll bet ancient Jews held the same opinion of Paul and his tall tales about Christ's resurrection and imminent return.
Often, people who subscribe to one religion or another (I'm an atheist) don't see the similarities. - February 17, 2008 at 3:28 PM
PCH, Twisted,
Perhaps I didn't express myself as well as I wished. Objectively speaking, you're both right.
Yes, all religions have within them some pretty unbelievable claims (Adam's rib, Virgin births, rising from the dead, ascending into heaven, etc.) I myself am a pantheist by practice, brought up Catholic. Didn't buy into a lot of those stories myself, but realized the difference between parable and inviolate truth. Even today in the Catholic Church there is controversy over the interpretation of the scriptures, whether or not it is "God's" word and should be taken literally, or whether, since it was written by fallible humans, it should remain open to interpretation.
Questioning Scientological beliefs, however, can get you into a hell of a lot of hot water (in one case, literally and fatally). Try this by no means unbiased, yet fact-based site:
For me, what Scientology seems to lack as a legitimate religion is the universal concepts of love, and respect for the life and beliefs of others. Their openly professed system is that everyone is a god, and those outside of the religion are considered "wogs" or "raw meat". Where's the love in that?
Just as I found some of the precepts of the Catholic Church hard to swallow, so goes the same for Scientology.
I believe everyone has a right to worship as they will; that's why our forefathers so wisely insisted upon the separation of church and state.
So with all personal beliefs and prejudices aside, all I can point to that disquiets me so is that of all the religions in the world, Scientology seems to be the only one that does not have any focus on loving your fellow man, conditionally or not. Not to mention that they believe gays should be "disposed of quickly, and without remorse." You've gotta know that one rankles me (and yes, I know most other religions have a pretty lousy track record with gays, but they don't want to "dispose" of us.)
Technically, I think you're right and it could qualify as a religion based on objective observation; but there is just something in my soul that tells me that its primary goal is not to guide a flock, but fleece it.
What I should have said is that I don't consider it legitimate, based on recent research into its covert activities - but then I would have said the same thing about the Catholic Church during the Inquisition.
So thanks guys, for helping me to clarify my thoughts on the subject. Oh and Twisted, it's always safe to say what you believe here; people may jump down your throat, but none of us is going to hunt you down. Right, PCH?
;-) - February 17, 2008 at 4:12 PM
check out this link it says it all.......
http://www.ronthenut.org/ - February 17, 2008 at 4:25 PM
In this single topic, Average joe has said -
"I only make 7k a month"
and -
"I am in the top 10 percentile of income earners in the us"
Lets do the math children:
7000 x 12 = 84,000
Since when is 84k a year the top 10 percentile? If nothing else proved he was a complete dumba**, that should. - February 17, 2008 at 4:43 PM
To anon 4:43pm
hey jerkoff I am sure I make way more than you !!!!!!
and making over 80k a year puts me in the top percent of earners in the us, that is 3MM of us making 80k or higher. - February 17, 2008 at 5:17 PM
top 10 percent and we are considered upper middle class.
- February 17, 2008 at 5:18 PM
Sorry to burst your bubble average joe, but you're not in the top ten percent at 84K a year.
at least not according to the IRS.
http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=102886,00.html - February 17, 2008 at 5:31 PM
No Joe/Ed, I don't have to brag about how much I make, that I haven't been a renter for 15 years, what kind of car I drive, or big my d*ck is.
Show proof of your statistics. - February 17, 2008 at 5:39 PM
Thanks Anon 5:31,
I figured I'd dump it in his lap to show proof. Of course he'll come back now and say since the market is crashing that it is back down to his numbers. But he won't post proof of that either. - February 17, 2008 at 5:42 PM
LGB etal, I have looked and looked in the index and cannot find anything to do w/ the different level of attainment, but I just started the book (like it or not, it's a page turner)so when I find out I will post.
- February 17, 2008 at 5:43 PM
where did the time go ? well I used to be in the top 10, so tell me where am I at now ? I certainly do not make 200k a year and they are saying that is the new top 10 percent ?
- February 17, 2008 at 6:00 PM
anon 5:42pm here is proof of where the market is going
it is a great chart notice the big valley between 1995 and 2006 - February 17, 2008 at 6:24 PM
God, the kindly old grey haired gentleman......ROFL . Recovering catholic, current atheist. Would be scientologist...How nice are those "mansions", and do I stay for FREE?
- February 17, 2008 at 7:55 PM
Sorry, Anon 7:55,
Residency usually requires that you relinquish your soul . . . - February 17, 2008 at 8:01 PM
Why have you been so bitter lately?
- February 17, 2008 at 8:07 PM
Anon 8:07,
Who me? Didn't think the comment about "relinquishing you soul" particularly bitter; more cynical than anything else.
I may have let some personal remarks made about my family by people here who don't know me get the better of me; but mostly because BGD is in the hospital and I'm frightened. So my fears creep in.
It comes out in snarky comments that seem funny at the time but obviously, from an objective point of view (yours), they're not.
Sorry. I try to be fair-minded, but some things just seem beyond the pale in believability for me. - February 17, 2008 at 8:55 PM
On on different note:
Miscellaneous Mash Up
Saturday Mish Mash
More Mish Mash
Mama please do not apologize for any of your postings. This is your paradise to do with whatever you choose. You have been gracious enough to leave your gates open for us to enjoy your domain. Obviously, there is a big group of us who enjoy coming here every day. For me personally, it is an escape from the trials and tribulations of the little world we live in. Even if it is only for a few minutes out of our hectic day.
Thank you for putting so much of your time and effort in feeding your hungry children. - February 17, 2008 at 9:00 PM
Hi 9:00 !!
What a cool thing to say!
I don't take these efforts for granted either. I'm not really into celebrities; moreover, fascinated with real estate / architecture and who buys it! It's such fun to see it thru Our Mama's eyes.
Again 9:00, such a nice reminder for all of us. - February 17, 2008 at 9:29 PM
Ditto, folks - we all have our personal reasons for visiting this site, whether it be real estate, architecture & decoration, or gossip about those who own them, or just tweaking each other.
Mama, enjoy the holiday tomorrow and feel free to feed us chilruns tidbits or nothing at all; we're a tough bunch and can take care of ourselves while Dr. Cooter treats you right, as I know he will. - February 17, 2008 at 10:07 PM
I hope all is well with your CO. Now, I have to add:
This is good, not bad. Wait and hear me out please. Finally figured out why you piss me off. It's not what you say but how you say it. Look at what you just wrote. You are speaking as THE ORATORY here. No room for dialogue. You take over and kill any possibility for further discussion. You act as the end-all that shuts down posibility for further comment. You aggregate as the voice of all without any authorization or authority.
There's an old book called "I'm OK, You're OK". Somewhere in it is a diagram or table citing how basic conversations flow, interact or crash. The way you post is illustrated as the example of how to kill dialogue. If I, personally, retained anything from that miserable self-discovering book (which made me a social freak for months), it was how to more nonconfrontationally converse. I'm not above that flaw, but I fixed it within me--and Guy, I see it in you. You're not the soul or voice of this blog until Mama gives you the handle of Blog Monitor. Take a load off. Leave something for others to volley. I say this in the nicest way. Check it out. - February 17, 2008 at 11:28 PM
Ed's Wife,
Will do - I'm always open to constructive advice.
Wasn't aware I wasn't leaving open an in for dialog. Still not sure if that is the case but I am sick with worry and not thinking clearly. I never want to cut another off; I feed off their comments and reply in kind - at least that is what I attempt to do - to stimulate dialog.
Can I kindly ask you to explain where I cut off dialog? I'm serious here; thought mentioning why we blog here would actually open dialog, not shut it off.
I have no desire to be Mama's "Blog Monitor", nor take over the direction of the blog. I lurked here for many months before I dared make a comment; when I saw a cohesive group of like-minded individuals forming that pleased me, it made me want to be part of it.
Have been in touch with Mama on a more or less regular basis and never got an indication that I was pushing others out (which is the last thing I want; I love these folks!)
I speak my mind on subjects I feel passionate about and know that no matter what, some will be offended or disagree. But this does not stem from any egotistical desire to belittle anyone nor aggrandize myself - that's simply not in my nature.
Thank you for caring enough to post this.
Ed's lucky to have you. Please respond so that all can share in your insights - it can do a world of good for all involved, and the mess this has devolved into. I'd like to see it end as much as many of you do. - February 18, 2008 at 12:19 AM
Ed's wife:
I disagree with you completely. I too lurked here for months before posting and the only reason I did was because what LGB wrote made me feel comfortable enough to jump in.This is the first blog I have ever commented on and at the time it never had snarky comments on it.
Please respect that LGB has someone he cares about very much who is in the hospital and ease up. - February 18, 2008 at 7:01 AM
sunny in sj
I agree with you that there are a bunch of pricks and dicks who do not know their head from their asshole and who try to give us words of wisdom when they have no experience at what they are talking about. This is like 5th grade all over again. Well back to reality, off to work to pay the bills - February 18, 2008 at 7:15 AM
the scary part is that avg joe is an interpreter for the state department. - February 18, 2008 at 7:47 AM
Please find pix of Khandi's Khrib. I'm with the rest of you...it's got to be fabulous, right? The outside looks a little like an apt. block, but you know the inside is very sexy.
On the other hot topics:
I'm with Ed's Wife I'm afraid.
I do appreciate LBGs inclusiveness, he does sometimes have fun things to offer, and it totally sucks his BGD is not well.
But he does suck the air out of the room for me sometimes. He may not want to be the moderator, but when you comment 20 or 30 times a day, well with the seeming authority of speaking for "the children," that's what it makes you, the moderator.
As for Average Joe...that's a burning hot potato I don't want to handle but I'm sure that LGB is glad to have AJ on the scene to pull some of the ire away from him. - February 18, 2008 at 7:53 AM
no I do not work for the state dept or any govt dept or agency guess again.
- February 18, 2008 at 8:19 AM
Two quick things:
Re; the Scientology thing and that "The belief system of Scientology is no less shocking or absurd than that of Christianity or any of the other mainstream religions." You need only read a bare minimum about Scientology to recognize that the Scientology "belief system" is so tragically and almost ridiculously flawed as to be unfathomable. With all due respect you can't possibly compare L. Ron Hubbard's bizarre fictional "bible" - remember he was a pulp science fiction writer who told his Navy buddies he was going to invent a religion based on Science Fiction and make billions - with faith-based religious imagery. The biggest single difference between L. Ron Moron's club and any religion is that none of the others make you pay $300,000 (the going rate to reach "clear" today) to be "saved."
On a broader scale we seem to be spending way too much time talking about each other than the postings. Who cares if you don't like me, or I don't like you, or whatever. Just move on, write if you want to, and give it a rest. Enough already.
We're all here because we're celebrity-obsessed real estate stalkers so let's just enjoy that. Please?
I enjoy everyone's posts. And I don't agree with most of them - the Boston Irish Catholic thing - but at the end of the day, who cares? - February 18, 2008 at 8:31 AM
All due respect EJ because I always enjoy your wicked and witty comments, but in my book, the Catholic Pope telling people they ought to believe in the virgin birth of Christ and (figuratively) drink the blood of the lamb is no less perverted or unfathomable than someone paying $300K to be "saved."
Not that any of that makes a bit of difference to a discussion about the big house Affleck and Garner are buying...which I think looks about as cozy as a 15,000 sf house can look. - February 18, 2008 at 9:10 AM
I found a page describing I'm Ok, You're OK's transactional analysis concept. I believe in it. You may not.
This is directed to you alone, although you request it on behalf of everyone in your controlling fantasy as "monitor".
I react unfavorably to the following personality type.
I'm OK, You're not OK
Described as COMPETITIVE-NARCISSISTIC-AUTOCRATIC
http://www.trans4mind.com/transformation/transform2.18.htm - February 18, 2008 at 10:25 AM
Reading through the comments as I try to full awaken this morning (is it noon already?), I'm surprised by the hostility that has taken over the comments. Maybe surprised doesn't quite say it... make that overwhelmed. May the gods bless you all. Good Bye!
- February 18, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Dear Jeezis!
- February 18, 2008 at 1:16 PM
everyone is impersonating me !!!!!!! help !!!!
unless there are more than one average joe on these blogs...... - February 18, 2008 at 2:44 PM
It's been lovely but I have to scream now!
- February 18, 2008 at 3:10 PM
hippie canyon, don't be gone for long this blog needs you. Ed/Joe will change personalities again soon, he's overdue.
- February 18, 2008 at 4:14 PM
Mariah is hot. I'd be more than happy to be the guy who stands next to her in the hot Bahama sun and slathers her with lotion when she's dry.
- February 18, 2008 at 4:21 PM
I'll loan you a mop.
- February 18, 2008 at 9:45 PM
Oh Mama, Mama, Mama. Shame on me but I looove smoking. Get one drink in me and I'm the guy bumming smokes all over town. As a responsible father and fear of being a social pariah I keep my habits well washed and freshened, but...
Love the Aykroyd place, looks eerie/cool/homey all in one. BTW, their house on a lake in Ontario, Canada is in Muskoka, which is the Beverly Hills of summer cottaging 2 hours north of Toronto. Check it out, there are amazing places.
Hippie, don't leave, that porn comment was too much! - February 19, 2008 at 7:49 AM
I want to be average joe, too. My goals are to become more stupider everyday.
- February 19, 2008 at 8:02 AM
- SteveAudio said...
In re: the Peter Ackroyd house, I've been there, doing recording studio technical work for Peter, who is a really nice guy.
The house has a great basement, too, FYI. - February 22, 2008 at 12:45 AM


text:
Vincent Van Gogh used to eat yellow paint because he thought it would get the happiness inside him. Many people thought he was mad and stupid for doing so because the paint was toxic, never mind that it was obvious that eating paint couldn't possibly have any direct correlation to one's happiness, but I never saw that.
If you were so unhappy that even the maddest ideas could possibly work, like painting the walls of your internal organs yellow, then you are going to do it. It's really no different than falling in love or taking drugs. There is a greater risk of getting your heart broken or overdosing, but people still do it everyday because there was always that chance it could make things better.
Everyone has their own yellow paint.
-Alexandra Timmer-


text:
Barry and I were a part of a large - but very polite and stunningly geeky - crowd of, eventually, one to two thousand people gathered today (Jan. 18) in Midtown.
We were outside of the Manhattan offices of senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer. Both are co-sponsors of the latest egregious Congressional attack on the Internet, the tech industry generally, and, in its ultimate implications, the basic right of free speech: It's a Senate bill called the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA. The House has its own version, called the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA,.
Both bills were actually written by Hollywood and the recording industry, which together have thrown millions at a Congress whose members have admited that the voters have not actually asked for their personal and quite extraordinary ministrations in this area of critical national interest. If the two houses were to agree on its terms and a bill were signed into law it would essentially mean the corporate privatization of the Internet.
The protest had been called by New York Tech Meetup, a group founded in 2004 to represent professionals from all parts of the technology industry in the New York community. Along with many other sites, Wikipedia and New York Tech Meetup went black today to protest SOPA/PIPA, but in a very quick search I found 1stwebdesigner, only one of many useful sites able to provide information useful especially to those less than completely technically fluent.
Why were we all there this afternoon?
Those of us who use the Internet know the difference between fair use and piracy, but an unrepresenative government owned exclusively by the super rich and the wealthiest corporations - including legacy media - a government which can't figure out how to keep people from being thrown out of their homes, a government which worships secrecy while it engages in torture, wars of aggression, and political assassination, which enshrines gun ownership as something of a Constitutional sacrament while erasing habeas corpus, due process, the rights of assembly and free speech, and prohibitions against indefinite detention without trial, is a government which absolutely cannot be trusted to make the right call if it gains the powers contemplated by SOPA and PIPA.
I'm always excited to see theatrical or dramatic elements introduced into political activism, and sine this was a pretty staid crowd, I was particularly delighted when a man stepped into the crowd near where we were standing listening to the scheduled speakers, unwrap a large stash of blank all-black cardboard sheets, and then quickly distribute them to strangers. Most of them accepted their assigned role in representing conceptually an internet blacked-out by government censorship. Others immediately picked up on the image of blank screens they had formed and whipped out their cameras to capture it. The action's creative director appears in the center of this picture.


text:
Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Do not tie up a 911 line for general information, such as; time of day, location of street, addresses, other Public Safety Agencies; follow up information about a previous emergency. If you dial 911 by mistake tell the operator it was an accident.
Show All Answers
If you use a TTY or TDD you should:
If you use a VRS or IP Relay you should:
If you do not have a TTY/TDD or access to Relay services, you should dial 911, preferably from a landline/home phone. Do not hang up, keep the line open. With 911 calls made from a home phone, the caller's address is displayed on the call taker's screen, the call taker can listen for background noise, and help will be sent to the location displayed. As a last resort, call from a cell phone and leave the line open, your approximate location may be displayed.
Your call goes directly to the Public Safety Agency in your area. Communications Center personnel are especially trained to get fast, accurate, and complete information from callers, who are injured, distraught or in shock, from children, the elderly, the hearing impaired. Even if you do not say a word- because of trauma, injury, or physical danger- all this information is electronically available instantly to the operator receiving your call. At that moment, the dispatcher sends a unit while you are still on the line with the operator, so do not hang up. The center also has teletypewriter (TTY) capability for deaf citizens.
The 911 operator taking your call immediately sees on a computer screen:
Enhanced 911 is a system that links emergency callers with the appropriate public resources. The system tries to automatically associate a location with the origin of the call. This location may be a physical address or other geographic reference information such as X/Y map coordinates. The caller's telephone number is used in various ways to derive a location that can be used to dispatch the necessary response resources. Automatic location of the emergency makes it quicker to locate the required resources during events that communicating one's location is difficult or impossible.
Not only does the Enhanced 911 Emergency Phone System save time, it also has other advantages. Even a lost child or a seriously ill person can call 911 for help, knowing help will be there shortly. 911 is an easy to remember number, no matter in the dark, for the mentally disabled, persons in any state of trauma or injury, or the elderly and young citizens.The number 911 is a nationwide emergency number. These examples are not suppositions- they're proven facts: 911 works.
When a call is received with no conversation, the nearest police unit will be dispatched and the nearby fire station will be put on alert. If the location is a good distance away, or if the printout screen shows an ill or disabled person in the residence, the ambulance and fire truck will proceed.
After a serious accident, a motorist from another city needs help. He doesn't know which agency to call, but by dialing 911, his call is automatically routed to the Public Safety Answering Point serving that area. Selective routing is particularly helpful in areas with multiple jurisdictions. No time is lost looking up numbers or transferring the call from one public safety agency to another searching for the correct one.
The Enhanced 911 Emergency Calling Service is designed to make it easier for police; fire and ambulance help to reach you faster. All 911 calls in West Baton Rouge Parish are answered by the Central Communications center All medical calls are transferred to Acadian Ambulance Service, who will remain on the line and give pre-arrival instructions and dispatch a unit.


text:
Dems Gain the Voter ID Edge, Again
The pendulum in the war between liberals and conservatives continues to swing with Democrats regaining the voter ID edge in the aftermath of the 2012 election. According to Mike Flynn of Breitbart, he wrote today that this shouldn't be a surprise.
A new survey by Gallup shows Democrats regaining their edge in party identification over the GOP. In 2012, 47% of Americans identified as Democrat or lean-Democrat. 42% identified as GOP or lean-GOP. In 2011, the two parties were even, with each claiming 45% of Americans. In 2008, however, Democrats held a 12-point edge in voter identification.
The results shouldn't be too much of a surprise, given the Democrat victories in November. The edge, however, came from Independents leaning more toward the Democrats than the GOP. In 2011, more Independents leaned toward the GOP. 18% of Americans identified as Independent, lean-GOP against 14% who were Independent, lean-Dem. In 2012, those numbers flipped, with 16% of Independents leaning Dem and 14% leaning GOP.
These numbers can change. Public opinion is shiftable sand; therefore, there are no permanent victories in politics. However, another interesting find relates to the Tea Party. While some thought the movement was dead last summer, those rumors were dispelled with the primary – and general election – wins of Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). However, now only 8% of likely voters identify themselves as Tea Partiers.
Paul Bedard wrote in The Washington Examiner on January 7 that:
Some 30 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party, down from 51 perent in 2009.
56 percent said it has become less influential.
From Rasmussen:
Views of the Tea Party movement are at their lowest point ever, with voters for the first time evenly divided when asked to match the views of the average Tea Party member against those of the average member of Congress. Only eight percent (8%) now say they are members of the Tea Party, down from a high of 24% in April 2010 just after passage of the national health care law.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 30% of Likely U.S. Voters now have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party. Half (49%) of voters have an unfavorable view of the movement. Twenty-one percent (21%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
In April 2009 when the Tea Party protests against President Obama's spending policies first erupted, 51% of Americans held a favorable opinion of the movement. However, just 35% felt that way by last July.
Only 34% of voters now believe the Tea Party movement is good for the country, down from 49% in April 2011. Slightly more (40%) think the Tea Party is bad for the country, while 17% say neither.
A majority (56%) of voters agrees that the Tea Party movement has become less influential over the past year. Just 21% feel it has become more influential, although even more (23%) are not sure.
So, will the next discussion, on a long list of subjects, amongst conservatives be concerned with the Tea Party, and their influence within the party? Are they responsible for the country's shift back to left? Stay tuned.