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He's been singing drug-toting narratives about flying into Los Angeles and paeans about New Orleans for decades, but Arlo Guthrie chose Alexandria's Birchmere music hall last week to launch The Guthrie Family Rides Again Tour about 40 years after his eminent performance at Woodstock.
Guthrie and his endearingly large family played the club last Friday in front of a sold out swarm of fans, who experienced more firsts than just being the initial sounding board for Guthrie's new tour: For the first time ever, several songs from Arlo's father, folk legend Woody Guthrie, were taken from his archival reservoir of written verse and put to music.
It was a unique show for sure, catalyzed by Arlo's youngest daughter Sarah Lee, whose stage presence almost outshined her father's at points though his renditions of Coming Into Los Angeles at the end of his first set and City of New Orleans in his second proved to be an immovable force.
Not that it was a competition. Of the three generations of Guthries and their in-laws on stage, they sang, played and quipped seamlessly for the audience. One of the more interesting revelations was a revival from Woody's archives inspired by his interactions with his mother-in-law Aliza Greenblatt, a prominent Yiddish poet. Written in the late 1960s, a bundle of songs with lyrics about Hannukah, Jewish history and social struggle went undiscovered for 30 years and without music for even longer. But the family debuted their very Yiddish-sounding version of one of them Friday night.
The show flaunted more variety with a few laid back renditions of children's songs complete with the voices of Arlo's grandchildren that came about when getting requests from parents "who wanted a kids' CD that didn't make them want to crash the minivan," Arlo said.
Then there was the not-so-childish but good-natured Shit Makes the Flowers Grow: "You're not good for nothin' / Don't let them tell you so / Your life has a purpose / And I think you ought to know / Shit makes the flowers grow."
At the Birchmere, the performance by Arlo Guthrie and his family turned out to be a night of bigs: Big name, big family, big laughs, big pitchers, big turnout, big entertainment.


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Welcome to SGCC's First Annual Blogiversary Bash!
Well, it's hard to believe, but it's true. Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy is one year old today! Never did I imagine when I started this little blog a year ago what an important and fulfilling part of my life it would become. I have learned so much, not only about cooking and baking, but about the wonderful nature of people. Through this journey, I have met so many kind, caring, creative and passionate souls, all who have enriched my life in various ways. This food blogging community of ours is a truly unique and one hell of a special group!
My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you who have kept me company here in my little slice of the blogoshere. It's been a pleasure having you. If you're visiting for the first time - welcome! I hope you return often.
I have to say that I was truly touched by the number of you that RSVP' d for my party. I never expected so many of you to attend, and with such spectacular food and drinks! Thank you all so much! (I also never expected how much work it would be to put this post together!) With your help, we have the mother lode of all buffets here. So have a drink (or several), grab a fork and a plate, and let's get this party started!!!
I've divide the buffet line into three categories - Libations (drinks), Savories and Sweets. I tried to be as organized about this as possible, but we all know I'm not perfect. If I've missed anyone, please let me know and I'll correct it right away. Oh, and please don't judge me on my formatting skills. This post was a b*tch to put together! ;)
Rachel (aka the Short (dis)Order Cook) from The Essential Rhubarb Pie knows how to get a party started! Her Peach-Hyssop Sparkler is made with peach liqueur and bubbly Proseco, mixed with a simple syrup infused with apricot hyssop flowers from her garden. I'd never heard of apricot hyssop before this, and now I'm determined to find some of my own!
Colleen from Kitchen Diary sent over this cooling and very refreshing Limoncello Sunset all the way from South Africa. Limoncello Sunset is made up with crushed ice, a splash of Angostura Bitters and a double tot of Limoncello Liqueur. The glass is filled with Soda Water and accessorized with a twist of lemon peel and a sprig of mint.
The lovely Chicago-based Marie from Proud Italian Cook calls her Mezzanotte "Pure Decadence". I agree! This amazing coffee cocktail, made with dark chocolate, espresso, vodka, and coffee liqueur, is like having your espresso and dessert all in one! Very efficient! Mezzanotte means midnight in Italian, and Marie figures that this special drink will help keep us partying well into the wee hours.
One of my newer blogging buddies, Lisa from Magic Sprinkles (Is that not the coolest name?) calls Atlanta, Georgia home. I'm so happy to have her here today, especially since she brought these smooth, sweet and creamy Chocolatinis with her. This girl knows how to party! Toss back one of these chic "tinis" made with vodka, chocolate liqueur and cream, and you'll feel just like Carrie Bradshaw!
Sandy from Eat Real is one of the bloggers I initially got to know through Twitter. She's smart, witty and insightful. From New York's mid-Hudson Valley, she writes about lots of delicious and healthy foods and drinks, like this cool and refreshing Kiwi Green Tea Fizz. It all starts with a mouthwatering homemade kiwifruit sorbet, to which green tea liqueur and fizzy ginger ale are added. Then, grab a straw and a comfy chair and you're set!
Nicole from Art and Aioli hails from Orange, California. She's brought this lovely bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa to go with her fab Buratta Plate below. Wine and cheese? Wait til you see it. Classic!
Lori from Luscious and her "Darling Chef", Marc brought this beautiful Gravlax. Just look at that stunning color! Lori, who is in NYC, says that you can get this great party food started a few days ahead and let it sit in the fridge. Slice it thinly, and either platter it with slices of bread and a pot of mustard, or make little hors d'oeuvres for your guests. So easy, fresh and tasty!
Libby from The Allergic Kid is a neighbor from Tampa Bay, Florida. Her blog is a source for recipes and tips for cooking and living with specific food allergies. Libby brought this Zesty Tomato Salsa. She says the fresh cilantro and lime juice are simply addictive, and the salsa also makes a nice topping for chicken or fish. Ole!
Lisa from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary, in Rhode Island, submitted one of her most requested dishes, these Antipasto Squares. With an assortment of cheeses and cured meats baked inside flaky crescent pastry, these would be tops on my list too!
Susan from Food Blogga sent over this beautiful Grilled Eggplant with Roasted Red Pepper Tapenade. Susan comes from California by way of Rhode Island, hence the name of her blog. I can always count on Susan to come up with healthy, yet tasty dishes using fresh and often quite unique ingredients.
Nina from My Easy Cooking sent over these lovely and elegant little Salmon Starters. They're made with baby creamer potatoes, filled with a cream cheese filling and topped with smoked salmon and caviar. (Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but I stashed a few of these away back in the kitchen for later!)
Lauren from I'll Eat You brought these Duxelles hors d'ouvres. This is a simple little hors d'ouvre whipped up with puff pastry and filled with a mushroom duxelles. They look fancy schmancy complicated, but Lauren swears they are not!
My good friend Val from More Than Burnt Toast in Canada is one of the most prolific bloggers I know! (Either that, or she's just a party animal!) Today, Val has brought over these gorgeous Golden Bruschetta with Heirloom Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella and Pesto. They are pure summer on a plate!
Lisa from My Own Sweet Thyme offers up these sweet little Cheesy Choux Puffs. Look at that adorable G-clef! Lisa hails from the Pacific Northwest and does amazing things with choux pastry! Visit her blog to find all sorts of tricks and tips.
In her blog profile, Grace from A Southern Grace calls herself a Southern girl currently sticking out like a sore thumb in upstate New York. When I read that, I knew I was in for a treat! I was. Grace is full of Southern charm and New York wit!Shee sent over this dreamy looking Black Bean Dip. Careful! No double dipping, please!
Laura from The Spiced Life submitted another delicious dish using black beans. Her Southwestern Black Bean Soup was made with her mother's homegrown black beans and lots of bacon. How cool is that? Laura says that this soup isn't super healthy, but it sure is tasty. I heartily agree!
Deeba from Passionate about Baking brought these light, tender and silky Chicken Reshmi Kebabs all the way from North India. Deeba says that these kebabs, a North Indian specialty, are made with minced chicken but are equally as good with minced beef or lamb. She attributes their moist, succulent texture to a marinade, featuring thick, rich yogurt. I think they look marvelous and I can't wait to dig in!
These zesty Tangy Tomato Twisties came all the way from South Africa, again, courtesy of Colleen from Kitchen Diary. They're made with sundried tomato paste, basil pesto, Bushman's HotAzHell Chilli Sauce and some very strong mature cheddar cheese sandwiched between layers of tender and flaky butter puff pastry. Amazing! Check out the Limoncello Sunset that Colleen also sent over to wash them down to wash them down with.
Theresa (The Food Hunter) from The Food Hunter's Guide to Cuisine brought some beautiful Neapolitan Crostini to my buffet table. They're a quick and easy appetizer and are just the perfect thing for a party! Theresa hails from Arizona, by way of Philadelphia and is a girl after my own heart. These tasty crostini are covered with a creamy ricotta spread and then topped with anchovies. Anchovies! I love anchovies!
Tanya from Take the Cannoli blogs from Illinois. She says that while this luscious Roasted Red Pepper Dip is a snap to make, it packs a big flavor punch. With roasted peppers, garlic and cream cheese, how could it not?
When I first laid eyes on Nuria's Chipirones en su tinta, my salivary glands went onto overdrive and I haven't stopped drooling since! Chipirones are small squids and these are prepared Basque-style in a sauce with their own ink, tomatoes, garlic, peppers and onion. Nuria and her delightful blog, Spanish Recipes, are based in sunny Barcelona, Spain.
Ning from Heart and Hearth sent over these lovely Seafood Canapés from her home base in Manila, Philippines. These little beauties are made with a tomato, green onion and anchovy mixture which is spread on toast points and topped with tender, sweet baby shrimp. Ahem...have I mentioned how much I love anchovies?
This Balkan Eggplant Casserole sent over by Alanna from A Veggie Venture is just the thing for a party buffet. Lightly sauteed eggplant slices are baked in a creamy, cheesy and subtly spicy sauce. It is a wonderful vegetarian offering that can be served either hot from the oven or at room temperature. Alanna dishes up her tempting veggie fare in St. Louis, Missouri.
Manggy from No Special Effects is one of my favorite people in the whole world! Talented in so many ways, he is truly a Renaissance man. As busy as he is, he found the time to send over this outrageous Spaghetti Tetrazzini for my Blogiversary Bash by way of the Philippines. It is an uber rich pasta dish baked in a creamy sauce brimming with cheese, chicken, mushrooms and......bacon! This one is not for the faint of heart! As a matter of fact, I think I'm swooning right now!
Joanne from Frutto della Passione is living my dream life in Milan, Italy. What a wonderful place and what a warm and kind woman! She has sent over the kind of party food that I grew up with - adorable Mini Pizzas and Calzones. She even made her own dough! These babies have it all. Mushrooms, onions, ham, tomatoes and fresh mozzarella! Buonissimo!
The first time I visited Nicisme's blog, Cherrapeno, was was after I found myself drooling over one of her stunning photos on Tastespotting. Since then, I have spent quite a bit of time enjoying this UK blogger's tantalizing fare. Today, Nic has sent over these Balsamic Tomato Bruschetta with Grilled Blue Cheese. Grilled Blue Cheese, people! Need I say more?
Michelle from Culinography has brought over this Better than Boursin Cheese Spread. It's a dreamy, cream cheese based concoction loaded with garlic and herbs. Michelle says she makes it because she is too frugal to pay Boursin's high price. I say it's because this Arkansas girl is too smart! Either way, this spread looks way too tempting!
Nicole from Art and Aioli has come to the party with a most thoughtful offering. She's brought a gift of Buratta, her new favorite cheese along with tomatoes and basil from her garden, served with olives, organic ciabbata bread and a dish with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Nicole describes this Rolls Royce of Italian cheeses as "sheer heaven", and so do I! This is going to go so well with that great Cabernet!
Heather from Diary of a Frantic Foodie whipped up this Italian-style Scalloped Tomatoes and Eggplant. She says this is just the kind of dish she likes to serve to keep things interesting at her book club meetings up in Arlington, Virginia. Not only does this casserole contain tomatoes, eggplant and a host of zesty Italian herbs, but it's baked with a topping of tangy goat cheese and pine nuts too. Delicioso!
One of the best things about being a food blogger is discovering all kinds of new foods that you've never known about before, like these Bierocks sent over by the sweet and charming Kristen from Dine & Dish in Kansas City. Biercocks are a German food, commonly seen at Oktoberfest events. They're kind of like a German calzone, with a soft, chewy dough encasing a garlicy meat and cabbage filling. Kristen calls them a little pockets full of goodness with something unexpected in every bite!
Lien from Notitie van Lien sent these intriguing Polpettine al Limone aka Lemon Meatballs over all the way from The Netherlands. Grated lemon zest and ground pine nuts give these meatballs their unique flavor. Lien serves them with just a squeeze of fresh lemon. I can't wait to try them!
Lucy from Teen Baker brought these tasty Lemon & Sultana Cookies. How did she know that I love all things lemon? I am so impressed by Lucy. Did you know that she is only 13 years old? This little Londoner has quite a baking career ahead of her!
Nanc from NancTWoP, in Gotham City, brought these Cinnamon "Toasty Fingers" Lightly sweet and crispy, they fit neatly on the saucer. Plus they're ridiculously easy to make, using items you always have on hand. They look totally addictive to me! I met Nanc back during Top Chef season. She blogs about her favorite TV show and did a great job with her Top Chef recaps. I'm so happy to have her at the party!
Lisa at What We Eat sent these delectable Pina Colada Cupcakes all the way from Dublin, Ireland. Don't they look adorable all dressed up with their cute umbrellas? Lisa says that these are her favorite thing to bring to a party. I'm so glad she brought them to mine!
Esi from Dishing up Delights says that she'd been dreaming of these Figs with Ricotta and Pistachios for days before she made them. I can see why. Just look at them! Those juicy, ripe figs with creamy cheese and glistening honey are making me long for a bite! Esi is from L.A. and remembers the fresh fig trees in her backyard while growing up. Me too.
Another Florida neighbor, Judy from No Fear Entertaining sent over this fresh and delicious Fruit Pizza. Can you believe that this elegant looking dish started with sugar cookie mix and a tub of cream cheese frosting? Now, that is some creative cooking!
Nathan from House of Annie brought something really unique. His Bubbies Mochi Ice Cream looks totally fun and festive! Traditional mochi is a Japanese confection made from sweet glutinous rice paste, filled with sweet azuki bean paste. Ice cream replaces the red bean filling in these. Love these!
Hilary, another Chicago gal, from Chew on That brought these delectable fresh baked Chocolate Chip Cookies. She happened to use my favorite recipe for them too. They are a chocolate lover's dream.
The lovely Ivy from Kopiaste...To Greek Hospitality brought over this gorgeous cake called Revani all the way from Greece. It is made with flour or semolina that is bathed in syrup, and topped with whipping cream and coconut and decorated it with pineapple and sour cherries. She calls it a sticky, gooey, creamy, chewy dessert. I call it heavenly!
Anita from Dessert First brought this equisite Black Sesame Panna Cotta with Five-Spice Peanut Brittle. Black sesame is a classic Chinese flavor, especially in desserts, and is perfect in this creamy, barely set panna cotta. The crunchy, buttery, spicy-sweet brittle makes a lovely complement to it.
Holly from PheMOMenon brought some yummy looking Almond Glazed Sugar Cookies from her home base in Utah. These are the cookies for you if you're into instant gratification. Holly says there is no chilling, no rolling and no waiting involved. I think they look indescribably delicious (and there isn't an elf in sight)!
Stef from Cupcake Project asks "What's a party without cupcakes?" I agree and am thrilled that she sent over these tasty Oatmeal Raisin Cupcakes topped with adorable maple bacon lollipops for my Bash! She says they're just like oatmeal raisin cookies, but moister and with less oatmeal texture. I say WOW!
Gabi from The Feast Within has brought over the most divinely decadent looking cheesecake ever! This Polka Dot Cheesecake is made with both a plain and a chocolate cheesecake batter. The chocolate batter is actually piped into the cake to form these wonderful "polka dots". The finished cake is then topped with a sinful bitersweet chocolate ganache. Be still my heart!
These elegant glasses are filled with rich and creamy Chocolate Mousse topped with Caramelized Strawberry and Orange Sauce. This luxurious dessert was created by the FFichiban, Cupcake and D from Here Comes the Food out of Sydney, Australia. They had me at chocolate mousse, but that delicate fruity sauce sealed the deal! Doesn't it look dreamy?
Claire from Cooking is Medicine is a doctor from Jackson, MS. Despite her busy schedule, she found time to bake her signature Claire's Coffee Cookies. These cookies are loaded with chocolate chips, oats, nuts and rich coffee flavor. How efficient is Claire? She can have her coffee and cookies together in one bite!
Look at the fudgy goodness of these amazing Espresso Brownies made by Mansi from Fun & Food Cafe! Who could resist these sinfully delicious brownies filled with the richness of cocoa, a shot of espresso and a hint of Kahlua liqueur? I know I couldn't! Mansi sent her delectable treats from sunny California. I wish I lived closer so I could have them all the time!
Kelly from Sass & Veracity sure knows to make the summertime last! Of course, being in California, she has access to some of the best fruits available. This Blueberry Peach Galette is a gorgeous showcase for two of the season's most popular bounty. For her galette, Kelly makes a dough using yogurt and cornmeal, which is filled with fresh, ripe peaches and blueberries kissed with honey and thyme. To. Die. For.
Those wild and crazy kids, Denise and Lenny from Chez Us also had peaches on their minds. They came up with this oozey, gooey Peach, Vanilla Bean, French Thyme Galette, even though they've both been down with nasty colds all week. I'm touched that they went to all that trouble for little old me!
Maria and Josh from Two Peas and Their Pod are getting in the Fall spirit with their Applesauce Spice Bars. I'm sure the weather is quite a bit cooler up there Salt Lake City, Utah! These tasty treats are chock full of apples, raisins, brown sugar and spices, all smothered in a gooey vanilla/brown sugar glaze. You better grab one fast. They won't last long!
The Happy Cook from My Kitchen Treasures has certainly made me happy with the Mango Panna Cotta she sent over all the way from Belgium! Panna Cotta is one of my favorite things and this one is rich, creamy and fruity all at the same time. Plus, could those glasses any cuter?
Helen, everyone's favorite Tartelette, has brought these stunning little Pine Nut Tartelettes to the party. She is a lovely lady and one of the most talented and creative bloggers I know. Everything that comes out of her kitchen is perfection and these sublime little jewels are no exception! From the South of France to South Carolina, Helen bridges the gap with her tartelettes intended to be a riff on pecan pie, swapping out pecans and corn syrup for pine nuts and acacia honey. C'est Magnifique!
Dear, sweet Patricia blogs from her Technicolor Kitchen in Sao Paolo, Brazil. She has sent over this fabulous Lemon Meringue Cake for us all to enjoy! The cake has a sticky, gooey, and chewy meringue base, similar to a pavlova, and is filled with a glorious lemon cream filling. To top it off, she has sprinkled on white chocolate shavings. It is everything I could wish for!
Veron over at Veronica's Test Kitchen has sent over another delectable lemon dessert, Lemon Bars on Brown Butter Shortbread. Based in Richmond, Virginia, she is also among those of us trying to squeeze the last drop out of Summer! Tart and sweetly delicious, these bars feature a cool, lemony filling nestled on a rich, buttery crust. Lemon bars have always held a special place in my heart, an I'll be first in line for these!
Lynne from And Then I Do the Dishes sent over a batch of her delicious Ground Cherry and Vanilla Compote. She's serving her compote up on lightly toasted French bread topped with a smooth, nutty Gruyere cheese from beautiful from Quebec, Canada. It's the perfect balance of sweet and savory!
I believe no party would be complete without a good old-fashioned apple pie. Fortunately, Andrea from Andrea's Recipes felt the same way and brought this French Apple Pie! She makes it, in her Northern Virginia kitchen, with thinly sliced Granny Smith apples spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon. Then, she tops it with a buttery, brown sugar crumb topping. It doesn't get much better than this!
One of my daily treats is visiting Lori, The Recipe Girl - especially when she has one of her wonderful desserts on the menu! Imagine my delight when I saw these sinfully good Devil's Food Cupcakes she sent over. That rich, gooey chocolate frosting topped with those festive sprinkles is making me weak in the knees, I tell you!
One of the very first food blogs I ever read was Jumbo Empanadas written by Brilynn from Canada. Before that, I didn't really even know what a blog was, but I was hooked! I have to say that Brilynn was part of the inspiration that prompted me to create SGCC. I'm very honored to have her as a guest at my BB! I knew she would bring something fabulous and she did not disappoint. Brilynn says that her Cinnamon Palmiers, (or Elephant Ears!) are ridiculously easy to make, look fantastic, make your house smell like Cinnabons and will have people begging for more. Whew! She really means it when she says "Go big or go home"!
One of my daily reads I never miss is Cathy's blog, Noble Pig out of Northen California. Sometimes, I laugh. Sometimes I cry. I'm always entertained. Cathy sent over this amazingly delicious Banana Cake with Cream Cheese-Sour Cream Frosting. She guarantees this one takes banana baked goods to a whole new level of yumminess. I'll take that bet. I've been dreaming about this cake ever since I first saw it on Cathy's site!
And now, for my party gifts!
You've all been such patient and gracious guests, but I know you're all dying to know who one my special Blogiversary giveaways. Take a look at this little video I made (with my Flip Video, natch!) and all will become clear! Now, be forewarned that this is my very first attempt at filmaking, so be kind. Also, any snarky comments about my tiara will be promptly deleted! ;) Um.....and please don't look at my hair too closely. I shot this after a very long day!
Sooooooo, to recap, the list of winners is as follows:
Nuria from Spanish Recipes wins Working the Plate!
Laura from The Spiced Life wins the NBC Sunday Night Football Cookbook!
Lauren from I'll Eat You wins Martha Stewart's Cookies!
Lisa from What We Eat wins Digital Food Photography!
Aaaaaand last, but by no means least, Manggy wins the Flip Ulta Video!
Congratulations to all of the winners!
Thank you all so much for coming to help me celebrate my blogiversary! I hope you all enjoyed yourself. Take care and see you soon!

subset: commoncrawl


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Green Day's Armstrong getting treatment
NEW YORK - The Associated Press
Green Day lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong performs during the 2012 iHeart Radio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada September 21, 2012.REUTERS Photo
Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong is headed to treatment for substance abuse.Sunday's announcement by the band's representative comes after the 40-year-old frontman had a meltdown onstage at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas on Friday. As Green Day was wrapping up its performance during the all-star, two-day concert, Armstrong profanely complained that the band's time was being cut short.
"One minute left, one minute (expletive) left. You're gonna give me (expletive) one minute? ... I'm not (expletive) Justin Bieber, you (expletives)!" he yelled (although Bieber was not part of the night's festivities).
Armstrong smashed his guitar before leaving the stage.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Green Day apologized "to those they offended at the iHeartRadio Festival" and said its set was not cut short by Clear Channel, the host of the two-day festival.
The Grammy winning band also is canceling some of its promotional appearances. It is due to release the album "Uno" on Tuesday, the follow-up to "21st Century Breakdown," released three years ago. "Uno" is the first in a trilogy of albums; the second is to be out in November, and the last in January.
The band is due to kick off a nationwide tour Nov. 26 in Seattle.
Armstrong was hospitalized in early September in Bologna, Italy, for an undisclosed ailment, but recovered well enough to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 6. Since then, the band has made a series of performances, including a performance on the TV show "Good Morning America" and a New York City concert for the launch of Nokia Music on Sept. 15. No interviews of the band were allowed that evening, but the band chatted with fans and Nokia and AT&T executives before performing for about two hours.
It's unclear what Armstrong is receiving treatment for; in 2003, he was arrested for driving under the influence, and has acknowledged in the past taking various drugs but has said he now eschews them.
Green Day is one of rock's top acts and had huge success with its 2004 politically charged album "American Idiot," which went on to become a Broadway musical. Armstrong performed for a stretch in the musical.
Most recently, he was a mentor on the NBC talent competition "The Voice."


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Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present is the first major retrospective of the groundbreaking performance artist, which opened in spring 2010 at MoMA.
Performance art is transient, yet its complexities, ephemeral nature and immediacy resonate in today's artistic and cultural landscape. Art has always explored the current state of affairs, initiated debate and discussion, and driven forward a never-ending investigation of our current times. Enter Marina Abramović (b. 1946, Yugoslavia), an artist who, through concept and action, has consistently challenged and confronted audiences with obscure and sometimes very radical works over the past four decades.
Often called the grandmother of performance art, Abramović began as a painter, but realised her vocation early in her career. She recalls: "I remember one day I was lying on the grass looking up and I saw 12 military planes crossing the sky, very fast, and you know when you see the lines, it's like an absent drawing because the lines are visible, then they slowly disappear and the sky becomes blue again. I was looking at this whole process and for me it was a revelation. I thought 'why am I sitting and drawing in my studio, when I can go and do drawings of the sky'." When Abramović began in the late 1960s, the act of performing with the body (often through extreme actions such as cutting, slapping, screaming and burning) was unnamed, moreover, unheard of and she became a radical pioneer. "I was like first woman walking the moon. You know, people thought that I was crazy, my mother and father were asked to meetings to discuss what kind of education I was receiving, and my professors of art were saying that I was lost. So, my art was really working against everybody: family based, society based, cultural based, and it was hard. I tell you, it gives you strength. It took me so many years to really understand what kind of art form performance really is," says Abramović. Although not the only performance artist of her time, with the likes Bruce Nauman and Joseph Beuys gaining attention, Abramović's determination to create using the self as the vehicle has helped to define this often misunderstood art form, and elevate its status to that of any other fine art.
Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present is the first large-scale retrospective of the artist's groundbreaking performance work. Abramović is internationally recognised as a pioneer and key figure in performance art, she uses her own body as subject, object, and medium, exploring the physical and mental limits of her being. In January 2010, Abramović was back in the UK with The Pigs of Today Are the Hams of Tomorrow at the Plymouth Arts Centre, which was the first curatorial project created in collaboration with the Marina Abramović Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art (due to open in Hudson, New York in 2011). Abramović understands the contentions around performance art, and with her 2009 piece, The Drill, at the Manchester International Festival, she implored the audience to participate for four hours uninterrupted, (they even had to sign a contract with the artist stating they would endure the duration of the performance), which ultimately resulted in a vast investigation into the perceptions of time, repetition and movement.
The Artist Is Present traces Abramović's prolific career with approximately 50 works spanning over four decades of interventions and sound pieces, video works, installations, photography, solo and collaborative performances. Also included are the world premiere of a new work to be performed by Abramović and "reperformances" of influential historical pieces by performers selected especially for this exhibition. The live reperformances are included in a chronological installation of the artist's work reflecting the different modes of representing, documenting, and exhibiting her ephemeral time and media-based works.
Best known for her durational works, Abramović has created a new work for this performance retrospective, The Artist Is Present (2010), which she will perform daily throughout the run of the exhibition, for a total of over 700 hours. For her longest solo piece to date, Abramović will sit in silence at a table during public hours, passively inviting visitors to sit across from her for as long as they choose within the timeframe of the Museum's opening hours. Abramović means business, she will let the artwork transform her life: "Right now, I'm turning my house into a military camp. I just bought a three-month supply of toilet paper and washing powder. Because when I start on 6 March, I'm not talking, not just in time of performance, but throughout the entire three months. I will not communicate, and I have given my phone and computer to my sister. I have to be completely inside the work. I really want to see how the performance becomes alive, because three months is a long time. And over three months you can't pretend, you can't act, you have to come to some kind of naked truth with yourself and the public have to feel that vulnerability and openness and you have to be really radical and honest, and that's very important." Although she will not react, participation by Museum visitors completes the piece and allows them to have a personal experience with the artist and the artwork.
The live reperformances of five of Abramović's seminal pieces will be presented alongside video and photographic documentation of the original performances, incorporated within a chronological presentation of the artist's career. This questions the nature of performance art, and also looks to document, record and preserve it, which is very important to Abramović: "I think the relationship with the public is extremely important, no one ever talks about this – people come, go and look, but it's about understanding and connecting with the work, because time-based art is live energy. People arrive at a museum with their own suitcase of worries, Blackberrys, iPods, how can anyone let anything in; it's about slowing down, emptying and re-adjusting. I want to do an Andy Warhol laboratory, but without the drugs."
The works included are: Imponderabilia (1977/2010), in which a two nude performers stand opposite each other in a doorway, so that visitors who wish to pass must move through the gap between the two, deciding to face him or her; Relation in Time (1977/2010), in which two performers sit quietly, connected to each other by their long hair, which is tied together; Point of Contact (1980/2010), in which two performers stand face to face with arms bent, just barely touching the tip of each other's index fingers; Nude with Skeleton (2002–05/2010), in which a nude performer lies beneath a skeleton, animating it with the motions of his or her breathing; and Luminosity (1997/2010), in which a nude performer, suspended high upon a wall and immersed in light, gives the appearance of floating before the wall. Imponderabilia, Relation in Time, and Point of Contact were originally created and performed by Abramović and the artist Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen, b. 1943, Germany), her partner from 1975 to 1988. A group of 36 performers (selected out of 180 hopefuls) chosen by Abramović will reperform these pieces continuously in shifts throughout public hours in the sixth floor galleries.
The first section focuses on solo performances created when she was based in Belgrade (1969–75). For the performance Rhythm 0 (1974), Abramović placed on a table 72 objects that people were allowed to use in any way that they chose. Among them were scissors, a knife, a whip, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed the audience members to manipulate her body and actions. By the end of the performance all of her clothes were sliced off, she had been cut, painted, cleaned, decorated, crowned with thorns, and had the loaded gun pressed against her head. A table with examples of these objects, as well as a 35mm slide projection showing photographs of the original performance, is included in the exhibition. This piece surveys human behaviour and the mob mentality, because Abramović was passive and non-responsive participants pushed the boundaries to shocking limits, which was not only surprising to Abramović, but the participants alike.
The next section of the show is an exposé of her collaborations with Ulay. Works include Rest Energy (1980), in which Ulay held a bow taut with its arrow pointed directly at Abramović's heart, and Nightsea Crossing (1981–87), a series of 22 performances that featured Abramović and Ulay sitting motionless at either end of a rectangular table facing each other, completely silent. The exhibition includes video of the original performance of Rest Energy and images of the Nightsea Crossing performances.
The third segment focuses on the years 1995 to 2005, when Abramović embarked on a new chapter of solo works about being alone and about dealing with her cultural, ideological, and spiritual origins in the Balkans, her family background, and feelings of shame and suffering amidst the atrocities that affected her home country in the 1990s. The installation Balkan Baroque (1997), for which she won the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the Venice Biennale in 1997, consists of a three-channel projection portraying life-size images of the artist, her mother, father, 6,000 pounds of cow bones, and copper vessels filled with black water. The original work encompassed a performance by Abramović, who scrubbed for six hours per day, for four days, the remaining meat off of the bones, physically deconstructing violence, pain and suffering associated with war.
The final section consists of works from 2001 since she has been based in New York. In The House with the Ocean View (2002), the artist lived in the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York for 12 days in a cross-sectioned structure of rooms. The exhibition includes a three-channel video projection of the performance, in addition to a sound piece in which Abramović narrates her every action during that 12-day period. Seven Easy Pieces, presented in 2005 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, first illustrated Abramović as an agent of the history of performance art. For each night of the seven-night programme, she selected a different seminal work of performance art from the 1960s and 1970s. These works included: Jospeh Beuys's How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965), Valie Export's Action Pants: Genital Panic (1969), and Bruce Nauman's Body Pressure (1974). The project was premised on the fact that little documentation exists for most performances from this critical early period. Seven Easy Pieces examined the possibility of repeating and preserving an art form that is, by nature, ephemeral. The exhibition includes a seven-channel video installation of the performances.
Performance art is capricious, at times tedious, but the concept continuously redefines artistic plateaus and captures the imagination. Marina Abramović is one of the most intriguing artists working today. She knows no limits and continues to drive forward not only performance art, but also unnervingly reconstitutes what is often considered art. She is passionate about performance art, and in particular durational pieces; the retrospective at MoMA celebrates her commitment to the art form, and never-ending ingenuity to re-invent new works time and time again, Abramović enthuses: "This is one of the greatest moments of my life."
Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present was organised by Klaus Biesenbach, Director, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Chief Curator at Large, The Museum of Modern Art. The Artist Is Present continued until 31 May 2010, and Marina Abramović was in the UK at the Lisson Gallery, London from 13 October – 13 November 2010. www.moma.org.
Cherie Federico


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Dogs can make good pets in Tuvalu if they match your IifestyIe. Dogs have a reputation for being "man's best friend" for excellent reasons. Dogs are wonderful companions. Many breeds, in addition to being affectionate, devoted members of the family, are useful working dogs and guardians. Most dogs form tight bonds with their humans, and need to be cared for like the valuable family members they are. But sadly, some owners do not live up to the responsibility and involvement it takes to properly care for a dog throughout its life. Dogs can become the victims of neglect or active abuse. Some dogs receive tender, attentive care from their owners, but no longer have a home after their owner passes away or experiences a major life event that makes him unable to keep his dog. There are many more dogs than there are homes for dogs, and dogs that are not spayed or neutered can accidentally produce large numbers of puppies, exacerbating overpopulation. For this reason, three to four million dogs, many of them perfectly healthy and wonderful animals, are euthanized in the U.S. each year. Many people get excited about owning a new dog, decide to get a puppy, and then pick one out at a pet shop or visit a breeder with a new litter. However, there are so many wonderful, friendly dogs in need of adoption, including puppies and purebreds. Some of these dogs might even be a better fit for a family than a new puppy; for instance, some adult dogs in need of adoption are already housebroken and obedience trained. Adoption is typically much less expensive than purchasing a dog. People who adopt dogs find the experience extremely rewarding, bond very closely with their dogs, and have the added satisfaction of knowing that one less animal has to be euthanized. If your family is ready for a canine companion, please consider adopting a dog! Rescue Me! - HeIpingAnimaIs in Need. | |||||||||
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Walter Jones, once famously described by Warren Sapp as a "man who blocks out the sun," entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday — as expected — in his first year of eligibility. The 12-year Seahawk (1997-08) becomes the third longtime member of the organization elected and will be inducted into Canton Aug. 2 (see Hall of Famer Walter Jones, A Career Snapshot).
Jones, who protected nine quarterbacks during his tenure with the team, starting with Warren Moon and ending with Matt Hasselbeck, was one of seven inducted Saturday by 46 sports writers, comprising the HOF Selection Committee, which deliberated a record eight hours, 59 minutes before casting ballots.
"It's been a long journey for me to be at this point," Jones said after learning of his election. "And to come into the league — all I wanted was to play the game of football. For me to be here now, and for the team that I played on to also be here in the Super Bowl, it's just the icing on the cake."
"Jones is arguably the greatest left tackle of all-time, and he probably wasn't a difficult selection for the Hall of Fame Committee," said NFL.com. Jones and the other new Hall of Famers were on hand for the announcement of their election at Radio City Music Hall in New York Saturday evening.
Jones joins LB Derrick Brooks, punter Ray Guy, DE Claude Humphrey, WR Andre Reed, DE Michael Strahan and CB/S Aeneas Williams in the Class of 2014.
Jones also joins wide receiver Steve Largent (1995) and DL Cortez Kennedy (2012) as long-tenured former Seahawks in the Hall of Fame. Like Largent and Kennedy, Jones spent his entire career (1997-09) with Seattle.
The newest Hall of Famers were selected from a list of 17 finalists, including 15 modern-era players and two senior candidates who had been determined by the Selection Committee.
Failing to make the Hall of Fame in this year's voting: WR Tim Brown, RB Jerome Bettis, PK Morten Andersen, LB Kevin Greene, DE Charles Haley, WR Marvin Harrison, S John Lynch, OL Will Shields and ex-coach Tony Dungy and owner Edward DeBartolo.
In order to be elected, a candidate had to receive at least 80 percent of the vote. The Selection Committee did not release percentage totals for individual candidates. It did report that the first cut of modern-era finalists, from 15 to 1o, eliminated Andersen, Brown, DeBartolo, Dungy and Lynch. At that point, the finalists were reduced to five, eliminating Bettis, Greene, Haley, Harrison and Shields.
Guy joins Jan Stenerud as the only kickers elected to the Hall of Fame.
The Seahawks selected Jones out of Florida State with the sixth overall selection in the 1997 NFL draft after trading up with Tampa Bay to land him. Jones earned the starting left tackle spot during rookie training camp and received his first national recognition in October that season when he was named the Offensive Rookie of the Month.
At the end of his first year, Jones was a pick for multiple all-rookie teams as he helped quarterback Moon notch his ninth Pro Bowl appearance.
Jones made his first Pro Bowl team following the 1999 season, becoming the first offensive lineman in Seahawks history chosen as an All-Star. That was the first of a record nine Pro Bowl honors for Jones, who earned his first, first-team All-Pro designation in 2001. Jones earned All-Pro honors five more times (2002, 2004-07).
Jones became a major part of Shaun Alexander's 2005 Most Valuable Player award, helping spring the running back for 1,880 yards and a league-record 28 touchdowns as Seattle led the NFL with 452 points.
In addition to playing 180 regular-season games, second-most in Seahawks history, Jones started a team-record 10 playoff games, including the 2005 NFC Championship and Super Bowl XL.
A year after his 2009 retirement, Jones was named to the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 2000s.
"He was a great teammate," said former Seattle quarterback Hasselbeck. "Really fun, one of the best laughs of any locker room I've ever been in. He talks a lot more now than he did when he was a player. I think all of us feel really fortunate to have gotten to play with Walter, to be his teammate. Honestly, I'm not just saying this, he was one of the best teammates I've ever had."
Also on Saturday, the NFL handed out its 2013 player awards. Peyton Manning, who will lead the Denver Broncos against the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII Sunday, was named the Associated Press Most Valuable Player and its Offensive Player of the Year.
Two Seahawks, Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman, were candidates for Defensive Player of the Year, which went to went to LB Luke Kuechly of the Carolina Panthers. Kuechly received 19 votes from a panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the NFL. Thomas received 7½ votes and Sherman 4.


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Bruce Bruce
Bruce Bruce
Bruce Bruce is a name synonymous with keeping audiences rolling with laughter thanks to his captivating improv skills and larger than life comedic style. Bruce's steady style of comedy has been showcased across the country and he has been entertaining audiences young and old and of all backgrounds for years. His wit spontaneity and dazzling personality set him apart from other standup comedians. Although Bruce is known for his adult comedy he prides himself on not using vulgarity to win a laugh and is no stranger is winning over new audiences with every appearance he makes. From his role as host for two seasons of BET's "Comic View" to his many appearances on tv and film Bruce is clearly a comedian that has found his mark in the business. On the feature film front Bruce made a cameo in the HBO Films feature Idlewild and appeared in the Larry the Cable Guy-starrer Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector. He also appeared in the comedy Who's Your Caddy as "Golf Ball Eddie."
Bruce is one of the nation's favorite standup comedians and will hit the road again this fall with a national comedy tour. In addition to standup comedy film and TV Bruce Bruce can also add author to his list of credits. Bruce recently released his first book Baby James Brown from Penguin Publishing. Within these pages you will find hilarious stories from his childhood and learn more about what makes Bruce Bruce one of the most popular comedians in the business today.
When not performing in comedy clubs across the country Bruce divides his time between his homes in Atlanta and Los Angeles. He is also extremely dedicated to his incredible car collection which includes two Harley Davidson trucks and four Buick muscle cars among others.


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The Daily Camera reported earlier this year that the grand jury had issued an indictment, but the documents for the first time revealed the charges against the Ramseys. The grand jury accused both John and Patsy Ramsey of helping someone who committed murder, but the document did not identify the alleged killer. The documents alleged both parents intended to delay or prevent the arrest of the alleged killer.
The district attorney at the time, Alex Hunter, who presented the evidence to the grand jury, declined to pursue charges saying: "I and my prosecutorial team believe we do not have sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of charges against anyone who has been investigated at this time."
Only pages that had been signed by the grand jury foreman and were considered official action of the jury were released. The numbering of the charges implies that there were other charges the jurors considered but rejected.
Hunter did not return a phone message left Thursday by The Associated Press in anticipation of the documents' release.
The grand jury met three years after the beauty queen's body was found bludgeoned and strangled in their home in Boulder on Dec. 26, 1996. The indictments alleged the crimes occurred between Dec. 25 and Dec. 26.
The Ramseys maintained their innocence, offering a $100,000 reward for the killer and mounting a newspaper campaign seeking evidence.
Former prosecutor and law professor Karen Steinhauser said grand juries sometimes hear evidence that won't be admitted during trial that can form the basis of indictments. But she added that prosecutors must have a good faith belief that they could prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt before pursuing charges.
"I'm not sure that the release of this indictment is going to change the fact that there has not been able to be a prosecution and probably won't be able to be a prosecution," she said.
Lurid details of the crime and striking videos of the child in adult makeup and costumes performing in pageants propelled the case into one of the highest profile mysteries in the United States in the mid-1990s. It also raised questions about putting children on display in beauty contests long before the popularity of reality shows such as "Toddlers & Tiaras" and "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," which features moms and their child beauty pageant contestants.
Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in 2006, the same year a globe-hopping school teacher was arrested in Thailand after falsely claiming to have killed JonBenet. Former District Attorney Mary Lacy cleared the Ramseys in 2008 based on new DNA testing that suggested the killer was a stranger, not a family member.
Lacy did not return a phone call.
Over the years, some experts have suggested that investigators botched the case so thoroughly that it might never be solved.
Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said the case remains open but it's not an active investigation. He predicted the indictment's release wouldn't change anything.
"Given the publicity that's been out there, many people have formed their opinions one way or another," he said.
Earlier this week, John Ramsey asked officials to release the entire grand jury record if the unprosecuted indictment was made public. However, the judge said transcripts of grand jury proceedings and evidence presented to it are not considered "official action" under the law governing criminal court records. He also said releasing such information could hurt other grand juries, whose work is secret.
An attorney representing John Ramsey, L. Lin Wood, has said he's confident that no evidence in the grand jury case implicated the Ramsey family and the public should be able to see that for themselves.
Associated Press writers Steven K. Paulson and Dan Elliott contributed to this report.


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Director : Michael Mann, Writer : Morgan Davis Foehl, Producer : Michael Mann, Producer : Jon Jashni, Producer : Thomas Tull, Post Production Supervisor : Jake Rice, Original Music Composer : Harry Gregson-Williams, Original Music Composer : Atticus Ross, Original Music Composer : Leopold Ross, Director of Photography : Stuart Dryburgh, Editor : Mako Kamitsuna, Editor : Jeremiah O'Driscoll, Editor : Stephen E. Rivkin, Editor : Joe Walker, Casting : Bonnie Timmermann, Production Design : Guy Hendrix Dyas, Co-Producer : Julie Herrin, Co-Producer : Diane L. Sabatini, Co-Producer : Michael Solinger, Executive Producer : Álex García, Executive Producer : Eric McLeod, Line Producer : John Radel, Associate Producer : Maggie Chieffo, Art Direction : Luke Freeborn, Art Direction : Aran Mann, Supervising Art Director : Tom Reta, Set Decoration : Victor J. Zolfo, Costume Design : Colleen Atwood, Hairstylist : Kathrine Gordon, Hairstylist : Darlene Brumfield, Hairstylist : Betty Lou Skinner, Hairstylist : Luca Vannella, Makeup Department Head : Jane Galli, Makeup Artist : Doniella Davy, Art Department Coordinator : Heather Elwell, Script Supervisor : John Kaylin, Casting : Jerrica Lai, Construction Coordinator : Michael Diersing, Casting : Rosanna Ng, Casting Associate : Daniel Cabeza, Assistant Costume Designer : Christine L. Cantella, Armorer : Peter K. Orr, Second Unit Cinematographer : John Grillo, Second Unit Cinematographer : Duane Manwiller, Camera Operator : Roberto De Angelis, Helicopter Camera : Hans Bjerno, Camera Technician : Dane Bjerno, Gaffer : Shahrulnizam B. Ahmad, Gaffer : Jack English, Gaffer : Bob E. Krattiger, First Assistant Camera : Craig Grossmueller, First Assistant Camera : E.J. Misisco, Rigging Gaffer : Glen Magers
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Tags: terrorist, anti hero, hacker, computer virus, race against time, computer, malaysia, nuclear power plant, suspense, betrayal, conspiracy, on the run, fugitive, shootout, hacking, terrorism, cat and mouse, one against many, computer hacker, no opening credits, terrorist plot, nsa, stock exchange, hong kong, cybercrime, technology, cyber terrorism, chinese military, cyber terrorist, cyber thriller,


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- In 2008, former U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff authored a 38 page report warning of terrorists exploiting our security deficiencies – including air travel.
- On Christmas Day 2009, just before the "attempted bombing incident" on board flight 253, there were a total of 40 body scanners in use in 19 airports in the U.S.
- On Christmas Day 2009, numerous witnesses watched while Abdulmutallab, the supposed 'terrorist' was escorted TO the plane by several men in suits.
- After the 'bombing attempt' Chertoff made a flurry of media appearances suggesting that the "attempted bombing incident" could have been avoided if all airports were using full body scanners.
- The Washington Post printed an article on January 1, 2010, calling Chertoff out for using his government credentials to promote a product that benefits his clients. It was revealed that Rapiscan Systems, the manufacturer of the naked body scanner Chertoff was recommending, was a client of Chertoff's security consulting agency.
- Rapiscan has since received over $250 million in scanner orders.
- 2005: Michael Chertoff, as head of Homeland Security, orders the first batch of porno scanners from a company called Rapiscan Systems. After his departure, Chertoff gave dozens of interviews using his government credentials to promote the device. What he didn't tell people was that Rapiscan was one of the clients of his consulting company, The Chertoff group.
- March 2009: The Department of Homeland Security says they will apply $1 billion in stimulus money to the nation's airports. Senator Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, personally promises to oversee the distribution of stimulus funds so money goes toward the goal of creating "4 million jobs" and not on "boondoggles"
- December 2009: Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz inserted language into the Homeland Security appropriations bill barring the use of full-body image scans as "primary" screening tools at airports, and it passed the House on a bipartisan vote of 310-118. Both the ACLU and the NRA backed it. The amendment also made it illegal to store and copy these images. It died in the Senate.
- December 25, 2009: The "Christmas bomber" attempts to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board a flight to Detroit.
- December 29, 2009: Joe Lieberman calls for "more widespread use of the full-body scanners after the aborted attack."
- January 2010: Since they couldn't get money for the porno scanners from Congress, TSA uses the "Christmas bomber" scare to appropriate $25 million they had received in stimulus money to buy the "backscatter" scanners — from Rapiscan, Chertoff's client. Rapiscan said the contract "helped create" 25 jobs. The government gives the TSA the green light to spend a total of $173 million on the scanners. TSA spokesperson Sarah Horowitz said "the agency has enough funds that would come from the stimulus program and other federal sources" to purchase 300 more porno scanners, per CNN. Total jobs created, per the government's own website: 1.
- April 2010: The GAO reports that "it remains unclear whether the AIT would have detected the weapon used in the December 2009 incident based on the preliminary information GAO has received."
- November 8, 2010: US Airline Pilots Association tells its members "NOT to submit to AIT screenings."
- November 15, 2010: Joe Lieberman says he "comes down on the side of the patdowns."
So the "groping" technique was developed as a way to punish people into using the scanners — because there are $148 million more on the way. And just so nobody gets the idea to follow Tyner's lead, the TSA is using threats and intimidation to guarantee the market for the porno scanners. Whether Tyner is prosecuted or not, people will hear about what happened to him and think twice before refusing to become fodder for their new machines.
CORRECTION: I had the wrong link to the Examiner, which went to a website I didn't want to link to. Why is it so hard to find this information about the scanners?! I couldn't find anything recent in the NYT or the Washington Post.


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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
Did someone say streusel? This isn't a Halloween post. Or a pre-Thanksgiving post. Technically. Though Hallow's Eve is just a stone's throw away- if you somehow conjure a metaphorical stone to metaphorically hurl into the time-space continuum, piercing the veil of a mere FOUR weeks that blows by in a singular exhale, surely faster than light. And this exhale, it was only following a previous breath- a breath I took yesterday- which turns out to be one year ago.
A year since that Pumpkin Praline Pie I baked.
I have a hard time wrapping my brain around this.
Some days I feel as if I am slave to the calendar, an unwitting cog in the wheel of the year with Sundays and holidays appointed by proxy, designated by some superior force that rules my random wandering nature with an unforgiving fist, demanding obedience. Charting the course of my life.
Then I remember the truth.
Time is an invention born of the Big Bang. Debris hurtling through space- at increasing velocity. And here we are, hurtling along with it. Stuck to a rock spinning its own orbital logic. Logic so tiny in the fantastical face of infinity, the depth and breadth of vast, hollow, endless space. In the beyond-comprehension scheme of things, we are all walking talking miracles. It is truly beyond extraordinary that we are here at all, with all the subatomic quantum level things that could go wrong. With all the near misses. And all that never was.
Life is breathtakingly rare, intricately fragile, and so surprising.
Perhaps that's why we set apart a season to ponder the harvest, to cultivate gratitude. I'm all for it. I'm all for it because of all the petty, surface level annoyances we endure, all the itches and aches and heartbreaks and mundane difficulties, all the tricks and rationalizations we serve ourselves to distract ourselves, just to survive. To get through the day. To endure until tomorrow. To re-imagine what is possible. Or ignore the inevitable. To flirt with meaning. To invite love in. To create a connection. To let go of something toxic. To embrace something raw or something tender. To risk something wonderful. Or scary. Because the risk gleams with promise.
The microcosm of this past year has been the microcosm of my life. Contractions and expansions. Sloughing off and gathering in. There's been some blooming. And some fading. Inner strength toughened. Muscles softened. Authenticity inches one step closer. Understanding melts into compassion. For myself, first of all.
I am learning to hold my imperfections to the light and examine them with less acidity. This single choice alone creates more room for compassion toward others. It's true what the sages say about loving yourself first. I no longer care to be my own worst enemy.
I'll leave that purpose to someone else.
I am grateful for so many things this year. For the ongoing privilege of motherhood. For the new family joined to us now in marriage and through heart strings. For old and new friends. For a warm bed shared. For the means to put food on the table (thank you Blogger). For these six years of gypsy living, taking the long way home. For this opportunity to string words together in cyberspace, and share recipes and ramblings with you.
Thank you.
Have a beautiful week. And while we're at it- a spooky-lovely Halloween. A heartwarming Thanksgiving. Small and quiet or big and boisterous. Be well fed, in every way.
On to the Muffins...
A friend was coming by to visit. So I wanted to create a new pumpkin muffin based on my moist and tender Pumpkin Pie Bread. I thought I'd add walnuts and a streusel topping. And cinnamon. I played around with my recipe and baked a batch of these little golden lovelies.
You could substitute pecans for the walnuts, if you like.
And then go read a page or two of A Short History of Everything. And we can talk about the whole time-space continuum thing.
It'll blow your mind.
Karina's Gluten-Free Pumpkin Streusel Muffins Recipe
Karina's recipe originally published November 2011.
These muffins taste like a pumpkin pie that was transformed by a Fairy Godmother into warm little morsels of cakey goodness. Wave a magic butter knife sporting a daub of creamy vegan butter on these babies and you've got a treat worthy of a Prince. Or a Princess.Ingredients:
1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup millet flour
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger or GF pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup organic coconut oil
2 organic free-range eggs, beaten
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon bourbon vanilla
1 rounded cup chopped walnuts
For the streusel topping:
1/4 cup organic light brown sugar
2 tablespoons brown rice flour or coconut flour
1-2 tablespoons organic coconut oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add in the coocnut oil and beat until crumbly. Add in the eggs, pumpkin and vanilla, and beat until the batter is smooth and sticky- about two minutes. Add in the walnuts and stir to combine.
Spoon the batter into twelve muffin cups, filling them close to the top. Smooth the tops using the back side of a wet teaspoon.
Combine the streusel topping ingredients with a fork, or by rubbing the mixture with your hands. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the muffins.
Bake in the center of the oven till domed and firm, about 22 to 25 minutes. A wooden pick inserted into the center should emerge clean.
Cool briefly, then remove the muffins from the pan, and cool them on a wire rack. (This helps keep their bottoms from getting soggy.)
Serve warm with a schmear of vegan butter (or the real moo-cow thing, if you prefer). These would also be fab with cream cheese.
Wrap and freeze leftover muffins for easy on-the-go treats.
Cook time: 23 min
Yield: One dozen muffins
Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com
All images & content are copyright protected, all rights reserved. Please do not use our images or content without prior permission. Thank you.
NOTE: I'm now using less brown rice and brown rice flour, and eating fewer rice cakes, etc. Here's why- there is elevated arsenic in rice.
For substitution help, please see my guide to baking with substitutions here.


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WASHINGTON (AP) — A New Mexico peanut company linked to a recent salmonella outbreak distributed peanut and almond butters after its own internal testing showed the products were contaminated, the Food and Drug Administration says.
Sunland Inc. is the nation's largest organic peanut butter processor, though it also produces many non-organic products. The company recalled hundreds of nuts and nut butters manufactured since 2010 after one of its products, Trader Joe's Valencia Creamy Peanut Butter, was linked to 41 salmonella illnesses around the country in September.
FDA reports released this week show that repeated agency inspections found problems at the plant since 2007, though government officials didn't take any action or release the results of those inspections until after the illnesses were discovered this year. Sunland sold hundreds of different peanut products to many of the nation's largest grocery chains, including Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Safeway, Target and other large national retailers.
In a monthlong investigation in September and October, FDA inspectors found 28 different samples of salmonella in Sunland's plant. The agency also found improper handling of the products, unclean equipment and uncovered trailers of peanuts outside the facility that were exposed to rain and birds.
"Investigators found that employees improperly handled equipment, containers, and utensils used to hold and store food," the agency report reads. "Employees handling peanut products wiped gloved hands on street clothes and other times failed to wash their hands or change gloves. There were no hand washing sinks in the peanut processing building production or packaging areas and employees had bare-handed contact with ready-to-package peanuts."
The FDA said that over the past three years, company's tests showed products were shipped even though portions of their lots, or daily production runs, tested positive for salmonella. The agency also found that the internal tests failed to find salmonella when it was present.
Company officials deny that they knowingly shipped tainted products.
"At no time in its twenty-four year history has Sunland, Inc. released for distribution any products that it knew to be potentially contaminated with harmful microorganisms," Sunland president and CEO Jimmie Shearer said in a statement on the company's website. "In every instance where test results indicated the presence of a contaminant, the implicated product was destroyed and not released for distribution."
The FDA records show these problems go back a number of years. FDA inspectors found many of the same problems — including employees putting their bare fingers in to empty jars before they were filled, open bags of ingredients, unclean equipment, and many other violations — in a 2007 inspection. Similar problems were recorded by inspectors in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Sunland's New Mexico plants are currently shut down. Spokeswoman Katalin Coburn said the company is continuing to receive shipments of peanuts and is hoping to reopen when the FDA gives them approval.
A separate peanut butter outbreak in 2009 was linked to hundreds of illnesses and nine deaths.


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Closet Cooking is now 1 year old! I can't believe that a whole year has gone by already. Time really does fly when you are having fun! A year ago, if you had asked me if I thought that Closet Cooking would still be around in a year, I would not have known the answer. But here we are a year later with over 400 posts and I find it hard to imagine not food blogging. It seems that food blogging has gone from simply being a hobby to being a highly enjoyable obsession. 🙂
The path that I have been traveling on this last year has been a very tasty road of learning and discovery. In this last year I have discovered so many new foods, flavours and cuisines. I have also learned a lot about cooking and baking and a little a bit about food photography. I know that there is still a lot for me to learn and discover and I look forward to the tasty adventures ahead.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my readers for your continued support. I would also like to thank everyone that comments on Closet Cooking as your help and words of kindness and encouragement mean a lot to me!
Before I decide to rewrite this post yet again, on to the food porn. These were some of my favorite dishes from the last year.
Similar Posts:
Closet Cooking's Birthday 2012 and 1500 Recipes!
Closet Cooking's Birthday: 2011
Closet Cooking's Birthday: 2010
Closet Cooking's Birthday: 2009


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LYON, France – The suspected mastermind behind a global car smuggling ring, estimated to have trafficked luxury and sports vehicles worth around EUR 6 million since 2009, has been arrested following an INTERPOL-coordinated operation.
The Russian national was taken into custody in Venice, Italy following INTERPOL's Operation Eastbound which coordinated the efforts of 14 member countries investigating an Eastern Russia-based organized crime group behind the theft of more than 30 cars from across Europe for trafficking to Southeast Asia, Russia and Australia.
The high-value cars, including Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and Bentleys, were mainly stolen from rental companies in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland before being trafficked via container ship or air from southern France following the removal of any GPS-based tracker systems.
In late 2010, police received information that four sports cars which had been stolen in Spain were going to be illicitly shipped from Marseille in southern France to Japan. Following coordination via INTERPOL, shortly after its departure in early 2011 the freight ship was redirected to Naples, Italy where all four vehicles were recovered. In a simultaneous intervention, Swiss investigators seized a suitcase filled with document forgery equipment at Geneva train station.
Following a working group session of the Operation Eastbound members at the INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters in March 2011, information exchange about the group's structure and money trails led to the identification and arrest of a high profile member in Latvia in December.
When the suspected mastermind was arrested at Venice airport in July, information in the 36-year-old Russian's possession indicated that the group was preparing another illicit trafficking operation across Europe and beyond.
"The success of Operation Eastbound was in bringing together the involved member countries, enabling them to share crucial investigative material and provide a platform for coordinated action which ultimately led to the organized crime network behind the theft and trafficking of millions of euros worth of cars being dismantled and the arrest of the suspected leader," said Bernd Rossbach, Director of INTERPOL's Specialized Crime unit.
"This significant achievement is as a result of the continued hard work and dedication of all of the officers involved and their willingness to cooperate via INTERPOL," concluded Mr Rossbach.
The name of the Russian national is not yet being released as investigations continue. For additional details of the individual country investigations, please contact the national enforcement agencies in the 14 countries concerned; Australia, Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Philippines, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.


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Derek Lowe (7-8, 3.97) vs. Odalis Perez (3-7, 3.99).
COMMENTS: Well, lookee here on the mound. Odalis Perez, Dodgers bust of yesteryear, moseys back into Chavez Ravine sporting an ERA not too much off his opposing starter. Perez hasn't ben back since we unloaded him to the purgatory that is Kansas City in 2006, but he did fare well against us as a Brave back in the day (2-0 in three starts). Lowe, on the other hand, has been on-again-off-again, but more of the "off" since the All-Star break. Can he keep it together and beat Odalis tonight? Or will Odalis gain strength on the mound from seeing another Brave-turned-Dodger over in the Dodger dugout, who surprisingly has a larger weight problem than his own?


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Norman gives a talk on Zazen to the All Day Sitting at the Headlands Institute. Due to technical difficulty the beginning of the talk did not tape.
By Zoketsu Norman
Edited and abridged by Barbara Byrum and Cynthia Schrager
Learning how to trust our life is our practice. This is what we are all trying to grow into.
The way that we do that is by tuning our body and mind, like the way you would tune a musical instrument. You don't think through how you do that. You do it by feel, and you do it by sound. You can learn how to do it, but it is not a conceptual learning. You practice it. You experiment: you tighten the strings just so much, not too tight, not too loose. Then you pluck one of the strings, and you see what that sounds like. If it doesn't sound right, you adjust it again a little bit. Maybe in the beginning you don't have such a good ear. It is hard to tell a right note from a wrong note, but you keep adjusting, and you try to listen with more concentration. Little by little, you can hear the note: Yes, yes. That must have been the right note. No, no! That was a sour note. So you find out by feel: This is the rhythm. This is the flow. This is the tone. This is the tune.
It is really important to keep a continuity of practice. Not to press too hard, making a big, heroic effort, which then causes you to take a giant break that might last for decades. Or maybe taking zazen for granted. Maybe going through the motions without really trying at all. Or we might say, Maybe I will sit once in a while. I am committed to the community. I want to be with the community, so I'll sit once in a while with the community. And that's it. We don't really see what zazen can be. You don't really take it up.
Actually, zazen is a serious and disciplined practice. It takes effort. It takes commitment. I think, for myself, it is actually quite fun. The essence of zazen is, as Dogen says, "The dharma gate of repose and bliss." It is essentially something quite wonderful and pleasurable, because to be quiet is good. We need quiet to be peaceful. It is a pleasure.
So zazen is a pleasure. There is some playfulness, some creativity. You sit, and you never know what will happen next. You never know. But it is serious. You have to show up. Sometimes you show up even when it isn't fun, even when you don't like it, even when it doesn't seem like such a great thing, because it is that serious. You need to make some effort, sometimes inconvenient effort. You can't fool around too much. You have to stay on the beam of your practice.
There are no breaks in life until the end. Then there is a big break, but between birth and death there are no breaks. And there are no breaks in zazen. Every minute we are always alive, and that means that every minute we are always practicing. Every minute is a minute of body and mind. Every minute we are being asked to respond to life's call.
So when we are sitting on our cushions that means that we come back to our breath. We stop. We pay attention to the body. We are not there to spin thoughts round and round and round. When thoughts come, we pay attention to them: Whose thought is it? Where are they coming from, these persistent thoughts? Where are they going? What world are we making for ourselves with these thoughts? We aren't trying to have answers to these questions. Our practice is not about answers. We are not trying to solve anything. The point is not simply to take our thinking for granted, as though it were really true, as though it really belonged to us. Your thinking doesn't belong to you. You didn't invent it. You should be extremely doubtful. Where does your thinking come from? It comes from your language, your family, your culture – the deep, endless, painful, human past. What you think is shared by everyone; nothing is not shared. When you think that your thinking is yours,you suffer more than you need to.
In zazen, simply by sitting, simply by returning our awareness to the body, to the breath, we are questioning our thinking. We are creating a new context for our thinking. We are creating space within and around our thinking. We don't take it at face value. We don't just assume it. We don't just assume that it is real and true. We just experience it. That's how we learn how to let go. We use our body; we use our breath. Little by little, we begin to tune our body and our mind to our real self, to the real dharma, not to our confusion and our smallness.
When the Buddha went forth from his home to seek the dharma, he was a young man, a privileged, young man. He didn't have much suffering. In fact, he had an exceptionally blessed life. Everybody loved him; everybody admired him. His family and community doted on him. When he left home to go into the homeless life, it was a huge blow to his family and community. When his driver, Chandra, came back to the community with a horse and no rider, the whole community that was happy and humming with promise, all of a sudden ground to a halt and was overcome with grief. He was like the sun in the sky for them. Why would such a promising young person "with his whole life ahead of him," as we say, do such a crazy thing?
The Buddha had seen suffering in the faces of people. He saw people bent over and despondent with age and sickness. He saw the strange and disturbing spectacle of death. He realized that there was no way out. There was no security possible except in complacency and denial, and this he saw as an illusion. For this promising young man, it became absolutely impossible to go on with life as he knew it.
I can relate to this. When I was a young boy, I also could feel the suffering. Good parents always try to hide the suffering from their children, just like Buddha's parents did, and my parents were no exception. But children always know. It would be nice if you could fool children, but you can't do it. I was born at the end of World War II, right when it was over, just when the soldiers were coming home, with all the suffering that they could not talk about. My father was a soldier, and the fathers of my friends and relatives had been soldiers. As a Jewish little boy, I could actually feel the terror and the grief of Hitler, even though nobody told me about it. They didn't need to tell me about it. Maybe it would have been better if they had told me, but they thought it was better to forget about it, not dwell on it, just move on.
Anyway, life goes forward, right? There is nothing else to do but go forward. That's what everybody tried to do. I also knew about death in my own family. From a young age, I saw how difficult death was and how confusing it was, and how it left everyone feeling frightened and numb. You do suffer when there is suffering around you, even if you yourself are very fortunate, as the Buddha was, and as I was. The suffering is not far away. You don't read about it in a book. It is right there in your own body.
You do what everybody does: you try to forget about it, you try to move on, you try to change the subject, think about something more salient, more profitable for life, and you can do that pretty well. Some people can do this 100% and be just fine. But even if you can do that, nobody escapes from life and time and what life and time will bring.
Whatever suffering arises in your own personal life has roots in all of human life. Those of us who are older may realize with a shock that even though we have been trying all this time, we have been unsuccessful in escaping our parents. Have you noticed this? Our parents have been dead for 25 or 30 years, and they are still yakking at us. Psychologists did a study with older people 85 and older. What do people 85 and older think about? What is their number one topic of conversation? Their parents. Maybe if you are younger, you may believe that there is still hope for you, and you could escape your parents. Well, best of luck! There are no rules, so possibly you can do it.
It's not that I am saying that one's parents are always a bad influence. There are all kinds of parents – good ones, bad ones. All parents are probably good and bad. It's not our parents that are the problem. The problem is that there is a past at all. It is not only your parents; it is the whole of the past, all that has happened. And it doesn't go away! The past doesn't go away. You can never escape your past. It etches itself into your soul. It runs grooves in your brain. Maybe you think that you had a bad time of it with bad circumstances. A lot of us have been through hell. In the end, everybody has had a bad time of it. We have all been shocked – shocked – to live the life we have lived. The problem is, in the middle of this disaster, how do you find something true and real? How do you find feet to stand on the earth?
What I am saying is that, just like the Buddha found out, we all have suffering. The suffering that we have is not just the suffering of what has happened to us. It is about all of us, the whole human family: our fear of death, our fear of the unknown, all the ways we have disrespected and hurt and oppressed each other over the long generations. It's a sad and horrible story, but if you look at it long enough, you also see it is moving and beautiful.
When you tune your body and mind and heart in zazen, you feel all the pain and all the beauty. When you feel it like that, it makes a huge difference in your living. This is what we are doing on our cushions. We are not practicing zazen to become good meditators. We are not practicing zazen to make us calm, to cure our psychological ills, or to help us understand Zen stories. We do not practice zazen so that we can understand our life. We practice zazen so that we can feel in our whole body, in our whole mind, and in our whole heart, the depths of the human adventure. To have the trust and willingness to accept it and live it – all of it – with appreciation and with one another.
As you all know, our particular tradition emphasizes steady and constant practice. Not intensity for one week or one month or one day, but constant practice every single day over a lifetime. Sitting every day. Sitting once a month with the community. Sitting sesshin every year, and especially letting the sitting practice, letting our zazen, pervade our mind and our heart and our whole point of view. When we practice zazen, not as an occasional, beneficial activity, or even as a religious practice, but as a whole and thorough way of life, we will come to feel different about absolutely everything. This difference may be subtle. It may take years to develop, to ripen, but the difference is absolutely unmistakable. It does not solve our life's problems. It does not make us special in any way, but it does situate us fully and completely in this human world – to live it and to love it.
I love how in Tibetan Buddhism they always say that everybody likes to be happy. Everybody wants to be happy. Human beings are all alike and all equal in wanting to be happy. They say that, but I don't entirely buy it. I don't think that everybody necessarily wants to be happy. I think the Tibetans are very nice people and have not had enough experience of neurotic westerners to know that there are some people who really don't want to be happy. I don't want to be happy! I don't give a damn about what anybody says! I'm not going to give them the satisfaction. I will be miserable my whole life! So I don't know if everybody actually wants to be happy, but a lot of people do. I do. I would rather be happy. And maybe you do too.
I do think that our path is the path of happiness. It essentially is a path of happiness. If we are going to be really honest about that, we are going to say, in the same breath, The path of happiness goes through suffering. That's how you get to the happiness. It is the only way. It is the only road that goes there, through the suffering. But the road gets you where you need to go. The truest happiness is compassion, caring for our own suffering and the suffering of others. To feel the suffering of others in our own suffering, equally, always together, and to feel it with love, with tenderness, even if we cannot change a thing – that's happiness.
It is important for us to know that someone can feel and see and understand our suffering. No wall can ever be built tall enough or thick enough to shut out suffering. To build such walls inside us and outside us, and to maintain such walls for a lifetime, is painful. But to live with trust, on an open plain, under a blue sky, without fear, amazed and grateful for everything that you experience, is the promise of our practice. This is our aspiration.


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Insurance Glossary
Vacation Rental Insurance policies can contain technical industry terms that make reading a challenge. To avoid confusion, the carrier as created the following list of definitions for a number of industry terms and phrases.
The following definitions are provided for informational purposes only. Please refer to your Vacation Rental Insurance Policy or Certificate of Insurance for definitions and coverages specific to your Policy/Certificate.
Absentee Vacation Rental Manager
Company posing as vacation rental managers who does not actually reside in the geographic area. Actually only a booking agent, who sub contracts to freelance housekeepers. Being absent imposes unnecessary risk on property owners and guests.
See also: Property Manager, Vacation Rental Manager Origin: Vacation Rental Association
A sudden, unexpected, unintended and external event, which causes Injury.
See also: Travel Insurance, Vacation Rental Insurance Origin: CSA Travel Insurance
After Hours
Managers and Owners provide service during long hours, but most are not open 24 hours a day. Calls, assistance and other services provided outside of normal business hours are referred to as after hours.
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
After Hours Fees
Charges to Guests or Owners for services provided after hours. Essential services such as loss of water, power or heat are usually provided free of charge. After hours calls for non-essential services usually bear a fee.
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
AHMA - American Hotel & Motel Association
A trade association that offers benefits and services to hospitality properties and suppliers. It propose legislation affecting hotels, sponsors seminars and group study programs, conducts research, and publishes Lodging magazine.
Origin: AHMA.org Link: AHMA.org
The features and benefits associated with a property such as furniture, equipment, furnishings, resort privileges and so forth. Amenities widely between types of accommodations such as hotels, motels, cabins, bed and breakfasts; and also between one unit and another.
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
Amenity Fee
A certain amount paid to an owner or property complex above and beyond the rental rate that allows the renter access to certain amenities (golf, tennis, beach chairs etc.)
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
Arrival Date
The date at which a guest arrives or is allowed to arrive and use a property. In lodging this also usually includes a time before which the guest is not allowed access.
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
General all-inclusive term travel industry marketers use to refer to products that have visitor appeal, like museums, historic sites, performing arts institutions, preservation districts, theme parks, entertainment and national sites.
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
Availability Calendar
An online calendar which can be updated to allow renters see the dates open for a certain property (Room, Suite or Home).
See also: Common Calendar Origin: Vacation Rental Association
Back to Back
When one booking immediately follows another booking without a day between them, that is referred to as a back to back. In that case, cleaning must be done between when one guest checks out and the next checks in.
Origin: Redstone Systems
Bed & Breakfast
A small inn or lodge that provides a room and a breakfast. Often a B&B is in a residential home setting and/or a historic building converted to a quaint lodging facility. B&B's are not Vacation Rentals.
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
Bed Tax
City or county tax added to the price of a lodging facility.
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
Best Practices
Those policies and procedures that best suit an industry and lead to satisfied customers, good vendor relations and success for business owners. In lodging, best practices are many and varied. In short they can be summarized as being good neighbors with good customer service.
Origin: Redstone Systems
Blocked (Booking)
When an Owner reserves use of their own home the booking is referred to as a Block or Blocked. This word is used in the Computer Booking system.
See also: Abandoned, Aborted, Cancelled, Confirmed, Order, Hold, Incomplete, In Error, Out of Service, Quoted, Unblocked Origin: Istay
Blue Ribbon Inspection
A lodging unit that has been inspected and meets the standards of the Vacation Rental Association (VRIA). Designated as "Blue Ribbon" and "Inspected Vacation Rental (IVR)" These include rules for outfitting, cleanliness, maintenance and truthful advertising, The terms Blue Ribbon and IVR are trademarks owned by the Vacation Rental Association.
See also: IVR, Inspected Vacation Rental, VVR, Verified Vacation Rental Origin: Vacation Rental Association
Booking Disclosure
After confirming a guest's dates, rates and charges it is necessary to reference the basic terms which govern the order and to secure the guest's approval prior to accepting payment. That is done by reading a disclosure statement and marking it complete in the booking system.
See also: Booking, Terms and Conditions Origin: Istay
Business Travel
Travel for commercial, governmental or educational purposes with leisure only as a secondary motivation.
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
Carpet Cleaning
Usually performed periodically by a vendor using specialized steam or other equipment to clean wall-to-wall carpeting.
Origin: Vacation Rental Association
Central Reservations
An office which receives phone calls, answers quest inquiries and arranges bookings of lodging facilities and other types of travel services
See also: Front Desk Origin: Vacation Rental Association