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Disclaimer: The information throughout this cosmetic dermatology website is not intended to be taken as medical advice. The information provided by Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald is intended to provide general information regarding cosmetic treatments including acne treatment, sun spot treatment, acne scar removal, hyperpigmentation, rosacea treatment, vein treatment and more for residents of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Larchmont and throughout the state of California. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us today for a personal consultation.
I'm pretty new to gyms, and well still slightly scared by the whole thing. But this place had a pretty relaxed and friendly atmosphere and the staff are really nice. There is a great selection of equipment and a lot of each machine, so even at the busiest of times you're pretty much sure to get on what you want to use. Being open 24hrs is great too as it makes avoiding the busiest times pretty easy. The price is excellent too, £17.99 per month at the moment. The only drawback is, with being the but cheaper there aren't paper towel machines about to wipe down machines after use, and for a pretty big gym it only has 1 drinking fountain and so queues can be a bit annoying when youre a knackered and parched it feels like hours!
I've rated it as 'Meh, I've experienced better,' but I'm feeling a bit generous. I used to be a member of the Marriott gym which was rather nice, but I couldn't afford to keep going. So, happy was I when PureGym appeared. I've now been a member for almost a year. On my first day, I booked an induction. No-one turned up to induct me, and the staff kept walking past, giving me dirty looks. In the end I had to go and find the gym manager, who passed me onto a rather young looking, non-gym-experienced teen. The gym serves it's purpose. there are machines. You can also book classes. I booked a power plate class once. I stood around the power plate at the allocated time for about 20 minutes. The staff just kept walking past, glaring at me. No-one stopped to help, not one of them asked if I was Ok. in the end I gave up and left. You just have to take it as it is. It isn't great, but you're paying at least £30 less than other city centre gyms. Unfortunately, this means that less 'nice' people frequent, and the changing rooms are pretty awful. The machines are also usually littered with well, litter, and aren't that clean. If I could afford to go elsewhere, I really think I would. But I can't. *sigh*.
When a budget gym was scheduled to arrive in Leeds, it bridged a gap for me. It was offering an alternative to paying upwards of £40 a month in other city centre gyms, whilst also eliminating the possibility of failing my personal fitness quest by going running independently. At £9.99 per month, I was impressed at the value of my contract, but reserved judgement on the quality of the gym, as it had not yet opened. The chain is able to offer such a price because it provides a 'no frills' gym, with no pool, sauna or steam room. It is staffed from 8am-8pm, with CCTV monitoring the place 24-hours a day. Six other friends had joined at the same time and we hoped that a pact-like agreement would apply positive peer pressure to our motivation! Plus, anything to prevent me from having to hear Davina McCall's not-so-dulcet tones on her fitness DVD was a welcome addition to my life. During opening week, Friend #1 was our pioneer in testing out the gym. On his much anticipated return, his report was not entirely satisfactory. "It's quite good, but it does have the feel of a correctional facility." Not a great account, but I remained hopeful. Perhaps this merely revealed more about Friend #1's chequered past rather than the quality of Pure Gym. Nevertheless, this intrigued Friend #3, Friend #5 and myself into going later that day. On entering the gym, I saw that the previous description was a pessimistic one. Although the space has a functional appearance, there is an impressive array of exercise machines. As well as the usual suspects of running machines, bikes and rowing machines for cardiovascular training; there are also some great strengthening machines, both individual and multi-station. A circuit training area, a space to use medicine balls and a free weights area complete the layout. Of course, the gym does get extremely busy at peak times, but as a 24-hour gym, you can plan your visits to avoid this. This serves as proof of the great value and variety of machines. A timetable of classes are available which range from Circuits to Spinning, and Kettle Bells to the ominously titled Military Body Blast. They are very accessible to view and reserve places on, as each member has their own account on the Pure Gym website. The classes are priced from £1 to £3 and there are up to 10 places available for each class. The smug sense of superiority when booking a 7:30am class is unbeatable. The reality of shivering down to the gym on a dark Winters' morning with a make-up free face and exchanging morning pleasantries with the milkman, is another matter entirely. Needless to say, I only attempted this once and will perhaps try it again in the Summer months. As well as the classes, there is also a small fee for the use of their sunbeds. It is these extra charges that suggests Pure Gym is to other gyms, what Ryanair is to other airlines. At such a cheap rate however, I see this as no hardship. With fairly spacious showers and changing room facilities, Pure Gym more than fulfils my fitness needs. To summarise, if you are at the gym to actually do some physical exercise on a budget, rather than pose in the steam room and chat to friends, then I would highly recommend Pure Gym.
Half time instructor just read from stuff we got sent second time guy was only interested in himself and first course only got 5 classes second course I gave up after first one hubby made it end which had to be extended as trainer n...ever turned up! What did we learn? To never do it again!! We feel conned and we're brow beaten by team member to do second course!! It was totally time wasted tonight my hubby went to last class he was home 15 minutes later!!! Shame on you puregym for not training staff to deliver a course of excellence and not even know when trainer wasn't either trained or bothered to turn up!!!! Totally ripped off both my hubby and myself!!! Omg this is NOT good PR for puregym!!
As of 24/09/18 PureGym has taken over what was once Soho! In Lewisham where I have been a member of ...for years! And was very happy with the level of service and facilities. Launch day there was pure gym staff everywhere in the gym but no one to assist those of us that had problems getting in with the new pin method! Before it was just a finger print! Once in the gym... I always wipe down the machines before and after I use them only to find all the tissues and hygiene sprays had all been removed! When asked a member of staff I was told they don't provide it and I need to bring my own!!! How unhygienic!


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RENO, Nev. — The eagle has landed — with a thud — after crashing through the windshield of a tractor-trailer on a Nevada highway.
State wildlife officials said Wednesday that a 15-pound golden eagle with a 7-foot wing span has a swollen head but otherwise appears unhurt after slamming into a Florida truck driver's big rig on Monday.
Matthew Roberto Gonzalez of Opa Locka, Fla., was driving on U.S. Interstate 80 in northeast Nevada near Wells, about 60 miles west of the Utah line, when the eagle came crashing into the cab of his truck.
"I heard a loud thump like a brick or something coming through the glass," said Daryl Young of Miami, the co-driver who was dozing in the sleeper berth when it happened. "I woke up, and the windshield was all over me. Next thing I know there was a big bird lying on the floor."
Joe Doucette, a spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said it appears the eagle hit the windshield head first.
"One side of the head is swollen, but there does not appear to be any permanent damage," he said.
'Pretty feisty'
"The guys in the truck immediately bailed out because it was one ticked off bird. She was pretty feisty," Doucette said. "Even the officer who responded didn't want to go in there so we had one of our wildlife biologists do it."
Jeffrey Spires, owner of Spires Trucking of South Florida in Miramar, Fla., said he thought his drivers were kidding when they called to report the damage.
"Never in trucking history," he said.
© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

subset: commoncrawl


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Home > Coloured and SpecialFinish Envelopes > Ivory, Creams and Whites Envelopes > Oyster Pearlescent Envelopes
Our Oyster White Pearlescent Envelopesare luxurious with a beautiful sheen, perfectfor wedding invitations and other special occasions.
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patterns > Stitchnerd Designs
> Count on Me - Cowl (Giant swatch and yarn reserve)
Count on Me - Cowl (Giant swatch and yarn reserve)
You can use this pattern two ways:
- to make a swatch for the Quick Sweater
- just for making a cowl with the same stitch (a sizing table is included with stitch counts for both small and large single loops; fingering - aran weight yarns).
If you are making your cowl as a sweater swatch, be sure to allow at least 100m/110yd of extra yarn for the cowl, so you don't had to undo it.
If you do run out of yarn for the sweater, it'll be nice to know you have a "reserve" .
For a cowl that folds over allow about 200m/220 yds of yarn in the weight of your choice (fingering - aran)
When we're going to make a sweater, we all know we're supposed to swatch….
Some of us NEVER swatch
…. and we wonder why our sweaters never fit or we're always running out of yarn.
Some of us make a quick swatch and measure roughly
….. and we wonder why our sweaters don't quite fit.
Some of us even make a proper swatch, wash it and then measure it
… and even then we can get nasty surprises because a 4"/10cm - or even - 6"/15dm swatch may not be enough to let us see how our yarn will react to wash and wear.
But we can solve that with a cowl we can count on:
Make the cowl
Wear it
Wash it
THEN - AND ONLY THEN - count your stitches and rows to check your gauge.
Many thanks to the testers:
- Page created: January 21, 2014
- Last updated: September 20, 2014 …
- visits in the last 24 hours
- visitors right now


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There's no way of knowing what Adolph Rupp might say about Kentucky's new head basketball coach. The Baron has been gone since Dec. 12, 1976. But this much we know, for certain: Billy Gillispie has drawn an endorsement from a former Rupp assistant, a man who pre-dates Joe B. Hall on the UK staff. And it's an endorsement that rings as loudly as Big Ben.
Neil Reed was a member of the UK coaching staff from 1961-65. I had the pleasure of meeting him in the summer of 2005, while I was the Sports Manager at WKYT-TV. Videographer Steve Moss and I were busy doing research for what eventually became the two-hour documentary, "Adolph Rupp: Myth, Legend and Fact."
More than one person recommended we speak to a former Rupp assistant named Neil Reed. I must admit, I'd never heard of Neil, but as his name kept popping up, I realized he might be a key figure in the recollections we were seeking, of what UK basketball was like during the early 60's, and of what Rupp really believed about desegregating his team.
We had no idea what kind of journey we were about to take – literally, and figuratively.
I finally tracked Reed down, through the help (albeit indirectly) of Claude Bassett, of all people. The disgraced ex-UK recruiting coordinator shared a mutual friend with Reed: Sonny Detmer, the father of retired NFL quarterback Ty Detmer. Bassett put us in touch with Sonny, who had lost Neil's new unlisted number; however, he did know of another person who could help us find the coach, which we did.
We tracked Reed down; he was living in a town near Houston (he values his privacy, which is why I'm not more specific). He happily invited us to his home, where Steve and I spent nearly seven hours. Less than two of those we spent conducting the interview. The rest of the time, he regaled us with stories about ballgames, UK, Rupp and other coaches and players.
He told us how he came to work for Rupp, how he recruited Louie Dampier and Pat Riley; about how Riley once flew him to Los Angeles to help him teach the Lakers about full-court pressure.
As Steve still says today, "When it comes to basketball, he's the most plugged-in guy I've ever met."
Reed knows so many people I came to a simple conclusion: He's the Forrest Gump of basketball.
By the time we met, I already had conducted a number of interviews and piled up a stack of anecdotes and research. But I was still struggling with how to put it all together. As we left Neil's home and drove back to Houston late that night, I turned to Steve and said, "Now, I know what I'm going to do." His recollections about Rupp, and about their efforts to recruit African-American players beginning in the early 1960's, became a focal point of our documentary.
We still swap e-mails occasionally, so I shouldn't have been surprised when, shortly after the introduction of Gillispie, I received a note from coach Reed. Neil left UK when he became frustrated with the resistance among "friends" and boosters to Rupp's efforts to integrate his team. But he's still an avowed Kentucky backer, as excited as the fans who poured into Memorial Coliseum for the pep rally the day Gillispie was hired. This is what he sent me:
I can not say enough about how impressed I have been regarding the coaching ability of Billy Gillespie. He is a secret to the rest of the country but not to Texas and the Big 12. I have watched him for years and he has impressed me more than any coach during those years.
He is a good, good man and an excellent coach. The high school coaches in Kentucky as well as the old breeding grounds of Southern Ohio, Southern Indiana, and Illinois will fall in love with the guy.
What he has done at A&M is nothing short of a miracle. He turned half of all Texans into Aggies rooting for his team.
Dick, I listened to his press conference and I want you to know, I was not ashamed to find myself crying. UK has a Roy Williams and a Billy Donovan who may end up being the best coach ever to lead the Cats. For two years my mind has been numbed with the query, "Why does A&M have a Billy Gillespie and UK doesn't?"
Get to know him. He is pure as a West Texas stream. Golly gee, I am excited and I hope UK fans realize, as an excellent old coach called from Florida to tell me, "The Wildcats just got a better coach than Billy Donovan, Rick Pitino, or Roy Williams, if only they can see it and get behind him."
And this guy is a huge Donovan and Pitino fan.
I am assuming Cat fans still love a great fast break and a great pressing team.
I don't know him, never met him, but tell him how high I regard his abilities. If I can do anything to help down this way, tell him to get in touch.
All the best,
Neil Reed
After I asked Neil for permission to write about his note to me, he sent me even more information about UK's new head coach. Basketball purists, read on:
Some more of Billy Gillespie:
Billy comes from Graford, a small school that has always been a basketball school and a rarity in Texas of not having a football team, even 6-man. It is in an area of winners and high achievers among them; Mary Martin, Sammy Baugh, Bob Lilly, "Sweetwater" Clifton, Larry McMurtry and Forrest Gregg, to name a few.
I first heard of Billy in 1989 when he was coaching Canyon High near San Antonio. I was so critical of so many coaches and their systems that several coaches told me I should take a look at the young fellow at Canyon. Sure enough, I was impressed.
In 1992-3 I was helping one of my boys from Indiana put in my system in a 5-A school. We played in an excellent tourney in Lampasas and there was Billy's team from Killeen (Ellison), just stomping everybody in the tourney. He ended up with one of the top teams in the state.
The next thing I heard about Billy was from my friends in Illinois. I told them to keep an eye on him as I am a U of I graduate. They had nothing but glowing accolades for the job he was doing (a great recruiter) and his players ended up being #1 in 2005, playing Carolina in the championship game.
Billy left Illinois for his first head college job at UTEP, formerly known as Texas Western (ugh) and I began to follow closely at that time. What he did in El Paso amazed me.
What he then did at A&M seems unreal. Kentuckians have no idea of the mess of mediocrity he took over at College Station. I told my Aggie friends that they were going to become a basketball school in short order and they just grinned and told me to pass the salsa. Now, those same people have a real hate-on for UK as they just knew that Billy would be winning an NCAA soon. His roster is made up of Texans. He just out-recruited Texas and Florida for one of the best youngsters in the country. That young man would have been the person to get the Ags to the Final Four.
Dick, I believe in Billy and UK is so fortunate to have him. He is a rarity. Some UK fans, from what I have read, remind me of the Packer fans back in '60 when the Packers took an assistant coach instead of getting a "big name" guy. A Packer fan friend of mine stated, "Same old mediocrity, we'll never have another Curly Lambeau." Well, Vince Lombardi did a right good job of continuing the mediocrity.
Also, tell Kentuckians that the Heroes of Texas were from Kentucky and Tennessee. Texans are made from the same cloth as Kentuckians and Ohio River people. They will love Billy if they give him a chance. He could be from Owensboro, Ashland, or Hazard. He is that kind of guy. Salt of the earth.
"Heroes of Texas?" I had to think a moment; then it struck me: The Alamo. Many of the Americans who fought and died there were, indeed, from Tennessee and Kentucky, including Davy Crockett.
So, there you have it – a former UK assistant coach, a man who worked under Adolph Rupp, assuring Big Blue fans that they have the right guy.
Will Billy Gillispie be successful instantly? Doubtful, given the holes in his roster and the challenging schedule that's sure to lie ahead. But you have to like his chances, better than the outnumbered few at the Alamo.
That would've been a good day to take the Mexican Army, and lay the points…


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Day: Sunday, March 22nd
Time: 9 am - 6 pm
Please RSVP by March 19th if you will be coming.
Location: Totowa, NJ
Come scrap the day away. Just bring your photos, paper, adhesives, embellishments and projects and leave the rest of your scrapbook supplies at home.
Bring a salty or sweet treat to share with everyone as your crop fee.
You have full access to my 100+ punches, Big Shot dies and framelits, 100+ stamp sets and 50+ ink pads. You will also be able to use my overflowing scrap bins of colored card stock and designer paper. Drinks and bagels will be provided.
Lunch is not included in the crop fee, we will be ordering take out for those that are interested.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Scrapbooking Day Crop
Posted by STASIA SLOMA at 11:17 AM
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|Agatha Christie's Miss Marple
|Tuesday, 25 September 2001
Joan Hickson had a long career as a character actress; as early as 1937's "Love from a Stranger," she was in a movie based on an Agatha Christie story. When she appeared in Christie play in the late 1940s, Christie herself told the surprised actress that when she was old enough, she should play Christie's redoubtable spinster-detective, Jane Marple. Hickson actually was in "Murder She Said" (1961), the first of the Miss Marple movie series starring Margaret Rutherford as a hardly true-to-Christie but still very entertaining Miss Marple.
Finally, the busy actress got old and frail-enough looking to play Jane Marple in a series of feature-length (and some hour-long) TV shows for the BBC. The rights to the Miss Marple shows are somewhat scattered on this side of the Atlantic, and two different companies have been bringing them out on DVD.
Hickson is a very good Miss Marple, the elderly spinster from St. Mary Mead, a small (fictional) town in southwestern England. She has a deeply incisive mind and a coolly cynical outlook on life, but in every other way is a typical little old lady from a small English town. She loves her gardening, she is welcome in almost everyone's home, and has lived there what seems to be her entire life. (Late in her own life, Christie said she regretted making Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot both so old when she introduced them.) She's a very astute observer of village life, and applies those observations to the murders that she's continually encountering, in St. Mary Mead, nearby towns and even when on vacation in the Caribbean.
Hickson looks like both a sweet little old lady, and the shrewd detective she is. Several good actresses have played Miss Marple, from Rutherford to Helen Hayes (excellent, even if American) and Angela Lansbury, who not only played Miss Marple in a movie of "The Mirror Crack'd" (1980) but went on to play the Marplish J.B. Fletcher in her long-running TV series "Murder, She Wrote." But Hickson really does present the definitive interpretation of the character; as with Poirot, Miss Marple disapproves of murder, but doesn't spend her time clucking her tongue over the horror of it all. Instead she takes in the information and sorts it, rarely discussing the cases at length with anyone until she identifies the killer (even when it pains her to do so).
This initial BBC package of Miss Marple shows is very handsomely done. Each episode includes biographies of most of the leading actors, and the last episode an episode of a British TV series, "Western Approach," with its own title of "Crime Does Pay." It covers an Agatha Christie centenary celebration in her home town of Torquay (best known to Americans as the location of "Fawlty Towers"). It's a very thorough show, discussing not just the celebrations and museums that the city finally (and wisely) decided to sponsor, but Christie's popularity. She's the largest-selling writer from England, and her popularity continues today. Some commentators point out quite correctly that what Christie wrote was not so much art as very shrewdly-conceived entertainments. Few mystery writers were as adept at her at slipping clues into the stories, and yet coming up with so many surprising revelations. Her characters are simple, often stereotyped, but that was highly appropriate to the stories and settings she chose to deal with.
"Crime Does Pay" has a relatively brief but quite pleasing sequence in which Joan Hickson, in costume as Miss Marple (and at the Torquay railway depot) meets David Suchet, in costume -- and character -- as Hercule Poirot, who arrives on a train. In front of a clearly delighted cloud, Poirot presents Jane with a bouquet, tips his hat, and offers his arm as they stroll off together. It's too bad Christie never did write a story that featured both these characters, but this little encounter, almost surreal though it is, will delight fans of both actors.
"The Body in the Library" is the first offering on the DVD. A beautiful young woman's body is found most unexpectedly in the library of harrumphing Colonel Bantry (Moray Watson -- Rumpole's "Frobisher") and his wife Dolly (Gwen Watford, who returned as Dolly in a later "Miss Marple"). Who does the body belong to, and why was she left in the Bantry's library? And why do her fingernails attract Miss Marple's attention?
Presented in three parts, each just under an hour long, "The Body in the Library" presents its story carefully and slowly, but that's what you want from a genteel, tea-at-four mystery like all of the Miss Marples. The British countryside is presented handsomely (the stories are set in the 1950s), the cast is adept, and this episode in particular establishes Detective Inspector Slack (David Horovitch). Most police officials who know Miss Marple are delighted with her, but Slack is frustrated and exasperated by turns; he came back in four more Miss Marple episodes, and was always an excellent foil for Joan Hickson.
"A Murder Is Announced" also has an unusual opening. The local newspaper announces that a murder will be committed that very night in Little Paddocks, the St. Mary Mead house of Miss Blacklock (Ursula Howells) who, like everyone else, is very surprised at the announcement. That night, at the appointed time, most of her neighbors find a suitable reason to show up at Little Paddocks -- and then a stranger bursts in, brandishing a gun. But he's there only seconds before HE is killed -- but by whom?
As with "The Body in the Library," a local seaside resort is an important location in "A Murder Is Announced." the detective this time is Detective Inspector Craddock (John Castle, an excellent actor), who turned up later in "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side," the second version of that novel. Also in the cast is Samantha Bond as Julia Simmons; she's the new Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond movies.
"A Murder Is Announced" isn't as well-conceived as "The Body in the Library" and, in fact, has one of the more guess Christie conclusions. Still, the characters are very interesting, particularly Miss Murgatroyd (Joan Sims, who was in two dozen "Carry On" movies, and quite famous in England) and Miss Hinchcliffe (Paola Dionisotti), a pair of aging ladies who live together. They're both very colorful, especially Hinchcliffe.
"A Pocketful of Rye" is a third shorter than each of the other two episodes, more tightly paced but less ingratiating. As with several other Christie novels, it's based on a nursery rhyme, with the murder victims apparently chosen to match characters in the rhyme. ("The king was in his counting house...") But is that what's really going on? It takes Miss Marple to find the answer.
The supporting cast this time includes two actors who are well-known for other work. Peter Davison plays Lance Fortescue, but is best known to Americans for his role in the series of films based on "All Creatures Great and Small," for playing "Campion" and for being one of the several Dr. Whos. The police detective in this outing is Detective Inspector Neele, played by Tom Wilkinson, whose fame as a character actor ascended after his role in "The Full Monty." He was nominated for a Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the troubled husband in "In the Bedroom." Both are fine here, too.
If you like the Miss Marple shows, or if you're fond of the British style of "cozy" mysteries, this is an ideal purchase. The shows were made for television, so the sound is relatively elementary, and there's no letterboxing. The three discs are housed in a somewhat flimsy case, but that's not a serious drawback.
Joan Hickson continued to return as Miss Marple for over ten years, until she died. It's hard to imagine who they could get to replace her.


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Country music superstar Jason Aldean will perform LIVE at Great American Ball Park on Saturday, July 19, 2014 as part of his "Burn It Down" summer concert tour! The concert will also feature performances by Miranda Lambert, Florida Georgia Line and Tyler Farr.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, February 7 at 10 a.m. ET, so be sure to reserve your seats early for what promises to be one of the hottest tickets of the summer!
|Reg. Price
|Club Seats
(includes food and non-alcoholic beverages)
|Field Seats and Lower Bowl
|Upper Bowl
For specific guest guide information that applies to concerts at Great American Ball Park, please click the link below.
Ballpark Concert A-Z Guide
"It's no secret that I grew up dreaming of playing baseball stadiums," said Aldean. "I thought it would be as a first baseman, but playing them as a musician is just as sweet! We're going to crank this thing up to 11, bring along our buddies Florida Georgia Line and Tyler Farr and put on the biggest and best show we can. My goal is that when the last song is over, and you're walking back to the parking lot, you're already on your phone searching to find the next show."
Reds Chief Operating Officer Phil Castellini said, "The Reds are excited about Jason Aldean's "Burn It DownTour" in 2014, especially because our season ticket holders can purchase tickets in advance of the public. We will be announcing more details about the concert as they become available. "
In the wake of shattered attendance records and more than 1.5 million tickets sold on his last tour, Aldean's 2014 BURN IT DOWN TOUR follows sellouts at some of the nation's most legendary venues including University of Georgia's Sanford Stadium, Wrigley Field, a two-night stand at Fenway Park, Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl.
Reigning ACM "Male Vocalist of The Year" Jason Aldean has sold over 8.5 million albums to date and notched 12 No. one hits at Country Radio. The Macon, GA native's current album NIGHT TRAIN claimed a No. one debut on the Billboard all genre Top 200 and earned PLATINUM certification in only four weeks. The album is currently nominated for "Country Album of the Year" at the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards. For more information, visit www.jasonaldean.com.


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Nick Thierry, Founder of "Swim" Magazine, Passes Away/
- from Swimnews.com
No sadder note has SwimNews ever sounded. Nick Thierry, the founder and publisher of SwimNews, passed away today in a Toronto Hospital. The thoughts and prayers of all who knew Nick and appreciated him for the man he was and for his unique and outstanding contribution to world swimming, are with him, his family and those closest to him.
Nick Thierry kept the record of the sport alive for four decades as the keeper of the world rankings and bastion of swimming statistics. His guardianship has been treasured by swimmers, coaches, sports scientists, journalists, sports institutions and swimming federations since he first started to register and chronicle all meets that produced performances worthy of a place in the top 300 across all events for men and women in each passing year for more than 30 years.
Born in Hungary on December 2, 1938, Nick spent the first eight years of his life in Budapest. In 1948 his family moved to Havana, Cuba, where his father had been transferred while for Wagon-Lits, the international sleeping car company. Nick swam competitively for three years while in Havana and another three years in Toronto, Canada, while studying at the University of Toronto. He obtained a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1964 and for the next four years worked in an architect's office. That works was partly responsible for Nick's overriding philosophy in life: keep it simple.
Beyond the subject he studied for, Nick had a life-long affair with swimming. In 1961, at the University of Toronto, he served as assistant swimming coach and for the next 21 years, he coached at Toronto and surrounding teams, placing swimmers on the Canadian Olympic teams of 1964, 1968 and 1972. He was Canadian head coach of two international tours as well as for the 1970 Commonwealth Games team which competed in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Among his charges was Angela Coughlan, Commonwealth 100m freestyle champion at those 1970 Games. Two years earlier, she took bronze on the 4x100m freestyle relay at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Nick coached 1977 Canadian 100m breaststroke National Champion Judy Garay, daughter of Valerie Gyenge, the Hungarian 1952 Olympic 400m freestyle champion.
In the late 1960s, Nick befriended fellow countryman and Hall of Fame coach Stefan Hunyadfi (when Hunyadfi coached in Ft. Wayne, Indiana) and learned a great deal from him, especially on the intracacies of breaststroke. Hunyadfi coached 1968 Olympic breaststroke champion Sharon Wichman (USA).
Nick's biggest influence as a coach was from Hall of Famer Howard Firby (CAN). Even though they coached rival teams, they traveled together to many competitions including driving to Mexico City for the 1968 Olympics. Hall of Fame coach Peter Daland (USA) had an impact on Nick, particularly in Peter's research on world rankings from the 1920s and 1930s.
From 1961 to 1985, Nick, a native English speaker who was fluent in Hungarian, French and Spanish, served in administrative capacities on Swim Ontario's Board of Directors, the Canadian Swimming Coaches Association (chairman, secretary) and the Swim Canada National Board of Directors.
It was while coaching that Nick first saw the need to keep swimming statistics. "It was a very effective training tool for my swimmers," her said when inducted into the International Hall of Fame in 2005. "The need to know what was going on worldwide was growing in the sport."
He organised the formation of Swim Canada, Canada's monthly magazine publication. That later became SwimNews, the magazine taking on an online presence from the mid-1990s in partnership with Marco Chiesa, photographer, business associate and friend. Marco was the last to hold Nick's hand before he passed away this morning.
If the publication attracted thousands of subscribers from around the world, the online site grew from pioneering status to a portal that attracted several million hits during the eights days of swimming at the Olympic Games in London alone this year. Since 1974, the magazine has carried domestic Canadian and international news, profiles of athletes and coaches and expert articles on the technical aspects and innovations in the sport.
Nick was publisher, editor, writer and, above all in later years, guardian to a team of writers in whom he saw promise and encouraged to use their skills in the interests of keeping a true record of the sport of swimming. If his encouragement and support in the role of "second father" set sail many a fine media career, then his generosity was second to none: the calls (and sometimes demands) for help with rankings, statistics, biographies and more often came thick and fast - and "Sure, I'll send it straight through" was the standard reply.
Among masterpieces he penned was the January 1988 article "Never a Wasted Stroke," announcing world record holder and Olympic champion Alex Baumann's retirement. He also penned an excellent overview and explanation in a feature entitled "Victor Davis on Breaststroke"; it was published in 1989, just four months before Victor's tragic death.
It was Nick's quest to locate and print every available meet and race time that lead to the formation of the International Swimming Statisticians Association (ISSA) in 1986 at the FINA World Championships held in Madrid, Spain. Beginning in 1992, statistics in SwimNews were supplemented by printing monthly FINA world rankings and yearly short and long course FINA annuals. Originally, record keeping was done manually with Nick personally hand typing each line of statistics. With the introduction of the fax machine, records and dates could instantly be transmitted and received for publication. Then with the PC and computer software programs, data became instantly transmitted and printable on demand.
In the past two years, Nick invested in the development of a database that contains 40 years of swimming rankings and statistics. That immense work is part of the legacy left by Nick Thierry. In the past year, FINA informed him that the federation no longer wished to publish the rankings annuals. If that news was met with concern by journalists who rely on accurate rankings that are updated in real time to report on the sport at live events, then the loss of the start lists - complete with biographical details of swimmers, their coaches, rankings, results and record progressions - that Nick often compiled for major meets until recent years has dealt a serious blow to coverage of the sport, the quality of information distributed in the past Olympic cycle at its weakest in more than 20 years.
The swimming community owes Nick a huge debt of gratitude. His Hall of Fame citation included the following: "Sorting through the seemingly endless volumes of numbers and times, Nick makes order out of chaos and assures every swimmer that his or her time will be accurately placed in the pecking order of performances. Nick's no-nonsense approach to his work, his coolness under pressure and his unique style and perseverance, in a very unassuming way, have contributed to his success as publisher/editor of SwimNews and as swimming's top record keeper. Nick was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2001 as Honor Contributor for his contribution to the sport.
"When swimmers swim head to head in elite international competition, their foremost goal is to beat the opposition. Once the race is over and they glance up to the scoreboard to see their finish place, their next thought is, "My time, did I do a personal best? Was it a record?" This is where Nick Thierry takes over. Sorting through the seemingly endless volumes of numbers and times, Nick makes order out of chaos and assures every swimmer that his or her time will be accurately placed in the pecking order of performances. Nick's no-nonsense approach to his work, his coolness under pressure and his quest for success are what every coach strives to instill in their own athletes. As a former coach himself, Nick's unique style and perseverance, in a very unassuming way, have contributed to his success as swimming's top record keeper and publisher/editor of swimming's highly recognized publication, SwimNews."
Beginning back in 1958 as a writer for Bob Kiphuth's newly formed Swimming World magazine and then for Al Schoenfield when Al became editor and publisher of Swimming World, Nick saw the need for good communication. He has never wavered in that mission and beyond receiving the Al Shoenfield Media Aaward from ISHOF, he has been honoured by Canadian authorities, the American Swimming Coaches Association and the equivalent world body WSCA.
A champion of reports and reporters who have often been a thorn in the side of authorities ranging from the criminal to those who simply called it wrong and were forced under the weight of pressure from coaches, media, swimmers and others to change course the wrong side of the storm, Nick was a fan of quality not quantity and deplored expansion for the sake of expansion when it came to the debate over calendar chaos in the sport.
When he fell ill he had been doing what he did almost every day: updating the world rankings with results from around the world and preparing the next edition of the magazine.
Truth and keeping an accurate record, the history book of swimming set straight, was paramount for Nick. He loved simplicity, common sense, a no-nonsense approach to all things. He took that approach to life well beyond the pool, once leading a campaign to get rid of what was described by media as the "the craziest street sign in Canada", right on the street corner where Nick lived.
Workers had affixed not one sign but four, which among them outline parking/no parking rules mind-melting in their complexity. The signs specify four time periods, most of them starting or ending on the quarter hour, during which drivers could not park, and three time periods when they may - though only for 15 minutes - within a permitted window that varies from 45 minutes in the morning to two hours at lunchtime and half an hour in the afternoon.
"When I looked at it, I said, 'Wow, this is complete gibberish'," said Nick. "It's so confusing, it's ludicrous." He had it worked out in no time, of course: "Basically you're not allowed to park there during the week." In a deep kind of Charles de Gaulle voice, he told the local paper: "It's the old saying: 'Decisions will be made, unencumbered by thought.' I worry about the tendency of humans to make things ever more complicated rather than simpler."
Nick loved the classics, in literature and music, his collection of classical composers fit to challenge the volume of his swim rankings. A fine chef, he loved to entertain friends at his home in Toronto and was a mine of knowledge in the kitchen and the concert hall as well as the pool.
If his work on rankings, records, results and biographies will be sorely missed, it is for a man of many more talents who those closest to him will mourn.
Nick Thierry, we miss you already - and always will. No words can suitably express what you have done for the sport of swimming. Your contribution has been immense. Today is the saddest day in the history of SwimNews.
With love and affection from all those who worked with you and will long appreciate the unique role you have played in our lives.
The team at SwimNews
Service will be temporarily suspended during a period of mourning for Nick and in his honour. Funeral and other arrangements will be announced as soon as possible.


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(Photos in no particular order)
Hello dear Joshua,
It's been a while since I blogged because you and your sisters fill my days and life and it's joys and sorrows tend to keep us absorbed. This past 5 weeks has brought your mummy and daddy's 7th wedding anniversary, which also happens to be your birthday...your baby cousin Isaac Elliott's birth and the loss of his little spirit, your first appointments and the 7-8 hour drive down to Brisbane to meet with your surgeon and all the medical team preparing and helping you through the first years of life, me being blessed to celebrate Mother's day with 4 little ones, your sister's 4th birthday, your little cousin's funeral and your Mummy's 27th birthday, and another visit back to Brisbane...It has been an emotional ride. Too much to think about. Lot's of blessings and a lot of sadness for us & our extended family.
It was so important for me to prepare your room. Daddy thought I was a bit obsessed I think...but in my mind, everything had to be perfect for you before you arrived...it was my way, one of my first ways, of telling you that I love you and that I was sorry for the things that I would like to do, but knew I wouldn't be able to because of your cleft palate. Of course, all that now is a bit irrelevant, because we are adjusting, being flexible and through that, life is even better than we imagined it would be.
Instead of being able to breastfeed you, I can give you my expressed milk, something I am so proud that so far I have been able to do...and give you a bottle that you can feed from quite well (minus a few unsettled days). By feeding you with a bottle, I get to hold you closer to my face, and look into you deep blue eyes while we chat...a positive from something that I thought I'd struggle with more than I do.
Beautiful morning sunshine...a week before your birth...
A teddy bear from Babcha.
A beautifully embroidered facewasher made by your Aunty Lauren.
Cot sheets made by Mummy's dear friend Rachel and sleepy bear from Mema.
Cushions made by mummy.
Paper cut made by mummy. A last minute obsession.
You & Me...the last morning this close together...
Your daddy and you. Our 7th wedding anniversary present. Best present ever.
Two of your other mummies.
Snug as a bug in a rug. One week old.
Your velvety soft feet.
Chilled out.
Josh in his cousin Jaxie's clothes :)
Tender touches after getting your plate that day.
Your big sister Sophie
Your bigger sister Ava
Your biggest sister Isabelle
Secretly, Ava is just a little bit smitten
Your favourite thing to look at in your room, the bunting made by your Aunty Lauren.
Your gorgeous quilt, by dear friend Rach (she churned out the handmade gifts for you!!)
And your mobile from mummy's lovely friend Heather.
My little man.
I love the way you look at me and just know. I'm not sure what you know...but I'm pretty sure it's everything.
I love the way your chin quivers. About anything. If you are excited. Cold. Hungry. Sad. Just cos.
I love your fat cheeks. Enough said.
I love your eyebrows.
I love the way your hair goes so fuzzy after a bath.
I love that you are a boy.
I love that during the day, feeding you is my quiet time. It's nice. (Except today when you were a wee bit cranky...then it wasn't so quiet!)
I love the way your hands grip mine when I feed you.
I love it when you smile. Because I know yours will be an extra genuine smile. And I'm into genuine people.
And most of all I love your lips. Because they are you. And you are ours.
I know we are blessed to have you, to be privileged to be your mum and dad. All the things that worried me before you were born are a thing of the past...I care less now about what people think because I've learnt that it doesn't matter (and I think being SO tired helps with me not noticing as much!). And I've learnt that the people who do care are keepers, and I will gravitate towards them for comfort and encouragement when I do need it. And I've learnt not to judge (as much...) because sometimes...things don't got to plan, especially as a parent, and thats a lesson I really needed to learn...and I have learnt and I'm learning more about love. Even after four little people and one big person (& a cat and all my relatives and friends) filling my heart to the brim, I know there is so much to learn about love. We are only just starting out on our journey together, but I'm so happy it's you I get to be on this journey with. And your daddy and your sisters. We love you.
I love you.
And to me, you will always be perfect.
Love YOUR mum. X
- you can go here to read more about Cleft lips and palates if you are interested.
- Joshua has a plate in at the moment which gets reassessed in Brisbane every few weeks. It is already moulding and shifting his mouth and preparing it for surgery in the coming months. The lip surgery will be first, and the palate surgery will follow. He has to wear it 24/7 except when I clean it and he is getting used to it much more, although he doesn't love the new tape across his nose just yet.
- My sister in law lost her baby only a few short weeks ago, as I mentioned above. Her story is here...I wanted to acknowledge her and her journey as it has affected her and her husband, and our family so greatly. We love you L& T and baby Isaac Elliott. X


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Take Care Clause
[The President] shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed....Article II, Section 3
The Take Care Clause (also known as the Faithful Execution Clause) is best read as a duty that qualifies the President's executive power. By virtue of his executive power, the President may execute the lawful and control the lawful execution of others. Under the Take Care Clause, however, the President must exercise his law-execution power to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."
Though the clause's antecedents can be traced as far back as the late seventeenth century, its more immediate predecessors were found in the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution and the 1777 New York Constitution. Both Constitutions granted their respective executives the "executive power" and also required them to execute the laws faithfully. Accordingly, the Pennsylvania and New York state executives understood that it was they, and not others, who were to see that the laws were faithfully executed.
The ratifying debates repeatedly evince the notion that the President had a duty to execute the law faithfully. Addressing the North Carolina ratifying convention, William Maclaine declared that the Faithful Execution Clause was "one of the [Constitution's] best provisions." If the President "takes care to see the laws faithfully executed, it will be more than is done in any government on the continent; for I will venture to say that our government, and those of the other states, are, with respect to the execution of the laws, in many respects mere ciphers." Not surprisingly, President George Washington clearly read the clause as imposing on him a unique duty to ensure the execution of federal law. Discussing a tax rebellion, Washington observed, "it is my duty to see the Laws executed: to permit them to be trampled upon with impunity would be repugnant to" that duty.
To be sure, the extent of the faithful-execution duty is rather unclear. Plainly, the President need not enforce every law to its fullest extent. Common sense suggests that the President may enjoy some discretion in order to gauge the costs and benefits of investigation, apprehension, and prosecution. Moreover, the pardon power (see Article II, Section 2, Clause 1) supplies a constitutional reason for concluding that the President need not enforce the law every time he feels there is a violation, for, notwithstanding his faithful-execution duty, the President may pardon an offense even before a trial or conviction. It is also possible that the clause does nothing more than incorporate the English Bill of Rights provisions that forbade the Crown from dispensing or suspending the law. Under this reading of the clause, the President can neither authorize violations of the law (he cannot issue dispensations) nor can he nullify a law (he cannot suspend its operation). He has, nonetheless, very wide discretion in enforcing the criminal law.
Those opposed to a strong executive have offered alternative ways of construing the Take Care Clause. On one view, the clause merely requires that the President oversee those statutorily charged with executing law, and does not assume that the President may control law execution. In other words, rather than controlling law execution, the President is limited to the narrow power of ensuring faithful law execution by others. A more extreme construction suggests that the President must obey even those statutes that forbid him from overseeing law execution. Thus, if a tax statute bars presidential oversight with respect to its execution, the President must take care to heed that statutory constraint on presidential power.
Each of these alternate readings of the clause is problematic. The first reading runs afoul of historical evidence. Both English and American experience support reading the Executive Vesting Clause (Article II, Section 1, Clause 1) as enabling the President to execute the law and to control the law execution of others. Given this understanding of the Executive Vesting Clause, the Take Care Clause should not be read to limit the President to the role of an aloof overseer of law execution. Consistent with this view, contemporaneous discussions of the Take Care Clause emphasize the President's power over law execution; they do not support the claim that the President's law-execution role is one limited to ensuring faithful execution by others. Furthermore, there is no historical evidence supporting the notion that Congress can use the faithful-execution duty as a means by which it may strip away any presidential prerogative, let alone the executive's essential task of executing the laws. Such a reading would make the Constitution's Executive Vesting Clause surplusage and would undermine the Constitution's separation of powers.
The Take Care Clause has played a limited role in constitutional litigation. In 1831, the Supreme Court observed that in faithfully executing the law, "[the President] is bound to avail himself of every appropriate means not forbidden by law." United States v. Tingey. And from time to time, the Supreme Court will cite the clause in passing when discussing the President's duties and powers. Since the New Deal, however, the Supreme Court has sanctioned the creation of independent agencies, which operate as a fourth branch of government. Among other things, these independent agencies execute various federal laws (communications, banking, securities) by investigating and arranging for the prosecution of alleged lawbreakers. Restrictions on removal, and a tradition of independence, often make it impossible for the President to ensure that the independent agencies faithfully execute the law. Hence, with respect to the laws that the independent agencies execute, the President does not take care that such laws are faithfully executed.
As noted earlier, the President possesses wide discretion in deciding how and even when to enforce laws. He also has a range of interpretive discretion in deciding the meaning of laws he must execute. When an appropriation provides discretion, the President can gauge when and how appropriated moneys can be spent most efficiently. However, the President may not prevent a member of the executive branch from performing a ministerial duty lawfully imposed upon him by Congress. Marbury v. Madison (1803); Kendall v. United States ex rel. Stokes (1838). Nor may the President take an action not authorized either by the Constitution or by a lawful statute. Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952). Finally, the President may not refuse to enforce a constitutional law, or "cancel" certain appropriations, for that would amount to an extra-constitutional veto or suspension power.
With respect to congressional appropriations, presidents from Thomas Jefferson onward have asserted a power to impound funds. In Jefferson's case, he refused to spend money on purchasing gunboats, saying that they were not immediately needed, and that he was awaiting a better design. Beginning with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, the executive began to withhold spending for some objects altogether. President Richard M. Nixon expanded that practice to the fullest, refusing to spend on many programs for budgetary and fiscal reasons. Sometimes the executive branch has argued that this impoundment power flows from the Executive Vesting and/or Take Care Clauses. Other times, it has claimed that the appropriation statutes themselves granted the President the discretion to impound sums appropriated. Impoundment opponents have often cited the Take Care Clause as a reason why impoundments are unconstitutional, at least where Congress has made it clear that it expects the entire sums appropriated to be expended. In the wake of the impoundment controversies of the 1970s when federal courts struck down President Nixon's attempt to impound funds, see Train v. City of New York (1975), Congress enacted a more restrictive impoundment framework. To date, no President has argued that the framework amounts to an unconstitutional limitation on a broader impoundment power arising out of the Constitution.
In modern times, the Take Care Clause has been cited most frequently (sometimes in dissent) as a reason for strictly enforcing Article III's case or controversy requirement. To the extent that the judiciary allows plaintiffs without "standing" to prosecute allegedly illegal activity, the judiciary may be usurping the President's Take Care duty. Unlike the executive, the judiciary does not have a roving commission to ensure faithful law execution. Accordingly, some members of the Court have claimed that the Take Care Clause has negative implications for the judiciary's role in law execution; that is, while the executive has a general commission to execute the laws, the judiciary may only vindicate the laws when there is a proper case or controversy before them.
- Sai Prakash
- David Lurton Massee, Jr., Professor of Law
- Sullivan & Cromwell Professor of Law
- University of Virginia School of Law


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Christina Pollins-Shackelford, Chestnut Creek School of the Arts' executive director, recalls the toil that went into the work of art she's spent countless hours creating.
She stands beside it, a huge sculpture of an older man and his two young daughters. Their shoulders and faces seems to rise up and out of the limestone block that she carved them from over nine painstaking months. The work took place outdoors in her back yard, "in single-digit temperatures and in the 90s," as she puts it.
A woman who helped blaze a trail for other female musicians in folk and bluegrass will perform this Saturday at the Chestnut Creek School of the Arts in Galax.
Alice Gerrard, a former Galax resident and founder of the Old-time Herald magazine, is considered an influential musician for her time recording and performing with Hazel Dickens and Mike Seeger.
CCSA will host a concert on Nov. 15 from 7-9 p.m., with Gerrard, Gail Gillespie, Kay Justice and Joe Dejarnette.
Chestnut Creek School of the Arts held its annual Fall Into Art festival on Sept. 20, on Grayson Street and in the school building in downtown Galax.
Attendees took part in several art challenge activities. Their work is on display as part of the Fall Into Art exhibit from now until Oct. 3. People's Choice prizes will be awarded for these pieces based on public voting; any member of the public can stop by CCSA to vote for their favorites in several categories.
FRIES – Now that the Galax Old Fiddlers' Convention is over, it's time to move on to Fries for the Old Fiddlers Convention sponsored by the Fries Volunteer Fire Department.
This year's convention, the 47th annual, gets underway Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. at the old Providence School. This is the first convention at the old school site. It has been held at the Fries Ball Park in years past.
Eddie Bond - Fries
1. Eddie Bond, Galax
2. Jake Krack - St. Albans, W.Va.
3. Tessa Dillon - St. Albans, W.Va.
4. Kilby Spencer - Galax
5. Joe Furtado - Front Royal
6. Kitty Amaral - Elk Creek
7. Corrina Logston - Nashville, Tenn.
8. Nate Leath - Charlottesville
9. Richard Bowman - Mount Airy, N.C.
10. Erika Testerman - Lansing, N.C.
There's no short answer to explain how "hillbillies" invented American music, local music historian Joe Wilson says.
It's "all the pieces of the truth that fit together" that allow him to tell the story of where hillbilly music — old-time and, later, bluegrass — came from in about an hour, but the story is much deeper.
The 79th Annual Galax Old Fiddlers' Convention opened Aug. 4 with youth competition, showcasing the best up-and-coming artists in bluegrass and old-time music.
Registration for the Galax Old Fiddlers' Convention is down by 141 contestants from 2013, one of the largest drops in the past four years.
Registration numbers had been declining slowly but steadily for the past three years, after topping out at 2,004 contestants for the event's 75 anniversary in 2010. This year's total is 1,675.
The registration figures were released by the Galax Moose Lodge #733, organizers of the 79-year-old event, the world's largest gathering of bluegrass and old-time fans and musicians.
Galax's population will soar in the coming week, as thousands of fiddlin' fans descend on the city. Felts Park will open its gates at 7 a.m. Sunday for the 79th Annual Old Fiddlers' Convention. The competition opens Monday night and lasts through Aug. 9.
Most of the convention's expected 1,300 campers will show up Sunday to set up camp.
This year's 10th Annual Smoke on the Mountain barbecue contest will be held July 18-19 in downtown Galax.
For the first time, the public will have a chance to vote in a People's Choice contest, sponsored by Horton's Supermarket of Galax.
Copyright © 2019
The Galax Gazette is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Galax, Grayson, Carroll, and surrounding areas.


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Recent events in the world of academic publishing have sent a number of apparently contradictory messages. The Ithaka organization, which focuses on the use of new technology in the academic world, has produced a report critical of the role that university presses have adopted in the information age. The report's release came on the same day that The Institute for the Future of the Book released a WordPress extension called CommentPress that allows users to post inline comments on web documents. As if to counter the report's message, the University of Michigan's publishing office used CommentPress to put the Ithaka report online. Confused yet?
We'll begin with the report proper. Many large universities run presses that focus on the publication of scholarly works that would never sell well enough to attract a commercial publisher. These academic publishers can help further an institution's profile and prestige while contributing to its general mission of disseminating knowledge.
The new report notes that these institutions have gradually become isolated from the academic communities they were intended to help foster and support, primarily because of structural reasons and institutional neglect. That trend, however, has occurred roughly at the same time that the Internet has radically changed the way academic information is exchanged, a change that has reduced the role of the book in the dissemination of knowledge. The report concludes that this has had two major effects: an increase in the importance of commercial publishers of periodicals and a shift to informal and ad hoc methods of electronic publishing that do not involve the university press. One example of this trend that immediately springs to mind is the arXiv, which is run by the Cornell University Library instead of its University Press.
The report concludes that these trends are not helping anyone. University presses do have expertise that can be tapped in the Internet age. Meanwhile, the ad hoc replacements rarely help those outside the academic niche they were created in and suffer from very poor economies of scale as a result. The authors call for a number of changes focused around the recognition that publishing, be it in book or any number of electronic forms, is a vital part of the mission of academic institutions. They call for institutions to develop a coherent strategy for all forms of publication and to integrate that with both the academic community and other relevant parties, such as the library and IT groups. Finally, they suggest that universities band together to both create economies of scale and to rapidly spread successful techniques.
Overall, the report appears to be a fairly accurate portrayal of how many online forms of academic communication, including blogs, lecture notes, mailing lists, etc., have decentralized academic exchanges. This decentralization process has produced a dizzying variety of nearly individualized solutions that waste a lot of time and resources. If anything, the report doesn't go far enough in recognizing that these problems are a subset of the larger issue of information exchange, which includes collaborative editing of documents and exchange of raw data.
The new twist on this report, however, comes from an institution that has some clear ideas regarding where publishing is headed. Ars has covered an initiative from The Institute for the Future of the Book that indicates they view interactive and collaborative works to be the inevitable future of publishing. Their new CommentPress software (comprised primarily of PHP and JavaScript) is designed to further that goal. It's an extension to the popular WordPress blogging software that allows comments to be posted inline, attached directly to the section of text that they are relevant to.
Apparently, the University of Michigan's Scholarly Publishing Office has been paying attention to both its role in the Internet era and the technology to enable it, as it has hosted the text of the Ithaka report via CommentPress. The system appears to work quite well, but it's hard to judge the general utility of it based on this report, as there have only been three comments appended to it so far. This is probably indicative of the greatest challenge that academic presses now face: even when they do everything right, it can be hard to get anyone to notice and participate.


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there is nothing quite like sitting in front of a full orchestra and feeling the power and energy that is created by the musicians." Jeff Lingle
Name: Jeff Lingle Major at Berklee: Film Scoring Graduation Date: August of 1995 Position Title: Music Editor Employer: Self-Employed City: Los Angeles State: CA Read Jeff Lingle's alumni interview...
Careers in Film Scoring Film Composer A film composer scores music to accompany a motion picture for film or television. This could include dramatic underscore as well as popular songwriting. The traditional role of a film composer is to provide the orchestral dramatic underscore, and only more recently has the popular soundtrack begun to stand on its own. Music Editor A music editor is responsible for mixing and synchronizing the music with the film, and mixing the music with the film soundtrack. The music editor must be versatile, and possess a great musical sensitivity, a keen ear for balance, and awareness of how music can make or break a dramatic scene; all combined with knowledge of the special technology used in synchronizing music tracks to film or tape. Programmer (Sequencing) The Programmer utilizes music sequencing software and sometimes notation software to produce MIDI keyboard/synthesizer tracks for inclusion in the film score. Other times, a programmer will sequence a piece of music or a composition by this means, which will allow the composer and music editor an opportunity to hear the composition before it reaches the scoring stage. This is considerably cheaper than hiring a full orchestra and enables the composer to identify errors in the score before it gets to the scoring stage. Orchestrator The film music orchestrator is responsible for writing scores for an orchestra, band, choral group, individual instrumentalist(s), or vocalist(s). Also, an orchestrator transposes music from one instrument
or voice to another in order to accommodate a particular music instrument, musician or group. Often times, the orchestrator will also be the conductor during the film scoring sessions. Music Supervisor (Theme Specialist: Film/TV) The film producer hires the music supervisor. He/she may act as an A&R scout to find and license popular songs for inclusion as theme or background music within the film (called source music) and/or selecting songs for the soundtrack. Sometimes the music supervisor may be in charge of only the songs for the soundtrack, and other times he may]' be in charge of all the music involved with a film, including hiring and supervising the film composer for dramatic scoring. Contractor A film/TV music contractor is responsible for hiring the musicians and tending to all the necessary contract obligations through AFM (American Federation of Musicians). It is in the contractor's best interest to procure the best talent possible while working within his/her budget guidelines. Film Arranger (Adaptor) The film arranger provides musical arrangements of a musical composition or song for film and/or TV usage. The arranger determines the voice, instrument, harmonic structure, rhythm, tempo and other aspects of a song or composition, based on the conductor or, film producer's specifications. Training in music theory, orchestration, composition, and harmony is required. An arranger should have experience as a copyist, writing music and playing one or more instruments. Film Conductor A film conductor's main duty is preparing an orchestra or ensemble for the finest performance possible in a film scoring session. This includes preparing the musicians for the sessions via rehearsals, and all other business affairs related to leading an orchestra. A conductor should have a strong ability on an instrument, in-depth musical knowledge, be able to sight read, and have great interpersonal and leadership skills to interact with film composers, studio orchestra players, music editors, orchestrators and copyists. During a scoring session the conductor is able to hear the comments of the producer in the studio control room and direct the musicians/orchestra accordingly. Often times the film composer or orchestrator occupy the role of conductor as well. Copyist (Music Preparation) In the film music industry a copyist's job is also called music preparation. The copyist transfers musical parts from a score onto individual parts. This person must have strong notation and transposition skills, training in music theory, attention to detail, as well as neat and accurate copy work. Assistant to the Composer An assistant to the composer acts as a liaison between the composer and various other entities in the film, television and music industry. The main responsibility for the Assistant to the Composer is to allow the film composer time to do what he does best, which is composing. This is usually an entrylevel position and provides a unique perspective on the film making process. Sound Designer (Synthesis Specialist) Design synthesized music and sound effects to compliment and aid the music score.


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Deadspin Shows Again That New News Media Can Do Investigative Journalism
from the better-than-the-masses deptIf you sit down quietly, wherever you are, close your eyes, quiet your heart, and listen closely enough, you'll be able to hear someone somewhere talking about how journalism is dead and the internet killed it. Even some of traditional news media's players draw an odd distinction between paper and web content. More specifically, there are many who question where investigative journalism will go once traditional news finishes its death convulsions and the web is what's left.
Well...it will go to the web, of course. And for those who believe investigative journalism and the internet go together about as well as peanutbutter and meatballs, one of the biggest stories circulating the sporting world right now should disabuse you of that notion, because it was Deadspin that independently broke the story of Notre Dame's Manti Te'o's fake dead girlfriend (I never get tired of saying that), while the traditional news sources completely screwed the pooch and possibly even sat on the story. If you're not familiar with this tale of intrigue, well, it's just freaking strange.
Te'o was whipsawed between personal tragedies along the way. In the span of six hours in September, as Sports Illustrated told it, Te'o learned first of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. Kekua, 22 years old, had been in a serious car accident in California, and then had been diagnosed with leukemia. SI's Pete Thamel described how Te'o would phone her in her hospital room and stay on the line with her as he slept through the night. "Her relatives told him that at her lowest points, as she fought to emerge from a coma, her breathing rate would increase at the sound of his voice," Thamel wrote.It'd be a heartfelt sob story if...you know...Lennay Kekua existed. Unfortunately, she does not and did not. Instead, it appears she was the creation of a failed athelete who was associated with Manti T'eo. Given the way the narrative was infused with T'eo's bid for the Heisman Trophy, reasonable speculation currently centers on whether T'eo was in on the hoax and used it to further his own aims. Lest you think that breaking this story took some trivial amount of internet sluething, that's not the case.
But there is no SSA record there of the death of Lennay Marie Kekua, that day or any other. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper. Nor is there any report of a severe auto accident involving a Lennay Kekua. Background checks turn up nothing. The Stanford registrar's office has no record that a Lennay Kekua ever enrolled. There is no record of her birth in the news. Outside of a few Twitter and Instagram accounts, there's no online evidence that Lennay Kekua ever existed.Deadspin then went on to do in depth reporting on Tuiasosopo, including speaking with many people who know him and have knowledge of his antics and ties to T'eo. For those who are not impressed with this, seriously, follow the link to the piece at Deadspin, because the amount of content they were able to build around their investigation is insane. At worst, it's a hell of a story about a horrible college sports scandal.
All of those photographs—with one important exception—came from the private Facebook and Instagram accounts of Reba [false name], whom we found after an exhaustive related-images search of each of Lennay's images (most of which had been modified in some way to prevent reverse image searching)...Then, in a series of lengthy phone calls, Reba told us everything she knew about the classmate, a star high school quarterback turned religious musician named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.
But Deadspin, often maligned by the same traditional media that pretends they're the gatekeepers of investigative journalism, wasn't deaf to the failings of those same people. They put out a separate post, detailing every last failing the news media engaged in prior to their piece about the T'eo/Kekua story. Traditional media were played for suckers and it took a new media blog to make things right. As they note in their piece, the media wasn't just duped by this hoax, they amplified it.
Filed Under: deadspin, espn, fact checking, journalism, lennay kekua, manti te'o, new media, notre dame, old media


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M le Directeur puts together the handbooks for these modules and in each one there's a session-by-session breakdown. The sessions last two hours, and there's usually enough material proposed for a whole week:
Embracing the differences: High power versus low power distance relationships. Polychronic cultures versus monochronic cultures; relationship based business cultures versus pure business cultures. We will scrutinise the language and paralinguistic features embedded in each of these phenomena.
There's matter in't indeed, then, but having produced these copious timetables, M le D waives them away - 'don't worry about that' – implying that they are for somebody else's consumption, and we can do what we want. This of course is just to give me the freedom to teach what and how I see fit, but unfortunately, since most of this content is as much news for me as it is for the students, deciding what to leave in and what to chuck out is no easy matter. I feel like an apprentice surgeon from the days when barbers sawed bones, dithering over a petrified patient.
'Yeah, OK, but which bits do I chop off?'
'Whatever. S'up to you.'
It's a good thing the students don't get to hear the casualness of this approach, as it might not inspire confidence. Imagine, as you buckle your seat belt for the long haul from Beijing to London, you overhear the pilot saying to the co-pilot 'bruvver-in-law's birfday larce night. Got a fuckinelle of an ed.' Students are unaware of how much teaching is like this. They must be, or they wouldn't keep coming back.
Yesterday and today I had the first-session nerves all over again, that lousy bloody rotten stage fright that seems, contrary to expectation, to increase with experience. There was Kong, the lad I was sure had complained on the feed-back form on the last course, and I fancied as I entered the room that I saw his countenance darken: had he hoped someone else was going to teach this module? When the session got underway I went and asked him if he had felt that there had not been enough communication and collaboration on the earlier module, because some bleeding ungrateful bugger had had the sheer bloody gall to moan that this had been the case. 'No, no!' said his girlfriend, brightly. 'He like!' Kong nodded and smiled, a man of few words as always. An appalling realization struck me: if the one moaner had not been Kong, the only male on the course, I no longer cared who it was. Then I was able to temper this apparently sexist gut-reaction somewhat. Kong had always been very quiet and reluctant to speak English, and I had taken his silence as disdain. When someone complained about a lack of opportunity for discussion on a course built around discussion and roleplay, I had, in my paranoid fashion, assumed it was Kong, and evidently assumed wrong. So had there been a silent and sullen female, I suppose I would have taken her for the malcontent. As it is, the moaner is obviously one of the women, all of whom thrash things out unrestrainedly, so I have no idea where this 'lack of communication' bollocks came from.
After an hour and three quarters of feeling like a concerned host at a party, worried that people were not enjoying the canapés as much as I'd hoped because they were accustomed to tastier, the course suddenly took shape in my mind. The students had been involved in a negotiation. Company A had send a man to company B for training in cross cultural communication, and the bloke had proven useless in his new post with company A despite the £5,000 they had shelled out on bringing him up to snuff. So company A's representatives had to meet with company B's to strike a new deal. As I circulated, I noted these utterances:
You trained our guy badly.
You need to revise your teaching and testing systems!
Your training was inefficient, it's your fault.
His English wasn't good enough for the job!
We thought you were the specialists and we trusted you!
I put these on the screen and asked if everyone thought they were OK to use in the situation. Everyone did, which gives rise, does it not, to the question 'why am I asking you this, if that's the case?' In a British context, all the above would of course be perceived as highly insulting to the integrity of the trainers. You'd have to imply it all by saying things such as:
We feel he didn't benefit from the course as much as we might have hoped. (Which of course was your fucking fault, but we leave that unsaid.)
His language wasn't quite up to the demands of the job. (To put it mildly, which we always do, but we're not mild, don't be fooled.)
So we are on track now: it's business English, but I can treat it as sociolinguistics and pragmatics, and all the stuff I feel more confident about.
After the session a student came and said, 'you know, Steven, I really like the way you teach. I always learn something with you.' Well, I came over all unnecessary at that. Earlier this month another student gave me a New Year present of a jumper and 500 ml of Hugo Boss eau de toilette. The jumper would fit a man twice my size, so it's a bit delicate: if I don't wear it she will assume I don't like it, and if I do she will see that it makes me look like a bouncy castle. Nevertheless, I'm grateful for any explicit token of appreciation in a profession where you often feel that in students' estimation, you are only as good as your last lesson, and the upper levels of management couldn't care less about you.


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by Matthew Dalby, sports information graduate assistant
MARTINEZ, Ga. – The Peach Belt Conference (PBC) announced their weekly awards for the week ending Tuesday, April 12, with Georgia College's Lindsey Conway (Madison, Ga.) being named PBC Freshman of the Week.
It is the first such honor for a Bobcat freshman this year, as the infielder hit .500 (6-for-12), leading the team to a 3-1 record. Conway also drove in six runs in four games, while scoring three.
She helped the Bobcats secure the No. 6-seed in the upcoming PBC Tournament this weekend in Florence, S.C.
In GC's 6-5 victory over then-No. 22 Armstrong Atlantic, Conway was a perfect 3-for-3, scoring once and driving in two. She also went 2-for-3 with two RBI and a stolen base in the 'Cats first game win over USC Aiken. Conway was also perfect in the field, committing no errors in 19 chances.
Conway and the rest of the Bobcat softball team will be in action again this Friday, April 15 when they take on Columbus State University at 1:30 p.m. in the first round of the PBC Tournament.
The Georgia College Department of Athletics, back-to-back winners of the PBC Commissioner's Cup, sponsors 10 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. As a Division II program, Bobcat Athletics prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the teams' multiple appearances in post-season competition as well as documented academic success and community-service involvement. Sign up at www.twitter.com/BobcatSports and www.facebook.com/gcbobcats for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit www.GCBobcats.com for more information, and to nominate your favorite former Bobcats and Colonials to the GC Athletics Hall of Fame.


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2010 4x4 Of The Year Winner - Ford F150 Raptor SVTPosted in Project Vehicles on November 17, 2009
Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road magazine has named the 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor pickup the winner of its coveted 4x4 of the Year award. This is the 28th year of the enthusiast magazine's in-depth competition of new 4x4 vehicles, and the second time a Ford product has taken home the award.
Ford F-150 SVT Raptor pickup topped the field of four competent competitors and ranked high in every category of this year's in-depth test. The grueling 1,000-mile trial evaluates each vehicle's suspension, engine, transmission, and transfer case along with the style and creature comforts they provide. Most importantly, the 4x4s are judged on how well they perform off-road. This year's competitors included the Dodge Ram 2500 Power Wagon, Hummer H3T Alpha, and Toyota 4Runner Trail.
"The Ford F-150 SVT Raptor pickup handily won this year's test, despite being pitted against top-of-the-line competition," said Rick Péwé, Editor-in-Chief of Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road. "The pickup consistently placed well ahead of the competition in most areas, and great value and fun factors sent it over the top. Basic, solid construction gave us the confidence to take the truck wherever we wanted." As one judge noted "It looks cool, drives fast, and seems to take whatever you throw at it"
According to Ford: "It is an honor to win this award as it represents another shining example of our truck leadership," said Derrick Kuzak, Group Vice President of Product Development. "The F-150 SVT Raptor really demonstrates just how stout and capable the F-150 platform can be, while also employing industry-leading technologies like Off-Road Mode and programmable Hill Descent. Plus, the Ford Raptor is the most engaging off-road driving experience on the market today and delivers great on-road drivability."
To be eligible to compete, a vehicle must be all-new or have improvements that make it perform significantly different from the previous model year. Vehicles must also be available for sale before January 15 of the model year, have a production run of at least 2,500 units, and have a two-speed transfer case. The complete test results and vehicle evaluations for the 2010 4x4 of the Year competition will appear in the February 2010 issue, available December 8, 2009.
Information on the test is also available here on the Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road website, www.4wheeloffroad.com.


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discovery needed a new button or icon design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 22 designs submitted by 12 freelance designers.
Require an icon that portrays the fact that a reservation team is waiting to handle your booking request.
Desired Color Scheme:
See website layout
Desired Style:
open to suggestion
Accepted File Formats:
Standard Web Formats (.jpg, .gif or .png); Vector Formats (.eps, .pdf or .ai)
The customer service icon should fit with the look and feel of the website. It is envisaged this icon will be placed on the right hand side of the reservation request box on this page :-
We will ideally sit the icon within its own box and add sales points below the icon to complete the layout of the screen.


text: NOTICE OF MEETING A regular meeting of the San Francisco Public Library Commission will be held as follows: Date: Thursday, June 2, 2005 Time: 4:00 p.m. Place: Koret Auditorium, Main Library, lower level The meeting will be called to order. 1. PUBLIC COMMENT (This item is to allow members of the public to comment generally on matters within the Commission's purview as well as to suggest new agenda items for the Library Commission's consideration.) 2. ELECTION OF COMMISSION OFFICERS FOR 2005 (This item is to allow Commissioners to nominate themselves or fellow commissioners for the Offices of President or Vice President of the Public Library Commission and to elect a President and Vice President of the Commission) 3. INGLESIDE LIBRARY PEER REVIEW - DISCUSSION Presentation of and discussion of a peer review of proposed designs for the new Ingleside Branch Library. 4. PORTOLA BRANCH LIBRARY PEER REVIEW - DISCUSSION Presentation of and discussion of a peer review of proposed designs for the new Portola Branch Library. 5. POTRERO BRANCH LIBRARY PEER REVIEW - DISCUSSION Presentation of and discussion of a peer review of proposed designs for the renovation of the Potrero Branch Library. Explanitory documents: Portola FAQ, Site/Floor Plan Design 6. BOND PROGRAM MANAGER'S REPORT - DISCUSSION (This is a discussion item to allow the Branch Library Bond Program Manager to report on recent bond program related activities and make announcements.) This report will consist of an informational presentation: none; regular reports: program budget, schedule, and construction reports; active projects; and community outreach; and special reports: none Explanatory documents: current Budget Report (PDF 87K) and Branch Library Summary Schedules (PDF 301K) 7. ADJOURNMENT - ACTION (requires motion and public comment) 5/26/05 - M. Housh, Commission Secretary Explanatory documents: Copies of listed explanatory documents are available as follows: (1) from the Commission Secretary/Custodian of Records, Main Library, 6th Floor, (2) in the rear of the Koret Auditorium immediately before and during the meeting, and (3)to the extent possible, on the Library's website at http://sfpl.org/. Additional materials not listed as explanatory documents on this agenda, if any, that are distributed to the Library Commissioners prior to or during the meeting in connection with any agenda item will be available to the public for inspection and copying in accordance with Government Code Section 54954.1 and Sunshine Ordinance §§ 67.9, 67.28(b)& 67.28(d).


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Doctors and clinicians are often approached to assist people with Alzheimer's disease and their families in determining when a person can no longer continue to drive.
Doctors are bound by law, in some provinces, and by professional ethics, to report medical conditions that could impair a person's ability to drive. They also may be held liable if a person in their care who has Alzheimer's disease is involved in an auto accident and they have not reported the person's driving problems to provincial licensing authorities.
Resources and useful strategies related to driving and dementia:
- Free Driving and Dementia e-Learning Module: This free e-learning module addresses the needs of physicians for resources related to driving and dementia, and to help navigate the process of assessing fitness-to-drive, disclosure, reporting and more.
- DriveABLE: An innovative technology can help health-care professionals quickly and accurately determine the driving competence of medically at-risk drivers.
- CanDrive: An interdisciplinary health-related research program dedicated to improving the safety of older drivers.
- Free journal article on driving and dementia: The Canadian Geriatrics Society (CGS) CME Journal has accumulated a number of free, full open access articles on driving and dementia.
- CMA Driver's Guide: Determining medical fitness to operate motor vehicles.
- Older Drivers in Canada and their Families: A website providing useful tips on safe driving and risk-reducing strategies. Developed by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists in association with the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Videos on driving and dementia
- Dementia & Driving Resource Center from the Alzheimer Association of the US. Realistic scenarios to help families start the conversation about driving.
- Driving and Dementia, an online video with strategies for caregivers from the Alzheimer Society of B.C.
- Driving and Dementia, a presentation hosted by brainXchange, focuses how Alzheimer's disease or dementia effects the ability to drive and on the evaluation process to assess fitness-to-drive.


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Poly Pot
Dimensions: Ø 130 mm x H 95 mm
(Also available with lid or neck)
Please Note
Photos are only indicative of shape and size – each item is handcast and glazed, items may differ slightly.
A studio visit for bespoke orders and creations is essential to be part of the creative process.
For more information get in touch here.
Browse our Colour Palette & Gallery.


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Is this the same site that talks about "boiling" your grains, rather than steeping them? I saw that on a TV spot once. And no it wasn't about decoctions - it was an extract batch!
Well, if you like all that, your gonna love this - I boil my finished fermenting beer.
To make it fit in smaller bottles.
Quote from: punatic on September 03, 2013, 06:01:31 PMTo make it fit in smaller bottles.You sly coy (white) dawg Carl
I didn't get past the part where you scoop out boiling wort with Tupperware...


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Story highlights
- Robert Olen Butler's latest novel was inspired by a postcard
- The historical thriller was a genre leap for the Pulitzer Prize winner
- "If Ernest Hemingway and Indiana Jones had a bastard son," it would be Kit Cobb
In "The Hot Country," U.S. troops invade a foreign country where oil interests are at stake, a rising foreign power is looking to derail U.S. forces using cloak and dagger tactics, and there's a gunfight in the desert against insurgent enemies.
Déjà vu, anyone?
As contemporary as this story sounds, it doesn't take place in the Middle East, and it's not set in modern times. The latest novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler uses the Battle of Vera Cruz and the American invasion of Mexico during that country's civil war in 1914 as its backdrop. Butler takes an often-overlooked chapter of history and turns it into a whip-smart tale of intrigue and espionage.
At the center of this swashbuckling thriller is Christopher Marlowe Cobb, an American newspaper war correspondent, better known as "Kit." Covering the war in enemy territory, he's nearly shot by a mysterious sniper, joins forces with a double agent, is almost killed by a German army officer and falls in love with a headstrong young Mexican woman who may be mixed up in the revolutionary plot.
You don't need to be an expert on the era to enjoy the story, but history buffs will appreciate cameos from real-life characters like Jack London, Richard Harding Davis and Pancho Villa. Butler recently spoke with CNN about his new novel. The following is an edited transcript.
CNN: What was the spark behind your new novel?
Butler: It began with a postcard. I did a book back in 2004 called "Had a Good Time," which was a book of short stories I wrote based on my picture postcard collection. I collect them not so much for the images on the front but the messages written on the back. Although this particular postcard had a terrific image. I describe it in the short story, and that became the beginning of "The Hot Country." It was a photo of a man walking on the street. You see him from behind. He's passing a row of adobe shops with Spanish names. Way in the distance on the cobblestone street, you see a man on horseback. If you study his profile, you see it's an American Marine of the era. In the mid-distance, a gaggle of people, mostly women. The postcard author has drawn an arrow to point at one of the women, and on the back he's written, "After the battle. Notice the pretty señoritas in this photo. The one in white does my laundry." What he does not mention is, not more than an arm's length away are two dead men lying on the sidewalk in pools of blood. From all of this, I deduced this was the Battle of Vera Cruz in 1914 Mexico. After that, this voice wouldn't let go of me.
CNN: You're a bit of a chameleon as a writer; no two novels are the same. What led you to write a historical thriller?
Butler: I've always loved the genre, but I just follow where the muse leads me. In this day and age of terrorists operating covertly and wreaking havoc, governments rising and falling from populist revolutions, mass murders in movie theaters and high seas piracy, this is an intense age. All of which is given to us in these tense, brief, highly dramatic outbursts in the various news media. If you're responding to this world around us, for me, the thriller, especially the espionage thriller, seems absolutely the right choice.
CNN: What inspired your main character in this novel, Christopher "Kit" Cobb?
Butler: Biological improbabilities aside, if Ernest Hemingway and Indiana Jones had a bastard son, it would be Kit Cobb. Honestly, this character is very close to me. I went to war. I was in military intelligence in Vietnam. I was a spy. I was a reporter and then an editor in chief of an investigative business newspaper for a decade. I grew up in a theatrical family and trained as an actor. I'm relating major elements of who Christopher Marlowe Cobb is, and the stories he has to tell about himself are reflective of how I see the world right now. I'm thinking of this book as part one of a six- or eight- or 10- or 12-part novel. He's a complex guy, and he's evolving as the series goes on.
CNN: You wrote several of your early novels while a commuter in New York. How did that experience impact you as a writer?
Butler: That was during my journalist era. I lived in Sea Cliff, Long Island. I rode the Oyster Bay branch into Manhattan, where I worked. My life circumstances were such that if I wanted to be a novelist, I was going to have to do it on the train. This was before laptop computers, so I had a drafting pencil, a legal pad and a Masonite lap board, and amidst all the chaos, I wrote 300 polished words on the train going into New York in the morning and 300 polished words on the train going home at night. You have to write every day to be a real novelist, and there's no excuse not to. I was at an absolute crossroads. Either I'm going to do this under the most difficult circumstances, and I'm going to do it every day of my life, or I won't do it. It represented my fundamental choice to be a writer.
CNN: What drives you to keep writing?
Butler: I have no choice but to do it. It's these voices inside me. I'm known for doing first-person voices. This book is in Kit Cobb's voice. I wrote several books of very short stories, and in the space of a couple of years I wrote in the voices of 163 different people, including an animal or two. Those voices are there in my artistic unconscious and ask to be heard, and I channel them.
CNN: What's the most difficult part of your job?
Butler: Self-discipline is one of the things. If you write from your unconscious, your white-hot center, then the place you go into is scary as hell. As the great Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa said, to be an artist means to never avert your eyes. The whole process is multifaceted and a big monolithic challenge. You have to do it every day, and you can't look away.
CNN: What's next for you and Kit Cobb?
Butler: I just finished the second book in the series, "The Star of Istanbul," which will come out next fall. It opens on the Lusitania in May of 1915, and we'll move on to London and then Istanbul. There's a beautiful silent film star who's a person of interest in this book. There's a lot of derring-do, surprises and revelations.
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Browsing Student Research, Projects and Publications by Author "Asar, Y. Mansah"
Now showing items 1-1 of 1
Effects of Different Athletic Shoes on Treadmill Run Bumgarner, Michael R.; Phan, Minh N.; Asar, Y. Mansah; Fechner, Robert J. (2010-05-10)BACKGROUND: Training shoes are designed differently for different purposes. Many people believe that expensive shoes mean better performance. Manufacturing companies modify shoes to fit consumer demands in style as opposed ...