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Interview with Shirley Briggs Speaker: ...interesting and some which you may find less useful, and we!ll just go through this. Shirley Briggs: You sent me something on what might come up and it struck me as questions that were unanswerable in most cases. Speaker: Well, then just tell me, and we!ll go on. But really, the questions I!m going to ask you, we just want to know more about your career, the three years you worked with us and Fish and Wildlife, what you went on to do, and then just... Shirley Briggs: Well, I was in the Department of the Interior. Speaker: Yes, yes. Shirley Briggs: And I could tell you something about the Bureau of Reclamation. Speaker: We!d like to hear all of that. Shirley Briggs: Other outfits I dealt with there. Speaker: Great, but we!ll ask you those, and just try and get a sense of the time and to your important conservation work and contributions. Does that sound reasonable? Shirley Briggs: Well, <unclear>. I mean, this is just, they called it environment, I think, which was a big, broad, meaningless word. Speaker: Shirley, if you don!t mind, we!d like to start near the beginning with what inspired you to study art in college. What made you want to be an artist? Shirley Briggs: Well, I don!t know. I just <unclear> that seemed to be a major subject for graduate school, and I had more interest in sculpting. Whatever else, I don!t know. I just always did that. Speaker: What type of art interested you? Were you interested in... Shirley Briggs: I have a Master!s Degree in sculptor, for heaven!s sake, which I have not had much occasion to do recently. No, in recent years I!ve mainly done drawings. I!ve done quite a bit of illustration. Once a year I try to do a drawing so I can send something out for New Years. I!ve got quite a pile of them by now. Speaker: How did you move from later on teaching art at North Dakota State? Shirley Briggs: What? Speaker: Apparently you taught art for a little while at North Dakota State. Shirley Briggs: Yeah, here and there. Speaker: Then you eventually moved to the Washington area. What pulled you out here? Shirley Briggs: Let me see if I can remember. Well, I!ve always been here some. I had an uncle who lived here. It was a familiar, homey place, but what did bring me here really? It!ll come to me. Was it the government job? Probably. Speaker: Didn!t you work for a defense contractor? Shirley Briggs? What? Pardon me. You aren!t speaking clearly or loudly enough. Speaker: Did you initially work for aircraft... Shirley Briggs: Yeah, Martin Aircraft, yeah, which now has a different name. Speaker: What were you doing for them? Shirley Briggs: Drawings. I can illustrate probably still obsolete airplanes. Yeah, it was very interesting. I found a sculptor came in handy. I can look at an engineering drawing of something and visualize it and draw it in ordinary perspective. Speaker: That!s good. So how did you end up working for Fish and Wildlife? How did you go from Martin Aircraft to Fish and Wildlife Service? Shirley Briggs: I!m not sure. It may come to me. I was in the area, and that!s something I was always interested in. I fell in with Rachel Carson, of course, which our offices were nearby, Department of Interior. We both liked to go out and explore the countryside and look for birds and all that sort of thing and was sort of the transition, I guess. Speaker: Shirley, what were your initial impressions of Rachel when you started with us? Shirley Briggs: She was more fun than anybody else. Speaker: Why so? Shirley Briggs: Well, she just was. No, she was so aware of everything that was going on and could see all of the inconsistencies and hilarity and what not, not all these dreary things that come up in the bureaucratic situation. She could make them hilarious. There was a man at the Government Printing Office named <unclear> that we had a terrible time with getting things properly designed and printed, because she cared a great deal that things were well done in that department, and we both liked to go out at the out of doors, and that was fun. She was so aware of everything. You saw a lot more if you were out with her somehow. Speaker: What do you mean? Did she more birds than you or look at them in a different way? Shirley Briggs: Everything, not just birds. But I mean, she was so conscious of the whole scene. Very bright people tend to be, and she was a very bright person. Speaker: Now, did you go on excursions for work, or did you go after work or on weekends? Shirley Briggs: Well no, this was after, we didn!t go off in the middle of the day, no. But she was writing the Conservation in Action series, and I went with her doing the fieldwork from Chincoteague, and I didn!t get to go on no longer when she called Kate Howell out in Salt Lake City. From then she got to go cross country a little more than I did. Speaker: Do you remember anything from the Chincoteague trip with Rachel? Shirley Briggs: Anything, well we were just a little fascinated by exploring it and meeting the people who were working down there and seeing the refuge area and so on. Speaker: Carson!s interest was the oceans, right, and you were from the mid-west, from my understanding. Where were you born? Shirley Briggs: Yeah, I!m from Iowa, but I had always had an uncle here in Washington whom we visited a good deal, so this was familiar territory. Speaker: Did Carson help you appreciate the ocean at all, when you went to Chincoteague and some of these places? Shirley Briggs: Well, I never managed to get to the ocean, and when Rachel discovered that, we rushed right over. I mean, this was something you had to get to right away, and if you, where are you from? Speaker: Wisconsin. Shirley Briggs: Yeah, well then you understand. The ocean has a certain fascination for land based people, and I was very keen on seeing the ocean and learning all I could from Rachel, who was quite up on this, of course. Speaker: What were you doing for the Fish and Wildlife Service? What type of illustrations were you making for them? Shirley Briggs: Information Specialist was the title. That meant writing, illustrating, designing publications, that whole field. Speaker: What was your relationship with the biologists in the Fish and Wildlife Service that would feed you information? Shirley Briggs: Who? Speaker: The biologists in the field and so on, like Chincoteague and these places. Shirley Briggs: I don!t think I had a relationship with them. We were just all working on the same thing. Speaker: Well, what type of projects did you tend to work on? Shirley Briggs: Whatever, well look at the Conservation in Action series, things like that, or there was a fisheries publication that came out. I seemed to have made fish a good deal, you know, that was how you referred to it. She is the fish, she is the something else. Speaker: What about drawing fish or drawing birds and so on, did your sculpting work help you with that or your birding help you with that? Shirley Briggs: I was trained as an artist. You learn how to do, look at something and draw <unclear> not imaginative, far out psychological things. These are just literal drawings which are the simplest kind. Speaker: Would you draw them from a picture, or would you have a stuffed bird or fish, or would you draw them outside from nature? Shirley Briggs: It was mostly by photographs. I wasn!t out chasing a trout down a brook or something. That would have been a little difficult. Speaker: But they!re mostly photographs that you drew from. Shirley Briggs: Well, yes. Speaker: What about the role of nature art, nature illustration in promoting conservation or environmentalism? Shirley Briggs: Well, I think it!s been very important, try to make it look good for people who don!t see why all these creatures mattered. That!s what the writing!s about. Speaker: Now you said you did writing in addition to illustrating. Shirley Briggs: Yeah, that!s what an Information Specialist does, anything that comes up. It was an all purpose title. Speaker: Shirley, what time period, what years were you in the Fish and Wildlife Service? Shirley Briggs: I ought to have some reference material to look that up, I suppose. Speaker: Well, approximately, what era did you come in to Fish and Wildlife? We don!t have to have the exact years. Shirley Briggs: When was it? Do you have the years Rachel was there? Speaker: "36 to "52. I!ve got down in my notes you entered in "45 and left in "48. Does that sound right? Shirley Briggs: Well, yeah. Speaker: So you were in Washington right at the tail end of the war and the Fish and Wildlife Service had come back from Chicago and consolidated there. Shirley Briggs: Yeah, yeah. Speaker: What was it like working in Fish and Wildlife in that era? Do you remember any of the issues that were going on or any of the priorities that you all were focused on in the mid-1940's? Shirley Briggs: What records do you have of what was going on that might... Speaker: Well, I would think that Fish and Wildlife, having been kind of moved out of Washington during the war and sort of in caretaker status, coming back, I would imagine you were probably kind of gearing back up at the end of the war but... Shirley Briggs: I suppose. Do you have anything on Dr. Lionel Albert <unclear>? Speaker: I don!t believe we do. Shirley Briggs: He was one of the top people and, Burt, we called him. He and Rachel, I think, had an office together, and he was a fascinating person. He wrote plays and things, very literate, and was more concerned, I think, with the issues. Look him up. He!s departed. He has a daughter somewhere I talk to occasionally. Speaker: You mentioned Conservation in Action, that series. Chincoteague was the first issue of it, and that!s very interesting, because it was one of the first times our agency had tried to communicate with the broad public, to try and explain what the refuge... Shirley Briggs: Yes, and both Burt and Rachel were much concerned with how government publications looked. Before that they!d been the dreariest things you, well you!ve got a few probably. But they thought government publications should be as classy and striking and attractive as any commercial one or more so. It!s important that the government expresses itself well, and Rachel had worked with that sort of thing, of course, trying to write up or edit all these reports so that somebody might actually read them. So there was much concern with fonts and type and illustrations and so on. Speaker: Is that what she was fighting with this Mr. <unclear> about all the time, he didn!t want to spend money on that? Shirley Briggs: Oh, yes. He never wanted to do anything different or, in those days, whether anything actually got printed in more than black ink was a great issue. We were always battling for a color or two somewhere. That was pretty far out. Speaker: It!s striking, because the Conservation in Action, I mean, they have striking covers. They!re blue, they!re green, they!re red. She must have fought hard to get them to publish those with the good looking covers and rich photographs inside of them. Shirley Briggs: It was for our great issues. Speaker: Where did you go to work after Fish and Wildlife? You said you stayed in Interior. Shirley Briggs: Well I, you see, this is the war years. You couldn!t get a permanent rating, and somebody came along who had been in there before and pushed me out of my job or something. There was a place with the Bureau of Reclamation. That!s how I got into all the damn builders. I could have brought you some examples. I probably tried to glamorize that, too. But while there I also did various jobs for anyone else in the Department. There weren!t many graphic sections around at the time. Speaker: Was it hard being a woman in Department of Interior in this period? Shirley Briggs: No. Now, there you go, sexism. No, I never found that there was any issue. The Bureau of Mines, I did quite a bit with. I didn!t bother them, I don!t think. If you were, you know, in the job and in the rating, why there you were. I don!t know how it was out in commercial life, but it was fine in the government. Speaker: The government was a fine place to work. Did you ever have any discussions with Rachel Carson about being a woman in government service, or did she ever talk to you about the fact that you guys were, there were a very limited number of women in professional jobs? Shirley Briggs: Rachel <unclear>, I think, were the only ones in a professional level in Fish and Wildlife at that time, but that was partly because the information, publishing end of it was kind of slim, too. Speaker: But did you recall any discussions you may have had on that issue with her, or did it ever come up? Shirley Briggs: I don!t think it ever came up. If you were competent and qualified and you did the job, fine. No one was making a big issue of it, as I recall. This was, as you mentioned, the end of the war. There weren!t qualified people available much. Speaker: What!s your earliest memory of Rachel Carson in like your first meeting? Can you tell us about that? Shirley Briggs: Do you do much trying to remember what things were like that far back? Speaker: It gets harder and harder with ever year. Shirley Briggs: Well, she was a delightful person, and we liked to do a lot of the same things, and so did her mother. She came along sometimes. We just were both interested in the same, it!s always nice to find someone like that. Speaker: Now, there was a difference in age. You were younger than Rachel Carson, right? Shirley Briggs: Somewhat, but now I!m older than everybody. Speaker: But Shirley, one of the things that came up in Linda!s book that!s very interesting is you and Rachel and Kay and Rachel!s mother used to socialize, and did that... Shirley Briggs: We had more parties than I can see how we squeezed in. It was a very sociable time. There were quite a lot of people in Washington who had been here for the war and so on and were away from their own locations, and we just had little parties. There was a lot of socializing. I think I!ve commented some on it, I was amazed how much of this sort of thing went on. Where did we find the time? Well, we didn!t have much else to do. Speaker: They truly were the good old days, all those parties. What about, you said you liked going birding and on excursions and so on. Did those experiences come back into your work at all? Did you have a stronger feeling for nature illustration, do you think, because you went out, because some people don!t, some people would justent out with? There were quite a few naturalists, well known, in this area. Can you tell me a little bit about other personalities you and Rachel encountered? Shirley Briggs: Lewis <unclear>, ran into him up at the Canal, I think. Is he still alive? I!m not sure. But he was a noted writer in the field and appreciated Rachel!s skill at this. Clarence Cottom was, of course, he was always very congenial and good friend. I get to feeling older and older when I drudge up these people. They!re long gone. What names occur to you? Speaker: Clarence Cottom is one. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: I mean, he!s very important to Rachel!s work and that whole period. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: Did you have any remembrances about Clarence, I mean... Shirley Briggs: Cottom? Speaker: Yeah. Shirley Briggs: Well, he was just one of the better people who was trying to get the correct information out always. Speaker: Did you have a chance to go up to Patuxent at all while you were working with Fish and Wildlife? Shirley Briggs: Well, there was John George was out there and was in the Washington office some. Alas, he!s now gone, darn it. I got a nice little folder from his memorial service with a good picture of him. But Cottom and John and some people I!d rather not, they weren!t all that great, you know. There were some duds. Speaker: Can you remember any of the duds, or have you purged them from your memory? Shirley Briggs: Well, that might occur to me eventually. I never had much to do with them, if I could help it, nor did John. Who else was there? I am one of the queer people in this world that has kept a diary since I was child. I can sometimes go back through those, but I haven!t had occasion to do it here. They said they wanted all my papers, some woman!s, Iowa Women!s Archive out of Iowa City, and I thought well, maybe I ought to just send all of that, but people like you keep showing up and want... Speaker: Don!t send them yet. We!d like to keep on tapping you for information or, you know, ask about those years. What about after Reclamation, you worked with the Audubon, the magazine, the Audubon Naturalists. Was that a change from what you!d been doing previously? Shirley Briggs: Not especially. I!m trying to think about that. I seem to remember that more as a spare time connection, but it was one of the private outfits. It was doing the right sort of thing. I should have done more research on this, what did I do when. Speaker: Well, you just were editing it and so on. Let me ask you about something that!s coming up right now. They!re refurbishing the dioramas you did. Shirley Briggs: Hmm? Speaker: The dioramas for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Shirley Briggs: Yes, I was doing them and some for the Park Service. They wanted littler ones, but that was very interesting from the standpoint of an artist. If you!re doing a painting on a curved surface like this, perspective comes out all different. It was very intriguing to try to do that, of course this is very literal art. You!ve got to paint the background so it blends in with the foreground. I remember once, pardon me, I was painting away, and this guy came by. This was a sealed off part of the museum, the public wasn!t around, but this man had a nervous breakdown right there, right by me. "Oh, this is terrible," he says, "it!s cracked. I did the plaster work, and I never did this <unclear> I didn!t know how to do it. I thought it would crack, it!s cracked." So I got him by the hand and took him over and said, "No, that!s just a line that was drawn to show where the photograph goes." But it was sort of a new departure for everybody, I guess, and in those days, this was a government contract just like to build a building or something, and some extremely unqualified people somehow got into all of this. One guy that was doing some of the <unclear> we finally decided was just plain color blind because his <unclear> came out mighty clear. But that!s not the way to hire a professional of any kind, much less an artist, I!m afraid. Yeah, I did those for the Smithsonian. I heard from them recently. They!re redoing all of that. I thought, well it lasted 40 years anyway. Come down and see the old thing again if you want to. I haven!t done that yet, but then the Park Service wanted, you know, they were about maybe six feet and curved. I don!t know what!s become of all of them. Speaker: What were the Park Service dioramas of? I!ve seen the ones in the Museum of Natural History, and we!re trying to save those, a few of them in the archive at the Fish and Wildlife Service. They!re beautiful. What were the Park Service dioramas? Shirley Briggs: Well, I think there!s one down in Jamestown. They wanted to show what historic views were like, so I <unclear> around down at Jamestown trying to figure out what sort of house would have been on this foundation way back then or something. It was interesting. What sort of things would be going on. Well, one thing that used to go in the old days, the planters around would ride their horses in, and there were nothing else around but little one horse trails. There were some really proper roads, so they!d race to the dismay of the people trying to live there. That was kind of fun, and there were the, I read all of the reports of the King!s Council or whatever the governing body was to see what all had gone on. Everything had gone on, believe me. Those old reports are kind of fun. We couldn!t show all of that, of course. Speaker: Let me ask you about the Rachel Carson Council. You helped establish that in 1965. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: What was the purpose behind it when you first set up? Shirley Briggs: Just to keep her ideas in the public eye, I guess. Speaker: When you set it up, you wanted to keep Rachel!s ideas alive, you said. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: Were those ideas mainly scientific ideas or outlooks on nature? What ideas specifically? Shirley Briggs: Both. Speaker: Would you like to elaborate a little on... Shirley Briggs: Elaborate, should have brought some of the early statements. Do you have any of that? Speaker: Yeah, I!ve seen some of the early statements. I!m wondering, for you personally, what do you think Rachel!s most important scientific ideas were? Shirley Briggs: Her genius in writing Silent Spring and everything else is being able to look at a vast amount of detail and facts and history and put it together so it shows why it matters. That is why it still matters now. That was her great talent. Speaker: What do you think her environmental philosophy was or her conservation philosophy? Was it nature knows best? Shirley Briggs: Read Silent Spring. Speaker: I!ve read Silent, is it, you know, nature knows best or balance of nature, do you think? Shirley Briggs: What do you mean by those things? Speaker: They!re vague terms, I agree. I mean, if you had to summarize, from your reading of Silent Spring, what do you think her most important environmental ideas were? Shirley Briggs: Seeing the whole picture and putting it together as she was able to do. Not many people can, but she did get Silent Spring written and hoped that she, by that writing and others, had accomplished what she mainly wanted to do, and as you know, she was quite ill and finished her work under severe difficulties. Speaker: Were you still seeing her regularly in the last year or so of her life when she was... Shirley Briggs: I don!t have correspondence with her that other people do because we were on the <unclear> and if we wanted to communicate that easily. Speaker: Did she tell you ever what she hoped her legacy would be after she passed away? Shirley Briggs: Well, she!d written it. She hoped she had it on record, which I think she did. Speaker: There was a lot of criticism of her when the book came out and afterwards, and as a personal friend, that must have been a little difficult for you to hear. I mean, how... Shirley Briggs: Well, you knew if it was going to happen. There was no surprise in any of this. She was bringing up the reasons that the dominant economic courses in the country were, in some cases, opposed to. She was going to have opposition. She did in exactly the quarters we expected so... Speaker: How did she react to that, and how did you react? Shirley Briggs: Oh, the same way. We knew it was going to happen. She hoped she had made her case. In fact, enough to stand on its own, which as it had turned out, she had, so... Speaker: It got very personal though. Did that bother you or bother her? Shirley Briggs: Well, that!s the way those idiots always behaved. That!s what you expect from nerds like that, you know. Speaker: Shirley, this is really helpful. We really appreciate it. It!s good to hear your own words. Even though some of this stuff is written down, as you noted it, it!s good to hear you saying it. It moves people. Shirley Briggs: You know, Linda did a marvelous job by that biography. She worked on it for about ten years and kept calling me up, you know, who was at this occasion, what was, and so I just refer everybody to that book. She quizzed me very thoroughly. Speaker: Let!s go back to the debate on Silent Spring after it came out in "62. Did you feel that the government was supportive of Carson, the Department of Interior? Shirley Briggs: Yeah. It was Udall then, and he was a valiant supporter, but I!m not so sure about the Department of Agriculture always, but Udall was splendid all along of that. Speaker: He was a good Secretary. We!re hoping to get him to participate in this Carson conference we!re doing next year. Shirley Briggs: Where is now, clear out southwest somewhere? Speaker: Southwest, yes. He just published a new article in American, I think it was American Heritage, American Heritage. Shirley Briggs: Oh, I haven!t seen that. Speaker: We!ll send you a copy through Linda. Shirley Briggs: Thank you, I appreciate it, yes, very much. Speaker: Do you think overall we made progress since Carson as regard to contaminants and pesticides and so on? Shirley Briggs: Well, yes, I think we have. I got out a book on it, big book. It!s a few years back, though, A Basic Guide to Pesticides, which was the attempt to follow up, in a way, to Silent Spring. I!d hear all the dull detailed cases, one, two, and three, all this stuff. I hope it!s still available. Quite the fool, I gave the copyright to Rachel Carson Council, I think, not knowing that any nitwit like this guy on the post was going to show up and take that over. He owned the copyrights as long as you!re alive. I thought, well, I!m getting kind of old, you know. Don!t ever do that. You may wish to hang on. Speaker: You wrote your book a couple of decades after Carson!s book. Shirley Briggs: Yeah, yeah. Speaker: Were there things that Carson had missed that you noted, obviously? Shirley Briggs: No, what had gone on since, but it was just alphabetically. Here are all the chief chemicals and what we know about them. It!s not anything you!d sit down and read for fun. It wasn!t anything you wrote for fun either. Speaker: Now, you taught for awhile with, was it the USDA on conservation philosophies? Was that... Shirley Briggs: Well, there is the graduate school of the USDA, which is not that <unclear> dealing with what they!re doing, and under that, we have this series of courses, and that!s, they take care of the keeping the books, and you would get paid a little for teaching it <unclear> . They didn!t put any cap on that this last time, and I teach it at home, and I ran out of chairs, but that is an entirely separate institution from the Department and its daily workings. Speaker: What do you try and teach the students? Shirley Briggs: What? Speaker: What do you teach the students? Shirley Briggs: Environmental philosophy. Speaker: What do you try and get across to them when they leave your course? Shirley Briggs: The sort of things we!re talking about, I guess. How has environmental consciousness evolved, what!s the background of it in this country or wherever, what issues have come up and been important and so on. Speaker: Where do you start? Do you start with John Murre or <unclear> or Rachel Carson? Where do you begin your history? Shirley Briggs: Early 19th Century or before. I mean, what were the concepts way back when. What have we built on and come to understand the environment better and all that. Speaker: Do you think there was a change in environmental philosophy in the 1960's with Carson, your work, other folks in that period? Shirley Briggs: Well, yeah, it!s evolved. Aldo Leopold and show what their concepts were, and we!re up to that now. We hope we!re there and looking forward for sure. Speaker: Do you see Leopold and Carson as being similar in some ways in their philosophies? Shirley Briggs: In every way, I would say, that they are the ones who expressed that, yes, I guess, yeah. They were the Bibles, I thought that we have. Speaker: Let me ask you, Shirley, we!re talking about icons of the environmental movement and the conservation movement. Did you have any inkling at the time you were working with Rachel Carson and then up until Silent Spring that she is going to be considered a patron saint in conservation, that my personal friend here is really not only going to leave a legacy but is going to be regarded someday as a patron saint? I mean, how did fame, and she was getting a lot of fame in the time you knew her, a lot more since, but do you have any thoughts on the fame that surrounds Rachel Carson, and did you expect to... Shirley Briggs: Well <unclear> so she is who we refer to now, Leopold, Carson, a few others that kept up with the ideas and said them well, and this is how it evolved. Speaker: Did she or did you anticipate it, though? Shirley Briggs: Well, she had written Silent Spring, and after that, she obviously had said it for all of us. Speaker: It!s an interesting point though. We remember Leopold and Carson because, in part, they were such good writers. You can reread their books again and again and... Shirley Briggs: Yes, you mean someone who not only knows it but can say it... Speaker: Yeah. Shirley Briggs: ...from a persuasive way. Speaker: Can write it well. Do you think Carson learned any of that writing for the public while she worked with Fish and Wildlife, while you guys worked together? Did she get practice... Shirley Briggs: Well, that!s where she was working, at Wildlife. How do you design and write these standard government publications so that they will be believed by the public. She learned a lot of that by editing all the reports in the Fish and Wildlife Service. She was editor in chief, and my job was when she came upon a particularly ridiculous sentence, she!d draw a picture of it, cartoons. I should have brought along a little book I have, the cartoons I drew of Rachel and me through some of this. I drew it just to let my mother know what was going on, but I do have these, we would go out in the fields somewhere, and doggone it, by the time we got back, Rachel was still neat as a pin, and I looked like the dickens. This was typical, and going out doing the job <unclear> and so on. I keep thinking maybe I ought to do something with them. A little descriptive writing of what it looked like, and there we are coming back from something. Speaker: I!ve seen a few of the cartoons in Linda!s book. Shirley Briggs: I guess she did pick up a couple. Speaker: Yeah, they!re beautiful. I mean, you know, it!d be wonderful if you published just a tiny thing of those cartoons. Shirley Briggs: How would I do that? Who would want to publish it? Speaker: Fish and Wildlife. Luckily, we have our editor from the publishing... Shirley Briggs: He should have wore a sticker. Speaker: David Klinger. Speaker: Yeah, maybe I could do it for you. Speaker: Do you want to collaborate on something? Shirley Briggs: Why not? I don!t seem to be getting it done myself. Speaker: But I really think you are on this, writing well preserves you in people!s memory and it has a big effect. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: It goes in with you saying she synthesized the science and saw the whole picture. Shirley Briggs: Which ones did Linda pick up? I!ve forgotten. Speaker: I think one was from Chincoteague, actually. Shirley Briggs: What? Speaker: There was a cartoon of going through a dumpster or a trash can. What was that? Shirley Briggs: Well, when Rachel was down at Myrtle Beach or somewhere, she would collect stuff and then she would try to, if it was still alive, put it back, or if not, sneak out to the municipal garbage can late at night and hide the smelly remains. Speaker: Here!s the two pictures that were in the, the two cartoons. Shirley Briggs: No, Rachel!s sunburned terribly, that!s what this one is, and there we are coming back wherever we were staying at Chincoteague, and Rachel!s neat as a pin, and I look pretty soggy. Speaker: How did she stay so neat while you got soggy? Shirley Briggs: Hmm? Speaker: Did she have a trick for staying so neat? Shirley Briggs: She just was neat. I don!t know how she did it. I used to watch her and, yeah, those are the only cartoons that they, Linda did a remarkable job on that book, I must say. Speaker: Do you think she really caught the essence? Shirley Briggs: Hmm? Speaker: Did she leave anything out about Rachel that you would like to add? Shirley Briggs: I don!t think so. Not that I could tell her. She was quizzing me all the time for several years but... Speaker: We!ve talked about Leopold. We!ve talked about Carson!s philosophy. How would you summarize your own environmental philosophy? Shirley Briggs: I believe what they did. I mean, they said it better, I suppose. Speaker: But what do you... Shirley Briggs: I like to think I!m in there camp, definitely. Speaker: Do you think people are coming around to their philosophy more now than in the past? Shirley Briggs: Some people. Yeah, I think they!ve had quite an effect over the years. Not as much as we would hope, but we still have the people like the <unclear> Chemical Company and so on trying to put their case. Speaker: It was one of the biggest critics of Carson, <unclear> was. They sent out that traveling show with Dr., what was it, White Stevens, would go out... Shirley Briggs: Oh, that awful man, but he was so awful that we rejoiced, because he was so much the <unclear> of the industry that we hoped people would recognize. He was terrible. Frank Edgar kept trying on the other side. Is he still around? I!m trying to think of people I can refer you to. They!re dead. Speaker: Was it discouraging having to deal with people like that on the other side? I mean did it get... Shirley Briggs: Some of them were so bad that we rejoiced that they were clearly seen as the other side, yeah. Speaker: You were with Fish and Wildlife for what, about three years, but yet you!ve stayed kind of in touch with the Agency. Shirley Briggs: With the Interior Department. This guy showed up and taken over my job at the end of the war, but I was still in the Department, and I was still working for various agencies if they had a project. Speaker: Through your life, you!ve kind of stayed in touch with your Fish and Wildlife colleagues and friends. Shirley Briggs: You know, until this year, we had a Fish and Wildlife retirees group that met for lunch once a month, but I haven!t heard from them this year. Speaker: Was that the group Jo Quinter.... Shirley Briggs: Who? Speaker: Jo Quinter, was she in that group? Shirley Briggs: I don!t remember that name. Speaker: She had told me about a group that used to meet for lunch. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: And it just fell apart. We!re setting that back up again. Shirley Briggs: Oh good, that was always fun. Speaker: Jo is spearheading it. She lives in McLean, Virginia, and we!re sending the retirees Fish and Wildlife News again, and we actually have a retiree reunion once a year now out at NCTC. So we!re trying to maintain these connections. Shirley Briggs: Well, there was still quite a few people in that group that went way back, and I was trying to find out what had happened to it. Speaker: So you!ve kept up with a number of those people through the years, Fish and Wildlife people. Shirley Briggs: Yeah, and that group especially, of course. They tended to go back to my time. Speaker: What made Fish and Wildlife people special? I mean, it!s... Shirley Briggs: Well, you know, are there other agencies that <unclear> or not? I don!t know anything about any others, but we were a group of people who shared concern and interest in conservation, environment, and what Interior is up to now, and all that sort of thing. I don!t know how to compare them with anyone else. But if you!re in touch with some revival there.... Speaker: I will have them contact you. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: Because I know exactly the group you!re talking about. Do you think we!ve done a good job, Fish and Wildlife, of carrying out Rachel!s legacy? Shirley Briggs: Best they could. They have the same problems she had, I guess, of the, reaching the public. Speaker: What do you feel most proud of in the career that you had and the work that you!ve done? What would you consider your greatest contribution? Shirley Briggs: I!m not sure I had one. I just kept pegging away at this sort of thing as occasion permitted. That Basic Guide to Pesticide was the thing I worked on most recently, and I have kept up with that toxicology through the years. That!s been the main thing I guess. Speaker: Was that subject difficult for you, because you were trained in art, right? You weren!t... Shirley Briggs: You seem to think people just do one thing, hogwash. I was brought up for a broad based education. I grew up in a University. I recommend this. Whatever a kid is interested in, there!s some expert on the fact that will take him out and show him the mother flies or whatever. My father was a professor of political science, in which I have a great interest, too. If you can do some drawing on the side, that doesn!t mean that!s all you!re interested in. You have to have a focus and a subject. Speaker: That!s an interesting point. Do you think having an interest in art, though, also caused you to see things in a different way, to see nature differently, to see science differently? Shirley Briggs: Well, I suppose you do. That gives you an angle, but how different, I don!t know. Speaker: Your expertise, though, in chemistry and toxicology and contaminants, did that develop... Shirley Briggs: I should have taken more chemistry, looking back. I also should have learned Japanese but I... Speaker: Did you draw on that, though? From your relationship with Rachel Carson, do you think your knowledge in that area was increased, or did you just... Shirley Briggs: Well, I think so. She was, of course had edited all the original research on that and was very concerned about it, yeah. Speaker: In one way you followed Carson, though. I mean, because her expertise was marine biology, and then she made herself expert on toxicology, and it was the same with you. I mean you... Shirley Briggs: Yes, I didn!t study it in college, but it was something that mainly effected the things I was working on. I could have brought along a copy of Basic Guide to Pesticides and showed you but I... Speaker: Next time we!ll bring along a copy and have you sign it. Shirley Briggs: What? Speaker: Next time we!ll bring along a copy of the book and ask you to sign it, and then we!ll put it back in our library. Shirley Briggs: Fine, you have it. ...things lately. I was reading some of her Emily Dickinson connections. Speaker: This is the woman who was Emily Dickinson!s editor first? What was she, was she the first editor of the Dickinson papers? Shirley Briggs: Well, her mother was the first one to get any of the poems published, and she knew all about this. Speaker: She had a huge house and refuge on some island in the... Speaker: Oh, this is Millicent Todd Bingham. Speaker: Yeah, right. Speaker: Yeah, the Audubon camp at which I worked at in Maine on Hog Island. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: Where did you and Rachel go to see here? It wasn!t at Hog Island, it was down... Shirley Briggs: Well, she lived here. Speaker: Yeah, okay. So that!s what we want to talk about. But you went to some place on the eastern shore. Shirley Briggs: Did she? Speaker: Well, I have pictures, and it wasn!t... Shirley Briggs: Not on the eastern shore. Speaker: Okay, well then... Shirley Briggs: Maine. Speaker: Was it Hog Island then? Shirley Briggs: It was Boothbay. Speaker: Was she on the board of the Audubon ever? Shirley Briggs: Always, she went way back. I picked up recently a couple of her books based on the Dickinson business, Emily Dickinson!s home and the other one. So I!m much reminded of Mrs. Bingham. She was, and her husband, too, was extremely nice, scientist and <unclear> amazingly. Speaker: Yeah, I!ve read a little biography of her, and she was a fascinating person and all the work they did in Maine and how that camp was established. Shirley Briggs: What biography? Speaker: Well, it was a little, actually a little write up of how her property there in Maine, the Hog Island property got deeded over to the camp and got established in the 1930's. Shirley Briggs: Yes, she kept trying to find someone that would do that sort of thing with it. Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Well, I was just up there a couple, a year or two ago. It!s still going strong. It!s a wonderful place. Shirley, could you tell us a little bit about doing some of the birding with Rachel and Christmas counts? Shirley Briggs: Well, we were out on our own some, but we <unclear> with the local groups who did this systematically, and the important thing in this is to keep the records year after year after year in a consistent way. So we got involved with the Audubon Naturalist Society principally, and until I got so I couldn!t hear the higher notes, I used to keep up with that. I!m not so good at it anymore, either on the higher notes of the birds or the steeper slopes of the park, but I did it for a long time, and people are going on with it, of course. Speaker: People said you were a very good birder. Did that effect how you observed natural at all, your birding? Shirley Briggs: I!m not that bad as a botanist either, I like to think. That I had studied in college to some extent. I just knew people when I looked for birds, and my, both my parents had had a course in ornithology in college, for heaven!s sake, so this wasn!t anything I picked up. That!s what you did. Speaker: You said you drifted into the National Audubon Society, you worked with them. Do you have any remembrances of Howard Zahnizer? Shirley Briggs: Oh, Zahnie. There was a splendid person. Yeah, I met one of the best people in that group. He was just a splendid person and was, of course, working on the sort of things we all thought were important. Speaker: What were some of these things that Zahnie was working on? Shirley Briggs: Preserving the records of the, and noticing what was happening in the wilderness areas and so on. What do you know about Zahnie? Speaker: Well, he worked for Fish and Wildlife, so he was a... Shirley Briggs: That!s right. Speaker: Did you <unclear> actions with him? Was he still in the Agency when you worked for us? Shirley Briggs: Hmm? Speaker: was Zahnie still in Fish and Wildlife when you were working for us? Shirley Briggs: I don!t remember. I knew him, whether from the office or some of these other outfits. Speaker: Roger Torrey Peterson was also active in the National Audubon Society. Shirley Briggs: Old <unclear>, yes. I miss him. I used to be able to write and ask him questions down there. Who was it, I was reading something that somebody had, a cat or something named, that they named Rajah Torrey Peterson in honor of Roger. But yeah, he was very active in all of this. Speaker: Any other folks from the National Audubon Society you remember as friends? Shirley Briggs: Now there are different things here. National Audubon is a crew up in New York City. It is not the Audubon Naturalist Society. They!re not connected or were ever. Speaker: What about the Audubon Naturalist Society? Shirley Briggs: That is in this region, yeah, and it goes back to 1895, which predates the crew up in New York, so we were proud of that. It was just a good, effective regional group that everybody belonged to and worked with. Speaker: Do you remember some of the fights you had in that group, what you fought for in the environment? Shirley Briggs: There you go, it!s always a fight or a struggle. Some things just evolve, you know. I don!t remember any particular fight. Did something come to mind? Speaker: Fighting for habitat or against roads or anything that... Shirley Briggs: Well, that road down <unclear> we all rose up about, but I don!t know that we were so much into lobbying and worrying about legislation, but if there was... Speaker: Island Beach, Shirley, tell them about Island Beach. This fits right in. Do you remember when you and Rachel went down to Island Beach off the coast off... Shirley Briggs: Well, that!s the Barrier Island. Speaker: Barrier Island, and you were both interested in trying to, Rachel got interested in trying to save it. It was in private hands. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: This was the time when they were going to ruin, take over those islands, and Rachel wrote a piece about it. Shirley Briggs: Yeah, well we went over there and explored it. Speaker: Yeah, but remember there was a hurricane that came and you had to get out of there real fast. Shirley Briggs: Yes, Rachel kind of regretted that. She!d always wanted to be in a hurricane and see what it was like, but we didn!t want <unclear>. Later sometime, a hurricane came through Boothbay Harbor somewhere, and she decided she had had more than enough of that, but this illustrates her curiosity and interest in natural phenomenon, I guess. Speaker: Did you travel with Rachel in Maine at like Boothbay Harbor and so on? Shirley Briggs: Well, yeah, I used to like to get up there whenever I could. This was one of my favorite places, too. Speaker: Why did you and Rachel love Maine so much? What was special about Maine, because she obviously cared about it? Shirley Briggs: Ever been there? Speaker: Oh, yeah. Shirley Briggs: Well, then how do you think it!s special? Speaker: Well you know, I love Acadia National Park and the seashore and so on, but I!m curious about what attracted... Shirley Briggs: Well, it was a fascinating part of the shore. Rachel wrote a whole book on the seashore, one of her best, and it was. We just both liked it there. You can!t go into all the reasons why you like a place just off hand usually. Speaker: What did you used to do with her? What were your common activities when you were on the road with her, say, in Maine? Shirley Briggs: She kept trying to teach me how to play... Speaker: Pinochle. Shirley Briggs: Yeah, and she never managed very well. I never got any good at pinochle. Speaker: So if you didn!t play pinochle, what did you do in the evenings? Did you talk, have tea, star watch? What were some of the, did you spend a lot of time actually doing natural history type things? Shirley Briggs: Well, I suppose so. It!s a very interesting place, you go out and notice. Speaker: Now, were you gathering material for your art when you went on these field trips? Did you sketch? Shirley Briggs: No. Speaker: You didn!t sketch? Shirley Briggs: You!ve got a phobia about this art thing. That!s a side issue. It!s something you do if you!re doing illustrations or something. It!s not that you go out looking for something to draw especially, unless you have a purpose. Speaker: Tell me about your diaries that you!ve kept. Shirley Briggs: Well, I just have kept one. It!s not one of these where you philosophize. I just found it useful in having a poor memory, to jot down when things happened, and that!s what Linda kept pestering about all the time she was writing the book. Sometimes I just noted this happened, these people were there or something. Speaker: When Carson passed on, did you look back in your diary just out of curiosity just to see... Shirley Briggs: <Unclear> to do that. Speaker: Tell me about your interest in photography. Shirley Briggs: Well, I just always did it. My father always did it. We had a darkroom in the basement. Started out with a brownie and worked up. I now have some rather fancy equipment, but I haven!t been using it much lately. This is just something that was done. Most of these things just was a family interest or whatever. Speaker: Did you take a lot of pictures of Rachel Carson? Shirley Briggs: I seem to have the only collection of them. That!s what I do nowadays, I answer requests. What do I have of Rachel Carson? I!ve got a little catalog of photocopies that are not terribly good photographic quality, but you can tell whether she!s outdoors or in or something. I guess that!s my main contribution to the cause is the <unclear> I have of the pictures, largely because I had taken quite a few of them, and some people have given me them, and I have got copy negatives of all of them so I can get prints made. I have given up keeping my darkroom in the basement all fired up. That!s too much bother. I just take them down the street to somewhere and they can print, but I can do all the darkroom stuff if I got that ambitious, I guess. Speaker: Do you have a favorite picture of Rachel? Shirley Briggs: What? Speaker: Do you have a favorite picture of Rachel out of your whole collection, one you think is particularly nice? Shirley Briggs: Well, it depends on whether you want it indoors or out, old or young. I!ve got an awfully nice one of her about five years old. It was one of the family negatives that I guess her brother or somebody came up with. Her brother!s a character. I guess he!s gone now, too. I forget, I!ve lost it. Speaker: What about any shots on trips you and Rachel took together? Do you have any pictures you really liked from those times? Shirley Briggs: I don!t remember. Some, I guess. I!ve got... ...Rachel and Buckle who was the refuge manager down at Chincoteague. Now she!s certainly long gone. Speaker: Kay Howell. Shirley Briggs: She!s still there out in Salt Lake City, the last I called. Speaker: Do you think she!d be a good person for us to interview? Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: Why? Shirley Briggs: She was involved with all of this. She!s good looking or always was. She!d come out well. She!s positive. Speaker: What are your memories of the three of you working together? Were you kind of a tight knit bunch? Shirley Briggs: Well, we were in adjoining offices and Burt Walford and so on. We would, I think this business we did in the closet heating water for afternoon tea was illegal, actually, but we did it. We just, twice a day or so, we would get together and compare notes. Speaker: What would you talk about over your tea? Shirley Briggs: Everything, what was going on in the office or outside. I told you there were more parties going on, which Kay was always kind of involved. At least the last time I tried to call her, there was still Mary Francis Howell, who I think shared an apartment with Kay or something. She might remember some of this, I don!t know. She was still around, at least. Speaker: You!ve had a really diverse career, you!ve done a lot of things, you!ve got a lot of... Shirley Briggs: Scatter brained. Speaker: Well, that would be one way of characterizing it, but I look at you and I say, there!s a real renaissance woman who!s done a lot of things and a lot of interests. What kept you going through the years? Tell me a little bit more about how these diverse interests, how you!ve made... Shirley Briggs: Well, life is more interesting if you!re involved in more things. Haven!t you found that to be true? Speaker: Absolutely, but I!m overwhelmed by the things, the interests that you have and the things that you!ve developed on your own. Shirley Briggs: Well, I think I was brought up, I say, if you grow up in the University, you!re aware of a range of stuff. Speaker: So you really do credit your family and your early years with sparking all these different interests? Shirley Briggs: Well, I suppose. Isn!t that true of anybody often? Speaker: Is there one thing you always had a strong passion for throughout your life? Shirley Briggs: I!m a little leery of that word passion. I think we!ve touched on most everything. Speaker: Sounds like a good place to end, and let us thank you very much, Shirley, for agreeing to talk to us, and we really appreciate your insights. Shirley Briggs: Do look up those retirees for heaven!s sake. Speaker: I will get that information. Shirley Briggs: There was so, I don!t know who was still around. Bob Hines used to come. He was one you should have talked to. Speaker: Tell us about Bob. Shirley Briggs: Well, he materialized from, they found him out in Ohio or something. I!m going to sneeze. Speaker: Bless you. Shirley Briggs: I guess that will do something to the soundtrack. Anyway, he showed up and proved to be thoroughly compatible. He was under Rachel for as long as they both were there, I guess. I miss Bob. He was fun, but he could have told you quite a bit about Rachel, no doubt, but he!s gone, too. Speaker: You and Bob shared a passion for or a liking for photography, right? He took lots of pictures, my understanding is when he was in the Fish and Wildlife Service. Shirley Briggs: Well, maybe some, yeah, and he, of course, maintained a marvelous file of drawings in everything. If you needed this duck or that moose or something. Speaker: What did you think of his art and did you... Shirley Briggs: Hmm? Speaker: What did you think of his artwork, and did you all collaborate on things or has one... Shirley Briggs: No, I wasn!t in <unclear>. Speaker: But as one artist to another, did you all ever talk shop? Shirley Briggs: Well, he, I would say the work he did, not an inspired visionary artist, just a good everyday, get the stuff out that somebody wants. Speaker: I always ask this question in every interview I do with former Fish and Wildlife employees like yourself. What advise would you give to people entering Fish and Wildlife Service, new employees who are just starting their careers? You!ve had a long and varied career. Do you have any advise for people who are getting started? Shirley Briggs: Well, they will all have listened to this excellent tape they!ve got now. Speaker: I didn!t prompt, I didn!t pay you for that endorsement. I!ll let the record... Shirley Briggs: Well, very sensible, if they focused on it, this is what new people need to know, and they did a good job. Speaker: Do you have any personal advise you!d give from your experience in government and in other jobs that you!ve had? What do you say to somebody like your students in your conservation classes who were kind of getting into this business? Shirley Briggs: Well they may already be in, they come from various agencies and interests. Speaker: Any advise? Shirley Briggs: Just find out what!s going on and really see how their ideas jive, I guess. Every now and then I get someone who!s work leads them into this or who ought to find a job that would be into it, and I, of course, don!t know what all the jobs are anymore. Speaker: What!s the best advise you ever got in your career? Shirley Briggs: That is one of these utterly impossible questions to ask. Speaker: Nothing!s... Shirley Briggs: It!s too vague and general. Speaker: Well, did you have a role model in your career in the government or in your career in art? Did you pattern yourself after anyone or look up to anyone? Shirley Briggs: Not anyone, no. I don!t think people do that, do you? Speaker: Well, I think everyone!s different. Shirley Briggs: Yeah. Speaker: Was there anyone in particular you looked up to for guidance as a young employee? Shirley Briggs: Well, Clarence Cottom was around, Rachel was around. I don!t know, depending on what came up. Speaker: Did you have a job that was your favorite? Shirley Briggs: I don!t know, and then there was, I forget names now. Who was head of Fish and Wildlife in those days? Speaker: Was it Day? Shirley Briggs: Looked like a grizzly bear. Speaker: Albert Day? Shirley Briggs: He didn!t look like a grizzly bear. Speaker: No, Al Day didn!t. Speaker: Prior to Al Day, in the late "40's, it wasn!t Gabrielson? Shirley Briggs: Yes, Gabe. Speaker: Tell us about Isaac Gabrielson. Shirley Briggs: Both my folks had been in college with him. We figured hew as probably, of all the graduates at Morningside College, he was the most, what!s the word I!m, he!s more dirty language. The rest of them were quite proper. No, he was a marvelous character. I enjoyed knowing him. Speaker: What did you like especially about him? Shirley Briggs: I think more than anyone else, he looked like a grizzly bear. But no, he knew the field, and he was very articulate and active, vivid in his commentary. Speaker: He took an interest in what you folks were doing with publications and so on? Shirley Briggs: Yes, but we took an interest in what he was doing with the whole outfit. That!s the main way it went. Speaker: Thank you so much, Shirley. We really appreciate this. Shirley Briggs: I hope I haven!t led you astray. Speaker: You have not, clarified very much of our history, and we just appreciate your time, and we thank you so much for this. Shirley Briggs: I!ve got a lot of time. Speaker: I!m glad you loaned us a little of it.
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|Shirley Briggs oral history transcript
Interview with Shirley Briggs.
Ms. Briggs discusses her background in art, her relationship with Rachel Carson, what exactly an Information Specialist was, and the National Audubon Society.
Organization: FWS
Name: Shirley Briggs
Years: 1945-1948
Program: External Affairs
Keywords: Employee, Biologist, Art, Work of the Service
Employees (USFWS)
Biologists (USFWS)
Environmental quality
|U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
|Date of Original
|Item ID
NCTC Archives Museum
|Public domain
|File Size
|51 p.
Interview with Shirley Briggs
...interesting and some which you may find less useful, and we!ll just go through this.
Shirley Briggs:
You sent me something on what might come up and it struck me as questions that
were unanswerable in most cases.
Well, then just tell me, and we!ll go on. But really, the questions I!m going to ask
you, we just want to know more about your career, the three years you worked with
us and Fish and Wildlife, what you went on to do, and then just...
Shirley Briggs:
Well, I was in the Department of the Interior.
Yes, yes.
Shirley Briggs:
And I could tell you something about the Bureau of Reclamation.
We!d like to hear all of that.
Shirley Briggs:
Other outfits I dealt with there.
Great, but we!ll ask you those, and just try and get a sense of the time and to your
important conservation work and contributions. Does that sound reasonable?
Shirley Briggs:
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Faculty Position Available: Human Population Genetics
GRADUATE ALUMNI: Please use this link Graduate Alumni Data BASE to provide us your contact information, and a short biography of what you are doing now with your biology degree. This site was established for an all-day celebration of our 50 years of the Biology Doctoral program, held in early October, hence many elements are no longer applicable.
The mission of the Department of Biology at Indiana State University is to nurture the academic potential of every student, advance knowledge through quality research, and serve the university and broader communities. Through experiential learning both within and outside the classroom, we motivate our students to become critically thinking, informed citizens with a heightened interest in science. Through one-on-one mentoring, we engage both undergraduate and graduate students in the excitement and challenge of original research. Through research and outreach education, we make valuable contributions at both local and national scales to the scientific community and the well-being of the general public.
Drawing upon its strengths in teaching and research, the Department of Biology at Indiana State will be recognized across the state for high-quality and innovative undergraduate biology curricula that serve all of its students, majors and non-majors alike. These curricula will enhances student success and provide excellent preparation for employment and post-graduate studies, as well as preparing a biologically and scientifically literate citizenry. The Department will offer high-quality graduate programs, including state and nationally recognized doctoral and masters programs, that contribute to high-quality undergraduate experiences. Its undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in a variety of excellent and unique experiential learning opportunities and one-on-one mentoring. The department will obtain the needed extramural funding and internal resources to support these experiential learning opportunities for students, as well as the scholarly endeavors of its faculty. The Department will provide faculty, staff, and students with meaningful opportunities in applied research and community outreach and engagement. The Department will develop and enhance its centers, which will be recognized nationally and internationally for research, undergraduate and graduate training, and outreach.

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Jessica Flakne (left) and Kate Morris helped Radcliffe make the varsity eight final (photo courtesy David Silverman).
SAN DIEGO—Both of the Radcliffe heavyweight crew's entries in the San Diego Crew Classic advanced to their respective finals on the opening day of racing Saturday on Mission Bay.
The No. 14 Black and White varsity eight placed third in its heat, edging UC Davis for a spot in Sunday's final for the Jessop-Whittier Cup, to be held at 9:15 a.m. Pacific. In the second varsity competition for the Jackie Ann Stitt Hungness Trophy, Radcliffe cruised to a second-place finish and will race in the final at 9:40 a.m. Sunday.
No. 10 Southern California won Radcliffe's varsity eight heat, while the other three teams battled for the two remaining spots in the final. All three were separated by less than one second, as Grand Valley crossed the finish line in 6:49.04, followed by the Black and White in 6:59.45 and UC Davis in 6:59.52. No. 3 Virginia, No. 16 Washington State and UCLA advanced from the other Jessop-Whittier heat.
The racing was not as close in the second varsity eight. Radcliffe finished in 7:13.78, finishing behind Washington State and a comfortable 11 seconds ahead of Tulsa. San Diego State and Loyola also competed in Radcliffe's heat. The Black and White and Cougars will be joined in the second varsity final by Southern California, UCLA and two boats from Virginia.
Jessop-Whittier Cup (Varsity Eight)
Heat A
Virginia 6:39.0
Washington State 6:44.0
Villanova 7:17.22
Heat B
Southern California 6:44.23
Grand Valley 6:59.04
Radcliffe 6:59.45
UC Davis 6:59.52
Jackie Ann Stitt Hungness Trophy (Second Varsity
Heat A
Virginia B 6:56.41
Southern California 6:56.72
Sacramento State 7:15.94
UC Davis 7:30.47
Kansas State 7:36.97
Heat B
Virginia A 7:02.8
Southern Methodist 7:22.89
San Diego 7:23.81
Oklahoma 7:26.55
Heat C
Washington State 7:06.50
Radcliffe 7:13.78
Tulsa 7:24.93
San Diego State 7:33.10
Loyola 7:41.71
Radcliffe Lineups
Varsity Eight
Cox: Jill Carlson, 8: Chrlstine Baugh, 7: Olivia Coffey, 6: Laura Huppert, 5: Mary Maginnis, 4: Tara Larson, 3: Meg Kehan, 2: Jessica Flakne, 1: Kate Morris
Second Varsity Eight
Cox: Rachel Rauh, 8: Celia Kohl, 7: Michaela Pewarski, 6: Katie O'Hanlon, 5: Ariel Delgado, 4: Shelley Pearson, 3: Liz Soutter, 2: Molly Tarrant, 1: Rachel Knaster


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Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp claims he is not worried by fresh reports linking star striker Robert Lewandowski with Manchester United.
It has been claimed that the prolific Poland international will join the Barclays Premier League club in a £12million deal at the end of the season. It is suggested the price for the 24-year-old would be relatively cheap as he would be out of contract the following summer.
Klopp did not say it would not happen, but feels German football clubs are now in a much stronger position to resist overtures from their wealthy Premier League counterparts. Klopp said: "I've no idea (about this). I'm not afraid he is going to be leaving us."
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2012, All Rights Reserved.
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To the Editor:
I, along with the Community Affairs Committee and the village of Johnsburg, would like to acknowledge another Eagle Scout from our community who did an exceptional job with his Eagle Scout project.
Adam Kottke, from Scout unit 455, completed his Eagle Scout project at Alfred J. May Park and Boat Launch late this summer. His project consisted of restoration of parking and boat launch railings, refurbishing a park bench and picnic table, cleaning of the concrete patio, cleaning, rust-proofing and painting the grill, and general beautification with planting.
Because of Adam's workmanship, determination and outstanding leadership, the Alfred J. May Park and Boat Launch has been restored from the damage done by graffiti and vandalism to a more aesthetically beautiful park for the entire community of Johnsburg to enjoy fishing, boating or watching life on the river.
I would like to take this time to thank Adam, his volunteers, Scout Unit 455 and its leaders for all that they have contributed to the village of Johnsburg. It is truly appreciated.
Janice Sisk
Johnsburg village trustee


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2012-12-05 / Events & Calendar
Retired Senior Volunteer Program needs help
If you are 55 or older and have free time, you can help your community by volunteering. At the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), dozens of volunteer opportunities are offered by partnering with local not-for-profits that rely on volunteers for delivering their mission and programs. From environmental centers to soup kitchens, there is something to match your interest and skills.
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Oakton Station, located at Oakton Street and Skokie Boulevard, is the now the second stop on the Yellow Line between Howard and Skokie terminal. The new station has an island platform with a canopy accommodating a four-car train. And like all CTA stations today, it is equipped with state-of-the art security cameras and includes customer amenities such as eight digital message boards, customer assistance call buttons, heaters, benches, enhanced lighting, an information kiosk and bike racks at both entrances at Oakton and Searle Parkway.
In addition, there are a number of accessible features in accordance with the American with Disabilities Act, such as two accessible entrances at Oakton and Searle Parkway, wheelchair-accessible turnstiles, braille signs and an announcement system.
Oakton Station not only provides service for those in Skokie, it expands the existing network of CTA service for all customers and provides the potential to attract new ridership. Currently, the Yellow Line, which runs between the Dempster-Skokie and Howard stations, provides more than 5,000 rides each weekday and an average of more than 4,000 rides on weekends. Between 2010 and 2011, the Yellow Line added 13,000 additional riders, growing to an annual ridership of more than 1.5 million.
A Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Grant administered by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration provided $14 million and $6 million were provided by the Village of Skokie to fund the $20 million project.


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(CBS News) FORT BLISS, Tex. - The echoes of Mitt Romney's Republican National Convention speech appeared to be ringing in the ears of President Obama as he flew to Texas Friday.
The Obama campaign derided Romney's speech today as a series of "snarky lines about the president and gauzy reminiscences of the past." The president's visit to the military base was technically not a campaign stop, but it was still designed to turn the page from Tampa and showcase his role as commander in chief.
He came on stage to applause, a visit to mark the two-year anniversary of one of his foreign policy milestones, the end of the combat mission in Iraq.
Mr. Obama did not mention Gov. Romney by name, but he did challenge Romney's harsh assessment last night of his leadership abroad.
"If you hear anyone trying to say that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, don't you believe it, cause here's the truth: Our alliances have never been stronger," the president said.
Obama campaign officials rebuked Romney for failing to even mention the troops and veterans in his speech last night -- or the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The president laid out his criteria for future engagements.
"In a world of serious threats, I will never hesitate to use force to defend the United States of America or our interests," he said. "At the same time, I will only send you in to harm's way when it is absolutely necessary -- and when we do, we will give you the equipment and the clear mission and the smart strategy and the support back home that you need to get job done. We owe you that."
The president will spend this Labor Day weekend stumping in several battleground states, but the White House announced Friday that he is cutting short a visit to Ohio Monday so he can survey the devastation in the Gulf -- as Romney did today.


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(MCT) — MESA, Ariz. — Top prospect Javier Baez nearly took Dee Gordon's head off with a one-hop shot up the middle that glanced off the shortstop's glove in Wednesday's 11-7 loss to the Dodgers.
"I've probably seen balls hit as hard," manager Dale Sveum said. "But I don't think I've ever seen a ball hit harder. I was running from the on-deck circle from that ball. That was like balls Gary Sheffield used to hit."
Baez's bat speed has been mentioned in camp a few times, but even Tim Wilken, the longtime scouting director and current adviser to President Theo Epstein, was shaking his head afterward.
"If you hit the ball like that all the time, you're going to feel great," Baez said. "He was playing in and it was a short bounce so he had to make a choice."
The choice was to stick up his glove and hope to keep his head intact, which worked for Gordon.
Ticket date announced: The Cubs announced single game tickets will go on sale at 8 a.m. March 8 at Wrigley Field with online and phone sales following at 10 a.m.
This will be the final year the Cubs will give fans a chance to buy tickets at the ballpark before they go on sale online or over the phone, where service fees are added to the purchase.
"Once we get into the Wrigley Field restoration the ticket windows will be closed down," Cubs spokesman Julian Green said. "Obviously more people are going online to purchase tickets, so we'll make this the final one (at Wrigley). There are still old school die-hard fans who like the nostalgia of going to the ticket window. But those days are gone and more are moving toward the Internet."
The Cubs also are offering their annual pre-sale on March 6 on the team's website for a 20 percent premium, or a 15 percent premium for using MasterCard.
Leadoff conundrum: David DeJesus will remain the leadoff man against right-handers, but Sveum said Luis Valbuena eventually could develop into the role.
"Possibly, because he gives you great at-bats, he sees a lot of pitches, he can score first with a home run once in a while, he drives the ball," Sveum said. "But DeJesus is our leadoff hitter. There's no discrepancy there."
Sveum mentioned Dave Sappelt and Darwin Barney as possible leadoff men against lefties, if Sappelt makes the club.
Extra innings: Matt Garza passed some upper body strength tests and will begin throwing on Thursday. ... Ian Stewart was cleared to appear in the bunting tournament, but still hasn't swung a bat since his quad injury last week.


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I just wanted to share this video that has some great behind the scenes banter from Tony's appearance (TOMORROW Feb 14th on ABC- be sure to check your local listings) on Last Man Standing with actor Tim Allen:
Also- Tim Allen has been named the Grand Marshall of the Kobalt Tools 400 in Las Vegas. I couldn't THINK of a better grand marshall since Tim Allen's a self professed "car guy" and his iconic role on Home Improvement was Tim "the Toolman" Taylor! A perfect fit if you ask me!
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anyone know a way to do this? Basically return a query with the .xls information in it.
Hope you haven't given up on this, yet, sushi. I'm not around as often as I'd like to be.
If it doesn't HAVE to be CF reading directly from an XLS file (and IF there is a MS-SQL database involved), you can always import the data from XLS into an MS-SQL Server database, and access the data from the SQL server.
I know that MySQL has a built in ability to create XLS files from a database table; but I don't think the reverse is true. But it's been a while since I have worked with MySQL.
There are a few good third-party solutions out there for accessing data directly from an XLS file, if it HAS to be immediate or "on the fly" access. I don't think any of them are cheap or free, though. Just Google "ColdFusion AND Excel AND read", see if anything pops up.


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PEKIN, Ill. -- A 19-year-old Tazewell County man has been convicted in the methadone deaths of two other men.
The Pekin Daily Times reports that Circuit Judge Kevin Galley on Thursday convicted Daughlton Calvin of two homicide counts for providing the prescription painkiller to the men, who died within a day of each other last May.
Nineteen-year-old Cody Schillinger of Morton and 22-year-old Travis Whiteman of Manito drank doses of methadone that Calvin allegedly stole from a woman with whom he lived.
The judge said Calvin also might have died if Schillinger had not raced him to a Peoria hospital when he showed overdose symptoms shortly after both ingested the drug.
Schillinger refused treatment.
Calvin faces up to 30 years in prison for each count at his June 11 sentencing.


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Debra K. Hague, 55
Debra K. Hague, 55, of St. Johns, died at 1 a.m. Thursday, July 18, 2013, at St. Rita's Medical Center, surrounded by her family.
She was born on July 2, 1958, in Coldwater, the daughter of Frederick Trafzer and Julietta (Kunk) Trafzer.
Her mother and stepfather, Julietta and Virgil Schwieterman, survive in Celina, and her father survives in Wapakoneta.
On July 21, 1979, she married Dennis A. Hague, and he survives.
Other survivors include two sons, Derrick Hague and fiancée Kristin Faulder of Wapakoneta and Dean A. Hague of St. Johns; a stepdaughter, Kimberly K. (Kenneth) Franco of Troy; two granddaughters; a stepgrandson; three sisters; two brothers; numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Bayliff and Eley Funeral Home, S.R. 501, Wapakoneta.
Burial of the cremated remains will follow in the Greenlawn Cemetery in Wapakoneta. The family will receive friends from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and one hour prior to the service Sunday at the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be directed to the family.
Condolences may be expressed at BayliffAndEleyFh.com.


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I was thrilled to get Baldwin. I knew I was going to leave cash on the table by making that pick, but didn't care. I'd rather have Baldwin than a more expensive player, with more innings. I didn't need the innings.
Posted by dougpalm on 11/12/2012 7:18:00 PM (view original):I switched my strategy about 12 rounds ago to taking Seward in the last round -- and I've been sweating it out ever since.
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TVG to Televise 2012 Cheltenham Festival, Jump Racing's Most Prestigious Event(March 09, 2012)
LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/09/12 -- TVG, America's Horseracing Network, will televise the four-day 2012 Cheltenham Festival, jump racing's most prestigious event, live from scenic Cheltenham Racecourse in England's idyllic Cotswold region, beginning next Tuesday. The Festival includes 28 events that feature the sport's leading horses, jockeys and trainers.
Post time for each day's first race will be 8:30 a.m. ET.
"The Cheltenham Festival is the Super Bowl of jump racing played out over four days," said Tony Allevato, TVG Executive Vice President. "We are excited to present all the action and drama of this unique equestrian event for our audience, many of whom might be experiencing it for the first time."
Highlighting the Cheltenham Festival is the Cheltenham Gold Cup, scheduled for Friday at 10:20 a.m. ET. Contested at a distance of 3 5/16 miles over a course that includes 22 fences, the race is expected to feature a matchup between defending champion Long Run and two-time (2007, '09) winner Kauto Star. Long Run, a 7-year-old, is ridden by Ruby Walsh, while Kauto Star, a 12-year-old, is guided by Sam Waley-Cohen, two of jump racing's most popular jockeys.
Each Cheltenham Festival day carries a theme. Things kick off on Tuesday with Champion Day; Wednesday's program is titled Ladies Day; Thursday's card is known as St. Patrick's Thursday; and Friday's action is appropriately named Cheltenham Gold Cup Day.
TVG account holders can wager on all Cheltenham Festival races by visiting www.TVG.com.
TVG, a subsidiary of Betfair Group Ltd, the premier e-gaming betting community, is among the most widely distributed horseracing networks in the world. TVG is one of the largest legal online gaming companies in the US, accepting over $600 million in wagers in 2010. The company has demonstrated its commitment to the racing industry, its owners, tracks and fans through sponsorship of several preeminent races including the TVG Breeders Cup Mile and the TVG Pacific Classic. TVG viewers in certain areas can wager interactively on races via telephone, the Internet, TVG Mobile or Interactive Television by establishing a wagering account online at www.tvg.com or by telephone at 1-888-PLAY-TVG.
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Governor Parnell Says Federal Decision Against Road Threatens King Cove Residents
February 5, 2013, Juneau, Alaska – Governor Sean Parnell expressed deep frustration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) selection of a "no action" alternative in the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the King Cove to Cold Bay access project.
"I cannot fathom why the Fish and Wildlife Service prioritized a perceived risk to birds over an existing threat to human life," Governor Parnell said. "After years of good faith efforts by the State of Alaska, the Alaska Legislature, the Aleutians East Borough, the City of King Cove, the King Cove Corporation, the Agdaagux Tribe, the Belkofski Tribe, and local residents to work with the federal government, the USFWS chose to deny King Cove residents access to basic services, like all-weather medical evacuation."
The road alternatives in the EIS require roughly 200 acres of federal land for a nine-mile road corridor to complete a 25-mile link between King Cove and Cold Bay. In a land exchange that depends on a road being built, the state and King Cove Corporation offered approximately 56,000 acres to be added to the Izembek and Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge.
The road alternatives would complete a 25-mile link between King Cove and Cold Bay's all-weather airport. The community of King Cove and the Aleutians East Borough have sought the road for many years as an alternative to a weather-dependent hovercraft. Operation of the hovercraft has proven very expensive and unreliable in bad weather. A road link is particularly important when residents of King Cove have medical emergencies and need to be evacuated by air ambulance.
"The weather in that region is some of the most dangerous in the world," Governor Parnell added. "The residents need and deserve a safe, reliable transportation option. A road will save lives, and is the only workable long-term solution."
The state urges the USFWS to reconsider the selection of the "no action" alternative before they complete the record of decision.


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by Doug
How am I keeping it together?
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She is accusing everyone of taking things when she can't find them. My Dad is chasing women in the nursing home and making derogatory comments to my Mom.
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There are other siblings in this area. But they do not get involved with taking care of their mother. I am disabled with Epilepsy so I cannot work or drive.
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I regret every day that I don't treat her better. But I'm so afraid of her judgmental remarks & criticisms, that I am always tense around her. It's how


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Probing Kilauea's Roots: Earthquake Study Discovers Deep Fault Zone Beneath the VolcanoUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
SOEST Outreach Specialist
Cecily Wolfe, (808) 956-6347
SOEST Assistant Professor
A 30-km deep active fault zone has been discovered beneath Kilauea volcano, according to a study published recently in the journal Science. A team led by Assistant Professor Cecily Wolfe of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa used earthquakes recorded by the USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory (HVO) to determine the existence of the 30-km fault zone, and other smaller, distinct fault zones.
"Kilauea is one of the best studied volcanoes in the world, yet scientists continue to discover new surprises about how the growing volcano affects the crust and upper mantle," says Wolfe.
The close association between the frequently erupting volcano and this newly discovered fault zone implies that the strain induced by the magma contributes to the tectonic faulting.
"Our new results significantly change the view of the volcano's deep structure: it was previously interpreted that deep mantle earthquakes beneath Kilauea outline the magma conduit, but our study shows instead that many of these earthquakes are from tectonic fault zones," says Wolfe. "These deep fault zones may reflect the combination of stresses from magma movement and from the loads of the volcanoes themselves, and they provide another clue for scientists seeking to understand Kilauea's mysteries."
Other researchers involved in the study are Paul G. Okubo from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and Peter M. Shearer from Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego.
For more information, visit: http://www.sciencemag.org


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Masa in the Media
Posted March 9, 2017By Andria Aylyarov ...if you're one of those people who thinks adulting is lame, but that quitting a full-time job to become an intern is insane, yet you still find yourself envious of those willing to give everything up, keep reading....
Posted March 9, 2017By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman Education Minister Naftali Bennett has pushed for smaller class sizes with more opportunities for one-on-one instruction.
Posted March 8, 2017BY AMY SARA CLARK Masa teaching fellows program set to double as demand increases.
Posted January 7, 2017By Rebecca Kopans Meet some of the many international students studying on Israeli campuses. They are here on a large variety of academic programs, many of which are in English. Some came for a single semester or year, while others made Aliya and are pursuing an entire degree. So what is it like to study in Israel far from home?


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From time to time, a copy or two or three of an item appears in my email.
From time to time, a copy or two or three of an item appears in my email.
The senders ran across it, found it interesting and forwarded it on to friends judged to share the same interests.
Some of those forwardings help fill the holes in this column, as the following, edited from recent emails, does:
"English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France.
"Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
"And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth?
"One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese? One index, two indices? ...you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
"If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
More: "How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? ... your house can burn up as it burns down ... you fill in a form by filling it out and ... an alarm goes off by going on." There was more. Later.
The list: So far, we have had good luck; our storms so far have swerved away or fizzled. But the 2013 hurricane season has lots of time left and so has the stormy alphabet. Next up is "Dorian," with names Erin and Ferdinand ready for attachment to storms which may come later.
If the quiet interval continues, try to find time to run through your evacuation plans, determining a route to your intended place of refuge which largely avoids predictable traffic jams.
I have recommended using a good, big map, and that is still wise, but don't wander into unknown territory in the middle of a storm crisis.
Find someone who has traveled your proposed route recently and get his advice, or make your own Sunday afternoon excursion, just for the experience.
Live! From the Hollywood Bowl-A-Rama, your favorite Le Petit Theatre de Terrebonne "nuns," in another delightful Nunsense musical, "Nunset Boulevard," runs through July 28 at the theater, 7829 Main St., Houma.
For reservations, visit www.houmalittletheatre.com or call the box office at 876-4278.
Musical note: If you hurry, there is time to take in the Summer Pops Concert of the South Louisiana Community Orchestra, scheduled for 3 p.m., today at Vandebilt High School, 209 S. Hollywood Road, Houma. Brad Adams will conduct, with Sarah Todd at the piano, and the Vandebilt band joining much of the performance.
Tickets cost $6 per person.
Bayou dance: Holy Family Assembly Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus' monthly fais-do-do is for Saturday at the club home, 5396 Shrimpers Row, Dulac. Meals cost $5 and are served at 5 p.m. Admission costs $2. Live music by Jean Bonvillain and the Playmates starts at 6 p.m.
Responding? Contact Bill Ellzey at 381-6256, email@example.com, email@example.com or c/o The Courier, P.O. Box 2717, Houma, LA 70361.


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My Training Camp Preview
2003 Saints Training Camp Preview
Well, Training Camp 2003 has just started and optimism is reigning supreme, but we have our first "issue�. Though DT Grady Jackson has shown up with his physical condition better than expected, our prize draft pick, DT Johnathan Sullivan is officially a contract holdout. It is believed that he is seeking an $11 million signing bonus while GM Mickey Loomis has offered $10 million. We will further discuss the defensive tackle situation later on in the preview. Right now, we will focus on the strongest part of the team.
Undoubtedly, the biggest question of the Saints offseason has been the health of QB Aaron Brooks. After surgery and extensive rehab, it appears that Brooks is as good as new and possibly better. Coach Haslett has even stated that he can hear the "whistle� in Aaron's throws. If there happens to be an unforeseen setback in Brooks' recovery, it appears that New Orleans have a safeguard in backup QB Todd Bouman. The former Minnesota caddie to Daunte Culpepper has been steady throughout the offseason and may have the strongest arm on the team. The coaching staff appears confident that should "AB� falter, Bouman is capable of leading the Saints to the playoffs. Barring New Orleans signing a veteran backup, J.T. O'Sullivan should start the season as the no. 3 quarterback.
Deuce McAllister is primed for a huge 2003 season. Without a severe high ankle sprain and a few questionable holding calls, Deuce may have accumulated 1600 yards and 20 touchdowns. There is no reason to believe that those numbers won't be within reach this season. While there are no questions about McAllister, should he go down, there are tons of questions as to who would fill his void. There have been mixed reports as to how the coaches feel about RB Curtis Keaton. He has the speed and explosion to be an adequate replacement but lacks the vision necessary to be a long-term remedy. Tavian Banks is coming back from a devastating knee injury. While he seems sharp in his movements, two plus years of rust may prove too much to shake before the start of the season. My favorite to win the backup job is former Mililani High and University of Hawaii RB James Fenderson. (And it has nothing to do with the fact that we went to High school together!) Fenderson has been a solid contributor on special teams and when given the opportunity, he has produced as the ball carrier. He is a north-south guy who simply keeps the chains moving and is now in his second year of recovery after also injuring his knee. It wouldn't surprise me if another RB were brought in to join the competition.
I don't ever recall the Saints having too many receivers but that appears to be the case. WR's Joe Horn, Donte Stallworth, Jerome Pathon, and Michael Lewis are locks to make the opening day roster but there will be strong competition from the rest of the group for the two remaining receiver spots. Second year Saint, Derrick Lewis, and draft picks, Kareem Kelly and Talman Gardner are the prime candidates for the final two positions but Arena Leaguers Will Pettis and Terrill Shaw will also give them a fight.
Through constant change, the Saints have managed to maintain a solid offensive line and it seems that nothing has changed this season. LT Wayne Gandy was brought in to replace the disgruntled and departed Kyle Turley. The only other change may be on the right tackle spot where a dedicated Victor Riley is pushing last year's starter, Spencer Folau for his job. LeCharles Bentley, Kendyl Jacox, and Jerry Fontenot remain intact and should excel in their second year together. Solid depth was added through the draft in tackle Jon Stinchcomb and OG Montrae Holland. P.J. Alexander and Scott Sanderson will have to battle to keep their spots.
With the surprise showing of Grady Jackson and the recent signing of former Titan Henry Ford, the Saints are prepared for an extended holdout by rookie Johnathan Sullivan. While they would prefer to have Sullivan in now, Ford gives them leverage in contract negotiations, even if only a little. DT Kenny Smith has been a demon in the offseason conditioning programs and may have earned himself a starting spot on the D-line. A healthy Darren Howard and a hungry Charles Grant provide New Orleans with two bookend DE's. Willie Whitehead and rookie Melvin Williams will back them up and help in providing a steady pass rush.
Expect two newcomers to see the field extensively when it's all said and done. Former Dolphin and New Orleans native, LB Derrick Rodgers, should lock up the starting WLB job by the second preseason game and rookie Buckeye Cie Grant may bee the starter at MLB by midseason. Grant simply has too much talent to ride the pine. Grant will start the season as a Chris Oldham rover-type but once he adjusts to the speed of the game, he will be a terror. This is a make or break year for Sedric Hodge. He has all the talent necessary and appears to be coming on in workouts but for some reason, it all hasn't added up. He should prove the critics wrong, including myself, after this season. Darrin Smith will provide leadership and the rest of the pack will provide depth.
Regardless of what Mel Kiper may think, the Saints have upgraded their secondary with FS Tebucky Jones and CB Ashley Ambrose. These acquisitions along with a steady Dale Carter and an emerging Fred Thomas should solidify the secondary and prove to be strength. Mel Mitchell is a speed upgrade over the departed Sammy Knight and Keyuo Craver will surprise. All in all, the defense should be solid and has the potential to be top-10.
Our strongest unit may be the special teams with Michael Lewis, Freddie McAfee, and Steve Gleason leading the way. John Carney was re-signed and P Mitch Berger was brought in to maintain stability to the kicking game. Al Everest may have his best squad yet and they should continue to be force in the league.
This concludes our Training Camp preview. Check back with Saints Revolution.com throughout the season for news articles and commentary.
My Training Camp Preview
With the offense and special teams requiring very little attention in the off-season, the coahing staff has had plenty of time to work on the defense.
It\'s no way to tell where they will finish this year, but I like the potential
[Edited on 27/7/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]
My Training Camp Preview
Great report SF, thanks. Keep us informed.
My Training Camp Preview
I also share your enthusiam for the upcoming season. I think every weakness on defense was addressed with an excellent or above average player. Some question marks still remain, but there are now several answers for each one of those questions. I\'m sure one of the answers will work. I no longer see a major weakness anywhere on defense, and only at back-up RB on offense.
However, I\'m sure someone will try to point one out very shorly...
My Training Camp Preview
I just read that Dale Carter was shutting everyone down in practice today. Including Stallworth and Horn.
My Training Camp Preview
where did you read that BC?
My Training Camp Preview
On another saints board. Someone\'s brother called him on his cell phone giving live updates. Also said Bouman looked good and Brooks missed on some long bombs but was accurate on the under 20 stuff.
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8 Reasons Why I'm Recommitting to Glee
Mar 24, 2014 10:18 PM EDT
It's not easy being a Gleek. At least, it wasn't earlier this season. Aside from the sudden and tragic death of star Cory Monteith, and the subsequent sudden and tragic death of his character Finn Hudson, the Fox musical comedy (Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox)… Read more


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Kamal Hassan starrer Tamil movie "Vishwaroopam", which focuses on international terrorism, has been withdrawn from cinemas in Malaysia following a directive from the home ministry, a media report said.
Penang Muslim League president Datuk Najmudeen Kadeer urged the National Film Development Corporation to review the film, saying "it portrayed Islam in a negative light", Star Online reported.
The film's distributor Lotus Fivestar AV said it was told to stop screening the movie Friday. The film opened Thursday to packed houses.
"We will refund those who purchased tickets through advance bookings, or allow them to use it for other films," company director Datuk R. Ramalingam said.
The film had been approved by the Censorship Board.
A few movie goers, however, said it was a fictional work and people should be given the opportunity to watch it and make up their own minds.
A few people who tried to buy tickets were disappointed with the ministry's decision.
"There has been so much publicity about the movie and I really wanted to see it," said A. Chandran. "I hope the government will reconsider."
"Vishwaroopam" was banned by the Tamil Nadu government when 25 Muslim organisations objected to the film on the ground that it portrays the community in bad light. The Madras High Court also restricted the film's release till Jan 28. A judge will see the movie and decided on its fate.