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Sector focus: Prospects are bright for European financials
Sector focus: Prospects are bright for European financials
Monetary stimulus, improved fiscal conditions, rising bank credit growth and consumer resilience across the eurozone is driving an acceleration in earnings momentum alongside greater bank capital generation.
Low equity valuations and attractive yields are highly supportive for returns. We are consequently taking a constructive view on the wider European financials sector with a preference for banks and real estate and selective exposure to insurance.
Bank lending to corporates is picking up
The low interest rate environment and a recovery in eurozone GDP is producing much improved corporate earnings momentum, driven by the falling oil price, associated currency tailwinds and a significant boost to consumer disposable income.
Interestingly, we note a rise in banking lending to corporates which we would expect to accelerate further in the coming quarters as indicated by several credit surveys.
This momentum is also driving a clear acceleration in mortgage demand, mainly thanks to refinancing with customers drawing the full benefit of lower rates. In addition to refinancing, it also seems that underlying household credit demand is picking up as lending restrictions ease.
With economic output rising across the eurozone we are now witnessing healthy domestic consumer growth (the improvement is especially evident in southern Europe).
Buoyant export markets, in part boosted by the weak euro/dollar, are allowing the former deficit countries in the eurozone to report clear current account surpluses, which has mitigated external funding shocks to the banking system.
With regards to Greece, the sovereign exposure now resides with the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank (ECB) which removes any direct private sector contagion, albeit the implications of any default would be severe for Greece and its banking system on its own, but largely irrelevant to the rest of the European economy. The ECB's €1.1 trillion quantitative easing (QE) programme is a very effective insurance backstop in this regard.
As bank funding costs decline, rising capital market revenues (including robust asset management flows and corporate investment banking) coupled with a peak in non-performing loan formation means bank net income is set to enjoy strong momentum. Our forecasts would indicate a return to record profits by 2017.
Valuations remain attractive
Turning our attention to valuations, it is noteworthy that European equities (and eurozone assets in particular) continue to be very attractively valued on CAPE (cyclical adjusted price to earnings) and yield metrics. In this context it is also worth highlighting that financials (banks + insurance + real estate) are currently trading at a material discount to the wider Europe ex UK market.
Banks' dividend yields are poised to rise
We have an overweight allocation to banks within our core European portfolios.
This reflects a view that whilst there are some regulatory uncertainties (for example arising as result of the ECB's drive for harmonisation of capital treatments across the eurozone, coupled with global regulatory drives to firm up on the consistency and prudence of risk weighted asset calculations) we consider that much of the sector is now more than adequately capitalised and, importantly, also strongly capital generative.
This should allow many banks to pay meaningful dividends in future. By way of example, the pan European banking sector trades on an estimated dividend yield of just over 3% for 2015, but by 2018 we expect this to rise to close to 6% (versus the market at 3%) as profitability improves and as pay-out ratios rise.
Given the strong probability of a sustained low interest rate backdrop, such yields are expected to be highly supportive to share price performance.
In addition, we see the macro backdrop as supportive with lending now beginning to recover and provisioning burdens falling.
First quarter results have highlighted these trends and our discussions with management teams indicate that these have accelerated into the second quarter.
Whilst sustained low interest rates do present a challenge to the generation of net interest income, it is important to note that banks in Europe typically have quite well-diversified revenue streams.
Indeed, on average, non-interest income accounts for over 40% of sector revenue with fee income (positively correlated with macro recovery) forming the vast majority (over two-thirds) of this.
Limiting our exposure to regulatory or revenue risk
Our bank holdings are concentrated in businesses that we see as attractively valued and not overly exposed to either further potential regulatory changes or the revenue threat posed by sustained near zero interest rates.
As an example, Intesa SanPaolo is without doubt the strongest bank in Italy with a capital position well ahead of peers (pan European as well as Italian) with strong gearing to improving credit quality, recovering credit demand and a surge in fee income (which comprises over 40% of revenues; growing at 15%).
We expect continued positive consensus EPS revisions and a highly attractive dividend pay-out (by 2018 the dividend yield should exceed 7%).
Insurers face regulatory uncertainty
Regarding insurers, we maintain an underweight allocation as regulation remains significantly uncertain.
The new EU capital rules for insurers, Solvency II, will be introduced from January 2016, but the final calibration of the rules remains unclear and may not be settled until late this year.
Meanwhile, the shift down to very low government bond yields in the first quarter of this year appears to have made regulators cautious, particularly around capital requirements for long-term guarantees.
There is much uncertainty, therefore, and this has driven the underperformance of insurance over the last three months.
We remain convinced that the major European insurers will be adequately capitalised under Solvency II, though we no longer expect a step up in dividend pay-outs across the sector once Solvency II is introduced.
Nevertheless, insurance remains one of the highest dividend paying sectors, and we do expect certain stocks – such as Aegon and Sampo – to increase pay-outs over the coming years.
Low long-term government bond yields present challenges for insurers that have historically offered policyholders long-term guaranteed returns.
These guarantees are common in Germany, Holland, Belgium and Norway, but are not found in France and the UK. The issue is exacerbated by Solvency II, which penalises duration mismatches between assets and liabilities.
In practice an insurer that has written long-term guarantees can do very little about prolonged low long-term bond yields.
Their strategy needs to be to write sufficient non-guaranteed business to generate the profits that will be needed to meet the future guaranteed payments.
We are confident that major European insurers including Aegon have sufficiently profitable non-guaranteed business to be able to deal with prolonged low yields – our concerns are with more concentrated insurers, which for the most part are in the non-quoted sector.
Insurance valuations are undemanding
The European insurance sector trades at 11x estimated 2016 operating earnings, and 1.1x estimated 2015 enterprise value for a 12% prospective return on enterprise value.
The estimated 2015 dividend yield for the sector is 4.6%. None of these multiples is particularly challenging, though the earnings growth trajectory is slow – we estimate just 4% annual EPS growth for the large European (ex-UK) insurers over the next four years (UK large cap insurers have higher growth).
Dutch group Aegon is one of the lowest valued European insurers on a 9x multiple of estimated 2016 earnings.
Over the last several years management has been taking steps to clean up its balance sheet, which had been over-leveraged and over-exposed to interest rate risk.
We believe this process is largely complete, but market confidence remains low, particularly in the wake of charges for mortality risk provisioning in 2014.
Under its Transamerica brand in the US, Aegon has built a market-leading employee retirement benefits product and administration platform that is seeing strong asset inflows.
We expect the market to focus more on this as confidence grows that the balance sheet issues have been addressed, allowing a re-rating.
Stocks mentioned are for illustrative purposes only and not a recommendation to buy or sell.
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Thursday, March 31, 2011
When reality mimics fiction ...
First, I apologize to loyal Criminal Minds readers for not posting earlier today. The problem is that I came home from Left Coast Crime to find that my house had been burgled and a lot of personal possessions have been stolen.
I'm in the process of fixing structural damage to the house, making it secure, cleaning up, taking inventory lists, working with the insurance company and police force, etc. etc. Thieves not only violate your life and steal your security and goods--they take your time and money after the crime has occurred.
So ... I've been replaying this week's question in my mind over and over. What if I'd been home? What if I could have caught them?
Here's what I know: I would not hesitate to use any weapon or object--a gun or knife or baseball bat or anything else handy--to defend my family. Intruders sacrifice the right to hesitancy when they break into a house. If I'd been home that night, I wouldn't have stopped swinging a bat until they were on the floor and incapacitated, were dead or had fled.
If the eternal question is "fight or flight", my response is almost always fight. By whatever means and however I can.
Thanks for reading Criminal Minds, and I hope you all stay safe out there ... and that the only crimes you encounter are fictional ones.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
There is a killer on the other side of my bathroom door…
By Tracy Kiely
You know, I really didn't budget time for this into my day.
Luckily, I am both a student of Jane Austen and Agatha Christie. However – and, God help me if the Janeites catch wind of this – let's face it; Jane Austen is going to be of little help here, unless the killer would like to engage in a bit of witty banter. No, it must be Dame Agatha to whom I turn to now; in particular, her creation, Hercule Poirot. Yes, the fussy little
So, let me put those little grey cells to work…
Let us first examine the scene. My bathroom. It is on the second floor. To leap out the window would mean almost certain death. It's a straight drop of about twenty-five feet. There are no weapons to speak of other than a cuticle scissors and eyebrow shaper. So unless an infliction of a nasty hangnail or uneven eyebrows can be used as a deterrent; the bathroom is weapon-free. There isn't any hairspray in there, as I keep that in the garage because it's great for getting sticky things off non-sticky things. And with three kids, our house has a lot of sticky things. Besides, if it does such a great job de-sticking stuff, God only knows what's in it and why on earth would I spray that into my hair? I digress. Back to the bathroom. There is no proper towel rack, only one of those round little numbers and we have a glass door instead of a shower curtain.
Now to employ those grey cells and arrive at the one logical solution: There is no possibility for escape and there are no weapons.
Excellent. It is just as I want.
For you see, like Dame Agatha, I like the twist at the end of the story. Gather into the drawing room and have a spot of tea while I explain.
There is a killer on the other side of my bathroom door. But, my dears, I never specified which side.
I am outside.
He is inside.
So, I push my bureau in front of the door and dial 911.
Order and method with a twist ala Dame Agatha.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Getting Flush With A Desperate Killer!
There's a desperate killer on the other side of my bathroom door! What do I do?
Well, first, I flush. Neatness counts.
Then, I snatch the Ty-D-Bol guy from his tiny motorboat, squeeze him through the keyhole, and have him drown the guy in that blue chemical stuff.
Which is why Rebecca should never take a day off and leave me in charge . . .
But more seriously, what would I do?
Well, first, I'd flush. I was quite serious about that. When the cops arrive, I'd hate for them to find an untidy bathroom. They have enough problems without adding my shit to their woes. Literally.
Then, the killer would be chopping through my door, splintering the wood like in a bad Hollywood movie! Fortunately, my house was built in the early 1960s, so the doors are solid and thick, not hollow and emasculated like American foreign policy in an age of weaklings.
Which gives me time to think, MacGuyver-like, about what to do. Hmm, what's in this tiny 1960s-era one-sink bathroom I could use to thwart yonder miscreant? Towels? No. They're too soft and fluffy. Washcloths? The same; I insist on Downy freshness when I launder, y'know.
Toilet paper? Well, it's store brand, so not too fluffy and soft. A possibility.
Medications? Only if the maniacal killer has a headache and needs an aspirin.
Shower head? Too small. Likewise soap dish and Kleenex dispenser.
Towel bar?
Towel bar!
I yank it from the Sheetrock with a mighty "Hooah!!" ruing all the work I'm gonna have to do to fix the mess, assuming I live long enough to make with the spackle and nails. The killer's ax is through the door, and the arms are coming. I rear back the shiny long bar as if aiming for the cheap seats, and let fly.
The killer springs back as if on a bungee, cursing and stomping. Comes back for another bite at the Shane apple. I rear back for another towering swat.
Crap. The towel bar was hollow, not solid like I'd thought when I bought the thing at Bed, Bath and Beyond. No wonder they went %^$# bankrupt. Or was that Linens 'n' Things? Who can remember? More important, my MacGuyver Towel Bar now lies on the tiled floor, as broken as my dreams of winning an Edgar or even a Rita for this essay. Now what?
I grab the toilet paper. Fling it through the hole. It bounces off the killer's face.
"Ow!" the killer cries. Well, of course it hurts; I can't afford Charmin or other cottony-soft brand names, for god's sake. I'm a writer!
But the stumble-back doesn't last long. The killer's hands are through the hole now, scrabbling and pinching as if lobsters on crack.
I look around. Spot a can of Aqua-Net. And a hair dryer. I plug in the dryer, let it whine till the heating element turns as red as a Chevy from Earl Scheib. I thrust it in front of the hair spray and push the nozzle.
"Woooosh!!" goes the aerosol, the heating element lighting the hair spray into a giant tongue of fiery global retribution.
"Ahhhh!" goes the killer scum, flying backwards onto my king-sized bed.
Whereupon I rip off my impossibly tight T-shirt and skinny jeans, shoulder my way through the splintered door, fly across the room as if Superman, and land square upon the killer . . .
"Hey, baby," she coos, wiggling like a puppy and moist with excitement.
"I'm glad you're home," I say, kissing her ruby lips tenderly while tipping my expensive leather cap, the only piece of clothing I'm still wearing. "Miss me?"
"Is the Pope Catholic?" she said, batting her long lashes.
"So he says," I say, batting mine.
"Was it good for you?" she says. "The whole man-sitting-on-toilet-and-crazed-killer-chops-the-door-and-you-counterattack-and-win-the-hot-babe thing, I mean?"
"Does a bear shit in the woods?" I exclaim, ripping off her sheer silken blouse with my impossibly white teeth.
"Roar, baby," she giggles, reaching for me as if I'm crack and heroin combined and she needs a fix because she was on an airplane in London but it got stuck on the tarmac for seven hours because somebody left a paper bag on the floor and it kinda looked like a bomb so the bobbies check it out and by the time they were done it starts thunder-storming so the flight was delayed more but finally it took off but there was a scary-looking bearded dude reaching for his shoe so his seat mate tackled him and the flight got diverted to Cleveland and the scary-looking dude was escorted off the plane (even though there was nothing in his shoe but shoe but you can't be too careful these days, Charlie) then the flight finally landed at O'Hare but the Customs guys had fallen asleep so she had to wait another hour and then finally caught a cab but it got caught up in traffic but finally she arrived and came through the front door I handcrafted from a single plank of teak wood from the remote jungle forest I planted thirty years ago when I was saving lives in darkest Africa and she saw the rose petals I meticulously stripped off the award-winning plants I grow myself in the back yard and scattered as a path to the bathroom and so she stripped off her outerwear and stepped into the sheer elegant nightwear I sewed especially for her that morning while she was stuck on the plane and then she grabbed the copper ax--which I forged on a brazier in my basement workshop--and headed for the bathroom door as part of the rich imagination play we like to indulge in when she returns from a lengthy overseas assignment as a deep-cover agent for the CIA, saving indigenous children from terror's wrath and Keeping America Safe for You and Me . . .
I said a killer was coming through my door.
But I meant a killer BODY.
And it's mine, baby, mine, every groan and whisper and nuzzle and yelp . . .
All right, I admit, I'm lying. I haven't fit in skinny jeans since I was quarterbacked the Team to the state championship in high school. The rest of it, though, especially the killer CIA babe wanting my bones so bad she shakes when she thinks about it too much, that's all certainly true.
And THAT'S why Rebecca should never, ever take a day off to attend a mystery book conference and let me fill in for her.
Cause I'll lie through my teeth to you, and call it fiction.
My German publisher, Weltbild, just released the translation of my second book, CUT TO THE BONE, in that country. The cover is below. I love foreign editions. Besides that it's just plain COOL to see words I wrote in languages I can't read, I get a kick out of seeing how art directors tailor the covers to their particular audiences. Though the psychological marketing significance of blood dripping off a tree leaf does make my brain work a week harder than usual . . .
When Shane Gericke isn't lying through his teeth to Rebecca Cantrell's precious readers, he's writing the bestselling Detective Emily Thompson crime series, the most recent of which, TORN APART, was named the best thriller of 2010 by Suspense Magazine, an honor that pleases the author no end, 'cause nobody really likes him very much. Check him out at www.shanegericke.com
Monday, March 28, 2011
There's a killer on the other side of my bathroom door? Unless there's a cop handcuffing him, I'm in deep doo-doo. You see, I don't have locks on my bathroom doors. So there's nothing stopping that killer from entering the bathroom and making me his next victim.
I suppose if he didn't know I was in the downstairs bathroom, I might be able to climb out the window to escape. Upstairs bathroom? You might as well start planning my funeral now. There are no windows in my upstairs bathroom.
My only other chance would be if I happened to have my cell phone in my pocket. Maybe I could call 911 and keep the killer from killing me until the cops arrived. Slim odds at best but better than no odds at all.
The more I think about today's topic, the more rattled I get. And you know what? I don't think I like playing this particular game. I quit. Someone else can have a turn.
Lois Winston is generally not a quitter, but when the odds are stacked against her, she'll high tail it out of Dodge. Visit her at www.loiswinston.com or her alter ego amateur sleuth at www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com .
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Two of Rickman's Biggest Fans!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Cowboy Bromance
-- by Gary
Writing about several characters this question of who any one of them might have a crush on gives me a bit of pause. Of course for the main male ones that's easier for me to answer than it is for my female protagonists. In two books and a short story, I wrote about the goings on of Martha Chainey, a six-foot, buffed ex-showgirl who is a cold cash courier for the buttoned-down mob in modern Vegas. I purposely eschewed having her involved with a man though there were a few hints and innocent flirtations here and there in her tales. But being under the gun as it were to answer, I imagine Martha would go against type and dig a self-possessed cat but not necessarily some ruggedly built dude.
That stated, and understanding she's something of an outlaw, I'd say she would have a crush on Nelson Mandela. Here was a man who stood on principal, fought for justice, paid the price, and came through it on the other side. It would be the best kind of crush, not mired in physicality – though in his younger days Mandela was a boxer – but the power of his intellect and his "beingness" is what would attract her. I could see her spending hours talking to him, discussing and maybe even arguing with him as to the nature of humanity and the long road of struggle we're still on as a species to either advance or blow ourselves up in the process. Even outlaws take time to reflect.
I also have this graphic novel coming out and I know some reading this think them funny books like Batman and Spider-Man don't exactly have a lot of depth of character, but folks might be surprised to know how much work goes into making this disposable entertainment. Anyway, the graphic novel is a mystery called Cowboys. It's about a tough, take-no-prisoners womanizing black undercover cop, his marriage on the skids, Deke Kotto (the panel here from the pages by the talented Brian Hurtt), who goes submarine on one end of a case. Meanwhile unbeknownst to each other or their bosses, a white FBI agent, Tim Brady, mister suburbs, two kids, bowling on Sundays, goes under on the other end of the same case. Both men are changed the more they submerge themselves while events are inevitably pushing them together on a collision course.
But I bet if you were to ask Kotto and Brady separately, men from different backgrounds and different approaches to doing their job, flawed men, they'd quietly tell you they had a man crush, a bromance on those old movie cowboys. That in particular Sam Peckinpah's second film, Ride the High County with western icons Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea made an impression on them as teenagers. I seem to remember, and I might have the scene wrong, but I looked up the lines, the two aging gun hands are in this ditch, the gold they're transporting of course being sought by the bad guys who are shooting at them.
Randolph Scott as Gil Westrum asks Joel McCrea's Steven Judd, ""The clothes of pride -- is that all you want?"
Judd replies with a paraphrase from the Book of Luke: "All I want is to enter my house justified."
Despite what Kotto and Brady do that is shall we say questionable, when all's said and done, they seek what Judd was talking about -- to close the door on a turbulent world, hoping they did what they could do to make their way in it.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Don't Tempt Me
Gabriella Herkert
Catnapped and Doggone
There's a reason they call them crushes, I suppose. For Sara, with a sexy, often absent, husband, the idea that she would fantasize about anyone except Connor when he's so yummy is a bit hard to fathom. And yet…if a girl can't at least look, she's probably dead. So, Sara has her list of celebrity-it-doesn't-matter-if-I'm-married-I'm going there. It's not alphabetical or multiple volumes but, well, thoughts are still free, right.
Let's start with the accents. There's something so sexy about a man with a lilt to his tone or an intonation that is music to the ears. And those posh, upperclass British public schools send their charges into the world with the great voices quoting Shakespeare. Who could resist? Sara wouldn't even to try resisting MI-5's enigmatic Lucas North, aka Richard Armitage. Not only does he have all the sneaky skills of the trained spy (many of which he shares with the true Red White and Blue Connor), he has the rule breaking, been interrogated by the Russian mob and lived to tell the tale bad ass he exhibited in Robin Hood as Guy of Gisborne. Tall, dark, brooding. He's a modern day Heathcliff and can't Sara be forgiven for setting her TIVO while Connor is away so she can dream sweet dreams?
Next on the list of bad for her but irresistible is con man turned FBI "consultant" Neal Caffrey, aka Matt Bomer. Now normally Sara wouldn't have her head turned by a slick suit and a pork pie hat. Okay, maybe her head would turn but only because she lives in Seattle and anyone wearing shoes, much less shined shoes, tends to stand out among the Birkenstocks. I suppose I agree with a blog Josh wrote a couple of weeks ago, the smooth swindler is irresistible. You never know what he's up to. Sara would have to watch him every minute. Eye to eye, all her energy poured into reading his mind and reaching deep into his naughty little soul. Oh yeah, she'd be a goner.
Sara's last crush is less obvious. Not a bad boy or a world class spy. If he has a dark side, he mostly keeps it to himself. It's Anderson Cooper. Even if he didn't win Celebrity Jeopardy he is, like my friend Spurr likes to say, wicked smart. And he smirks. A lot. You can always tell when he thinks something is not important in a world full of genuine issues. He is a little sappy, especially when it comes to his close to the heart events like Hurricane Katrina or the BP oil spill, and a little of that goes a long way from Sara's perspective but it does show a heart. A conscience. With that fast mind, Anderson Cooper hits the trifecta. Imagine the great-not-in-bed-or-jail conversations. Pretty darn attractive. So, yeah, Sara, who never has really gotten a chance to play with the smart kids, has had to convince the world that she has what it takes every day, would relish a relationship where the brain waves felt like they were crashing on a Maui beach. Nirvana. So crushing on AC, well, it's to be expected, tolerated and encouraged unless she's talking to her husband in which case she should pass off her obsession with CNN to a commitment to world events. That's a good thing, right?
Crushes are fun. Have one. Thanks for reading.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Joe in Love
Joe Kozmarski, my fictional private detective, has an ex-wife and a current girlfriend. He still loves his ex, and he thinks that she still loves him, though she sends mixed signals. His girlfriend, a former cop who now works with him, is full of intense energy. She loves him, and if he gave her a chance he could love her. His love life is complicated. He has no time or energy for other crushes or fantasies (Salma Hayek).
He's also forty-three years old and has decided that he wants to avoid the mistakes of his parents' generation in which many men, as they tumbled into middle age, grabbed for straws, which often looked a lot like attractive younger women. That's not for Joe. He'll keep his hands – and his mind – where they belong (Salma Hayek on a bicycle).
Joe takes care of his eleven-year-old nephew. When Joe isn't busy with a case, or with sorting out his love relations with his ex-wife and his current girlfriend, he throws football with the nephew or talks with him about aphids or explains to him why punching a classmate is wrong even if the classmate has tried to ignite the nephew's pants with a Bic lighter. Joe's mind is simply too full with the stuff of life to spend time fantasizing about women he's unlikely ever to meet (Salma Hayek in a bikini on a bicycle).
And, for Joe, that thing is having a middle-age crush. If he had more time and energy, would he have a crush? Sure, why not? If he ever did have a crush, Joe suspects it would be on . . . Penelope Cruz (or Salma Hayek).
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Crush...ah now thats a word for you
When your soda can is all used up you "crush" it.
When you hit a towering home run it is said you have "crushed" the ball.
When you do something at a level far more than expected you can be said to have "crushed" all expectations.
When your a football player and you want to intimidate the other team you talk trash and tell them you are going to crush them... or you squabble over how to divide up 9.3 billion dollars and sue them in court and don't play or get paid or provide us any entertainment value whatsoever - except trying to decide who we hate worse the billionaire owners who cry poor even though they have 91 family members on the payroll for doing nothing or the millionaire players who sometimes compare their millionaire, luxury lifestyles with slavery. But I digress.
The question is who would my main characters have a crush on - well I think that's the problem in my case. They have a crush on each other, but because it is important that they grow and remain true to who they are, its going to be very hard for them to get together. And that's because another use of the term crush is often invoked when a Boa Constrictor squeezes the life out of something. Neither Hawker nor Danielle are interested in doing that. They have their own journeys and it's important that they be allowed to take them.
Plus in a series where you have two main characters who have an attraction to each other, its important to keep up the sexual tension, amid the car chases and action and suspense.
Speaking of car chases - if I wasn't fortunate enough to be a writer I would want my next career to be a host on Top Gear - its a BBC show where they get to do insane things with cars and other vehicles, last week they turned a combine harvester into a snow plow and to test it out took it on a frozen lake - which it then cracked the ice and almost sank through but the important thing was it did in fact plow off some of the snow first.
This week they raced a Porsche 911 turbo against a VW beetle, but not how you think, they started them each a mile from one another and then dropped the the flag. The 911 was racing on a salt flat, trying to go one mile in 37 seconds. The VW was suspended one mile over the salt flat and dropped from a helicopter, a journey that took about 35 seconds. The VW won, missing the Porsche by what looked like 50 feet. But still you got to love any show where they hoist a car a mile into the air and actually drop it. It made a nice impact crater.
I digress again. The point is my characters are interested in each other, but unless they have too much rum on a an adventure somewhere they are going to keep missing each other for a few seconds like the VW and the Porsche, and that way no one gets crushed just yet.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
These are the loves of Esme Stuart.
She also has a thing for European rock music of the 70s and 80s. Don't get her started on the wild-starred wonder of Bowie or the chameleon-bliss of Queen. This music provides the current on which her intellect floats.
But as to who or what she has a crush on...
Monday, March 21, 2011
Dream On
We've all had someone we secretly liked but didn't tell for any number of reasons. My protagonist, Alex Sabian, is no different. Although she's been in an off-again-on-again relationship with Varik Baudelaire for years. Varik is a complicated man, er, vampire. He keeps secrets like some people keep houseplants. He also has an uncanny way of pushing Alex's buttons, which usually leads to an argument if for no other reason than Varik thinks Alex is cute when she's mad. Like I said, he's a complicated guy.
However, there is one man with whom she is eternally infatuated and she knows will never let her down nor anger her: Atticus Finch.
If you haven't read Harper Lee's masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird, it may be difficult to understand why a vampire would find a fictional human character so appealing. The simplest answer is that Atticus and Alex are similar creatures. No, Atticus doesn't have fangs or require blood to keep from going insane, but they both have a strong sense of right versus wrong. They both know that what's right isn't always popular and what's popular isn't always right.
Atticus Finch acts as the unwavering moral compass in To Kill a Mockingbird. He's admired and respected by all for his straightforward, quiet manner and willingness to lend a helping hand to anyone who needs it. Ironically, it's his willingness to help that leads to the greatest conflict within the book.
His decision to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, isn't a popular decision in the small Depression-era town of Maycomb. It isn't popular but it's the right decision. Atticus pours himself into the case and gives Tom his best, even though they both know it's hopeless. Despite the challenges and ridicule he faces, Atticus retains the respect of most of Maycomb's citizens in the end.
These are the qualities Alex, my protagonist, finds attractive. She admires Atticus's courage in making the difficult decision to do what is right and not what is popular. She admires the gentleness and evenhandedness he shows in caring for his children, Scout and Jem. She admires his unassuming manner that hides a fiery spirit that seeks (although futilely) an equality of justice. Atticus is a shining light in a world of stark black and white. But a vampire's world isn't black and white. It's filled with grays, and Alex knows that, if he was real and a vampire, Atticus wouldn't survive very long. He is the unobtainable dream guy.
And isn't that the point of having a crush? It's the dream more so than the reality that appeals to us. It's the "what if," and in a world filled with uncertainty, the dream is often the only thing that keeps us going.
Jeannie Holmes is the author of the Alexandra Sabian series about an FBPI Enforcer charged with policing the vampire population of Jefferson, Mississippi while navigating an ever-increasingly complicated person life. Jeannie fears spiders, large bodies of water, and bad weather, which completely explains why she moved from the backwoods of southwestern Mississippi to the Alabama Gulf Coast. She lives with her husband and four neurotic cats.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
What Else Is on That Research Shelf?
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The Road to Hell is Paved With Adverbs
Reece Hirsch
I'm not a fan of reference books, particularly when it comes to writing fiction. In my experience, there just aren't that many good ones.
On the other hand, when I was a young attorney in L.A. trying my hand at screenwriting, treatises like Syd Field's "The Foundations of Screenwriting" and Robert McKee's "Story: substance, structure, style and the principles of screenwriting" seemed indispensable. That belief was misplaced, but I wasn't alone in it. I recently watched the film "Adaptation" again, wincing and laughing at the scene in which Robert McKee (played by the mighty Brian Cox) blustered about the principles of screenwriting to an auditorium of cowed acolytes. Because structure is so essential to screenwriting, treatises just seem more relevant and useful to that form of writing.
When it comes to books about writing fiction, Stephen King's "On Fiction" is refreshingly candid and to the point. It's partly the journal of a young writer, partly a meditation on recovery from a horrible auto accident, but mostly "On Writing" is a grab bag of writing advice on everything from grammar to making a living writing to the best format for manuscript submission. Here are a few wise words from Mr. King:
"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that."
"The road to hell is paved with adverbs."
"Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's."
"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open."
"Give me just enough information so that I can lie convincingly."
That last quote is one that I live by when it comes to research. My research library left over from my first book is not huge. It consists primarily of a few books on the Russian mafiya, such as "Comrade Criminal: Russia's New Mafiya," by Stephen Handelman, "The Russian Mafia" by Federico Varese, and "Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America" by Robert I. Friedman.
One of the best and most useful things I found in my research was the glossary of Russian mob terminology in Handelman's book, which made many of my lies more convincing than they would have been otherwise. In parting, I offer you a few of my favorite gems from the Russian mobster's vocabulary:
Gastrolyor – A guest criminal from another city, literally translated as "guest artist."
Chainik – A prison bully, literally translated as "cheap teapot," like the ones used in prison.
Sportsmeny – Literally, "sportsmen," young former athletes or boxers who act as enforcers and bodyguards, who are identified by the Western tracksuits they usually wear.
And, finally, my favorite:
Vorovskoi Mir – The Thieves World.
Friday, March 18, 2011
My Shelves are full
Happiness is a room lined with books. I have all the usual suspects on my shelves: a thesaurus, two dictionaries (one French), an atlas, and the Joy of Cooking. And then I have a couple of "craft" shelves. When I get hung up on something in a story, I often like to browse my reference shelf to help get me unstuck. One writer's procrastination is another writer's inspiration.
Stored up from my filmmaking days, I have quite a few books about writing screenplays. These are quite useful when it comes to plotting or writing good characters. They often present material in a distilled way that allows you to step back and see the big picture (rather than dig down deep in the trenches to be distracted by adverbs). Some great books are Creating Unforgettable Characters by Linda Segar, and The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler. I also like Writing a Screenplay in 21 Days by Viki King. I've never done it, but I like to imagine that it's possible.
But sometimes I need something to read something new. That's when I head to a bookstore or my local library to do some browsing. I love to dip into books on writing and see if they have any gems or exercises that will jump start me.Some of them are on mysteries, some on novels, and some on the writing life. I use these books to help craft my syllabus for the mystery and novel writing classes that I teach.I've used You Can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts and Hallie's Ephron's Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel in my classes.
These days I've found that most other reference books have become Google searches rather than actual books anymore. It's quicker and instant gratification is important when you need to find out if a plant is poisonous right now. But if I want to dig deeper on a topic, I get a longer book so I can really immerse myself in something I'm thinking about writing about.
I can see someday having all my reference information come from my computer. But I don't think I'll let go of my library anyway. There's something nice about curling up with a book and getting inspired all over again to write your own book. It just feels right.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
At Shane's Writin' Joint, A Shelf Full of Nuthin'
By Shane Gericke
Hi, everyone, it's Shane, filling in for Our Kel, who's out charming readers today with tales of derring-do and heartfelt pleas of "Buy my book, pleeeeease, it's real good, I promissssssseeeeeee, you don't have to like it, you just have to buy it . . ."
Or perhaps I'm projecting my marketing strategies onto her . . .
Anyway. What's on my reference shelf?
Fast answer: Dust.
Slow answer: I got rid of my printed reference books several years ago. The dictionaries. The thesauruses. (Thesauri?) The style books. Stephen King's book on writing. Dean Koontz's book on writing. Folded maps for every state I've used in any of my books. All given away.
Replaced by the Internet.
I love the Internet. It's the finest author writing and research tool since Gutenberg looked at those crazy monks and said, "One at a time? WTF, dudes?" and created the printing press. (And, several centuries later, my career as a writer.) When I'm stuck, one or two clicks, and I'm in whatever reference tool I desire, in real time, real world, whether it be maps, synonyms, distances, eye colors, street photographs, names of viruses, or the language spoken in the Iraqi city of Tikrit. I can be at my desk (like now), or at my favorite coffee shop (like this morning), or on the banks of a fast-flowing river (like the other day), simultaneously writing and researching and referencing.
Looooooove it.
Those printed reference books were fine for their time. But their time has passed. The world changes at lightning speed, and only digital reference material can keep up with it.
Oh, and that language Iraqis speak in Tikrit?
Arabic is the majority. Kurdish is spoken by 20 percent of the population, Turkmen is spoken by 5-10 percent, and the rest is split among Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Shabaki, Armenian, Roma and Persian. Not to mention the scattering of Chechen, Georgian and other Caucasian languages, and the occasional "Fuck you, Charlie," in our own American English.
Yeah, I looked it up.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Referencing My Reference Shelf
Ahhh…the writer's reference shelf. That hallowed place from which the fountain of our wisdom is allowed to run truth. It is a calm, peaceful place we turn to in moments of doubt or uncertainty. It is revered, treasured, and protected.
We are all familiar with the stereotypical writer – we've seem her portrayed in countless movies, plays, and, of course, on the written page; that calm, organized, and well-adjusted, angst-free, cheerful soul. Mystery writers are even more serene. In fact, it is the total and complete serenity of their lives that draws them to the mystery genre. They use their writing to inject a bit of disorganized chaos into their otherwise sedate worlds.
So let's take a little stroll into the writer's study; that bastion of quiet reflection and hard, steady work. Oh, look, here comes our writer now. Isn't she lovely? Her hair is pulled back into a loose ponytail, her face although devoid of make-up looks dewy fresh, and how elegant she is in her flowing linen pants and matching top. She glides over to her handy reference shelf and finds…six empty diet coke cans, four crumpled up pieces of paper, and a Writer's Market Place from 1992.
Oh, wait. That's my shelf. Crap. Where am I? Oh, I've fallen asleep again on my cluttered desk and had that recurring dream where I am a writer created by Evelyn Waugh. Damn.
So. Back to reality. My reference shelf is empty. It's not that I don't own such books, mind you – I do. It's just they tend to wander when I don't pay attention. Like now. Maybe they are in the downstairs study. Let's look.
Nope, not here. I don't think they are, anyway. It's kind of a mess in here and why are the Halloween decorations still out?
Perhaps the car? Yes! Here's one: Deadly Doses: a writer's guide to poisons by Serita Deborah Stevens, left in the back seat. I had to pick up my youngest from lacrosse practice and thought I would do some research while I waited. Here are my notes in the margin. "Yes!! Perfect. Use this."
Unfortunately, there is no indication just which poison listed on the page is perfect or how I was planning on using it.
Back inside. In the living room is my copy of Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon. That is a great tool for many, many elements of character development, but I especially love it for deciding on names for characters. I start off knowing how my characters look and then decide what their name should be. This book is filled with great ideas and has old scribbles from various plot points of mine. Oh, and here's my library card that I thought I lost. Bonus!
Back in the kitchen. Oh, still lots of dishes strew about, I see. There are two Jane Austen books by the coffeemaker; Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Since each of my books are loosely based on a specific Jane Austen novel, I am forever referencing them. This is not to be confused with procrastinating by rereading my favorite novels; because it's not. It's research.
Bedroom. On the nightstand is An Uncommon Scold by Abby Adams. I start off each of my chapters with a quote. This book is full of wonderfully snarky quotes. Underneath it is The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen. It is my go-to guide for when I need to find the exact quote for my books. It also makes a nice coaster.
I should put all these books back on the shelf now. I won't, of course, but I should.
Maybe I need a calendar
Sorry for the lateness of today's post. I just got back from the Tucson Festival of Books and collapsed in an exhausted, dried up husk instead of writing my blog post.
Monday, March 14, 2011
When I took a look at this week's topic, I wasn't sure what to do. Do the readers of our blog really want a list of the books on our reference shelves? I imagine that many of those books are the same for all of us: dictionary; Thesaurus; assorted "how-to" books on plotting, character development, and marketing; a few of those Writer's Digest crime books. You get the idea, right? My research shelves also include a wide selection of crafts books -- both one's I've written or contributed to and ones I use for research in both my design business and in the writing of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series. But unless you're interested specifically in crafting cozies, you'd quickly exit the blog if I were to list all of them.
What I thought might be more interesting to read about are the contents of my "Ideas" file. This is the loose-leaf notebook where I keep assorted newspaper and magazine articles and print-outs from the Internet that have either made their way into my books or someday might.
Truth really is stranger than fiction. I see that every time I pick up a newspaper or turn on the evening news. And from all that truth I mine a wealth of ideas for my fiction. The daily news becomes a source for plots, subplots, main characters, and secondary characters. This began with the first book I ever wrote and has continued for each subsequent book.
That first book came about in part from a sensational murder that occurred on the Philadelphia Main Line in the late 90's. My brain started spinning with possibilities for both a plot and a villain. Thus was born Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, a romantic suspense that became the first book I ever wrote and the second book I sold.
I teach a workshop called Help! I've Lost My Muse where I stress looking beyond the obvious when searching for plot ideas. One of the examples I give is from a sidebar headline I saw a couple of years ago: 7 SOLDIERS DIE IN IRAQ AS SURGE CONTINUES. This headline could be a springboard for a thriller about a group of soldiers fighting in Iraq, but by thinking outside the box, it can also be used to generate plots for other genres.
Here are a few examples:
1. As a soldier lies dying after a roadside bombing, he makes his friend promise to take care of his pregnant wife. Because the dying soldier saved his friend's life on an earlier expedition, the surviving soldier feels honor bound to carry out his friend's last request. There's one not so minor hitch, though -- he hates kids, and she's pregnant with triplets.
2. When a roadside bomb goes off during a foot patrol in Iraq, seven soldiers are killed. One survives, but he wakes up in ancient Mesopotamia to find a very beautiful woman tending his wounds.
3. After surviving a roadside bombing that killed the other members of his squad, a young soldier is nursed back to health by a local woman. There's only one problem: In order to save his life, she's had to turn him into a werewolf.
4. Same premise as above with a slight twist: She's turned him into a werewolf, and he's allergic to animals.
5. When a roadside bomb goes off during a foot patrol in Iraq, seven soldiers are killed. One survives. Or so he believes until months later he catches a glimpse of one of the other soldiers. He goes rogue to discover what really happened that day and uncovers more mysteries than answers.
Here's a sampling of other articles and columns in my Ideas file:
Headline: A SHOWER OF SILT BELIEVED TO HAVE DOOMED 3 DIVERS (News story: Three experienced scuba divers died after running out of air while diving in the belly of a sunken ship off the coast of Key Largo, Florida. One survived.)
A column written by Lawrence Hall about a German study where a research team concluded that ogling women's breasts can help increase a man's life expectancy by five years.
An article in the New York Times about a "sexual decoy" who works for Check-a-Mate, a New York company that investigates men and women on behalf of their romantic partners.
An article in Glamour Magazine that detailed the trend of non-sexually impaired young males who take Viagra to increase their sexual stamina.
An article in The Ethicist column for the Sunday New York Times magazine where a woman had persuaded a shy male friend of hers to try Internet dating. He posted his profile and picture but never contacted anyone. The friend took over for him and eventually found herself juggling an online courtship with three separate women, all of whom thought she was a 35 year old man.
An ad in Road & Track that touts an aftershave guaranteed to increase sexual attractiveness ten-fold.
Imaginary girlfriends and boyfriends up for sale on eBay. For the right amount of money you can pay to have someone send you emails, letters, and photos from pretend lovers.
An Internet news article that showcased panties with a hidden computer chip for keeping tabs on a girlfriend, wife, or daughter 24 hours a day via satellite transmissions to your computer or smart phone.
Now, wasn't it more fun to read what's in my Ideas file than the titles of books on my reference shelves?
Lois Winston writes the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series debuted in January to starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Visit Lois at her website and Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
John Q. Criminal
Shameless, one of Showtimes new series, follows the escapades of six siblings left to fend for themselves while their father drinks himself to death. The kids are into all kinds of larceny from stealing toilet paper from public restrooms to taking SAT exams for other students. All to survive and keep the family together.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Love Gone Bad
-- "Red Wind" by Raymond Chandler
Once upon a time, and this was decades ago, dear, in case my wife is reading this, I was dating this woman, a good-looking chick named Charisse, named for Cyd Charisse in fact. For you young'ins out there, google the name of the singer and actress to find out who she was.
Anyway, as these things go, we were having an argument one night and I bellowed the cliché, "You know, you kill me."
To which she shot back, "Yeah, well, you ain't dead yet."
Ha. You have to admit in hindsight, that was a pretty good comeback. Pertinent to the topic at hand, I'm fascinated when women kill men. Now I mean this in the twisted human pathology sense, not in those situations when a woman is being abused and has to take drastic measures to get out from under and maybe even protect her children. To me that's justifiable. I'm talking about those times when it's about greed or obsession, the tropes of noir.
For instance some years ago, and I've told this story on panels in answer to where do you get your ideas from, there were these two women. This might have been during the Gulf War, but this was at a time when mystery and crime writers would clip stories out of the newspaper or a magazine and keep a morgue of unusual or interesting crimes for possible use in a short story or novel – you know, before the internet. This story was in my paper, the L.A. Times and was about this soldier, a young man in his twenties, down at Camp Pendleton in the San Diego area. He'd come back from overseas doing his duty to his wife. Only while he was away, she'd fallen for somebody else, another woman. The two conspired to bump hubby off and collect on his insurance. But of course it had to look like an accident. Classic.
I think maybe the girlfriend was a roommate or at least the two were passing her off as such. They bake a blueberry pie for the guy as my man loves him some blueberry pie. Only they inserted the poison sac from a black widow spider in his slice of the pie. This cat eats every bite, but not the sac in the blue goo. At another point he's relaxing in the bathtub, listening to some tunes, and one of them "accidentally" knocks the plugged-in radio into the tub. The radio shorts out but doesn't electrocute him. The girlfriend has some mechanical ability and she puts a hole in the brake line of the man's car. Like one of the old episodes of Mannix, where every other week the bad guys were cutting the PI's brake line, our man is driving along, the brakes fail, but he manages to get the car under control and not crash. Still, apparently, he's not suspicious.
They murderous couple might have tried one or two other ways to do him in, but these methods also don't work. So one night they make it look like a burglary has happened and crack this poor bastard's head open with a baseball bat, killing him. His luck ran out. It doesn't take the cops long, interrogating them separately of course, to have them rat each other out. Again, classic.
For more women killing men, there's Snapped on the Oxygen network. So ff indeed your significant other has a note pad and pen out when watching this show, be afraid...be very afraid.
Friday, March 11, 2011
It Takes a Thief
Gabriella Herkert
Catnapped and Doggone
Fascination with crime. Yeah, that's us, alright. All of us. And yes, it will make attractive men move away from me in bars even after they've shelled out for a drink. Something about them imagining me naked while I measure them for trunk transportation. But fascination, or obsession, are impossible to deny and so, I remain committed (or maybe should be committed) to my utter devotion to seeking out the less than socially acceptable.
First of all, I love Jeannie's stupids. And the police blotter. Stupid criminals done right. But while I find them entertaining, and a good place for a belly laugh, I am not fascinated by the mindless. I am also not "fascinated" by the psychotic or truly evil. I write about those individuals because I don't get it. My mind, my intellectual curiousity, sends me down that round so I can figure it out. It's not fascination. It's equal parts confusion and revulsion with a dash of sick sells. We're all writing because we're writers and that's what we do but we're all smart enough to know that paying the rent and eating a couple of times a day are important, too.
The crimes that really call to me, not just as an intellectual exercise but as a potential future career choice (please don't tell my mother), are the smart, stylish crimes. The no one gets physically hurt, the police shake their heads and the forensic team can't figure out how it could happen crimes. Jewel heists in the middle of a gallery gala. The middle of the night smash and grab of great masterpieces. The still unsolved Gardner museum swipe. I want my crimes to be meticulously planned, precisely executed and oh so cool. Cucumber cool.
Naturally, I have become obsessed with White Collar, a television show of smart, sexy (even with an ankle bracelet) Neal Caffrey. Except for getting caught, he totally had it going on. From jewels to forged documents to live on the lam the looked a lot like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The planning, sometimes years, and patience that went into his jobs appeals to my methodical I don't really want to go to jail while still wanting the adrenaline rush mind set. Then, there's the actual moment. Smooth as silk. Each contingency accounted for. Master plotting. Great characters and so much style.
In the real world, there have been Neal Caffreys. Bill Mason lifted a gold medal from Johnny Weismuller. It isn't just the target of his theft – although a gold medal isn't your everyday snatch and frankly has a quirk to it I enjoy in my obsessive crimes – but it's the fact that he took on Tarzan. That is a story for the grandkids. Doris Payne, all 79 years of her and confined to a wheel chair, is a lifelong jewel thief. Recently arrested for helping herself to a thirty thousand dollar Neiman Saks ring, she's the subject of a biopic starring Halle Berry. Not only has she still got it going on (despite the recent arrests which I attribute to her senior citizen inability to move with purpose), she's so fly Oscar-winning actress, fifty most beautiful people Halle Berry has been cast to play her. For those of us worried that Phyllis Diller is more likely to get the role of our lifetime, the felon envy here is pretty big.
And then, not to be outdone, are the elusive, never been caught, mystery men and women. What are they like? Are they white picket fence, good church goers by day, master art thieves at night? School teachers with an apple on their desks plotting the liberation of the royal jewels during naptime? Or the guy sitting next to me on the airplane, pretending to read Freakonomics while his mind whirls through the security system at the Louvre? Their fascination is amplified by the "I don't know" factor. Who? Where? Why? How do you choose the target? How do you pick the team? How do you fence the goods? Why have you never been caught? Tell me, tell me, tell me. I'm dying here. Thus, fascination becomes obsession. And obsession becomes a great read.
Thanks for reading me today.

subset: commoncrawl


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Perhaps 2012 will bring Derek Jeter and his ex Minka Kelly better luck in love.
The couple, who ended their three-year relationship in August, was spotted spending the last days of 2011 together in the City of Lights.
"They looked much in love, " a source told People Magazine.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
Thanks to a Pepperdine University student's fast photo refelxes, the world now has picture evidence that, at the very least, the pair is on close, cuddly terms. In a series of snaps shot by student Jaime Olaez, the 37-year-old slugger is seen flashing a wide grin at Kelly and wrapping his arm around the woman voted "sexiest woman alive" in 2010.
The two were reportedly outside the Musee d'Orsay Saturday Dec. 29. People Magazine reported that the they were staying in a boutique hotel together with friends in the city's Left Bank.
Before breaking up, rumors swirled that the couple, who maintained a low-profile through their relationship, would wed. There were few details about why they split, and friends told the media that they were going to remain friends. In October the two were spotted together in Florida.
Earlier this month one of Jeter's "pals" told The New York Post that the notorious playboy was regularly bringing women back to his Trump World Tower bachelor pad and sending them off with a basket of autographed Yankees memorabilia—one girl, whom he apparently didn't remember from their first rendezvous received the gift basket twice.
Selected Reading: People Magazine, New York Post


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Friday, December 14, 2012 - 4 comments
Let Not Your Cookie Cutters Rust
You wouldn't normally think of a cookie cutter as a sign of hope.
A friend once told me how she had one special gingerbread man cookie cutter that she'd bought for the day when her daughter would be old enough to make Christmas cookies with her. I picture it as shiny and silver, with those nice sharp edges that make for a well-formed edible man. It would produce whole families of gingerbread people, complete with silver bead eyes and crooked royal icing smiles and cinnamon heart buttons on imaginary coats.
The thing was, my friend didn't have a daughter. She didn't even have a husband. But she did have hope. I imagine that every year when she pulled out her cookie cutters, that little gingerbread man one caused a bit of a twinge in her heart - a reminder that the thing she most longed for still sat out of reach. And yet, at the same time, that cookie cutter is a symbol of her unwavering trust in the One who knows the desires of her heart inside out and has the power to bring them to life.
I, too, have a set of cookie cutters. A Christmas tree, a gingerbread man and his son, a big star, and some tiny angels and candy canes in which the dough always seems to get stuck. I also have an ever growing collection of pastry bags and icing tips, sprinkles and markers with edible ink. And today, they're coming out of the cupboard to make their annual appearance.
My love for decorating cookies started when I was little. My Grandma used to have me and a friend over most years for a big cookie decorating extravaganza. She'd have plenty ready when we got there, and the oven would keep running all day to keep up with our need for "more stars" or "another tray of those chocolate ones." We'd sit at the kitchen table, up to our elbows in icing, intently focused on our sugary works of art. She was always into the latest fancy recipe she'd seen Martha Stewart making, but we were never big fans of the nutty ones or anything that couldn't be slathered with colourful icing. :)
At my eighth birthday party, my mom was brave enough to set a whole sleepover-full of girls loose with bowls of icing and licorice nibs and Smarties and candy corn. I distinctly recall my cookie resembling a city with tightly packed skyscrapers - the more I could fit on there the better!
When I was in high school, I worked at a bakery, and I remember being so excited when I was finally trusted to write on cakes or do the chocolate smiley faces on our iced happy face cookies. Halloween was the best because you got to get creative with the Jack-o-lantern ones. :)
Once I grew up, I started to look forward to the day when I would be the one popping tray after tray of cookies into the oven while my own little ones shook sprinkles onto iced cookies and decorated little gingerbread outfits. But, like my friend with her prized cookie cutter, I am still hoping toward the day when that dream is a reality at my own kitchen table.
In the midst of the waiting, though, I have learned a precious lesson. It is far better to spill out my storehouse of "mama love" now than to save it up for "someday" when I have my own kids. I don't have to fear it running out if I spend it on other people's children. But I might fear it going sour inside of me if I were to keep it all locked up. Instead of letting my cookie cutters rust while mourning the fact that I don't yet have a family of my own to make traditions with, I've decided to be thankful for the "family" around me and enjoy those traditions now.
And so it is that I have a Christmas cookie decorating party at my house every year.
The group around the table changes every time. Once it was a trio of pre-teen girls who giggled and sang their way through who knows how many dozen cookies and then took their treasures home to share with their families. Last year it was several of us twenty-and-thirty-somethings and one of the no-longer-so-pre-teen girls reliving sugar-sprinkled childhood memories and then cozying up to White Christmas with mugs of minty hot chocolate. And tomorrow, it will be said nearly-graduating girl (who is now closer to "friend" than "kid" in my books) and I teaching her two little sisters and their two best friends the fine art of squeezing a piping bag.
These kiddos have been a part of my life for almost six years now, since before two of them could really say anything intelligible. They're like siblings to each other and are the closest thing I have to nieces and nephews, and I adore every one of them. They are a great source of hugs and entertaining stories, and it is my delight to pick out presents for them when I am back in Canada and cheer from the audience as they recite nationalistic poems and dance with pompoms at their school programs. They are old enough now to be trusted with sprinkle shakers and food colouring and I am super excited to watch their creative juices flow.
And so, as I head to the kitchen for the Cookie Day Eve baking marathon and take my gingerbread man cutters off their shelf, I can honestly say that my heart is full. It's full of 10% wistfulness and longing for "someday" and 90% gratitude for the people who have been placed in my life to love on now, today. I look forward to a day of laughter and milk-moustaches and sprinkles and sugar-buzz induced silliness.


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Hubble in 3D
Vividly captured in IMAX 3D, HUBBLE 3D recounts the amazing journey of the most important scientific instrument since Galileo's original telescope and the greatest success in space since the Moon Landing -- the Hubble Space Telescope. Audiences will accompany the space walking astronauts as they attempt some of the most difficult tasks ever undertaken in NASA's history, and will experience up close the awesome power of the launches, the heartbreaking setbacks, and the dramatic rescues of this most powerful story.
HUBBLE 3D will also reveal the cosmos as never before, allowing viewers of all ages to explore the grandeur of the nebulae and galaxies, the birth and death of stars, and some of the greatest mysteries of our celestial surroundings, all in amazing IMAX 3D.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, K. Megan McArthur, Scott D. Altman, Michael J. Massimino, Michael T. Good
Directed by Toni Myers
Running Time - :45
Genre - Documentary
Opened in Theaters - Friday, March 19th, 2010 (10 years ago)
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- Congressman Al Lawson and CAFS students at the Farmer's Roundtable event.
- Harambee Festival - Learning about insects.
- Dr. Mbuya explaining the importance of water quality and the impacts of contamination.
- Goat meat cooking demonstration conducted by Cooperative Extension.
- CAFS Living Learning Students(LLC) students inspecting bee colonies.
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Program Overview
FIPSE's program supports innovative projects that may respond to issues of national and global significance. These projects propose significant reforms and improvements in U.S. postsecondary education and have the potential to serve as national models for reform. FIPSE welcomes proposals for projects which seek strategies for establishing an international dimension of issues related to all aspects of postsecondary education, including foreign language acquisition, thesocial sciences, health sciences, and information technology.
Project Description
This European Union (EU) –United States (US) Consortium offers a concentration in international agriculture which explores consumer needs for safe, high quality food products. The main objective of this project is to ensure a closer collaboration for teaching and curriculum development among partner institutions as well as raise awareness of societal issues. This program is structured by a core of both new, existing and updated courses. Students will study a broad range of approaches to produce, add-value, market and trade in safe high quality food products. Students will also participate in language programs with pre and post exchange assessments.
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Follow this for "A Hungarian holiday cookie."
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
* 170 g unsalted butter, softened
* 100 g white sugar
* 5 ml vanilla extract
* 2 egg yolks
* 250 g all-purpose flour
* 100 g vanilla sugar
* 56 g semisweet chocolate, chopped
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1. Cream together the butter with the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour.
2. Turn into a ball, cover and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. To form the crescents, roll about 1 Tbsp of the dough in the palms of your hands. Then continue rolling to form a rope about 3 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. Bend rope to form crescent. Repeat with remaining dough, placing on ungreased cookie sheets about 1 inch apart.
5. Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies should be white in color. Let cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes to prevent breaking. Then, while cookies are still warm, carefully roll in vanilla sugar. (May be found in bulk food stores). Repeat with remaining cookies. Cool cookies completely.
6. Melt chocolate in a double boiler set over low heat. When cookies are cool, dip tips of each cookie in melted chocolate, then set on waxed paper to dry.


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When Devin Drewitz watched his dog Jake casually jump onto, then disappear over, a waist-high ledge framing an outdoor walkway at BC Place Stadium, he assumed the Siberian husky had found a patch of grass to sniff on the other side.
But as the resident of East Vancouver walked toward the ledge — located near Gate B and Terry Fox Plaza — the seriousness of what had just happened gradually became apparent.
Peering over the edge, he watched as a crowd of people raced toward and then surrounded Jake, who was laying motionless on the ground about 11 metres below Drewitz's feet.
Jake's terrible accident was the first of three falls from the western edge of BC Place since last spring that have left two dogs dead and one seriously injured, according to staff at a nearby veterinary clinic.
The circumstances surrounding the three falls are similar — in each case, young, large, healthy and active off-leash dogs had walked or run toward the ledge, then climbed or jumped over it, unaware of the tremendous drop to Expo Boulevard on the other side.
Within a week of the third fall, veterinarians at Yaletown Pet Hospital contacted staff at BC Place to tell them what had been happening and ask for stronger safety measures. Jessica Robertson, a doctor at the clinic, said staff at the stadium listened to their concerns, but did nothing other than install a few signs telling dog owners to leash their pets.
Despite the accidents, BC Pavilion Corporation staff who manage BC Place are defending the safety of the plaza and have little planned to prevent further tragedies.
It was a sunny day in April 2013 when Jake, one-and-a-half years old at the time and wearing a shock collar for off-leash training, jumped onto and fell over the ledge. Drewitz said he had noticed a sign that read, "Caution Steep Drop," but he said it didn't register with him until after his dog had fallen.
"It should have clicked with me," he said Wednesday. "You always think 'what could I have done differently' and I saw the sign. I know I saw the sign. I shouldn't have had him off leash for a second."
After Jake hopped onto then fell over the ledge, he remained motionless on the ground for what Drewitz said felt like as much as 15 minutes.
"I thought he was dead," he said.
Soon a veterinarian ran through the crowd and transported the dog with the help of a police officer to the clinic, located half a block away. Staff there determined Jake had suffered serious internal injuries in the fall, including damage to his bladder, lungs and liver. He had also badly broken one of his front legs.
But Jake survived. One year later, he is nearly back to normal, said Drewitz, a 24-year-old bartender who is still in debt from nearly $9,000 in veterinary bills. Jake can no longer bend his right leg and he drags his paw a bit when he walks, but his energy has mostly returned and he is back to hiking and joining Drewitz when he longboards.
Jake is the only dog of three brought into Robertson's clinic in the past year that survived its fall.
"They're bad falls," said Robertson, adding that she knew of one other dog that fell in 2008 and said there could be many more.
Robertson said she's not aware of anywhere else in the city where this type of thing is happening.
"It's just a spot where there's no cars that people let their dogs off-leash, thinking that it's well contained. (The dogs) hop up there thinking that they're just going to jump down onto the other side of the ledge and it's going to be at the same height," she said. "They don't realize until they're falling that it's a drop-off."
That was the case in October, when Charlotte Caron's dog Roxie — a German short haired pointer — jumped over the ledge at the side of the plaza and landed on her back on the roadway below.
Caron had been walking with Roxie near Gate H when she was spooked by one of the statues in the plaza and bolted.
"I just thought she was going to go straight for the park," said Caron. "At some point she just dashed to the other side and that's when she jumped."
Caron froze. She had been through the area before and knew how far the drop was. She said she immediately heard Roxie screaming, but couldn't move. A bystander told her to run to her dog and by the time she got to her, Roxie was surrounded by members of a construction crew who had been working nearby.
The dog fared badly from the fall. Robertson said her back was broken and she was bleeding internally. It was unlikely that Roxie would recover, she said. If she did, she would probably not regain function of her hind limbs, bladder or bowels. Caron was forced to put Roxie down.
"She was only one-and-a-half years old and she was my whole world," said Caron, a 27-year-old citizen of France who works at a bakery in Vancouver. "I haven't stopped thinking about her for one second."
She said she would like people to be aware that the area is dangerous.
"There must be something we can do to avoid that (happening again)," she said.
In the latest case, which happened March 21, a dog had been chasing a bird before it jumped over the ledge, said Robertson. The dog died within minutes from what veterinary staff determined to be a severe head and neck injury.
It was after that incident that Robertson's colleagues, determined to prevent another tragedy, contacted BC Place.
In an email to The Sun, a PavCo spokesman said staff at the stadium spoke with members of the clinic then brought in an engineer who assessed the area to ensure the walls around the plaza met B.C.'s building code. Stadium staff also put up additional signs, reminding pet owners to keep their dogs on-leash.
"We are truly saddened by this occurrence," said Kathy deLisser, the assistant general manager at BC Place, in a statement. "By raising awareness through this additional signage, we can help to prevent these most unfortunate incidents from happening in the future."
On Wednesday afternoon, Rand Thomson was walking near Gate B with Juno, a rescue dog from Buenos Aires that he was taking care of on behalf of a friend.
Thomson said he was surprised to hear that dogs had jumped onto then fallen over the ledge.
"I don't think he would do that," he said, looking at Juno, who was wandering off leash nearby.
Robertson said the signs aren't enough.
"We probably need fences up there or something," she said, adding that dog owners have to be responsible for their pets but passive signs aren't sufficient when there is a risk of death.
If PavCo won't put in fences or railings like those that line the overhead walkways at nearby Rogers Arena, then stronger signs with clear graphics depicting a dangerous fall is a minimal option, she said.
"Those graphics look kind of funny — they're cartoonish, but it gets the message across. Maybe something a little stronger than 'keep your dog on-leash.'"
For Drewitz, signs are not enough.
"This is supposed to be a world-class city and this is a world class venue," he said, adding that signs were the bare minimum staff at the newly-renovated stadium could do to prevent further accidents.
"My condolences to those other dog owners."
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text: DescriptionYou don't need to do hundreds of sit-ups and crunches to get washboard abs. Using the Sable Abdominal Muscle Toner, you can tone and sculpt your abdominal muscles with minimal effort. Delivering harmless and science-backed electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), the toner stimulates your abdominal muscles—with 20 minutes of use equaling 90 minutes jogging or 30 minutes of planking. Its compact design makes it easy to wear wherever you are, and it comes with 10 different modes and 20 different intensities.


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The BioMicro Center now supports preparation of Chromatin IP samples. Basics about Chromatin IP can be found at this link.
Automated ChIP
Chromatin IP is one of the more complicated methods available through the BioMicro Center. In order to make this method reproducible enough to be run in a core facility, the BioMicro Center has automated the process through the use of the Diagenode IP-Star. The IP-Star begins with sonicated chromatin and antibody and proceeds through the blocking, hybridization, washing and reverse crosslinking steps. RNaseA, ProteinaseK and cleanup steps are performed in the BioMicro Center off instrument and yields are assessed by Bioanalyzer. These ChIP samples may be picked up for qPCR (if only interested in a select few binding sites) or sent directly to SPRI for library construction and sequencing (options are listed on submission forms). In the event that the ChIP samples fail QC, the samples will not be submitted to SPRI-works but will be charged for the IP.
The Diagenode IP-star is a single purpose robot designed to handle IPs. The IP-Star has a throughput of 8 samples per day. The samples can vary on cell types, antibodies or buffer conditions, though the timing must remain constant. The system mixes the samples by repeatedly pipetting them. To separate the beads from the supernatant, the IP-Star works by placing a magnet next to the tips, retaining the beads in the tip while allowing the rest of the chromatin or washes to be removed. Once the sample is eluted from the beads, reverse crosslinking is initiated and the beads are removed from the sample.
Sample Preparation
The IP-star requires 5 million cells per IP. Sonicated chromatin must be submitted at 5-7 million cells per 200 uL volume. Antibodies must be submitted at the same time(at least 3 ug of antibody per IP). It should work with many different cell lysis / crosslinking conditions. We have validated the protocol below and strongly recommend using it as a baseline:
1. Resuspend fixed cells in 10 mL of LB1
2. Rock cells at 4 degrees for 10 minutes
3. Pellet cells at 4 degrees for 5 minutes at 1350g
4. Remove supernatant and resuspend cells in 10mL of LB2
5. Rock cells at 4 degrees for 10 minutes
6. Pellet cells at 4 degrees for 5 minutes at 1350g
7. Remove supernatant and resuspend cells in a volume of LB3 where there is 5 million cells/200uL
**Example: Resuspend 25 million cells in 1mL of LB3** 8. Sonicate cells
9. Pellet debris at 4 degrees for 10 minutes at 20,000g
10. Submit lysate for ChIP
Sonication conditions vary broadly between different cell types and different sonicators so you will want to optimize your conditions to produce material in the 100-500bp range. We strongly recommend that you not freeze your lysate before submitting to ChIP prep. Therefore, it is critical that you coordinate with BioMicro Center staff members to be sure that space is available on the IP-Star when your cells are ready. For scheduling, you may email Shmulik Matola at firstname.lastname@example.com.
IP Conditions
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing (ChIP-Seq) combines ChIP with DNA sequencing, allowing researchers to identify the binding sites of DNA-associated proteins. It can be used as a more cost effective and higher quality alternative to whole genome microarray hybridization. You can find more information about Illumina's ChIP-Seq protocols and kits here. ChIP-Seq samples are typically run as 36nt or 40nt single-end runs on the GAIIx or HiSeq, respectively.
|Antibody Tests
IP-Star conditions were initially validated using V6.5 ESCs. Select antibodies were used for testing, and the following chart contains some of the results. For more information about specific conditions and robustness of antibodies used, please contact Shmulik Matola at the BMC.
|Material Required
Please refer to the chart on the right for materials required from users before proceeding with ChIP prep on the IP-Star. When submitting samples, please fill out a submission form stating the concentrations and catalog number of each antibody, as well as the downstream applications following ChIP. If you would like to pick up your samples for ChIP-qPCR, you can coordinate that with Shmulik.
ChIP Seq Literature
- Marson A, Levine SS, Cole MF, Frampton GM, Brambrink T, Johnstone S, Guenther MG, Johnston WK, Wernig M, Newman J, Calabrese JM, Dennis LM, Volkert TL, Gupta S, Love J, Hannett N, Sharp PA, Bartel DP, Jaenisch R, and Young RA. Connecting microRNA genes to the core transcriptional regulatory circuitry of embryonic stem cells. Cell. 2008 Aug 8;134(3):521-33. DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2008.07.020 |
- Robertson G, Hirst M, Bainbridge M, Bilenky M, Zhao Y, Zeng T, Euskirchen G, Bernier B, Varhol R, Delaney A, Thiessen N, Griffith OL, He A, Marra M, Snyder M, and Jones S. Genome-wide profiles of STAT1 DNA association using chromatin immunoprecipitation and massively parallel sequencing. Nat Methods. 2007 Aug;4(8):651-7. DOI:10.1038/nmeth1068 |


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Remember, the Test Match Special statistician is always on hand to help you out with your questions. And if you think you can catch him out, have a go!
Bearders is currently in Australia, scoring the Ashes series for TMS - but will be taking time out to deal with your queries. Fill in the form on the right-hand side of the page to stump the Bearded Wonder
Nick Minns, UK
Where does Paul Collingwood's 206 against Australia in the Second Test at Adelaide rank in the list of highest individual scores in a losing course?
Andrew Stratford, UK
Paul Collingwood hit 206 against Australia but still ended on the losing side. What is the highest individual Test score by a batsman who ended up on the losing side?
Garry Moynihan, France
Regarding Paul Collingwood's feat in Adelaide. How many double century makers have ended on the losing side in Test Matches?
Collingwood's 206 is the seventh highest of the 15 double hundreds scored in lost causes. Brian Lara (three) is alone in contributing more than one. Ricky Ponting's 242 for Australia against India at Adelaide in 2003-04 is the highest contribution to a losing cause.
The full list in alphabetical order, confirmed by noted Delhi statistician, Rajesh Kumar, is D.L.Amiss (203), N.J.Astle (222), P.D.Collingwood (206), G.A.Faulkner (204), S.E.Gregory (201), R.N.Harvey (205), M.L.Hayden (203), L.Hutton (202*), B.C.Lara (221, 202, 226), R.G.Pollock (209), R.T.Ponting (242), V.Sehwag (201) and V.T.Trumper (214*).
Keith, England
In the first innings of the Second Test, Warne and McGrath had combined bowling figures of 1 for 274. Are those the worst figures they have posted as a partnership?
Yes, they are. Their only other comparable twin analyses are 3-217 v England at Birmingham in 1997, 2-107 v New Zealand at Sydney in 2001-02 and 0-141 v New Zealand at Brisbane in 2001-02.
David Mitchell, Cumbria
Has there ever been a Cumbrian England Test player?
No one born in Cumberland (or its modern equivalent, Cumbria) has gained a Test cap. Paul Nixon, born in Carlisle on 21 October 1970, came close to gaining international honours when he toured Pakistan and Sri Lanka with England in 2000-01 but he remained understudy to Alec Stewart throughout both three-match series. Nixon did represent England A in India in 1994-95 and he has just been included among England's 16 players for the triangular limited-overs series against Australia and New Zealand in January and February.
Rich Waring, England
I've got a few quid on KP to hit the fastest century in this Ashes series, but I can't for the life of me find any stats for this on-line. Do you have any idea who's hit the fastest century so far? You're the king of TMS, by the way.
No, Rich. I'm just the chronicler - but I have been around the longest.
The fastest hundred of the current Ashes series by a distance is Adam Gilchrist's 57-ball assault at Perth, the second-fastest in Test cricket in terms of fewest balls received to Viv Richards's 56-ball epic for West Indies v England at St John's, Antigua, in April 1986. Kevin Pietersen took 149 balls to reach his century in Adelaide, the fewest of England's three hundreds to date. Paul Collingwood's took 204 balls and Alistair Cook's 257.
Stephen James, UK
Warne bowled 46.1 overs before taking his first wicket in the Second Ashes Test. I'm guessing this is not his longest time in an innings without success but what is?
Without linear scoresheets for all of Warne's bowling spells your question is impossible to answer with absolute certainty. The most overs he has bowled in an entire innings without a wicket is 42 (0 for 147) against India at Calcutta in 1997-98. As each of his other 10 innings analyses in excess of 46.1 overs has produced at least three wickets, it is highly probable that his recent first innings effort at Adelaide is in fact his longest barren spell in Test cricket.
Jon Heath, England
I was told that my cousin, Graham Kersey, once held the record for the longest time to get off the mark in an innings in first-class cricket. Is this true, and who currently holds it?
Not true. Graham Kersey took 64 minutes before he scored the first of his 59 runs for Surrey against Leicestershire at The Oval in 1996, his final season before being killed in a road accident in Brisbane. At that time the record was 97 minutes by Godfrey Evans for England against Australia at Adelaide in 1946-47. The current record is held by Geoff Allott of New Zealand, who batted for 101 minutes before being dismissed for a duck against South Africa at Auckland in 1998-99.
Greg Preston, Australia
I was at the second day of the Brisbane Test and, with right-hand/left-hand batting combination, the square-leg umpire always insisted on umpiring from square-leg, rather than point; even if this meant looking into the sun. Surely this made his task quite difficult. Why don't the umpires stand at point and who has to give them permission to do so?
Law 3 states that the 'The Umpires shall stand where they can best see any act upon which their decision may be required. The Umpire at the Striker's end may elect to stand on the off instead of the leg side of the pitch, provided he informs the Captain of the fielding side and the Striker of his intention to do so.'
Amarjeet Kaberwal, USA
Sunil Gavaskar scored 36 not out in a limited-overs match at Lords. He actually carried his bat for 60 overs. Is this the lowest score for any batsman carrying his bat in a limited-overs international?
It most certainly is! This happened at Lord's on 7 June 1975 in the opening match of cricket's inaugural World Cup. Gavaskar's response to the task of overhauling England's total of 334 for 4, which set a record for 60-overs cricket, was to have a prolonged net in the middle. He began his innings at 3.30pm. At tea, after 25 overs, he had amassed 13 off 70 balls in 98 minutes. When India's 60 overs expired at 7.25pm, Gavaskar had batted 215 minutes and scored 36 (out of 132 for 3) off 174 balls, hitting just one boundary (off his 84th ball). He didn't gain the match award.
Charl Jeannot, Australia
Can a run be scored off the same ball as a wicket being taken, for example a run out or stumping off a no-ball or wide? If so, who would win if the scores were tied and the batting side were 9 down at the time?
In the case of run outs, all completed runs stand.
When a batsman is stumped off a wide, the penalty run stands. If the scores were tied before that ball was bowled, the batting side would win as the penalty run would end the match before the stumping could be carried out.
Andy Prindiville, England
Do you know who the Prindiville stand at the WACA is named after? I share the name but there are very few of us in the UK and I wonder if I have any wealthy Aussie relatives?
The stand, built in the mid-1980s, was named after Bernard Prindiville, President of the Western Australian Cricket Association (1980-90).
Bernie Prindiville led the fundraising initiatives for the first Test match at Perth in December 1970. He was also a key mover in raising $19 million towards the modern redevelopment of the WACA Ground during the $29 million dollar Centenary Redevelopment Project in 1985; an upgrading that included the installation of night lighting and the acquisition of VFL/AFL matches.
A highly successful businessman, he was also a notable member of the Catholic Church of Australia and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great, a significant Papal honour.
David Dunning, UK
If the wicket-keeper dislodges a bail without the ball in his glove, before the ball hits the wicket, can the batsman be given out?
The wicket-keeper must either have the ball in his glove or hand, or break the wicket by throwing the ball into the stumps. If a bail has been dislodged before he has the ball, the keeper can remove the other bail with the ball in his glove. If he has dislodged both bails, he can pull out a stump with the ball in his glove.
Tom Ford, England
Has any bowler taken a hat-trick over three consecutive balls in three consecutive innings?
Simon Tiernan, Sale
With reference to Andy P, and a hat-trick spanning three overs (#134). If the first wicket fell to the last ball of an over and the second wicket fell to the first ball of the next over, also ending the innings, what happens if that was the second innings? Would the bowler's hat-trick delivery have to be against the same opponents? A hat-trick could then take two years to play out.
A hat-trick can never involve more than two innings because it can only be achieved within one match.
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This was a Unionist party vanity project from the beginning, in conception when they were in power, and implementation when in opposition by collectively outvoting the minority SNP government in its first term.
The project has subsequently descended into farce, but one that has wreaked untold damage on the economy and the image of the City of Edinburgh.
Lesley Hinds, Labour Councillor and Jeremy Balfour, Tory Councillor formed an unlikely liaison, went for a ride on the tram project, and jumped off at Haymarket, to cries of disgust and derision from the people of Edinburgh.
Gordon Mackenzie, LibDem Councillor, squeaks ineffectually on the sidelines.
Lots of other people walk away with lots and lots of lovely money - our money ...