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South Carolina vote not the end of the drama
- Rep.-elect Mark Sanford will be in court Thursday%2C accused of trespassing by his ex-wife
- Sanford had prickly relations with GOP leadership when was previously in Congress
- Democrats promise to make his ethical baggage a continued issue for the GOP
Republican Mark Sanford won South Carolina's congressional special election Tuesday, but the results may not conclude the drama of a disgraced former governor on the outs with his own party.
Sanford's quest for public and political redemption after an extramarital affair succeeded with voters Tuesday, who returned him to a congressional seat he left in 2001. Sanford will fill the seat vacated when Rep. Tim Scott was appointed to the U.S. Senate in January.
On Thursday, however, Sanford will appear in a televised court hearing to answer a charge of trespassing from his former wife. Then he'll head to Washington, where he made few friends during his previous three terms in office bucking the Republican leadership.
Sanford defeated Elizabeth Colbert Busch, despite her backing by national Democratic organizations and fundraising help from her brother, comedian Stephen Colbert.
The victory in what had been seen as a tight race means the district, centered on Charleston, "is a safe Republican district … and Democrats have not a lot of hope going forward," says political scientist Danielle Vinson of Furman University in Greenville, S.C.
"I don't see him having a lot of trouble if he can just shut his mouth about his private life and stop making an enemy of his ex-wife." If he can't, Vinson says, "the frustration with being a national punch line is pretty high in that district."
Sanford won nomination for the special election over a field of 16 Republicans, so there is no lack of potential primary challengers in 2014 should he continue to make embarrassing headlines.
During his previous terms in Congress, Sanford stuck to his fiscal hawk positions even when he clashed with Republican leaders.
"I don't suspect he'll be any better a colleague than he was 15 years ago," said Mark Tompkins, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina. "He doesn't change those spots, but on the other hand, he'll vote for Republican leadership. The election … really does get him on the path to overcoming his current liabilities. And that's a big deal."
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, congratulated Sanford on Twitter on Tuesday night on his victory, and Republicans said it proved the unpopularity of national Democrats.
Sanford was late-night-comic fodder in 2009 when he told staff he was hiking the Appalachian Trail and instead headed to Argentina to visit his mistress.
He paid a $70,000 ethics fine for spending public money on personal travel. He is now divorced and engaged to his Argentine girlfriend.
"The House Republican caucus has added yet another ethically challenged embarrassment who will be an albatross around the neck of every Republican forced to answer for Mark Sanford's embarrassing and reckless behavior," said House Majority PAC Executive Director Alixandria Lapp.
The PAC backed Colbert Busch with $450,000 in ad spending.
Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who runs the House Democratic campaign effort, said "House Republicans' outreach to women voters now has Mark Sanford as the face."
Democrats "laid siege" to the district because Charleston County, one of five in the district, voted for Obama, says county GOP Chair Joe Bustos. Sanford's win, "is not a green light that future elections can be taken for granted at all."
Sanford was initially favored to win the special election when he prevailed in the primary, but revelations that his ex-wife had filed a complaint alleging he trespassed at her home brought him a wave of bad publicity. The national Republican House campaign operation pulled its support, and polls suddenly showed Colbert Busch ahead by 9 percentage points before Sanford closed the gap.
Sanford campaigned with a cardboard cutout of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and tried to tie Colbert Busch tightly to national Democrats. In the final week of the campaign, South Carolina's two senators endorsed him and Gov. Nikki Haley appeared at a fundraiser on his behalf. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Tea Party favorite, also endorsed Sanford.


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Non-nerfers are welcome to join in too as the organizers have put up booths just for them.
Check out the poster and HURRY SIGN UP TODAY!
Stock blasters and foam darts will be provided by the organizers.
Do sign up at https://one.pa.gov.sg/CRMSPortal/CRMSPortal.portal?_nfpb=true&_st&_windowLabel=CRMSPortal_1&_urlType=render&_mode=view&wlpCRMSPortal_1_action=ACMParticipantMaintain&_pageLabel=CRMSPortal_page_1&IdProdInst=20814207&CWT by logging in using your SingPass or by registering directly at your nearest CC.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hop into the Easter season with a bountiful array of bunnies | Trending
In northern parts of the world, saying "rabbit rabbit" aloud on the morning of the first of the month is said to bring good fortune. What a wonderful coincidence then, that Easter Sunday falls on April 1 this year.
To celebrate, we've collected a flurry of bunnies to see in the Easter season. Of course some are chocolate, however some are not – for these watching their waistline, there are plenty of other Easter gift giving ideas, and fun ways to decorate your home.
We hope you have a safe and happy Easter. Rabbit rabbit.
Kids bunny stripe knit, $59.95. A refreshing alternative for those who aren't into cutesy, fluffy bunnies. countryroad.com.au
Rabbit mug, $7.99. When filled with hot chocolate and marshmallows, it's the ideal accompaniment to a hot cross bun. Available at Adairs stores.
Black bunny glitter earrings, $20. A bit of bunny bling is a fun accessory to wear during Easter. scoopsdesign.com.au
Baby Rabbit III canvas, from $199. Those ears! Those eyes! This adorable print would look perfect in a baby's nursery. theprintemporium.com.au
Hippity Hop hooded bath towel, $39.95.This adorable hooded bath towel is made from super-soft cotton terry and has pink floppy bunny ears. linenhouse.com.au
Easter onesie, $109. PJ's are a common gift at Easter time. If you've no plans to head out, you'd be forgiven for staying in these all day. peteralexander.com.au
Bashful bunny, $29.99. This soft and cuddly plush toy is a great gift for Easter, a birthday, or baby shower. yellowoctopus.com.au
Into The Wild Hare cosmetic bag, $28.91. Handy for storing cosmetics at home or as a travel make-up bag. creative-tops.com
Spring Fantasy bowl, $89.95. Depicts rabbits painting Easter eggs in front of their egg house - could it get more festive? villeroy-boch.com.au
Peter Rabbit chocolate egg, $4. The movie Peter Rabbit was released in Australia this week, just in time for a chocolate feast. cadbury.com.au
Glitter Tape Art kit, $20. Contains everything you need to create six gorgeous custom-made cards - great school holiday fun. tigertribe.com.au
Bunny ears headband, $19.95. Pearl-style beading in the shape of rabbit ears, for little bunny dress ups. designerkidz.com.au
Blush fluffy bunny keyring, $19.95. A fun gift if you don't want to give chocolate. sportsgirl.com.au
Vegan chocolate bunny, $9.99. This dairy, gluten and nut free bunny is blended from extracts of cocoa and soy. Available at Aldi.
Professor Bunny cushion, $19.95. Available in pink or white, this cushion would look great on the bed you've made up for Easter guests. pillowtalk.com.au


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Good morning crafters, hope you're all enjoying your weekend
It's the last day of June so sadly time to say goodbye to our fabulous guest designer of the month …Anita
You have loved Anita's work and have left a record number of comments on her posts to let us know it!
Her final project is this beautiful little Jacob's Ladder for a new baby…
She's used the Sentiment Tags and our cute Baby Companion Stamps on this amazing project and she will put some instructions on her own blog if you would like to see how she made it
I'd like to thank Anita for joining us throughout June
She says it was a lovely challenge to be asked and that she really enjoyed it …and now she's in love with the cute stamps from LOTV!
Do have a look on Anita's blog to see more of her amazing work
I'll be back tomorrow with a brand new Guest Designer …and don't forget that you only have a day left to enter our June 'use a sentiment' challenge
See you tomorrow x


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Next Episode of Взвешенные и счастливые is
The essence of the project lies in the fact that participants suffering from overweight , lose weight and fight for the main prize - 250 thousand hryvnia .
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But don't worry - it can happen to the best of us,
- and it just happened to you.
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Retirement Planning and Living
Readying yourself for retirement can be a trying process. Start early, gain insight from family and friends, and look for a place where you can enjoy your golden years. Use these tips from local experts to make a plan and start your journey.
(page 1 of 3)
#1 Know What's Right for You
Assisted living communities or adult residential care homes are great options for the elderly who need more help than their family or friends can provide.
Choosing one of Oahu's many great care facilities will ease the hardship of daily life activities for many seniors, such as cooking, housekeeping and managing their medications. "Personal care and assistance are readily available when they need it," assures Darlene Canto, Director of Marketing at Kahala Nui. " An assisted living setting offers the safety and security of 24-hour support and access to care. Day or night, help is only a call away." Seniors have opportunities for new and stimulating programs including the important aspect of socialization — interaction with fellow residents and staff. Hiolani Care Center at Kahala Nui provides assisted living, memory support and nursing services to seniors in the greater community and to Kahala Nui residents as well.
Kahala Nui, a continuing care community for independent seniors who are still involved in the community and fully engaged in a variety of activities, offers worry-free retirement living and a comprehensive life care plan. Canto says it is important to know your needs, and what type of service and care is right for you.
#2 Suit Yourself
Picking a retirement or assisted living community is a personal decision that you should make with your family and loved ones. It is important to be confident and comfortable with your new environment. "Your goal should be to find a community that fits you and who you are and not a community that you need to fit into," says Tricia Medeiros, regional director at Plaza Assisted Living. "Our environment is one that fosters independence and allows residents to make choices from the many options we offer."
Take time to test out the facilities and meet your hopeful neighbors. Medeiros suggests that prospective residents sample one of the daily meals prepared by The Plaza's local chef, and join in an afternoon activity to meet new friends. A full schedule of activities, catered daily to the likes and dislikes of the residents, is always available, as is weekly housekeeping, laundry and linen services, scheduled transportation, and nursing options.


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State of the Art
With an automated call center, your customers will always have an answer and you'll never miss another sale
Cara Biden, an electronics sales rep in Tacoma, Wash., enjoys a good cigar as much as the next person. She's particularly partial to the Hemingway Short Story, a medium-bodied cigar from Dominican Republic manufacturer Arturo Fuente. Biden thinks the Short Story packs a lot of body and taste for a cigar of its stature--at roughly 4 inches, it's on the shorter side of the spectrum for cigars, whose lengths can reach 18 inches--and she appreciates its efficient smoke. "It's a 30- or 40-minute cigar, versus a one- to two-hour one," she notes with pleasure.
The only trouble with the Short Story, as far as Biden is concerned, is that thousands of cigar smokers share her sentiments. It's a notoriously difficult-to-find cigar, and stores that do manage to keep Short Stories in inventory jack up their prices--Biden has seen some go for as much as $16 apiece. That's why, earlier this year, when she saw them advertised in Famous Smoke Shop's catalog for $4.25 each, she wasted no time in calling the retailer's toll-free number.
Biden was immediately greeted by a recording asking her to choose among four options ("press 1 for catalog requests, 2 for sales," and so on)--automation she ordinarily finds off-putting. "I'm normally not in favor of those, but at least at Famous Smoke Shop, you get a body in a reasonably short time," she says. Her coveted Short Stories were out of stock, but the sales rep on the other end of the line couldn't have been nicer, and politely suggested several alternatives Biden might like to try.
Since then Biden has called the New York City-based Famous at least half a dozen times, and each time the story is the same--no Short Stories. Yet she remains an enthusiastic customer, largely because of the one-on-one attention Famous pays its customers. Every time she phones, a system known as an ACD (for automatic call distributor) immediately kicks in to answer the call and route it to the appropriate contact among the company's 32 employees. That might be a sales rep ready to take an order, a customer-service specialist processing returns, a voice-mail box that handles catalog mailing-list requests, or the owner, Arthur Zaretsky, himself, who no longer spends his day chained to the phone--the way he used to before the system's installation, in October 1996. Instead, he can focus on new business developments, like the Web site, complete with on-line humidor (an electronic inventory of cigars for sale), that Famous put up last fall. "Before we had the system, it was crazy and impossible to handle calls in a meaningful way," says Zaretsky, rolling his eyes and visibly shuddering. "No one knew how many calls were coming in or being lost."
Things couldn't be more different now. In addition to its routing capabilities, Zaretsky's "call center," as such systems are increasingly being referred to, has sophisticated analytic features that track in real time such statistics as how many calls are coming into the office at any given time; customers' average time on hold; and reps' time spent idle, unavailable, and handling a call. "I have more information than I know what to do with," concedes Zaretsky. "But the point of all this mumbo jumbo," he says, pointing to a computer monitor displaying his call-center statistics, "is that our customers are taken care of in an efficient manner, that our operators are calm, and that we serve the market better so customers choose us."
It appears to be working: revenues have increased 20% each year in the nearly two years since the company installed the system, and overhead is down, since the analytic tools of the ACD, by revealing peak and slow calling times, have enabled Zaretsky to determine optimum staffing levels. In the past year alone, the increased efficiencies have doubled the reps' average sales-to-calls-answered ratio. "I worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week, for many, many years," says Zaretsky, walking through the company's physical call center. The cubicle-filled room holds 10 trained sales reps, who, wearing headsets, sit before keyboards and screens filled with minutiae about 130 cigar brands as they take orders and chat with customers about the merits of a Macanudo or an Olor Vintage. "This thing has changed my life."
ACD. Dnis. Erlang C. Screen pops. Jumping the queue. Like any burgeoning phenomenon, call-center technology has spawned its own vernacular. But while the acronyms and argot are relatively straightforward (see "Definition Directory," below), the definition of an actual call center appears to be a moving target. "No one really agrees on what a call center is," notes Brad Cleveland, president of the Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI), a consulting firm in Annapolis, Md. "With potential multiple sites, they're not really centers, and they take more than just calls."
Call centers are "really more like contact centers," states Carter Lusher, vice-president of the Gartner Group, an information-technology and research firm, "accommodating customers accessing companies via phone, fax, the Web, E-mail, even interactive video kiosk." The idea is to make customers' interactions with companies seamless and uniform, no matter which method of communication they choose. For example, while the integration of Famous's Web site and call center is still in its infancy, when a customer calls the 800 number listed on the site, the call is routed by the ACD to a separate queue with agents (or their voice-mail boxes, if it's after hours) who are not just cigar savvy but Web savvy as well. Orders made on-line are automatically logged and are processed by Famous's mail-order software, Mathen Group's MailBasics, in the same way that phone orders are processed. (For the record, more sophisticated Internet-integrated call centers enable a customer to do everything from contacting an agent with the click of a mouse to downloading Web documents by voice--but this technology is still several years away from being widely implemented. For a look at what lies ahead, see "Ringing in the Net," below.)
For the time being, a call center is an umbrella term embracing a variety of environments regardless of transaction: reservation centers, help desks, information lines, customer-service centers, even 911 numbers. And that's just inbound call centers, such as those you'd encounter when calling American Airlines or Dell's help line. There are also outbound call centers--those operations disparagingly referred to as "phone farms," whose armies of operators invariably call during dinnertime peddling yet another unwanted newspaper subscription or credit-card-protection service.
To be fair, not every outbound call center harbors a telemarketing scheme. And what's becoming increasingly true is that, thanks to falling prices of equipment and the expanded capabilities of today's systems, call centers are no longer the sole province of large enterprises or even those that bring in a lot of revenues by phone, such as banks and insurance companies. Indeed, today businesses are as likely to use a call center to decrease costs or mine information as they are to use one to increase revenues. "One of the big trends we see is that a lot of industries that didn't have call centers in the past are now putting them in," notes Lusher. The list of current call-center users includes cable-TV stations, florists, travel agencies, a fire-fighting-equipment retailer, a rodeo-reservation company, and even a cricket farm. Cleveland estimates that nationwide there are 60,000 to 100,000 call centers, which employ around 3 million call-center representatives, and that the number of centers is growing at approximately 30% annually. According to the Gartner Group, companies spent an estimated $1.4 billion on call-center technology last year, and that amount will balloon to $8.9 billion by 2002.
Because their technology can be leveraged to accomplish a variety of tasks, call centers are a "major strategic factor for any type of business," says Cleveland. "The power that call centers have in capturing marketplace feedback, identifying customer expectations, and enabling companies to build products and services around those needs is astounding." Adds Lusher, "Each contact with a prospective customer is a piece of the puzzle. The more pieces you have, the bigger the picture."
The executives and employees of Jacobs' Golf Group, in Scottsdale, Ariz., have been benefiting from just such a big picture since the company installed a call center, in January 1997. The inbound call center, which, like Famous's, is an ACD, facilitates reservation taking and analyzes phone traffic for 27-year-old Jacobs' Golf, which specializes in golf instruction, golf vacation packages, golf clubs, and golf-course management. Every week, president Gordon Petrie gets a summary report of call-center statistics that shows him the number of calls received, the number of reservations made, callers' average time on hold, and the average daily hang-up rate, among other things. He pays particular attention to the first two statistics because, he says, given that customers typically book several months ahead of time, "they're almost like leading indicators, and they help us know what our business will look like four or five months out." Petrie credits the call center with giving him a much better idea of volume and trends and says that for the first time in its history, Jacobs' Golf can track its conversion factor (number of calls taken to number of reservations booked). "I wish we'd installed this thing sooner," he says.
Pat Smoot, human-resources director at Jacobs' Golf, harbors the same wish. Smoot, who's been with the company since its early days, when it operated out of the garage of founder and tour player Shelby Futch, remembers all too well what life was like before her employer installed the call center and automated its reservation system. "Phones would ring constantly on everybody's desks," she says, "and after taking down a customer's information, we'd have to run over to the general booking ledger and rewrite it in there so we all knew how many students were going to which schools and when." As the business grew, with school locations swelling from an initial 4 to more than 55 worldwide today, the stack of ledger sheets mounted higher and higher. "They were cumbersome and heavy to lift," Smoot recalls, adding, "we definitely got more exercise then."
These days the reservation center at Jacobs' Golf hums with quiet efficiency--even though the company booked a record 20,000 students into lessons last year. Much like the sales reps at Famous Smoke Shop, the five customer-service reps sit in a row of cubicles, chatting into their headsets as their fingers fly over their keyboards and navigate the point-and-click user interface of the company's proprietary customer-reservation system (from Stoneman Software), which runs on an ALR server. The reservation system's database, which is separate from but operates in tandem with the call center, not only has taken the place of the unwieldy ledger but also allows the reps to live up to their customer-service titles: in addition to 250,000 customer profiles and information on 1,589 golf-school classes, the database contains the answers to customers' most frequently asked questions, whether they're about the average daily temperature of San Diego in January or the handicaps of students enrolled in a particular class.
While managers and employees alike would agree that the ACD has made life more pleasant at Jacobs' Golf, adapting to the system was no picnic. For starters, within minutes of installation on the company's server, the Windows-based software, called Prelude (from Cintech, 800-833-3900), revealed an alarming problem: the number of hang-ups was sky-high. "We never knew before how long we kept people on hold or how many calls we were losing, and when we saw that, we got scared," recalls former executive vice-president John Fechter.
Jacobs' Golf's early experience with its call center recalled the flip side of the adage "What you don't know can't hurt you": it felt like an expensive way to receive bad news. The company had spent $11,225 on the Prelude package, which had the capacity for 15 agents to handle up to 30 incoming calls at any given time, as well as an additional $32,000 on 30 new telephones and a complete rewiring of its phone system, by the time the reason for the lost calls was revealed: upon answering a call, Prelude would automatically bump callers into a voice-mail menu, regardless of whether a live operator was free. That, apparently, was unacceptable to customers, who would hang up after waiting too long in a queue. "And we knew when they hung up they were calling the next golf school on their list," notes Petrie. With the average price of a Jacobs' golf package running at $1,000, the opportunity cost of the lost calls was considerable.
The company decided on the spot that it needed to upgrade to a more robust system with more features, specifically the ability for callers to be directed immediately to a live operator when one was available. It decided to continue with another Cintech product, the Windows-based Cinphony, which in addition to the live-operator feature has the capacity for 30 agents to handle up to 80 incoming lines. (After some haggling, Cintech's local distributor agreed to accept the price of the upgraded software--$16,800--as payment in full.) Both Fechter and Marlene Pierce, reservations manager for Jacobs' Golf, arranged to have monitors in their offices to observe the call center's activity--so they could keep an eye on such statistics as average time on hold (the company's goal is a minute and a half), average daily hang-up rate (the goal is no more than 10%), and how many agents were on the phone at a given time.
But the opportunities provided by the call center didn't end there: the software's ability to track call-center activity in such detail inspired Jacobs' Golf to fine-tune its staffing levels. The process, by necessity, was one of trial and error. In an effort to reduce the time customers spent on hold, the number of reps was initially raised from five to eight. Then, when the monitoring software indicated to Pierce how frequently reps were "unavailable"--versus on a call or ready to receive one--because they were engaged in follow-up duties (such as mailing confirmations), it became clear that it made more sense to break out the follow-up responsibilities into a separate job. So the company added two new administrative positions and reduced the number of agents by two, from eight to six. Now, with weekly volume ranging from 2,200 to 2,500 calls, the call center is handling between two and three times the number of calls it did a year ago--with two fewer reps. Pierce estimates that bookings are up 15% from a year ago, thanks to increased efficiencies afforded by the call center.
The ACD's reporting capabilities have also led Jacobs' Golf to alter the hours of operation of the center. Though peak calling time consistently remains Monday mornings, with call volume declining gradually throughout the week, the company added Saturday hours and began gearing up for Sundays after the system revealed as many as 180 calls coming in on a weekend day. And after Cinphony revealed the surprising number of customers who called Jacobs' Golf between midnight and 6 a.m., the company made plans for a fax-on-demand service that will operate around the clock.
In fact, the installation of the call center sparked an overall effort by the company to refine how it operates its business. Though Jacobs' Golf has never had a bad year since its inception, in 1971, Petrie concedes, "We've been growing in spite of ourselves." The company, which has more than $20 million in revenues, can't afford to be complacent in a market in which the number of customers remains stagnant (according to the National Golf Foundation, the number of golfers in the United States has hovered between 24 million and 25 million since 1991) and new competitors lurk behind every bunker.
So Fechter, inspired by the call center's ability to help tighten up staffing and scheduling, dove into an analysis of the company's phone bills and database records, hoping to maximize its marketing efforts. Since the Cintech package that Jacobs' Golf chose lacks caller ID but can report which number the caller dialed (dialed-number identification service, or DNIS), Fechter decided to assign a separate 800 number to every direct-mail campaign or advertisement the company ran. Jacobs' Golf now has more than 50 toll-free numbers, up from 3 a year ago, and can, by using the reservations database and drilling down into the company's call records, analyze the number of bookings by state, among other things. "If the ad budget to Georgia goes up and catalog requests go up but bookings go down, the company now creates the red flags to detect this," notes Fechter, an M.B.A. who clearly relishes the idea of regression analysis.
Fechter's efforts have already paid off. For example, the company discovered that golfers from Arizona were the second-largest group of bookers (behind Californians) in its schools, so for the first time in its history it took out ads in some of the local golf publications there. The result? The number of students from Arizona doubled from the previous year--to 1,600 last year. Developments like that, on top of the obvious benefits of picking up more incoming calls through better staffing and scheduling, make Jacobs' Golf consider its call center more than worth the expense and effort. "In terms of our ability to serve the customer, it paid for itself instantly," says Fechter. Adds Petrie, "It feels so much more comfortable knowing how you're really performing."
Unlike Gordon Petrie, Don Carlberg didn't need a big-picture view; rather, he needed something that would help him bring his entrepreneurial vision into focus. Casting about for a business model for a new high-tech health-care company, he asked himself this question: "What single piece of technology can be used by virtually anyone, is instantaneous, and is two-way?" He takes pleasure in pointing out that the answer is not the Internet but the telephone, and that's why his company, three-year-old Patient Infosystems, in Rochester, N.Y., revolves around call-center technology--combining such cutting-edge applications as interactive voice response (IVR), computer telephony integration (CTI), preview dialing, on-demand publishing, and artificial intelligence. Notes call-center manager Betty Ann Brunton, "We have a lot of technology for a small company, with a lot of capability. And we are anxious to use it."
Simply put, Patient Infosystems, which has 75 employees, uses the telephone to help patients take better care of themselves. The idea for it sprang from a growing body of scientific research that documents how people are often more comfortable talking about sensitive medical issues to an automated telephone system than they are to a live person. Studies have shown that individuals will divulge more intimate personal details to a computer-generated voice asking questions (IVR) than they will to a real human being on the other end of the line.
Patient Infosystems exploits that preference to tackle a thorny issue bedeviling the health-care community. Despite the fact that doctors and health-care providers have more expertise than ever and that more people are better informed about health, health risks, and unhealthful behavior, between 30% and 60% of patients nonetheless don't comply with their prescribed treatment. That has at least two negative consequences that Patient Infosystems aims to address: patients don't get well, and health-care costs go up.
Patient Infosystems uses its elaborate call center to conduct regularly scheduled interviews with various patient populations--asthmatics, diabetics, those suffering from heart disease, for example--to gather information about how those people are managing their diseases and their treatment plans. The phone system, which is hooked up to the company's patient database (hence the CTI), automatically uses the patient feedback gathered in the "conversation" to generate customized, personal reports (on-demand publishing) that employees of Patient Infosystems then mail or in some instances fax to the patients and their doctors. The patients' health-care providers foot the bill for the service, whose cost varies according to the frequency of calls and the nature of the disease but in general runs from $12 to $16 a session.
Like Famous Smoke Shop and Jacobs' Golf Group, Patient Infosystems has some inbound lines (a nurses' hot line and some survey-response lines, for example) that are managed with an ACD (a Meridien One, from Nortel, 800-4NORTEL, nortel.com, $500 to $700 per seat, or agent). But the bulk of its call-center operation is outbound based and relies on a software program called Campaign Manager (from Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, 888-GENESYS, www.genesyslab.com, $3,000 to $4,000 a user for 50 users). The Unix-based software (it's also available in Windows NT) works in conjunction with Patient Infosystems' proprietary patient database (which was built in-house and runs on an Oracle server). It begins its job by scanning through the database records and determining who needs to be called on a given day, in a given window of time, based on parameters established during initial patient-enrollment interviews or on information provided by the sponsoring health-care provider.
To avoid alienating patients with its technology, Patient Infosystems always starts its sessions with a live operator before transferring patients into the voice system. Campaign Manager facilitates outbound calling by checking to see which of the company's 20 patient-service representatives is currently available and then, only after ascertaining that a person is ready to make a call, initiates dialing.
Once in the voice system, patients typically respond to a series of questions (such as "In the past month, how many nights did asthma symptoms awaken you?") by saying a number between, for instance, one and nine or, in some instances, answering yes or no. The system is fairly skilled at understanding a variety of accents and intonations (and words like "none"), thanks to voice-recognition and artificial-intelligence components in the software. Based on the patient's response, Campaign Manager will then select another question to ask or a comment to make (for instance, "Ask your doctor for instructions on what you should do when you have an [asthma] episode"). Patients have the option at any time to exit the system and return to a live operator (they do so by saying "stop"), but so far, since the company began running its sessions, last summer, between 75% and 80% of patients have opted to remain in the automated system. If and when patients do switch back to a live rep, IVR technology enables the operator to pick right up where the patient left off in the automated system--regardless of whether the operator is the one who initiated the call.
That's possible because Patient Infosystems' reps are prompted by their computers and read from scripts that appear on their screens (screen pops, a CTI feature). The scripted dialogue, which is generated with proprietary software called LOPs (for live operator positions) that the company developed, is hooked into Campaign Manager with a "proprietary interface," which pops it up on the screen of an operator the instant he or she receives the call, according to CIO Kent Tapper. LOPs also enable operators to scroll forward and backward through the screens--which is particularly helpful when multiple operators are involved in the same call or if a patient wishes to back up and repeat a question. At the conclusion of the session, more company-developed proprietary software, called DOX (a loose acronym for demand publishing system), in combination with Microsoft Word, translates and automatically prints out the results of the conversation in a customized report, which is then sent to the patient and the physician.
The reps' dialogue is all scripted, but since it varies according to the patient's response to each question, "there are thousands of paths in there," notes Brunton. In the previously mentioned asthma example, for instance, an operator would make a different suggestion or comment to the patient who was awoken nine times during the past month than to one who was awoken one time. One of the reps' biggest challenges is adhering to the script when patients prefer to veer. Included in the reps' two-week training session are role-playing exercises that prepare them for when a lonely, perhaps elderly patient wants to chat or when a patient asks a pointed medical question such as, "What is this red spot on my arm?" "We want to be friendly but not a buddy system," notes Brunton. "We still need to manage the call." The department appears to be succeeding: in a typical five-hour shift, 10 reps can reach as many as 1,200 patients--averaging an efficient two and a half minutes a call. (Including the automated portion of these calls, a typical patient session lasts from 8 to 15 minutes.)
From the beginning, Patient Infosystems made a substantial investment in technology--slightly over $1 million in hardware and software in the call center alone--and it has yet to turn a profit. Revenues for its first complete year of business, 1996, were $845,000; they rose to just over $2 million in 1997, and analysts project that the publicly traded company will hit sales of $8 million this year. Director of marketing Richard Holowka also anticipates that Patient Infosystems will "turn the corner" and make a profit in 1998. To judge by its call-center expansion plans--the company is building a second room to handle an increase in its number of reps, to 34 by this month--a substantial portion of any profit will be plowed back into the call center. But that's all right with Holowka, for without its call center, Patient Infosystems wouldn't be in business. "We owe our existence to the technological cresting of a variety of applications--not the least of which are strides being made in call-center technology," he says.
The 59-year-old Famous Smoke Shop doesn't owe its existence to its call center, but it could be argued that owner Zaretsky owes his to it. Prior to the installation of Famous's ACD, Zaretsky, who has a four-cigar-a-day habit, would typically spend seven or eight hours answering the phones during the business day and then, at 6 p.m., begin his job of trying to run and manage the company. He knew it wasn't a healthy existence, despite his claims that he doesn't "so much smoke as chew the cigars."
Today the Bronx native still has the deep throaty voice of a smoker, but it contrasts noticeably with his slim, fit, 50-year-old physique. The juxtaposition is hard to miss, particularly because of the CEO's uncharacteristic choice of business attire: spandex tights and fanny pack. A vegetarian, Zaretsky routinely makes the 80-block round-trip to his office in the Garment District on Rollerblades and does five or six loops of Central Park three or four times a week. Factor in a couple of midday trips to the gym each week, and the Superman getup begins to make sense.
Famous's ACD is what makes those athletic jaunts possible. Zaretsky can justify time away from the office, because, whether he's there or not, his phone system tracks everything he needs to know: how many calls are coming in (typically 600 to 1,300 a day); exactly how many of them translate into sales (typically 40% to 60%, a rate captured by using the ACD in combination with the MailBasics mail-order software); the average time a customer is on hold (the goal is no more than 15 seconds); and even when the peak calling times are (usually between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.).
Of course, Famous Smoke Shop didn't install a call center to turn its CEO into a jock--it did it to improve its customer service. Had the Short Story-smoking Cara Biden called Famous two years ago, she might never have called back. Since Famous didn't have any kind of sophisticated phone system to handle its 32 incoming lines, Biden's calls would have been answered in who-knows-how-many rings by an undoubtedly harried and not very cigar-smart person. "Phones would ring on everybody's desk, calls were constantly lost, and employees were ready to attack one another," recalls Zaretsky. "I don't know how we survived. It was abominable customer service."
The fact that the cigar industry began turning red-hot in 1993 (consumption has increased 68% since then, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department) magnified the severity of Famous's customer-service problems. So in early 1996, after a particularly stressful Christmas season, Zaretsky desperately started reading every telecommunications journal he could get his hands on. He still remembers the name of the author whose article in Operations and Fulfillment magazine hit him like an epiphany. "Curtis Barry. And he said, 'If you have this problem and that problem, then what you need is an ACD,' " recalls Zaretsky. "I didn't know what an ACD was; I just knew that I needed one."
The ACD he chose after nearly a year of research was Distributed Call Center (from Teloquent Communications, 800-468-6434, $1,750 per agent) because, he says, its applications were the most "open, expandable, and flexible" within his price range. "This is not a product in a box but a software system that can be modified," he says of his Teloquent system, which is Unix-based and resides on a Compaq Prolinea 575. Once the ACD was installed, "all of a sudden new possibilities began to emerge," Zaretsky recalls. For example, originally the system offered a customer three choices in its voice-driven menu--catalog requests, order placement, or returns--but after a while it became apparent that the company needed a fourth option, for callers interested in cigar resale. "Storekeepers are interested not in consuming the product but in how much profit they can make on it," explains Zaretsky.
Thanks to the easy-to-use software, adding another option to the voice menu is simply a matter of dragging a few icons on a PC screen and making a new recording in the voice-mail system. In fact, making changes to the system is so easy that call-center manager Humberto Gonzalez--a self-confessed techno-neophyte--tinkers with it all the time. Zaretsky has been so encouraged by the traffic generated by wholesale callers that he has set up a separate 800 number for them, and he's building a Web site just for distributors as well. "I can have as many businesses as I want with this thing," he muses.
Other customer-service improvements followed once the system revealed specific caller habits. For example, after it showed Gonzalez that callers using rotary phones were likely to hang up sooner than those using Touch-Tone ones, he reconfigured the system to give priority to the rotary dialers, permitting them to "jump the queue," in call-center argot. He also enabled callers to select a particular rep ("press one for Joe, two for Susan") after noticing that repeat customers would frequently request reps by name. Customers' befriending of reps was a luxury the company could never have afforded in its pre-ACD days. Paradoxically, switching from wholly live operators to an automated system has made Famous's relationships with its customers more, as opposed to less, intimate. It's a trend the ICMI's Brad Cleveland has observed as well. When used effectively, he says, call centers can be "great loyalizing tools."
Consider the experience of Famous customer Mike Genova. At the suggestion of a sales rep, he registered his 20 favorite cigars in a special folder on Famous's Web site. Famous, in turn, routinely sends him E-mail notifying him when his choices are in stock, suggesting alternatives when they're not, and alerting him to weekly specials. To judge by comments Genova posted in a cigar smoker's newsgroup (alt.smokers.cigars), he's a big fan of this E-mail, which seems to keep him coming back for more. Genova writes:
Famous is killing me! Today I got an Email listing the Fuentes in my favorites folder that they just received today. The sigs [sic] were in and gone in half an hour, but they still had Cuban Coronas in maduro. Got a box of those. Three hours later, I get another Email, this time they got LGC's [La Gloria Cubanas] in. I had to order again, a box of Churchill Maduros. It's too damn easy!
No stranger to this "loyalizing" effect, Famous has a full-time employee dedicated to the task of keeping the Mike Genovas of the world happy. Long before it was fashionable to do so in call-center circles, Famous treated each E-mail message it received as a legitimate customer contact. "E-mail queen" Amy Collazo gets 50 to 150 E-mail messages daily and makes a habit of responding to them in 24 hours and often on the same day.
Life with a call center hasn't always treated Famous so well. For example, Zaretsky had to wait more than a year for his local phone company to figure out how to reprogram his ISDN line to allow call monitoring--a feature of the Teloquent system that enables Gonzalez to listen in on new reps' conversations with customers during their initial training. (This contrasts dramatically with the old method of training reps--"throwing anybody who walked in the door immediately on the phones," notes Zaretsky.) The experience, he says, was "a horror story."
Regardless, Zaretsky thinks the approximately $45,000 he's invested in his call center over the past three and a half years has been well worth it. "Revenues have gone up tremendously, our employees are much more comfortable, we're handling calls more efficiently, and our customers have a better perception of us," he says.
Other than a fine cigar, what more could anyone ask for?
Alessandra Bianchi is a contributing writer at Inc.
AUTOMATIC CALL DISTRIBUTOR (ACD): A specialized telephone system that automatically answers, queues, and routes incoming calls to agents; plays announcements; and provides analytic reports about callers' activities
CALL CENTER: An umbrella term that refers to reservation centers, help desks, information lines, or customer-service centers, regardless of how they are organized or what types of transactions they handle. Can incorporate multiple methods of customer-company communication--phone, fax, the Web, E-mail, and even interactive video kiosk
COMPUTER TELEPHONY INTEGRATION (CTI): The software, hardware, and programming that enable computers and telephones to work together seamlessly
DIALED-NUMBER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE (DNIS): A feature that shows what number a caller has dialed
ERLANG C: A queuing formula that calculates predicted waiting times based on the number of reps and callers and how long it takes to serve each person
INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE (IVR): A computerized phone system that responds to caller-entered digits or speech in much the same way a computer responds to keystrokes or the click of a mouse. When linked with databases, enables caller to check current information (such as account balances) or complete transactions (such as transfers)
JUMPING THE QUEUE: An ACD feature that allows a caller on hold to be plucked from the queue and immediately be redirected
SCREEN POP: Computerized customer history or product information that pops up on an agent's screen at the time of the call
The future of call centers is rife with Internet applications. The following applications, says Edwin Margulies, author of nine computer-telephony books, are among the most promising:
- A prospect visiting a Web site sees something that tickles her fancy. If the site uses a product like CyberCall 3.0, from ATIO Corp. (612-837-4000, www.atio.com), she can click on a "callback" button, and a form will pop up asking for her name and telephone number. After she types in that information, the Web server sends it to the company's telephone system, which places the message in a queue for the next available agent, who pulls it up on his screen and phones the customer. A twist on that concept is a "callback tag" that travels with the prospect's name and number. In that scenario, the agent also receives a screen pop of the Web page the customer is viewing, so he can be ready with information about whatever appears there. In a more sophisticated application, a product like the SomeOne service, from NETcall Telecom Inc. (303-486-0855, www.netcallplc.com), allows the agent to embed a tag on the site that the customer can use to establish voice communication. The customer clicks on the tag, sending a message through the Internet to the public phone system, telling it to set up a call between agent and customer. Within a few minutes, phones on both sides ring.
- A call-center agent receives messages in multiple media--faxes, phone calls, E-mail, Internet telephony calls. Products like the Enterprise Interaction Center (EIC), from Interactive Intelligence (317-872-3000, www.inter-intelli.com), allow her to view a listing of all those messages on a single screen. If she clicks on the phone icon, her phone rings and she can speak to the caller; if she clicks on the fax, she can view the fax on-screen.
- An agent needs the help of a supervisor in responding to a customer's call. Using MeetingPlace, from Latitude Communications (408-988-7200, www.latitude.com), he pulls up a form on the company's intranet and, by clicking on the names of the people he wants to rope into the conversation, automatically sends them messages to dial into the conference call.
- A customer without a PC wants a document that lives on the company's Web server. The Web-on-Call Voice Browser, from NetPhonic Communications (650-962-1111, www.netphonic.com), allows that customer to call in on a phone and use an interactive voice-response system to pull the document off the Web site and fax it to him.
The Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI), in Annapolis, Md. (800-672-6177, email@example.com), has a knowledgeable staff and a variety of resources to offer. They include a Web site (www.incoming.com), which has useful links to vendors; a monthly newsletter, Service Level Newsletter ($333 a year), filled with call-center specifics; and a comprehensive book, Call Center Management on Fast Forward, by Brad Cleveland and Julia Mayben (1997, $34.95).
Though they can be light on editorial and heavy on vendor advertising, there are several magazines devoted to call centers. Two worth checking out: TeleProfessional (800-338-8307, www.telepro.com, $39 a year) and Call Center Magazine (888-824-9793, www.callcentermagazine.com, $14 a year).
The industry's largest trade show, the World Conference and Exposition on Incoming Call Center Management, will take place September 1 through 3 in Denver. For details call 800-265-5665 or visit www.callvoice.com/iccm98.


text: Career experts agree that LinkedIn is an essential job search tool. Not only can you instantly get the word out to hundreds, if not thousands, of colleagues, bosses and potential employers about your latest accomplishments, ambitions and changes in employment status, but your LinkedIn profile can also serve as a passive job magnet, since recruiters and hiring managers use the site as a gold mine for locating candidates. I worked with a LinkedIn's senior manager of communications, Krista Canfield, on the essentials of putting together a profile and making the most of it. Here's what I learned.


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Found 48 resultsAuthor Title Type [ Year]
Filters: First Letter Of Title is L [Clear All Filters]
"Live Attenuated Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) Vaccine with dmLT Adjuvant Protects Human Volunteers Against Virulent Experimental ETEC Challenge", Vaccine, vol. 37, no. 14, pp. 1978-1986, 2019.,
"Low Information Omnibus (LIO) Priors for Dirichlet Process Mixture Models", Bayesian Analysis, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 677-702, 2019.,
"Liposome-Encapsulated Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 gp120 Induces Potent V1V2-Specific Antibodies in Humans.", J Infect Dis, vol. 218, no. 10, pp. 1541-1550, 2018.,
"Lithium for the Maintenance Treatment of Bipolar I Disorder: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Discontinuation Study.", JAAC & Adol Psych, 2018.,
"Leading the Way: The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Single IRB for Multi-Site Research", in American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), McCormick Place, Chicago, IL, 2017.,
"Longitudinal Analysis of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) in a U.S. Cohort of HIV-Infected Liver and Kidney Transplant Recipients", in American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Annual Meeting, 2017, Washington, DC, 2017.,
"Late Effects after Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation in Very Young Children after Busulfan-Based, Myeloablative Conditioning", Biol Blood Marrow Transplant, vol. 22, no. 9, pp. 1627-1635, 2016.,
"Lessons Learned In Collecting Participant Reported Outcome Data via Web-Based Data Systems", in Society for Clinical Trials (SCT) 37th Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2016.,
"Long-term Follow-up (LTFU) After Hyperbaric Oxygen or Sham Chamber Sessions in Military Post-concussive Syndrome", in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society Annual Scientific Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, 2016.,
"Long-Term Outcomes After Randomization to Buprenorphine/Naloxone Versus Methadone in a Multi-Site Trial", Addiction, vol. 111, no. 4, pp. 695-705, 2016.,
"Long-term Treatment with Egg Oral Immunotherapy Enhances Sustained Unresponsiveness that Persists After Cessation of Therapy", J Allergy Clin Immunol, vol. 137, no. 4, pp. 1117-1127.e10, 2016.,
"Lithium in the Acute Treatment of Bipolar I Disorder: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study", Pediatrics, vol. 136, no. 5, pp. 885-894, 2015.,
"Longitudinal Clinical Findings and Outcome Among Cryptococcus gattii Patients in British Columbia", Clin Infect Dis, vol. 60, no. 9, pp. 1368-1376, 2015.,
"Longitudinal Study of Cognitive and Academic Outcomes After Pediatric Liver Transplantation", J Pediatr, vol. 165, no. 1, pp. 65-72.e2, 2014.,
"Lorazepam vs Diazepam for Pediatric Status Epilepticus: A Randomized Clinical Trial", JAMA, vol. 311, no. 16, pp. 1652-1660, 2014.,
"A Lower Confidence Limit for the Benchmark Dose Using Higher Order Inference", in Joint Statistical Meeting, Boston, MA, 2014.,
"Letter to the Editor in Response to Coldren et al.", Military Medicine, vol. 178, no. 8, p. viii, 2013.,
"Liver Transplant Outcomes in HIV(+) Haemophilic Men", Haemophilia, vol. 19, pp. 134-140, 2013.,
"Long-Term Effects of Vitamins C and E, β-Carotene, and Zinc on Age-Related Macular Degeneration: AREDS Report No. 35", Opthalmology, vol. 120, pp. 1604-1611e.4, 2013.,
"Lymphocyte Phenotype During Therapy for Acute Graft Versus Host Disease: A Brief Report from BMT CTN 0302", Biol Blood Marrow Transplant, vol. 19, pp. 481-485, 2013.,
"Lack of Enhanced Survival after Double Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) Transplant Compared to Single UCB Transplant in Children with Hematological Malignancy: Results of the BMT-CTN Randomized Trial", in 54th Annual ASH Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 2012.,
"Level of Oral Health Impacts Among Patients Participating in PEARL: A Dental Practice-Based Research Network", Community Dent Oral Epidemiol, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 332-342, 2012.,
"Long Term Outcomes of Allogeneic Islet Transplantation: The Collaborative Islet Transplant Registry (CITR) 1999 - 2010", in 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society, Berlin, Germany, 2012.,


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- 92% of people Asahi Newspaper surveyed on the streets of Osaka use LINE chat daily.
- 80.6% of couples who answered a poll by O-ucchino said that their relationship is harmonious, and 78.8% of them sleep in the same room.
- 58.0% of mothers said they emphasize easy-to-prepare breakfasts, while only 17.6% of them focus on nutritional balance, according to research by Sato Foods.
- 41.0% of voters surveyed by Google used websites to collect information in order to decide which candidate to vote for in the Upper House election.
- 32.5% of single women polled by MyNavi said they would rather be a housewife than a working woman after marriage.
- 8.7 % of the parent generation in a parent-child survey conducted by Asahikasei Homes are considering the specifics of their property inheritance situation.
Art | Japan Pulse
Japan by the numbers (8.9.13)
by Mai Hasebe
Contributing Writer


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« Back to this school's profile
Note: This is not an exact replica of the school zone. The master map, which is the official determination of school zones, is located in the Facilities and Operations Division Planning Department. For Charter, Choice or Magnet schools, please contact the Office of School Choice.


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B&O Museum to hold exhibit yard sale
Items including model trains, seats, photos up for sale
The B&O Railroad Museum is cleaning out its surplus of trains and putting thousands of items on sale in an upcoming yard sale.
The museum is putting its little treasures up for sale in its round house on Sept. 7.
"It's one of those things where, when they come off exhibit, what do you do with them? You put them in storage. The reality is they don't see the light of day again, so this is a great opportunity for us to clear out some space and for people to get some memories themselves," explained museum Chief Curator Dave Shackelford.
There will be a bit of everything available, including old history books, hundreds of pictures depicting life on the railroad and exhibit panels.
"We have HO-scale model train cars. We have B&O box cars, tank cars, baggage tags from the railroad company – literally, we have thousands of these -- and lantern globes," Shackelford said.
He said items can range from $2-$100. Since it's a yard sale, some prices are final, but some can also be talked down, Shackelford said. Visitors can also buy raffle tickets to win big prizes like some 1940s-era Sleepy Hollow seats.
"We've got a diesel engine bell. They were actually operated by compressed air, and even with our trains we're running today, this is the type of bell that's actually being rung," Shackelford said.
All of the money raised will go toward the museum's restoration projects, some of which are still in the works from the President's Day blizzard of 2003.
"A typical restoration is about $250,000, and that's a cosmetic operation. That's not getting it operational -- that's just taking care of what needs to be done," Shackelford said.
The yard sale runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.


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I'll get married for my son: Emma Bunton
Los Angeles, Oct 11 (IANS) Singer Emma Bunton says that she is in no rush to exchange vows with her fiance Jade Jones, but would do so if their son Beau wanted them to.
"Beau is our everything, so if he forces us to get married then I think we'd do it for him", Bang Showbiz quoted Bunton as saying.
She further added: "But we don't have any marriage plans just yet, we are useless at arranging anything."
The 37-year-old got engaged to Jade Jones in January 2011 and has two sons - five-year-old Beau and Tate, 2, with him, reports contactmusic.com.


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"MacLane deserves canonization alongside Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein." —Emily Gould, author of And The Heart Says Whatever and Friendship
"One of the most fascinatingly self-involved personalities of the 20th century." —The Age (2011)
"Mary MacLane comes off the page quivering with life. Moving." —The London Times
"The first of the self-expressionists, and also the first of the Flappers." —The Chicagoan
"Her first book was the first of the confessional diaries ever written in this country, and it was a sensation." —The New York Times
"I know of no other writer who can play upon words so magically. Mary MacLane is one of the few who actually knows how to write English. She senses the infinite resilience, the drunken exuber- ance, the magnificent power & delicacy of the language." —H.L. Mencken
"A girl wonder." —Harper's Magazine
"A pioneering newswoman and later a silent-screen star, consid- ered the veritable spirit of the iconoclastic Twenties." —Boston Globe
"A milestone… Heartwarming, sensual and candid, I Await the Devil's Coming offers reflections that likely were quite scandalous in their time and remain evocative and powerful today." —California Bookwatch
"She was an extraordinarily gifted girl. . . She had a natural gift for crisp and concise expression, a keen, undisciplined intelligence and the emotional sensibility of a true artist." —New York Tribune
"A pioneering feminist. . . A sensation." —Feminist Bookstore News


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No Hassle Returnsx
Feel free to try it on every style we make is crafted with care and we're proud of our high standard of quality. We understand if your new purchase doesn't work out the way you imagined, so we've made the return process easy.
Chico's No Problem Return Policy
Returns or exchanges made within 60 days of purchase are graciously accepted! Returned or exchanged merchandise must be unworn, unwashed, undamaged, or defective. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept the return or exchange of gift cards, gift e-cards, or gift boxes. Returns made with the original receipt will be refunded in the original tender. Returns without the original receipt will be refunded at the lowest selling price in the form of a merchandise credit. Refunds by check will be mailed within 30 days.
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Our sales associates will be happy to help you with your return or exchange at a Chico's boutiques. If your purchase was made at a Chico's outlet, we can help you at a Chico's outlet.
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If you prefer to return or to exchange your purchase in one of our boutiques, our sales associates will be happy to help you with your return or exchange at any of our Chico's U.S. boutiques (excluding outlets).
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If you prefer to send your return by mail, please affix the Prepaid Return Shipping Label that we provided, along with your invoice, to the box and drop off your package in the U.S. mail. Please note that when we receive your return, we'll deduct $7.00 USD from your refund for handling fees. If you prefer to use the carrier of your choice and create your own label, we recommend using a form of traceable and insurable delivery.
Please ship returns to:Chico's Returns Department
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If you need to exchange an item for a different SIZE or COLOR within 60 days of your original purchase, simply circle the item(s) on your packing slip that you wish to exchange and indicate the size/color you prefer. Merchandise sent to us for exchange must be unworn and unwashed or defective. Your new merchandise will be shipped out as soon as the return is received. Or, if you prefer to have your items shipped prior to the return arriving in the warehouse, you may call 1.888.855.4986 to place your order with one of our Sales Consultants. After placing your re-order, you can then make your return as outlined above.
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If you wish to exchange an item for a different item within 60 days of your original purchase, you may call 1.888.855.4986 to place your order with one of our Sales Consultants. After placing your re-order, you can then make your return as outlined above.
Price Adjustment Policy
We will gladly adjust the price of an item if it decreases within 10 days of your original purchase! A one-time price adjustment may be made on original or sale price merchandise. Customer must physically present original receipt at a boutique if purchase was made at a boutique, (at an outlet if purchase was made at an outlet). Online or catalog purchases are not eligible for price adjustment in our boutiques and outlets.
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Merchandise marked as final sale is sold "as is" and may not be returned or exchanged and is not subject to our Price Adjustment Policy.
International Customers:
At this time, orders placed via chicos.com or by telephone and shipped outside of the U.S. cannot be returned or exchanged in any of our boutiques or outlets. If for any reason, you are dissatisfied with your purchase within 60 days of your original purchase, please contact our Customer Service at 1.888.855.4986 or firstname.lastname@example.com in order to obtain a Return Authorization Number, which is required in order to process your return. Our Customer Service will provide you with detailed instructions regarding how to return your purchase. If you return any item(s), our e-commerce partner, Borderfree, will provide you with a refund of the original merchandise price and any duties and taxes originally paid on the item(s) in the same currency and at the same exchange rate as your original purchase. Please note that you will be responsible for return shipping costs. For more information regarding international orders and our e-commerce partner, Borderfree, please read our International FAQ.
Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions? We're just a phone call or email away. Phone: 1.888.855.4986 (TDD: 1.888.550.5559). Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. International: 1+ 888.855.4986, firstname.lastname@example.com.


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I watch mostly foreign films. Any you might suggest?
I watch mostly foreign films. Any you might suggest?
A few years ago I watched a few films about child predators. One that stands out as good (not fantastic, but interesting) is "Troubled Water" a Danish film about a young man out of prison for killing a child. It shows his life when integrating back into society after this heinous crime. It helps that the main character is played by a winsomely handsome actor. He is a sympathetic character.
Ypu probably follow the list of foreign films nominated for Oscars. I find that a good place for recommendations.
Last edited by iris lilies; 1-1-18 at 11:43am.
Subject matter?
I ask because I really liked the Millennium Trilogy. (3 movies together, not the USA version, of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). I'd like to see Kindertransport and there was one in that Genre that isn't a foreign film, but I would almost consider it one (Letters from Iwo Jima). But I have always had an interest in that subject between the HST connections, the operation paperclip connection, and the Japanese chef friend and Austrian chef neighbor, whose families fought on the other sides.
There was a vampire movie that was in my would be interested to see or read cue, and I found the dvd at a local store for $3, Let the Right One In. (would love to find the soundtrack to this one, and I would avoid the US remake)
A young lady I know, wants me to watch Battleship Royal. The plot sounds too similar to what has been coming out in the recent past.
Off the top of my head, I haven't had great access to true foreign movies. (seems if I find stuff I might want to see, there is a region code issue) One that I saw on a recommendation, as a teenager, I would NOT recommend, is RAN.
Last edited by ToomuchStuff; 1-2-18 at 2:27pm. Reason: Typing late at night. Gave Harry a new middle name, LOL.
Thanks for the suggestions! Much appreciated.
Let The Right One In is an excellent film! I watched it back in graduate school. My circle of friends back then was all about it.
What else do you all have lined up to watch? Domestic films?
I LOVE Let the Right One In, Swedish version. It is on my top 25 Favorite Films list. The American version is decent, too.
We saw "I, Tonya" tongiht. It is great entertainment. It tells the story of skater Tonya Harding in an irreverant way, but still respectful to her.
Last edited by iris lilies; 1-14-18 at 9:42am.
"The Post" ...a Stephen Spielberg movie with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. About Katherine Graham who owned the Washington Post at the time a not very influential paper in a very influential town. Their primary rival the New York Times published top secret and sensitive information obtained from a Rand Corp. source showing the highest level officials in government knew the Vietnam War was a debacle but chose to continue it at the risk and peril of the nation's youth simply to postpone the embarrassment of losing a foreign war. The Nixon administration obtained an injunction against the Times and the Post was placed in a perilous position of deciding to publish the same leaked information and risk the death of the paper or keep mute and sell out the first amendment.
Katherine Graham is portrayed as breaking through the male barrier in a predominantly male profession. Streep is very good. It starts out slow but accelerates and ends quite satisfactorily.
"Loving Vincent" is a unique exquisite work of art about Vincent van Gogh that I watched tonight. "Loving Vincent - is the world's first fully painted feature film!" I found some new info about the artist but the artwork took 10 years to finish and so gorgeous.
Gandhi: Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony .
Bicentennial Man. It was ironic hearing the Robin Williams character warned about the anguish humans can face.
Loved the Post. That and Ordinary People really brought me back in time with the fashions, hairstyles, manners, and mores.
That was my life, circa 1971. Well, minus the newspaper ownership!
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Dining Services at the University of Rochester has incorporated sustainability into its plans through a variety of programs and initiatives.
University of Rochester's Current Sustainability Initiatives:
Local Foods
Danforth Dining Center
Pride of New York Program
Waste Minimization
Coffee and Cafes
Animal Practices
Buildings and Facilities
Useful Links
Campus Dish Green News: the official website for dining services' sustainability information
Contact Team Green with suggestions or concerns
Manager: Liesel Schwarz
Coordinators: Louisa Gag, Rachel Goldstein
Marketers: Matt Bauer, Ziwei Xiao
Green Food: a blog about sustainable dining
Local Vendors
|Allens Hill Farm
|Associated Textile Rental
|Baker Street Bread Company
|Bartlett Dairy
|Boulevard Produce Inc.
|Buffalo Hotel Supply Co.
|California Rollin' Sushi Bar
|Café International Foods
|City Baking LLC
|Finger Lakes Coffee
|Freshlink Farms
|Genesee Bakery
|Hedonist Chocolate
|Joe Bean Coffee
|Keuka Footwear Inc.
|Lanovara Food Distributors Inc.
|Lipman's Kosher Market
|Manhattan Bagel (Soho)
|Midstate Bakery Distributors
|Park Avenue Bakery
|Paul De Lima Coffee
|Perry's Ice Cream
|Povinelli Cutlery Service
|Reasonable Tent & Party Rental
|Silver Dry Cleaning Co
|Southern Wine & Spirits/Upstate
|Table Toppers of Rochester-
|Uniform Village
|Upstate Farms
|Will Poultry
|Women's Coffee Connection
|Wright Wisner Distributing Co.
Not Sure What To Do With Your Waste?
This Guide to Waste (.pdf) can help:
Find out more recycling options at the Sustainability recycling page.


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Manhattan's $300,000 Roof Dwellings (Nov, 1929)
Manhattan's $300,000 Roof Dwellings
By ORVILLE H. KNEEN
The Story of the Penthouse Apartment
Roofs of metropolitan skyscrapers are now the most sought-after and expensive sites for exclusive apartment dwellings. Rentals for some of the roof houses range around $2000 per room per year!
I HAVE heard much about New York penthouses lately. Thinking of a penthouse as a little shack on a dingy roof, I asked a realty friend to show me one.
I found the building whose number he had given me. The building and elevator shaft proved pleasantly cool. And to my surprise, when I stepped off at the 13th floor and into the vacant penthouse, it also was cool as compared to the street. Delightful breezes, which never touch street level, carried the heat away. The roar of heavy traffic below was greatly subdued.
So was I, for that matter, when the "little shack" turned out to be a fen-room mansion in the sky. On the roof level were three large, high-ceilinged living rooms, each with fireplace, cavernous closet and French doors to the tiled roof outside. There was a solarium for sunbathing. And on the floor below were three master and four maids' bedrooms.
At this high point in my reflections the agent on premises stepped into the picture, hot on the trail of a prospect. As this seemed to be me, I asked him casually what I might rent the little dwelling for.
"These are not for rent," he said. "This is a cooperative dwelling, for sale only. I could let you have it as is for $142,000, not including upkeep, which is at the rate of 9-1/4 per cent. I think you can get a larger one up the avenue, with four rooms more, for $181,000 …"
I hastily assured him that this was quite large enough—that I'd be back as soon as I had consulted my wife. My ardor cooled, I "hot-footed" it back to my realty friend who rents these tiny shacks for one of New fork's largest firms.
"You ain't seen nothing yet," he informed me. "Several of the new penthouses on Fifth Avenue have sold for $300,000 each. Most of these are sold on the plans, before the building is started, and finished to suit. And we can't finish them fast enough. On the east side alone there are probably 100 under way, on about 65 new apartments. Every building of this type now has from one to four penthouses."
I asked him if he knew of any more available, at more nearly my financial size.
"Oh, yes," he assured me. "There are three and four room penthouses, selling for $20,000 or $25,000 up, depending upon the location, etc. If you want to rent, I might be able to get you a small one at $400 to $2,000 a room per year, in a modern building. That's only about 20 per cent more than for equivalent apartments on the lower floors."
For various reasons, I have not yet returned to sign up for my penthouse.
Although Babylon had its hanging or terraced gardens, built to please a mountain-bred queen who was homesick, the modern movement to city roofs is only a few years old. As late as 1923 it was a matter of news when the head of a large realty firm announced his plans for an apartment on the roof of a new addition to the Plaza Hotel, overlooking Central Park. This had a formal Italian garden.
European architects have been amazed at American disregard for roof tops. For centuries We have used flat roofs merely as rain-and-snow sheds, as places for chimneys to emerge, and more recently as supports for "wireless" wires. At the same time, every large city has for years been crying for more park area.
Some cities, like New York, have even bought up whole tenement districts and torn down buildings to make breathing spaces. Yet the total roof area of a city almost equals that of the city itself, less streets and sidewalks. Enormous areas, estimated at three times the street space, are going to waste today. In future it is safe to predict that these roofs will be covered with homes, playgrounds, gardens, open-air restaurants and even parks. Large buildings now planned are especially suitable for roof dwellings and gardens. Architects now design roofs amply strong enough to support the most elaborate roof dwellings.


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Starting Lineups:
New York Knicks:
PG- Chris Duhon
SG- Larry Hughes
SF- Wilson Chandler
PF- Al Harrington
C- David Lee
New Jersey Nets:
PG- Devin Harris
SG- Vince Carter
SF- Trenton Hassel
PF- Yi Jianlian
C- Brook Lopez
The struggling New York Knicks are falling further out of playoff contention in the Eastern Conference. While a five-game road trip might not help matters, starting it against the New Jersey Nets could.
The Knicks look to avoid losing their sixth straight road game Sunday when they visit the slumping Nets for the second time this season.
New York (25-36) is in 13th place in the East, but only three games behind eighth-place Chicago and 1 1/2 games behind the Nets (27-35) for 11th. The Knicks, though, have dropped four of their last five and are 4-11 since Feb. 2.
They fell 114-105 at home to Charlotte on Saturday. Al Harrington scored 24 points and Nate Robinson added 20 for New York, but the Bobcats shot 55.4 percent and became the 16th Knicks opponent out of the last 17 to surpass 100 points.
"I didn't think our energy was very good," New York coach Mike D'Antoni said. "It is a skill to play hard. We have to either acquire the skill or learn how to do it or something. We did not come out like a playoff game, that this really meant the season more or less. It doesn't, but we should have had that attitude; didn't do it, disappointing but we got one tomorrow."
The Knicks now begin a five-game road trip while the Big East tournament takes over Madison Square Garden. New York has lost five straight away from home, although one of those defeats came in overtime and two others were decided by a combined six points.
The Knicks will face four opponents from the East during this trip - New Jersey (27-35), Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland - all of which are ahead of the Knicks in the standings. They also visit Minnesota before returning home March 18 to face the Nets again.
New York has won four of its last five against New Jersey, the most recent a 121-109 victory at the Izod Center on Dec. 10, when Harrington had 39 points.
The Nets are also stumbling, losing three of four and eight of 11.
New Jersey's last three defeats came against winning clubs - New Orleans, Boston and Orlando. The Nets led by eight with 7:26 to play Friday in Orlando, but couldn't hold on and fell 105-102 to the Magic on Friday.
Devin Harris had 25 points and nine assists to lead New Jersey. Vince Carter added 19 points, but missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer as time expired.
"We put ourselves in a position to win and we didn't ... so there is no true silver lining," coach Lawrence Frank said. "This is going to be a battle of persistence and we just have to continue to fight." Harris is averaging 28.1 points and 9.9 assists in his last seven games. He scored 32 points against the Knicks in December
Knicks- 108
Nets- 103
Song of the Day:


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Introducing a worldwide speed contest for kiteboarders on snow and water.
Due to an overwhelming number of requests Underground Kite Sports is proud to announce that we will now be running a yearly speed contest. The contest will be broken down into two categories, water and snow. The snow category will be broken down further to ski and snowboard. For rules and participation requirements go to www.undergroundkitesports.com.


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Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Simply Flan / Flan, Tout Simplement
Sugar High Friday returns home to Jennifer at Domestic Goddess and in this month challenge she is asking us to make our favorite dessert. "The one you crave when you are on a diet or when you've been away from home for a long time"
It is hard to narrow my favorite desserts to a particular one since I always fall in love with a dessert that makes me forget the others. Sometimes I crave a chocolaty dessert, sometimes a creamy dessert or a fruity dessert. Sometimes I only want a scoop of ice cream or no dessert at all. You see for me dessert is about a mood, an atmosphere. While dessert can only mean for some people a good ending to a meal, for me it is more than that. Dessert is proven, at least at my house, to release tensions, to enchant senses and to transport you home even when you are at 4272 Miles away.
Flan is baked custard that is very popular in Spain. Like crème caramel, both built on a mixture of eggs and milk or cream, they are all about texture-smooth and satiny. Custards owe their legendary silkiness to the slow cooking of eggs and cream or milk until the ideal consistency is achieved. A water bath is used for baking Flan because it insulates the custards from the direct heat of the oven, ensuring the even, gentle cooking that is necessary to baking a successful, silky, creamy custard. Custards are perfectly done if it jiggles slightly when it's gently shaken. It is very important not to overbake your Flan.
I have been eating Flan since I can remember, battling with my siblings to who get the biggest part and the most of caramel. I love Flan. My family loves flan. Needless to explain then why I choose Flan for this event. This is just the dessert that I crave after a light summer lunch, the dessert that my husband and I craved when we were pregnant and the one that spoiled my so-called healthy diet a few days ago.
I like my Flan to be creamy, soft and light, even though there is nothing light about it. I hate grainy, dense and eggs tasting Flan.
Here are some Troubles you may encounter with your Flan or any baked custard:
- Flan is grainy or watery: it means it was overbaked
- Flan is too wet in center: it means it was underbaked
- When making your caramel, sugar crystals form: You shouldn't stir your caramel once the sugar has dissolved.
My Flan has no fancy spices and no twist to it. It is a plain vanilla Flan, because when I crave, I crave authentic desserts, mostly from my childhood.
Recipe: Serves 8
- 9 oz granulated sugar
- 1 vanilla pod or 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 2/3 cups milk
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 5 extra large eggs
- 2 egg yolks
Put 6 oz of the sugar in a small pan with 4 tsp water. Bring to a boil over a high heat, swirling the pan to dissolve the sugar. Boil, without stirring, until the syrup turns a golden brown caramel.
Pour a little caramel into each mold. Pour the milk and cream into a pan, add the vanilla seeds or vanilla extract and bring the mixture close to a boil. Remove from the heat and let stand for 15-20 min.
In a bowl, whisk the eggs and extra yolks with the remaining sugar for 2-3 min until creamy. Whisk in the warm milk and cream mixture, and then strain it into the caramel-lined moulds.
Put the molds in a water bath. Cover the molds with foil paper and bake in a preheated 325 F oven for about 20-25 min. A toothpick inserted to test should come out clean. Remove from the water, leave to cool and refrigerate overnight.
In francais please: Pour 8 personnes
- 250g de sucre crystalise
- 1 gousse de vanille ou 2c.c d'extrait de vanille
- 400ml de lait
- 250ml de crème liquide
- 5 gros oeufs
- 2 jaunes d'oeufs
Mettre 175g de sucre dans une casserole avec 4c.c d'eau. Porter a ebullition sur grand feu en remuant la casserole jusqu'a ce que le sucre se dissout. Bouillir, sans remuer le sucre jusqu'a le caramel soit d'une belle couleur dore. Verser dans vos ramequins.
Mettre le lait et la crème dans une casserole et ajouter les graines de gousse de vanille ou l'extrait de vanille. Rechauffer a peine jusqu'a ce qu'il arrive a ebullition puis retirer du feu. Laisser infuser 15-20 min.
Dans un bol, melanger les oeufs, les jaunes d'oeufs et le sucre restant pendant 2-3 min ou jusqu'a ce que le mélange soit cremeux. Egouter votre crème et la verser dans lea ramequins de caramel. Couvrir d'une feuille d'aluminium et faire cuire au bain-marie, dans un four prechauffe a 160C pendant 20-25 min. Retirer du bain-marie doucement et laisser refroidir. Puis, mettre au frigo toute la nuit avant de le consomer.
18 comments:
- LILIBOX said...
tu as raison un bon vrai flan au caramel sans autre artifice .
Qu'est ce que c'est bon !!
- June 12, 2007 at 4:55 PM
- Nora B. said...
I love crème caramel & custard, so this looks devine to me.
- June 12, 2007 at 9:01 PM
- Helene said...
Ca me rapelle toujours les Flanbi avec la laguette qu'on tire!
Le tien doit etre bien meilleur!
- June 12, 2007 at 10:40 PM
- Claude-Olivier Marti said...
Ton couscous ^__^ non j'adore les photos mais je pensais t'avoir laissé un commentaire....sorry ;-) Par contre sur un flan tout simple mais tout bon, je ne peux que venir et saliver...simple oui, mais archi efficace ;-)
- June 13, 2007 at 2:45 AM
- Aimée said...
Thank you for featuring MY favorite dessert as well! People don't understand why I love it so much, but it's so simple, beautiful and ideal. I think that the skeptics just have never had a perfect flan. Yours looks about as close to perfection as it can get. Beautiful!
- June 13, 2007 at 8:28 AM
- Cheryl said...
I don't think have ever had flan f any flavor. But it looks right up my alley, just beautiful.
- June 13, 2007 at 11:11 AM
- Ilva said...
It's so good! And your photos are wonderful!
- June 13, 2007 at 11:48 AM
- Jes said...
I've never really enjoyed flan, but this recipe makes me want to make it and see what I think now. :) Looks lovely and it's perfect for SHF!
- June 13, 2007 at 2:43 PM
- Patricia Scarpin said...
I would crave this beauty any time, too, Rose!! It's luscious!!!
- June 13, 2007 at 2:56 PM
- nikcreate said...
Flans are one of my favorite desserts every holiday in our family reunion my aunt makes the most creamy flan I have ever tasted its an absolute must for all of us! I don't make flans for the reason that its my favorite and can easily eat so much flan in one sitting which would be bad for me! so I only have flans in halo-halo (Filipino's favorite summer treats) and my aunt's flan on special occasions.
- June 13, 2007 at 9:27 PM
- veronica said...
qu'il est beau le flan caramel sera toujours pour moi un delice des yeux et des papilles...bravo..
- June 14, 2007 at 4:53 AM
- Anonymous said...
rien de tel qu'un flan caramel aprés un bon repas!il fait partie du patrimoine,il revient souvent et il se transmet d'arrière grand-mère en arrière petite fille!!c'est fou ,au moment ou j'allais consulter ton blog je me disais:il faut que je fasse un flan aujourd'hui et sur quoi je tombe?!!biz
- June 14, 2007 at 12:54 PM
- Lis said...
I've never had flan, Rose! Since you only live a state away will you bring me some? Pretty please? =))
Looks BEAUTIFUL!
- June 14, 2007 at 3:20 PM
- Warda said...
- On est d'accord la-dessus Lili.
- I am glad you like it Nora
- J'espere qu'il est meilleur. Il fut un temps par contre ou j'aimais le flambi. Surout quand tu tires sur la languette pour le faire tomber. Ca m'amusait.
- Pour etre efficace, il est tres efficace. Pour le couscous, je voulais dire que tu n'avais plus de place pour lui apres tous les p'tits plats du pic nic.
- I am just happy that I made your favorite dessert Aimee. Thanks for your kindness.
- Thanks Cheryl. You should try it.
- Thank you so much Ilva.
- I respect your opinion Jess. But just try mine and you will change your mind. In all modesty of course.
- You are so nice My dear Patricia. Anytime you want.
- Mmmmn Nicole, Your aunt's flan sounds delicious.
- Je suis contente qu'il te plaise Veronica. Merci beaucoup
- J'etais gatee Mima par ma mere qui m'a effectivement transmise la recette du flan. Bien qu'elle le fasse toujours mieux que moi. Je vois que les grands esprits se rencontrent. Tiens moi au courant du resultat.
- Oh Lis, my dear Lis. You know that I would deliver for you anything you want.Flan, cakes, Pies...
- June 15, 2007 at 12:05 AM
- Kelly-Jane said...
Oh my, that looks positlvely devine!
- June 15, 2007 at 2:34 PM
- Peabody said...
Flan is definitely one of my all time favorites...good choice.
- June 16, 2007 at 7:43 PM
- Warda said...
- Thank you very much Kelly Jane.
- Thanks Peabody. Happy to hear that I made one of your favorites.
- June 21, 2007 at 2:48 PM
- MissK said...
I made something similar as well but i couldn't get the sugar brown no matter how long i left it and used the same sugar as yourself,it looks lovely by the way.Yum.
- July 27, 2007 at 7:43 AM


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A Cedar Springs man was arrested last week for killing a cat that had wandered into his home in Cedar Springs Mobile Estates.
According to Cedar Springs Police Chief Roger Parent, a call came into police dispatch on Monday afternoon, April 7, with the caller telling them that a cat had jumped over a partial door barrier to their mobile home on Susan Street, and then went inside home and was now fighting with their dogs. Later the caller said the cat was dead and that her husband may have killed it.
When officers investigated, they found that the man had thrown the cat into the street, in front of children and neighbors. He admitted to then stomping on the cat's head, because it was twitching from seizures.
Police arrested Michael Patrick Stackhouse, 35, of Cedar Springs, on Wednesday, April 9 on a charge on a felony charge of animal cruelty causing death. He is also being charged as a habitual offender-3rd offense. Bond was set at $100 cash or surety, and he later bonded out. A preliminary exam was set for Monday, April 21, at 9:45 a.m.


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Last week, in my piece on soccer, I wrote about several immigrant boys playing a pick up game on Portland's Western Prom. They probably came from the neighborhood surrounding nearby Howard C. Reiche Community School.
Whenever walking my dogs that way, I wave and nod to families sitting out on their stoops in the cooler sunsets. They come from Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, and many other places, all looking for something more, something better than what they left behind.
To be sure, the immigration debate in this country is peaking once again, and sadly, there seems to be little compromise or resolution from either side of the aisle.
But for me, it's a reminder of one immigrant's tale close to my heart: that of my maternal grandmother Stamatina, or, as we called her, Yiayia.
This week, I told her story in my Portland Sun column, "Yiayia's American dream."
It remains somewhat amazing to me, that less than a century from when she landed on these shores to enter a marriage arranged back in her native village in Greece, every child and grandchild of hers is a college-educated American.
To be sure, Yiayia's situation was far different than that of so many immigrants today – be they legal, illegal, documented, undocumented, or whatever else we are being told to call or not call them.
The labels, however, are nowhere near as important – or discouraging – as the inertia our government continues to show on this matter.
What do you think? What should be done, and is that the same as what can be done, or not? Yes, we are a nation of immigrants. We are also a nation of laws. Does one trump the other, or cancel each other out into inaction, all while the problem grows by the day?
Whenever I think of Yiayia today, I am grateful she had the chance to leave behind the poverty of her birth and give it a go in the New World in whatever way was acceptable and appropriate to her era.
She wanted to come here so badly, and do her best by her new country. And for all the other admitted motives for entering the U.S. – which are not to be dismissed or glossed over – I can't find fault with anyone who truly holds Yiayia's American dream in their heart.


text:
Serbian Ambassador to Russia, Ms Jelica Kurjak, lectures at the Postgraduate School
On February 17, 2012, H. E. Jelica Kurjak, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Serbia to the Russian Federation, delivered a lecture at the SS Cyril and Methodius Postgraduate and Doctoral School with the blessing of its rector, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk.
She told the student about the reasons of dissolution of Yugoslavia, about political situation in Serbia at present and about basic directions of foreign policy, paying particular attention to the relations of Serbia with its neighbours and with Russia. Ambassador Kurjak shared her vision of the role of Orthodoxy in Serbian society.
After the lecture, she answered many questions.
Source: mospat.ru


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Stonehenge Private Viewing Tour at Sunrise - New Dates 2021
- Private viewing of Stonehenge and access into the stone circle
- Visit to Lacock (with optional breakfast in 14th century classic country pub George Inn in Lacock)
- Entry to Roman Baths and Pump Rooms
- Return Transportation by luxury air-conditioned coach
- Professional Guide
- Free Wi-Fi on board
The tour starts with a drive to Stonehenge. As the sun begins to rise, we enter the stone circle (which is normally roped off to the public) for a unique private viewing. The most dramatic and atmospheric way of visiting Stonehenge.
After Stonehenge we visit Lacock for breakfast in a 13th Century inn, before driving to to Bath to visit the Roman Baths and Pump Room.
Stonehenge - private viewing at sunrise
Built nearly 5,000 years ago, Stonehenge is the most popular prehistoric monument in the world. Most visitors to the site are not allowed direct access to the stones. With Premium Tours you get that access, with a private viewing of the mysterious monoliths. We will enter the stone circle itself and stand beside the mighty Sarsen rocks towering above us. Our guide will explain the history of this ancient site, pointing out the altar, slaughter and heel stones, above which the sun rises dramatically on the summer solstice. There will be time to enjoy the peace, away from the crowds, as we experience Stonehenge at its most mystical and atmospheric best. Not to be missed!
Lacock is a little known, picturesque village dating back to the Saxon era. Many of the beautiful buildings originally formed part of an extensive monastic complex and are now owned by The National Trust. So pretty is the village that it has provided the setting for many movies and television dramas including Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and more recently Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. We will take a delightful walk before we enjoy breakfast in The George Inn, a vintage English pub built in 1361. (food/drink not included)
Next, it's on to Bath, famous for its elegant Georgian architecture. During your panoramic tour of Bath you will be enchanted by the town's beautifully proportioned street. Your guide will also conduct an optional walking tour to show you a charming 17th-century Sally Lunn tea room and the Jane Austin Museum among many other hidden treasures. You'll see Bath Abbey and the much-photographed Pulteney Bridge, modelled on the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence. There will be plenty of time to visit Bath Abbey, or to shop and explore. Then we will enter the magnificent Roman Baths, where over one million litres of boiling water still burst free from the hot springs every day. The Roman Baths, is the best preserved Roman spa from the ancient world.
- Private viewing of
Stonehenge and access into the stone circle
- Visit to Lacock (with
optional breakfast in
14th century classic country pub George Inn in Lacock)
- Entry to Roman Baths and
Pump Rooms
- Return Transportation by
luxury air-conditioned coach
- Professional Guide
- Free Wi-Fi on board
- Gratuities (optional)
- Hotel pick up or drop offs
- Food and beverages
Please note:
- During peak periods, additional vehicles without Wi-Fi may be used.
- Please note at certain times
due to the long summer daylight hours it is not possible to see the actual sunrise
but we arrive as early as possible to enjoy our private tour inside the stones.
- Tour departs from Millennium Gloucester Hotel (Casino Entrance) at 5.30am (Please arrive by 5.20am). Tour finishes near Victoria train station.
- If child under 3 is travelling this must be requested at the time of booking.
- Amendment and cancellations
must be made at least 8 days before the date of travel to avoid a 100% cancellation/amendment fee.
- Please
note that Stonehenge reserve the right to cancel due to circumstances
beyond our control such as poor weather conditions where they fear
the ground and monument may be subject to damage from footfall. While
this is rare to date, if it does happen it will most likely be in the
- Millennium Gloucester (Casino Entrance)


text:
Share your wonderful news with custom announcements! Whether you're announcing the birth of your baby or your recent move, Shutterfly has you covered. With so many options to create personalized announcements – with or without photos – you can truly express your personal style and sentiment.
Our bridal announcements are elegant and romantic – perfect for sharing your recent engagement with friends and family. Once you and your betrothed have selected a date, be sure to begin exploring options for save the dates. We offer flat, folded, and magnet options for save the dates to suit every need.
We also make it easy to design custom wedding announcements. These can be great for new couples, especially if you or your spouse is changing names or if you've recently had a change in address. If you decided to elope, wedding announcements can help you share the big news.
Shutterfly ensures that you're able to deliver your news with simplicity and quality. Sending photo birth announcements are a wonderful way to stay connected with friends and family during this exciting and life-changing time. Upload your favorite photos, and incorporate all the details.
If you're the parent of a recent graduate, you know how hard your child has worked to achieve good grades, participate in extracurricular activities, and prepare for the future. Celebrate your grad's exciting news with custom graduation announcements! Whether you use photos from throughout their high school or college careers, senior photos, or no photos at all, we can help you design the right announcement for your child.
It's easy to lose touch with loved ones when life gets busy, but don't let time slip away. Be sure to update friends and family when you move, and you might find yourself with visitors! At Shutterfly, we offer a variety of different moving announcements. We have options for nomadic renters as well as homeowners, and we can customize any design to your preference. Share your first-time home purchase or recent cross-country relocation with style. You might also be interested in finding a self-inking rubber return address stamp for holiday cards too.