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Lately I've found myself planning a haunted attraction. One of those pie in the sky things. I think I'll blame Eric from Haunted Overload. He proved that a haunted attraction doesn't have to be packed with animatronic movements and blasts from compressed cylinders. It's all about detail and atmosphere. So the question I keep asking is - can a haunted attraction be totally static, with no movement whatsoever except for fog and flickering candles. No actors, no startling scares, just creep factor. Would visitors feel cheated? Would they throw rotten fruit at me?
One of the scenes in my display would be a massive wall-t0-wall floor-to-ceiling crypt/catacomb/ossuary. Very narrow, very dark, and very long. Corpses and smashed coffins, some tree roots, and darkness.
Sorta like this beautiful photo from Opacity.us, but vile and dank.
It'll probably never happen, but it's fun planning it in my head.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
What If...
28 comments:
- NoahFentz said...
Location Location Location. After seeing this years display a group of us at work began to discuss that very thought. (yes I turned some coworkers onto your blog)In NYC I can see your display more of an Art Venue. Give you a room, paper mache the hell out of it and send your patrons to a magical place. That's what art does.
If its promoted right and in the perfect location anything is possible. I know I would be the first in line.....everyday. - November 14, 2009 at 10:12 PM
- Damian Michael AKA HalloweeNut said...
Rot, if anyone could do a walk-thru well, it would be you! I love the idea of a static haunted house; just nothing but disturbing props and Halloween atmosphere!
- November 14, 2009 at 10:17 PM
- phillipjmerrill said...
You just described the perfect haunted attraction: static; but heavy on atmosphere. The only movement should be the hairs raising on the back of your neck.
- November 14, 2009 at 10:22 PM
- Johnny Love said...
Ahhh.... Count me in on the team. I'll design the mysteriously long hallway, complete with old glass paned windows illuminated only by the flashes of lightning outside and adorned with blowing tattered curtains.
- November 14, 2009 at 10:40 PM
- Eric said...
One of the common debates always seems to be scare factor/intensity vs. atmosphere. Some folks require the elevated heart rate to feel satisfied with their haunting experience, while others fully appreciate the elements that create an unsettling mood. Both sides of the debate are well grounded and equally valued in any haunted attraction. On the other hand, if either area is presented poorly ... I believe that "negative" would have a stronger effect on paying customers.
Your dream haunt looks astonishing in my mind. I've yet to see another amateur haunter put as much emotion in a single piece, but you continue to progress. The images you share of your work speak volumes. I can almost "feel" the scene, and these photos are far more static than any in-person experience. Add the third dimension, the sounds, and smells of a well produced scene ... I'm sold!
Your haunt's dead things appear to be very much alive. Perhaps they don't pop out from behind some cleverly placed scenic element or scream at innocent and unsuspecting visitors. If you're able to create feelings of anticipation or otherwise manipulate your visitors' senses, you're in control to an extent.
Sudden startles also affect our senses, but not in a controlled way. That "fight or flight" reaction comes to mind ...
Would people feel cheated? I'm almost positive some would. If you were to incorporate every animation known to man, I'm also (almost) certain some visitors would feel cheated.
Unfortunately, my opinions are terribly biased. I believe in the details, and the fact that the details require attention. I'm looking for the tricks and subtleties by nature. I can't help it. I'm a haunter of sorts. - November 15, 2009 at 12:18 AM
- Anonymous said...
I always felt that if any one person would allow there mind to do it, their imagination would take over and they would experience more than what they are actually seeing.
If you would create a field like your corn witch theme and a home where she lives in....man that would be something real creepy! - November 15, 2009 at 12:28 AM
- Smilodonna said...
I would love to see a haunt created by your hand! I've since added Haunted Overload to my list of must see events (alas, the northeast is on the other side of the country and I really have to have a career-critical reason for travel at this time), and I'd certainly add a Pumpkinrot haunt to the list. I would imagine that you would need to market it differently from the usual haunt event, as I'm sure you've though about, since the loud braggart boyfriend who gropes his girlfriend and shows off to his buddies has a way of demolishing a lovely moody setting. Perhaps emphasizing the exploratory quality of the haunt would be a good way to go; I know that would hook me in an instant.
- November 15, 2009 at 1:54 AM
- Anonymous said...
I have to fess up on this one - I actually had to Google 'ossuary', and wow, am I glad that I did! Thanks for the word of the day! ;)
- November 15, 2009 at 3:07 AM
- Chris 'Frog Queen' Davis said...
I have the same things running through my head :D
If you ever do one, I promise to find a way to be there.... :D
Cheers! - November 15, 2009 at 3:35 AM
- JHMDF said...
If your customers know what to expect to see and experience in your haunted attraction (which in your case your fans know your work very well), then I think it could work. People would be coming to experience more of a artistic display representing this Halloween and very dark.
I would come :) - November 15, 2009 at 3:42 AM
- Mr. Macabre said...
I have thought of this concept myself at times.
Most of the decidedly best haunted attractions in my opinion rely less on movement and gore and more on atmosphere (ie: Hallowed Haunting Grounds, Turbedite Manor, [and of course] Pumpkinrot,). These haunts rely more on atmosphere and staging (although I do know the the Haunting Grounds and Turbedite Manor did/do indeed have animatronics) but the Pumpkinrot display relies more on apparent movement, like a snapshot in time.
Could it be done? I believe so. I believe that it would be more enjoyed by a more sophisticated audience though. There would indeed be the group that would feel cheated because a chainsaw or decapitation wasn't involved. I would like to know where and when Halloween became a gore and bloodfest where grossout (and regrettably, scenes of torture) have become synonymous with the day when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest. But that's a rant for a different day.
Of course, I'd fly out to see it, and I might even try out an airplane for once! - November 15, 2009 at 8:00 AM
- crudedoodle.com said...
in Philly, there is a haunted attraction each year at one of the oldest prisons in the city, Eastern State Prison. There are dozens of people dressed in costumes working there and they hide, pop out, follow you around trying to scare you.
However, the best part of that attraction for me is the walk between the different buildings where there aren't any actors or sound effects or music...just the hundred-year-old prison walls and old iron fences and small unused buildings and guard towers with some weak lighting upon them.
A man's mind starts wandering in that setting. And that's scarier than anything. - November 15, 2009 at 10:14 AM
- Unknown said...
I can totally see a static yard haunt. It's kinda the way we are going. I seriously like the idea of a creep catacomb. We are toying with the idea of making one garage bay have huge Gothic wood doors ToT's have to open to peek inside and glimpse our Vampire room. We are planning on making a large skull wall too. My Co-Haunters uncle used to own a ceramic store and is gonna make us some ceramic skull faces, full and half to mount on a large sheet of Polystyrene. waiting in anticipation for what you come up with. Steve, a new follower :D
- November 15, 2009 at 1:28 PM
- Arcane said...
Rot, you would have to cater to that type of audience. Like some others have said, I think if patrons know what type of haunt they are going to, they won't feel cheated. I do think there is a particular audience out there who would enjoy and appreciate an all static haunt. It's a great idea. Your amazing props combined with the creepy atmosphere you portray would make a fantastic haunt. If this ever takes off count me in.
- November 15, 2009 at 1:59 PM
- Hopsy the beer drinking clown said...
I think an all static haunt, high on atmospheric things like chilled ground-hugging fog, flickering or irregularly timed strobes, a chilling soundtrack, creepy props that make you question whether they are costumed actors or static constructs...Wow! Yeah, you better get busy Rot...
- November 15, 2009 at 5:54 PM
- Rot said...
I think the success of something like this would have to come from making static props at rest. Nothing "living" or frozen in action. That'd probably end up looking like a wax museum display.
So a catacomb would work pretty well.
An outdoor portion would be really neat. A winding path carved through a patch of oversized rotting pumpkins.
And don't get me started on the scarecrow section of the event. : ) - November 15, 2009 at 9:09 PM
- Anonymous said...
A path with rotting pumpkins showing someone or something was there, but yet new jackolanterns to show that they or it is still there. Rotting corpses hanging to warn others who go any further they will meet the same fate....
You could go on and on with this and could have a big impact on somebody's mind without having a single prop making a move.
Now you got me going.... - November 15, 2009 at 9:39 PM
- NoahFentz said...
..adding Mr.Rot to the list of "When I win the lottery...."
- November 15, 2009 at 11:19 PM
- FULL MOON INDUSTRIES said...
Believe it will my ŔØ✞✞éŊ friend and it shall be; all great things must start with a dream. Have the faith in yourself and make it a reality; all of the necessary ingredients are in place!
FMI☠ - November 16, 2009 at 12:04 AM
- Mantan Calaveras said...
As a yard haunter Rot, I'd say you're an artist. I've not seen any other haunters with the particular unique vision that you aspire towards.
Anything you build would be an experience unto itself. There are ways to convey the story, and to build suspense, fear, and even panic in your visitors, even without animations and actors. Horror resides in the emotional ramifications of an experience, not in the sensory experience itself. It's not the blood that horrifies us, it's what that blood means to the victim, and how we feel about the victim.
Probably it's best to discuss the haunt industry with established haunters, to gauge how best to approach the project, and how economically viable the investment would be.
I think you would be entering the haunt market as an Alfred Hitchcock of the medium, compared with the William Castle's currently established. - November 16, 2009 at 4:07 AM
- Rot said...
Really REALLY grateful for all the nice things you guys wrote about my haunt, by the way. : )
- November 16, 2009 at 8:28 AM
- Cabrina said...
I went to a 3 attraction haunt one time and the scariest one was a maze, pitch black, and just heavy carpet like strips hanging down.
We couldn't see our hands infront of our faces. We were so scared by what MIGHT happen...and yet not one person moved or reached out for us.
So yes...it can be done. Lord knows with your attention to detail, it would be the best. - November 16, 2009 at 11:32 AM
- Darkrose Manor LLC said...
This year we attempted to do something similar, though yard based and free. So no one could really feel cheated by coming through.
We focused heavily on details and atmosphere in six differently themed areas and received great response from nearly all... with the exception of three middle-school aged boys who made it a point to come through and tell us 'Is this it? This isn't scary.' Despite their intentionally snide comments, they returned through the displays 4 more times through-out the night. :)
It's definitely different for everyone. Lack of actors and animatronics in our haunt certainly did not keep the kiddies feeling safe. We were thrilled to achieve our very first crying child, even though nothing jumped out at him... and several more that would not enter at all. ;) The mind has a funny way of filling in, what most might consider, the blanks.
All that said, an attraction produced by the now legendary Rot would absolutely be the creme de la creme of haunted attractions... 'if you build it - they will come.' I know we'd find a way to be there. - November 16, 2009 at 5:11 PM
- Jon Glassett said...
I would just think of it like walking through an art installation. It would totally work. You might have to be creative about how you promote it but I think it could work.
- November 16, 2009 at 8:13 PM
- The Gill-Man said...
I think something like this could be successful depending on how it is marketed. Really, this kind of thing isn't the typical "Haunted House" that the average Joe is used to, so spinning it in such a manner would be disasterous. No, you need to find the right way to put this across to the masses.
This type of thing would be, to those outside of the Home Haunters world, the Halloween equivilant of a "Christmas Trail of Lights". Finding a way to market it in such a manner would really be the key. That being said, I feel there is TOTALLY a market for this type of thing, and you could really fill a niche.
A friend of mine and I have long mused that, if we had the money, we'd do a "Sleepy Hollow" festival. It would be in the same vein as the Renaissance faires across the country, only with a Halloween/Washington Irving spin. Your type of static props are exactly the kind of thing that we've imagined throughout the grounds. (Haunted Overload is damned close to what I've always dreamed of). While we would definitely have some actors throughout the site, we wouldn't rely so much on them to provide jumps so much as adding to the atmosphere (in fact, I've always thought the majority of the actors would be portraying colonial folks in the village, with only a few spooks and ghouls roaming around for good measure). - November 18, 2009 at 11:10 AM
- K.O. said...
DO IT! I'm a big haunted-house fan and have always wished for one where the emphasis is on visuals, atmosphere, and amazing details. Your haunted house would be a refreshing change from the usual cookie-cutter startlehouses.
- November 25, 2009 at 7:44 AM
- JD said...
No rot, you should have actors, but don't have them jump out. Have them move in the distance, like shadows, allowing the guests to fill in the blanks. Then have one actor stand far in front, under a tree or lamp post. As the guest stare at it from afar, the think its just another prop, until the actor tilts his head slowly to the side, like that ghost from this years haunt. Temporary fear comes from jump scares, true "I'm sleeping with the lights on" fear comes from what you imagine yourself :D
- November 23, 2010 at 9:11 AM
- JD said...
Id WALK to see that!
- November 23, 2010 at 9:13 AM


text:
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Marcus and the New Job
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Obviously, this raises a few questions.
Going by the illustration, either Marcus is a wee little man or Gateway has had so many budget cuts that they're back to using the Colossus computers from World War II. Marcus also has three legs and types with his feet. He's lucky, though, because he's been hired at Gateway's exclusive beach-front cubicle office, where each week's work is delivered via the time-tested "message-in-a-bottle" method.
The bakery lost the order and slapped something together at the last minute.
One of those two, anyway. I think I like the first explanation better, though.
Maryn M., I agree: the word "enable" should probably never be on a cake.
52 comments | Post a Comment
- Jackie said...
I like the addition of the plastic trees on either side of the cake. I guess they symbolize the fact that the poor fellow might be outdoors more often in this new job. Attention to detail -- always important! LOL!
- October 16, 2008 at 9:25 AM
I love how the designer had to emphasize the "Gateway" aspect. I will say that at least s/he had actually seen a computer at some time in the past: I remember seeing one cake on display at a SuperTarget that suggested that the designer had worked with computers at one time...back when Babbage Difference Engines were state of the art.
- October 16, 2008 at 9:27 AM
- HorribleLicensePlates said...
I can see that scene from the office playing out where they are passing the cake around and Milton doesn't get a piece. I always feel so sad for Milton, and now I feel sad for Marcus too.
- October 16, 2008 at 9:37 AM
- Angie McCullagh said...
Oh, c'mon. That looks JUST like the commercial where the guy's on the beach with his laptop. You know it does.
Angie (from over at www.HalfAssedKitchen.com) - October 16, 2008 at 9:49 AM
- Angie said...
The definition of irony: The ad for a CCC book on this blog.
- October 16, 2008 at 9:49 AM
Why do I get the feeling there's a weird story about Marcus behind this cake. Maybe he was one of those guys that never did much because he said he wanted to "be outdoors" - and rather than taking a job as a park ranger or something sensible he wound up with yet another cubicle job hunched over a computer.
Or maybe I'm just confusing Marcus with my ex boyfriend. :-D - October 16, 2008 at 9:49 AM
- Rosemary said...
On a brighter note, this cake probably made Marcus extra glad he was getting away from the workplace that would serve this horrible wreck in his "honor."
- October 16, 2008 at 9:50 AM
- Kami said...
I see this person has the same drawing skills as me! ... which is exactly why I DON'T decorate cakes!
- October 16, 2008 at 9:50 AM
- The Barnes Crew said...
He either got a promotion or they thought his work was so bad that they told him it was a promotion and shipped him to some deserted island with the WWII computer & him not knowing it was the original computer, "Marcus we need you to work on this top secret computer and we'll bring you to a tropical island retreat for it...(snicker, snicker)"!
Either way poor guy! - October 16, 2008 at 9:54 AM
- Tiffanie said...
OMG! I'm gonna get fired. I am wiping tears. This is one of the funniest cakes ever. Sniff sniff. I can't take it. I want Marcus to come back and go away again JUST so that I can see the new cake!!!
- October 16, 2008 at 9:58 AM
- The Courteous Chihuahua said...
Marcus, Hope your new co-workers will spring for a better cake when you eventually leave them....
- October 16, 2008 at 10:02 AM
- Quinn said...
I actually *like* this cake.
Yes, I do.
Perhaps because I am hoping *my* new job will enable *me* to be outdoors more!
(and no, this cake was not made for me!)
:) - October 16, 2008 at 10:14 AM
- joyce said...
Stick figures?? My eyes could not get over the tan---oh, its suppose to be sand. Whoa. Thank you "all adither". A beach, ah?! Now I see it. I just needed these suggestions to jump start my imagination. Too funny.
My youngest turns 21 in ten days. I am so tempted to (create a wreck) order him a cake. Surely, the cake folks behind the counters are not on to us? - October 16, 2008 at 10:15 AM
- Arallyn said...
to be honest, I think that without the writing or drawing the cake would be passable...at least to me. the background looks like waves crashing on the shore. sort of pretty, if it wasn't wrecked.
- October 16, 2008 at 10:28 AM
I think Marcus's co-workers were extremely bitter that he had chosen to leave their company and work for Gateway so they chose to work out their bitterness in sarcastic cake form.
The drawing symbolizes someone's ultimate fantasy of Marcus eventually being eaten and utterly destroyed by his laptop, which has become giant and monstrous due to the island life that Marcus so desperately wanted. Now THAT'S irony. ;) - October 16, 2008 at 10:37 AM
- Rozie said...
I think this is a contender for passiveaggressivecakes.com.
"Hope you can finally get rid of that spare tire with your job change! Cuz you certainly don't get any exercise now!" - October 16, 2008 at 10:37 AM
- Momma J said...
What in the world is that little thing in the corner next to the tree?
crochetbymommaj.blogspot.com - October 16, 2008 at 10:39 AM
Let's see..
The stick figure was done by Little Johnny, who bugged his cake decorator mommy to "let me try it" on take your kid to work day?
Mom thought it was soooooo cute, that she promised him it would stay that way.
Then she added the plastic trees and writing to give it the professional touch.
It could've happened..LOL
~Amy B. - October 16, 2008 at 11:23 AM
I think this cake could be vastly improved by removing the terrible drawing, cleaning up the writing, and sprinkling on some crushed graham cracker to make the sand more grainy. Other than thats its not too terrible.
The thing in the corner is a colorful surfboard sticking out of the sand. - October 16, 2008 at 11:26 AM
- Theatre Geek said...
I can see arms, but that makes him a one-legged person sitting in a giant chair with an even more giant computer . . . on the beach!
- October 16, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Oh jeez...my new favourite !!
Jen you are a genius.
I love it ! - October 16, 2008 at 11:47 AM
I'm thinking Marcus's coworkers are trying to tell him he needs to get a little sun. Look how white he is!
- October 16, 2008 at 11:51 AM
- The Chubby One said...
I like the surfboard hanging out in the sound, like that's his new mode of transportation. Looks like computers weren't the only budget cut.
- October 16, 2008 at 12:21 PM
- Brianna T said...
Marcus got a job helping John Locke push the button?
- October 16, 2008 at 12:25 PM
- MaryO said...
There's a lot about this cake I don't get, but especially the little palm trees (fronds)?
What the heck do they mean? - October 16, 2008 at 12:40 PM
- MaryO said...
A BIG never mind. Now I see. The stick dude is AT THE BEACH working on his oversized LAPTOP or PC.
My bad. - October 16, 2008 at 12:42 PM
- Jess said...
They just came up with that message, so the decorator wouldn't have to spell "Congratulations"!! :)
- October 16, 2008 at 1:06 PM
- Lauren said...
Gateway is currently laying people off! He will soon take the park ranger job, or be a naturalist on the Missouri River or something...it is, after all, within walking distance of the big cow-painted buildings.
- October 16, 2008 at 1:35 PM
Is it me, or is that a message that should in fact be written in the card that goes along with the cake, and not on the cake itself? Cake messages should be short and, no pun intended, sweet. Okay, pun intended.
There are so many free clipart images that could be assembled into a single image that could be used to screen a cute and unambiguously-limbed character in a beach scene on the cake... why does no one ever think of that?
That said, I have a friend who insists on doing all her family birthday cakes, and she insists on writing messages atop them with store-bought icing tubes meant for that purpose, and they always end up looking something like this...messy and weird.
I shouldn't be blogging with migraine. The sugar really gets to me! ;) - October 16, 2008 at 1:41 PM
- Camille said...
The three legs comment had me laughing out loud. Thanks for making my day, and making my four year old think I'm a little crazy...
- October 16, 2008 at 1:57 PM
That cake is really sad ... They obviously don't care about and won't miss this guy, there's no 'we'll miss you!' or 'good luck!'. That message reads like they were all desperately wracking their brains to think of something nice to say to someone they didn't like very much.
- October 16, 2008 at 2:08 PM
- Nancy Frye said...
Ugh: this whole cake is just messy, smeary, and does indeed look hastily assembled. Hope it tasted good (that's the only important thing, imo)!
I agree with Ophelia: that inscription is waaaay too long, and should have gone on the card. Maybe the decorator is Scandinavian and was going for the horre vaccui/gripping beast feeling (where all space is filled with design elements). No, there's too much negative space at the bottom, with the little pale stick man and his coal-fired laptop. - October 16, 2008 at 2:31 PM
- The Honorable Mayor of Bethville said...
It's a 1960s Bond movie villain's computer. That beach is downwind of a secret volcano base of operations.
- October 16, 2008 at 4:07 PM
- E.A.D. said...
Aside from the writing and the stick figure, this cake isn't too bad. At least they didn't go nuts with an airbrush.
- October 16, 2008 at 5:03 PM
- Chris said...
The message is subliminal: We hate you Marcus, and we hope you are washed away by an enormous tsunami.
Run, Marcus, run! - October 16, 2008 at 5:15 PM
- Dea said...
BWAHA! Gotta love a great stick figure cake....and the Gateway emphasis....
- October 16, 2008 at 5:17 PM
I think the big question about this cake for me is, "Why are the beach, surfboard, and palm trees fairly realistic, yet Marcus and his giant computer are seemingly see-through and apparition-like, sort of like Wonder Woman's invisible jet?"
- October 16, 2008 at 6:49 PM
I like how they bakery said "like everyone else!" Hilarious.
- October 16, 2008 at 7:49 PM
i love the sad little plastic palm trees. . .
- October 16, 2008 at 7:52 PM
Actually, it looks more like Poor Marcus has only one leg, only one arm, and a stick to poke at keys with. Maybe it's a drumstick.
And what is with that sand? It looks like neapolitan ice cream that has melted. - October 16, 2008 at 8:24 PM
- Meghan said...
I'm especially impressed with the sand creature that seems to be appearing out of the place where the beach becomes the water...
- October 16, 2008 at 9:44 PM
- Angie said...
Poor Marcus, I don't think his co-workers liked him much.
- October 16, 2008 at 11:00 PM
- Jenster said...
I think this is a situation in which "Good luck with your new job!" would probably suffice.
- October 16, 2008 at 11:21 PM
- Ms Unreliable said...
Lucky Ben! Not only does he have the worlds largest laptop, but he's also smart enough to carry around his own chair for when he feels like doing a little beachside hacking. No sand for that kid!
- October 16, 2008 at 11:33 PM
- Pixel said...
It's a good job he's going to the beach, it looks like he could certainly do with a tan.
- October 17, 2008 at 7:19 AM
I wish I could type with my feet and that I had the beach cubicle D:
- October 17, 2008 at 5:57 PM
- Glory von Hathor said...
You know, if all they wanted was to draw was a stick figure man, they really missed a trick by not copying one with a realistic computer from xkcd.
Enable made me laugh. At least they didn't go for facilitate. - October 18, 2008 at 5:32 AM
- oboewan said...
I hope that was a custom-designed cake... custom-designed by a FOUR-YEAR-OLD for his DADDY.
Anyone else should lose their master cake decorator's license.
oboewan42.blogspot.com - October 19, 2008 at 3:48 PM
I wonder if they were trying to suggest the guy did nothing but look at porn all day and that he should do that on the beach instead of at the office? The three legs comment had me in stitches, but maybe it had a deliberate ring of truth to it...
- October 20, 2008 at 2:40 PM
I saw the cake and wondered if maybe marcus had bad gas and they were really hoping that he'd spend more time outside for their own sakes.
- October 20, 2008 at 6:54 PM
- October 22, 2008 at 9:37 PM
Did anyone notice that his clothes are on that big rock and that hes sitting there naked on that giant computer?
and why did they have to say gateway on it. weird weird, but i'd love to eat that cake right about now.
But I still am wondering why is he naked? Is he like the office slut or someting? Is he a guy who just likes to get naked all the time? - January 22, 2009 at 4:19 PM
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text:
By CATHERINE TSAI
A hotel room made of aluminum and inflated vinyl is held aloft by a van-mounted scissor lift, on promotional display in a parking lot in downtown Denver, Wednesday July 25, 2013. Architectural artist Alex Schweder created the 5 by 7 foot room atop a van for the Biennial of the Americas in Denver. For $50,000, a guest would get one weekend night in the puffy space, plus lots of extras including a diamond pendant and earring set, two iPod Nanos and a dance party for 100 people in a ballroom of The Curtis Hotel. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
DENVER (AP) — For a limited time, a Denver hotel is offering a package with a one-night stay in a pop-up, inflatable room that rises 22 feet in the air, thanks to a scissor lift on top of the van on which it sits.
The cost: $50,000.
There is a weight limit. No smoking is allowed.
Architect Alex Schweder created the 5-foot-by-7-foot, see-through room atop a van for the Biennial of the Americas festival of arts, culture and ideas in Denver. It has a chemical toilet, shower, sink, inflatable bed and couch, and curtains. It is being driven to parking lots around town through Aug. 23.
"It's a very small room but a very special room," Schweder said. "You're always on the top floor."
Now the Curtis hotel, which sponsored the piece, is offering the curious a chance to stay in the aluminum and inflated vinyl structure called "the hotel rehearsal."
Much of Schweder's work centers on the performance of architecture, focusing not so much on a structure but the actions within it. After Schweder learned developers want to turn several Denver parking lots into hotels, he created "the hotel rehearsal" as a foreshadowing of how the space could change. One early draft involved suspending the room from a crane. Schweder was encouraged to keep it more grounded.
For $50,000, a guest would get one weekend night in the puffy space, plus lots of extras including a diamond pendant and earrings, two iPod Nanos and a dance party for 100 people in a ballroom of the Curtis. The inflatable room holds 450 pounds. No alcohol is allowed inside, in hopes of discouraging people from using it as a bouncy castle.
At least one person has inquired about the room, said Kate Thompson, sales director at the Curtis. Schweder said much of the $50,000 will go toward insurance, but customers also will be supporting the future of the Biennial of the Americas.
Schweder, who is based in New York and the United Kingdom, spent two nights in the room. While it has curtains, Schweder left the roof uncovered during his stay so he could peer up at the sky.
After one night, he tweaked the design to mitigate sound from the fans that bring in fresh air and keep the room inflated.
Schweder tells potential guests, "The thing you shouldn't forget in your suitcase is your imagination."


text:
Anyway, when Twitter isn't broken, it has a handy little "World Cup" definition up, along with a soccer ball icon.
By studying this definition ("the largest sporting event in the world") and icon, I have come to the conclusion that the World Cup has something to do with soccer. Or football. Or something sports related.
And, gauging by the tweets and Facebook statuses I've seen, the World Cup also features a lot of these:
No, I don't know why they're puking orange jelly.
Or why their hive has an orange jelly door outlined on it.
The source of the buzzing is hundreds and hundreds of of vuvuzela horns:
So anyway, I guess at this point I should probably show you some Soccer wrecks.
Hey, this could be a soccer wreck. I mean, really, do you know what it is? No, you do not. Therefore, I think the real question here is, how do you know it's NOT a soccer wreck? Hmm?
Ok, ok, fine. Here:
Or possibly another soccer cake.
How about a few more traditional black and white "balls?"
Note: At this point, I actually had to google "soccer ball" just to remind myself what they're supposed to look like. In case you're in the same boat, here:
I mean, it could be, right? I haven't watched any of it, so you tell me: has anyone been shot with an arrow yet? Or have any of the female cheerleader's feet fallen off?
Janet, Dan W., Nina T., Ann S., Rachel L., Hillary H., Aimee P., Jen E., Brandy B., & Sarah W., if that kind of stuff is going on, then I'm totally checking out the World Cup after all.


text:
On the other hand, AmE tends to say the flu and BrE tends to do it without the the (and often with an apostrophe: 'flu). The Networker tells me that she was more used to hearing it with the the when she was a child, and sure enough, it is the (')flu in the OED until the last example, 1957 (which is before the N was born, but no doubt the the lingered beyond that date). In a sense, the AmE the is a bit out-of-date--after all, we usually don't know which unique influenza bug we're referring to when we use the term. (And, annoyingly, many people use flu for bad colds, which, like using migraine to refer to any headache, should be a punishable offen{c/s}e.)
So one's tempted to say that there's a the balance at work here: if a the goes missing in one dialect, it has to be replaced somewhere else within that dialect. But if I said that, someone would bring up hospital as evidence that AmE has one more the than BrE.) As is well known (so well known that I'm not supposed to be mentioning it), in BrE one ends up in hospital and in AmE one ends up in the hospital when (the) flu gets too bad. Americans often express wonder that there's no the in this phrase in BrE, but note that there's no the in go to school or go to church in either dialect. When referring to being in the institution for that institution's main purpose, there is no the for church, school or (AmE) college or (BrE) university. So, if you're a (BrE) pupil/(AmE) student (or a teacher) you could say (1), but if you're not, you'd have to say (2).
- I left my pen at school.
- I left my pen at the school.
3. She was in hospital for weeks. (AmE in the hospital)Note that (5) (the hospital equivalent of (1)) is no good because while the person in (1) is still the school's student after they leave the school for the day, the person in (5) is no longer the hospital's patient (or at least not an in-patient) after they leave the hospital. So, (5) sounds like someone took their sick pen to the pen hospital for treatment.
4. I was at the hospital to visit her. (=AmE)
5. *I left my pen in hospital.And now I'm going to bed. Which is not the same thing as going to the bed, which wouldn't involve getting under the (AmE) comforter /(BrE) duvet and dreaming of determiners.
Postscript: Since writing this, I've written about this issue again (possibly better) in Babel magazine, number 4. If you like reading things like this blog, you might want to consider a subscription...
Post-postscript:I've got much better research on this topic now in the book, The Prodigal Tongue.


text:
This page is intended as a brief overview of delimited continuations and related constructs, and how they can be used in Haskell. It uses the library CC-delcont as a vehicle for doing so, but the examples should be general enough so that if you have another implementation, they should be relatively straight forward to port (whenever possible, I have endeavored not to use the operators on abstract prompt and sub-continuation types from CC-delcont, instead using the more typical, functional operators).
The basics
Undelimited continuations
If you've taken university courses in computer science, or done much investigation of language design, you've probably encountered continuations before. The author first recalls learning about them in a class on said subject, where they were covered very briefly, and it was mentioned (without proof; and no proof will be provided here) that they could be used as a basis upon which all control flow operators could be built. At the time, they seemed rather abstract and unwieldy. Perhaps they could be used to implement any more common control flow pattern, but why bother, when, as far as language implementation concerns go, it's easier to implement (and understand) most common control flow directly than it is to implement continuations?
As far as usage goes, continuations are probably most closely associated with Scheme, and its call-with-current-continuation function (abbreviated to Haskell's version, callCC from now on), although many other languages have them (undelimited continuations for Haskell are provided by the Cont monad and ContT transformer). They're often regarded as being difficult to understand, as their use can cause very complex control flow patterns (much like GOTO, although more sophisticated), though reduced to their basics, they aren't that hard to understand.
A continuation of an expression is, in a loose sense, 'the stuff that happens after the expression.' An example to refer to may help:
m >>= f >>= g >>= h
Here we have an ordinary monadic pipeline. A computation m is run, and its result is fed into f, and so on. We might ask what the continuation of m
is, the portion of the program that executes after m
, and it looks something like:
\x -> f x >>= g >>= h
The continuation takes the value produced by m, and feeds it into 'the rest of the program.' But, the fact that we can represent this using functions as above should be a clue that continuations can be built up using them, and indeed, this is the case. There is a standard way to transform a program written normally (or in a monadic style, as above) into a program in which continuations, represented as functions, are passed around explicitly (known as the CPS transform), and this is what Cont/ContT does.
However, such a transform would be of little use if the passed continuations were inaccessible (as with any monad), and callCC is just the operator for the job. It will call a function with the implicitly passed continuation, so in:
callCC (\k -> e) >>= f >>= g >>= h
will be set to a function that is something like the above \x -> f x >>= g >>= h
. However, in some sense, it is not an ordinary function, as it will never return to the point where it is invoked. Instead, calling k
should be viewed as execution jumping to the point where callCC
was invoked, with the entire callCC (..)
expression replaced with the value passed to k
. So k is not merely a normal function, but a way of feeding a value into into an execution context (and this is reflected in its monadic type: a -> Cont b
So, what is all this good for? Well, a standard example is that one can use continuations to capture a method of escaping from loops (particularly nested ones), and if you ponder for a while, you might be able to imagine implementing some sort of exception mechanism with them. A simple example is computing the product of a list of numbers:
prod l = callCC (\k -> loop k l)
loop _ [] = return 1
loop k (0:_) = k 0
loop k (x:xs) = do n <- loop k xs ; return (n*x)
Under normal circumstances, the loop will simply multiply all the numbers. However, if a 0 is detected, there is no need to multiply anything, the answer will always be 0. So, the continuation is invoked, and 0 is returned immediately, without performing any multiplications.
Delimited continuations
So, continuations (hopefully) seem pretty clear, and at least theoretically useful. Where do delimited continuations come into the picture?
The story (according to the hearsay the author has come across) goes back again to Scheme. As was mentioned earlier, callCC is often associated with it. Another thing closely associated with Scheme (and Lisp in general) is interactive environments in which code can be defined and run (much like our own Hugs and GHCi). Naturally, it would be nice if such environments could themselves be written in Scheme.
However, continuations in Scheme are not implemented as they are in Haskell. In Haskell, continuation using code is tagged with a monadic type, and one must use runCont(T) to run such computations, and the effects can't escape it. In Scheme, continuations are native, and all code can capture them, and capturing them captures not 'the rest of the Cont(T) computation,' but 'the rest of the program.' And if the interactive loop is written in Scheme, this includes the loop itself, so programs run within the session can affect the session itself.
Now, this might be a minor nit, but it is a nit nonetheless, and luckily for us, it led to the idea of delimited continuations. The idea was, of course, to tag a point at which the interactive loop invoked some sub-program, and then control flow operators such as callCC would only be able to capture a portion of the program up to the marker. To the sub-program, this is all that's of interest anyhow. Such a setup would solve the issue nicely.
However, once one has the ability to create such markers, why not put them in the hands of the programmer? Then, instead of them being able to capture 'the rest of the program's execution,' they would be able to delimit, capture and manipulate arbitrary portions of their programs. And indeed, such operations can be useful.
So, what are delimited continuations good for? Well, suppose we have a binary tree data type like so:
data Tree a = Leaf | Branch a (Tree a) (Tree a)
empty = Leaf
singleton a = Branch a Leaf Leaf
insert b Leaf = Branch b Leaf Leaf
insert b (Branch a l r)
| b < a = Branch a (insert b l) r
| otherwise = Branch a l (insert b r)
fold :: (a -> b -> b -> b) -> b -> Tree a -> b
fold f z Leaf = z
fold f z (Branch a l r) = f a (fold f z l) (fold f z r)
for :: Monad m => Tree a -> (a -> m b) -> m ()
for t f = fold (\a l r -> l >> f a >> r) (return ()) t
Now, we have a fold over our data type, and as shown, we can therefore write a monadic iteration function for
over it (this is actually done for arbitrary data types in Data.Foldable
). The fold is a fine method of traversing the data structure to operate on elements in most cases. However, what if we wanted something more like an iterator object, which somehow captured the traversal of the tree, remembering what element we're currently at, and which come next?
Well, it turns out one can build just such an object using continuations. It is indeed possible to build it using undelimited continuations, but it's rather complex to do so (I'll not include code that does, as I don't feel like figuring out all the details). However, it turns out it's easy using delimited continuations:
data Iterator m a = Done | Cur a (m (Iterator m a))
begin :: MonadDelimitedCont p s m => Tree a -> m (Iterator m a)
begin t = reset $ \p ->
for t (\a ->
shift p (\k -> return (Cur a (k $ return ())))) >> return Done
current :: Iterator m a -> Maybe a
current Done = Nothing
current (Cur a _) = Just a
next :: Monad m => Iterator m a -> m (Iterator m a)
next Done = return Done
next (Cur _ i) = i
finished :: Iterator m a -> Bool
finished Done = True
finished _ = False
So, clearly, Iterator is the type of iterators over a tree. current
, next
and finished
are some utility functions for operating on them. The interesting work is done in the begin
There are two delimited control operators in play here. First is reset, which is a way to place a delimiter around a computation. The term p
is simply a way to reference that delimiter; the library I'm working with allows for many named delimiters to exist, and for control operators to specify which delimiters they're working with (so a control operator may capture the continuation up to p, even if it runs into a delimiter q sooner, provided p /= q).
The other operator is shift, which is used to capture the delimited continuation. In many ways, it's like callCC, but with an important difference: it aborts the captured continuation. When callCC is called on a function f, if f returns normally, execution will pick up from just after the callCC. However, when shift is called, the continuation between the call and the enclosing prompt is packaged up (into k
here), and passed to the function, and a normal return will return to the place where the delimiter was set, not where shift was called.
With this in mind, we can begin to analyze the begin
function. First, it delimits a computation with the delimiter p
. Next, it begins to loop over the tree. For each element, we use shift
to capture "the rest of the loop", calling it k
. We then package that, and the current tree element, into an Iterator object, and return it. Since the shift has aborted the rest of the loop (for the time being), it returns to where reset
was called, and the function returns the iterator object (wrapped in a monad, of course).
The main remaining piece of interest is when next
goes to get the next element of the traversal. When this happens, k $ return ()
is executed, which invokes the captured continuation (with the value ()
, because the loop doesn't take the return value of the traversal function into account anyway). This, essentially, re-enters the loop. If there is a next element, then the traversal function is called with it, shift will once again capture 'the rest of the loop' (from a later point than before, though), and return an iterator object with the new current element and continuation. If there are no new elements, then control will pass out of the loop to the following computation, which is, in this case, return Done
, so in either case, an Iterator object is the result, and the types work out.
We can test our iterator like so:
main :: IO ()
main = runCCT $ do t <- randomTree 10
i <- begin t
doStuff i
doStuff i
| finished i = return ()
| otherwise = do i' <- next i
i'' <- next i -- this is ignored
liftIO $ print (fromJust $ current i :: Int)
doStuff i'
randomTree n = rt empty n
rt t 0 = return t
rt t n = do r <- liftIO randomIO
rt (insert r t) (n - 1)
The output of which might go something like:
-1937814587 -1171184756 -1068642732 -741588272 -553872051 -499564662 -421862876 -59900888 315891595 1868487875
The example shows one possibly interesting property: one can re-use old iterators without affecting new ones. In this case, we call next
on the same iterator twice, but it doesn't advance the iterator twice. Our iterators behave like an ordinary functional data structure, even though they're built out of somewhat out-of-the-ordinary components.
Breadth-first Traversal
This example is an adaptation of an example from a set of slides by Olivier Danvy, Delimited-Continuations Blues. It involves the traversal of a binary tree, so let's first define such a type:
data Tree a = Node a (Tree a) (Tree a) | Leaf a
t = Node 1 (Node 2 (Leaf 3)
(Node 4 (Leaf 5)
(Leaf 6)))
(Node 7 (Node 8 (Leaf 9)
(Leaf 10))
(Leaf 11))
toList (Leaf i) = [i]
toList (Node a t1 t2) = a : toList t1 ++ toList t2
toList is a pre-order, depth-first traversal, and t is ordered so that such a traversal yields [1 .. 11]. Depth-first traversals are clearly the easiest to write in a language like Haskell, since recursive descent on the trees can be used. To perform a breadth-first traversal, one would likely keep a list of sub-trees at a given level, and pass through the list at each level, visiting roots, and producing a new list of the children one level down. Which is a bit more bookkeeping. However, it turns out that delimited control can allow one to write breadth-first traversal in a recursive descent style similar to the depth-first traversal (modulo the need for monads):
visit :: MonadDelimitedCont p s m => p [a] -> Tree a -> m ()
visit p = visit'
visit' (Leaf i) = control p $ \k -> (i:) `liftM` k (return ())
visit' (Node i t1 t2) = control p $ \k -> do a <- k (return ())
visit' t2
visit' t1
(i:) `liftM` return a
bf :: MonadDelimitedCont p s m => Tree a -> m [a]
bf t = reset $ \p -> visit p t >> return []
And, a quick check shows that bf t2
(Note that in this example, since elements are always pre-pended, the element visited first will be last in the list, and vice versa; so this is a pre-order breadth-first traversal).
So, how exactly does this work? As the slides say, the key idea is to "return before recursively traversing the subtrees." This is accomplished through the use of the delimited control operator 'control.' At the Node stage of a traversal, control is used to capture the sub-continuation that comes after said Node (which is, effectively, the traversal over the rest of the nodes at the same level). However, instead of descending depth-first style, that sub-continuation is immediately invoked, the result being called a. Only after that are the sub-trees descended into.
It should be noted, also, that this particular example can be used to display a difference between shift
(the so-called 'static' delimited operator) and control
(which is one of the 'dynamic' operators). The difference between the two is that in shift p (\k -> e)
calls to k are delimited by the prompt p, whereas in control, they are not (in both, e is). This has important consequences. For instance, at some point in a traversal an evaluation may look something like:
delimited (visit' t2 >> visit' t1)
Which, using some simplified notation/traversal, expands to:
delimited (control (\k -> k () >> visit' t22 >> visit' t21)
>> control (\k -> k () >> visit' t12 >> visit' t11))
Which, due to the effects of control turns into:
delimited ((control (\k -> k () >> visit' t12 >> visit' t11)) >> visit' t22 >> visit' t21)
delimited (visit' t22 >> visit' t21 >> visit' t12 >> visit' t11)
In other words, using control
ends up building and executing a sequence of traversals at the same level, after the actions for the above level performed by the k ()
. The control operators of the lower level are then free to close over, and manipulate all the visitations on there level. This is why the result is a breadth-first traversal. However, replacing control with shift, we get:
delmited (visit' t2 >> visit' t1)
delimited ((shift (\k -> k () >> visit' t22 >> visit' t21))
>> (shift (\k -> k () >> visit' t12 >> visit' t11)))
delimited (delimited (shift (\k -> k () >> visit' t12 >> visit' t11)) >> visit' t22 >> visit' t21)
And already we can see a difference. The sub-traversal of t1 is now isolated, and control effects (via shift, at least) therein cannot affect the sub-traversal of t2. So, control effects no longer affect an entire level of the whole tree, and instead are localized to a given node and its descendants. In such a case, we end up with an ordinary depth-first traversal (although the sub-continuations allow the visitation of each node to look a bit different than toList, and since we're always pre-pending, as we get to a node, the results are reversed compared to toList).
In any case, the desired result has been achieved: A slightly modified recursive descent traversal has allowed us to express breadth-first search (and depth-first search in the same style is a matter of substitution of control operators) without having to do the normal list-of-sub-trees sort of bookkeeping (although the added weight of working with delimited control may more than outweigh that).
For a more in-depth discussion of the differences between shift, control and other, similar operators, see Shift to Control, cited below.
Resumable Parsing
Our next example concerns a Haskell version of a post to the OCaml mailing list. The translation was originally given on the haskell-cafe mailing list, and complete code and some additional discussion can be found there.
The problem is similar to the above iterator example. Specifically, we are in need of a parser that can take fragments of input at a time, suspending for more input after each fragment, until such time as it can be provided. However, there are already plenty of fine parsing libraries available, and ideally, we don't want to have to re-write a new library from scratch just to have this resumable parser feature.
As it turns out, delimited continuations provide a fairly straightforward way to have our cake and eat it too in this case. First, we'll need a data type for the resumable parser.
-- Needs Rank2Types
data Request m a = Done a | ReqChar (Maybe Char -> m (Request m a))
Such a parser is either complete, or in a state of requesting more characters. Again, we'll have some convenience functions for working on the data type:
provide :: Monad m => Char -> Request m a -> m (Request m a)
provide _ d@(Done _) = return d
provide c (ReqChar k) = k (Just c)
provideString :: Monad m => String -> Request m a -> m (Request m a)
provideString [] s = return s
provideString (x:xs) s = provide x s >>= provideString xs
finish :: Monad m => Request m a -> m (Request m a)
finish d@(Done _) = return d
finish (ReqChar k) = k Nothing
So, 'provide' feeds a character into a parser, 'provideString' feeds in a string, and 'finish' informs the parser that there are no more characters to be had.
Finally, we need to have some way of suspending parsing and waiting for characters. This is exactly what delimited continuations do for us. The hook we'll use to get control over the parser is through the character stream it takes as input:
toList :: Monad m => m (Maybe a) -> m [a]
toList gen = gen >>= maybe (return []) (\c -> liftM (c:) $ toList gen)
streamInvert :: MonadDelimitedCont p s m => p (Request m a) -> m (Maybe Char)
streamInvert p = shift p (\k -> return $ ReqChar (k . return))
invertParse :: MonadDelimitedCont p s m => (String -> a) -> m (Request m a)
invertParse parser = reset $ \p -> (Done . parser) `liftM` toList (streamInvert p)
So, 'toList' simply takes a monadic action that may produce a character, and uses it to produce a list of characters (stopping when it sees a 'Nothing'). 'streamInvert' is just such a monadic, character-producing action (given a delimiter). Each time it is run, it captures a sub-continuation (here, 'the rest of the list generation'), and puts it in a Request object. We can then pass around the Request object, and feed characters in as desired (via 'provide' and 'provideString' above), gradually building the list of characters to be parsed.
In the 'invertParse' method, this gradually produced list is fed through a parser (of type String -> a, so it doesn't need to know about the delimited continuation monad we're using), and the output of the parser is packaged in a finished (Done) Request object, so when we finally call 'finish', we will be able to access the results of the parser.
For this example, the words function suffices as a parser:
gradualParse :: [String]
gradualParse = runCC $ do p1 <- invertParse words
p2 <- provideString "The quick" p1
p3 <- provideString " brown fox jum" p2
p4 <- provideString "ps over the laz" p3
p5 <- provideString "y dog" p4 >>= finish
p6 <- provideString "iest dog" p4 >>= finish
let (Done l1) = p5
(Done l2) = p6
return (l1 ++ l2)
main :: IO ()
main = mapM_ putStrLn gradualParse
And we get output:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog The quick brown fox jumps over the laziest dog
So, the resumable parser works. It will pause at arbitrary places in the parse, even in the middle of tokens, and wait for more input. And one can resume a parse from any point to which a Request pointer is saved without interfering with other resumable parser objects.
(A note: depending on what exactly one wants to do with such parsers, there are a few nits in the above implementation. It doesn't exactly match the semantics of the OCaml parser. For more information on this topic, see the linked mailing-list thread, as it discusses the issues, their causes, and provides an alternate implementation (which changes mostly the parser, not the delimited continuation end) which matches the OCaml version much more closely)
Packages are available on Hackage:
The library is cabalized, so installation should be as simple as:
runhaskell Setup.lhs configure runhaskell Setup.lhs build sudo runhaskell Setup.lhs install
(to install to the default directory, /usr/local/lib on Unix)
More information
A google search for delimited continuations will likely yield plenty of interesting resources on the subject. However, the following resources proved especially useful to the author when he was investigating them:
- Delimited continuations in operating systems -- This paper provides excellent insight into how delimited continuations can arise as a natural solution/model for real problems, specifically in the context of implementing an operating system.
- A Monadic Framework for Delimited Continuations -- This is the paper from which the implementation of the above library was derived. It's quite thorough in its explanation of the motivations for the interface, and also has several possible implementations thereof (though CC-delcont uses only one).
- Delimited Dynamic Binding -- This paper, and related code, served as the basis for the dynamically scoped variable portion of the CC-delcont library. It explains the rationale for having dynamic scoping and delimited control interact in the way they do in the library, and goes through the implementation of dynamic variables in terms of delimited continuations.
- Shift to control -- This paper explores four different sets of delimited control operators (all of which are implemented in CC-delcont), and their implementation. Though it's not directly relevant to this particular library, it provides some good insight into delimited continuations and their implementation in general.
- Oleg Kiselyov's continuation page -- Contains plenty of excellent information on delimited continuations and the like (including some of the above papers), including examples of their use in Haskell.


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It may be the most insulting snub in Olympic history. After seeking and winning the right to host the 1976 Winter Olympics, the city of Denver backed out of the games. Colorado voters rejected public funding of the Olympics in 1972 and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was forced to turn to Innsbruck, Austria, the host city eight years earlier.
Now Denver will try to measure any lingering resentment with the first meeting Saturday of a committee exploring a new Olympic bid. The group of Colorado business, health care, tourism and political leaders will consider whether Denver should bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Former moguls skier Jeremy Bloom and Paralympic skiing gold medalist Sarah Will are the two Olympians on the committee.
"The opportunity to pursue the Games is an endeavor worth taking very seriously," said Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) in an announcement last month. "We've asked this exploratory committee to explore all issues relevant to Denver potentially submitting a bid."
Those issues, Hickenlooper added, include making a bid that's financially sound and helping the state's economic growth.
The financial burden of building Olympic venues and staging the competition, along with fears of spurring growth and damaging Colorado's mountain environment, were reasons voters overwhelmingly rejected Olympic funding in 1972.
Environmental concerns remain according to one activist.
Gary Wockner of the Save the Poudre Coalition in Fort Collins told the Colorado Independent: "Environmental issues such as air quality, traffic congestion, climate change, forest health, population growth, and water need to be considered in this Olympic bid."
"Denver will have to prove, by polling, that there will not be a repeat" of the 1972 rejection, saysDavid Wallechinsky, author of the Complete Book of the Olympics. "They will probably even need to invite in outside pollsters approved by the IOC."
Only one sitting IOC member was part of the group in 1972 "so I doubt there is any remaining visceral resentment," says Canadian Dick Pound, a 34-year veteran and former vice president of the IOC.
But Pound warns that competing cities may remind IOC members of Denver's bidding past. "There could be some 'manufactured' recollections but I would not be inclined to lose much sleep over it."
Last October, IOC president Jacques Rogge reassured Denver Olympic interests at a gathering in Colorado Springs. "There would definitely be no grudge for the fact that Denver abandoned the race," Rogge said, according to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.
But Rogge mischaracterized Denver's withdrawal. The city didn't abandon the race. It had already won the race and sent back the trophy.
Wallechinsky notes that Rome did the same thing after being awarded the 1908 Summer Olympics. But the city had a pretty good excuse.
"After Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 1906 the Italian government decided that their limited financial resources would be put to better use rebuilding Naples," Wallechinsky notes. Rome tried again 50 years later and hosted the 1960 games. The city is now a candidate for the 2020 summer Olympics.
A more immediate barrier for Denver is an ongoing revenue-sharing dispute between the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), which decides whether any American city will bid for an Olympics and which city becomes the American candidate.
"Until we resolve our revenue discussions with the IOC we are not considering any bids for any games or any bidding process," says Patrick Sandusky, the USOC's spokesman.
The 2022 Games may seem a long way off, but time is actually short for cities interested in bidding. The IOC gives selected host cities seven years to prepare and will likely select the 2022 host in 2015. Given past practice, the USOC would choose the American candidate two years before. That's next year, leaving little time to resolve the revenue-sharing dispute and conduct a bidding process among American cities.
Denver is also likely to face competition from joint Olympic bidders in Reno-Lake Tahoe. International bids are expected to include cities in China and Chile, which have never hosted Winter Olympics and could appeal to the IOC's desire to take the games to new territory. There also may be a bid from Switzerland.
By 2022, it will be 20 years since the last Olympics on U.S. soil (Salt Lake City in 2002) and 12 years since the last Olympics in North America (Vancouver in 2010). So, some will argue it's time to bring the games back to the continent.
In its announcement, the Denver Exploratory Committee neglected to mention Denver's Olympic bidding history but acknowledged the ongoing revenue-sharing talks between the USOC and IOC.
Still, co-chair Don Elliman of the Colorado Medical School vowed to forge ahead. "Our intent," Elliman said, "is to form a clear leadership group from the state and the city to evaluate if the Olympic Winter Games is a good fit for Denver and Colorado."
Update at 2:13 p.m. ET: The Bidding Schedule:
The IOC has just provided more details about the bidding schedule for 2022.
The IOC Press Office says no firm schedule is available yet but the group expects to require National Olympic Committees to submit the names of candidate cities in October 2013. A final IOC decision is expected in 2015, as we note above. This schedule means that the USOC has relatively little time to resolve its revenue-sharing dispute with the IOC and to then select an American candidate city for 2022 host.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Bangladesh building-collapse toll tops 600
More than 600 bodies have been recovered from the garment-factory building that collapsed well over a week ago, police said Sunday as the grim recovery work continued in one of the worst industrial accidents ever.
Police said Sunday night that the death toll had reached 622. Well over 200 bodies have been recovered since Wednesday, when authorities said only 149 people had been listed as missing. The stench of decomposing bodies remains amid the broken concrete of the eight-story Rana Plaza building, and it is anyone's guess how many victims remain to be recovered.
The April 24 disaster is likely the worst garment-factory accident ever, and there have been few industrial accidents of any kind with a higher death toll. It surpassed long-ago garment-industry disasters such as New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, which killed 146 workers in 1911, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that same year that killed 112.
An architect whose firm designed the building said Sunday that it had not been designed to handle heavy industrial equipment, let alone the three floors that were later illegally added. The equipment used by the five garment factories that occupied Rana Plaza included huge generators that were turned on shortly before the building crumbled.
Masood Reza, an architect with Vastukalpa Consultants, said the building was designed in 2004 as a shopping mall and not for any industrial purpose.
"We designed the building to have three stories for shops and another two for offices. I don't know how the additional floors were added and how factories were allowed on the top floors," Reza said.
"Don't ask me anything else. This is now a sensitive issue," Reza said before hanging up.
Government officials say substandard building materials, combined with the vibration of the heavy machines used by the factories, led to the collapse.
The building developed cracks a day before the collapse and the owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, called engineer Abdur Razzak Khan to inspect it. Khan appeared on television that night and said he told Rana the building should be evacuated.
Police also issued an evacuation order, but witnesses say that hours before the collapse, Rana told people that the building was safe and garment factory managers told their workers to go inside.
Rana has been arrested is expected to be charged with negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work, crimes punishable by a maximum of seven years in jail. Authorities have not said if more serious crimes will be added.
Khan was arrested as well. Police said he worked as a consultant to Rana when the three illegal floors were added.
The government promised to make the garment industry safer after the November garment factory fire that killed 112 people, saying it would inspect factories for safety and pull the licenses of those that failed. That plan has yet to be implemented.
Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry supplies retailers around the world and accounts for about 80 percent of the impoverished country's exports. The collapse has raised strong doubts about retailers' claims that they could ensure worker safety through self-regulation.
Bangladesh is popular as a source of clothing largely because of its cheap labor. The minimum wage for a garment worker is $38 a month, after being nearly doubled this year following violent protests by workers. According to the World Bank, the per capita income in Bangladesh was about $64 a month in 2011.
The European Union has said it could restrict Bangladesh's access to its crucial market if it fails to ensure that basic labor standards are enforced.
"We are going to make it very clear to the Bangladeshi government that they have to take immediate action with a precise timeline," EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht told Sky News. Otherwise, he said, the EU will conduct an investigation that could lead to trade restrictions.
"Not because we want to hurt Bangladesh, but because what is happening is simply not acceptable," he said. "From a humane point of view, we cannot afford that and we have to do something about it."
Bangladesh toll 547, search becomes more gruesome
Ten days after the horrifying collapse of a garment-factory building, life has ... Asia -
Bittersweet end for missing in Bangladesh collapse
As Farida knelt beside the linen-wrapped body and looked at the dress that she ... Featured Perspectives -
Pope condemns 'slave labor' in Bangladesh after factory collapse
Pope Francis during a mass on Wednesday condemned as "slave labor" the ... World News


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Judge James C. Clark ordered a former Alexandria City Public Schools bus monitor to pay $35,000 in damages to a student she assaulted multiple times in October of 2009.
Shawnee Keels of Oxon Hill, Md., struck and kicked the child, who has Down's syndrome, several times while aboard the school bus, a video from the vehicle revealed. She pleaded guilty in 2010 and received a suspended sentence of one year in jail. The monetary punishment is part of a civil suit brought by the child's family.
"I brought this suit in order to make sure that other parents would not have to discover the horror of knowing that their special needs child was being subjected to physical and emotional abuse on a school bus," said Hayat Ramadan, the child's mother.
Ramadan claimed several complaints to the school district went unanswered before she finally went to the police. The Alexandria School Board was sued but dismissed from the case prior to the trial under sovereign immunity. The board likely would have been liable if Keels' acts were negligent and not deliberate, according to Benjamin Glass, Ramadan's attorney.


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Polyvalent frames arrived today! And they are now available in the VO store. Judging by the number of e-mails I've gotten about them, I don't expect them to last long.
The frames look great with fine quality and alignment. But there is one glitch; the paint is the original matte black instead of the dark gray we thought we'd specified. I think it looks fine, but it will be changed in subsequent production, so early adopters will have a rare color. How's that for spin? The paint is not exactly flat, but not glossy either. It's like the black paint you'd see on a SLR camera.
I'll post photos of a built up bike later today. Details can be found here and a geometry table is available here.
The cost of these frames is $400, but there is an additional $20 oversize shipping charge. Any parts ordered with the frames get discounted by 10%. (This discount will be added after you check out.) The price will go up on the next production run.
In other news:
- Two more parts shipments should arrive within the next 10 days so some of the parts we've been out of will be restocked. This includes seat posts, porteur bars,
- I will have updates on the arrival date of the Rando frames soon.
- The Mixte frames are due to be shipped around the end of January and should arrive about a month later.


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Last week the food blogging sphere was filled with some amazing looking blueberry coffeecakes which was perfect timing as I had recently found some blueberries in my freezer. I decided to go with this recipe as it is one of my favorites for baked goods like this. I like that it uses lots of good stuff like whole wheat flour and rolled oats. I even used whole wheat flour in to make the crumb topping. The banana and yogurt keep the coffeecake nice and moist while also cutting down on the amount of butter required. Maple goes really well with blueberries and it finished this coffeecake off perfectly. I added even more maple flavour by using maple sugar in the crumb topping instead of regular sugar. The maple blueberry crumb coffeecake turned out amazing! It was nice and light and moist and full of maple and blueberry flavour. Now I am looking forward to eating this coffeecake for breakfasts all week.
Blueberry Crumb Coffeecake
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1 over ripe banana (mashed)
- 1/4 cup butter (melted)
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1/2 cup pecans (chopped)
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup maple sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
- pinch cinnamon
- Mix the brown sugar, maple syrup, yogurt, banana, butter, egg and rolled oats in a bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a bowl.
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients along with the blueberries until just mixed.
- Pour the mixture into a greased 8 inch square baking pan.
- Mix the pecans, flour, sugar, butter and cinnamon until they form crumbs.
- Spread the streusel over the mixture.
- Bake in a preheated 375F/190C oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.


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Tuna Salad Goes Green
What do you get when you have a greenhouse full of Swiss chard, a bumper crop of scallions in the garden, long days of hunger-inducing farm work, not much time to cook, and a really annoying heat wave? Three batches of this tasty tuna salad in the last ten days — and no sign of us tiring of it anytime soon.
I created this simple yet satisfying recipe last year for NPR's Kitchen Window but never shared it here, and now I know why — I was waiting until I made it even better. It seemed a little odd to apply my More, More, More motto to one of my own recipes, but in this case it worked beautifully. This new greener version is better looking, better for you, and even better tasting.
I've mentioned before that Swiss chard is one of my favorite vegetables. In fact, if I were allowed to grow only two things in my organic kitchen garden they would be tomatoes and Swiss chard. This nutrient-packed chameleon of the vegetable world comes in a variety of colors and is a superb, year-round stand-in for lettuce, spinach and celery. When the spinach is suffering from heatstroke or the lettuce is keeling over from frostbite, my hardy Swiss chard doesn't even flinch. It's also easy to grow from seed and does exceptionally well in containers. And if you grow your own Swiss chard, you'll be able to enjoy the young, tender leaves which are rarely available for sale.
Swiss chard is bursting with nutrients, including vitamins K, A, C and E, plus several B vitamins, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron and dietary fiber. It's a good source of calcium and contains promising cancer-fighting properties. Throughout history, various parts of the plant have been used to treat everything from ulcers to dandruff.
But more importantly, it tastes delicious. Peak season in most areas is from June through October, though in milder climates you often can find interesting varieties of just-harvested bounty at farmers' markets from early spring until late fall. Look for crisp stalks with shiny, unblemished leaves.
Swiss Chard is the New (Gorgeous) Celery
One of the best things about Swiss chard is that it's actually two crops in one — the crunchy stalks can be chopped up and used in place of celery in many recipes, which is especially nice since conventionally grown celery ranks number four on the Environmental Working Group's list of most contaminated produce. Choose colorful varieties of Swiss chard such as Pink Lipstick, Canary Yellow, and Orange Fantasia and you'll have some of the prettiest 'celery' around.
Tuna salad is the kind of thing I like to keep on hand in the fridge for quick meals and easy snacks, especially during the summer months, and this twist on the old standby will tempt even the most overheated appetites. If you don't have any Swiss chard handy you could substitute another sturdy leafy green such as spinach, kale, cabbage, or even some finely chopped broccoli or kohlrabi leaves (talk about healthy) or collard greens. Lettuce wouldn't hold up, but a handful or two of arugula would add a snappy bite.
This is one of those recipes that adapts easily to whatever you have on hand, so don't be afraid to be creative. Any type of olives would work — cracked green, oil cured, even the plain old canned black ones. Chopped purple onion in place of the scallions would be very nice. Some red cabbage would be tasty, and I almost tossed a shredded carrot into the latest batch. After taking these photos I did stir in a few handfuls of drained and rinsed organic kidney beans, which added protein and fiber and made this salad even more of a meal.
Susan's Swiss Chard Tuna Salad
Serves 2 to 4
If you have a chance, mix up your tuna salad and let it sit in the refrigerator at least a few hours before serving; it'll be even tastier. You can put it on sandwiches, stuff it into pita pockets, spread it on crackers, or serve it on a bed of lettuce. You could make baby sandwiches on Carrot Herb Rolls, Italian Olive Cheek Rolls, or Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones, or use Swiss chard leaves in place of tortillas to make easy low-carb tuna wraps. I often eat it straight from the bowl with a fork. Feeding a crowd? Just double the recipe. As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients whenever you can.
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (I like white balsamic)
1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives (about 10 olives)
2 teaspoons brine from the olives (or more balsamic vinegar)
2 6-ounce cans tuna (oil or water packed), drained
3/4 cups chopped Swiss chard stems
2 to 3 cups chopped Swiss chard leaves
1/4 cup loosely packed chopped fresh parsley, preferably Italian flat leaf
1 cup (or more) chopped scallions (green onions), white and green parts (about 10 small)
Salt & pepper to taste
Few handfuls of canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Combine mayonnaise, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar and olive brine in a medium bowl and mix well. Stir in olives, tuna, chopped Swiss chard stems and leaves, parsley, and scallions. Add salt and pepper to taste and more mayonnaise and/or vinegar if desired. Stir in kidney beans if using. Tuna salad will keep for three days in the refrigerator.
Related posts:
How To Grow Swiss Chard from Seed & Why You Should
Recipe: Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip (and lots of other ways to use Swiss Chard)
Grow Arugula — Seed to Salad Bowl in Less than a Month
How To Grow Your Own Gourmet Lettuce from Seed
What To Do With 125 Scallions
To go with your tuna salad:
Four Hour Parisian Daily Baguettes
Beyond Easy Beer Bread
Oatmeal Toasting Bread
Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones
Carrot Herb Rolls (and a bargain bread book for beginners)
Italian Olive Cheek Rolls
How To Make Your Own Pita Bread & Pita Chips
Other Farmgirl Fare recipes you might enjoy:
Sour Cream & Onion Dip (and foodie travel)
Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip (and factory tours)
Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw & Quick Vegetarian Tacos
Colors of Summer Salad
Summer in a Bowl
The Easiest Greek Salad Ever
Still hungry?
You'll find links to all my sweet & savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the sidebar of the Farmgirl Fare homepage under Previous Posts: Food Stuff W/ Recipes. Enjoy!
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares recipes, stories, & photos from her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres — and we feast on homegrown Swiss chard almost year round.


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Jeremy Jones, Alex Yoder and Forrest Shearer have been testing new Jones boards in La Parva, Chile this past week. Here's a few images from the first half of the Jones Field Test:
Ode to progression: a snowboard can always be improved either by shape or materials, stagnation is not an option.
Spelunking…Andes Style. Photo @Andrew_Miller
Alex Yoder stretches out after a long plane ride. Photo @jonessnowboards
Jeremy Jones testing the Carbon Solution.
Poma Life. Photo @yoderyoder
What makes a good snowboarder is the same as what makes a good snowboard, the ability to handle any and every condition….Forrest Shearer ripping steep chalk on the Carbon Solution.
Jeremy Jones throws up a cloud. Photo @yoderyoder
Slashing, bashing, carving, planting, popping, tweaking, and charging. The Jones Mountain Twin and Alex Yoder are the perfect match. Photo @andrew_miller


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Remember these beauties?
Oy what a labor of love they became. They took far longer than I had planned. I'm distracted easily. But wahoo, they are finished. Now no sense in prolonging the reveal even longer, let's get to it.
First step was stripping both chairs, some very light sanding and then painting them black. For some reason I had always envisioned these painted white, but my mom suggested black and I think it was a rather smart choice. Good work Jan.
newly painted chairs against my newly painted walls |
The outside back goes first. I made sure to rip off the old fabric pieces as much in tact as possible to use those pieces as templates for my new pieces.
The hubs helped me out on the inaugural cut. |
That band in the middle of the chair was there when I stripped the fabric. It is sturdy as can be and helps to keep the front cushion from pushing thru the back of the chair. If the first upholsterer was smart enough to put that in, who am I to argue? So back in it went.
With the outside back in place, next came the inside back... or the front back. The terminology on this chair got very confusing. Luckily the back cushions were in great shape, so I could reuse them. Score.
that's fabric. laying on top of a piece of foam. photographic genius. |
The base below the seat cushions were easy as well. Just a matter of covering the old base and stapling. Just like wrapping a present. Or riding a bike. Pick your analogy. And a cheat I made - you can see the rip in the fabric in the very back of the seat. I ran out of fabric. But a cushion is going over top of this so I didn't sweat it. If you come over and pull up your seat cushion to see the 'not all the way covered' base I'll be happy to pay for the extensive therapy you'll need to get over the horror. I'm a generous host.
Next up came the cushion. And as many of you know, I'm not sewing. I bought a sewing machine, but haven't yet taken it out of the box. Don't judge. There have been a lot of good Real Housewife franchises that require my attention. So, I sent them out to a local genius by the name of Catherine Healey (if you are local let me know and I'll give you her info). She made my cushion vision a reality.
I couldn't be happier with my little babies. Two words - contrast piping.
I also used some of the leftover piping for the back cushions. No more staples.
And with that, these chairs went from this
to this
Holla! Big difference.
A few things I learned this time around.
Although the couch was far more daunting in size, this project seemed to be harder because there are two. So everything I did, had to be done again. A big downer when you are on your third straight night of staple pulling and your hand is turning into a claw.
A chair like this, which doesn't have to be a 'central/big furniture' piece is the perfect opportunity to have some fun with fabric and patterns. For example, check out the fabulous junk in this chair's trunk.
This chair looks just as good from the back as it does from the front. And from their position in the living room they will be enjoyed from both directions. (more on that with the living room reveal)
And now, just like with childbirth, I will promise that I will never again go thru the labor of reupholstering. Until this weekend when I see a sweet little chair in need of a little love.
And please keep your thoughts and prayers with everyone in the northeast who are dealing with the effects of Sandy.