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December 14, 2009
UCLA Anderson Professor Bill Ouchi once said the whole point of tenure is that it affords one the opportunity to influence institutions on a national level. For the better part of this decade, the institution Ouchi has sought to influence is public education. In his 2003 book, Making Schools Work, Ouchi offered recommendations for management reform in public schools that were adopted by school districts across North America. In his follow-up, The Secret of TSL: The Revolutionary Discovery That Raises School Performance, Ouchi examines the success these districts have achieved by adopting these reforms. Ouchi, the Sanford and Betty Sigoloff Distinguished Professor in Corporate Renewal, recently discussed his work with UCLA Anderson staff writer, Paul Feinberg (This Q&A was conducted in conjunction with a podcast for the UCLA Anderson website.)
Alright Bill, just to get everyone on the same page, what is TSL? Define it for us.
TSL stands for Total Student Load, which is the number of papers a teacher has to grade and the number of students - human beings - a teacher has to get to know. It is a measure of the degree of intimacy of contact that's possible between teacher and student. Let's say in general, every teacher in America who teaches in middle or high school, teaches five classes each day. If they teach in Los Angeles, they have forty-five students per class, that's a Total Student Load of 225. In Boston, it's 140; New York City, it's 170. Should your child be lucky enough to attend an elite private school, TSL can range from 60 to 65 students per teacher.
What is so important about Total Student Load?
What I've found is that if schools decentralize important instructional decisions down to their principals, the result will be that teachers will have a lower TSL. For example, a principal might have the English teachers and Social Studies teachers combine the two courses into a single Humanities course. Let's say you have 25 students per class, now if you are an English teacher, you will teach a two period long block and with those 25 students and you will teach them both English and Social Studies. If you are a Social Studies teacher, you will also teach them both English and Social Studies, so the teachers must be competent in both subjects, which is not a difficult thing to do with those two subjects. Then, you'll teach another 25 students a two-period long Humanities course, and then you will have taught four periods and a total of 50 students. Then you will teach an elective course, perhaps an advanced placement course, and you'll have another 25 students but perhaps half of those would be students that you have in your other classes, so now you will have taught your full teaching load in five courses but your Total Student Load would be 62-1/2, not 125.
Now, what happens when you do this is that student performance, as measured by standardized tests and graduation rates, goes way, way up and the reason it goes way up is two-fold. One is when there is this bond between teacher and student that comes from knowing one another well, the student is willing to let the teacher kick them in the pants when they know they need it and the student is willing to come to the teacher during office hours and ask for help when they need it in a way that would be perhaps too embarrassing for them to do in class.
In your new book, you describe the Four Freedoms that are essential to empowering principals and their schools as they decentralize. What are they?
Another way you drive down Total Student Load is through school empowerment. There are four critical freedoms the principal should have in an empowered school and those are the freedom to control the budget, curriculum, staffing and scheduling.
What we have found is when you give principals this freedom and you hold principals accountable for student performance, what they do is they eliminate almost all of the nonteaching positions in their schools, which ordinarily account for 43% of all the jobs at the school. They reduce these jobs to between 5 and 10% and instead hire more classroom teachers. So, the hiring of more teachers is what gets you from a teaching load of, let's say,150 down to 125 and then the combination of classes in Humanities or Math/Science integrated allows the teaching load to go down to 60 or 70, and there is a tremendous benefit for students.
Now, there are many, many studies of school reform. School reform has been on the front burner in this country for at least 50 years, but many of the reform ideas from past studies did not prove effective. . If you increase teacher training, it does not improve student performance. If you have longer serving teachers, higher paid teachers; if you adopt a new math curriculum, a new reading and writing curriculum; if you reduce class size, none of those has any effect on student performance. But when you reduce Total Student Load, it has an enormous impact on student performance.
Do principals need a lot of training to become managers?
I will give you the standard academic response: yes and no. Do principals need special training to operate in an empowered way? Yes, they need training. They need to understand how to use a budget effectively. They need to understand how to lead a team of teachers through a collaborative decision making process because teachers are very independent professionals and oftentimes protected by a union, so the principal cannot simply dictate to them. Principals need to understand how budgets work; they need to understand how people behave, so yes, they need training.
On the other hand no, they don't need training, because what we have also discovered is that most schools in America are far too big for anyone to manage effectively. If you have schools of more than 1,200 students, and virtually every urban district has schools with up to 4, 000 students, no principal is capable of managing something that complex and doing it effectively. So, if you want the principals to succeed, you have to give them human scale schools, basically schools between 300 and 500 students. The principal then has a manageable student population, and leads 15 to 25 teachers and about 3 or 4 administrators. A principal who was a highly-skilled classroom teacher with ten years of experience and a lot of energy can do that. But put that same young principal in front of 200 hundred teachers, 250 staff, 4,000 students and 8,000 parents, and no they can't handle it and neither can anybody else.
One of the byproducts of the decentralization you advocate is parents' choice - open enrollment where the parent can choose which school their children attend. What's the value of open enrollment and parental choice when it comes to the entire process?
To begin with, the principal must now behave like a person in business. If the guy with the push cart next to you is selling plain hot dogs, the last thing you are gonna do is sell identical plain hot dogs. You're gonna sell hot dog with kraut. You're gonna sell hamburgers or Polish dogs. You're gonna differentiate your offering somehow, and that is exactly what principals do in this empowered environment, they differentiate their offerings. So, now parents have a real choice. When you give the parents the choice to choose any public school they want for their child, then they can sort themselves into the school that best meet the specific needs of their child and everybody gets a better education. Also, with a choice system, if you're a principal with a half empty school, the emperor has no clothes and now everybody knows it and you're not going to have a hard time removing that principal.
How does this benefit parents with children who have special needs?
Special needs children probably benefit more from an empowered system than any other children, although it benefits everybody. The reason that's so is once you decide you are no longer going to send the formulaic number of teachers, security guards, custodians, registrars, assistant librarians, attendance clerk, program directors, assistant principals, IT specialists (to each school) you're just going to send money. Now the question is how much money will you send to each school? Well, you are not going to send 15 million dollars to every school, whether it has 200 students or 2,000 students. You aren't going to send $5,000 for every student regardless of whether they are an English language learner, regardless of whether they are special ed or not, regardless of whether their special ed needs are simple versus very complex. So, once you've decided to send money to schools, you must have a weighted student formula. Take the known characteristics of each child, you don't have to do a new analysis, it's already all there, and in most systems, they do this. There are now about fifteen school districts that are doing this and about seventeen states that have passed or are working on legislation to do this statewide. When you do this what happens is, the minimum each child will get is the standard allocation of $4,000. The most expensive special education child would get eight times that or $32,000 a year, and then the money will follow each child to the public school they choose.
Now, if you're the parent of a special ed child, you are accustomed to having every principal put on a frown and explain sympathetically why their school is not the right place for your child. But now they think, wait a minute, this child is bringing $32,000, I want this child. Now, the principal knows if they get, say, three expensive special needs children, it will cost them perhaps $200,000 to provide the special services, so they'll lose money, if you will, on those three children. If they get five or six children, they'll break even. If they get a dozen or twenty, they will make some money on those programs, money they can spend elsewhere in their school. So once again, now, every principal starts designing programs that meets the needs of various kinds of special education situations. Now parents have a cornucopia of choices, principals are actively recruiting them and the parents of the special education child feel often like they've just won the lottery, so it's a wonderful thing for everybody.
When you go to a school district, a chancellor or a superintendent brings you in and you have to all of a sudden meet some principals, meet a few teachers and meet the people on the front lines, I can imagine there are some eye rolls and some hands go up because people don't like change. What are the objections or skepticisms of the uninitiated? What do you hear the most?
Well, the resistance typically comes from the central office. It comes from the central office because they are the ones who hold the power in the centralized district and it is not necessarily that they just have a desire for power, it's that they are accustomed to being told by the state, we are giving you 50 million dollars for x and you are legally responsible to see that the state's money is spent properly, so their habit is to want to control how every penny is spent. So, they set up a set of rules. And when a principal says, "I'd really get a much bigger benefit for my children if I spend it differently," they are going to say "no." So, that's where the resistance comes from and the hardest part of decentralizing a district or a company is to reorient the central office staff so that they will want and be rewarded for supporting empowered autonomous decision making principals.
You spoke recently to a group of educators with the Los Angeles Unified School District. What's the status of your relationship with this district and where do you think they are going to go?
Well, I am very hopeful that the school board now in place at the LA Unified School District is very forward looking and very much committed to the idea of empowering principals of schools. The superintendent is leading the way. The school board has asked me to serve on the Governance Committee of the Board of Education, which I am doing and the superintendent has asked me to serve on an advisory committee to advise he and the staff in the implementation of decentralization. There are many, many issues for them to think about, many, many problems for them to solve, lots of analysis to do and they are now working very hard in sorting and working their way through that. Meanwhile, they have launched their first pilot group of thirty-three autonomously managed schools already this year.
Not all of our readers will know this but you have a charter high school named in your honor here in Los Angeles. How does the charter movement, for lack of a better term, figure into all of this? Is it beneficial? Is it a competition? How does that work?
Well I think it is really important. In Los Angeles, charter schools now educate just over seven percent of the students, whereas the more traditional private schools educate around 9% of the students. I think that the surest way to guarantee that the public school districts of this country will improve and stay on their toes is to provide them with real competition. Private schools haven't changed much over 100 years, so it doesn't look like they'll ever go much above their 9% market share, but charter schools are going to grow. Some cities boast over 25% in charter schools, and others are approaching 50%, although nationally, they account for a little over three percent of all students. I think that charter schools provide real competition. They also provide a learning laboratory, and the Los Angeles superintendent has often said that he is learning a lot from watching the bigger charter school operators like the one I am involved with which runs fourteen high schools and two middle schools, all of them in the deep inner city of Los Angeles.
if you had to pick one, what school district is the best representation of the research you have been doing?
Well that's easy. It's the Edmonton School District in the Province of Alberta. Alberta, if you don't know where it is, is second from the left as you look up at Canada from here. It's a blue-collar town. It has the highest rate of child poverty in the Province. It has twice the percentage of children living in poverty as the rest of the Province, yet its students pass the diploma exams in math and English at the same rate as the rest of the Province. This whole idea of decentralized decision making at the hands of principals was created through trial and error in Edmonton starting in 1975 when a young superintendent named Mike Strembitsky was appointed. Mike had just been a successful principal. He remembered how much he disliked having the central office tell him how to run his school and was determined to give control over the money to the principals. He got it all the way up to the principals controlling 92% of the money. After his retirement, after twenty-two years of service, there have been four other superintendents appointed and today principals in Edmonton control 97% of the money. They are at an all-time high graduation rate and rising. They are the proof.


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People in Sussex are worried about elderly relatives who want to live alone according to a survey by Lloyds Pharmacy.
The study found more than 27 per cent of people in the South East have a elderly relative who has suffered a fall or other incident at their home.
Most of the falls were due to loose rugs, stairs or baths.
Despite these incidents, the report found, only 9 per cent of elderly people would be happy to go into a care home or receive other care.
The research carried out by the pharmacy chain discovered that 61 per cent of people in the South East worry about the cost of caring for an elderly relative, while less than a third have space for the once traditional 'granny annex'.
To address the problem Betterlife from LloydsPharmacy, in association with BT, are launching a low cost 24 hour personal care alarm to make wearable technology accessible to all.
Grant Abrahams, Head of Betterlife said, "Technology has revolutionised our lives, but until now, it has somewhat bypassed the older generation, yet there is no need for this.
"We've identified some key areas to help support our elderly generation and offer peace of mind to the nation's carers using relatively simple technology."
NHS figures say one in three people over 65 will have a fall at home and around half will fall frequently.
The NHS also highlights falls as the most common cause of injury-related death in people over 75.
The Personal Care Alarm, the first in a series of devices set to be launched by LloydsPharmacy, is a wearable, easy-to-activate emergency button that can be worn as a wristband, lanyard or clipped onto a pocket.
The alarm, which can be worn whilst bathing, and works within a 50 metre range of the home, connects to any UK landline and if activated alerts the trained monitoring centre team.
More information is available from lloydspharmacy.com/care.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Humanitarian John Bul Dau, known as one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, will present a free program open to the public at noon Monday, Feb. 2, in the auditorium of the Penn State Beaver Student Union Building.
Dau and thousands of other boys were Sudanese refugees whose courage and survival were featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary, "God Grew Tired of Us," winner of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award and Audience Award for documentaries. Narrated by actress Nicole Kidman, the documentary was filmed in Kenya, New York, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh, where many of the Lost Boys finally reached freedom. National Geographic also published Dau's memoir with the same title.
In 1987 at age 13, Dau fled his home in southern Sudan, narrowly escaping troops sent to exterminate all black Christian males. His village was burned, women were raped, children were enslaved, and young men were killed. Dau and thousands of other Lost Boys began a perilous journey to freedom that spanned more than 1,000 miles and 14 years.
Dau is recognized internationally for his advocacy of human rights and his call to end the violence in Sudan through promoting cultural understanding and awareness of global issues.
Through his initiative, the Sudanese Lost Boys of New York Foundation was established as well as the American Care for Sudan Foundation.
Information about this program and others that are free to the public is available by contacting the Office of Student Affairs at email@example.com or (724) 773-3951.


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Vigilance necessary
Thousands of people participated in or watched the Boston Marathon along its route Monday. Some of those people were from our area.
What should have been another enjoyable contest and celebration instead turned into a horrible tragedy at the hands of a sinister person or people who set bombs near the finish line. As of this morning, three people are reported dead and nearly 150 injured, some gravely, after two bombs exploded.
This deadly incident is a grim reminder of the presence of evildoers among us. We don't yet know whether the bombs were set by domestic or foreign terrorists, or by a depraved criminal, but we do know we can't let our guard down, especially at major public events.
For many of us, the images from Monday's twin bomb blasts brought back the gut-wrenching emotions from Sept. 11, 2001. These are emotions we don't want to relive, but ones we never will forget.
People who are intent on killing masses of people can find ways to mix with crowds at major gatherings. The deed is easier when events are outside in the streets.
Monday's events remind us we must remain vigilant. People must keep their eyes and ears open and speak up when something seems suspicious. We must stay alert. The killers and murderous terrorists aren't going away.
Our hearts go out to Monday's injured and the families of those who died in Boston.


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Cheese and mushroom casserole with chicken
This casserole is simple and delicious, and makes a perfect snack during a picnic (bento anyone?)—you should use it as a basic idea for a casserole, since the pasta sauce is the stable and the most important piece of the meal. It's also a very tweak-able recipe! :-)
Chili-walnut scrambled eggs with rucola
I was busy today with shopping and home chores, and needed something to snack on and get some energy kick. I managed to buy some chili peppers earlier today, and decided to make a savory scrambled eggs with a delicious, energetic spicy twist! :-) And oh my, that was both tasty and exciting!
Marshmallows for hot drinks
While the standard marshmallows are cooked to be large and sturdy on their own, the ones for hot drinks should be creamy and melting easily. Try my recipe, although similar to the basic one, to enjoy beautiful and tasty hot drinks marshmallows! :-)
Oh my, that is one of my most favorite recipes — who doesn't love these spongy, almost weightless little cubes of sweetness?! With my super simple recipe you will (quite literally) whip up some of them in no time!
Plain muffins
Nothing says "hello autumn" like a batch of fresh muffins or cupcakes! :-) With this simple recipe, you gonna whip them up in no time, and they will be a perfect base for more fancy muffins with fruit (I love muffins with dried plum bits), chocolate chip muffins, caramel-stuffed ones or double-or-triple-chocolate ;-) Or savory ones: paprika, tomato, herbs, sunflower seeds, etc. It all starts with this recipe.


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China has launched a lunar rover, nicknamed "Yutu," or "Jade Rabbit."
The probe, if successfully landed on the moon in mid-December, will spend about three months exploring the surface of the world.
What's in a name? According to Li Benzheng, deputy commander-in-chief of China's lunar program:
"Yutu is a symbol of kindness, purity and agility, and is identical to the moon rover in both outlook and connotation. Yutu also reflects China's peaceful use of space," said Li.
Whilst on the moon the rover is expected to study the body's composition as well as look for natural resources. Some space officials, including Robert Bigelow, have previously speculated that China is looking to lock up the resources of the moon, including its reserves of helium-3, which could be used to produce fusion power.
Should the United States be concerned about China's advances in space? After all, it's just sending a rover to the moon. We sent humans there nearly half a century ago.
Leroy Chiao, a former astronaut who commanded the International Space Station, says critics who dismiss China's advancements as "been there, done that" are missing the point:
"It really makes me cringe when you have people dismiss what they're doing by saying they're only doing what we did 50 years ago," Chiao said. "We can't go to the moon right now. We can't even launch our own astronauts right now. We do have plans, but everyone knows the budgets we have in this country don't support those spaceflight plans."
China, in contrast to the United States, is launching its own astronauts, will have its own small space station as early as 2020 and has a stable and likely growing budget to devote to space exploration.


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I love to tease you ! Why not ? But actually I\\\'m sweet person with evil inside!
Find me in Free Chat!
"Ideal people do not exist. I don\\\'t have any certain type. If a person caught my attention and attitude i am ready to open myself for meet."
Good personalities and ice-cream :)
rude people piss me off!


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Ryman's dictionary cuts through the complexity in a clear, logical and comprehensive way, building on her earlier Royal Academy Dictionary of Classical Ballet Terminology, published in 1995. This book uses as its foundation the teachings and terminology of the great Italian teacher, Enrico Cecchetti.
Ryman offers precise word descriptions for more than 900 terms and includes both a simplified English-language and International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation guide. The result is an indispensable global resource for dance professionals, as well as an invaluable guide to the inner workings of ballet technique for dance lovers everywhere.
To read an excerpt, CLICK HERE
Softcover, 6" x 9"
211 pp.
Available Options:
(Price Option):Retail Price ($24.95)
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The addictive power of Mahjong, multiplied by 1001.
Containing 1001 unique Mahjong stacks in one, beautifully crafted package, wrapped together with 8 slick themes, over 40 lovely backgrounds and 5 extraordinary tile sets this is a stunning Mahjong package.
This app offers in-app purchases. You may restrict in-app purchasing using your device settings.
Press Quotes
"A puzzle lover's paradise." — AppAdvice
"Chillingo has done a great job at presenting a solid Mahjong game to the iOS market." — Unbound Gamer, 95%
"... it is really as good as it can get." — Internet Gumshoe
"1001 Ultimate Mahjong is one of the highest quality Mahjong titles I have seen." — Family Friendly Gaming
Inspired by Mahjong fans from all around the world and their experiences during this century, this is the definitive Mahjong Solitaire experience. You'll never need another Mahjong game on your device!
Key Features
• 1001 stacks within 11 different categories.
• Refined user interface makes it as easy and intuitive as it could be.
• Customization options to tune the game into your individual Mahjong experience.
• 8 varied themes mean there is something for every taste.
• Over 40 beautiful backgrounds.
• 5 different tile sets ranging from classical to crazy ones.
• Play your own music in the game!
For more information or support, please visit www.chillingo.com
Important Consumer Information. This app: Requires acceptance of EA's Privacy & Cookie Policy, TOS and EULA. Contains advertisments for EA and its partners. Contains direct links to the internet.
Terms of Service : http://www.ea.com/terms-of-service
Privacy & Cookie Policy : http://www.ea.com/privacy-policy
EULA : http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/mobileeula/US/en/GM/
Visit http://www.chillingo.com/about/game-faqs/ for assistance or inquiries.
EA may retire online features and services after 30 days notice posted on www.ea.com/1/service-updates


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April 29: Criminal threat was reported; the suspect had a possible weapon. Officers followed up on a juvenile battery case. A report of criminal damage to property was taken in the 300 block of North Lincoln Street.
April 30: Officers conducted a search warrant at house for Marion County Attorney. Officers conducted a second follow-up on juvenile battery case. Officers conducted traffic control for tar spilled on Cedar and Main. Officers checked a report of a man watching children with binoculars at soccer field. A harassment report was taken.
May 2: Officers took a report of reckless driving at Marion Elementary School. Officers responded to a report of an unconscious female at Marion Middle School.
May 3: Officers checked at OASIS school in reference to child causing problems. Officers took a missing person report.
May 4: Officers attempted to locate missing man; person was found and family picked him up. An adult male was arrested following a disturbance with an adult female. Officers took a report of a person being in a residence when not allowed. Officers arrested a person for possession of marijuana.
May 7: Officers took a harassment report. Officers took a report of criminal use of financial card.
May 8: Officers took a report of muss use of a debit card. A verbal warning was issued to person who left two infants in an unattended vehicle at Marion Elementary School.
May 9: Officers checked a report of a juvenile male trying to sell methamphetamine in Marion Central Park; juvenile was located and officers spoke to his grandparents.
May 10: A theft report was taken. Officers responded to a report of a reckless driver on U.S. 56.
May 11: Officers spoke to a citizen in reference to a scam. Officers took a report of an individual shooting an air rifle in town.
May 12: Officers spoke to parents of juvenile about child throwing rocks.
Officers conducted 41 house watches, 298 business checks, and 25 traffic stops.


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Tue, 24 January 2012
Do out of work Iowans really need a government employee to help them find a job? Do Iowans really need to pay tax dollars to build rest areas? Do Iowans really need to provide "celebrity" hunting licenses? Iowans have answers.
Direct download: mickelson-2012-01-24.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:28pm CDT


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If you're looking for the ideal place to drop your line and catch a record fish, look no farther than Clinton Lake State Recreation Area. Recreational opportunities abound at this 9,300-acre facility, just 3 miles east of Clinton in central Illinois. From picnicking, hiking and camping to swimming, water skiing and boating to hunting for upland game, people from all over the Midwest flock to Clinton Lake to enjoy the great outdoors.
If just relaxing and watching the animal life is your interest, Clinton Lake has various small mammals and nearly 40 species of birds, including osprey, which dive into the lake for fish. In the spring, it is the place to search for morels. In the fall, it is ablaze with a rainbow of color.
The park land actually belongs to AmerGen which operates a nuclear power plant in the area. The State of Illinois has operated the park since 1978 through a long-term lease with the utility company. The partnership demonstrates that the state government and private businesses can work together to provide outstanding recreation.
Prior to the arrival of settlers in the area, the land on which the park rests primarily was upland prairie and bottomland deciduous forest. Historians believe the area likely was the site of small villages and hunting camps of tribes of the Illini Confederacy. Kickapoo also likely were in the area until the 1820's. The first permanent European-born settlers came to the area in the 1830's. Many of them came from Kentucky and Tennessee and farmed the land. Most of the area had been used as pasture or cropland at the time construction of the 4,900-acre lake began in the 1970s.
- Camping
There are 17 Class AA campsites, 286 Class A campsites and 5 Class B/S campsites at Clinton Lake with showers and almost all are adaptable to either tents, trailers or motor homes. Each site is equipped with a grill and picnic table. Reservations are accepted for a limited number of sites by mail only, phone-in reservations are not accepted. The wooded area along the lake provides the perfect setting to turn in after a long day of fun. A group camp area for adults or youth groups has room for 75. It provides a secluded wooded setting and has a large shelter with electricity, three RV pads with electrical hookups, toilets, tables, grills and water there are no shower facilities at the group camp area. Portions of the Class AA, A & Class B/S and the group camp are wheelchair accessible. Please reserve the group campground ahead of time by contacting the park office.
Located close to the swim beach or accessible by car, you will find Mascoutin Grill. This concession, with indoor and outdoor dining, serves sandwiches, beverages, snacks and its ever popular fish dinner. You can also purchase bait, camping supplies and ice. Mascoutin Grill is a seasonal operation open during warm weather.
Recreation - Fishing
The 4,900-acre lake is what draws people to the park. The fishing is outstanding. There are special piers at the Mascoutin Access Area, the Spillway Access Area and the Valley Mill Bank Fishing Area for the disabled. If you're dropping your line here, chances are you're fishing for crappie. Hook them with white, yellow, or chartreuse jigs and minnows, which seem to work the best.
Don't tell anyone, because the locals like to keep it quiet, but Clinton Lake is one of the best lakes in the state for catfish. Most of them are taken from the banks, or in the upper arms of the lake.
Hybrid and pure striped bass fishing is very popular here with numerous fish more than 10 pounds taken every year. But a word of caution - the bass are tackle busters. Careful, or you might lose your pole to 'em.
For good eating, it is hard to beat a walleye and Clinton Lake has plenty of them. The bridges are excellent places to catch them from the bank and boaters can hit the Old Creek channels or submerged flats. For some great spring action, the spillway area yields large numbers of both walleye and stripers, as well as crappie and catfish. Clinton Lake also provides good action for largemouth and smallmouth bass, white bass, and bluegill. Special size and creel limits are in effect for most species.
The upper arms of the lake are no wake areas and portions are restricted to electric trolling motors only. There are no horsepower limitations in the lake's main basin, however. Sailboating is popular. When the wind gets up, the lake can be very rough. Small watercraft are urged to stick to the north fork arm of Salt Creek on rough days. There are six public boat ramps and one canoe launch. All IDNR ramps are now equipped with wheelchair accessible boat docks.
Swimming & Water Skiing
A beautiful, 1,000-foot white sand beach awaits swimmers and sunbathers looking to catch some rays or frolic in the warm waters of the lake. The beach is open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. There is a changing facility with showers and restrooms. There are no lifeguards. Please remain in the buoyed areas and swim with caution. No pets, glass, or sharp objects are allowed on the beach. No alcohol is allowed in beach area.
Waterskiing here is a blast and is permitted from the Route 54 bridge to the Route 48 bridge. Beach fees are $1 per day per person. Swimming is also allowed in other areas of the lake but is not allowed within 100 yards of bridges, boat ramps, or boat docks.
If just getting out and about is your interest, try the park's three hiking trails. The 5 mile Houseboat Cove Trail north of the beach follows the shoreline and comes back through the woods. It is easy to moderate in difficulty. The 9.3 mile North Fork Trail is more challenging. It runs through the steeply wooded banks of the lake, but provides unparalleled views of the lake and opportunities to view wildlife. There are no exits anywhere, so be prepared for 4.2 miles up and 5.1 miles back. There's also a 40-acre restored prairie along the North Fork, but beautiful wildflowers can be seen along both trails. A ten mile equestrian/hiking/cross-county ski trail is located on the north side of the lake east of the Parnell Access Area. Horse trailer parking is at that location. The area is now equipped with a wheelchair ramp for mounting horses. All equestrian trails are closed to horses from Oct. 1 to the end of archery deer season.
Day use areas are located around the lake with tables, stoves, water, playground equipment and toilet facilities. They are all accessible to the disabled. Shelters are available at the Mascoutin, Weldon, Lane, West Side and Penninsula access area. Mascoutin, Weldon and Peninsula have electricity. Weldon also has an open, grassy area along the shoreline for softball or fishing. A nearby wooded picnic area provides shaded protection during those long, hot summer days. The West Side Penninsula and Mascoutin areas have great views of the lake. Shelters may be reserved for a fee by calling the park office.
For your convenience, the Clinton Lake Marina, located 1 mile north of Illinois Route 10, off road 1700 East has a bait and tackle shop as well as gas, food and sundries. Slip rental, and boat sales service are also available. Call (217) 736-2727 for more information.
More than 2,900 huntable acres are available at Clinton Lake. The most common species are rabbit, pheasant, squirrel and dove, although quail and woodcock also are hunted. Deer can be taken in season by archery only. Limited muzzle loading deer hunting and shotgun turkey hunting is also available. Waterfowl hunting is permitted on the main lake basin from anchored boat blinds only. Walk in waterfowl hunting is permitted from numbered posts located north of the IL Rt. 54 bridge and east of the bridge at the Parnell Boat Access Area. All hunters must obtain a free permit from the park office. Try the archery range, complete with a shooting tower, just east of the North Fork boat access area where you can take aim at life-size targets of deer and turkey. Some of the targets are now accessible to wheelchair bound archers. An area near the site office is being developed for wheelchair accessible waterfowl, forest and upland game hunters. Clinton Lake Hunter Fact Sheet | Handicapped | Hallsville Hunter Fact Sheet
Winter Sports
When the temperature drops, don't huddle inside. Come to Clinton Lake. Ice fishing, ice skating and snowmobiling are allowed on the lake when the ice is thick enough. The North Fork and the coves on Salt Creek are good for ice fishing and skating. In the warmer areas of the lake, folks still drop their lines from the bank all winter long. The hiking and equestrian trails double as cross-country ski trails in the winter and provide a great workout.
Climate - Illinois experiences four distinct seasons with varying weather throughout the year. Winter can be very cold. The highest humidity of the year occurs during this season averaging 70 to 75 percent. Average low temperatures in January dip to 20 degrees F with highs near 35 degrees F. Spring temperatures are mild with humidity below 70 percent. Temperatures during this season average between 32 and 50 degrees F. Summer is usually hot and humid in this Midwest state. Low temperatures remain in the low sixties with high temperatures near 90 degrees F. The highest rainfall of the year occurs during the summer months. Fall is an excellent time to visit the state with low humidity and rainfall and moderate temperatures.
Location -
I57, north or south bound: I57 to Champaign; exit onto I74 west to Farmer City (approximately 20 miles); exit onto Rt 54 west (left at stop sign at end of exit ramp). Take Rt 54 through Farmer City and proceed approximately 10 miles to DeWitt. Brown informational sign at DeWitt will read "Mascoutin State Recreation Area". Turn left at corner of Rt 54 and Co Hwy 14. Go through DeWitt and proceed approximately 1 mile, park is on the right side of road. Park office is first left after entering park.
I55, south bound: I55 to Bloomington; follow I55 around south side of Bloomington and take I74 east for 2 miles; exit I74 onto Rt 51 south. Take Rt 51 south to Clinton (approximately 20 miles); ignore all Clinton exits and stay on the 4-lane going around town to the 2nd stop light (Rt 54). Turn left and follow Rt 54 through Clinton; proceed approximately 10 miles to DeWitt. Brown informational sign at DeWitt will read "Mascoutin State Recreation Area". Turn right onto Hwy 14 and follow this through DeWitt; proceed approximately 1 mile, the park is on the right side of road. Park office is first left after entering park.
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Contact Information:
Clinton Lake State Recreation Area, R.R. #1, Box 4
, DeWitt, Illinois, 61735, Phone: 217.935.8722, firstname.lastname@example.com
Additional Information:
Central Ilinois Travel Region
Illinois State Parks
Clinton Lake State Recreation Area - Official site of Clinton Lake State Recreation Area


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Stylish indie platformer Canabalt, which we loved as a Flash game and as an iPhone app, is now lovable in another form—a mini-soundtrack.
If having access to the game via your iPhone or iPod Touch wasn't enough, you can now purchase Daniel Baranowsky's soundtrack to the excellent one-button platformer for constant listening. You can also make various Canabalt themes your ringtone, to out-annoy your fellow iPhone owning peers.
You can name your price, as long as that price is $3 or more for the entire soundtrack (of somewhat questionable value, considering the $2.99 USD asking price for the full game). But, hey, if you really really love Canabalt more than three measly bucks, you know where to go.
Canabalt Soundtrack + Ringtones Pack (w/ bonus Fathom Megamix!) [Bandcamp via Nobuooo/Gametunes]


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SanDisk's Memory Stick PRO Duo is half the size of a standard-size Memory Stick PRO media and it offers the same technologies including high speed data transfer, built-in MagicGate, and high capacities. The Memory Stick PRO Duo is the ideal solution for the most portable devices such as pocket-size digital cameras and with the use of Adaptor, it can be used in all PRO-compatible devices.
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The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora operating system has a bit of a checkered history with the Raspberry Pi. It was originally the recommended operating system for the device before being stripped from the Raspberry Pi Foundation's downloads page, replaced by a version of Debian optimized for the Pi's ARMv6 chip.
But Fedora is back on the Pi in the form of a new build developed by the Seneca Centre for Development of Open Technology in Toronto. It's called "Pidora."
"It is based on a brand new build of Fedora for the ARMv6 architecture with greater speed and includes packages from the Fedora 18 package set," the Pidora team said today.
The recommended OS for the Raspberry Pi these days is Raspbian, a version of Debian optimized for the ARMv6-based Broadcom BCM2835 chip's floating point unit, which as we've written is "important in robotics projects and various other types of math-intensive applications."
Pidora likewise takes advantage of the floating point unit in the Pi. Nearly all of the thousands of packages in the official Fedora repository were rebuilt for Pidora. Pidora also comes with C, Python, and Perl programming environments included on the SD card image.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation's downloads page still has just Raspbian, Arch Linux, and RISC OS. Pidora's makers say it will hit the official downloads page soon, but it is also already available from the Pidora website.


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According to WP Central, Windows Phone might be ditching its dumpy 480x800 displays for new hi-res screens once WP8 hits.
WP Central piled onto the web analytics binge going around trying to dig up data about future Windows 8 devices right now, and in checking its own logs, found references to devices with 768x1280 resolution displays. Now, that's the rumored resolution for the 7-inch Google Nexus tablet. And we know Nokia is cranking out some kind of "hybrid mobile" device for Windows 8. But the LG Optimus TrueHD is 720x1280, and other phones are sitting around there as well, so the resolution itself isn't that much of a stretch.
A Windows Phone rep at CES wouldn't say whether WP would be bumping its specs all at once or gradually moving away from its unfragmented bubble, but he said "it was a total no brainer." Which, you know, seems like maybe we'll get a firehose full of upgraded standard specs for WP on the Windows 8 kernel. Or maybe not! Analytics extrapolations are notoriously random, so this could be one big false alarm. But hopefully not! [WP Central]


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VALENCISO RESERVA 1998 ..... awarded Silver Medal in International Wine Challenge 2003.
Fri 5 Sep 2003
Valenciso Reserva Rioja Tinto 1998......the first wine produced by Compañia Bodeguera de Valenciso, Haro, Spain.
With its unique "one cellar, one wine, one brand" approach, Compañia Bodeguera de Valenciso only produces wine under the "Reserva" category of Rioja. Based in Haro, the capital of the Rioja Alta, Valenciso is the brainchild of Luis Valentin. Luis was for many years Managing Director of Bodegas Palacio, the bodegas which produces the famous Rioja Cosme Palacio but in 1998 he decided to establish his own company with his partner Carmen Enciso. Together they work with their winemaker, Alicia Eyaralar, who shares their preference for subtle and elegant wines.
Now, after a few years on the sidelines dictated by the unavoidable time and patience required to produce quality wine, Luis and Carmen are back. The Valenciso Reserva 1998 is the first example of their wine, a "modern" style reserva rioja, which has been receiving many accolades, including this latest silver medal from IWC.
Only produced in small volume (40,000 bottles) from 100% Tempranillo grapes, selected from old vineyards with low yields, the emphasis of Valenciso Reserva is on the fruit, with ageing in new French oak barrels (which are replaced every three years) instead of the more traditional American oak. This has produced a complex, delicate and less oaky wine than a traditional style rioja, but still displays the classic cinnamon and vanilla aromas typical of rioja, leading to fabulous structure in the mouth and rich fruit for the finish. So in its modern style, like all great wines, Valenciso still reflects the land and region from which it originates. Rioja!!!
Click here to go to our Tasting Notes for this award winning wine.


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Sooyeon Lee: Table Tennis GLAM SlamSOURCE Nowness
Korean table tennis champion, actress and former model Sooyeon Lee challenges herself to a high-fashion endurance match in a film by NOWNESS contributor Matthew Donaldson.
"It's a vehicle to show how extraordinarily elegant she is," says the filmmaker and photographer, who enlisted stylist Katie Shillingford to emphasize Lee's technique. "The sport requires the body to jolt into action in an aggressive manner that is mesmerizing," she says. "I wanted the clothes to accentuate these movements." Shillingford commissioned designer Geraldine Chevrolet to create bespoke fringed tights, gloves and a hat, pairing the custom accessories with neon, black and nude jumpsuits, dresses and leggings from Christopher Kane, Mark Fast, Jil Sander and Versace. Originating in 1880s Britain as an after-dinner parlor game, the Olympic sport of table tennis has recently emerged as the boutique pastime of choice, evidenced by actress Susan Sarandon's SPiN, a chain of ping-pong clubs which counts Lee as its ambassador and has locations in New York, Toronto and Hollywood. "It's become very trendy," Lee observes. "It's sociable, you don't need to be super athletic and it's good for the brain."


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Crane Novacane - Different Kind Of Guap [Unsigned Artist]
Right Hand To God dropping 4/9/13 also go to www.cranenovacane.com
FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube all Crane Novacane.
Directed by Damon Jamal
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


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In March 1901, Opel scores its first victory in motor sport, when Heinrich von Opel wins the Königsstuhl hill climb.
The 9 hp Opel Motor Car, System Darracq Tonneau. 1902.
Advertisement for the Opel Darracq, from 1903.
The 16/18 hp Opel Motor Car, System Darracq, 1904–1906.
The Opel two-cylinder luxury motorcycle with 3 1/2 hp and electromagnetic ignition, from 1905.
Opel one-cylinder motorcycle with 3 3/4 hp, from 1905.


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PORTSMOUTH — The U.S. Coast Guard is considering a potential enforcement action against the tugboat operator whose vessel sank at the Memorial Bridge construction site last year, spilling diesel fuel into the Piscataqua River.
A Coast Guard investigation report released to Foster's Daily Democrat this week details the circumstances that led to the sinking of the Benjamin Bailey, the tugboat that capsized in the waters off Portsmouth.
Two crew members leaped to safety moments before the ship sank on Oct. 24.
Video: Two escape sinking ship
Photos: Coast Guard documents tugboat accident
The vessel was eventually floated to the surface of the river and returned to Eliot, Maine, for a salvage attempt, after crews worked for several days to recover it.
A pollution investigator's statement indicates that during the course of the response and salvage operation, Coast Guard personnel observed an estimated 225 gallons of red dyed marine diesel fuel discharging from the ship into the Piscataqua River, creating a visible sheen on the water. Coast Guard investigators have flagged the fuel discharge as a potential violation of federal laws.
They have referred the incident for a potential "enforcement action" against Riverside Marine Construction, Inc., the tugboat operator, which could come in the form of an administrative or civil penalty. Records associated with the enforcement action are not expected to be released to the public for another three to six months, according to a Coast Guard spokesman.
An analysis by the Coast Guard determined that human error played a role in the ship's sinking. Specifically, the tugboat captain failed to maneuver the ship into a new position after high tide in the morning. As noon approached, the current shifted, and the ship started getting rocked sideways.
The captain who was on duty for the day was also away when it sank, according to the Coast Guard report. The captain departed to get lunch about 30 minutes before the event.
Before he left, a more senior employee of the tugboat company — another captain — boarded the ship to help with a repair job. He attempted to save the ship, but may have actually contributed to the boat capsizing by maneuvering the ship back and forth while it was moored to a barge, according to the investigation report.
Riverside and Pickering Marine Contractors in Eliot, Maine, was hired by the company in charge of the Memorial Bridge project, Archer Western Contractors, to support operations at the construction site.
The Benjamin Bailey was usually piloted by Riverside and Pickering's port captain, who is a full-time employee of the company. His name is redacted from the documents provided by the Coast Guard. He has held the position since February or March 2012.
However, the port captain was off-duty on the day the tugboat sank. Instead, a so-called "relief captain" was called in to take charge of the vessel.
The relief captain arrived at Riverside and Pickering's facility to pick up the ship at about 6 a.m. He left with a deckhand, and they arrived at the construction site shortly before 7 o'clock. They moored the vessel on the port side, attaching a line to one of the barges. The bow of the ship was also touching a second barge in front of it.
The Benjamin Bailey didn't have any orders from the worksite contractor, so the two crew members turned off the engines and began "routine preventative maintenance," the Coast Guard report states.
One project for the day was replacing the shaft packing on both the port and starboard propellers. However, the deckhand didn't know how to complete the task alone, and the port captain who is normally in charge of the ship agreed to come in on his day off to assist the deckhand with the project.
The port captain arrived at about 11 a.m. and called the relief captain on the ship to ask him to bring a hard hat and life jacket out to the parking lot so he could come aboard. They met in the parking lot, and the relief captain left to get lunch.
Tide tables for the day indicate that high tide was expected at about 7:57 a.m. The Piscataqua River tide began to ebb at about 9 a.m., and from about 11 a.m. to about 11:45 a.m., the ship began to list toward its starboard side, being pushed by the current.
The port captain boarded the Benjamin Bailey at about 11:16 a.m. and questioned why the ship was moored in the same configuration it was when it first arrived, according to the Coast Guard Report.
Within the next 15 minutes, the port captain discovered that he had no way to contact the relief captain because the relief captain had left behind his cell phone inside the wheel house of the ship.
The vessel was tipping at a full 5 degrees at this point, and the port captain decided the vessel needed to be moved, the report states. He ordered the deckhand to start the power generator and ran a line from the capstan — a motor-driven spindle — to a mooring hook.
For the next seven minutes, the captain turned the rope, but with each turn, the rubber fenders on the side of the ship gripped tighter against the adjacent barge, keeping the tugboat stuck in place.
Now ankle-deep in water, the captain slackened the line and ran to the pilot house. He attempted to maneuver the ship away, first moving in reverse, then forward, then reversing again. But the movement spilled even more water onto the deck of the ship and into the engine room, pushing the ship underwater, according to the Coast Guard investigation.
Both the captain and the deckhand exited the vessel "seconds before the vessel completely submerged," the report states.
One factor that might have also contributed to the ship's sinking is the movement of fuel in the engines. The ship has a sluice valve that is manually operated, allowing for even consumption of fuel between the left and right fuel tanks on the front and back of the boat.
The port captain, the on-duty captain and the deckhand were all taken to Occupational Health Services in Portsmouth to undergo alcohol and drug tests. The results of the alcohol tests are redacted in the version of the report provided to Foster's. The drug test results don't appear within the 92-page document. However, there is no indication in the document that alcohol or drug use played a factor.
A lack of attention to the mooring position of the boat is the first factor cited in the analysis of the ship's sinking conducted by the Coast Guard.
"The tide began to ebb long before Captain (redacted) and Captain (redacted) met in the parking lot at approximately 1115," the report states. "Captain (redacted) decision to leave the vessel in the curren(t) position was his comfort level having been a mariner for nearly 30 years."
Also, an attempt to use a gate line and capstan to move the bow away from the barges was inadequate in light of the strong current, according to the report.
"The use of a 'gate line' and starboard quarter capstan to move the bow away from the two barges was a good attempt," the report states, "however, the force of the ebbing tide and current, against the starboard beam of the BENJAMIN BAILEY, was too much."
The Coast Guard also cites "preconditions" that contributed to the event, including policies from the tugboat company it deemed as "unclear."
For example, the port captain was reticent to second-guess the relief captain who was piloting the Benjamin Bailey for the day because the relief captain had more years of experience as a merchant marine, according to the Coast Guard report.
Additionally, procedures outlined in the tugboat company's handbook did not discuss environmental factors to consider, such as the tide in the Piscataqua River, and left all decisions up to the captain's discretion, according to the Coast Guard report.
The handbook was deemed "inadequate" because it failed to provide information about mooring arrangements or policies about working at the Memorial Bridge site. A Coast Guard investigator also expressed some concern about the practice of captains departing from their ships while they're engaged at the bridge.
"The work on the memorial bridge project often requires the captains of the contracted tug boats to attend meetings, many of which require the captains to depart their vessels," the report states. "While at the worksite, it also appears to be common practice for the captains to leave for lunch. Although I do not see this (as) a problem, I do believe that not having a Captain onboard the vessel places the vessel at a higher risk of danger," the report states.


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Aaron Lennon hit the winner as Tottenham fought back to claim a 2-1 win at Sunderland
Tottenham cemented their place in the Premier League top-four as Aaron Lennon sealed a 2-1 comeback win over Sunderland.
Last Updated: 30/12/12 9:12am
John O'Shea had given Sunderland the lead just before half-time, but Lennon netted a solo effort as Spurs hit back in the second-period with two goals in a frantic three-minute spell.
Emmanuel Adebayor spurned an early opening for Tottenham when he scuffed the ball at Simon Mignolet, while at the other end Craig Gardner's deflected free-kick failed to trouble Hugo Lloris.
There was plenty attacking intent from both sides and Adam Johnson's dangerous cutback was cleared by Michael Dawson before Mignolet almost made a mess of a low shot from Sandro.
Spurs twice went close within a few minutes as Adebayor saw his shot blocked by Mignolet after racing clear and Gareth Bale then nodded narrowly wide.
Adebayor endured more frustration when he somehow blazed against the bar from a few yards out following Carlos Cuellar's clumsy attempt to cut out Jermain Defoe's cross.
Sunderland made the most of this reprieve in the 40th minute as Tottenham's failure to clear Sebastian Larsson's free-kick allowed O'Shea to stab the ball home.
But the happy hosts were soon deflated in the second period when Cuellar (48) needlessly nodded a corner into his own net after an aerial clash with team-mate Gardner.
A fine individual goal from Lennon (51) then stunned Sunderland as he left O'Shea in his wake with a lightning burst of pace and prodded the ball past the onrushing Mignolet.
Johnson tried to hit back with a low drive that was pushed away by Lloris, but the normally deadly Defoe then had a moment to forget, shooting too close to Mignolet after a fine run and cross from Bale.
The Welsh wide man was felled in the box by Gardner in the closing stages, but he was left bemused when the referee booked him for simulation instead of awarding a penalty.
Adebayor's finishing was yet again at fault soon afterwards when he burst into the box and fired at Mignolet, but Kyle Naughton was forced to make a timely interception as Sunderland searched for a late leveller.


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So let's take a good look at my afternoon so far. I was driving cross-country on a motorcycle I borrowed from Lucifer Morningstar on my way to look for Eve, my long-lost and content to stay that way immortal first love when I encountered a woman that I had relations with a couple decades before, along with the offspring of said relations, when the friggin' Archangel Michael showed up demanding that I tell the women the truth, of all ridiculous things. I did the only thing I could think of, I walked briskly across the dusty parking lot from the diner to the run-down bar that shared the interstate exit and ordered myself a shot and a beer. There are some situations that just cannot be addressed properly without a certain level of mental lubrication, and this was shaping up to be a Cuervo-sized situation.
Once I felt that I had properly fortified myself for the confrontation that was coming, I made my way back across the parking lot to the picnic table where the archangel sat chatting idly with my daughter while her mother smoked a cigarette. These are not situations that occur every day, not even if you're immortal.
"Myra, I think I owe you an explanation," I started.
"Explanation? Explanation?!?" Usually when a word of four syllables involves more than two octaves, whatever follows is not going to be good, so I decided to head her off before she could get a head of steam going.
"Yes. Explanation." I used The Voice. It's nothing supernatural. I really don't have any abilities other than the touch of ESP that everyone has and a ridiculous lifespan, but with age does come a certain level of authoritative voice, and I had elevated mine to capitalization status through a long period of study with the Greek orators. Those boys could talk, let me tell you.
"I know that I left without any warning, and I know that I showed up here again the same way. But I did warn you when we first became involved that I wouldn't be staying very long, and that one day, you'd likely wake up to find me gone. We agreed that we'd enjoy the time we had, and that we wouldn't put any strings on each other."
"Yes, but that was before…" she trailed off and looked down, suddenly very interested in the scuffed sneakers she was wearing.
"Before what, Myra?"
"Before I fell in love with you." She said, in a very small voice, this confident woman near fifty suddenly teenager-shy again, and looking for all the world like she wanted to be doing anything else in the world other than having this conversation. I knew the feeling, and I've had these conversations before. I could only imagine what it must have felt like going through it for the first time, and from the other perspective.
"Myra, I loved you too. I still love you, after a fashion, but there are some things about me that you didn't know then, things that make it hard for me to fall in love."
"Hard, Adam?" another party heard from as Michael decided to remind us that we weren't having a private conversation.
"Michael, when I need your particular input on human relationships, I'll look it up in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Until then, butt out. Myra, I'm not really sure how to put this, but it's probably pretty obvious that I'm not exactly normal. I look about the same as I did when I left, and that's been"
"24 years and three months, give or take a week."
"How do you keep track of it that closely…" I trailed off as I looked over at Emily, looking about twenty-three and a half, and decided that finishing the question would make me look infinitely stupid and lead to more unnecessary input from my good buddy Michael.
"Yeah, a little over 24 years. So, the thing is, this is not easy to explain…"
"Adam, you've had work done. It's okay. We're not LA, but we're not complete bumpkins, you know. There's even anesthesia for facelifts in Texas nowadays, and most folks don't even assume guys are gay if they get a little Nip/Tuck action. Well, most folks don't, anyway."
I laughed. A lot. I've had this conversation on more than one uncomfortable occasion in the past few millennia, and I've never been accused of cosmetic surgery before. This was certainly a day of firsts. I laughed, and was so taken aback by the idea that I just blurted out the truth without thinking a second about it.
"I didn't have work done, honey, I'm immortal. I don't age. Remember the Adam from Genesis? Yeah, that would be me. And Moses got most of that stuff right, because I told it to him while we were hanging out in Israel."
"Yeah, whatever. You're immortal and I'm Farah Fawcett."
"No, really. I look the same because I always look the same, at least since we left the Garden. And I left without saying anything because I'm not strong enough to stick around and watch the people that I care about grow old while I stay forever young."
"He's telling the truth, love. If you just take it at face value for now we can get on to the grand reconciliation and we can all leave this dump of a town. Honestly, Adam, why you insist upon finding trysts in such father-forsaken holes in the cosmos I will never understand."
"Michael, for the last time, Shut. Your. Mouth. And when did you decide to be British?"
"Just now. It's a pretentious decade and I can't possibly fit in without an appropriately posh accent."
"I think you'll manage just fine. Anyway, Myra, like I was saying. I'm immortal, and the reason I left was because I really did, I mean do, care for you, and it's just too hard staying in one place for very long because of the inevitable questions about not aging, and that coupled with the whole watching the people you love grow old and die thing, well, it's just gotten to be too much for me over the centuries, so now I relocate after a couple years at the most, and I stay less time in places where I'm afraid that a real connection might be starting, because I figure it's easier on the people that I leave behind if I leave sooner rather than later, you know, giving them a chance to move on with their lives and that sort of thing, and…I should probably stop talking now."
"Yes. Stopping talking now would probably be a safe move, Adam." Her voice was icy, and the look on her face made me inch out of arm's reach, fearing another slap might be forthcoming. Instead, she looked down at the ground, took a deep, shuddering breath, and looked me straight in the eye.
"You. Son. Of. A. Bitch. You selfish, uncaring, thoughtless, chickenshit son of a bitch! You ran out on me after I laid in your arms every night for six months! I told you things I've never told anyone before or since. I told you my hopes, my dreams, my fears, the embarrassing things that I've never once dreamed of having the courage to tell another living soul, and then one morning I come in after my shower and you're gone!
Gone, without a note, without even a slap on the ass and a thank you! You worthless motherfucker, you leave me without any reason, without any hope of ever seeing you again, and then you have the unmitigated gall to come back in here twenty-four years later riding on your big motorcycle spouting some bullshit about immortal and scared to love and expect me to fall for it just like I fell for your line of shit the first time you were here?
Well fuuuuuuck you, buddy, that train left the station a long time ago, and the only thing I got out of the deal was a beautiful, smart, darling daughter that you don't ever, ever deserve to try to be part of her life. So get back on your motorcycle and ride off into the sunset you came out of, and don't you dream of coming back into my life or my baby's life!" By now she was full-on sobbing, screaming and looking for things to throw at me, so before the cook decided that it was probably worth it to come through the screen door where he was watching the show, I reached out to Myra, put my arms around her, and held her.
I pulled her to my chest, and so many memories came flooding back. Memories of waking up with her naked lying across my chest in the middle of the night, the ceiling fan doing nothing to cut through the heat of the day that still lay across us like a blanket. Memories of sitting on a hillside by a pond watching the sun set and pretending to give a damn about the corks we had floating on the ends of our fishing lines. Memories of watching her sling coffee and hash browns along the length of the breakfast counter to long-haul truckers and locals alike, each served with a smile and a saucy shake of the hips. I held her as she cried like a baby that's just lost her favorite toy, and more than one tear of my own slipped down my face to dampen the curtain of hair that hid her face.
But finally she cried herself out, and got tired of hitting my back with her fists, and she pulled away.
"Yeah, I just needed to get that off my chest."
"Good. It's good to see you again. I'm glad you're well."
"Well might be stretching it most days, but I'm still here. And I think I'm glad to see you, too. But why did you really leave? And really, where is your fountain of youth, because most days, especially the way my feet feel when I pull a double, I'd like a swig."
"Well…you see, here's the problem."
"I was telling the truth."
"About what?"
"About the hard to believe bits. You know, immortal, Garden of Eden, Adam. That stuff? That was real. I'm that Adam, and I left because I didn't want to fall in love with you and watch you die, and because I thought if I left soon enough I could be gone and you could move on, leaving me as just a faded, but pleasant memory from your youth."
"So let me get this straight. You're the Adam of Adam and Eve, fig leaves, snakes, apples and Cain and Abel?" This was Emily, who had been content to sit and watch things unfold to this point.
"Yes to all of the above, except Luck-Lucifer wasn't really a serpent, just kind of a snake in the grass metaphorically, and the fig leaves really were just inserted by uptight artists. We went straight from naked to woven grass skirts, actually."
"So if you're Adam with a capital A, and I'm your daughter, which you seem oddly willing to accept at face value without any mention of DNA testing or other proof…"
"It's the eyes. I recognize them. My eyes always breed true in the first generation, so I learned to recognize them after a while."
"Okay, so you're Adam of the original humans Adam and Eve, and I'm your daughter, and you're immortal, so what does that make me?"
"From what I can tell, lifespan tends to follow the norms for the period when you're born, so you won't end up immortal. At least, none of my children since Cain have been."
"And exactly how many of them have there been?"
"437." I now remember how much I disliked certain aspects of hanging around with angels. They keep a lot of trivia floating around in their heads, because they can I guess. And Michael, being ridiculously honest and forthcoming even at the most inopportune times, felt that he had to share my exact offspring census with the gathered family at a time when some obfuscation may have been the more tactful approach.
"437? That's not a family, that's a regiment! Jesus, what do you do, just leave a couple of bastards in every town where you stop for lunch?" Emily was a little outraged at finding out that she was part of such a large family.
"No. Please remember that I've lived for eons. When you look back across the entirety of the human race, I am not responsible for an inordinate number of offspring. In fact, with the notable exception of the time of the Roman Empire, I have been very particular with the… I do not have to explain myself to my own daughter!"
Slap! "You do not have the right to call her that! You were nothing more than a sperm donor, she is my daughter and nothing of yours!" Again with the slapping.
I fixed Myra with my steeliest glare "Nothing of mine? You can't even pretend to tell me that you've looked in those eyes every day for 23 years and not seen a piece of me looking back at you. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to finish this conversation without getting hit any more."
"So I had 436 brothers and sisters down through history, are any of them alive now?"
"One, but you might not want to spend much time with Cain. He has sibling rivalry issues. You mother is the first woman I've shared enough of myself with to have a child in some number of years, so you're the only…"
"How many?" A small voice from Myra.
"Excuse me?"
"How many years? How long has it been since you 'shared enough of yourself?'"
"About 1755 or so. I had a son. He died in the war."
"Which war?" Emily asked.
"The Revolutionary War. We fought together. He caught a bullet in the leg and it had to be amputated. It got infected, as so many of them did, and he died. It wasn't pretty. I held his hand when he went. He was 24."
"I'm sorry." Myra said softly.
"It wasn't the first time I've held one of my children as they've died. It's not something that gets easier the more often you do it, though." We were quiet for a moment, then, both of us lost in thought. I flashed back on the dozens of times throughout history that I had watched my reflection dim in my child's eyes, and Myra shuddered slightly as she thought about losing Emily.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Choices, Part 6
Posted by John G. Hartness at 11:28 PM
3 comments:
- BamBam said...
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- chaussures converse said...
That may have been the first day of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but my sense of right and wrong was pretty deeply instilled long before, and when he put his hands on Eve and she cried out in pain as he twisted her arm behind her back to remove her from the only home we'd ever known, I reacted without thinking. Further reflection brought me to the conclusion that had I thought before I socked the head of the militant Archangels in the snoot, I would have done the same thing. Every time.
- Melisa Marzett said...
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