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Wednesday, February 24, 2010
My Favorite Hate Mail
My recent rise in readership that came about because of the San Francisco Chronicle article has been rather disconcerting. Mostly because I wasn't aware San Francisco even had a daily newspaper. I get all my news from The Christian Science Monitor. His name is Mary Baker Eddie, and he stands outside monitoring the Christian Science Reading Room in Healdsburg. Want to have some fun? Go into a Christian Science Reading Room with a gaping flesh wound. They'll give you something to read for it, usually a year-old Wine and Spirits Magazine with a fascinating article by Patrick Comiskey on great Northwestern United States Clamato Juice cocktails. (One cocktail was even named for a noted food writer--the James Bearded Clam.) Oh, what was I saying? Oh, yeah, it's been rather a whirlwind few days, lots of Internet chatter about having me be a suicide bomber at the next Wine Bloggers Conference (they'd strap bottles of Korbel Brut to my body rigged to explode whenever Alder Yarrow congratulates himself--so, right off the bat), many more hits than usual on HoseMaster of Wine (the blog, not me), and, thankfully, a lot more hate mail! Here are a few chosen from the ol' mailbag. Suicide blogger bomber
Dear HoseMaster of Stupidity,
We've never met, but we will. I'm the wine buyer for Hell, and I have a few bones to pick with you regarding your recent insulting remarks about my customers and my by-the-glass program. First of all, where does an imbecile like you get off taking shots at Robert Mondavi and the Gallo brothers? They were making California wines cheap and famous, keeping their thumbs on the backs of migrant workers and underpaying small farmers, before you were out of diapers, which, by the way you smell, must have been an hour ago. What does an incontinent blogger wear to bed? Depends. Get it? Like the undergarment, not "it depends." Plays better in Hell.
I was talking to Bob and Ernie and Julio at the bar last night. They were having a drink with Parker and Fred Franzia, who isn't dead, but has a second home here when it gets too hot in Bumfuck, California, where he lives. I was gently pulling their fingernails out and waterboarding them (at the suggestion of Dick Cheney, who had one foot in the door here last night but got called back--what a great guy!) not with water, but with Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio, which is exactly the same, I guess. Anyhow, they think you should treat them with more respect. I told them that you're a douchebag, in fact, a douchebag for Joan Rivers, and that they'll get their whacks at you when you arrive here, which is undoubtedly sooner than you think. I'm not supposed to say anything, but that liver of yours is about as functional as Charlie Sheen. But maybe it's not too late for you if you back off now and lay off my boys. They don't mind the waterboarding, but they're very sensitive to criticism.
And I do not serve Lodi Zin or Gruner Veltliner by the glass, dimwit. Satan hates that shit. He's happy to see humans drink it while they're alive, but he doesn't want that in his house. I have a very interesting by-the-glass list that consists of about thirty different wines that I've carefully chosen from reviews by the most pathetic wine bloggers working! I tried to select worse wines, but, hell, oops, heck, I'm just not that good at touting crap. But BrixChicks and WineHarlot and WannabeWino take all the work out of it for me! You should see the look on Parker's face when he has to drink a glass of each. You'd think he'd died and gone to Hell, which he has. In fact, now that I think about it, taking their wine recommendations is exactly like waterboarding yourself.
So stop writing about things you don't know anything about, HoseMonster of Wine. Hey, nice article in the Chronicle!
Raj Parr
Wine Buyer, Michael Mina Restaurants and Hell
Hey Laughing Boy,
So I travel to Napa Valley, where the children of God own wineries, to attend the Wine Wroters (past tense--pretty clever, right, and why I get the big bucks) Symposium, which they tricked me into attending, by the way, by promising that I wouldn't have to listen to the Ethics Panel discussion, which, as it turned out, was actually about how to avoid having any ethics, which is what wine writers really want to know, and where do I end up at dinner that night? Well, you know where, across from you. I had to turn down invitations from some of the most powerful people in the wine world (aside from me, of course), like 1WineDude--hey, I could have had dinner with 1WineDude, dammit, except it turns out French Laundry doesn't have a children's menu. Which is odd. How do they serve the winery owners' wives? Anyway, I could have spent an evening with Charlie Olken! Yes, the Charlie Olken. Have you read this guy's comments? He's funny like one of those robots on Mystery Science Theater 3000! I could have had dinner with Steve Heimoff. Well, OK, that's never gonna happen. But instead I end up with you and Alfonso. Alfonso told me we were meeting somebody talented and famous. I was sure he meant James Laube. How many people get to actually meet James Laube?! Laube's the J.D. Salinger of wine writing, if J.D. Salinger were boring and incapable of writing an interesting sentence. But instead Alfonso plays a big practical joke on me and you show up! I haven't had such a boring evening since I watched every episode of WineLibraryTV that isn't gibberish. Both of them.
I'm sure our paths will never cross again and Alfonso can kiss his wine career goodbye. The two of you ruined my trip like a visit to the tasting room at Castello di Amorosa (though I loved her on "The Apprentice!") But, hey, nice article in the Chronicle!
Ta-ta Sucker,
The World's Most Famous Wine Writer
Dear Mr. Washam,
What have poodles ever done to you that you constantly compare them to wine bloggers? I'm sick of it. You make me sick, and your blog makes me want to hurl up my Ken'L Ration. Poodles are honorable and noble beasts, loyal and honest, faithful and intelligent. Does that sound like a blogger to you, pinhead? Go ahead, name one who could be described like that. Gets a little sticky with that honest and honorable stuff, doesn't it? And poodles are hypoallergenic! Ever been in a room with Tom Wark? Oh my God, the guy sheds like a garter snake. Your stupid quote about wine blogging as "the attention barking of lonely poodles" is gratuitously insulting to poodles, and, beyond that it's incredibly stupid. You're a misanthropic moron. You tear everything down and do nothing to contribute to any conversation about wine. And you make fun of poodles! Every poodle on the planet is superior to you, and most beagles too. Why, the world would be a better place if, in fact, wine bloggers were poodles. Hell, they sniff each others butts enough!
But, hey, nice article in the Chronicle!
PS--I had drinks last night with Mondavi, the Gallos and Fred Franzia. They said to say,"Hi, your table is ready."
22 comments:
- Charlie Olken said...
You know, it is a strange coincidence that I would have met the MFWWW a day or two after you apparently grossed him out at dinner with you and Alfonso.
I was sitting there quietly admiring the blond with the short skirt and long legs when MFWWW walked up to me and complained about meeting you. It is no wonder that he is now sending you hate mail.
Oh, and I want to correct one thing in his letter. He exaggerates when he says he could have had dinner with me. He must have had me confused with Jim Laube. My code of ethics keeps me from having dinner with other writers so no one can accuse me of stealing their ideas--unlike you comedians who never met someone else's funny line that you could not call your own.
Hey, this hate mail stuff is fun. - February 24, 2010 at 6:36 PM
- Eric V. Orange said...
You're on a roll, but hey...that last bit..35 comments??
I don't have time to read all that shit, so knock if off, eh?
I got a site to run..
I'm going to have to look for more obscurity.
You and Sans both, gettin too big fer yer britches.
EVO - February 24, 2010 at 7:04 PM
- Eric V. Orange said...
How come Charlie always beats me.
Don't he work?
EVO - February 24, 2010 at 7:04 PM
- Alfonso Cevola said...
Liberace was my neighbor, as a child, and I never remember him having any affection for young poodles. He leaned in other directions.
- February 24, 2010 at 7:09 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
I don't wear britches, you know that.
Mr. HoseMaster Sir,
So once again you left my hate mail out of your post. You know the one where I break yer bawls about having dinner with Sir Charles Olken...not once but twice, The Most Famous Wine Writer in the World and Alfonso, not to mention countless lunches with Tom Wark and yet....never even offered to toss peanuts in my mouth in a bar. I see where I rate around here, sheesh I thought having tots might get me, at the very least, a meeting with His Hoseness. Sniff...sniff.
Nice article in The Chronicle though.
Remember me when...
Your Unmeetable
Samantha - February 24, 2010 at 7:32 PM
- Eric V. Orange said...
You do too. - February 24, 2010 at 7:59 PM
- Charlie Olken said...
I work too hard. That is why I have to take refuge here in the home of the HMW every so often.
And since the HMW sat in on our tasting last night, I was living in fear all day until he posted.
On the whole, I got off easy. He apparently was so embarrassed at how serious we are that he made up a new word or two on our behalf and then left town before I could take a picture of him as proof.
I have saved his tasting glasses, however, and am testing them for DNA. He was here, dammit. - February 24, 2010 at 9:40 PM
- 1WineDude said...
It was so funny until the height jokes started coming out! :-)
- February 25, 2010 at 4:39 AM
- Thomas said...
Winedude, how do you think I feel? I've been a standard poodle owner for years.
They may be smarter than wine people--they certainly are smarter than comedians... - February 25, 2010 at 6:22 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Hey Gang,
Eric, you're right, I need to go back to obscurity where I belong. Which is why I went to Charlie's house.
You think the MFWWW confused you with Laube? Now you're writing yourself hate mail. He may have mistaken you for Captain Kangaroo.
I saw your new post "An Italian and A Jew Walk Into..." and I thought it was about our now infamous dinner with the MFWWW. I didn't know you grew up next door to Liberace. This explains a lot.
I don't write 'em, I just post 'em. And I saw the picture of your wife on your blog and I'm really not feeling sorry for you. Every poodle has his day.
Poodles are smarter than comedians. Anyway, I'm not a standard comedian, I'm a teacup comedian.
My Gorgeous Samantha,
I love your hate mail. Especially the pictures and all the commas. Don't worry, some day, just like with Charlie, I'll be leaving my DNA at your house.
I adore you!
Oops, there's more hate mail arriving! Who knew poodles could Tweet? - February 25, 2010 at 8:38 AM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Always crackin' on my commas you, what do you want from a girl that took a William Shatner sentance composition class?!
- February 25, 2010 at 12:09 PM
- Eric V. Orange said...
Did he teach you to spell too, Sans?
EVO - February 25, 2010 at 1:42 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Sadly no one did...useless without spell check. - February 25, 2010 at 2:04 PM
- Thomas said...
Would you like a picture of my poodle, Oliver? If so, here's his email address; he can handle the transaction himself, as long as he isn't on a job for the local newspaper--or sitting on the local newspaper.
firstname.lastname@example.com - February 25, 2010 at 2:38 PM
- Steve Heimoff said...
In the interests of transparency, Parker actually asked me to be his reviewer for the Wines of Hell. He said it was a very nice place to visit (I've never been there), albeit a little warm during the summer; but as I've spent time in Paso Robles in August, I didn't think that would be a problem. However, I declined; too many potential conflicts of interest. I have many friends down there, some of them involved in the wine trade, and would have had to recuse myself in too many instances. Also, I asked Jim Laube for his opinion (which I value -- he's been at this longer than I have, although a tad less than Mr. Olken), and Jim asked me a good question: Did I really think that being known as the Reviewer from Hell would further my career? Hmm, thought I; and it did seem a tad onerous. I decided, one evening when the rain was falling, that perhaps a brief visit to the Winelands of Hell itself might be in order, so that I could peruse, with my own eye, that place wherein I might have to live, and whose wines I would have to review. Not knowing how to get to Hell, I called 1WineDude, who told me it's easy: Just click your sneakers three times and say, "Dr. Vino is the Supreme Blogmeister of the Underworld." Voila, it worked, and the next thing I knew, I was in Hell (literally, if not figuratively). It was a bar, of the type with pool tables and jukeboxes and strange, questionable-looking people, but there, across the crowded floor, in the lurid red light was a face that looked familiar. I approached, and, indeed, it was he, himself, the Hosemaster, appearing to be the age of 4 or so (see his photo, above), and grinning salaciously as he proffered me a glass of something red and bubbling and hissed, with fetid breath, "This is the Pinot of a rabid llama. Laube gave it one billion points." Something came over me, a kind of mental paralysis. I accepted the glass -- brought it to my lips -- inhaled -- the fumes swam through my brain like Drano -- I spun dizzily on my feet -- tilted my head back -- poured in the red stuff -- and...and...
It ends there, the memory. The next thing I knew I was reading Hosemaster's blog, unable to understand if I were safe at home, or still in Hell, or in some indeterminate sphere inbetween. The phone rang; I picked it up; it was Bob Parker. He had, he explained, chosen the very Dude whose instructions had gotten me into Hell, to be his Hell Taster. I told Charlie Olken, who blogged about it, and received over 11,000 comments, including one from Vinography, who said Hell is up-and-coming and did they need any help designing websites; also one from Tom Wark, who noted (properly, in my opinion) that, as Hell is filled with distributors, 1WineDude should have ample opportunities for being invited to endless lunches and dinners, it being understood that the food there is quite spicy. At that moment, the paperboy arrived with my Chronicle, which just happened to contain the article to which the Hosemaster refers, the one in which he and Jon Bonné trade quips to determine who is the most hilarious. It was, quite simply, the greatest article on the Hosemaster I have ever read. - February 25, 2010 at 2:50 PM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Bravo! - February 25, 2010 at 3:00 PM
- Eric V. Orange said...
Now Steve AND Dude are commenting here???
I gotta go.
Anyone know of quirky/funny wine related blogs that nobody else is reading?
And too, thoughtful/moving blogs? Sans is getting too busy also.
EVO - February 25, 2010 at 4:33 PM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Hey Eric,
I'm sure you'd really enjoy the antics and brilliant wit over at DirtySouthWine. That Toady Wallace guy can really knock 'em out of the park. Golly.
For thoughtful and moving blogs, try the WineWhore. He sure makes one thoughtful about moving, mostly to another blog.
And, hey, I like having 1WineDude and Steve around. They make Samantha and me seem standoffish with each other. And I feel taller. (Oh, sorry, Joe. But I'm rather diminutive myself, and not just in the integrity department.) - February 25, 2010 at 6:20 PM
- Thomas said...
Get over to vinofictions; no one will ever find you there. - February 25, 2010 at 6:52 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Hey Fancy Pants....too famous to feed us now?! Going crazy down here waiting for my giggles...
- February 28, 2010 at 1:32 PM
- Puff Daddy said...
Oh, sorry Sam. I have been busy. I have had to post several times over on that place with no sugar added, and Steve Heimoff is always fun.
So, sorry I have no added more comments here latelu.
But, and this just occurred to me, I may not be the Fancy Pants you were referring to. I mean, just because you once called me Fancy Pants on your own blog does not mean that I am the only Fancy Pants in your life.
Pity, that. I guess I will go to bed now with my hot water bottle and snifter of cognac. - March 1, 2010 at 12:25 AM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Puff Daddy,
Nope I was wrong, had my guys mixed up. You are indeed Fancy Pants, Ron is the one that wears "fancy pants" on his head. Sorry for the mixup.
Yeah, I see you have been busy on that sugar free blog and even saw that you, (and Our HoseMaster) were featured on Steve's blog this morning...must admit, felt all left out and junk. - March 1, 2010 at 11:57 AM


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Just as you go through different stages in life, you may have different concerns about your dental health at various times. Some problems — tooth decay and dental injuries, for example — may be an issue at any time; others tend to occur more often at certain ages. Let's look at some of the most common dental concerns, from childhood through the golden years.
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Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of The Order of Our Lady of Carmel (Feast: October 15)
In the Autobiography which she completed towards the end of her life, Saint Teresa of Avila gives us a description of her parents, along with a disparaging estimate of her own character. "The possession of virtuous parents who lived in the fear of God, together with those favors which I received from his Divine Majesty, might have made me good, if I had not been so very wicked." A heavy consciousness of sin was prevalent in sixteenth-century Spain, and we can readily discount this avowal of guilt. What we are told of Teresa's early life does not sound in the least wicked, but it is plain that she was an unusually active, imaginative, and sensitive child. Her parents, Don Alfonso Sanchez de Capeda and Dona Beatriz Davila y Ahumada, his second wife, were people of position in Avila, a city of Old Castile, where Teresa was born on March 28, 1515. There were nine children of this marriage, of whom Teresa was the third, and three children of her father's first marriage.
Piously reared as she was, Teresa became completely fascinated by stories of the saints and martyrs, as was her brother Roderigo, who was near her own age and her partner in youthful adventures. Once, when Teresa was seven, they made a plan to run away to Africa, where they might be beheaded by the infidel Moors and so achieve martyrdom. They set out secretly, expecting to beg their way like the poor friars, but had gone only a short distance from home when they were met by an uncle and brought back to their anxious mother, who had sent servants into the streets to search for them. She and her brother now thought they would like to become hermits, and tried to build themselves little cells from stones they found in the garden. Thus we see that religious thoughts and influences dominated the mind of the future saint in childhood.
Teresa was only fourteen when her mother died, and she later wrote of her sorrow in these words: "As soon as I began to understand how great a loss I had sustained by losing her, I was very much afflicted; and so I went before an image of our Blessed Lady and besought her with many tears that she would vouchsafe to be my mother." Visits from a girl cousin were most welcome at this time, but they had the effect of stimulating her interest in superficial things. Reading tales of chivalry was one of their diversions, and Teresa even tried to write romantic stories. "These tales," she says in her Autobiography, "did not fail to cool my good desires, and were the cause of my falling insensibly into other defects. I was so enchanted that I could not be happy without some new tale in my hands. I began to imitate the fashions, to enjoy being well dressed, to take great care of my hands, to use perfumes, and wear all the vain ornaments which my position in the world allowed." Noting this sudden change in his daughter's personality, Teresa's father decided to place her in a convent of Augustinian nuns in Avila, where other young women of her class were being educated. This action made Teresa aware that her danger had been greater than she knew. After a year and a half in the convent she fell ill with what seems to have been a malignant type of malaria, and Don Alfonso brought her home. After recovering, she went to stay with her eldest sister, who had married and gone to live in the country. Then she visited an uncle, Peter Sanchez de Capeda, a very sober and pious man. At home once more, and fearing that an uncongenial marriage would be forced upon her, she began to deliberate whether or not she should undertake the religious life. Reading the ,[1] helped her to reach a decision. St. Jerome's realism and ardor were akin to her own Castilian spirit, with its mixture of the practical and the idealistic. She now announced to her father her desire to become a nun, but he withheld consent, saying that after his death she might do as she pleased
This reaction caused a new conflict, for Teresa loved her father devotedly. Feeling that delay might weaken her resolve, she went secretly to the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation [2] outside the town of Avila, where her dear friend Sister Jane Suarez was living, and applied for admission. Of this painful step, she wrote: "I remember . . . while I was going out of my father's house—the sharpness of sense will not be greater, I believe, in the very instant of agony of my death, than it was then. It seemed as if all the bones in my body were wrenched asunder.... There was no such love of God in me then as was able to quench the love I felt for my father and my friends." A year later Teresa made her profession, but when there was a recurrence of her illness, Don Alfonso had her removed from the convent, as the rule of enclosure was not then in effect. After a period of intense suffering, during which, on one occasion, at least, her life was despaired of, she gradually began to improve. She was helped by certain prayers she had begun to use. Her devout Uncle Peter had given her a little book called the , by Father Francis de Osuna, which dealt with "prayers of recollection and quiet." Taking this book as her guide, she began to concentrate on mental prayer, and progressed towards the "prayer of quiet," with the soul resting in divine contemplation, all earthly things forgotten. Occasionally, for brief moments, she attained the "prayer of union," in which all the powers of the soul are absorbed in God. She persuaded her father to apply himself to this form of prayer.
After three years Teresa went back to the convent. Her intelligence, warmth, and charm made her a favorite, and she found pleasure in being with people. It was the custom in Spain in those days for the young nuns to receive their acquaintances in the convent parlor, and Teresa spent much time there, chatting with friends. She was attracted to one of the visitors whose company was disturbing to her, although she told herself that there could be no question of sin, since she was only doing what so many others, better than she, were doing. During this relaxed period, she gave up her habit of mental prayer, using as a pretext the poor state of her health. "This excuse of bodily weakness," she wrote afterwards, "was not a sufficient reason why I should abandon so good a thing, which required no physical strength, but only love and habit. In the midst of sickness the best prayer may be offered, and it is a mistake to think it can only be offered in solitude." She returned to the practice of mental prayer and never again abandoned it, although she had not yet the courage to follow God completely, or to stop wasting her time and talents. But during these years of apparent wavering, her spirit was being forged. When depressed by her own unworthiness, she turned to those two great penitents, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Augustine, and through them came experiences that helped to steady her will. One was the reading of St. Augustine's ; another was an overpowering impulse to penitence before a picture of the suffering Lord, in which, she writes, "I felt Mary Magdalen come to my assistance.... From that day I have gone on improving in my spiritual life."
When finally Teresa withdrew from the pleasures of social intercourse, she found herself able once more to pray the "prayer of quiet," and also the "prayer of union." She began to have intellectual visions of divine things and to hear inner voices. Though she was persuaded these manifestations came from God, she was at times fearful and troubled. She consulted many persons, binding all to secrecy, but her perplexities nevertheless were spread abroad, to her great mortification. Among those she talked to was Father Gaspar Daza, a learned priest, who, after listening, reported that she was deluded, for such divine favors were not consistent with a life as full of imperfections as hers was, as she herself admitted. A friend, Don Francis de Salsedo, suggested that she talk to a priest of the newly formed Society of Jesus. To one of them, accordingly, she made a general Confession, recounting her manner of prayer and extraordinary visions. He assured her that she experienced divine graces, but warned her that she had failed to lay the foundations of a true spiritual life by practices of mortification. He advised her to try to resist the visions and voices for two months; resistance proved useless. Francis Borgia, commissary-general of the Society in Spain, then advised her not to resist further, but also not to seek such experiences.
Another Jesuit, Father Balthasar Alvarez, who now became her director, pointed out certain traits that were incompatible with perfect grace. He told her that she would do well to beg God to direct her to what was most pleasing to Him, and to recite daily the hymn of St. Gregory the Great, "!" One day, as she repeated the stanzas, she was seized with a rapture in which she heard the words, "I will not have you hold conversation with men, but with angels." For three years, while Father Balthasar was her director, she suffered from the disapproval of those around her; and for two years, from extreme desolation of soul. She was censured for her austerities and ridiculed as a victim of delusion or a hypocrite. A confessor to whom she went during Father Balthasar's absence said that her very prayer was an illusion, and commanded her, when she saw any vision, to make the sign of the cross and repel it as if it were an evil spirit. But Teresa tells us that the visions now brought with them their own evidence of ,authenticity, so that it was impossible to doubt they were from God. Nevertheless, she obeyed this order of her confessor. Pope Gregory XV, in his bull of canonization, commends her obedience in these words: "She was wont to say that she might be deceived in discerning visions and revelations, but could not be in obeying superiors."
In 1557 Peter of Alcantara, a Franciscan of the Observance, came to Avila. Few saints have been more experienced in the inner life, and he found in Teresa unmistakable evidence of the Holy Spirit. He openly expressed compassion for what she endured from slander and predicted that she was not at the end of her tribulations. However, as her mystical experiences continued, the greatness and goodness of God, the sweetness of His service, became more and more manifest to her. She was sometimes lifted from the ground, an experience other saints have known. "God," she says, "seems not content with drawing the soul to Himself, but he must needs draw up the very body too, even while it is mortal and compounded of so unclean a clay as we have made it by our sins."
It was at this time, she tells us, that her most singular experience took place, her mystical marriage to Christ, and the piercing of her heart. Of the latter she writes: "I saw an angel very near me, towards my left side, in bodily form, which is not usual with me; for though angels are often represented to me, it is only in my mental vision. This angel appeared rather small than large, and very beautiful. His face was so shining that he seemed to be one of those highest angels called seraphs, who look as if all on fire with divine love. He had in his hands a long golden dart; at the end of the point methought there was a little fire. And I felt him thrust it several times through my heart in such a way that it passed through my very bowels. And when he drew it out, methought it pulled them out with it and left me wholly on fire with a great love of God." The pain in her soul spread to her body, but it was accompanied by great delight too; she was like one transported, caring neither to see nor to speak but only to be consumed with the mingled pain and happiness.[3]
Teresa's longing to die that she might be united with God was tempered by her desire to suffer for Him on earth. The account which the gives of her revelations is marked by sincerity, genuine simplicity of style, and scrupulous precision. An unlettered woman, she wrote in the Castilian vernacular, setting down her experiences reluctantly, out of obedience to her confessor, and submitting everything to his judgment and that of the Church, merely complaining that the task kept her from spinning. Teresa wrote of herself without self-love or pride. Towards her persecutors she was respectful, representing them as honest servants of God.
Teresa's other literary works came later, during the fifteen years when she was actively engaged in founding new convents of reformed Carmelite nuns. They are proof of her industry and her power of memory, as well as of a real talent for expression. she composed for the special guidance of her nuns, and the for their further edification. was perhaps meant for all Catholics; in it she writes with authority on the spiritual life. One admiring critic says: "She lays bare in her writings the most impenetrable secrets of true wisdom in what we call mystical theology, of which God has given the key to a small number of his favored servants. This thought may somewhat lessen our surprise that an unlearned woman should have expounded what the greatest doctors never attained, for God employs in His works what instruments He wills."
We have seen how undisciplined the Carmelite nuns had become, how the convent parlor at Avila was a social gathering place, and how easily nuns might leave their enclosure. Any woman, in fact, who wanted a sheltered life without much responsibility could find it in a convent in sixteenth-century Spain. The religious themselves, for the most part, were not even aware of how far they fell short of what their profession demanded. So when one of the nuns at the House of the Incarnation began talking of the possibility of founding a new and stricter community, the idea struck Teresa as an inspiration from Heaven. She determined to undertake its establishment herself and received a promise of help from a wealthy widow, Dona Guiomar de Ulloa. The project was approved by Peter of Alcantara and Father Angelo de Salazar, provincial of the Carmelite Order. The latter was soon compelled to withdraw his permission, for Teresa's fellow nuns, the local nobility, the magistrates, and others united to thwart the project. Father Ibanez, a Dominican, secretly encouraged Teresa and urged Dona Guiomar to continue to lend her support. One of Teresa's married sisters began with her husband to erect a small convent at Avila in 1561 to shelter the new establishment; outsiders took it for a house intended for the use of her family.
An episode famous in Teresa's life occurred at this time. Her little nephew was crushed by a wall of the new structure which fell on him as he was playing, and he was carried, apparently lifeless, to Teresa. She held the child in her arms and prayed. After some minutes she restored him alive and sound to his mother. The miracle was presented at the process for Teresa's canonization. Another seemingly solid wall of the convent collapsed during the night. Teresa's brother-in-law was going to refuse to pay the masons, but Teresa assured him that it was all the work of evil spirits and insisted that the men be paid.
A wealthy woman of Toledo, Countess Louise de la Cerda, happened at the time to be mourning the recent death of her husband, and asked the Carmelite provincial to order Teresa, whose goodness she had heard praised, to come to her. Teresa was accordingly sent to the woman, and stayed with her for six months, using a part of the time, at the request of Father Ibanez, to write, and to develop further her ideas for the convent. While at Toledo she met Maria of Jesus, of the Carmelite convent at Granada, who had had revelations concerning a reform of the order, and this meeting strengthened Teresa's own desires. Back in Avila, on the very evening of her arrival, the Pope's letter authorizing the new reformed convent was brought to her. Teresa's adherents now persuaded the bishop of Avila to concur, and the convent, dedicated to St. Joseph, was quietly opened. On St. Bartholomew's day, 1562 the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the little chapel, and four novices took the habit.
The news soon spread in the town and opposition flared into the open. The prioress of the Incarnation convent sent for Teresa, who was required to explain her conduct. Detained almost as a prisoner, Teresa did not lose her poise. The prioress was joined in her disapproval by the mayor and magistrates, always fearful that an unendowed convent would be a burden on the townspeople. Some were for demolishing the building forthwith. Meanwhile Don Francis sent a priest to Madrid, to plead for the new establishment before the King's Council. Teresa was allowed to go back to her convent and shortly afterward the bishop officially appointed her prioress. The hubbub now quickly subsided. Teresa was hence. forth known simply as Teresa of Jesus, mother of the reform of Carmel. The nuns were strictly cloistered, under a rule of poverty and almost complete silence; the constant chatter of women's voices was one of the things that Teresa had most deplored at the Incarnation. They were poor, without regular revenues; they wore habits of coarse serge and sandals instead of shoes, and for this reason were called the "discalced" or shoeless Carmelites. Although the prioress was now in her late forties, and frail, her great achievement still lay in the future.
Convinced that too many women under one roof made for relaxation of discipline, Teresa limited the number of nuns to thirteen; later, when houses were being founded with endowments and hence were not wholly dependent on alms, the number was increased to twenty-one. The prior general of the Carmelites, John Baptist Rubeo of Ravenna, visiting Avila in 1567, carried away a fine impression of Teresa's sincerity and prudent rule. He gave her full authority to found other convents on the same plan, in spite of the fact that St. Joseph's had been established without his knowledge.
Five peaceful years were spent with the thirteen nuns in the little convent of St. Joseph. Teresa trained the sisters in every kind of useful work and in all religious observances, but whether at spinning or at prayer, she herself was always first and most diligent. In August, 1567, she founded a second convent at Medina del Campo. The Countess de la Cerda was anxious to found a similar house in her native town of Malagon, and Teresa went to advise her about it. When this third community had been launched, the intrepid nun moved on to Valladolid, and there founded a fourth; then a fifth at Toledo. On beginning this work, she had no more than four or five ducats (approximately ten dollars), but she said, "Teresa and this money are nothing; but God, Teresa, and these ducats suffice." At Medina del Campo she encountered two friars who had heard of her reform and wished to adopt it: Antony de Heredia, prior of the Carmelite monastery there, and John of the Cross. With their aid, in 1568, and the authority given her by the prior general, she established a reformed house for men at Durelo, and in 1569 a second one at Pastrana, both on a pattern of extreme poverty and austerity. She left to John of the Cross, who at this time was in his late twenties, the direction of these and other reformed communities that might be started for men. Refusing to obey the order of his provincial to return to Medina, he was imprisoned at Toledo for nine months. After his escape he became vicar-general of Andalusia, and strove for papal recognition of the order. John, later to attain fame as a poet, mystic confessor, and finally saint, became Teresa's friend; a close spiritual bond developed between the young friar and the aging prioress, and he was made director and confessor in the mother house at Avila.
The hardships and dangers involved in Teresa's labors are indicated by a little episode of the founding of a new convent at Salamanca. She and another nun took over a house which had been occupied by students. It was a large, dirty, desolate place, without furnishings, and when night came the two nuns lay down on their piles of straw, for, Teresa tells us, "the first furniture I provided wherever I founded convents was straw, for, having that, I reckoned I had beds." On this occasion, the other nun seemed very nervous, and Teresa asked her the reason. "I was wondering," was the reply, "what you would do alone with a corpse if I were to die here now." Teresa was startled, but only said, "I shall think of that when it happens, Sister. For the present, let us go to sleep."
At about this time Pope Pius V appointed a number of apostolic visitors to inquire into the relaxations of discipline in religious orders everywhere. The visitor to the Carmelites of Castile found great fault with the Incarnation convent and sent for Teresa, bidding her to assume its direction and remedy the abuses there. It was hard to be separated from her own daughters, and even more distasteful to be brought in as head of the old house which had long opposed her with bitterness and jealousy. The nuns at first refused to obey her; some of them fell into hysterics at the very idea. She told them that she came not to coerce or instruct but to serve and to learn from the least among them. By gentleness and tact she won the affection of the community, and was able to reestablish discipline. Frequent callers were forbidden, the finances of the house were set in order, and a more truly religious spirit reigned. At the end of three years, although the nuns wished to keep her longer, she was directed to return to her own convent.
Teresa organized a nunnery at Veas and while there met Father Jerome Gratian, a reformed Carmelite, and was persuaded by him to extend her work to Seville. With the exception of her first convent, none proved so hard to establish as this. Among her problems there was a disgruntled novice, who reported the nuns to the Inquisition,[4] charging them with being Illuminati.[5]
The Italian Carmelite friars had meanwhile been growing alarmed at the progress of the reform in Spain, lest, as one of their number said, they might one day be compelled to set about reforming themselves, a fear shared by their still unreformed Spanish brothers. At a general chapter at Piacenza several decrees were passed restricting the reform. The new apostolic nuncio dismissed Father Gratian from his office as visitor to the reformed Carmelites. Teresa was told to choose one of her convents and retire to it, and abstain from founding others. At this point she turned to her friends in the world, who were able to interest King Philip II[6] in her behalf, and he personally espoused her cause. He summoned the nuncio to rebuke him for his severity towards the discalced friars and nuns. In 1580 came an order from Rome exempting the reformed from the jurisdiction of the unreformed Carmelites, and giving each party its own provincial. Father Gratian was elected provincial of the reformed branch. The separation, although painful to many, brought an end to dissension.
Teresa was a person of great natural gifts. Her ardor and lively wit was balanced by her sound judgment and psychological insight. It was no mere flight of fancy when the English Catholic poet, Richard Crashaw,[7] called her "the eagle" and "the dove." She could stand up boldly and bravely for what she thought was right; she could also be severe with a prioress who by excessive austerity had made herself unfit for her duties. Yet she could be gentle as a dove, as when she writes to an erring, irresponsible nephew, "God's mercy is great in that you have been enabled to make so good a choice and marry so soon, for you began to be dissipated when you were so young that we might have had much sorrow on your account." Love, with Teresa, meant constructive action, and she had the young man's daughter, born out of wedlock, brought to the convent, and took charge of her upbringing and that of his young sister.
One of Teresa's charms was a sense of humor. In the early years, when an indiscreet male visitor to the convent once praised the beauty of her bare feet, she laughed and told him to take a good look at them for he would never see them again-implying that in the future he would not be admitted. Her method of selecting novices was characteristic. The first requirement, even before piety, was intelligence. A woman could attain to piety, but scarcely to intelligence, by which she meant common sense as well as brains. "An intelligent mind," she wrote, "is simple and teachable; it sees its faults and allows itself to be guided. A mind that is dull and narrow never sees its faults even when shown them. It is always pleased with itself and never learns to do right." Pretentiousness and pride annoyed her. Once a young woman of high reputation for virtue asked to be admitted to a convent in Teresa's charge, and added, as if to emphasize her intellect, "I shall bring my Bible with me." "What," exclaimed Teresa, "your Bible? Do not come to us. We are only poor women who know nothing but how to spin and do as we are told."
In spite of a naturally sturdy constitution, Teresa continued throughout her life to suffer from ailments which physicians found baffling. It would seem that sheer will power kept her alive. At the time of the definitive division of the Carmelite Order she had reached the age of sixty-five and was broken in health. Yet during the last two years of her life she somehow found strength to establish three more convents. They were at Granada, in the far south, at Burgos, in the north, and at Soria, in Portugal. The total was now sixteen. What an astounding achievement this was for one small, enfeebled woman may be better appreciated if we recall the hardships of travel. Most of this extensive journeying was done in a curtained carriage or cart drawn by mules over the extremely poor roads; her trips took her from the northern provinces down to the Mediterranean, and west into Portugal, across mountains, rivers, and arid plateaus. She and the nun who accompanied her endured all the rigors of a harsh climate as well as the steady discomfort of rude lodgings and scanty food.
In the autumn of 1582, Teresa, although ill, set out for Alva de Tormez, where an old friend was expecting a visit from her. Her companion of later years, Anne-of-St. Bartholomew, describes the journey. Teresa grew worse on the road, along which there were few habitations. They could get no food save figs, and when they arrived at the convent, Teresa went to bed in a state of exhaustion. She never recovered, and three days later, she remarked to Anne, "At last, my daughter, I have reached the house of death," a reference to her book, . Extreme Unction was administered by Father Antony de Heredia, a friar of the Reform, and when he asked her where she wished to be buried. she plaintively replied, "Will they deny me a little ground for my body here?" She sat up as she received the Sacrament, exclaiming, "O my Lord, now is the time that we shall see each other! " and died in Anne's arms. It was the evening of October 4. The next day, as it happened, the Gregorian calendar came into use. The readjustment made it necessary to drop ten days, so that October 5 was counted as October 15, and this latter date became Teresa's feast day. She was buried at Alva; three years later, following the decree of a. provincial chapter of Reformed Carmelites, the body was secretly removed to Avila. The next year the Duke of Alva procured an order from Rome to return it to Alva de Tormez, and there it has remained.
Teresa was canonized in 1662. Shortly after her death, Philip II, keenly aware of the Carmelite nun's contribution to Catholicism, had her manuscripts collected and brought to his great palace of the Escorial, and there placed in a rich case, the key of which he carried on his person. These writings were edited for publication by two Dominican scholars and brought out in 1587. Subsequently her works have appeared in uncounted Spanish editions, and have been translated into many languages. An ever-spreading circle of readers through the centuries have found understanding and courage in the life and works of this nun of Castile, who is one of the glories of Spain and of the Church. Teresa's emblems are a heart, an arrow, and a book.
Interior Castle
This body has one fault, th


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We all NEED extra money at this time of year so a bunch of really nice bloggers (including me- Miki's Hope) have gotten together to let one of you win a $50 Gift Card or $50.00 PayPal--WW. In my case at least all I ask is that you comment on any non-giveaway post from the link provided (If the comment is a daily entry please choose a different one each time-lots to choose from!). I think there will be 2 entries per blogger which should make this easy to enter.
Consider this a gift from all of us to 1 of you!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
All opinions expressed are my own honest opinions. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook or Google.


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Abbas threatens to resign if talks fail
JERUSALEM — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to resign if peace talks with Israel fail.
Abbas made a statement indicating that he would quit over a failure of the recently launched direct peace negotiations at a recent meeting of the Fatah Central Committee, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday.
"I have made a decision and I will announce it at the appropriate time," Abbas said, according to the Post, which cited a senior PA official quoted in the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily.
The members of the committee understood Abbas' declaration as a new threat to resign.
There is no obvious successor to Abbas. If Abbas did resign, the party's central committee would meet and appoint one of its members to the position, according to the Post.
Meanwhile, the Palestinians continue to assert that they will halt negotiations if Israel does not extend the freeze on construction in West Bank settlements.
"If they extend the settlement freeze, the negotiations will continue," he said. "If not, the talks will be stopped," Nabil Shaath, a member of the PA delegation to the peace talks, said over the weekend, the Post reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday during a meeting of his party's Cabinet members that Israel would not extend the 10-month freeze, which is scheduled to expire Sept. 26.
Meanwhile, Israeli President Shimon Peres left for New York on Saturday night to represent Israel at the opening meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He is scheduled to meet there with Abbas in an effort to convince him to continue with the peace negotiations after the settlement construction freeze ends, Haaretz reported.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had been expected to represent Israel at this week's session.


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All programs of the UGA SBDC are open to the public on a non-discriminatory basis. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance.
Funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The University of Georgia
Small Business Development Center
382 East Broad Street
Athens, GA 30602-5412


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@Ecollab asks, "Can we formalize informal learning?" My answer, "We've been there, done that." Except for perhaps compliance learning programs, formal learning processes are designed to do exactly that. For example:
When we put in place a training platform (learning to do a present job) we are ensuring the workers learn a certain process that should not be left to chance. By chance I mean that the workers MIGHT discover a process that they should be following so that your product and/or service is delivered to the customers correctly, thus they learn it informally. Whenever we initiate a training program we are saying that this process is too important to be left to chance (informal learning).
When we put in place an education program (learning to do a future job) we are ensuring that we have in place a critical position that we cannot do without. Most workers learn to do their coworker's job through informal learning. However, some positions are vital to a critical process, thus we cannot leave it to chance (informal learning).
Whenever we develop workers (helping them to grow so that the organization grows), we are helping them to learn certain skills that would otherwise would have to be left to chance (informal learning). For example, in my last post, Driving the Informal with the Formal, I discussed how to capture lessons learned with an AAR and social media.
Note: If you are lost with the three terms (training, education, and development), see The Three Words Your Customer Must Know.
I think this 80/20 informal/formal thingy is kind of going in the wrong way. We should be spending the majority of our time on 20% of the learning taking place within our organization — remember the Pareto principle? Thus you should be asking:
- What processes are critical for delivering our product/service and do we need to ensure that our workers learn them correctly?
- What tasks are so vital to a processes that we have to ensure we educate someone to be a backup?
- How can we best develop our workers so that we continue to grow as a company? What we think of as the "informal" will most often fall into this category.
The 80/20 rule is exactly what we should be doing; however, ensure that the 20% that you are spending most of your time on is the RIGHT 20%.


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Caldera Lot 7 is 10,763 square feet and is just a five minute walk to the base area at Red. Fully serviced and ready to build.
Caldera Lot 7 is 10,763 square feet and is just a five minute walk to the base area at Red. Fully serviced and ready to build.
Mary Amantea
Century 21 Kootenay Homes Inc.
Trail Office (C21 mailing address):
1358 Cedar Avenue, Trail, BC V1R 4C2
Rossland Office:
2140 Columbia Ave., Rossland, BC
Cell / Text / Voice Mail: 1-250-521-0525
For general resort development questions please contact Christine Andison, Director - Planning and Development, RED Mountain Resort at 1-250-362-5551
Ready to Live the Life at RED?
Simply fill out the form below to get started!
"My wife and I had been skiing Aspen for 20 years when we stumbled on Red Mountain. By noon the first day, we put in an offer for a place at the base of Red Mountain! It has become our home away from home."
Dan McC. & Family
Milwaukee, WI
"What first drew me to Red Mountain was the exciting skiing terrain, but I soon made a connection with the wonderful town of Rossland. The people are so warm and welcoming. As soon as I begin the drive in, I feel my heart rate drop steadily. I really have developed a vision problem -- I simply can't see going anywhere else!"
Robert C.
Encinitas, CA
"My life is quite busy and my time off is very precious, so I choose carefully where and how to spend that time. In the summer we love to hike, mountain bike, golf and swim at the Rossland swimming pool and nearby Christina Lake. In the winter there is no other mountain we would rather be skiing. I would challenge anyone to find a better mountain home than at RED. We couldn't and that's why we have our second home at RED."
Dr. Brad N.
Spokane, WA
"We have been coming to Red Mountain for over 20 years. We met friendly locals that kept inviting us back to stay, then we bought our own house, and now we've upgraded to a magnificent condo at the base of the lifts. My husband and I travel here almost every year from the other side of the planet, it's THAT good! Vast, varied and uncrowded ski terrain, the picturesque town of Rossland, and the incredible friendly locals, all make this place something so special that words fail me. But if I have to find some, this place can be summed up by the wonderful words I heard when I walked into a local store at the beginning of this year's holiday, "Hello Linda, welcome home". How beautiful is that?"
Linda U.
Sydney, Australia


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- Alzforum Recommends
Doody RS, Gavrilova SI, Sano M, Thomas RG, Aisen PS, Bachurin SO, Seely L, Hung D, . Effect of dimebon on cognition, activities of daily living, behaviour, and global function in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Lancet. 2008 Jul 19;372(9634):207-15. PubMed.
Please login to recommend the paper.
The paper by Holmes et al. examines pathology and cognition of eight patients from the AN1792 Aβ vaccination trial. Despite the suspension of this trial in 2002, the patients continued to be followed clinically. Two patients showed almost complete removal of amyloid in the brain. The important finding of the current report is that cognitive decline was identical to placebo-treated patients despite the pronounced removal of amyloid. While these data contrast with the many mouse studies showing cognitive improvement and indeed suggest a more limited role for Aβ in the progression of Alzheimer disease, extensive speculation from such a small cohort should be avoided. In contrast to the current report, the 2003 report from Hock et al. showed slowed cognitive decline in a group of 30 patients over a year following treatment; however, this was correlated with a modified antibody titer; the TAPIR assay (tissue amyloid plaque immunoreactivity; the ability of circulating antibodies to bind to amyloid plaques on tissue) (Hock et al., 2003). In the current study the authors suggest several scenarios for the lack of clinical efficacy: 1) amyloid plaques initiate but do not maintain progressive neurodegeneration, 2) very slow plaque removal, 3) inability to remove oligomeric Aβ, and 4) overactivation of the innate immune system.
An important effect of immunization that has not been reported on in the current study is cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and microhemorrhage. It has been shown that passive immunotherapy increases CAA in transgenic mice (Wilcock et al., 2004) and causes increased incidence of microhemorrhage (Pfeifer et al., 2001, Wilcock et al., 2004, Racke et al., 2005). We also reported that these adverse events occurred with active vaccination (Wilcock et al., 2007). Indeed, the authors of the current report use CAA and Aβ accumulation around capillaries as histopathological factors used to determine the degree of amyloid clearance. It also seems the microhemorrhage occurrence will be difficult to overcome. The recent report from Schroeter et al. showed that even low doses of antibody, which were associated with essentially no amyloid removal, resulted in an apparent subtle increase in microhemorrhage (Schroeter et al., 2008; control mice had no animals with microhemorrhage rated 2 or 3 while the lowest dose of 3D6 had three mice rated 2 or 3). Accumulation of CAA and associated microhemorrhage likely contributes significantly to the clinical progression of disease. Additionally, as the authors suggest, a change in inflammatory state could certainly contribute to further cognitive decline. Recent data show that the inflammatory profile of Alzheimer's and transgenic mouse brain is highly complex (Colton et al., 2006). It is likely that Fcγ receptor activation affects the inflammatory state.
These data highlight the significant differences between human and mouse studies. Since neurodegeneration is not abundant in the majority of mouse models, it has not been possible, to date, to study this. It is likely that while amyloid may initiate the cascade, neurodegeneration may be self-perpetuating and neuroprotection may also be critical for successful anti-amyloid therapeutics. It has been suggested that passive immunization will overcome some of the limitations of active vaccination, and we certainly eagerly anticipate the data from Elan's passive immunization trial of bapineuzumab.
Colton CA, Mott RT, Sharpe H, Xu Q, Van Nostrand WE, Vitek MP. Expression profiles for macrophage alternative activation genes in AD and in mouse models of AD. J Neuroinflammation. 2006;3:27. PubMed.
Hock C, Konietzko U, Streffer JR, Tracy J, Signorell A, Müller-Tillmanns B, Lemke U, Henke K, Moritz E, Garcia E, Wollmer MA, Umbricht D, de Quervain DJ, Hofmann M, Maddalena A, Papassotiropoulos A, Nitsch RM. Antibodies against beta-amyloid slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. Neuron. 2003 May 22;38(4):547-54. PubMed.
Pfeifer M, Boncristiano S, Bondolfi L, Stalder A, Deller T, Staufenbiel M, Mathews PM, Jucker M. Cerebral hemorrhage after passive anti-Abeta immunotherapy. Science. 2002 Nov 15;298(5597):1379. PubMed.
Racke MM, Boone LI, Hepburn DL, Parsadainian M, Bryan MT, Ness DK, Piroozi KS, Jordan WH, Brown DD, Hoffman WP, Holtzman DM, Bales KR, Gitter BD, May PC, Paul SM, Demattos RB. Exacerbation of cerebral amyloid angiopathy-associated microhemorrhage in amyloid precursor protein transgenic mice by immunotherapy is dependent on antibody recognition of deposited forms of amyloid beta. J Neurosci. 2005 Jan 19;25(3):629-36. PubMed.
Schroeter S, Khan K, Barbour R, Doan M, Chen M, Guido T, Gill D, Basi G, Schenk D, Seubert P, Games D. Immunotherapy reduces vascular amyloid-beta in PDAPP mice. J Neurosci. 2008 Jul 2;28(27):6787-93. PubMed.
Wilcock DM, Rojiani A, Rosenthal A, Subbarao S, Freeman MJ, Gordon MN, Morgan D. Passive immunotherapy against Abeta in aged APP-transgenic mice reverses cognitive deficits and depletes parenchymal amyloid deposits in spite of increased vascular amyloid and microhemorrhage. J Neuroinflammation. 2004 Dec 8;1(1):24. PubMed.
Wilcock DM, Jantzen PT, Li Q, Morgan D, Gordon MN. Amyloid-beta vaccination, but not nitro-nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug treatment, increases vascular amyloid and microhemorrhage while both reduce parenchymal amyloid. Neuroscience. 2007 Feb 9;144(3):950-60. PubMed.
View all comments by Donna M. Wilcock
Our study was a six-year follow-up of patients in the original Elan AN1792 study of active immunization of AD patients with full-length Aβ42 peptide. We have confirmed that Aβ immunization can result in plaque removal from the AD brain. The extent of plaque removal is quite variable—ranging from no demonstrable plaque removal to essentially complete removal of plaques from the brain. The extent of plaque removal correlated at least to some extent with the titers of antibodies to Aβ in the serum. Two patients had almost complete removal of plaques from the brain, and yet they still had a progressive decline in cognitive function to profound end-stage dementia shortly before they died. All patients who had postmortem neuropathology had extensive tangles—Braak stages V/VI, consistent with AD. Although our findings are based on small numbers of patients, they seem to demonstrate that the presence of plaques is not a prerequisite for progressive cognitive impairment in AD.
We suggest a number of possible explanations for our findings:
1. The presence of Aβ plaques is required to initiate, but not to maintain the progressive neurodegeneration in AD.
2. Amyloid plaques are an epiphenomenon, and extracellular soluble/oligomeric or intraneuronal forms of Aβ are responsible for the neurodegeneration in AD.
3. Immunization activates microglia, which may be beneficial (by removing plaques) but at the same time neurotoxic.
4. The plaques could have been removed shortly before the patients died, after their cognitive function had declined—this seems rather unlikely.
A major driver of the immunization strategies currently in clinical trials has been to avoid a T lymphocyte reaction in the belief that this is what underlay the side effect noted in the second study of AN1792. Passive immunization, in particular, should theoretically not be able to provoke a T cell response and has the additional benefit that the bioavailability of the antibodies can be controlled. However, it is not clear by what mechanism lymphocytes in the leptomeninges, identified in patients with the side effect, can cause changes in the cerebral white matter (a consistent feature on brain imaging of the affected patients). An alternative explanation for the side effect is that it was due to disaggregation and solubilization of plaque Aβ which then tracks to the cerebral vasculature, increasing the severity of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). We know from previous studies that severe cerebral amyloid angiopathy is associated with abnormalities in the white matter. Interestingly, the new information from the current Elan trial of passive immunization (bapineuzumab) seems to be showing evidence of white matter abnormalities which are occurring more frequently in patients with ApoE4—known to be associated with more severe CAA.
On the basis of our findings, we would predict that other immunization protocols (e.g., passive immunization and active immunization with truncated versions of the Aβ peptide) will also be effective in clearance of plaques. A number of current studies have before and after immunization in vivo plaque imaging, for example, with PIB, built into their design. We would predict that these will demonstrate plaque clearance following immunization. However, on the basis of our findings, we would speculate that plaque removal will not correlate well with any changes in cognitive function.
It is possible that some of the new immunization protocols will have a different balance of effects on the different forms of Aβ (e.g., plaque, soluble, oligomeric, intraneuronal) and may therefore have different effects on cognitive function. One of the approaches being trialled involves passive immunization with an Fc-truncated antibody, and this may have the potentially beneficial effect of not provoking microglial activation.
Using immunization as prevention rather than treatment would likely avoid these complications which seem to be due to the presence of substantial quantities of Aβ already being present in the brain. On the basis of the animal studies, immunization at a young age can prevent the formation of plaques in later life. Of course, we don't yet know if this can be done safely in humans—we don't know the physiological function of Aβ and if immunization might interfere with this function. A study to determine if Aβ immunization at a young age could prevent the development of AD later in life would be the ultimate test of the Aβ hypothesis.
View all comments by James Nicoll
Comment by Rudy J. Castellani, George Perry, Xiongwei Zhu, Hyoung-gon Lee, Mark A. Smith
The Next Phase: Prevention. Where Do I Sign Up?
The Aβ vaccination strategy failed because it was not used early enough in the course of the disease.
Come again?
We know this apparently because Aβ oligomers, which are artifacts of ultracentrifugation, when injected into the ventricles of mice, cause mice to navigate water mazes poorly, and press levers inappropriately. We know this because when hippocampal slices are bathed in a suspension of the artifact, they demonstrate electrophysiological abnormalities. And we know this because transgenic mice, which are engineered to overproduce Aβ, and then administered antibodies against it, improve in their ability to navigate water mazes and press the appropriate levers.
We apparently also must set aside the ad hoc revisions and contortions of the amyloid cascade hypothesis over the years (1-3), and the plethora of problems with experimental AD models, from lack of cognitive dysfunction, to lack of neuronal loss, to necessity of multiple mutations, to hyperphysiologic production of a target protein. We set this aside because we apparently now know that synaptic damage, a process never directly assessed, and which probably has the same specificity as gliosis, is the pathological substrate for this laboratory artifact in AD (1).
So a strategy, founded in the analysis of a pathological lesion (once said to be toxic and now discarded as a distraction, except of course for the two subjects who found to be "cleared" of plaques at autopsy), based on an ad hoc modification of a hypothesis that a laboratory artifact specifically causes nonspecific damage that has never been analyzed directly, verified in a transgenic mouse construct that generally does not lose neurons, and which was tested and failed in human disease subjects, must now be used on normal people. Where do I sign up?
Castellani RJ, Lee HG, Zhu X, Perry G, Smith MA. Alzheimer disease pathology as a host response. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2008 Jun;67(6):523-31. PubMed.
Castellani RJ, Lee HG, Zhu X, Nunomura A, Perry G, Smith MA. Neuropathology of Alzheimer disease: pathognomonic but not pathogenic. Acta Neuropathol. 2006 Jun;111(6):503-9. PubMed.
Smith MA, Casadesus G, Joseph JA, Perry G. Amyloid-beta and tau serve antioxidant functions in the aging and Alzheimer brain. Free Radic Biol Med. 2002 Nov 1;33(9):1194-9. PubMed.
View all comments by Xiongwei Zhu
The recent follow-up to the AN1792 study by Holmes et al. is a thought-provoking study that reinforces but certainly does not prove speculation by many in the field, including myself (Golde, 2006; Golde, 2003), that therapeutic targeting of Aβ may have limited impact on the clinical disease (Golde, 2006; Golde, 2003). Because of the small number of subjects and the unknown possible untoward consequences of an active vaccination targeting an auto-epitope, I think that this data is simply provocative but certainly not definitive.
I have often used the analogy that anti-Aβ therapy for AD is analogous to treating patients whose coronary arteries are 99 percent clogged with a statin and hoping for a clinical effect. These new data raise the possibility that anti-Aβ immunotherapy is more like trying to treat somebody with massive myocardial contraction deficits following multiple MIs with a statin and a bypass. So much damage has been done that targeting the trigger, by itself, is simply too little too late. Indeed, we would not approach the treatment of a patient in severe cardiac dysfunction that has resulted from multiple MIs as a result of long-standing atherosclerotic disease with a statin alone. It simply is not going to work, though it might have some benefit in combination with other therapeutic agents.
Though a small and vociferous group of colleagues are publicly using such data to refute the role of Aβ aggregation in AD and thus indirectly attempting to invalidate it, Aβ or Aβ aggregates, as a target, I think a more parsimonious approach and one discussed to an extent by the authors is to really think carefully about these data and how we as a field might modify our approach to AD therapy and research based on such studies. Although there are numerous potential implications of these data, I will limit myself to a few issues that I see as most important. Obviously, the following comments may be tempered somewhat by any future demonstration of efficacy in Phase 3 studies of anti-Aβ therapies, but I think they will likely hold even in that event.
From a basic research point of view, this ups the ante on two critical issues.
In order to enable better preclinical studies, we still need better animal models of AD that fully recapitulate all the features of the human disease—especially neuronal loss. Given that this appears very difficult to do in APP mice, we probably need to consider looking at other species. Indeed, this report suggests the AN1792 trial appears to have "worked" in humans as it did in mice. Of course, APP mice are good models of Aβ deposition but not real models of AD. If we had a complete animal model of AD, we might be better able to evaluate therapeutic paradigms for impact on neurodegeneration. Tau mice might be better predictors for effects on neuronal loss, but obviously aren't much use for testing anti-Aβ therapies. Hopefully they will be predictive of clinical outcomes when novel anti-tau therapies are moved into the clinic.
We need a real understanding of why neurons die in AD, and we need to identify additional therapeutic targets that will protect or restore neuronal function. Indeed, though my own research is Aβ-centric, I believe it is of paramount importance to identify targets beyond Aβ and, for that matter, tau. I think that it is more important to explicitly state that we need additional targets than to try and invalidate current ones.
From a clinical perspective, I think this reinforces our need to figure out how to prophylactically treat AD. We need to directly confront and overcome the challenges that distinguish therapeutic trials from prevention trials. We also need to figure out whether a trial of MCI of the AD type to AD conversion is really a prevention trial or just a very early therapeutic trial. Current predictive AD biomarker initiatives will certainly help to frame and define some aspects of the problem in more detail, but we also need to find common ground on how to actually execute a prophylactic trial that is economically feasible, ethical, and appropriately powered. Such trials will almost certainly require the joint efforts of academic, government, and commercial sectors, and of course, "safe agents." Indeed, the true test of the Aβ "aggregate/amyloid" hypothesis of AD is a trial to prevent Aβ deposition in humans, not a therapeutic treatment of patients with clinical symptoms.
On a final, more technical note, following the initial report (Nicoll et al., 2003) of plaque clearance in one patient, I was less than convinced that there was clearance. The new data do make me more convinced. However, I would like to see some rigorous biochemical analysis of Aβ levels in the brains of these subjects. Even in mouse models, "plaque loads" seem to overestimate reductions in Aβ as compared to biochemical measures. I am also struck by what appears to be patchy clearance. I find it hard to rationalize how patchy clearance can occur with an antibody-mediated mechanism and wonder whether cellular immune responses play some role in the actual clearance.
Golde TE. Alzheimer disease therapy: can the amyloid cascade be halted?. J Clin Invest. 2003 Jan;111(1):11-8. PubMed.
Golde TE. Disease modifying therapy for AD?. J Neurochem. 2006 Nov;99(3):689-707. PubMed.
Nicoll JA, Wilkinson D, Holmes C, Steart P, Markham H, Weller RO. Neuropathology of human Alzheimer disease after immunization with amyloid-beta peptide: a case report. Nat Med. 2003 Apr;9(4):448-52. PubMed.
View all comments by Todd E. Golde
This report is an interesting follow-on from a case report that showed evidence of Aβ plaque removal following immunization with the Elan/Wyeth AN1792 Aβ vaccine (Nicoll et al., 2003). Holmes and coworkers (2008) now extend the findings of the original case report to eight additional cases, which demonstrated varying degrees of histological evidence of Aβ plaque clearance. What I found most interesting about this report is that, even within this relatively small sample, the cases that had the most prominent (so-called "very extensive") evidence of Aβ plaque removal also had the highest Aβ antibody titers. This further cements the relationship between Aβ-directed immunity and plaque clearance, which has now been observed by us and by many others in AD mice.
There are a few issues that I'd like to comment on. I find it noteworthy that seven out of eight cases had MMSE scores of zero when last screened. The authors point out that these were "end stage" AD cases—and judging from the MMSE scores, that's an understatement. I agree with Todd Golde that AD immunotherapy in this small, severely affected cohort is not a robust test of the amyloid cascade hypothesis in humans. But, I don't believe that this detracts at all from the provocative nature of the findings, and from the message to keep an open mind and to critically consider the etiological contribution of Aβ to AD. More than likely, what these data are telling us is that there is a cutoff beyond which severe neuronal damage/loss has already occurred, and removing Aβ from the equation will have little if any effect clinically. This has prompted a number of researchers to conclude that prevention by immunotherapy is a more viable strategy. That may be true, but when should vaccination be initiated—five, 10, 20, or more years before symptoms manifest? Also, what biomarkers should be used to determine those at risk: APOE genotype, CSF Aβ, CSF tau, plasma Aβ? At this stage, a preventative Aβ vaccine seems much more viable for the It is unfortunate that an adjuvant-alone (placebo) treatment group could not be evaluated side-by-side with the AN1792-treated cases, and that historical non-vaccinated AD cases had to be used as controls. It is possible that the inflammatory side effects of the Th1-biasing vaccine adjuvant (QS-21) negatively impacted cognitive function and/or survival independently of the synthetic Aβ42 peptide. Along those lines, the authors comment that "only one patient had clinical features of meningoencephalitis…." Did the authors evaluate CD4+ T cells in these vaccinated cases, and if so, were they present in greater quantity than in the historical non-vaccinated AD cases?
In summary, this paper represents a timely, thought-provoking examination of the clinical and pathological correlates of Aβ vaccination. As we move forward in this exciting time of AD therapeutics, it will be important to view the results of such clinical trials with open eyes and without bias toward whichever AD pathogenic hypothesis we hold close to our hearts.
Holmes C, Boche D, Wilkinson D, Yadegarfar G, Hopkins V, Bayer A, Jones RW, Bullock R, Love S, Neal JW, Zotova E, Nicoll JA. Long-term effects of Abeta42 immunisation in Alzheimer's disease: follow-up of a randomised, placebo-controlled phase I trial. Lancet. 2008 Jul 19;372(9634):216-23. PubMed.
Nicoll JA, Wilkinson D, Holmes C, Steart P, Markham H, Weller RO. Neuropathology of human Alzheimer disease after immunization with amyloid-beta peptide: a case report. Nat Med. 2003 Apr;9(4):448-52. PubMed.
View all comments by Terrence Town
This paper is a jarring wake-up call to all Alzheimer disease investigators that placed all their research marbles in the amyloid hypothesis basket, as the clinical pathological findings suggest serious rethinking of the Aβ42 vaccination approach. Based on this report and the mounting evidence from Aβ vaccination trials spoken about at the ICAD meeting, it is becoming clear that an amyloid vaccination mono-therapeutic approach to AD treatment is simply not the sole answer. It can be argued that adding more subjects to the Holmes et al. study is appropriate for further clarification, but both clinical trial and neuropathologic studies of the brain of folks who have come to autopsy with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) provide extensive evidence that amyloid is not a strong correlative of cognitive decline (Mufson et al., 1999; Forman et al., 2005).
Data derived from our ongoing clinical molecular pathologic investigations of MCI using the cholinotrophic basal forebrain system as a model for neuronal selective vulnerability has shown that these neurons display a myriad of biochemical and molecular alterations, which appear to be unrelated to amyloid deposition (Counts and Mufson, 2004). For example, cholinergic neurons are simultaneously undergoing re-expression of cell cycle markers, alterations in neurotrophic support and the ratio of tau epitopes but not changes in APP or presenilin expression. The molecular signature of these neurons is commensurate with a hypothesis related to multiple cellular and connectivity-based dysregulation, which probably begins several decades before the onset of clinical symptoms. What initiates neuronal dysfunction remains unknown, and merits serious research in relevant animal models as well as in well-characterized postmortem human brain tissues. In this regard, it would be of interest to examine the molecular pathology of the cholinergic basal forebrain (CBF) neurons in the same vaccine treated brains examined by Holmes et al. to determine whether amyloid removal from cortical and hippocampal parenchymal projection sites of the CBF neurons rejuvenates these cell bodies.
To anyone who has ever examined the brain of a patient with AD, it is evident that the disease is not simply an amyloidosis. AD is a multi-neuronal system disconnection syndrome of unknown etiology, with pronounced selective cell loss, synaptic dysfunction, atrophy, vascular pathology, tau pathology, in addition to intracellular Aβ disturbances and extracellular amyloid deposition, among other problems that may yet be discovered. It is not our intention to advocate any singular hypothesis of AD, rather to suggest that other treatment approaches and modalities should be pursued with a solid federal and private funding base in addition to amyloid-based clinical trials. An effective treatment will ultimately be a poly-pharmaceutical approach that targets both mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration as well as symptoms of cognitive decline until the etiology of AD is revealed.
Forman MS, Mufson EJ, Leurgans S, Pratico D, Joyce S, Leight S, Lee VM, Trojanowski JQ. Cortical biochemistry in MCI and Alzheimer disease: lack of correlation with clinical diagnosis. Neurology. 2007 Mar 6;68(10):757-63. PubMed.
Mufson EJ, Chen EY, Cochran EJ, Beckett LA, Bennett DA, Kordower JH. Entorhinal cortex beta-amyloid load in individuals with mild cognitive impairment. Exp Neurol. 1999 Aug;158(2):469-90. PubMed.
Counts SE, Mufson EJ. The role of nerve growth factor receptors in cholinergic basal forebrain degeneration in prodromal Alzheimer disease. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2005 Apr;64(4):263-72. PubMed.
View all comments by Stephen D. Ginsberg


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Welcome Week begins today for our new students so it seems like a good time to celebrate the excellent work being done by former students. Katy trained as tour guide with us ages ago and was put back in contact a few weeks back. She is now Community and Outreach Officer at the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide and kindly agreed to write a blog post in our 'Life after Reading' series.
What are you doing now?
I am the Community and Outreach Officer at the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide[1] based in Russell Square, London. I am responsible for the overall community and outreach strategy at the Library in line with a four year Heritage Lottery Fund project which is focused on widening audience engagement with the Library and its collections. I enjoy the diversity of my role; one day I can be networking at a foreign embassy, another day I can be running an exhibition project with an activist group. My other key responsibilities include events management, volunteer management, partnership brokering and social media PR and marketing.
How did your time at Reading prepare you for this line of work?
Academically, my time at Reading gave me transferable skills which I use every day in my job. I regularly give presentations and speak in public where I also put to use the historical knowledge I gained in my degree. A large part of my day to day work is research based whether it's finding speakers for an event, looking for potential partner organisations, contacting community groups or researching content for an exhibition.
Reading gave me the opportunity to gain professional experience outside of my degree. I volunteered as a tour guide and family learning assistant at the Museum of English Rural Life[2]. Additionally, I volunteered as an assistant archivist at the REME Museum of Technology[3] during my second year and was offered a temporary paid position for September 2009, before I began my third year. Both these opportunities offered me the chance to learn about working in museum environments and confirmed my aspiration to work in the museum sector.
What training/experience did you get after leaving Reading?
Prior to beginning at Reading I had volunteered at Portsmouth Records Office and City Museum[4], which included a short stint at Portsmouth D-Day Museum[5], so in addition to my volunteering work in Reading I had already built up my practical experience. After finishing my BA I knew that I wasn't finished with studying and I was torn between doing an MA in Museum Studies or an MA related to the area of history I was interested in (20th century conflict). Despite wanting to work in the museum sector, I decided that having a more specialised masters in history would make me stand out and so I chose the MA War, Culture and History at the University of Manchester[6]. During my MA I had the opportunity to apply for work placement, which I was lucky enough to get, at the Imperial War Museum North[7] on a community outreach project. The combination of my work experience and my degrees meant that I was well placed to work at an institution like the Wiener Library.
If you could give just one piece of advice for current students what would it be?
My advice for current students is this: do everything. Take every opportunity to volunteer, network and get your name known. Build up a professional profile using social media, Twitter is particularly good for that as you can interact with organisations. Don't forget to use your initiative, just because an organisation isn't advertising for volunteers or work placements it doesn't mean you shouldn't ask anyway. Don't forget it's also important to do things that aren't necessarily related to your career like joining sports clubs or societies – it will make you a more rounded person. Social skills are equally as important as anything else.
I know the question asked for one piece of advice but I just want to finish with this one point: do what you love. No one ever worked in museums to become a millionaire, but we do usually have a high level of job satisfaction. As Confucius said, 'Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life'.
The Wiener Library holds Britain's largest archives relating to the Holocaust and Nazi era. Follow the @wienerlibrary for updates on events, exhibitions and more.
Follow @Katy_WL for day to day community and outreaching as well as other museumy stuff.


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