text:
The Low Anthem
The Universe may or may not have had a Pre-Universe. Stars eventually formed and turned on. Planets and moons followed. Everything in motion, constantly changing, as in a dance of the fireflies. At some point, Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky were born to the human family, grew up to love music, and as atomic randomness dictates, found each other turning two on the baseball diamond. They started a band in 2006 called The Low Anthem, and over ten years of making music together, have developed a distinctive sound, and grown a beautiful friendship.
Sounds and silences co-exist. Sounds of nature, extrahuman, fill the silences on the ballfield. What sounds can guitars and basses make into this great creative void? Thus began the journey of acoustics, friendship, song, and their meanings. Providence, RI was the meeting place. They found an apartment together on East St., bought a microphone, and got to work. What came out they called What The Crow Brings. It was their first record.
"I remember hanging a microphone outside a third floor window, and the cable dangling over a clothesline on the second floor," mused Jeff. "We got the take, though," said Ben.
That winter, while many Rhode Islanders sought shelter on the mainland, Ben and Jeff assembled a small crew of friends and sailed to Block Island to make another album. What came out they called Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. It was their second. "I always wanted to record the sound of crackling fire, and finally had my chance" said Jeff. "You never know what thorns to the rose may grow," said Ben.
You can't really predict the future, or know the past. Somehow, the second record struck a chord. There seemingly wasn't a land on Earth that the band didn't stop in to play those songs to people who wanted to hear them. But the band grew restless. "I wanted to record again," tells Jeff. "How many times can you count the moon with stick markers on the inside of a minivan?" said Ben. The band returned home to find a large abandoned pasta sauce factory in a complex of mill buildings in Central Falls, RI, took up residence, and got to work. What came out they called Smart Flesh. It was their third. "Damn cold in there," said Jeff. "But luckily we had a band's dream: a pizza sponsorship, a baffleball court, and a built in workout facility–one could bike from the control room to the couch." "The mood was clear, late stage capitalism decay," said Ben. NyTimes sent a reporter to the factory for a story.
Does a tour van in a vacuum..? The band found a new home in Providence, in an old vaudeville era opera house called the Columbus Theatre.
"What goes up must come down, and what goes out must start within," said Jeff. The band set out to build a recording studio and make a new album with a different sound. It was an ambitious task, and one that took more time than they thought. "We fell in love with the place. And love, blind as mics are deaf, bent our perception of time," said Ben. What came out they called Eyeland, and named the studio in its honor. The old venue soon reopened its closed doors, with the help of the band, and NyTimes again sent a reporter to cover the story. When the studio doors opened, many friends came to record there and enjoy its beauty. "It's beautiful," said Florence. "Ditto," said Bryan.
Video & Press
Listen to a Mesmerizing Performance by The Low Anthem at WFUV
[wfuv] Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky met at Brown University while working at their college radio station. From that bond, the Low Anthem was born. Last year, the Providence, Rhode Island band marked the 10th anniversary of its debut album, What the Crow Brings. After a few years rehabilitating an old 1920s theatre, opening […]
NPR First Listen: The Low Anthem, 'The Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea'
[NPR] I can't think of another album that sounds quite like The Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea. Not in title, not in sound. Oh, there are familiar song structures and vocal harmonies. But hearing this record brought me back to the night I learned of the accident: a crashed van, […]


text:
From Selfishness to Cooperation: What Drives the Change
This ScienceLives article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.
Evolutionary biologists seek to resolve the tensions between the evolution and maintenance of cooperative behavior in animals and animals' need to behave "selfishly" to survive. Keenan Mack, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, builds mathematical models to analyze the conditions under which cooperation can evolve. He specifically focuses on how the need to make efficient use of resources might be a basis for cooperation.
Read more about Keenan's research.
Name: Keenan M. L. Mack Age: 32 Institution: National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis Hometown: Needham, IN Field of Study: Evolutionary ecology
What inspired you to choose this field of study?
I've wanted to be a scientist as long as I can remember; I mean, what kid didn't want to be a paleontologist? … It was really the elegance of evolution as an explanation of the diversity of life that drew me in initially. It just felt like such an important idea that I felt compelled to learn as much as I could about it.
What is the best piece of advice you ever received?
Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now
Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
The idea that unless you can effectively explain something to someone, you really don't know it yourself.
What was your first scientific experiment as a child?
I suppose the one that is seared (pun intended) into my memory would be when I was very young … my house was heated with an old cast-iron potbelly stove. I reached out to touch the wall of it, but I didn't know there had been a fire in it very recently, so my mom warned me not to touch the stove because it was hot. Well, I could see that there wasn't a fire going inside it at the moment, so I decided to test her hypothesis, which was promptly confirmed.
What is your favorite thing about being a scientist or researcher?
Definitely my favorite thing about being a scientist is the freedom to pursue new knowledge. Being the first to know something is an incredible feeling.
What is the most important characteristic a scientist must demonstrate in order to be an effective scientist?
I would say the courage to admit they were wrong, even after investing years of work.
What are the societal benefits of your research?
My research helps explain human nature, and provides warnings about how that nature might change in a global society.
Who has had the most influence on your thinking as a researcher?
Probably Jen Rudgers. After I graduated from undergrad, I was sort of lost trying to figure out what to do next. Jen was a post-doc at Indiana University before I was accepted into the grad program there. She's now an associate professor at the University of New Mexico. I worked as a research assistant for her for a little over a year, and during that time she basically taught me how to be a scientist, everything from manuscript writing to experimental design. Without her guidance I never would have gotten the experience I needed to be accepted into graduate school.
What about your field or being a scientist do you think would surprise people first?
Likely, how much of the job requires more writing and math skills than knowing facts about nature.
If you could only rescue one thing from your burning office, what would it be?
I'd grab my portable back-up hard drive, but it would be tough leaving my chess set.
What music do you play most often in your office or car?
In the office I prefer stuff without lyrics, so depending on my mood anything from Budos Band to Tchaikovsky. In the car I like stuff like Phish, Sam Roberts, and The Whitest Boy Alive.
Editor's Note: The researchers depicted in ScienceLives articles have been supported by the National Science Foundation, the federal agency charged with funding basic research and education across all fields of science and engineering. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. See the ScienceLives archive.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Commitment of Traders (COT) Indicator
gives you the Overall Picture of what is happening behind the scenes of each Futures market.
It actually tells you who's buying and who's selling; that information is just way too important to leave to chance. Without knowing the COT, you're basically trading blindfolded; this information is absolutely "key" to your trading success!


text:
Organic standards will exclude next generation of GMOs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Organic Standards Board voted unanimously on Friday to update U.S. organic standards to exclude ingredients derived from next generation genetic engineering and gene editing.
This recommendation to the US Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program will ensure that ingredients derived from new genetic engineering techniques, including synthetic biology, will not be allowed in the production or final product of foods and beverages that are certified organic. Synthetic biology is a new set of genetic engineering techniques that include using synthetic DNA to re-engineer organisms to produce substances they would not normally produce or to edit DNA so as to silence the expression of certain traits.
"The Board's hard-fought proactive stance on synthetic biology will both help preserve the integrity of organic standards and raise awareness about this virtually unregulated and unlabeled form of genetic engineering," said Dana Perls, food and technology policy campaigner with Friends of the Earth. "It's critical that organic standards treat new types of genetic engineering that are rapidly entering our food and consumer products as rigorously as the first generation of GMOs."
Like "traditional" GMOs, synthetic biology ingredients are entering food and consumer products in absence of adequate health and environmental safety assessment, oversight and labeling. Many are being falsely marketed as "natural." Products in development include synthetic biology stevia, saffron, coconut and cacao, meant to replace plant-based ingredients, many of which are currently produced by small farmers in the Global South. There is increasing concern that these farmers' livelihoods may be displaced by synthetic biology ingredients. Other products include gene-silenced apples, CRISPR waxy corn and Cibus Canola oil, engineered with gene editing techniques.
"The definition of Excluded Methods in the USDA Organic Regulations was written in 1995," said Zea Sonnabend, Fruitilicious Farm and NOSB scientist representative. "With so many new technologies being developed since then that continue to challenge both regulation and agro-ecology, the NOSB felt is was important to provide a structure to clarify the original definition so that organic consumers can be assured that their food does not contain GMOs."
"The National Organic Standards Board has made clear that all kinds of genetic engineering are to be excluded from 'organic.' The public expects that government to actually assess the new foods that it is permitting on the market," said Jaydee Hanson, senior policy analyst, Center for Food Safety. "Unfortunately, the government has failed to update its regulations to adequately assess these new kinds of genetically engineering. When the USDA approves that NOSB recommendations, consumers who want to avoid GMOs will be able to use the Organic Seal to know that the product is not a GMO."
The Board's announcement follows a growing trend of companies stating that they will not use ingredients produced via synthetic biology. The Non-GMO Project, North America's only third party verification program for non-GMO food and products, recently updated its standards so as to include synthetic biology and new gene editing techniques. Companies such as Ben and Jerry's (BJICA: US), Three Twins Ice Cream, Straus Family Creamery, Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss, Nestlé (NSRGY: OTC US), and General Mills (NYSE: GIS) have committed to "…not source vanilla flavor produced through synthetic biology," a product that is designed to replace natural vanillin flavoring from vanilla beans. Synthetic biology vanilla flavoring, introduced by Evolva (SWX: EVE) and International Flavors and Fragrances (NYSE: IFF) in 2014, is the first major synthetic biology ingredient to enter food and beverages, marketed as "natural vanillin." Other companies that have pledged to avoid synthetic biology ingredients entirely include Nutiva and Dr. Bronner's.
Synthetic biology employs a new set of genetic engineering techniques that involve artificially constructing or "editing" genetic material such as DNA in order to create new forms of life, or to attempt to "reprogram" existing organisms. Despite growing concerns about the possible impacts of synthetic biology organisms on human health and the environment and a lack of independent safety assessment, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed synthetic biology vanilla, DuPont's CRISPR waxy corn and other similarly created food and cosmetic ingredients to enter the market without regulation. Existing regulations that identify GE crops and food ingredients as "Generally Regarded As Safe" use an outdated process with minimal testing requirements that rely on companies to self-evaluate the safety of their products.
More information about synthetic biology can be found here.
Expert contact: Dana Perls, (510) 978-4425, [email protected]
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]


text:
(2010) Iowa EHDI News, Winter 2010. Public Health, Department of (Health and Human Services, Department of)
news_winter10.pdf File Size:272kB |
The purpose of the newsletter is to communicate with parents and professionals about newborn hearing screening in Iowa. We will share information about: Hearing screenings Intervention Resources available for parents and professionals "Best practices" by hospitals, AEAs (Area Education Agencies), or private practive audiology offices System goals Family stories Highlights from the EHDI Advisory Committee Updates on Iowa's EHDI program It is important to point out that we are a diverse team of individuals working together to ensure that all newborns and toddlers with hearing loss are identified as early as possible and provided with timely and appropriate audiological, educational and medical intervention. Each newsletter will introduce you to various team members of the EHDI system in Iowa.
Item Type: | Newsletter |
Keywords: | Hearing, EHDI, Audiology, Public Health |
Subjects: | Health and medicine Health and medicine > Public health Health and medicine > Healthcare |
ID Code: | 11397 |
Deposited By: | Tom Keyser |
Deposited On: | 30 Aug 2011 13:08 |
Last Modified: | 30 Aug 2011 13:08 |
URI: | https://publications.iowa.gov/id/eprint/11397 |


text:
An argument, any object, is printed obeying every printer control variable (as by write). In addition, ~W interacts correctly with depth abbreviation, by not resetting the depth counter to zero. ~W does not accept parameters. If given the colon modifier, ~W binds *print-pretty* to true. If given the at-sign modifier, ~W binds *print-level* and *print-length* to nil.
~W provides automatic support for the detection of circularity and sharing. If the value of *print-circle* is not nil and ~W is applied to an argument that is a circular (or shared) reference, an appropriate #n# marker is inserted in the output instead of printing the argument.


text:
so send comments with your updates...and success stories..we're in it together!!!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
SKinny JEans!
so send comments with your updates...and success stories..we're in it together!!!
36 comments:
I did the Yoga Booty Ballet Cardio Burlesque workout this morning and it was so much fun! It really didn't feel like a workout at all, it was just really, really good fun, everyone should have a go.
Definitly want to get in to shape and have decided to try and loose 16lbs by July 9th. Good luck everyone! xxx - April 20, 2009 at 1:44 AM
- faintsunrise said...
@ Kandee
Where did you say we can get the booty call dvd? - April 20, 2009 at 2:57 AM
I got mine from Amazon.
- April 20, 2009 at 5:59 AM
- Liz said...
Hey girly,
cant find that hemp protein in the UK you have some weird bulking stuff on weightlifting websites which i'm guessig isnt it.
Is it a slimming protein shake?
I go to the gym every other day and skip breakfast so thought this would be good to have beforehand.
Any help would be much appreciated
xx - April 20, 2009 at 6:24 AM
- niea999 said...
I'm not a skinny girl but I always heard by nutritionnist and health pps that skiping breakfast (or other meal) is not good.
Your body keeps more than he need at the next meal. But you can just eat a fruit.
Starting by eating a fruit or vegetable help the body to separate food on your body.
xoxo - April 20, 2009 at 7:45 AM
You can buy it in the UK online here:http://www.gnc.co.uk/sports-nutrition/protein-supplements/nutiva-hemp-protein-powder/product.htm
I've always used the whey powders from Holland and Barrett though and I think they're pretty similiar. - April 20, 2009 at 8:53 AM
- Kari Lynn said...
Fabulous blog! I found your blog through a youtube link. I have to say that I LOVE that you are 30. I've been watching alot of videos on youtube but they are all in their early 20's, not that they don't have great advice! I will definately be following you.
- April 20, 2009 at 9:04 AM
Hey Kandee! I'm from Brazil, and I love your blog, and your videos, you're just so nice and happy, I don't know... yu're awsome. Seeing your videos makes me happier. :D
So, I'll let you know that we're in this together! July 9nth, we'll be skinny. :* - April 20, 2009 at 9:07 AM
- ErinElise Accomando said...
are you a vegetarian?
- April 20, 2009 at 11:28 AM
- yasanayun said...
Hi Kandee! Thank you for your tips as always. I want to join you to lose weight by my birthday too. My b-day is July 20th. I am currently 149lbs. I thought I would never get past the 150 mark but I did it. I think I'm doing good and is on a good path. Unfortunately, I don't like the Nutiva chocolate flavor but maybe because I only mixed it with water.
I'm doing the Core Secrets workout about 4-5 days a week. I logged all the food I eat in a food journal. You're so right about eating less because you don't want to have to write down that you eat 3 cookies and also that you just ate 10min ago. I really can't tell that you used to weigh more though! You're doing a great job and you look great! - April 20, 2009 at 12:11 PM
- yasanayun said...
For those interested in Kandee's cod fish oil, Nutiva shake, or skincare stuff, you can find them cheaper at Vitacost.com if you don't have a Whole Foods near you. I have many Whole Foods near me but I still find that it's cheaper on Vitacost.
- April 20, 2009 at 12:14 PM
- Unknown said...
im so glad i found your blog/youtube!
im always looking for more tips and advice from other pro artists...cant wait for more videos <3 - April 20, 2009 at 12:27 PM
- Aberdeen said...
Yay! I love that people are trying to be healthy! I eat really heathy and maintaing 1600 cals or less a day, and I work out around 5 days a week..but no matter what, even if I lower the carbs, I still can't lose any weight...
Maybe if I shake things up a bit I will see a result! Thanks for the tips! - April 20, 2009 at 4:35 PM
- Aberdeen said...
Oh, and thanks for the Vitacost website. It's way cheaper! Thanks :)
- April 20, 2009 at 4:38 PM
- lifeaswe_noit said...
Hey Kandee!!!
It's really inspiring for you to share your weight loss plan. I have lost 14 pounds since february and im going to lose another 27 by july! Thank you for sharing! Thanks for being another anchor to keep moving along this long journey of weight loss.
btw you're beautiful right now even without the 10 pound weight loss. Thank you again!!
=D Paige - April 20, 2009 at 5:55 PM
Kandee don't lose anymore weight! You already look so skinny and pretty now!! I can't imagine you actually fitting in those big jeans you used in one of your videos.
- April 20, 2009 at 7:25 PM
- Sweet Treats said...
I think you look super healthy and fit! I thought about taking the CLO, and found it in softgels because I don't think I'd be able to drink even a shot of it, haha. Thanks for all the suggestions!
- April 21, 2009 at 5:18 PM
- Jill said...
Thanks for the tip on the hemp shakes. I love the chocolate one and it keeps me full! I am determined to lose 10-20lbs by my birthday July 10th!
Love all the makeup tips! - April 22, 2009 at 12:32 AM
- lubell18 said...
Kandee I love you thanks for the tips!!!! I can't wait to try the Nutiva shake
- April 22, 2009 at 5:52 AM
- Skater Girl said...
Hi Kandee,
I really like the way you talk on youtube and your blog too.. Oh!! I've been drinking the Hempshake too and the liquid fish oil.. I normally take cod liver oil in capsules.. I've been taking that since I was very young... but the fish oil you recommended.. was awesome!!
I tell ya, after taking the protein shake and the fish oil.. my skin started to be more elastic.. not that it wasn't before but its much better now.. I think the Hemp fiber got to do with it too.. as I don't really eat as am suppose to.. so this helps though..
Thank you for introducing the Hempshake!!! You're awesome girl!! - April 23, 2009 at 5:33 PM
This Song makes me wanna shakieee meeee boootayyy! LOL! :) SERIOUSLY...i need to do somthing about all this weight I have gained. I guess when ur "comfortable in a relationship" you gain...heh. Time to loose all this un-neccessary Fattness!!! UUGHGHHH. :) Thanks for being so ENCOURAGING!!! XOXO!
- April 23, 2009 at 7:53 PM
kandee thanks so much for the advice i just got my hemp shakes and sampler from nutiva.com and they are mazing i love them !!!! i also use the same cod liver oil but i take them as pill along with grape seed extract and folic acid .. i work in a pharmacy so i know whats good .. also i drink alot of green tea .. so yeah thanks soo much..
- April 25, 2009 at 6:58 PM
- MzUnicaHija19 said...
LOVE the tips Kandee!
I subscribed to your blog twitter and youtube-I feel such a stalker! lol
Thanks for the tips, I am definitely picking up all this stuff and start taking care of my health.
BTW, which Maca powder do I pick-up the raw or the magic one?
Thanks again! - April 25, 2009 at 10:59 PM
Where did you hear about the Maca powder? and what did it make a difference in? like what changes did you notice.
I want to take it but I am a bit unsure of the the background of the product and how natural it is, and wether it contains caffeine like the dietary supplements; which I don't want to take. So, let me know because on the site, they claim that it is completely natural and doesn't contain any caffeine or crystals such as hydroxycut.
Now, about your videos, they are awesome, I watch your videos all the time, and love the hillary duff look on you, you look gorgeous; from day 1 that I came across your teeth whitening video, I was like.. she looks like someone... and I finally figured it out. you resemble lindsay lohan [ I hope you think she hawt ] becuz we all do, at least your smile is grogus like hers.
please email me at firstname.lastname@example.com for the response. I don't have an account and don't feel like making one. - April 29, 2009 at 10:46 AM
Okay I am definately motivated in some way now..
I love the idea of writing online journals or w/e .. like you said.. its better doing these things as a group:)
I dont know where to write my "journey". do i just type it in here? - May 4, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Could you put up the bob marley work out song as a download link please? I really like it!
Good luck on your fitness!
You are gorgeous ! - May 26, 2009 at 10:03 PM
- Unknown said...
First off just curious how old are you?
And second do you eat meat or are you a vegetarian? - June 2, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Hi Kandee, I've been a good girl (well almost - I ate a Snickers bar yesterday), but I've been drinking loads of water, walking every day, taking maca powder and cod liver oil... and I have to say, my skin is beginning to feel more like a smooth baby's bottom than the blotchy flaky mess it was before. I'm lovin it! Darn those Hemp Shake gremlins though, they are getting in the way of my Hempy fix. It's so difficult to get in the UK! We're soooo backward or something. Even the girls at work are behaving like I'm on drugs because of the maca powder! Humph! xx lots of love, Lisa
- June 17, 2009 at 4:21 PM
- Jessica said...
Kandee!! Thank youso much for the diet and fitness info. Ive tried the turbo jam, and I dont think i like it as well as I would with yoga booty ballet. I wanna try it! ..and I am def going to try the fish oil and hemp shakes. Thanks so much!
- August 19, 2009 at 1:34 PM
- Unknown said...
I am so happy that you are health conscious and I'm sure you know that beauty starts from the inside out. I do a lot of nutritional research and I also am getting more educated about cosmetic ingredients. Would love to see you comment or do a video using natural cosmetics that do not contain the toxins that the commercial products have. Dr. Joseph Mercola says "Don't put anything on your skin that you wouldn't put in your mouth". There are sites online where you can check the ingredients in your products against the ones they list as dangerous. I love the performance of the Mac colors and other commercial brands, but I know they aren't the safest things around. Do you like mineral makeups and lipsticks? Do you have any favorites that perform well?
Should I even worry about this stuff? - October 2, 2009 at 10:27 PM
- lilrudebyrd said...
hi kandee! love watching you on youtube! just wanted to send some FEEDBACK! i love TLC's show, "what not to wear." the hosts help other ppl on what clothes flatter their body shapes, height/size what have you. i was wondering if you could do a tutorial on what colors/ shades one should and should Not wear! i have olive toned skin or a "winter" and orange n peach look Horrible on me...just a thought, i'd love more advice!! thank you for all your videos, you have really encouraged me to put my best face forward! you have such a lovely personality! thank you thank you i cant thank you enough!
<3 - October 4, 2009 at 3:32 AM
For everyone in the UK, get excellent value Hemp protein powder from hempnatural.com -it virtually matches the nutritional value of the one in Kandee's vid.
For Maca power and the fish oil check out here, http://tinyurl.com/yj5n2u8 for great prices!
Hope this helps! Thanks for getting me onto hemp protein Kandee!! - October 19, 2009 at 3:23 PM
- marta110786 said...
Kandee u are amazing girl:)I found u on youtube and since that time I am checking what's on your chanel and blog everyday!You are such a great person I LOVE U u are huge inspiration for me I wish you all the best and I am sure you will get all your dreams come true.Don't worry everything gonna be alright.
Sorry for my english;)
Marta - October 25, 2009 at 6:03 AM
- Crazyd25 said...
Kandee your amazing!! def an inspiration :) im a 25 yr old hairdresser wanting to get into makeup artistry as well and you have def helped me get mu butt in gear to do somethingf about it :). also do you think the hemp protein you make you bulk up because of the protein? i ordered them but i def dont want to bulk up lol def wanna try yoga booty ballet and im already addicted to turbo jam i loove chaleane johnson.. well keep up the good work :)
- October 31, 2009 at 6:02 PM
- Akyini said...
Hello Kandee,
I am from Germany and today I saw a couple of your videos...loved it. And after I watched your favourite beauty products I looked some of them up and guess what I found...on the amazon.com site I checked the St.Tropez bronzer and almost laughed out loud when I saw that ALL the products under 'customer who bought this product also bought' are the ones which you talked about and use in your videos (mychelle, un petroleum, etc.). I am not sure if you have noticed...but I thought that this was pretty amazing and that it can't be a coincidence...and in this case must be great for you to know that people actually use your advice...
I am usually not that into make-up, I guess I am just not very skilled...but watching you gets me excited to try those things out... even though I guess many of the things don't work on me as I have dropping eyelids (in English??)...(could you do a video on that??? ;)
But it is fun to watch anyway...
You are so beautiful!!! - December 20, 2009 at 7:00 AM
You have incredible will power, and I'm jealous. I don't think I could stick with a diet that strict, but congrats on all your success!! Sounds like your skinny jeans are just a few weeks away.
- April 17, 2010 at 3:30 PM


text:
Monday, April 8, 2013
MacLaren Wine Company: Steve Law, and Order
MacLaren Wines I'm Using to Write About Me
MacLaren Wine Company 2010 Syrah Russian River Valley $28
MacLaren Wine Company 2010 Syrah Drouthy Neebors Sonoma County $35
MacLaren Wine Company 2010 Syrah Samantha's Vineyard Russian River Valley $38
MacLaren Wine Company 2010 Syrah Judge Family Vineyard Bennett Valley $38
I first met Steve Law, owner/winemaker/impressionist, when I was working freelance for Lot18. I never did find out what "Lot18" meant. I always thought it was a partial score. Lot18, Mets7. I was close. Turns out it's a partial success. It's a strange business, the online flash wine sales business. Originally on Lot18, a wine would be available for 48 hours only. It was a good way for a new winery to reach a lot of new eyes and move a significant amount of wine at an attractive discount price. But it was always a mystery which wines would sell out and which wines would just lay there like a bad date.
When I met Steve for the first time, I had just started at Lot18. I think I'd had one wine I'd curated featured on the site. It did very well, but it was Pinot Noir. You can sell Pinot Noir from a floor stack in a gas station rest room. (I bought the 2011 Pinot Noir from Cupcake's sister brand, Urinalcake, at a Shell station. It was $8.99.9/bottle.) I was optimistic that Syrah might do as well, but, let's face it, Syrah is tougher to get rid of than a cop you once dated. But, as I recall, I think we sold 100 cases of MacLaren Syrah on Lot18.
I love Syrah. My wine cellar probably has more Syrah than any other variety. So I'm grateful that it hasn't really ever caught on to the degree that Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir have. In just the past few months, I've been able to buy absolutely world class red wines for ridiculously low prices, wines that are every bit as great, age every bit as long, as any Cabernet or Pinot Noir. Great Syrahs from the likes of Gramercy Cellars, Maison Bleue, The Ojai Vineyard (Ojai's Roll Ranch Vineyard Syrah might be the best Syrah in California—and it's a lousy $40), Carlisle, Peay, Rhys and, yup, MacLaren. It's an amazing bit of luck that one of my favorite varieties is so undervalued. What can you get for $40 Pinot Noir? Usually, a Pinot Noir with Syrah in it. The wine business is full of irony.
When I began to cultivate my interest in fine wine back in the mid-70's, there weren't any California Syrahs. There wasn't an Internet, there weren't cellphones, and there wasn't gay marriage. My hunch is that planting Syrah in California is what brought about gay marriage. (Think about it--much of the work of propagating Syrah in California was done by Gary Eberle at the old Estrella River Winery, and, well, don't we all want to live Eberle happy after?) Without any California examples available, it was the Syrah-based wines of the Rhône Valley that captivated me. And still captivate me.
I'm a fool for Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie, and adore the wines of Cornas, Crozes-Hermitage and Saint-Joseph. I have an emotional connection with Saint-Joseph. Though I'm not Catholic, my parents were devout jugglers, St. Joseph is my patron saint. My father's name was Joseph, my middle name is Joseph, my father was from St. Joseph, Missouri, I was born in St. Joseph's Hospital in Orange, California, my gorgeous wife and I were married on St. Joseph's Day, my high school girlfriend (oh, man, I still have it bad for her) lived on St. Joseph Avenue in Long Beach, and I loved to gobble St. Joseph's Aspirin for Children when I was a kid. I used to sneak into the medicine chest and eat them like candy. It explains why, to this day, I don't need sunglasses. My eyes are tinted orange.
Steve Law lived in France for ten years and also fell in love with the wines of the Rhône Valley. You can certainly find their influence in his wonderful MacLaren Syrahs. In 2010, he bottled four different Syrahs. That's it. That's his game plan. He apparently arrived in California from France with a love of Syrah, and a death wish. I'm reminded, for some reason, of the original Charles Shaw Winery in Napa Valley, back before Fred Franzia bought the brand and then, many years later, created Two Buck Chuck--which is to wine what Cheese Whiz is to cheese. I'm not sure which Whiz I'd rather take. Anyway, Mr. Shaw was determined to make the best Gamay in Napa Valley, going to the trouble of obtaining cuttings from Georges DuBoeuf in Beaujolais. Brilliant! Why not make the best Cabernet in Champagne? The finest orange wine in Chablis? Along those same lines, I always loved the winery model of Jepson in Mendocino, too (now Jaxon Keys), which was to make Sauvignon Blanc, Sparkling Wine, and Brandy! Three totally different sets of equipment, and not a profitable wine in the place. Sounds like a married couple and a transsexual opening a wine bar in Arkansas.
Well, it's Steve's collection of dimes, so if he wants to specialize in Syrah, I wish him well. I visited with him recently, and he gifted me with all four of his new releases, the 2010 MacLaren Syrahs. I don't know how anyone could taste these wines and not fall in love with Syrah. I always ask people who claim to love Syrah, "When was the last time you ordered Syrah in a restaurant?" Usually it's about as often as they ordered Botulism (for years, I thought Botulism was the deep religious belief in robots made from tin cans). People pay Syrah lip service, as if to seem knowledgeable and cool, and yet rarely buy it--but those fools are simply missing out.
The MacLaren 2010 Syrah Russian River Valley is Steve's gateway Syrah. It reflects his deft touch with Syrah. The grapes are sourced from Saralee's Trenton Station Vineyard, but it's not vineyard designated. I guess somebody doesn't like Saralee's. It has great aromatics, mixing berries and herbs with flowers. That's hitting all the right notes for Syrah from the cooler parts of the Russian River. You'd never mistake it for the youthful linearity and nerve of extremely cool climate Syrah, but it also never ventures into the upper registers of ripeness. The MacLaren is the sort of Syrah that makes the case for Syrah being the next "hot" grape in restaurants, though it never will be. Syrah's success in the United States has been predicted for twenty-five years, and yet it just seems to get less popular—it's the Ralph Nader of grapes. (They're both sort of leathery.) But MacLaren's Russian River Syrah is delicious, and complex enough to be beguiling. Even the second day its freshness and length weren't diminished. All that for $28. Really? And you don't want to drink that?
"Drouthy Neebors" is Scots for "Thirsty Friends." It's also the name of MacLaren's wine club. Catchy, right? Steve is a Scot (and, really, if you have the great fortune to meet Steve, you need to ask him to do his Sean Connery/James Bond impression—it kills, but it has a license), so it makes perfect sense to him. To me, Drouthy Neebors sounds like Gomer Pyle's slow sister. OK, that's reaching. Moving on, the MacLaren 2010 Drouthy Neebors Syrah is a blend of the three MacLaren vineyard sources, Samantha's, Judge Family and Trenton Station. I think that it's a common perception that blends like this are made after the fact, put together from the leftover barrels from the single-vineyard wines. That's not usually the case, in my experience. I know Steve puts together the Drouthy Neebors Syrah before he assembles the single-vineyard Syrahs. Like all of Steve's fabulous Syrahs, it has a freshness, a racy backbone of acidity, that carries the deep, rich, black fruit all the way to the finish. One thing I noted about all of MacLaren's wines is their mouth-watering freshness. They pop in your mouth. It's what makes them so damned tasty. The Drouthy Neebors has a darker tone than the Russian River Syrah, which I would attribute to the Samantha's in the blend, and is spicier. I'd say I liked them equally, but, if anything, the Drouthy Neebors, name aside, is more elegant.
It always seems strange to use "elegant" as an adjective when referring to wine, though I use it all the time. We use so many words like that in our endeavor to make sense of wine. But just as we might agree that Fred Astaire is elegant where Gene Kelly is athletic, we might agree that one wine is elegant while another is certainly graceful, but not necessarily elegant. I know what I mean, but I'm not sure anyone else does. (This is true of everything I write on HoseMaster of Wine™.) Describing wine is much like trying to capture a character's essence in a novel. You can list the character's traits straightforwardly, or you can create a character in the reader's mind in a more meaningful way by illustrating who he is by his mannerisms, clothes, speech patterns, actions… You're trying for an impression, not specifics. Because specifics, such as a laundry list of adjectives, don't leave room for the imagination; and wine, and fiction, are all about capturing our imagination. So I'll leave you to imagine the elegance of the Drouthy Neebors.
Perhaps it's the influence of the vineyard's name, but I loved the MacLaren 2010 Samantha's Vineyard Syrah. How could I not love something named Samantha? If you've ever had DuMol's "Eddie's Patch" Syrah, another great Syrah, then I'll mention that this wine is sourced from the same vineyard (but is about half the price). Andy Smith, DuMol's winemaker, is also a Scot, and he's the one who introduced Steve to the vineyard. Those Scots stick together like the pages of a Playboy Playmate fold-out. This Syrah, and the MacLaren Judge Family Syrah, are two of the best Syrahs I've tasted in quite a while. It blossomed over the course of dinner, improving with every single sip. My wife and I couldn't stop mentioning how good it was. Wine as oral sex. "Yeah, that's good, wow, yeah, really, that's perfect. Damn, I finished too quickly." So, not elegant. More voluptuous. The vineyard is very steep, Steve tells me, as steep as those crazy vineyards you see in Côte-Rôtie. There's an old saying, "Syrah loves a view," and these grapes had quite the view. What did it taste like? Plums and berries, a luscious juiciness, layer upon layer of flavor on the palate, and a long and generous finish. We'd have easily finished a second bottle if one had been around.
I just looked at the description of this wine on MacLaren's website. It has a classic final line, "This is our boldest Syrah in 2010 and can be enjoyed alone or with friends." So, unless you're really limber, not like oral sex. Steve, if you're reading this, a simple question. What wine can't be enjoyed alone or with friends?
Finally, the MacLaren 2010 Judge Family Vineyard Syrah. The first time I smelled this wine, my wine memory bank immediately thought, "Saint-Joseph." It has the floral, powdery, herbal, austere character of those wonderful Syrahs. But it's also loaded with black fruit. Here is the very definition of cool climate Syrah. And Bennett Valley is very cool. The grapes for the Judge Family Syrah were picked in November, yet the alcohol is only 13%! Makes LeBron James' hangtime seem pitiful. It's very different from the Samantha's, but I love them both. This Syrah took me back to my old love, the wines of the Northern Rhône. I thought Saint-Joseph, but others might think Hermitage. It's great wine, but doesn't quite have the drama of the best Hermitage. It has everything else though. I'm confident you could put it in a blind lineup of Northern Rhônes and not be able to pick it out. I know I couldn't. It has intensity, length, mouthfeel, and was sensational, and I mean sensational, with the lamb we were having for dinner. It's all of $38. For world class Syrah! I know I'll be laying some down to see where it goes. Give it six or seven years, and I'm guessing it will be gangbusters.
Altogether, MacLaren produces about 800 cases of wine. And you can drink them alone or with Drouthy Neebors.
As an aside, I know Steve is looking for a broker/distributor in Southern California. I know, just what you need, more Syrah in your book. But these are gorgeous wines at very fair prices, and even you can sell them. So don't hesitate to get in touch with him.
This is your Steve Law, and Order website:
20 comments:
- Charlie Olken said...
I have wondered about this idea--the Hosemaster as wine reviewer, and not really loved it.
But, this latest is proof that you can do it and still be the Hosemaster and not some latter day version of Robert Finigan with verbal diarrhea or George Carlin getting lost in a vineyard and not knowing how to find his way out.
I would prefer that there be some form of qualitative rating to accompany all this brilliant work, but every since you gave up on the very promising million-point system, you have been pretty adamant that you don't like ratings anymore.
Your love of St. Jospeh makes me want to go to church--or to take more aspirin. - April 8, 2013 at 8:42 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Puff Daddy,
I always think about the Million Point Scale when I write these self-indulgent winery reviews. Maybe you're right, maybe I should bring it back. I always loved writing, "543,219+ --I may have underestimated it."
The comedy comes easy to me, but the wine essays are far more challenging. To make them interesting, first of all (and I'm still working on that...obviously), and also to write about wine in a way that more accurately reflects, in my opinion, how we really talk about wine.
And, aside from that, it's this kind of piece that keeps me at HoseMaster. Cranking out satire is not much of a challenge for me, and, therefore, doing it all the time feels thankless and tiresome. I make others laugh, but only rarely do I make myself laugh. So, there you have it, I review wines because, clearly, it's laughable.
And, beyond that, MacLaren makes damned fine Syrah. - April 8, 2013 at 8:59 AM
- Daniel said...
Master Hose,
If you had given these wines a score (91! 93! 96! or the dreaded 89+!), I would have allowed them to fade from my memory, or any desire to drink them.
Somehow you managed to write as if you were actually talking to a friend about why you love these wines, and that makes me actually consider drinking California wine like these. Up in the PNW, and working for an importer, I rarely drink anything I don't sell or am forced to drink where a restaurant is all about 'local'...
I think wine should be rated as such:
(from worst to first)
I wouldn't clean my car's engine with it
I'd drink it as a bet
I'd drink it if there was no other wine
I'd drink it quickly and hope the alcohol kills my taste buds (like Bud)
I'll drink a few glasses
I'll drink a bottle
I'll buy some bottles and lay them down
I want cases in my cellar
I want a barrel of my own
I want to buy the vineyard
Naturally, most wines we really like will fall into the middle somewhere, but every once in a while…
Happy Monday!
- April 8, 2013 at 9:35 AM
- Thomas said...
I got the Neebors reference, but you knew that i would.
The prices you lit really do look good relative to your impressions of the wiens. What's the Samantha's Vineyard price?
Incidentally, I once had a wine alone that I didn't enjoy and so I had it with friends that I didn't enjoy and that made the wine much better. - April 8, 2013 at 10:28 AM
- Thomas said...
that's pronounced weens, but it should be wines.
- April 8, 2013 at 10:29 AM
- Drouthy Steve said...
Drouthy Hosemaster,
I appreciate you taking the time to put into words, the thoughts and memories that drinking my Syrahs conjured up. Reading them makes the death wish feel worth it. It is a terrible affliction to be as passionate about a single varietal, especially when you look at it from a Sales perspective. However, I have been thinking of adding a tasty Gruner or a drinkable Orange wine to flesh out my sales portfolio. That should do it…
As to which wines cannot be enjoyed alone or with Neebors… the two wines above would certainly fit that bill.
Your Neebor,
- April 8, 2013 at 11:01 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Your scale makes as much sense as any other. I've never liked numbers with wines, but we all do have internal responses to wines, rate them on some personal scale, but I'd rather just talk about them. That's what's fun about wine for me.
Sure, you get the really stupid Gomer Pyle reference, but can't find the price of Samantha's at the top of the page--$38. Unless you mean My Gorgeous Samantha, who is priceless.
Thanks, and thanks for the wines. I think you'd be wise to have a Gruner in your portfolio just to serve at winemaker dinners. Gruner tastes good with winemaker, especially one that's been spit-roasted. - April 8, 2013 at 12:06 PM
- Thomas said...
No, I meant the price of the vineyard...
It's a weird thing, but I hate lists so much that I usually don't read them--and so, I didn't read the list.
I know, I know. - April 8, 2013 at 2:26 PM
- Unknown said...
Really enjoyed the wine review, especially the love story about syrah. i do have to say that a $40 bottle does not seem inexpensive to me; not sure if it's because I'm outside of California or if it's just because I'm young and broke. But anything more than $20 loses any chance at the value category in my book.
I loved the idea of the million point scale. Today we were talking about how funny it would be to walk into a tasting room and just start spitting out numbers to the people pouring wine for you. "nice pinot gris, i'm gonna give you guys 88-points on this". you would probably get some sort of douchebag award from the winery. - April 8, 2013 at 5:49 PM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Yeah, I sort of figured that. Next time I'll put the price in the body of the piece, though it will cut back the number of comments. Samantha's is a very nice, very steeply terraced, old vineyard. It just looks like a great Syrah spot, and seems to be. NBut it's not for sale, like all things Samantha.
Of course, the word "bargain" is relative. From the point of view of a terrific wine from a classic variety that compares to many of the best wines in its category that are twice its price, it's a bargain. Semantics, gotta love 'em.
I created the Million Point Scale on a very early incarnation of HoseMaster--the theory being that you'll never taste a million wines in your lifetime so you can assign every wine you taste its own unique number. No more of those pesky 89's that take up seven pages in every issue of Wine Spectator. And the scale begins at 1, not 500,000. I've had some orange wines that rated about 11, with the labels getting 10 of the points. And, honestly, the scores look amazing on shelf talkers! What's a 95 compared to 675,986?
I once heard a guy give a number to a wine in a tasting room. I thanked him for his opinion and then rated his wife 84, which was generous considering the off aromas. - April 8, 2013 at 6:22 PM
- Marcia Macomber said...
Well, this is a first. I 'posted' a nice semi-witty reply about six hours ago. Damned if I remember what the bleep I said, but it seems Gmail has completely failed this time and not posted my comments.
Nevertheless, loved the review of MacLaren. Now I will seek it out. Love a good Syrah. No million point scale necessary for me! I'd rather read what you have to say... - April 8, 2013 at 6:42 PM
- Unknown said...
i'm 844,932 points on that!
- April 8, 2013 at 9:18 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Ron My Love,
I can say with all honesty, that I can't think of anyone's tasting notes I'd rather read than yours. You have this brilliant balance of wit, passion and confidence that seems, to me anyway, to march across the screen that leave me feeling like I'm being happily twisted around your finger. Damn fine work Love. As for my price, as I grow dangerously close to my expiration date I feel as if a blow out sale might be in order...you know, just to move the product before it starts to lose its freshness, but the truth is my heart responds to a cool glass of white wine, a few slices of cured meat, a gooey hunk of perfectly salty cheese and a smooth toned voice saying things like, "How's my gorgeous girl?"...cheap date right? I love you! - April 9, 2013 at 8:32 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Marcia Love,
Frustrating when this interwebby stuff doesn't work right. Stuff just disappears into the Cloud. I'm sure it was a brilliant comment that scientists may one day uncover, and then you will be worshiped and revered. Like I am now.
I think that's seven points too high.
My Gorgeous Girl,
Thank you, Baby. When I read my wine reviews I kind of cringe because I can hear myself struggling to be articulate about tastes and impressions and textures we just really don't have the words for. I think I'm trying to create some kind of feel for the wines, reference points that might resonate, but even that's beyond my skills. However, it's fun to struggle with it, to force myself to describe the pleasures that a good bottle of wine delivers, and try to communicate something of the wine's style and what it has to say to the poor suffering fools who read my nonsense. And, My Sweet Love, I do have to say that when you talk about wine, the way you relate to it, the insights that overflow from your work, well, you make me look like a piker.
As for you, well, who believes expiration dates? I like 'em ripe. However, if you're having a sale, I can't imagine anything sexier than you with 80% off. - April 9, 2013 at 8:46 AM
- Thomas said...
I'm going to have to reneg on buying that Samantha vineyard.
Just got a call to donate to the Wine Bloggers Conference Scholarship so that some poor blogger/s can attend.
Where the hell is that checkbook??? - April 9, 2013 at 1:59 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Ron My Love,
Dammit, now I can't help but wonder which 20% you'd have me keep...
I saw that over on Tom's blog, (well he posted a link on Facebook this morning) and simply told him that we wine bloggers, we are beyond help. - April 9, 2013 at 5:35 PM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
I'm donating to the welfare of the Wine Bloggers Conference by not showing up. Though I could probably start a fund to pay me to not show up, I decided to fund the cost of not showing up out of my own pocket!
I know, I give, I give, I give...
My Gorgeous Samantha,
Hey, after I buy you, I figured I'd leave you with a fifth... - April 9, 2013 at 6:37 PM
- Thomas said...
A scholarship to send someone to a self-serving conference--it's incredible, and I still can't find my checkbook.
- April 9, 2013 at 7:15 PM
- Rogue Wino said...
Have you had the Shane syrahs yet? "the unknown" came by this morning, damn derriscious. I love a well made syrah.
Is MacLaren direct in no.cal? Setting up a new wine list now...new gig - April 9, 2013 at 7:35 PM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Rogue Baby,
I've missed your Voice. Nice to see you here.
I've had several Shane wines, but not the one you mention. He's a damn good winemaker--he's now the winemaker at Lynmar Estate after all those years assisting at Kosta Browne. (I'm hoping Google Alert kicks in and he offers to send me samples...)
Yes, MacLaren is direct in NorCal. Contact Steve Law via his website, or shoot me a PM and I'll introduce you to him. Even better, come up here and you and I will go taste with him! Anyhow, the wines are as good as I said, and the prices are more than reasonable given their quality and provenance.
Glad to hear about the new gig--I guess. Congratulations! But don't stop visiting here. I get lonely. - April 10, 2013 at 8:17 AM


text:
First English edition Monty Miller Press, Sydney 1987
This edition 1989 ASP, London
Frank Fernández
Cuba: The anarchists and liberty
In this little essay our esteemed comrade Frank Fernandez traces the influence of anarchist ideas on the Cuban people, the development of the Cuban labour movement traces back to at least the middle of the 19th Century, Anarchism was not a small and isolated sect. It was a real people's mass movement. The anarchist movement and the labour movement were inseparable. They grew up together. A history of the Cuban people is not worth reading If it does not include the history of anarchist struggles for the free society.
Although brief, this essay reveals information which I did not have in my book about the Cuban Revolution ['The Cuban Revolution' by Sam Dolgoff (200 pages), not yet available in electronic form, but it can be ordered from AK Press. An author search on 'Dolgoff' in their catalog should find it. They also carry this pamphlet. -Greg] and would have gladly included in the chapter "ANARCHISM IN CUBA". I refer for example, to the influence of the tobacco workers in the WORKERS ALLIANCE in Tampa and Key West, Florida during the great strikes. I am glad to note that comrade Fernandez points out that while anarchists took a very active part in Jose Marti's movement for independence of Cuba, they did "not renounce their ideals of liberty and social justice".
Our comrade Fernandez rightfully deplores the anti-anarchist and pro-Castro sentiment of many sections of the anarchist movement who learned nothing from the disastrous degeneration of the Russian Revolution into a totalitarian dictatorship. They ignored appeals for elementary solidarity with our embattled, oppressed anarchist comrades and workers in Cuba. While there has been, as the author points out, "a certain change in the pro-Castro sentiment In the 1970s", Augustin Souchy, whom I met in 1976 or 1977 while he toured the U.S. for the CNT-FAI, informed me that total ignorance of Cuban affairs and history and pro-Castro sentiment still existed in many anarchist groupings. And this reminds me of anarchists who are very enthusiastic about the false "Nicaraguan Revolution" which follows the pattern set by the Castro counter-revolution.
Thus far there is no really thorough and reliable history of anarchism in Cuba. In writing such a book our comrade is making a very great contribution to our movement. We wish him all success in this difficult, but necessary task. The Cuban anarcho-syndicalist movement has in a century and a half of struggle written a glorious, indelible page in the history of the revolutionary movement, from which new generations of militants will continue to draw inspiration.
Sam Dolgoff,
New York, Autumn 1986
This work is a brief overview of the influence libertarian ideas have had upon the Cuban people. We believe that we have the duty to faithfully report the annals of the Cuban anarchists, who for more than a century have struggled and sacrificed in defence of liberty and for the interest of the most downtrodden classes in our society. The accomplishments of the Cuban anarchists were of decisive importance in social and union struggles. We will briefly review the actions of a group of men and women, who, totally without resources, without aid or protection, forgotten and persecuted, not only influenced the history of the working class and campesinos, but also the history of the entire Cuban people. They certainly were the forerunners of the Cuban proletariat.
1. Colonial Times and Separatism
The Ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon made him one of the most important thinkers of the nineteenth century; his economic theories had a great impact in Europe, and exercised a decisive influence on Cuban anarchism. Proudhon, without a doubt the foremost modern anarchist theoretician, has a following among progressive artisans and workers on the island. In 1857 the first mutualist (Proudhonian) Society was founded in Cuba. However, it was only when Saturnine Martinez founded the weekly La Aurora in 1865 that the ideas of Proudhon really took root. The first "free associations" of cigar-makers, typesetters, wage-labourers and artisans, what we consider an incipient Cuban proletariat, were organised in that period. Cuba is indebted to Proudhon for, among other things, the creation of regional centres, schools, health facilities and mutual aid associations.
The first Cuban attempt to break from Spain, which ended in defeat, was the Ten Years War (1868-1878), Some anarchist elements from the tobacco industry participated. In the case of Vincente Garcia and Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, both sympathisers of Proudhon's federalism, they took an important role in the direction of the war. These events received inspiration and solidarity from certain Spanish comrades persecuted in Europe for their revolutionary ideas and who found refuge on the island.
During these years anarchist thought had taken a decisive influence among the workers and peasants of France, Italy, Spain and Russia. The most prominent organiser and advocate was another important figure of the time: Mikhail Bakunin. Despite his death in 1876, his ideas and arguments circulated and penetrated Europe with surprising vigour. The foundation of the Socialist Revolutionary Alliance (1864), the International Socialist Democratic Alliance (1868) and a Declaration of Principles written by Bakunin, influenced the more revolutionary elements in Cuba, which had already absorbed the concepts of Proudhon on labour organisation and the new ideas of Bakunin gradually displaced that of Proudhon's upon the working class. The Cuban workers were beginning to develop class consciousness.
Towards the end of 1885 the most prestigious figure in Cuban anarchism came upon the scene in the person of Enrique Roig de San Martin (1843-1889), founder of the weekly El Productor and the new theoretician and organiser of the Cuban proletariat. The strikes which occurred at the end of the 1880's were all inspired by anarchists and were organised via El Productor. This publication and Roig de San Martin helped to create a revolutionary organisation called the Workers' Alliance of obvious Bakuninist inspiration.
This Workers' Alliance was strongly supported in two tobacco industry locations in the United States, Tampa and Key West. In 1887 the first Federation of Tobacco Workers was organised in Havana, this federation had replaced the Union of Tobacco Workers, and it embraced almost all the workers in that industry. Tampa and Key West followed, in these two small American towns its most outstanding activists were Enrique Messonier and Enrique Creci, in addition to anarchist activists such as Leal, Segura and Palomino. In 1889 a general strike was declared in Key West which ended with the triumph of the workers in the first days of 1890. From Havana, the Alliance and the Cuba workers had shown solidarity with the strike, and through El Productor they encouraged and helped orient the strikers even after the death of Roig de San Martin.
Also from the shores of Florida, the Cuban independence movement was preparing for the struggle for independence. Tampa and Key West were genuine strongholds for independence partisans, anarchists and enemies of imperial Spain in general. During those years, Jose Marti, the patriotic apostle of the struggle against the colonial power, recruited followers and militants within the best-organised groups of Cuban émigrés. However the anarchists grouped within the tobacco industry viewed the Cuban problem from a socialist and internationalist point of view, Marti spoke with them and made concessions in the social sphere to them with the purpose of attracting them to the separatist cause. The anarchists, influenced by the persuasive power and eloquence of Marti, began to gather in Marti's revolutionary clubs and some of the most responsible, such as Creci, Messonier, Rivero y Rivero, Sorondo, Rivera Montessori, Blanco, Blaino, Segura, etc., united behind Marti's independence movement, without renouncing their ideals of liberty and social justice.
The aid and support given to Marti by the anarchists was enormous both in a moral sense as well as politically and economically. Marti then decided to found a revolutionary party, with a majority of the exiled tobacco workers whose unions were "revolutionary socialist", a euphemistic term adopted by the anarchists of the time especially after the tragic Haymarket events of Chicago, in 1886, when a group of anarchist labour organisers were executed for their supposed involvement in a bombing incident.
May Day 1890 was celebrated by the Workers' Alliance in Havana with a rally and public act in remembrance of those executed in Chicago in 1886 there was a call for a congress, and in January 1892 the anarchists celebrated the first Cuban Regional Congress. They recommended that the Cuban working class join the ranks of "revolutionary socialism" and take the path of independence as proclaimed by Marti in a final "Manifesto" they wrote a phrase which has passed to history "...it would be absurd for one who aspires to individual freedom to oppose the collective freedom of the people...". The Spanish authorities suspended the congress, closed down the anarchist press, declared illegal the Alliance and deported or imprisoned the better-known congress's participants.
The war of independence advocated by Marti exploded in Cuba in February 1895. Anarchists joined the struggle for freedom, among them Enrique Creci, who died in combat in 1896. Lamentable for everyone, the promises and social paths promised by Marti disappeared with him, when the apostle of Cuban independence died while fighting Spanish troops in May 1895. The war ended with U.S. intervention in 1898 and the defeat of Spain. Both in exile and in Cuba, the anarchists during this period acted ceaselessly to raise funds, to support the struggle, and in addition, to carry out campaigns in anarchist circles in the U.S. and Europe. Two young Italian anarchists joined the war: Orestes Ferrara and Federico Falco. The assassination of Spanish Prime Minister Canovas del Castillo by the Italian anarchist Angiolillo in 1897 with the direct participation of Emeterio Betances, a Puerto Rican doctor representing the Cuban exiles in Paris, was without doubt one of the most important factors in Spain's defeat. Canovas declared upon Cuba a war of systematic extermination, "suppress the revolt", he proclaimed, "to the last man and to the last peseta". At the same time he withstood pressure from the U.S. State Department and the N.Y. press. In the heyday of European colonialism and imperialism, Canovas belonged to the same elite of Emperors, Kings and politicians who not only oppressed its own people but also extended their domination to the less advanced world. His influence and reputation was not only among the Vatican, the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian or the German Empire but also in the high circles of power and money in England, France and Italy, who certainly approved Canovas's repression in Cuba.
The three shots which terminated Canovas's life also put an end to his criminal tactics in Cuba. His successor, Mateo Sagasta, was a weak and inept politician, without respect or sympathy among his peers either in Spain or in the rest of Europe. His policies of "appeasement" toward the U.S. escalated inexorably the provocations of the new American imperialism. The Spanish empire ceased to exist. Indifference prevailed in Europe.
During the U.S. intervention in 1899, the anarchists fermented a strike in the bricklayers' guild. It was suppressed violently, even though in the end the strikers obtained some increase in wages. This strike had the complete backing of the weekly !Tierra! edited by Abelardo Saavedra and Adrian del Valle.
2. The First Republic
Important strikes took place under the first independent Cuban government: cigar-makers, bakers, carpenters, masons, were fiercely repressed, just as during the worst times of colonial rule. The republic of liberals or conservatives did not address itself to "social problems" and had forgotten the promise made by Marti "with everyone and for everyone".
The Mexican revolution has a serious impact on Cuban workers and campesinos; the writings of Richardo Flores Magon and the guns of Emiliano Zapata were a spur to the consciousness of the long forgotten sugar cane workers, employed in the country's largest industry. In 1915 the Manifesto de Cruces was proclaimed, which, by its literary qualities, was a hymn of anarchist combatively: "We must sustain our cry with the force of our arms" and "Silence is compromise" are the best representative statements of a group of workers that asserted the right to better destinies than that of the hereditary hunger they suffered for generations, especially when they were the most productive force on the island. In this same year the first Peasant Federation (Federacion Campesina de Cuba) on Las Villas province was founded, among its organisers being: Fernafido Iglesias, Laureano Otero, Manuel Lopez, Jose Lage, Benjamin Janeiros, Luis Meneses, Santo Garos, Miguel Ripoll, Francisco Baragoitia, Andres Fuentes, Tomas Rayon and Francisco Ramos. Due to the abuses committed by the U.S. and Spanish sugar companies which controlled the lion's share of national production, the anarchists attempted to conduct several strikes, but failed because of the repression unleashed by the government in Havana under President Garcia Menocal, using the pretorian army and the Rural Guard to murder and persecute the strikers. This was the most active period in the entire history of the Cuban Libertarians and lasted for more than twelve years and ended with the physical liquidation of the anarchist movement's most selfless members.
In that period there were many regular periodicals of a libertarian orientation, although many of those responsible for publishing were eventually deported: La Batalla, Nuevos Rumbos, Espartaco, Via Libre, Voz Rebelde, Solidaridad, Memorandum Tipografico, El Boletin Tabacalero, and of course !Tierra!. The most outstanding anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist figures collabourated intensely, Marcelo Salinas, Antonio Penichet, Manuel Ferro, Jesus Iglesias, Ernesto Illas, Francisco Montanes, Pauline Diez and Adrian del Valle among others. Some held to the ideas of Peter Kropotkin, Elisee Reclus, others were sympathetic to Malatesta or Pietro Gori, others maintained the tradition of Bakunin; and the rest and the majority moved toward the incipient anarcho-syndicalism that came from the Spanish National Confederation of Labour, Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). In 1922 Alfredo Lopez, an anarcho-syndicalist from the Printers' Union, organised the Labour Federation of Havana, Federacion Obrera de La Habana (FOH), in which the most combative workers' unions, groups and Labour associations of the capital were incorporated. Alfredo Lopez initiated the most dynamic stage of a long social and labour process; he helped to organise unions, libertarian schools, workers' centres, nature clubs and a workers' college, Popular University Jose Marti, Universidad Popular Jose Marti. In those troubled and turbulent years, the anarchists, without economic resources and without any help, first organised, gathered and oriented the majority of the workers, rural and urban, throughout the island.
In 1925 and under the responsibility of Alfredo Lopez, backed by three workers' congresses in Havana, Cienfuegos and Camaguey respectively, created the National Labour Confederation of Cuba, Confederacion Nacional Obrera de Cuba (CNOC), an umbrella organisation of all the unions, fraternal associations, guilds, brotherhoods and mutual aid associations in Cuba: 128 collectives and more than 200,000 workers were represented by 160 delegates. The most outstanding members in addition to Lopez, were Pascual Nunez, Bienvenido Rego, Nicanor Tomas, Jose A. Govin, Domingo Rosado, Florentino Pascual, Luis Trujeda, Pauline Diez, Venancio Rodriguez, Rafael Serra, Antonio Penichet, Margarito Iglesias and Enrique Verona. The most important element of the CNOC bylaws was "the total and collective rejection of electoral action". There were in addition, other labour-related accords and slogans: the classic demand for an eight-hour day, and for the right to strike, and a unanimous pledge not to bureaucratise the newly-established organisation.
The new president of Cuba, Gerardo Machado, a typical caudillo considered the political attitude of the workers "not very patriotic" and unleashed a relentless and merciless persecution against the CNOC and its leading militants. Machado ordered the cowardly murders of Enrique Varona, the organiser of the railway workers, Margarito Iglesias, Secretary of the Factory Workers' Union and Alfredo Lopez, General Secretary of the CNOCC. Machado jailed or deported every anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist activist, member or militant, he could lay his claws on, and declared illegal any union or guild he desired. For over eight years Machado attacked the work of the anarchists, providing an opportunity for the recently founded Communist Party to set itself in a position of force, within the ranks of the CNOC. Years later, toward the end of his regime, the Communists even signed a pact with Machado.
All of this vicious harassment couldn't prevent the anarchists from gathering within a new organisation, created in 1924, called the Federation of Cuban Anarchist Groups, Federacion de Grupos Anarquistas de Cuba (FGAC). It promulgated strikes, circulated propaganda and contributed to the violence and disorder of the most confused and bloody periods of Cuban history, 1930-33. Machado's tyranny lasted only until August 12th, 1933, and was brought down by a general strike fermented and maintained by anarchist elements of the Transport Union, first and then by the Streetcar Worker's Union and finally by the masses of people.
Despite this triumph, the anarchists did not fare well, they had been badly hurt by the despotic Machado government. Their most outstanding thinkers and activists had been victims of government repression or had been deported. After Machado's downfall, the Communists manoeuvred to retain their lost influence, and began violently attacking the anarchists. Subsequently, when a coup took place against the provisional government on September 4, 1933, the Communists tried a strategy of seeking official support from one Colonel Pulgencio Batista, one of the leaders of the coup and a rising figure among the new military. This manoeuvre would later be known as "the Popular Front".
With the object of regrouping and re-organising, the anarchists tried to find allies within the revolutionary opposition to Batista and some of the more experienced militants became affiliated with a socialist organisation called Young Cuba, Jovan Cuba, led by an archenemy of the Communists, Antonio Guiteras. This time the repression came from the same Colonel Batista, who, with the aid of the Communist Party caused the failure of the general strike in March 1935. This was one of the major blows the anarchists took during this time of social recovery.
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and Revolution in July 1936, the Cuban anarchists rallied to the defence of the Spanish people and founded in Havana for this purpose the International Anti-Fascist Solidarity, Solidaridad Internacional Anti-Fascista (SIA), which worked with dedication in the middle of a world depression to collect funds, medicines and arms to send to the Spanish comrades of the CNT-FAI (Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo-Federacion Anarquista Iberica). Many Cubans died in Spain during the Civil War defending their ideals in the ranks of the anarchist columns. After the Spanish conflict, many returned to Cuba, together with a large number of Spanish comrades who fled Europe with Cuban passports. Again, on this occasion, money was collected for distressed militants.
In 1939, following orders from Moscow, the Cuban Communist Party made a pact with Batista, now a General, who totally lacked popular support, and in exchange for their services and solidarity Batista gave them the directorship of a new Labour Confederation, the Confederation of Cuban Workers, Confederacion de Trabajadores de Cuba, (CTC) the largest labour organisation in Cuba, which included all social factions, including an anarchist minority. In these years, the Cuban workers' movement, by order of Batista, was organised and legalised under Communist control. The anarchists for their part founded an organisation called the Libertarian Association of Cuba, Associacion Libertaria de Cuba, ALC) with the purpose of regrouping together all the anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists who survived the decade of the 1930s.
3. The Second Republic
The Cuban constitution of 1940, marked the beginning of a new republican era. It was the first attempt in Cuban history to contend with social issues by governmental action, and represented an effort to correct errors and omissions under earlier regimes. A modern and progressive document, this Cuban Magna-Carta represented an effort of two generations, from all social classes and spheres of national life. A number of problems, present in this difficult period of our history were dealt with in great detail: political, social, agrarian, civic and labour related. The 1940 Constitution was without doubt a well-conceived document: all that was left to do was to set it to practice.
During the first years of the 1940's, the libertarians had organised through the ALC. The basis for their popular support were the remnants of the unions that so strongly functioned before the mid-1920's. The anarchists retained a good reputation among the working class, because of their spirit of combat and sacrifice based on their selfless, revolutionary and uncorrupted past. They developed fresh cadres of militants through the newly founded Libertarian Youths (Juventudes Libertarias), with the intention of recovering terrain lost to the Communists in the unions and among students. Further, although the constitution of 1940 recognised the eight-hour day and the worker's right to strike, it also severely regulated these activities. This situation forced the anarcho-syndicalists within the CTC to create militant action groups in order to defend or negotiate their demands.
Batista was elected President and maintained his alliance with the Communist Party, who, receiving ministerial posts, money and media for propaganda among the Cuban people. They addressed Batista with considerable flattery, as "the messenger of prosperity", and collaborated with him at the party and union levels (through the official Communist electoral organisation as well as through the CTC union federation controlled from the top by them) thus betraying, once more the true goals of libertarian and revolutionary unionism.
Cuba's next President, Ramon Grau San Martin, won the elections and assumed power in 1944. The people expected radical changes since his government was expected to be social-democratic. However, Grau kept the Communists in their posts and only one significant change took place in the Cuban union movement. On May Day 1947 Grau, forced by the Cold War, expelled the marxists from their hierarchical posts within the CTC. But notwithstanding U.S. pressure, Grau left the Communist Party intact. The anarchists used this opportunity to call for free elections in almost all the unions; hence a number of their most respected comrades were elected in the CTC in different posts. Because of their prestige and dedication, the anarcho-syndicalists effectively led a number of trade unions: transport, food workers and construction. They were also able to sustain militant action groups in almost all the CTC unions. In those years, the anarchists also set up peasants associations, based on the poorest, landless, moneyless peasants. These organising efforts were more effective in the north coast province of Camaguey, an old anarchist bastion, and the coffee plantations in the southern province of Oriente, where for many years anarchists had founded and supported free agricultural collectives.
Carlos Prio Socarras assumed the presidency in 1948 and followed similar policies of tolerance in social and labour relations similar to those of Grau. In 1949 the anarchists within the CTC manoeuvred with kindred elements to create a new, separate trade union federation, the General Confederation of Workers (Confederacion General de Trabajadores or CGT). The idea, following an old anarchist tradition, was to create a workers' organisation independent from the governmentally supervised CTC; however, this attempt failed due to pressure exercised by the presidency through the Ministry of Labour, which categorically opposed it, because of the growing influence of anarcho-syndicalist ideas. In 1950, Prio outlawed the Communist Party, then known as the Popular Socialist Party, (Partido Socialista Popular, PSP). Hence, once again the Communists sought an alliance with Batista.
In March 1952 Batista, violating the constitutional system of Cuba, led a coup d'etat. The Communists took this opportunity to try to penetrate the official bureaucracy. However, they could not recover their lost influence. The Cold War was at its apogee and Batista had to be prudent with his Marxist allies. In order to fill the power vacuum among the oppositional forces, now in full retreat, Fidel Castro, an obscure electoralist politician of bourgeois origins and Jesuistic education, with a group of young revolutionaries, attacked the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba. This action was a bloody failure; their "revolutionary" program was merely a middle class one, with reformist characteristics and social-democratic content. Castro and his comrades were put in prison, and after having been pardoned, in a few months left for Mexico. The opposition to Batista became violent and, as expected, Batista retaliated in a brutal fashion.
By the end of 1956 there was definite polarisation between Batista and the opposition. The anarchist ALC decided to form an alliance with the democratic opposition forces, against the dictator. In that year, Castro landed in the Oriente province and in the following year, he launched a small guerrilla war from the mountains of that province. In the more important cities of the island, Castro's July 26th Movement, his political front, won followers who carried out provocative acts, followed by the usual government repression. By the end of 1958 Batista had lost the political war and could no longer contain the rebels by force. Castro became politically stronger and won over the rest of the opposition. His social and political program was still as it was before: social justice and reform, based on the return of the Constitution of 1940, which Batista effectively nullified. The Communists, who previously had openly backed and collaborated with Batista and even attacked Castro, changed their position and made an alliance with Castro in August 1958. Finally, on December 31, 1958, Batista fled Cuba and a new historical cycle began for the Cuban people.
4. Castroism and Exile
The anarchists participated in the struggle against Batista. Some in the guerrilla forces in Oriente province and in the Sierra del Escambray in Las Villas province, others in the urban struggle. Their objective, along with that of the rest of the Cuban people, was to liquidate the Batista dictatorship. However, they never fully trusted Castro. By 1956, they already saw in Castro a potential dictator, head of a top-down organisation with totalitarian traits, whose image was closer to that of Hitler than of Durruti. Castro, according to the ill-conceived evaluation of the democratic opposition, was a temporary yet necessary evil; a product of the confusion, fragmentation and even cowardice that existed within the opposition to Batista. The anarchists perceived Castro and his revolution differently from the political elite of the time, who hoped to manipulate the victor. At the beginning of 1959, with the excuse of purging from the CTC union federation those elements that collabourated with Batista, the new "revolutionary" government arbitrarily removed from office anarcho-syndicalists and social democrats who were oriented toward the working class movement. Many of them, in fact had been previously persecuted and jailed by Batista.
The libertarians, even though dislodged from the CTC (now called "revolutionary"), maintained their prestige with the working class. In a congress organised by the government at the end of 1959 the union elements within the 26th of July Movement, through their Secretary General, David Salvador, and allied this time with the Communist Party and its members within the union central, delivered the organisation once again to the government, this time represented by the "maximum leader of the revolution", Fidel Castro and all this according to the best "democratic tradition".
Castro, anxious to retain power at all costs, allied his regime with the Soviet Union, making Cuba one big sugar plantation for the profit of the Russians. The benefits, rights and demands that through more than a century of struggles, the Cuban workers had won at the price of their blood, ended as Marx once said, in "the rubbish heap of history". The omnipresent and despotic State became the only employer and social leader. In 1961, the old political, economic and social order collapsed completely and the island became a factory and a Leninist dominion.
Early in 1960, the anarchists rejected Castro, and adopted a combative attitude toward the government. Ultimately, their publications, El Libertario and Solidaridad Gastrdriomica, were suppressed. The only recourse was to go underground, and then into exile.
The underground resistance process had two stages. The first commenced with the clandestine publication of Nuestra Palabra Semanal (Our Weekly Message), organ of the Movement for Trade Union Action, (Movimiento de Accion Sindical. MAS), with the purpose of general information for the workers and the people. The struggle was tougher than it had been against Batista and the repression was much harsher. Unfortunately, the leadership of this new civil struggle was in the hands of the U.S. and the Cuban bourgeoisie, which had few things in common with libertarians. The U.S. was not genuinely interested in overthrowing the Castro regime and proved forever reluctant while the bourgeoisie lacked the preparation and vocation for a revolutionary enterprise of such a magnitude and caliber, but both groups were powerful and had plenty of resources. The Cuban people did not accept communism and a large number became involved in the struggle against the regime. The anarchists failed on all fronts despite their work among the proletarians and peasants, carried out with much personal sacrifice.
The second stage was that of exile, either through a sympathetic embassy or illegally. In 1961 the Cuban Libertarian Movement (Movimiento Libertario Cubano; MLC) was founded in the United States, where those shipwrecked by Castro's hurricane were regrouped, and maintained contact with the remains of the ALC in Cuba. They were few, but their labour was important for the cause of Cuban freedom. This was a period of intense work and sacrifice: propaganda, collection of money to rescue people from the island, and direct action against the Stalinist dictatorship. The 1960s were dedicated to the struggle, based entirely on personal efforts. El Gastronomico (The Food Worker) began publication in Miami and there was concerted effort made to convince the rest of the anarchist world that Castro was not really a revolutionary, as so many saw him, but a corrupt despot. The Cuban anarchists had to work hard and be patient. Manifestos, articles, essays, pamphlets, letters were necessary; they launched appeals to old friendships, to the fraternal comrades of the past, with whom difficult moments had been shared. They issued statements in Spain, France, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Panama, Chile, England, the United States, in half the world, but all in vain, for those who answered and showed solidarity were few, some because of conviction, others because of ideological affinity. Anarchists around the world either did not understand the situation or did not want to understand it; the efforts of the Cuban anarchists became a dialogue with the deaf.
In the mid-1970's changes began to take place in the anarchist world, one began to ascertain changes in the world's anti-authoritarian milieu, less in favour of the Cuban libertarians but rather toward disenchantment with Castro's revolution. Suddenly Castro was seen as a Communist dictator who oppressed his people. But it was too little too late; much precious and important time had been lost. Many anarchists were exiled, valuable comrades had been sacrificed, some had become frustrated, others remained alone on the island, and still others rotted in jails. The lack of international solidarity with the Cuban anarchists was notorious as "anarchism's bad conscience", as was later said.
This phenomenon, comparable only with what happened to the Russian anarchists in relation to the Bolsheviks in 1917 and with East European comrades in post WWII Europe, was based on a neglect of these historical precedents, and did a lot of damage and cost dearly. Lack of solidarity and ideological understanding, however, did not stop the Cuban anarchists in their struggle for freedom. In its history of more than half a century of persecutions, assassinations, deportations and imprisonments, it had never suffered a defeat with the power and magnitude of that brought by Castro. Communism has apparently won; however, Cuban anarchists today do not accept it. In the past twenty-eight years we have kept our banner high and our ideals unchanged, without ever renouncing the desire to set our people free from the despot that oppresses them.
Cuba and the anarchists have a long history of the pursuit of freedom. The early labour struggles, the important contributions to Cuban independence from Spain, their protest against U.S. interventions, their critical attitudes toward social problems during the two republics, their spirit of combat and sacrifice against the dictatorships and disorders of Machado, Batista and Castro. Finally, the unbreakable faith that unites us in the present sinister moment of our destiny, serve as a powerful spur to continue the struggle until the end.
Miami, February 1987.


text:
- Pharmacy
- Prescription Services
- New Prescription
- Refill Prescription
- Transfer Prescription
- Diabetic Supplies
- Over the Counter
- Home Medical
- Pets
IMPORTANT: HOW TO USE THIS INFORMATION: This is a summary and does NOT have all possible information about this product. This information does not assure that this product is safe, effective, or appropriate for you. This information is not individual medical advice and does not substitute for the advice of your health care professional. Always ask your health care professional for complete information about this product and your specific health needs.
COMMON BRAND NAME(S): Librium
USES: Chlordiazepoxide is used to treat anxiety and acute alcohol withdrawal. It is also used to relieve fear and anxiety before surgery. This medication belongs to a class of drugs called benzodiazepines which act on the brain and nerves (central nervous system) to produce a calming effect. It works by enhancing the effects of a certain natural chemical in the body (GABA).
HOW TO USE: Take this medication by mouth as directed by your doctor. The dosage is based on your medical condition and response to therapy. Use this medication exactly as prescribed. Do not increase your dose, take it more frequently or use it for a longer period of time than prescribed because this drug can be habit-forming. Also, if used for an extended period of time, do not suddenly stop using this drug without your doctor's approval. Some conditions may become worse when the drug is abruptly stopped. Your dose may need to be gradually decreased to avoid side effects such as seizures. When used for an extended period, this medication may not work as well and may require different dosing. Talk with your doctor if this medication stops working well.
SIDE EFFECTS: Drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, constipation, blurred vision, or headache may occur. If any of these effects persist or worsen, notify your doctor or pharmacist promptly. Remember that your doctor has prescribed this medication because he or she has judged that the benefit to you is greater than the risk of side effects. Many people using this medication do not have serious side effects. Tell your doctor immediately if any of these unlikely but serious side effects occur: mental/mood changes, slurred speech, clumsiness, trouble walking, decreased/increased interest in sex, tremor, uncontrollable movements, facial or muscle twitching, trouble urinating, sleep disturbances. Tell your doctor immediately if any of these highly unlikely but very serious side effects occur: fainting, stomach/abdominal pain, persistent nausea, vomiting, fatigue, yellowing eyes or skin, dark urine, persistent sore throat or fever. A serious allergic reaction to this drug is unlikely, but seek immediate medical attention if it occurs. Symptoms of a serious allergic reaction include: rash, itching/swelling (especially of the face/tongue/throat), severe dizziness, trouble breathing. This is not a complete list of possible side effects. If you notice other effects not listed above, contact your doctor or pharmacist. In the US - Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088. In Canada - Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to Health Canada at 1-866-234-2345.
PRECAUTIONS: Before taking this medication, tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are allergic to it; or if you have any other allergies. This product may contain inactive ingredients, which can cause allergic reactions or other problems. Talk to your pharmacist for more details. Before using this medication, tell your doctor or pharmacist your medical history, especially of: liver disease, kidney disease, lung/breathing problems (e.g., COPD, sleep apnea), blood disorder (porphyria), drug or alcohol abuse. This drug may make you dizzy or drowsy or cause blurred vision. Do not drive, use machinery, or do any activity that requires alertness or clear vision until you are sure you can perform such activities safely. Avoid alcoholic beverages. Caution is advised when using this drug in the elderly because they may be more sensitive to the effects of the drug, especially the drowsiness effect. This medication is not recommended for use during pregnancy due to the potential for harm to an unborn baby. If you become pregnant or think you may be pregnant, inform your doctor immediately. Consult your doctor for more details. Based on information from related drugs, this drug may pass into breast milk and may have undesirable effects on a nursing infant. Therefore, breast-feeding while using this medication is not recommended. Consult your doctor before breast-feeding.
DRUG INTERACTIONS: Your doctor or pharmacist may already be aware of any possible drug interactions and may be monitoring you for them. Do not start, stop, or change the dosage of any medicine before checking with them first. This drug should not be used with the following medication because a very serious interaction may occur: sodium oxybate. If you are currently using this medication, tell your doctor or pharmacist before starting chlordiazepoxide. Before using this medication, tell your doctor or pharmacist of all prescription and nonprescription/herbal products you may use, especially of: antacids, certain anti-depressants (e.g., fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, nefazodone), cimetidine, clozapine, digoxin, disulfiram, kava, levodopa. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you also take drugs that cause drowsiness such as: antihistamines that cause drowsiness (e.g., diphenhydramine), anti-seizure drugs (e.g., carbamazepine), medicine for sleep (e.g., sedatives), muscle relaxants, narcotic pain relievers (e.g., codeine), psychiatric medicines (e.g., phenothiazines such as chlorpromazine, or tricyclics such as amitriptyline), tranquilizers. Check the labels on all your medicines (e.g., cough-and-cold products) because they may contain drowsiness-causing ingredients. Ask your pharmacist about the safe use of those products. This product can affect the results of certain lab tests. Make sure laboratory personnel and your doctors know you use this drug. Smoking can decrease the effectiveness of this drug (through liver enzyme induction). Tell your doctor if you smoke or if you have recently stopped smoking because your dose may need to be adjusted. This document does not contain all possible interactions. Therefore, before using this product, tell your doctor or pharmacist of all the products you use. Keep a list of all your medications with you, and share the list with your doctor and pharmacist.
OVERDOSE: If overdose is suspected, contact your local poison control center or emergency room immediately. US residents can call the US national poison hotline at 1-800-222-1222. Canadian residents should call their local poison control center directly. Symptoms of overdose may include: severe drowsiness, slowed/reduced reflexes, slowed breathing, fainting, loss of consciousness.
NOTES: Do not share this medication with others. It is against the law. If this drug is used for an extended period of time, laboratory and/or medical tests (e.g., liver function tests, complete blood count) may be performed periodically to check for side effects. Consult your doctor for more details.
MISSED DOSE: If you miss a dose, use it as soon as you remember. If it is near the time of the next dose, skip the missed dose and resume your usual dosing schedule. Do not double the dose to catch up.
STORAGE: Store at room temperature between 59 and 86 degrees F (15-30 degrees C) away from light and moisture. Do not store in the bathroom. Keep all medicines away from children and pets. Do not flush medications down the toilet or pour them into a drain unless instructed to do so. Properly discard this product when it is expired or no longer needed. Consult your pharmacist or local waste disposal company for more details about how to safely discard your product.
MEDICAL ALERT: Your condition can cause complications in a medical emergency. For enrollment information call MedicAlert at 1-800-854- 1166 (USA) or 1-800-668-1507 (Canada).
Information last revised May 2010. Copyright(c) 2010 First Databank, Inc.


text:
J.A. (Joe) Konrath announced May 17th that he had signed a contract with AmazonEncore, Amazon's publishing imprint, to publish his latest mystery, Shaken, the 7th in his Jack Daniels series.
Big news? You bet! The news flew around the Web. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter updates, Publishers Weekly and the Wall Street Journal covered the news. Why? Although AmazonEncore is now a year old, Konrath's latest is the first time AmazonEncore has signed a contract for a new book from a popular series by a known author. (AmazonEncore publishes, they note on their site, "exceptional, overlooked books and authors with more potential than their sales may indicate.")
Konrath reported that the Kindle edition will be available for $2.99 in October, 2010, and the paperback edition version will be available next February.
Why did Konrath go with AmazonEncore rather than a traditional print publisher? Hyperion published his first six books in the Jack Daniels series, but when his agents, Jane Dystel and Miriam Goderich, pitched Shaken to traditional publishers, they were unsuccessful. Amazon made an offer, and, as Konrath put it on his blog: "I signed a print deal with a company that can email every single person who has ever bought one of my books through their website, plus millions of potential new customers. I've never had that kind of marketing power behind one of my novels. I'd be an idiot not to do this." His agents, he reports, were with him all the way and negotiated a contract he's happy with.
As for those traditional publishers? Konrath writes, "They passed on it. Their loss. Their big loss. Their big, huge, monumental, epic fail."
Konrath has been making serious hay with Kindle editions of his works. (Read his blog to find out how.) Amazon was happy to snag him.
MWA member Jason Pinter wrote about the deal and what it means to other writers in his column at Huffington Post. Pinter's conclusion? What Konrath is able to do with AmazonEncore and with Kindle books is definitely not what everyone is able to do. Joe also has "Whoa There" advice on his blog.
Read the transcript of the live internet chat hosted by HWA's Nick Mamatas in October 2003, after Konrath had a contract for his first three Jack Daniels books. (Last item here.) If you do, you'll understand what everyone who reads his blog, his Facebook updates or his Twitterfeed knows. Konrath is a self-promoter extraordinaire, works hard at what he does, has put in the time to master his craft, and doesn't take no for an answer.
For a humorous take on the Konrath news see this post from ireaderreview.com.