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Hello its been awhile. Thirteen days, to be exact. Which is a short while if you consider my infrequency yadda yadda ya. I'm ready if you are.
I felt like I was in the mood to blog yesterday and today but now here I am and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Hey is that that "cell phone charger" purse everyone made fun of Kim Kardashian for not too long ago? I think it is or something thereof and now I want it… so small and compact, for all the clubbing that I do not do.
One Christmas, two ago, I showed up to my Nana's wearing this and my mom was wearing a red plaid shift dress too. We have had this happen many times over the years it's a cosmic like mother like daughter thing, with no prior planning or talking, it just happens.
This post is just an old fashioned smattering. Blogging for the sake of blogging. Blog and telling. Honestly, the good things that happen just from pressing publish here sometimes y'all might just try it for yourselves huh? Talk less shit and do more shit.
How to make friends: buy some.
Hi girls.
Bedridden all weekend basically movie after movie bender. We went out for Mr. Greek Sunday early night and it was DEAD. The soup sucked. The salad, okay.
I don't mind the post apocalyptic vibe after watching infinity end of the world movies this weekend. This setting would be trashed if that were real. I know they hooked it up with Dollarama decorations as there was one in the parking lot and I used MY BRAIN.
Looked normal but was bland. Needed soup all the same ah suppose.
Not the best foodie photo in terms of subject.
On my walk home the other night. This store always has a cute display alack I'm not into clutter I have enough but I appreciate the artwork. We are drawn to things that remind us of things we once experienced or owned, another time period.
I'm blessed I don't have a sweet tooth. I love photographing sweets though, decadent, colourful, darling confectionaries that they are. I can't walk by a Fortino's bakery showcase without getting whiplash on my phone camera arm capturing those bad boys fast enough. Stay tuned on this though I just recalled something I have coming down the pipeline for y'all regarding dessert.
I think this is the Kylie lipstick app. It's basic. I dun curr.
My NEXT post will be about the ADVENTURES OF RAYMARIE. Get it? Marie and me? BYE BRANGELINA.
Big appreciator of the Burlington sunset game. It's always gorgeous from the vantage point of this parking lot. It is the best I don't care how much suburban shit is in the way.
Oh hi there you've been indoctrinated into the Burlington town club :).
I do it's true. It stems from year's back during my early hey day of emo selfies gazing into the lens trying to out-stare myself. I am the subject, I am the artist gazing back at. Some people have resting bitch face, me? Stoic. Because my mind is sizing up everything before me, calculating shit I is busy guy. I also admire the vacancy a la editorial aesthetic.
I love Toronto. You get to go on a magical Christmas adventure everywhere you turn.
Last week Monday and now she's back in Mumbai honestly one of my greatest lesser known lowkey pals, cos of that whole doesn't live here thing but we're all huge fans. Come back soon!
Nostrils check. jk. I was just so tired-looking this day it seemed to be the only flattering angle to get me at. I worked at wework this day because a mystery package arrived of beautiful psychedelic lipsticks and sometimes the universe is like Raymi here, you need some more disco in your life and you are like yasss bitch!
This lipstain stays on hours so I don't have to feel naked lipped like I normally am. It's all in the details.
Yesturrrrrrday and I am okay with that.
Always take several variations of the same picture so as to ensure pissing off everybody.
Got these for my Dad lol. We should live in a society where we get paid for a brief review of every item we ever buy as to always be making money back. I'm not wrong. Like, if you wanted to know my thoughts about either of these things? You gotta pay for that even if it's a shit review you get paid oh the things I would say about this grilled chicken pasta lean cuisine CRAP A LA CRAP right now. There is my brief review now put $1 into my account thanks bye hahaha.
Nana's tree on fleek. Always is. Oh but if this tree could talk lol.
Sure I'm down you know it.
Work hallway.
Wedge salad I can still taste, think about, and will eat again.
This is the other bathroom at work it took me a few weeks to even discover. The other one is hella drab so I was like SWEET RELIEF when I discovered this one.
Oh hi there she is!
We shared mussels, the special. Two orders. Patrick from work was there too. It was a very chilly night.
And yes I was as I feel like I do nothing mostly, which is fine I don't feel the burning sensation to show a non-stop cocktail party lifestyle full of fabulous shit I much enjoy the mundane simple pleasures blah blah but I do like to go out a wee bit to balance it out, the cold weather makes me feel claustrophobic from hibernation at times which makes Toronto ideal because there are just so many various pockets of entertainment for you to explore when you start climbing the walls.
Alright I get it, you get it? Have a good one!


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Floor Puzzle 36 pc; Jungle Friends
Tax included.
36-piece Puzzle. Something special, high -quality floor puzzle in wonderful, heavy-duty, contour-shaped gift box. A slightly-recessed lid makes the storage box easy for little fingers to open. Rugged, jumbo pieces. Suitable for ages 3+
Puzzle is 50.8cm H x 68.8cm W
Box is (about) 22.8cm W x 28cm H x 7.6cm D
Conforms to or exceeds both U.S. and European safety standards.

subset: commoncrawl


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Word Life is a literature organisation based in Yorkshire dedicated to showcasing exciting new writing. We run events, workshops, publications and digital projects.
If you want to learn more about Wordlife, or are interested in working with us on commissions and new work, take a look at the Wordlife brochure.
Wordlife Projects
About Wordlife
Formed in 2006, Word Life has evolved into one of the leading advocates for literature in the Yorkshire region. Word Life started as a response to the lack of live literature events in Sheffield and since then has developed a programme across Yorkshire and beyond, including events, publications and bespoke projects designed to bring new audiences to literature.
Word Life is part of a not-for-profit social enterprise called Opus Independents which also publishes an arts and culture magazine called Now Then in Sheffield and Manchester, various music events and a promotional and distribution service. Word Life's regular event series is the most popular and diverse regular poetry event in Yorkshire. Word Life have run events in a range of locations, from pubs to theatres, nightclubs, museums, parks and everything in between.
We've featured leading poets from the UK, such as Kate Tempest, Lemn Sissay and Joe Dunthorne, and the best-known poets from the US slam scene, such as Buddy Wakefield and Derrick Brown. We've partnered with national organisations like Apples and Snakes, The British Council and The Arts Council alongside long-standing relationships with local festivals such as Off The Shelf Festival of Words. Our events have been featured in The Independent, The Guardian and The Yorkshire Post.
Artwork: Phlegm


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- Description
Here is a few glossy Sticker Of Five Pumpkins to liven up your water bottle, sketchbook cover, laptop, phone case, skateboard, and more! The perfect and affordable gifts for party and shower gifts, birthdays gifts for teachers, teens, or students. Stick pumpkin stickers on your bottle, wall, window, or anything! Not just for friends, but for yourself, this is a great way to decorate your items with Pumpkin Stickers and give them their perfect personal touch!
Removable kiss-cut vinyl sticker.
Super durable and waterproof.
Sticker Dimensions: approx 4 *1.2in
This sticker requires 3-5 business days to handcraft.
over $49.00
by world's top designers
Precious Metals


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(covers information from several alternate timelines)
An engram or memory engram was an impression made physically in neural tissue of the brain by any mental stimulus, thereby explaining the persistence of memory.
Shortly before 2268, Dr. Richard Daystrom developed multitronics – a method of constructing a computer that could think, and of impressing memory engrams upon its circuits. The result was the M-5 multitronic unit, developed with Daystrom's own engrams. As Daystrom was near a nervous breakdown at the time, the M-5 was (like its predecessors M-1 through M-4) "not entirely successful". While multitronics showed some promise, it was eventually superseded by isolinear circuitry. (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer")
Memory beams were able to influence one's memory by erasing engrams in the neural tissue. James T. Kirk experienced this first hand on Amerind. (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome")
Telepathic memory retrieval, as used by the Ullians, involved their using telepathic abilities to retrieve and expand lost or faded memory engrams of an individual. (TNG: "Violations")
The memory virus was a pathogenic parasite that disguised itself as a memory engram – normally a memory so traumatic that the host suppressed it into the subconscious. (VOY: "Flashback")
A memory wipe is a medical procedure designed for the purpose of selectively eliminating memory engrams from the mind of an individual. (TNG: "Pen Pals"; DS9: "Sons of Mogh")
The Banea punished murderers by forcing them to relive their victim's last moments every fourteen hours; this was done by inserting the memory engrams of the victim into their brain. Tom Paris' reaction to this method showed that it harmed the Human brain. (VOY: "Ex Post Facto")
The Doctor conducted biomolecular scans of Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres following their exhibiting odd behavior, performing actions while on duty aboard the USS Voyager but claiming to know nothing about them. He discovered that during these incidents, a different memory pattern was present in place of their normal engrams, which he believed to be an entirely different brain wave pattern superimposed over their own. (VOY: "Cathexis")
The Mari sought out memory engrams that contained the memories of violent thoughts. The Mari then removed those engrams, because having violent thoughts was a crime on their world. This procedure was known as an engramatic purge. (VOY: "Random Thoughts")
The Quarren edited the memory engrams of humanoids they captured in order to gather workers for their homeworld of Quarra. (VOY: "Workforce", "Workforce, Part II")
In 2375, several of Data's memory engrams were damaged after he was shot by a Son'a weapon on the Ba'ku planet. This caused the activation of his memory loss fail-safe system. Later, on board the USS Enterprise-E, Geordi La Forge replaced them. When Data was reactivated, his first inquiry was pertaining to the missing engrams. (Star Trek: Insurrection)
In an alternate 2379, Kes had lost over ninety-nine percent of her memory engrams due to the effect of the morilogium. After being sent back in time a few weeks due to a side-effect of The Doctor's bio-temporal chamber, she had lost over ninety-eight percent of the engrams. After yet another such time-shift, to her ninth birthday, the amount was reported as over ninety-five percent. (VOY: "Before and After")
In the 29th century, Lieutenant Ducane explained that because Kathryn Janeway and Seven of Nine were never transported into their relative futures, their memory engrams would not require re-sequencing. (VOY: "Relativity")


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On May 14th, the Billings Clinic in Montana issued a breach notification statement, which explained that they detected unusual activity within one of its employee's email accounts.
The employee in question was traveling overseas on a medical mission when the email account was compromised.
"As a result of the forensics investigation, we learned that an unauthorized individual had access to emails and attachments within that one account, some of which included patient information."
As for scope and scale, information on more than 8,400 individuals was exposed. While the data varied from one patient to the next, the data included patient names, dates of birth, contact information, medical record numbers, internal financial control numbers, diagnoses, and some information about medical services received.
The incident highlights a common, but often overlooked problem.
As analyst Rebecca Herold explains:
"It is very common for data and devices to be hacked while traveling and for those who were hacked to not even realize it. People are often unaware of what is going on around them when they are travelling. They are using any charger station they can find, they speak loudly, and they use free Wi-Fi.
Shoulder surfing is also still very common; it's a decades-old tactic that still works effectively today. The skimmers on charging stations are increasing in use. Don't think that if you are in a frequent flyer lounge that these things do not happen there; they happen in those exclusive lounge areas possibly more than in other places."
The bottom line is, any time your employees are away from your office, the risks of hacking increase. While there are no simple solutions, it bears making your employees aware of the added risks any time they're travelling. It's far from a perfect solution, but it's a good place to start.


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Golden, Silver and Bronze Spanish Flamenco Hair Combs
Amazing catalog full of Flamenco, Sevillanas and Spanish Dance Hair Combs. These models are just the perfect accessory for all the Flamenco dresses and skirts. Available in a variety of designs and colours: red, pink, fuchsia, green, grey, blue, yellow, orange, silver, gold, bronze… You just can't choose one! Good price for value. Ideal for weddings, parties, events, dance performances, communions and any other occasion.


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Lead Me to the Rock
To the choirmaster: with lstringed instruments. Of David.
61 Hear my cry, O God,
mlisten to my prayer;
2 from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is nfaint.
Lead me to othe rock
that is higher than I,
3 for you have been pmy refuge,
a strong qtower against the enemy.
4 Let me rdwell in your tent forever!
Let me take refuge under sthe shelter of your wings! Selah
5 For you, O God, have heard my vows;
you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
6 tProlong uthe life of the king;
may his years endure to all generations!
7 May he be enthroned forever before God;
appoint vsteadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!
8 So will I ever sing praises to your name,
as I wperform my vows day after day.
My Soul Waits for God Alone
To the choirmaster: according to xJeduthun. A Psalm of David.
62 For God alone ymy soul zwaits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
2 aHe alone is my rock and my salvation,
3 How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like da leaning wall, a tottering fence?
4 They only plan to thrust him down from his ehigh position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
fThey bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. Selah
5 For God alone, O ymy soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
6 aHe only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
7 On God rests my gsalvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, hmy refuge is God.
8 iTrust in him at all times, O people;
jpour out your heart before him;
God is ha refuge for us. Selah
9 kThose of low estate are but a breath;
those of high estate lare a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
kthey are together lighter than a breath.
10 Put no trust in extortion;
mset no vain hopes on robbery;
nif riches increase, set not your heart on them.
11 oOnce God has spoken;
otwice have I heard this:
that ppower belongs to God,
12 and that to you, O Lord, qbelongs steadfast love.
For you will rrender to a man
according to his work.
My Soul Thirsts for You
A Psalm of David, swhen he was in the wilderness of Judah.
63 O God, you are my God; tearnestly I seek you;
umy soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in va dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding wyour power and glory.
3 Because your xsteadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you yas long as I live;
5 My soul will be bsatisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you cupon my bed,
and meditate on you in cthe watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in dthe shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul eclings to you;
your right hand fupholds me.
9 But those who seek to destroy my life
gshall go down into hthe depths of the earth;
10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
they shall be a portion for jackals.
11 But ithe king shall rejoice in God;
all who jswear by him shall exult,
Hide Me from the Wicked
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
64 Hear my voice, O God, in my mcomplaint;
preserve my life from dread of the enemy.
2 Hide me from nthe secret plots of the wicked,
from the throng of evildoers,
3 who owhet their tongues like swords,
who paim bitter words like arrows,
4 shooting from qambush at the blameless,
shooting at him suddenly and rwithout fear.
5 They shold fast to their evil purpose;
they talk of tlaying snares secretly,
thinking, u"Who can see them?"
6 They search out injustice,
saying, "We have accomplished a diligent search."
For vthe inward mind and heart of a man are deep.
7 wBut God shoots his arrow at them;
they are wounded suddenly.
8 They are brought to ruin, with their own xtongues turned against them;
all who ysee them will zwag their heads.
9 Then all mankind yfears;
they atell what God has brought about
and ponder what he has done.
10 Let bthe righteous one rejoice in the Lord
and ctake refuge in him!
Let all dthe upright in heart exult!
O God of Our Salvation
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.
65 Praise eis due to you,1 O God, in Zion,
and to you shall fvows be performed.
2 O you who ghear prayer,
to you hshall all flesh come.
3 When iiniquities prevail against me,
you jatone for our transgressions.
4 kBlessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to ldwell in your courts!
We shall be msatisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!
5 By nawesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
O God of our salvation,
the hope of all othe ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas;
6 the one who by his strength established the mountains,
being pgirded with might;
7 who qstills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
rthe tumult of the peoples,
8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and swater it;2
you greatly enrich it;
tthe river of God is full of water;
uyou provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with vshowers,
and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks woverflow with abundance.
12 xThe pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills ygird themselves with joy,
13 zthe meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they ashout and sing together for joy.


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From NYC's The Villager, Dec. 6-12:
Drunk driver on Hudson Park bike path mows down cyclist
In a city where speeding cars and trucks rule the road and bicyclists ride at their own risk, the Hudson River Park bike path would seem to offer one of the safest places to cycle.
Yet the death of bicyclist Eric Ng, a 22-year-old New York University graduate, on Friday night at Clarkson St., a block north of Houston St., after being struck head on by a drunken driver speeding down the Hudson River Park bike path, is the second death of a cyclist on the path in the last five months. According to reports, Ng (pronounced "Ing") had left a concert at the Knitting Factory on Leonard St. and was biking north, heading to a party in the East Village. The car, a silver BMW, going southbound, was driven by Eugenio Cidron, 27, an East Village resident who had attended a party with co-workers at Chelsea Piers and had mistakenly turned onto the bike path, according to news reports.
Cidron had been driving at a high speed and Ng was killed instantly in the crash, according to police. Cidron was charged with drunken driving, manslaughter and reckless endangerment.
On June 22, Dr. Carl Nacht, 56, an avid marathoner, was cycling on the bike path at 11:30 p.m., when a Police Department tow truck struck him as it crossed the bike path while turning into the auto tow pound on Pier 76 at W. 36th St.; Nacht died three days later from head injuries suffered in the collision.
The Hudson River Park bike path is clearly separated from car traffic by a rock wall and planted median. Yet, it is intersected at various points by crossings for vehicles, such as at Gansevoort Peninsula, where the city has a garage for Sanitation Department trucks; as well as at W. Houston St. for the Pier 40 parking garage; and at destinations further to the north like the Circle Line and passenger ship piers.
As a result, bikers being struck by or colliding with vehicles crossing the bike path is not new, and has been an ongoing concern. In addition to the worst instance, Nacht's death, bicycles colliding with vehicles crossing the path have resulted in more than a few close brushes and dislocated shoulders.
But the fact that a drunken driver so easily was able to get on the protected bike path — with fatal consequences — has heightened concerns to the point where something, at last, may now be done to correct the situation.
Currently, the only physical barriers to keep car drivers from driving on the path are yellow pylons screwed into the center of the path at spots such as just south of Chelsea Piers and at W. Houston St., near the entrance to Pier 40. There are also special stoplights on the bike path with bike symbols on the lights — though these are not physical barriers to drivers.
The bike path was built by the State Department of Transportation as part of the Route 9A (West Side Highway) reconstruction project and is still owned by D.O.T. However, the Hudson River Park Trust, the state-city authority that operates and is building the 5-mile-long park from Chambers St. to W. 59th St., next to which the bike path runs parallel, is basically in charge of the bike path's daily maintenance, according to Doug Currey, State D.O.T. regional director.
Chris Martin, the Trust's spokesperson, said in a statement, "The staff and directors of the Hudson River Park Trust extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Eric Ng, who was fatally struck by a drunk driver on the Route 9A bike path this past Friday night near Clarkson St. in Greenwich Village. The bikeway…is an important part of the city's transportation network and one of the nation's busiest bikeways, according to Transportation Alternatives. The Trust is working closely with the relevant agencies to assist in any way possible in the investigation of this tragic accident."
Indeed, Currey said D.O.T., the Trust, Transportation Alternatives — a nonprofit organization advocating for pedestrians and bicyclists — and the Parks Department will jointly review the bike path's safety and see what can or should be done to improve it. Currey said they also plan to talk to "businesses" in the waterfront park, including Chelsea Piers, about what they can do to ensure the path's safety.
Asked when they'll announce any safety improvements they come up with, Currey said, "Very shortly — it'll be a high priority."
Yet, Currey said, the path is well marked now, noting, "There was a yellow bollard on the path, there were signals with bike symbols — you'd have to be completely callous" to go speeding down the bike path in a car.
As for why the yellow bollards are able to bend down, allowing vehicles to drive over them, Currey said his understanding was that that was done to allow snowplows to clear the bike path in the winter. On the other hand, a fixed pole, while stopping cars, could present a hazard to bikers and rollerbladers.
"There's always a tradeoff," he explained. "Look at the potential impact to thousands of riders [versus] the occasional drunkard who goes on the path," he said.
"It's still a developing field," Currey said of bike paths, though adding, "New York City — it's an area of as intense usage as there is. It's been fortunate that for a number of years, it didn't happen," he said regarding bicyclist fatalities on the path.
What about ramps and bridges to separate cars and bikes? Currey said it won't work and probably is impractical because the park is very narrow, which doesn't allow adequate space for bridges.
"Maybe someone will come up with better ideas," he said. "We're open to any and all suggestions at this point."
Asked where people should send their suggestions on how to make the bike path safer, he said to send them to him at New York State Department of Transportation, c/o Doug Currey, 47-40 21st St., Long Island City, NY 11101.
Barbara Ross, a volunteer with Time's Up!, the East Village-based environmental organization that helps promote the monthly Critical Mass bike rides, said she knew Ng by face from Time's Up! rides and Critical Mass.
"He named his bike," she noted. "He really was passionate about biking."
Ross said not long ago she was cycling on the Hudson River Park bike path and saw a cab driving along it. The driver, who luckily was going slowly, asked her for help to get off the path.
"Basically, we need more markings because people are confused," Ross said. "And Chelsea Piers should have some responsibility, because the person [Cidron] got drunk there. And we need enforcement: A lot of cyclists are seeing more cars out there on the bike path."
Chelsea Piers did not return a call for comment by press time.
In a related story, according to the Washington Square News, Willa Thompson, an N.Y.U. junior, was in stable condition at St. Vincent's Hospital following a Nov. 28 bike accident. She had been biking home — like Ng returning from the Knitting Factory in Tribeca — when she was struck by a U.P.S. truck at 11:45 p.m., sending her flying over her bike's handlebars. The accident left her with a shattered pelvis, five broken vertebrae, three broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
Yet, she said once she's healed she plans to keep riding her bike.
See more reasons WHY WE FIGHT.


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COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. — Even though COVID has shaken up almost every aspect of everyday life, people are still falling in love. And some of those lovebirds are bound to take the plunge into marriage— but nobody dreams of walking down the aisle with a thick N-95 mask obscuring the smile stretched across their face.
Couples pick out their venue, their decorations, and outfits for their wedding party—and in 2021, you will likely also be picking out the type, color and style of face masks guests and the bridal party will be wearing.
This is a problem that Kim Hamlin is prepared to solve for you.
She has sold nearly 5,000 face masks over the last year via her Etsy storefront, with 4,000 of those being specifically made for weddings.
"It's definitely a full-time job. I'd say I do about 10 hours a day," Hamlin told FOX 17 when they stopped by to visit Thursday morning.
Back in March, when everyone was scurrying to find as much PPE as they could, Hamlin and her daughter, who was visiting from California, began whipping out masks to sell on Etsy.
"And then a customer approached me on Etsy, probably towards the end of April, and said, 'Hey, have you ever thought about doing weddings?'"
Well, she had not thought of focusing on weddings, but she gave it a go.
"That order ended up being 85 masks," she said.
"I would say by May, I had a second wedding—that was like 50 masks."
Hamlin started her Etsy shop, Kim's Vintage Designs, way back in 2009, but didn't really treat it like a full-time gig until the pandemic.
"When I reopened my shop in the beginning of April of last year, I had 119 sales from my jewelry from previous years," she said.
She used to create unique jewelry by piecing together parts from different vintage pieces she would find.
Now she is on track to hit 3,100 orders on her Etsy shop by this weekend. Of course, many of those orders contain multiple masks.
She has sold about 5,000 face masks in the last 12 months, with 4,000 of those being wedding orders.
"I will get brides that are in a pinch and say, 'Hey, I need masks by Thursday, and it's Monday,'" she said.
"So I've had to quick scramble around, make them, and overnight them to the people."
One time she had to overnight a set of masks directly to the Bellagio in Las Vegas for a couple who had forgotten about face masks until just days before the ceremony.
She works with each customer to determine which fabric, color and style they want. She even created the masks for her son's wedding this past November.
"You know, everybody has to wear a mask; nobody wants to wear it on their wedding day," she said.
"So if I can design something that is going to make their day better, then I feel like I'm doing my job."
Kim's Vintage Designs— Etsy Shop, Facebook Page
This story originally reported by Michael Martin on FOX17online.com


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Un rapport inquiétant circule au Kremlin, préparé par l'Agence fédérale de l'énergie atomique (FAAE), proposant des mesures d'urgence concernant les réacteurs nucléaires de la Russie face aux possibilités de pannes d'électricité majeures dû aux intenses vents solaires des jours à venir qui pourraient même aller jusqu'à entraîner des « explosions atomique spontanées ».
Se basant sur l'expérience de la panne d'électricité généralisée au Chili suite à la formation de la tâche solaire 1302, l'Agence craint le pire pour la Russie.
La FAAE croit aussi que la chute du satellite UARS de la NASA serait dû aux vents solaires produits par cette nouvelle explosion.
La NASA a elle-même averti les américains de se préparer à une éventuelle tempête solaire énorme et a diffusé une vidéo réalisée par un de ses employés afin que les employés de la NASA « se préparent maintenant ».
L'article original, en anglais, est ici et contient plus d'informations.
A frightening report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) states that "emergency notices" have gone out to all of Russia's nuclear power plants warning them that a potential "blast" from our Sun could cause "massive power blackouts"and could even result in "spontaneous atomic explosions."
Prompting this unprecedented warning was our Sun"s unleashing of a massive X1.9 solar flare from the behemoth Sunspot 1302 yesterday, and that is just days away from putting our Earth squarely in its sights, that this FAAE report is blaming for the near total blackout that hit the entire South American nation of Chile within minutes of this event occurring.
This FAAE report further warns that the blackout that occurred in Chile due to yesterday's solar blast was forewarned about by a similar event that occurred earlier this month in the United States after their Southern California and Arizona regions were hit by a massive power blackout on 8 September.
Even more concerning to the FAAE about these solar blasts were their being connected by Russian atomic scientists to the nuclear explosion at a nuclear-waste facility in southern France that occurred on 12 September and a Michigan nuclear plant 'cooling failure' that occurred on 16 September, both of which were quickly followed by at least six more massive solar blasts occurring in less than 24 hours from 18 September until 19 September.
The FAAE also states in their report that the fall from low-space orbit of NASA's UARS climate satellite yesterday can, likewise, be blamed on these solar blasts too, a position supported by US space scientists who recently discovered that 90 minutes after these solar blasts die down, they spring to life again producing an extra surge of extreme ultraviolet radiation, and which, according to NASA scientist Rachel Hock:
'The extra energy from the late phase can have a big effect on Earth. Extreme ultraviolet wavelengths are particularly good at heating and ionizing Earth's upper atmosphere. When our planet's atmosphere is heated by extreme UV radiation, it puffs up, accelerating the decay of low-orbiting satellites.'
Interesting to note of all of these events is how unprepared people in the West are to face what the FAAE terms as the 'worst events to come' and have, also, been warned about by American experts and scientists too, including the World Net Daily article titled U.S. warned of threat worse than Katrina, plague, WWII that, in part, said:
'More horrifying than the plague of Black Death across Europe. More costly in lives than World War II. Financially, it could make the Katrina repairs look like a pocketful of change. And it's not a matter of if, but when.
That's the alarming warning issued by John G. Kappenman, owner of Storm Analysis Consultants and an expert on the dangers of electromagnetic pulse damage to modern society, with a list of qualifications after his name as long as a phone book.
The issue of EMP dangers to the Earth " either from a CME, a coronal mass ejection, which is an eruption of power from the sun, or from a nuclear-triggered EMP wave intended to destroy a society " have been the subject of multiple reports in recent months.
WND reported just days ago that the U.S. House authorized plans to defend America's power grid against such dangers, but the Senate left citizens to fend for themselves, eliminating the contingency plans."
NASA, too, again warned the American people last year of a pending solar storm telling them to get ready for a "once in a lifetime solar storm" and this past June released a video to all of their employees to "start preparing now".
To why these American people fail to protect themselves from known dangers to come is perplexing to many, especially after this past weeks report on the catastrophic Joplin Missouri tornado that killed 162 and destroyed 9,000 homes, but which showed the huge loss of life was due to "complacency and confusion".
It's as if, one researcher remarked, that the American people are simply unable to respond to anything unless it occurs within minutes or seconds of their hearing about it, and even then it's doubtful many of them will act to protect themselves.
To what is causing these massive solar blasts in the first place there are many speculations, but it is interesting to note the contents of the Federal Security Service (FSB) addendum to this FAAE report suggesting that the 'takeout' of two of America's top planetary scientists this past month are related and show the ends to which the US is going to in their effort to keep the truth hidden.
The first NASA scientist mentioned by the FSB in their addendum was the Israeli-American Dr. Stewart Nozette who was locked away in solitary confinement on 6 September after his pleading guilty to spying for Israel.
Dr. Nozette, who was on the US National Space Council in President George H.W. Bush's White House, worked closely with his fellow NASA scientist, the British-American Dr. Michael Drake, who, on 22 September, was reported dead by the authorities with no reason given.
Both Dr. Nozette and Dr. Drake, the FSB continues, were the foremost American researchers into planetary type bodies (meteors, comets, asteroids, etc.) and were "more than likely" involved in making sure the secrets they knew would get out the world at large.
The FSB further notes that the "espionage network" Dr. Nozette and Dr. Drake were part of was, also, "more than likely" compromised by the MOSSAD agent known as Brian Alexik captured last year by US Federal agents.
MOSSAD agent Alexik was compared to fictional super agent Jason Bourne for his ability to evade police and for the weapons, equipment and mystery that surrounded him after his daring escape from US police authorities last year. However, within a fortnight after Dr. Nozette was put into solitary confinement, and the day after Dr. Drake was reported dead, Alexik, acting as his own attorney, was convicted for this "crimes," but in an unprecedented turn of events was given a 7-year "suspended" jail sentence after which he "disappeared."
Though all of these events contained herein certainly beg for more examination, it is more important that one should start preparing for whatever is to come, much sooner than later. After all, there are indeed many mysteries surrounding everything these days, but keeping oneself and their families safe should take the greater priority.


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The Slab Hunter: Ben Wilkinson Woodwork
It didn't take long for Ben Wilkinson to figure out that there was freedom to be had in working for himself—and that freedom was the first requirement if he wanted to go surfing whenever the waves got huge.
"I left home when I was 16," he remembers, "which was old enough in my eyes. But I needed a job, so I started a carpentry apprenticeship with a local surfer and builder in my hometown of North Narrabeen in Australia. I was washing dishes at his wife's café, and he offered me a job and taught me well. I've used those skills all around the world—working cattle ranches, building homes and doing commercial construction."
With trade work paying the bills, Ben could fund his dream of riding the biggest waves in the world—a dream that led him to settle on the North Shore of O'ahu, a few miles from the hallowed waters of Waimea Bay. Big Ben—as he's known to friends— became a fixture in the big-wave community, competing on the professional circuit and wrangling set waves on gigantic days at Mavericks, Waimea and the Hawaiian outer reefs.
"When I was on the Big Wave Tour," he says, "I'd always be upfront with my bosses that I might have to leave for a swell. But if I had to go for a week to compete, my job usually wasn't there when I got back. So I found a way to work just as hard, but for myself."
That meant shifting from construction to salvaging and milling wood that was bound for the burn pile or the landfill.
"I'd always wanted to work with big slabs like I do now," he continues. "I got a first taste of it from working with jarrah and river red gum back in Australia. Here in Hawai'i, I provide a service for arborists by removing usable trees they're taking down—the bigger the better. It's a lot of labor for the tree guys to process them, so if they're not reclaimed by someone, they're usually chipped, cut up into small chunks or thrown away. This is a way that we can help each other out."
After salvaging the wood, Ben hauls it to his open-air workshop, where he eventually crafts it into fine furniture, sculptures and surfboards. In an island ecosystem that has lost much of its native forest, turning throwaway wood into beautiful and worthwhile products carries a tangible message about the mindful use of limited natural resources.
"Most of the trees I work with are invasive species," he says. "There are some great reforestation projects that are starting to happen here, and clearing the invasives is part of that. There's an abundance of resources if we're creative in how we salvage and recycle. And repurposing the invasives gives native trees like koa a better chance."
Workwear is not a new thing for us, but we're excited to be reimagining the work-specific side of Patagonia. To stand up to the toughest tasks, we've developed a utilitarian line of jackets, shirts and pants built with super-durable, long-wearing fabrics like Iron Forge Hemp™ canvas—an innovative, heavy-duty blend of industrial hemp, recycled polyester and organic cotton. It's 25% more abrasion resistant than conventional cotton duck canvas and needs no break-in; and our hemp-blend workwear clothing is also Fair Trade Certified™ for sewing. See the collection at patagonia.com/workwear.
To see a gallery of Ben's incredible woodwork or commission a piece for your home, visit benwilkinsondesigns.com.
This story first appeared in the 2017 Patagonia Workwear Catalog.


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Showing Collections: 1 - 1 of 1
Gayle Tustin Papers
Identifier: SC-MS-221
Scope and Contents
This collection contains papers and media related to the career of local Wilmington artist Gayle Tustin. The collection includes sketchbooks, preliminary plans, interviews, magazine articles, applications, records, artists' biography, consignment forms, material lists, photographs, postcards, and brochures that map Tustin's artistic career from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. The collection ranges in terms of the size and scope of projects, including local commissions and plans for...
Found in:
Randall Library Special Collections


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Gasser's are easily spotted from a mile away. The body's are lifted up with a straight axle highly visible in the front. In the early 60's that is what everybody brought to the local drag strips. Back then you didn't care about pro-touring handling, you just wanted something to go lickity split for a quarter of a mile.
Hot Rod Magazine
The latest issue of Hot Rod magazine (December, 2013) has an article on a 58 Ford Gasser that the folks at Galpin Ford did for a sales manager, Steve Carpenter. The article is a nice write-up on a nice car.
Galpin Gasser
The 331 cubic inch Ford engine produces 500 horsepower and matches up to a Borg Warner 4 speed, using a Hurst 4 speed.   A Currie 9 inch rear end with a 4.11 posi helps hold everything together.  Lots of chrome, which probably wasn't in use as much back at the old airstrip dragways, is evident. That's a nice gold pearl paint job with real gold and silver leaf lettering.
We first saw it at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in January 2013 in Scottsdale, Arizona and thought we could share some extra views of this gasser for our readers.
Galpin Ford has a solid reputation for doing cars right, and just previewed a supercar at Pebble Beach. Here's hoping that both cars will be at their booth in Las Vegas next month at the SEMA Show.


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This delicious stew is perfect for vegetarians or meat eaters. And it's full of healthy fats! Comforting and warm, it's one the whole family can enjoy for dinner. Add in some chicken or tofu for extra protein. If you're enjoying a bit of grains, this pairs nicely with wild rice.
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1 medium head cauliflower, stemmed and cut into bite-size florets
- 1 jalapeno, stemmed, seeded, chopped
- 1 cup chopped kale
- 2 teaspoons ginger paste
- 1 tablespoon cumin powder
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 can full-Fat, unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Step 1
In a medium stock pot, heat the coconut oil for 30 seconds on medium heat.
Step 2
Add the cumin seeds and stir until they start to sputter. Then add the onions and cook for another minute, and then, add the tomatoes, stir and cook for a few more minutes until the tomatoes soften.
Step 3
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir together. Cover the pan and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to keep from burning.
Step 4
Ladle the soup into 4 serving bowls and enjoy! Leftover stew can be stored in air-tight container and saved for lunch the next day.
Nutritional Information
Nutritional analysis per serving: Calories 204, Fat 24 g, saturated Fat 20 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Fiber 6 g, Protein 6 g, carbohydrate 18 g, Sodium 588 mg


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BookEnds has moved! We can now be found at www.bookendsliterary.com BookEnds Literary Agency represents commercial fiction and nonfiction for readers of all ages and in this space we hope to provide advice and inspiration for writers. Our goal is to teach, enlighten and build a community for writers, agents and editors.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Living in a Portable World
As you've heard all agents say, most reading is done at home, but what you might be surprised to hear is that home is not always literally at home. It usually means anywhere outside of the office. Heading into the city for a lunch usually means plenty of time to read. Before my subway car even pulls into the station I have my Kindle out on the platform, reading submissions and client manuscripts. I read in waiting rooms, while getting my hair done, and even at the table or at a bar in restaurants waiting for my lunch or dinner date. Actually, one of my favorite places to read is on an airplane. For me it's one of the few times in life where I can actually find peace and uninterrupted quiet.
Queries are another thing that I rarely read in the office and, as I'm sure many of you can attest, I rarely read during "normal" hours. I live a strange schedule and actually get to most of my queries on the weekend or before the sun has even risen. It's not uncommon for me to respond to an email at three or four in the morning.
Office time for me is about phone calls. Sure I can and have made numerous business calls from airports, train stations, and my kitchen, but I prefer to make my phone calls at my desk. I like my office phone and feel like I can focus better on the conversation at hand if I have easy access to everything I might need. And the same definitely holds true for negotiating a contract. Again, I've done a number of contracts from all over the country (I seem to have considerable success at a friend's house in Arizona), but if given the choice I prefer to be in business mode in my office.
What about you? I imagine most authors have a working space somewhere they call office, but where do you really do most of your writing?
59 comments:
- Kathleen Irene Paterka said...
Hi Jessica,
I have a home office, and since the December death of my laptop's hard drive, a new desktop and a 22" monitor that I love!
For me, being in my home office is like burrowing down in a cave. Unlike some other writers, I like quiet when I write. No music, no other stimulus. Shutting out the "outside world" helps when I'm creating the other world that my characters live in.
KATHLEEN IRENE PATERKA - 8:13 AM, February 13, 2009
- Stacia said...
On the living room couch, with my laptop on a lapdesk. Um, on my lap. There is an office with a desktop upstairs but I hardly ever use it. They chair is too low and the keyboard is too clickety.
- 8:22 AM, February 13, 2009
- Heidi the Hick said...
My dining room table. I can see the back yard through the sliding doors and the front through the bay window.
My desk is cozy, and has the advantage of overseeing the family room, but also the disadvantage of being in the family room and becoming the junk collector spot. Grrr.
It's all laptop though. I'll never have a desktop again. I love being able to drag this thing all over the house and settle in wherever I feel like being. - 8:28 AM, February 13, 2009
Hi Jessica,
I tend to write everywhere. On the commute in (if I am riding with a friend), in the dining room, in the living room, at work...anywhere. I write it all by hand because it is just the rough draft, and then I rewrite a bunch that during the odd hours gets confused as I type it into the pc.
~Meg - 8:39 AM, February 13, 2009
- Bonnie R. Paulson said...
I'm old school. I still love the feel of pencil on paper and will drag my paper notebook and bic mechanical pencil everywhere with me. Then on the same early morning every week I will get it out and transcribe it on my PC and make edits as I go.
My desk too is the house junk collector. Odd thing... I'm the only one to put anything on it. - 8:41 AM, February 13, 2009
- JV said...
Hi Jessica,
I do most of my writing at my computer desk b/c my laptop did a crash-and-burn number about 6 months ago. But I miss the days I could take my computer to a quiet coffeehouse and just write. It was good for me to get out of the house (away from all those distractions).... - 8:42 AM, February 13, 2009
- WendyCinNYC said...
When the weather is nice, I do most of my writing on a bench in Central Park. Otherwise, I write on the couch, in the stands at my daughter's swim meet while I wait for her event, doctor's waiting rooms, wherever.
If I don't happen to have my laptop handy, I'll type scenes into my BlackBerry and email it to myself. I have fast thumbs. - 8:48 AM, February 13, 2009
- Joyce Tremel said...
I use my laptop while sitting on the couch in the family room. I fire up the woodburning stove, pour a cup of coffee and I'm ready to go. When I need a change of scenery, I'll take my laptop to the sunroom.
- 8:52 AM, February 13, 2009
I do most of my writing either at my desk in my "office" (it is the built in desk in the kitchen), on the couch in the family room, or traveling - either on the laptop or longhand in one of my notebooks.
I prefer to work directly on the laptop, but my spacebar is ... unhappy, and we need to order a new keyboard for it (if we can). Right now, I have to waste one of my ports to have an extra keyboard plugged in. *sigh* I have a love/hate relationship with technology. - 9:00 AM, February 13, 2009
- Martin Willoughby said...
I work in my front room (don't know what americans call it). I have a computer desk and an armchair behind me. I read or write at both.
- 9:02 AM, February 13, 2009
- Carley said...
I do most of my writing in the early morning hours, before the kids get up, in my bedroom at my desk and on my laptop. I always have music in my ears, infact, I have a 'writing' playlist on my i-pod! However, if you ever see a strange woman in her dark car, headphones in her ears, with only the glow of blue light, that's me too. I write while waiting to pick up my kids, in the library- anywhere. I take long walks and get great ideas, nature is one of my favorite muses. I have a legal pad that I jot my down all my outlines and ideas onto,(with numerous smaller bits of paper crammed into it, you know the kind, the only piece you could find when an idea hit you.) but the majority of it is done on my laptop.
- 9:15 AM, February 13, 2009
I write on my laptop while I'm sitting on the couch. Sometimes I'll write in my cluttered study (especially if I want to spend four or more hours working on my novel). I think I focus better when I'm on my desktop, but the bulk of my time is probably spent on the laptop.
- 9:18 AM, February 13, 2009
I write on a laptop while seated on my bed. The windows in my room look out on beautiful trees. All editing and anything writing business related are completed in my office. The two never meet... and rejection letters never get close to my writing space. I find that the two different parts of writing are better off divided from each other. My room is the place for the imagination and the office is the place for the grown-up, tenacious, hard work side of things.
- 9:39 AM, February 13, 2009
- Sharon Page said...
My dad is an engineer, so I grew up with "back of the napkin" designing at the lunch table. And I also grew up around a small business so I was used to the idea that you work at odd times and in odd places. I work exclusively at a lap top, which goes all over the house.
Last summer I bought an EEE PC and I love it! It's so portable, but has a keyboard I can handle. I take it to parks, the doctor, etc. Used to be an early morning person, but I write from 8:15 to 5:00 then again from 8:30 to 11 or 12. - 9:52 AM, February 13, 2009
- Kathleen MacIver said...
I love reading these!
I have a nice desktop and 22" monitor in the basement... but it's hard to write down there. For one thing, the basement isn't heated, and when my fingers get too cold, they slow down. But more than that, I get too distracted by email, blogs, etc.
Upstairs, however, in my young son's room, is a dinosaur of a computer. It's not powerful enough to run most programs and not fast enough to browse the web decently on... but it runs Word 2000 quite easily. That's where I do my best writing. (As long as my son isn't sitting there saying, "Mommy look at this! Mommy guess what? etc.)
It's quiet. I'm away from the bills and email and homeschooling stuff that's piled all over my desk in the basement, and I can focus on writing so much more easily. That's usually where I am when hubby's watching a movie (which is downstairs next to the other computer anyway), or working late, etc.
My other favorite place to write is lying in bed with a pencil and notebook...usually while hubby is reading on his side. Sometimes my best writing starts on paper, because the fact that I am forced to re-write it, typing it in, helps me find and fix things that are hard to find when I'm just reading what I've written. Plus, it slows me down to write at only 30+ wpm, and sometimes I need that slower pace. - 10:06 AM, February 13, 2009
- Vicki said...
I write on my laptop in my office during the week. On the weekends I love to write outside or go to the nearest Starbucks and write.
If I somewhere without the laptop, then paper and pen will work. - 10:12 AM, February 13, 2009
I would love a blue and green office. *G*
Having a full-time job, I do most of my fiction writing in my cubicle, in between my regular tasks. It helps me get my regular work done as much as my fiction to take mini-breaks and write throughout the day... the only hazard is when I really get into a scene and slack off for much longer than I should. I've had to train myself to write like this, but anything to get it done. I live by that saying that writers don't find time, they make it. - 10:24 AM, February 13, 2009
- Prairie Chicks Write Romance said...
Laptop, recliner chair, living room. Like Kathleen, I have an office in the basement, but it's cold and The Husband likes to play computer golf on the big screen TV down there. I need silence when I write so that I can hear my characters clearly - shouts of "In the hole" or "*&^*, sliced it" pull me right out of my story. Besides, being upstairs lets me watch my dog chase her rope around the coffee table or sigh contentedly when she lays at my feet (like she's doing now).
Janet - 10:24 AM, February 13, 2009
I'm lucky that when we bought our house it had a "dining room," which we instantly renamed
"Becky's office." I write there on most days, but do head out to the coffeehouse (often with Terri Thayer!) or to a friend's. Today, it may just be the couch.
Your blue & green office sounds great--maybe you should post a pic. - 10:26 AM, February 13, 2009
- Deborah K. White said...
I write in my office on my computer during the daytime hours. I'm on the second floor of my house, so I've got a nice view of the rolling mountains outside. The walls are painted a light brown, the trim is stained wood, and plants fill the room. I love it.
However, I do scribble down notes on any convenient scrap of paper whenever I'm not technically "writing." - 10:54 AM, February 13, 2009
- Kyle Schiebel said...
I wrote my entire first novel on my laptop at a downtown coffee shop near where I worked. For 15 months, Monday through Friday, for one hour a day I spent my "lunch" time simultaneously writing and getting caffeinated. When I was within pages of finishing my first draft, on Sunday, New Year's Eve day 2006, I made the trip downtown to complete my novel at that coffee shop; it seemed the only appropriate place to reach that milestone.
I find it too distracting to write at home, especially if the family is around. Perhaps I'd feel differently if I had a space in my house more conducive to writing, but I doubt it. What I benefitted most from, though, was the routine. I firmly believe that I (and most people) would never complete a book without a commitment to a writing routine. Every Monday through Friday at 12:30 I went to that coffee shop to write. I was committed to that routine. I looked forward to it each day.
My advice for anyone wanting to begin writing (actually writing) their book: find a good place and make a commitment. - 11:08 AM, February 13, 2009
- Bella Andre said...
Different books get written in different places. "Game For Anything" was written almost entirely at Starbucks sitting across from Anne Mallory and Jami Alden and Barbara Freethy. The first half of "Game For Seduction was written at Starbucks, the last half in my living room. "Wild Heat" was written in my living room in front of a fire, but it was revised outside in my atrium and at the library. "Hot As Sin" was written at the lake on the screened porch and at the breakfast counter in my kitchen, but it was completely rewritten at the desk in my office (which is where I am right now).
As a feng shui consultant, I'm finding this discussion really interesting! - 11:11 AM, February 13, 2009
- Kelley Nyrae said...
All my writing is done on my laptop however the destination changes. Most of my writing I like to do at my desk. It's my "comfort zone" if you will but there are times that I'm just not able to do that and I adapt. I'm the type that feels a deadline looming over my head even if it's months away. My editor always knows if she tells me something is due in August, she usually gets it in June. I'm just that way so I have to be flexible about where or when I write (two young kids at home so I steal my minutes whenever and wherever I can)so I can make it happen.
- 11:13 AM, February 13, 2009
When we moved into the new house, we converted half of a formal living room into an office. It's spacious and organized... and I can't use it. I still have a tiny (read cluttered) desk in the corner of my bedroom where I can hole up and write and the kids know to leave me alone.
- 11:14 AM, February 13, 2009
My favorite place to work in the winter--a glider rocker next to the woodstove. When the house warms up I switch to the dining room table where I've set myself up to be able to work standing up.
In the summer I work in a small upstairs room at a desk. Yeah, I pretty much drag my laptop all over the house.
I feel fortunate to be a stay at home writer and have full run of our small house while my wife is at work.
Paul - 11:40 AM, February 13, 2009
- Anita said...
90% of my writing is done in my second story home office. There's a window to the left of my desk. Through it, I can watch the neighborhood kids (mine included) play on an island of grass and pine trees that's located in the center of our cul-de-sac. When I need to holler at the kids, I do it through the window, which always startles the kids, even though I've done it a thousand times.
To the right side of my desk is another window which looks out a beautiful mountain range and the football stadium at the United States Air Force Academy. It's a coveted view...but the one of the kids is still better. - 11:49 AM, February 13, 2009
- Kristan said...
Hah, I'll let you know when I finally find the place. :P
- 11:58 AM, February 13, 2009
- ryan field said...
There was a great article in this month's issue of Architectural Digest, where a novelist decribed her new, wonderful office. She has windows and gorgeous views; she's surrounded by her favorite books.
But all this passes me by. My office is in a back corner of the basement...the unfinished section...where there are no windows or distractions. - 11:59 AM, February 13, 2009
- Diana said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- 12:11 PM, February 13, 2009
- Diana said...
I'm with Kathleen on the home office. I have the only second-floor room right under the roof of my 1930 bungalow, next to the attic. I call it my nest, because if I look outside, I am up high at tree-level. I have windows on three sides of my room, and love it when it rains. I can't write with any music or television noise in the background.
My thinking and puzzle-solving tends to happen when I go for walks. My favorite place to walk when I'm really stuck is among the old headstones in our local cemetery. - 12:12 PM, February 13, 2009
- Craven said...
I have a day job. The only productive writing time I can rely on is my lunch hour at the office. By the time I get home, I'm wiped and not capable of writing anything intelligible. Weekends I can usually sneak in a little more, but feel guitly for encroaching on family time.
In that hour a day, if it's a good day, I can get in a thousand words. At that rate I can churn out a first draft in four to six months. - 12:14 PM, February 13, 2009
- Jolie said...
I like to read at home sometimes, but there are also a lot of distractions there, so at-home reading only happens occasionally. When it does, I like it to be in large chunks of time.
Most of my reading gets done in transit, in small chunks. There are many practical reasons for me not to own a car (even in a city with limited public transit), but "being able to read while the bus driver takes care of things" is a big pleasure reason. - 12:22 PM, February 13, 2009
- Robena Grant said...
I divided off my breakfast room from the kitchen with cherry wood floor to ceiling shuttered doors. They can be folded back, left closed with shutters open or completely closed where I feel coccooned. It's my private little world and I turn up every day, roll up my sleeves and get to work.
One wall is lined with bookshelves, the far corner has a spinner bike where I read magazines, or novels while exercising every day before lunch. If I'm reviewing my work I print it up and sit in a recliner chair in the living room in the late afternoon. Different places for when I'm wearing different hats. It seems to work. - 12:24 PM, February 13, 2009
- Carol said...
I do all of my writing at my desk, located upstairs in a small alcove next to the staircase. I can see outside, but I don't have the distractions of being in a room with other people. I turn on my music and shut out everything while I type. My thinking and planning, though, are done while I walk around the driveway, or do mindless chores like dishes and cooking.
- 12:27 PM, February 13, 2009
- Anne-Marie said...
I'm old school too. I have blank writing booklets and love to do the first draft curled up on the couch listening to music or sitting on the balcony overlooking our ravine view. Only when I'm finished with a whole chapter do I transfer it to the computer. I then let it sit there for a few days before going back for the beginning of the editing stage.
I love the feel of pen and paper. My writing booklets also travel with me on any transit or holiday.
-AM - 12:38 PM, February 13, 2009
My husband and I commute together. So I go in at 7am to work and write until I start work at 9am.
Since I got this new job, I have gotten so much written for my WIP.
I look forward to writing every morning. - 12:47 PM, February 13, 2009
- Sheila Deeth said...
The computer's downstairs, so that's where I write. But where I think about writing's a different matter. When the words dry up (or when the guilt gets too great) I do the housework, shopping, etc, or just take a walk. Anything that switches off brain switches on imagination.
- 1:05 PM, February 13, 2009
- Sookie said...
I like my office. Scratch that, I love my office. Mount Rainier, the Cascades Mountains, all make for great writing atmosphere. But I also have good success writing longhand in front of the TV with the kiddos. Everyone is safe and sound, freeing my mind to wander through my story.
Confucius says; man stuck in pantry have butt in jam. - 1:20 PM, February 13, 2009
- Kate Douglas said...
We have a multi-level house so it's hard to say what floor I'm on, (there are five sets of stairs between my office and the garage) but I write in an enclosed loft on the top floor with a view of the forest outside--which is why I keep the curtains drawn most of the time. I call it my cave, and I'm here now, in my comfortable leather recliner with my laptop and "cool pad" in my lap. I write from such a deep point of view that I can't work with any distractions--this room is dark, quiet and warm in winter, sort of like a womb, rather than a cave--but whatever I call it, it's comfortable enough that I can regularly put in ten to fifteen hour days w/o losing what sanity I have left.
- 1:30 PM, February 13, 2009
- Kristin Laughtin said...
Until a few months ago, I did most of my writing on my desktop computer. However, since I also read a lot on the internet, and work a full-time job where I'm usually at a computer, I began to find my desk stifling and isolating, and grew to dread having to sit there for several more hours after a long day of work.
I bought a little notebook computer a few months ago, and it made everything better. I can sit on my couch and write in much more comfort, or I can write on my desktop and then go read on my notebook. The ability to write where I want has been awesome. - 1:33 PM, February 13, 2009
I can write anywhere. I've written on trains, planes, at the beach, backstage with only a bite light gripped between my teeth -- wherever I need to in order to get it done.
I prefer to work at home. I need huge swaths of uninterrupted work time. As I'm house hunting, I'm looking for space where I can set it up like an English country house library.
What's important is WHEN I write. I write my first 1K of fiction in the morning, after yoga, but BEFORE anything else. Then, I start my day, and switch back and forth between deadlined projects as needed.
But in order to really have a productive day, I need to do my first 1K before I'm "tainted by the day".
My best writing is done early in the morning or very late at night -- but usually, I can get more done between 6-10 AM than all the other hours of the day. And that first 1K usually takes 45 min. - 1 hour. - 1:33 PM, February 13, 2009
- Paty Jager said...
I write on my keyboard in my loft, but I meet my characters and see them in scenes while driving tractor.
- 1:44 PM, February 13, 2009
- Unknown said...
I also just LOVE hearing from other writers about their writing processes.
For me, I love to tinker on my laptop in our living room. I can catch a glimpse of the Santa Cruz Mountains from the large window in this room.
Oh, how I envy you for having a Kindle. Just can't justify it right now, but I imagine it is a godsend for those in publishing. - 2:41 PM, February 13, 2009
- Douglas L. Perry said...
I feel as if I am one of the shrinking minority of writers who still put pen to paper while writing. I use five subject spiral bound notebooks and write my text only on the right side. I reserve the left for notes, and ideas that pop into my head while writing. Before I start writing for the day, I will scan through the left side notes to try and incorporate those ideas. I also read at least the last two pages to get back into the writing "flow".
Since I have a day job, I write usually at lunch, or take a break mid-afternoon. I don't write in the office, there are too many distractions. I walk to a neighboring Carls Jr. restaurant, put on some headphones, and listen to wordless music, such as jazz, classical, ballet, opera, techno, trance, or ambient. I tend to pick different music depending on the scene that I am writing that day. If it is a high action scene, I may choose the techno. If it is a more feeling scene, I will tend toward the light classical.
Once I get a few notebooks filled up, I start typing it in. This is by far the part I hate the most. I wish there was a way for my handwritten text to appear in the computer, but I haven't found anything that works well yet.
When I am typing the text in, I tend to edit it, so that by the time I get done with typing everything in, I actually have a second draft.
Then, I put the entire book away for a couple of months, and think about the next one. It gives me a chance to get it out of my head so that when I come back to it, I can see it from a reader's point of view. This to me is the most fun part. I really enjoy discovering the story again, the parts that work well, and the ones that don't.
When I finish doing the revision a couple of times. I send it out.
I am curious to see how many other writers are still using a pen.
twitter.com/thenextwriter - 2:41 PM, February 13, 2009
- Debra Lynn Shelton said...
I do almost all of my writing in my bedroom. It's my sanctuary. I either sit up in bed with my laptop in my lap, my fake fireplace on, and my kitties surrounding me, or at my desk in the sitting area looking out at the beautiful (or cloudy, rainy, snowy, etc.) day. Yesterday, I worked all day at my dining room table just to change things up. That was an interesting experiment, but my bedroom still wins out! I'm lucky I'm able to write full-time, usually 8-12 hours a day.
- 3:19 PM, February 13, 2009
- Unknown said...
Four years ago, I went to a local coffee pub to bribe myself into writing with a piece of chocolate cake. I've been going there dailyish ever since (but not having cake every day, obviously). I go during their slow hours, sprawl out in a booth, and always make sure I have my laptop headphones for my own music. The regular staff all know that I'm Heidi the novelist and I take my coffee double-double, it's downright heartwarming.
- 4:03 PM, February 13, 2009
I write on my laptop, sitting on the couch. I read everywhere, even if there are a hundred people around me talking.
- 4:55 PM, February 13, 2009
- Allison Landa said...
Hi Jessica:
Though I have a decently equipped home office and a comfy couch -- and am fine working from both -- at heart I'm a cafe writer. I work best when I'm sitting with a cup of something next to me, my headphones on, and my legs tucked on the chair beside me.
Phone calls, though, are pretty much exclusively made from home. - 5:26 PM, February 13, 2009
Hi Jessica,
There is only one place I do my writing --- outside in my screened-in patio--- regardless of how rainy, cool (I live in Florida which means it's cold when the temperature dips below 50 degrees), or dark it is. I have a writer's ritual that follows these steps: 1) Put laptop on table. 2) Plug power cord into outdoor power source. 3) Attach to laptop and turn on. 4) Get cup of coffee while powering up and carefully place to the left of laptop. 5) Move orchid from center of table. 6) Place outline, pencil, cell phone, house phone to left of coffee cup (and hope it doesn't spill). 7) Sit in chair positioned at six o'clock. 8) Write spontaneously!
Amy - 6:41 PM, February 13, 2009
I write on the bus to and from work. Sometimes, I write at home when the rest of the family has gone to sleep early. These are the only times I ever have to myself.
- 7:57 PM, February 13, 2009
- Jill James said...
I have a wonderful home office but most of my writing is done at Starbuck's. I love the atmosphere of the place.
- 8:57 PM, February 13, 2009
Panera is a great place to hang out w/ a laptop and you can get free drink refills and lunch to boot!
- 11:31 PM, February 13, 2009
I love the variety of responses -- and how many of us have flexible writing places
so how about me?
well, for ideas I take my dog for long walks -- and record ideas on the voice recorder on my cell phone.
walking along hte river with loud music in the headphones led to the current WIP where each section is read while a particular peice of music is playing...
during the day when I am working, running erroands or stuff I always have with me my moleskine notebooks and nice pen so I can sit down and write thoughts as they come...
then afetr dinner, I curl up on the sofa in the snug little room in my old cottage, I have the TV on in the background -- nothing I have to actually pay attention to -- and around 8pm I start typing up the notes -- then start writing scenes -- on the laptop --
I average 3 to 4 thousand words in this stage -- but most of them come between 11pm and 2 am -- so I can't do this every night!
I also find that a book has stages: when I start the late night writing, I have notes and thoughts so the actual first draft of my first novel took me 30 days to write...
and how about RE writing?
CJ - 6:22 AM, February 14, 2009
I love the variety of responses -- and how many of us have flexible writing places
so how about me?
well, for ideas I take my dog for long walks -- and record ideas on the voice recorder on my cell phone.
walking along hte river with loud music in the headphones led to the current WIP where each section is read while a particular peice of music is playing...
during the day when I am working, running erroands or stuff I always have with me my moleskine notebooks and nice pen so I can sit down and write thoughts as they come...
then afetr dinner, I curl up on the sofa in the snug little room in my old cottage, I have the TV on in the background -- nothing I have to actually pay attention to -- and around 8pm I start typing up the notes -- then start writing scenes -- on the laptop --
I average 3 to 4 thousand words in this stage -- but most of them come between 11pm and 2 am -- so I can't do this every night!
I also find that a book has stages: when I start the late night writing, I have notes and thoughts so the actual first draft of my first novel took me 30 days to write...
and how about RE writing?
CJ - 6:22 AM, February 14, 2009
- Kerry Ashwin said...
I live on a boat and I perch on the v berth bed and write.
My laptop sits on a small shelf and my legs hang about near the sail locker (under my bed)
I have 2 portholes to view the horizon and listen to the occasional slap of fish on the hull in the marina.
It is just about the best place in the world besides up the mast. The view from there is magic. - 6:53 AM, February 14, 2009
- T. M. Hunter said...
I take a clipboard and notebook paper almost everywhere I go, and write when I can...then when I get home, put it all into the computer.
Usually on the couch, with my iPod.
I actually have an office, but haven't used it for writing in a long time. Go figure. - 9:29 AM, February 14, 2009
How great is all this versatility? I love it. I'm a Laboratory Technician by day, so most of my writing is done in my head at work, then jotted down on scraps. Like December/Stasia, I too have an office upstairs that I blow off for a laptop and my sofa. I just have to get a kindle, you make it sound so convenient! - 2:59 PM, February 14, 2009
I write everywhere: in a notebook on the bus, on the subway, on a plane, in cafés or at the park. I write at my dining-room table, in my bed or on the couch with my laptop on my lap, in the bathroom and the kitchen on Post it notes when I suddenly think of something to add somewhere, in a notebook that I keep by my bed and finally at my desk on my laptop. At times, I use my Dictaphone and later on type what I recorded.
I like to always have something at hand to write on as soon as I have one of my flashes of inspiration.
Like a lot of people I need peace and quiet when writing but sometimes it seems that I can completely leave aside the outside world. - 10:11 PM, February 14, 2009
- Sarahlynn said...
Unlike Stephanie Meyer, I can't write while taking care of my young children. I write at the kitchen table at late at night after everyone goes to sleep, but that's not my most productive time.
Two mornings a week, after I drop my youngest off for nursery school a local church, I find a quiet, sun-drenched, internet-and-cell-phone-free spot and just write for 2-1/2 hours. Heaven! - 6:57 PM, February 15, 2009


text:
Updated December 17, 2021 at 7:49 PM ET
Last fall, when theaters were closed, Ispoke with three artistic directors of nonprofit organizations to talk about their hopes for what things would look like, once the pandemic began to die down. Now, with vaccines and strict COVID protocols, all three theaters have begun performances again. So, I reached out to these leaders to see how things have changed.
When we first talked, much of the conversation was about bringing in new audiences, producing work that better reflected the communities they served, and improving pay and work conditions at their theaters. And all three say that a lot of that has happened.
But when I asked Stephanie Ybarra, the artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage, how tickets were selling, she didn't pull her punches. "It's bleak. I'm not going to lie. It's bleak," she says. "I talk about this with my colleagues around the country regularly. Though there are diehard theater fans who are coming back to the theater and when they are in the house, they are joyful and warm and so enthusiastic. But there aren't enough of them. And we're going to be rebuilding brick by brick for a while, I think."
Directors have turned to new methods to draw in audiences
Part of rebuilding is trying to figure out how to meet the audience where they are. While theaters were closed, many nonprofits made their shows available for streaming. And even now, they're making it an option, says Nataki Garrett, artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, or OSF. "If you don't want to come to the theater, another point of entry is going to be the digital stage," she explains. "Like, if you don't feel safe or comfortable because COVID will still be working its way through our populations, there's a way for you to connect with OSF; either you use one of our actual physical doors, or we put a door in your hand by giving you access through your device."
And in terms of getting people to walk through the physical doors, OSF has reduced ticket prices across the board and rethought some of their programming. When the theater reopened last summer, it was with a one woman show about civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. "I had people who were upset that I didn't do Shakespeare," says Garrett. "Fourteen people on a stage in the middle of COVID was never going to happen, and Shakespeare didn't write any one person shows."
The Public Theater in New York did put on Shakespeare – an all-Black adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor, at their free outdoor venue in Central Park. But they noticed that audiences were mostly white. "Then, our marketing department came up with this idea of doing targeted Black theater nights," says artistic director Oskar Eustis. So, they sent invitations to Black theater colleagues, inviting them and their friends to the production. "And we had two nights in which the Delacorte was 98 percent Black audiences, 1500 people a night. And it was a fantastic experiment."
The status quo is being challenged behind the scenes
The OSF and the Public have hired new associate artistic directors during the pandemic. Oskar Eustis says the Public's leadership team is now: "Three men, three women, three white, three BIPOC. And what the pledge was, was that every major artistic decision of the theater would be made in the room with those people after a full and frank discussion." He adds, "Diversity of voices involved in decision making strengthens a theater. It doesn't weaken the theater."
That said, there were some growing pains as the Public reopened. A musical based on an indie film, The Visitor, stopped rehearsals for a week, so the mostly non-white cast could discuss problems with the way the story addressed characters who were undocumented immigrants. Based on that, Eustis says: "We are actually devising a whole set of rehearsal room protocols. They're all designed to make sure that everybody in the room feels like they have a voice and feels like they can stand behind the story we're telling, both because they've been listened to and because we've given them the information they need in order to fully invest in what we're doing."
Beyond shaking up the leadership up top, theaters are also investing more in paying actors and staff a living wage and making works rules more humane. This includes "five-day rehearsal weeks, paying playwrights for their work, their time in rehearsal, increasing wages for our artists and paying above the contractual minimums," says Baltimore Center Stage's Stephanie Ybarra. "We're going to keep working on our compensation, our benefits and understanding how we better care for the whole human."
New kinds of stories are being featured to bring in new theater-goers
And, since theater is all about human empathy through storytelling, all three artistic directors are putting forward an inclusive slate of plays and musicals – many of them world premieres by writers of color, as well as works featuring LGBTQ stories. At Baltimore Center Stage, this strategy has brought in new audiences, like English teacher Jack Garcia, who's already seen four shows at the theater with his boyfriend. "What I love about the shows at BCS, at least what we've seen so far, is they've all been very culturally relevant to the experience today," Garcia explains. "You know, we see the play and then afterwards you have some drinks and you discuss the themes and it's just been really rewarding."
This is exactly what artistic director Stephanie Ybarra is hoping for. "The more we are normalizing different identities on stage and humanizing different identities on stage and depoliticizing black and brown bodies on stage, that is just one tiny way we can help heal the divide," she says, adding: "But I also think that it has to be about more than just performance. We have to be holding space for conversation in our buildings and for contemplation and reflection."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
D-Day's 24 Hours Changed 20th Century, and Europe, Forever
OMAHA BEACH, FR | By RAF CASERT (AP) – All at once, Charles Shay tried to stanch the bleeding from a ripped-open stomach, dull the pain with morphine and soothe the mind of a dying fellow American army medic. It was a tall order for a 19-year-old who had just set foot on the European mainland for the first time.
But nothing could have prepared him for what happened on June 6, 1944, on five cold, forbidding beaches in northern France. It was D-Day, one of the most significant 24-hour periods of the 20th century, the horrifying tipping point in World War II that defined the future of Europe.
That morning, Shay could not yet fathom what the event would ultimately mean. He was more concerned with the bleeding soldiers, body parts and corpses strewn around him, and the machine-gun fire and shells that filled the air.
"You have to realize my vision of the beach was very small. I could only experience what I could see," he told The Associated Press, speaking from the now-glimmering Omaha Beach, where he landed 75 years ago.
After World War II, Shay continued to witness history — fighting the Chinese during the Korean War, participating in U.S. atomic tests in the Marshall Islands and later working at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
With all the wisdom gathered in his 94 years, he knows another war can never be discounted.
"Some men cannot get enough of power," Shay said. "And it still continues today."
These days, crimson wild roses bloom where blood seeped into the Normandy dunes, and American flags whip in the westerly winds, many flown by locals still grateful to the U.S. soldiers who liberated the first French soil from four years of Nazi occupation.
Omaha and adjacent Utah Beach were America's to take, but similar acts of sacrifice and heroism happened on three other beachheads to the east where Britain and Canadian troops sought to break Hitler's stranglehold on the continent. In all, the invasion covered 50 miles of French shoreline.
Shay survived, but he did not talk about the experience for well over half a century.
"So many dead. So many young men, young boys, killed on the spot," he said. "It was difficult to see and absorb."
When Shay, a Penobscot native American from Indian Island, Maine, was born in 1924, the world was only starting to recover from World War I, which had been a coming-of-age moment for the United States. U.S. intervention proved decisive in beating Germany and heralded the century ahead.
Shay was barely 5 when the Great Depression hit. As a child, nicknamed Little Muskrat, he and his family performed in ceremonial native garb and sold traditional goods.
"My aunt employed me as a young Indian dancer," he said. Times were tough.
Across the ocean, Germany also faced economic misery that, together with lingering bitterness over its defeat in the war, paved the way for Adolf Hitler's rise.
When containment failed, war in Europe erupted again in 1939, and Hitler's Nazis swarmed over much of the continent. They took Paris and were quickly at the Normandy coastline. Britain, across the English Channel, remained out of reach.
The United States, which had slumbered into isolationism after its victory in 1918, entered World War II after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Germany declared war on the U.S. in support of its ally.
The rumble of war was quickly closing on Shay. He was trained to be a machinist but could not get a job because he was expected to be drafted into the Army.
So before he knew what life was really about, Shay found himself in a hammock in the hold of the RMS Queen Elizabeth. He was sailing from New York to England, his final destination unknown.
"I never had a sense of fear because I didn't know what I was getting in to," Shay said.
To ease pressure on his homeland, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had increasingly leaned on the United States and Britain to open a second front on Germany. In November 1943, he was promised as much for the upcoming spring. Soon, Shay found himself training for the biggest amphibious operation in history.
The Germans knew an invasion was coming but had no idea when or where, and the most likely options were 250 miles apart. Hitler prepared an Atlantic Wall of defenses.
England and Normandy's notoriously fickle weather thwarted possible attacks as April passed into May and June. Then, finally, it was time for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to distribute the orders that he had honed for months.
"The eyes of the world are upon you," he told his men. "You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny." The death toll was sure to be enormous.
On the two American beachheads, the United States suffered 2,501 killed in action on June 6, 1944. In all, an estimated 4,414 men died on that single day, according to the latest figures.
"However, it was absolutely necessary," said Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the American cemetery off Omaha Beach.
Few soldiers in the first wave fully realized the risks.
That night before D-Day, the men of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, aka the Big Red One, had more immediate problems — sea sickness, finger-numbing cold and a dangerous descent into landing crafts using rope nets slung over the side of transports that were rolling in heavy seas.
"If you landed in the water between the boat and the troop transport ship, you were dead," Shay remembered.
The roar of planes dropping paratroopers and the boom of bombs trying to blunt the German defenses told them the fateful hour was near.
Shay can still recount that day as if it just happened.
It started at dawn when a Navy man shouted, "I am dropping the ramp." But they were nowhere near close enough to the beach.
"I wasn't too worried about it — until the ramps went down," Shay recalled.
He landed in water up to his chest. Many soldiers who were overloaded with equipment "sank immediately and a lot of men drowned," he said.
Those who stayed afloat had to face withering German gunfire. Many of the men standing in front "were hit immediately and killed on the spot," he said.
The Germans had built a barricade of metal tripods to stave off the landings. Shay moved from one tripod to another in the water. Once on dry land, he sought cover behind the "high portions" of the beach and started treating the wounded.
"While I was doing that, I happened to look back out to the water, to the ocean," he said. There, he saw many wounded men who were lying on the beach as the tide began rising. Without help, they would drown.
"So I dropped what I was doing, and I returned to the water," Shay said. Germans were still shooting at any American who moved under their protected Widerstandsnest 62, a bunker that still stands above Omaha Beach.
With bullets hitting the sand, he started pulling men — he doesn't know how many — out of the water. Many of the soldiers were much bigger and heavier than he was.
"In such a situation, the adrenaline starts to flow," Shay said. "It gives you strength that you did not know that you had." He received the Silver Star for his bravery.
"I have always said that my mother's prayers protected me," he said, the medal sparkling in the afternoon sun.
When the shooting on the beach slowed, he found fellow F Company medic Edward Morozewicz, who had "an open stomach." Shay administered morphine and applied bandages. It was to no avail.
"I stayed with him until he died. I tried to converse with him a little bit. I tried to comfort him," he said.
He left the bloodied beach late that afternoon, completely separated from his company, which had lost all officers and many non-commissioned officers.
Wandering around in a daze of fatigue, "I fell down in a field someplace and I went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that I was surrounded by dead people — American and German."
From that moment on, the war moved inexorably in the Allies' favor. D-Day was also the starting gun in a race with the Soviets to control as much territory as possible by the time Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.
The competition between the Allies and the Soviets effectively set the stage for the Cold War lines that defined Europe for the next five decades and possibly right up to this day.
"This was democracy's beachhead," former President Barack Obama said in 2014. "And our victory in that war decided not just a century, but shaped the security and well-being of all posterity."
Such words would have been lost on Shay as he advanced into Germany, living from day to day. He was briefly taken prisoner after crossing the Rhine, but was soon liberated by U.S. troops and heading home.
All these decades later, he was back at the same shores, walking across the immaculate lawns covered with white gravestones and pondering the sacrifice. "Oh, yes. Definitely it was worth it," he said. "It was a rogue regime that was trying to take over the world, and the people had to be stopped."
Associated Press photographer Virginia Mayo and video journalist Mark Carlson contributed to this report.