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9/2 Dianne Freeman, A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder
9/9 Ellen Byron, Murder in the Bayou Boneyard
9/16 Marilyn Levinson, writing as Allison Brook, Checked Out for Murder
9/23 Rhys Bowen, The Last Mrs. Summers
9/30 Sherry Harris, From Beer To Eternity
September Guest Bloggers
9/19 Judy Alter
WWK Weekend Bloggers
9/5 V. M. Burns
9/12 Jennifer J. Chow
9/26 Kait Carson
For The Love Of Lobster Tales by Shari Randall is now available to download free for a limited time. Go to Black Cat Mysteries at: https://bcmystery.com/ to get your free copy! Thanks for the freebie, Shari.
Keenan Powell recently signed with agent Amy Collins of Talcott Notch. Congratulations, Keenan!
KM Rockwood's "Secrets To The Grave" will appear in the new SinC Chesapeake Chapter's new anthology Invitation To Murder, which will be released by Wildside Press on 10/6.
Congratulations to our two Silver Falchion Finalists Connie Berry and Debra Goldstein!
Paula Gail Benson's "Cosway's Confidence" placed second and Debra Goldstein's "Wabbit's Carat" received Honorable Mention in the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable 2020 short story contest. Congratulations, Paula and Debra!
Susan Van Kirk's Three May Keep A Secret has been republished by Harlequinn's Worldwide Mystery. The WWK interview about the book can be accessed here. We're so glad another publisher picked up this series.
KM Rockwood's "Burning Desire," and Paula Gail Benson's "Living One's Own Truth," have been published in the anthology Heartbreaks & Half-truths. Congratulations to all of the WWK writers.
Please join Margaret S. Hamilton's Kings River Life podcast of her short story "Busted at the Book Sale" here. Congratulations, Margaret!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Trudging Through Revisions
I've grown very frustrated with the amount of time it's taking me to get through this round of revisions on my current WIP. It took me less than a year to write the first version of the story, and yet it's taken me over two years to get through the revisions; this round of them taking the largest chunk of that time.
Granted, there have been other things that have cropped up in my life that have added distractions I didn't have when I wrote the original. I've become engaged, and spent much of last year planning the wedding. I was invited to take part in a gallery showcase of photos taken around Alameda (where I live). And then there have been the trials and joys that come with daily life. But those aren't even the real issues keeping me from finishing this round of revisions.
The biggest problem is that I have to rewrite much of the story, which is making it very hard for me to keep my mind focused on where I'm going with it.
I recently got a copy of Scrivener and broke my book down into separate scenes within the software, thinking that would help make the revision process easier and quicker, but I'm beginning to feel that's not the case. I need to add a few scenes to make the story less procedural and give it more red herrings, so that readers won't know who the villain is halfway through the book (a suggestion that a critique partner gave me last year). Hers was a valid point, which is why I've been making the changes, but that also means that there are so many scenes I now have to decide whether to keep, revise, or simply toss.
Since this is the first full-length book I've ever finished, there's much I don't want to toss; this is my baby. And while I have no illusions that it's Pulitzer material, I'm quite proud of it. However, I also realize that there aren't many writers whose first attempts are free from tossable scenes. Heck, I'm sure Stephen King still tosses things out here and there. That's why some people have said we're not "writers," we're "revisers."
I've also heard of many writers who simply put their first attempt in a drawer somewhere and start on story #2, which usually winds up being much better. Maybe that's what I should do with this one. Part of me doesn't want to, but I'm feeling so stuck here in the mire that is Revision Land, that I am starting to wonder whether it would be the better choice. But I also don't want to give up on anything. Even if this book never makes it to the publication stage, I don't want to leave it sitting in some folder, unfinished. That just seems so disheartening.
So I'm asking for your guidance, dear readers. When is it time to throw in the towel? Is there a moment when you just KNOW that it's time to put the book away until some future version of you can come back to it and turn it into a masterpiece? Or should I keep trudging through until I've made all the necessary revisions?
15 comments:
- E. B. Davis said...
Ellen Hart writes a VA wine vineyard series that is popular. She's a member of the SinC Chessies, and I am also. I wanted her to blog here about her revision process, but she is fighting a deadline and begged off. The reason I asked her?
She writes her first draft. Puts it up on the screen, and then puts up a second blank Word document. Then, she rewrites the entire story. She thinks that her work is much better the second time.
My suggestion. Put down the script, think about the story in its entirety and determine the changes you need to make. Earmark where they must go. Then, cut and weave the changes in throughout the script. Reread the whole thing, and adjust. It won't be easy, but if you're determined, you can do it.
No matter what happens with the script, remember, you haven't wasted your time. This script has taught you well. Good luck! We've all gone through it.
- April 11, 2012 at 4:42 AM
- Jim Jackson said...
I feel your pain. I took my first two novels through 10 rewrites for two reasons. 1) it was the process by which I was learning to write better and (2) I was doing it wrong.
First, this confession: I am a pantster, not a strict plotter. Those who spend a lot of time making sure their plot is just right before writing a word won't have the issues I have.
My problem was I was doing self-editing wrong.
On each draft I tried to correct everything from major story problems to removing extra commas. Even after multiple drafts, I still had major problems with my story.
When I addressed story problems, scenes (and sometimes whole chapters) would disappear and others needed to be added. Sometimes characters needed to be excised.
All the time I had spent on those scenes and characters were wasted (other than as an exercise in self-improvement).
Now, rather than trying to make draft 2 and 3 perfect in all regards, I make the major changes and only when I am satisfied with them do I go to fixing other things.
Working on fixing the story first has worked on my third novel. (I'm a slow learner?) After three drafts I asked my alpha reader to read it and tell me globally what worked and what did not. She was to ignore all clunky language.
From her comments, I have some slight story modifications to make and can concentrate on language.
After I make those changes, I will get input from my beta readers, and unless I am mistaken, their suggestions will be primarily about my writing, not the story.
With novel #4, I stopped after 30,000 words, because I realized the story needed a different structure. I am spending the time plotting that one -- a new experiment for me.
If you are a plotter and your story is as you want it, my other suggestion comes from a published writer friend who goes through his works a number of times, but each time only looking for one thing: so once he'll concentrate on all dialogue (making sure each character is consistent and different from each other one). The next time will be descriptive paragraphs, etc.
I've tried that approach on short stories with some success, but not yet applied it to a novel.
The key is perseverance. Perhaps in the end you will consign novel #1 to a bottom drawer. (That's where mine is.) But maybe it is a great story and it just needs time, work and a good critique group to help point out your issues.
Best of luck.
~ Jim
- April 11, 2012 at 7:16 AM
- Warren Bull said...
Writing is different for each person, but we all feel the pain. You might read or re-read Steven King's book ON WRITING to get his perception. Both EB and James are correct. Writing is never wasted and persistence is essential. A third alternative is to reframe the question. I don't see this as an either or issue. You can put the novel in a drawer for about three months and let it simmer. Leave it completely alone. Then start writing something totally new; essays, memoirs, short stories, Hone your skills works of different scopes. Then return to your WIP with greater skills and a new perspective. I've done this frequently and it is always helpful.
- April 11, 2012 at 8:40 AM
- Linda Rodriguez said...
Alyx, it may be that you are trying to do too many types of revision at one time. Even a short novel is a big, complicated piece of work. I tend to revise in passes.
1. I read through the whole thing in hard copy (preferably after letting it rest for several weeks). I have a notebook in hand, and I'm not looking for language/grammar issues or other such details. This read is for the big picture, the structure--how does the book fit together and work? Is the prep work laid in earlier scenes for this one? Does each scene contain some kind of conflict? Is each scene an integral part of the story? I fix nothing. I simply make notes w/ page numbers and keep reading until the end.
2. I take the list of large and small questions about structure and read the list over, asking myself how each can be fixed & looking to see if some can be grouped together as part of a larger issue.
3. I sit down with each question/issue, one at a time, and focus on only that and do what it requires. (toss a scene or two, add a scene or two, rewrite something and change all references to it throughout the book, even change point of view!)
This structural run-through is the most important stage of revision for me. I sometimes make an outline of the story AS WRITTEN, scene by scene, to check for conflict, rising tension, slack places in the action, subplots that don't really tie into the main plot, etc.)
It sounds to me as if this is the stage where you are. At this stage, ignore everything else and focus on whether the book effectively tells your story. All the rest--language, dialogue, keeping character's eye color consistent throughout--comes later.
As far as tossing scenes goes, I open a new document I call CUTS. Any thing more than a line that I have to take out, I put in this file. I've never reused a big chunk in another book yet, but when writing the 2nd in the series, I looked through these and came up with some helpful ideas to use in that book.
- April 11, 2012 at 8:45 AM
- Alyx Morgan said...
Thanks for the advice, EB. I definitely don't know that I could do it the way Ellen is, but I like your idea of earmarking where changes need to go.
- April 11, 2012 at 11:30 AM
- Alyx Morgan said...
Wow, James. Thank you for such an in-depth example of things that worked for you & what didn't. I'm somewhere between a pantser & plotter. I know different major scenes I want in the book, but then I allow the writing to take me where it will.
I've heard about only tackling one portion per revision (i.e. character, story arc, punctuation, etc), but I think I need to take a class in that to understand how to do it properly.
Thanks again. Your comments really helped!
- April 11, 2012 at 11:34 AM
- Maddy said...
I have no helpful advice as I'm in a similar boat. I also thought buying scrivener would 'solve' the problem, but it seems there are no easy fixes. {Linda's suggestions sound very helpful .....}
- April 11, 2012 at 11:36 AM
- Alyx Morgan said...
Thanks, Warren. Yes, I'm leaning toward putting it away (& not even thinking about it) for a few months. Craig (my fiance) has suggested working on the next book, which I started while this first one was out with my beta readers.
It would be good to just continue with the stories, since this is a YA series. & who knows, maybe the second book will be the first in the series (or the third or fourth will be), but it would be good to at least get myself back in that world, so it doesn't become too dusty.
- April 11, 2012 at 11:42 AM
- Alyx Morgan said...
I have a document where I've stored any scene I've cut from the novel, too, Linda. Like you, I figured that those things might come in handy somewhere else, if for nothing more than to remind me of some facts of a character or setting.
The steps you described for going through the first round of revisions sound so daunting & involved, which is why I think I've fought against doing it that way, even though I've seen several others mention the merits of that method. So maybe I just need to put on my big girl pants, & just DO IT! :o)
Thanks for your advice, Linda.
- April 11, 2012 at 11:47 AM
- Dana Fredsti said...
My first novel went through about five revisions and it did sit in a drawer for a couple of years in between because I burned out on it. If you do take a break because you just can't untangle the threads, it doesn't mean you abandoned your first baby. You're just letting it take a much needed nap!
- April 11, 2012 at 12:33 PM
- Gloria Alden said...
You got some good ideas from others, Alyx. Personally, I would not get rid of that first book. Like others suggested, let it rest for a while. It actually may be better than you think. You could be burned out because you have too many other things to concentrate on right now, too. Are you in an active critque group? Do you trust their comments? Not all critique readers are the same. I had some once who didn't read or like cozies. Definitely not the ideal readers for me.
My first book has been revised soooo many times. I actually have the first draft stored in my garage so someday I can read through it and compare it the final published copy. I know it will be almost like a different book.
- April 11, 2012 at 1:43 PM
- Polly Iyer said...
If you like your story--forget the writing for the moment--don't give up on it. My guess is you're psyched, and that's when you can't think clearly. Step away from the book for a while. Write something else. Something new and fresh. If you can write one book, you can write two. Write that second book. Then, and only then, go back to the first one. See it with a fresh eye. You'll be able to tell if it's still the story you want. If it is, write an outline and pust aside the book again. Write it fresh from the outline. See what happens. My bet is it will be looser, and so will you.
- April 11, 2012 at 2:20 PM
- Polly Iyer said...
And please read your comments over before posting. Of course I meant put. Pust is such an ugly word. :-)
- April 11, 2012 at 2:22 PM
- Alyx Morgan said...
I do actually like Scrivener so far, Maddy, but I think it might work better for me on a brand new book; not one that I've finished & am trying to revise. But yes, there doesn't appear to be an "easy" fix.
Thanks for stopping by today.
- April 11, 2012 at 4:11 PM
- Alyx Morgan said...
Thanks, Dana, Gloria & Polly. I think I will put "her" down for a nice rest. I'll allow myself a break until the wedding, & then maybe get back to the second book in the series.
Thanks so much for visiting today, & for offering your sage advice! :o)
- April 11, 2012 at 4:17 PM


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Stephen Shore, born 1947, was second to get a solo show at the MoMA by a living photographer. He started photographing at a very early age and already sold three prints when he was 14 to Edward Steichen, the curator of photography at the MoMA back then. During the early seventies, he started doing road trips, at first with another friend and later on all by himself. That's when the photographs below were shot. He titled them American Surfaces. Although they seem like regular snapshots at first, they're unmistakably by Stephen Shore. He simply wanted to record everything he came across. Along William Eggleston, he helped establishing colour photography where it is today. Many famous photographers (Nan Goldin, Thomas Struth and Martin Parr just to name a few) have listed him as one of their influences. His work American Surfaces may have not been well received by the audience back then, but it was certainly a turning point for him and colour photography. American Surfaces is one of my favourite photography books and an endless source of inspiration. If you have only the slightest interest in colour photography, I suggest you have a look at this book as noone handles colours in photographs as Stephen Shore.
© Phaidon Press Limited and the book is available on Amazon

subset: commoncrawl


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BRITAIN'S TOP universities are reaching out to black and minority ethnic young people with a conference to encourage them to consider a future at Oxford or Cambridge.
The move is a response to a campaign led by Labour's former higher education minister David Lammy who specifically challenged Oxford on why so few black students were offered places.
As a result, the university has renewed efforts to increase its outreach work to help make the prestigious institution more accessible. Figures show that black pupils are the least likely to apply.
Now Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard have partnered with Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) for a second annual Breaking Educational Barriers: The Open Door conference later this month, an education event open to the entire community.
KICC members Theresa Esan MBE, director of employability and employer engagement at City and Islington College, Donna Thomas, an early years service manager, and Yemisi Akindele, founder of award-winning supplementary High Achievers Tutoring are spearheading the initiative.
Project leader Pastor Ade D'Almeida said: "This conference is not just about our church community. This is a group of people who have the experience, but also a passion to help young people succeed.
He added: "We felt the conference should not only offer practical advice for parents and pupils on routes into top universities but be inspirational too, and instill a desire to achieve higher. There is something compelling about hearing stories of those who have been to Oxbridge and Harvard. It makes something you thought you could never do become more achievable."
D'Almeida said that part of their task was to educate African and Caribbean parents and address a "knowledge gap" that could be holding their children back.
One key area was a tendency to push their children towards oversubscribed courses such as medicine or law that are already fiercely competitive.
"We want parents to realise that if your child has an enquiring mind and aims for excellence then they can study anything," she explained.
"Parents really need to start with their children as young as nursery, helping them to make the right choices and not relying on the old-style form of parenting and dictating what subject they should pursue. They have to keep abreast with the changes happening in education and society. It's also important to let parents know that not all children can be Oxbridge candidates. There are other universities and other routes to a successful career and we want to show parents what they are."
She told The Voice that following last year's conference a young student tried a taster subject in linguistics at Oxford, which opened his eyes to other opportunities. He now plans to take up Oriental studies instead of maths.
AMBITION: Conference will provide encouragement for young people
"It was a brilliant session," said D'Almeida. "He saw potential in things he had never considered before and that's a success to us."
Last week, as part of this newspaper's Big Question series, we investigated why black children remain one of the lowest-performing ethnic groups.
This is one of the challenges preventing black students from winning places at Oxford. In 2010/11, only five per cent of black students achieved the necessary three As at A-level.
In 2009, only one black Caribbean candidate was accepted for undergraduate study out of a total 27 black students. In 2010, this rose to seven black Caribbean out of a total of 20.
It is a reflection of statistics that show that black Caribbean pupils are significantly outperformed by their black African counterparts.
Dr Cressida Ryan outreach officer at Merton College, University of Oxford, said: "We can't change someone's grades but what we can do as a university is work with younger age groups to inspire them to go after those three As and put in support structures to help get them there. If you want the best students, you have to look for them.
She said working with KICC was a good way to reach the students most under-represented at Oxford.
PRESSURE: Tottenham MP David Lammy
"Working with individuals and schools is not as effective as working with an entire community of parents, teachers and community leaders as they all have a role to play in supporting a child's education. At the conference we will talk about subject choice, what careers they can lead to and issues around finance."
In 2011, Oxford admitted 32 black students – the highest number in more than a decade.
Tottenham MP David Lammy said: "The figures are encouraging but we need ten years of this not just one. My concern with Oxford and Cambridge was that not only were the best black students not getting in but that the universities didn't seem particularly bothered about it.
Their access teams were visiting places like Eton and Marlborough College rather than getting to schools in Moss Side, Sparkbrook or Hackney."
He praised the university for its boost in outreach work, adding: "The partnership between KICC and Oxford looks promising and I know there are also projects taking place in Tottenham that I have been involved in too. These interventions can be life-changing for the people involved but they inevitably reach only a handful of the thousands of talented black boys and girls out there."
Oxford made headlines in 2011 when US First Lady Michelle Obama joined schoolgirls from inner London state school Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, at Christ Church College, Oxford, for an inspirational visit.
Speakers at the event include KICC senior pastor, Matthew Ashimolowo, Dr Ryan and Dr Tony Sewell.
The free conference takes place between 11-4pm on February 23 at The Open Door, 25, Church Road, in Crystal Palace. SE19 2TE


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HTC One XL a.k.a AT&T and Telstra One X owners, here is some good news for you. While AT&T still has not approved the Jelly Bean update for your phone, HTC started rolling out the update for the handset in other regions of the world. The update has effectively been ported to the AT&T and Telstra One XL without any issues.
For the lesser known, the One XL is same as the International One X except that it is powered by a dual-core Qualcomm Krait processor instead of a quad-core Tegra 3 processor.
The Jelly Bean update for the One X/XL brings with it Project Butter, an enhanced Notification bar, improved speech-to-text and more. HTC has also updated the Sense version to 4+ that brings with it major performance improvements and an enhanced Camera app.
If you own an AT&T or Telstra One XL, head over to this thread on XDA forums to download the ported ROM.
Via – Reddit


text:
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) Kevin Young had 16 points, hitting four critical free throws down the stretch, and sixth-ranked Kansas fended off pesky Temple 69-62 on Sunday for the Jayhawks' 11th straight win.
Travis Releford added 14 points on 5 for 5 shooting, none of his baskets bigger than a 3-pointer from the wing with 34.9 seconds left. With the shot-clock winding down, Releford's shot gave Kansas a 65-58 lead, essentially turning away its Atlantic 10 foe.
Ben McLemore added 13 points and Jeff Withey had eight points, 11 rebounds and nine blocked shots for the Jayhawks (12-1), who enter Big 12 play having won 30 consecutive games at Allen Fieldhouse and 63 in a row against non-conference opponents.
Khalif Wyatt finished with 26 points for the Owls (10-3), who nearly had their second win over a top-10 team this season. Wyatt scored 33 in an upset of then-No. 3 Syracuse on Dec. 22.
Anthony Lee and Will Cummings added 11 each for Temple, which seemed to have the recipe for winning in the Phog down pat. The Owls only committed three turnovers - though the third one late in the game proved critical - and prevented the high-flying Jayhawks from getting in transition.
After trailing the entire first half, Temple managed to build a 54-50 lead with just under 7 minutes to go. But the Jayhawks finally got going on offense, and then held on down the stretch to start 12-1 for the third time in the last four seasons.
Temple looked as if it'd be trouble before the opening tip, when the Owls were huddling after their introduction and started watching the Jayhawks' intimidating pregame video montage.
It was little surprise that the Jayhawks raced out to a 22-10 lead by the midway point of the first half, clamping down with their intense man-to-man defense and throwing in some token press to put pressure on the Owls' backcourt, which committed a pair of early turnovers.
Temple coach Fran Dunphy eventually got a veteran group that starts three seniors to settle down, and the result was an 8-1 spurt that got the Owls right back in the game.
Wyatt led the charge by banking in a 3-pointer, and a basket by Lee - who had eight points and five boards by halftime - forced Kansas coach Bill Self to call a timeout.
Self was only starting to simmer, though. He really boiled over a few minutes later, when Elijah Johnson committed his third turnover of the half. The Jayhawks' coach slapped his hand against the video marquee at the scorer's table so hard that it knocked out a bank of lights.
Those two early turnovers by Temple? They were their only two in the first half, and Kansas - one of the nation's top defensive teams - failed to produce a steal in forging a 33-27 lead.
Kansas scored the first five points of the second half to push its lead to double-figures, but then Temple scored on its next nine possessions. Along the way, Wyatt outscored the Jayhawks 11-2 by himself, and his free throws with 14:13 left gave the Owls their first lead at 43-44.
Releford, the Jayhawks' top defender, also picked up his fourth foul during the Owls' run and spent much of the second half on the bench. That allowed Temple's talented backcourt to keep answering every time that Kansas tried to make a charge.
Releford eventually checked back into the game, and so did the Jayhawks' defense.
After pulling ahead 54-50, the Owls failed to score on five of their next six possessions, and Johnson's two drives to the basket tied the game. Moments later, McLemore stepped in front of a pass from the Owls' Cummings and went the other way for a dunk and a 58-57 lead.
Young added four consecutive free throws, and then Releford hit his big 3-pointer from the wing, allowing Self and another capacity crowd to finally start relaxing.


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text:
The Best Cheeses for Holiday Entertaining
Say cheese! We recommend, review, and eat a lot of cheese.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.
You think carefully about everything on your holiday table, from breadsticks to prime rib. Want to up the ante on your cheese plate? Pick cheeses that will complement the beverages you're serving.
Here are a few general guidelines to start with:
1. Sweet beverages in general pair well with saltier, more aggressive cheeses.
2. Subtle ones require more balanced and nuanced ones from the cheese.
3. Bubbles will complement dense, rich creamy cheeses, and go particularly well with those made from goat's milk.
When you're entertaining, you may want to rein in your preferences for the wildest, most exotic flavors in order to please large numbers of people. But that doesn't mean being boring.
The Best Cheeses for Winter Beers
This time of year, the shelves of your favorite beer retailer are full of special winter brews from many fine breweries. There really is no consensus among brewmasters on exactly what a holiday beer is: some are cinnamon-spiced and redolent of ginger and clove, while others are piney and roasty.
Most of these brews lean toward the malty, slightly sweet side, which makes them an ideal match for some of the firm sheep cheeses that can be found this time of year. Try the standard bearers: Vermont Shepherd, Dante, and Weston Wheel. A newer option, Singing Brook from Blackberry Farm in Tennessee, is well worth the pursuit. These cheeses offer a well articulated flavor; they start buttery, have herbal components in the middle, and finish with a distinct and pleasant edge of salt. The slightly sweet element in the beer will balance out the salt nicely.
Dark seasonal brews like Smuttynose Winter Ale and seasonally-appropriate stouts pair well with alpine cheeses like Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Springbrook Tarentaise. These cheeses are dense and often redolent of roasted nuts; that aspect of their flavor matches the nuttiness of roasted malt (which is what makes darker beers dark) and creates a harmonious pairing.
The Best Cheeses for Wintry Wines
Many of us switch to red when the weather gets cold, and unfortunately, red wines are much harder to pair with cheese than their white or pink counterparts. In fact, many experts have thrown up their hands in exasperation and announced that cheeses shouldn't be paired with red wine. I roll my eyes at that kind of defeatism, but cheeses must be chosen carefully and with an eye toward versatility. Alpine cheeses like Pleasant Ridge Reserve or firm sheep cheeses like Vermont Shepherd are pretty safe choices for pairing with many red wines. If you're serving Bordeaux or Rhone Valley reds, try a good quality cheddar like Cabot Clothbound, Montgomery's Cheddar, or Keen's.
The Best Cheeses for Champagne
The best approach for bubbly is to serve goat's milk cheeses (which echo the wine's minerality) and very creamy cheeses (which benefit from the cleansing, palate-refreshing bubbles.) Kunik from Nettle Meadow Farm in upstate New York is an ultra rich, creamy cheese made mostly from goat's milk. It's dynamite with Champagne. You could also consider serving a variety of options from California's Cowgirl Creamery. Their Mt. Tam, Pierce Point, Devil's Gulch, and Inverness cheeses all pair so well with champagne that you'll want to make sparkling wine a year-round drink.
What About Egg Nog?
I'm fond of boasting that there isn't any beverage that I wouldn't pair cheese with, but egg nog is the exception to that rule. It's so heavy with dairy already that any more would be overkill.
Maybe you should serve gingerbread cookies instead?
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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School of rock: Tripping down UVA's memory lane
When the Rolling Stones turn up their amps in Scott Stadium, their loud, live sounds will mark a significant change in tune for the University of Virginia. As any nearby resident can attest, idle chatter at an iTunes-generated beat is the usual din emanating from Rugby Road– nothing like the sonic volcano that's sure to erupt when Keith Richards strums the first chord of Thursday's show.
It's the kind of joyful noise not heard since Dave Matthews Band's homecoming show on Scott's stage in 2001, and for many in Charlottesville, memories of power chords and "one, two, three, four" don't go back any farther than that. But for those who lived in and around the hallowed Grounds in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, such a ruckus wasn't always so strange. In fact, throughout that period, some of the biggest names in music– both present and future– came to such venues as University Hall and Memorial Gym and, each time, turned Mr. Jefferson's university into the School of Rock.
Glimpses into the Future
For decades, the college circuit was a road familiar to almost any touring rock band. And for the vast majority of those acts, the road dead-ended in anonymity. But for a select few, it was a launching pad to fame and fortune. For a lucky group of UVA students, that meant the chance to bear witness to greatness in the making.
Such was the case when a scrappy 25-year-old Bruce Springsteen rolled into Charlottesville on November 17, 1974, and the man later known as the Boss played with his E Street Band to a packed Mem Gym. Bruce had already won a respectable cult following with his first two albums and a reputation for turning concerts into near-religious experiences, so expectations among the 1,500 or so in the audience were high.
By all accounts, New Jersey's future favorite son did not disappoint. The audience reportedly was whipped into such a frenzy that it almost seemed as if, as the Cavalier Daily put it, Springsteen "performed with" the audience more than performing to them.
That led reviewer Jimmy Fama to conclude, "Sunday's concert marked another small step in a steadily climbing musical career." Fama was only half right. Nine months later, Springsteen blasted into superstardom with the release of the LP Born to Run, then landed weeks later on the covers of Time and Newsweek simultaneously– not exactly a "steady" rise.
In addition to rising musical stars, UVA students also saw and heard well-established performers hone their craft. On October 26, 1973, Paul Simon played University Hall and was so pleased with the audience response that he used portions of the set on his live album In Concert: Live Rhymin'.
Almost a decade later, on October 12, 1983, Talking Heads put on their unusual traveling show that eventually became the landmark concert film, Stop Making Sense.
Even one future member of the Rolling Stones spent a night cutting his teeth in Charlottesville– guitarist Ron Wood rocked U-Hall on December 15, 1971 as a member of the Faces, fronted by a youthful Rod Stewart.
The End of the Line
Just as some bands have used Charlottesville as a stepping-stone to the big time, others have come to a grinding halt after shows at UVA. Such was the case on the night of April 19, 1974 when a man who played Woodstock came to an untimely end in Charlottesville.
After twisting the night away in University Hall, Sha Na Na lead guitarist Vinny Taylor checked into his room at the Holiday Inn and allegedly shot up a large dose of heroin. He was discovered unconscious at 11:30, a mere hour after the show ended, and was pronounced dead at 12:55 on the morning of April 20.
A fourth-year at the time, University professor and political pundit Larry Sabato recalls the incident as a sobering reminder of the dangers associated with drug use. "It was a tragic lesson, but a good lesson," Sabato says. "Hard drug use was widespread at that time, a lot of people could identify."
Despite Taylor's death, Sha Na Na continued its never-ending sock-hop. However, the folk-rock super-group Manassas, led by Stephen Stills and former member of the Byrds Chris Hillman, did not survive Charlottesville. Fractured over personnel changes, band members were also steamed at having to play second fiddle to Stills' other and better-known band, Crosby, Stills and Nash. April 14, 1973 at University Hall was the final stop on an arduous tour. The Cavalier Daily derided Stills for his "sloppy guitar playing" and noted that Hillman was "carrying Stills." Apparently the observation was correct, because it was the last show Manassas ever played.
Relations between band members were considerably better when the Allman Brothers Band scheduled a date at U-Hall in 1971. At the last minute, the Georgia rockers had to cancel what was to have been a historic show September 25 with blues legend B.B. King due to a change in their court date stemming from a May heroin bust. The group rescheduled the show for December 11. But fate once again intervened– guitarist Duane Allman suffered his fatal motorcycle accident on October 29. Happily, the group finally made it to Charlottesville just one week ago, a September 29 performance at the Pavilion.
History appeared to be repeating itself in 1984 after Elvis Costello announced he'd be kicking off his world tour at University Hall. Or at least a history-making hoax.
On February 24, Dale Kutnya, a disc jockey at the University station WTJU, decided to indulge in a prank. "It's true, folks," he intoned. "Elvis Costello has died." He then proceeded to play a 90-minute marathon of Elvis Costello music.
Inquiring minds in the news department at AM news station WINA called Costello's representative, who couldn't account for his exact whereabouts. Soon, rumors of the bespectacled rock star's death swept rock circles– eventually reaching the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post.
WTJU general manager Chuck Taylor wasn't amused. "It wasn't that it wasn't a good prank," he says. "It was." He noted the worldwide reaction.
The hoax was revealed the next day. Soon, the only thing that students had to mourn was the basketball team's loss in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. But soon students were cheering again when Costello took the stage at U-Hall on April 10, playing a solo acoustic and piano set and salving those March Madness wounds.
Student Relations
Just as reviews of the acts playing UVA have varied over the years, the feelings of the performers have ranged from the loving ("We'll come back here anytime you want us to," said Jimmy Buffet in 1980) to the caustic ("That was the worst crowd in a long while," Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie told the Cavalier Daily in a 1975 post-concert interview).
If band members usually kept their opinions within the confines of the tour bus, on rare occasions, the comments made their way into the show– and made for some memorable moments.
If there's one thing concerts at University Hall have proven, it's that rock stars like their personal space and don't like random students jumping on stage. The Cavalier Daily found that out when the normally easygoing Janis Joplin expressed her annoyance with some stage crashers at her December 6, 1969 U-Hall set. "That tonight wasn't natural," said Joplin.
While Joplin saved her displeasure for a backstage interview, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck had no problem making his opinion known to a sold out U-Hall when a fan bounded onto the stage at the start of the ballad "Seven Chinese Brothers."
While the rest of R.E.M. simply stopped playing on October 11, 1986 and waited for security to take care of the problem, Buck took matters into his own hands by chasing the man back into the audience. To further make his point, Buck not only punched him but also attempted to strangle him, and– go figure– pulled the man's shoes off, according to Buck's own account in the Cavalier Daily. Once Buck felt he'd gotten his shots in, he joined his band mates back onstage and continued the show as if nothing had happened.
Asked about the altercation after the concert, Buck told an interviewer, "It was great!" (In an unrelated story, Buck was not nearly as enthused when he went on trial for attacking two flight attendants on a British Airways flight in 2002.)
Historically, the rockers who liked Charlottesville didn't require the thrill of a fistfight to have a good time. In fact, no less than B.B. King had so much fun playing at UVA that he decided to stick around the Grounds following his show at Lambeth Field on April 12, 1986. He gladly hung out with students in the Colonnades, regaling them with stories from his decades on the road.
According to reports at the time, the highlight was a tale he told about a Greenwich Village jam session in the '60s with Eric Clapton and the late Jimi Hendrix. Said King to the Cavalier Daily, "If I ever see Jimi again, I'm going to ask him for a copy of that tape."
Sometimes, performers did the unthinkable and actually invited locals onstage when playing UVA. One such rare occasion happened when rock pioneer Chuck Berry played University Hall on December 8, 1972. It has long been Berry's custom not to tour with a band of his own but to hire a local band to play with him for the show. So when the guitar legend came to Charlottesville, he enlisted help from a group of Charlottesville garage rockers. Their name: Possum Delight.
In an evening of old school rock 'n' roll sprinkled with the occasional ribald remark, Berry whipped the audience into a frenzy. It's a night Larry Sabato still recalls fondly.
"It was hot as hell in there, but it was a lot of fun," says Sabato. "Berry jumped all over the place– his energy level was really high. I can remember people screaming for him, and he kept coming out and was happy to comply."
Full House, Empty Pockets
In the days before the University Programs Council, it fell to a small group of students known as PK German to bring the big name rock acts to town. Considering the group's limited budget, the poor acoustics of U-Hall and Mem Gym, and concert-friendly William & Mary Hall not far away and near Tidewater population centers, Charlottesville could be a tough sell, even for plucky young promoters. And even when PK German succeeded in luring major talent to play UVA, according to press reports of the time, profits were unusual.
Rock bottom came when the band America rode their horse with no name into town and left PK German a bank account with no money. Due to thin attendance numbers, the desert folk act's October 18, 1979 U-Hall concert racked up a loss of $14,000.
But even when droves turned out for big name acts, the high cost of booking the band and putting on the show often offset the ticket revenue. That's what happened with the Grateful Dead's much-hyped September 14, 1982 concert. While University Hall sold out two weeks in advance, PK German still lost money.
Eventually, the financial woes became too much for the student organization, and by the early 1990s, it merged with the University Union.
Rock and Roll All Night
Even if the numbers didn't always add up, these marquee concerts were the heart of the University's social calendar and almost always succeeded in providing a fun evening for students.
According to Sabato, the concert was only part of what a big weekend at UVA meant. "It was the obligatory preface to a long night of partying," he says. "It was just a mass of humanity, and you went so you could say you went, and you wanted to please your date and so on, and then you got down to business."
Of course, "business" usually included the consumption of large quantities of alcohol. While that remains true today, odds are a UVA concert today could never match the debauchery of concerts when the legal drinking age in Virginia was 18.
In those days, there was almost never a crackdown on the drinking scene, and Sabato recalls it was even welcomed by school officials who seemed unfazed by a dozen tapped kegs in Mad Bowl.
"The University was more than happy to have alcohol on Grounds," says Sabato, "because they thought that meant you weren't smoking dope."
Leafy party aids or no, music was still only part of the fun at concerts thanks not only to the free-flowing booze but also to the notoriously muddy sound quality of UVA's two biggest venues at the time ("They could have been up there singing the alphabet song for all we knew," says Sabato.)
Now as the UVA rock concert makes its return at the less acoustically challenged Scott Stadium, expectations are that it will be an unparalleled experience, besting any musical event Charlottesville has ever seen. But in spite of all the poor sound quality, the occasionally surly performer, and even the rare death hoax, most recall the U-Hall and Mem Gym shows of old as "a good time had by all" in Sabato's words. Even for the World's Greatest Band, that's a hard act to follow.
Janis Joplin, Paul Simon, Talking Heads, REM, and Elvis Costello are just a few of the big-name acts that have played University Hall.
The reports of Elvis Costello's death were greatly exaggerated before his April 10, 1984 performance at UHall.
Professor of Rock: WTJU general manager Chuck Taylor has seen it all– from the Elvis Costello death hoax to Dylan and (now) the Stones.
Did you know? On November 17, 1974, months before he became a mega-star with the release of Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen whipped 1500 fans at Memorial Gym into a frenzy.
Bonnie Raitt and Little Feat played in 1975
Kind Sunny Ade on September 9, 1983
Richard Butler of the Psychadelic Furs on November 4, 1984


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From Wonder Bowls to Ice-Tup moulds to Party Susan's, Tupperware has become an icon of suburban living. Tracing the fortunes of Earl Tupper's polyethylene containers from early design to global distribution, Alison J. Clarke explains how Tupperware tapped into potent commercial and social forces, becoming a prevailing symbol of late twentieth-century consumer culture.
Invented by Earl Tupper in the 1940s to promote thrift and cleanliness, the pastel plasticwares were touted as essential to a post-war lifestyle that emphasized casual entertaining and celebrated America's material abundance. By the mid-1950s the Tupperware party, which gathered women in a hostess's home for lively product demonstrations and sales, was the foundation of a multimillion-dollar business that proved as innovative as the containers themselves. Clarke shows how the "party plan" direct sales system, by creating a corporate culture based on women's domestic lives, played a greater role than patented seals and streamlined design in the success of Tupperware.
- Published : 17/02/2001
- Format : Paperback
- Imprint : Smithsonian Books
- Size (mm): 152 x 229
- Category: History
- Pages : 256
- Edition :


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Legally Sweet
By Roald Hoffmann
Conflict over the essences of sweeteners and olive oils brings chemistry into the courtroom
Conflict over the essences of sweeteners and olive oils brings chemistry into the courtroom
Editor's note: The sugar-substitute trial ended in a settlement (terms not disclosed) on May 11, after the jury announced it had reached a verdict. News reports speculated that the jury's decision would have been favorable to Equal's claims against Splenda.
As I write this, a Philadelphia jury is learning some chemistry as it ponders a lawsuit brought by the makers of Equal (Merisant) against Splenda's manufacturers (McNeil Nutritionals). The jury members will also be probing our attitudes toward the natural and the unnatural, parsing words and getting at the essence of advertising.
It's about money, of course: the $1.5 billion market for artificial sweeteners. Equal's share of the market has fallen; Splenda's has risen dramatically, to 62 percent of the U.S. market. Equal's Merisant accuses Splenda's McNeil Nutritionals of gaining its edge by misleading consumers into thinking Splenda was somehow natural. Splenda's ads say "made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar."
First the facts: Ordinary "sugar," whether from sugar cane or beets, is sucrose, whose structure is shown on the facing page. Equal's active ingredient, aspartame, has a clearly different molecular structure from sucrose. Why it tastes sweet (much sweeter per gram than sugar), or to state it a different way, how artificial sweeteners work their biochemical legerdemain on our taste buds … that is a fascinating story. We now know the receptors involved and understand roughly how it can be that the receptor proteins respond to the diversity of chemical structures represented in sweeteners. But that story is not for here.
Splenda's active ingredient is sucralose. The molecule closely resembles sucrose, and indeed much of McNeil's sucralose is made from sucrose. It can also be made from other types of chemicals, as McNeil's patents carefully specify. To a chemist, sugars (saccharides) are not one molecule but a loosely defined family of carbohydrates that can form rings of varying size, each incorporating one oxygen atom and sporting a variety of hydroxyl (OH) groups. Sugars may also be short chains of such rings—see the two rings in sucrose. Not all members of the family are sweet.
When sucralose is made from echt sugar, sucrose, its metamorphosis takes place when simple chemical reactions add three chlorine atoms to sucrose, replacing three OH groups. The result, officially, is 1,6-dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-ß-D-fructofuranosyl-4-chloro-4-deoxy-a-D-galactopyranoside. It is 600 times sweeter (per gram) than sucrose.
I've written a book by this title. In chemistry, small differences matter. The compound d-carvone smells like caraway or dill; its mirror image smells like spearmint. Chlorine gas, Cl2, is nasty stuff biologically; chloride ions are necessary in our bodies. HOH is water; HOCl is hypochlorous acid, whose sodium salt is common bleach; HOC2H5 is ethanol. The difference between pseudoephedrine, a decongestant, and methamphetamine, an addictive drug, consists of just two atoms—easily, all too easily, taken away from the decongestant molecule.
A chemical transformation leading to minor changes in chemical structure often, not always, results in a major change in chemical properties. And it really doesn't matter what the starting point of a synthesis is; the biological properties of a molecule are determined by the molecule itself—the atoms in it and the way they are bonded to one another, its flexibility and shape.
Neither the exceeding sweetness of aspartame nor that of sucralose is related to the sweetness of sucrose; they are consequences of the arrangements of atoms in these molecules and how the molecules bind to the sweet-receptor proteins in our taste buds. Incidentally, these are hardly the most potent sweeteners. The world record is now held by members of an interesting chemical family, the guanidinoacetic acids. Some of these are 200,000 times as sweet as sucrose.
A seemingly different but related concern is worked out, sideways, on the Splenda Web site. Some people are upset by the proliferation of organic chlorine compounds in our environment—the insecticide DDT and industrial chlorofluorocarbons and PCBs are chief sources of worry. Sucralose is, of course, a chlorinated organic. Its manufacturer tries to deal with this concern preemptively in the Web FAQ section: "Chlorine is present naturally in many of the foods and beverages that we eat and drink every day ranging from lettuce, mushrooms and table salt." Quite true. Another argument that could have been made—that selective chlorination changes sucrose essentially, so that the properties of sucralose may not at all resemble those of sugar—would not fit in with Splenda's advertising.
One way to view advertising is that it represents the best psychology, visual art and poetry that money can buy to cater to the internal illogic of our minds. We want it sweet (otherwise, why buy sweeteners?), but we don't want sugar's calories. But oh, do we want the quintessence of sugar, its natural goodness. The advertisements for Equal say it "has a sweet, clean taste, like sugar," or just "tastes like sugar." The advertisements for Splenda say "made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar."
A poet should be happy, for here significance is condensed into just a few words—the causal "so," the generative "made of sugar." What calling up of resonances, what evocation of innocent childhood pleasures, of cotton candy! Never mind that the change in properties upon simple chlorine substitution is enough to make sucralose noncaloric. It holds no calories because it is not metabolized. (Actually, studies point to a maximum of 15 percent metabolism, so it does have a few calories. The FDA allows a manufacturer to say "none" when the amount is small.) That's quite a difference from sugar: a molecule modified to the extent that it can fool that supremely efficient machine for turning most anything ingested into atoms, bonds, and energy.
It's having your sweetness, and eating it too; "food" rather than food. It may well be that sucralose sells better because it tastes more sugar-like than aspartame. But as Terry Acree, my colleague, and a student of taste chemistry asks, could you imagine Splenda's advertisements saying simply and honestly, "stimulates the taste buds just like sugar"? No, that won't do. It is clear that Splenda's makers and their advertising agency could not forgo the psychological advantage of manipulating our vulnerable minds with causal chemical logic (it's okay, I love us anyway), of evoking a caries-free, calorie-free yet sugary fantasy. As the market demonstrates, the strategy works.
Essential transformation (sucrose to sucralose) came up in another legal case, one in which I was peripherally involved. It had to do with olive oil, and was at heart a "country of origin" issue, a question of the conditions under which you could label a product "Made in Italy."
Olive oil comes in many grades. You know extra-virgin, the highest grade from the first pressing, but let me tell you about the worst from the last. After repeated extractions, one can get from skin, pits and flesh the last bit of oil. It is a foul-looking, smelly, unhealthy oil called "lampante." The name tells its story—it was burned in street lamps in years past. Lampante can be processed so that it becomes clear and free of health problems. A leading Italian manufacturer of olive oil, with a big U.S. market, bought lampante (very cheaply of course, of course) in country X, brought it to Italy, cleaned it up and added a smidgen of Italian olive oil. And wished to label it as "Made in Italy." This designation carries a real premium in the restricted American olive oil imagination; French and Spanish producers of superb oils grind their teeth about that.
U.S. Customs, in charge of such matters, objected. Last I heard, the matter was headed for Customs Court. My help was enlisted as a potential expert witness. In the end I did not testify, but before I took the problem on, the lawyers for the olive-oil company acquainted me with the body of "country of origin" law. What I read made a chemist's heart leap.
The Code of Federal Regulations says clearly that to label a material as made in country X, a "substantial transformation" of natural or synthetic starting materials (which could come from countries Y or Z) must have occurred. The law defines a "substantial transformation" as one that changes the "name, character, or use" of a product. Case law then established that change in "character" meant chemistry and not physics! Filtering and distillation is not enough; a substantial transformation is one in which chemical bonds are made or broken.
The actual cases that I learned of were as diverse as the world could make them. For instance, in Koru North America v. United States, fish were caught near New Zealand and "beheaded, detailed, eviscerated, and frozen" at sea. They were then unloaded in New Zealand and shipped to Korea for "thawing, trimming, glazing, refreezing, and packaging." The court ruled that Korea was the country of origin, because the creation of a filet in that country was deemed to be a substantial transformation.
Moving closer to the olive-oil story, I read of one case in which Australian raw sugar was refined in Canada and another where crude foreign honey contaminated with "beeswax particles, bee fragments, wood particles, pollen, propolis, and dirt" was cleaned up in the U.S. Both were judged not to be substantial transformations.
Another case, now of a bona fide substantial transformation, was one of acetic acid from the U.S. that was shipped to Europe, chemically transformed to monochloroacetic acid, and then "imported" back to the U.S. The product was—correctly—ruled to have been made in Europe. Of course, the interest of U.S. Customs lies not just in fair labeling; import taxes and duties depend (in a less-than-logical way and subject to Congressional whims) on the country of origin.
All in all, I loved it—here was a court saying chemical change was essential change! And although I did not like the olive-oil company's advertising at all, once I looked at the complex processing of lampante, I could testify to the nature of the change. For not one but several key steps in that processing involved chemical transformation: neutralizing undesirable fatty acids (in a time-honored process called saponification; that's how soap is made), precipitating heavy metals as hydroxides, decomposing nasty peroxides, modifying sterols, isomerizing fats, transforming chlorophylls and carotenes into colorless derivatives. Yes, physical processes were also important in cleaning up lampante; nothing is simple. But while advertising will be advertising (as in the Equal v. Splenda case), the law is in reasonable accord with science: The consequence of chemical change is essential transformation.
Cosi simili, cosi diverse. And words matter.
© Roald Hoffman
Thanks to Edyta Brzostowska for some research related to this article, to Terry Acree for a comment and to Michael Shor for a legal point.
Click "American Scientist" to access home page


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Holly - Wool Blend Felt
Holly ~ Wool Blend Felt
Soft wool blend felt which is easy to cut and sew. Made from 30% wool and 70% synthetic. Approximately 1mm thick. East piece measures approx 22cm x 22cm. Complies with Toy Trade Standards EN71 Parts 1, 2 and 3. Dry clean only.


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(Courtesy of The Consumerist)
Paying your student loan is enough of an annoyance without the Dept. of Education making it more difficult. Unfortunately, the new site for the Federal Student Loan Servicing Center has people tearing their hair out in frustration.
The problems began on Oct. 5, when visitors to MyEdAccount.com found they couldn't get onto the site. Calls to customer service told them to either mail in their payments or hold their horses until Oct. 10 when the new site would be up and running.
But the site wasn't prepared for the volume, so on Oct. 10, many of them just saw a message reading, "An error has occurred and has been logged, please try again later."
Of course, it hasn't improved since then either, according to Yahoo:
"As of October 12, 2011 at 6:25 pm Eastern time, the www.myedaccount.com website still will not allow students to log in to manage their account or pay their bills online. Calls to the customer service number at 6 pm either rang busy or were answered by a recording indicating that the "Your call cannot be completed at this time, please try again later." Some students were able to get through by dialing the toll-free number, others who dialed the direct number available for international callers were able to get through after numerous attempts, only to be told that there is an "unusually high call volume" and that the wait time to speak to a representative would be "10 minutes." When I attempted to call, I was on hold for 26 minutes before being able to speak to a customer service representative."
When asked when the site would be fully functional, the Yahoo writer was told, "Unfortunately, there is no time or date for that. It might be today or tomorrow, we're just not sure," and the deluge of unhappy customers has resulted in "hundreds of calls, and it's causing the phones to not connect."
It's not just people trying to pay their loans that have gotten screwed over by this website mess. Consumerist reader Clifford says he's been trying to get a copy of his 1098-E from last year, but that it took around 15 attempted calls and then another 20 minutes of waiting just to be told they couldn't give him the information because their new computer system doesn't have that information in it yet.
"I was told to wait until the website is back up," says Cliff. "Not a huge deal for me, but a pretty big deal for a lot of folks trying to make payments, change address information, whatever. And the sliding timeline of when everything will be fixed is rather disturbing."


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DUI Lawyer in Dawsonville GA
If you are looking for a DUI lawyer or attorney in Dawsonville, GA then contact Patterson Moore Butler today. The experienced criminal defense team at Patterson Moore Butler provides the best DUI and BUI defense in Forsyth County and Metro Atlanta. They utilize a variety of field sobriety, blood, and breath test experts along with their years of experience to develop a focused defense strategy for your case. Call Patterson Moore Butler today to start defending your case.
You can be charged with DUI or BUI (Driving under the influence or Boating under the influence) if you submit to a breath test and blow over .08 BAC, you refused the DUI breath test and if the officer feels you are not driving a vehicle or operating a water craft safely due to alcohol or other drugs. Punishment can be severe, including but not limited to a 12 month hard license suspension, jail time, community service, alcohol evaluations, and DUI school. Once you have been arrested for DUI or BUI you must act quickly to keep your license. If the arresting officer served you with a DDS 1205 form you must file for an appeal of your license suspension within ten (10) days of your arrest. Failure to meet this deadline will result in your license being suspended for 12 months. The best DUI or BUI defense requires attention to the many technical legal issues, expert review, motions, and the ability to identify and argue all factual defenses. If you have been arrested for a DUI or BUI, you need an experienced attorney fighting for you.


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- Home
- Government
- Departments
- Parks, Recreation & Facilities
- Permits & Services
- Permits and Park Use
Use of Public Space
The use of public space -- including our city parks and open spaces -- for events, group gatherings, and organized festivals is one of the many services the Public Assembly Facilities Division assists in managing. Depending on the event, we will issue the permit, or if needed, guide you to the appropriate department for additional permitting. Please note: for use of athletic fields, please call the Recreation Office at 207-808-5400.
Process for Use of City Property
Use permit is needed when one or more of the following is applicable:
- 25 or more individuals are anticipated to attend an organized event
- Canopies / tents, film equipment, musical equipment, etc. - are placed down on city property
- Electricity is needed for an event
Permits Required
Typical events requiring a permit are:
- Banners (over the streets)
- Block parties
- Company outings
- Concerts
- Film shoots / photo shoots
- Fundraisers @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
- Large family reunions
- Press conferences
- Rallies
- Road races
- Walkathons
- Weddings @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
Steps to Use Public Space or Parks
- The "Application for Use of City Parks and Public Space" is completed by presenting organization/organizer.
- To confirm date and location availability prior to completing application, please call Clare Norton at 207-808-5400.
- Application submitted to Public Assembly Facilities Division. E-mail is preferred: firstname.lastname@example.com
- Application is reviewed; initial contact is made with event organizer
- Application may be forwarded to city staff for review
- Tentative approval may be given for event plans to move forward
- Recommend changes may be requested to proposal/application
- Application for use may be denied
- Once tentative approval is given:
- Insurance certificates must be obtained
- Permit fees paid in full
- Security deposits filed
- Application for City Licenses
- Once all necessary items are filed with the Public Assembly Facilities Division,
- "Permit for Use" is issued, usually via email
- This permit will contain conditions for use and information regarding assistance needs from City Departments


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We've launched the new website at www.knitters.org! Thanks to the Website Task Force for putting in many, many hours to bring the Guild into the 21st century!
At the May 18th Knitters' Guild meeting, we will tour the website and offer hands-on help.
If you know people in the Guild who do not have email or computers, please assure them that nothing is changing in their world. They will continue to receive the paper Cablegram newsletter in the US mail. That is not going away. If they move, or their phone number changes, they can let us know the same way they do now and we will update it in the system for them.
Please feel free to jump in early! Take a look around, and tell us what you think, or if you have any problems or questions, contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
There is a Members-Only section of the new website. You will receive an email with instructions for logging in if you are a member of the Minnesota Knitter's Guild.
Enjoy the new website!


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Modulates the beam of a laser weapon into the infrared frequencies. Slightly improved range. Slightly increased EM damage.
The delicate crystalline structures used in the manufacture of this advanced crystal degrade with use, eventually causing it to shatter.
20% increased optimal range.
35% reduced capacitor need.
Structure Hitpoints
Em Damage
Thermal Damage
Range Bonus
Charge Size
Used With (Launcher Group)
Capacitor Need Bonus
Tech Level
Volatility Damage
Crystals Take Damage
Explosive Damage
Kinetic Damage
Main Color
Fly Range Multiplier
Meta Group Id


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SEATTLE (AP) - Utility infielder Chris Burke has been traded from the Mariners back to the Padres only a few weeks after Seattle acquired Burke from San Diego.
The trade was made official Tuesday, with Seattle receiving cash for returning Burke to the Padres. Burke was acquired by the Mariners on March 29 and was in Seattle's spring training camp as a non-roster invitee. He was sent to Triple-A Tacoma to begin the season.
San Diego wanted Burke back after rookie shortstop Everth Cabrera was placed on the 60-day disabled list with a fractured hamate bone in his left hand.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.


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Last Act! Calvin Klein Blush 18 Square Gathered Tuck Decorative Pillow Bedding
Browse all deals at Macy's
See more in Bed Pillows & Protectors
See more from Calvin Klein
* This offer may contain time-sensitive information and offers. Please check with Macy's to confirm actual price & availability.
- Be the first to comment!
4750 Fashion Square Mall
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Mountain Bike as separate activity type or tag
Please add mountain biking to the list of activities in the app because the cals vs speed are very different from road riding. Also a count down to workout start would be a good feature.
Please add mountain biking to the list of activities in the app because the cals vs speed are very different from road riding. Also a count down to workout start would be a good feature.
I've been using Runkeeper over Strava because of this issue. So much easier to select Mountain Biking from Cycling in that app. Just trying Strava as I'm finding a lot of MTB riders are still willing to put up with this making it the de facto biking app on the dirt, as well as pavement. C'mon Strava... I want to be devoted to you, but just can't do it yet..
Hi Elle/Strava, despite what you say near the top about using different algorithms for MTB and road biking, that simply doesn't seem to be true. As an example, on my road bike I regularly do 700 calories in an hour. Today I completed a 21km MTB RACE in 1:35, where I was working very hard throughout and it tells me I have done 734 calories at a very low average power output. Thus, suggesting that it's the same computations being done by the app! I have my bikes entered properly as you said, so this just makes no sense! (I use the android app if this makes a difference).
Yes it's a nice update! MTB vs Road
Agree. Even when setting up a moutain bike in the gear section via the website, it doesn't seem to change the calorie calc (or if it does, the calc seems really low). Would just be more straightforward to have a MTB setting. thanks.
I'd also very much like to see this. Right now the MTB folks have no chance of ranking on the weekly club leaderboards, too.
And may I add my little voice to beg the Sweet Baby Cheeses at Strava Towers to give us the opportunity to compare our rides with other MTBers and not the whip thin Racing Snakes swifting up the climbs that make a mountain biker weep ..........For Goodness sake, I saw a roadie the other day that had thighs thinner than my forearms...... How am I expected to compete with that up a 3 Cat climb :-(
Pull the proverbial Strava! Do it! Do it! Do it NOW! ....You know you want to.
+1. Also it would avoid case where road riders accidentally log a section that runs next to the road. For instance, apparently I did a downhill super D section in about 18 seconds last month, about twice as quickly as the winner of the last national race. This ambiguity would be easier to avoid, if the differentiation existed. Keep up the good work.
Yes yes yes. "Ride" needs to be broken down into Road RIde and MTB Ride.
Agree +1
Just came from RunKeeper and it is so easy to do this already.
Sadly already signed up for premium, regretting that decision already.
Q1: So what if a Roadie storms up a MTB trail - the actual trail - not some adjacent road or something - .e.g dirt track Nate Harrison Grade on Palomar in SD - shouldn't they be able to get the KOM? This is only going to be applicable for some routes but I wanted to understand how people think this should work.
As for being 2nd class citizens etc - count yourselves lucky - I ride an ElliptiGO (elliptical cycle) which is heavier and clunkier than your MTB and less efficient to boot (but good for my back so hey) - we don't even have a bike type so I use MTB (though it doesnt really matter). AND I LIKE to compare my times to both roadies and MTB - I'll try my best against both groups (and you can see my times up Nate Harrison or Haleakala ;)
Bill, I don't think anyone cares who gets a KOM on whatever bike they choose to ride. I've lost KOMs to guys on cyclocross bikes but that's fine if they are able to handle the trail (usually they stick to fire roads). I think what everyone is asking for is a clear delineation between road and mtb segments for a few reasons:
1. To make using the segment explorer MUCH easier. If I want to just search for mtb segments, I currently see all road segments as well cluttering my view.
2. To make participating in challenges equal, so roadies have their own and mountain bikers have their own.
3. This will also prevent Stava from inadvertently confusing road and mtb segments. For example, there is a really tough mtb climb that goes up alongside the road, so all of the roadies who ride past get registered on the mtb segment. Not cool.
It would be SO very easy to enlist the help of the Stava community to help designate road and trail segments. I personally would take the time to mark all of the segments in my neighborhood if Strava would only give me the option.
So c'mon Strava! How about finally implementing this for 2014?
Agreed that a clear separation of MTB and ROAD activities. Please consider this.
il serait super de pouvoir filtrer les activités Routes et VTT
Road and MTB should be separated!!!
+1. Would really like to tag my rides as MTB. Hell, I can tag Commute or Stationary Trainer, but not Road or MTB. Umm, yeahhhhhh...
Any update on when we'll be able to log our rides as either road or mtb? I run the Broken Riders Club, and we can't award prizes for miles as there are riders in the club who also ride road - and they're nothing up over 200 miles per week! It just skews all the rider leading order. So, any news of an update?
By the way - thank you for developing such a great product and changing riding forever!
There is a definite need for this feature to be added as Mountain Biking and Road biking are very different when it comes to average speeds and overall distance covered. This makes some of the comparisons within clubs/groups or challenges meaningless. It would also enable a more specific search when looking for routes etc.
I find it odd that there are three different categories for skiing but only one for cycling when it seems that the origins and focus of STRAVA is in cycling. Cmon Guys. Listen to all these requests and make a great product even better.
I note the reply from Elle Anderson but I have always attached a mountain bike to the activities but they still show as "Ride". I have added a road bike as well now and will see if that enables this feature. Even if this worked it is not the solution that so many people are requesting.
Thanks and regards
Is there a update on this feature request please?
Also having the same problem as everyone else here. I added my MTB to the gear list, but when I edited my activity and chose the MTB the calorie count and output did not change. I know I am burning more than 400 calories on a super tough and hilly 7 mile MTB ride where my clothes are soaking wet with sweat afterwards. That simply would not be the case if I were riding road for that same distance.
Kristen - FYI your calories jump to 525 when you switch the bike to your MTB and refresh the page. Hope that helps!
Make sure you check out this related feature suggestion as well, with regard to showing the leaderboard results based on road or mountain bike:
Thanks for the feedback - this is a really good collection of feedback regarding this request that the product team will be interested to hear.
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1) The Immortal; 2) Dark Insanity; 3) Dead Inside; 4) Diva Satanica; 5) Pilgrim; 6) Silverwing; 7) Beast Of Man; 8) Bass Intro/Tears Of The Dead; 9) Bridge Of Destiny; 10) Transmigration Macabre; 11) Angelclaw.
It's a lucky thing I have to review this on New Year's Eve — too many things to wrap up, too little energy to spend on music writing, and here comes a live album that is absolutely impossible to write about in long, scrutinizing detail anyway.
So, briefly and up to the point. These recordings were made in October/November 1999, during several shows in Tokyo. The line-up is the same as on Burning Bridges, meaning that this is the officially last album to feature Liiva as vocalist. The setlist is predictably heavily tilted towards Burning Bridges, with Stigmata only represented by three songs and Black Earth by two. The performances are practically indistinguishable from the studio originals. And the audience is absolutely inaudible, except in between tracks. Happy New Year!
PS. Liiva's vocals are actually far more «shiver-inducing» during his stage announcements than when he is singing. So shiver-inducing, in fact, that I am embarrassed to play this album in front of any person of any level of intelligence without first submitting the person in question to a long lecture about artistic conventionalities, traditions, customs, and rituals. Want to increase your tolerance levels? Try death metal. Beats modern art and bestiality all to hell.
PPS. No, but seriously, it is a good album, if only you take your expectations off the «live» register (it is admirable that they can play with such speed and complexity on stage, but, presumably, much of their studio output was recorded «live in the studio» as well, so no outstanding feats of originality here). Excellent production — certainly better than on Black Earth, which is why 'Dark Insanity' is more of a success here than it was over there — and a strong setlist. And yet, completely unnecessary for non-fans.


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Ivy Bush
- "No one had a more attentive audience than old Ham Gamgee, commonly known as the Gaffer. He held forth at the The Ivy Bush, a small inn on the Bywater road..."
- ― A Long-expected Party
The Ivy Bush was an inn located on Bywater Road in the Shire.
[edit] History
The Ivy Bush was frequented by the Hobbits of Hobbiton and Bywater. It was here that Gaffer Gamgee got quite an audience who were interested in the stories he told about Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.[1]
[edit] Inspiration
The Ivy Bush is the name of a public house located on Hagley Road, Birmingham, England.[2] When Tolkien lived on Stirling Road this would have been his local hostelry and could be found halfway between his house and the Birmingham Oratory, where he worshiped for a time.
[edit] Portrayal in adaptations
2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (video game):
- The Ivy Bush is a two-story building located at Bywater's market. Unlike the Green Dragon, which is on the other side of the market, the Ivy Bush plays no part in the story.


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Thompson Honored for Lifelong Dedication to the North CountryWednesday, June 29th, 2011
SUNY Canton adjunct instructor Donald D. Thompson has focused his career on saving the lives of his neighbors and North Country community members. Recently, those same community members recognized him for the demonstrated passion he has for his work.
Thompson, who has been an instructor in the College's Emergency Management Technician (EMT) program for nearly 22 years, has been named the 2011 recipient of the Canton-Potsdam Hospital Board of Directors' Award.
"Don's work has impacted all of us, whether we realize it or not," said SUNY Canton President Joseph L. Kennedy. "Like Don, many of his students have gone on to be successful in the emergency management field within the county and have helped us, loved ones or friends through tough circumstances. SUNY Canton has benefited and continues to benefit from having him as a member of our campus community."
Thompson has served the local communities for more than 44 years as a Critical Care EMT, firefighter, and as an instructor for many of the technicians throughout St. Lawrence County.
"Don not only volunteers his time as an educator; he is also a highly skilled Critical Care EMT who mentors others in action," said Margaret Madden, Canton-Potsdam Hospital Board of Directors Chair. "He has saved countless lives and helped others to save lives, too. Don has made a lasting impact on emergency medicine in our community; we are healthier and safer for his contribution."
Photos by Christopher Lenney


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Two of Lockhart Gardner's newest equity partners are being tasked with a surprising job: take down the bosses in court.
In these new photos from the Feb. 17 episode of The Good Wife (Sundays at 9/8c on CBS), Alicia (Julianna Margulies) and Cary (Matt Czuchry) must battle Will (Josh Charles) and Diane (Christine Baranski) when a client asks the firm to go through a mock trial to test their case. But from the look of these photos, all four lawyers are taking this "mock" case very seriously. Will Diane and Alicia's tensions boil over into the courtroom? Will Will's possible bias against Cary come out?
The Good Wife spoiler photos: Get a sneak peek at what's ahead
Check out these photos from next new episode, titled "Red Team/Blue Team," which also features guest star Kyle MacLachlan.
The Good Wife returns on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 9/8c on CBS. Which side would you bet on?


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SQL Server connectivity is the most common issue & below mention errors is also common at time of connectivity issue.
Error :
A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 53)
Resolution : Although, There are many reasons of SQL server connectivity issue. But I have setup an small checklist that helps me most of the time to find out the real cause of connectivity issue.
1. Check SQL services are running
2. Check SQL Browser service is running
3. Check remote connections are enabled
4. Network connectivity between database & application servers by TRACERT command
5. Check TCP/IP protocol enabled at SQL server
6. Check talent connectivity – telnet <IP address> <port no on SQL server running>
7. Check UDP port 1434 is open or not on SQL Server
8. Check firewall is running or not Check
9. If firewall running, SQL Server & UDP port must be added in exception in firewall


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I've just seen your movie.
Rob: Did you like it?
It's really crazy.
Rob: It's pretty weird. It's pretty out there.
It's definitely no teenage movie.
Rob: Yeah no. Unless you are a really clever teenager or really interested in big limousines.
In the movie there are many nude scenes. You have much sex with many different women. How was that?
Rob: It's strange. Half of the sex scenes were not planned to be sex scenes. They should take place after the sex. The script said: "They just had sex", but David said on the day: "You have sex now". All my preparations, all the work and the huge dialogue scenes that I've thought about, I could throw away.
Has you girlfriend Kristen seen the movie?
Rob: Yeah, yeah.
How did you prepare her for all these scenes with all these different women?
Rob: The only problem is, when the movie isn't good. And then there is the question: "Why are you doing this? Why are you playing so many sex scenes in such a bad movie? If it's interesting and believable, then everything is okay."
When did you decide to make your relationship official?
Rob: To be honest I don't talk about my relationship. Simply because I never do. Since I started doing interviews. No... simply no.
source | Thanks to @Kris1787 for heads up and uploading it for non German viewers


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At least, it appears they succeeded. The friend with cancer, Blake Cognata, is a senior lacrosse player from Fairport, NY who is also Minnesota Vikings fan. From what we can gather, Cognata seems to be a pretty good dude. Unsurprisingly, then, a groundswell of support developed around the senior to get the hashtag #APCallBlake trending on Twitter—or at the very least spam the hell out of Peterson's mentions—so that he would call Cognata. According to his friends, it worked. The picture you see above is supposedly the moment Peterson called and it makes sense—who videos a random phone conversation, right?
Zack Mentz, the sports editor at John Carroll University, went to the same high school as Cognata and he and another friend from Fairport—Dylan George—got the ball rolling on what would eventually be a pretty great story.
Now, Peterson has not mentioned anything on Twitter about the call—he's been silent since Saturday—so it is at least possible that this feel-good story is some kind of terrible internet hoax, but that would be a pretty awful thing to have done to all these people who jumped on board to support a legitimately sick kid. We're going to go with feel-good for now. Here's a selection from #APCallBlake on Twitter.


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Ethan A. Huff
April 15, 2011
It may sound like something out of a science fiction plot, but Oxford researchers say that modern conventional medicine is gradually developing ways to change the moral states of humans through pharmaceutical drugs, and thus control the way people think and act in various life situations. These new drugs will literally have the ability to disrupt an individual's personal morality, and instead reprogram that person to believe and do whatever the drug designer has created that drug to do.
"Science has ignored the question of moral improvement so far, but it is now becoming a big debate," said Dr. Guy Kahane from the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics in the UK. "There is already a growing body of research you can describe in these terms. Studies show that certain drugs affect the ways people respond to moral dilemmas by increasing their sense of empathy, group affiliation and by reducing aggression."
While this may sound good in theory, mind control is already a very dangerous side effect of existing drugs. Take the antidepressant drug Prozac, for instance, which has been known to cause those taking it to lash out in violent rages. One young boy murdered his father by beating him and stabbing him in the head, and hit his mother with a crowbar and stabbed her in the face, shortly after starting to take Prozac (http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000…).
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
But the kinds of drugs Kahane and his colleagues are referring to imply designer drugs specifically designed to not only alter one's mental state, but also to change the way that person thinks about situations from a moral perspective. The end result is literally a type of drug-induced mind control where human subjects will be controlled by someone else, and unable to make conscious decisions for themselves.
Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (Ad)
Research on the subject, of course, tries to paint the idea of mind-control drugs in a positive light, suggesting that they could be used to help make the world a better place. Just imagine less violence, more trust, and more love, they say. This rhetoric, though, is really just a ploy to further numb the already mind-numbed masses into accepting the idea as a good thing.
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