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Cutting Ball Theater Opens THE CHAIRS, 3/1
Cutting Ball Theater continues its 14th season with Eugene Ionesco's THE CHAIRS, in a new translation by Rob Melrose. This tragic farce, in the tradition of Cutting Ball's hit productions of Ionesco's The Bald Soprano (2010) and Victims of Duty (2008), is as comedic as it is heartbreaking. Annie Elias (Tenderloin) directs THE CHAIRS, featuring David Sinaiko, Tamar Cohn, and Derek Fischer, March 1 through 31 (Press opening: March 7) at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco. For tickets ($10-50) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 415-525-1205.
THE CHAIRS follows an elderly couple who pass their time in an abandoned seaside building playing private games and telling each other half-remembered stories. Adrift in a world of their own, the Old Man resolves to convey his wisdom to a lifetime of friends, but while the Old Woman frantically sets out chairs, all of their invited guests appear to be imaginary. An eccentric meditation on the human condition, THE CHAIRS humorously blurs the line between fantasy and hallucination as the couple's game becomes their reality. Melrose's new translation offers a fresh take on this absurdist masterpiece.
"After such a tremendous reception at Cutting Ball last season with Tenderloin, I am delighted to return to direct The Chairs," said director Annie Elias. "With this new translation of Ionesco's classic tragic farce, we pay homage to his declared aesthetic sources; some may find it surprising that Ionesco was inspired by Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, as well as cartoons. At the same time, the play conveys a pathos and humanity beneath the surface antics. Written in 1952, The Chairs is just as relevant and poignant, and humorous, today as it was when it was penned."
"I am very excited about The Chairs," said Cutting Ball Artistic Director, and translator, Rob Melrose. "After our successes with Ionesco's The Bald Soprano and Victims of Duty, we are doing a new translation of one of Ionesco's best plays. Annie Elias, who did such marvelous work with her actors in Tenderloin, directs this production, which is entirely dependent on having two excellent actors interacting with a host of provocative, but invisible, characters. I can't wait to see what Annie does with her production of this masterful play."
Cutting Ball Theater has assembled a trio of talented actors for THE CHAIRS. An Associate Artist at Cutting Ball, David Sinaiko (Old Man) most recently appeared in the company's productions of Strindberg Cycle: The Chamber Plays in Rep, Tenderloin, Lady Grey (in ever lower light), The Tempest, Krapp's Last Tape, ...and Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, The Bald Soprano, Victims of Duty, and Endgame. Other Cutting Ball credits include The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, The Sandalwood Box, Ajax for Instance, Macbeth, 365 Plays/365 Days, Woyzeck, Chain Reactions, and RISK IS THIS...The Cutting Ball New Experimental Plays Festival. Additional credits include productions at Golden Thread Productions, Crowded Fire Theater, and SF Playhouse; Sinaiko has been seen at the Goodman Theatre, The Actor's Gang, and in the popular Bay Area one-man production of David Sedaris' SantaLand Diaries. He was a founding member of Chicago's New Crime Productions.
Tamar Cohn (Old Woman) was last seen at Cutting Ball in the RISK IS THIS... The Cutting Ball New Experimental Plays Festival staged reading of Trojan Barbie. Regional credits include productions at Theatre Rhinoceros (100 Saints You Should Know), Brava Theater (The Oldest Profession), Center REPertory Company (Witness for the Prosecution), The Jewish Theatre (2 x Malamud: The Jewbird and The Magic Barrel), and California Conservatory Theatre (Incorruptible). Additional credits include productions at AlterTheater Ensemble, Playwrights Foundation, Woman's Will, 6th St. Playhouse, and Pacific Alliance Stage Company, among others.
An Associate Artist at Cutting Ball, Derek Fischer (Orator) appeared in the company's productions of Pelleas & Melisande and The Bald Soprano, and was seen in The Insect Play as part of the Hidden Classics Reading Series. Additional credits include productions at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, PianoFight, and the Bay One Acts Festival.
Director Annie Elias specializes in ensemble playmaking. She brings a background in physical theater and improvisation, including performing with Chicago's celebrated commedia-based company New Crime Productions, to her direction of THE CHAIRS. In addition to last season's hit production of Tenderloin at Cutting Ball, Elias created and directed the documentary theater pieces Moon Over Marin, Write a Book, Have a Child, Plant a Tree, and Epiphany. She has written and directed numerous plays for Phantom Theater including Rip! The Twenty Year Night, Descent into Mayhem, Raising Rapunzel, Intellect, and Hedda Takes. Elias is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a development grant from the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project for her dance/theater adaptation of Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, and development support from the Magic Theatre for her play Entranced, based on the Sleeping Beauty myth. She holds a B.A. from Mills College, was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow, and studied dramaturgy at the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard University. She is the Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Marin Academy.
Rob Melrose is the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Cutting Ball Theater and works nationally as a freelance director. He has directed at the Guthrie Theater (Happy Days, Pen, Julius Caesar - with The Acting Company); Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Troilus and Cressida - in association with The Public Theater), Magic Theatre (An Accident, World Premiere); PlayMakers Rep (Happy Days); California Shakespeare Theater (Villains, Fools, and Lovers); Black Box Theatre (The Creature, World Premiere); Actors' Collective (Hedda Gabler); The Gamm Theatre (Creditors); and Crowded Fire Theater (The Train Play), among others. Directing credits at Cutting Ball include Strindberg Cycle: The Chamber Plays in Rep, Pelleas & Melisande, the Bay Area Premiere of Will Eno's Lady Grey (in ever lower light); The Tempest; The Bald Soprano; Victims of Duty; Bone to Pick and Diadem (World Premiere); Endgame; Krapp's Last Tape; The Taming of the Shrew; Macbeth; Hamletmachine; As You Like It; The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World; Mayakovsky: A Tragedy; My Head Was a Sledgehammer; Roberto Zucco; The Vomit Talk of Ghosts (World Premiere); The Sandalwood Box; Pickling; Ajax for Instance; Helen of Troy (World Premiere); and Drowning Room (World Premiere). Translations include No Exit, Woyzeck, Pelléas and Mélisande, The Bald Soprano, and Ubu Roi. He is a recipient of the NEA / TCG Career Development Program award for directors, and has taught at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, University of San Francisco, the University of Rhode Island, and Marin Academy.
Playwright Eugene Ionesco is considered the father of the Theatre of the Absurd. Rejecting the logical plot, character development, and thought of traditional drama, Ionesco created his own anarchic form of comedy to convey modern man's existence in a universe ruled by chance. He is the author of more than 20 plays, including THE CHAIRS (1952), The Bald Soprano (1950), The Lesson (1951), Victims of Duty (1953), Jack, or the Submission (1954), Rhinoceros (1959), Exit the King (1962), A Stroll in the Air (1963), Macbett (1972), and Journeys Among the Dead (1980). Although there were thematic bridges among Ionesco and his playwriting peers, his distinction was in his fanciful surrealism and sense of Dada. Ionesco's peers included Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Arthur Adamov; his pioneering work in absurdism laid the foundation for contemporary playwrights including Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard.
Co-founded in 1999 by theater artists Rob Melrose and Paige Rogers, Cutting Ball Theater presents avant-garde works of the past, present, and future by re-envisioning classics, exploring seminal avant-garde texts, and developing new experimental plays. Cutting Ball Theater has partnered with Playwrights Foundation, and the Magic Theatre/Z Space New Plays Initiative to commission new experimental works. The company has produced a number of World Premieres, West Coast Premieres, and re-imagined various classics. Cutting Ball received the 2008 San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie award for outstanding talent in the performing arts, and was voted "Best Theater Company" in the 2010 San Francisco Bay Guardian Best of the Bay issue. The company also earned the Best of SF award in 2006 and "Best Experimental Theater Company" in 2012 from SF Weekly, and was selected by San Francisco magazine as Best Classic Theater in 2007. Cutting Ball Theater was featured in the February 2010 and 2012 issues of American Theatre Magazine.


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Urinary Incontinence is the unintentional passing of urine and is a common problem thought to affect around 4 million people in Australia. If you are suffering from this condition, you are not alone; there are many people living healthy, happy lives that suffer from bladder and bowel weakness.
There are many incontinence treatments available, from do-it-yourself exercises through to surgical procedures. In fact, a recent study found that just losing weight helped reduce the instances of incontinence by up to 70% in women surveyed.Learn more
Both men and women can experience several types of incontinence which can affect either the urinary tract and bladder, or the bowel.
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Score Mentor Lunch
April 2 @ 11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Join us for a special lunch session, Tuesday, April 2nd, to learn about the mentoring and services SCORE provides. If you are interested in getting help with certain growth issues or taking a critical look at your business processes, SCORE can help match you with an experienced mentor for free.
About SCORE:
SCORE is dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship. We have been doing this for over fifty years.
Because our work is supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and thanks to our network of 10,000 volunteers, we are able to deliver our services at no charge or at very low cost.
Score provides:
- Volunteer MENTORS who share their expertise across 62 industries
- Free, confidential business MENTORING in person, via email or by video
- Free business TOOLS, templates and tips here online
- Inexpensive or free business WORKSHOPS (locally) and webinars (online 24/7)
Our 300 chapters hold events and workshops locally across the U.S. and its territories and match up entrepreneurs with local, volunteer mentors.
*This is an exclusive tenant only event


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Talk of Google's entry into the mobile market (currently referred to as the gPhone) has swirled for weeks now as additional information and rumors have been leaked regarding the company's mobile plans. Now, new evidence of Google's long-term interest in the mobile market has surfaced in the form of the company's patent application covering mobile payments made via SMS.
Google's patent application describes the following:
A computer-implemented method of effectuating an electronic
on-line payment includes receiving at a computer server system a text
message from a payor containing a payment request representing a payment
amount sent by a payor device operating independently of the computer server
system, determining a payment amount associated with the text message and
debiting a payor account for an amount corresponding to the amount of the
payment request, and crediting an account of a payee that is independent of
the computer server system.
Essentially, this describes a system where a text message (specifically an SMS message) would be sent containing a payment amount. That payment amount would then be validated, debited from the user's account, and communicated from server to server. Confirmation that payment had been received would also simultaneously be sent to the relevant party, as illustrated in the diagram below.
The implications of a truly platform-independent system are potentially tremendous, particularly if Google tied the system (or some future iteration of it) to Google Checkout. A single, secure, and platform-independent system of payment could do for the mobile phone system what Paypal has done for computing in general–namely, give it a single, (generally) trusted application that can handle a variety of payments, whether via auction, between persons, or between a person and a business.
Although Google has yet to specifically confirm the gPhone, this patent application is the latest indication that the company is thinking about the mobile experience in some new and exciting ways. Not only is Google rumored to be in talks with major telecoms in India, Europe, and America, but Google has also stepped up its own efforts to develop mobile software, and seen a corresponding surge of traffic to its mobile divisions.
Much is still unknown at this point, including which company or companies would be providing the handsets, and whether or not Google would include its own proprietary OS (presumably built by the mobile OS company Android which Google acquired in 2005). We also don't know how platform-independent the new payment system would be, or how readily/quickly Google would license it to other companies. It seems increasingly certain, however, that we'll be seeing a gPhone (or series of gPhones) in one form or another in the coming months.


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Henriksen Arabians
Audubon, Iowa Get Directions
Email: email@example.com
Phone: 712-304-0330
Located in Audubon, Iowa. If you talk to those who have owned or showed horses from Henriksen Arabians and you will hear the same opinions: Fine horses, good people. Through the years, as Henriksen Arabians has become known as a source of excellent bloodstock.


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Broad Channel Park
Cross Bay Blvd., Channel Rd. bet. E. 16 Rd. and E. 18 Rd.
Directions via Google Maps
Broad Channel Park is located on the Cross Bay Parkway between the Broad Channel waterway and 20th Road. The park lies within the neighborhood of Broad Channel, the only island community in Jamaica Bay. The neighborhood stands on Big Egg Marsh, an island approximately 20 blocks long and 4 blocks wide. Prior to European settlement, the Jameco and Canarsie Native Americans frequented this area. During the 1600s, Dutch settlers established a community on the island and began harvesting oysters, clams, shrimp, and fish. Broad Channel remained a parcel within the Town of Jamaica until the consolidation of New York City in 1898.


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I'm implementing Box2D for my 2d top down LIBGDX game and i have some struggle with two dynamic body. Currently, my two bodies are created that way :
BodyDef bodyDef = new BodyDef();
bodyDef.type = BodyType.DynamicBody;
bodyDef.position.set(this.x, this.y);
this.body = world.createBody(bodyDef);
PolygonShape collider = new PolygonShape();
collider.setAsBox(16, 16);
FixtureDef fDef = new FixtureDef();
fDef.density = 0f;
fDef.friction = 0f;
fDef.restitution = 0f;
fDef.shape = collider;
So basicly, no rotation, no friction and no restitution. Also, my world have a gravity of 0 (since it's a 2d top down game, i don't that want them to fall). When player 1 collide with player 2, player 2 is moved backward like it was push but i don't want that. I want it to stay where he is, blocking the path to player 1 but he can also move.
Is there a way to do that ? I have looked for some tips like catching collision with the contact listener but i don't know what to do in the preSolve method.
I'd like some help, thanks !


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Stock Image
The biggest, most powerful blower in the STIHL range.
The new STIHL BR 700 steps things up a notch in the STIHL blower range. This high output professional blower is our most powerful model to date. Able to clear piles of wet leaves, and reduce bottom line costs with its fuel efficient engine, it is the ideal tool to get control over tough landscaping tasks and large property maintenance. Professionals will love the adaptive design features, including an adjustable telescopic tube to accommodate users of different heights, and different applications, as well as the control handle that adjusts easily without tools to provide the most comfortable position. For further convenience, this blower comes with a semi-automatic choke for smooth and easy starts. Designed with an optimal power-to-weight ratio the BR 700 combines power and portability so you can get the job done whenever, wherever.
- Built in the USA: Indicates products that are built in the United States from domestic and foreign parts and components.
- Reduced-Emission Engine Technology - Caring for Nature: The STIHL Inc. "Caring for Nature" seal identifies its powered products that are more environmentally conscious, producing zero or low exhaust emissions. STIHL Inc. defines "low exhaust emissions" as being cleaner than EPA and/or CARB exhaust emission standards.
- Multi-Function Control Handle: Having easy access to all of the controls on one comfortable handle makes it easy to complete tasks so the operator's hand never has to leave the handle.
- Anti-Vibration System: The STIHL anti-vibration system helps reduce operator fatigue and provides a more comfortable working experience.
- Adjustable Support Harness: STIHL backpack blowers and sprayers are equipped with an adjustable support harness that distributes weight evenly across the shoulders and back, reducing user fatigue.
- Displacement: 64.8 cc (4.0 cu. in.)
- Engine Power: 2.8 kW (3.8 bhp)
- Weight: 10.6 kg (23.4 lb.)
- Fuel Capacity: 1400 cc (47.3 oz.)
- Blowing Force*: 35 Newtons
- Avg. Air Velocity*: 79 m/sec. (165 mph)
- Max. Air Velocity*: 88 m/sec. (197 mph)
- Air Volume At Nozzle*: 1550 m3/h (912 cfm)
- Sound Pressure Rating*: 75 dB(A)
- Power Source: Gas
- Displacement
- 4.0 cu. in. (64.8 cc)
- Weight
- 23.4 lb. (10.6 kg)
- Air Velocity
- Average: 165 mph (79 m/sec.); Max.: 197 mph (88 m/sec.)


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Hjemkomst Center
The Hjemkomst Center is a unique multi-use facility owned and operated by the City of Moorhead Parks and Recreation Department. This beautiful facility hosts a variety of special exhibits and events, offering something for the entire family.
If you looking for information about current or upcoming exhibits, museum tours or history of the Hjemkomst ship and Stave Church please visit the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County.
202 1st Avenue North
Monday – Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm
Sunday – Noon to 5 pm
Contact Us
218.299.5515 | Email Us
Building Tenants


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Over the last few months, I've read several articles that center around the idea that people should be saving every possible dime that they can for retirement. For example, Daily Finance recently had an article entitled Forget the 4% Rule: Retirement's Common Wisdom Is Obsolete:
The theory was simple: If you spent a maximum of 4% per year of your retirement funds, the decline in principle will be slow enough that your money would last as long as you did. Though the percentage seems modest and the reasoning sound, this 4% rule ignores two factors that have become increasingly, glaringly relevant: first, market volatility, which has battered retirement savings over the last decade, and second, inflation, the silent force that erodes purchasing power year after year.
What does that mean?
The other issue with basing your retirement plan on simple rules is that it can lead to complacency. But the idea that you can "set it and forget it" and everything will be fine is a trap.
"There are so many 'experts' telling people different things, that they're not going to have to worry," D'Arruda said. "A rule means something in writing, something enforceable. But in retirement planning, there's a fluctuating source. You can't take a guarantee."
Let's look at an example case from a reader that I'll call Marvin.
Marvin has $800,000 put away for retirement, mostly in really conservative stuff like bonds and cash. Overall, he's earning about 2% a year on his money. He was bitten by the stock market collapse in 2008 and doesn't want his money in stocks. Marvin wants to retire in ten years, so he wanted to know how much money he should be putting away.
I asked him a few questions. How much does he anticipate spending (in current dollars) per year in retirement? He told me about $50,000. What will his Social Security benefits look like? He estimated around $1,500 a month (adding up to about $18,000 a year).
I told him that if he wants to retire in ten years, he should be putting away every single dime he can starting right now and that he should anticipate trying to earn at least some income during his retirement.
I don't think Marvin liked that answer.
Why did I tell him that, though? The big reason is that his plans for retirement are riddled with uncertainty.
First of all, there's inflation. Let's say inflation grows at 3% a year for the next thirty years. If he's estimating spending $50,000 in today's money, during his first year in retirement, he's going to be spending just shy of $70,000. During his eleventh year? $93,000. That's more than 10% of his total retirement balance. His Social Security might go up a little, but it's not going to go up that much.
There's also the issue of fluctuation in investment returns. Right now, Marvin is very conservative and only earning a 2% return on his money. That's not enough of a return to build substantial wealth. With that level of return, unless he contributes more, he's not going to even crack $1 million for his retirement plans.
If he moves into stocks, he will likely get a higher long-term average annual return, but it will be highly volatile. He might average out to 5%, but one year might see a 20% loss while two other years might see 15% gains. Volatility at the wrong moment in retirement can eliminate years of living expenses and you won't have time to see the market rebound save you.
There's also the issue of uncertain lifespans. If Marvin retires at 65 and lives until 75, he'll be fine. If Marvin retires at 65 and lives until 95, he's going to be in big trouble. None of us know for certain how long we'll live.
The article seems to imply that individuals shouldn't be involved in planning for this and that financial advisors know better. I don't really agree with that. All of these factors rely on knowing unknowable facts about the future. No financial advisor in the world can tell you how long you'll live, how volatile the stock market or other investments will be in the next ten years, or what inflation will do in the future.
However, there's one thing that almost no one can argue with. The more money you save for retirement, the more money you'll have when it comes time to retire. The more you put in now, the more you get out later.
The solution is simple. You can either save as much as possible for retirement now so you don't really have to worry about this too much. On the other hand, you can save less and accept that your final years will likely involve leaner living.
I am almost always of the belief that if I can make a minor sacrifice now, that's far better than having to make a major sacrifice later. If I can squeeze out another $1,000 a year right now, that might add up to another $1,500 a year in retirement.
It might make the difference between never going out to eat with my wife or having a nice dinner out with her once a month.
What do I have to sacrifice today to get there? If it's something small that I can give up and apply that savings to additional retirement savings, then it's well worth it.
That's how I look at retirement savings. I'm making little sacrifices now so that I can enjoy life more later on. If I can resist that new gadget that I don't really need and probably won't use very much today, I can have some breathing room and a little less stress and a little more fun later on.
It is never a bad move to save more for retirement.


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This is a step-by-step guide to show you how to obtain an online quote and ''create your own cover'.
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Contact me today!
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Jon Lord
Deep Purple keyboard player
Jon Lord, 71, a British keyboardist for Deep Purple and Whitesnake, died in London on Monday of a pulmonary embolism after a battle with pancreatic cancer, said a statement on his official website.
Lord co-wrote some of Deep Purple's most famous tunes, including
and later had a successful solo career after his retirement from the band in 2002.
The Leicester, England-born musician got his start playing piano, first taking classical music lessons before shifting to rock 'n' roll.
After moving to London to attend drama school, he joined blues band the Artwoods in 1964 and later toured with the Flowerpot Men — known for their hit "Let's Go to San Francisco" — before joining Deep Purple in 1968.
Deep Purple — which at its peak featured Lord along with singer Ian Gillan, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, drummer Ian Paice and bassist Roger Glover — was one of the top hard-rock bands of the 1970s. Influenced by classical music, blues and jazz, Lord took his Hammond organ and distorted its sound to powerful effect on songs including "Hush," "Highway Star," "Lazy" and "Child in Time."
The group sold more than 100 million albums before splitting in 1976.
Lord went on to play with hard rock group Whitesnake in the late '70s and early '80s and, later, a re-formed Deep Purple.
Bob Babbitt
Motown studio musician, member of Funk Brothers
Bob Babbitt, 74, a prominent Motown studio musician and Funk Brothers member whose bass playing pounded through hits of the 1960s and '70s, died Monday in Nashville of complications from brain cancer, according to a statement from his manager, David Spero.
Well-known for decades among musicians, Babbitt laid down bass lines on the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion," Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues" and Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," along with "The Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and Edwin Starr's "War."
After leaving Motown, Babbitt recorded with Bette Midler, Jim Croce, Bonnie Raitt and Frank Sinatra, among others.
In all, he played on more than 200 top 40 hits, including "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight and the Pips and "Ready to Take a Chance Again" by Barry Manilow.
Like many studio musicians of the era, Babbitt wasn't always publicly acknowledged for his work. He gained wider public recognition through the 2002 film about the Funk Brothers, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown."
Babbitt was born Robert Kreinar on Nov. 26, 1937, in Pittsburgh and moved to Detroit in the late 1950s. He had lived in Nashville for 26 years.
Donald J. Sobol
'Encyclopedia Brown' author
Donald J. Sobol, 87, author of the popular
series of children's mysteries, died July 11 in Miami of gastric lymphoma.
Sobol's series featured amateur sleuth Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, who would unravel local mysteries with the help of his encyclopedic knowledge of facts great and small. The books, first published in the early 1960s, became staples in classrooms and libraries nationwide. They were translated into 12 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. Sobol received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
The books also featured Brown's friend and detective partner, the tough and athletic Sally Kimball.
Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the series. Sobol's latest Encyclopedia Brown adventure, "Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Soccer Scheme," will be published in October, according to a release from Penguin.
Sobol was born Oct. 4, 1924, in New York City. He served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II and graduated from Oberlin College. He later worked as a copywriter at the New York Sun, where he eventually became a reporter. His first Encyclopedia Brown book was rejected two dozen times before it was published, his son said.
In 1958, Sobol became a successful syndicated columnist with his "Two Minute Mystery" series, before publishing "Encyclopedia Brown Boy Detective" five years later.
-- Times wire reports


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With the arrival of a new year, we remember those who have left us. The thought crossed my mind as I recently watched a show which highlighted the notables who moved on in 2008.
One who didn't make the show's elite list, but I consider special, was our next-door neighbor John Cauthen. Mr. Cauthen, as I knew him, died Christmas Eve. The time of his death was 24 minutes after midnight – 12:24 a.m. on 12/24/08.
The 2008 Lancaster County high school football season belonged to the Lancaster High School Bruins.
LHS head football coach Bennie McMurray and senior linebacker Dawan Thompson highlighted the fall as The Lancaster News' 2008 coach and player of the year, respectively.
Thompson led the Bruins' defense, which was rock-solid throughout LHS's 10-4 season.
"Dawan loves to hit," said McMurray. "He anchored our defense with his consistent play and leadership. Dawan produced a phenomenal year.
BOONETOWN – Indian Land went on the road and pulled the repeat feat Thursday night.
The Warriors, who swept Conference III-A foe North Central at home Monday, took two on the Knights' home floor Thursday. The Lady Warriors, staying unbeaten in Conference III-A play, rolled to a 68-36 win.
The Warriors had a tougher time, but prevailed in a 72-58 win. In the opener, the Lady Warriors started fast and never looked back on the way to the 32-point win. IL bolted to a 29-5 lead after one period and stayed in control for the triumph.
Robert Howey
Former Andrew Jackson High School kicker and soccer standout Britt Blackmon produced a splendid sophomore season for the Newberry College football team this fall.
Blackmon, a 2006 graduate of AJ, finished second on the Newberry team in scoring with 45 points.
His kick scoring included an 8-12 effort – 66.7 percent on field goals. Blackmon connected on 21 of 25 extra points and was 3 of 4 between 20-29 yards and 5-8 from 30-39 range. His longest field goal kick of the season was a 34-yarder.
The Ridge View Blazers blazed the comeback trail on Friday night to complete a basketball sweep of the host Lancaster Bruins in Region IV-AAAA play.
RV, 8-13, 6-2, ignited for 64 second-half points in a 100-89 win over the Bruins.
LHS held a 40-36 lead at the half and took a 57-54 spread into the final period.
The Blazers, who trailed by 10 early in the second half, used a 18-7 run to take a 72-64 lead.
Jarvis Davis, who led RV with 30 points – 19 in the final period, scored eight points in a pivotal 11-0 spurt to give the Blazers a 72-64 edge.
The seventh annual Matt Blackwell Foundation Holiday Hoops Classic, featuring 28 teams, capped play Dec. 20 when champions in five different divisions were crowned.
The week-long tournament involved teams who participate in the Moriah Baptist Association League, from first graders to high school seniors.
Games were played during the week at several area church gyms (Covenant Baptist, Zion United Methodist and First Baptist of Kershaw) with weekend games played at North Elementary and Lancaster High.
The recent weekend of champions at Clemson's Death Valley didn't include a Lancaster County team, but there were a few local links.
Lancaster County has always had a presence in the state title football games when it comes to officials and 2008 was no exception.
Shrine Bowl-bound William Kirkland's Christmas and Christmas break came surprisingly early Monday night.
Kirkland, an all-region offensive tackle for the Lancaster Bruins, was named as an injury replacement player for the 72nd annual Shrine Bowl game Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Shrine Bowl, played at Wofford College's Gibbs Stadium, is the annual charity all-star football game which features the Carolinas top senior high school football players. Game proceeds benefit the Shrine hospitals for burned and cripple children.
Buford will be looking for a win this afternoon as the Jackets cap play in the annual Farm Bureau Classic at Chesterfield High School.
BHS is set to play today at 2 p.m.
The Jackets opened play with two straight losses, falling to Class AAA Daniel High School of Clemson and Class AA foe Central.
Central used a key second-period surge to take its 50-34 win over the Jackets on Tuesday afternoon at Chesterfield.
Copyright © 2019
The Lancaster News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Lancaster County and Lancaster, South Carolina, and the surrounding area..


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Distance from Brandamore, PA to Saint Petersburg, PA
Driving distance between Brandamore, PA and Saint Petersburg, PA is 271.05 miles (or 436.21 kilometers). If you drove an average car (using about 3.6 gallons of gas per mile), the gas would cost you around $, since you would need about gallons of fuel.
Leaving from Brandamore, PA you would reach Saint Petersburg, PA in about 4 hours 35 mins if you keep an average speed of miles per hour, assuming you don't make any breaks or get stuck in traffic.


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Your Final Week to Win a GE Appliance
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For Official Rules and entry, click here. And be sure to enter Bob Vila's GE Appliances Home Improvement Give-Away daily to increase your odds of winning!
To learn more about the new GE Profile™ SmartDispense Frontload Washer and Dryer and other innovative products, visit GE Appliances.
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(NOTE: It's good to be back. I've had a lot of things change personally that demanded I take some time for personal reflection, and actually a little bit of maintenance. During that time, I realized some thoughts and concerns have been living rent-free in the back of my mind for a while. It's eviction time. This won't be the last thing I write like this, but it won't exactly become a site theme, either. This is me not being entertaining, but just being real . . . for me. In all honesty, this isn't "Sleepless Colin" writing. This is Sean.)
This isn't about jobs. It isn't about careers.
It's not about being astronauts, Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, cowboys or President of the
. Those are big things, granted. This is bigger. United States
What you do doesn't define you. It speaks volumes about you. It can hint at your values, it can describe your paradigms and can even change you for better or worse. But it never defines you. That definition lies somewhere beneath, supporting everything.
What do I want to be? What I am never really changes. It can be hidden, obscured by battle scars, wounds, dents, dust and debris. But what we are never leaves once we define it and place our faith in it.
Do I want to be . . . "extraordinary"? Hm. Extra . . . ordinary. "Beyond ordinary." Why should I care what defines ordinary? That's far too subjective. It's too fluid. That's defining myself by someone else's level. Screw that.
When I perform a dead-lift, does it have some material impact on me what the next guy at the rack lifts? Never. It never does. What he lifts won't make me stronger. What I lift won't make him stronger. It's inconsequential. Odds are, we train differently, eat differently and maybe even have completely different builds. Sure, I can lift double my bodyweight on just about any given day. But I'm not a big man (5'9", anywhere between 170 and 185 pounds, usually), so that may not seem like much to some. Likewise, I know guys with my height and weight who could probably lift about 50 percent more than I.
I respect that. But it ultimately doesn't define who I am, what I achieve or how I approach what I do.
How about . . . "phenomenal"? Well, what is phenomenal, exactly? That's somehow even more vague. That, to me, speaks to impressing somebody. That's a path to misplaced priorities. I speak from experience.
Why care who I impress? I've many times steered myself off of good road trying too hard to impress people that I couldn't see were inconsequential until I had the blinders off. The people I long hoped my blogs would eventually end up impressing, I've come to realize I probably should want nothing to do with because I ultimately can't respect them. In the last year, I've learned some things about an early influence to how I write and my desire to generate an Internet media brand that frankly make me despise him. I wouldn't have anything to do with him now, personally or professionally. The only thing left that I can respect is his talent. And ultimately, we can't change to any significant degree how much talent for anything we all possess.
I will be . . . "electrifying."
It's a word often associated with one of my greatest personal influences, Dwayne Johnson. That's right, snicker. The Rock.
It was always a phrase he associated with his character. "The most electrifying man in sports entertainment!" That's because it's active. It's dynamic. It screams "change" and "impact." It's rooted in something that is really neither subjective nor deniable: causality.
"Electrifying" causes an effect. In any given sold-out arena since, oh, 1999 or so, when those throngs of fans heard "IF YA SAH-MELLLLLL . . ." the atmosphere became . . . electrified. The roar became deafening. I have been to professional sports events that haven't even approached the explosion of excitement when Dwayne Johnson steps through a curtain and becomes The Rock. He changes the atmosphere when he enters any given arena at any given time.
That is electrifying. That is impact. But it goes beyond the reaction. He carved a niche for himself bigger than professional wrestling that few ever have, and none have on the level he's achieved. He's a Make A Wish Foundation legend and helps promote healthier lifestyle choices for parents and children through his The Rock Foundation charity – quite possibly the most electrifying things the former
defensive end, multi-time WWE Champion and future WWE Hall of Famer has ever achieved. The world has been his spark's conductor, and it's carried the charge amazingly. University of Miami All-American
I want the things that I do to have a definite, undeniable impact. I want to be a game-changer. That doesn't mean talking a big game. I can do that, and I often do. But it means I always want my actions to speak vastly louder than anything I could say. Being electrifying might be among the most liberating things one could be, because it's ceiling will never be talent-based, genetically-based, gender-based, creed-based, race-based, culture-based or based in anything else but the limits you give your desires. If you have the audacity to want something and make no bones about what you want, you can be truly electrifying. When I write a blog, I want it to generate views. I want it to generate buzz. I want comments. If you love it or you hate, either way, I have caused a reaction. I made you think for a moment.
When I write something for Geek Gems, nothing ever pleases me so much as high tweets and Facebook "likes". That's because I've sparked something. I've entertained somebody enough, informed them enough, that they passed it along and said "Check this out."
If I review a movie and shred it, I hope that some laugh and others disagree. I want to be persuasive enough with what I say that I can win many over to my side, but the next best consolation is to start a conversation by making a sound point and having someone disagree. I'm bringing back mass communication's inoculation theory: that unless your views and convictions are challenged, you'll never be strong enough to defend them.
Make no mistake: this isn't about popularity for me. Popularity is great. Being liked is, in fact, crucial to what I do. But the most important things lie beneath. The very worst sound I could possibly hear will never be "boo." It'll be silence. Wherever I write, whatever I do, I want it to be electrifying by being an example. That's something distinctive. That's something that echoes. That's something truly remarkable, worth aspiring to be.
That is electrifying.
(While I'm at it, I don't exaggerate that The Rock Foundation may rank among my favorite charities. I've you've ever chatted five minutes with me and seen the fire in my eyes when discussing health and fitness, you know that nothing frightens me in this world more than the possibility that the public will increasingly fund universal healthcare, despite more and more Americans taking worse care of themselves and hiking that shared burden.
Most of the most useful life lessons that have sunk in my life have been cemented in gyms, on basketball courts, in weight rooms and on treadmills. What Johnson does truly is valuable.
Please, visit www.djrockfoundation.org to learn how you can help this cause.)


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Yamaji kite naniyara yukashi sumire-gusa. -- Basho
- We come through a mountain path;
- Here, atmosphere attracts me, though I know no reason --
- Ô, a violet!
Hello, my real name is Florence Nibart-Devouard. I have been around since late 2001. I served as the chair of the Board of Trustees of Wikimedia Foundation until July 2008. I co funded Wikimedia France and was its vice-chair for a while.
To contact me
- anthere(*at*)anthere.org
- English user page : w:en:User:Anthere
- Page utilisateur en français : w:fr:Utilisateur:Anthere
- Blog : http://anthere.org/
- Site : http://www.devouard.com
I was born in Versailles (France). I grew up in Grenoble, and have been living since then in several French cities, as well as Antwerpen in Belgium and Tempe in Arizona.
I am an engineer in Agronomy (ENSAIA and also hold a DEA in Genetics and biotechnologies (INPL). I have spent a while in public research (INRA), working in flower plant genetic improvement, later in applied research, in microbiology, to study the feasibility of heavily polluted soil bioremediation. I spent some time in Tempe University (Arizona), following courses in computer science and civil engineering.
After a break to take care of my first two kids, I joined a small french firm, Quantix Agro, whose activity was related with decision tools, in finances, insurance, agriculture and agri-business. My part was in the agri-business, and I mostly worked to conceive decision-making tools in w:en:sustainable agriculture.
Unfortunately, my firm had to stop activity at the end of 2005.
As of late 2015, I am 47, and live in Marseille with my husband Bertrand and my three children, William (19), Anne-Gaëlle (17) and Thomas (9). A few (rather old) picts. My kids are sometimes featured in some wikimedia projects. The last one is hidden somewhere in the Wikibooks on photography.
I discovered Wikipedia late 2001 and have been an editor since February 2002. I first started editing only the english wikipedia anonymously, then under the pseudonym Anthere ('What is an anther ?), then joined the french wikipedia when it had possibly 200 stubs. In english, I mostly focused in editing, while in the French Wikipedia, I also took a lot of time building the project and the community. At that time, all international wikipedias were very small and not even on the same software than the english one. Most of my edits were in the following areas : agriculture, environment, ecology...I listed them here for a while (then gave up...). I also enjoyed writing on more "touchy" issues, such as the Iraq war, the veil in France or commercial war over GMOs...
In summer 2002, I decided that this project HAD TO BE multilingual... and that I would help make that happen... so I joined the mailing list (wikipedia-l at that time) and started editing a no man's land called meta meta in order to help this to happen. Since then, I have not quit trying to take care of all projects and all languages.
In 2004, I joined the founding mediation commitee on the english wikipedia and wrote quite a lot of things about mediation and conflict resolution, one of those being w:en:Wikipedia:civility.
A sysop on meta, en:wikipedia, fr:wikipedia and commons, a bureaucrat on fr.wiki, I have been a steward for over four years.
A big contribution on the project for four years has been as a board member and vice-chair, then chair of Wikimedia Foundation Inc. In itself, it has used a lot of my time, more than I ever gave in the nearly 14 years I have been around. A lot of it is invisible, a lot of it is terribly frustrating, but eh ! I resisted 4 years! In october 2004, I also became a founding member of the french association board (Wikimedia France). Finally, in october 2006, I became Wikimedia Foundation chair, with the difficult goal of succeeding the foundator of Wikipedia, Jimbo Wales in that activity.
On the day I decided not to run again for a 5th year on the board of Wikimedia Foundation, in May 2008, I received a letter from Pdt Sarkozy, who informed me he had proposed me to be made knight in the French National Order of Merit. Soon before Christmas, I was pleased to officially receive the medal from the hands of Mr Besson.
What I love to do best? Talk to people (sometimes quite hotly I confess. I love arguing), meet new people, act like a bridge between languages and projects and organise things. I am the author of the little image Wikithanks... and I am totally totally delighted to see how much it spread all around. Look [1]. When spirits run low, I go look at the little sunflower picture and think about what we are doing. Eh, I also co-authored the Mediawiki Logo with Erik Moeller :)
Late 2012, I decided it was time to move on and resigned from the board of Wikimedia France (I stay a member of the chapter !). My focus since then has been diversity (or lack there of...). I co-created projects with Isla Haddow Flood (a woman living in Cap Town) with the explicit goal of getting more African editors and more African-related content onto Wikimedia project.
In the past three years, we worked together on
- Kumusha Takes Wiki (2013-2015), community journalism and capacity building in Ivory Coast and Uganda,
- Wiki Loves Africa (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), photographic contest, all Africa
- Wiki Loves Women (2016 and 2018), a GLAM and capacity building project in Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon
- WikiFundi (2016 and 2018), a software solution to create Wikipedia articles offline
- Wikipack Africa (2016-2017), an action pack including WikiFundi and many resources
I also work for the Research:Wikipedia Primary School SSAJRP programme (2015-2017) at SUPSI (applied research on Primary School curricula in South Africa).
In 2017, I co-funded [2], a South Africa based association along with Iolanda Pensa and Isla Haddow-Flood.
Working pagesEdit
Anthere's old stuff (2001-2008)Edit
Actually, it was pretty exciting to answer my first interviews and even more exciting to see my name cited. Not to mention pictures being published. Maybe it is routine now ? But I do not really report published articles any more....expect when it raises a special warm memory. In my "press" memories, I think the greatest moment was when we first got a BIG article in Le Monde. I started sending press releases to Le Monde in 2002. With no resultats whatsoever... till they finally contacted us in fall 2005. It really felt enormous. Since then, many articles have been written about us, some good, some terribly bad. It has indeed become a sort of routine. I will nevertheless keep that list as well as all the issues sent to me by snail mails. Maybe to show the kids later ;-).
- + "כדי לתפעל את ויקיפדיה צריך 8 מיליון דולר בשנה" (okay, for the satisfaction of reading the translation :-)) (24 11 2008)
- + Florence Devouard : Dans les coulisses de wikipedia - 23/06/2008
- + Il y aura de la vidéo sur Wikipedia- 01 net fevrier 08
- + Pédagogie sur le CNDP (novembre 07)
- +What the future hold for Wikipedia janvier 08
- +A propos de l'avenir de Wikipedia décembre 07
- +Lire le web participatif (octobre 2007)
- + Partage avec Mme Wikipedia sur AdaOnline (juillet 2007) J'ai passé une excellente journée dans les bureaux de ADA. Une page souvenir
- + Telegraaf (Title: "To make Wikipedia accessible for the blind")
- + ZDNet and ZDNet
- + Portraits - Culture intensive Libération (03 01 2007)
- + Wikipedia : une encyclopédie sur le Net Le Monde (02 12 2006)
- + Nous souhaitons transformer Wikipedia en organisation durable (24 11 2006)
- + Wikipedia ottaa uuden suunnan (30 10 2006) did you get the title right ? The article has been nicely translated now :-))
- + Wikipedia cherche la parade contre les vandales - l'express (6 12 2005)
- + La crédibilité de Wikipedia en question l'expansion (6 12 2005)
- + Wikipedia, une encyclopédie libertaire sur le Net - Le Monde (02 09 2005)
- + Florida Trends (september 2005)
- + 24 ORE (september 2005)
- + Wikipedia ne durcira pas ses regles de publication - 01 Net (août 2005)
- + le wiki à l'école de l'information (24/06/2005)
- + Neteconomie: Les blogs et wikis autorisent ce que nous appelons le journalisme citoyen
- + cité des sciences (april 2005)
- + Les Échos : Le wiki veut libérer le travail collaboratif, article du 16 février 2005, traitant de la galaxie wiki, mais avec comme exemple phare Wikipédia. (article payant) (scan provisoire)
- + Management n° 199 (march 2005)
- + Terra Economica (with login)
- + Journal 24 heures - Suisse
- + SVM - Septembre 2004 : [3] et & [4]
- + sur 01net
- + BFM (archive) (27 nov 2004)
- + libération
- + http://wikimedia.org/media/paris_meeting_2004.ogg
- + docforum
- + Smau
- + Carrefour-education au Québec
- + Journal du Net (12 janvier 2004)
- + notiziaweb
- + Tribune de Genève
Some speeches and presentationsEdit
I try to list here some presentations I do, with the links to the documents themselves, in particular when it covers a new topic. I can not count anymore the presentations made on Wikipedia itself.
- + Wikimania talk, Alexandrina, Egypt, July 2008. Communication issues: musings of a dinosaur
- + opening ceremony of Wikimania 2008, Alexandria, Egypt, July 2008. [5]
- + petit déjeuner CCI Clermont Fd. "Comment se protéger des risques sociaux de la création ?"; Juillet 08
- + DEVCON 2008 - Dassault Systems - Panel sur le "Crowdsourcing". June 08
- + Lyon Infocités Lyon Game; podcast - May 08
- + Cisco - Connected Women - Mai 2008
- +Club des Entrepreneurs du 9ème, Paris, "Wikipedia : nouveau mythe, nouvelles pratiques, nouveaux Entrepreneurs", Mai 2008
- + ARDEP Auvergne - mars 2008
- + Accenture: Journée Internationale de la Femme - « Entretiens Accent sur elles » "Découvrez vos opportunités dans le monde multipolaire" (mars 2008), Blog Report sur le site d'Isabelle Juppé
- + Netexplorateur 2008 (fevrier 2008): [6] - Mars 2008
- + Petits Déjeuners de NetStrategy/JMC (janvier 08): Globalisation, collaboration, personnalisation - quel rôle pour le 2.0 ?
- + Efferve's sciences, dec 07 Wikipédia : point sur un projet d'encyclopédie collaborative et questions ouvertes
- + Cap Digital- Entretiens du Nouveau Monde Industriel - novembre 2007
- + Workshop Cornell. Novembre 2007, Zambia
- + Fed Française du Batiment, Batimat, Paris, 9 nov 2007
- + Séminaire « Economie du numérique dans l'enseignement", Paris, 24-25 oct 2007
- + Wikimedia Netherland Conference, 29 oct, Amsterdam
- + Education Tech Conf, Amsterdam, 13th october
- + E-learning conference, Lisbon, oct 06 ppt
- + ENSAIA, Nancy, septembre 200
- + CCI Universités, Toulouse, septembre 2007
- + Cap Gemini Universities, Paris, aout 2007
- + Wikimania 2007, Taiwan, aout 2007 [7]
- +EBG, Paris, 20 juin
- + Paris Libre, Paris, 13 juin
- + UNESCO, Kromberg meeting, Germany, juin 2007 [8], [9]
- + Club of Rome, Bruxelles. 25 mai 2007.
- + ADA, Bruxelles, 24 mai 2007 [10]
- + CUST, 29 mars, Clermont Ferrand
- + BNF, 15 mars 2007. "Les "Wikis": édition en question"
- + ADBGV, 13 mars 2007, Nice
- + LeadAwards, Hamburg, 28 février. [11]
- + LIFT 2007: rec
- + BM Lyon. 23 janvier. "à l'heure de l'Internet collaboratif, serions-nous tous des lumières?"
- +Open Mind, 24-25 oct 2006: Wikipedia : a sustainable open and free project?
- + Convention UMP : « La nouvelle frontière : la société du savoir - 4 october 2006 - [12]
- + World Public Forum, Dialogue of Civilizations -Presentation of Wikipedia - Rhodes 27 sept-1 oct 2006. [13]
- + Digital World African Conference - Wikipedia: Empowering. Abuja (Nigeria) - 12-13 sept 2006- [14]
- + The Geneva Forum on Health- Geneva 31 august 2006 [15]
- + Wikimedia Foundation: Building in Diversity - Wikimania 2006. Boston, 2-5th august 2006
- + Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre - Wikinews : le libre au service de l'information - Nancy, Juillet 2006 [16]
- + Gartner Event : Open Source 2006 - june 2006 - Panel.
- + La mondialisation du savoir : Wikipédia, un projet encyclopédique ou rubrique rubrique collection Parole en réseau.- BPI, Centre Pompidou. Paris. May 2006
- + Savoirs ouverts et production de bien communs en réseau. paris 3 décembre 2006 - pdf
- + FLOSS conference sept 2005 : Presentation of WMF and Wikiversity
- + [17] (Video (Wikimania august 2005) presentation : Wikimedia projects in the developing world
- + http://www.pixelache.ac/ (april 2005) : One of the presentations : Wikipedia presentation
- + TIC21, janvier 2005
- + User:Anthere/table ronde (DocForum)
Some thoughtsEdit
I have been there for so long...
From time to time, I go read back some of the stuff I wrote last year, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago...
- /Année 2005 (my summary of year 2005)
- /retrospective (this, I wrote during the second board elections)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Anthere/Values (written sometime in 2004)
- Incivility - early 2004, when I joined the mediation committee. It became a reference...
- About Cliques and Communities (CABAL stuff)
- Disarmament crisis of March 2003 (easy to date... I fled the english wikipedia. A poor place to stay at for a french at that time)
- Listening to our garden (old stuff - 2003 ?)
- Future of international Wikipedias as part of the main community -- Wikipedias and cross-fertilisation (digging... this is 2002....)
- I think of you as a center in a very large collection of inter-connected webs. The webs carry information, and you help direct it where it can create positive changes. Amgine irc 20:41, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Thought : Elles ne pensent qu'à ça:
séduire, pour pouvoir se reproduire.
Les plantes à fleurs, dernière grande innovation du monde végétal, manipulent les insectes, les animaux, et même les hommes, pour assurer leur dissémination.
Other contributions on meta and related topic
systemes -- Reflexions sur la bioethique -- m:WikiWomen -- m:Premier communiqué de presse de Wikimédia -- apology -- Dispute resolution -- Source of conflict -- Open and free -- User:Anthere/logos -- Biz Dev Bible -- Zambia Workshop -- PixelACHE
Other linksEdit
(this is my repository box really - nothing very interesting to you)


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Crown Column
Category: Columns
Subcategory: Caps & Bases, Decorative Columns, Porch Posts, Structural Columns
Material: Fiberglass, PVC, Wood
Crown Column offers columns made of wood, fiberglass and cellular PVC. Our master craftsmen are among the industry's most skilled and experienced artisans; our dedication to perfection is apparent in every column we create.
Category: Moulding & Millwork
Subcategory: Posts
Material: Wood
Crown Column's porch posts add a distinctive touch to any style home.


text:
Loading ...
Drag to position your art and use the tools below to edit within the template.
You are not able to edit your image again, but please place your image one more time to complete your design.
If everything looks good then hit finish. Otherwise, hit the Start Over button so you can get it just right!


text:
A heartbroken family have pleaded for the safe return of their puppy, which was given to their brave son after he had major surgery.
Lucy Swift, of The Grove, Batley, said she feared the worst after her seven-month-old Pug, named Peaches, was pinched from her home.
The puppy was bought for her son Ellis Barrett after the brave six-year-old had a series of surgeries on scars he suffered from burns aged two.
He was released from his latest surgery at Pinderfields Hospital in February when she surprised him with the dog.
"We are all absolutely devastated and want her back," Miss Swift said.
"Peaches is a big part of the family and we cannot believe anyone would take her.
"Ellis thinks the police know where she is but he is really worried about her. I could not bare telling him she might not come home."
A neighbour captured the thieves on a CCTV camera pinching the dog from Miss Swift's home between 1.20pm and 1.30pm last Sunday.
She watched the footage in horror as they let the puppy out of her garden before picking her up and running away.
Miss Swift said: "There were two lads in their early 20s. One was wearing a dark sweatshirt and woolly hat and the other a dark hoody.
"It is unusual to be wearing that when it has been so hot lately so someone must have noticed them.
"After they let Peaches out, she ran around a car and that is when they got her. It broke my heart watching it."
She said police would be reviewing the footage this week.
PC Nick O'Meila said: "Enquiries are ongoing regarding this theft.
"We would like to speak with anyone who has information about Peaches whereabouts or who may have seen the persons who took her.
"Contact us at the Batley and Spen NPT on 101 or anonymously to CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111."


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The 2013 Strange Horizons Fund Drive
The 2013 Fund Drive ends in , , , and .
Welcome to the 2013 Strange Horizons fund drive!
Since its beginning, Strange Horizons has pursued a number of goals. We want to publish great stories and poems that expand the possibilities of speculative fiction; we want to provide a space for in-depth discussions that help us to understand and extend those possibilities. We want to encourage and support new writers of SF from diverse backgrounds. And we want to continue to make our content available free of charge while paying contributors professional rates, without being dependent on advertisers or corporate sponsorship.
We are a non-profit organization, staffed entirely by volunteers, which helps with that last part. But a huge part of our success has been down to you, our readers. Strange Horizons relies on your donations to stay in business—so each year, we hold a fund drive.
In our thirteen years, we've been proud to publish work by such writers as Saladin Ahmed, Eleanor Arnason, Charlie Jane Anders, Christopher Barzak, Matthew Cheney, John Clute, L. Timmel Duchamp, Hal Duncan, Amal El-Mohtar, Carol Emshwiller, Molly Gloss, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, N. K. Jemisin, John Kessel, Ken Liu, Meghan McCarron, David Moles, Yukimi Ogawa, Tim Pratt, Adam Roberts, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Sofia Samatar, John Scalzi, Nisi Shawl, Lewis Shiner, Vandana Singh, Karin Tidbeck, Genevieve Valentine, Jo Walton, Jane Yolen, and too many others to list.
Your donations this year will enable us to continue to improve Strange Horizons. Every donation, from $1 to $1,000, is hugely appreciated. As a thank you, we've put together some bonus content to be published as we hit certain fund-raising milestones—and of course we have our regular prize draw, into which all donors will be entered. For details, read on!
Donating to Strange Horizons is Easy!
Just click the link below to send us a donation through Network for Good, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping other nonprofit organizations with online donations.
If you would rather donate through PayPal, click this link:
And you can send a check or money order to our post office address:
Strange Horizons, Inc.
P.O. Box 1693
Dubuque, IA 52004-1693
Note: contributions to Strange Horizons are tax-deductible in the US. Strange Horizons has received 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the US Internal Revenue Service.
This Year's Goals
This year's fund drive target is US$11,000. That's enough to allow us to continue publishing at our current schedule, paying our current rates, for the next year. As ever, though, we want to do more! So these are this year's additional goals:
- If we raise $12,000, we'll add new readers to our monthly poetry podcast, to better represent the range of voices we're publishing.
- If we raise $13,000, we'll add artwork for one story each month, starting January 2014.
(Anything above these targets will go towards more general improvement of the magazine—enabling us to publish more long stories, and to host more events at conventions, for instance.)
Fund Drive Rewards
As usual, every fund drive donor will be entered into our prize draw, featuring an array of books, artwork and other goodies—be sure to check out the prizes page throughout the fund drive, as we add more.
And we've put together a fund drive special issue of the magazine, with extra content to be published as we reach big round numbers. We've got new stories by Nisi Shawl and Rose Lemberg, poems by Dominik Parisien and Bryan Thao Worra, essays, reviews, and an interview with Helen Oyeyemi. Check out the fund drive issue page for full details.
How Can I Spread the Word?
Another way of supporting the fund drive is to tell people about it! We appreciate every article and every mention on social media. If you'd like to blog about the fund drive, you can now embed our progress rocket in your page, to keep up with how the fund drive is going and make it easy for your readers to donate. If you'd like to speak to any of the magazine staff for an interview or feature, drop us a line. And thank you!
A Final Note
Although it's a repeat, really: thank you. Strange Horizons would not exist without your donations. With them, we hope it will be around for many years to come.


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Blissful Births
Pregnancy, birth, and parenting are intimidating for a lot of people. At Blissful Births we believe that this time can be joyous; filled with warmth, positive energy, comfort, and hopefulness. In a word, Blissful.
To experience this intimate rite of passage is to be a part of the river of passion that flows around the world, the balance of the life giving cycle, the strength of humankind, joined in the natural bliss of birth.
Our part of this universal dance is to help guide all through the knowledge of understanding places, people, and preferences to attain an empowering encounter with this timeless event; birth.
We welcome you to explore our site and get to know us. Blissful Births wishes to reach out to you with knowledge, experience, flexibility, and creativity. Our mission/vision will give you more insight into who we are.


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The ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee is urging Vice President Joe Biden to support a labor union in its contentious negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement with the Transportation Security Administration.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., penned his letter to Biden on Tuesday following American Federation of Government Employees President John Gage's announcement that negotiations with TSA Administrator John Pistole had been "very discouraging."
Both Gage and Thompson took issue with discussions concerning TSA's employee grievance process. AFGE is asking for the implementation of an independent third-party review system to settle employee grievances and disputes. TSA's current setup "does not pass the smell test on independent fairness and neutrality," Gage said Tuesday.
Pistole has told Gage through lawyers that TSA would have a fair and neutral dispute resolution process, according to Gage. But under that process, "you simply go through a manager," he said.
The agency pledged to continue working with the union following Gage's comments Tuesday. "TSA is committed to ensuring that all employees are given full due process rights and looks forward to continued discussions with AFGE related to these important issues," the agency said in a statement.
Thompson argued in his letter to Biden that TSA's process is unlike those offered to other employees of the Homeland Security Department.
"There is no good rationale -- security or otherwise -- to erect a grievance process that does not closely track with standard federal practices," Thompson wrote. "[Transportation Security] officers should be provided an arbitration process identical to that afforded other collective bargaining units in DHS, such as the employees of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection" bureau.
Thompson encouraged Biden to intervene on behalf of AFGE, which won exclusive representation of more than 40,000 TSA airport screeners in June.
"I strongly believe that your involvement can help get this high-priority negotiation back on track and ultimately deliver an equitable and balanced arbitration system to these federal employees," the congressman said.
Thompson does not suggest in his letter how Biden might support the union.
Gage said during his press conference Tuesday that Thompson was among the "friends in Congress" whom the union would reach out to during the negotiations. The union also has called upon Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "to help [TSA's Pistole] see that words and actions do matter," Gage said.


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U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
EEOC Alleged Pizza Pub Manager Sexually Harassed Teen Employee
OKLAHOMA CITY – Educominc, LLC, doing business as Pizza Pub in Buffalo, Oklahoma, will pay $40,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The EEOC had alleged that the manager of Pizza Pub had subjected an 18-year old female worker to physical touching and verbal comments of a sexual nature, including telling her that he wanted to lick frosting off her body. The employee objected to his behavior but when it continued, she quit her job.
The proposed consent decree was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (Cause No. 09-1007). In addition to paying $40,000 in backpay and damages to the former employee, Pizza Pub agreed to a five year consent decree which includes training of employees as to the requirements of Title VII and the posting of a notice that will notify employees of their rights. The consent decree also applies to Core Curriculum of America, Inc. and Curriculum Solutions, Inc., companies which are closely related to Educominc, LLC.
"Teenage workers are especially vulnerable to sexual harassment in the workplace and must be protected. The EEOC will remain vigilant in its enforcement of federal laws prohibiting such discrimination in the workplace," said Barbara A. Seely, regional attorney of the EEOC's St. Louis District Office, which is responsible for the agency's litigation in Oklahoma.
The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.


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Skip Hire Milford Havenaberdaugleddau from YourLocalSkipHire.co.uk
For skip hire in Milford Havenaberdaugleddau, look no further than YourLocalSkipHire.co.uk. Our skip hire experts have worked alongside everyone from builders to homeowners, providing a huge range of skips that suit any project or budget.
Make sure you're hiring the skip that meets your requirements by checking our sizing guide before requesting a quote. As a rule of thumb, a home clearance will need a six yard skip, while larger projects will need a skip with a larger capacity.
Hiring a skip in Milford Havenaberdaugleddau couldn't be easier. We'll provide you with a competitive, no-obligation quote on request, and all you need to do is provide us with your postcode. Just fill in the quote form above, and we'll do the rest.If you need more information, or want to discuss your skip hire needs with us directly, call 0330 1130 700 now.


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Paul & Joe is a brand I have a weakness for because it has such stunning packaging and concepts. I love their Eye glosses, Creamy Lipsticks and Pigments.
For Winter 2009, they launched a gorgeous looking purple and gold packaged range called 'Smoke and Mirrors'. In Asia this comes as a set (with the shadow, liner and case) but it the UK and US, like the mugs we are, we have to buy the products separately:
There are two clear colour sets, a dark smokey set and a warm brown set with matching liner and pigments:
The highlighter powders are gorgeous but the pattern on the top is just an overspray, so I passed. I bought three items from the 001 Smoke & Mirrors set from ASOS as I had a 25% discount code:
Even so it wasn't cheap. RRP Prices are £28 for the trio palette, £15 for the pigment and £12 for the liner. I'm disappointed they didn't bother putting the pencil and pigment (both LE) in the special packaging too.
Did I like it? See after the jump!
Said it before – the packaging is just gorgeous. Gold and purple – lovely:
I choose items from the first set of colours as cool smokeys are just up my street. I bought this trio originally because another blogger (who shall remain nameless) said this was an all cream trio. Its not – its powder. Duh – I was disappointed but never mind.
There's a pale lilac, a mid toned warm beige mauve and a dark black purple. The colours were not as pigmented or as soft as I like:
See? Nothing special about this trio.
The pigments from Paul & Joe. If MAC pigments are cotton then P&J pigments are silk. They are so light and silky, they are almost like those powders you use that turn to liquid:
This shade is a perfect dark charcoal grey with sparkles – lots of sparkles. Its beautiful, and highly recommended for those who like smokey shades.
I love eye pencils and I got this one from the collection. Nice packaging again:
Its a dark black with very fine microsparkle in it. Not a fan of this pencil at all – its a little on the hard side and it took work to warm it up and get it soft. Its no where near the league of Urban Decay 24/7 pencils in terms of creamy-buttery-ness.
Did a really quick eye with the liner, pigment and pencil before I left the house today:
Its times like this I wish we had a better returns policy in the UK – but we don't. I wish retailers were braver, and put their faith into a product that they think truly delivers (and if it doesn't let us have our money back) instead of presenting something that just isn't up to scratch.
This collection isn't up to scratch. I LOVE Paul & Joe. I am willing them to do well. I love their look. Their style. Some of their products. But this collection, apart from the pigment, is just…nothingy. It cost too much to be average.
I bought my Paul & Joe from Asos, but they sell it on HQ Hair too.


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Protor needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 64 designs submitted by 35 freelance designers.
Logo required for a web design and development company develodesign.co.uk,
Solid Development | Creative Design
Accepted File Formats:
Standard Web Formats (.jpg, .gif or .png); Vector Formats (.eps, .pdf or .ai); Layered Formats (.psd or .tiff)
I'm looking for a logo design for a company call Develodesign, there is no previous colour scheme to follow, please be creative as I will consider all designs.
Main concerns is that its to be professional looking with a 2.0 look but i'm not looking for the standard lime green or orange, I really like silver as a base colour but again just be creative,
Tag line "solid development | creative design"
I would like the Develo and design in different styles, Develo in a solid form and design an a creative arty design. I would like to see .co.uk added but not as bold as the word Develodesign.
I had initial ideas of the word Develo written as some sort of bricks or building blocks to illustrate the development process, if this can't be achieved that is fine, I am really open to all ideas.
Any questions please ask.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Week 4: Team Name Nominations/
It's hard to believe we're so far into this project already. We've made a lot of decisions and will make many more before summer's over. Next though, we need to work out new names for the teams we'll be rebranding.
First, a note of housekeeping. I'm making a chance to the original plan for 13 Weeks of R&R. Instead of splitting up name nominations into separate weeks — which I'm sure would be overkill — Weeks 4 and 5 will play out a little differently. Here are the first three phases:
- Nominations (today thru Tue 5/7) — Suggestions for team names will be accepted in the usual fashion, via comments on this post only. Details below.
- Finalist Selections (Wed 5/8 thru Fri 5/10) — Polls will be held for each team featuring the top eligible name nominations. The purpose will be to determine three finalists for the next phase. (This may include team's original name in case voters just want new logos and/or uniforms.)
- Final Voting (Sat 5/11 thru Tue 5/14) — A final set of polls for each will feature the top three finalists and ultimately determine the team's official name.
These polls will each be open for a shorter period than normal, but previous voting has demonstrated that a week is usually more than necessary to come to a consensus. Now, you may have noticed that only gets us halfway through Week 5. We'll finish with a new one — Color Voting.
- Color Voting (Wed 5/15 thru Sat 5/18) — Unlike in the past, logo designers will not be at liberty to create a team's color palette. The voters will do that before we send the designers to work. The goal here is to prevent too much overlap in color schemes and to help guide each team to unique identities.
I'll outline more details on all of that as the time comes, but for now...
Submit team names below!
This part is very easy. Submit your ideas for what the IceHL teams in the following cities should be named. You must use the locator that was chosen in last week's polls. (Dallas was the only team where there was no majority consensus so you may submit names for Dallas or Texas.) Submit as many names as you want.
When it comes time to vote, all teams except Detroit* will have the option to keep their current name, so there's no need to include it in your nominations. (*-During Week 2 of voting, it was decided that Detroit must undergo a full rebrand.)
For the Finalist Selections, I'll be choosing what appear to be the best and most popular names from this post. If you see a name you like, endorse it in your comment to help me gauge popularity. (But don't bother re-posting it under a different alias. I'm not as dumb as I look.)
I'd like to reserve the comments of this post for name nominations ONLY. So if you have any questions, please ask via email or by commenting on another relevant blog post.
Restrictions: This should be obvious, but I'll say it anyway. Names will NOT be accepted if they are currently used for any NHL, AHL or ECHL franchise or any pro sports team in the city in question. Other names may be disallowed on a case-by-case basis. My advice: BE ORIGINAL!


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How to Use the Images Drawings
Questions for Photo 1
1. The three students shown in Photo 1 were representative of the University's student body. What does this indicate about the availability of education to the public in this period?
2. Does the make-up of the 19th-century student body seem to contradict Mr. Jefferson's democratic principles? Explain your answer.
* The photo on this screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a larger version of Photo 1, but be aware that the file will take as much as 30 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.


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Personalised Number Plate InformationAll the information you need to buy or sell your registration number
SFE 111 Number Plate
SFE 111 Number Plate From Regplates.com. Check latest availability now. Call us on 01482 627 628
Have you found your perfect number plate? Check availability on our main Reg Plates website
Our team of trained personalised number plate staff will professionally handle your transfer as swiftly as possible with all paperwork change over handled for you including the V5, tax disc and MOT certificate. We offer advice without technical 'jargon', and are always competitive on price.
If you are looking to sell a private plate, our personalised registration plates valuations department can give you an accurate market value on your registration number by post or by e-mail.
Personalised Cherished Number Plates
Since their humble beginning in 1903, cherished numbers have continued to increase in popularity often adding the finishing touch to our prized possessions and very often prove to be a valuable investment.
The First Number Plate Ever Issued
A1 assigned in 1903
The Motor Car Act 1903, which came into force on 1 January 1904, required all motor vehicles to be entered on an official vehicle register, and to carry number plates. The Act was passed in order that vehicles could be easily traced in the event of an accident or contravention of the law. Vehicle registration number plates in the UK are rectangular or square in shape, with the exact permitted dimensions of the plate and its lettering set down in law.
You can find out where your personalised registration number plate was originally issued here.
For the motorist who has everything, including a sense of humour! - Reg Plate Special Cherished number plate dealer Image Registrations are offering a unique opportunity for the savvy motorist to show they have the vehicle, the reg plate and a sense of humour! The East Yorkshire based company are marketing the ultimate reg plate to make a tongue in cheek statement.
car registration VUL 64R is offered for sale at £3395, a snip compared to the 'phantom' or 'hummer' it may well end up displayed on.
We think this registration plate will appeal to clients who have all the toys and appreciate the fun aspect of this unique reg number plate" said Bruno Morris at Image Registrations. He went on to say "the plate reads so well as it is almost a prefect spelling of vulgar!".
VUL 64R can be purchased now through Image Registrations, online at www.regplates.com or by telephone on 01482 627 628."
It should be noted that the date denoted by a registration plate is the date a vehicle was first imported into the United Kingdom and registered with that registration system. For instance a vehicle manufactured in say 1991 and registered in Northern Ireland might have been given a 1993 registration letter when it was registered on the Swansea system. This also applies to vehicles imported from other countries. This is apparent by examining the registration document which will show a date of manufacture different from the date of first registration. The date of manufacture is notional, though, as vehicles may be manufactured and stored unused, for many years in some cases, and then registered as new when first registered into the system. This allows manufacturers to sell cars as new allowing for shipping, storing at dockyards etc.
By 1982, the year suffixes had reached Y and so from 1983 onwards the sequence was reversed again, so that the year letter - starting again at A" - preceded the numbers then the letters of the registration. The available range was then A21 AAA to Y999 YYY, the numbers 1-20 being held back for the government's proposed, and later implemented, DVLA select registration sales scheme. Towards the mid-1990s there was some discussion about introducing a unified scheme for Europe, which would also incorporate the country code of origin of the vehicle, but after much debate such a scheme was not adopted due to lack of countries willing to participate. The changes in 1983 also brought the letter Q into use - although on a very small and limited scale. It was used on vehicles of indeterminate age, such as those assembled from kits, substantial rebuilds, or imported vehicles where the documentation is insufficient to determine the age. There was a marked increase in the use of Q registrations
Acrylic Number Plates
Acrylic number plates sigify the registration mark of a vehicle.
They can be made of different materials, but more commonly seen are metals and acrylics. But as to how the standard specifications on the use, make and display guidelines of number plates are, it would vary with every city and country. There are some who would prefer to have their number plates more personalized. As long as how it is obtained abides with the regulations, such is possible. In fact, motorists of today are starting to appreciate better the value of vanity plates.
SFE 111 Number Plate
Number plate results shown. If you want to go to our main website you can use our reg plate search facility.
Regplates have over 99% of all available number plates available to buy online 24 hours a day. We are members of MIRAD, APRT & CNG trade dealers associations.
All number plates are transferred in accordance with the DVLA.
Established For Over 25 Years
the Cherished Numbers Guild
Our service
- Free transfer service - your paperwork is handled by our trained team
- Over 25 years expertise - long established and trusted company
- DVLA Recognised Reseller - linked directly from the DVLA website
- DVLA Registered Number Plate Supplier - in line with all DVLA & MOT regulations


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I wish Giovanni would kiss me.
Oh, but there are so many reasons why this would be a terrible idea. To begin with, Giovanni is ten years younger than I am, and, like most Italian guys in their twenties, he still lives with his mother. These facts alone make him an unlikely romantic partner for me, given that I am a professional American woman in my mid-thirties, who has just come through a failed marriage and a devastating, interminable divorce, followed immediately by a passionate love affair that ended in sickening heartbreak. This loss upon loss has left me feeling sad and brittle and about seven thousand years old. Purely as a matter of principle I wouldn't inflict my sorry, busted-up old self on the lovely, unsullied Giovanni. Not to mention that I have finally arrived at that age where a woman starts to question whether the wisest way to get over the loss of one beautiful brown-eyed young man is indeed to promptly invite another one into her bed. This is why I have been alone for many months now. This is why, in fact, I have decided to spend this entire year in celibacy.
To which the savvy observer might inquire: 'Then why did you come to Italy?'
To which I can only reply--especially when looking across the table at handsome Giovanni-- 'Excellent question.'
Giovanni is my Tandem Exchange Partner. That sounds like an innuendo, but unfortunately it's not. All it really means is that we meet a few evenings a week here in Rome to practice each other's languages. We speak first in Italian, and he is patient with me; then we speak in English, and I am patient with him. I discovered Giovanni a few weeks after I'd arrived in Rome, thanks to that big Internet caf at the Piazza Barbarini, across the street from that fountain with the sculpture of that sexy merman blowing into his conch shell. He (Giovanni, that is--not the merman) had posted a flier on the bulletin board explaining that a native Italian speaker was seeking a native English speaker for conversational language practice. Right beside his appeal was another flier with the same request, word-for-word identical in every way, right down to the typeface. The only difference was the contact information. One flier listed an e-mail address for somebody named Giovanni; the other introduced somebody named Dario. But even the home phone number was the same.
Using my keen intuitive powers, I e-mailed both men at the same time, asking in Italian, "Are you perhaps brothers?"
It was Giovanni who wrote back this very provocativo message: "Even better. Twins!"
Yes--much better. Tall, dark and handsome identical twenty-five-year-old twins, as it turned out, with those giant brown liquid-center Italian eyes that just unstitch me. After meeting the boys in person, I began to wonder if perhaps I should adjust my rule somewhat about remaining celibate this year. For instance, perhaps I could remain totally celibate except for keeping a pair of handsome twenty-five-year-old Italian twin brothers as lovers. Which was slightly reminiscent of a friend of mine who is vegetarian except for bacon, but nonetheless ... I was already composing my letter to Penthouse:
In the flickering, candlelit shadows of the Roman caf, it was impossible to tell whose hands were caress--
But, no.
No and no.
I chopped tvhe fantasy off in mid-word. This was not my moment to be seeking romance and (as day follows night) to further complicate my already knotty life. This was my moment to look for the kind of healing and peace that can only come from solitude.
Anyway, by now, by the middle of November, the shy, studious Giovanni and I have become dear buddies. As for Dario--the more razzle-dazzle swinger brother of the two--I have introduced him to my adorable little Swedish friend Sofie, and how they've been sharing their evenings in Rome is another kind of Tandem Exchange altogether. But Giovanni and I, we only talk. Well, we eat and we talk. We have been eating and talking for many pleasant weeks now, sharing pizzas and gentle grammatical corrections, and tonight has been no exception. A lovely evening of new idioms and fresh mozzarella.
Now it is midnight and foggy, and Giovanni is walking me home to my apartment through these back streets of Rome, which meander organically around the ancient buildings like bayou streams snaking around shadowy clumps of cypress groves. Now we are at my door. We face each other. He gives me a warm hug. This is an improvement; for the first few weeks, he would only shake my hand. I think if I were to stay in Italy for another three years, he might actually get up the juice to kiss me. On the other hand, he might just kiss me right now, tonight, right here by my door ... there's still a chance ... I mean we're pressed up against each other's bodies beneath this moonlight ... and of course it would be a terrible mistake ... but it's still such a wonderful possibility that he might actually do it right now ... that he might just bend down ... and ... and ... Nope.
He separates himself from the embrace.
"Good night, my dear Liz," he says.
"Buona notte, caro mio," I reply.
I walk up the stairs to my fourth-floor apartment, all alone. I let myself into my tiny little studio, all alone. I shut the door behind me. Another solitary bedtime in Rome. Another long night's sleep ahead of me, with nobody and nothing in my bed except a pile of Italian phrasebooks and dictionaries.
I am alone, I am all alone, I am completely alone.
Grasping this reality, I let go of my bag, drop to my knees and press my forehead against the floor. There, I offer up to the universe a fervent prayer of thanks.
First in English.
Then in Italian.
And then--just to get the point across--in Sanskrit.
And since I am already down there in supplication on the floor, let me hold that position as I reach back in time three years earlier to the moment when this entire story began--a moment which also found me in this exact same posture: on my knees, on a floor, praying.
Everything else about the three-years-ago scene was different, though. That time, I was not in Rome but in the upstairs bathroom of the big house in the suburbs of New York which I'd recently purchased with my husband. It was a cold November, around three o'clock in the morning. My husband was sleeping in our bed. I was hiding in the bathroom for something like the forty-seventh consecutive night, and--just as during all those nights before--I was sobbing. Sobbing so hard, in fact, that a great lake of tears and snot was spreading before me on the bathroom tiles, a veritable Lake Inferior (if you will) of all my shame and fear and confusion and grief.
I don't want to be married anymore.
I was trying so hard not to know this, but the truth kept insisting itself to me.
I don't want to be married anymore. I don't want to live in this big house. I don't want to have a baby.
But I was supposed to want to have a baby. I was thirty-one years old. My husband and I--who had been together for eight years, married for six--had built our entire life around the common expectation that, after passing the doddering old age of thirty, I would want to settle down and have children. By then, we mutually anticipated, I would have grown weary of traveling and would be happy to live in a big, busy household full of children and homemade quilts, with a garden in the backyard and a cozy stew bubbling on the stovetop. (The fact that this was a fairly accurate portrait of my own mother is a quick indicator of how difficult it once was for me to tell the difference between myself and the powerful woman who had raised me.) But I didn't--as I was appalled to be finding out--want any of these things. Instead, as my twenties had come to a close, that deadline of THIRTY had loomed over me like a death sentence, and I discovered that I did not want to be pregnant. I kept waiting to want to have a baby, but it didnt happen. And I know what it feels like to want something, believe me. I well know what desire feels like. But it wasn't there. Moreover, I couldn't stop thinking about what my sister had said to me once, as she was breast-feeding her firstborn: 'Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You really need to be certain it's what you want before you commit.'
How could I turn back now, though? Everything was in place. This was supposed to be the year. In fact, we'd been trying to get pregnant for a few months already. But nothing had happened (aside from the fact that--in an almost sarcastic mockery of pregnancy--I was experiencing psychosomatic morning sickness, nervously throwing up my breakfast every day). And every month when I got my period I would find myself whispering furtively in the bathroom: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me one more month to live ...


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While Tobias Enstrom is back in Winnipeg amidst the Jets longest road trip of the season, the Jets have gone to the bullpen to help their ailing defensive core.
With Ron Hainsey and Derek Meech already on the shelf for a while now, there is the potential that Mark Stuart will not suit up Thursday night in Long Island due to an undisclosed upper body injury.
Knowing Stuart's defensive style - the shot blocking, hard nosed type - a game off would do his body good in recovering for the remainder of the Jets seven game road trip.
Having four of their top seven defenseman out of the lineup now, the Jets have their first AHL call ups from the rock in Newfoundland - Brett Festerling and Mark Flood.
Flood is the first ex-Manitoba Moose to return to Winnipeg in the NHL.
The former sixth round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 2003 has played in eleven games for the Jets affiliate Ice Caps, collecting one goal and six assists, along with a +4 rating.
Festerling has also played in eleven games, with four points (one goal, three assists) with a +1 rating.
The Jets defensive core that may start in Long Island now stands with Dustin Byfuglien, Zach Bogosian, Johnny Oduya, Randy Jones, Festerling, and Flood.
Stuart is listed as day-to-day and is possibly a game time decision.
Head coach Claude Noel said that there is a possibility that Hainsey would be back by the weekend or after the weekend when asked about his veteran defenseman.
Enstrom will likely miss the remainder of the road trip, but Noel did disclose that his injury was not concussion related.
Photos Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports & Getty Images