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Tag Archives: 2014
Kind of embarrassed? Why aren't Minnesota voters MORTIFIED at this point?
"People are tired of her antagonistic, propagating gridlock. A lot of people come up to me and say we're kind of embarrassed by our representation in Washington." — Democrat Jim Graves, announcing his plans to challenge Michele Bachmann for her seat in Congress again in 2014.
Last year Bachmann beat Graves by only a little over 4,000 votes — in a recently gerrymandered district (making it the most conservative district in the state) — by outspending him 12-to-1 in the one of the cycle's most expensive congressional campaigns.
Michele Bachmann is just one person. Granted, she's one crazy, weird, extremely strange person… but! the only reason she's in Congress with power and influence and a national stage is because thousands of people in Minnesota's 6th District actually, deliberately chose HER to represent them. Unbelievably these people looked into her glassy eyes, held her thousand-yard stare, and listened to her batshit ideas, garbled facts, and general tinfoilhattery. Then (then!) they marched into a voting booth and decided she was the person who best reflected their beliefs and values. Think about that.
50-49: Senate narrowly passes Democratic budget for 2014
U.S. Senate approves its first budget since 2009
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, March 23, 2013 6:38 EDT
The US Senate reached a milestone early Saturday when it overcame partisan gridlock to approve its first budget resolution in four years, setting up a political duel with the Republican-held House.
The sweeping plan for fiscal year 2014, the first budget blueprint passed by the Democrat-led Senate under President Barack Obama since 2009, squeaked by by the narrowest of margins, 50-49. [...]
The plan, shepherded by Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray, seeks nearly $1 trillion in new revenue over the next decade, mostly through the closure of tax loopholes that favor the wealthy, and an equal amount in reductions to government spending.
The House of Representatives on Thursday adopted its own budget resolution, which seeks to reach balance within 10 years through significant reductions in federal spending, the overhaul of entitlements like Medicare and the repeal of Obama's health care law.
The glaring partisanship of Congress ensures that neither plan will be enacted into law. Instead they will serve as the starting points for a broader debate this year over budget policy.
- 100 amendments were voted on in a marathon, 13-hour session known in the Senate as a "vote-a-rama.
- The parties' leaders contended with more than 560 filed amendments. Most fell by the wayside and were not voted on, but there were key amendments that were approved, including a repeal of an unpopular tax on medical devices that was enacted as part of "Obamacare."
- Senators also went on record in support of the Keystone Pipeline.
- Joining all Republicans voting no were four Democrats who face re-election next year in potentially difficult races: Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., did not vote.
- The Senate's budget would shrink annual federal shortfalls over the next decade to nearly $400 billion, raise unspecified taxes by $975 billion and cull modest savings from domestic programs.
- They also voiced support for eliminating the $2,500 annual cap on flexible spending account contributions imposed by Obama's health care overhaul.
- [They voted] for charging regular postal rates for mailings by political parties, which currently qualify for the lower prices paid by non-profits.
- In a rebuke to one of the Senate's most conservative members, they overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to cut even deeper than the House GOP budget and eliminate deficits in just five years.
- Rep. Paul Ryan's budget claims $4 trillion more in savings… by digging deeply into Medicaid, food stamps and other safety net programs for the needy. It would also transform the Medicare health care program for seniors into a voucher-like system for future recipients.
- They voted in favor of giving states more powers to collect sales taxes on online purchases their citizens make from out-of-state Internet companies.
- Shoehorned into the package is $100 billion for public works projects and other programs aimed at creating jobs.
NEXT UP: this summer's hostage crisis.
Jon Stewart: "It's really a 'right to work' … around the union for the corporation."
"It's really a 'right to work'… around the union for the corporation. It's one of those things that are actually named for the opposite of the thing they do, like strip bars call themselves 'gentlemen's clubs.' Or the TV network, dedicated to making us stupider, is called 'The Learning Channel.' Or a TV show that airs four days a week calls itself The Daily Show."
— JON STEWART, The Daily Show (via inothernews)
What's next for labor in Michigan? Organizing a backlash…
Political Wire reports on what's next for labor in Michigan:
Organized labor and its allies essentially have two options to overturn the state's new "right-to-work" law signed yesterday by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R).
First Read: "First, they have filed legal actions charging that the process violated the state's Open Meetings Act… Second, critics say they could overturn it by passing a voter-initiated law, which would require getting 258,000 signatures to get on the ballot. And, of course, there's 2014, when Snyder is up for re-election."
Fox News: Snyder braces for union backlash.
TPM: Whatever happens, the labor groups say, expect union attempts to exact political vengeance in 2014 when Snyder and other Republican members of the legislature who pushed the legislation are up for reelection. The likely first decision for pro-labor groups is whether to try and overturn the new right-to-work law at the ballot box. [...] The new law won't take effect for 90 days after the end of the legislative session. It may take longer than that for the law to have a real effect — existing worker contracts are exempted from the new law. So labor and its allies has some time to figure out what to do next in Michigan. But labor groups are determined that Snyder's signature was just the beginning of a new fight over worker's rights in Michigan, not the end.
13 things that would have passed the Senate without the Republican filibuster
From The Denver Post:
- Prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases
- Confirm Goodwin Liu as a U.S. Circuit Court Judge
- End tax breaks for oil companies
- President Obama's 2011 jobs proposal
- Hire more teachers and police officers
- Spend $60 billion improving transportation infrastructure
- Approve Richard Cordray as head of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
- Overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service
- Repeal tax breaks for oil companies
- Raise tax rates on millionaires
- Allow victims of gender discrimination to sue for punitive damages
- Requiring more disclosure of election spending
- End tax deduction for moving jobs overseas
Let's all work to make this Mitch McConnell's — the Senate Minority Leader's — last term. What has he contributed towards the good of the country or to the American people? Nothing — he had only one goal in four years:
This is a man who CLEARLY needs a new career. He's obviously not in it for public service, even though he's been parked in the Senate since 1985.
He comes up for re-election again in 2014.


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Arthur will take you through the 7 basic step by step protocols that will empower you to guide a group of people in a 1 hour drum circle event, from Individual Consciousness to Group Consciousness to Ensemble Consciousness and finally to Orchestrational Consciousness.The program will include many of the exercises used in Arthur's Village Music Circle Drum Circle Facilitators books training Programs. Since this interactive hands on "Playshop" will be presented by Arthur Hull, we can guarantee that it will not only be educational and inspiring, but it will also be a lot of fun.
NAMM 2014 Drum Circle
Arthur Hull is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, keynote presenter and a master at facilitating groups of people through a joyful and inspiring experience using music and rhythm. Recognized as the father of the community drum circle movement worldwide, Arthur has presented his Drum Circle Facilitator trainings in over 23 countries to over 10,000 participants in the last 20 years. He is the author of "Drum Circle Spirit, Facilitating Human Potential Through Rhythm" + "Drum Circle Facilitation, Building Community Through Rhythm" + "The video of the same name" + "Rhythmical Alchemy Playshop, Volume #1, Drum Circle Games" + The Facilitators' Video and Guide to Endrummingment, and Arthur has Co-authored the "Drum Circle Facilitators Handbook" along with Nellie Hill.
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That photo sums the week up- Sheed getting burnt and Rondo trying to figure things out. All week… No…. All year, Rajon Rondo has played his tail off. He is the only player on the team who has the rights to come out and say so. That earned him the player of the week last week. It had nothing to do with his point total, or assists per game, or rebounds, but instead his hustle. Some of his nasty plays (behind the back to Pierce for 3) helped his cause too.
For the writeup to the Player of The Week award visit- Player of the Week
(Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)
Tags: Rajon Rondo


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Looking at the wine it is a deep and dark red, purple, and almost black. There is no color loss near the rim and it is hard to determine whether it is clear because the color is so deep.
There is an amazing burst of aromas. The fruit flavors are ripe and sweet cherries with some dark berries thrown in for good measure. Underpinning the more prominent fruit is an earthy mineral component, which adds an extra level of complexity.
On the palate there is all that is all that is on the palate and more. Notbaly some roasted meat flavours. The fruit flavors manifest themselves in a juicy brew, and the vanilla from the oak is a little more in the background, but still present and adding to the overall richness and complexity of the wine.
Powerful but beautifully balanced tannins highlight the lengthy finish. This is a wine that will age for a very long time, quite possibly up to 20 years. Yet such is the balance you can drink it at any stage of its development and you will enjoy it.
As a young wine just compliment it with a simple cheese course, using aged hard cheese such as Reggiano or Gruyere and some quince paste as a little sweetener. After a few years in the bottle this wine will be perfect with rich flavoursome game dishes such a share and venison.
Clarendon Hills is a small family-run winery based in Clarendon, South Australia. The company was founded by biochemist, Roman Bratasiuk, in 1990. The story of Clarendon Hills is one of passion, dedication and commitment to exception wine. It all began when this biochemist and wine lover decided to produce his own wine. Though he'd never trained as a winemaker, Roman let himself be guided by his refined palate and scientific knowledge. Following his favorite producers and preferred styles, Roman sought to make a version of the wines he loved.
McLaren Vale is home to the oldest Australian vineyard, with grapes planted in 1838. It's a coastal area, the Indian Ocean bordering the west, which leads to a cooling factor that prevents the grapes from getting too hot. In all, the climate is a perfect one for the vines.
Notable Facts
In McLaren Vale, there are vines as far as the eye can see. As in other parts of...Read More About McLaren Vale
(seh-RAH/shee-RAHZ) It's a Smokin' Grape Syrah and Shiraz - same grape, different name. It's a popular and adept variety, growing in multiple regions and creating many different styles of wine. The home base of Syrah is the Northern Rhone, where it creates the exclusive wines of Hermitage and Cote Rotie. On the less pricy side, the Rhone makes Syrah-based wines in Crozes...Read More About Syrah/Shiraz
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Extreme Hostas
If you can only identify three plants in the garden, odds are one of them is going to be a hosta.
Timber Press Pocket Guide to Hostas
Planting hostas in the right place is easy enough: most prefer shade, although deep shade is not the best option, except in the case of very dark green hostas. Though some are supposedly more tolerant of sun than others, hostas are simply not suited to a site that gets hot afternoon rays; they'll dry out. Filtered shade and rich, moist soil will bring out the best in most hostas. In fact, some studies show that soil that stays consistently moist is even more important than shade; hostas in moist soil are better able to withstand the sun.
For years, hostas have been one of the top-selling perennials in the United States, preferred for their easy care. In fact, because hostas are such a common sight in gardens, they're often taken for granted. The ordinary green-and-cream, wavy-leaved hostas are by far the most popular variety in U.S. gardens. But you may be surprised to learn that there are literally thousands of hostas to choose from, and even more interestingly, they come in an amazing range of sizes. Some—like 'Komodo Dragon'—are as much as six feet across, while others, full grown, would fit in the palm of your hand. These extreme hostas—the largest and the smallest of the genus—are not for every landscape, but they can be wonderful, easy-care specimens where the location and design allow for their special features.
Jumbo hostas:
The chartreuse 'Sum and Substance' (60" diameter x 30" high) has drawn media attention as one of the best of the big hostas. It has remained near the top of the American Hosta Society's popularity poll for years, and a few years ago was named the American Hosta Growers Association's Plant of the Year. Now the focus has shifted to 'Titanic', a sport of 'Sum and Substance' featuring ribbed, variegated foliage with a gold edge and dark green center. The ultimate size of 'Titanic' is about 4 feet high x 5 feet wide, although some experts believe the size at maturity may reach 80" in diameter. Another hosta similar to 'Sum and Substance' is the variegated 'Sum of All', reaching 60" in diameter and 36" in height. 'Solar Flare' is a large hosta with yellow-gold leaves; but it isn't quite the size of 'Sum and Substance', reaching only (only!) 52" wide and 28" high.
Some of the better known giant-sized "blue" hostas include 'Bigfoot' (70" x 30"), 'Blue Angel' (up to 70" in diameter and 48" high), 'Blue Mammoth' (70" x 45"), H. sieboldiana 'Gray Cole' (some experts believe the ultimate width on this cultivar will reach over 84" with a height of 36"), 'H. D. Thoreau' (84" x 38"), 'Krossa Regal' (72" x 36"), and 'Mr. Big' (80" x 40").
The New Encyclopedia of Hostas
Many of the giant "green" hostas are quite aptly named; they include 'Behemoth' (48" x 36"), 'Bethel Big Leaf' (56" x 36"), 'Big Boy' (48" x36"), 'Big Sam' (48" x 36"), 'Colossal' (48"x 28"), and 'Jolly Green Giant'(44" x 32"). 'Mountain Snow', a green and white variegated hosta, reaches up to 60 inches across and 28 inches high. The variegated 'Frosted Jade' reaches up to 60" wide and 28" in height. 'Yellow River' may reach as much as 80" wide and 36" tall.
Mini hostas:
Among the smallest hostas are the fragrant cultivars 'Asuka', 'Kunpu' and 'Otome No Ka'. 'Fragrant Tot' has yellow leaves streaked with green and reaches only 6" in diameter and 4" in height. 'Geisha' (6" x 4") has chartreuse leaves with a green margin. 'Goody Goody' has white leaves with a green margin and reaches only 8" in diameter x 2" high. 'Bobbin', a dwarf form of 'Silver Kabitan', is the smallest hosta in the "erect" group, with a diameter of about 4 inches and a height of only 2 inches.
The "Tiny Group" of hostas includes 'Abiqua Miniature' (7" diameter x3" high), 'Blue Ice' (8" x 4"), 'Gosan Gold Midget' (5" x 3")', 'Ivory Pixie' (8" x 6"), 'Shining Tot' (6" x 2"), 'Thumb Nail' (4" x 2"), 'Tiny Tears' (4" x2") and 'Tot Tot' (8" x 4"). Other exciting new mini-hostas include 'Blue MouseEars', 'Cat and Mouse', 'Frosted Mouse Ears', 'Sunlight Child' and 'Cracker Crumbs.'
The Color Encyclopedia of Hostas
'Gold Colleen' is a yellow-leaved form with striped purpleflowers that only reaches 6 " in diameter and 8" in height. 'Golden Spades' has a similar size and description. The Korean species Hosta venusta forms a dense, spreading mound reaching about 10 inches wide and but less than 3 inches high. 'Blue Ice' has the rippled blue leaves often found on giant hostas, but this time in a compact form only 10 inches wide by 6 inches high. Hosta 'Little Bo Peep' is a variegated, moundinghosta reaching just over 8 inches in width and 3 inches in height. 'Cat's Eyes' has dark green margins and yellow centers that turn to ivory-white, growing to 6" wide and 2" tall.


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Healthy living, herbal remedies and DIY natural beauty.
As the leaves turn, and the Seattle rain pours to welcome autumn, I begin to question the more personal changes and choices I've made in my life. The changing seasons often lead me to heightened self-reflection. For this reason alone, this turning inward, the time between seasons may be my favorite season of all. I always find myself relishing the surprise, unpredictability, and newness autumn brings. The season's arrival prompts my imagining of the coming foggy glow from home windows as the chilling temperatures and string of holidays move our activities inside.
With the beginning of each season comes necessary endings. As summer turns to autumn, I have the hardest time letting go of our summer fruit and vegetable share from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSA's are membership supported farms and have been in our country for more than 25 years. To locate a farm near you, you can check out the Local Harvest website. We've been members of our CSA, Helsing Junction Farm, for 22 years, when they first began and had approximately 75 members, much fewer than their current 1,200. Clearly, change is not only seasonal.
Our weekly CSA share has necessitated a continued practice in flexibility. Every box comes filled with varied combinations of fruits, vegetables, and herbs fresh from the earth, so our CSA-driven meal planning fluctuates from week to week, based on what comes to us from the ground versus what we plan for and seek out in the stores. Helpfully, Helsing posts weekly recipes on their website to aid this "on your toes" method of meal planning. Knowing we'll receive delicious, healthful produce, but not knowing the contents of our weekly summer box, I let go of planning and get creative. Our CSA has me experimenting with ingredients and combinations I could never have planned on my own — a great lesson to me that change can come from releasing total control.
Food keeps us moving and growing. It keeps us alive. We must feed ourselves, whether or not we welcome the task, just as we must put on more clothes when the temperatures turn colder. The more I acknowledge the opportunity necessities of life provide, the more conscious and engaged I am in my living, breathing being. Throughout all change around me, I hold to one constant, my unwavering intentionality in parenting, general living, and eating. It's going to take a lot of us to turn around the way food comes to us. As large corporations toxically engineer our world for unsustainable growth and over-production, the purity of nutrients in organics become increasingly important for us and our planet. I urge you to critically consider what you eat.
For further exploration on engaged eating, I highly recommend GMO OMG, a wonderful endorsement for practicing a life in communication with our planet by organic seed appreciation and seasonal eating.
Questions for healthy consideration: What will you eat today? Where is it being grown? Can you feel the difference in your health and body depending on what you eat?
There's a Slow Food movement gaining momentum, a movement dedicated to being everything fast food is not. With roots in the Slow Movement — which advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace — Slow Food believes in healthy, sustaining, fair food for all.
I look forward to living in a society that holds our time spent with loved ones up to similar standards as the Slow Food movement. Call it a Slow Time movement. Quality time spent together would include "healthy time," concentrated, without distraction; "sustaining time," deep with lasting nourishment; and "fair time," equally shared and accessible. Every child would know that they're surrounded by communities and adults who are there to teach, care for, and support them as they grow in the abundance of time and love.
As the idea's taken hold of me, I've been noticing the presence of Slow Time all around me. On a recent walk, I saw a mom jogging with her toddler. Instead of the mom tuning into ear buds and the child into some handheld device, this mom was exchanging thoughts with her child. It was just the two of them, concentrating on one another—counting trees, identifying birds, chatting away as they cruised the neighborhood.
My next moment was almost identical to the first, only the child was a young lady. From what I witnessed of this mother/daughter relationship (pictured below) had been practicing Slow Time for years. They were out for an early morning summer walk, spending time together, an activity as easy to replicate as it is to mutually enjoy. Slow Time, like Slow Food, is simple, basic, and accessible to most of us.
Most recently, I encountered a wonderful example of Slow Time while traveling home from New Jersey. I happened to be making the trip with an incredibly inspiring family. A set of grandparents and their granddaughter were journeying home after a 42-day, Internet-free adventure in South Africa and Tanzania. They noted how much they'd learned about each other on this trip, through undistracted and mutually shared time. What a wonderful gift for them all.
While our ever-increasing variety of tech tools can encourage obsessive distraction, they rarely necessitate it. We still choose to lose ourselves in our phone, TV, and computer screens, but we have other options. Although I can certainly slip, I choose to continually practice the patience and presence of Slow Time. When I see families doing the same, I'm the one taking mental note and remarking on how wonderful it is to see Slow Time spreading.
With regards to intentional parenting, I find Slow Time to be personal in practice and multi-generational in payoff. When I took the time to be present with our daughter through her childhood, we both felt a fullness that allowed us to navigate the world securely.
Daily, when life gets busy, I like to take a moment and picture this: our country populated by people enjoying Slow Time. The air filled with stories, discussion, laughter, and even tears, free from screens—amplified by each other's company.
Here are a few questions to think about. How much Slow Time do you think you weave into life with your loved ones? How do you prioritize slowness? What do you choose to do with your Slow Time? It's definitely worth looking at.
Opening up a pack of gum to keep yourself busy or to freshen your breath after a meal is a common habit for many and may increase alertness and enhance sustained attention.[1] Several studies also suggest that sugar-free gum containing ingredients like xylitol can actually decrease cavities. However, the effect of gum on oral health is debated among researchers[2,3] and many people are wondering, "Is chewing gum bad for you?" If you chew a pack of gum a day, it can be. Here are four things you need to know about gum chewing.
It can cause headaches and migraines. A study in adolescents with either migraine or tension-type headache produced rather startling results on the relationship between headaches and gum chewing. All participants chewed gum anywhere from one to six hours per day. After discontinuing any gum chewing, all headache symptoms completely disappeared in 19 out of the 30 patients, and seven had partial improvements in symptoms. When they restarted their gum habit, 20 of the children experienced a relapse of headaches within a few days. The researchers believe that pressure on the temperomandibular joint caused by prolonged chewing triggered the headaches, and exposure to ingredients in gum like aspartame may also be involved.[4]
Many sugar-free gums contain aspartame. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that has been used to replace refined sugar in food, candy, and gum for decades. Although there is continued debate over the subject, aspartame has been considered carcinogenic, and many researchers suggest that it be removed, or at least reduced in quantity, from public consumption.[5,6] It may also have negative side effects like influencing brain function and contributing to conditions like fibromyalgia.[7,8] Look for brands that use xylitol to sweeten instead, which seems to be a safer alternative.
It can contribute to temperomandibular joint disorders (TMD,). TMD (which is commonly referred to as TMJ) can cause pain in the jaw, neck, and shoulders, as well other unpleasant symptoms like a decreased range of jaw motion. One of the major causes of TMD is the overuse or improper use of chewing muscles. Chewing gum is associated with increased TMD symptoms, and restraining from this kind of habit is recommended as a self-management tool for those suffering from the condition.[9,10]
It may cause you to choose less healthy foods. Many people claim that chewing gum can help you to lose weight or to eat less. While preoccupying yourself by chewing gum when you are hungry might help you to restrain from a snack, research shows that it isn't quite that simple. A study in the journal Eating Behaviors found that chewing mint gum prior to eating reduced intake and preference of healthier options like fruit. The authors suggest that there was "a reduction in consumption of nutrient rich foods" when participants chewed gum for a week compared to a week without any gum.[11]
If you chew gum regularly, many times a day, try to cut back on your habit. It might help to replace gum with natural, sugar-free mints at first. Sometimes, sugar cravings can cause you to chew gum to satisfy the need for sweets; reducing your intake of sugars overall will help to curb your sugar cravings and halt your need to chew gum.
Reserve your pack of gum for special occasions and use a piece as a reward or a treat to yourself when you need one. Make sure you choose a sugar-free gum, but avoid aspartame by choosing a natural brand, like Pur Gum or Glee Gum, that uses xylitol instead.
Does gum negatively impact your health? What are you favorite alternatives to gum? Share your experience in the comments section below.
[1] Physiol Behav. 2014 Jun 22;133:244-51.
[2] Br Dent J. 2011 Oct 7;211(7):E15.
[3] J Am Dent Assoc. 2013 Jan;144(1):21-30.
[4] Pediatr Neurol. 2014 Jan;50(1):69-72.
[5] Am J Ind Med. 2014 Apr;57(4):383-97.
[6] Am J ClinNutr. 2012 Dec;96(6):1419-28.
[7] Folia Neuropathol. 2013;51(1):10-7.
[8] Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2012 Dec;16(15):2092-101.
[9] J Man Manip Ther. 2009;17(4):247-54.
[10] Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 2006 Oct;102(4):482-7.
[11] Eat Behav. 2013 Apr;14(2):149-56.
Although I have danced through each of my pregnancies and although I have cherished the power of a woman's body to birth a baby both naturally and peacefully, it was not until my third pregnancy that the Dancing for Birth concept was made a reality.
Something about dancing at my belly dance classes with a babe in utero felt very right. Rotating my hips in my living room with my pregnant self and a video called Bollywood Booty also felt very right, almost spiritual. And, then there was the one specific moment in the midst of doing a 'figure-eight.' "This," I thought, "is what pregnant women need to prepare for childbirth!"
I was in the middle of doula training through Birthingway College in Portland, OR and in the middle of an extensive reading list including books from Ina May Gaskin, Tina Cassidy and Michel Odent. I had the head knowledge to promote positive, low-intervention births and I had both personal and professional experiences seeing those births first hand. But dance, I concluded, was the ticket to get pregnant and laboring women from fear to freedom. I had a long term plan to develop a program which utilized dance in this way. Thankfully, in a local birth support meeting, another doula mentioned Dancing for Birth. I went home that night and immediately signed up for the next available workshop in my area.
I knew that the workshop would be fulfilling and exciting. However the workshop far exceeded my expectations. Founder Stephanie Larson displayed such conviction in her instruction and such wisdom. To what I had come to believe about dance and birth, she gave words, she gave names (dilation gyration), she gave inspiration and she gave confidence. At this point, I knew dance to be a powerful way for women to trust their bodies in birth. And at the DFB training Stephanie Larson had given me an arsenal of tools to further communicate the message. But, could I convince women who didn't dance and who had neutral and even negative feelings towards labor that this could be an essential part of their pregnancy and birth? Once I completed my demonstration class, the answer was a resounding yes. One first-time momma in attendance said, "I really bonded with my baby and realize that the baby and I are in this together." This was also a momma who claimed not to be a dancer. I am pleased to say her coin scarf jingled the loudest.
So, to the Dancing for Birth sisterhood, I bring my skills as a doula, as a world-dancer and as an advocate for empowered birth experiences and could not be more pleased to do so.
We rarely encounter health issues on our humble homestead, except mundane ailments involving chiggers, poison ivy or ticks. Still, I enjoy adding to my library of old-time cures and concoctions ― just in case.
This summer, I was ecstatic to find a charming old book by a country doctor who believed it was imperative he study folk remedies to gain the medical confidence of his patients living close to the soil on back-road farms. Deforrest Clinton Jarvis, M.D., (1881-1966) wrote Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor's Guide to Good Health at age 77 after spending decades gathering home cures that he said were as, or more, effective than those organized medicine taught him to use. "I believe the doctor of the future will be a teacher as well as a physician," Jarvis wrote. "His real job will be to teach people how to be healthy."
I especially love that the copy I found in a used book store has a penciled list of specific ailments paper-clipped to the first page, which leads me to envision a three- or four-generation household. The list includes: Honey for bedwetting, Page 105; Treating overweight, Page 68-69; Apple cider vinegar for arthritis, Page 91; and Castor oil for liver spots, Page 147. Inside, a homemade bookmark made of a torn slip from a medical pad advertising "Polycillin-N" is handwritten with "honeycomb treatment for sinus cold." Did someone perhaps discard a physician's prescription and instead found a natural remedy in this old book?
Jarvis is best known for advocating doses of honey and apple cider vinegar three times daily to prevent and/or cure many common illnesses including arthritis, rheumatism, asthma, high blood pressure and colds. The delightful elixir (one teaspoon each of honey and vinegar in a glass of water) also restores energy. Already in 1958, Jarvis noted that our modern diet of fats, starches and nutrition-depleted processed foods made people sick, weak, overweight and listless. I wonder what he would think today of our synthetic and genetically modified foods laden with chemicals. When he first began learning folk cures, Jarvis said many old-time treatments did not make medical sense to him, such as chewing the fresh gum of a spruce tree to cure a sore throat in a day. Jarvis' further studies led to "considerable readjustment of orthodox approaches."
The fifth-generation Vermonter not only sought the input of country folks for indigenous medicine, but studied insects, birds and animals to learn how they kept healthy. He watched wild and pastured animals to see what they ate and how they cured themselves when ill. Jarvis noted that humans are terrified to miss a meal, but animals know to retreat to a dark, secluded spot without food until they are well again. "If you care to go to school, go to the honey bees, fowl, cats, dogs, goats, mink, calves, dairy cows, bulls and horses and allow them to teach you their ways," Jarvis wrote.
Jarvis believed that everything people and animals need to survive could be found in nature. We hadn't thought of it that way when we gave up buying commercially produced soaps and whatnot years ago. We simply wanted to avoid as many chemicals as possible. Now we use only all-natural stuff, such as our local Back Forty Soap Company's goat milk soap. I am sure Doctor Jarvis would approve.
Jarvis discovered that caged mink fed too much protein will develop bladder problems and kidney stones, in many cases dying. But left to their own devices, wild mink supplement their carnivorous diet with berries and leaves. These same ailments plaque humans eating a protein-rich diet. So, eat your greens. Farm children fascinated Jarvis, who discerned that children, like animals, have self-protective instincts about food. Studying Vermont children younger than 10, Jarvis discovered that these young children chewed cornstalks and ate potatoes, carrots, peas, string beans and rhubarb – all raw and fresh from the garden. The youngsters also gobbled "berries, green apples, ripe apples, the grapes that grow wild throughout the state, sorrel, timothy grass heads, and the part of the timothy grass that grows underground. They ate salt from the cattle box, drank water from the cattle trough, chewed hay, ate calf food, and by the handful, a dairy-ration supplement containing seaweed; they even filled their pockets with this, to eat during school."
Jarvis speculates adults have lost much of their natural intuition toward food and health. Probably more so today, we are influenced by such an avalanche of advertisements and advisements that we don't even know what's good for us anymore. "If we were wise enough to carry into adult life the instincts of childhood, we would make a point of eating fruit, berries, edible leaves, and edible roots that would not be cooked," Jarvis wrote, adding that those who retained their natural impulses are fond of salads and, consequently, healthier.
"Your body, designed for the living of primitive times, expects to receive a daily intake of leaves," Jarvis wrote. "In these more civilized times the body still needs these leaves as much as ever, in order to better stand the stress and strain of modern living."
Following Vermonters who live close to the soil, he found many eat beechnut, maple, willow, apple, chokecherry, poplar and birch tree leaves. Elm tree leaves are said to be the best for quickly relieving hunger. Pages 48-55 list numerous wild edibles and their benefits.
Throughout the book, Jarvis gives examples of how honey and vinegar or a combination of both restored health to humans and animals. Not just any honey and vinegar will do, however. The honey must be raw (not pasteurized) and unfiltered, the darker and cloudier the better. Vinegar, too, should not be filtered or distilled. Processing destroys nutrients and beneficial bacteria.
My husband and I have been enjoying swigs of raw apple cider vinegar before each meal for more than five years. We fill our gallon jug with it at the local feed mill; we also buy local raw honey by the five-gallon pail. And, like I said, it has been years since either of us has had a cold or flu. We'd never mixed honey and vinegar before, so I was eager to try it when I began reading Jarvis' book. As I was visiting St. Paul, Minn., at the time, I walked 2 miles to the nearest health food store for some raw honey and vinegar and hurried back to my daughter's apartment with the goods. I was immediately hooked on the delicious sweet and sour concoction, also known as switchel or honegar.
A quick search on Mother Earth News' site revealed others who have followed Jarvis' advice. In 1973, reader Sue Gross wrote to Mother Earth News in Feedback on How to Raise and Keep Goats to say how she fed vinegar to her goats, successfully curing mastitis and worms. Also, author Laurie Masterson wrote of her mother serving honey and vinegar water with crushed ginger root to the field hands in this 2014 article, Switchel Recipe.
To learn more, please see our blog, Folk Medicine Book Pushes Honey and Vinegar.
Linda Holliday lives in the Missouri Ozarks where she and her husband formed Well WaterBoy Products, a company devoted to helping people live more self-sufficiently off grid with human power, and invented the WaterBuck Pump.
The smell is one of familiar culinary delight. Ah! Oregano! It's pungent aroma lends zest to sauces, Italian dishes, and tomato products of all kinds. But what of the medicinal qualities of this oft forgotten aromatic?
Oregano is a member of the huge mint family, Lamiaceae. Its name has a base in Greek (they all do, it seems). Oros, meaning mountain, and ganos, meaning joy, are combined to express what the people of the time must have thought of the plant. It is a mountain joy. It can be found cultivated throughout the world. As with many modern "kitchen herbs," it has a great many varieties. Typically, it typically grows 50 cm tall and has purple leaves around 2 to 3 centimeters in length. The variety I have in my garden grows leaves a bit smaller and more of a deep green, however, that may be due to the climate in which we live. I am still investigating this.
The smell of oregano is distinctive. Thymol, pinene, limonene, carvacrol, ocimene, and caryophyllene all work together to give off that wonderful aroma. It's flavor is impossible to mistake in Mexican and Italian dishes.
A gentlemen approached me once, and request a rather large amount of essential oil of oregano. I had used quite a bit of different oils, but the quantity in which he asked for the oregano oil seemed quite outlandish at the time. Really, it wasn't. He only asked for five 5 ml bottles, but I was a newbie and no idea why he would need so much at one time. He enlightened me.
It turns out that oregano oil acts as a vigilante against fungus. He was a long time sufferer of repeated sinus infections. Since he worked in a nursing home environment, and the research from the CDC suggesting that recurrent sinus infections may be a result of a fungal overgrowth instead of an infection, he was ready to try anything. He also shared with me, that he had long been battling toe nail fungus. This gave him the idea that perhaps his body was just dealing with too much fungus and not so much bacterial invaders.
He suggested the following use for oregano oil (in addition to applying topically in a carrier oil, such as olive or sweet almond oil):
Add 3-5 drops of oregano essential oil to a pot of approx. 1 quart of boiling water. After the water is removed from heat (and source of flame), bend over the pot and tent yourself with a towel over the vapors. Inhale deeply through the nostrils. The gentleman also added 1-2 drops of the essential to a nettie pot (see note at bottom of post) containing a teeny amount of sesame oil in body temperature water* to fully bathe the sinus cavities in the wonderful oil.
After some research, I was convinced the gentleman would be just fine using oregano. It turns out that not only is this oil antifungal, but it has antibiotic effects, too. Carvacrol, a phenol in oregano, is being looked at for its powerful ability to kill bacteria. Tests at Georgetown University suggest it may stack up even when compared to streptomycin and penicillin. Portuguese researchers found that Origanum vulgare essential oils were effective against 41 strains of the food pathogen Listeria monocytogenes2. I would love to see if this plant could pack a punch against some of the modern day antibiotic resistant infections rampant in the U.S. A team of British and Indian researchers reported that the essential oil of Himalayan oregano has strong antibacterial properties that can even kill the hospital superbug MRSA.
In the U.S. the push is to be young forever. We all seem to be chasing the easiest way to appear younger, feel more energetic and live longer. Adding oregano may be a component to your formula. It contains thymol and romarinic acid. These work to reduce free radical damage in the body. In fact, research done at the USDA's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, a tablespoon of fresh oregano contains as much antioxidant power as a medium sized apple. Now, I know the FDA won't acknowledge such a thing, but another arm of our government clearly shows that it works. The situation is truly half a dozen of one and twelve of another, if you ask me.
There is no coincidence that these herbs found in heavy, fatty meat laden dishes, help to stimulate the flow of digestive secretions. It makes the saliva flow, and this is the beginning of digestion. The more your food can be broken down, the less gas it can create. And in case any gets past the digestive juices, no fear! It contains various chemical components that relax the gut, allowing the expulsion of gas without pain.
Oregano "juice" is said to soothe venomous spider bites, bee stings and mosquito bites. While I never intend to find out, it also said to treat venomous snakebite. I would prefer to error on the side of caution on that last one, and get to a hospital in that instance.
Oregano tea (from Medicinal Health Guide)
wash fresh or dried oregano leaves
chop then add in 4 cups of water for every 1 cup of oregano leaves
let it boil for 10 to 15 minutes
let it steep then strain the leaves
Drink half cup of Oregano three times a day
oregano concoction can be stored in suitable glass container for later consumption.
*Please use care when utilizing a nettie pot. This is wonderful tool, but the water used should be distilled and warmed to body temperature ONLY. The sinus tissues are very sensitive and can be burned easily. A tiny bit of sesame oil added to the warmed water will help from drying the sinus tissues, as well. Oregano: zest for your dinner and your herbal medicine chest.
Did you know that Alzheimer's disease begins in the brain up to 20 to 30 years before the first inkling of memory loss? Were you aware that Alzheimer's is mostly caused by poor diet and lifestyle habits? According to Alzheimer's specialists, this means there is plenty of time for people to make brain-healthy lifestyle and dietary choices to potentially delay the onset of this dreaded and devastating disease.[1] If you've been wondering how to prevent Alzheimer's, you need to know about the latest research showing how your daily food choices affect your risk.
This year, two separate teams of researchers from prominent medical institutions concluded that the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. [1,2] The Mediterranean diet generally emphasizes vegetables, legumes, fruits, whole grains, monounsaturated fats (olive oil), fish, and mild-to-moderate alcohol intake. It limits meat, dairy, saturated fat, and high amounts of alcohol.
After reviewing dozens of studies, researchers from the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College found that not only does the Mediterranean diet has the strongest evidence for decreasing the risk for Alzheimer's disease, but it also improves cognitive function in those who already have the disease. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic also found that if you already have mild cognitive impairment, eating Mediterranean style reduces your risk of transitioning to Alzheimer's disease.[3]
Another important recent study examining how to prevent Alzheimer's with diet is the first in the world to investigate how diet in midlife affects the risk of developing dementia much later in life.[4,5] Researchers from Finland rated the diets of 2,000 random Finnish participants and found that those who ate the healthiest diets at the average age of 50 had an almost 90% lower risk for dementia over the next 14 years compared with those whose diets were least healthy.
The most important dietary changes to make to prevent dementia, concluded the researchers, are:
Eat more vegetables, fruits, and berries.
Eat more fish.
Choose unsaturated fats over saturated fats (for example, choose vegetable oil instead of butter and low-fat dairy products over high-fat dairy.)
Reduce consumption of sausage and other high-fat meat products.
Reduce salt consumption.
Reduce sugar consumption.
These are just a few of the recently published, groundbreaking studies showinghow to prevent Alzheimer's and improve brain function in later life by eating a healthy diet now. Other studies also support the Mediterranean diet as well as other dietary patterns that promote increasing fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes, while decreasing sweets, salt, and saturated fats.[6-9] Based on the best evidence so far, eating this way is your best bet for reducing your Alzheimer's risk as you age.
Find more ways to reduce your risk of Alzheimer's disease here.
Medscape Med News. 2014 Jun4.
66th Ann Meet Am Acad Neur. 2014 Apr26-May3; Abs P5.224.
J Alzheimers Dis. Jan 1, 2014; 39(2): 271–282.
Medscape Neur Min. 2014 May14.
Univ Eastern Finland. Dissertations Health Sciences, no. 220.
PLoS One. 2014; 9(4): e94042.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Nov;98(5):1263-71.
Eur J Nutr. 2014 Jul 18. [Epub ahead of print]
Mol Psychiatry. 2014 Jul 29. [Epub ahead of print]
MOTHER EARTH NEWS is the guide to living — as one reader stated — "with little money and abundant happiness." Every issue is an invaluable guide to leading a more sustainable life, covering ideas from fighting rising energy costs and protecting the environment to avoiding unnecessary spending on processed food. You'll find tips for slashing heating bills; growing fresh, natural produce at home; and more. MOTHER EARTH NEWS helps you cut costs without sacrificing modern luxuries.
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This military style watch is perfect for the avid outdoorsman. Built to face any challenge, this wrist watch has a rugged olive drab nylon wrist band with black synthetic leather accents. The band adjusts with a Velcro closure so you get a snug, comfortable fit perfect for your wrist. The watch itself features a silver alloy case, olive drab face, and smooth quartz movement. What sets this watch apart from the rest is the handy compass clip on the wrist band. With the compass you can trek the woods and hike the mountain and not have to worry about losing your sense of direction. Get this rugged watch online today!
Harry's Army Surplus: Serving Dearborn and Metropolitan Detroit with army navy surplus, uniform gear, boots, army surplus and work clothing since 1950.


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We couldn't BR any happier than we are with Tilden as a school for our two boys. Tilden has brought out the best in our kids and has turned them into engaged learners. What an incredible school and community. The best education value in the city!
It's not an exaggeration to say we love Tilden. Academics are the primary focus, and with the spectacularly low student teacher ratio every student is understood and challenged according to their individual rate of progress. Music, art, Spanish, PE and other disciplines are woven into the core day many times a week. The teachers are incredibly talented, the leadership is stellar, and the entire school is thoughtfully organized. But the best part of Tilden's program may be the social learning that happens at recess. There are always several teachers on hand to guide students in play and social development, issue resolution and confidence building. Well worth the investment.
The individualized instruction offered at Tilden School has kept both of our kids challenged and interested. Amazing school!
Amazing school filled with rock-star teachers and a tight-knit community of parents. Principal and 2nd/3rd grade teacher Whitney loves the children, knows them all by name and all of the families. Highly recommend this school.
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4105 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116
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As Kenyon Martin sat just behind the free-throw line, the world had no idea what Josh Smith would do next. Smith darts down from center court, leaps in the air, catches the toss from a seated Martin, and swung the ball back around windmill style. Boom. The Pepsi Center exploded, along with the TNT crew calling the All-Star festivities. Kenny Smith immediately proclaimed, "The dunk contest is where you make your name… His name is gonna be starting to become famous around here if he keeps doing dunks like that."
In the next round, the 19-year old from College Park put on a vintage Dominique Wilkins jersey and dazzled the crowd – again – with a windmill tribute to the Hawks legend.
As he took home the title of 2005 Slam Dunk Champion, Josh Smith also took home another title: fan favorite. While the origin of the nickname "J-Smoove" is less than concrete, the high-flying young forward would soon earn the moniker.
At the time, it's likely that he had little effect on me, a clueless 8 year-old who had little interest in professional basketball. Now, coming up on 18, I feel I can finally grasp just how big of an impact that one player had on some of the young stages of my life. Continue Reading…


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Persimmon Tea
Dried persimmons can be found in most Asian markets. You can also order them from www.justtomatoes.com. This "tea" is a traditional Korean digestif.
Yield: 8 servings
More From Real Simple
Nutritional Information
Amount per serving
- Calcium: 0mg
- Calories: 73
- Calories from fat: 0%
- Carbohydrate: 19g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
- Fat: 0g
- Fiber: 0g
- Iron: 0mg
- Protein: 0mg
- Saturated fat: 0g
- Sodium: 0mg
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 pound fresh ginger, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 12 ounces dried persimmons
- 1/4 pound pine nuts
- In a large saucepan, combine 10 cups of water, the sugar, and ginger and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, remove from heat, and add the persimmons. Let sit for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to steep. Strain into a decanter. Cover and refrigerate up to 3 days ahead. Serve chilled in teacups garnished with pine nuts.
My Notes
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Persimmon Tea Recipe at a Glance
- COURSE: Beverages, Beverages, Nonalcoholic
- CONVENIENCE: Entertaining, Make-Ahead
- CUISINE: Asian, Korean
- MAIN INGREDIENT: Fruits
- OCCASION: Autumn
- PUBLICATION: Real Simple
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What Lou Wants, Lou Can't Have
In sports, the window closes.
Any team that decides to make a move for the championship will select a few key stars to lead their team for the foreseeable future. In Detroit, the Pistons had a solid starting five of Rip, Sheed, Chauncey, Ben and Prince for years. In Indianapolis, the Colts offense spent many years revolving around Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne and Eddgerin James.
The problem with the concept of the "core" is that, eventually, they get old. Just a couple years after winning it all, the Boston Celtics will have this problem, with KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce all aging quickly (and three good knees between them). The Phoenix Suns' core of Steve Nash, Amare Stoudamire, and Shawn Marion has already been dissolved, even without having won a championship.
In Chicago, the Cubs have their core. They've invested tens of millions of dollars in three position players that simply can't be moved. For the foreseeable future, third base belongs to Aramis Ramirez; Derrek Lee owns 1B; and Soriano gets left field. That's how it is.
The Cubs' offensive core has had their days. They tasted the postseason in 2007 and 2008. Unfortunately, those days were short. But more importantly, they happened--this team had its chance.
As our core ages, as Aramis' shoulder acts up, as Derrek's neck spasms continue to flare, as Soriano's quick hands start slowing down, we're beginning to notice a major flaw with the group. Fans are convinced, along with the team's manager, that this group needs a lefty power bat to win.
Unfortunately, there's no place to put that bat. We've decided on our core, and there really isn't a lot of wiggle room one way or the other.
Jim Hendry tried to fill the lefty power gap by signing players like Fukudome and Bradley. In doing so, I think Hendry was wise not to ignore one crucial element of the game--defense. The guys we've got are not oafs. Bradley's brain hasn't quite caught up to his legs yet, but the guy can still move around.
As an example, look at the top five lefty outfielders in slugging this season: Raul Ibanez, Brad Hawpe, Adam Dunn, Jason Bay, and Jonny Damon. Those guys will all most assuredly see a rapid decline in their defensive skills over the next one to three years, assuming of course that it hasn't happened already.
Basically what I'm saying is--if you're convinced that the Cubs need a left-handed power bat to win it all (and I'm almost convinced of the fact at this point), then you're going to have to wait until 2011, when Lee vacates his spot at first base, for a championship team on the North Side of Chicago.
Until then, perhaps you should advocate having the Cubs act as sellers in the trade market, to prepare them for their next run. At this point, I think that's the side I'm on.
Lest We Forget, Rome Wasn't Built In a Day
I've actually been thinking about this topic for about two weeks, and to be honest it would have probably been slightly more appropriate before the recent stretch of divine intervention, but I digress…
The 2008 Cubs were the best Cubs team I've ever seen. (Considering the amount of bickering that has been going on recently I'm sure this will be debated, but statistically speaking and seemingly intangibly speaking, they were one of the best.) They could beat any team and no matter the defecit, they were in every game. Almost straight through from April to September, the 2008 Cubs ran in to few glaring issues that ever threatened their chances of winning the division and they ended up clinching a week before the end of the season. That's when the fun ended.
From one of the greatest offenses in club history to one of the biggest eggs laid in playoff history, that team took a nose dive. But that didn't even seem to be the worst part. Nor was the worst part that they were so dominant all year and were being discussed as the easy National League representative in the World Series. The worst part wasn't that pretty much the entire team, with a few notable exceptions, was expected to come back in 2009. The worst part wasn't even the fact that I had accepted that we sh*t our pants in the playoffs, not even that mattered.
No, the worst part was that I was convinced that no matter how good the 2009 Cubs were, the entire season would just be one giant pressure cooker set to implode in October. I was sure that from April through September it wouldn't matter how big our lead was, or how dominant our run differential was. The only thing that would matter would be 3 games in October.
Think about it this way: on June 22, 2008 the Cubs were 20 games over .500, had a 4.5 game lead and a +112 run differential! That team was unstoppable. I truly felt in my heart that last year was going to be the year. As we all know, it wasn't.
Exactly 1 year later we are 3 games over .500 and only 2.5 out of first place. Oh, and our run differential? +12. Exactly 100 runs less than where we were last year at this time. That's not going to last. This team is virtually the same lineup. They will hit. And the playoffs? No one's talking about the playoffs; no one is saying this is a lost season unless we get out of the first round. All of the pressure right now is on having a successful season and making the first round. You could even almost make the argument that stumbling and sputtering through the first 2/5ths of the season could be the best thing to happen to this year's team. Now the pressure isn't about "Yeah, you're winning, but what about in October? What you're doing now doesn't matter until you win a game in October." The pressure is about now. It's about a division race in the middle of the summer. Something the 0-for-October team from last year didn't have to deal with.
I'm not being naive, either. This team is by no means perfect and currently has plenty of holes. They've frustrated and infuriated me all season, but this division is still there for the taking. They are the best team in the division, and I don't think many would disagree that even in third place it is still theirs to lose. The two teams ahead of us whom we beat by 7.5 and 11 games last year? They got worse.
Look, (imagine Uncle Lou here) the point is there's nothing wrong with a little adversity as long as you learn something from it. At this exact point last year The World Champion Phillies were coming off a 5 game losing streak (in the midst of a 1-7 stretch), only 7 games over .500 and a 1 game lead in the division. I bet anything they'd say the adversity and challenges they fought through the entire season are what propelled them to be the last team standing at the finish line. Let's keep this in perspective. It couldn't hurt. Go Cubs.
Nothing easy in 2009 please
The Cubs are going to win the NL Central this year, right? Who is going to get in their way?
The Cardinals? Please. Outside of Pujols, their infield sounds like a law firm. Barden, Greene and Thurston - Attorneys at Law.
The Astros? Give me a break. Half their team is having his ass hauled in front of Congress.
The Reds? Two words: Dusty Baker.
The Brewers? They resigned Eric Gagne. Nuff said about their pitching situation.
The Pirates? LOLz.
Yep, seems like clear sailing for the Cubs in Aught Nine...but that's exactly why I'm worried.
I know we like to showcase our optimism around here, and to tell you the truth, I feel better about this year's Cubs than the team on the field last season. But the potential lack of competition within the division worries me.
I wrote a little bit about this near the end of last season, but I'm a fairly firm believer that a team needs to be competitive all season (especially after the ASG) in order to have the right mindset for the playoffs - That mindset being that every game counts.
Sure it's nice to coast to the playoffs. It's nice to be able to rest your stars or to know that your spot at the October table is reserved. But recent history suggests this isn't the best way to win a championship.
Take a (very un-Colin and unscientific) look at the last 10 World Series champions...
2008: Phillies won division by 3.0 games
2007: Red Sox won division by 2.0 games
2006: Cardinals won division by 1.5 games
2005: White Sox won division by 6.0 games
2004: Red Sox won Wildcard (3.0 games behind Yankees)
2003: Marlins won Wildcard (10.0 games behind Braves)
2002: Angels won Wildcard (4.0 games behind A's)
2001: Diamondbacks won division by 2.0 games
2000: Yankees won division by 13.5 games
1999: Yankees won division by 2.5 games
Outside of the 2004 Red Sox (who coasted to the Wildcard) and the 2000 Yankees, the most recent champs had to compete to make it to the playoffs. I feel that one could argue this competition only helped when it came down to business time in the postseason. I find this especially true for the '05 White Sox who nearly blew a HUGE division lead in September but caught fire in the last week, which helped them roll to the ring.
Now, there is nothing the Cubs can do about their division sucking. They can't make their opponents better (Well they can, but let's not get into that). The only thing they can do is motivate themselves.
Maybe the embarrassment known as the 2007 and 2008 NLDS will be enough, but over 162 games I think the team will need more than that.
A lot of the responsibility is going to fall on Lou. He's got to keep the team motivated and the players need to respond. This is where I'm hoping Mount Milton Bradley will play his biggest role by erupting gallons of liquid hot motivational and competitive lava all over Wrigleyville (OK, that visual was a little weird). I want him to give the team a killer attitude. I want the Cubs not only to win the division, but to win 120 games an put the fear of God in every team they face while doing it.
Maybe another club in the division will step up and prove to be a formidable opponent. Who knows. I have a feeling there will be at least one surprise team in the NLC this season, but everyone knows the 2009 Cubs are built for one thing and one thing only: the playoffs.
So if they play every game like the way they were built to then things should be fine...but is that possible over a lengthy season?
Is anyone else worried? Am I just making a big deal out of nothing? Are things too good to be true and I'm just looking for a reason to justify my eye twitch? Talk me down people.
On the Rays and their fans
I'm gandering at the shoutbox, where I see Madisoncubaholic and cjaxson talking about Tampa Bay - a team that has won for the first time ever, supported by fans who provided them with one of the worst attendance figures in baseball in 2008. They finished the year 26th in the league, having averaged 22,259 - far and away the worst of any team that reached the playoffs.
Unlike probably most of the GROTA Army, I've been inadvertently following the Rays since March. I say "inadvertently" because I listen daily to a radio show that is broadcast out of Tampa, and they've been talking about the Rays ever since the bench clearing brawl against the Yankees during Spring Training. And although their fans suck, I've been pulling for them to succeed. Permit me to offer an alternative take on what has happened there this year:
Unlike the Cubs - yes, unlike them - the Rays are an organization that has been choked with failure at every level. Before this year, they had never won more than 70 games in a season. They've been unable to keep the few star players they've had, guys like Aubrey Huff (whose Baseball Reference page GROTA sponsors, because I love anybody with the balls to express himself honestly). They've been mismanaged and misowned, and consequently the fan base never appeared there.
It's different than with the Cubs - when Chicago was a terrible team, at least they had a beautiful ballpark. Tampa plays in a hole. I think that everybody here would agree that if the Cubs didn't have their ballpark and their history, the fan base would be perhaps a little less rabid. So when we say that the fans don't deserve the Rays, perhaps we could also argue that the Rays don't deserve their fans.
However, while it certainly is ridiculous for these crying fans to suddenly jump aboard and root for the team they've been "waiting for" all their lives - or, for the past 10 years - I think we'd be even more critical of the Rays if fans failed to appear at this point to support them.
Anyway, the short of it is this: I don't hate Tampa for in the World Series. I admire them. They are evidence that it takes more than a large payroll to reach the Series - it takes a well-built team. As much as I've come to admire Jim Hendry for putting a talented squad together, I believe he remains the most overrated GM in baseball when it comes to actually developing prospects. The Rays have reached this pinnacle because they've been well-developed. For the Cubs to become a long-term successful franchise, they'll need to do that too.
As far as the fans of the Rays go ... eh. The Cubs have had their share of bandwagoners, too. If the Rays win, I will admire them, but their fans mean nothing to me and I don't really see them as being a part of it. And while we could look at it from the simplest standpoint that this new team will have something that the Cubs do not, I think that's hardly a reason to be jealous or angry. More to the point, it's just further evidence that anything can happen, and eventually will.
How to deal without booze
My first blog.
I'm 19, I attend UIC, and I live in Cicero. These factors combined equals a rather poor student. I work hard all summer to afford my few extravagant purchases, the main one being cubs tickets. I attended three games this year, two of which our boys lost. I was fine though, because I just loved watching them play. I knew this team had what World Series were made of, and I knew we were the best in NL, if not all of MLB.
I kept my hopes up for a comeback, even after the second loss. I looked forward to a game 5 on Oct. 7, my brothers birthday, and the infamous anniversary of game 5 from 1984 (the year he was born. Cursed day....) I kept faith especially high when we started to produce in the 7th and 8th. Men got on, and I could swear the miracle was going to happen. Momentum was shifting, and the dodgers would fall behind. Somehow, I think that if that Toe lickin' umpire at third had made the correct call in the first, LA would not have scored that inning. I think we would have won. But I am young and naive, and find enjoyment in blaming an entire game loss on one f***ed up moment.
Having a hatred of the announcers, and living in the Chicagoland area, I had all three games muted, and Ron Santo was my man on the radio. So I heard the end, before seeing it. I still watched, just in case it had somehow been horribly wrong. Sadly, it was horribly correct. I didn't cry. I called my boyfriend, and let him know it was all over; he quickly came over. I looked at him, and he was wearing his Boston Red Sox baseball cap. Memories of '04 flashed through my head, when our once co-loveable losers got their miracle. That also made me remember '03, and the pain of not getting what was ours. Then I recalled last year, losing three straight and deciding to support the red sox team. I rooted with my guy when Manny Ramirez would step up to the plate.
My hatred of Manny, miracles, and so many good, lost years finally drove me to the brink. I started to cry, and I didn't stop for a long time. My father wants the place just demolished, in hopes of ending this teams inability to succeed in post season. My grandfather, whom I found out today won't make it to christmas, will never experience a cubs win in his life time. And me?
I will be like my father. He has been a cubs fan through the worst losses, starting with '69. It has taken decades to break his spirit, which is currently shattered. But I am young, and though I do not have booze to help ease the pain, I have stupid, youthful hope. I can look at this team and think about how they are one good shrink away from being succesful in the post season. Pay Soriano a couple million less, and hire a good team of motivational speakers.
Meanwhile, I will mourn the loss of cubs fans who will pass this year, starting with one very close to my heart. And as for the ones we will lose, not to illness, but to a broken heart? They will be back. The cubs are a drug that we cannot do without. We all want to experience that ultimate high, somthing that no dealer can give for any price; we want to see the cubs win it all.
They will win it soon, because I am young and can believe that next year, every piece will fall into place. I will believe in next year until there is no next year. I still cry a little over last nights loss, and I know it will keep me a bit more weary of the play offs, like my father was all along. But what upsets me the most is the fact that I can't watch a cubs game until next April.
I'll be there, though. I will find my cubs hat in some messy corner of my room, and sit with my brotheren. After all, it had been 100 years since we won, but 99 years of losing. NEXT year will be 100. Because of this absurd, ridiculous, completely illogical reason, I believe that next year is the year. We will get over 100 wins, NL will win the all star game, and we will sweep the white sox in both series. I have to hope for these things, because this loss will drive me insane if I do not have something to look forward to, to desire, to feel excited about.
Who needs booze when you got senseless hope? I'm 19, I'm young, and I am still a cubs fan. In my life, the first two factors will change, but cubbie blue is stuck in my blood for ever.
Just shattered
I got home today around 7pm. I went and watched the game at Irish Oak with some friends. I was so angry and pretty much mourning the whole season after game 2. I was trying to prepare myself mentally. Stupid me, I got my hopes up sometime between Friday night and Saturday. I went into that bar determined to go down with the ship but positive we'd escape from the Titanic.
God, where the HELL was our offense? All I could do was just stare at the tv and go WHY? JUST WHY? I'm going to leave the analysis to other folks right now.
I'm just so sad and tired. About the only thing that made the whole situation bearable was being with my friends and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. We managed to stagger into my friend's downtown apartment and crash on the floor. Soon we wound up consoling ourselves with the good memories from the regular season. We just couldn't focus on what had just happened. There wasn't enough kleenex for that.
I need to get some distance from all this, and yet I can't stay away. I'm sick of reading so much rage. Mark DeRosa made a blog entry shortly after the game and there were two trolls who immediately started jumping in with completely uncalled for commentary. COMPLETELY. I won't even repeat what some of it was - it was just vile and disgusting. It's real damn easy to be an armchair-baseball player.
These guys didn't go out to break our hearts on purpose. Duh. They choked, yes, but I really highly doubt this is what any of them wanted. They can't tell us what went wrong; they're probablly still trying to figure it out themselves. This also wasn't one man's failure (I see a lot of people in various places picking on DeRosa for some reason), hell, the WHOLE TEAM had issues and plenty of them. Our so-called "Big Three" (Soriano, Aramis and Lee) were anemic like last year. And these are the guys we are told we are supposed to rely on. I, personally, have more issues with Soriano because he is getting paid ridiculous numbers, and that IMO, means you are getting paid to produce and produce big.
Get the entire team a shrink or WHATEVER. Practice some zen. Somehow, the players need to be able to block out so much of what we as fans unfairly burden them with: the Herculean task of making up for the failures of other Cubs teams which they had nothing to do with.
I just missed the players as they came back to Wrigley from the airport while I was taking the el/walking to get my car where I'd parked it near Wrigley. There were a few people waiting, wanting to get autographs (which was incredibly ill-timed IMO). If I were one of the players, the last thing I'd want to do is sign autographs after what just happened. I would want to be making love to a bottle of Jack and that's about it. I heard (from my friend's brother who did make it there in time) Harden was one of the few (or possibly the only one) to actually step out and talk to some of the fans and thank them. Pretty much everyone else just got in and out as fast as possible.
It looked so incredibly forlorn. It's like when the carnival or fair picks up and leaves. The party is done. Nothing is sadder to me, sportswise, than an empty ballpark in the fading October sunshine. The scoreboard still had information on it. Except for Cubs and LA it said "NO GAME". I could have wept right then and there. I really wish we all could have seen the ivy changing colors at Wrigley deep into October.
Alas, it was not meant to be.
NLDS Game Three Blogcast
12:11 A.M. - Good night.
12:09 A.M. - Fukudome grounds to short. Soriano is up.
12:07 A.M. - Theriot down on strikes. Fukudome up.
12:03 A.M. - Neil Cotts makes me look like a hater. Dodgers down in order, it's the top of the ninth now. Three outs til winter. Please, please, please let it be miracle time.
12:02 A.M. - According to Tony Gwynn, the Dodgers are "getting their hack on."
11:57 P.M. - Why is Neil Cotts pitching?
11:54 P.M. - DeRo strikes out. Middle of 8th, Cubs 1, Dodgers 3. Three outs remain in the imminent season.
11:52 P.M. - Apparently it is spelled Broxton. Anyhow, Ronny Cedeno runs for Ward and steals second.
11:49 P.M. - And we're on the board! Ward hits a shallow pop fly that falls in, Lee scores, DeRosa's coming to the plate, but Torre goes to the bullpen. Jonathan Brockston is the new pitcher for the Dodgers.
11:45 P.M. - Aramis strikes out, Geo pops out. It's up to Daryl Ward. He swings and misses (badly) at the first pitch.
11:41 P.M. - Derrek Lee doubles to lead off the 8th. Earlier, the commentators were talking about the defeated body language of the club. Most of the batters were sitting, dejected, on the bench. Lee was the only one standing at the railing watching the game.
11:37 P.M. - Manny Ramirez is retired for the first time today. Marmol is pitching well. It's the top of the eighth, the Cubs have six outs to score 3 runs or the season is caput. I'm not ready for that yet. Can it please be miracle time now?
11:34 P.M. - Furcal is retired for the first time today. Not for the first time, I wish the Cubs had been successful in signing him.
11:26 P.M. - Theriot and Fukudome reach against Kuroda, so Torre brings in Corey Wade. Soriano swings at the first pitch and flies harmlessly to left field. Somewhere Chuck discharges a weapon in a furious rage. Passed ball and Theriot moves to third. 2 outs in the seventh with two on for Mikey Fontenot. (I've pegged Mike as the Craig Counsell of the 2008 Cubs playoff run. It turns around here.) But it doesn't as Kemp catches the ball hit 390 feet to center. Damn! (In the backround, James Blunt keeps crooning about how hollow he is.)
11:18 P.M. - Lou double switched. Marmol is pitching, Fukudome replaces Edmonds in center. Marmol induces Casey Blake to ground out to short. DeWitt advances to third but is stranded there when Marmol K's Kuroda. Dodgers 3, Cubs 0. 3 innings remain. It's crunch time. I'm listening to James Blunt to help the tears start flowing.
11:09 P.M. - Blake DeWitt doubles off the right field wall. Mark DeRosa very nearly came too close to the wall, but made a nifty jumping barehanded grab of the ball off the wall to limit the damage to a double. Lou pulls Marshall for Marmol.
10:59 P.M. - Ron Darling says. "It seems like every pitch the Cubs hitters take is right down the middle and they're swinging at the ones off the plate." Tony Gwynn, Hall of fame hitter, concurs.
10:53 P.M. - Fangraphs has a Cubs loss as 90% probable. Link.
10:50 P.M. - Gawd! Furcal scores from first on a Russell Martin double. Theriot fumbles the cutoff so no play at the plate. Manny is intentionally passed again and Lou has gone to Marshall in the pen. Now, I'm just confused about Verducci's statement on Dempster. Dodgers 3, Cubs 0. Harden lasted 13 outs. Ouch.
10:47 P.M. - Verducci reports that Dempster is an option in the pen. This essentially confirms that Piniella is thinking about Z as the game 5 starter. I'm completely in favor of this development. Who would you rather have pitching today, Sean Marshall or Ryan Dempster?
10:43 P.M. - Soriano, Fontenot, and Lee down in order. Fontenot's flyout was well struck, otherwise, not much. My thoughts are that this game is playing out much the way I expect game two would have played out if the Cubs infield could have caught the ball.
10:38 P.M. - Tom Verducci reports that Mike Fontenot is not 100% and that Fukudome has been told to get ready in case he is needed.
10:32 P.M. - The Blogcast is now wearing a rally cap. Latest posts will be at the top. Well, my miracle didn't materialize as Rich Harden struck out, but he did come up with a 1, 2, 3 inning. He's thrown 70 pitches through 4 innings. At this point, I think we'll be fortunate to get six from Harden, and possibly fewer as I can't see Lou letting him bat in another important situation.
10:20 P.M. - Edmonds grounds out to the right side, advancing Geo to third with only one out... but DeRosa swings at the first pitch and grounds out to third, not scoring Geo. The Dodgers elect to walk Theriot and face Rich Harden instead. Come on... we need a miracle!
10:18 P.M. - Geo doubles, none out!
10:16 P.M. - Whew! First, Fontenot stays in the game. Second, Russell Martin pops up harmlessly to Geo. Then, Lou intentionally passes Manny like a Kidney stone. Andre Ethier scares the easily frightened portion of Cubdom with a warning track flyball that advances Furcal and Manny to Third and Second respectively. Then, after a brief discussion, Harden pitches to James Loney who also flies out and the third inning is in the books. Dodgers 2, Cubs 0. Harden at 54 pitches. We'll be lucky to get six out of him. Geo doubles, none out!
10:03 P.M. - This isn't looking so great. Ramirez bounced out to end the third, and Harden gave up a leadoff single to Rafael Furcal. After an attempted pickoff went wide, Furcal advanced to second and Mike Fontenot hurt himself. Six errors for the Cubs in three games, sayeth Dick Stockton.
9:53 P.M. - Harden grounds out, Soriano dribbles one to the mound as is easily retired... and Mike Fontenot takes a two strike sinker into center field for a single. Lee sees a few pitches and Derrek hits one through the left side hole. 2 men on, 2 out, Ramirez with a chance to change the momentum in this game.
9:46 P.M. - Dodgers go down 1, 2, 3 in the bottom of the second. Harden seems to have settled down and the hard contact went away this inning. Both pitchers are right below 30 pitches so far.
9:37 P.M. - Cubs go down 1, 2, 3 in the top of the second. 21 outs left in the season unless we turn it around.
9:27 P.M. - James Loney doubles, Russell Martin and Manny Ramirez scores. The Dodgers lead 2-0 and Rich Harden seems to be throwing BP.
9:21 P.M. - Suddenly I was watching Titanic, but I'm over on TBS now. Tom Verducci reports that Larry Rothschild extended Rich Harden a little longer in warm-ups so that he would start the game at max velocity. Not sure that it did any good as Russell Martin doubled and went to third on Manny's single. With the replay, I'm pretty sure the ump blew the call at third.
9:17 P.M. - After Aramis walks, Geo grounds out. No runs scored, but Kuroda threw 17 pitches to get through the 1st.
9:11 P.M. - Derrek Lee doubles, the bats will not be silenced tonight.
9:05 P.M. - Welcome, Colin. And for those previously watching Titanic on TNT, we now cut in with the Dodgers vs. Cubs game. Thanks Chilango for the tip.
9:03 P.M. - And of course the Brewers-Phillies game starts to get real interesting. How inconvenient. --CW
8:53 P.M. - 14 Minutes to go, and I finally googled that song on the Friday Night Lights commercial. Here's a YouTube of the song. It's called Devil Town.
8:29 P.M. - 38 Minutes to game time, but the Phils and Brewers are only in the 7th. It's touch and go whether TBS will cut away to LA for the first pitch.
Note: If you're looking for the new content. It's now at the top of the blog. Just a friendly note. - KJE
A look at what is to come tonight
It's been a strange trip since the regular season ended. We've seen the steadiest Cubs pitcher this season fall apart on the mound. Then, the next night, we saw a steady-but-not-fantastic Cubs defense fall apart on the infield. We've seen Kosuke Fukudome perform a wind dance - actually, repeated wind dances - and we watched Carlos Zambrano give his second-best performance in the past month, only for it to be a pummeling. What we haven't seen is a Cubs victory.
We've also seen Cub fans declare it a Dodger victory after that first game's defeat. The next night, we had people telling us that we'd have to be insane not to believe in the goat curse. We've read stories about people crying, we've felt waves of frustration coming out of the Shout Box, and we've seen me quit multiple readers from reading this blog on at least two occasions. What we haven't seen is the Cubs offense come alive.
I don't know what will happen tonight. If you were being impartial, you would realize that you don't know, either. At the most, maybe you have a really good idea about what is to come.
Here's what I do know. I'll share it with you now:
- The Dodgers are so ridiculously over-matched on the mound tonight that there has to be some degree of worry there.
- Torre has stupidly used his #4 pitcher in relief in this series, and at this point I don't think anybody knows who would start Game 4 for the Dodgers.
- The Cubs are a much better team than what they've shown us so far.
- Anybody who truly and completely gives up before it's actually decided gets put on my list. Trust me, it's not a pleasant place to be.
I know it's bleak. I know that this team just might be broken. What I don't know is how much pressure they have tonight. I mean, the expectations are gone, aren't they? Isn't this just a long 9th inning for them? Teams score garbage runs in that kind of scenario. The Cubs just might do that.
Anyway, I've decided that I won't be blogcasting tonight. It's too late, I get too tired, and if the Cubs start losing I'll feel too depressed. But I will be around, I will create an open thread, and I'm sure there will be plenty of action in the shoutbox. There may even be a few f-bombs lobbed about.
But before I go right now, I'm going to offer up a scenario to you. It's probably been on the back of a lot of peoples' minds, but maybe they've been afraid to say it. But - in case you haven't heard - I don't believe in jinxes.
The Cubs are going to win tonight. Here's what it's going to look like:
Rich Harden is going to pitch tonight, and he's going to throw well. He will go 6-7 innings, walking no more than 3, and he's going to strike out 10 Dodgers - including Manny twice.
The Cubs offense is going to start out sluggish, but they're going to tack on a run here and a run there until the middle innings, where something big will happen. They won't score 10 tonight, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if Kerry Wood was called on to record his first playoff save, but the Cubs are going to put up a comfortable number of runs before Torre turns to the Dodger pen.
After Harden leaves the game, there will be a few concerning moments. The Cubs pen will look a little shaky. Maybe Lou will turn to Bob Howry for some insane reason, I don't know. But the Dodgers will nibble at the edges a little bit, putting up a run - or 2 - in the 7th and 8th innings.
Kerry Wood will come to the mound in the 9th nursing the most fragile 2 or 3 run lead that we've ever encountered. He will either hit or walk the first batter he faces. And then, with the Cub Fan Nation collectively forming what can only be described as a massive stress turd, Wood will escape the inning and the Cubs will have notched their first playoff win since 2003.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, if/when that happens, Ted Lilly will own them in Game 4. Believe me, that dude is still pissed about what happened last October. He's itching for the chance. And as far as Game 5 goes ... well, Ryan Dempster is pretty hard to beat at Wrigley Field, even when there are faint indications that he's pitching with a dry mouth and urine trickling down his leg.
Will it happen that way? How the hell would I know? But can it happen that way?
You better believe it. Go Cubs.
Game 3 Pitching Matchup
Your pitching projections for the evening:
Rich Harden: 3.25 ERA, 6 IP
Hideki Kuroda: 4.25 ERA, 7 IP
We'll look at the revised lineup later tonight.
UPDATED: Cubs odds of winning tonight: .529. Pitching matchup really favors the Cubs for the first time, but the Dodgers have home field. Putting in Fontenot didn't really move the needle any; the difference between two individual hitters in just one game isn't all that great, unless you're talking about the difference between Tony Pena and Albert Pujols.
Where I am coming from...
I'm from Maine, Red Sox country. But, until I went to college, I only got to see the Cubs because they played day games (thank you WGN) and no one else in my family liked baseball. Therefore, I am the most hated type of fan -- the sports bigamist. I am a Cubs fan first and a Red Sox fan second.
Let's just say that in 2003, I was in a very uncomfortable position. I cannot begin to describe the pain I felt that year. To this day, if I ever see Alex Gonzalez I will kick him in the nuts. I don't even care if I get the right Alex Gonzalez, I just want to kick some nuts.
Currently, I live in DC where one Aaron Boone played this year. I boooood him incessantly whenever his name was called. Of course, I also boooood Christian Laetner when he played for the Wiz, but I digress....
This Cubs team needs to take on the attitude of the 2004 Red Sox, in that they approached the last four games of the ALCS as a series of one-game playoffs. They did not go into Game 4 thinking, "We need to win four games!!!" They went into that game thinking, "We need to win one game."
I think that this Cubs team, as well as last years', has been going into EVERY game of every postseason series thinking, "We need to win this series...NOW!!!" Obviously, that is not possible, and that vein of thinking will ultimately lead to failure.
Part of the reason this team was so successful during the regular season was due to their ability to put the previous day's game behind them. If they come out flat Saturday (defensively and/or offensively), then theirs is a problem with motivation and coaching. If they come out hot and still are unable to capitalize, then the fates are conspiring against them and there is nothing can be done.
This does NOT mean I believe in curses -- like I said before, I am also a Red Sox fan -- I know of which I speak. So can it. Shit happens.
Were the Cubs the better team in 84? Yes. In '89? Meh. In '98? No. In '03? Even. In '07? Statistically, yes -- by the math the D-bags should never have been that good. This year? Yes (hell, the Cardinals were better than the Dodgers). Will the Cubs buck up and show it? Remains to be seen.
Now, I'm not dumb enough to say, "The Cubs will win on Saturday!" But, I will say that, despite Kuroda's insane K/BB ratio (nearly 3:1) over 183.1 innings pitched, the Cubs actually have the advantage. They are the better team. They won 97 games in the toughest division in the NL.
Rich Harden was a combined 10-2, with 34 earned runs over 148 innings pitched, for an ERA of 2.07. In the NL, he went 5-1, with 14 earned runs over 71 innings pitched, for an ERA of 1.77. Obviously, this guy is our Ace and unquestionably the man we want in this position. Let's just hope that the defense can hold up behind him.
Science willing, the Cubs will get to game four. If so, Ted Lilly's record was 17-9, as well as 10-4 on the road, with an ERA of 4.09 (3.77 away from Wrigley). Not to mention his 2.875 strikeout to walk ratio, all gives me hope of returning the series to the Friendly Confines and Dempster showing why he won 14 games there.
Let me close with this: I know it sounds corny, and I know it sounds insanely stupid. But, if the Cubs (and the fans) would just address the series as a bunch of one-game series instead of trying to win it all on every swing, all will be OK. The pitchers are sound; overall, the defense is sound; the batting is usually sound. Just go out there and do what we all know you can do.


text:
Cameron Diaz leaving Los Angeles for New York
Submitted by Kiran Pahwa on Fri, 04/04/2008 - 09:38
Washington, Apr 4 : Los Angeles does not seem to please Cameron Diaz anymore, for the actress is now planning to shift base to New York.
The 35-year-old actress thinks that LA is full of fame-hungry wannabes flocking to the city of stars in the hope to become a part of showbiz.
The 'Charlie's Angels' star said that though she will be devastated by leaving her native California, shifting would be in her own interest.
She said that life as an A-List celebrity has become increasingly difficult in Hollywood and hopes the Big Apple would certainly provide her a happy private life.
"I'm going to get a place in New York. I feel I can have a life in New York, which is something that has become more of a task in Los Angeles," Contactmusic quoted her, as telling Britain's GQ magazine.
"You get treated the same as everyone else in New York. Here (in Los Angeles) people have come to either become rich and famous or be near someone who's rich and famous. It's really sad.
"I'd never thought I'd get to the point where I thought I was done with L. A. - I'm from here," she added. (ANI)
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text:
The dual nature of public goods and congestion: the role of fiscal policy revisited
AbstractThe role of fiscal policy is examined when public goods provide both productive and utility services. In the presence of congestion, the consumption tax is shown to be distortionary. Optimal fiscal policy involves using consumption-based instruments in conjunction with the income tax. An income tax-financed increase in government spending dominates both lump-sum and consumption tax-financing. Replacing the lump-sum tax with an income tax to finance a given level of spending dominates introducing an equivalent consumption tax. These results contrast sharply with the literature, where the consumption tax is generally viewed as the least distortionary source of public finance.
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Bibliographic InfoArticle provided by Canadian Economics Association in its journal Canadian Journal of Economics.
Volume (Year): 44 (2011)
Issue (Month): 4 (November)
Pages: 1471-1496
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Postal: Canadian Economics Association Prof. Steven Ambler, Secretary-Treasurer c/o Olivier Lebert, CEA/CJE/CPP Office C.P. 35006, 1221 Fleury Est Montréal, Québec, Canada H2C 3K4
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- E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
- E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy
- H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
- H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
- H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
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- Chatterjee, Santanu & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2012. "Infrastructure and inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1730-1745.
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