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Removing Dents By Shrinking, Not Filling - No Gypsy RoadWritten by on March 1, 2012
The term "gypsy dent puller" might not be something everyone's familiar with, but we've all seen the results of their traveling trade. Typically, the method used by these roving bodywork specialists involves four basic procedures: drilling numerous holes (in and all around a dent), slide-hammering the riddled metal out, plastering Bondo over it, and applying a thick undercoating-type spray paint (ultimately to aid in disguising their shoddy work lying beneath). All four of these steps are unnecessary to begin with. Dents can be pulled—either paintless or bare sheetmetal—without drilling a single hole or via applying anything more than a very thin skimcoat of filler in the end. It is really that simple.
While the paintless dent removal process is in a class all by itself, working raw metal back to shape is something we all can perform. First, you need to have a good understanding of the particular distortion of the metal. Knowing how metal moves, you can confidently move it back to where it used to be prior to the damage that caused the dent in the first place. (Obviously, there comes a point when metal is distorted beyond repair, and in those cases, replacement is in order.)
For every action there's a reaction—and that's the basic principle you're working with when repairing a dent. The first action is the actual causing of the dent itself—that action not only resulted with a visible recess in the surface, but most likely stretched the metal as well. Additionally, when the metal is pushed in, it could also cause the outer perimeter of the surface around the impact to push out. In essence, the reaction is that the composition of the metal's molecules has been disrupted; your job is to restore order in the piece and return the molecules to their original position. So, your first reaction is to pound that dent back out. Unfortunately, that's where many people stop, relying on body filler to handle the rest. That initial reaction may have brought the dent back up, but if the metal was stretched in the first place, the surface needs to be shrunk in order to achieve the same plane that existed before the dent occurred—and without the use of excess body filler.
The shrinking aspect of dent removal is probably the most important, but obviously, it's probably the least understood among non-professionals. Traditionally, heat from a torch, along with intermittent cooling from a wet rag and/or use of a hammer and dolly, was the common practice used for shrinking. Many metalworkers still prefer to use a torch, as they find that some of the new methods can remove metal in the process of shrinking. Another option is using a shrinking or friction disc—but just as with a torch, providing too much heat can create problems, so it's vital that the user be very familiar with how the disc works. Modern shrinking discs are effective, easy to use, and fairly economical.
But just as you would when using a torch, hammer and dolly work is still necessary to finitely finish the metal once it's been shrunk. For occasional use, the inexpensive sets you find at places like Harbor Freight are OK—but if you plan on doing more than just a couple jobs a year, invest in better quality tools, such as what you'd find available from Eastwood. While the cheap ones may appear to be the same as the more expensive ones, the difference is in the metal—softer metal will succumb to repeated use a lot quicker than harder metal. Additionally, consider outfitting your tool arsenal with a slap file (also known as a body file), pneumatic tools, sanding pads, and abrasive discs.
Learning how and why metal does what it does, you can control the outcome of what it ultimately does for you. Whether you're working with contoured, high-crown surfaces or flat panels, take the time to understand the metal before you start pounding on it! That knowledge is the best body-working tool you could ever obtain.
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
On the left is a typical 9-inch smooth-surface shrinking disc (with a rounded safety edge). On the right is a homemade 5-inch disc that was made by professional metalworker, but is also readily available wherever larger ones are sold. Unlike the Sunchaser discs, these feature smooth faces rather than ridged ones.Another must-have grinder (or pneumatic sander) item you'll need is a good flexible sanding pad, which is used to prevent overworking an area when using an abrasive.To help explain the process, we had Salinas boy Cole Foster demonstrate the techniques he uses when straightening metal. As illustrated with a Sharpie and a few passes with 36-grit, you can see how the action (the dent) caused a reaction (rippling around the outer perimeter) in this '36 Ford coupe door we're using for the exercise.It is mandatory to remove all paint, filler, etc., from the surface prior to performing any metalwork. That goes for the backside of the dent, as well. And speaking of that, it's important that you have ample access to both sides of the surface, so whether that means removing a door panel or removing an entire fender, give yourself plenty of room.After preparing the surfaces, we need to push the dent back out. For the door, Foster uses a heel dolly, which has a face shape that best matches the contour of the doorskin.Here's why having access to both sides at the same time is so important—as Foster hits the metal from the inside with the dolly, he uses his other hand on the outside to gauge the progress and avoid going too far.While the dent appears to be fixed, it's not … yet. The stretching that occurred initially is still affecting the surface and needs to be fixed.
A backlit straight-edge also reveals the inconsistencies in the surface. Here's where the shrinking begins.Essentially, the shrinking disc causes heat from the friction; when the heated area is cooled (with water or air), it will shrink back closer to its original shape. It might take some getting used to at first, but once you get the feel of it, the shrinking disc can be your best friend—and Bondo's biggest foe!After just a few passes and subsequent cooling, the high spots virtually disappear. However, there are still some lows that need to be repaired.Using the same dolly used to push the dent out originally, Foster works the low spots back up with a slap file. This process can also be done using a hammer and dolly.The file (or hammer) and dolly should be sufficient to complete the final shrinking of the damaged area. Use your hand to gauge progress by constantly running it back and forth over the surface.With proper shrinking, the once-dented doorskin now shows no signs of ever being damaged, thus minimal—if any—body filler will be required in the future.On top of the dent being completely repaired, the exact contour of the outer door is precisely what it should be (hence Foster's curved staight-edge). You can achieve the same results—all it takes is confidence and practice, the proper tools, and most importantly, understanding the metal to begin with.


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pSegment {ADaCGH}
These functions parallelize several segmentation algorithms or (for HaarSeg) make their calling use the same conventions as for other methods.
pSegmentDNAcopy(x, chrom.numeric, parall = "arr", ...) pSegmentACE(x, chrom.numeric, parall = "auto", ...) pSegmentHMM(x, chrom.numeric, parall = "auto",...) pSegmentGLAD(x, chrom.numeric, ...) pSegmentBioHMM(x, chrom.numeric, Pos, parall = "auto", ...) pSegmentCGHseg(x, chrom.numeric, CGHseg.thres = -0.05, ...) pSegmentPSW(x, chrom.numeric, common.data, sign = -1, nIter = 1000, prec = 100, p.crit = 0.10, name = NULL, ...) pSegmentWavelets(x, chrom.numeric, mergeSegs = TRUE, minDiff = 0.25, minMergeDiff = 0.05, thrLvl = 3, initClusterLevels = 10, ...) pSegmentHaarSeg(x, chrom.numeric, HaarSeg.m = 3, W = vector(), rawI = vector(), breaksFdrQ = 0.001, haarStartLevel = 1, haarEndLevel = 5, ...)
- x
- The aCGH data; genes in rows, subjects or arrays in columns. Data should be ordered by chromosome and position within chromosome.
- chrom.numeric
- The (numeric) vector with the chromosome indicator
- Pos
- The location (e.g., position in kbases) of each probe in the chromosome. A vector of the same length as the number of rows in
- parall
- Where available whether to parallelize over arrays (all except ACE) or chromosomes (ACE) or array by chromosome (ACE, DNAcopy, HMM, BioHMM.
- CGHseg.thres
- The threshold for the adaptive penalization in Picard et al.'s CGHseg. See p. 13 of the original paper. Must be a negative number. The default value used in the original reference is -0.5. However, our experience with the simulated data in Willenbrock and Fridlyand (2005) indicates that for those data values around -0.005 are more appropriate. We use here -0.05 as default.
- mergeSegs
- Merge (genome-wide) the resulting segments using
mergeLevels?. See details.
- common.data
- A data frame with columns that contain the common information about the clones/genes. For now, this is limited to five columns of data. We do nothing with this, except it is part of the output. It is common practice that this data frame contains columns ID, Chrosome (need not be numeric, can be a factor), Start (the initial position of a clone or gene), End (the final position of a clone or gene) and MidPoint (often, the mid point or whatever you regard as appropriate representative of the "center" of the clone). But you can use something else.
- sign
- See
- nIter
- See
- prec
- See
- p.crit
- The largest p-value for which we want a region to be shown, in red, in the plot.
- name
- Sample name or ID
- minDiff
- Minimum (absolute) difference between the medians of two adjacent clusters for them to be considered truly different. Clusters "closer" together than this are collapsed together to form a single cluster.
- minMergeDiff
- Used only when doing merging in the wavelet method. The finall call as to which segments go together is done by a
mergeLevelsapproach, but an initial collapsing of very close values is performed (otherwise, we could end up passing to mergeLevels as many initial levels as there are points).
- thrLvl
- The level used for the wavelet thresholding in Hsu et al.
- initClusterLevels
- The initial number of clusters to form.
- HaarSeg.m
- For HaarSeg the value such that all segments where abs(smoothed value) > m*MAD will be declared aberrant ---see p. i141 of Ben-Yaacov and Eldar
- For HaarSeg: Weight matrix, corresponding to quality of measurment. Insert 1/(sigma**2) as weights if your platform output sigma as the quality of measurment. W must have the same size as I.
- rawI
- For HaarSeg. Mininum of the raw red and raw green measurment, before the log. rawI is used for the non-stationary variance compensation. rawI must have the same size as I.
- breaksFdrQ
- For HaarSeg. The FDR q parameter. Common used values are 0.05, 0.01, 0.001. Default value is 0.001.
- haarStartLevel
- For HaarSeg. The detail subband from which we start to detect peaks. The higher this value is, the less sensitive we are to short segments. The default is value is 1, corresponding to segments of 2 probes.
- haarEndLevel
- For HaarSeg. The detail subband until which we use to detect peaks. The higher this value is, the more sensitive we re to large trends in the data. This value DOES NOT indicate the largest possible segment that can be detected. The default is value is 5, corresponding to step of 32 probes in each direction.
- ...
- Additional arguments; not used.
In most cases, these are wrappers to the original code, with modifications for parallelization. For CGHseg, BioHMM and HMM the results are merged, by the mergeLevels algorithm, as recommended in Willenbrock and Fridlyand, 2005. Merging is also done in GLAD (with GLAD's own merging algorithm). Merging is the default for DNAcopy (but this can be set by the user). Merging can also be used with the wavelet-based method of Hsu et al.; please note that the later is an experimental feature implemented by us, and there is no evidence of its performance.
Using the output of mergeLevels, we then map the results to states of "Alteration", so that we categorize each probe as taking one, and only one, of three possible values, -1 (loss of genomic DNA), 0 (no change in DNA content), +1 (gain of genomic DNA). We have made the assumption, in this mapping, that the "no change" class is the one that has the absolute value closest to zero, and any other classes are either gains or losses. When the data are normalized, the "no change" class should be the most common one. For HaarSeg, we use the approach in page i141 of Ben-Yaacov and Eldar, section 2.3, "Determining aberrant intervals": a MAD (per their definition) is computed and any segment with absolute value larger than m * MAD is considered aberrant.
For PSW, the method implemented here is a small departure from the one described originally in Price et al.: here we use all the data for a subject/array for the thresholding, but subsequent analyses (finding islands and robustness analysis and permutation tests) are carried out chromosome by chromosome. This should allow to detect cases where a complete chromosome is gained or lost, as well as cases where smaller regions are gained or lost. Note that this approach is probably not advisable for the X chromosome, at least for males. You probably want to analyze the X separately, since you only expect one copy of the genomic DNA in males. Finally, the function for calculating the threshold (the default used by T. Price originally, which we also use ---median + 0.2 * MAD---) was validated by Price and collaborators on a 75-probe dataset that spanned the telomeric 2MB of chromosome 16p, using subjects with well-characterized deletions in the region and healthy controls. But it has not been validated with whole-genome chips or other DNA sources. (If you want to play around with the code, the sources are available from http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/~tprice/cgh/ and as the R package
cgh). (I thank Tom Price for his discussion on these issues; some sentences here are copied almost verbatim from his emails.)
Beware that, with DNAcopy, parallelization over arrays by chromosome can lead to slightly different results than parallelization over arrays (and, thus, to the original function). This is because of the way the smoothing is carried out, which affects the timmed.SD used.
All the functions return an object of class "adacgh.generic.out". In addition, depending on the function, the returned object can also be of class "CGH.wave.merged","CGH.wave", "mergedHMM", "adacghGLAD", "mergedBioHMM", "CGHseg", "CGH.PSW".
For methods DNAcopy, HMM, BioHMM, GLAD, CGHseg, and wavelet smoothing the output object is a list with two components:
segm component is a list, with as many components as subjects or arrays. Each of these lists is a matrix with three columns. The first are the observed data, the second the predicted/smoothed/merged data, and the third the state/alteration. When the method performs a merging step, we call the third column "Alteration", and it can only take three values, -1 (loss of genomic DNA), 0, +1 (gain of genomic DNA).
Method PSW's output contains two components. The second,
plotData with data that is used for plotting (and the details are not docummented, since you are not supposed to use them, as this is subject to change). The first component,
Data, is a list with as many components as arrays or subjects. Each of this is an array with columns with original data, the sign, the value from the robustness test, and the p-value from the permutation test. See details in
Method ACE's output is a list. None of the elements of this list are to be used directly by a user, and are later used by the function
- segm
- The output from the segmentation
- chrom.numeric
- The same value as chrom.numeric in the function call.
Fridlyand, Jane and Snijders, Antoine M. and Pinkel, Dan and Albertson, Donna G. (2004). Hidden Markov models approach to the analysis of array CGH data. Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 90: 132--153. Hsu L, Self SG, Grove D, Randolph T, Wang K, Delrow JJ, Loo L, Porter P. (2005) Denoising array-based comparative genomic hybridization data using wavelets. Biostatistics, 6:211-26.
Hupe, P. and Stransky, N. and Thiery, J. P. and Radvanyi, F. and Barillot, E. (2004). Analysis of array CGH data: from signal ratio to gain and loss of DNA regions. Bioinformatics, 20: 3413--3422.
Lingjaerde OC, Baumbusch LO, Liestol K, Glad I, Borresen-Dale AL. (2005). CGH-Explorer: a program for analysis of CGH-data. Bioinformatics, 21: 821--822.
Marioni, J. C. and Thorne, N. P. and Tavare, S. (2006). BioHMM: a heterogeneous hidden Markov model for segmenting array CGH data. Bioinformatics, 22: 1144--1146.
Olshen, A. B. and Venkatraman, E. S. and Lucito, R. and Wigler, M. (2004) Circular binary segmentation for the analysis of array-based DNA copy number data. Biostatistics, 4, 557--572. http://www.mskcc.org/biostat/~olshena/research.
Picard, F. and Robin, S. and Lavielle, M. and Vaisse, C. and Daudin, J. J. (2005). A statistical approach for array CGH data analysis. BMC Bioinformatics, 6, 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-6-27.
Price TS, Regan R, Mott R, Hedman A, Honey B, Daniels RJ, Smith L, Greenfield A, Tiganescu A, Buckle V, Ventress N, Ayyub H, Salhan A, Pedraza-Diaz S, Broxholme J, Ragoussis J, Higgs DR, Flint J, Knight SJ. (2005) SW-ARRAY: a dynamic programming solution for the identification of copy-number changes in genomic DNA using array comparative genome hybridization data. Nucleic Acids Res., 33:3455-64.
Willenbrock, H. and Fridlyand, J. (2005). A comparison study: applying segmentation to array CGH data for downstream analyses. Bioinformatics, 21, 4084--4091.
Diaz-Uriarte, R. and Rueda, O.M. (2006). ADaCGH: an R package and web-based application for the analysis of aCGH data. Tech. report. http://www.ligarto.org/rdiaz/Papers/adacgh.pdf, http://adacgh.bioinfo.cnio.es.
Ben-Yaacov, E. and Eldar, Y.C. (2008). A Fast and Flexible Method for the Segmentation of aCGH Data, Bioinformatics, 24: i139-i145.
See Also
## Not run: ## all slaves need a common dir to read and write. dir.to.create <- tempdir2() setwd(dir.to.create) dir.to.create mpiInit() ## this is used in SegmentPlotWrite, which is run first. ## End(Not run) ## library(Rmpi) ## try(mpi.spawn.Rslaves(nslaves = 1), silent = TRUE) data(cghE1) tmpchr <- sub("chr", "", cghE1$Chromosome) chrom.numeric <- as.numeric(as.character(tmpchr)) chrom.numeric[tmpchr == "X"] <- 23 chrom.numeric[tmpchr == "Y"] <- 24 rm(tmpchr) ### we need the data ordered reorder <- order(chrom.numeric, cghE1$UG.Start, cghE1$UG.End, cghE1$Name) cghE1 <- cghE1[reorder, ] chrom.numeric <- chrom.numeric[reorder] ## run all methods cbs.out <- pSegmentDNAcopy(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric) cbs.ns.out <- pSegmentDNAcopy(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric, smooth = FALSE) glad.out <- pSegmentGLAD(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric) cghseg.out <- pSegmentCGHseg(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric, CGHseg.thres = -0.05) ace.out <- pSegmentACE(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric) hmm.out <- pSegmentHMM(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric) wave.out <- pSegmentWavelets(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric) wave.nm.out <- pSegmentWavelets(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric, mergeSegs = FALSE) haar.out <- pSegmentHaarSeg(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric) ## Next onew we try, as it could fail when it should not. try(psw.pos.out <- pSegmentPSW(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric, sign = 1)) try(psw.neg.out <- pSegmentPSW(cghE1[, 5:7], chrom.numeric, sign = -1)) ## BioHMM is the only one that uses distances ## it is the slowest, so do only two ## We use try, as snapCGH sometimes fails and does not load its compiled C code try(biohmm.out <- pSegmentBioHMM(cghE1[, 5:6], chrom.numeric, cghE1$UG.Start)) ## With ACE we need to choose fdr ace.out.sum <- summary(ace.out) #### Writing common <- cghE1[, 1:4] writeResults(hmm.out, cghE1[, 5:7], common) writeResults(glad.out, cghE1[, 5:7], common) writeResults(cghseg.out, cghE1[, 5:7], common) writeResults(ace.out.sum, cghE1[, 5:7], common) writeResults(wave.out, cghE1[, 5:7], common) writeResults(wave.nm.out, cghE1[, 5:7], common) writeResults(cbs.out, cghE1[, 5:7], common) writeResults(haar.out, cghE1[, 5:7], common) try(writeResults(psw.pos.out, common)) try(writeResults(psw.neg.out, common)) try(writeResults(biohmm.out, cghE1[, 5:6], common)) ### plot all ## Not run: ## This will not work unless you have a working Python installation yminmax <- c(min(as.matrix(cghE1[, 5:7])), max(as.matrix(cghE1[, 5:7]))) segmentPlot(hmm.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs") segmentPlot(glad.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs") segmentPlot(cghseg.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs") segmentPlot(wave.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs") segmentPlot(wave.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs") segmentPlot(haar.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs") segmentPlot(cbs.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs") try(segmentPlot(psw.pos.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs")) try(segmentPlot(psw.neg.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs")) try(segmentPlot(biohmm.out, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs")) segmentPlot(ace.out.sum, geneNames = cghE1[, 1], yminmax = yminmax, idtype = "ug", organism = "Hs") ## End(Not run) ## To verify we are doing the right thing with Picard et al.'s method, ## compare with their figure 1. Need to get the txt files with the ## original data. ## We got the data from the GLAD BioC package, and then exported the txt. ## For convenience, it is in the "/inst/txt-data" directory of our package. ## This verifies the output (look at ADaCGH.R for further details and other ## comparisons): ## coriel.data <- read.table("gm03563.txt", header = TRUE) ## cd3 <- coriel.data[coriel.data$Chromosome == 3, 3] ## out.our <- CGHsegWrapper(cd3, rep(1, length(cd3)), s = -0.5) ## k = 2 ## out.our ## so our implementation seems correct. Look at where the ## breakpoint is located, etc, and it is like figure 1 of ## Picard's paper.
Documentation reproduced from package ADaCGH, version 1.5-3. License: GPL (>= 3)

subset: commoncrawl


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Chiefs' Burke hits 1,000-point mark
Katie Burke scored 25 points, including the 1,000th of her career on a free throw in the fourth quarter. as Nonnewaug rolled over Terryville, 63-34, on Tuesday in BL play in Woodbury.
Burke will enter next game with 1,002 career points.
Jess Fengler added 12 points and Ally Rescsanski and Courtney Carlson both had nine for Nonnewaug (12-2).
Julia Pilarski had 10 points and Bailey Doran nine points for Terryville (7-8).
Watertown 54, Sacred Heart 17: Becca Brieve scored 14 points and Abby Collier added 10 for the visiting Indians in NVL action.
Danielle Lutkus chipped in six points and Sara Selimovski five for Watertown (13-1).
Elena Colaci, Mahnue Sahn and Nicole Glaude scored four points each for the Hearts (6-8).
Thomaston 59, Gilbert 23: Maggie Eberhardt scored 16 points and Abby Hurlbert added nine for the visiting Bears in BL play.
Brytnnie Thomas chipped in eight points and Sydney Keith seven for Thomaston (12-1).
Shelly DeLa Paz led the Yellowjackets (0-13) with 15 points.
Pomperaug 68, Newtown 41: Gabbie Holness had 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists to lead Pomperaug to the SWC Colonial Division victory in Newtown.
Sarah Therault added 14 points, 17 rebounds and six steals for the unbeaten Panthers (14-0) while Katelyn Perrotti had 12 points and Morgan Metcalf 11.
Cassie Ekstrom led the Nighthawks (7-7) with 17 points.
Kaynor Tech 59, Wolcott Tech 46: Sydney Craig scored 15 point and had eight rebounds and five assists for the Panthers in Torrington.
Cinthia Vega added 14 points with five assists, five steals and seven rebounds for Kaynor Tech (5-8).
Daleyn Kale chipped in with 13 point and eight rebounds while Audra Spellman had nine points and 11 rebounds.
Jen Hislop had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Wildcats (4-10).
Northwestern 56, Shepaug 27: Rasa Hamel had 14 points, four rebounds and four steals for the Highlanders in Winsted.
Kathleen Wysocki added 10 points and seven rebounds, and Emily Atwood finished with eight points for Northwestern (9-5).
Kate DeWitte scored 10 points and Carolina Kelly eight for Shepaug (2-11).
Cheshire 51, Lyman Hall 42: Molly Jalbert recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds for the host Rams in SCC action.
Missy Bailey added nine points and eight assists while Jill Howard chipped in eight points for Cheshire (7-7).
Masuk 51, Oxford 31: Jamie Madden scored 18 points to lead host Masuk in SWC action.
Taylor Drayton had 17 points and Sam Orner five for Oxford (3-10).
Bristol Eastern 36, Tolland 24: Karissa Smith scored 13 points for the visiting Lancers. Ashley Clawson and Sammy Downham each had nine for the Eastern (9-5).
Reader Comments
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wondering wrote on Jan 24, 2013 2:27 PM:
" Chief's Burke scores her 1,000 point and the picture with the article not only isn't of her, but not even her game. Come on! "
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text:
Another microbenchmark: Why is this "loop" (compiled with
ghc -O2 -fllvm, 7.4.1, Linux 64bit 3.2 kernel, redirected to
mapM_ print [1..100000000]
about 5x slower than a simple for-cycle in plain
C with
write(2) non-buffered syscall? I am trying to gather Haskell gotchas.
Even this slow C solution is much faster than Haskell
int i;
char buf[16];
for (i=0; i<=100000000; i++) {
sprintf(buf, "%d\n", i);
write(1, buf, strlen(buf));


text:
I STOPPED BY THE World Golf Hall of Fame today. Not in St. Augustine, Florida, but at the website. I was looking up something and stumbled onto the page of Hall of Famer Cary Middlecoff. I know a fair amount about Middlecoff, nicknamed "Doc" because he was an actual dentist who ventured out on the PGA Tour. Fred Hawkins has told me stories about Middlecoff; they were pals on tour and socialized off the golf course.
Today I ran across a couple of stories I hadn't heard or simply forgotten. I'll get to them momentarily, but let me start with a bit of background. The first thing you need to know about Cary Middlecoff is that he was a great player. He never took a lesson and had a swing that made Bobby Jones swoon. "I'd give the world to have a swing like that," Jones once said. Middlecoff won 36 tournaments on the PGA Tour, plus three majors (two U.S. Opens and a Masters). Those are Phil Mickelson numbers. Doc had six-win seasons in 1949, 1951 and 1955.
The second thing you need to know about Middlecoff is that he was a slow player. How slow? "Glacial" is the adjective the World Golf Hall of Fame uses. It fits.
When Doug Ford played Middlecoff in the 36-hole final of the 1955 PGA Championship, Doc lit a cigarette when he got to the green and didn't putt until the entire cigarette was gone. "The gallery really got on him," Ford said, "but you couldn't rush Doc. I didn't care." The reason Ford didn't care was because he sat in a chair while he waited. His son brought it along for the final against Middlecoff. Ford won.
At the 1957 U.S. Open, defending champion Middlecoff closed with a pair of 68s at Inverness to make up eight shots on Dick Mayer and force an 18-hole playoff. Guess what Mayer did. He brought a camping stool to the playoff. Maybe it didn't bother Doc, but something did. He shot 79 to Mayer's 72 and missed his opportunity to be one of only a handful of players to win back-to-back U.S. Opens.
Golf writer Dan Jenkins once joked that Doc had to quit the dentistry because no one could hold his mouth open that long. Middlecoff was even known to stop at the top of his backswing.
So I'm tagging Cary Middlecoff as golf's greatest slow player. I know there have been other slow pokes. Jack Nicklaus could be a tortoise. But I feel comfortable with Middlecoff as my pick. In fact, Doc is probably holding up play in the afterlife as I write this.
−The Armchair Golfer
Thursday, September 16
Cary Middlecoff, Golf's Greatest Slow Player
Labels: Bobby Jones , Cary Middlecoff , Dick Mayer , Doug Ford , Jack Nicklaus , PGA Championship , PGA Tour , Phil Mickelson , U.S. Open
3 comments :
Thanks. A nice story about an interesting man and time period of golf.
- Mick from How to Golf Better said...
Thanks for that story - Although I'm a golfer and a golf fan, I hadn't previously heard of Cary Middlecoff. I mean, from his era there were household name like Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, and Byron Nelson. Strange that I haven't heard of him considering his 3 Majors and 40 PGA Tour wins.
- Cary maids said...
Great assessment on Middlecoff. Everyone has a style in everything one does. May be that's Middlecoff's style in playing golf ... to take his time and let everybody wait, may be not intentionally on the letting everybody wait part. May be that's his style which made him a great golf player.
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I want to fix these problems(according to my own opinion) which are having narrow/very slim arms and soft hips and thighs. I do different sports and think these problems are limiting me in some of them that I need stronger arms and surely having firmer hips and thighs can make me more beautiful and gives a better shape to my body. Which exercises do you suggest me for this reason? Please consider that I do not want to lose weight!
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The number one workout you should absolutely be doing is the squat. It is bar-none the best functional exercise you can do, and it will work out your entire leg. A second workout to consider is the deadlift which is a good supplementary exercise alongside the squat.
As for arms, you're really going to want to target the triceps, shoulder, upper back, and chest to get a well-rounded and functional strength to apply in your sports. The bench press, the overhead press, and the bentover row will all build larger arms while also building necessary strength in the chest, shoulder, and back. Push ups, chin ups, pull ups, and handstands are all good body weight exercises that target these areas if you don't wish to involve barbells.
As for not losing weight, that is up to your diet. At its simplest, it comes down to calories in (consumed) versus calories out (burned). Figure out what your daily caloric intake needs to be to maintain your weight, factor in the calories burned from your sports and weightlifting, and you have your number of calories required to maintain your weight. However, I recommend eating 200-400 calories over maintenance to fuel muscle growth.


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GOP doesn't care about the people
January 6, 2013
To the editor: The efforts to avoid the fall of the fiscal cliff have turned into a circus, with the same clowns leading the parade into the big top....
@MrCore before there can be a consensus on who is failed to compromise we have to come up with where is the center. While I can see your view at the moment, both sides are guilty of the pandering
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As far as the statement about "Obamacare" the invection was my own. Yes I agree the healthcare covers more then the new healthcare bill. One of my sources was usgovernmentspending****/piechart_2013_US_fed
It IS not an org, it IS a com, yet seems that the information is at least mostly accurate by citations at the bottom of the page.
We can go back and forth on this issue all we want, but the theory still stands that it is NOT just a GOP thing. Both sides are guilty of heeling to party lines instead of working toward a united government that can return back to governing and not acting like a pack of 10 year olds fighting over a tonka truck.
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Mr. Core, do understand that we are in a 10 yr.+ war because Bill Clinton failed to drop the hammer on bin dirtball years before the current war began? We are in financial trouble because of SPENDING, mostly on bad programs like welfare, and studying shrimp on treadmills, and paying farmers to not grow crops. You think the GOP don't care about people, neither do the dems. Obama has about as much in common with you as a monkey has in common with an eel. The government is taking more of my money this year. So, I'll buy less unnecessary stuff. Lower my burden and I buy more. You've got to stop thinking it works in reverse.
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transportation 3%, general govt spending,1%, other spending (how is this explained?), 3% and Interest 7%. This is for 2013. Government pay raises and pensions are breaking our back. Government healthcare is not helping it heal. Military spending is high but I can understand the arguments for it when looking at the chaos across the globe. This is NOT a republican problem, this is NOT a democratic problem, this is an AMERICAN problem that needs repaired before we end up suckin hind teet in credit worthiness and end up in deep depression.
IF WE dont have it---- we shouldnt spend it-----pare it down, clean out the trash, and get on with governing. Stop the dang infighting and get to something worthy of news.
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I agree with the statement about military spending. Not so much on having a spending issue. There s an argument regarding taxes that I kinda agree with. Raising personal taxes is fine to a point, closing loopholes is a MUST, that should have been done 50 years ago. Raising capital gains taxes would help, BUT, there is spending problem. I will get to that in a second. There should have never been a cap on taxable incomes for social security. There also should not have been the ability to raid the SS funds with the I.O.U. slip put in with no intent of repaying it. (both sides guilty)
As for a spending problem, it is ALWAYS a problem when we do not "spend within our means". This would include pay "raises" for govt workers across the board signed by EXECUTIVE order 13635 effective march 27 2013. This is just one tidbit of it. govt spending is as follows, Defense, 24%, Healthcare(obamacare) 24%, Pensions for govt workers, 23%, welfare 11%, edumication 4%, protection 2
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In March, the Congressional Budget Office projected that under the president's proposed budget for 2013, spending would equal 23.4 percent of GDP while revenues would be 17.2 percent. The deficit, CBO said, would equal 6.1 percent of the economy that year and average 3.2 percent over the 10-year period ending in 2022
This was not detailing republican statements. This is from a dem heavy CBO. Spending outstriping revenues. This tells me NO politician cares enough about the "people" to do what is right morally or with any true "care" about America. If we as individuals budgeted as our govt does, it would be called "Irresponsibility" DEM or REP doesn't matter no one truly cares for the peoples plight in USA.
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To keep this clear, The statement GOP doesn't care is misleading, and the blogger that posted that first blog or letter to the editor was/is biased. People are going to believe what they have been taught to believe. Neither political party has "good for the people" stamped in their name. One side is for smaller govt, the other is for "govt take care of me". Someone said govt only 20% of Unemployment. yeah? and? If you add 40% of jobs in govt, and then reduce by 20% is that still not MORE then at the start? Anyone that says the Govt does not need slimmed is either uninformed or listening to political pander on BOTH sides. This article should not have read, GOP doesn't care, it should have read, POLITICIANS don't care about the people.
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Obama is a disgrace and honestly I'm not happy with either Republicans or Democrats. What happened to doing the right thing for the country because it's the right thing to do. What is the difference between the way the bloods and crips operate versus the way Republicans and Democrats operate? They're both illogical groups of people holding onto nonsensical notions. ReBLOODlicans and DemoCRIPS is a great book by Jesse Ventura I suggest all of you read. It shouldn't matter to which party you belong to, what is best for this country is what should ALWAYS be done. When our lawmakers pledge allegiance to a political party before America we're the ones that are in trouble. During the last election I voted for Mitt Romney but in reality the only candidate that was really worthy of taking office was Gary Johnson. I didn't vote for him because I knew he wasn't going to win and any vote for him would essentially put Obama one more vote above Mitt Romney.
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I make you an offer, get your state and senate and congressional and the president ... ger their wages back to what is comparable to a monkey with a calculator .Stop all the 15 secretaries in eaIf the govt. cannot come to terms on important legislation.... vacations are illegal , office that sit around texting each other instead of working, Until the govt. can tackle the bills as they need to be then NO VACATIONS until completed. NO GOLF TRIPS....nothing except get they job done. We don't have a tax problem, we have a spending problem. And honestly a man in office that doesnt seem to care about much but his legacy...
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Ok I will put this in teenspeak. cutting the tax breaks WIll add a stream into the coffers. A small stream. Reducing the spending and a larger river mysteriously arises.
Obama talks about tax cuts and rises in the same sentence. worlds are cheep, actions speak louder then words. Obama has done nothing to try to curb his spending, in fact his "new" offices and TSAR watchmen overseeing every aspect oh cash flow. YET we continue to raise the debt ceiling KNOWING we dont have the money to pay for those lans.
Is this a lll Obama's fault,? NO Bush had a reason though, Obama cleamed Gitmo dismantled, all troops out of afganistan and Iraq, a workforce UNDER 8% and he said he preferred 5%. ... whie our gdp went from 15% to 24% held by gov t.
But I understans. Our*****dont stink, so if we smell something it must be the neighbor. Blame repubs all you want.. your demigods are so but backwards that you believe social distribution to those less financially secured...
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Mrcore,i agree that the ongoing wars are a major factor in the deficit problem.
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Why doesn't anyone address the real issue which is our spending problem. Obama flat out lied when he said that he would not raise taxes on the middle class. My paycheck and others as well tell a different story. It is the divisive nature of articles such as this that make me wonder what has our country become. We cannot have open and honest debates without there being attacks on ones character, class, economic status, etc. What was once called the United States is now the Divided States.
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Next comment: 1.17 trillion dollars. That is the total amount of US Cash dollars in circulation as of Dec. 2012. So, the government could collect ever scrap of cash, and barely pay one months interest on the outstanding debt. So there certainly is a problem and it didn't start with Bush or Clinton or Obama or Reagen. It started when Americans started trusting government to do the right thing and "We the People" took our eyes off the ball. It is our responsibility come together to pressure the clowns into getting this stuff fixed. It is their job to keep us divided and weak and fool us into believing that kicking the can down road is acceptable.
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This blaming Bush for everything routine is getting old. Tell me friend, after 9/11, what would Americans have said if Bush stood up and said, Americans, al quaida killed three thousand of us but we are not going to go after them because we are worried about spending too much money. What would Americans have thought about that? All of the spending for those wars was approved by Dems and Repubs and it was money well spent! So get over that stupid argument, please!
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Coincidentally, the $450,000 number the president decided to "concede to" is telling when President's Salary Effective January 1, 2001, the annual salary of the President of the United States was increased to $400,000 per year, including a $50,000 expense allowance.
Soo, raise the taxes on those that make more then me but,...NOT ME.. yeah lets discuss that magical number deeper
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it is interesting you blame all of the spending on bush wars...Each of Mr. Obama's annual deficits has been larger than any since the 1940s. Deficits aggregate into debt, and as I have previously written it is reasonable to think of President Obama and George W. Bush as each being responsible for roughly one-third of the debt — with all presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton responsible for the remaining third. (In the absence of George W. Bush, it would of course be much harder, perhaps impossible, to argue that President Obama has not been a radical departure from previous presidents on debt.) ((from a forbes.c0m article)).. this country HAS to stop this me against you theory in govt. Either that or fail utterly. As with private debt.. someone will come to collect what is owed somewhere down the line, I dont care if you tax everyone at 30% including lower class, that is still just a smidge in the bucket of our debt. stop the erratic spending, BOTH SIDES
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Dangit! Still itchin to say this so I guess I will and get it off my chest. How is is that when...... We have a Rep President, Rep controlled Congress, and a Rep controlled House, we blame the Republicans, YET...... When we have a Dem President, a Dem controlled Congress, and a Rep heavy House, YOU DEMS STILL blame the Repubs. What is it that you need before you start looking in YOUR OWN backyard instead of blaming the neighbors for your sewer smell? 2008-2010 You Dems had all three... and STILL blamed the repubs. check your stink before blaming others for BS. I believe reckless spending on account of YOUR demigod Obama has alot to do with your complaints about fiscal cliffs. Doesn't look to me like he tried to "meet in the center" either so until HE does, I blame BOTH.. We (America) are broke. our credit rating has been dropped from AAA to AA.. Next is A. which means not the best credit risk.. Stop the damm spending when it isnt there to spend. ONLY a Democrat cant see this
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I believe that the separatist ideas of BOTH sides are indicative of the corruption of our esteemed govt. As far as I know, Congress and the presidency are both democrat heavy, and I have not seen any plan of theirs coming down the pipes to fix this drama. I am waiting for the politician that says, " If we have no money, we can't spend that money." or " I am interested in slimming down the bloated govt spending, or maybe even One that realizes that waiting for the last minute to accomplish anything does not accomplish anything... How dare anyone say GOP or DEM-- Looks to me like R/D in front of a name means nothing. they all say the same crap...
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If you really look at it the leaders of the GOP and the Democrats they could care less about any of us. Their goal is to get elected and consolidating their power period.. While we are divided into our little controlable groups these so called elite are laughing and having a drink. Who are they laughing at;us. It's all about consolidating power and control. The success tax and entitlements in the US are nothing more than a method for both parties to buy votes with our money. Both parties have been complicit in taking our liberty, from the tax code to the patriot act, to the NDAA. The price we pay is our freedom.
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What the fiscal cliff fiasco accomplished was a tax increase on the working poor and further divide the population! That's it! I challenge anyone to prove that the vote taken two weeks ago will improve anything. Show me the proof!
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Are you certain about that? Either way. I trust the editor to read the article and summarize properly to create a headline that represents the context of the letter. Regardless, it's still very irresponsible to make the inference that Republicans do not care about people. It's very narrow minded. Now, if Republicans were only interested in protecting the rich, then it would be fair to say that Democrats raised tax rates on average everyday workers by 2.6%. Many people who can not afford to have that much money taken from their paychecks are going to suffer. Your cashiers, delivery drivers, service workers are going to suffer. They will be giving up a tank of gas, a couple of pizzas, a new pair of jeans each and every month. The wealthy who also received a tax increase, will miss out on nothing! So crying for higher taxes on the wealthy does nothing. It doesn't pay down the national debt, it doesn't create jobs, it doesn't fix roads.
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"GOP doesn't care about the people".
You need to amend your letter! You forgot to mention that all Republicans are RACISTS!
Have you read "Smear Strategy a Failure" article by C. Rogerson in the 11/20/2012 edition of The Intelligencer.
You two fellas sure have a lot of hate in your hearts.
You are entitled to your opinion, but no good can come from making statements like you have. I sometimes identify with the Republican ideology, and sometimes with the Democrat view. Maybe you should take off the blinders and have a look at the big picture. If you can't do that, then you are only cheating yourself. Both sides have something to offer. It's very immature to say that Republicans don't care about people, I would bet that 100% of them do care about people. It's also very narrow minded for someone to say that Democrats drink Obama's Kool-Aid. But heck, you and people like you want to keep driving that wedge, that's your choice. Keep in mind that you are the proble
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Why don't Stan and his ilk never say anything about the corrupt, communist, hypocritical, pathological lying, parasites in the Democrat Party??? It's obvious that he, like MrCore, gets everything he knows from the Obama media and is completely ignorant of the truth.
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It was sarcasm for Stan the Man. I wanted to point out just how rediculous his letter was.
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Mingoman your post is so filled with hate. You need to calm down you will blow a gasket, but I am betting your post was just meant to troll the comments. You are just trying to start something and promote your hate and discontent.
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text: Shoujo, the japanese word for "girl", has become a catch-all term for manga that appeals to female readers. Shoujo manga comes in many styles and often deals with stories about young girls and their relationships. In this tutorial, you'll learn about three well-known styles and some tips to why they differ along with some helpful examples of body types and facial features.


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Contraception, Compromise, and Credibility
Today's New York Times has a story that ought not to be a story. Well, two, if you count "Guess what, a bunch of the groups the IRS was allegedly improperly targeting really were engaged in political activities that made them ineligible for the tax-exempt status they applied for," because duh. But the one I mean is the one by Sharon Otterman, with the headline "Archdiocese Pays for Health Plan That Covers Birth Control."
Otterman reports:
[E]ven as Cardinal Dolan insists that requiring some religiously affiliated employers to pay for contraception services would be an unprecedented, and intolerable, government intrusion on religious liberty, the archdiocese he heads has quietly been paying for such coverage, albeit reluctantly and indirectly, for thousands of its unionized employees for over a decade.
The reason I say this shouldn't be a story is that the archdiocese's explanation is legitimate. "We provide the services under protest," archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling told the Times.
Mr. Zwilling...said that Cardinal John J. O'Connor and the archdiocese "objected to these services' being included in the National Benefit Fund's health insurance plan" when joining the [League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes] in the 1990s. But the cardinal then decided "there was no other option if the Catholic Church was to continue to provide health care to these union-affiliated employees in the city of New York," Mr. Zwilling said.
The reason this revelation is a real scoop is not that the bishops, under Dolan's leadership, have protested the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate, as they were right to do, but that they did so in absolutist, life-or-death terms that ignored the reality of political complexity and denied the possibility of compromise. Remember "Our First, Most Cherished Liberty"? Citing Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," the bishops wrote:
It is a sobering thing to contemplate our government enacting an unjust law. An unjust law cannot be obeyed. In the face of an unjust law, an accommodation is not to be sought, especially by resorting to equivocal words and deceptive practices. If we face today the prospect of unjust laws, then Catholics in America, in solidarity with our fellow citizens, must have the courage not to obey them. No American desires this. No Catholic welcomes it. But if it should fall upon us, we must discharge it as a duty of citizenship and an obligation of faith....
An unjust law is "no law at all." It cannot be obeyed, and therefore one does not seek relief from it, but rather its repeal.
When you talk like that, and then it turns out you've been indirectly providing coverage for contraception, under protest, for a long time, you undermine your own credibility. Your uncompromising moral stance looks like selective outrage -- with an obviously partisan frame.
Our editorial "Bad Decision" offered this advice:
If Catholic institutions must choose between complying with the law or dropping health-insurance coverage for employees, they should comply "under duress," while working to modify or overturn the law. In this instance, the greater good of providing health insurance for all employees outweighs the "evil" involved in the possible use of contraception by some.
And our follow-up editorial, "Bad Reaction," added:
The fact that many Catholic institutions already comply with state laws requiring contraception coverage makes the USCCB's extreme demands all the more curious. For Catholic institutions to participate in insurance plans where individuals may decide to use contraception is at most remote cooperation with what the church considers evil. It is implausible for the bishops to insist that the revised mandate compels them to cooperate directly in a sinful activity when even the original mandate did nothing of the kind....
Are the bishops not worried that this initiative will be seen as transparently partisan by much of the public?
If they weren't before, maybe they are now? Let's recall that the Obama administration has come up with a compromise that would provide contraceptive coverage to employees of Catholic institutions while not requiring that coverage to be provided directly by the employer. (Here's Cardinal Dolan's response to that proposal; here's Grant Gallicho's critique of Dolan's take.) It may not be a perfect solution. But is it more compromising than what the Archdiocese of New York (for example) is already doing?
Last Memorial Day, Cardinal Dolan wrote a column for Catholic New York that proposed this solution to the church's troubles with the Obama administration:
All Washington has to do is say, "Any entity that finds these mandates morally objectionable is not coerced to do them," and leave it there. Don't get into the red tape in trying to mandate for us how our good works should be defined.
How simple! How constitutional! How American!
I noted in a blog post last year that this "simple" solution seems to ignore the reality of how laws work. It certainly doesn't reflect any familiarity with how health insurance works; in that case, the only way to avoid "getting into the red tape" is to not offer employees any insurance at all. The archdiocese has opted not to do that, as today's Times story reports. And that was a good and morally defensible decision. The only reason it looks scandalous now is that it will be seen in the light of heated speechifying about unprecedented threats, unjust laws, and impossible compromises.
About the Author
Mollie Wilson O'Reilly is an editor at large and columnist at Commonweal.
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The Church often makes mistakes especially when they are confronted with a complex issue and decision of policy that is in tension with its teachings. Inconsistency and even contradiction can manifest itself, as this article directly or indirectly implies that this is the case. Contraception is one example, but there are others.
Consider the decsion of the Archbishop of Connecticut in 2007 that allowed the admininstration of Plan B to rape victiims provided that a pregnancy test was negative. This clearly violated the USCCB guidelines. A pregnancy test will always be negative within a week of rape incident because a pregnancy test can only detect pregnancy after implantation has ocurred. Previously, the Church required a ovulation test. If this test was positive, Plan B was not administered even though ovulation does not necessarily mean fertilization has occurred. However, a postive ovulation test sides with the possiblity of fertilization, albeit a low possiblity, but at least this is a reasonable test of possible pregnancy. So, we have inconsistency and contradiction, that points to either a bad decision or the necessity of responsible reform of a teaching.
Wouldn't it be more generous to politely keep our eyes away from last year's intemperate declarations, and just forget abour the 2012 statements from the US episcopacy? As far as I can tell they haven't harmed anyone except themselves. Now that they may be coming back to more soberness, isn't it better to welcome them rather than rub it in?
The Fortnight for Freedom has been announced again for this year, with an Opening Mass at the US's first cathedral, the Basilica of the Assumption, Baltimore, on 22 June, the feast of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More. The Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop William Lori, archbishop of Baltimore. The Concluding Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, on the Fourth of July at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Washington. As well, there will be observances in many dioceses. I don't see this as a move towards soberness.
If only intemperate declarations were in the past!
I don't see a "coming back to more soberness" in statements like these from Archbishop Chaput just a few days ago:
"Coupled with the White House's refusal to uphold the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, and its astonishing disregard for the unique nature of religious freedom displayed by its arguments in a 9-0 defeat in the 2012 Hosanna-Tabor Supreme Court decision, the HHS mandate can only be understood as a form of coercion...
As Mollie Hemingway, Stephen Krason and Wayne Laugesen have all pointed out, the current IRS scandal – involving IRS targeting of "conservative" organizations – also has a religious dimension. Selective IRS pressure on religious individuals and organizations has drawn very little media attention. Nor should we expect any, any time soon, for reasons Hemingway outlines for the Intercollegiate Review. But the latest IRS ugliness is a hint of the treatment disfavored religious groups may face in the future, if we sleep through the national discussion of religious liberty now.
The day when Americans could take the Founders' understanding of religious freedom as a given is over. We need to wake up."
He sounds like Bill Donohue --desperately trying to hook himself to the IRS mess. I think Chaput will look very foolish following the whiny lead of Dr. Anne Hendershott regarding IRS targetting "devout Catholics". She is already changing her story.
I love revivals of great old shows. I got to see My Fair Lady on Broadway in the 1970s, after missing the first run.
So I'm really looking forward to the new F4F with all its flair and drama. I'm sure both the actors and the critics know their lines cold, so there won't be any danger of fresh thought to mar the performance.
Mistake, or the best of the possible alternatives?
Personally I think that providing contraceptives is a lot better than battering women who get pregnant and choose to have an abortion.
I expect that the archdiocese would be exempt from the mandate in any case, even according to the exceedingly narrow religious exception defined in the original contraception mandate?
Let's suppose, for the sake of discussion, that the archdiocese isn't exempt - that the contraception mandate would compel it to pay for its employees contraception, and that the subsequent accommodation wouldn't apply to the archdiocese. Were that the case, then the archdiocese would be right to point out that there is a moral difference between freely choosing to participate in a plan that includes contraception, and being compelled by an unjust law to provide contraceptive coverage. None of that would contradict Mollie's point that in the real world, we have to compromise and pick our battles.
I see. I was thinking of Cdl Dolan's more conciliatory tone in one of the links, the only one from 2013. I agree that Abp. Chaput's words and the F4F smack of grandiose delusion again. Then it would be good if they could answer Mollie's questions.
Imagine for a moment that they believe their own words. Then what could explain the incoherence laid out in the post?
I suppose the danger here is that the hierarchy will see this as an argument against reasonable compromise. "Look! We quietly did the right thing for our employees for ten years in a relatively small matter, and now people are claiming we lack moral standing to inveigh against this much bigger matter!"
No one is piling on. Joseph Zwilling, communications director for the archdiocese, released this statement in response to the story:
"Today's New York Times story, "Archdiocese Pays for Health Plan That Covers Birth Control," incorrectly equates the health care benefits of the members of Union 1199 – including those 1199 employees at Catholic facilities – with the Health and Human Services mandate that improperly attempts to define the Church's religious ministry and could force religious employers to violate their conscience. The Constitution and other provisions of federal law prohibit the government from imposing the mandate on the Archdiocese. A labor union is not subject to the same constraints as the federal government in this regard, and so the fact that 1199 requires these benefits as part of its plan does not excuse the government's violation of the Archdiocese's federal rights.
What the 1199 health plan and the HHS mandate share is that the Archdiocese has objected to the dilemma of choosing between providing health care to employees or violating its sincere religious beliefs in both instances. ArchCare did not exist at the time the contract with 1199 was finalized. When ArchCare was formed, it inherited this situation and objected to these services being included in the 1199 health plan. However, ArchCare had no other option but to pay into the fund which administers the union members' benefits "under protest" to continue to offer insurance to its union workers and remain in the health care field in New York. Similarly, the Archdiocese has attempted to negotiate with the Administration, advocated for a change in legislation in the Congress, and filed a lawsuit last May objecting to the HHS mandate. In all cases where the health insurance benefit plan is under the control of the Archdiocese, including for all non-union ArchCare employees, contraceptive care services are not provided."
Keep it clear. In the federal case the bishops state that they cannot do it in conscience. While in the Archdiocese of NY they do comply conscience or no conscience. Clear as day and clearly hypocriticial. But of course "the church has always taught." While the issue is not black and white the duplicity of Dolan is.
1. Re: HHS mandate
See article by Law Professor Thomas Berg about (and link to) Amicus Brief by Bart Stupak and Democrats for Life
2. Re: IRS targeting scandal,
See http://www.scribd.com/doc/142099956/Treasury-Department-IG-J-Russell-George-54-Page-IRS-Tax-Scandal-Report-Full-Text
See also "A Crisis of Authority - The deeper meaning of the Obama scandals."
"Liberal media bias is an old complaint, but the Obama presidency has given it a new and dangerous form. Never has the prevailing bias of the media been so closely aligned with the ideological aims and political interests of the party in power. The American media remain free and independent, or you would not be reading this column. But to a large extent they have functioned for the past few years as if they were under state control.
"The problem of media bias runs deep, and it often does not take the form of open partisanship. Here's an example, from a Washington Post story on the IRS scandal:
"Nonprofit groups that do not have to pay taxes are supposed to ensure that political activity is not their primary purpose, so evidence that some of the new organizations seeking tax-exempt status were fronts for campaign organizations drew bipartisan interest. Good-government groups started pressuring the IRS to more closely scrutinize applicants. One such group, Democracy 21, wrote a series of letters to the IRS arguing that many of the groups should not receive favored tax status.
" 'In all of these cases, the groups were claiming (c)(4) status basically for the purpose of hiding their donors,' said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer.
"There's a whole world of bias in that phrase 'good-government groups.' According to the Inspector General's report, one of the red flags the IRS used to identify dissident organizations for targeting was "education of the public via advocacy/lobbying to 'make America a better place to live.' " Tea Party organizations conceive of themselves as good-government groups, just as Democracy 21 does. The Post accepts the latter characterization, but not the former, unquestioningly.
"The description of Democracy 21 as a "good-government group" is especially inapt in this particular story. Wertheimer's organization wrote letters lobbying the IRS to take action against political groups of whose activities it disapproved. The IRS did Wertheimer's bidding, and in so doing massively abused its power. The IRS, not Wertheimer, is culpable for the abuse of power. But it is preposterous to label Democracy 21 "a good-government group" in the course of telling how its activities encouraged an abuse of governmental power.
" 'Good-government group' is a misleading designation for another reason. As we noted last week, Democracy 21 is itself a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) corporation. In lobbying the IRS to investigate nonprofits for engaging in political activity, Democracy 21, a nonprofit, was engaging in political activity.
"That's not 'good government,' it's rent-seeking."
Abortion is NEVER a good outcome. But, unfortunately in this imperfect world, it is sometimes the best outcome that a woman can choose from among the myriad poorer choices facing a woman.
That is why neither government nor meddling clerics should try to inject themselves into this decision. This decision is best left to the woman, consulting her medical professionals, to figure out what is the best decision for her in her life, given her health needs and the needs of her family.
It's the ultimate personal choice for a woman - the ultimate demonstration of independent self-agency. Our personal choices is after all what makes us most human. Hence, we should all be pro-choice.
If Catholic hierarchs are really so concerned about the "right to life" and not posturing politically for their oligarchy in Rome, then they should abandon their anti-feminine ideology by promoting reproductive health care through contraception.
Heirarchs should also use their "teaching magisterium" to convince Catholic families to begin adopting all those children into their birth-controlled-small-families, all those children whose mothers' chose not to abort, and who are now languishing in the child welfare systems across the nation where their futures are threatened and where they are more likely to be exploited.
To quote from the Wall Street Journal about liberal media bias is a bit of a reach, don't you think?
Or do they actually think that their positions are "fair and balanced?"
Really, now!
Many gay and lesbian couples do indeed adopt these children. From what I have read a large portion of these adoptions include children not considered "desirable" by many other parents, i..e, fetal alcohol syndrome, drug addicted, otherwise disabled.
But don't worry ... darned few choose to go through the agony of fighting with this church to do so. There are plenty of adoption sites that welcome qualified parents, irrespective of color or sexual orientation.
Because my parish doesn't DARE put anything in our website that would inflame the delicate sensitibilities of the always-lurking theocons who are looking for something to rant to Abp. Cordileone about (oh, they do so love to do that and do whenever they get the chance!), I can't copy you on a heart-warming (and rending) letter from 2 men who have adopted 2 boys who are born to a drug-addicted mother. Our parish donated money to the parochial school that educates these boys in their names. The school was delighted and the parents were overwhelmed. They have had a very tough time as these children age because of the lingering effects of their birth-mother's addictioin.
These 2 boys are not blonde, blue-eyed, Aryan types that are so high on the "highly desirable" lists of most adoption agencies.
Like so many of the discussions I find so informattve here on commonweal this one revolves a great deal around of the questions of who said what when and what was and was not meant. Stating the obvious I believe useful clarity can be gained simply by considering the source of so much of the challenges driving this particular debate, the efforts of Timothy Dolan.
Catholicism can claim within its remarkable fold more than a few Timothy Dolans. He is hardly unique. He is, in fact, a near stereotype.
Catholicism can also claim within its remarkable fold the likes of Oscar Romero. An very uncommon fellow.
One does his best to speak for the Church the other did his best to speak for God. One struggles to find his place in the world, the other had figured it out.
Knowing this to be true it is impossible not to wonder why so much effort is spent considering the value of Dolan and so little the value of Romero. If the person holding the podium claiming to speak to ultimate truths is stating significant contradictions what exactly is to be accomplished in a dissection of his words other than an affirmation of the obvious?
Face it: In these uber ideological, post-everything times, overstating cases and making mountains out of molehills is the favored language of the realm. At least to a good part of it. How else will we explain the so-called "scandals" of Obama's second term to future generations of history students who have to compare IRS investigations of partisan groups and the hoopla over who called what an act of terrorism and when did he/she call it with previous presidential scandals that involved, say, selling arms to enemy states or money laundering by the powers-that-be? In light of all the rest, the American bishops' "Fortnight of Freedom" offensives should fit right in.
I have prayed for understanding of where the Church is going lead it's congregation during the change in morality in the modern culture and I have concluded that many of us believe the Church to be physically and spiritually separated from it's members as if we are a different church.
Through prayer and study I understand that WE are God's Church and WE are in a great period of our own choosing. We must decide if we are truly God's chosen people and if so we must read the Gospels and must embrace Jesus as our Savior and show our faith through our actions and involvement in our Church, families and communities.
Have we decided to let government or "modern society" decide who we are as Christians? We must let our faith in God define us as Catholics and show by example to our families and communities that we will stand arm in arm as children of God and profess loudly that our love for God and each other is stronger than the laws of men.
Jesus spoke for God the Father, for our salvation and he suffered and died for that. Have we become too afraid to profess and show our faith thus putting Catholicism on the same cross?


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Just wondering whether it's valid to ask questions (on SO etc) about working code e.g. "How can I improve this?", "How would you do this differently"...I'm not sure whether it seems right to ask that sort of question...just to clarify I'm not asking if it is ok to post one line of code and ask how would you re-write this to be Microsoft Office :)
I feel it's a bit different to the "I'm not sure what is going on or what is going wrong" code question or even different to "Is this code performing inefficiently" etc...where you actually require help in understanding the code or figuring out a bug etc
Often it's great to see how someone else would code the solution to a problem or function and seeing people with a lot more knowledge write code (for me anyway) is a great learning tool.


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E-mail a friend
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The Empire State Building, in partnership with the New York City Fire Department, will be illuminated in yellow, white and blue TONIGHT in celebration of National EMS Week 2013, which began yesterday.
EMS Week is an annual week-long series of events designed to promote public safety among all New Yorkers, attract potential EMS recruits and celebrate the life-saving efforts of more than 3,000 members of FDNY's Emergency Medical Service.
This is the fifth year in a row that the Empire State Building has partnered with FDNY to celebrate National EMS Week. For more information on the Empire State Building and the Lighting Partners program, visit www.esbnyc.com.
Press Contact: Francis X. Gribbon & Frank Dwyer, (FDNY) (718) 999-2056


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Cross country: First-year Watertown coach pleased with teams' efforts
By JOHN TORSIELLORepublican-American
Not a subscriber? You can purchase a single-day subscription for only $0.75 to read this and access all of our content and our E-Edition. CLICK HERE purchase a single day subscription.
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Theresa Montenarello, a 2012 SUNY Geneseo graduate from Selden, N.Y., is serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. She is among 17 Geneseo alumni with undergraduate degrees serving the organization worldwide. The college ranks 22nd among the nation's medium schools in the number of alumni volunteers in the corps.
GENESEO, N.Y. – The Peace Corps today released the 2014 rankings of the top volunteer-producing colleges and universities across the country, and SUNY Geneseo ranks 22nd among medium schools (tied with The College of William & Mary and three other colleges) with 17 alumni with undergraduate degrees currently volunteering worldwide.
This is Geneseo's first appearance on the Peace Corps' Top Colleges list since the current three-tiered enrollment ranking was established in 2003, but the college has had 246 graduates join the Peace Corps since it was established in 1961. Geneseo alumni currently serve as volunteers in Cameroon; China; Costa Rica; Dominican Republic; Georgia; Kenya; Kyrgyz Republic; Macedonia; Morocco; Paraguay; Rwanda; Senegal; Thailand; and Ukraine. They work in sectors including education, English, health and youth development.
"Public service is central to the mission of Geneseo as a public liberal arts college, and it's gratifying to learn that so many of our alumni are in the Peace Corps," said Carol Long, interim president of SUNY Geneseo. "We aim to develop analytical thinking and intercultural competence throughout our curriculum, and this kind of education thoroughly prepares graduates to be successful in the Peace Corps and similar organizations."
Since the first days of the Peace Corps, Geneseo alumni have been actively involved in the organization as volunteers.
"I became an active volunteer while attending SUNY Geneseo because of the innumerable amount of opportunities available," said Theresa Montenarello, a 2012 graduate currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. "Without the encouragement and support from the faculty and staff, I would not have had the skills and qualifications to be accepted into the Peace Corps."
The Selden, N.Y., woman is one of 420 Empire State residents currently serving overseas. In 2013, New York State was ranked as the second-highest volunteer-producing state in the nation.
"The same passion that launched the Peace Corps more than 50 years ago fuels progress in developing countries today thanks to the leadership and creativity that college graduates bring to their Peace Corps service," said Peace Corps Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet. "The unique Peace Corps experience helps recent graduates cultivate highly sought-after skills that will launch their careers in today's global economy."
The Peace Corps ranks the top volunteer-producing colleges and universities annually according to the size of the student body.
The Peace Corps has eight regional recruitment offices across the United States that work closely with prospective volunteers to ensure that all Americans who want to serve have the opportunity to do so. The Northeast regional recruitment office serves Geneseo, and Peace Corps recruiters are based throughout the region.
EDITORS: Download a high resolution version of the above photo.
Media Contact:
David Irwin
Director of Media Relations
(585) 245-5516


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I have a PUR Hiker Microfilter and a Katadyn Water Microfilter sitting in my closet that I only use once in a great while (I don't go on overnight backpacking trips very often).
Whenever I do plan on a trip, I'm always hesitant to trust these filters are still in good condition to use. Don't they develop mold or other contaminants when left idle for years? I'm talking like 5 or so years without use...
Is there a way to clean these so I can be sure they are safe to use, or does the microfilter cartridge have a certain shelf-life and is then no longer safe to use?


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David Krueger and Herald staff | email@example.com
Published: Friday, January 11, 2013, 5:29 p.m.
Herald hoops live blog | North v. South
Prep Zone: Wesco's best in 4A North and South set to square off tonight January 11, 2013
Prep Zone: David dissects the AP basketball poll January 10, 2013
Prep Zone: The Wesco North rises: thoughts from Tuesday night's Stanwood/Glacier Peak showdown January 8, 2013
The North and South will be squaring off again tonight and we've got the best in 4A and 3A doing battle. We'll be blogging live from five different games tonight, including Jackson-Arlington boys and Mountlake Terrace-Stanwood boys. We'll also have sporadic updates from three girls games: Jackson at Arlington; Lynnwood at Snohomish; Everett at Shorecrest.
Join the conversation below:
Join the conversation below:
Like our high school sports page on Facebook, follow @HeraldNetPreps on Twitter and look for updates on our Prep Zone blog.Story tags » • Arlington High School • Darrington High/Middle School • Edmonds-Woodway High School • Lynnwood High School • Meadowdale High School • Mountlake Terrace High School • Cascade High School • Everett High School • Henry M. Jackson High School • Granite Falls High School • Lake Stevens High School • Lakewood High School • Marysville Pilchuck High School • Monroe High School • Kamiak High School • Mariner High School • Snohomish High School • Stanwood High School • Sultan High School • Coupeville High School • Oak Harbor High School • South Whidbey High School • Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy High School • High School Basketball • Jackson High School • Shorecrest High School • Shorewood High School • Glacier Peak High School • Marysville Getchell High School • Mount Vernon High School
- Prep Zone: Wesco's best in 4A North and South set to square off tonight 1/11/13
- Prep Zone: David dissects the AP basketball poll 1/10/13
- Prep Zone: The Wesco North rises: thoughts from Tuesday night's Stanwood/Glacier Peak showdown 1/8/13
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Tchaikovsky - 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces: Rise of the Masters: Explore similar items for $1.99 + free shipping
100 tracks of Tchaikovsky for just 2¢ per track. And similar collections of many other composers, including Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Handel, etc. etc.
For the most part, these are "intact" works... i.e. if a symphony is part of the collection, every movement is recorded, in sequence. (Some of Amazon's earlier collections had random movements from various works, but not completely intact works.)
Some of these collections were previously offered for $1.29, but if you didn't get them then, get them now for $1.99... they're still a great deal! (And, based on past history with other Amazon MP3 collections, they're likely to go up significantly in the future.)
11 Comments add a comment
I hate it when they try to make the Fine Arts look like a Hollywood blockbuster.
"Rise of the Masters" ? ? ? Is this Tchaikovsky or Michael Bay?
Get this long-dead artist's works before he "decomposes."
But seriously, The 5th Symphony in E minor is worth the price alone.
I have a couple of these. The recording quality is very, very good. Well worth the price if you're looking to expand your collection.
I have a couple of these. The quality of the recordings are very, very good. Well worth the price if you're looking to expand your collection.
The classical music pieces are a good buy, but did anyone try to play with the Amazon cloud player? Does it work - it seems to be paused all the time.
@sharanmahapatra: I'm streaming it on the Amazon cloud player (via Android) right now. No problems for me.
These "Rise of the Masters" sets are a great value -- mostly full works with very good sound quality by lesser-known (but nonetheless competent) performers. At $2 a pop, you can have a massive classical collection for next to nothing. [Also, do not expect this price to go up; it has been priced at $2 for a good year or so, save a month or two it briefly rose to $3].
Mozart fans should search Amazon for the "Big Mozart Box," a set of nearly 200 tracks (again, mostly full works and wonderful recordings) for $0.99, a price which will certainly go to $10 within a few weeks.
If you are looking for other composers the Rise of the Masters sets don't cover, try the "99 greatest" collections (most are around $5). The Saint-Saenz album, in particular, is awesome (I'm listening to it now!).
Finally, Amazon's Cloud Player is amazing! Using my work's wi-fi, I stream these classical albums from my iPhone speakers all day long while I work. Now, I can't imagine working without this stuff.
@sharanmahapatra: As far as I know, you can download your music to mp3s on your computer or mobile device without DRM. The cloud player on your phone has a setting to automatically download new songs. I have yet to try and pull MP3s out into a separate collection, but as far as I understand, this is very easy to do and does not require any special software.
Amazon cloud player is good, but Google Play Music is my favorite for Android.
Thanks for posting.
Whether it is a one time deal or not, this is great buy. In for a few.
@dupedyetagain: Thanks for that Big Box tip!


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Beyond the Easter Bunny: 10 Other Famous Rabbits
2 of 11
The White Rabbit and March Hare (Alice in Wonderland)
When Alice found herself transported to Wonderland, the first denizen she encountered was the anxious White Rabbit, who proclaimed himself "late for a very important date." That date turned out to be a tea party, which was also attended by the delirious March Hare.
More on: Easter


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I am using the
[utf8]{inputenc} and
[russian]{babel} and this allows me to input certain Cyrillic characters easily, but it is also turning certain titles where I have used commands like
\abstract and
\date{\today} into Cyrillic form too. I can, for instance, change the
\today command to read
\date{01/11/2012}, which does fix the problem, but it still stops me from using certain useful commands, like the ones mentioned above.
I have set out in a table two alphabets: the Latin version, with the corresponding Cyrillic equivalents.
E.g. (Latin on the left, Cyrillic on the right)
A a - A a
B b - Б б
C c - Ц ц
Z z - З з


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Calf Small Zip Around Wallet
$88.00 $66.00
Select Color
Product Actions
Style# 2Q101
- Description
Print Soft, lightweight leather is the hallmark of our Calf Collection. This wallet is perfectly sized to keep all of your essentials accessible on the go.
- Details
Print H 4" x W 1.5" x L 4.25" Zipper pocket with two compartments. Snap closure with bill compartment. Six credit card slots.Measurement Guide
- Care & Cleaning
Print The leather used in the Calf Collection is both water repellent and generally scratch resistant.
This leather can usually be cleaned with the use of a soft cotton cloth slightly dampened with distilled water (sodium-free seltzer water may be substituted) and a mild bar soap, applied in a circular motion. Repeat with distilled water only to ensure no residual soap remains. The leather should then be allowed to dry completely.
This collection is very durable and should require no creams, polishes, cleansers or conditioning products to maintain its beauty.


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Buy 1 Entrée, get 1 free w/ purchase of 2 drinks
Buy one entrée and two drinks and get a second entrée of equal or lesser value for free!
Ends May 5th
7 Comments add a comment
Sorry... It ends May 10th
It says "this coupon is yours and can only be used once" so I'm guessing it can't be used by everyone. Did they e-mail this to you?
Hmmmmm... Wondering if they keep track of which "Serial Numbers" have been used...
@dudealex1: Nope, click the "forward to a friend" link and it sends them the same URL, so each serial could be used my multiple people.... pito12 is just sharing this with many friends.
Mmm...wonder what's the cheapest "beverages" available on the menu.
when I sent this to myself it has the same # on it. I will use this soon if it works.
@woottj: Probably a soda or tea...generally any drink other than water is referred to as a "beverage."


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Wake up to a weekend in Cape Town this JulyIt's July and while the days are colder, it's certainly not a reason to stay indoors! There's so much happening in Cape Town over this period. With our fantastic Hello Weekend campaign and thanks to our great partner Kulula.com, you can visit Cape Town this July from as little as R2 750.
Winchester Mansions: Old school charm with a modern twist
Rob PetersPossessing an old school charm with a modern twist, Winchester Mansions in Sea Point is a Cape Town gem that is hidden in plain sight.
Top Restaurants to Visit on Loop Street
Thamar HoulistonCape Town is known for its foodie culture with a huge variety of restaurants and while Bree Street has been the reigning champion in terms of variety and top spots, Loop Street is slowly catching up in the culinary stakes.
Find bliss in Cape Town
Rob PetersYou are going to struggle to find accommodation in Cape Town that boasts a better view than Bliss Boutique in Sunset Beach.
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Wake up to a weekend in Cape Town this July
It's July and while the days are colder, it's certainly not a reason to stay indoors! There's so much happening in Cape Town over this period. With our fantastic Hello Weekend campaign and thanks to our great partner Kulula.com, you can visit Cape Town this July from as little as R2 750.
Top 10 things to do in Cape Town in 48 hours
There's so much to do in Cape Town that it can be difficult to know where to start. To help you out, we've teamed up with 10 of South Africa's biggest bloggers and CheapFlights to create the ultimate list of things to see and do in 48 hours. Here's what the experts had to say.
Wake up to a weekend in Cape Town this June
Ok, we've been keeping a secret from you guys. Yes, we're all about the sunshine, beaches and cocktails. You see the photos everywhere, we can't help but brag, and we're pretty sure that our friends and family who don't live in this fabulous city are sick and tired of seeing all the photos. But do you know what we haven't told you? What you don't see on social media because we're sure that most of the people of Cape Town just want to keep it under wraps? Winter is our secret season and it's awesome!
Vineyard Hotel's Elgin Valley Festival
The Vineyard Hotel is a one of those Cape Town hidden gems. It's located in the leafy Newlands suburb and there is so much on offer here. It's also starting to become the go-to hotel in the area for all things food and wine related. For example, there's a delicious Burgundy Celebration Dinner and an Elgin Valley pinot noir festival coming up. Both of these form part of the hotel's Tastes of 2016 calendar.
Two Oceans Marathon events
It's almost time for the 2016 Two Oceans Marathon! Aside from the ultra and half marathon and the trail run, there are various other events that will be on the go. And the best part is that that whole family can be part of it!
Travel like a local: Your neighbourhood guide to Hout Bay
Hout Bay, or the Republic of Hout Bay as it is affectionately known by locals, is a fantastic sea-side neighbourhood in Cape Town that offers something for everyone, any day of the week. Here's a deeper look at what this great Cape Town area has to offer.
Festive Season Road Closures & Traffic Control
The countdown has just about begun and 2016 is a day and one BIG party away. If you're still undecided about how you'll be celebrating when the clock strikes midnight, check out our blog post for the low down on everything you need to know about NYE 2015 in the Mother City.
Road closures & transport for Kaizer Chiefs vs. Bidvest Wits on 19 December
On 19 December, Kaizer Chiefs will play Wits at the Cape Town stadium. Here are the transport details and road closures that you should be aware of.
New Year's Eve in Cape Town
Where will you be on New Year's Eve? From dinners to comedy shows to all-night parties, there ae plenty of ways and places to welcome in 2016 in Cape Town.
Get into the Christmas spirit in Cape Town
In case you're not yet feeling the Christmas spirit, here are some ways to get the festive feeling.
Where to eat this Christmas
Christmas lunch and dinner can sometimes be a mission to prepare. Don't feel like cooking? No worries. We've got you covered with this list of where to have Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas lunch in Cape Town.
There is no tonic to beat the spontaneous belly laughter of a group of 5 year olds and I was lucky enough to get a really good dose of it at the opening of the Magnet Theatre's Early Years Festival that kicked off 2 December 2015.
Your Ultimate Summer Guide to Cape Town
The Mother City has shrugged off her winter coat and slipped into something a little sleeker as the summer months settle in. Get ready to kick off your shoes, sink your toes into the warm sands of the most beautiful city on earth and knock back a cocktail or two as we present your ultimate summer guide to Cape Town! It's where to go and what to do this summer in the Mother City.
A magical City Sightseeing Sunsets Bus Ride
We get it. Sometimes a sunset is just a sunset. But in Cape Town, it is almost always something special. One of the best ways to see and experience this is with City Sightseeing and on their sunset bus.
Top Braai Spots for Heritage Day
If there is one thing Capetonians are good at - other than socialising, of course - it's braaing. Whether it's meat or fish, you can be sure that on a spectacular summer's day (or even on a winter's day), you will find us gathered around the fire, enjoying each other's company, the tantalising aroma of meat on the grill and our breathtaking city views.
Dinner and a show in Cape Town
We all get a bit busy sometimes so we can't always go out to dinner and then see a show afterwards or vice-versa. So, it's really handy when you find a venue where you can do both at the same time! Here we've rounded up some of the best dinner-and-a-show venues in Cape Town.
Lots of laughs at the Jive Cape Town Funny Festival
So what's a girl supposed to do on a dark and stormy night in the middle of the week? Climb under the duvet with a good book and some hot chocolate? Not bloody likely! THIS girl grabbed a mate and we dodged fallen branches and ankle deep puddles to get to the Baxter Theatre to catch the Jive Cape Town Funny Festival.
Theatre review: Mpinga Mornings
Mpinga Mornings is a one-person play told from the perspective of three Rhodesian-born (now Zimbabwe) characters – a farmer's wife, her daughter and their domestic worker. It spans the time from around the start of the Rhodesian Bush War to the land grabs and beyond and shows the different ways in which each character was affected by these events.
Halaal restaurants in Cape Town
Is there anything more tempting than the smell of a delicious chicken curry or a plate of denningvleis, prepared in the traditional Cape Malay way? In Cape Town, there are plenty of restaurants and cafés that cater for visitors and residents who prefer their meals cooked according to Halaal standards.
Mother's Day Events 2015 in Cape Town: What to do in the Mother City
You know which important day it is on Sunday 10 May, 2015, right? The one day of the year that you get to honour the number one woman in your life – it's Mother Day, in beautiful Cape Town, the Mother City.
Your #lovecapetown monthly preview: February 2015
There are some massive events taking place in Cape Town this month and we preview four of the biggest. Go ahead and experience some of what Cape Town has to offer in February 2015.
#J&BMet 2015: Pictures
J&B Met 2015 lovers were #MadeInTheMix in their finest - offering a spectacular display of Glitz and Glam and everything in between. Snippets of the day, by Nicole Biondi and Sherise Dreyer.
Hot in Cape Town: 20 Photos of the new Watershed at the V&A Waterfront
The new Watershed at the V&A Waterfront is officially the coolest place to buy Christmas presents this year. With over 150 trendy stands selling more than 365 different brands, you will definitely be your family and friends' favourite person by buying them something super unique and truly Capetonian.
Zombie Walk Cape Town strikes again!
This year, Zombie Walk Cape Town and The Night Life have joined forces once again to bring you Cape Town's biggest Zombie Walk yet. Here are some of the highlights of the day.
5 Epic Images that will make you want to stay at the Southern Sun Waterfront
By now you all know I've got a thing for amazing mini-breakaways in #lovecapetown… if it's got a cool pool, delicious buffet, soft beds and breath-taking views, I'll stay there. That's exactly what the newly renovated Southern Sun Waterfront hotel on the Foreshore offers and it's amazing!
Your #lovecapetown weekend:What's on from Friday 31 October to Sunday 2 November, 2014
Are you ready for an incredible weekend in our beloved Mother City?
5 Super Cool Summer Productions to see in Cape Town
Summer is on its way to Cape Town and how better to celebrate the sunny season than by taking in a super cool theatrical production at one of the Mother City's amazing theatres?
Your #lovecapetown weekend: What's on from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 October,2014
Hello, #lovecapetown! Your awesome weekend is on its way!
5 Top Bands You Can't Miss at the 2014/2015 Summer Sunset Concerts at Kirstenbosch
Woohoo, Mother City music lovers! The 2014/2015 Summer Sunset Concerts at the impressive Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden's programme has been announced and it's EPIC!
5 Terrifying Halloween 2014 Events in Spooky Cape Town
Are you ready to be scared silly, #lovecapetown? It's my all-time favourite holiday of the year, Halloween, on Friday 31 October, 2014, and the spooky Mother City's streets are about to come alive with the undead!


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Since 1989, FirstMate has manufactured top quality dog, cat and fish food formulas. FirstMate is proud to own and operate its own manufacturing facility located in Chilliwack, British Columbia. Operating its own facility gives FirstMate complete product and quality control. The manufacturing facility is regularly inspected and approved by the appropriate government bodies for Canada, the United States and the European Union.
FirstMate uses regionally sourced ingredients to formulate its diets with the exception of our lamb which comes from Australia.
FirstMate was the first company to introduce a Grain Free formula to pet speciality in 1995! The Pacific Ocean Fish (formerly Potato & Fish) diet has since expanded into a variety of life stages. The Grain Free product line now includes the Chicken with Blueberries, Australian Lamb and Fish & Potato with Blueberries (cat) formulas.
FirstMate's Grain Free cat formula is truly unique in the marketplace. FirstMate formulates a 100% nutritionally complete diet using only one protein and one carbohydrate
source. This simple approach to nutrition presents an increased level of product digestibility while reducing bodily stress and the likelihood of an allergic or negative reaction.
FirstMate uses proven, traditional levels of protein and fat to ensure healthy filtration through your pet's liver and kidneys. These levels have been market tested for over 50 years with continuously positive results.
FirstMate Grain Free formulas are ideal for maintenance feeding but additionally can be used for animals with digestive concerns, allergies or for customers that wish to rotationally feed.
FirstMate's Classic formulas use Chicken, Herring and a combination of wholesome, digestible grains to complete this top quality diet line. In addition, a mix of antioxidants from blueberries, cranberries and raspberries has been added to help promote a healthy immune system, eyesight and memory function.


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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Senior Jake Deaton finished 11th in the discus throw at the NCAA East Preliminary Championship with a toss of 179'10 Thursday afternoon to advance to the NCAA Division I Championships in Eugene, Ore. held June 5-8.
Deaton qualified for the NCAA Championships by finishing in the top 12 of his event. Twelve competitors from each individual event and 12 teams from each relay event advance from each preliminary championships competition site to the final championships competition. Deaton will also compete in the shot put on Friday.
T'Sheila Mungo finished 20th with a qualifying time of 53.06 in the 400m dash to advance to Friday's quarterfinal.
In other field events, Coye Still finished 14th in the long jump with a leap of 23'10. Katrina Wright represented Charlotte in the women's discus throw and finished 40th with a toss of 140'0.
Khyran Shank clocked a time of 10.45 and finished 27th in the 100m dash.
In the 800m run, Maraya Slatter finished 45th with a time of 2:10.59. LeAnna Morrison also competed on Thursday and was 47th in the 400m hurdles (1:01.71).
The NCAA East Preliminary Championship will resume on Friday, May 24 at 10 a.m. and is being hosted by N.C. A&T at Irwin Belk Track and Field.