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Rise in youth sports travel prompts bigger, better parks
Some fences are in place. Scoreboards are up. Roads are taking shape. The grass that will comprise the outfields of the 12 youth baseball/softball fields at James Oates Park is being planted.
Barring a season or two of prolific rain, boys and girls will be sliding across that grass by late spring or early summer 2017, signaling the first major recreation initiative in Dothan in more than 15 years since the construction of Westgate Tennis Center.
Dothan's location in the tight southeast corner of Alabama would appear to work against its ability to draw statewide events such as the recent Alabama State Games. However, the city's previous decisions to build attractive facilities, combined with the Leisure Services department's aggressive pursuit of events, have historically worked in Dothan's favor. Dothan has landed multiple state and regional events in several sports, bringing thousands of people into town to eat and sleep.
More than 2/3 of the city's revenue comes from sales tax.
While many travelers to and from Florida pass through the city each day, there are few reasons to stop and stay a while. There are no beaches or mountains, no large lake and no historic battle sites.
There are, however, softball and baseball fields, tennis courts, an indoor pool, archery range, BMX course and soccer fields. All have hosted large events, but nothing is hotter right now than youth softball and baseball.
According to a survey from Sports Marketing Surveys USA, almost 35 million people traveled with an overnight stay to participate in or watch an amateur sports event in 2014. About 18 percent were ages six to 17, but 51 percent were ages 25-54, indicating families are accompanying their young players to events.
Youth sports have become such a big thing that the old model of a four-field complex has become too small to host big tournaments. It is not uncommon for larger tournaments to attract 50 or more teams, making it difficult to finish a double elimination tournament in one weekend.
Dothan remained at the forefront of recreational facilities in Alabama for many years before other communities began to catch on, building newer and bigger parks. Then, the economic recession hit, making it hard to justify recreation-based spending. Last year, the Dothan City Commission agreed to take about $14 million out of reserves to build James Oates Park, a therapeutic pool at Westgate Park and a recreational pool at Andrew Belle Center.
James Oates Park will include a six-field youth baseball complex and six-field youth softball complex.
Dothan Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Bob Hendrix said Dothan is already beginning to bid on major youth tournaments to coincide with the opening of James Oates Park.
"When you host a 40-team girls softball tournament, that will generate about $500,000 in revenue for the weekend," Hendrix said.
Recreation, however, was not meant to be a money maker. Combine the $14 million cost with the estimated $850,000 it will take to operate the new facilities each year, and decisions to spend money on recreation must include other factors besides financial return.
"I think you have to look at quality of life," said District 5 Commissioner Beth Kenward, who relayed a story about a visiting relative from Portland, Oregon, being enamored with Dothan's facilities. "She just went on and on about how impressed she was with everything we have to offer our citizens. To have someone from a city the size of Portland saying something like this, I think, is a pretty big statement. I think James Oates Park is going to be a great thing. Just think what Westgate Park has done for us and what all has happened out there since it has been built. It took a lot of forethought to do all of that."
Spending money on recreation while spending $100 million on sewer improvements can be a tough sell, however.
"When I ran the first time, there were two things people my age or older complained about. One was no more money downtown and two was recreation," District 3 Commissioner Albert Kirkland said. "No more ball fields or anything like that. I think what we have to do is find balance. We have all ages of people in this city and we have to try to find opportunities to serve younger people, older people, and in between."
District 4 Commissioner John Ferguson said taking care of the city's basic needs while adding to the quality of life doesn't have to be an either/or. It can be a both/and.
"We had the money in reserve, so we didn't have to borrow," Ferguson said. "This gives girls softball a dedicated facility, which they have needed for a long time. I know the public is very excited about it. I do want to make it clear that I don't equate this as being as important as some of the things we absolutely must take care of, however."
Every new facility comes with a cost to maintain. Discussions have been held to consider funding the estimated $850,000 annual maintenance cost for the facilities with a lodging tax increase or surcharge. The advantage to the city would be that the maintenance costs would be footed primarily by non-Dothan residents. The lodging industry, however, could be concerned that additional costs would prompt travelers to consider other places to stay.
No official proposal has been made.
Source: Dothan Eagle - Dothan Alabama
Bethlehem considers youth sports residency rules in rec field priority
A proposed town policy that would give field advantage to sports clubs made up predominately of Bethlehem kids has the leader of one baseball team saying it could jeopardize his program.
The current rules give town-based organizations, like Bethlehem Mickey Mantle, the top priority when reserving fields. But the proposed change, which will likely be heard by the Town Board next month, would give top spots to groups that have at least 90 percent of their rosters living in Bethlehem or the Bethlehem school district.
"This legislation paves the way for independent daddy-ball guys to make an application for those fields before the organized groups do," said Steve Peterson, founder of Mickey Mantle/Bethlehem Braves, a travel baseball club that uses a field in Elm Avenue Park. It serves about 90 players ages 13 to 23.
A draft of the new field policy also would give priority to groups that serve youths age 18 and under; have at least three teams; are insured; and conduct background checks on volunteers and paid coaches.
Under the proposed policy, Bethlehem Braves would get "non-priority status" because only 70 percent of its players are from Bethlehem.
The Braves' home field is also where the club has clashed with the town over drainage problems, which the club eventually paid to have regraded itself. Peterson said the club has invested more than $100,000 there.
"We've created a really great baseball field. It looks like Yankee Stadium," Peterson said. "When you build something as nice as that, people want it."
Peterson said he believes that there are independent teams trying to bypass organized leagues. "They are just two dads and a bucket of balls," he said. "They want to carpetbag in and play a couple of games a week."
Peterson said town hall is "catering to a bunch of crybabies that have come to town office and have stamped their feet."
Nan Lanahan, director of Bethlehem's Parks and Recreation Department, said coaches have complained about teams of nonresidents getting field time when teams of Bethlehem kids can't.
They ask "Why are we giving priority to an organization that recruits kids from all over the Capital District as opposed to a group from the Bethlehem area?" Lanahan said.
She said the town's primary goal is to give Bethlehem youth recreation opportunities before any other groups. The proposed policy spells that out more clearly, making adult and nonresident groups a lower priority, she said.
Lanahan acknowledged that Peterson's club invested money in the field, but said a lot of groups put their own money into the town fields.
Because Peterson's league is a travel program that draws players from outside Bethlehem, Lanahan said, "it doesn't mean he won't get field space, but he would be in a different category."
Peterson's youth teams would be in the second level, "youth sports – non-priority" status, under the proposed policy.
Most of Bethlehem's other youth sports programs in baseball and soccer will likely reach the 90 percent threshold because they are affiliated with national programs that require the leagues to only accept children from the municipality or school district where the league is located.
"We are 99 percent town of Bethlehem residents," said Russ DeYoe, president of Bethlehem Babe Ruth, which has about 150 players age 13 to 18.
Almost all of the players in Tri-Village Little League live in Bethlehem. Tyler Kattrein, president of the league that serves about 500 children age 5 to 12, said the town has always helped his teams access baseball fields and he has no problem with a policy that favors Bethlehem kids over out-of-town players.
"We are the ones paying the taxes and paying the fees," he said.
When asked about the Mickey Mantle/Bethlehem Braves predicament, Kattrein said "no comment."
Bethlehem Soccer Club president Jeremy Martelle said the new policy won't effect the soccer club because it rents town fields for its recreation program that almost exclusively serves town youth. The club's travel teams use their privately owned fields at the Soccerplex.
Bethlehem Lacrosse Club president Kristin Devoe said her league is 99 percent Bethlehem residents, and said she welcomes a policy that requires background checks, insurance and bylaws.
At least one league, however, doesn't reach the 90 percent threshold. Sean Edmunds, president of the Bethlehem Tomboys Girls Softball League, said the league is about 78 percent Bethlehem residents. The Tomboys reach outside the town to serve communities that don't have softball programs and to draw much needed numbers to a sport that has seen a decline in participation. The league has 270 girls ages 5 to 18.
The Tomboys have never had trouble getting fields and Edmunds said town officials said they would work with the league when he told them he could not meet the residence threshold.
"I don't feel like we are being shut down by any means," Edmunds said. At the earliest, the Town Board will consider the new policy in July.
As far as Peterson is concerned, it's a done deal.
For the past eight years, Peterson's Braves have hosted an annual "vintage" baseball game with players in Civil War-era uniforms at the town's annual Fourth of July celebration. A notice on the league's homepage said this year will be the final game "due to new Town residency requirements."
Source: Times Union - Albany NY
Lack of softball pitching limits can lead to injuries
Discussions about softball pitchers always return to the same long-accepted, rarely challenged theory: It's not baseball; the softball pitching motion is safe and natural; a girl can windmill endlessly without physical consequences.
"People told me, 'Oh, you can pitch, you can pitch, you can pitch, you can pitch,'" said Diana Schraer, a 2004 Paramus High School graduate and member of The Record's all-decade team. "Then one day my arm went numb and I'm like, 'Oh, I guess I can't pitch anymore, right?'"
She hadn't started pitching until seventh grade - late for most girls today - but her doctor told her too many pitches resulted in cubital tunnel syndrome that required major elbow surgery the summer after her junior year, before she rehabbed and returned to pitch in high school and college.
Schraer grew up like just about every North Jersey pitcher age 8 to 18. Her world was guided by this "safe and natural" idea that is the rationalization behind pitching one dominant girl multiple games in a day, multiple days in a row, on multiple teams in a season.
It is a myth - and a dangerous one at that, according to several sports medicine experts, pitching coaches and at least two former standout Bergen County high school pitchers.
"It's absolutely a myth," said Dr. Nikhil Verma, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, who has done research on the windmill delivery. "Anything that you do that's repetitive at that level with the type of force and velocity that these girls are generating puts you at risk for injury."
No less an authority than Dr. James Andrews, renowned orthopedic surgeon to the pros, debunked it in his 2013 book, "Any Given Monday," writing, "There is a common belief that throwing underhand is a natural way to keep the player safe from injury, but this definitely is not true. . The repeated movement and velocity of pitches thrown, even in the windmill style, are now even tearing the 'Tommy John ligament,' resulting in a UCL injury. Pitching limits matter in softball as much as they do in baseball."
But pitch count limits don't exist in softball at any level. Innings restrictions put in place by some leagues are meaningless, because a player can throw any number of pitches per inning. Theoretically it can be as few as three, but girls - especially younger girls just getting started - can routinely throw 30 or 40 pitches per inning.
Sherry Werner runs the Sherry Werner Fastpitch Academy in Fort Worth, Texas. She not only coaches young pitchers, she has done research and analysis on the windmill motion, including with U.S. Olympians. She has data showing that the force on a softball pitcher's shoulder and on that of a baseball pitcher's are equivalent, she said.
"It just drives me nuts," said Werner, who has a Ph.D. in biomechanics and has held research positions at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, the American Sports Medicine Institute and Tulane Institute for Sports Medicine. "Every week I hear, 'It's safe and natural.' It's just a myth that is out there, and I think the powers that be . they just don't want to hear it."
The Amateur Softball Association, the leading softball organization in the country, did not return repeated messages seeking comment.
This weekend fall ball will wrap up for most of young North Jersey softball players. Third-graders through high school seniors have spent weekends the last few months on club and town travel teams playing two- and three-day tournaments with four, five or six games for each team.
Indoor winter workouts will soon begin, with many players getting additional personal lessons from pitching coaches.
Brittany Baiunco, The Record's softball Player of the Decade for 2000-2010, started windmilling in second grade and had a pitching coach by fifth. Always a three-sport athlete, she didn't start playing only softball until after her sophomore year in high school, but by middle school was throwing at least 100 pitches at least five days a week, year-round.
The Ramapo High School star pitched in four Bergen County championship games, winning three, and led Ramapo to a state title in 2006, but during a game at the end of junior year she felt something "funky" happen in her shoulder, she says. It was her rotator cuff and posterior labrum tearing.
"I'm probably a testament to the fact that there is absolutely an effect," the 25-year-old said of being over-pitched.
She had surgery, and although she came back and led Ramapo to the 2008 county title her senior year, she says she never felt fully recovered and still struggles with pain and an inhibited range of motion today. She did not go on to pitch in college for various reasons, including feeling like she was never her pre-surgery self.
Her advice to girls now?
"I would just say take care of yourselves, know your limits and don't be afraid to speak up," she said.
Just as every baseball pitcher won't tear his rotator cuff or require Tommy John surgery, not every softball pitcher will suffer an injury either. Many try to say softball pitchers who get hurt had mechanical problems that caused the injury.
"It's not that if you had proper mechanics you'd be fine," said Dr. Stephen Nicholas, orthopedic surgeon and director of the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. "But the amount of stress you place on the body is less and because of that, you do last longer before you go to an overuse situation. . To think we can pitch ad infinitum makes no sense to me."
Softball injuries are coming to light now as more girls get serious about the sport, according to Nicholas. Parents are rushing players to the doctor to get them back on the field - as they have done with baseball players for years. In the past, a girl in pain would sit out for a couple of weeks; now they often pitch through it and suffer a more serious injury, sports medicine specialists say.
Despite doctors reporting more and more softball pitchers as patients, there are no peer-reviewed studies showing cause and effect for softball pitchers, according to Dr. William Levine, orthopedist and co-director of Columbia University's Center for Shoulder, Elbow and Sports Medicine.
"If you have the data, you can be more thoughtful about it, otherwise it becomes more anecdotal," Levine said.
That anecdotal evidence is mounting.
"I've seen more and more rotator cuff (injuries)," said Dr. Jeffrey Dugas, orthopedic surgeon, sports medicine specialist and managing partner of Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center in Birmingham, Ala. "I've seen more Tommy John injuries in softball throwers."
Still, softball pitchers needing surgery are not as numerous as baseball pitchers needing it, a comparison that hurts efforts to get research done that could help put appropriate regulations in place for softball.
"The problem is sports medicine injury counts tend to be at surgery centers and tend to be how many surgeries (are done)," said Glenn Fleisig, Ph.D., research director at the American Sports Medicine Institute in Alabama. "I think that's missing the data on softball, because those injuries aren't typically surgical injuries."
The good news is that the research is under way, according to Dugas.
"There's some really high-end research going on in the softball world," he said, citing Werner's work among others. "There's so many kids doing it and the injury risk is not really well-appreciated, and we need more data.
"We know a lot about baseball. We know a lot about football. We know a relatively fair amount about soccer. Softball, in terms of just the epidemiology of softball, we don't have enough data about that, so there are things under way that I would say over the next five years we'll probably have a lot more data that resembles what we know about the other sports that are well-studied."
They should know enough in 5 to 10 years to have an impact, Dugas said. Until then, best-guess recommendations can be put in place to help prevent overuse injuries.
"There should be some regulations for softball pitching to prevent the excess beyond common sense, an overuse injury for these girls who play this one activity year-round," Fleisig said.
But word hasn't made it to the field and pitchers continue to exert incredible force on their shoulder, biceps, elbows, wrists and all ligaments and tendons in between, often on bodies with still-developing muscular and skeletal systems.
Schraer is now a teacher who spends her nights as a pitching coach for North Jersey youth pitchers. She tries to educate parents and keep her girls from being overused.
"In tournament ball, these coaches become so obsessed with winning that they will ride a kid's arm over and over and over again," she said. "I try to educate my parents, as well as my kids, because the more they know, the more they can advocate for their kids."
Nobody has ever told the coaches otherwise, they say.
"I don't want to harm anyone," said Lee Ehlerberg, involved in Mahwah softball for nearly two decades and currently the coach of the town's 12-and-under club team. "You don't get any money for winning. It's not that important. If I was told a girl's arm would fall off or there would be medical issues like there are in baseball …"
While he knows they're out there, Dugas said he has never met a coach who intentionally does something that could injure a player - and that includes those who send the same softball pitcher out to throw three games in a day.
"That kind of stuff is unwise, but that's the industry standard and that's on us as the medical professionals," he said. "We need to prove that point, and we're in the process of getting there."
Source: The Washington Times
Girls play ball in boys' world
Spectators gasped as the baseball -- thrown inadvertently off course by the pint-sized pitcher -- plunked the batter high on the arm.
Charlie Martin, 7, a girl with a traditional boy's name playing in a boys' world, stood at home plate in her baggy uniform, determined to remain as stoic as a big-leaguer in front of everyone at the Towson recreational field.
"I wanted to cry but I knew I shouldn't," said Charlie, whose ponytail extended from her cap and fingernails sparkled with polish. "And even though it hurt a lot, I just tried to tough it out."
Sometimes, there really is no crying in baseball, particularly when you are the only girl on the team and bent on proving your mettle in a sport that stubbornly remains a male bastion. Baseball -- whose appeal is grounded in tradition -- remains in many ways an anachronism. Even as athletic opportunities for girls have mushroomed since the 1970s, an unwritten custom endures: Baseball for boys, softball for girls.
"I think the challenge is that America has accepted this myth," said Justine Siegal, founder of the nonprofit organization Baseball for All, and the first woman to serve -- albeit briefly -- as a coach for a major league team, the Oakland Athletics. "Many people believe they are the same sport," Siegal said. "And clearly they are not."
University of Nevada-Reno political scientist Jennifer Ring worries about the larger consequences of restricting girls' opportunities in baseball.
"A girl who has been part of a team of boys hits the glass celing and suddenly she and the boys get the message she's not good enough anymore," Ring said.
In youth leagues around the country, a smattering of girls -- including Charlie Martin, 9-year-old Charlotte Glorioso and 13-year-old Grace Parcover --refuse to yield to convention.
Forgoing girl's softball, played in the nearby Lutherville-Timonium rec league, they choose instead to play in the Towson Recreation Council's baseball league, which counts about 35 girls among its 710 players from ages 4 to 15. Each of the three is the only girl on her team.
Charlie -- it's her real name, not a nickname -- is a soft-spoken but self-assured public school principal's daughter who doesn't see why she shouldn't play the same sport as her 9-year-old brother.
"Sometimes they can ask me why I'm on the team because they think only boys should be on the team," she said. "I tell them because my dad signed me up for baseball and I don't really care what you guys think, but I think I should be on this team.
"Everyone should get to do what they want to do."
The 35 girls are an intrepid group, league commissioner Chris Pierce said. He has three sons in the program.
The girls ''for the most part hold their own," he said. "There's a little mental toughness about them -- they're unfazed."
More than 4 million kids from 6 to 12 play baseball, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. The number of girls playing has been estimated at 100,000, said Siegal, whose organization works to create opportunities for girls in the sport.
Area youth league organizers see a familiar pattern. Girls join teams as early as age 4, and stick with the sport for several years. Then their numbers thin out, until almost none are left playing by about age 13.
Reisterstown Recreational Council Baseball counts 14 girls among about 500 players, or about 3 percent. Nine are ages 4 to 6, three are 7 to 8, and two are 11 to 12.
The numbers are similar in the Towson rec league, where about 5 percent of the players are girls. None are older than 13.
At younger ages, coaches and parents say, the girls seem to care less about who is on the team than they will later on. As preteens, when puberty kicks in, their teammates' gender suddenly matters.
Some girls become self-conscious in a male-dominated setting, and feel an increasing tug to play sports and socialize instead with female peers.
In older divisions, size can also be a challenge, as the boys mature and become more physically imposing.
Playing mostly with boys can create pressure for girls "to perform well all the time because there are enough outside forces telling them they should quit," Siegal said. "Some girls internalize that and try to prove to themselves that they belong, with every at-bat and every pitch -- which I think is unfair pressure."
'I want to do baseball'
None of that seems a problem for Charlotte Glorioso, the only girl on her team, the Athletics.
"She kept bugging and bugging and bugging, and I said, 'We'll do softball,'" said Lindsay Glorioso, her mother. "And she said, 'Nope, I want to do baseball.' She has two older brothers that have played, so she has grown up watching it."
On a recent weeknight, the 9-year-old had a traditional baseball look: gray pants, high black socks and, occasionally, a wad of chewing gum stuffed into her cheek. The only things setting her apart from her teammates were a ponytail and earrings depicting tiny green elephants.
"I kept saying, 'You're going to be the only girl,'" her mother recalled. "She said, 'I don't care.'
"If she has the confidence to go play with a bunch of boys, why wouldn't we let her?''
The boys on the Athletics regard Charlotte as just "a teammate," said 10-year-old Baxter Pierce, the league commissioner's son. Her gender, he said, "doesn't make any difference."
Charlotte said she wanted the challenge of hitting a regulation baseball and overhand pitching. In her 8-9 age division, the pitchers struggle with control, and she often reaches base on walks.
"I guess I just grew up with brothers, and I kind of wanted to play baseball, too," she said.
The softball debate
Softball, with its smaller field, larger ball, underhand pitching and fewer innings, can appear to be a fraternal twin to baseball -- similar, but decidedly not the same. It's played at a high level by women in college, and the Olympics -- and also by older men and women seeking a slower-moving recreational sport than baseball.
To Ring, the political scientist, softball is the "culprit" siphoning girls away from baseball.
Ring is the author of "A Game of Their Own," about women who stuck with baseball.
"I know I get in trouble every time I say this, but I teach a course on the politics of sports, and I refer to softball as 'Jim Crow baseball,'" she said.
Her daughter, Lilly Jacobson, now 27, was the only girl on her high school baseball team in northern Nevada.
Jacobson was good enough to play on the mostly unheralded national team that won the 2006 Women's Baseball World Cup.
Even now, Ring said, the women's national team receives little acknowledgment. It's made up of many of players who love baseball but played softball to earn college scholarships.
While boys can receive college baseball scholarships, girls need to switch to softball to vie for the same opportunities.
Boys "can dream their baseball dreams until they figure out they're not good enough to get a Division I scholarship or make the pros," she said. "The girls have been completely shut out of that mindset. Except that I have a feeling every little girl dreams for a while that she will be the first girl to play major league baseball."
Little League, the nation's largest youth sports organization, began allowing girls in 1974. They had been sued over a prohibition against girls -- the National Organization for Women helped lead the fight -- and lost in court.
While there are no rules against girls in the sport now, their advocates say there aren't many opportunities, either, because all-girls teams are scarce.
About 300,000 players participate on Little League-sanctioned, girls-only softball teams. The organization says it doesn't collect demographic information on how many girls play on its baseball teams, but it's believed they are a small minority.
It doesn't offer baseball exclusively for girls.
"In the past, we have looked into developing a separate girls' baseball program," spokesman Brian McClintock said. "And while our affiliate leagues were open to the idea, they had difficulty securing enough female interest to get started."
In Towson, Pierce said, there aren't currently enough girls to sustain a separate division for them, but that could change one day.
Siegal threw batting practice during spring training for several big-league clubs in 2011.
"I do think that Little League should offer girls baseball," she said.
Other sports, such as soccer and basketball, offer girls opportunities to play on their own teams at early ages.
Siegal's organization is trying to prove there is sufficient interest among girls to sustain baseball leagues, too.
Last year, Baseball For All organized the first national baseball tournament for girls ages 13 and under. Twelve teams participated in Orlando, Fla. They came from as far away as California.
The nonprofit is working with the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department on another girls' tournament scheduled for July.
Looking for role models
For years, baseball-obsessed girls lacked female role models in the sport.
In the 1990s, the all-women Colorado Silver Bullets, sponsored by the Coors Brewing Co. and managed by Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro, played a series of exhibition games, mostly against men's amateur, minor-league and semi-pro players.
"Girls watched it on TV and said, 'I want to do that,'" Ring said.
The 1992 movie "A League of Their Own" offered an interpretation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the real-life organization that was launched in the 1940s, when World War II had depleted the major leagues of much of its male talent.
Tom Hanks, as the alcoholic former big-leaguer who manages the Rockford Peaches, made famous the line: "There's no crying in baseball."
In 2014, Mo'Ne Davis became the first girl to throw a shutout at the Little League World Series. Her picture appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and her jersey was sent to the the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. First lady Michelle Obama tweeted about the player's achievements.
Spike Lee directed a documentary called "I Throw Like a Girl."
"I stand for girls who want to play sports with the boys," Davis said in the film.
Davis, 14, now aspires to play another sport -- basketball -- in college and the WNBA. Girls in Baltimore-area baseball leagues still talk about her.
"She really inspired me," said Hannah Sawa, 15, who played in the Towson rec league for eight years.
On Sunday, softball great Jennie Finch is to serve as "guest manager" of the Bridgeport Bluefish, a men's minor league baseball team in Connecticut, against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.
The Bluefish are saying it will be the first time a woman has managed a professional baseball team. Finch led the University of Arizona to a national championship in 2001 and played in two Olympics, winning gold in Athens in 2004.
'It's just weird'
Victoria Ebaugh, 11, is trying to explain how much she enjoyed playing baseball -- and why she no longer does.
For three years, Ebaugh was an infielder and pitcher in the Towson league. Only a few girls played in her age division.
Pierce, the commissioner, was her coach for a time.
Ebaugh "was so focused, so coachable," he said. "She just loves the game."
Seth Geller, Ebaugh's stepfather, said he enjoyed watching her mow down opposing batters.
"They thought because she was a girl, they were going to crush it," Geller said. "She would get a lot of strikeouts. All the boys loved her, but she'd still sit on the bench by herself. They'd be picking their noses and playing in the dirt."
Ebaugh, a sixth-grader, decided not to play after last season.
"It was fun and I had wanted to try it out," she said. "It's just kind of awkward because we're older. So now it's just weird" -- she paused, and laughed -- "with boys now."
This spring, she's playing lacrosse, on a girls' team.
Defying the pattern
Hannah Sawa defied the pattern. She played baseball on predominantly boys' teams for eight years, until she was 14.
Now 15, Hannah was among the most accomplished players in the Towson league, of either gender.
In 2009 -- when she was 8 -- she batted .606. She wore a confident smile in the team picture that year and was the tallest player.
Her coach signed a plaque citing her "passion, strength and ability" and calling her the "best catcher in the league."
For years, Hannah immersed herself in the sport. She played, volunteered as an umpire and watched games on television.
She lives five minutes away from Towson's six baseball diamonds, where the sounds of the sport fill the air on weeknights and Saturdays, and kids and their parents buy hot dogs and sodas from a snack shack staffed by volunteers.
Four shiny trophies and a league all-star team shirt are displayed at her home, along with an assortment of gloves, bats and balls, including some signed by members of the Orioles, her favorite major league team.
Like other girls interviewed, Hannah said she was treated well by her teammates. But she noticed that boys sometimes got embarrassed if she batted ahead of them in the lineup, or got a hit off them.
"There were some discouraging words sometimes," she said. "But I pushed through it.
"I think the reason I like baseball more is because in this society it's more of a baseball world. There aren't really softball teams that are professional. There's Major League Baseball."
This year, Hannah faced a wrenching choice -- continue to play baseball with boys or switch to softball at the all-girls Bryn Mawr School.
She opted for softball because Bryn Mawr doesn't offer baseball, and she was eager to represent her school.
But she doesn't want to be away from the game. So several times a week she heads to the diamonds to help coach the team of her brother, Leo, 8. She offers instruction, shouts encouragement and helps the catchers -- all boys -- put on their equipment between innings.
Under different circumstances, she said, "I would have loved to play baseball for another year."
With Hannah gone, Grace Parcover -- a tall 13-year-old who likes to play infield and hopes to pitch one day -- is the league's most senior girl.
In Grace's family, she said, baseball has created a bond. Her brothers, ages 11 and 9, play the sport, and "me and my dad and my brothers always talk about the Orioles," she said.
"Baseball is my passion and I love it. I'm going to stay with baseball as long as I can."
Source: Baltimore Sun
Fallout should influence KSHSAA to re-examine rainout rule
What had been a wicked storm left behind an angry cell on Saturday.
Fans of high school softball -- heck, Kansans who follow sports at any and all levels -- were still bewildered and upset over a ruling Friday from the Class 5A tournament.
Officials from the Kansas State High School Activities Association went by the book.
To be precise, Rule 4-2-2b was imposed from the National Federation of State High School Associations softball manual.
The rule disallowed two runs Andover scored in the top of the seventh inning to gain a 4-3 lead in its semifinal game against Shawnee Heights because the game was stopped and could not be resumed within the required timeframe at water-logged Two Rivers Youth Complex.
This rule was made to be broken, but KSHSAA officials chose to ignore common sense.
What was outlined in a manual -- with numbers, hyphens and small letters -- did not account for the emotions, sweat and athleticism a team displays.
Particularly when the outcome resulted in a berth in a state championship game, something many great athletes never get to compete in during high school.
Try this. Explain the circumstances to a pal who did not hear of the decision the KSHSAA levied Friday, when it reverted back to the completion of six innings, deemed the 5A semifinal official and declared Shawnee Heights a 3-2 winner.
If informed about Andover's rally in the top of the seventh, most anyone would tell you the game should have been suspended at that point, then resumed when conditions allowed, even if the completion of the game was pushed into Saturday.
The ruling issued applies to all games, the KSHSAA contended -- regular season, postseason and potentially glorious seasons.
Exceptions, however, should be made.
Games at state should not be treated with robotic insensitivity.
Hopefully, the rule that will pain the members of the Andover softball team for some time, and will become a story for its players to incredulously share forever, was at least outlined in softball rules meetings the KSHSAA conducts with coaches.
If not, it better be in the future.
Scratch that. The rule better be changed.
Not only was it unfair to Andover, it was unfair to Shawnee Heights as it advanced to the championship game after falling behind in the seventh inning of a semifinal game.
When Seaman homered for the decisive run in its 3-2 win Saturday against Heights, a group of onlookers beyond the fence cheered. They were wearing Andover shirts.
Is this what the KSHSAA wants to promote by strictly adhering to a letter of law rather than recognizing a labor of love?
Before the championship game, Heights players and coaches were left to discuss their feelings. The T-Birds held strong as they rallied with two runs in the fifth before falling.
"(Players) talked about it all day long,'' Heights coach Steve Giddens said. "It was like, 'We deserve to be here. Let's go out and show Seaman what we're made of.
"We talked about (the controversy) with them for about five minutes and we said, 'Look, you can understand if you're on the other side of that situation.'''
As fans arrived Saturday, one mentioned how solemn the facility seemed. Another mentioned how fallout from Friday's events could tarnish the achievements of both finalists.
There was no admission charged, no sale of programs or T-shirts. It was hard to detect a state championship was at stake.
At least until the game got going. Then, spirit flowed and emotions escalated.
Consider this: Did the National Federation recommend that Kansas schools be separated into as many as eight classes, with a possibility afloat for that number to grow to nine?
A different matter, sure. Yet proof the Kansas State High School Activities Association can be flexible on some, if not many, issues.
That flexibility needs to stretch into sensible decisions on the playing fields too. Not only as they relate to safe conditions, but also to equitable competitions.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal
Parental Power Play: High school coaches increasingly targeted by overbearing, undermining parents
They weren't spirit-of-the-season carolers banging on the door of Mike Randolph's home one Christmas, but rather inebriated hockey parents hell-bent on expressing their displeasure with the Duluth East coach, who was in the middle of a holiday celebration with his family.
Following a 2011 loss, Kurt Mattila, who lost his job as Ely boys hockey coach last September after a months-long and often-combative saga, was "slammed through the door, thrown in the hallway, getting railed on" by a father of one of his players. The man eventually was charged with two offenses; he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct while a fifth-degree assault charge was dismissed.
Randolph and some of his counterparts on Northland hockey benches -- Cloquet-Esko-Carlton's Dave Esse and ex-Grand Rapids coach Bruce LaRoque, to name a couple -- survived parental plots to have them ousted.
Others were less fortunate.
Former Carlton boys basketball coach Adam Bailey's three-year tenure with the Bulldogs ended ugly in 2014. Dick Swanson, currently the Duluth Denfeld softball coach, pulled the plug on his 22-year Hall of Fame career with the school's girls basketball team in 2008 after friction with parents made the post unpalatable.
Joe Wicklund recalled, from his first season guiding the Duluth Marshall baseball team, a father of one of his players approaching the third-base coaching box mid-game as Wicklund was giving signs.
"If you don't put my kid in, I'm going to pull him" off the team, Wicklund was told.
Wicklund responded by asking, "Do you want me to get him for you?" When he called for the player, the dad slinked away.
An area boys basketball coach, who requested anonymity, discussed a petition his parents circulated seeking nonrenewal of his contract, while also "calling former players to get dirt on me." Parents with another area boys basketball team reportedly met at halftime of a game this past winter to strategize the coach's removal.
Over the past several weeks, the News Tribune spoke with coaches and other athletic officials across the region about what has become a disturbing trend -- the seemingly increasing power wielded by parents of prep athletes.
John Erickson, executive director of the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association, says the issue isn't new.
Regardless, it's never been this extreme, many say.
"The parental pressure is, to me, much more intense, much more open and visible than what it used to be," Erickson said.
Most caught-in-the-crosshairs coaches who reach out to Erickson sing the same tune.
"Most calls I get are relative to, 'A parent wants me out of here,' " he said.
Complaints overwhelmingly stem from playing time and wins and losses.
And they're dramatically altering the landscape of a part-time profession with full-time pressure.
Tensions either mushroomed this spring or recent coach-school divorces were simply higher profile across the state.
Maybe both, but the separations have been increasingly toxic.
Tony Scheid defiantly stepped down as girls hockey coach at Stillwater Area High School. Announcing his resignation via a news release, Scheid said he was "subjected to an unrelenting and vicious personal series of verbal attacks from a group of parents of intensity unlike any I could have imagined, much less seen before."
Despite a lackluster 9-16-2 record in 2015-16, Scheid's credentials would appear to warrant some leeway. In 14 seasons, he was 260-112-21 and led the Ponies to a pair of state titles.
In his letter, addressed to Stillwater's superintendent, Scheid said "much of the joy" from coaching was sapped "by the need to defend my own family from these vicious attacks, which would seem to be channeled to and through your office."
Success couldn't save the boys basketball coach at Mankato West High School, either. Tom Boone was fired after 18 seasons leading the Scarlets, who dipped to 10-17 this past season. They won a state title under Boone in 2004 and finished second in 2009. Parental complaints were rumored to be the crux of Boone's undoing, according to the Mankato Free Press.
A volleyball coach at Lakeview High School in Cottonwood, Minn., took a swipe at parents when she resigned after three seasons.
"If I could coach the kids and have no administrative or parental involvement, things would be different," Hayley Fruin told the Marshall Independent.
At Worthington High School, Brad Grimmius said the decision to retire as football coach after 14 seasons was made easier by the "constant criticism and negativity from parents and lack of support from some administrators," according to a statement he gave Worthington-based Radio Works.
Grimmius continued: "I will not miss the constant complaints from parents whose kid did not start, or did not play that much, or did not earn a scholarship. Each year this seems to increase more and more. I would like to tell them, 'Here is my whistle -- knock yourself out and give it a try.' "
A contentious relationship with parents reportedly led to the resignation of St. Louis Park High School boys hockey coach Terry Keseley.
All of this comes three years after the adoption of a state statute that stipulates "parent complaints must not be the sole reason for a board not to renew a coaching contract."
Coaches of Minnesota schools are at-will employees who work under one-year contracts. They are reviewed annually. If a contract isn't renewed and a coach requests the reasoning, the board must comply, in writing, within 10 days. Coaches then can request an opportunity to respond at a board meeting, to be open or closed at the coach's discretion.
It's debatable whether the 2013 legislation has enough teeth. Around the same time it was passed, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that, over the preceding five years, 110 boys hockey coaches left their teams and "at least 38 of the departures -- about 35 percent -- involved parental complaints," according to Mike MacMillan, executive director of the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association.
Erickson says if a district wants to terminate a coach, it will find a way. What's to stop a school board from saying it simply wants to go in a different direction?
"Which would be the thing that people say 99 percent of the time," Cloquet athletic director Tom Lenarz said.
Kevin Merkle, associate director for the Minnesota State High School League, expressed skepticism that the law is a strong enough deterrent.
"It's there in principle, but you can always find another reason," Merkle said. "There's kind of a way around it."
The law didn't help Carlton's Bailey or Ely's Mattila.
Bailey graduated from Carlton in 2002 and scored a program-record 1,702 points for the Bulldogs.
"I bled blue my whole life," he said.
Those feelings were muted when Bailey departed in 2014. While he officially resigned, he admits, "to be quite honest, I don't know if I would have been brought back."
Bailey is unapologetic about the way he coached -- "hardcore, a little bit in your face and had high expectations." He is animated, and it's apparent he wears his emotions on his sleeves. During a conversation last month, he talked candidly, the edge in his voice unmistakable.
During his first two years as coach, the hard-charging style ruffled a few feathers, but Bailey felt secure in what he called his "dream job." It's no coincidence Carlton was competitive those seasons -- 9-15 and 12-14. But the situation deteriorated during a three-win 2013-14 season.
Complaints and anonymous letters from parents, including at least one who was on the school board and "hated my guts," Bailey says, took their toll. Bailey says almost all the grievances, whether they were masked as concerns about his vocal and sometimes in-your-face coaching or the Bulldogs using a practice to fundraise, dealt with playing time. At one of his meetings with parents, it was suggested that minutes be evenly distributed.
Bailey refused that notion. He also refused one year to take part in a review process in which parents were among the reviewers.
"There's absolutely no business being reviewed by parents," Bailey said.
The tipping point, Bailey says, likely came when he abstained from nominating any of his players for postseason Polar League awards in 2014. The Bulldogs were 3-20, and "I didn't have a kid that deserved to be on the first or second team," said Bailey, who was pilloried by players and parents alike on social media.
Some of the posts were raunchy and profane. In one, Bailey was called a "fat ass."
Two years later, Bailey admits there were times he caved to parental pressure and was "playing kids that had no business being on the court." That's when he realized it was time to move on.
While Bailey resigned, Mattila was hip-checked from a position he says he took 10 years ago when nobody else would coach the Timberwolves.
His status became uncertain in April 2015 when the Ely School Board tabled an administrative recommendation to keep Mattila "after hearing from parents who asked that the board further explore the matter," according to the Ely Echo. In May, it appeared he was out after a 3-3 board vote thwarted the recommendation. Mattila appealed in June, responding to criticism that his program didn't win enough and that it lacked discipline. In late July, the post was opened for applicants -- Mattila reapplied -- and in September, Ben Johnson, who played hockey at Duluth East in the 1990s, was hired.
Between April and May, Mattila, a 1995 Ely graduate, said unhappy parents banded together and wrote letters advocating for a changing of the guard.
"It was political. A couple parents got together and they had as much power as I did persuading the school board," said the colorful Mattila, whose oldest son, Nick, a freshman, continued to play for the Timberwolves this past winter.
Mattila doesn't feel the need to defend his win-loss record. In his final three seasons, the Timberwolves won seven games combined. Mattila, who had little coaching experience when he took over the team in 2005, said parent expectations were unrealistic at a small school like Ely that boasts little in the way of hockey tradition.
More than anything, Mattila was wounded by what he sees as a raw deal. He stepped up to the plate a decade ago, filling a void and providing stability to the program. He spent copious hours at the rink and on buses from November until mid-February over the ensuing 10 years, all for what he said was a $3,200 salary.
"In return, this is the 'thank you' you get," Mattila said.
When the school board voted to commence the hiring process for a new coach, board chairman Ray Marsnik said he would "go along with the posting as long as Kurt Mattila has an equal opportunity to apply and that he be treated like any of the other candidates," according to the Echo.
Mattila said that wasn't the case.
Johnson, whose coaching resume includes time at East, Shattuck-St. Mary's and at the junior level, was hired by a 5-1 board vote. The move was recommended by a five-member search committee, which included new athletic director Tom Coombe.
Hired in late July, Coombe was an observer for much of the soap opera, covering it for the Echo, where he remains editor. He disagreed with the assertion that parents in the hockey program had too much power.
"At the time this was me from the outside looking in, and I didn't see a situation where you could say Parent A and Parent B vented and therefore the board took this action," Coombe said. "I think there was more to it than that."
ESSE, RANDOLPH SURVIVE CEC's
Esse had heard horror stories from colleagues across Minnesota who were the targets of parental subterfuge.
Prior to February 2013, he says, "I kind of thought that'll never happen at Cloquet-Esko-Carlton."
But it did, just ahead of the Section 7AA playoffs, when a complaint filed by parents of former and then-current players accused Esse of bullying, intimidation and violating the MSHSL's code of ethics. The uprising was led by a youth hockey coach in Cloquet who had three sons on the 2012-13 team.
"It all revolved around playing time, and then they tried to branch out and bring up all kinds of issues and twist things," Esse said. "It was actually kind of comical. It was unbelievable."
Esse ultimately kept his job following a six-week investigation spearheaded by Lenarz, the Cloquet athletic director. But not before Esse endured what became a public trial of his character, not only as a coach but as an elementary teacher at Carlton. His credibility was assaulted.
In a high-profile role like head hockey coach at CEC, Esse understands there will be detractors.
"But when you attack people, like in my instance where they went after me as a teacher and they went after me as a coach," he started. "They talked about I falsified records to be a teacher. Someone said that I was abusing kids at the elementary, where the police had to show up. Are you kidding me? They said I falsified my master's degree from the College of St. Scholastica, they said I didn't graduate from college. So the Minnesota (Department of Education) had to show up at my elementary. That's crazy. That's nuts."
Esse, who recently completed his 17th season leading the Lumberjacks, credited his administration for standing behind him.
Erickson, with the coaches association, says Esse's was one situation where the 2013 legislation worked in that it prevented a coach's firing based strictly on parental complaints.
The longtime coach says there was some initial trepidation about returning to coach CEC after the ordeal. He had job opportunities elsewhere and discussed them with his family.
"I'm getting paid $5,500 -- is this really worth it?" said Esse, who recently was a finalist for the Wisconsin-Superior men's hockey coaching job. "Like I told my wife, my two favorite stores in the world are Menards and Sears. I can work there part-time and make a heck of a lot more money and not have any issues.
"Just very disappointed in how people acted and how it came about."
Randolph can relate. Whether it was complaints from parents, selling Christmas wreaths or political maneuverings by administrators that led to Randolph being forced out for the 2003-04 season, it was messy and highly publicized.
Randolph was rehired in the spring of 2004.
"They had a year to search for what I did wrong, but I didn't do anything wrong," he said.
Over the years, one of Minnesota's most successful coaches -- Randolph has won 579 career games and a pair of state titles with the Greyhounds -- has joked that at his preseason meeting with parents, he tells them not to talk to him again until March.
Despite the constant winning, there still are rumblings from parents. That's never changed. It was true even in 1995, in the aftermath of East's first title since 1960, when Randolph walked into a celebration at the team's St. Paul hotel following the Greyhounds' 5-3 win over Moorhead. He was greeted coolly by some parents, who were chagrined over a perceived lack of playing time for their children, or who didn't like all the attention bestowed upon the team's stars, such as Dave Spehar, Chris Locker and Dylan Mills.
"I said to my wife, 'If looks could kill I would have been dead on the spot,' " Randolph said.
Rumblings surfaced again in 2014-15, which concluded with East making a surprise appearance in the championship game at its seventh consecutive state tournament. In reality, at a traditional power like East, complaints are probably always there.
The grousing, Randolph says, is almost always about a lack of playing time.
He will meet with parents and listen to their objections until, hopefully, a middle ground is established. But he has a couple rules. Randolph won't interrupt a parent and, in return, he doesn't want to be interrupted. There can only be one coach. If he smells alcohol, the discussion is terminated.
And the biggie.
"Please respect my time on Sundays," Randolph says before a grin creases his face, "and on Christmas."
Source: Duluth News Tribune
Reality TV gone bad -- Dan Truttschel Kenosha News
As a now part-time sports reporter who spent 15 years as a sports editor at a weekly newspaper and the last 15 as a high school coach, it's not difficult to figure out how I like to spend my free time.
Watching sports, of course.
So when the chance came to check out yet another reality show, this one about youth football in Pittsburgh, it seemed like a fair way to spend a night.
But it didn't take long to figure that "Friday Night Tykes" displayed very little of what is good about youth sports and mostly all bad.
If it wasn't for the use of bleeps and dead air, there would be more foul language than clean on every episode.
Now, before you claim I'm just being soft or too politically correct, I'm not too naive to know that coaches tend to get a little bit excited from time to time.
I'm guilty as charged -- and not real proud of it when it happens.
But these are 10-year-olds we're talking about. Children just a few years removed from sucking their thumbs, and there are scenes in this show when the adults swear a blue streak because a kid didn't run a play correctly.
Hard coaching can almost be forgiven. It's perfectly OK to push kids, to expect them to reach for greatness, to be all that they can be.
But when it borders on abuse in the name of winning some 10-year-old city championship in Pittsburgh? That's crazy.
It's really an hourlong, weekly documentary about screaming.
The season finale was Tuesday night, so once again, I tuned in to see what this train wreck would look like.
Of the two teams in the final, one had a coach who seemed to be in it for the right reasons; the other fit the description above to the letter.
Unfortunately, "evil" won over good. It was a disappointing finish to a show, as it almost would have been poetic justice to see the most over-the-top of youth coaches finally have to eat a little humble pie.
But instead, he was able to walk off the field with a trophy taller than him and proclaim himself as the champion, that he won the ever-important city title.
Hurray for him.
But if this is what youth sports have come to, then we as a society have more problems than we think we do.
Teach your kids the game. Get them to be disciplined, respectful soon-to-be teenagers. Show them right from wrong. Prepare them for a positive high school experience.
That in a nutshell should be the focus and not on wins and losses.
And certainly not on what this show was about -- overbearing, nearly psychotic parents and coaches living out their dreams through 10-year-olds.
Source: Kenosha News


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Campus Housing:
I personally have several fixtures within my dorm room that have yet to be fixed...
We are the University of Southern California. Football.is.life. Nothing more to say about that. FIGHT ON!
Health & Safety:
My experience with the health center has not been stellar, however, I do feel extremely safe traveling alone on campus.
I feel that the campus strictness is acceptable, particularly because of the location and past history of events of the campus.
LA is a driver's city, if you don't have a car it's possible to get around but either very time-consuming (metro) or expensive (cabs, Uber, zip).
Off-Campus Dining:
Not a ton of options here - the biggest problem is no In-N-Out.
Greek Life:
Greek life is very very big at USC. It's also competitive so if you're planning on rushing, come prepared. That being said, Greek life at USC is a lot of fun - sometimes a little overbearing, but generally awesome.
Party Scene:
Most of USC's nightlife is on Greek Row - a great time for girls and frat brothers. Some actually incredible parties happen every weekend. Other off campus nightlife just isn't as good unfortunately.
Campus Food:
There are three dining halls all of which are very similar in variety and quality. Most students are relatively pleased with the food but there are times when the quality dips. There is one late-night spot that students go to for snacks and coffee. Overall, we don't have very great food. The prices are edging on affordable, but most students try to opt-out of dining plans if they can because it's always cheaper to buy groceries.
Off-Campus Dining:
There is a nice selection of ethnic cuisine as well as fast food options. Student discounts are available at most places, even those that are family-run. Subway is the way to go for most students is the most popular place to eat. Spudnuts is a 24/7 breakfast and doughnut shop that is very popular. Check out and delivery is available at late nights but is expensive.
There are shuttles and zip cars available but not too many. Long distance transportation is available to popular sites like the Staple Center or LA Live. Otherwise, many students try to get cars and/or take the bus wherever the need to go. I don't have a car nor can I afford one, so the bus is always the way to go for me.
We are the biggest football university in the country. Football is everything. The athletes mean everything to the school. Even my program gets a lot of it's funding and facilities from the athletic department. If not for the money that football pools in, we would not have some of the outstanding facilities. The school spirit is huge. I am not very prideful myself, but there is a lot of enthusiasm and comradery in general. Students are heavily involved in intramural sports and there are always outdoor activities happening on campus.
Campus Housing:
Less than 30% of the student body lives in campus dorms. That's pretty ridiculous for such a highly regarding, private research school. On campus housing is very expensive and limited. There are very few amenities. The social atmosphere in most dorms is underwhelming despite some efforts from the RAs to organize small events and gatherings. It isn't much more convenient to live on campus in terms of proximity to classes because the university is pretty small, anyway.
Most internship opportunities at school are associated with counseling positions or RA positions. There doesn't seem to be many major-specific internships. Most students who apply for internships do so with institutions outside of school. I don't plan on interning because it doesn't seem important to me and for the goals I have set up for myself in the future.
My program is a little outdated and poorly funded, despite being highly regarded in the country. There is immense talent and dedication, but little effort from faculty to improve the effectiveness of the program. The dean of my program is making plans to improve recording our guitar recording facility, organize more masterclasses, etc., but the curriculum is still very underwhelming. Fortunately, the program is tightly knit and everyone's concerns are well heard. There is hope because of how close the students and faculty are, compared to most other programs at the university. My goals are to tour my band and eventually record under an independent recording label that my friends and I are organizing. We have talent, enthusiasm, skill and the work-ethic. It seems with a bit of luck and strategy, things could go well for me and the musicians I am collaborating with.
The campus used to be open until there was a random school shooting on Halloween day of 2012. A student body decided to have an open party and some members of the outer community entered guns blazing. There were fortunately no deaths. Since then, the campus has increased campus security significantly by hiring "yellow-jackets," employees with basic safety training who are hired to patrol the corners of campus 24/7. DPS presence has also been increased and a curfew has been put in place. The students are also mandated to make "guest reservations" if they wish to bring non-student friends on to campus after a certain time. Fingerprint readers have been installed into most university dorms. Despite all these things, however, it doesn't feel safer, just inconvenient.
Drug Safety:
There really is not drug safety. The school in a way encourages parties by supporting a large fraternity presence. I'm not aware of heavily suppression or investigation of hard drug usage at the school. I know of many people who are heavy substance users, many of whom are my friends.
Greek Life:
I am part of the Mu Nu chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon, a professional music fraternity. Over half of the student body is Greek. Greek life is very important to the school's identity. There is a an entire street composed of only sorority and fraternity homes, some of which are very large and heavily funded. Greek students are often the biggest trouble makers. Most of the student violence incidents originate on Fraternity Row. The row is currently shut down because of some out of control behavior which has resulted in one death by alcohol poisoning and a girl who fell into a vegetative state after falling from a stack of tables while dancing. It's ridonkulous.
Local Area:
The school is near some shady parts, just outside of downtown. There have been a few shootings and murders the past two years alone. There have also been a few suicides and several rape cases. There is a strong athletic presence with most of the funding and energy of the school geared towards football. There aren't many sites to see near the school nor interesting places to shop. The local attitude towards the school is poor because of the size and often overwhelming presence of the fraternities, which are an integral part of the social life.
My program, Studio/Jazz Guitar, is very small and selective. My year is full of talent and enthusiasm. The funding is hampering the program, especially this year. The curriculum is a little outdated. Many professors aren't terribly engaging, but all of them are highly skilled and experienced. The comradery is the best part. The students are a great hang. The aura and energy of the music school in general is positive, save for the underlying competitiveness which can cause tension among students. The program is mostly about making connections and staying positive. Hard work and dedication is a given.
I am a music major, so the only academic classes I take are from the general education categories. Most of these classes are poorly organized and the professors aren't very enthusiastic. There are the occasional high quality classes, especially in the sociology department, that are intelligent and engaging.
The process is lengthy and there are at times random audits. Once you get through it, the financial packages they offer are usually very reasonable.
Very expensive. Not terribly convenient or readily available. Poor overall.
Mostly sunny. We had 3 straight days of raining one week. That was surprising.
Strong international student presence. Large middle-class Caucasian population. Otherwise, pretty mixed.
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Students from Southern California usually love USC from the beginning and strengthen their bonds with the school as time passes. Students who travel to USC from longer distances tend to adapt more slowly, dealing at first with the culture shock that inevitably comes with a first impression of LA. Universally, those who can survive the transition into the USC way of life fall in love with the school after first semester. Typically, students entering school with a skeptical mind-set ends up getting the most pride out of being a Trojan. At the very least, they come away with a new affinity toward college football.
The opportunities on campus are plentiful, and in LA, opportunities are endless. Time flies for everyone at USC, and changes in living conditions, academic standards, and career goals come quicker than newcomers might expect. USC graduates are sure to look back on a college experience that could not have been offered anywhere else. Basically, the more that students are willing to explore the opportunities available to them, the more they endorse the idea that USC is the perfect school for its time and place.
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The mental health benefits of vacation time have also emerged in the research. A 2005 study by the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin found that women who took vacations were less likely to suffer from depression than their counterparts who did not. The women who vacationed less or not at all also reported feeling more tired, more tense and less satisfied in their marriages.
Researchers from the Pittsburgh's Mind-Body Center surveyed women who had been recruited for four other studies on breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and other conditions. Of those surveyed, people who engaged in more leisure activities reported more life satisfaction, tended to be more religious in orientation, and reported having a large network of friends and family. De Graaft said that one of the most important benefits of vacation time is the family-bonding aspect, as one of adults' fondest memories of childhood are often of their family vacations.
The American way
According to experts, Americans are peculiar among developed nations in their lack of mandated vacation time. According to a May study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive economic policy think-tank, in most European countries, paid vacation time of at least 20 days is the norm — with many countries requiring more. The United States, on the other hand, has no legally mandated leave, and only Puerto Rico mandates any vacation time at all. While private employers often provide paid vacation time, one in four Americans are offered none, forcing them to use unpaid or sick leave.
And paid vacation days are doled out unequally based on class in America. According to the CEPR study, "Low-wage, part-time, and small-business employees are all less likely to receive paid vacations or paid holidays, and when they do receive paid time off, the amount they receive is far less generous than what is available to their higher-wage, full-time counterparts with larger employers."
In May, Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., introduced a bill that would mandate one to two weeks of paid vacation time for all Americans. Grayson's pitch for passage of the bill reflects the emerging research on the issue of vacation time.
"This is a matter of justice and equality for all Americans," Grayson said in a press release. "Sure, some Americans receive paid vacation leave, but an increasing number receive nothing at all — and this comes at a time when middle-class Americans are working harder than ever. Requiring paid vacation leave will allow workers to spend more time with their families, improve their mental and physical health, and ultimately be more productive in their workplace."
The bill has not progressed in Congress — they are currently on vacation.
EMAIL: firstname.lastname@example.com


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You guys calling the original guy an idiot are all wrong. I'm a huge horse racing fan, and racehorses wear blinkers. A carriage-pulling horse, or a jumper, wears blinders, but the hoods that some racehorses wear are indeed blinkers, which is where the term comes from.
One of the most famous racehorses of all time, Secretariat, wore blinkers in all of his races.
by FusaichiPegasusK April 02, 2005
Trending Now
Top Definition
Narrow-minded, limited perspective.
Blinkered people believe that George Bush Jr. is a good person.
by ikilled50cent April 02, 2005
People who worry about what horses wear instead of seeing that the real issue is IPod users are blinkered, because they believe there's nothing better.
Jose and Katie always speak before they think, they're such blinkered cocks, or should that be blindered?
by Omiwan April 05, 2005
okay i dont really care about the horse thing... itys just that people who think that people who buy ipods are blinkered are so blinkered THEMSELVES!
i ve got an ipod, doesnt mean im blinkered dumbass... its just means i like too much music
by xallxusedxupx April 19, 2005
Horses wear blinders not blinkers you idiot.
This retard obviously doesn't know the difference between blinders and blinkers.
by Katie April 02, 2005
A made-up word by someone who doesn't know horses. Horses wear BLINDERS, not blinkers. God, what a dumb ass.
Blinkered is a made-up word that no one uses and should not be in this dictionary.
by Jose Pendejo April 02, 2005
Horses wear blinkers. It stops them getting startled by movement in the peripheral vision. So to be described as blinkered means you are not open to other ideas, Single minded. Blinkered!
People who buy ipods are so blinkered.
by Jonny Cottingham March 01, 2005


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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mumps is a viral disease. Only humans get it. Some of the most commons symptoms are fever, headaches, swelling of the parotoid glands, sore throat, and orchitis (which means swelling of the testicles).
Mumps can be diagnosed by the increase in alpha amylase isoenzymes in blood plasma.


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Results 1 to 15 of 20
- Rep Power
- 23
English 101 ........ Help Bev !!!!!!!
Ok, first of all, I think a "car boot" is the trunk of a car .... Is that right Bev ??????????????????
Do people really have their sales from the boot of their cars rather than in the yard ???????????
- Rep Power
- 18
i always wondered what a "car boot" was!!!04-27-2003, 10:15 PM #3
- Rep Power
- 19
I think it is the trunk of a car. I believe a "car boot sale" is something like a flea market in the states. It is a gathering of people with things to sell. I am guessing it would be like a rummage sale at a parking lot, with everyone selling from their cars. I am guessing that they set up tables also.Deb
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Mahatma Gandhi04-27-2003, 11:16 PM #4
- Rep Power
- 31
Yes the 'car boot' is the trunk of a car, I don't know about the sales though.
But while we are at it, what are 'Bangers and Mash'????04-28-2003, 01:29 AM #5
- Rep Power
- 19
Bev? are you there? Help us crazy Americans understand! LOL04-28-2003, 06:00 AM #6
- Rep Power
- 16
LOL ~ I'm so happy you don't know I'm wicked aren't I LOL but half of what you say I haven't got a clue what you're on about ~ gosh aren't we different considering we all speak the same language, it amazes me still and often!
For instance I don't have a clue about coupon trading we don't use or have coupons here for anything and we don't stockpile either (I'd NEVER heard of it!) Anyway you don't care do you, you're just dying to know LOL.
I.M.Cheap has it right ~ a car boot is the trunk of the car but it's just a name we give to the sales. Someone (making a fortune) will hire a field or car park, sometimes school playgrounds etc (any large space) and advertise it in the local paper, but we have regular ones that are always on every week and then you sort out your clutter and take it in your car and set up a table, rails etc and sell to the people that come. Next time I go I'll take a pic and post it for you ~ Everyone will think I've gone mad LOL
Oh and Bangers and Mash ~ Is Sausages (bangers) and Mashed Potatoe.
DH is laughing because it's so obvious to us ~ it must be like when I was begging to know what a thrift shop and dumpster diving was to you - It really is funny isn't it.
Have you noticed we have different sense of humour as well?
I am happy you asked though because I am the ONLY person here from the UK which makes me the 'wierd' odd one out LOL.04-28-2003, 06:10 AM #7
- Rep Power
- 16
Oh you pay for your 'pitch' too - that's how the organizer makes all the money and they charge buyers to park their cars.
We worked it out once and we decided that they were collecting about £35,000 !!!!! AT LEAST!
I'm in the wrong job! LOL - I don't know how they set them up though you have to have trading licences or something???04-28-2003, 06:47 AM #8
- Rep Power
- 31
Thanks Bev!
BTW, ask anything you want, the only problem is you may get many different answers from us. The same things may have different meanings in the US, it just depends on where you live!04-28-2003, 09:53 AM #9
- Rep Power
- 18
I see that heavensent 7 has already gave the answer. I just thought I would say that here in NC we have them and what it amount to is that you pay $5 or $10 and you can sell anything that you can fit into 1 vehicle. So of course the bigger the vehicle the better you are.
Jeanna in NCJeanna
Wife to Ken for 29 years
May Grocery Budget $280
2016---The year I am going back to the basics.
Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I'll try again tomorrow. --Mary Anne Radmacher04-28-2003, 11:13 AM #10
- Rep Power
- 16
oh wow you're lucky - we have to pay double that here and the bigger the car/van the more money you have to pay.04-28-2003, 02:13 PM #11
- Rep Power
- 23
Thanks Bev !!!!!!!!!!!!! Your are the smartest British friend I have !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I love you more than anyone else in the UK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even more than Liz and Tony !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have those kind of sales too, we call them swap meets......Hey, another silly question........ I have a "$" sign on my keyboard and no "£" (copied that from your post) ......... do you have a $ sign ?????????????????????04-28-2003, 02:27 PM #12
- Rep Power
- 0
I don't post very much but I'M FROM THE UK TOO! I think there are just two of us at the moment.
Car boot sales are a big industry here - it's one of the few forms of unregulated selling (eg at point of sale, although the big organisers need licences I believe) and there are great bargains to be had, but my impression is that they are also clearance places for a lot of stolen or substandard goods. Can be great fun to browse, but I'd never buy, say, electrical items this way, or anything that was obviously being sold in batches eg perfume, as some traders use car boot sales to do this when really they intended more for private individuals. Definitely Caveat Emptor at boot sales I'd say! The small ones often run by schools and other organisations as fundraisers can be good fun and I've had some good bargains at these.
'Jumble sales' used to be very popular here too but nowadays car boot sales seem to have taken over.
Bangers and mash are a favourite in our house!
Belinda04-28-2003, 02:44 PM #13
- Rep Power
- 23
We didn't mean to leave you out Belinda.........
Please tell..... what is a Jumble sale ???????04-28-2003, 04:35 PM #14
- Rep Power
- 16
Firstly apologies to Belinda - I hadn't forgotton about you, I haven't seen you around for so long I thought you left us - I am sorry!
A jumble sale is normally held somewhere like a church hall or school to raise funds for them, so they advertise for your jumble (to give to them) and then people can go and buy it on a certain day and time and it's surposed to be REALLY cheap (like pennys) however now everybody is doing car boots and worse still eBay, jumbles have really gone downhill. Years ago my parents found antiques at jumbles now it's usually stuff that should have been thrown straight in the bin! (although I still have to go just to make sure ) AND the prices have gone up too. They're not so good anymore
I'm glad I'm your favourite (and smart ) friend. I hope I'm not the ONLY one LOL or it wouldn't be so cool ROFLMAO!
I do have both $ (above my #4) and £ (above 3) on my keyboard but there are some signs I haven't had before like copywrite sign and I found them somewhere in word. Although I can't remember how to do it right now - I'll have to look for it.04-28-2003, 04:39 PM #15
- Rep Power
- 23
You are the coolest and brightest gal in all the isles Bev !!!!!! I think your super !!!!!!!!!!!!!! If they start elections for Queen, you will have my vote !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
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China's Zhang Wins First Paralympic Gold as Storey Sets Record
China's Zhang Cuiping set a record while winning the first gold medal of the London Paralympic Games in the women's R2-10 meter air rifle standing SH1 event.
Zhang, 24, scored a final world record total of 500.9 to defeat Germany's Manuela Schmermund and Australia's Natalie Smith. The SH1 class of athletes can support the weight of their firearm themselves and shoot using a rifle or pistol.
Britain's Sarah Storey, a five-time Paralympic swimming gold medalist, set a world record in qualifying for the women's individual C5 pursuit track cycling event.
The 33-year-old covered the three kilometers (1.9 miles) in 3 minutes and 32.17 seconds at the Velodrome in the Olympic Park. Anna Harkowska of Poland was second in 3:48.885, and the pair will race today for the gold medal.
Athletes classified between C1 and C5 have an impairment that affects their legs, arms and/or trunk but can compete using a standard bicycle.
Queen Elizabeth II opened the Paralympics last night, and 28 gold medals in five sports will be awarded today. The games will run through Sept. 9, with more than 4,000 athletes from 164 teams competing.
Jonathan Fox of Britain set another world record in the men's 100-meter backstroke S7 qualifying, finishing in 1 minute,
9.86 seconds. The swimming event's final takes place in the Aquatics Centre later today.


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SDCC: Marvel: Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Panel
Comic Books
Ain't It Cool News has a lengthy and engrossing interview with Mark Waid up. I only intended to skim it and come back to it later, but I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. It covers everything from his early memories of reading comics to his current role as BOOM! editor-in-chief, and hits on maybe every major title he's worked on in between. Even his run on Ka-Zar, which I really enjoyed.
It's also very candid; if you ever wanted to know Waid's take on the "suburban" Fantastic Four/Bill Jemas debacle, working with Alex Ross on Kingdom Come or how things worked at CrossGen, it's in there. As is his take on the biggest challenge of 52:
BM: 52 was a series that featured multiple writers on the same weekly title, of which you were one. Was that a difficult challenge?
MW: Oh, it was an unbelievable challenge. But there is not one ounce of PR or fabrication in the statement, "We loved it because all four writers respected one another immensely." Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and I viewed one another as peers, each able to bring something unique to the process. But under the coordination of editor Steve Wacker (and later, Michael Siglain), we had two or three big in-person summits, participated in big conference calls each week, and kept in constant contact with one another throughout.
The biggest challenge was actually, wisely, kept from us by Steve. EIC Dan Didio, who first championed the concept, hated what we were doing. H-A-T-E-D 52. Would storm up and down the halls telling everyone how much he hated it. And Steve, God bless him, kept us out of the loop on that particular drama. Siglain, having less seniority, was less able to do so, and there's one issue of 52 near the end that was written almost totally by Dan and Keith Giffen because none of the writers could plot it to Dan's satisfaction. Which was and is his prerogative as EIC, but man, there's little more demoralizing than taking the ball down to the one-yard line and then being benched by the guy who kept referring to COUNTDOWN as "52 done right."
The whole thing makes me think that DC should have something similar to Marvel's Ultimate line, or even what Marvel is doing with characters like Thor and Hulk, by just handing them off to creators and giving them free rein over whatever. An interesting piece to read would be David Uzumeri's post on Savage Critics – http://savagecritic.com/2009/04/batman-didnt-tap-david-reviews.html
That's messed up. 52 rocked and countdown sucked. Didio really concerns me.
Ka-Zar was awesome. So hard to find now for some reason though.
About Countdown being 52 done right, most seem to focus on the quality of the final products for comparison. Remember, DiDio is EiC, not a critic or creator or fan buying the product. 52 failed miserably when you looka t it from an EiC standpoint. It was designed to fill in the gaps in everyone's stories for OYL time skip and deal with a year without the Big 3. It told a 52 week long story, but it did nothing to follow through on the premise otuside of some throw away scenes in the WWIII one-shots at the very end that were thrown together to try and do the 52 week maxiseries' job for it.
This doesn't even take into consideration non-story driven reasons. 52 didn't have any tie-ins, no crossovers or reason for readers to pick up other books, was poorly planned (story changed throughout and was not a set goal nor did it accomplish what it set out to do for OYL timeskip), had little follow up or longterm effects (Multiverse nonwithstanding as it was only shoehorned in at the very end of the last issue to set up Countdown) and, in the end, tied up the 4 biggest creators working at DC on a single project with no big payoffs otuside of the 52 issues.
In comparison, just look at what Morrison and Johns did once free of 52. Green lantern titles are now the best titles at DC and will headline the next event. MOrrison did the last event with Final Crisis and has made Batman a top seller for most of his run. Both writers sell more titles per month with their monthly work and spinoffs (entire Bat line is bolstered by having Morrison on one title upping interest, Johns was free to do JSA, Flash Rebirth, GL, Blackest Night planning, etc). 52 ate these writers' time up and limited output for all 4 of the biggest writers so they could write basically 4 books a month that required a huge time committment above and beyond what amounted to an average of one issue a month for each of them.
Countdown did similar, if lower, numbers to 52 with a fraction of the talent involved and sold boatloads of tie-ins, tied into other titles, bolstered the line by including other books (quality be damned) and was building to Final Crisis and had other spin offs and initiatives to go with it. It was also planned and more than likely running much smoother with only Dini in charge of story direction (McKeever, Beechan, etc did the heavy lifting filling out scripts though) compared to 52's ever changing and more fluid planning. Less high profile talent also means less high concepts and primadona head butting over story direction.
From an EiC standpiont, I'd take Countdown over 52 anyday. As a fan and critic, 52 is obviously better, but just look at it from DiDio's perspective and you can't say 52 was better than Countdown for the line (at least in the short term, long term, lower quality products will obviously turn off fans) since it was basically an out of continuity book off in its own bubble for a year with your biggest creators and no real affect on the rest of the line or any sustained or future profitability from tie-ins and followup projects.
The criticism that 52 didn't lead to anything would hold more weight if DC hadn't completely ignored the whole "One Year Later" branding thing in an effort to get back to the status quo as soon as possible. There's really no point in spending a year to tell a story that basically amounts to "everything ends up being the same as it always was" and no self respecting writer would spend a year of their life working on it either.
Also, 52 is going to have continued success years down the with trade sales, where nobody is buying Countdown trades. The point of comic books is to sell comics both short and long term, and to not anger your customer base. Countdown may have sold a reasonable amount of comics in the short term, but it's a complete failure on the other 2 counts.
It wouldn't hurt if DC remotely attempted to find new writers outside of their main cabal (Morrison, Johns, Rucka, Robinson, Tomasi, Gates, Simone). While Marvel's busy raising new talent like Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron and Paul Cornell, DC's putting G. Willow Wilson on a Vixen miniseries and letting Jason Aaron go after a single Penguin oneshot.
So… What does Didio have to say about all the crappy books DC has put out on his watch since 52? I mean, does he actually like stuff like Countdown, FInal Crisis, RIP, Trinity, Amazons Attack, and the continuing debacle that is JLA? Just wondering…


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Main Menu
Cafe Noir
true to its name, this blend is roasted to as dark as possible without burning it, giving it a powerful body with a deep smoky flavor.
- Lb $12.95
French Roast$11.95
this pre-roast blend is dark roasted to give it an intense body with a slightly smoky flavor.
Java Estate$12.95
we roast this pacific-rim coffee to a medium roast that gives it a full-bodied spicy finish with smoky undertones.
Old Port Blend$10.95
our house coffee and is one of our most popular. we take beans from four different regions of the world and blend them after roasting to give this coffee a full body with a slightly tart flavor with hints of nuts and chocolate.
Colombian Supremo$11.95
supremo describes the size of the bean and this bean has some big flavor. medium roasted, it is a well-balanced cup with subtle hints of caramel and vanilla.
Ethiopian Yirgacheffe$12.95
from the country that is widely believed to be the birthplace of coffee, this light roast has a medium body with a bright floral and berry finish.
Sumatra Mandelhing$12.95
medium roasted to accentuate its full-bodied characteristics. it has low acidity with a hint of earthiness.
Brazilian Sweet Yellow Deterra$12.95
this is our lightest roast and it is extremely smooth with slight sweet and nutty tones. deterra estate is a highly concerned with sustainable practices so this coffee comes stamped certified rain forest alliance and utz kapeh approved.
Tanzanian Peaberry$12.95
one of our lighter roasts. the name peaberry originates from the shape of the bean and taste has a hint of fruit.
Celebes Kalossi$13.95
a medium roast with hints of vanilla and almond.
Decaf Coffees
columbian, sumatra, espresso blend, costa rican. (all decaf coffees are prepared using the water extraction process.)
Earl Grey
- 14 Lb $6.95
Irish Breakfast$5.95
assam, a black tea grown in north eastern india, is the original name of traditional irish breakfast tea. it is robust, hearty & malty.
English Breakfast
traditional english breakfast tea is made essentially from keemun, a black tea grown in the anhui province of china. this marvelous tea is renowned for its orchid bouquet & splendid red color.
Decaf English Breakfast$9.95
this decaf keemun black tea is made using the co2 process that delivers a natural, de-caffeinated tea in the purest way possible. by varying the extraction/separation pressures & temperatures, co2 makes it possible to selectively extract only the caffeine, leaving the flavor intact
Orange Pekoe$5.95
orange pekoe tea has nothing to do with the color orange or the flavor of the citrus fruit. the original term, derived from a reference to the princes of orange, was most likely used by dutch traders to indicate fancy tea
Green Teas
green tea made in the pearl or gunpowder tradition, hand-rolled into tiny pellets that unfurl into long green banners of satisfaction. a mildly smoky tea from zhejiang province with a fresh, clean palate.
Moroccan Mint$5.95
a refreshing blend of chinese gunpowder green tea with spearmint. this traditional moroccan drink is a wonderful digestive aid, famous for its anti-heartburn properties.
Tisane / Herbal Infusions
Yerba Mate$7.95
yerba mate, a ubiquitous s. american herb with deep cultural roots is native to argentina, brazil & paraguay. highly nutritious, loaded with anti-oxidants & numerous essential vitamins, like tea, yerba mate contains matteine,
House Chai$8.95
a very traditional indian beverage made with steamed milk & sweetened to taste, masala chai literally means mixed spice tea. typical ingredients include cloves, cardamom, ginger, pepper, cinnamon and black tea.
Ginseng Chai$9.95
our house chai with an added boost of ginseng to help the immune system and overall energy.
Organic Lemon$16.95
a refreshing citrus flavored tea made with all natural with 90% citral, the good citrus! indigenous to australia.
Rooibos Red$10.95
an earthy south african herb that translates to red bush. it has a smooth & mellow taste and is indigenous to the western cape region (southern tip) of south africa.
Organic Hibiscus$14.95
originally from egypt, this herbal tea has a sweet tart sensation of flavor and is a beautiful open flower that nestles in the bottom of your cup.
classic organic peppermint leaves, pure & unadulterated with great, big flavor. use as a digestive or add to other tea or tisane.
World Peace$12.95
licorice root, cloves and lots of organic peppermint, making this great for clearing up congestion and cold symptoms.
this classic organic chamomile is made with whole egyptian flowers and is a gentle relaxant.
Maple's-gelato Pints
Vanilla Bean
Raspberries & Cream
Wild Maine Bluberry
Sea Salt Caramel Almond
Flavors Available In Scoop
Peanut Butter Cup
Lemon-glazed Gingerbread
Anise-orange Biscotti
Island Buttermilk Cakes
12 Crazy Clam Island Buttermilk Cakes$35.95
24 Crazy Clam Island Buttermilk Cakes$53.50
The Tasty Pack$28.95
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Portland, ME 04101
About Us
Welcome to "Mornings In Paris", a warm, intimate coffee shop located in the heart of Portland's 'Old Port' district. The coffee is hand roasted, many of the cakes, cookies and pastries are home made, and the service is always efficient and friendly. The atmosphere is reminiscent of a European, 'Old World Café'; a gathering place with a true neighborhood feeling where people share the local news, swap new ideas, develop friendships and enjoy good coffee and delicious food. The café is filled with work of local artisans, Parisian décor and also features a bulletin board to keep you up to date on local musical performances and events. Choose from ten different custom blends of small batch, hand roasted coffees, available by the pound or carefully crafted into your favorite latte or cappuccino. All espresso drinks are prepared on the La Victoria Arduino espresso machine, one of the finest, Italian machines of its kind. The controls are manually operated, allowing the experienced staff to fine tune your favorite espresso drink for maximum flavor.


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Apple or Google: Which professional development program is for you? - Daily Genius - 0 views
John Evans on 12 Aug 15"It's not especially easy to quickly demonstrate your education technology skills when you're not in the classroom. Sure, you may know how to effectively integrate Google Chromebooks or Apple iPads while simultaneously leveraging a project-based learning approach to STEAM subjects, but how do you actually convey that when chatting with colleagues or others?
It's not easy.
That's why many teachers are turning to professional development from the major tech companies like Apple and Google."


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Prices and availability are subject to change from the time and date that you print this page.
For Customer Service, please call 800.967.6696
Product Description
Modern and restrained in form, expressive and rustic in glaze. The artisan's hand is authentically reproduced in this stoneware pattern designed exclusively for Crate and Barrel by ceramic artist and designer Kathy Erteman at her 18th Street studio in New York City. A contemporary matte black exterior contrasts the rustic beauty of a shiny, speckled white glazed interior ringed with the subtly raised spiral associated with hand-thrown pieces. A raised clay rim features a sandy glaze that evokes the feel of exposed terra cotta. To capture the artisan look of this dinnerware, Erteman modeled prototypes to true scale by hand with her original glazes as reference for production. In the words of the designer, "When making tableware, I consider design and the rigors of daily use. The spirit of my hand in these pieces is modest, to harmonize with and act as a support to the prepared ingredients."
- Stoneware
- Dishwasher-, microwave- and oven-safe to 300 degrees
- Made in Thailand
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Return/Exchange Policy
What you need to know.
We will accept returns and exchanges of non-furniture items if:
- Non-furniture items are returned within 90 days of customer receipt.
- A valid proof of purchase is provided (see below).
- Non-furniture items are returned in good condition—unused and unwashed.
If you discover an item has a manufacturer's defect or was damaged during transit, we will accept the item for return or exchange with proof of purchase. Without proof of purchase, the item can be exchanged only for the same item. A valid photo ID is required.
We are unable to accept any items for return or exchange without proof of purchase. Items purchased as final sale cannot be returned, exchanged or repaired.
Items must be returned to the store brand where the purchase originated or by mail (if the item was ordered online or by phone and received by mail). Purchases made outside the U.S. may only be returned to the purchase location.


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In the "Today" sketch, just after the camera cuts to January, Ms. Jones can be heard whispering "what camera am I on?"
Jason Sudeikis and The Black Eyed Peas's Fergie also worked together on The Cleveland Show's pilot episode.
International airdates:
-Latin America: June 19, 2010 on Sony Entertaiment Television (a.k.a. Canal Sony).
Sketches cut after dress rehearsal: Bladdium (rerun from Megan Fox/U2); a superficial superhero (January Jones) isn't in a hurry to save others since she is obsessed with her own looks; on "The Cougar Den," the ladies (Abby Elliott, Kristin Wiig, Jenny Slate) chat with two stewardesses; two people (Jason Sudeikis, January Jones) talk about their festival located underground where no one can find it; a mother (Kristin) cooks dinner for her whiny children only to be interrupted by Mike Tyson (Kenan Thompson) who waltzes in to advertise a product; and, during production for a commercial, an actress (Jenny Slate) makes bizarre faces interrupting the process.
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