text:
Married to Elizabeth (Kokocinski) Tofil June 10, 1950.
Children - Michael, John and Edward.
Grandchildren Ryan, Daniel, Laura and Alexis.
Article Photos
SS Ship - SS Eldridge Hull 279, SS Nathan Towson Hull 1008and LCI 598
Job - First projectile man anti aircraft 5 inch 38mm
A first projectile man loaded a 58-pound projectile (27-pound powder) (51-pound projectile) round into an anti-aircraft gun mounted on a Liberty ship. Guns were used to protect the ships while in convoys from enemy air planes and submarines and non-friendly ships. Tofil participated in the American area, European Mideast, and Asiatic Pacific Campaign. He celebrated the World War II victory and was deployed for 28 months of sea duty.
Michael T. Tofil was born Aug. 30, 1926 at his home on 127 Martin St. Dunkirk. Michael was the eighth child of 13 born to Stanley and Salamea (Kucnicki) Tofil. Mike had eight brothers: Peter, George, Thomas, Joseph, Frank, Leo, Larry and Anthony. Tofil had four sisters: Sophia, Mary, Jean and Joan. As a child Mike attended St. Hyacinths Catholic School during his younger years.
When asked if he held any other jobs he had a big smile and said when he was 12 he got a job as a paperboy for the Dunkirk Evening OBSERVER. His paper route started at Main and Lake Shore and ended up on Stegelski Avenue. It was the entire first ward and consisted of 190 homes. To me 190 houses every day six days in a row at 12 years old was quite a route. Tofil also stated that along with the paper route in the summer months he also did farm work in Silver Creek, Fredonia and Westfield. He did note the paper route paid quite well at $3.50 to $4 a week.
His dream was to buy a bike so he didn't have to walk everywhere. He also did get time to play baseball for the American Legion baseball team excelling in the outfield position. High school became the Dunkirk industrial ten vocational school on Dunkirks Lake Shore Dr. E. Tofil had the opportunity to attend the machine and auto shops. High school lasted only two years. It was close to his 18th birthday so he knew school was done and his country needed him more. At 17, Michael joined the U.S. Navy.
His four brothers were also serving in the military. George was in the U.S. Army stationed in Florida. Tom also was in the U.S. Army stationed in Utah. Joe was stationed in Germany and Frank was stationed in France in the U.S. Army. Mike decided he wanted to be different and be a Navy man.
In Dunkirk, Mike got on the train and headed for the Buffalo Post Office to enlist later that evening. He was headed to Sampson Boot Camp in Geneva, N.Y. Boot camp lasted 10 weeks. The U.S. Navy felt that Tofil would serve the navy best as a first pojectile man. This job was crucial in protecting merchant vessels sending vital supplies to our military men and women in harms way. So this is what Mike learned and learned well. His last two jobs consisted of picking berries and delivering local news to the homes of Dunkirk's first ward. Now Mike's new job consisted of loading 78 pounds of high explosive round into a 5-inch 38 mm mounted on a ship.
This gun now will try to protect the ship and crew along with the ships vital cargo so that our enemies won't send this ship to the bottom of the ocean. Each Liberty ship carried eight guns as well as a 10-man gun crew. Mike was assigned to the SS George Eldridge. A liberty cargo ship with a flat bottom.
Mike met the Eldridge in Boston's harbor, from there it sailed out into the Atlantic to meet up with Mike's first convoy. The convoy route was first protected from our East Coast by our U.S. Naval warship and they kept their protection until the convoy hit Newfoundland. From there the Canadian navy coverts took over until the convoy hit the English waters. Mike said about three days out. There the British military warships provide the final convoy protection his first convoy was scheduled for Burkenhead, England.
This ship carried much needed replacement jeeps, tanks, ammo, and food. The convoy coming back was much different according to Tofil. The ships all empty, some needing to carry coal or rocks just to keep the propellers underwater. Seven to ten days later the Eldridge would find a safe N.Y. home port. The next convoy was being loaded the very next day to its destination in Antwerp, Belgium. If one kept up with war history you know that Mike's second convoy carried much needed supplies that were needed to resupply the U.S. army after it's victory at the Battle of the Bulge.
This time the return convoy took Tofil to a port in New Jersey. There the Eldridge was scheduled to report to a dry dock to have it's bottom inspected and repaired. The Eldridge had hit some submerged steel when it left its last port in Antwerp. Once the ship was in dry dock Tofil reported to his new ship the SS Nathan Towson. To Mike it was basically the same as his old ship. Ready to cross the Atlantic again he was surprised to learn that this new ship he was assigned to had orders to deliver much needed cargo to Murmansk, Russia. This convoy route took him around Sweden and ended up with a 20-mile cruise on the Kola River in Russia. Mike recalled it was summer and around seven weeks of continual sunlight lasting 24 hours, he was basically on top of our world. Much of the ships cargo was covered and mostly full crates arrived in Murmansk. He watched the dock crew uncrate and unload its valuable cargo.
Mike noticed his ship had delivered four U.S. PT boats that were brand new. Even 60 years later he still remembers the hull numbers of the PT boats; PT boat 597, 598,599 and 600. All the new boats were now on the property of the Russian Navy.
Also included in the cargo were 10 new train locomotives along with 16 train cars fully loaded with tanks, jeeps and 105 Howitzers and unlimited cases of ammo. The crew later was told that all that cargo was to supply Russian military men that were going to participate in the upcoming invasion of the Japanese mainland. In Russia the crews were allowed liberty but had to go to the only designated places approved by the Russian government.
Waiting to return to the states for new cargo orders Mike was surprised to learn that his ship was selected to sail the white sea and sail to Karachi, India. The ship had orders to pick up special selected lumber. This lumber was used to make special crates to carry equipment over the Himalayan Mountains to help with the final invasion of Japan. In order to fill the ships cargo it first headed for Cardiff, Wales. While in port in Cardiff, the Japanese military made its final surrender. The war was over, but not for Mike who was given orders to catch a Naval landing crew infantry, and report home for a 28-day leave. He so dearly learned coming back to Dunkirk meant going out with old friends and having a few drinks at the block house. The 28 days went by fast and Mike received orders to go to Shoemaker, Calif. where he learned he would be taking the SS Manhattan, a converted luxury liner, turned into a troop transport and was headed for the Philippines.
Mike ended up in Subic Bay in a staging battalion. Finally ending up on a Landing crew Infantry, while in Luzon, he had a great surprise while on all those convoys. His mail was way behind but when he was in the Philippines. His mail soon caught up with him. While reading one of his letters he learned his brother Joe Turp was also stationed there. Mike located his brother, picked him up and took him to his landing crew infantry. They spent the night there and the next day Mike showed his brother Coriggador.
The war was over for some time, yet Mike had orders to help his landing crew infantry to join a group of U.S. warships that were destined to be destroyed by an atomic bomb test. To some it was called the "bikini test." Unfortunately, Mike was spared carrying out the delivery order when he found out his father had suffered a heart attack. Mike now was on his way home, to be by his fathers side. On Aug. 1946, Mike was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy.
He returned to Dunkirk and found employment under the GI Bill with City Collision. He later landed a maintenance job with the Van Raalte Co. for 20 years until it closed. He then worked for the Ford Motor Co. of Buffalo. Then changed jobs and worked for the Plymouth Tube Plant until it went out of business.
Mike Tofil is just a great person. I could have talked to him for a day and learned so many things about what these great people had done during their military obligation. There were no regrets you just did what you were told.
Sixty years later you were proud to tell someone about it. I haven't had one veteran tell me they weren't proud of what they had done. Mike now in his 80s has a memory of a teenager being able to remember names, dates and places. Never once in this interview were there any regrets or bad parts.
While in Scotland, before he hit the Russian water route, Mike was a little frustrated because he couldn't write where he was, where he was going and what his ship was doing. One day just for fun he decided to write home a letter in Polish, knowing he wrote nothing in that letter that was against the rules. Sure enough a week later the shore patrol paid Mike a visit to report to headquarters and explain what he wrote.
This, even to this day, puts a big smile on Mike's face. Heroes like Mike Tofil who sailed the Atlantic waters in the most dangerous of times and were part of a unit that provided all the items needed to win and be victorious. Yet, if you walk by him you would never know Mike for all his hard work and loyalty to his country. I need to make Mike Tofil our local hero.


text:
Hotel Kempinski Nile
Cornish El-Nile, 12 Ahmed Raghed Street, Garden City, 115919 Cairo, Egypt |Show on the map
from €65
A variety of restaurants create signature dining experiences. The Blue Restaurant encourages ordering off-menu ? in fact, there is no menu! Simple and fresh ingredients are used to tailor-make your desired dishes. The Osmanly is Egypt?s only Ottoman restaurant, serving fragrant and flavoursome cuisine. Five bars include the sumptuous Chocolate Lounge, the Roof Pool Bar, and an elegant Jazz Bar and an Embassy Cigar Club. There is also a rooftop swimming pool, Kempinski the Spa with treatment rooms, sauna, steamroom and Jacuzzi, and a 24-hour fitness centre.
Choose your room
Share it
Tripadvisor Score Score based on 843 reviews
Services and terms: Hotel Kempinski Nile
Standard Room Services
- Air Conditioning
- Coffee & Tea Making Facilities
- Safe
- Heating
- Minibar
- Satellite TV
- Radio
- Hairdryer
- Telephone
- Television
- Video
Accommodation facilities
- Lift
- Bar/Café
- Business Centre
- Meetings Room
- Nursery
- Children's Playground
- Internet Centre
- Laundry
- Medical Service
- People with reduced mobility access
- Non-smoker Rooms
- Parking
- Restaurant
- Secretarial Service
- Spa
- Shops
Leisure facilities
- Gym
- Massage
- Swimming Pool
- Sauna
- Solarium
Useful information: Hotel Kempinski Nile
Other names for Hotel Kempinski Nile:
Kempinski Nile Garden City Cairo
Reviews: Hotel Kempinski Nile
See more nearby hotels

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Thanks, Sam's Club Samaritan
-- Thank you so much to the person who picked up our cell phone in the Sam's Club parking lot Saturday and placed it on our car mirror. We were in a panic when we discovered it was lost and so relieved to find some good, honest person had found it and put it on our car so we could find it. Can't thank you enough.
Whitehead an American hero
-- To the brother and family of Cpl. Joseph Whitehead: This young man is not just your hero, he's my and every other American's hero. Because of the fine young men and women this great country produces and their willingness to give all, we'll remain safe and free. God Bless all of our American military and their families.
Just do your job, governor
-- Gov. Bentley, it looks like we are in for a long, rocky road. Is it too much to ask for you to just do your job and keep your personal comments to yourself? Christianity isn't about putting down people with different beliefs.
Bentley has same rights
-- People are way too thin-skinned now. The governor of Alabama ought to have the same right to religious freedom that the rest of us have, and I'm not a Baptist, either.
Christians offended, too
-- I was reading about Gov. Bentley apologizing to non-Christians troubled by his comments. More than non-Christians, Christians were also troubled. Everybody is offended by this. We're used to this in Alabama, but it's very embarrassing. So it's not just non-Christians. It's other Christians who are embarrassed by him, too.
An educated redneck
-- I read Gov. Bentley's comment that if you're not a Christian, you're not his brother, and that non-Christians are troubled by his comments. We Christians should be more troubled than non-Christians. I don't want to be included in his beliefs. He's typical of the redneck American Christian. He's an educated man, but he's still a redneck in his beliefs.
Separated at birth?
-- Our new governor is beginning to sound more and more like Sarah Palin. Speak first, think later.
U.S. needs more Bentleys
-- It was a good thing Gov. Bentley talked about being a Christian. We need more people in office like him. Our forefathers came to America to be a Christian nation.
City salaries too high
-- I can't believe the city of Mobile is paying an entry level accountant nearly $40,000 a year when people out here have college degrees, master's degrees and aren't making that kind of money. Mobile needs to look back at all the people they have working for the city. They could do a lot of cutting down on salaries to save money.
Make parents pay
-- I agree with the caller who said it's time to cut out the free stuff in schools. It's time to let parents start paying for their own children. I paid for my children's things when they went to school. Nobody helped me. Why should everybody else get it for free, and I have to pay for theirs too? They should have to pay for their own.
Show us the money
-- I just wonder why every time Ken Feinberg comes down here, he doesn't have any money. He needs to stop coming down here empty-handed and help these people, instead of giving them excuses.
Oil not going away
-- Half of that $20 billion should be set aside to pay businesses along the coast for years to come. This oil isn't just going to go away after this summer. It will be washing up for years. I'm a native, and I love our beaches, but I won't stay in Gulf Shores or swim in the Gulf or let my child touch the sand or water. Put that money up for the people, because it's not over.
Tired of Siegelman, Scrushy
-- I'm so sick and tired of Don Siegelman and Richard Scrushy. They were found guilty, and they need to serve their time. They need to serve their time and get out of the paper.
Cleanliness starts at home
-- These people are always complaining about the streets being dirty. Why don't they pick up the trash in front of their houses like I do? I live in St. Elmo. I'm 73 years old, and I pick up the trash on one-quarter of the roadway in front of my house. It would be good for them. They would get some exercise.


text:
[Intro: Kanye West]
And you say Chi city!
Chi city! Chi city!
[Hook: Chris Martin]
I'm comin' home again
Do you think about me now and then?
Do you think about me now and then?
'Cause I'm comin' home again
(Min' home again)
Sampling a line from Common's "I Used To Love H.E.R.", Kanye uses extended metaphor to describe his feelings for Chicago, his home, by pretending that it's a lost girlfriend.
'Ye had these lines kicking around for a while: they originally appeared on his Debut mixtape Get Well Soon.. (which was made up of material recorded before The College Dropout) in a song called "Home".
For "Homecoming", he replaced that song's soul sample with a looped piano, switched out the John Legend hook for a different one from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and rerecorded his original verse as two separate verses.
Sadly, Kanye – even when you go back to your old love – when Time has moved on, you can't go home again..


text:
GG supreme stars canvas flat messenger bag
Eco-friendly fashion meets function in our gg supreme stars canvas flat messenger bag. Our new sustainable signature fabric adds stylish verve, while the go-everywhere shape makes for endless pairing possibilities. Wear yours with dark jeans and an easy muslin top for around-town elegance.
- beige/ebony GG supreme stars canvas, made using an earth-conscious process
- light blue leather trim
- light fine gold hardware
- beige cotton linen lining
- adjustable shoulder strap
- side and top zipper closure
- gucci trademark leather tag detail
- small size: W28cm x H25cm
Select size Select size Shipping methods and fees Add to shopping bag Photo unavailable Unavailable


text:
- Dump your black tank but leave the valve open.
- Hold a section of your dump hose above the level of the black tank outlet.
- Open the gray water tank valve. The water will rush into you black tank.
- After a second or two, close your gray water tank valve.
- Allow your black water tank to drain.
- Open your gray water tank valve again and finish dumping.
Be sure to sign up for the weekly RV Travel Newsletter, published continuously every Saturday since 2001. Click here.
Huge RV parts & accessories store!
You have never seen so many RV parts and accessories in one place! And, Wow! Check out those low prices! Click to shop or browse!
You have never seen so many RV parts and accessories in one place! And, Wow! Check out those low prices! Click to shop or browse!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Flush your black water tank the easy way
1 comment:
NO NO NO!!!! This is a terrible recommendation as written, and no different than leaving your endcap on and opening both valves! Allowing your grey water to run across into your black tank means you're also allowing your black tank's sludge to wash the other direction and infect your grey tank. No, you don't drink out of your grey tank either, but I sure don't want "doo" backwashing in places it doesn't belong!ReplyDelete
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
It's almost that time again, Gaston residents- the Gaston Grad Night Auction and Spaghetti Feed dinner is coming on up Saturday.
According to Kathy Delay, member of the graduation night committee, proceeds support the Gaston Scholarship Foundation and pay for the class of 2014's party.
"It's our main fundraiser for being able to provide them with a drug and alcohol free graduation night," Delay said.
Here are five things to know about the event.
- This year's auction and dinner is March 15. The dinner is from 5 to 7 p.m., with the auction starting at 6. The event is at Gaston Jr/Sr High School and will feature a live auction, silent auction and raffle.
- Tickets are cheaper if you buy them in ahead of time, Delay said. Advance prices are $6 for a single ticket or $25 for a family. At the door on the night of the auction, tickets are $7 for a single of $30 for a family. Tickets can be purchased at the jr/sr high office or from any member of the senior class. Delay said the committee is planning for 300 people to attend.
- This year's theme is Luck of the Irish, Delay said, as the dinner is right before St. Patrick's Day. Expect decorations to fit the theme, but no need to dress accordingly.
- Each of member of the class of 2014 will contribute items for the auction, Delay said. The approximately 35 seniors are each asked to put together a themed basket, such as treats for a movie night or gift cards. This year the auction also has items from local vineyards and a package of truck flares, Delay said.
- It will be the 19th annual dinner and auction, Delay said. Last year the auction raised about $14,000.
--Laura Frazier


text:
The Music of Olivier Messiaen
November 24 Podcast
Tim Reidy visits Symphony Space [3], a concert hall in New York, for a centennial celebration of the music of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), a Catholic composer who, in the words of Father John Coleman, sought to use music to "communicate the mysteries of Christ to non-believers." The artistic director of Symphony Space, and two of the artists who took part in the centennial performance, discuss the spiritual power of Messiaen's work, and what makes him unique among twentieth-century composers. Includes samples from "Visions de l'Amen" and Messiaen's groundbreaking "Quartet for the End of Time." Read Father John Coleman's article on Messiaen [4] in our Nov. 24 issue.
"Le Merle Noir" [6]
Excerpted performances of Messiaen's work are widely available on Youtube. Here are samples of the compositions discussed during the podcast:
"Le Merle Noir" [6]
"Quartet for the End of Time" [7]
"Visions de l'Amen"


text: I went to the police rescue unit to take pictures of a Humboldt penguin, which is on the endangered list, that had been rescued a few days earlier from a beach full of bathers, very far from its natural habitat. The police chief told me, "We're going to free it. Come with us." Lima, Peru, is a city on the edge of the Pacific, with buildings and beaches full of summer tourists, traffic, noise and heat…and amidst all that, Tomas appeared.


text:
Energy Trust of Oregon teamed up with the Oregon State Library in 2010 to provide Kill A Watt energy monitors that can be borrowed, like a book, at more than a hundred libraries around the state. They have now expanded to 21 locations.
"Using these energy monitors is eye opening and a great way to learn where household energy costs can be trimmed," said Marshall Johnson, residential program manager, Energy Trust. "We are excited that so many library patrons throughout the state have an opportunity to try it out for themselves."
The Kill A Watt is simple to use: plug it into an electric socket, then plug the electronic device to be measured into the Kill A Watt. The monitor shows how much energy the device is using in kilowatt hours, the same measurement used on electricity bills. Those numbers can be calculated to show energy costs by hour, day, month or year.


text:
This deal is expired!
The deal below has expired, but no worries. You can still check out available coupons and "follow" the store to receive alerts for future offers.
Merry Products 3-pc. Stained Bistro Set
Use code SUMMER15FUN 15% off
Use code GIFT4U20 20% off
Use code GIFT4U20 20% off
Flag this deal
What's the matter?


text:
Sarah G. Balzano
Sarah G. Balzano, 87, Dysart, died Sunday at UPMC Altoona.
She was born in Dean, daughter of the late Howard and Julia (Funicelli) Swires.
Surviving are four children: Phil (Cheryl Sutton) of Ashville, Ted (Mary McCloskey) of Gallitzin and twins Sallie Bender (Tim Burkhart) of Carrolltown and Susan Balzano (Jim Risban) of Gallitzin; 11 grandchildren, including a grandson, Greg Shingle, who resided with her; 12 great-grandchildren; and two brothers: Daniel (Dottie) of Benton and Tim (Sherry) of Fallentimber.
She is also survived by two sisters-in-law: Judi Swires of Dysart and Joyce Swires of Ashville; a brother-in-law, Paul Niebauer of Ebensburg; and numerous nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Paul, on Jan. 7, 1978; a son-in-law, John Bender; a grandson, Andy Reed; five brothers: Theodore, Thomas, Ralph, Alan and Henry; and two sisters: Margaret Dillon and Marian Niebauer.
Sarah worked at the Ebensburg Center for 15 years and retired in 1987. She enjoyed crocheting and spending time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Friends will be received from 4 to 8 p.m. today, April 22, 2014, at Gibbons Funeral Home, Ashville. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, 2014, at St. Augustine Catholic Church, the Rev. Joseph Fleming as celebrant. Committal will be in St. Thomas Cemetery, Ashville.
Sarah G. Balzano
Sarah G. Balzano, 87, Dysart, died April 20, 2014, at UPMC Altoona.
Arrangements by Gibbons Funeral Home are incomplete. A complete obituary will appear in Tuesday's Mirror.


text:
Honeymoon in Ibiza
Where to eat, sleep, and play on this Spanish isle
Ibiza, Spain
Ibiza might be a speck of an island, but its reputation as the epicenter of hip is huge. This Balearic Island gem was first frequented by the idealistic flower-power generation, and the drummers who congregate on Benirras Beach (to greet its fab sunsets with mesmerizing rhythms) keep that era's ethos alive. These days, a modern version of love, but not much peace, can be found in the pumping club culture that has made Ibiza a mecca for international DJs, serious clubbers, and party-circuit celebs. Hedonism is alive and kicking if you want it, but many parts of the island are tranquil chill-out zones. Away from Ibiza Town and San Antonio, you'll find small villages of whitewashed houses, and many unspoiled craggy coves where the only sound you'll hear is the quiet lapping of the crystal-clear Mediterranean.
Seductive Places to Stay
Rod Stewart is just one of many celebs who've enjoyed upscale Ibizan chic—with a touch of Eastern Zen—at the 65-room Hotel Hacienda Na Xamena (doubles from $400, 011-34-971/33-45-00, hotelhacienda-ibiza.com). Ibiza's only five-star property offers an intimate vibe, especially if you splurge on one of the 15 private-pool suites. If silence and spirituality are what you crave, then follow Sadie Frost (Jude Law's ex-wife) and retreat to Ibiza Yoga's Villa Palmas (one week from $8,200, 44-020-7-419-0999, ibizayoga.com). This Moorish-style villa nestled amid pines above Benirras Beach offers outdoor decks to perfect downward dogs. It also has a private pool, a personal chef, and acclaimed yoga instructors who will teach you tantric secrets if that's your bent.
Bare-What-You-Dare Beaches
Ibiza has a whopping 50 beaches, and going topless is okay on all of them. But just two encourage you to entirely ditch your duds. Playa des Cavallet in the south is the only official nudist beach, but going au naturel is also customary in the north on Agua Blanca, a long, pretty bay flanked by high cliffs.
Totally Indulgent Spa Experiences
Las Cascadas Suspendidas, Hotel Hacienda Na Xamena's series of minilakes terraced down a cliffside, offers spectacular views of the sea. This hydrotherapy journey takes 40 minutes, with each saltwater pool's jets dedicated to a different body part. When you arrive at the bottom, book a sunset massage in one of three Balinese chill-out pagodas.
Red-hot Nightspots
Pacha (pacha.com) is the Ibizan club you cannot miss. With its hip double-cherry motif, three-decades-old Pacha (which now has a hotel, restaurant, magazine, clothing, and CDs bearing its iconic logo) has not lost a bit of its panache. The talent lineup is stellar: Jade Jagger has hosted Friday dance sessions called Jezebel, while leading New York DJs regularly spin funk, soul, mellow house, and hip-hop.
Decadent Dishes
Your pulse will quicken as you enter the bamboo-filled gardens of Balinese-inspired Bambuddha Grove (bambuddha.com) and peek at the sexually explicit sculptures in the Khajuraho Lounge or the shop selling erotica. Then it's time to wrap your fingers around two pairs of chopsticks and feed each other Thai, Japanese, Indian, or Indonesian dishes. Be sure to leave room for a Group Orgasm: Just as tasty for two (although it feeds four), this sinfully delish dessert platter is laden with tiramisu, chocolate truffles, peach-and-apple tarte tartin, and lime cheesecake.
- Keywords:
- Honeymoon Ideas,
- Europe,
- Spain,
- Beach Honeymoons,
- Active Honeymoons


text: Classroom examples embed research-based practices within the teaching and learning process. The examples are grouped by competency area. They include linkages to appropriate assessment tool(s) and instructional resources. Find examples at your grade/tier level, adapt them to your teaching situation and materials, or use the examples as a point of departure for planning your own lessons.


text:
There's a lot going on in Kenner.
This incorporated Jefferson Parish city has always been a heady mix of history and modern living spanning the terra firma between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
But don't think of Kenner as a placeholder between two great bodies of water. Kenner has much to offer potential buyers as a place to reside, work, raise a family and make a life that has the benefits of city life but the also the pastoral personality of a quiet suburb.
And Realtors familiar with the area all point to the fact that buyers are showing increased interest in the area and are taking advantage of the many amenities that Kenner has to offer.
For the buyer looking to put down roots, Kenner is rich with homes in every price range and style, from single-family dwellings to condominiums, gated communities, upscale golf developments and new construction — something not found in all sections of the greater metropolitan New Orleans area.
Kenner has much to brag about, from a rich past to a promising future.
Matching the diversity of homes and home styles is a commercial sector that is a cornucopia of eateries, boutiques, national retailers, unique local shops and everything imaginable in between.
Education, health care and entertainment offerings also make living in Kenner a smart choice for many families.
And if the desire for something different becomes too strong, major thoroughfares connect Kenner with the rest of Jefferson Parish and the entire state. Or hop a plane at the airport and get away from it all for while, knowing home is close by upon return.
First-time home buyers have been taking advantage of good prices, beneficial lending rates and plentiful properties. Prices for the properties were often at attractive rates, allowing the new owners to stretch their dollar and get more house for the money.
"On average, the houses in Kenner are selling for . . . on average of $100 per square foot," said Susan LeBreton of COLDWELL BANKER TEC Realtors. "For buyers, that makes Kenner a very attractive location — they can get a comparable-size home for less money, particularly for first-time home buyers who are looking at their pennies."
Prices for first-time homes in the area are generally around the $200,000 point, with Realtors noting heavy activity anywhere from $150,000 to $250,000.
The numbers tell a good tale.
"More than 50 percent of the homes sold since July 1, 2009, have sold under $200,000 — that was in Chateau Estates, Chateau Lakefront and Grandlake Estates," said Carolyn Talbert of KELLER WILLIAMS Realty. "They had 72 sales. There are 39 under contract in the same locations and 50 percent are listed around $250,000."
And as these properties sell, sellers are opting to move up to larger, higher-ticket homes. This generates more activity in the upper price ranges and the cycle goes on.
Patience has led to some sellers and buyers to the point where it is time to make the decision. Realtors say those in the home game were waiting to see what would happen with prices and the economy.
But for many, the wait is over.
"People are so over what could be," said Michele Branigan of LATTER & BLUM, Inc., Realtors. "There's much more confidence in the economy here. We don't necessarily reach the norm of what's happening in the rest of the nation."
That confidence is bringing people to the open houses and the viewings on properties.
It is also bringing people to the table to close the deal on a new home.
Getting to the table is important at this time because the clock is ticking on the federal first-time home buyer tax credit. And that is spurring people to make a decision.
"People are trying to get busy and take advantage of the $8,000 tax benefit because that will sunset very soon," said PRUDENTIAL GARDNER Realtors' Linda Martin.
To qualify for the credit, timing is crucial. A Realtor familiar with the area and the timeline is invaluable. They can point buyers in the direction of lenders who can facilitate the loan and appraisal process to get to act of sale by Nov. 30.
And that home in Kenner can be a reality and a tax savings.
By Victor M. Andrews
Special Sections staff writer
Victor Andrews can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Obama Hypocritical In Using Children
Editor, News-Register:
I have to laugh! Have you noticed how often President Obama uses children when he thinks it can advance his radical policies? A prime example is when he implies that massive numbers of children will go to bed hungry if the expanded "food stamp" program is curtailed.
Also, children will not receive adequate medical care if Obamacare is not implemented. He also wants us to believe that our children will continue to suffer if we don't allocate more money to improve our educational programs. Even though, we spend more educational money per child than any country in the world (except for Switzerland).
His most recent example of using children to persuade Congress and the American people that military action against Syria is necessary because chemical weapons are being used to kill Syrian children.
My question to President Obama: Why is he concerned about Syrian children when he advocates and supports abortion that results in the horrible death of millions of American children.
What a hypocrite!
Bob Guio


text:
Rick Jacobs to No on 8 Leaders: 'Do Not Try to Run This Again. Ever.'
QUEERTY REPORTS — Rick Jacobs isn't your average run-of-the-mill critic of the No on 8 campaign. As founder of the Courage Campaign, a progressive netroots organization with over 300,000 members that partners with labor, religious and netroots groups, Jacobs is in a unique position to look at what went wrong with the No on 8.
Like many groups, the Courage Campaign offered its support and services to the No on 8 Campaign, but felt largely rebuffed. When the Jacobs saw that the Mormon Church was donating unprecedented sums of money through its members to Prop 8, the Courage Campaign created a television ad featuring two Mormon missionaries invading a lesbian's home and taking their marriage certificate and rings from them. It would be the only large-scale criticism of the Mormon Church before the election.
Queerty spoke with Jacobs about No on 8, why the leaders of the campaign owe us an apology and what the gay community needs to do next.
QUEERTY: What was the Courage Campaign's involvement with Prop. 8 both before and after the election?
Rick Jacobs: In August of this year, we made a very clear choice. We have considerable online organizing expertise and relationships in progressive communities and groups across the state and nation. We work closely with MoveOn.org, SEIU/United Healthcare Workers-West, California Nurses Association, SCLC of Greater LA and many others. We could have offered a great deal to the No on 8 campaign, but having tried to "break in,†I decided not to push any more.
I feel bad about that. Had we all broken down the doors, things might have been different. We worked with the campaign, but were never allowed into the inner sanctum.
As we saw the situation deteriorate, Courage decided to take on the leadership of the Mormon Church very directly. The Church leadership had pushed its members to donate as much as $22 million and to make calls and knock on doors. The official campaign would not take the church on, so we did.
We worked closely with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of LA. We got 17,000 people to sign a letter calling on the president of the church to stop breaking the ninth commandment, not condone blackmail and stop using the church to take rights away from a minority. We were not allowed to deliver the letters at the temple in L.A. (">see the videos on our site), so we found two wonderful ex-Mormons who had been excommunicated for being gay. They delivered the letters in SLC in front of five TV cameras.
Then the next day, on November 1, we put up on YouTube the now famous ad, "Home Invasion", that depicts two Mormon missionaries ripping wedding rings off of the fingers of lesbian couple and ransacking their house to find and destroy their marriage license. We found some money to run the ad on election day. This forced the Mormon Church to make its first public statement about the campaign. And we were even attacked by Bill Donahue.
The ad has gotten over 450,000 YouTube views and framed the church leadership as out of touch and over reaching for its interference in our state. The ad was written, directed and produced for under $1,000 by volunteers.
It was the only ad in the entire season that showed a same-sex couple. After the election, the LA Times editorial criticizing the No on 8 campaign said this was the only "hard-hitting ad†of the campaign, and it was not even an official.
After the defeat, we put up a pledge to repeal Prop. 8, which has now garnered more than 325,000 signers. We worked with Credo Mobile and MoveON.org and intend to make it the central organizing element of the campaign.
We continue to work very closely with many allies in labor and elsewhere to assure that the next campaign is bottoms up, a peoples' campaign.
And just what exactly is the Courage Campaign anyway?
I have a long and varied background in business and politics. I quit my job managing money and businesses to chair Howard Dean's presidential campaign here in California in 2003. That experience changed my life. I saw the power of movement politics, the hunger for truth and the reality of the Internet as an organizing tool.
I founded the Courage Campaign three years ago as a vehicle by which to bring the energy of the 2004 campaign back into California. We always export labor and capital and we never build political infrastructure here. In August 2007, we had 26,000 or so people on our list; today, we are close to 400,000. We exist to make California more progressive and governable. Right now, it is neither.
Equality California had a meeting with its Board of Directors last weekend and its begun asking people to submit the names and contact info of grassroots, netroots leaders to them. Are the "traditional" gay organizations doing enough?
I am not aware of Equality's meeting. EQCA announced a "summit†of all interested in parties around repealing Prop. 8 to occur in LA on 24 January. It's a huge list and growing. I have no idea of the purpose or intended outcome. One thing is clear: no one organization or group "owns†this movement, nor should it.
The next phase is a movement, a real bottoms-up movement that organizes and builds not just in the LGBT communities, but with all progressive communities. We cannot win our rights back unless we are out of the ghetto, ready to learn what's important to others.
Here in California, we face a record budget deficit. Already, 250,000 kids are in danger of losing their healthcare. Hundreds of thousands of poor and elderly who depend on MediCal have lost many of their benefits. If you cannot get medical care or a job or graduate from school, you are not likely to be too concerned about gay people getting married.
Activists for marriage equality have to learn about the needs and cares of others and have to be relevant to those needs. That's how we get to know each other and, as we saw in MILK, that's how we build power.
You've been a critic of the No on 8 campaign. Why?
Continued criticism of the No on 8 is useful as a means by which to learn what not to do next. It is not useful to get personal or unprofessional about the critiques. My friend Andy Rappaport said after the 2004 presidential election, if something does not work after having tried it several times, the only thing you know for sure is not to dump a lot of money into that same strategy again.
Obama turned presidential politics on its head after learning what worked and what did not for Dean. The Obama campaign in no way resembled the failed Kerry campaign What we do next must resemble the Obama campaign.
We must catalyze and build the grassroots/netroots movement and we must have smart political leadership. We need both. The organizations that ran the last campaign must not run the next one. And the next campaign began on November 5th. The last campaign consisted largely of an executive committee of executive directors of LGBT organizations. They did not include actively labor and other progressive allies. The campaign was top down and insular. That cannot happen again.
Lori Jean of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center is against a ballot proposition to overturn Prop. 8, fearing that it would give the Supreme Court a chance to "punt" their decision in March. Is she right?
We cannot wait for the court to rule. That's why the Courage Campaign is organizing now to build a million people to sign a pledge to repeal Prop. 8. If the court rules in our favor, we'll need that deep support in order to fight the right wing attacks. If it does not, we'll need to go to the ballot. And the next time, we will win.
Explain to me the value of your petition as opposed to or in concert with legal battles?
Our pledge shows that already hundreds of thousands of people actively want to repeal Prop. 8. Each of those people represents several more friends or family members. We will have a million or more people sign that pledge.
As I said, if the courts are with us, we'll turn that force into a defense of the court's proper ruling. If not, we'll put it on the ballot.
Courage is building a training program, called Camp Courage, modeled after Camp Obama. Our first training will occur in January in L.A., followed quickly with others. Torie Osborn, a long time hero of the LGBT and progressive movements who worked for two months full time in the Obama campaign in California, is building and leading the trainings. With our allies in labor and elsewhere, we are building a field program that can engage everyone who wants to work.
This is a movement. It needs infrastructure. Together with friends such as Sal Rosselli at UHW and California Nurses Association, with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Delores Heurta, and many others, we are building that program.
None of the Prop. 8 leaders have taken responsibility for the loss. Should they? What would you do if you were in their position?
Even John McCain took personal responsibility for the failure of his campaign. I have said on several occasions to the self-proclaimed leaders of the campaign—Lorri and Geoff and others who were out front with the media a lot—they needed to take responsibility for the failure. Instead, they issued statements saying they were victims of a tough campaign full of lies from the other side. Well, guess what, the other side won and we lost. Of course they were tough and lied. Take responsibility and let the chips fall where they may.
Failure does not entitle you to run another campaign. Offer your advice and lessons learned, but do not try to run this again. Ever.
You've become a leader to many of the grassroots folks. What should they be doing? In short, where does the gay movement go now?
We have a golden opportunity now to build a real progressive movement that fires on all cylinders. As I have said to folks who ask me, first, don't ask permission. If you want to do something, do it. Ask forgiveness. Second, we need organizing principles and infrastructure. The Courage Campaign was built to provide both. We have nearly 400,000 online members who care deeply about this issue and for the most part for building a progressive California. California cannot be considered progressive when it takes rights and healthcare away from people.
The next steps:
1. Train. Courage is providing a vehicle for that as I described above. Whatever you want to do, whether it's contact your neighbors, religious groups or make calls, train.
2. Use the pledge as an organizing tool. The power of having one thing, one document to get signed, makes this all very much simpler. When you canvass in your neighborhood through tools that we will provide (we use the same software provider as the Obama campaign), you can ask them to sign the pledge. If they won't, you can learn why and go back. When you go to a church, your goal is to get people to sign a pledge. They may not the first time, but some will. And those will be our allies inside of that church to help grow and learn and win.
3. Organize. Get your friends and some who are not to work together to change minds. Learn how to organize by training.
4. Make the 139,000 or so people in the central valley who voted no on 8 our friends. Help them to organize.
5. Lend your creativity. We are wildly creative community. Let's use it.
There is more, but this is a good start. Together, we will win.
Joe Moag
This is a welcome, welcome sign! Looks like that, in the wake of the disaster, more and different groups, with more and different talents, are getting seriously involved to push this thing forward.
I will be feeling much more assured about our ultimate victory know that folks like this – not the Center in L.A. – are playing huge roles.
Looks like they got the brains and the stones to take on the fundies and to organize at the grassroots level, two GLARING failures of the Vote No campaign "leaders"/idiots.Dec 11, 2008 at 9:47 am · @Reply ·
"Netroots"! LOL! Hilarious! It's so easy to stand up for what's right when you're sitting down.
The self-proclaimed "Grand Poo-bahs" of this "movement" should be grilled by our own gay media. The complete arrogance and their utter failure has destroyed Gay California's families and these gay leaders must step down! They're complete disorganization to this blind-siding Yes on Prop H8 campaign cannot maintain Egos over the Equal Rights Marriage Movement which is now Stonewall 2.0
Lorri and Geoff must resign their posts!
Thanks for this interview, and kudos to Rick Jacobs and the Courage Campaign.
The gay equality movement's old guard has failed spectacularly, and lost credibility and power. While the hasty and ad-hoc calls for for national days of protest are necessary in the interim, this will not be sufficient to deliver us to victory in 2010 and beyond. For that, we need not only unity and courage, but also vision, organization, and skilled leaders.
Jacobs and the Courage Campaign are standing up to fill the void. They offer a vision of how to win elections–grassroots, netroots, small-donor armies, progressive alliances, well-trained and effective leaders and activists–and they rightly point to this model's electoral successes.
I say we give this model a try.
Excellent interview and how blessed we are to have an ally like Rick Jacobs. Everything he said made TONS of sense, and logic. This is far too important of an issue to leave to the same failed leaders of the LGBT status quo. We need EVERYONE's help, and it should most definitely not be about EGO. It needs to be about RESULTS.
I remember the postings to Utube when the video came out. It made for some very amusing reading! Interesting how the perpetrators of the assault on civil rights insisted they were the victims!
Finally, somebody who isn't stuck in the two-dimensional 'lobbyist' thinking that has plagued organizations like Equality California and Human Rights Campaign. Bravo, Mr. Jacobs!
The fact these establishment idiots were actually against having a million signatures on "stand by" (in case the Supreme Court rules against us) is a testament to how out of touch with reality they are. You cannot focus solely on the courts and legislatures because those institutions are influenced by civil society.
And if you cede Main Street to the religious right, it makes life that much harder for judges and lawmakers who are sympathetic to this cause. They might be sympathetic. But they're not insane. No heterosexual wants to lose their livelihood or destroy their career over us. And before we ask them to stick their neck out, we need to give them cover fire.
My nomination for the emptiest, most self-reverential, self-delusional word of the decade: "netroots."
It's a medium NOT the message, but it's suddenly become the hollow Golden Calf that too many are worshipping. Its only real use politically? As an electronic Town Crier [go here when], raising money, and spreading propaganda [including our own], half-truths, and outright lies. YouTube is ENTERTAINMENT and AFFIRMATION of what we already believe. NO ONE who is antigay has ever had/will ever have their bigotry washed away in a five-minute mashup.
When elections actually take place on the Internet; when religio-Troglodytes stop meeting and deepthroating homohatred in "brick and mortar" places; when gay and transgender blood stops flowing in the STREETS—call me.
@seitan-on-a-stick: Agree completely that gay media should be asking some really, really tough questions of the leaders of the dismal no-on-8 campaign.
This interview was fantastic – viva la Rick Jacobs. I wanna go to Camp Courage!
@Leland Frances: I think you are missing the point of Jacobs and other criticisms of the No-on-8 campaign. It is not that they didn't use the Internet. It is that they were afraid to appeal to large numbers of people and potential allies whom they presumed wouldn't be responsive to their message, and that they were afraid to based their appeals unapologetically on the real lives of same-sex couples. After viewing a few of their wishy-washy TV ads which presented a vague message of how discrimination is wrong and not in keep with our values, and in which no self-identified gay person appeared, I decided not to contribute to the campaign. But when the tide began to turn toward passage of the proposition, in response to pleas on this and other site — and against my better judgment — I twice donated to the official campaign. I wish I'd known about the Courage Campaign or other more progressive alternatives to support.
Sorry, I should have made clear that, despite my disagreement with Jacobs implied belief in the power of "netroots," I TOTALLY agree that the NoOn8 Politburo fucked up BIG TIME, and have only made it worse by refusing to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.
And one of his main messages, TRAIN to win/LEARN how to is vital.
On the other hand, what, MJ, does "…base[] their appeals unapologetically on the real lives of same-sex couples" mean? Which same-sex couples would you have chosen? Fister & Fistee? Pisser & Pissee? Sister Take My Picture! & Sister NO, Take MY Picture! Bull Dyke & Baby Butch?
And WHERE do you get your belief that portraying any "real lives" would have done any better? Certainly not from any respected research.
If your answer is: "From seeing how Harvey Milk vanquished the Briggs Initiative in the movie 'Milk'," the problem is:
1. He campaigned solo except for lesbian Sally Gearhart who was sometimes with him, obviously not his lover, and, entirely, rudely missing from the film.
2. The film's message that Harvey defeated Briggs is a myth. The tide turned after STRAIGHT establishment figures like Jerry Ford, Jimmy Carter, amazingly the then Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, and, most importantly, as much as I hate to say it, Ronald Reagan [EVIL man that he was] came out against it. Within a month of that happening, the percentage of pro Briggs supporters dropped some 20%.
The foregoing is not just to correct cinematic historical distortions and hagiagraphy, but to also illustrate another of Mr. Jacobs points: the need to get out of the gay ghetto [even if its primarily has cyber streets] and form coalitions with influential nongays. Some have already pointed out the failure of the NO numbskulls to use the opposition to 8 of Obama and even Schwarzenegger. How many know that the state NAACP was against 8? Probably few of the blacks who voted for it.
They didn't learn from the past; they didn't smartly utilize the present; but spent $40 million to lose.
Hey, but I have a t-shirt!
"The organizations that ran the last campaign must not run the next one."
Let me be clear. Are you saying they must not be involved at all? What successful field campaigns has Rick Jacobs ever run? Just because we're mad, doesn't mean we should put all our eggs in this basket.
Who won the court case? Who won civil unions? Who passed marriage bills in the legislature twice? Who have been providing essential services to the LGBT community for years? Who moved support for the freedom to marry from 38.6% to 47.7% in less than a decade? LGBT organizations. Cut them out, and our community is a hollow shell.
And is there ANY EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that the Mormon ad convinced a single undecided voter?
Everyone I talked to found it completely offensive.
When you set up the debate as gay versus religion, religion will win every time.
Next time, let's learn from the past. But let's be smart, and sober.
@Leland Frances: This may sound more cynical than it's meant to be, but it's just how advertising works.
My casting call would be looking for:
A. Cute Lesbian couple; mid-thirties, one blonde, one mixed race, with two-year-old daughter, baking a cake.
B. Cute elderly Gay couple; 60-70, one white, one hispanic or middle-eastern, not too much facial hair or wrinkles, walking hand in hand on beach.
C. Cute Lesbian couple, late forties, black or Latina, gardening in back yard with dog.
All of this sounds cloying and cliche, and it is. Contrast it with the opposition, preferably red-faced screamers from Youtube or talk shows (use grainy film stock), and people will naturally want to distance themselves from Yessers who are trying to destroy those nice people.
Very clever grasshopper…you have done a great job of obfuscation, specious phrasing, and trolling with other elegantly wrapped BS.
But you are still a pathetic little man trying to justify what he knows is wrong.
Not even many of the other perverts like you! LOL
@Pat: Who did you talk to?
@Pat: Wow… and sober. Loser.
Y'all are like caricatures of Will's little buddy Jack. Kind of amusing but mostly just pathetic.
@Ura Bigliar: I'm an aquired taste.
Greybat: forget Example A. because of the child. "Gays' influence on kids…every child needs a Mommy AND a Daddy" may be crap but enough believe it that we don't need to try to cool two hot button issues at the same time.
I like C., particularly because it's a couple of color, and because they're less-threatening women.
And, as I've written in other posts, the hell the white partner of black civil rights legend Bayard Rustin had to go through to be let into his hospital room could have been used as a cross-racial example.
B. has possibilities, and, tho the gender was different, the campaign had a brilliant opportunity right in their own backyard and still mindbogglingly failed to use them in the campaign tho they had been profiled publicly in both 2004 and 2008 as the first couple deserving to be married because of what they'd done for the movement:
Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin…together over 50 years, on both sides of 80-yrs. old…"Mom, Dad, they look like Grandma…."
The organizational establishment repeatedly failed to use them; will fresh, younger minds overcome their ageism and self-righteousness not to make the same mistake?
Actually, I felt remiss in not giving at least one other couple offspring…maybe the two old guys with their adult son and daughter-in-law and a couple of grand kids.
The problem the Yessers have is they don't understand that these are real people with real kids and grandkids, just like them.
It's still a fairly new idea, albeit one that's been happening for hundreds of years. The idea is to normalize the new, and to put people who look like your conception of family in plain view.
The angry catholic father who storms over to the television, because two ladies are throwing a frisbee to the dog isn't selling his product very well, because his kids are likely to view HIM as the unreasonable one.
So that would be my goal if I were creating the film. To introduce dialogue into the home, in spite the the Yessers desire to keep it in the closet.
After all, they invaded our homes first.
@Leland Frances: You may know gay history, but your knowledge on the subject of the netroots is not up to par.
The reality is that for over a decade the Democrats ran the types of campaign's that no on 8 ran.
Then along came the netroots, who fought, and pushed for grassroots efforts. That's all the netroots are. Grassroots people using new communication tools.
You insult these people, but guess what- they got people elected, they raised money, they founded methods for oganization later adopted by the Obama campaign that led to the first black President in U.S. history to be elected.
I simply do not understand your distain. No one is saying that this is the only tool we should be using. They are saying it is one of our tools. It's about not being top down as No on 8 was.
One of the reasons it was top down is precisely because they were not using these new tools of communications. The netroots is not only sites like daily kos, it is sites like Act Blue that raised over a million dollars to fight yes on 8.
It's tools for collecting vote identitification data to register new voters, convince sporadic voters to vote, and GOTV drives. It's allerting people to incidents that maybe happening, letting people know where resources can be added, etc. It's alot of grass roots things that I question whether you appreciate.
During election day, it was sites like Daily Kos which was telling people to go to certain precincts or report what was happening. It was sites like Calistics which was reporting on what was happing with Yes on 8. It was efforts by websites like bilerico.com that was pushing and questioning No on 8.
Rather than poo-pooing something you do not understand (your statements indicate you have a limited grasp of what netroots means), why not find out more about it. Its not a miracle cure. It's a method for better organization that allows for local connection. For example, Obama's innovation was to use these methods to create what was called the neighbor to neighbor program. Are you familiar with it?
@Pat: a) The mormon ad was released to late and in a limited market because the courage campaign was not brought on until late. And it was only because the campaign put forth the effort to raise the dough. b) As for the Mormon ads- yes they were highly effective. The ones claiming we would corrupt little children shifted the discussion. The LA Times among others have run articles on the subject of the impact of ads in the race and what happened. They also exit interviews- quite a few said they had no problem with gay marriage, but were afraid that they would be forced to teach their childrent bout gay marrige in school.
Why such disdain? Because I loathe "accepted wisdom," whether from religious nuts saying "God spoke to me" or Generation MAC telling me that the Internet is God and everything good derives from it.
"they got people elected, they raised money, they founded methods for oganization later adopted by the Obama campaign that led to the first black President in U.S. history to be elected."
Except for the money part: please provide proof. Are you familiar with the logical fallacy, "post hoc ergo propter hoc." It means "AFTER this therefore BECAUSE of this."
I agree that it helped spread grassroots action faster, but remember that always had a local focus as in "find an Obama office/group/event near you." And, as dramatized in "Milk," ye old "telephone tree" did the same thing in the late '70s resulting in large demonstrations within hours.
And my larger point—the crucial difference between medium and message—was just proven with the bright light then total fizzle of "A Day Without A Gay." The idea was hurled through the Internet, they even succeeded in getting "hard copy" media to cover it, but then….bleh…because it was a BAD message.
Again, the greatest part the Net played in Obama's election was in bringing him [and Hillary, too, for a long while] tons of money fast. But then his people took that treasure chest and turned it into old fashioned three-dimensional, real time campaigning, built around an unprecedented number of brick and mortar campaign offices even in the reddest states. And to send him everywhere again and again and again, even in many of those flaming red states such as Indiana where he campaigned IN PERSON dozens of times.
Having a slick presence on the Internet is necessary but you must be PRESENT to win.
@Leland Frances: Inn other words, like with Milk, you have not looked it up yourself before speaking? I am not interested in debating you. Many of your points are factually false,a nd they tell me that you have no looked up anything, and are just spreading your beliefs.
Are we following the pied piper here? Talk about self-annointed leaders. Has anyone googled this Rick Jacobs character? He is a former highly paid oil company executive who has tried to put 3 ballot measures on and failed and led the effort to beat proposition 11 and failed. He is new to gay rights and now announces he is running the campaign without building any coalition. The No campaign fucked up. But atleast they tried. He is using marriage equality for his own agenda. go to his website. google him. He is about unions, not about gay rights. He attacks the leaders who got us all the rights we have. He did nothing . Now he wants to lead. I go the invite to the eqca summit. It includes everyone. Unions, people of color, faith groups. Jacobs and his campaign announced the plan without any coalition. Just him and his friends. Talk about a top down, self aggrandizing effort. Let's build on what we did. Not tear it down to help promote an oil company rich guy who wants to be king
And look who courage campaign hired to run the no on 8 repeal. Lilia Tamn. Who is she? do the research. She was the Deputy Consultant on No on 8 working for Steve Smith as his field and internet expert who ran the campaign into the ground. If Courage Campaign wants to be different, why hire the lead people who lost prop 8 in the field and in the netroots. This is just another name for what didn't work with a different leader. But this time, one with no history or experience. Let's do better, not more of the same.
Oh please Brad. Who cares about his "big oil" ties. This is not a General Election in which he is running for President of Change. This is about organizing and getting things done. Like it or not, that is exactly what Unions have a history of doing. You are almost like the Status Quo of Washington D.C. saying "who is this Barack Obama, and really, what is his experience with executive management?"
You know what Brad, the fact he is not an experienced gay rights "leaders" obsessed with their legacy and ego is a HUGE plus for enacting "real" change and progress.
The gay rights establishment has failed us, and they are doing nothing to change. We need new leadership, and ties to oil comapanies and unions are not anything to detract from what he can offer.
Ura Bigliar, I met your hotter gay twin brother, Ima BigLiar-LiarPantsOnFire!
Far from not taking responsibility for the campaign, Geoff has committed, on several occasions including some taped statements available for download, to a thorough third party analysis of what went right and what went wrong on this campaign. He knows that no campaign is without mistakes, and he is as committed as anybody to learning from this campaign.
It is nice to say, after the election that we ought to have done more grassroots organizing. I did. I was on the streets of the Castro eye ball to eyeball trying to get folks involved. I was part of a team that spent weeks calling our people to get us into the campaign. And I posted regularly to my facebook, pleading for folks to join us in the efforts. ONLY AFTER THE ELECTION was there any "grassroots" response to my pleas. I'm proud of the grassroots enthusiasm that defeat has sparked, but it is disingenuous to assume that all that enthusiasm was there from the beginning, if only we had tapped into the "netroots".
Finally, Geoff Kors and his team at Equality California wrote 42 laws gaining more and more equality for our people. Laws that passed the legislature and were signed by the Governor. Including a domestic partnership bill that got us everything that marriage gets us except the name. Then, by teaming up with NCLR and other organizations, he helped win even the name – just this spring in the state Supreme Court. ALL WHILE PREPARING FOR AND RUNNING THIS CAMPAIGN. If this is "fucking up" then maybe we need a whole lot more of it.
Hear, hear! I endorse JOHN IN SF's statements.
I also am not sure how the 300,000 signatures Courage Campaign will be cnoverted to actual legal signatures on petitions filed before the California Secretary of State. Plus, you need over 600,000 signatures (usually people submit a million, just to be safe) in order to make it to the ballot.
Is Courage Campaign committing to being able to pull that off in less than 11 months (for the June 2010 ballot) or 16 months (for the Nov 2008) ballot?
Except of course everyone else who has reported on it says they did a poor job including the various groups out there to whom the No on 8 did not reach out to
@The Gay Numbers: Who, despite their best intentions, don't know a lot about how to run a campaign. Mr. Jacobs is just one example of an individual who has a good idea or two, but has no track record of success.
@John in SF: If you are going to talk about how good you are versus the Courage Campaign at least actually win rather than lose. this is like talking to the democratic consultant class all over again. A bunch of defenders whoa re too stupid to realize what's in front of them. We lost. That alone means there needs to be retooling and rethinking. The rest of just you circling the wagons trying to defend the indefensible.
@The Gay Numbers: I wasn't part of what was right or wrong with the campaign. I wasn't on any committee and I take no credit or blame for any decisions the campaign made. I have no idea how decisions were made or even who made them. I was just a volunteer so I wasn't speaking about "how good I was".
However, I volunteered enough to know that one of the things that was very wrong with the campaign is that, for the most part, our own community was utterly disengaged until polls showed us increasingly behind in votes and money. There are over 400,000 LGBT peopel in the Bay Area alone, but weeks before the campaign was over, only 30,000 had donated money in the entire country. Even then, far fewer than a quarter of LGBT people gave any money or volunteered any time for the campaign. We failed our leadership at least as much as they failed us, so let's just be honest about that.
Yes we do need to retool and rethink. We all know that. But destroying the people and teams who have accomplished so much leading up to prop 8 is not retooling, it is just hurtful and sets us back much farther than he knows.
I don't think the harshest critics get the fact that the same team that lost the election is the team that won it for us in the first place. And also won 42 bills in the legislature. And was in the middle of a proven "netroots" strategy to move the hearts and minds of the electorate years before prop 8 was on the ballot. Literally. Can you please acknowledge that these are brilliant people who have worked tremendously hard for us and for the most part have been amazingly successful? Perfect, no. Dedicated and strategic, very much so.
Did you spend 1/100th the energy to support them during their ten years of success as you are now spending to destroy them in a matter of weeks? The count is 42 victories and 1 loss. Name me one major league pitcher that got fired for a record like that, even if that 1 game was the last of the world series.
It seems to me that we all agree that we need to expand the coalition of organizations and communities beyond the 3 dozen or so LGBT, labor, religious, civil rights and other leaders who were part of the campaign's committee. But, who would join a coalition with someone who is so willing to tear them apart in public? Who would get into bed with someone who is going to scratch your eyes out in the morning? I certainly won't. Coalitions aren't built by name dropping, they are built over time and with much back and forth of building trust.
If you've got a good idea – we need every one of them for success. Join in, but don't tear down.
@John in SF: I am not interested in your wagon circling. What I care about is the assessment of people who do this for a living, and those no involved with the campaign leadership or with a vested interest in that leadership (ie, folks not like you) have all said the No on 8 campaign was run poorly. You can not defend the indensible despite what you post here. The only relevant information is whetehr the campaign was run properly.
Homosexuality and Islam
Homosexual activity is illicit under sharia, however the prescribed penalties differ from one school of jurisprudence to another. For example these countries may allow the death penalty for sodomy though not for other homosexual activities: Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Sharia does not recognize a human right of sexual self-determination. Human rights organizations focus on decriminalization, anti-discrimination laws, and incitement to hatred laws. Organizations are particularly concerned about the persecution of gays and lesbians in Iran and have helped some gay and lesbian Iranians gain asylum in Western countries.
One of the many inherent inconsistencies within liberalism in general and theological revisionism in particular is the self-ascribed vanity, embraced universally amongst the "anointed ones", that liberals "speak truth to power," stand up for the poor and impoverished, befriend the outcasts, and work tirelessly on their behalf.
This self-image is zealously guarded and maintained…it seems a psychological necessity–in the face of cold hard facts that belie it–namely that the "poor" are generally quite conservative…especially when it comes to religion. Few things irk the liberal soul more than this glaring truth. They deal with it in a variety of ways. The emphasis on "awareness" and "sensitivity training" among liberals is, I think, one outgrowth of this concern. The problem, they persuade themselves, is not that liberalism/revisionism is bankrupt and unworkable (and therefore unpopular), it is just that people are "uneducated"…they have yet to be enlightened…they still are too ignorant to "get it" but once they do we can take our proper roles as the people's vanguard.
The thrust of this particular vanity tends to run headlong into just the sort of paternalism, racial and otherwise, that they claim to despise and oppose…bearing in many ways a quite distinct similarity with the infamous "white man's burden"…
But what happens when those who "stoop low" to help the "uneducated" find that the "ignorant" masses reject the lessons of their betters? What happens when, say, the minority vote makes up a large percentage of the voting electorate that defeated Proposition 8 in California?
Rage. Blinding, ugly, disgusting rage.
Posted: Dec 17, 2008 at 2:12 am · @Reply · [Flag?]
If we learned anything from the Obama campaign it was this: great organizing strategy coupled with a S&*T load of money, and a coherent, simple, unwaivering central message can pretty much win you an election. And as to this "experience" argument David Plouffe had never run a national campaign. Now, Rick Jacobs may be no Axelrod, but at the very least,
he has yet to prove himself a failure. When the major criticism is that we failed to organize effectively, having someone who works with labor is not a bad thing. Now lets look at what No on 8 had going for it:
– an unprecedented amount of cash that got spent WHERE exactly? Because it sure as hell wasn't on organizers. (Another Bush 'o4 and Obama 'o8 lesson – INFASTRUCTURE, INFASTRUCTURE, INFASTRUCTURE!!!)
– an incredible amount of dedicated volunteers – in fact it picked up Obama's california overflow volunteers, who did WHAT exactly? A poorly scripted, poorly targeted phonebank is never an excuse for knocking on doors.
-Incredibly high profile support – from Google, to Brad Pitt, to Jerry Brown, hell even Obama (it was late but it was there)and who did we get in our "what the hell was that about?" tv spots – motherfucking DiFi, and some guy no one has ever heard of who evidently is the superintendant of schools?!
I am so sick of all the "but look at all we've done for you!" shit from the failed No On 8 leadership. You're right guys – you were great at your REAL jobs (the ones you got because you had some skills in those areas): all the legislation passed in recent years is a huge achievement, all the successful litigation is incredibly important – stick with it, but it was an act of extreme hubris to think that because you can draft a great brief or lobby under-paid state democratic lawmakers to vote your way, that you have the first FUCKING CLUE as to how to win at the ballot box. Instead it was all "hamsters on a wheel" until the VERY end, and by then it was way the hell too late.
You don't give a bonus to the guy who screwed up the "done-deal" merger, you don't rehire the coach who has a great team and still manages to have a loosing season, and you sure as hell don't allow the failed leadership of No On 8 to speak FOR US anymore.
Guys, if you're giving money either to EQCA or to the LA Gay and Lesbian Community Center PRIOR TO THE DEPARTURE OF GEOFF KORS AND LORRI JEAN, you are doing a great disservice to the gay community. This vote was ours to lose, and they did. Cut them off until they get rid of the snake-oil salesmen.


text:
Showing Suppliers 1 - 20 of 64
Business Type: Manufacturer, Service
Description: Making the World Measurably Better Since 1910 For more than 100 years, CoorsTek has built a reputation of quality and service for advanced material components. Today, we enable next-generation technology with high-performance components and, in turn, make the world measurably better.... (more)
Address: California Operations - Ventura 4544 McGrath Street, Ventura, CA
Address: California Operations - Fremont 42670 Albrae Street, Fremont, CA
Address: California Operations - El Segundo 2051 East Maple Avenue, El Segundo, CA
Address: 1550 E. Slauson Ave., Los Angeles, CA
Business Type: Manufacturer
Cospheric LLC
Address: PO Box 6762, Santa Barbara, CA
Business Type: Manufacturer
Danaher Motion
Address: 33 S. La Patera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Business Type: Manufacturer
Description: Danaher Motion?s wide range of motion control systems and components offer customers an unprecedented choice in selecting the right solution to match their particular application requirements. Their product innovations have been improving the efficiency and productivity of complex... (more)
Grainger Industrial Supply
Business Type: Distributor
Description: Grainger helps customers save time and money by providing them the right products to keep their facilities up and running. Grainger's customers are 2.0 million businesses and institutions in 157 countries. While each customer has a unique facility to operate and a different problem to solve, our... (more)
Address: 1335 Tuolumne St. Branch 312, Fresno, CA
Address: 3900 Easton Dr. Branch 054, Bakersfield, CA
Address: 2401 Pullman St. Branch 468, Santa Ana, CA
Address: 835 N. Milpas St. Ste A Branch 403, Santa Barbara, CA
Address: 2 Doppler Branch 467, Irvine, CA
Address: 8930 Winnetka Ave. Branch 443, Northridge, CA
Address: 1275 Evans Ave. Branch 730, San Francisco, CA
Address: 750 Brannan St. Branch 731, San Francisco, CA
Address: 3124 E. Colorado Blvd. Branch 400, Pasadena, CA
Address: 101 S. Rice Ave. Branch 446, Oxnard, CA
Address: 25709 Rye Canyon Rd. Ste B Branch 402, Santa Clarita, CA
Address: 1910 Rockefeller Dr. Branch 506, Ceres, CA
Address: 5080 Caterpillar Rd. Branch 638, Redding, CA
Address: 3090 E. Airport Way Branch 461, Long Beach, CA


text:
In late September, Dan Khan, a project co-ordinator with the Department of Natural Resources, told the Cape Breton Post that the final report from a six-year DNR study of strip mining reclamation had been peer reviewed and was pending publication.
When we checked back with Khan on Wednesday, the report was still pending publication, with no indication as to when it might be released.
What's taking so long, folks?
Khan did discuss the basic findings of the yet-to-be-released report, which was based on projects at Tobin Road, Little Pond and Point Aconi.
Essentially, he said researchers found that through proper reclamation techniques, industry can accelerate the return of land that has been strip mined for coal to its undisturbed state. By all indications, it's going to be a positive finding for those who promote strip mining, or, to be more politically correct, "surface mining."
That's hardly surprising. The reclamation techniques that DNR says Pioneer Coal Ltd. is using successfully in Point Aconi aren't (excuse the pun) groundbreaking. First, the trees are cut down on a strip of land. Then, in a best-case scenario, the "overburden" covering the coal — including the topsoil (containing tree stumps and roots) and underlying rock — is removed, kept segregated, and re-layered in the previously mined strip. The coal is removed from the active strip and the cycle continues.
Trees can be planted on the reclaimed land, but it's expected that native vegetation will regenerate from the transferred stump and root sprouts.
Of course, references by politicians and government officials to returning the land to "an Acadian forest ecology" are somewhat misleading. Unless mature trees are planted, how can a parcel of immediately reclaimed land look any better than a grassed-over clearcut? A true Acadian forest of multiple tree species of varying sizes and ages would be generations away.
Strip mining critics fear the pending report will prompt the government to lift a moratorium on new surface coal mines in Cape Breton. Thirteen have been proposed.
If that's the case, the province needs to answer some pressing questions.
First, would companies continue to pay the piddling $1.09 per ton of coal in provincial royalties that Pioneer Coal has had to cough up? Surely the province can do better than that.
Second, how would residents be engaged? Nova Scotia is not Quebec or Alberta. This is a relatively small province with the second-highest population density of all provinces and territories. A strip mine anywhere in Nova Scotia is likely to draw opposition.
Third, would surface mines only be allowed on previously disturbed sites, and what constitutes a previously disturbed site? The line between reclamation and outright mining seems fuzzy.
And fourth, when is Pioneer Coal expected to wrap up its "reclamation mining project" in Point Aconi? Conventional media outlets find company owner John Chisholm a difficult man to get in contact with. Not so for publications such as the Canadian Mining Journal.
There are plenty of questions. But first, let's see that report. Call it an early Christmas present.


text:
Auburn vs. Ole Miss Football:
The No. 1 Auburn Tigers will travel to Ole Miss to take on the Rebels on Saturday night, and this is shaping up to be another great SEC showdown.
This season, we have seen a trend in college football:
For the past three weeks, the No. 1 ranked teams have fallen to upsets, and every Sunday we see an entirely different set of rankings.
So could this happen again this week?
Probably not.
But there is another reason to watch this game (other than to see Cameron Newton pad his stats).
I'm talking about cheerleaders!
Let's take a look at the lovely ladies of Auburn and Ole Miss and determine who wins this week's College Football Cheerleader Showdown!


text:
New Jersey's Star-Ledger newspaper blasted Louisiana and 18 other states that are supporting one Garden State man's legal quest to have his state's gun laws ruled unconstitutional.
In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court last week, James "Buddy" Caldwell and the attorneys general from 18 other states -- led by Wyoming's Peter Michael -- are requesting the justices take a look at New Jersey's concealed carry laws, and determine whether they could contravene and threaten to undo those of other states.
Last summer, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled against a
New Jersey resident who challenged his home state's concealed carry
permitting law. New Jersey does not issue permits to carry outside the home unless the applicant has "demonstrated a justifiable
need to carry a handgun."
But The Star Ledger Editorial Board thinks these states have overstepped their boundaries, telling them on Tuesday (Feb. 18) to "butt out" of the state's lawfully passed gun laws.
"Other states complain that if our policy is upheld, it could threaten their laxer standards. Please. Do they want us meddling in their gun laws? Because they actually do threaten our citizens by making it easier for dangerous people to acquire guns and bring them back East," the editorial read.
The board then cited a statistic from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a gun control advocacy group founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which said Wyoming supplied the 12th highest number of crime guns per capita to other states.
"So the problem isn't our laws. It's yours," the editorial concluded.
What do you think of Louisiana's involvement with the issue and their support of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing of the case? Tell us in the comments below.
Lauren McGaughy is a state politics reporter based in Baton Rouge. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or on Twitter at @lmcgaughy. Find her latest stories on the Baton Rouge hub's Facebook page.


text:
Hi everyone! We reached a huge milestone today as we crossed the 1000 member mark! Be sure to welcome our 1000th member, Marina!
All Posts (23)
Now that the first stage of DollObservers.com members-only nominations have been counted and verified, it is time to finally announce the lucky nominees for this year. What makes our DollObservers.com Fashion Doll Awards different is that both nominations and votes are made by doll lovers themselves. Public voting is now underway and you are invited to vote now. Winners will be announced via the site on 22nd February 2015.
For more info and a full list of nominations check out the #DOFDAs group.
As 2014 comes to a close, and we all look forward to 2015, I wanted to take a moment to look back at the amazing year it's been for us at DollObservers.com. Here are just a few of our highlights:
- Our monthly theme continued to showcase our members' creativity and talents throughout 2014.
- Our membership swelled to almost 900 members in 2014
- In March we held the third DollObservers.com Fashion Doll Awards (#DOFDAs) which were hugely successful and garnered thousands of votes. You can remind yourself of the winners here.
- In April we moved to our shiny new web-home and despite some teething issues (for which I can only apologise) things seem to be settling in.
- In November I moved my The Doll Observer blog over from it's separate home to be under the umbrella ofDollObservers.com. If you haven't done so already, be sure to check it out and subscribe for updates.
- We now have a Fashion Doll Tutorials section which is already becoming a wonderful resource for anyone wanting to create for their dolls
- Everyone's friend Nilsa became a Superstar Member
- Generous Marcelo Jacob donated a wonderful sewing pattern for us to use!
- And finally all the contributions made by you which made our community the wonderful and welcoming place it is for us all.
Looking forward to 2015, it truly looks to be a year of continued fashion doll fun and creativity. For a start we have the 2015 #DOFDAs to look forward to - with public voting set to begin in just a few days time (if you haven't cast your members-only nominations yet - then do so now!).
I cannot thank you enough for your continued support throughout the past year and I look forward to another year spent in your company...
Happy New Year to you and yours!
Dolly hugs, Simon x
I am delighted to announce that 'Members-Only' nominations in the 2015 DollObservers.com Fashion Doll Awards are now underway. This year we have 12 categories covering a wide range of fashion doll types as well as recognising other aspects of the hobby such as 'Best Fashion Doll Blog', 'Best Independent Online Fashion Doll Retailer' and much more.
Once DollObservers.com members have completed the nomination process the awards will be opened up to the public vote on 5th January 2015. The winners will then be announced on 22 February 2015 via the site.
Members should follow this link to nominate. Want to nominate but not a member? Don't worry you can join now and have your say!
I am immensly pleased to announce that DollObservers.com now has a dedicated section for fashion doll tutorials. This is a place where our talented, and nominated, community 'tutors' can upload step by step guides on anything from diorama pieces, outfits, accessories and just about anything fashion doll related!
This is a project I have had in mind for sometime after being inspired by the wonderful things already shared by our members. However it wasn't until Jane approached me with an idea to do a tutorial on how she made her Wall Sconce that the things finally got off the ground.
So go and check out our new Fashion Doll Tutorials section or use the tab in the main menu.
Calling all Budding Tutors!
We are now recruiting tutors to help build our portfolio of fashion doll tutorials! If you think you have what it takes (and I'm looking at you Lilly and Isabel amongst others;)) then please email me and I will give you tutor privileges.
I am thrilled to announce that we now have a brand new updated activity feed on the site!
Our updated Activity Feed allows you to view older items in the feed and to view new items that have appeared since you loaded the page. Never again will you miss what's been going on with your friends here on DollObservers.com!
We now also have a status feature, so that you can leave status updates in the feed and other members can comment on what you've been up to directly in the feed. Members can now also comment on individual photos directly in the feed.
You can also share links to YouTube videos and the video will appear, and be playable, in the feed. The feature also works with other sites such as YouTube, Dailymotion, Vine, Flickr video, Twitter, Soundcloud and Bandcamp. You can also share links to other sites directly into the feed too!
Please note, as this feature is a brand new release there may be some of those darn bugs skittering about the place, however I'm sure we will get them cleared up as soon as we can.
So, go now and enjoy your brand new Activity Feed!
Dolly hugs, Simon x
Over the last few days it seem we have developed a problem with the photo module and the ability to upload photos as well as show some love to photos already there. I have handed the issue to the engineers who run our platform and hope to have the issue resolved early next week. In the meantime the photo sections in the groups are working just fine so please feel free to make use of these.
I will keep you updated as soon as I know of any developments and I apologise for the frustration and inconvenience.
I'm very pleased to announce that the winner, picked at random, of our recent Fiorella Barbie giveaway is Nan Beau. Nan is not only a member here but also a well known collector in the doll world. Well done Nan, I'm very pleased for you!
I am pleased to finally announce the winners of our Ravishing Red theme! Congratulations to Isabel in 1st place, Fashion Doll Stylist in 2nd and Nilsa in 3rd! Well done to all three!!
Well we are now in the month of May and it is time for a brand new theme! So without further ado I am thrilled to announce that this month's theme, in honour of the Italian Doll Convention which is taking place later this month, is 'Taste of the Orient'! So as this year's IDC is celebrating all things Oriental I thought it would be fun for us to join in the fun! Let's see what you can come up with!!
Unlike previous themes, however, I'm afraid there will no longer be any prize money. Unfortunately it has become financially unviable for me to offer this going forward. I hope this does not cause too much disappointment and won't spoil the fun we always have. I would also like to draw your attention to the new donation page which explains things a little more.
Although there isn't now a monthly prize, I do hope to offer some incentives in the future, especially if we are lucky enough to be sponsored. Be sure, also, to check out our exciting giveaway which is running right now!
This Fiorella Silkstone Barbie Could be Yours!
In order to celebrate our community's revamped and brand new look I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to have a fashion doll giveaway! So be sure to use the giveaway app to share, like, tweet and comment your way to even more chances to win this gorgeous doll!
Hugs, Simon x
About the prize!
Fiorella Silkstone Barbie doll wears a satin dress with a pattern of pink and red roses in full bloom. Short puff sleeves play against a tightly fitted waist, cinched with a shiny black vinyl belt. Sheer black organza panels bring a touch of cinematic intrigue. Knee-high stockings, fingerless gloves and whimsical hair bows are her dolce accessories. Completing the rose motif, three delicately carved roses on black satin ribbon form her lovely choker necklace.
The competition ends at 11PM GMT on the Monday 2nd June 2014. One lucky winner will win this beautiful doll!
Latest Member Activity
Superdoll London's Convention Friday offering, and an absolute stunning beauty!…


text:
By GreatSchools Staff
Doctor DeSoto by William Steig (Square Fish, 2010)
$7.99, Amazon / IndieBound / Powell's
A very cheerful story about a mouse dentist who treats mammals bigger than himself, wearing rubbers to keep his feet dry when he's in their mouths. William Steig's cartoony color illustrations make up the bulk of the book, and they are nothing short of urbane and funny. The climax comes when a dapperly dressed but hungry fox comes for a new gold tooth, and the quick-witted dentist saves himself from ingestion by means of his professional skills. 32 pages.
— Parents' Choice
Babymouse: Camp Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm (Random House, 2007)
$5.99, Amazon / IndieBound / Powell's
The sixth installment of the Babymouse series finds our heroine at summer camp. She doesn't like the great outdoors, but that fact shouldn't get in the way of her having fun, right? Babymouse has her usual daydreams of how she'll be the best camper around, but all she finds is trouble. Babymouse's cabin-mates, the Buttercups, soon become frustrated with her shenanigans, as she racks up nothing but demerits for her team.
The illustrations are as fun and humorous as ever, in the familiar black, white, and pink color scheme. Graphic novels are incredibly popular with tweens and teens, so it follows that younger kids want them as well. Those for the very young — especially for young girls — are few and far between but gaining a foothold. Here is a well-established series that fills that void with a spirited, likable, adventurous character. 96 pages.
— Pauline Harris
Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake (Puffin, 2007)
$6.99, Amazon / IndieBound / Powell's.
Kids who loved the recent movie version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will surely agree that this edition of Danny, the Champion of the World is fabulous. Danny is a boy who has a great life with his father. He thinks he knows everything there is to know about his dad, until one day Danny learns about his father's secret life as a poacher. If you want to know what a poacher does, and you want to laugh your way through Danny and his dad's dealings with a bad neighbor and pheasants, you must devour this hilarious book.
— Jennifer Thompson
Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook by Shel Silverstein (HarperCollins, 2005)
$18.99, Amazon / IndieBound / Powell's
Nonsensical wordplay will entice readers to try reading this poetry aloud. A simple switch in the beginning letters of certain words makes language fun and the resulting sounds smile-crackingly funny. 96 pages.
— Children's Choices
Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger by Louis Sachar (HarperTeen, 2004)
$6.50, Amazon / IndieBound / Powell's
Surely, Wayside School was already strange enough. The builders constructed a 30-story school sideways with the rooms piled one on top of another — except for the nonexistent 19th floor, where Miss Zarves teaches class. There's also a 13th floor, where nice Mrs. Jewls presides over her eccentric pupils. Mrs. Jewls, however, takes a maternity leave. Before she returns with her little stranger, Wayside School gets a little stranger. While reading this ridiculously funny book, children will not only be laughing — they will also be learning. 169 pages.
— Parents' Choice


text:
On a Friday evening I, a native Mobilian, drove over from Ocean Springs to meet a group of girlfriends so that we could attend ArtWalk. I was expecting a small crowd and few vendors and was pleasantly surprised to find that Mobilians had turned out in droves and the event was well orchestrated.
We browsed booths at the edge of Cathedral Square but the wares displayed were difficult to see in the dimming day. One vendor kindly used her flashlight to illuminate her booth for us. And when I inquired why the streetlights were not lit for this event, I was told that the organizers had requested as much but that the request had not been honored.
Mobile's economy needs every advantage within reach. Whether not lighting this event
was a top level decision or a lower level oversight, it should not be
acceptable, at least in the view of this true lover of Mobile.
Charlene McCaghren Woodham
Ocean Springs


text:
PARSIPPANY — Growing up in Germany, Bernd Wollschlaeger knew something was not quite right at home. Certain things — like what the six-pointed star on a city building meant or why he was not allowed to speak to the mysterious tenant upstairs — made his parents clam up.
The pieces started coming together during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, said Wollschlaeger, who was 14 then. He watched in his hometown of Bamberg as his parents and their friends cheered the athletes from every country — except those from the one he'd only barely heard mentioned at school, whose team members carried a blue-and-white flag with that same six-pointed star.
After Palestinian terrorists killed the Israeli athletes in Munich, teachers at Wollschlaeger's Catholic school slowly started to talk about what had happened in their country.
"It was then that I started to wonder what my father did during the war, my father the war hero," said Wollschlaeger, 53.
His father, he learned, had been a high-ranking Wehrmacht officer whose unit had participated in the invasions of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, Holland and France.
After learning the truth, Wollschlaeger said he embarked on a spiritual journey that led him to convert to Judaism and move to Israel. He recently told his story at Temple Beth Am in Parsippany for the 23rd Annual Joseph Gotthelf Holocaust Memorial Lecture.
Wollschlaeger told the audience that when he confronted his father about the war, the truth came out gradually. The mysterious woman upstairs was the widow of a former Nazi who had helped plan Adolf Hitler's assassination — a traitor, to Wollschlaeger's father.
But the answers led to more questions, so he read "ferociously" about the Holocaust and World War II. A teacher noticed and said meeting Jews might help him.
Wollschlaeger then was introduced to some Israeli teens in Bamberg. At 19, he took a trip to Israel, staying at the home of one of the teens, whose parents were Holocaust survivors.
"When her parents realized I did not speak Hebrew or English, they spoke to me in German," he remembered. "I asked myself, how can people who survived such a horror consider me a person?"
But, he added, "from guilt and shame came curiosity." When he got back to Germany, he became a "Shabbos goy," a non-Jew who helps on the Sabbath by doing things prohibited by Jewish law, like turning lights on and off.
Eventually, he could no longer hide his interests. His mother "tried to maintain family peace," he said, but his father made it clear that Wollschlaeger had to choose. He chose Judaism.
After studying for 10 years in the Jewish community, he converted to the religion. That, he said, is when he realized that Germany was not his home. In 1987, at 29, he moved to Israel. He joined the Israeli army, and renounced his German citizenship.
Which is not to say he is ashamed of his past, he said. During the lecture, Wollschlaeger made sure to point out Germany's burgeoning Jewish population — at about 200,000, the fastest growing in Europe — and the strong support Germany has provided Israel.
"Anti-Semitism is still present in Germany, as it is all over. But in Germany it's not socially acceptable," he said.
After Wollschlaeger's army service ended, he moved to the U.S. to continue training to be a doctor. He now lives in Miami and has dual Israeli-American citizenship.
When his own children — Tal, 21, Jade, 18, and Natalia, 13 — started asking questions, he turned his family history into a book: "A German Life: Against All Odds, Change Is Possible." The book was published in 2007.
"I told them not to be like their grandfather, and don't live in the shadow of history," Wollschlaeger said. "We're always being challenged to stand up for what we believe, and I want them not to be afraid to do that. I have learned that words lead to deeds."
Wollschlaeger also spoke about the Jewish concept of "avon avot," meaning sins of the father. He said when he was younger, he wondered if others perceived him to be part of the problem.
"I'm not the son of a survivor, I'm the son of a perpetrator," Wollschlaeger said. "And if I am my father's son, I am guilty, too."
Still, Wollschlaeger said, he has found peace by speaking about his experiences.
"The Holocaust, now, is much more than zikaron (remembering); it's moving forward, and it's hope for a better future," he said. "You have to live your life responsibly."
Choosing Wollschlaeger as the speaker was easy, said Alex Gotthelf, son of Holocaust survivor Joseph Gotthelf, whose family endowed the lecture series.
"My father was a great student of history. His recollections of that time in his life were very painful, and sharing them with us and the students he taught confronted him with many conflicts. Yet he was compelled to speak, remember and teach," Gotthelf said.
Sam Fox, 79, came from Springfield with his wife Ida, 73, to hear the lecture. He said he was curious to hear Wollschlaeger because it was an unusual perspective for a Holocaust lecture.
"If someone told me this story I would not believe it, so I had to come see for myself," Fox said. "When he talked about his past you can see what a journey he had."