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by Peter Hillary
Milford Track, New Zealand
Never have I seen anything more beautiful than the scene before me: Rows of craggy peaks and jutting glaciers plunging straight down to fjords filled with crystal clear ocean water rippled by dolphins. The near-omnipresent rain has metamorphosed into brilliant blue skies, and waterfalls cascade from every steep ravine. This is the Milford Track, New Zealand's best known and most popular multiday hiking trail. Despite its heavy traffic and the strictness with which the park service regulates trekking here, the place is still so stunningly beautiful that its pull can't be denied, even by a globe-trotter like me.
After motorboating for miles down a deep, blue lake to the trailhead, I've tramped two primeval days up valleys only recently evacuated by great glaciers; I've wandered past beech trees draped in spooky lichens; and I've glimpsed the world's only alpine parrot, the kea. The weather hasn't been bad by southern New Zealand standards, which tends toward the sodden punctuated by peerless blue skies and balmy warmth, or, just as often, by ferocious storms that transform the vertical valley walls into the most amazing collection of waterfalls on the planet. These meteorological extremes often can be sampled in a single day.
Three huts provide shelter along the 33-mile hike to Milford Sound, and your park-dictated itinerary requires you to stop at each in order to ensure that you don't overlap with hikers in front of or behind you. For this reason you'll have an illusion of relative solitude belied by the thousands of trekkers who come from around the world for this ultimate hike. (Other great "tracks" in Fjordland National Park will provide you with more freedom, if that's your goal.) At the sound is a hotel and the options of flying or boating back out.
Duration: Four days, precisely.
Blue Gum Forest Trail, Australia
Trails in the Blue Mountains above the metropolis of Sydney reveal what 100 million years or so of isolation in the South Pacific does to flora and fauna. As you leave Mt. Victoria and descend tracks (trails) that take you past great red walls of sandstone and into Blue Mountain National Park, you'll walk past trees with leaves that look like blue-green leather, you'll see small bears that raise their young in convenient pouches positioned around their midriff (koalas), and you will, I can assure you, come face-to-face with rodent-like creatures that weigh 200 pounds and can jump over your head-kangaroos, of course. From the clifftops you can see forever-or at least deeply into the blue haze of eucalyptus vapor that floats above these hills and gives the scene an impressionistic appearance of dream-time.
Duration: Two days.
Overland Track, Tasmania
If you love the outdoors, which you obviously do, then your trip to Australia won't be complete without a visit to the "Apple Isle," Tasmania. The route from Cradle Mountain to Lake St. Clair in Cradle Mountain National Park leads you along paths that at certain times of year are celebrated for their nearly unbearable mud (which you have a reasonable chance of avoiding from November to March). You can stop to drink from sparkling lakes and tarns, angle across steep-flanked mountains, and gape at ancient gnarled huon pines. If you're lucky, you may glimpse a bad tempered Tasmanian Devil running among the trees.
Duration: About five days.
Peter Hillary has hiked and climbed on five continents. The highlight of his nonstop adventuring was following his father's historic first-footsteps to the summit of Mt. Everest.


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"You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why." Everyone knows what comes next in this famous Christmas carol. Dozens of songs have been written over the years for this special time of the year and everyone has their favorites. Some are religious and inspire spiritual thoughts. Others are secular and whimsical, making the Christmas season fun and childlike. In either case, these traditional songs are dear to us and we love to hear them every year.
As expressed several years ago in a prior column from December 2007, what would a movie or holiday be without music? It's the universal language that conveys a wide range of human emotions and stirs up a flood of memories. Indeed, Christmas probably has the most music associated it more than any other holiday. What are your favorite carols and how do you feel when you hear them?
In the fun spirit of the season, how many carols can you recognize with alternate titles? In 2007, the column "Christmas Carols 101 Quiz" tested the knowledge of twenty popular songs. With each worth five points, it's easy to determine a grade from a master to one in need of some serious review.
Article Photos
Photo by Lori Deemer
A past performance of SUNY Fredonia's Lessons and Carols.
1. Quadruped With Crimson Proboscis
2. Five p.m. to Six a.m. Without Noise
3. Minuscule Hamlet in the Far East
4. Ancient Benevolent Despot
5. Adorn the Vestibule
6. Exuberance Directed to the Planet
7. Listen, Aerial Spirits Harmonizing
8. Monarchial Trio
9. Yonder in the Haystack
10. Assemble, Everyone Who Believes
11. Hallowed Post Meridian
12. Fantasies of a Colorless Dec. 25
13. Tin Tintinnabulums
14. A Dozen 24-hour Yule Periods
15. Befell During the Transparent Bewitching Hour
16. Homo Sapien of Crystallized Vapor
17. I Merely Desire a Pair of Incisors
18. I Spied My Maternal Parent Osculating a Fat Man in Red
19. Perambulating Through a December Solstice Fantasy
20. Aloft on the Acme of the Abode
Answer Key for the "Carol Impaired"
1) "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," 2) "Silent Night," 3) "O Little Town of Bethlehem," 4) "Good King Wenceslas," 5) "Deck the Halls," 6) "Joy to the World," 7) "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," 8) "We Three Kings," 9) "Away in a Manger," 10) "Come All Ye Faithful," 11) "O Holy Night," 12) "White Christmas," 13) "Silver Bells," 14) "The 12 Days Christmas," 15) "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," 16) "Frosty the Snowman," 17) "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth," 18) "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," 19) "Walking Through a Winter Wonderland," 20) "Up on the Rooftop."
Of course, there are dozens of other Christmas carols, but almost every source undeniably claims that "White Christmas," originally performed by Bing Crosby, is number one. Stuck with green grass and palm trees, the verses express the desire to be up north with snow, just like the ones from long ago as a child. Histories of some songs are interesting in how the words were inspired. Also shared in the same previous column of 2007, "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" was inspired from the observations of Dan Gardner, a music teacher from Smithtown, Long Island. Many of his second-graders who had front teeth missing lisped their words, especially when he asked what they wanted for Christmas. Rosamond, former columnist, attended Gardner's school and remembers singing this song before it was published.
Several websites have quizzes with these and other holiday songs. One site even had a printable version format that might be fun to use at a holiday party. Enjoy the music while shopping, sitting by the fire, wrapping gifts, baking cookies, driving to work, or "decking the halls" as you decorate your tree. The music will lift your spirit. Thanks for reading and make it a great week.
Send comments on this column to firstname.lastname@example.com


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FLORHAM PARK -- Ask any Jets player or coach what the team's biggest challenge will be Sunday when the Cleveland Browns visit MetLife Stadium, you'll pretty much get the same answer, and for the same reason.
Josh Gordon.
His ability to generate yards after the catch.
Yes, the Browns are Browns-ing their way through another lost season on Lake Erie (could be worse, Jets fans), but they've got a bona fide star in Gordon, a dude they happened to pluck off the scrap heap during the second round of the 2012 supplemental draft.
Gordon leads the league in receiving yards (1,467), but it's important to note that he missed two games for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. And his average of 8.3 yards after the catch per reception—the very thing that has the Jets so concerned—is likewise tops in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus. Gordon is 6-foot-3, 225 pounds, and super fast. But he's not your typical yards after the catch receiver, as Deadspin's Samer Kalaf pointed out last week:
He can dust defenders and go over the top of a defense—and does, with frequency. ... But unlike many tall, deep threats, he also thrives on short routes, and eats up large chunks of yards after the catch. ... And he's done this from his flanker position, not operating in the slot like many YAC leaders.
Gordon's lured defenders in by running short routes that appear to be checkdowns, and when Cleveland's quarterback of the week does look his way, Gordon wraps the pass up nicely and takes off. The lower middle is a zone that linebackers primarily cover, but because having those guys catch up to Gordon would be a disaster, the cornerback ends up running across, and usually failing.
Now consider that Gordon's quarterbacks have been Brandon Weeden, Brian Hoyer, and Jason Campbell. And that the Browns' other primary receivers are Greg Little and Davone Bess, whom Kalaf says are ranked at the bottom of the league in Defensive-adjusted Yards Above Replacement (DYAR) by Football Outsiders.
Josh Gordon really is a one-man show.
Jets coach Rex Ryan compared Gordon to a young Andre Johnson, while cornerback Antonio Cromartie—who will likely draw the assignment of guarding Gordon—likened him to Brandon Marshall and Terrell Owens.
"He's a challenge, just from the way they try to use him," Cromartie said. "They try to get him off the ball, where guys can't get their hands on him, or they to get him on underneath routes, where you can't really get your hands on him, either.
"I think that the best thing that he does is after the catch. He's a big-body guy that has a lot of speed. If he breaks one tackle and there's no one there, he has a chance to take it to the house."
Jets linebacker Demario Davis said Gordon certainly looks as good as any receiver the Jets have faced this season.
"He jumps off the film at you," Davis said.
Said Jets defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson: "Josh Gordon is a guy who can get a slant and take it about 80 [yards]."
Deadspin's Kalaf watched footage of Gordon's lowest-output game of the season: two catches for 21 yards against the Packers on Oct. 20. He noticed that Gordon doesn't run any complicated routes. But he also noticed this:
From the tape, the Packers did their best to not leave Gordon in one-on-one coverage. Green Bay made sure to keep at least two guys on Gordon when possible. ... When Gordon did snag his two passes, he didn't gain much after the catch. In both instances, there were defenders in front of him with good angles to make the tackle or push him out of bounds.


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You could call it a case of creative drug-dealing. Athens police have a 38-year-old man in custody for allegedly accepting gift cards for payment for crack cocaine and prescription drugs.
Police Capt. Marty Bruce said Anthony Delmar Anderson was arrested Monday night. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance.
Bruce said officers executed a search warrant at Anderson's house and seized crack cocaine, Xanax pills, $899 cash and $175 in gift cards.
Police said Anderson could face additional charges.


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Colombia and Ecuador have settled the suit Quito filed five years ago with the International Court of Justice over the effects on Ecuadorian citizens, crops and livestock of Bogota's aerial fumigations of coca near the two countries' shared border, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Thursday.
Ecuador formally dropped the suit during a meeting at The Hague involving representatives of both governments and the ICJ president, Santos said.
"It's good news for diplomacy, good news for Colombia, good news for our relations with Ecuador and our regional relations," the head of state said.
Ecuador brought the case to the ICJ in 2008, following several years of fruitless bilateral exchanges over the fumigation.
Quito said the herbicide that Colombian planes sprayed near the shared border was carried by the wind into Ecuadorian territory, causing environmental damage, livestock deaths and health problems for humans.
Bogota, meanwhile, said the herbicide - glyphosate, sold in the United States under the brand name "Roundup" - is innocuous and that aerial fumigation was necessary to combat the cultivation of coca, the raw material of cocaine.
Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, said late last month that an agreement with Colombia to drop the suit was "practically complete."
While Santos did not offer any details of the accord, Correa's comments in August indicated the pact would include a requirement that Colombian authorities notify Ecuador if they planned to fumigate areas less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) of the shared border.
Colombian planes flying fumigation missions within the designated safety strip would also to have to spray the herbicide from an altitude of less than 40 meters (131 ft), seen as a way of keeping the glyphosate from drifting into Ecuadorian territory, Correa said. EFE


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MAYFIELD - Tirzah Henry, a Mayfield resident who had 34 dogs taken from her in June, received time in jail and was granted custody of seven of the dogs after reaching a plea agreement to a misdemeanor charge of abandonment of animals Oct. 30.
Henry previously was charged with 11 counts, including overdriving, torturing and injuring animals and unlawful disposal of dead animals after Fulton County sheriff's officials discovered three dead animals and 34 live animals when serving her an eviction notice at her former 395 Progress Road residence June 22.
Her plea to abandonment of animals satisfies the original charges, and Fulton County District Attorney Louise Sira.
The plea agreement included 32 days in jail and forfeiture of 27 dogs.
"I'm very pleased we got a full satisfaction of the charges," Sira said. "If you look at how these cases are handled, we definitely prosecuted her fully."
Henry's lawyer, Gerard Heckler, said he agrees with the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society's statement that Henry had too many dogs. He said he is satisfied with the outcome of the case.
Henry will be restricted to owning only the seven dogs for three years as part of the plea agreement.
Heckler said dead dogs were found at Henry's residence, but that was because she hadn't been at the house and couldn't care for them.
"It was the charge that made the most sense because she wasn't there when the dogs passed away," he said. "There was no evidence of animal cruelty. She was absent. A male dog did pass away as well as a puppy, so that was the basis of her plea."
The Mohawk Hudson Humane Society took care of Henry's animals for several weeks. The humane society was seeking $30,000 for the care of the dogs, but that demand was dropped under the plea agreement.
Sira and Heckler said Henry's seven dogs will not be checked on by authorities.
Heckler said Henry is sympathetic to the fact some of her dogs died.
"My client deeply regrets that any of her dogs died or were otherwise considered to be in bad shape," he said. "Her animal-care records show that she had previously been attentive to the dogs."


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How does time keep flying by and I stay feeling the same? Actually, sometimes I feel young and sometimes I don't. The times when I don't feel so young are when I am not eating right or when I am drinking too much wine or when I don't get enough sleep. This holiday season I was a victim of all three. A victimhah! This was all self induced.
By the time I headed up to Minnesota for Christmas, I felt great! On the road trip up, it was difficult to eat healthy. The restaurants on the interstates are not health conscious. So, I ate chips and dip in the car, nibbled on a few French fries, and ate bagels with cream cheese.
I could feel myself getting heavier with each bite as the days rolled by. We made a quick stop at Sam's Club just as we were getting close to home and I bought the world's largest package of butter. I told Claud, "We'll probably never finish this but I know we need butter and it's the smallest size they have." On the last day, we polished off the last stick. I couldn't believe it. I started to feel like butter. I was turning into a big chunk of butter and it happened so quickly.
Article Photos
Submitted Photo
Crispy kale
Kale drizzled with olive oil
Submitted Photo
On our way back to Vegas, I thought about the New Year, this article, and resolutions. I wanted my recipe to be an apple.
I'd take a picture of an apple. Then, I would write, "apple. Serves: 1. Time: 1 second. Wash and eat." I felt like I needed to get back to basics and an apple was all I could think of.
Claud told me this wouldn't make a great article.
Fact Box
Crispy Kale
1 bunch of kale, chopped into one inch pieces
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Juice of half a lemon (or two lemons if you are Daphne)
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the kale on a baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil over the kale. Squeeze on the lemon. Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper. Mix it all together. Place it in the oven for 10 minutes. Then, keep checking it until it is crispy. It is a close call between crispy and burned. So, pay attention.
I felt like the only anecdote to what I had been eating and the way my body felt was to eat fruits and vegetables. I don't even want to worry myself with the weight issue. I just want to feel great. I want too much energy. I want an overabundance of happiness. I know from my experience that when I eat right, I get all of this.
For some reason, when I fit in my clothes, my whole day goes better. I have more confidence every minute. I don't when I have to keep lifting the top of my jeans over my bulgy tummy or keep tugging at my top so it doesn't cling too closely to my belly rolls.
So, my New Year's Resolution is not to concern myself with diets or weight. My resolution is to eat healthy whole foods. I will do my best to find these locally grown and organic. It sort of defeats the purpose if they are covered in chemicals and flown in from Peru.
Article Links
Furthermore, I read recently that our bodies need to be nourished by the foods that are grown nearby because that is what our body is acclimated to. It makes sense. Whatever climate you are living in is the climate your food should be grown in. Food, because of the pure magic of Mother Nature, is designed to go with your body. We aren't supposed to eat tropical fruit grown in Brazil while our bodies are living in the icy tundra of Minnesota. Tropical fruit is designed to cool us down from the heat of living in the tropics.
This is a challenge for people who live in the Midwest because not much grows nearby in the winter. You just have to be smart and choose the best option. You can choose squashes and root vegetables. You can eat apples because they at least grew nearby not so long ago. Do the best that you can. That's all anyone can do anyway.
If I were to choose a food that I grew to love over the past year and would recommend to anyone to try and learn to love, it is kale. Kale is a staple all across Europe including Denmark, Holland and Sweden. It grows best in colder climates and thrives when grown with a bit of frost. So, it has to be an ideal food for people to eat in the Midwest. Of course, kale is grown all over the United States and I usually find it in the organic section of the store. It is a perfect addition to winter soups and stews. Daphne and I love it best as chips or as it is commonly called, crispy kale. This is by far my favorite way to eat kale.
Just by substituting crispy kale for regular potato chips, you will be doing your body a favor.
In addition to being so tasty, kale is unbelievably nutritious. It is also known as borecole and is one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. It belongs to the Brassica family that includes cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, collards, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. Kale's health benefits are primarily linked to the high concentration and excellent source of the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K. It really is a food that everyone should incorporate into a weekly routine for the New Year.
There are many different ways to prepare crispy kale. This is a pretty basic version. You can add chili flakes, garlic, and/or paprika. You can get creative and make it according to your taste.
No matter how you make it, you will feel great eating it. I wish you all the happiest and healthiest days for the New Year.


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In the world of corporate IT, a postrecessionary rising tide doesn't always lift all boats. Tech companies with the right products will end up growing a lot faster than Wall Street expects, as businesses redo their IT budgets to focus on new priorities. And the ones that aren't well-positioned will be left wondering why the good times still haven't returned. The latest server market-share data from Gartner and IDC drive this point home -- and it's nothing for Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA ) and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL ) investors to take lightly.
Sun's server business was already in dire straits going into the third quarter. In the second quarter, IDC estimated that Sun's server revenue declined by about 37% annually. Archrivals IBM (NYSE: IBM ) and Hewlett-Packard were bent on taking advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the Sun-Oracle merger to steal market share from Sun, and they had some success doing it. But at least the company's competitors weren't faring much better, with total industry revenues down by 30%.
Well, the Q3 numbers are now out, and they present a much different picture. The broader server market is showing signs of a rebound. Thanks to double-digit sequential growth, Gartner and IDC both estimated that the market declined by only 17% annually. But they estimated that Sun's revenues fell by 32%-35%. Any way you cut it, that's a sizable market-share decline.
Sun's loss is Dell's gain
Why isn't Sun bouncing back the way its competitors are? Continued pressure from IBM and HP is definitely one factor: During its Q3 conference call, IBM reported that its System p line, which competes head-on with Sun in the UNIX server space, took another five points of market share. But another factor is the recovery being seen in the x86 server market.
These servers, which run on Intel (Nasdaq: INTC ) and AMD (NYSE: AMD ) microprocessors and tend to be cheaper than Sun's flagship gear, have been gaining share for a number of years. During the recession, this trend reversed itself for a little while. However, with Intel's and AMD's next-generation Nehalem and Barcelona chips now out, and businesses loosening their purse strings a bit, x86 servers are gaining share once again.
IDC saw only a 12% annual decline for x86 hardware in Q3. That's good news for Dell (Nasdaq: DELL ) , which focuses on x86 servers, and whose annual revenue decline was estimated by IDC at only 6.8%. But it's also making a bad competitive situation worse for Sun, for which x86 hardware accounted for only 19% of server billings in the last quarter.
It's an open secret that Oracle is primarily interested in Sun for its software assets. But in light of the free-fall in the latter company's server business, it's worth asking whether those assets are worth the risks that Oracle will be assuming. Especially if the European Union forces Oracle to make concessions regarding Sun's MySQL database business, an asset that Oracle particularly covets.
On the flip side, the x86 server recovery has to be welcome news for Dell investors. With Dell succeeding in becoming more of a soup-to-nuts IT solutions company, rather than a mere hardware vendor, the server business could buffer the company a little from the struggles of its PC business. And it's also good news for VMware (NYSE: VMW ) , whose virtualization software is targeted at x86 systems.
As always, an IT spending rebound is producing leaders and laggards. Oracle is about to assume control of one of the laggards -- and if past acquisitions of such companies are any guide, the company's headaches are just beginning.