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Huskers Open 2012 with Southern Miss
GAME 1: NEBRASKA vs. SOUTHERN MISS
LINCOLN, NEB. | 2:30 p.m. (CT)
RADIO - Husker Sports Network
SATELLITE RADIO - Sirius Channel 86, XM 86
INTERNET RADIO - Huskers.com
Record: 0-0, 0-0
Rankings: Coaches-16; AP-17
Last Game: Season Opener
Coach: Bo Pelini
Career/NU Record: 39-16/5th year
vs. Southern Miss: 0-0
Record: 0-0, 0-0
Rankings: Coaches-RV; AP-NR
Last Game: Season Opener
Coach: Ellis Johnson
Career/PSU Record: 17-28/5th Year 0-0/1st Year
vs. NU: 0-0
The Matchup
Saturday's game marks the fourth all-time meeting between Nebraska and Southern Miss and the third time the teams will square off in Memorial Stadium. Southern Miss won the most recent meeting in Lincoln, defeating the Huskers 21-17 in 2004, marking Nebraska's first non-conference home loss in 13 seasons. Bo Pelini was on the NU sideline for the Huskers' last win in the series, serving as defensive coordinator in Nebraska's 38-14 win in Hattiesburg in 2003.
The Coaches
Nebraska: Bo Pelini (Ohio State, '90) owns a 39-16 record in his fifth season. Pelini has guided NU to nine or more wins in each of his first four seasons as head coach, joining Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne and Frank Solich in accomplishing that feat. Pelini is one of only six first-time head coaches in NCAA history to win at least nine games in each of his first four seasons at a BCS conference school.
Southern Miss: Ellis Johnson (The Citadel, '75) is in his first season as head coach of Southern Miss. He is 17-28 overall in his fifth season as a head coach. Johnson is facing Nebraska for the second straight game, as he spent the past four seasons as the defensive coordinator at South Carolina. The Gamecocks held Nebraska scoreless over the final three quarters in a 30-13 victory at the 2012 Capital One Bowl.
Scouting Southern Miss:
Southern Miss begins its 100th football season under new direction, as Ellis Johnson will coach his first game as Southern Miss' head coach on Saturday. The Golden Eagles were Conference USA champions last fall, finishing with a 12-2 record. Southern Miss finished 19th in the final 2011 coaches' poll, while coming in at No. 20 in the AP poll. The Golden Eagles finished five spots ahead of Nebraska in the coaches' poll and four spots in front of the Big Red in the AP poll.
USM returns 12 starters from last season, but the Golden Eagles have several key players to replace. On offense, Southern Miss must replace its leading rusher from last season, but the versatile Tracy Lampley returns as does Kendrick Hardy. Lampley, a wide receiver, ran for 463 yards en route to totaling 1,798 all-purpose yards in 2011. Hardy rushed for 426 yards in the first five games last season before suffering a season-ending injury.
Bolstering the running game is the return of center Austin Quattrochi, a preseason candidate for the Rimington Award.
Southern Miss must also replace quarterback Austin Davis, who threw for 3,496 yards and
30 touchdowns last season. Also gone are the Golden Eagles' top two receivers.
Defensively, USM returns three of its top four tacklers from 2011. Jamie Collins returns after totaling 98 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. One of the nation's top defensive linemen, Collins is on the preseason watch list for the Butkus, Lombardi, Bronko Nagurski and Chuck Bednarik awards. Deron Wilson, a preseason candidate for the Jim Thorpe award, also returns to lead the Golden Eagle secondary. Gone is Cordarro Law, who led USM with 22.0 TFLs and 9.5 sacks in 2011.
Series History
Nebraska and Southern Miss meet for the fourth time on Saturday and the third time inside Memorial Stadium. The Huskers won the first two meetings in the series, but the Golden Eagles won the last meeting in 2004.
In the last meeting, Southern Miss held on for a 21-17 win inside Memorial Stadium on Sept. 11, 2004. The Huskers turned the ball over five times that day, leading to 18 Southern Miss points. Nebraska's final drive stalled inside the USM 20-yard line as time expired. That loss marked Nebraska's first home non-conference defeat in 13 seasons and snapped the Huskers' 20-game non-conference home winning streak.
Southern Miss has played Nebraska tough in its only two trips to Lincoln. In addition to winning in 2004, the Golden Eagles turned the ball over six times in a 20-13 loss in 1999, a season when Nebraska won the Big 12 title and earned a No. 3 final AP ranking. Southern Miss held the Huskers to fewer than 200 yards of offense in the loss, but NU linebacker Julius Jackson scored a pair of defensive touchdowns.
Southern Miss Head Coach Ellis Johnson
Ellis Johnson will make his debut as Southern Miss head coach on Saturday in his 40th season as a coach. He is entering his fifth season as a head coach, having served as Gardner Webb's head coach for the 1983 season and leading his alma mater, The Citadel, from 2001 to 2003. Johnson owns a 17-28 record as a collegiate head coach.
Johnson will begin his new job against the same team he competed against in his final game at his old school. Prior to accepting the Southern Miss job, Johnson spent the previous four seasons as South Carolina's defensive coordinator. Johnson has also served as defensive coordinator at Alabama, Appalachian State, Clemson and Mississippi State.
Nebraska Football
*- Nebraska is 846-349-40 all-time, one of just seven schools with 800 all-time victories
*- Nebraska has won five national championships (1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997).
*- The Cornhuskers have won 43 conference championships.
*- 48 all-time bowl appearances rank fourth nationally.
*- Since 1970, NU has 412 wins, 26 more than any other school.
*- Nebraska's 102 football Academic All-Americans lead the nation.
*- The Huskers have had 108 All-Americans in school history.
Nebraska Looks to Add to Season-Opening Win Streak
Nebraska enters the season opener with victories in each of its past 26 season openers. The Huskers' streak leads the nation, bettering Florida's 22 straight wins. NU's last loss in a season opener was a 17-13 setback against Florida State at Memorial Stadium in 1985.
*- Nebraska has won each of the 26 games by at least 10 points, and has scored at least 40 points in 19 of the 26 games, including each of the last six seasons. Nebraska has outscored the opposition 185-44 in four openers under Bo Pelini.
*- The Cornhuskers have limited the opponent to 14 points or less 18 times in the winning streak.
*- Nebraska is 91-26-5 all-time in season openers.
Huskers Continue Streak in National Polls
Nebraska opens the season ranked No. 16 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 17 in the Associated Press Poll. The Huskers have been ranked in every AP poll since late in the 2009 season, a streak of 36 straight weeks in the Associated Press Poll.
*- Nebraska's streak of appearing in 36 consecutive polls is the longest in the Big Ten and the fifth-longest streak in the nation.
Nebraska Faces Challenging 2012 Schedule
Nebraska will once again face one of the nation's more challenging schedules in 2012, including 10 teams that participated in a bowl game in 2011. The Huskers' 10 bowl opponents from last season lead the country and are matched only by Big Ten schools Michigan and Penn State.
The 2012 schedule is highlighted by BCS bowl participants Wisconsin (Rose) and Michigan (Sugar), which will both visit Lincoln. The non-conference schedule features three 2011 bowl teams, which will all have new head coaches in 2012. NU opens on Saturday against Conference USA champ Southern Miss, followed by a Sept. 8 trip to UCLA. Arkansas State comes to Lincoln on Sept. 15, and the Huskers complete non-conference play against Idaho State on Sept. 22.
The Big Ten schedule opens at home against Wisconsin on Sept. 29 in a prime-time game, and the home schedule also includes Michigan, Penn State and MInnesota. Overall, NU's seven-game home schedule includes five teams that won at least nine games last season.
On the road, Nebraska faces four 2011 bowl teams, including Ohio State, Northwestern, Michigan State and Iowa. Six of Nebraska's 11 scheduled opponents won at least nine games in 2011.
*- Michigan will be making only its second trip to Lincoln and its first ever to Memorial Stadium. The only previous meeting between the two schools in Lincoln occurred in the 1911 season before the construction of Memorial Stadium (1923).


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A few days ago, we adopted this little guy from a nearby city pound. For reasons I'll explain later, we call him Murray.
We took him to the vet the first thing in the morning and got smacked with our worst fear. He had the Parvo virus.
Many years ago, when I was a vet tech, veterinarians all across the country were being hit with a monster disease no one could identify. Puppies and even adult dogs died in spades, and they died painfully. I was at the clinic at all hours changing out bags of lactated Ringer's (fluids) and helping with blood transfusions. We lost almost everyone. In the meantime, scientists gave us a name for this disease. Canine parvovirus.
Today, with massive fluids, antibiotics and round the clock care, some puppies and dogs can be saved. This is where I am now.
Greg took Tank and Iko back home with him and I am here with Murray, doing my best to keep him alive long enough that he can rebuild his strength and fight off this disease. There is no cure for Parvo. It's just me and him. His odds are 50-50. He's very young and that's a big strike against him. He doesn't yet have a well developed immune system. But I did catch it early and that's a plus.
If Murray can give me 50%, I'll throw in the other 50 and maybe we can beat this thing. All I want for Christmas is a healthy puppy.
If you can find it in your heart, say a prayer for my little guy. We are desperate for a break from his downward spiral. We had an especially bad night yesterday. Murray needs all the prayers and good thoughts he can get.
I am taking off a few days to spend more time with my sick baby. I'll be back 12-31-11. Take care, everyone.

subset: commoncrawl


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Huskers Aim for Return to NCAA Tournament in 2013
Head Coach Darin Erstad begins his second season in Lincoln in 2013 after leading the Huskers back to the postseason with a conference tournament appearance in 2012 for the first time since the 2008 season.
A trip to the Big Ten Tournament was a step in the right direction a year ago, but was short of the team's ultimate goal of an NCAA Regional bid and beyond.
At the plate, the Huskers blossomed under the direction of Erstad and Associate Head Coach Will Bolt.
The Huskers led the Big Ten Conference in six categories, including home runs (47), RBIs (375), runs (413), total bases (916), on-base pct. (.384) and slugging pct. (.445).
The Huskers also made noise on the national scene, as they ranked in the top-20 nationally in seven categories, including top-10 rankings in both batting average and scoring.
After hitting .270 as a team in 2011, the Huskers hit .315 in 2012 to rank eighth in the country. The Huskers also ranked eighth nationally in scoring with 7.1 runs per game after scoring 5.4 runs a game in 2011.
With a more disciplined approach at the plate, NU had 106 fewer strikeouts than it had in 2011, while playing three more games in 2012. The Huskers also produced 150 more hits, drove in 107 more runs and hit 17 more home runs to lead the Big Ten with 47 home runs. No other team in the league hit more than 38 homers.
Three Huskers were named first-team All-Big Ten, including shortstop Chad Christensen, outfielder Rich Sanguinetti and designated hitter Michael Pritchard, all of whom return for the 2013 season. Overall, eight Huskers earned All-Big Ten honors across the first, second and third teams.
Nebraska returns nearly all of its offensive firepower from a year ago. Out of 15 offensive categories, the Huskers return last season's leader in 12 of the categories. Departed senior Richard Stock led the squad in doubles (20) and triples (3) a season ago, while fellow 2012 senior Kale Kiser led the team in walks (38).
On the mound, Nebraska staff's continues to grow under the tutelage of Ted Silva. Silva's proven approach was a change in philosophy for NU's arms last year and while it took some adjustments early, success on the mound started to show in the second half of the season.
Compared to the first 12 games of Big Ten play, the NU pitching staff gave up 13 fewer runs in the final 12 game of Big Ten action, while also surrendering few walks and producing more strikeouts. Opponents hit .307 at the plate in the first half of the conference season, but just .293 over the final 12 games of the year.
Out of the 14 players who saw action on the mound a year ago, nine return, including four pitchers who started four or more games. Silva brought in nine new pitchers as well, which should breed plenty of competition on the mound.
Pitching Staff
Silva will have 17 pitchers to work with in 2013, including 13 right-handed arms and four southpaws. The staff will be without the services of both Austin Christensen and Matt Jones in 2013, as each recovers from Tommy John surgery.
The Huskers will look to sophomore Kyle Kubat in 2013 to be one of the anchors of their weekend rotation, as the Waterloo, Neb., native emerged as one of the most consistent starters during the end of 2012. Kubat, who won his final three starts during Big Ten play, was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball and was a third-team All-Big Ten performer.
Junior Zach Hirsch also returns after leading the team in both starts (13) and innings pitched (60.1) a year ago. The 6-4 lefty focused on improving his stamina in the offseason, as his workload in 2012 was a big jump over his 17.2 innings of work during the 2011 campaign.
The Huskers also hope for strong returns from seniors Tyler Niederklein and Ryan Hander, who both had offseason hip surgery. Each started and worked out of the bullpen a year ago.
Hander worked his way into the starting rotation at the end of the season, including a 6.1-inning gem against Penn State at the Big Ten Tournament, where he struck out a career-high seven to lead NU to a 12-3 win.
In the bullpen, Dylan Vogt could be used in a variety of rolls from long relief to closer. The Omaha native developed a reputation in 2012 for getting big outs when the Huskers needed them. He posted a 1.84 ERA over 53.2 innings of work, while striking out 34 and giving up just five extra-base hits all year, including no home runs.
Silva will need contributions from a trio of juniors in righties Brandon Pierce and Luke Bublitz, as well as lefty Tyler King, who led the team last season in appearances with 27.
While all three will be key contributors out of the bullpen, the Huskers also could look to King and Pierce to start in 2013, as they combined for eight starts last season.
Sophomore Aaron Bummer's continued development in 2013 will be something to watch after the lefty held opposing hitters to a .219 average last season in 20 appearance out of the bullpen. The 6-2 lefty struck out 22 in 19.1 innings of work and is expected to see his role grow in 2013.
The Husker staff is rounded out by three true freshmen (Jeff Chesnut, Mike Hadden, Colton Howell), one redshirt freshman (Logan Thune), and four junior college transfers (Christian DeLeon, Caleb Hawkins, Michael Hoppes, Josh Roeder).
With a small returning staff, each newcomer will have an opportunity to work his way onto the mound.
Catcher is arguably the biggest question mark for the 2013 squad, as no player on the roster has previously caught a game at Nebraska.
Taylor Fish returns after redshirting during his freshman season a year ago, while he is joined by junior college transfers Tanner Lubach and Corey Stringer, both Nebraska natives.
Stringer has two years of eligibility remaining, while Lubach has three seasons after being named a second-team NJCAA All-American as a freshman last season at Hutchinson Community College.
All three catchers continued to develop defensively under volunteer assistant Jeff Christy during the fall.
In his first year with the Huskers a year ago, Christy helped senior catcher Cory Burleson become one of the best defensive catchers in the Big Ten Conference. After throwing out 14-of-40 base runners in 2011, Burleson threw out 20 runners, while giving up just 18 steals in 2012.
The Huskers return a wealth of depth to their infield in 2013, but fans will see some new faces at shortstop.
Chad Christensen was slated to make the move to the outfield last season, but injuries forced him back to shortstop for the 2012 campaign. The senior from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is back in the outfield for 2013, leaving shortstop open to senior Bryan Peters, as well as a pair of youngster in freshmen Wes Edrington and Jake Placzek.
Peters, who has seen most of his work at second base during his first three seasons at Nebraska, showed the ability to slide over a spot on the diamond in the fall due to his athleticism. The 6-2 senior was one of the top multi-sport athletes out of Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, Colo., as he was named the 2010 Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year. A team-first guy, Peters will do whatever the Huskers need him to do to win games in 2013.
Placzek, a first-team All-Nebraska and Super-State pick from La Vista, was thrown right into the mix during the fall and will continue to develop with more game action.
Edrington, a product of Fishers, Ind., joined the Huskers for the second semester after graduating from high school in December. He joins the team with lots of potential, but still needs to show he can make the transition to the college game.
Entering the season, sophomore Pat Kelly looks to have a firm lock on the second base position after producing one of the top freshman campaigns in recent history at NU. Named a freshman All-American by four publications, Kelly's play in the field became a strength as the season went on as he adjusted to the speed of the game. Kelly provides above average pop at the plate for a middle infielder, proven by his 16 extra-base hits last season, including eight home runs, the most homers by a Husker freshman since 2000.
After struggling at the plate as a sophomore in 2011, Josh Scheffert rebounded in a big way in 2012 and looks to continue his growth at the hot corner. A second-team All-Big Ten selection last year, Scheffert was second on the team with a .358 batting average with 12 doubles, eight home runs and 41 RBIs. He also flashed a solid glove in the field with just five errors on the season, including only one error during Big Ten play.
After battling injuries last season and during the fall, Kash Kalkowski looks to end his career on a high note and will likely see his senior year start at first base. A shortstop at Grand Island High School, Kalkowski has a solid glove and athleticism at first. He started his career at Nebraska as a pitcher before an arm injury turned him into a position player. He has flourished as both an outfielder and infielder. Kalkowski combines one of the best pure swings on the team with good power and can be a top threat in the NU lineup if he stays healthy.
Blake Headley rounds out the Husker infielders and could see time all across the diamond. The sophomore from Omaha started at both shortstop and third base last season, but also spent time working at first base in the fall. Headley uses his 6-2 frame well at first base, but also possesses a strong arm to play the left side of the infield.
Unlike last season where every outfield position was wide open, the Huskers should have a good idea of how their outfield will shape up to start the 2013 season.
After transferring from Texarkana CC, Rich Sanguinetti anchored the Husker outfield in center and was tabbed as a first-team All-Big Ten selection. He started 55 games a year ago, making just one error. A righty in the field, Sanguinetti hits lefty and was NU's No. 2 hitter for most of the season, producing a .323 average. The Huskers will look for him to put more pressure on opposing pitchers on the basepaths this season by improving on his seven steals from a year ago.
The previously mentioned Christensen is slated to make the permanent move to the outfield in 2013. Drafted in the 35th round by the Miami Marlins in the 2012 MLB Draft, Christensen turned down a Major League contract to return for one more season of collegiate baseball. He is coming off his best season at Nebraska and will be looked to again to drive the Huskers' offense. The 6-3 righty led the team in home runs (10), RBIs (48), total bases (114), steals (8), multi-hit games (23) and multi-RBI games (13), while ranking second on the team in runs (49) and third in hits (71) last year. He also hit over .300 for the first time in his career with a .311 batting average.
Following a freshman season where he made 35 starts and played in 42 games, Austin Darby will try to earn a permanent spot in the Husker outfield this season. A member of the All-Big Ten Freshman Team last year, Darby throws right and hits left, while running very well at 6-3, as he was a perfect 7-for-7 in steal attempts last season. He has shown the ability to hit for power, but needs to improve his consistency for contact at the plate.
While Michael Pritchard, a 2013 preseason second-team All-American (NCBWA), didn't see much time in the outfield last season due to a shoulder injury, he was the glue of the Husker lineup at designated hitter. The lefty from Omaha was named a third-team All-American by the NCBWA after putting together one of the best seasons by a Husker hitter in recent memory. Pritchard tied Derek Dukart (1994) for the third-longest hitting streak in school history at 25 games. With one of the top contact swings in the country, Pritchard batted .387 and produced a team-high 82 hits, tying him with Adam Bailey (2010) for the most hits by a Husker in a season since Ryan Wehrle had 84 in 2006. Pritchard's one strikeout for every 21.2 at bats ranked eighth in the country, and he was one of just two players from a BCS conference to rank in the top 10. Nebraska will look to Pritchard to set the table in 2013 for the Husker RBI producers.
Ty Kildow continues to get better each day after making the transition to baseball a year ago following two years as a member of Bo Pelini's football team. One of the fastest student-athletes on campus, Kildow provides solid depth at all three outfield spots. With a year of strictly baseball under his belt, he will look to put himself in position for more playing time after seeing action in 23 games last season.
Omaha native Quentin Urban will provide depth and is looking to get his opportunity on the field after redshirting last season and missing the fall with a foot injury. An All-Nebraska selection in both football and baseball at Millard South High School, Urban is still a raw talent that needs to get game experience.
Infielders Scheffert and Kalkowski also have seen significant time in the outfield during their careers at Nebraska, while Erstad also believes Lubach could see time in the outfield depending on situations.


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As part of our year-end wrap up, we are sharing the best Fresh Air interviews of 2012. This interview was originally broadcast on June 11, 2012.
Joan Rivers doesn't hold anything back.
Over the course of her 50-year career, Rivers has made fun of her bankruptcy, her many facelifts, her husband's suicide and the sacrifices she made over the years as a female standup performer.
Now the salty 79-year-old comedian is turning her observational eye even further inward. Her book I Hate Everyone, Starting With Me details the things Rivers can't stand, from her appearance to obituaries to younger comedians who steal her gigs.
Why things she hates?
"Because it's so politically correct now," Rivers tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "Everybody is so uptight to say anything, so I started making jokes about anything to my friends, and one of them said, 'Just jot it down. There's a book in this.'"
Unsurprisingly, I Hate Everyone, Starting With Me starts with Rivers aiming her observational zingers directly at herself.
"I was not an attractive child," she reveals. "When I didn't use my Girl Scouts uniform as a uniform, I used it as a tent. I watch the television show Glee. That wasn't my high school. In my high school, the fat girl was not popular. In my high school, the homosexual was running. But not running and dancing — he was running for his life. I just find that most of us went through very rough times growing up."
But Rivers' book doesn't stick to serious topics for long. She reveals that she hates obituaries — but loves a good funeral because it's a good place to pick up newly single men.
"You can talk to the bereaved husband immediately," she says. "Like 'Boy, you really know how to carry a shovel.' I always let them know that I'm the same size as the wife, so then they don't have to give away the clothes."
While channeling her inner hater, Rivers also shares stories about trying to catch a break in the comedy world, where women have long struggled to find work.
"I was smart enough to go through any door that opened," she says. "I wrote [the] Topo Gigio [sketches] for Ed Sullivan. A friend of mine said, 'They want me to write this stupid thing for Ed Sullivan. It's beneath me.' And I said, 'I'll do it!' And my first real writing thing was Topo Gigio – that little stupid [puppet] mouse on Ed Sullivan."
Rivers got $500 for each of those sketches.
"For $500, I'll write for Hitler," she says. "Five hundred dollars when you're starving and you've got a car payment due? Here's what I'm saying: 'You go through any door that opens.' In the beginning, you go through the doors. You don't know which is going to be the one."
Topo Gigio may not have been prestigious, but it did open doors: Rivers eventually got writing gigs with Phyllis Diller and Bob Newhart, which led to work with the Second City troupe and standup in the Village, which eventually led to regular roles in movies and on TV.
And Rivers says what she learned from Topo Gigio — to never turn down a gig — has helped her stay in show business for so many years.
"Fashion Police is the big show that I do now," she says. "I didn't want to do Fashion Police because I thought, 'This is stupid, this is beneath me, who wants to talk about fashion?' It has taken off. We are the number one show in England on E! Who knew? I try everything."
Interview Highlights
On calling women ma'am
"Ma'am is very chic. When it's a young boy, [and they say] 'Yes sir, no sir' that's okay. But when they say, 'Young lady' or 'How's my girlfriend?' [it] means you are old and disgusting and 'I wouldn't screw you for anything in the world.' I get so angry. Or when they say, 'You know, even though you're 79, I'd still do you.' And you want to say, 'You know, you may be 40, I wouldn't touch you if you were the last man on Earth.' How dare you, you disgusting person, would think I would want to go near you."
On life
"I enjoy life when things are happening. I don't care if it's good things or bad things. That means you're alive. Things are happening. My husband used to say, 'It is never dull around here.' And that is good. We never looked at each other and went, 'I am so bored.'"
On the people she brought home to meet her parents
"I was bringing home Woody Allen before he was Woody Allen, Richard Pryor before he was Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin before she was Lily Tomlin. These are weird people walking up the driveway. This is not a nice boy from Yale. You ever shake Woody's hand? Put your hand in a glass of water and then shake your hand. Woody was very weird and very brilliant, but they didn't see that far."
On her career
"I am so out of the loop. I am never honored. My career is hilarious to me. I am either under the radar or over the radar."
On reading obits
"That's how I meet new men. The minute it says 'Sadie Schwartz' I know, 'Go to that funeral.'"
On her parents
"My parents just didn't like me. Till I was 9, my mother was trying to get an abortion. That sticks with you. That hurts. She said to her doctor, 'Is there any possible way to get rid of this thing?'"
On performing for the Queen of England
"You're a little more careful. And I did slip, and I said the word 'f---.' And I said it and I turned to her in the box and I said, 'Behead me now.'"
On younger comedians and Louie C.K.
"I hate younger comics because they're taking work from me. But I love Louie [C.K.] I think he's going to be major. I think he should be writing movies. He knows his craft."
On her cohorts
"I was in a group with George Carlin and Woody Allen and Barbra Streisand. And [Simon and Garfunkel]... that was all the group, we were all in the Village. And Bill Cosby. They all got through ahead of me. And nobody said to me, 'Maybe you're too rough. You're too wild.' No one gave me any advice. [But] I didn't have a choice. I knew this is what I wanted to do. And I would get every 10th show, there'd be a great audience and you'd go, 'I do have what it takes.' And then there'd be nine audiences that would spit in your face."
On reality shows
"I hate reality shows that are not reality. I do not believe that all that housewives do is sit down, spit in each other's face, you slap each other and then you go to a party together. You want to say: 'C'mon!' Those reality shows, I just think are so stupid. Our show, one of the conditions that we did is that we would have cameras following us around all the time. Because enough happens in everybody's life that it's interesting. And I don't want to stage [my daughter] Melissa walking over and spitting in my face and then going, 'Oh that'll be good.' I don't have to worry because somewhere in the 24 hours, she will do that."
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Today we're beginning a holiday series featuring a few of our favorite interviews of the year. We're starting with Joan Rivers. After a long period of ups and downs and comebacks, she became kind of iconic after the release of the 2010 documentary "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," which showed how obsessive she is about comedy and described the constant obstacles she's had to overcome to stay on or even close to the top.
She was one of the first really successful women comics. She played Greenwich Village cabarets and borscht-belt hotels until becoming best known for appearing on "The Tonight Show." Eventually she became Johnny Carson's guest host and then launched her own late-night talk show.
I spoke with Joan Rivers in June, after the publication of her book "I Hate Everyone, Starting with Me." Joan Rivers, welcome back to FRESH AIR. It is great to have you back.
JOAN RIVERS: And it's great to be back. I always know you're a good interviewer.
GROSS: Thank you. So why did you want to write a book about all the things that you hate, maybe not all the things, there's probably even more things that you didn't have room for.
RIVERS: No, there's a second book coming.1
GROSS: "More Things that I Hate"?
RIVERS: This is going to be the "50 Shades of Grey" of hatred.
GROSS: Well, good for you.
RIVERS: I was going to call it, after my legs, "48 Shades of Blue," but I figured I'll stick with - I'll stick with what I have because it's so politically correct now. Everybody is so uptight to say anything. So I started making jokes about everything to my friends, and one of them said: Just jot it down. There's a book in this.
GROSS: Now, aren't you supposed to mellow with age?
RIVERS: Not in this society. Tell me that when they're stripping me down at the airport.
GROSS: So you start with some things you hate about yourself.
RIVERS: Oh, God.
GROSS: You say, like, you looked like your father when you were young. I doubt that.
RIVERS: I looked like my father, especially the moustache. No, I was not an attractive child growing up. I mean, my Girl Scout uniform, I didn't use it as a uniform. I used it as a tent. I was a fat child.
RIVERS: And it was difficult. You know, I watch "Glee," the television show "Glee." That wasn't my high school. My high school, the fat girl was not popular. My high school, the homosexual was running, but not running and dancing, he was running for his life. I just find that most of us went through very rough times growing up.
GROSS: So you say your parents hated you making a scene when you were growing up. What kind of scenes did you make?
RIVERS: Well, not so much scenes. My parents just didn't like me. You know, until I was nine years old, my mother was trying to get an abortion, and that sticks with you. That hurts.
RIVERS: What she'd say to the doctor: Is there any way possible to get rid of this thing?
GROSS: You write that your mother used to holler at you: Joan, the neighbors can hear. Stop it, don't make a scene. So I wondered, did you grow up in an apartment building?
RIVERS: We grew up partly in an apartment building, and then the majority of my childhood was in Larchmont, and - which is a suburb outside of New York. And that's, you know, very suburban and very WASP-y and all that. And I was - my mother looked back, she said: You were a very difficult child.
And I was very frustrated. I knew what I wanted to do. From the beginning, I wanted to be in show business as an actress. And the frustration of just waiting to grow up was extraordinary for me.
GROSS: Huh. Well, we'll get to some of that stuff again a little later. I just want to hear about a couple of other things that you hate. But I have to say: Since you didn't grow...
RIVERS: Oh, where do you want to start? I'll tell you what. I hate obituaries. They don't tell you the truth.
GROSS: So you read obituaries, like, every day. It's one of the first things you do.
RIVERS: Sure, because that's how I meet new men.
RIVERS: The minute it says Sadie Schwartz, I know go to that funeral. But I hate when they don't tell you how the person died, you know? It's like cheating you. Come one, come on, come on. Why can't they just say: Murray Weintraub, 58, mumps. Then you know. It makes sense to me.
GROSS: You also don't like sex when you're old or sex with an old man.
RIVERS: Or sex - anybody that's old, just to get the guy on top of you is a week.
GROSS: And faking orgasm?
RIVERS: You can ruin your back.
GROSS: Faking orgasm with a man who's old?
RIVERS: No, I always faked anyhow, but you have to remember which is the good ear they can still hear in, otherwise he's missed the whole thing.
GROSS: I like that.
RIVERS: If you're groaning in the wrong ear, they hear nothing.
GROSS: So you write that you hate obituaries, but you love funerals. You say to you a funeral is just a red-carpet show for dead people.
RIVERS: Yes, it's great. Funerals, there are things you can talk to the bereaved husband about immediately, like, boy, you really know how to carry a shovel. Wow.
RIVERS: I always let them know that I'm the same size as the wife because then they don't have to give away the clothes.
RIVERS: How old was Myrtle? What size was your wife? My God, I'm the same size as Isabel.
GROSS: Have you spoken at a lot of funerals?
RIVERS: No, nobody asks me to do anything. I am never invited to speak at anything. I am never invited to speak at a college commencement. I spoke at one, that was my daughter's, University of Pennsylvania. And people still come up to me and say to me: God, that was a good speech.
I am so out of the loop on both sides, on - I am never honored. It's very - my career is hilarious to me because I am so either under the radar or over the radar, never asked to do anything.
GROSS: That's really odd. I'm shocked.
RIVERS: Yeah, I am shocked too. Never...
GROSS: Do you think people are afraid of - that you're going to say something that they will consider inappropriate and tasteless?
RIVERS: Probably. Meanwhile, I've been invited to the royal weddings, command performances to the Queen of England. It's just so funny where you're embraced and where you're ignored. Haven't been to the White House since the Reagans, and I've been to the royal weddings, and I go to Buckingham Palace at least twice a year. And I just say to myself: You know, somewhere they love you, somewhere they don't.
GROSS: So when you did the command performance for the queen, so what does that mean exactly? She's at Royal Albert Hall in the audience...
RIVERS: No, wherever it is, wherever it is. Sometimes it's in London, sometimes it's outside. I did one outside, in Windsor and one in England - in London. She comes, and it's always for a great charity, and it's - and I'm sorry you're an American, it doesn't matter. They play "God Save The Queen," and you just melt. You know, it's just oh my God, look where I am. I'm a Jewish girl from Brooklyn.
And then you do your - you do your act, and then afterwards they come down the receiving line, they meet and they chat with you, and they talk to you, and it's just - it's amazing. It's amazing.
GROSS: So did you choose your material knowing that the queen was in the audience?
RIVERS: Yeah, you're a little more careful. I did slip, and I said - and get ready, because you have to believe it. I said the word (bleep), and I said it, and I turned to her in the box, I said: Behead me now.
GROSS: So you always knew you wanted to be in comedy. What was the first comedy show...
RIVERS: I knew I wanted to be an actress. The comedy was making secretaries laugh so I could get in to see the agent. And finally one secretary said to me: You're very funny, you should do stand-up. And I at that time was working obviously as an office temporary daytime, and I thought, well - and she said you can make $8 a night in the comedy clubs. I thought that's better than being an office temporary. And that's how I started doing stand-up, to make a living to be an actress.
And then, as I said, the comedy started to take over, and then the writing started to move. And I was smart enough to go through any door that opened. I wrote Topo Gigio for Ed Sullivan.
GROSS: Are you kidding? Did you really?
RIVERS: No, a friend of mine said to me: They want me to write this stupid thing for Ed Sullivan. It's so beneath me - a friend of mine, a writer. And I said: I'll do it. And my first real writing thing was Topo Gigio, that little stupid mouse on Ed Sullivan.
GROSS: Oh, I - forgive me - I love you, but forgive me for saying this: I hated Topo Gigio.
RIVERS: Yeah, well, I got $500 a shot.
GROSS: Well, I love that. I'm glad you were rewarded. Glad it gave you a leg up in your career. But Topo Gigio was this, like, little puppet mouse, and Ed Sullivan...
RIVERS: This little stupid puppet mouse from Italy.
GROSS: Yeah, and Ed Sullivan would talk to it and go: Oh, Topo Gigio. And it was so - like bring on the Beatles, get rid of the mouse, yeah.
RIVERS: At the end you'd also say give me a kiss, Eddie. And Eddie would give you a kiss. And America loved it. Give me a kiss, Eddie.
GROSS: Were you frustrated that you had to write Topo Gigio, and that's what actually - that's where the money was for you?
RIVERS: Five hundred dollars? I'll write for Hitler. Five hundred dollars when you're starving and you've got a car payment due? Here we go, that's what I'm saying: You go through any door that opens, and you don't know which is going to be the one.
GROSS: So what did Topo Gigio lead to?
RIVERS: It led to my writing for Phyllis Diller and Bob Newhart. And so I was making a living writing one-liners. And then I began, as I said, to go - then I went to Second City, and then I came back to New York, and I worked in - all over the Village, where I met everybody. So one thing does lead somehow to another.
GROSS: It's great that you wrote for Phyllis Diller because one of her things was, like, her husband Fang, and she'd always tell, like, her husband jokes. And you told a lot of husband jokes. So I imagine a lot of her husband jokes were actually yours?
RIVERS: But the difference was she made fun of her husband, and if anyone ever listened closely to mine, which they did not - because they'd always say to my husband, Edgar, oh, does she make an idiot of you - I was always the idiot in the joke. You know what I'm saying? I was the one. I came out of the bath who had no breasts. I came out of the bathroom on my wedding night, and he said: Let me help you with the buttons. And I said: I'm naked. So I was the idiot.
RIVERS: But poor Edgar, till he died, people would say, boy, does she give it to you. Whoa. He'd go listen, I'm not giving it to him. I'm doing it to me.
GROSS: My guest is Joan Rivers. We'll talk more after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Joan Rivers. She has a new book called "I Hate Everyone: Starting with Me." It's a book about all the things she hates, and there's plenty of them. Were your parents funny, and did they appreciate comedy? Could your mother or father tell a joke?
RIVERS: My dad was a doctor. I think comedy truly is in - it's go look in your DNA, and they're going to find a comedy gene. My dad was a wonderful doctor. To this day people will come up and say your father was my mother's doctor, she died laughing. My father was a funny, funny man, as well as an incredible doctor.
My sister is a lawyer and I think still the youngest woman law school graduate at Columbia University. And she, I think she wins her cases because she makes them laugh, besides being very smart. We're all funny. The family is funny.
GROSS: So if your parents were funny, did they approve of you going into show business? Did they appreciate your sense of humor?
RIVERS: No. A sense of humor, yes. No, it - and you remember, you have to look at the time it was. My sister wanted to be a lawyer, and we were smart kids, you know, we're Phi Beta Kappa, the whole stuff. If I had said I want to be a surgeon, my father would have said this is fabulous. If you want to be an engineer, this is fabulous.
When I said I want to be an actress, the family went into shock, because in my father's generation, whenever a prostitute would come into the office, they would say I'm an actress. So I was saying I wanted to be a prostitute. Of course, he should've looked at me: I couldn't have made a living.
RIVERS: The fleet was out, as far as I was concerned. But no, they were very upset. I had to literally leave home. I literally ran away from home, very dramatic, ran away from Larchmont and lived for a year before I came back.
GROSS: So were you considered like a loose woman because you were living alone and trying to make it in the world of entertainment?
RIVERS: Yeah, they just didn't know what I was. I was bringing - when I got friendly with them again and went back to Larchmont a little bit - I was bringing home Woody Allen before he was Woody Allen, Richard Pryor before he was Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin before she was Lily Tomlin.
These are weird people walking up the driveway. This is not a nice boy from Yale. You ever shake Woody's hand? Put your hand in a cup of water, take it out and shake your hand.
RIVERS: Woody was very weird, and brilliant, but they didn't see that far.
GROSS: Was he comfortable around your parents?
RIVERS: Nobody was comfortable around my - I was from a very upper-middle-class suburban home. And you know, I wasn't comfortable for a while. And then of course we all started doing well. And my parents, lucky for me, thank God, lived to see me successful. That's so important for a parent to know a child is going to be OK.
GROSS: Did coming from a, what did you say, an upper-middle-class suburban...
RIVERS: Yeah.
GROSS: Did coming from that background helped or hurt you in any way as a comic?
RIVERS: It doesn't matter if there was pain in the house or pain in your own mind. And as I said, going back to your first thing that we talked about, I was this lumpy fat child that wanted to be an actress. I stole my picture off the piano when I was eight years old and sent it to MGM.
GROSS: Did you really? Seriously?
RIVERS: Yes. And my mother kept saying, where is the frame with Joan's picture in it? I sent them with the frame.
GROSS: That's so funny because the picture that was framed over the piano of me and my brother when I was growing up, if I was sending a picture to MGM, I certainly wouldn't want them to see that picture, which was your...
GROSS: ...you know, you're kind of like photo house hack, photo, you know what I mean? It was like...
RIVERS: Was it colored in?
GROSS: It was colored in with that fake coloring.2
RIVERS: Yes. Of course. Yes. Yes.
GROSS: It was like bad oil colors were something.
RIVERS: Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly. The lips are a little too pink.
GROSS: Yes. Exactly.
RIVERS: The cheeks are a little too pink.
GROSS: Yeah. Yeah. It was horrible. I can't believe you sent that. Did you get a response?
RIVERS: Not a word.
GROSS: I'm not surprised.
RIVERS: They didn't even send the frame back. Come on.
GROSS: I can't believe you sent it in the frame.
RIVERS: I was so stupid.
GROSS: Did you write a letter?
RIVERS: Just yeah, like (unintelligible) as much as you could write it eight or nine: I really think I could be a good actress.
GROSS: It's interesting, you sent it directly to MGM and not to an agent.
RIVERS: Yeah, I didn't know - at nine, who's an agent?
RIVERS: I thought they were going to say, look at this little fat pig here. We could use her in a farm movie.
GROSS: So did you at some point say I have to lose weight?
RIVERS: No. Still haven't. Still haven't.
GROSS: Come on.
RIVERS: I try and I'd starve all day and then I'd eat Milk Duds.
GROSS: Yeah, but you are so thin. I mean...
RIVERS: No, I'm not. Truly, I'm not being cute.
GROSS: Oh, no, no. Let's not go there.
RIVERS: No, let's not go there. You know, like you sit with these thin women that say I can't, I don't eat. You want to say, you eat two meals, one going down and one coming up.
GROSS: Right. I hear what you're saying. But you had your issues with food and dieting, didn't you?
RIVERS: Always. Always. And I am a closet bulimic. Right after my husband committed suicide, all I did was throw up, and someone explained to me that was, of course, that was the only control I had over my life at the moment. Maybe. You know, I know I look good.
GROSS: Have you ever wished that you didn't care that much about how you look?
RIVERS: Wrong society.
GROSS: Wrong business too, I guess.
RIVERS: Wrong - any business.
GROSS: So when you were getting started, what was the balance between feeling a sense of camaraderie with other young performers, like Woody Allen, and who else did you mention?
RIVERS: Oh, Dick Cavett, George Carlin, Lily Tomlin, we were all running around. Babsie as I call her behind her back, Babsie S., Barbra Streisand, we were all down there at the same time in the Village. Bob Dylan.
GROSS: So - OK, so you weren't directly competing with Bob Dylan because you were doing different things.
RIVERS: No.
GROSS: But what was the balance between camaraderie and competition that you felt with this circle of people?
RIVERS: Well, first of all, I was the only girl down there, so they didn't really feel they were competitive with me. But what they didn't get was I didn't think of myself as a girl. I just thought of myself as I'm funnier than you, you know, so it was very interesting. So where they perhaps were not as competitive with me, I was beyond competitive with them.
But we all were friends and we all had a great sense of not taking each others' material, and that was a wonderful moment because up to then, you know, the generation before us, they stole each other's - if somebody - and there's some people now, I'm not want to mention names, that come down and see young comics and just take their material.
GROSS: It must be hard way not to take other people's material because sometimes - I know with myself sometimes I'll think of something and I'm not really sure, did I come up with that or did I hear it somewhere?
RIVERS: Yes.
GROSS: I think I came up with it but it sounds a little familiar to me. Maybe I heard it somewhere. And sometimes you honestly don't know.
RIVERS: Oh, you don't know. I very seldom go to comedy clubs because I don't want to have to walk up to somebody after a show and say, you're not going to believe this but I'm doing good joke that is just about the same. They will never believe that. And on my reality show, "Joan and Melissa," which is renewed for our third year...
GROSS: Congratulations.
RIVERS: And - thank you. Oh, you have no idea. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so happy. I have a big fight with Lynne Koplitz, who is a friend of mine, very good standup comedian who claimed she was doing a joke, and we did it in the reality show. And I said, Lynne, I've been doing this joke for six months, and she says, well, I've been doing it for a year. Well, the point is I didn't know. So I'm very careful sometimes not to go and see young comics.
GROSS: So can I ask you another serious question?
RIVERS: Sure.
GROSS: One of the issues when you get to the age of 79 is that you've outlived a lot of friends.
RIVERS: Yeah.
GROSS: And relatives. So...
RIVERS: It's awful.
GROSS: Yeah.
RIVERS: And I have beyond amazing health, and I'm running around on stage. Someone said you work like a rock star, you know, just all over the stage. You - the loss is horrific, and when I go upstairs at night - this sounds so stupid - I always turn to my living room and I say, goodnight Orin. He was the man I lived with for nine years. Goodnight, Orin. Goodnight, Edgar. Goodnight, Uncle Tommy, who was my best friend.
And it's terribly sad. You cannot - that's the only sad thing about age. You can't bring back the ones you really loved, and that is why, little miss sunshine, when I have a fight with a friend, I never - two negatives. I never do not make up with them. I make up with up with them immediately if I care for them. I will not let a day go by. Life is too short these days. How about that for a nice serious stupid note?
GROSS: That's a nice note. I mean, I appreciate that sentiment. So it's been so wonderful to talk with you again. Thank you so much.
RIVERS: I love talking to you. Every time they say, you want to talk to her? I go, yes.
GROSS: Well, good. Thank you so much. I'm so glad you came back and congratulations on the book. It's really funny.
RIVERS: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
GROSS: Joan Rivers recorded in June after the publication of her book "I Hate Everyone, Starting with Me." You can read an excerpt of it on our website, freshair.npr.org. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Since his choreographic debut at the Noverre-Society Stuttgart, Marco Goecke's inventive and exceptional ballets have caused a nationwide stir and attracted international attention. In very few years the Wuppertal-born Goecke – since 2005 Resident Choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet – has presented a remarkable number of world premieres in Stuttgart and has choreographed for many renowned international companies.
Marco Goecke received his first ballet training at the age of fourteen. He continued his education at the Ballet Academy Cologne, at the Foundation Heinz Bosl Munich and at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. After his graduation he danced with the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin and later at the Theater Hagen. His first choreography, Loch , he created at the Theater Hagen and presented it in the same year at the International Choreography Competition in Hanover.
Following an invitation of Fritz Höver, Marco Goecke gave his choreographic debut at the Stuttgart Noverre Society's "Young Choreographers" with Chicks . In the following years he choreographed Demigods (2002), Blushing (2003) and Ickyucky (2004) for the Noverre Society. Shortly after his debut Goecke's extraordinary ballets attracted international attention. In September 2002 he received an invitation of the Choreographic Institute New York to create a choreography on dancers of the New York City Ballet for the Diamond Project Workshop. Principal Dancer Peter Boal instantly noticed Goecke's visionary work and commissioned the young choreographer to create a solo for NYCB's Sean Suozzi: Mopey premiered in March 2004 at the Joyce Theatre, New York, and received major critical acclaim. In the same year Mopey was shown at the Jacob's Pillow Festival in Becket, Massachusetts and also at the Venice Dance Biennale. In November 2005 the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle, took the solo into its repertoire.
In 2004 Marco Goecke received an invitation of very high personal value, exceeding any official award: Pina Bausch asked him to present two ballets – Blushing and Mopey – at her annual Dance Festival in Wuppertal. Blushing had already been a great succes with the audience and the critics the year before as it won the highly reputated Prix Dom Pérignon in Hamburg in 2003.
In 2005 Marco Goecke created his first commissioned work for the Stuttgart Ballet: Sweet Sweet Sweet premiered in February and was a remarkable success. The Ballet of the State Opera Hanover took it into its repertoire in the same year, so did the Donlon Dance Company at the State Theatre Saarbrücken in 2007 and the TanzTheaterMünchen at the State Theatre at the Gärtnerplatz, Munich, in 2008. After the enormous success of Sweet Sweet Sweet Marco Goecke was promoted to Resident Choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet in September 2005.
In June 2006 he presented his second ballet for the company: Viciouswishes premiered on occasion of the triple bill GOECKE / LEE / SPRADLING and showed again Goeckes "formidable originality" (Stuttgarter Nachrichten). In December of the same year followed his first full-length ballet for the Stuttgart Ballet: an extraordinary and highly acclaimed new interpretation of the ballet classic The Nutcracker . The full ballet was recorded by German television network ZDF/3sat and was broadcast Christmas 2007 on 3sat.
In 2008 Marco Goecke choreographed the polarising Alben , his fourth work for the Stuttgart Ballet, and on occasion of Ballet Director Reid Anderson's 60th birthday gala in April 2009 the solo Fancy Goods for Principal Dancer Friedemann Vogel. In June 2010, Marco Goecke will present his second full-lenght ballet for the Stuttgart Ballet: Orlando , after the novel by Virginia Woolf.
Three songs of Johnny Cash inspired Marco Goecke to create the powerful and moving solo Äffi for Principal Dancer Marijn Rademaker on occasion of a benefit gala in Holland. In December 2005 the Stuttgart Ballet audience experienced the masterpiece at the Stuttgart Ballet's annual Christmas Benefit Gala in the Opera House. Äffi made its way into the repertoire of the Stuttgart Ballet and also the Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and has since then been shown numerous times at national and international festivals: William Moore, Soloist with the Stuttgart Ballet, performed Äffi in 2006 at the Tanzplattform Germany in Stuttgart, at the Easter Dance Days in Hanover and the Ipswich Arts Festival in England as well as in 2007 at the III. Ludwigshafen Festival and at the 1. AidsDanceGala Munich at the State Theatre at the Gärtnerplatz. With the solo Marijn Rademaker won the renowned German dance award "Der Faust" in the category "Best Dance Performance" in 2006. In the same year Tadayoshi Kokeguchi from the Scapino Ballet Rotterdam also won with Äffi the Dutch dance award "Zwaan" at the Netherlands Dance Days in Maastricht.
Marco Goecke is closely connected to the Scapino Ballet Rotterdam. So far he has already created four world premieres for the company: Der Rest ist Schweigen, Bravo Charlie (since April 2009 also in the repertoire of the Stuttgart Ballet), Supernova and Pierrot Lunaire . In addition to Äffi, Blushing , Beautiful Freak and Ring Them Bells , Goecke's Nutcracker was also taken into the Scapino Ballet's repertoire. The Dutch audience and critics were equally enthusiastic about his dark avant-garde version of the ballet classic as the audience in Stuttgart.
Marco Goeckes extraordinary ballets are in the repertoire of further renowned companies. Goecke was invited by John Neumeier to create a new piece for his Hamburg Ballet on occasion of the Ballet Days Hamburg. Titled Beautiful Freak the ballet premiered in June 2005 and was hailed by critics as a masterpiece. For the Ballet of the State Theatre Braunschweig Goecke choreographed Alles , based on texts by Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann. Goecke created the ballets Sonett (2007), Suite Suite Suite (2008) and Le chant du rossignol (2009) for the Leipzig Ballet, Nichts (2008) for the Nederlands Dans Theater and Fur (2009) for the Norwegian National Ballet. For Les Ballets de Monte Carlo he created Whiteout (2008), choreographed his very own version of Le Spectre de la Rose (2009) on occasion of the 100th anniversary of Les Ballets Russes and presented the solo Tué (2009) in honour of Caroline Princess of Monaco.
In December 2006 Marco Goecke was awarded one of the most meaningful ballet awards: the Prix Nijinsky in the category "Upcoming Choreographer", which is awarded every other year in the course of the Monaco Dance Forum in Monte Carlo.
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In the earliest days of the Civil War, the Union Army focused on cutting off key supply lines on the periphery of the South. The approach was designed to hurt the South's economy and convince its citizens to return to the Union.
Even though President Lincoln said slavery was unjust, in the earliest days of the war he told the Southern states that he wouldn't interfere with slavery as an institution.
"He believed that with ... leaving slavery alone, that he could convince the Southern majority — Southern moderates — to come back," says Wesleyan professor and historian Richard Slotkin. "It took a year of conflict for him to realize that Southerners were really committed to the Confederacy."
Slotkin's latest book about the Civil War, The Long Road to Antietam, traces how both Northern and Southern strategies changed in the summer of 1862, when both sides committed to an all-out total war and Lincoln squared off against Gen. George McClellan, an ardent Democrat who held fantasies of both a dictatorship and a military coup against the Union.
After a battle in Virginia, McClellan, who briefly served as the chief general of the Union Army and organized the Army of the Potomac, demanded that Lincoln reject any move against slavery, stop treating Southerners as rebels and give up his own political power.
"Within a week, Lincoln rejected those demands and told [another general] that he was going to issue an Emancipation Proclamation, which was opposed to everything McClellan had just said to him," Slotkin tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. "The decision to issue an Emancipation Proclamation meant [he was] throwing out any hope of compromise with the South."
In making that decision, Slotkin says Lincoln knew he was turning the Civil War into a much bigger conflict. "The South would not quit until beaten, and that means total war."
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. We're used to thinking of the Civil War as the horrible conflict that ended slavery in the United States, kept the Union whole, and affirmed principles of constitutional democracy. But historian Richard Slotkin writes that in the first year of the war, none of these outcomes were certain.
Northern leaders didn't see abolition as a war aim and hoped they might get Southern states to return to the Union with slavery intact. As the military conflict escalated, it wasn't clear whether the constitutional principle of civilian control over the military would survive, as the Union General George McClellan entertained thoughts of taking control of the government.
Slotkin's book chronicles President Lincoln's struggle with McClellan and his decision after the Union victory at Antietam to emancipate slaves in the rebelling states, embracing social transformation of the South as a goal of the conflict. Slotkin's new book is called "The Long Road To Antietam: How The Civil War Became A Revolution." Richard Slotkin is an emeritus professor at Wesleyan University. He spoke to FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies.
Richard Slotkin, welcome to FRESH AIR. I really liked your book because it asks us to consider these events as the participants experienced them, not knowing what would happen in the early years of the Civil War. So many questions were unanswered, and we of course know what happened, but they didn't.
I mean we know that there would be a long, bloody conflict and that it would end slavery and that the Union would be preserved, but all of these questions were in the air at the time, and I think the book lets us consider them with, as they did, with those questions unanswered. So let's talk about, in these early months of the war, the perspectives that the leaders of the Union and the Confederacy have.
Let's start with Abraham Lincoln. What was his view of slavery?
RICHARD SLOTKIN: Lincoln had always been morally opposed to slavery. He was not an outright abolitionist but rather someone who believed in the gradual abolition of slavery. And he certainly had no recipe for how to create a multiracial democracy, which is what I think we all think about as the ideal outcome for that.
But his commitment was that slavery had to be put where, as he said, the public mind can rest in the expectation of its ultimate extinction, and that position alone was what made him completely anathema to the South.
DAVIES: So initially his approach to the rebellious states is come back to the Union, we won't interfere with slavery immediately, right?
SLOTKIN: That's right. It's what's called the strategy of conciliation. And the military component of the strategy is that you'll win a few important victories on the periphery of the South, you'll blockade the South to hurt their economy, and you'll just demonstrate that the costs of war are not worth paying.
DAVIES: So it's not total war in these early months?
SLOTKIN: No, it's definitely not, and both sides hope to, for different reasons, hope to avoid total war.
DAVIES: Now, what was Lincoln's view of the popular sentiment in the rebelling states of the South and how that would be affected by the way he might conduct the war?
SLOTKIN: He thought that the - the South had been carried into secession by a radical minority that had made a grand conspiracy out of the fact of his election. And he believed that with this dual appeal of a little bit of stick and the substantial carrot of leaving slavery alone, that he could convince a majority of the South, the Southern moderates, so-called, to come back.
And it took a year of conflict for him to really begin to recognize that Southerners were committed to the Confederacy, that it was not any longer simply a kind of minority put-up job.
DAVIES: All right. Now, let's talk about Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. What was his perspective on the early months of the war? How would he fight it, and what were his goals?
SLOTKIN: There's a lot of parallelism between Davis and Lincoln on this. His goal is the independence of the Confederacy and necessarily also the preservation of slavery. His approach by necessity is defensive. He just doesn't have the resources to do anything else. But his thinking is really defensive as well.
He's really saying the South is fighting to protect itself from Northern aggression, and it doesn't menace the North in any way at all. And Davis too, at the end of this year, is beginning to recognize that Northerners are much more passionately committed to the Union cause than he gave them credit for being.
DAVIES: But his goal is to say to the North: We want to live as your neighbors; we're going to let your farmers use the Mississippi to get to the Gulf of Mexico; we can work this out; let's not tear each other apart.
SLOTKIN: That's right. It's also a piece of conciliation. And he, like Lincoln, hopes a few victories over the North early in the war, coupled with a conciliatory attitude - yes, you can use the Port of New Orleans - will win the Northerners over to his position, make them willing to compromise.
DAVIES: One of the other fascinating questions that you deal with in the book here is whether or not the Union would continue to be a constitutional democracy. And this is something that we all take for granted now, but it wasn't so clear in the early months of the war. Why might some have thought that war might have moved the nation towards dictatorship?
SLOTKIN: Well, the thing that you have to bear in mind about the Civil War, and which we tend to forget because, as you said, we know how it ends, is that it is essentially a revolutionary crisis. You know, once the South secedes, the whole fundamental basis of constitutional government has been called into question.
So within the first few months of the war, you get other proposals for other secessions. In the North you get a movement to have some of the Northwestern states secede. New York City, the city fathers think about seceding from the Union. West Virginia, in the Confederacy, will secede from the state of Virginia. So it's a revolutionary situation in which what was normally unimaginable for Americans becomes imaginable.
And one of the classic things when a republic faces a civil war is to protect the interests that sustain the state. You go the military. You look to the military. All of the great democratic revolutions of the past had ended in military dictatorship as a result of civil war - French Revolution of 18 - the two revolutions, of 1789 and 1848, had both ended in military dictatorship. The English revolution ended in the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell. And you can take it back to Julius Caesar.
So it's a serious question for anyone who understands history and politics in the 1860s.
DAVIES: Right. Now, of course the one person who might have pulled this off is General George McClellan, who was the commander of the Union troops for I guess the first couple years. He is a fascinating character, and he was a career soldier, of course, but had been out of the Army for several years before war broke out. What had he been doing in his civilian pursuits, and what kind of political connections did they lead him to?
SLOTKIN: Well, most West Point - the best West Pointers, and McClellan is one of those, were trained as engineers. So when he leaves the Army, McClellan becomes an official of the Illinois Central Railroad, an operating officer of the railroad.
DAVIES: This is in the 1850s, right?
SLOTKIN: This is in 1857, when he resigns from the Army. And in Illinois, the Illinois Central Railroad is the pet project of Stephen A. Douglas, the senator from Illinois and Lincoln's opponent in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, and later in the presidential election.
And McClellan describes himself as a strong Democrat of the Stephen A. Douglas school. He supports Douglas against Lincoln both for senator and president, lets Douglas use the railroad for free, and he really is a serious partisan of the conservative or Democratic Party.
DAVIES: Right, and so when the war breaks out, and he naturally comes back into the Army because he has experience and skills that will be useful, he comes in with political ties and a political perspective, right?
SLOTKIN: Yes.
DAVIES: What were his views about slavery, white supremacy and the Union?
SLOTKIN: He was in favor of preserving slavery. He thought that the institution needed some reforms, but these were best left to the slave owners to work out. He was a white supremacist without apology. This is not, by the way, a very great distinction for him among Americans, white Americans in the 1860s. His tie is to the New York leadership of the Democratic Party, and Stephen Douglas dies shortly after the war starts.
All of the Southern Democrats have gone with the Confederacy. Almost by default, McClellan becomes the symbolic head, so to speak, of the Democratic Party in this period. He's the most powerful Democrat in the country.
DAVIES: Right, and the Democratic Party at this time was the party that was most sympathetic to slavery, white supremacy.
SLOTKIN: Yes.
DAVIES: So you have this bizarre situation of this very, very prominent political guy now being the most significant military commander in the Union.
SLOTKIN: Yes. Now, let's - just to make the situation even more difficult for President Lincoln, as Doris Kearns Goodwin said, his coalition is a team of rivals, and some of the Republicans are perfectly willing to scheme with McClellan to see if they can make McClellan a kind of cat's paw so that they can over-awe and rule Lincoln, whom everybody at this point considers to be very weak-minded.
So it's a poisonous situation, and there is actually a serious proposal to make McClellan a dictator, and what they mean by that is that they would - not that there would be a military coup but that they would pass a law vesting the power to run the war effort in McClellan and formally take - in a sense taking it away from Lincoln.
And they can imagine this because in fact nobody had ever really figured out what it meant to say that the president was commander-in-chief. It had never been a question of how he would exercise those powers.
DAVIES: So how far did this idea get in the early months?
SLOTKIN: It never gets to the point of actually making McClellan a dictator, and it's partly that there are too many rivals for the role of controlling Lincoln. And it's also that there's an easier way for McClellan to exercise power, and that is by becoming Lincoln's primary military advisor.
And he does this first by forcing the general-in-chief of the Army, Winfield Scott, into retirement, and the other path is by gaining a controlling voice over Lincoln's cabinet, and he spends really most of the next year trying to take that route to controlling Lincoln.
DAVIES: And he wrote a lot of letters to his wife, many of which have endured for historians like yourself. What do they tell us about his musings about taking control of the republic?
SLOTKIN: Well, they show a few things. He was really unrestrained, and it really is a window into the mind of a man who is a narcissist of world-class status. He really does see himself as the indispensible man, and he - his resentments of Lincoln are phenomenal. He refers to him as the original gorilla, a traitor or the tool of traitors.
He believed that he should be in charge of the government, that Lincoln should defer to him, and he was outraged by Lincoln's refusal.
DAVIES: One of the things that McClellan is credited with doing very well is training and preparing an army. I mean, he had the skill to do that, and he assembled the troops, and they were very loyal to him. And when he was a commander in the field, how much time did he spend doing politics, meeting with his political associates from the Democratic Party?
SLOTKIN: At intervals he spends a lot of time doing that. When the Army is deeply engaged in active movements, and his headquarters is mobile, he's really dealing just with his own military circle. But whenever the Army comes to rest, Democratic politicians, journalists, editors, come swarming to McClellan's headquarters.
And some of his - the generals who are not McClellan loyalists are put off by this. They feel that it's not a legitimate thing for the Army commander to be doing.
DAVIES: So you have a situation in which the top military commander has a lot of political connections. He and others in the government are leaking things to the press, which is very active and partisan in many cases. What does all this do for Lincoln's sense of his own ability to lead and maneuver?
SLOTKIN: Well, he recognizes that McClellan has a strong political position and that in dealing with McClellan, he has to be, at least in this early stage that we're talking about, up till the summer of '62, he's got to be really careful with McClellan. Unlike the South, the North really has a serious partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats.
To win the war, Lincoln has to keep the Democrats essentially supporting the war. So he can't really move too strenuously against McClellan. He's got to respect his power, and in the - the more at odds McClellan gets with the Lincoln administration, the harder it gets because McClellan is using the press to try to get Lincoln to fire Secretary of War Stanton.
McClellan believes if he can get Lincoln to do that, then that's the end of Lincoln's having any military advisor other than McClellan.
DAVIES: He was ultimately unsuccessful in doing that.
SLOTKIN: Totally unsuccessful. Yeah, Lincoln was onto the game from the start, and he deals with it by saying, gee, I don't know what the problem is, Stanton and McClellan are the best of friends.
DAVIES: We're speaking with Richard Slotkin. His new book is "The Long Road To Antietam." We'll talk more after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: If you're just joining us, we're speaking with historian Richard Slotkin. His new book is called "The Long Road To Antietam: How The Civil War Became A Revolution."
So there's this campaign. McClellan, who was the commander of the Union troops, McClellan has this massive army moving north toward Richmond. And Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, outmaneuvers him and forces McClellan into, you know, defeat and retreat. It goes badly. It's a terrible defeat for the North. Lincoln is upset, and McClellan complains that Lincoln didn't support him with enough troops, et cetera, et cetera.
But there's this moment at which Lincoln, after this defeat and this unsuccessful campaign, goes to meet with McClellan at his tent. And this is quite - quite an encounter. Lincoln asks for McClellan's plans. What are you going to do now? How do we regain the offensive? Tell us how McClellan responds.
SLOTKIN: Yeah, McClellan answers by handing Lincoln a letter, which he says will define his ideas, and the letter, it's called the Harrison's Landing Letter, that was the encampment where they met. The letter says nothing whatsoever about future operations for the Army of the Potomac. It's - instead, it's a political manifesto.
And he really - McClellan in effect makes three important demands of Lincoln. First, that the administration reject any move against slavery, and the letter says in a kind of threatening way that if anything radical is done about slavery, the army itself will dissolve - that is, the soldiers will refuse to fight.
And the second thing he says, and this is kind of a legalistic point, but it's an important one, he says that a war of subjugation would be against the Constitution - that is, it's not - Lincoln can't treat the Southerners as rebels, that as the Southern territory is liberated from the Confederates, Southerners have to be restored to their political rights, so that no sooner are they liberated than ex-Confederates can start voting for Democrats.
And the third thing he says is that Lincoln should appoint a commander-in-chief - that is, a soldier commander-in-chief - and give him power to act essentially without interference from the political - from the civilian government. And it's stunning. Basically a defeated general is asking the president to give up his political power and surrender his own party's interest and platform to the platform and interests of the opposition.
DAVIES: Right, so after this meeting, after the defeat in the Virginia campaign and McClellan saying essentially - presenting a list of political demands, Lincoln really changes his perspective on how to pursue the war, right? What happened - how does his thinking change?
SLOTKIN: Well, you remember, you know, McClellan's three demands. Within a week of coming back to Washington, Lincoln has acted decisively to reject everything McClellan has said. First, instead of appointing McClellan commander-in-chief, he brings in Henry Halleck, a general who'd been successful out west.
The day before he invites Halleck to come east, he tells Secretary of State Seward in a private conversation that he is going to issue an emancipation proclamation, which of course is adamantly opposed to everything that McClellan had just said to him.
The decision to issue an emancipation proclamation means you're throwing out any hope of compromise with the South. There's no way that the South is - there was no way, actually, that the South would have negotiated on Lincoln's basis of ultimate extinction. They're certainly not going to negotiate under threat of emancipation.
So in deciding this, Lincoln knows he's making a decision that will make this a war to the finish, a war of subjugation, to use the language that they used in the 1860s. The South will not quit until it's beaten. That means total war.
DAVIES: Right, it's no longer just a war about preserving the Union, it's about radically changing the Southern way of life.
SLOTKIN: That's right, that's right, and radically changing the nature of the Union as well.
GROSS: Historian Richard Slotkin and FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies will continue their conversation in the second half of the show. Slotkin is the author of the new book "The Road To Antietam: How The Civil War Became A Revolution." I'm Terry Gross and this is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to the interview that FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies recorded with historian Richard Slotkin about his new book "The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution."
When they left off, they were discussing President Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln knew would end the possibility of a negotiated compromise with the South.
DAVIES: In what ways would a proclamation which declared slaves in the rebelling states to be free, in what ways would that have assisted or changed the Union's war effort as it pursued its military goals?
SLOTKIN: Well, I have to say here there are two different versions. This first draft of the Proclamation, which was really very limited and it really only proposed doing away with slavery in the South, but the final plan that Lincoln puts together does have substantial military effects. In the original draft he - he was not going to take blacks into the military. The final draft he says two things: first, blacks will be taken into the military. And the second, most radical, thing in the proclamation, again, the final proclamation, not the first draft, is that he says to slaves that they shouldn't use violence unnecessarily, only in self-defense. And it looks like he's telling them not to rebel. But slaves have no right of self-defense. Southern law, the fundamental law of slavery is that the slave cannot appeal against the master even to a court, let alone physically defend himself against the master. And Lincoln is saying that the slaves now have a right of self-defense. And that - to me that's the giveaway, that this is a revolutionary act, that he's telling the slaves they don't have to take punishment anymore. They don't have to take whipping anymore. They can defend themselves.
DAVIES: Now, what's interesting about this moment in the struggle is that although Lincoln had decided he would take this turn towards total war and emancipation of the slaves and recasting the society of the South, Jefferson Davis didn't know this and he and Lee planned an invasion actually into Maryland, and of course this leads to the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862. People can read the book if they want to hear the military side of that story. It's a long, studied and fascinating tale. But tell us what's significant about that day and how it ended.
SLOTKIN: Well, Antietam insignificant for a couple of reasons. It's - first of all, it's the bloodiest single day of combat in American history - 13,000 Union soldiers, 12,000 Confederates killed, wounded or missing; 25 percent of the troops that were engaged became casualties. Compare that with D-Day, in which 5,600 Americans killed, wounded or missing, and that's only 10 percent of the force that was engaged. And it's - so it's really quite a stunning battle in its own right. But Lincoln had said, he originally, he had wanted to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in July but he needed a victory. He didn't want to issue it when the Union Army seemed to be on the decline. And Antietam, although it was a close-run battle, it was enough of a victory for Lincoln to bring out the Emancipation Proclamation, which he did four days after the battle.
DAVIES: Do you think this is an important moment for the Constitution?
SLOTKIN: I think it is because Lincoln, with a victory in hand, and with the - by November 7, with the congressional elections over, Lincoln finally is free to fire McClellan. And two days after the election he fires him. He fires a victorious general. It's often been compared to Truman firing MacArthur during the Korean War for his disobedience of presidential orders. Much more dangerous for Lincoln. Lincoln fires a victorious general whose army is in a sense at the gates of Washington, a general who had been talking about military - whose people at least had been talking about military coup - he fires him. And that is the ultimate resolution of this revolutionary crisis because no general will ever have the potential as the maker of a coup than McClellan had.
DAVIES: You know, it seems as you look at this early period of the Civil War, you take us through a period in which both sides hope for an early conclusion, and on terms favorable to them, and neither of them get there and we're plunged into this long, as you say, revolutionary struggle. What does it tell us? Was this inevitable?
SLOTKIN: I think it was inevitable once - once you resort war, your options become radically limited, and they are limited by the fact that, you know, you're dealing with force and opposing force. And once each side commits to the war, I think they are in a trap that they can't get out of. There's this wonderful moment after the proclamation comes out, Lincoln's cabinet officers and advisors are sitting around drinking wine, and one of them says that the secession was the most remarkable instance of insanity in a ruling class that he'd ever heard of, and if the South had left, had not seceded and gone to war, they could have enjoyed slavery for generations, no one would've cared. But they basically went out on their way to put it in the way of destruction. And I think that's right. When you choose war, you choose the path of destruction, and the destruction - you can never tell which way the destruction is going to fall out.
DAVIES: This is also a fascinating look at Abraham Lincoln. I mean he was in the early years someone that many - not General George McClellan - but others regarded as a lightweight, in over his head. What does this tell us about Lincoln?
SLOTKIN: Well, a few things. He's - first of all, he's a brilliant political leader who understands human nature, who understands the play of forces, who becomes - who educates himself on military strategy in a way that is fundamentally sound. But he's also a profoundly moral guy. And when we talk about his calculations about the Proclamation and the war, basically he has to do the Proclamation because he believes that you could not justify the kind of war that he was already in, and especially the kind of war they were going to have to fight to win the Union, unless you had removed the root cause of conflict that had caused the war in the first place, that if you won the war and left slavery there, you were simply going to have another war over slavery sometime in the future. And so as a moral principle, if you're going to fight that kind of war, you have to justify it by taking an action to do away with the roots of conflict.
DAVIES: Well, Richard Slotkin, it's been interesting. Thanks so much for speaking with us.
SLOTKIN: Thank you.
GROSS: Historian Richard Slotkin spoke with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies. Slotkin is the author of the new book "The Long Road to Antietam." You can read an excerpt on our website, FRESHAIR.npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.


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The previous post dealt with pipes, though the example may not have been the best for those who are not accustomed to the concept.
There are a few concepts to be understood – mainly, that of two (or more) processes operating together, how they put their data out, and how the get their data in. UNIX deals with multiple processes, all running (conceptually, at least) at the same time, on different CPUs, each with a standard input (stdin), and standard output (stdout). Pipes connect one process's stdout to another's stdin.
What do we want to pipe? Let's say we've got a small 80×25 terminal screen, and lots of files. The
ls command will spew out tons of data, faster than we can read it. There's a handy utility called "
more", which will show a screen-worth of text, then prompt "more". When you hit the space bar, it will scroll down a screen. You can hit ENTER to scroll one line.
I'm sure that you've worked this out already, but here is how we combine these two commands:
$ ls | more
<the first screenful of files is shown>
What happens here, is that the "more" command is started up first, then the "ls" command. The output of "ls" is piped to the input of "more", so it can read the data.
Most such tools can also work another way, too:
$ more myfile.txt
<the first screenful of "myfile.txt" is shown>
That is to say, "myfile.txt" is taken as standard input (stdin).


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Family of young Newtown shooting victim takes a break from 'so many sad days'
New London — Emilie Parker, one of 20 first-graders killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, liked to give presents to other people on her birthday and at Christmas. She would have been delighted to give a playground to the children of New London.
"She had a lot of love," Emilie's mother, Alissa Parker, said Thursday as she stood among a swarm of volunteers constructing a playground in memory of the 6-year-old in the middle of Riverside Park.
"My daughter would have wanted to give back," Parker said. "She thought so much about other people. She'd get the biggest kick out of this."
Parker, her husband, Robbie, and their two younger daughters, Madeline, 5, and Samantha, 4, were on hand Thursday when construction began on "Emilie's Shady Spot," a 2,600-square-foot pink and blue playground in the wooded, waterfront park.
The New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association's Sandy Ground Project: Where Angels Play is installing 26 playgrounds in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey to honor the 20 children and six adults who were killed last year in the shootings at their school in Newtown. The FMBA started building playgrounds in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina and then re-organized after the Sandy Hook shooting to build more.
Wearing small tool belts, the little blonde Parker sisters told the men to "Get to work!" after being prompted by Bill Lavin, former president of the New Jersey firefighters union, who organized the playground project. They helped hammer nails, and the entire family left hand prints in the cement around a newly erected flag pole with the words "For you with love Emilie."
"This is so beautiful," their mother said. "I couldn't be happier."
"Emilie loved stories, and telling them," said her uncle, Brady Cottle, who flew in from Eugene, Ore., to support his sister Alissa and to help build the playground. He said he was in awe of the volunteers who came together for Emilie, and of the 18-acre park that offers panoramic views of the Thames River.
The woods and the river would have been good fodder for her tales, he said.
"Emilie was a very imaginative little girl. This would have been a perfect spot for her," he said. "It's amazing. There's a lot of love here."
The specialness of Riverside Park, which the city nearly sold to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy two years ago, also was felt by some of the volunteers.
Tim McCabe, the national sales manager of Superior Recreation Products in Carrollton, Ga., which custom-made the playgrounds for all 26 projects, was at the park early Thursday when the sun was just rising over the water.
"The deer were running by," he said. "It was magical."
Dozens of volunteers began assembling the equipment early Thursday morning, including Kevin Doyle of Boston from the National Association of Government Employees, who brought 20 volunteers with him. Although his union has been raising money for the project since the beginning, this was the first worksite he'd visited.
"This is the most beautiful space," he said, looking around the park. "I'd like to build a house here."
Others traveled even farther to participate, including Kim Michelsen of Clinton, Iowa. Michelsen said she was glued to the television in December when the Newtown shootings occurred. Robbie Parker was the first parent she saw speak after the tragedy.
"When they showed the picture of his daughter, she looked just like my youngest granddaughter," said Michelsen, who flew to Connecticut Wednesday with her friend, Becky Weaver, for moral support. She became active in making schools safer in her hometown and followed the Parkers' story, including Alissa Parker's blog, "The Parker Five." When she heard about the playground, she decided she would go wherever it was being built and help.
She's staying for the dedication at 11 a.m. Sunday.
"I wouldn't have missed this for the world," she said, as she sorted through various pieces of equipment laid out on blue tarps. "I was afraid I was going to cry, but we're trying to make this a happy day. It's beautiful here."
During the flurry of construction, a group of students from nearby Winthrop School walked to the site to see where they soon would be able to play. The park has not had a playground since its antiquated and rusty equipment was removed several years ago. Alissa Parker was excited to see the children. Emilie would have been pleased her playground would be well-used, she said.
"We've had so many sad days," she said. "It's good to take a break and embrace the happy side today."
Emilie's Shady Spot is the 14th playground the firefighters have installed since December. Each was handpicked for one of the 20 children and six adults killed, and each incorporates something special about each victim. The playgrounds are donated, but each host community raises money to pass on to the next project. The program, when completed, will have cost an estimated $1.2 million.
The New Jersey group came to New London last spring at the urging of retired New London firefighter Victor Spinnato, who knows Lavin through volunteer work at the Arthur C. Luf Children's Burn Camp in Union.
Sandy Hook report: No motive uncovered; police response was swift
With new playground, kids at Riverside Park have it made in the shade
Episode 1: William Spicer loved the outdoors and his tree farm
Families mulling next step in lawsuit over border separation


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The malware symptoms below are common signs of a malware infection. However, many types of malware operate without alerting you to their presence. These covert programs may be even more of a malware threat, as they can lead to Internet dangers like identity theft and credit card fraud. The only way to know for sure if your computer has a malware infection is to run a free scan.
Slow PC or frequent computer crashes? Even a small amount of malware on a system can slow down computing and crash your PC because it operates in the background, sapping hard drive resources. Learn more about combating poor PC performance.
Spyware can cause some unexplained PC behavior, especially for your browser. So if things are happening that you did not initiate, you may already be a victim. Some common changes in behavior include: mysterious new toolbars you can't delete, unexplained changes to homepage settings and suspicious search results. Learn more about how you may lose control of your PC.
Familiar with pop-ups and spam? Harmless enough, right? Don't be fooled. While many pop-ups and emails from reputable companies are safe, the adware programs that generate illegitimate pop-ups are capable of installing spyware to hijack your browser and capture your personal information. Learn more about how pop-ups and spam can be more dangerous than annoying.