text:
But in discussing these, my colleague and I noticed a problem with these, from a pedagogical perspective at least. These essays did a good job in challenging textual models of national cinema historiography, in suggesting the utility of industrial and reception approaches to national cinema, and in drawing on and complicating the notion of cultural imperialism. What they did not do was really grapple with textual approaches to national cinema itself. Certain scholars have used specific national-cinema case studies to illuminate these issues (New German Cinema, say, or Pierre Sorlin's overlooked Film and History), and other scholars (Elsaesser, or Phil Rosen) have presented valuable theoretical discussions out of range for most introductory undergraduate education. But the only scholarship devoted to explaining what national cinema is, absent a narrow particular case study, seems to be committed to deconstructing the notion of national cinema.
Higson does outline a textual model of national cinema:
[T]here is the possibility of a text-based approach to national cinema. Here the key questions become: What are these films about? Do they share a common style or world view? What sort of projections of the national character do they ofer? To what extent are they engaged in 'exploring, questioning and constructing a notion of nation hood in the films themselves and in the consciousness of the viewer' [quote: Susan Barrowclough]"Nonetheless, Higson's polemic is against text-based understanding of national cinema. Meanwhile, area studies still continue and still find value in reading nation-specific cultural content and context in films. Others look to the way films construct a public, national culture. Yet, as I mentioned in my intro-textbook review, the concept of national cinema gets little, if any, consideration in American textbooks.
Am I overlooking something here? Suggestions for articles or books are welcome: I am not an a specialist in national cinema or even an area-study cinema. At stake are a couple of issues. The first, as I suggest, is pedagogical: what excites us as scholars may leave the dots unconnected in a classroom. Sometimes the simplified version is worth teaching (and learning) before complications are brought - indeed so the complications and newer intellectual models make sense. The second, however, is scholarly: as valuable as they, I cannot help but feel the national cinema-skeptics are overstating the case. If certain types of generalization about national ideology and aesthetics are problematic, it is still worth reflecting on which approaches and generalizations produce a better understanding of text-context relations - just sidestepping by saying that context is the only thing that matters will not answer the question.


text:
Thursday, September 17, 2009
BBAW Day #4 - Giveaway!
I'm plagiarizing the rules Holly came up with for her last giveaway, because it's more fun than just having you leave a comment. This drawing is open internationally!
For this one, you will be able to enter as many times as you like!! All you have to do is visit our blog and leave meaningful comments on our blog posts. The more comments you leave, the more entries you get!
Simply leave a comment, include your email address (if no email address, your entry will NOT be included in the drawing). Open worldwide. Contest closes September 27th at midnight.
I just thought this might be fun! I know we have lots of subscribers out there (over 100!), but for some reason, we rarely get commenters! We love to hear your comments, so please be encouraged to leave comments on our posts, EVEN WHEN WE AREN'T HOSTING A GIVEAWAY!! Any ol' day of the week, we love to hear your thoughts!!! Leaving new comments on older posts counts for this giveaway!!! Please go back and explore our older posts, especially if you're new to our blog! Also, any meaningful comments on new posts will count! Can you tell, I'm trying to drum up comments here? :-)
24 comments:
- Misusedinnocence said...
I would love to read this! :)
email@example.com - 6:22 PM
- Rachel said...
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- holdenj said...
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JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com - 8:49 AM
- Jemima said...
I would love to enter. I have just discovered you guys through BBAW.
thereadingjourney[at]gmail[dot]com - 8:54 AM
- Violet said...
On BBAW site it says it's WW, but here it says it's not, I'm confused :)
Anyway, please do enter me if international
elizascott2005 at yahoo dot co dot in
Drum up as many comments as you like, I would love some more too, always :)
I'm now going to look at the archives. I love exploring book blogs :)
http://violetcrush.wordpress.com - 11:13 AM
- Holly said...
Thanks for pointing out our typo!! We were copy and pasting from a previous post and forgot to change that. It's fixed now! Off to check out your blog now!! Thanks for visiting us.
- Sue said...
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s.mickelson at gmail dot com - 12:48 PM
- edmontonjb said...
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- Christine said...
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- Cherie J said...
Would love to read this. Please enter me. Thank you!
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- Amy said...
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Please enter me in your giveaway!
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- Stacie said...
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- flowerchild said...
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- Mark said...
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- renee said...
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- avalonne83 said...
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avalonne83 [at] yahoo [dot] it - 5:19 AM
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- pippirose said...
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Cheryl H
email@example.com - 3:22 PM
- cherdon said...
I left comments on the following:
Picture Book Thursday Is Back (September)
The Hanging Hill by Chris Grabenstein (September)
Seducing the Spirits by Louise Young (September)
Book Blogger Appreciation Week (September)
I enjoy your blog. - 3:34 PM
- Nancye said...
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- Alexa said...
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lovinfitch(at)aol(dot)com - 10:11 PM

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Northop Hall Country House Hotel
3Chester Road Northop Hall, Mold, CH7 6HJ
Price From
View Rooms- Very Good
- 17 guest reviews
About the hotel
Housed in a refurbished Victorian hall and set in over nine acres of gardens and woodland, Northop Hall Country House Hotel is a suitable base for both business and leisure travellers in this part of Northern Wales. We have been tastefully modernised yet still retain many of the wonderful and charming features of the Victorian hall. An ideal venue for conferences, seminars and social events, we offer three excellent suites, one to provide theatre seating for up to 120 delegates and two others accommodating up to 16 people, all with natural and controllable lighting.
After an activity-filled day, you can comfortably rest your head in any of our 36 individually furnished en suite bathrooms. Room amenities include free Wi-Fi, safe deposit box, ironing equipment, hairdryer and TV with Freeview (most are flat-screen). Some rooms come with four-poster beds while some rooms interconnect, perfect for those travelling with family or group of friends. For your dining needs, our elegant Chequers Restaurant offers scrumptious dishes to delight your culinary palates. Added hotel conveniences include free parking and free Wi-Fi in public areas.
Northop Hall Country House Hotel is strategically situated just 13 miles from Chester where you can check out their cathedral, roman amphitheatre and zoo. For more recreational pursuits close to the hotel, you can head out to Wepre Park explore the lush greeneries and the ruins of Ewloe Castle or play a round of golf at Northop Golf Club. We are a 15-minute drive from Shotton railway station and an hour's drive from Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
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- Hotel Non-Smoking Throughout, Disabled Facilities, 24 Hour Reception, Cots available, Wedding Licence, Tea/Coffee making facilities in each room, Hairdryer in each room, Iron And Board In Each Room, Telephone In Each Room, 24 Hour Room Service, Limited room service for hot food, Wake Up Call Available, Interconnecting rooms available, Childrens Facilities - Outdoor, Pets Allowed, Ground floor bedrooms
- Parking
- Car parking available onsite
- Business
- Wi-Fi Available, Meeting Facilities, Wi-Fi Available In Public Areas, Wi-Fi Available In Rooms, Private dining services
- Dining
- Restaurant, Lounge Menu, Bar, Breakfast to go
- In Room Entertainment
- TV, Radio
- Accessibility
- Disabled Access Public Areas, Disabled Access Bedrooms, Disabled toilets on ground floor, Wheelchair Access, Wheelchair Access To Reception, Wheelchair Access To Restaurant, Wheelchair Access To Bar, Wheelchair Access To Conference Rooms, Wheelchair Access To Leisure Facilities, Wheelchair Access To Disabled Car Parking Spaces
- Leisure
- [Channels] News, [Channels] Music, [Channels] Childrens
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- From 14:00 hours
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- The price shown is based on the occupancy and dates you have searched for. Prices and availability are subject to change based on the arrival date, number of nights and occupancy searched for. All prices are inclusive of all local taxes.
- Pets are allowed
Customer Reviews
Our reviews are from genuine LateRooms.com customers. We verify that the customer has stayed before leaving a review.
Very Good
100% would recommend it to a friend
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Lovely traditional country house feel
Stayed just one night with dinner and breakfast.
It's a lovely traditional country house hotel, quiet and peaceful. We really enjoyed the op...
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Mom & daughter inlaw Xmas shopping
Fantastic time, staff all made us so comfortable, food was lovely
All in all we couldn't fault anything and will return again, and recommend...


text:
Strategic B2B Marketing for better audience engagement.
We are a Strategic B2B Marketing Agency for Technology Companies, working with them to Engage and Acquire new customers.
We can help you define and execute a marketing strategy to drive leads and sales and positively position your brand, making sure you attract the right customers at the right time. Marketing is crucial when it comes to positioning yourself ahead of the competition and establishing market leadership. Our industry specialisms around technology, supply chain, public sector and retail means we can create high quality content marketing without a lot of hand holding.
We love to take big ideas, and break them down into great communications.
Generate leads in your community, be the leader that others turn to. Grow your brand by using customer insight to generate demand.
Be the first to develop and share an innovative idea. Grab people's attention and shake them out of their status quo. Increase your market share.
Truth attracts people to your brand and your leadership. It challenges, it frightens, it inspires it and engages. Let us work with you to find it.


text:
An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized corporate results this season. Their bottom line results look OK, but sales are coming up short.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Apple Inc. and Caterpillar Inc. results this week will help determine whether the quarterly earnings season is stuck in a well-worn groove: Companies' bottom-line results look OK, but sales are coming up short.
Of the 100 companies on the S&P 500 that have released results, about 72% have reported earnings results above the mean estimate, slightly above the average of 70% over the past four quarters, says John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet.
Week ahead: Watch Apple
Several companies report earnings next week but few will be as closely watched as Apple's earnings.
That hasn't been the case for revenue, however. Only 45% have reported revenue above mean estimates, below the 52% average of the past four quarters, according to Butters. So far, the blended earnings growth rate for the quarter is up 0.1%, with revenue down 0.1%, according to FactSet.
Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.17% —one of 10 companies on the Dow Jones Industrial Average that reported results last week—was a typical example of a company that impressed more on earnings than sales. It managed to sidestep an industry-wide slump in PC sales to report a 19% rise in earnings, topping forecasts. Sales gained 18%, just matching forecasts.
The top-line performance put up by companies couldn't staunch the sea of red that washed over indexes at the start of the week. Pressured by other factors such as China data, a gold plunge and the Boston Marathon bombings, the Dow industrials DJIA, -0.29% logged their worst week of the year with a 2.1% loss. IBM, which disappointed on sales and made a rare miss on earnings, was a big weight on Friday.
Similarly, the S&P 500 Index SPX, -0.08% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.19% also logged their worst week of the year with 2.1% and 2.7% losses, respectively.
In the week ahead, it'll be up to the next round of earnings to turn sentiment around.
Another third of the Dow industrials will report with Caterpillar CAT, -0.09% , United Technologies Corp. UTX, -0.04% , DuPont DD, -1.19% , Travelers Cos. TRV, -0.43% , AT&T Inc. T, +0.07% Procter & Gamble Co. PG, -0.22% Boeing Co. BA, -0.81% 3M Co. MMM, -0.33% , Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, -0.77% , Chevron Corp. CVX, +0.11% releasing results.
Also of big interest in the coming week will be Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.20% , Netflix Inc. NFLX, +0.13% and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -0.21% to better gauge the resiliency of the U.S. consumer.
Apple ahead
Apple is of particular interest after its recent slide. The stock last week fell through $400 a share, down more than 44% from its all-time high of $705.07 in late September.
The iPhone maker is expected to report fiscal second-quarter earnings of $10.03 a share on revenue of $42.45 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet. To underscore the importance of Apple, earnings for the tech sector are expected to fall 4% this season. They would grow 0.2% excluding Apple, according to Butters.
See 10 tech earnings you can't afford to miss.
"Everyone's waiting with bated breath to see if they can change the slide," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.
But even more key in the coming week will be earnings from Dow component Caterpillar, he said.
"They'll serve as a litmus test particularly with their exposure to China," Luschini said. In the past week, China's economy grew by 7.7% in the first quarter, short of the 8% expected from economists. That data, combined with industrial output that showed a slowdown, sent commodities and stocks into a tailspin Monday.
No one company will likely stand out as a "smoking gun" that sums up corporate performance this season, said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors.
"On balance, our expectations were very low," said Orlando, noting that negative earnings pre-announcements going into this season were at multi-year highs and that year-over year expectations were essentially flat.
"Management did a good job of lowering the expectations bar, and management has done a good job of lowering them for the second quarter," Orlando said.
Other earnings releases of note in the coming week will be Hasbro Inc. HAS, +0.04% and Texas Instruments Inc. TXN, -0.10% on Monday, Amgen Inc. AMGN, -0.18% and Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT, -0.77% on Tuesday, Yum Brands Inc. YUM, +0.63% and Whirlpool Corp. WHR, -0.13% on Wednesday, and Starbucks Corp. SBUX, +1.72% and Colgate-Palmolive Co. CL, -0.34% on Thursday.
Economy: Watch durables
But with earnings susceptible to the game of lowered expectations, what's going to be of more import to the markets is better economic data, Luschini said. Economic benchmarks, from manufacturing in the New York region to leading economic indicators, fell short of expectations in the past week.
On Wednesday, keep an eye on March durable goods orders, he said. Analysts surveyed by MarketWatch expect a decline of 4%.


text:
Don't F*&k With Willie Nelson: Brah's Getting a Fifth-Degree Black Belt
Everyone's favorite pothead octogenarian is also a badass martial artist.
Singer-songwriter-highwayman Willie Nelson will receive "his fifth-degree black belt in the modern Korean martial art of Gong Kwon Yu Sul" today, one day ahead of his 81st birthday, according to People Magazine.
"It's a good form of exercise, especially as you get older," Willie told Men's Health last year. "I went through school playing all kinds of sports. I played shortstop, I ran track. I played football. I was a pole vaulter."
There's a green belt/weed joke somewhere here, but it's only Monday …
• Watch This Epic Karate Knockout
• Russian Version of MMA Is 2-on-2 Real-Life 'American Gladiators'
• Willie Nelson + Coldplay Cover + Animation = Chipotle PSA?


text:
Make N Take
Candle Creations for Mom
This free program is aimed at ages 7 to 10. The library will provide small candles and decorations for the children to create their masterpieces. The children will be able to take the candles home from the program. Please join us for this fun craft program. For more information please contact Jenny Rodgers, Youth Services Coordinator, at 352-486-5552 or your local librarian.
A.F. Knotts Public Library on April 14, 5 p.m.
Luther Callaway Public Library, April 17, 5 p.m.
Williston Public Library, April 22, 4 p.m.
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If you are new to the award winning Williston Pioneer and wish to get a subscription or simply gain access to our online content then please enter your ZIP code below and continue to setup your account.
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text:
9 July 2014
25 August 2014 Last updated at 01:17 BST
Rice produced in in the Fukushima area of Japan, which suffered a nuclear disaster in 2011, has gone on sale in Japanese supermarkets in Singapore.
Singapore has some of the strictest food safety standards in the world, and farmers hope that passing them could lead to improved global confidence in their rice.
Ashleigh Nghiem reports.


text:
Crop sciences professor: 'Chances of a good corn crop remain high'
Online Staff Report
April 2013 turned into a "second March," with wet weather and cool temperatures persisting into the last week of the month and corn planting progress in Illinois stuck at 1 percen. Nationally, only 5 percent of the corn crop was planted by April 28, and none of the Corn Belt states had more than 2 percent planted, according to University of Illinois Crop Sciences Professor Emerson Nafziger.
"The corn that has been planted is struggling mightily to survive the soil conditions and to emerge," Nafziger said. "If we are lucky enough to 'skip' another month and May begins to look more like a typical June, it's not too late to get the planting and crop back on track. So, while yield potential will start to drop as we get further into May with planting, chances of a good corn crop remain high, as long as weather permits planting soon, and then returns to a more normal pattern of rainfall without summer drought periods like we've had the past three years in parts of Illinois.
"Most of our planting-date studies show that yield loss accelerates as planting is delayed in May, and getting corn planted by the end of April is a recognized goal in Illinois," Nafziger said. "The reality is, though, that, on average, we only manage to get a little more than 40 percent of our corn planted by this target date, and it's nearly the end of May before we reach 90 percent is planted.
"Several times in recent years, we have planted more than 50 percent of the corn crop in a 10-day period, and can plant even faster than that if all fields are ready at once," he said.
This means that weather and soil conditions, not equipment, are the major barriers to planting early.
"Despite our anxiousness to finish planting by the end of April, Illinois data over the past 20 years do not show that early planting alone boosts yields," Nafziger said. "In fact, there is no correlation between time to 50 percent planted and yield as measured by departure-from-trendline yield. It's clear that the early planting and drought-damaged yields of 2012 helped wreck this correlation, but even if we eliminate 2012, the percent planted by April 30 still explains only about 5 percent of the yield departure from trend," he said.
Does this mean getting the crop planted early is not as important as a management goal? Nafziger said no.
"Planting before the end of April generally means that we've removed late planting (and the shortened season and greater chance of stress that follow late planting) as a potential barrier to high yields, thus maximizing yield potential. At the same time, we need to recognize that it's not 'game over' if we are forced by weather and soil conditions to plant into May, even past mid-May," he said.
Nafziger said the fact that early planting does not necessarily lead to high yields does tell us that what happens after planting and through the rest of the season is more important than when we get the crop planted.
"This reminds us that it's important not to do anything that might compromise the plant's ability to take advantage of conditions later in the season that will determine actual yield," he said. "That certainly includes taking care not to plant into wet, compacted soils in our rush to plant early."
Posted May 2, 2013


text:
Ponytail (band)
Ponytail | |
Origin | Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
Genres | Art rock Surf rock Noise pop |
Years active | 2005-2011 |
Labels | We Are Free Creative Capitalism Monitor Records Gaarden Records |
Members | Dustin Wong Jeremy Hyman Ken Seeno Willy Siegel |
Past members | Michael Petruzzo |
Ponytail was a 4-piece art rock band formed in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The group featured vocalist Willy Siegel, guitarists Dustin Wong and Ken Seeno, and drummer Jeremy Hyman.[1][2] The band has toured internationally, with bands such as Battles, Hella, Don Caballero, High Places and others.[3] They have released three albums, Kamehameha, Ice Cream Spiritual, and Do Whatever You Want All The Time. They were named "Best Live Band" by Baltimore City Paper in September 2007[4] and "Best Band" in September 2008[5]
In January 2005, the band came together originally as a 5-piece, incorporating Wong, Hyman, Seeno, Siegel and Petruzzo. The group was originally assembled by their professor for an assignment to start a band. Seeno recalls; "He put me and the drummer Jeremy [Hyman] together because we were the youngest. He put Dustin [Wong] with us because he was oldest in the class. And then he put this guy Michael Petruzzo with us, he was wearing a Destiny's Child t-shirt, I remember that. And then Willy was the last one to get picked." After talking about their favorite music, the group started playing together, with the experienced musicians Hyman, Wong and Seeno playing off the freeform noise made by Petruzzo and Siegel. Petruzzo eventually left the band, which led to them focusing more on melody with Siegel as their frontwoman.[6]
Kamehameha was released in vinyl on Friday, April 17, 2006, on Portland, Oregon-based label Gaarden Records.
In mid-June 2008, Ponytail released their second full-length, Ice Cream Spiritual to positive reviews.[7] The band has been praised for their energetic, 'sugar-rush type' performances by BBC as well as Pitchfork Media.[8] Wong left Ecstatic Sunshine in 2009 to fully focus on Ponytail. The band toured internationally throughout Europe, USA, Australia, and New Zealand in promotion of their latest record. The band was also chosen by Matt Groening to perform at the edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival which he curated in May 2010 in Minehead, England. Ponytail went on hiatus in August 2010. Wong published a solo-album Infinite Love in October 2010. A 40-minute piece cut into 15 tracks and then re-done on a 2nd CD. This instrumental release appeared on Thrill Jockey.[9] Although Dustin Wong had announced that Whartscape 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland would be their last show, a new album was announced. The band released their third full-length album, titled Do Whatever You Want All The Time, in April 2011. The cover art that was designed by Yamantaka Eye of the Japanese rock band Boredoms.[10] The band officially broke up on September 22, 2011.[11]
- Kamehameha (We Are Free, November 22, 2006)
- Ice Cream Spiritual (We Are Free, June 17, 2008)
- Do Whatever You Want All The Time (We Are Free, April 12, 2011)[12]
- Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came from An Angel) (We Are Free. April 29, 2008)
Dustin Wong[edit]
- Seasons, LP
- Let it Go, cassette, WTRCL
- Infinite Love (Thrill Jockey, Oct 2010)
- Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads (Thrill Jockey, Feb 2012)
External links[edit]
- ^ Cat Dirt Sez, catdirtsez.blogspot.com/, contains review of band, as well as information on formation and history, retrieved 16 August 2008.
- ^ allmusic Biography allmusic.com/, written biography of Ponytail, retrieved 19 August 2008.
- ^ Ponytail Myspace Page, myspace.com/, contains band-member-written information, retrieved 19 August 2008.
- ^ "Best Live Band: Ponytail", Baltimore City Paper, 2007-09-19
- ^ "Best Band: Ponytail", Baltimore City Paper, 2008-09-17
- ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/band-to-watch-ponytails-ecstatic-ambient-art-rock-20110406#ixzz1klONyCBp
- ^ Pitchfork Review of ICS, pitchforkmedia.com/ review of Ice Cream Spiritual and information on Ponytail, retrieved 16 August 2008.
- ^ BBC Review, bbc.co.uk/, gives a thorough review of Ice Cream Spiritual, retrieved 19 August 2008.
- ^ http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14802-infinite-love/
- ^ http://alteredzones.com/posts/876/ponytail-announce-new-album/
- ^ http://pitchforkmedia.com/news/44072-ponytail-break-up/
- ^ http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2011/03/ponytail_has_no.html


text:
Mar 13, 2013 at 6:33 am
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Minnesota House and Senate lawmakers have given crucial victories to supporters of same-sex marriage.
The House Civil Law Committee passed a bill to legalize gay marriage Tuesday night on a 10-7 party-line vote, with all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill earlier Tuesday. It was the first time state legislative committees have backed marriage rights for gay couples.
The bills now head to the floor, where a final vote is not expected until much later in session.
The Democratic-led Legislature is pressing ahead with the marriage bill after voters defeated a constitutional amendment last November that would have fortified an existing ban on same-sex marriage. Gov. Mark Dayton says he will sign the bill if it reaches him.
Temp: 40°F (4°C)
Dewpoint: 36
Wind: 7 N
Weather: Cloudy


text:
Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is an alternative alphabet for many languages that is used primarily on the Internet. It uses some characters to replace others in ways that play on the similarity of their glyphs via reflection or other resemblance. For example, leet spellings of the word leet include 1337 and l33t; eleet may be spelled 31337 or 3l33t.
The term leet is derived from the word elite. The leet alphabet is a specialized form of symbolic writing. Leet may also be considered a substitution cipher, although many dialects or linguistic varieties exist in different online communities. The term leet is also used as an adjective to describe formidable prowess or accomplishment, especially in the fields of online gaming and in its original usage—computer hacking.
Leet originated within bulletin board systems (BBS) in the 1980s,[1][2] where having "elite" status on a BBS allowed a user access to file folders, games, and special chat rooms. The Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective has been credited with the original coining of the term, in their text-files of that era.[3] One theory is that it was developed to defeat text filters created by BBS or Internet Relay Chat system operators for message boards to discourage the discussion of forbidden topics, like cracking and hacking.[1] Creative misspellings and ASCII-art-derived words were also a way to attempt to indicate one was knowledgeable about the culture of computer users. Once the reserve of hackers, crackers, and script kiddies, leet has since entered the mainstream.[1] It is now also used to mock newbies, or newcomers, on web sites, or in gaming communities.[4] Some consider emoticons and ASCII art, like smiley faces, to be leet, while others maintain that leet consists of only symbolic word encryption. More obscure forms of leet, involving the use of symbol combinations and almost no letters or numbers, continue to be used for its original purpose of encrypted communication. It is also sometimes used as a script language. Variants of leet have been used for censorship purposes for many years; for instance "@$$" (ass) and "$#!+" (shit) are frequently seen to make a word appear censored to the untrained eye but obvious to a person familiar with leet.
Leet symbols, especially the number 1337, are Internet memes that have spilled over into popular culture. Signs that show the numbers "1337" are popular motifs for pictures and shared widely across the Internet.
One of the hallmarks of leet is its unique approach to orthography, using substitutions of other characters, letters or otherwise, to represent a letter or letters in a word.[5][6] For more casual use of leet, the primary strategy is to use homoglyphs, symbols that closely resemble (to varying degrees) the letters for which they stand. The choice of symbol is not fixed—anything that the reader can make sense of is valid. However, this practice is not extensively used in regular leet; more often it is seen in situations where the argot (i.e., secret language) characteristics of the system are required, either to exclude newbies or outsiders in general, i.e., anything that the average reader cannot make sense of is valid; a valid reader should himself try to make sense, if deserving of the underlying message. Another use for Leet orthographic substitutions is the creation of paraphrased passwords.[1] Limitations imposed by websites on password length (usually no more than 36) and the characters permitted (usually alphanumeric and underscore) require less extensive forms of Leet when used in this application.
Some examples of leet include B1ff and n00b, a term for the stereotypical newbie; the l33t programming language; and the web-comic Megatokyo, which contains characters who speak leet.
Text rendered in leet is often characterized by distinctive, recurring forms.
- The -xor suffix
- The meaning of this suffix is parallel with the English -er and -r suffixes (seen in hacker and lesser),[2] in that it derives agent nouns from a verb stem. It is realized in two different forms: -xor and -zor, /-sɔːr/ and /-zɔːr/, respectively. For example, the first may be seen in the word hax(x)or (H4x0r in leet) /ˈhæksɔːr/ and the second in pwnzor /ˈoʊnzɔːr/. Additionally, this nominalization may also be inflected with all of the suffixes of regular English verbs. The letter 'o' is often replaced with the numeral 0.
- The -age suffix
- Derivation of a noun from a verb stem is possible by attaching -age to the base form of any verb. Attested derivations are pwnage, skillage, and speakage. However, leet provides exceptions; the word leetage is acceptable, referring to actively being leet.[7] These nouns are often used with a form of "to be" rather than "to have," e.g., "that was pwnage" rather than "he has pwnage". Either is a more emphatic way of expressing the simpler "he pwns," but the former implies that the person is embodying the trait rather than merely possessing it.
- The -ness suffix
- Derivation of a noun from an adjective stem is done by attaching -ness to any adjective. This is entirely the same as the English form, except it is used much more often in Leet. Nouns such as lulzness and leetness are derivations using this suffix.
- Words ending in -ed
- When forming a past participle ending in -ed, the Leet user may replace the -e with an apostrophe, as was common in poetry of previous centuries, (e.g. "pwned" becomes "pwn'd"). Sometimes, the apostrophe is removed as well (e.g. "pwned" becomes "pwnd"). The word ending may also be substituted by -t (e.g. pwned becomes pwnt).[8]
- Use of the -& suffix
- Words ending in -and, -anned, -ant, or a similar sound can sometimes be spelled with an ampersand (&) to express the ending sound (e.g. "This is the s&box," "I'm sorry, you've been b&", "&hill/&farm"). This is most commonly used with the word banned. An alternate form of "B&" is "B7", as the ampersand is typed with the "7" key in the standard US keyboard layout. It is often seen in the phrase "IBB7" (in before banned), which indicates that the poster believes that a previous poster will soon be banned from the site, channel, or board on which they are both posting.
Leet can be pronounced as a single syllable, /ˈliːt/, rhyming with eat, by way of aphesis of the initial vowel of "elite". It may also be pronounced as two syllables, /ɛˈliːt/. Like hacker slang, leet enjoys a looser grammar than standard English.[4] The loose grammar, just like loose spelling, encodes some level of emphasis, ironic or otherwise. A reader must rely more on intuitive parsing of leet to determine the meaning of a sentence rather than the actual sentence structure. In particular, speakers of leet are fond of verbing nouns, turning verbs into nouns (and back again) as forms of emphasis, e.g. "Austin rocks" is weaker than "Austin roxxorz" (note spelling), which is weaker than "Au5t1N is t3h r0xx0rz" (note grammar), which is weaker than something like "0MFG D00D /\Ü571N 15 T3H l_l83Я 1337 Я0XX0ЯZ" (OMG, dude, Austin is the über-elite rocks-er!). In essence, all of these mean "Austin rocks," not necessarily the other options. Added words and misspellings add to the speaker's enjoyment. Leet, like hacker slang, employs analogy in construction of new words. For example, if haxored is the past tense of the verb "to hack" (hack → haxor → haxored), then winzored would be easily understood to be the past tense conjugation of "to win," even if the reader had not seen that particular word before.
Leet has its own colloquialisms, many of which originated as jokes based on common typing errors, habits of new computer users, or knowledge of cyberculture and history.[9] Leet is not solely based upon one language or character set. Greek, Russian, and other languages have leet forms, and leet in one language may use characters from another where they are available. As such, while it may be referred to as a "cipher", a "dialect", or a "language", leet does not fit squarely into any of these categories. The term leet itself is often written 31337, or 1337, and many other variations. After the meaning of these became widely familiar, 10100111001 came to be used in its place, because it is the binary form of 1337 decimal, making it more of a puzzle to interpret.[Notes 1] An increasingly common characteristic of leet is the changing of grammatical usage so as to be deliberately incorrect. The widespread popularity of deliberate misspelling is similar to the cult following of the "All your base are belong to us" phrase. Indeed, the online and computer communities have been international from their inception, so spellings and phrases typical of non-native speakers are quite common.
Many words originally derived from leet slang have now become part of the modern Internet slang, such as "pwned".[1] The original driving forces of new vocabulary in leet were common misspellings and typing errors such as "teh" (generally considered lolspeak), and intentional misspellings,[10] especially the "z" at the end of words ("skillz").[1] Another prominent example of a surviving leet expression is w00t, an exclamation of joy.[2] w00t is sometimes used as a backronym for "We owned the other team."
New words (or corruptions thereof) may arise from a need to make one's username unique. As any given Internet service reaches more people, the number of names available to a given user is drastically reduced. While many users may wish to have the username "CatLover," for example, in many cases it is only possible for one user to have the moniker. As such, degradations of the name may evolve, such as "C@7L0vr." As the leet cipher is highly dynamic, there is a wider possibility for multiple users to share the "same" name, through combinations of spelling and transliterations.
Additionally, leet—the word itself—can be found in the screen-names and gamertags of many Internet and video games. Use of the term in such a manner announces a high level of skill, though such an announcement may be seen as baseless hubris.[11]
Terminology and common misspellings
Warez (nominally /ˈwɛərz/) is a plural shortening of "software", typically referring to cracked and redistributed software.[11] Phreaking refers to the hacking of telephone systems and other non-Internet equipment.[1] Teh originated as a typographical error of "the", and is sometimes spelled t3h.[1][12] j00 takes the place of "you",[2] originating from the affricate sound that occurs in place of the palatal approximant, /j/, when you follows a word ending in an alveolar plosive consonant, such as /t/ or /d/. Also, from German, is über, which means "over" or "above"; it usually appears as a prefix attached to adjectives, and is frequently written without the umlaut over the u.[13]
Haxor and suxxor (suxorz)
Haxor, and derivations thereof, is leet for "hacker",[14] and it is one of the most commonplace examples of the use of the -xor suffix. Suxxor (pronounced suck-zor) is a derogatory term which originated in warez culture and is currently used in multi-user environments such as multiplayer video games and instant messaging; it, like haxor, is one of the early leet words to use the -xor suffix. Suxxor is a modified version of "sucks" (the phrase "to suck"), and the meaning is the same as the English slang. Its negative definition essentially makes it the opposite of roxxor, and both can be used as a verb or a noun. The letters ck are often replaced with the Greek Χ (chi) in other words as well.
Within leet, the term n00b, and derivations thereof, is used extensively. The word means and derives from newbie (as in new and inexperienced or uninformed),[10][13][15] and is used as a means of segregating them as less than the "elite," or even "normal," members of a group.
Owned and pwned
Owned and pwn3d (generally pronounced "owned" and "poned", respectively) both refer to the domination of a player in a video game or argument (rather than just a win), or the successful hacking of a website or computer.[1][13][16]
As is a common characteristic of leet, the terms have also been adapted into noun and adjective forms,[13] ownage and pwnage, which can refer to the situation of pwning or to the superiority of its subject (e.g., "He is a very good player. He is pwnage.").
Pr0n is slang for pornography.[1] This is a deliberately inaccurate spelling/pronunciation for porn,[15] where a zero is often used to replace the letter O. It is sometimes used in legitimate communications (such as email discussion groups, Usenet, chat rooms, and Internet web pages) to circumvent language and content filters, which may reject messages as offensive or spam. The word also helps prevent search engines from associating commercial sites with pornography, which might result in unwelcome traffic.[citation needed] Pr0n is also sometimes spelled backwards (n0rp) to further obscure the meaning to potentially uninformed readers.[Notes 2] It can also refer to ASCII art depicting pornographic images, or to photos of the internals of consumer and industrial hardware. Prawn, a spoof of the misspelling, has started to come into use, as well; in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a pornographer films his movies on "Prawn Island". Conversely, in the RPG Kingdom of Loathing, prawn, referring to a kind of crustacean, is spelled pr0n, leading to the creation of food items such as "pr0n chow mein".
See also
- Calculator spelling
- Elitism
- Faux Cyrillic
- Geek Code
- IDN homograph attack
- Magic debug values, specific values written to a PC's memory
- Mojibake, garbled text, resulting from text being decoded using an unintended character encoding
- Numeronym, e.g. "K9" for "canine"
- Rebus, an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words
- SMS language, a term for the abbreviations and slang used in mobile phone text messaging and other social technology
- Urban Dictionary, a crowd-sourced slang dictionary
- Verlan, inversion of syllables in a word
- Arabic chat alphabet
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mitchell.
- ^ a b c d An Explanation of l33t Speak.
- ^ Mello, John P.(2015) "[1] Google Expands Bug Bounty Program" February 2, 2015. E-Commerce Times
- ^ a b Rome.
- ^ Sterling, 70.
- ^ Blashki & Nichol, 80.
- ^ Blashki & Nichol, 79.
- ^ LeBlanc, 33.
- ^ Blashki & Nichol, 81.
- ^ a b Blashki & Nichol, 83.
- ^ a b Computer Hope Dictionary.
- ^ LeBlanc, 34-35.
- ^ a b c d Van de Velde & Meuleman.
- ^ LeBlanc, 30; 32.
- ^ a b The Acronym Finder.
- ^ LeBlanc, 32-33.
- "The Acronym Finder". Mountain Data Systems, LLC. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
- "An Explanation of l33t Speak". h2g2. BBC. 2002-08-16. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
- Blashki, Katherine; Nichol, Sophie (2005). "Game Geek's Goss: Linguistic Creativity In Young Males Within An Online University Forum" (PDF). Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society. 3 (2): 77–86.
- "Computer Hope Dictionary - Game definitions". Computer Hope. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
- "The Free Dictionary -- Acronyms". The Free Dictionary. Farlex, Inc. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
- "Google Directory - Computers". Google. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
- Haig, Matt (2001). E-Mail Essentials: How to Make the Most of E-Communications. Kogan Page. p. 89. ISBN 0-7494-3576-3.
- LeBlanc, Tracy Rene (2005-04-01). ""Is There A Translator in Teh House?": Cultural and Discourse Analysis of a Virtual Speech Community on an Internet Message Board" (PDF). Louisiana State University.
- Mitchell, Anthony (2006-06-12). "A Leet Primer". Technology News. ECT News Network, Inc. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
- Perea, M.; Duñabeitia, J. A.; Carreiras, M. (2008). "R34D1Ng W0Rd5 W1Th Numb3R5" (PDF). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 34 (1): 237–241. doi:10.1037/0096-15220.127.116.11. PMID 18248151.
- Raymond, Eric R.; Steele, Guy L. (1996). "The New Hacker's Dictionary". MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-68092-0.
- Rome, James Andrew (2001-12-18). "relax we understand j00". Sigma Tau Delta, The International English Honor Society. Case Western University, Beta Beta Chapter. Archived from the original on 2007-02-16. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
- Sterling, Bruce (1994). The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. New York: Bantam Spectra Books. p. 70. ISBN 0-553-56370-X.
- Van de Velde, Kristof; Meuleman, Jeroen (2004). "Lexical tensions in 'internet english' : 1337 as language?". Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- Pearson, Wayne. "The creation of "LOL"". Retrieved 2008-11-06.
External links
Look up leet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |


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SF Symphony Chinese New Year Concert
The San Francisco Symphony rang in the Year of the Snake on Saturday, February 2 at its 13th Annual Lunar New Year Concert and Celebration in Davies Symphony Hall. The Orchestra concert featured conductor Mei-Ann Chen and erhu player George Gao in a program consisting entirely of music by Asian and Asian-American composers. The day concludes with the Lunar New Year Imperial Dinner, chaired by Mindy Sun, in the Grand Rotunda of City Hall.
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Fitbit Zip Review
Fitbit makes an entire line of fitness trackers, but only the Zip (starting at $49, Amazon) falls within the Cheapism price range of $50 or less. Fitbit Zip reviews are generally very positive, with many users reporting an increase in their physical activity as a result of buying the device. The Zip is a small, water-resistant, clip-on tracker with a screen that displays the day's steps, distance, and estimated calories burned. Collected data can be automatically synced to a computer using an included USB dongle and to apps on select Apple and Android devices. After syncing, users will find informative graphs, charts, and tools to help them understand their activity, see trends over time, and check progress toward a goal. One Zip user reports on the Best Buy website that she has become so committed to reaching her daily step goal that she walks around the house in the evening if need be, and even reviewers posting lower ratings for the Zip say they find it motivating. Fitbit builds in a little extra encouragement by awarding wearers badges for daily, weekly, and lifetime achievements, such as total steps taken. Friends and family can connect to each other to share stats, encourage each other, and participate in friendly (or not) competitions. The community support that comes with the device actually seems to be its very best feature. Groups of users from around the world keep each other committed to their fitness goals.
During a product test by CNET, the tester found that the Zip logged more steps than a competitor on an identical walk and may have given him a little too much credit. Regardless, CNET concluded that the Fitbit Zip is the best fitness tracker you can buy for less than $60. User reviews are likewise mixed when it comes to accuracy, but most report that the device is accurate and doesn't register movements other than walking as steps, a common problem among cheap trackers. One user conducted step tests with the device and reports on Amazon that in multiple counts of 200, the tracker was rarely off by more than 10 steps. Not all reviews are so positive. A few reviewers found that the estimated distance was off compared with the distance they knew they had walked; steps were logged while they were sleeping; or steps were not logged while they were walking. Some owners aren't concerned one way or another as long as they have a goal they can strive to achieve every day.
One advantage of the Zip over other trackers is the ecosystem Fitbit has created to support all its devices. Wearers can use Fitbit's online tools to log meals, water intake, and their current weight. Combined with estimated calories burned, a number provided by the Zip, users can track net caloric intake and take measurable steps (no pun intended) toward reaching a weight goal they set. Some users posting on a MyFitnessPal message board report that Fitbit's calorie count is too high, but other users point out that Fitbit includes baseline calories burned -- those that you burn just by going about everyday life -- in the total. By logging onto the Fitbit site, users can see a more precise breakdown of the information. Fitbit also lets users export their data to other popular fitness-tracking apps, such as Endomondo and Runkeeper, and transfer data to and from MyFitnessPal, SparkPeople, Lose It, and MapMyFitness.
In terms of style and comfort level, the Fitbit Zip is small and lightweight enough that users forget they're wearing it. The device can be clipped onto an undershirt, a bra, or the inside of a pocket and no one else will know it's there. There's a downside to this, though: An all-too-common reason a Zip stops working is that it's tossed into the wash while still attached to dirty clothing.
That's not the only way the Fitbit Zip has been known to break down. One-star reviews come from consumers who have had the battery die or the device simply stop working after only a few weeks of use. In many cases, customer service is quick to respond and send a replacement, but some reviewers say they received two or three faulty devices in a row. Other common complaints include the device erasing progress during the day (it's supposed to reset in the middle of each night), trouble opening the back to install the battery, and a lack of included instructions.
Complaints make up a small portion of Fitbit Zip reviews in total, though. From what we read in comparing the tracker to others in the same price range, the Fitbit Zip is one of the best options.


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Cadillac DTS Forum - 2006 through 2012 Discussion, Thinking of trying LED Switchback bulbs for DRLs / Turn signals in my DTS in Past Cadillac Vehicle Discussion; Now that my NAV project is complete I'd like to try replacing those awful orange DRL turn signal bulbs with ...
- 08-07-13 11:33 PM #1Cadillac Owners Member
- Automobile(s): 06 STS;05 DTS;03 STS;96 Fleetwood;95 Deville
- Join Date
- Sep 2003
- Posts
- 75
Thinking of trying LED Switchback bulbs for DRLs / Turn signals in my DTS
Now that my NAV project is complete I'd like to try replacing those awful orange DRL turn signal bulbs with white/orange "Switchback" cree LED bulbs which would be white in DRL mode (from the wiring that's at the bulb now) but then run a wire for the turn signals from somewhere in the car so that this wire makes the LED bulbs blink orange. I think it would look neat to have while bulbs ON above the regular HID headlamps during the day. At night nothing would be on with them (except when the turn signal is on, of course).
I know I would need resistors to counteract the "fast flashing" on the WHITE side of things, and maybe 2 new 3157 sockets as I'm thinking the ones in the car only have 2 wires (hot & ground) and I need a 3rd wire for the orange turn signals, but am wondering if anyone has tried such a thing before, and if so, would know where I could run the extra wires to a place that gives +12v only when the turns signals are on? I'm thinking maybe the 2 front doors (for the LEDs in the outside mirrors), the body control module (BCM) -- which I'm not sure where it is (under the glove box?), or maybe even to the trunk at the taillamps (but only if the turn signals are separate wires from the brake lamp wires).
Ideas would be appreciated!
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- 08-09-13 01:31 AM #2Cadillac Owners Fanatic
- Automobile(s): '08 DTS LuxIII (97K mi.), '06 SRX V6-AWD (58K mi.)
- Join Date
- Sep 2011
- Location
- Portland, OR
- Age
- 45
- Posts
- 311
Re: Thinking of trying LED Switchback bulbs for DRLs / Turn signals in my DTS
Dude! You're reading my mind!!! I was checking this out just last night...I didn't find anything right away, but I want the exact same thing.
I've seen on YouTube some videos of a Corvette with similar thing, but it wasn't quite what I was thinking...it had the amber DRL (with headlamps off) and when the headlamps are on, the DRL switches to the running light setting (not as bright as the DRL/Turn Signal) which is white...and this switches back/forth from white to amber when the turn signals are flashing. That is not what I am looking for.
Now, IIRC, the Corvette uses the amber turn signals as DRLs, just as our DTSs do...but the Corvette uses the running light to accompany the headlamps, whereas our DTSs do not illuminate the running lights in the turn signal bulbs when the headlamps are on. This tells me that the wiring will be somewhat different between the Corvette and DTS.
I started researching the new Fiat 500. I thought I had seen a 500 that had white DRLs...and that the corresponding DRL will turn off and the amber turn signal will flash on/off with the turn signal...then turn back to white when the turn signal is cancelled. This design is what I would like to have on my DTS. What I don't know is whether this setup is using one bulb that switches from amber to white...or if it is using two bulbs in one housing. I ran out of time last night, so I did not figure out if what I believed I saw on the 500 is accurate.
Please do post your findings...as I am very interested. - Sponsored Links Remove Advertisements


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Would you like a chance to work with the largest integrated health system in the United States?
Sanford Health in Fargo, North Dakota offers nursing students an opportunity to participate in a 12 week Nurse Co-op Program. The program runs every summer beginning in May and provides nursing students an opportunity to work alongside a Registered Nurse, while earning a salary!
Co-op positions are available in a variety of hospital settings. These areas include but are not limited to:
Each Nurse Co-op will receive an extensive, individualized orientation. As part of the orientation, the Co-op will be pre-assigned to work with a bachelors prepared RN for the entire summer on a designated unit.
Access to Sanford Health's continuing education opportunities during the summer, free of charge.
An optional opportunity to participate in an observation experience that allows the Nurse Co-op to shadow a RN on a unit of their choice, for a shift.
The chance to meet and network with nursing students from a variety of locations.
The Nurse Co-op program is open to nursing students enrolled in an accredited Bachelor's degree nursing program who have completed their 3rd year of their nursing program. Prior experience as a nursing assistant is not required.
There are special academic requirements that must be completed to be eligible for placement in certain practice areas.
The Nurse Co-op must be enrolled in an academic credit through their Nursing Program to participate in the Co-op Program. Please talk with your faculty advisor to arrange this.
The Nurse Co-op program begins in the middle of May and ends in the middle of August. All of the scheduled orientation dates are mandatory to participate in the program.
A Sanford Nurse Co-op is a paid position. Contact Human Resources for information on the competitive hourly salary.
The Nurse Co-op program goes for 12 weeks during the summer and will require you to work 7-10 shifts every two weeks.
Co-op positions follow the schedule of their assigned RN preceptor. This requires flexibility to work rotating shifts, weekends, and some holidays.
The application process begins early fall. All applications must be submitted by Thanksgiving break. For additional information on application requirements, please click here.
To submit your application, please click here.
For additional information on the Nurse Co-op Program contact:
Megan Hills, MSN, RN, OCN
System Clinical Education Coordinator
Center for Learning
Co-op Program Facilitator


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Sweetening the Deal: Empowering Peruvian Chocolatiers
October 09, 2012
TechnoServe works to help farmers in San Martin, Peru increase productivity and improve the quality of their crops, promote value-added processes such as organic certification and foster related entrepreneurship and small business growth.
Cocoa pods are harvested from trees and are cut open in order to extract the beans (and sweet white pulp). This photo is taken at the Instituto de Cultivos Tropicales in Tarapoto where researchers are working to identify strains of cocoa with better resistance to plague and/or production of better-quality beans.
From October 2011 to July 2012, I worked in Tarapoto, a small Peruvian jungle town in the San Martin province. San Martin was known in the 1980s and '90s as a hotbed of illicit coca production feeding the drug trade, but years of development efforts have since helped to make legitimate agriculture the engine keying the region's rapid economic growth.
With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development's Alternative Development Program and its Farmer to Farmer Program, TechnoServe works to help farmers in San Martin increase productivity and improve the quality of their crops, promote value-added processes such as organic certification and foster related entrepreneurship and small business growth. My work concerned the cocoa value chain, and I primarily focused on assisting those who were bringing finished products to the market. I helped chocolatiers of various sizes with a range of activities depending on their needs. For some, I set up basic financial and accounting controls. I worked with others to develop professional-quality marketing material. I helped every business create or expand a sales strategy that included appropriate product pricing and exploiting new sales channels like local stores and artisan fairs.
I served as an intermediary between a couple of less-mature chocolatiers and a food processing engineer to help them source better-quality chocolate and tinker with their recipes to better balance taste and melting point and lower their costs of production. I also helped these businesses obtain the government certification needed to sell their chocolates via official points-of-sale like supermarkets.
Jay with Fidel Maldonado, manager of APROCABE, a small cocoa-growing cooperative based in Bellavista.
One of my proudest accomplishments was the creation of a Spanish language, easy-to-use "business intelligence" system that any entrepreneur or their employees could use to enter sales data, purchases, production records and other details important to a business. When I first arrived in Tarapoto, I had not figured on needing to learn Visual Basic, a computer programming language, but it proved to be an invaluable tool to develop a user-friendly interface within a simple Excel file that could show a business reports on its monthly purchases, trends in pricing of raw materials, sales by time periods and by client, historical labor costs, production costs and times, inventory and more.
My work with chocolatiers and cocoa farmers allowed me to have some fascinating and unique experiences, such as meeting the First Lady of Peru. The best part of that encounter was seeing Nadine Heredia, wife of President Ollanta Humala, try one of my client's chocolates and remark approvingly to her, "Bonita tu presentación!" ("Your product looks lovely!")
Workers at the Orquidea (Industrias Mayo) production plant in Tarapoto prepare to work with chocolate paste.
In addition to supporting entrepreneurs, I also fulfilled my lifelong dream of being a teacher through leading a series of weekly workshops to provide business plan training to farmers in the rural town of Juanjui. These classes covered diverse topics such as marketing, developing measurable objectives and every business school student's favorite paradigm: Las cinco fuerzas de Porter (Porter's Five Forces). I guided my class through a discussion of substitute products, price and product differentiation, and competitive advantage, using local businesses and my students' own business ideas as examples and case studies.
I loved to laugh and joke with my students, chastising the occasional one who forgot their assignment by asking "¿El perro se comió tu tarea?" ("The dog ate your homework?") And I continually reminded my students–participants in TechnoServe's 2012 Idea Tu Empresa (ITE) business plan competition–of the success of previous ITE finalists, pointing out that those entrepreneurs were alumni of the same training workshops.
Jay with Yliana Carmen Garcia del Vazquez, a semi-finalist in the Idea Tu Empresa business plan competition, at an artisanal fair in Tarapoto. TechnoServe helped Yliana launch her Chocolates Yli business, obtain the process certification needed to sell in supermarkets and other stores, and build brand exposure through participation in local and regional fairs.
I had the good fortune to learn a lot about how cocoa is grown on farms, how the pods are harvested and cut open to obtain the seeds (cocoa beans), how the beans are fermented, dried, cleaned, toasted, shelled and milled, and how the resulting paste is conched (kneaded in a machine for hours to smoothen and mellow the chocolate) and tempered (heating and cooling treatments to give chocolate the right texture and malleability) to arrive at the final product we recognize. I worked with cooperatives that stockpile cocoa to sell to large buyers, and saw how top-quality chocolate is made at the industrial factory level, the semi-industrial level and the artisanal level. Yes, I have become a chocolate snob!
Now back in the States, I miss the motorcycle I bought and learned to ride, the abundance of fresh tropical fruits, being the worst player on the TechnoServe office soccer team, and of course, the many friends I made. But I derive immense personal satisfaction from knowing that TechnoServe's work in San Martin is facilitating the rise of a number of great businesses that are introducing cool new products, making money and creating jobs.
Related Blog Posts
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After decades of conflict, women hold the key to the establishment of peaceful economies in rural Colombia.
Paving the Express Lane for Women Entrepreneurs in El Salvador
With the support of TechnoServe's Impulsa tu Empresa program, Lorena Gonzalez is growing her taxi service for women and is creating change for women entrepreneurs in El Salvador.
Incubating Success: Young Tanzanian Entrepreneur Mentors Other Business Women
After establishing her own business success, Ndinagwe teaches other business women in Tanzania vital skills in savings and entrepreneurship to grow their businesses.


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- Yield
- Makes 6 servings
- 1/4 cup water
- 4 6-ounce bags baby spinach leaves
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 dried small red chile, such as Japones or de árbol
- 1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- Bring 1/4 cup water to boil in large pot. Add half of spinach to pot; toss until wilted but still bright green, about 3 minutes. Add remaining spinach and toss until just wilted. Transfer spinach to strainer set over large bowl. Press on spinach to release all liquid. Transfer spinach to work surface; coarsely chop. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
- Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, bay leaf, dried chile, and peppercorns; sauté until onion is soft but not brown, about 3 minutes. Whisk in flour and salt. Cook until mixture is pale gold and has nutty aroma, whisking constantly, about 3 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk. Boil until thick, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Strain béchamel sauce into medium bowl.
- Heat cream in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until just simmering. Add béchamel; whisk until mixture is smooth and begins to simmer. Add spinach and stir until heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Test-kitchen tip:
Be sure to remove as much water as you can from the cooked spinach (otherwise the finished dish may be watery, rather than creamy).
Related Video
Nutritional Info
- Calories261
- Carbohydrates13 g(4%)
- Fat22 g(34%)
- Protein7 g(14%)
- Saturated Fat13 g(64%)
- Sodium223 mg(9%)
- Polyunsaturated Fat0 g
- Fiber3 g(11%)
- Monounsaturated Fat1 g
- Cholesterol75 mg(25%)


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- 23/03
While tailgating at a Panthers game in 2002, the smell of barbeque drifting over from the Blues, Brews & BBQ event in Uptown Charlotte
Check out our three delicious flavor sauces:
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We have a number of craft beers on draft from Charlotte breweries.


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There's something not very convincing about Tyler Brûlé. That's not to say there's anything remotely suspect about his work as publisher, journalist or advertiser. It's more that his backstory feels almost too good to be true. Son of a Canadian football legend and a German-born Estonian artist, Brûlé moved to Manchester in the late 80s, where he trained as a journalist. In 1994 while working as a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan, he was shot twice and nearly died. Some soul-searching from his hospital bed led him to abandon the battlefield and launch seminal style magazine Wallpaper*. Since leaving the magazine in 2002, Brûlé has founded leading ad agency Winkreative and launched Monocle, an intelligent print journal that has defied a downward trend for the magazine industry.
Alongside his media successes, Brûlé is known for his love of international travel (in business class, naturally) and high living. His weekly Financial Times column paints him as something of a restless, millionaire playboy, obsessed with fine dining, exquisite clothing and ski resorts. Similarly, Monocle feels somewhat like a magazine James Bond might read when jetting out on his latest mission. Intelligent, beautifully written political analysis is interspersed with shopping guides and carefully curated, high-class advertising.
Flying up to Sydney to meet Brûlé at the Park Hyatt, I worry that I too have been seduced by the man's mystique. I'm far more nervous than usual and feel slightly as if I'm meeting Bruce Wayne or Don Draper.
As it is, Brûlé is nothing like Don Draper. He is, as I suspected, impeccably dressed — wearing one of his many blue blazers, a light shirt and well-cut jeans, turned up at the ankle. (It's an outfit I'll see cloned — with substantially less flair — by his fans at that evening's Monocle cocktail party.) In person, Brûlé has a commanding presence: engaging, charismatic and occasionally effusive. I'm aware, however, of his restless gaze skittering away across the cafe.
There are things we don't talk about. I sense he isn't keen to yet again talk about his near death experiences in Afghanistan. When talk turns to his parents, he deftly directs the conversation away from his father. He and his father have been estranged for years — his father disapproving of Brûlé's homosexuality — and I regret not steering our chat back towards the topic. As soon as we're done, Brûlé is off, promising to meet up at the evening soiree. And we do. He is standing on the door, like the father of the bride or, perhaps, a head of state. He shakes my hand, looks briefly confused, and I realise he doesn't quite remember who I am. I don't take it personally. Our chat was 12 hours ago. The world has turned since then and Brûlé, always moving on, has gone with it.
TYLER BRULE: It was.
I think, in part. This being my first paid working gig — I say paid, but I was paid in magazines, because they weren't allowed to pay me.
I think I was 13. I definitely grew up in a magazine household. There were always magazines: news magazines, decorating magazines, food magazines, vintage magazines. Like most children of my generation, one's entertainment was largely print based. But I think my fascination went beyond that. So when there was an opportunity to have a stockroom job and take home as many magazines as I wanted — that wasn't bad. Plus, I could take all of the back issues for free, because they would just rip the covers off them and send them back. It was a good gig.
What's strange is that magazines were a pastime interest. Even then, I had my sights firmly set on television. Well, at that age I was split. I was still interested in being a pilot. But I was very interested in TV news and I really saw myself somehow working my way up the ranks of the CBC to become an anchor. So I certainly didn't see myself working in magazines. In fact, I hated writing.
I might still hate writing, I don't know. I just found it hard going, maybe because I was lazy.
Canada was a little bit like Australia in the 70s and the 80s. This was before the surge in satellite television. In the evening news, there was a big focus on local news, which never interested me. World affairs were covered by the main late night bulletin at 11. I would always make an excuse to stay up and watch it, even when I was very young. My parents just gave up after a while. I was also really interested in the success of Peter Jennings, seeing him graduate from CBC to become one of the first superstar, millionaire news readers working for ABC in the States and being a foreign correspondent. That was really fascinating to me.
Of course! You can't even imagine it any more, but US nightly news used to be part anchored out of London. So that was very alluring to me. Magazines were the fuel that got me through the day, but it was TV I was interested in.
I think there were probably two things. One, purely from a presentation point of view it all looked so rinky-dink. I think ABC were one of the first networks to go for a fully open newsroom, where you looked at all these people on typewriters, clattering out scripts like a news-gathering machine, able to pool stories from around the world. The other thing was, from my mum's side of the family, I always felt a little bit more connected to the Nordic world. And I think the interplay of the Cold War was important; my family had to leave Estonia and ended up in Canada and the US. The shifts between Washington and Moscow were interesting too, now that I think about it.
Yeah. And I travelled around Canada and the States a lot as a child. I wasn't globetrotting with my family until I was maybe 14, when we went to Europe for the first time. I was really bitten by it. I thought straightaway it was maybe a place I'd like to end up.
I think I was like most boys. It was a different time. In Canada the skies were owned by two players — the Lockheeds and the Boeings, both were flying the national flag. There was pride in being part of one of these brands, which would take you around the world. I look back at Air Canada as a brand that was really outstanding in its time. Sadly, it's a shadow of its former self and now defines itself by cost cutting, rather than innovation.
I think there was a sense of occasion that used to go with it. People used to make an effort.
I think we've lost that sense of occasion, of being proper.
That's what still excites me about Japan. Japan is still proper, Japan has somehow held onto, not just Japanese traditions, but everything that happened in the post-war period. I don't want to talk about a golden era of advertising — we've had five or six years of obsession with Mad Men, which is thankfully starting to go away — but that culture has always been there in Japan. The culture of the drinking executive in the three-piece-suit, impeccable shoes and a natty hat. Brylcreemed hair. That is alive and well. You still feel like you're walking onto a stage set. Everything is done exquisitely and perfectly. In aviation — a business where everyone is looking for economies — Japanese carriers still behave, in a way, like it is the 1960s, which is very professional.
I always try to put opinion with a solution. We as journalists are very lazy — we just kick the shit out of things and beat people up and never have an answer. I find that very boring. Of course, it can be funny and it can be wonderfully provocative, but I always think it's nice to deliver some kind of positive or solution-driven conclusion. Maybe that's become part of my schtick. It's the way I would go into a meeting at work, it's the way I would approach a relationship. You want to be able to have a solution. Whether it's going to make everyone happy in the end is another issue. But just taking a shot at people or things is boring. It's partly why this whole culture of mean and free comment is so dominant. I just don't think it's healthy.
Within the media today, you become a heretic because you're not on Twitter, you're not on Facebook. It's like saying, 'Am I a bad person because I don't drive?' I think it's really fascinating where we are at in a media space, where it's seen as irresponsibility — for not being in these places. I mean, that's like saying, 'I'm not in every restaurant every evening, or every taxi rank and overhearing everything.' I think it's also because people are insecure about using social media, because they put themselves out there so much. They're like, 'Well, why aren't you out there?'
When I do speeches now, I say, 'I'm sorry, you can't film me. I'm having an intimate moment with you, the audience, I don't want to see it recut on YouTube.'
Not only is it being taken out of my control, it's being taken out of context. I think that's a bigger issue. People can go and stand in the taxi queue and say, he was great or he was a dick, but I don't like people being able to manipulate things I said. No-one wants to curb free speech, but I think we're at an interesting juncture. To say new media companies are only the messengers, I don't buy it. You're not a telco. You're not the Sydney Morning Herald either. But you need to live by some of the same rules.
It's funny. This venture tonight could have been a garden party at someone's house, but we're having it here at the Park Hyatt. People will say that's elitist. It's not. It's our version of having a social gathering. We want to get out and meet people. It's much more interesting for our readership to be able to look each other in the eye, have a drink, exchange cards. Of course, it's good for business, but mainly it's just making an effort. I was talking to a major government body here yesterday and we got into the whole social media thing—how many Facebook likes they have, blah blah blah. And I thought, Do those likes really mean anything? Do they really turn into actual plane seats for people coming here? The fact that you've got 60,000 people coming from China has nothing to do with social media. It's got to do with a surge in that economy and China airlines have laid on more flights, end of story.
Yeah. I don't want to overdo it, because I hate talking about clubs and clubbiness because that suddenly becomes elitist. Sometimes I feel a great rush to this lovely device [gestures at my MacBook Pro], but it says nothing about you. I don't know if you're looking at Pokemon, or reading back issues of The New Yorker, or trying to get cover inspiration from old copies of Men's Club in Japan. It doesn't matter whether you're carrying Dumbo Feather or Monocle, I would probably have a deeper insight into you and your tastes than I would from seeing you carry that titanium device. I'm amazed by how quickly the Fairfaxes, the Hursts, so many media companies, have forgotten the value of the front page. I'm amazed they haven't had a conversation with Apple to say, 'We need to think about the value of the association with the media brand.' This is something that defines you. You put as much effort into your watch or your eyewear or your shoes as you do to what you put under your arm, what you feed your mind with.
It's anonymous.
We've never filmed one of our story meetings, but it's this curious cocktail… I wouldn't say it's about improvement, but it is about taking an optimistic, rather than a naive view of the world. Monocle is defined by optimism. If part of that gets distilled into general global improvement, great. But I think the overarching view is that
there are a lot of things to feel good about. There are a lot of things that don't need to be reinvented.
There's a frustration with government and corporations, so much money is spent in research when, in fact, there are solutions already out there. The Finns have already figured out how children can be thinner and how you can have a better education system—you treat teachers like lawyers, you put them on a pedestal in your society and you pay them better wages. And yet, you have school boards in Canada fighting and spending hundreds of millions trying to figure these things out, when all you need to do is buy five air tickets to Helsinki and spend two weeks there, meeting your counterparts. There are five places you could go, probably, to find a solution, without dipping so deeply into the public purse.
Oh yeah, goodness! Absolutely. Hopefully that runs through our business and is a big defining part of what we do. As you said, a defining part of so many media outlets today is just taking a negative view on things. We have the luxury to be able to say: 'Many things are working and there is inspired leadership out there.'
We can look at what happened off the back of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011. That was a good example of us taking a very harsh line with the Japanese government—saying here are ten things the Japanese government needed to do, moving forward. But, out of that you can also do a story about something amazing like NHK. Here is a public broadcaster which is not there to make money covering the crisis.
Yeah, I think that's become a bigger part of what we do. We were only a year old when it all went wrong, but one thing that helped us grow was we didn't have covers showing doom and gloom. We were saying, 'Maybe this is a really good time to rethink your life.' If you're working for Westpac and they downscale their European offices and you get laid off; is it time to go back home, is it time to say, 'I'm going to get my EU passport and open up a vineyard in Portugal?' That notion of taking stock has always been a big part of what we've done. That comes out of travelling a lot and seeing where there are opportunities all over the world. I think you'll see more of it, this year for sure.
Yes and no. I think I had a very special set of experiences. Mine were certainly different to losing your job…
Yeah, more dramatic. I think, maybe, my experiences have made me, on one side, incredibly risk averse and conservative.
Maybe this is a moment of self-realisation but I think there's a reason that I, well… sometimes people think I'm just being obstinate and have the luxury and the resources to behave like that–not doing a digital edition of the magazine, for instance. It's not really that. There is one part of me that doesn't want to follow the pack. The rest is, I'm just not sure it's going to work. Part of it is driven by conservatism, but oddly, there is this other side that can be quite fearless and reckless. Having gone through what I've gone through, somewhere in the back of the mind, I'm always thinking: What are they going to do, shoot you? You know what that's like. Which sort of gives you a ballsiness that other people might not have. I think, certainly, in a very gritty, business negotiation sense with investors and so on, it's allowed us to be bolder and to stick to our guns more than we might otherwise have done.
I think, growing up as an only child in Canada, gay, I probably already had a certain drive and ambition to see the world and maybe do things on my terms, to make my parents more proud. But having been through that experience in Afghanistan allows me to sit here today and it also propels me forwards, to look for those solutions, to meet those people, to form my own opinions about the world, more so than in a regular newsroom. We spend a lot of time and money getting out there, at a time when it's really important.
I was invited to a digital media conference and everyone was trying to look for an algorithm to cover news, for ways of aggregating, for a sense of community. What was incredible was, we were having to defend putting people on the ground. You know, 'Why is it important being there, when everyone has laptops today and can be there, sitting on their terrace, blogging about what has happened?' And I was thinking, Really? Is it really the case? If you look at all those blogs, 95 per cent of it would be people reflecting on the actual images, comment and reporting by news agencies that are on the ground. Being there and being witness to it—having been to plenty of zones of conflict—is hugely valuable. Unfortunately, it's not so recognised by many boardrooms any more, but there are heaps of listeners and readers and viewers who still see the value in it.
Because the cover price is high? Because we go to lots of places? Because we have a different way of doing journalism? In many ways, you're right.
You'll get to a point where getting your news fresh, balanced and accurate becomes the preserve of the rich.
We talk about democratisation of the news, but I'm not convinced. You're going to see many more great towers of media collapse, because we've been weaned on this diet of "free". It's just not sustainable. So will it end up being just the people who can come here tonight and spend 150 dollars on a subscription who can have access to good quality news? Maybe.
I always think it's a bit unfortunate if people just flick to the back of the magazine and find, yes, an exquisitely shot fashion story from Japan, but fail to notice we're the first magazine that went to the African Union and did a piece on their new headquarters or that we were the first mag that had a proper interview with Sarah Palin. Of course there's no harm in wanting to build a good house, live in an interesting community and also know where there are opportunities to do business in Mozambique. Of course, it irks people. They think you need to keep it separate — there's the Economist and there's Intelligent Life. It makes more sense to separate the newsiness and the culture. But that's not how a newspaper works. Newspapers have fashion sections and all kinds of things that go into the mix. You can have interviews with heads of state and chat line ads. I think the people it irks the most are maybe the people who didn't get where they wanted.
I've changed my travel habits, although I'm not covering less ground. I'm two weeks on, two weeks off. I refuse to do day trips now. When I'm on the road, I'm on the road, but when I'm back in London, I'm back in London. And then I don't move. It's better socially and, I imagine, it might be better for my health.
There is a classic case of the grass is always greener. I've developed this obsession with Japan but I know I could probably never really live there. I've already had one experience in my life where I was disappointed by moving somewhere I really loved and then found I actually hated it. I wouldn't want to have that relationship with Japan spoiled. I think it's better that I just dip in and out. I suppose there is restlessness in wanting to see who does it better. I love being able to find, chronicle and discuss cities, companies and experiences, which elevate the playing field for everybody.
Oh yeah, definitely. I wish I had more time. One of my problems is I'm not particularly deep on any one subject. I know a lot about aviation, I can speak with a little authority about cities and urbanism. But I do have a broad range of interests. I think that's kind of unfashionable.
The general interest magazine, which ours is, is completely out of fashion. You should have a magazine that is only devoted to single gear cycling, or whatever.
I think there are a couple of things. One is, worrying we're not doing it well enough and knowing we can up our own game. The way we look at doing radio is very much exactly what you said earlier, 'What do you want from a relationship with a media brand?' Do you want to be in the gymnasium with ten thousand people shouting and everyone struggling to be heard? Or do you want to be at a really nice dinner table with three good people having a great conversation. That's what drives me. Can we think of other opportunities to deliver that kind of dialogue?
I think about it a lot. Everywhere I like, I'm always thinking about what could life be like here? Who would I hire as an architect? Would I have llamas? All of those things.
It is. You're always just looking at the last thing and thinking about how it could be improved. If London is so bad when it comes to the quality of housing, then maybe I should stop moaning about it and really do something about it. So we are toying with the idea of building an apartment building in London. I think of myself and a lot of my friends. They have 1.8 children or whatever, they make good money, but they aren't really living as they should. So I'm thinking it might be time to build something in London.
I don't want to use the modern definition of the family, but certainly community. I think a lot about my mum right now. I think about my partner's parents. I spend a lot of time thinking about what that community looks like. Is it a compound? Is it a townhouse? Is it two houses around the world?
My dad is in Ottawa. My mum is in Toronto, but she's… I made the mistake of letting her become the CEO of our Canadian company [laughs] in a good way. I think she likes playing the administrator as much as the visual merchandiser, all those things. But it keeps her in Toronto more.
Oh God yeah. She was going to be on this trip, in fact. But she took my grandmother, who's 96, to Vancouver.
Australia is a country that thinks of itself as the only place that managed to escape the GFC—Canada would have something to say about that. There is definitely an interesting moment happening there. We've been quietly doing quite a bit of work in Canada with Blackberry, we've worked with Porter Airlines and that led to quite a lot of other work…
Yeah, it's great. I've been really critical of local government and what I call the Canadian "comfiness disease". Canada's had a great ride, but that makes you a bit porky around the middle. That is a huge issue, so it's good to be able to have to return home and put your money where your mouth is. And, hey, it's nice to be recognised after a while.
I think tall poppy syndrome is something that runs through the Commonwealth. Oddly, in Canada, I think I'm treated more as an oddity or a curiosity. It's not so much about people taking swipes at me; I'm just treated as a slightly different… creature.
Yeah. I think some friends are a little bewildered by how I live, etcetera.
No, I think people know that's very much me. Oddly, my tastes—even though I'm travelling a lot and seeing a lot—my tastes are very simple. I think it's an easy catchphrase, with my pinballing around the world etcetera, that it's all champagne and cocktail parties. But that's not really my bag.
I think most people are, to be honest. Maybe not. I'm not very social really. When I'm at home in London, I'm usually at home. Or I'm at the office.
Not really. I probably made a decision, consciously or unconsciously, knowing that I'm committed to my work. There's no nets or wires to what I do — we're only as good as the last issue. There's no-one bankrolling the magazine or agency, it's me. There are some investors, but they're not going to save it. I, probably consciously, decided to work with people I really like and adore being around. I fly long distance with most people I hire. I do have a bit of a measure — could I be on the road with them for four or five days and make sure that we still get on well when we get back home?
People we hire go, 'wow, it's a really tight-knit group', even though we're now 200 or so people. When we have story meetings, everyone is on the same page. I've been in many editorial environments where people like to kick and scream and fight hard for their ideas.
We're in a situation where everyone is in agreement when a good idea comes up. We don't have editorial conflict. That's not interesting.
I think it does, because everyone wants to defuse a situation, whereas we're able to get on with it. Andrew, our editor, I've known for 25 years. These people are all good friends. It's very hard to separate my work life from my social life. That is my social life. And then I have two or three very good friends who go back to high school. It's interesting. Do you make real friends later in life? People I've met later in life, they're great people, but you sort of just drift in and out with them. The people I still connect with are the people I grew up with in Toronto.
Maybe. I was always just the badly behaved one, not going to class. I was more content spending time in the library.
Not the school library. I'd go to the university library because there were more things to look at and read.
Not really.
There's maybe a certain delight in proving the naysayers wrong, but that's not the driving factor. It's just doing things that I like. And sometimes that becomes a bit of a political agenda. But, no. I love radio, I love paper, I love selling, I love retail. I have the control. I don't mean control in a control-freaky kind of way. I have the control of 800 words a week in the Financial Times, to go and tell my stories and reveal as much of myself as I want to.
I don't think of myself as having public notoriety, but I'm aware of how guarded you have to be. What's interesting is that the relationships I have with readers of Monocle and the FT are quite different. I think they're either people who read me to hate me, or people who love what I do. But I'm always surprised how much people come up to me. It's always on a plane or during travel that someone will intercept you—it's strange.
Absolutely. And incredibly stressful. Because I'm not a public celebrity in the traditional sense, I'm writing in quite a niche environment, but people really feel they know me. In that odd way, we all develop relationships with columnists and people like that. People will come up and say, 'Oh God, how's your mum?' It's fine to ask that question after 15 minutes, but otherwise…
No, I don't. I think, oftentimes, I'm probably much more reserved and quieter than people tend to expect. People think I'll be a bit brash or larger than life than I actually am.
29 July 2013
Great to hear more about the man behind the Monocle!


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Marvelous Designer 3 Enterprise 184.108.40.206 (64 bit) - by [ChingLiu] | 188 MB
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Thank you to everyone who helped me kick off my Between a Rake & a Hard Place Virtual Tour last week. My DH has done his magic and pulled two names out of the hat. Here are the winners from the Monday, January 6th post:
Nelle@NellesNightstand–Between a Rake & a Hard Place
Sue Gorman–Dragonsong
You'll be hearing from me soon, ladies about receiving your prizes.
If you didn't win, remember this is only the first stop on the tour. This week, I'll be visiting Ramblings from this Chick, FreshFiction and my friend Vanessa Kelly's lively blog. Check our itinerary and be sure to join me for 2 chances to win at each stop!
Happy Reading,
PS. I also need to announce a very belated winner from my post of December 16th. My extremely bad, but I'll plead the confusion of the holidays in this instance. Congrats to Laurie W G who'll receive a digital copy of My Lady Below Stairs in her choice of Kindle or Nook format.
One thought on "Between a Rake & a Hard Place Winner!"


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A Rap Song About Downton Abbey
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Rapper Adam WarRock calls it: "the best rap song about an early 20th century period drama centered around property law that you'll ever hear."
That's not just grandstanding - he's absolutely right. Rapping from the viewpoint of the Earl of Grantham, the song begins with "If his grace doesn't like it, he can lump it." Oh, snap!
You can download the "Downton Abbey" rap song on WarRock's website.
Here's what the clever WarRock had to say about what inspired him to craft his hip little ditty about "Downton:"
Downton Abbey is the kind of thing that you hear about, and you're all like, "That sounds terrible." And then even one of your best friends won't shut up about it, and then you have to fly to Seattle and see that the first season is only $9.99 on iTunes (God bless you PBS), and you watch it on the plane, and get completely obsessed with it. And then you're calling your friend and saying things like "I'm at the part where Matthew Crawley is investigating the entail for Lord Grantham, and the Dowager Countess finds out about it," and you realize you're whispering because honestly, what the HELL are you even saying?
My new anthem: "And we sip earl grey when the day is done."
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Pat Finn, KPBS Staff | March 1, 2012 at 1:17 p.m. ― 5 years ago
Pretty wonderful, by Jove! WarRock, although kinda hard to pronounce, is spot on.
Regarding the series, could there be anything better than the scene in the finale when Sir Richard angrily says he's leaving and no one will see him again, and the Dowager Countess says, "Do you promise?"
Angela Carone | March 1, 2012 at 3:21 p.m. ― 5 years ago
Everything the Dowager Countess says is fantastic. My favorite is when poor Lady Edith is lamenting whether she'll ever find true love, the Dowager Countess replies: "Don't be defeatist, darling. It's so middle class."