text:
Gay powers back with 9.77 in Rome
Tyson Gay is back. With a sensational 9.77 runaway victory in the 100m, the double World champion clearly demonstrated that Usain Bolt can expect serious company when the sprint wars begin at next month's World championships in Berlin.
Gay's was one of six 2009 world-leading performances at the 29th Golden Gala, the third stop on the six meet ÅF Golden League series, before a crowd of more than 35,000 who gathered on a perfect evening at the Stadio Olimpico.
Subtitles from Bob Ramsak's competition report for the IAAF:
* Four remain in Jackpot chase, Stewart impresses with 10.75
* Bekele getting into his groove
* Isinbayeva continues to improve
* Richards unchallenged
* Again, Thorkildsen ends Pitkämäki's Jackpot hopes
* Jamal and Samitova storm to world leads
* DiMartino upsets Vlasic but Cusma falls just short
* Phillips beyond 8.60m again
* Harper reigns over full hurdles programme
* Kiprop and Yego cruise in the middle distances
IAAF website. Read article

subset: commoncrawl


text:
So many letters about this law, or that law, being unconstitutional. It goes back 200-plus years, and the fact remains, any law is constitutional until and unless the courts - ultimately, the Supreme Court - say otherwise.
Perhaps all you constitutional scholars should take the time to actually read the Constitution. Start at the beginning, but pay special attention to Article III, Section 2. "The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law, and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States ...." It goes on. You or I may think that some laws are wrong, even unconstitutional, but the Constitution is pretty clear. The Supreme Court has the final say on the constitutionality of any law. Given that law enforcement officials, as officers of the court, must make legal judgements on a regular basis, they must be held to a higher standard of duty, not just to obey the law, but to enforce it, as best they can; not to make law, or interpret it.
A visit to the voting booth is the way to make law, and see to the judges that will interpret it. "We the people." That is the power of the Constitution.
Mark Wilson


text:
NEW YORK, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- A slim majority of Americans would prefer one party in control of Congress and the White House after the November elections, a poll released Tuesday indicates.
The Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll found 52 percent of voters surveyed would just as soon see one-party rule in Washington. Thirty-nine percent said they prefer power distributed. The pollsters said it is the first time a majority of voters supported single-party power going back to the mid-1980s.
Independent voter Mark Harrod, 39, of Jacksonville, Fla., said the best scenario would be for members of the two parties to work together to solve problems like in the "Clinton days or the Reagan days." But since gridlock rules, he thinks Democrats should get control.
"Maybe they'd get more done. Then there'd be no more excuses," Harrod said. "You can't say, 'Oh, they didn't let us do this' or 'they didn't let us do that.'"
Rob Adrian of Plainfield, Ill., who supports Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, said he usually prefers a divided Congress and White House but now wants Republicans to have at least two years to run the show.
"We are so close to going over the cliff," he said. "I would really like to see the House, the Senate and the White House do away with what I believe are extremely bad decisions."
The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters. The results have a 3.1 percentage point margin of error.


text:
Fine Arts
Graduate Reflections
She was asked to come back and reflect on her Southwestern experience at the 2014 King Creativity Symposium. Here is the text of her speech:
Thank you Dr. Gaffney and Southwestern University for inviting me to be a part of today's event and, of course, thank you Joey King for making all of this possible to begin with.
Music has always been an active part of my life. Since I could speak, I was likely singing instead of talking. And given the appropriateness of my surroundings dancing instead of walking… accompanying music not required. From pre-school to high school I took dance lessons and sang in choirs, performed in school shows and even managed to become a member of Austin Musical Theater's Jr. Company.
Even though I came to Southwestern as a music major, I knew Southwestern theatre before I knew Southwestern University in any other facet. I was cast in and began rehearsals for my first production at Southwestern before I attended my first class here. I was one of two freshman women who received that honor and quickly realized that the caliber of theatrical art I was immersed in was special. I felt humbled to be there and completely validated in my performance ambitions.
Two years into my education at Southwestern, I realized that although vocal performance was a joy for me, my passion was musical theatre. Unfortunately, at the time, there was no such thing as a BA in Musical Theatre at Southwestern University. Devastated that I might be stuck in a major I didn't belong in or the prospect of leaving Southwestern for something more "suitable," I knocked on the office door of Rick Roemer hopeful for a solution. A few meetings later, we had a proposal for an interdisciplinary major in Musical Theatre. It still needed approval, but in time that is what it received, along with a title change to Theatre Music. I suppose the fine arts faculty couldn't come to terms with a degree called musical theatre when none of the courses in the degree plan were actually about musical theatre. Those classes didn't exist at that time. Nonetheless I had a degree plan I was happy about and I got to stay at Southwestern. Crisis averted.
With my wonderful array of music classes from the Music Department and theatre classes from the Theatre Department, I was left with the task of bridging the two art forms together.
For those of you who aren't the biggest fans of unexplained breaking out into song and dance or a first glance timed perfectly with a chime, allow me to explain musical theatre. It's fantasy, extension of disbelief and often storytelling at its corniest or most moving, generally highly unrealistic (unless you were raised by my mother who can rattle off any number of songs at the mere mention of a single word.) It has the power to overwhelm your senses and often keep you whistling a tune long after the curtain goes down. It's the everything art: vocal music, instrumental music, dance, acting, visual art, electrical, spectacle, storytelling. It's the place where so many creators can create one culminating piece of art.
When it comes down to it, putting on a production with live musicians, costumes, make-up, sets, masking, lighting and sound isn't cheap. Now don't get me wrong, amazing theatre can happen on the smallest of budgets. One of my parents' favorite musical performances was a production of Jesus Christ Superstar performed on the steps of a cathedral in Rome. I, however, was the first in the SU class of musical theatre majors. I wanted to do something full. Something rich in art, something with manpower; that utilized what I realized now was a serendipitous group of my peers. I needed a culminating musical theatre capstone to round out my degree. The King Creativity Fund made that a possibility.
"Tell Me On A Sunday" is a one-woman show. It is the first act of a two-act show by Andrew Lloyd Webber called "Song and Dance" (appropriately titled because the first act of the show is told entirely in song and the second, entirely in dance.)
I solicited the help of my friends and before I knew it, I was dividing out a budget! A REAL budget! Let me reiterate fact that I was an undergraduate with $3000 to spend on a production. These things don't just happen!
Yes, the grant was awarded to my project, but the creativity flowed from an entire team. A team that has gone on to absolutely amazing careers in the performing arts.
Andrew Richey, the director, who has since earned his master's from USC in production of television and cinematic arts. He's created a film that has been purchased by HBO, produced a documentary that is slated to open in 40 cities across the country. And that's just one.
Blair Walsleben-Crane, the stage manager, who is now the Development Assistant at Dallas Theater Center and previously spent six years as an equity stage manager in Philadelphia.
Brett Moore designed the sound. He has been the Sound Engineer at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J., for the last six years and worked on World Premier of Disney's "Newsies," which has just hit 2 years playing on Broadway.
Rob Crane, the lighting and set designer, who is now the Technical Director at Dallas City Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District.
Justin Smith, the technical director, has since earned his Master of Fine Arts in Technical Direction from the University of VA and recently rejoined the Southwestern Theater faculty as Resident Technical Director.
To say the least, I was in good hands.
Complete with a five- piece band including the bass guitar stylings of my father, "Tell Me On A Sunday" ran for three performances in the pre-renovated stage of Alma Thomas Theater. Music and theatre together.
I'm sure any alumni of Southwestern University can boast of their training and how the school prepared them for their subsequent careers. I am no different. The King Creativity Grant was a piece of a larger puzzle that molded me into the performer I became.
And I performed. I am still grateful for the consistent work I received as a performer. Fueled by the energy of New York City, I auditioned and auditioned. Somewhere along my travels, though, I realized I was tired of constantly moving. I had been hired in so many fantastic productions: from the Narrator in "Joseph" to Ruby in "Dames at Sea," from "Patsy Cline" to "Big River," from "Hello Dolly" to rubbing elbows with Elmo and Big Bird on "Sesame Street." But I was ready for a change. I knew I would have to go back to school to keep myself grounded. Paying for classes meant attending classes and attending classes meant no time for auditions. After some deliberation, I chose to earn a Master's in Education.
Whenever anyone peered at me in confusion and asked me why I made that choice - the so-called glamorous work as a performer to the humbling career as a teacher - I always answered the same way. It's basically the same thing. I'm still on stage. I still have an audience to engage and inspire. In fact, when my most current principal asked me what I felt was my greatest asset as a teacher, I told him without skipping a beat, "My acting background." Being bored in my class, for me, equates to being bored in my show. It may happen, but I certainly do everything in my power to prevent it.
Creating is the richest form of educational output. I experienced that at Southwestern University through the King Creativity Grant and I thrive to instill that today into my students.
Thank you for that amazing gift.
Culliton is now a math and science teacher at St. Gabriel's Catholic School in Austin.


text:
Definitely not SOTW
With regular Impreza Turbos entering Shed Of The Week territory, now is the time the more exotic and celebrated versions like the P1 should start appreciating a little. As well they ought, because it's a truly wonderful car.
It's also a celebration of the British love affair with the Impreza, symbolising an era where not one but two British drivers won world rally championships in Prodrive-preparedSubarus. The cachet of Prodrive's involvement in the P1 only adds to the provenance, the P1 name a reflection of the fact this was the firm's first road car project.
Back in the days of 18-month waiting lists for new Impreza Turbos, there was nothing else offering comparable bang-for-buck. But with hot hatches getting hotter and the arrival of cars like the 370Z and Cayman, the niche inhabited by Imprezas and Evos has got smaller and smaller.
And though the P1 is little over a decade old, the classic Impreza dates back almost twice that - getting into one today it feels truly like a car from another era. A recent one, admittedly, but definitely from a slightly different age.
It's evocative as ever though, that brilliant view of the road framed by slim pillars and, of course, the back of that trademark bonnet scoop, resplendent in WR Blue. You could only be aboard a Scooby, the wing-backed blue buckets and flashes of pink STI badging livening up the otherwise workmanlike Impreza cabin. Yup, there are cheap plastics about, as per any Japanese car of the era. But the bits you hold or touch are solid and tactile, the mechanical interface thing very, well, mechanical.
Creating the P1 meant losing some of the JDM Type R STI's fancier bits, the adjustable centre diff among them. But, strictly limited 22B UK aside, this was the first two-door Impreza you could buy officially in the UK, instantly elevating the P1 above regular saloons and wagons. True purists may prefer to stick with the Japanese market rarities, but the P1 leaves few questions unanswered, the Peter Stevens designed bodykit and anthracite OZ wheels giving it a unique look. It's also telling that the tyres covering them are only 205 in section, this relatively modest rubber the same as that employed by the forthcoming stripped-out version of the new BRZ. In both cases it's a welcome riposte to the idea that grip is the be-all end-all.
An Impreza is about grip, of course, but the P1 doesn't forget tactility and an ability to entertain. And it sounds brilliantly raw, the Scorpion exhaust on this example giving just the perfect amount of trademark flat-four warble.
It spools up with real urgency too, the throttle response noticeably more aggressive than a standard Turbo or even WRX of the era. The noises are brilliant, a hard-edged exhaust note overlayed with a whistle of turbo - a perfect accompaniment to performance that still feels potent. And it revs too, if not with quite the manic enthusiasm of some JDM versions.
But it feels really light and responsive. Modern hot hatches may boast similar power outputs, but many are also carrying another couple of hundred kilos over the P1's 1,275kg and you really feel it in the way the Impreza bounds along, eager to carve up the kind of B-roads cars like this were built for. And it feels really compact compared with more modern cars, this and the superb visibility giving you bags of confidence.
The P1 ran 20mm lower than standard Turbos on Eibach springs, STI dampers and standard Turbo anti-roll bars and Prodrive's influence means it rides well over the lumps and bumps of yer typical British B-road. Only the brakes let it down a little, recognised by the fact Prodrive also offered an AP big brake kit as an option and later included it on the uprated WR version.
It's not how fast you go, it's how quick you get there
Topping out at 155mph, the P1 isn't about top-end bragging rights. Focus more on that 4.7-second 0-60 time and you see where this car's talents lie - on the road the P1's pace is right where you want it. It's the kind of car you strike up a rhythm with; perhaps not the manic, frenzied attack of an Evo but a slightly more nuanced approach, working with the terrain rather than just pummelling it into quivering submission. It may be feeling its age, but a P1 and a twisty backroad are still a pretty compelling combination.
Though true fans like Crossroads are still flying the flag for the hot Subaru , it's hard to avoid the sense the world has moved on slightly from glory days in which the P1 was conceived.
That's fine - fashions change after all. But the concept of the P1 remains as valid as it ever was and the things we always loved about the classic Impreza - its charisma, its unique character, its appropriateness to UK driving conditions - are still as relevant today as they ever were.
Which is why, if you're going to pin your colours to one mast in the Impreza world, the P1 makes as good a case as any. And remains a worthy PH hero.
Thanks to Crossroads Subaru
Photos: Antony Fraser
Engine: 1,994cc flat-4
Transmission: 5-speed manual, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 280@6,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 260@4,000rpm
0-60mph: 4.7 sec
Top speed: 155mph
Weight: 1,275kg
Price: £31,495 (new)
Relevant links:
Original PH Heroes piece on the Impreza
Subaru Imprezas in the PH classifieds
STIs in the classifieds
WRXs in the classifieds


text:
Large Rubber Bands (30") 1 Dozen... Use Large Rubber Bands to easily secure moving blankets
around furniture like tables, cushioned chairs, dressers and paintings. Hold drawers closed while in transit without causing damage to expensive furniture. Professional Mover's and furniture
companies use Large Rubber Bands to hold and secure moving blankets while in transit or storage. As a supplier to professional moving companies, our Large Rubber Bands are 30" when laid flat and not stretched and
wider (7/8" inch) than cheaper quality rubber bands.


text:
Lin could struggle, but I think he'll still be very good.
He's one of the smartest players in the league, already. He has quickness that rivals that of D. Rose, a sweet high-arching jumper and he finishes around the rim at will.
He took us on that run without Melo and Amare for a good portion of it. So I think as long as he's able to control tempo completely he can run with an average squad just fine. We have seen this people.
Lin is a beast.


text:
Know your rights: Texas Lemon Law provides some lemon-aid
By Richard Alderman
July 14, 2012 at 2:14 a.m.
I bought a lemon. Not a yellow fruit, a red car. It has been nothing but problems. I have had the car in the shop more than a dozen times and it is less than 1-year-old. Does Texas have a Lemon Law? How do I use it?
Yes, Texas does have a Lemon Law. It applies to any car, truck, motorcycle, motor home and All-Terrain Vehicle that develops problems covered by a manufacturer's written warranty.
Under the law, a vehicle is considered a "lemon" if it is not repaired after a reasonable number of attempts. A reasonable number of attempts is twice within the first 12 months or 12,000 miles, and twice more during the 12 months or 12,000 miles after the second repair attempt.
In other words, four attempts at least two of which must be within the first 12 months or 12,000 miles. If the problem is a serious safety defect, it is only necessary to have a total of two attempts, at least one of which must occur within the first 12 months or 12,000 miles. A vehicle also qualifies under this law if it is out of service for repair for a cumulative total of 30 or more days in the first 24 months or 24,000 miles.
If your car has had the same problem, it is likely that you meet the standard necessary to establish a legal "lemon." To use this law, you must give the manufacturer notice of your complaint. If it is not taken care of, you should consider filing a formal lemon law complaint.
Under the law, if you prevail you could be entitled to a refund or a new car. To obtain more information about the lemon law, visit txdmv.gov/protection/lemon_law.htm, or call 888-368-4689 and press "4."
You mentioned a program at the University of Houston Law Center that provides assistance to consumers with problems. How do I contact them?
The program you are referring to is the Texas Consumer Complaint Center. I established the Center four years ago to help consumers resolve simple consumer disputes.
The Center is staffed by attorneys and law students and helps with any type of consumer problem. We deal with everything from debt collection and landlord tenant problems, to faulty repairs or construction and defective products.
To file a complaint with the Center, visit texasccc.com, or call 877-839-8422.
If I mail a check for a credit card payment and have it postmarked by the due date, is that considered on time? I was just charged a late fee based on the date it was received, not mailed.
The due date is just that, the date the payment is due. If the payment is not received on or before that date, it is considered late.
The best way to avoid problems resulting from a delayed delivery of a check is to go online and arrange to pay the bill directly through the merchant's website.
My neighbor built a new bed all long the property line. The bed is substantially higher than our lot and when it rains, we flood. Is this legal?
As far as the law is concerned, your neighbor does not have the right to alter the natural flow of water and is liable for any damage caused if he does.
As a practical matter, you should discuss this with your neighbor and try to convince him to install proper drainage. If he refuses, you may need a real estate attorney to assist you with your negotiations.
You have written about our consumer protection law, the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Can I file a claim under this law in small claims court? Can I get three times my damages?
You may file a claim in small claims court for money damages under any legal theory recognized in Texas, including the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
The only limitation is that your claim must be for $10,000 or less. The Deceptive Trade Practices Act allows you to recover up to three times your damages, but only if you show the person you are suing acted knowingly.
Basically this means that he knew or should have known that he was misleading or deceiving you.
Richard Alderman, a consumer advocate popularly known as "the People's Lawyer," is a professor at the University of Houston Law School in Houston. His column appears weekly in the Victoria Advocate. Write to him at UH Law Center, Houston, Texas 77204-6391. He also maintains a Web page at peopleslawyer.net.


text: How do I make a sig? Like what are the steps? Not trolling I'm serious I'm kinda new-ish and I just want to know how start making a sig like how to insert the image(s). Cause when I cleck out The sig tab in my profile it has the same layout as this typing panel how would I insert the image? Just click the image thingy? Like I need help with this shit lol Im just maybe too lazy to figure it out myself it's late and I need to sleep ill check this in the morning thanks whoever helps..


text:
Letters from Ukraine and Moldova
By Kenneth A. Vogele to his father, Cleo L. Vogele
First Letter:
Odessa, Ukraine, 21 May 2002
Dear Dad,
First impressions: Flying in from Vienna we could see large verdant fields, more angulated than in South Dakota, but similar. More bare ground than at home, possibly a quarter of it all. Don't yet know if this was fallow or recently planted. Hope to find out as we will be with a prosperous farmer, Pavel Pratchuk, later. (Comment: It turns out that these fields were not fallow but rather were row crops like corn or sunflowers that were not far enough along for me to appreciate that the fields had been planted.)
Weather is very similar to ours at this time of year – cool nights, mild days at about 70 degrees F. We were told that it becomes very hot and everything dries up in July. Rainfall here averages a meager 14-18 inches.
Came in from the airport through the old part of Odessa where our hotel Chernoye More (Black Sea) is. Our plane was a Boeing 737, which was operated by Ukraine Air for Austrian airlines. It banked sharply at low altitude, and then waffled back and forth before a fairly rough landing on the roughest international runway we have ever landed on. Cracks in the cement were filled with tar like in bad roads in our country. The grass alongside the runway was overgrown with weeds such that the jets tied down 2-3 blocks from the terminal looked like they were out in the country. The terminal was Spartan outside and in, really communistic in appearance! (Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union only 10 years ago, remember.)
I don't recall a stick of furniture in the entrance area. The floor and walls were covered in stone tile but the wooden writing counters on the wall and passport booths of wood were cheesy. No trouble there or with the customs lady moments later – just a few simple questions like how much money were we bringing in and did we have any food with us? The terminal was quite a bit smaller than Rapid City's, stodgy, bare and with no bustle. This despite the fact that Odessa's population is over a million.
Old Odessa was built in the 1800s. The city is rather new, being founded only in 1794. It is run down, but charming, the architecture simple but stately. And clean! Everywhere we see people sweeping the streets with handled brooms or little whisk brooms with bristles of thin twigs. We ate at an outdoor restaurant yesterday and while we were there, a lady whisked away some paper from the curb and our waitress picked up scraps of paper among the tables. (Comment: This restaurant was the Zara Pizara which just started up two months ago. Cathy ordered Amaretto chicken here, and it was one of the best meals she has ever eaten anywhere.)
The currency here is the grivna (greev'-na), equivalent to the ruble but with a new name after the break up of the Soviet Union. Grivna is apparently the name of an old silver alloy coin used widely in this region during the middle ages. 5.2 grivna to a dollar, 100 kopecks to the grivna. The language spoken here in Odessa is Russian because Odessa was a Russian town from the outset. We learned yesterday that it is difficult to know where you are here because most signs and names of restaurants and stores are written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Today I had what must have been our concierge write the Cyrillic equivalent under our English alphabet. Hopefully this will help us out. Fortunately, many people know some English and they seem friendly so we got by fairly well yesterday.
Second Letter:
Odessa, Ukraine, 26 May 2002
Dear Dad,
I have just finished a whirlwind tour to at least 12 former German colonies. Dad, you would feel very much at home here – gently rolling hills, crops very similar to those in South Dakota. Nice stands of wheat, some rye. Even though it is dry, corn will be "knee high by the 4th of July." Also sunflowers and soybeans. No alfalfa here unless the flower here is mauve rather than blue. (Comment: The mauve flowered plant was indeed alfalfa. Garnet Permans tells me that alfalfa originated in the Ukrainian region.) Some differences also. The hills are more gently rounded and less peaked than around Lowry where you grew up. And no rocks! I think the difference is that the Lowry hills are glacial moraines and I doubt these are.
More trees here than back home in South Dakota (despite the German colonists' complaints that trees didn't grow well.) Trees are not tall, but in some places, they actually form forests as they cover the tops of hills. Believe it or not, fields are in general larger than at home, the result of collectivization. The process of decollectivization is slow. Since 1991 when the Soviet Union fell apart, only about 30% of land has been privatized. I have yet to learn the mechanism by which this is done. Not a single windmill! There must be gas or electrical pumps, but we didn't see any. Rather, a well with 20-foot long lever arm was in use. The Germans called these Viehburnner (cattle well).
I wonder if the reason your dad Christian stayed in Oregon only 7 months is because the environments was so different. Steppe and prairie are kin, Oregon not.
Gluekstal is now in Moldova. We spent 6 ½ hours getting through the border from Ukraine and back. Maybe this is because the part of Moldova between the Ukrainian border and the Dniester River has declared itself independent and calls itself the Trans-Dniester Republic. The Trans-Dniester area is a major Russian military area and the people are primarily Russian, not Moldovan, and they speak Russian, not Romanian – like tongue of Moldovans.
There is currently a truce between Moldova and the Trans-Dniester Republic. Moldova allows autonomy but claims the territory. The Trans-Dniester claims independence but doesn't push the issue. Nobody recognizes the Trans-Dniester Republic except possibly Russia. Glueckstal is in the 20-kilometer wide Trans-Dniester area as are Neudorf and Bergdorf. These villages are all lined up along one valley with about 6 kilometers between each of them.
The land around Glueckstal is a little less rolling than at Neudorf and Bergdorf, but the raising of cattle seems to be the primary livelihood in all these villages. Maybe more grain production around Glueckstal. Seemingly, more fruit orchards near Neudorf and Bergdorf. During the days before Glasnot and the break up of the USSR, one of these villages, I believe Glueckstal, had something like 55 cows on the collective and three more were privately owned.
Now there are something like 20 on the collective and 300 personally owned. This seems like a victory for capitalism, but it may be a victory for necessity. When communists were in control, most everyone had a job and got a regular paycheck. Now people have to fend for themselves because payments for wages and pensions are irregular at best. I sense that many of the common people would rather have the old system back. Certainly, there is ambivalence.
Glueckstal was built on gentle hills. Large, well-kept gardens are everywhere. Yard (Hof) lots are large, I would guess a little larger than 100 x 200 feet. The population of Glueckstal today is about 1,270. At its peak in the late 1800s, about the time your dad Christian, left population peaked at about 3,000.
Many of the remaining homes in Glueckstal are what we call "old German houses" and would have been built even before Christian was born in 1872. He would surely recognize them today, though no roofs that I saw were thatched as were probably most in his time. Today most roofs are covered with large sheets of corrugated material consisting in part of asbestos. The corrugations are about twice as far apart as on our usual corrugated steel. Many homes are missing form the middle of town, the result apparently of bombing during WWII.
German houses have walls about one and a half feet thick, which is why they still, stand. They tend to be oriented to the long axis of the lot, but not always. There are usually two windows facing the street. The corners along the roofline and sometimes along the base of the house are often white today. Sometimes the plaster is raised in these areas and sometimes not. Between the white areas is often painted blue, which varies, possibly because of fading or maybe by design, from fairly light to quite dark navy blue. Entrance is through the middle of one wall on the side. There may or may not be a porch.
There can be a design on the upper part of the front facing the street (*). Old German style roofs were simple, single peaked affairs about now at least are in the four-sided Ukrainian style. Almost all yards are fenced and these fences are often decorated. The common design is a picket fence with diamonds on it. The pickets are about 2 inches wide and usually white with the diamonds in blue. However, at least as many fences are modern metal fences with various designs and brightly painted. White trim on the houses often has a design on it, sometimes indented into the plaster if the white areas along the edges are raised. Occasionally one sees tops of downspouts near the roof that are bulbous with charming punched out metalwork.
Here is the rough sketch of a house I was able to go through in Neudorf. This house was brought by some people from Tajikistan in the last year or so for $200 American currency equivalent. This house was probably 45 x 18 feet or so. If there are additional rooms in the old style German houses, there are no halls so the rooms are not very private. Running water in a home is unusual. Water comes from a well and is hauled in as when you were a kid. (Comment: These are open "wishing wells" and water is cranked up by bucket.) No showers. No indoor plumbing. Outhouse, yes. No raised seat in outhouses, usually. Rather, simply a hole in the floor. The outhouse Cathy and I used in Novosmarka was leaning slightly and its door wouldn't close completely. It had a bucket in the hold in the floor that someone had to empty. It didn't matter that the door didn't close because the hole was in the center of the floor and when we squatted, our knees pushed the door open. In our honor, the outhouse was freshly wallpapered inside! (Comment: Novosamarak is the home of Pavel Pratchuk and his parents. The house that we were staying in was actually owned by Pavel's father. The old German name for this town is Sofiental.)
I hope you are as fascinated by this stuff as I am! More later.
Third Letter:
Odessa, Ukraine, 29 May 2002
Dear Dad,
I have not been able to locate any Vogele or Schumacher homes yet for certain with the exception of one site in Glueckstal now superceded by a communist era apartment complex.
In Glueckstal, I saw the Evangelical Lutheran Church building, since Bolshevik times a community center ("Palace of Culture"). All steeples were removed by the communists. The old church in Bergdorf is also a community center and so was the one in Neudorf, but the latter has been converted back into a church, now Russian or Ukrainian Orthodox. It has a new steeple, but not as impressive as the earlier German one. Unfortunately, no one could be found to open it for us. All three of these churches were similar.
All had massive round pillars supporting the porch over the side entrance. Walls were very thick as you might imagine. Windows were fairly large, admitting good light. The churches at Glueckstal and Bergdorf (and I assume Neudorf) had fairly large balconies. Kids apparently sat through services in balconies, adults down below, females on one side and males on the other. All churches had rounded apses (alter end) but these were converted to stages with flat back walls by the communists. In part, these buildings were used for movie houses (and some still are).
Christian would easily recognize the church today and also possibly the old school next door. It is an L-shaped building, still used today but not as a school. It is two stories. Across the street from the church is the old parsonage, now a bar. After the dedication of the monument to the Germans from Russia in the new school ground, we ate in a long room in the old parsonage, probably 75 feet in length, which I would guess was a reception hall in its earlier life.
Next to the church is a soccer field and next to that the new school for all eleven grades in Glueckstal. Both the soccer field and the school sit on the former German cemetery. Only one gravestone remains, and it is on display at the school, which was built in 1987. It is for a lady born 1799, died 1860. All other stones were broken up and used in construction of bridges and buildings. At Neudorf we saw some intact gravestone bases in the wall of a long communal barn from a communist collective.
At Glueckstal at 6:30 a.m., I watched as people drove their milk cows down the streets to the community milking lot. It was an old house lot measuring about 100 x 200 feet. I watched for about 30 minutes, but saw no one actually milking yet. I suspect they were waiting for the milk collection vehicle before starting to milk.
I had only suspected that such a collection vehicle existed until we came upon a couple of herds of cows just outside of Hoffnungstal. There were possibly 75 cows in each, and both herds about a quarter of a mile from a wooded area where in the shade was a "German wagon" with horses grazing nearby. This type of wagon has a trapezoidal box and may be four wheeled or two wheeled. Wheels are nearly all rubber though today I saw two of these wagons with iron wheels. One was at the home of Steinbach (yes! Steinbach) in Freiburg near Hoffnungstal. There I saw an iron-rimmed wheel submerged in a small tank of water, apparently to make the wood swell and keep everything tight.
(Comment: This was at Adik and Katherine Steinbach's house.) Dad, do you remember anything like that? The milk wagon held two plastic barrels, one large, the other smaller. Women would walk the ¼ mile carrying their buckets of milk, would pour them into a measuring bucket, and then the milk wagon man would pour the milk through cheesecloth in to a barrel and would record the amount.
My map from 1941-44 of Glueckstal shows the homes of at least four Vogeles and a number of Schumachers and at least one Shafer and one Shilling. I may have found the home of an A. Vogele, but I'm not sure. I found one Schumacher site for sure as noted at the beginning of this letter.
After the iron curtain came down in 1991, KGB files were opened and someone or some group of people created the "martyrology" list. This list includes the person's name, son of... or daughter of.... (only fathers name listed) and the decision of the court such as "executed", "set free", "imprisoned for 10 years". AT the Odessa State Archives, I had the archivist, Lilia Belousova, look up Vogele, but only Vogels were listed. There were a large number or Schumachers, probably ten. In both cases, I'm not sure if these are related to us. For the Vogel list, I will have to complete the descendent Vogele family tree in order to see if any are related to us. Schumachers, similarly.
Fourth Letter:
Odessa, Ukraine, 30 May 2002
Dear Dad:
First, I want to talk about the showers here at Hotel Chernoye More (Black Sea). Poor patent. The base is a square about 28 inches on a side. The door is a quadrafold Rube Goldberg deal which when closed it actually slightly larger than the base so it always leaks. Fortunately, they supply us with special clothe mats to soak up the water that leaks out. Each bathroom has a drain in the floor to prevent a flood.
The day before yesterday was a great day. My guide Natasha and I drove with our driver Sasha (Alexander) back to Hoffnungstal, en route passing through Neu-Glueckstal. I had studied the map of Hoffnungstal from about 1930 and had noted only one house that appeared to be related to us- that of Adam Steinbach whom I had not recollected. Remember, Dad, that when you and I were in Bismarck in March of 2001, the librarian Rachel showed up the book Hoffnungstal und Seine Swaben which included a genealogy of our Steinbach family including, I believe, your grandmother Katherine Steinbach. (Comment: I have reviewed this genealogy and tentatively believe that Katherine Steinbach and Adam Steinbach were first cousins.)
This was actually my second visit to Hoffnungstal. Cathy and I had been here earlier with a larger group rather briefly. First, we went to city hall, which is an old German building and found someone who could open the old church for us. This church was in a different style architecturally from the other Lutheran churches I had seen, more angular, square pillars. The folks of early Hoffnungstal were not quite Lutherans; rather, they were pietists or millenialists, people who believed the world was going to end about 1837.
One of the reasons for their coming to Russia was to be closer to Mt. Ararat or the Holy Land when this occurred. The steeple had been removed and all references to religion were covered over inside by a somewhat gaudy plaster design on pillars, wall, ceiling. There were rows of chairs on the main floor (theater style) and a screen in front. A sign at the entrance announced movies one a weekly and disco dancing, but we were told there hadn't been any disco there for a couple of years because the sounds system had been stolen.
Next, we went to look for Adam Steinbach's house. We found the location, but the old house was gone and in its place was a fairly new building that had initially been a shoe repair shop, then a hotel, and now a small convenience store. This was the best-stocked shore I saw in any village. It had bread, meat, canned goods, candy, alcoholic beverages, pop (including "Coco Cola light" which is rare in the villages). (Comment: Still, this store consists of a single room probably no more than 20 X 16 feet.)
We were directed to an older man who supposedly knew everything about the village, and he happened to be chatting with someone out on the main drag. I had Natasha ask him if he knew an Adam Steinbach. No, but there were some "Steibahs" who lived 2-1/2 kilometers further on in another village, Freiburg. We drove in the direction given and after questioning a couple of people on the street, we were in front of a fairly typical old German house. This turned out to be the home of Adik and Katya (Katherine) Steinbach. Katya and her daughter-in-law and grandson were in, Adik not.
Katya invited us into her porch and welcomed us with some "sour milk" which we drank from cups. (Comment: This was probably simply clabbered milk. It was not a whole lot different than natural yogurt.) She implied that Adik was the grandson of Adam Steinbach but the story was confusing and I wasn't certain about much of anything. Adik was said to be 68, but it would be better to talk to his old brother Gresha (Gregory) who at 73 years of age had been born in 1929.
About this time, Adik arrived. Yes, he was the grandson of Adam Steinbach, etc. He had been drinking too much so we got in out car with Katya and drove another kilometer or so to the Hof (yard or lot) of Gresha and Maria Steinbach. Their son Nicholas was also home, visiting from Odessa where he works. Last year these families of Steinbachs had been visited by Steinbachs from Germany and in December of 2001 and January of 2002, Nicholas had visited those relatives for two months in Germany. I got the address from him.
This is Gresha's story (which I might ad was not corroborated by his sister Anna in Odessa). Adam Steinbach and his wife had a number of children including Matila who was Gresha's mother. Matilda married a Jewish fellow named Semen (Simon?) Goldenzwei. The family maintained the Steinbach name, rather than using Goldenzwei. (I saw Anna's birth certificate and her surname is indeed Steinbach.) I believe Gresha said his family was living in a Jewish collective at the beginning of WWII. Gresha's father disappeared either just before or just after the start of the war. AT least 18 of 60 families in the commune were killed by the Nazis.
After the Nazis came, there were only five Russian families in the commune plus the Steinbach family. The Russian families were kind and didn't reveal the Steinbach's past. Gresha was 12 at the onset of Nazi occupation. He said, "When we were with Germans, we spoke German; when we were with Russians, we spoke Russian." Towards the end of the war, Gresha was sent to a larger city. (I believe Dnieper-Petrovosk) to work in a factory. He didn't like the work so he "escaped" back to Frieburg where he apparently got false papers listing his last name and his father's name. Since his dad was dead and the family used the Steinbach name, this couldn't be easily traced. No one in this family seems to have been sent off to a work camp after WWII.
Gresha ultimately married Maria, and he worked for a commune as a cow herder for a little over 25 years and Maria also worked there but I can't remember now what she did. Getting information was difficult as I had to ask a question in English and Natasha would translate back into English. I tried at the very beginning to just record the English on my Dictaphone, but I got so confused that I just let the cassette roll so I have (hopefully) the whole conversation.
Well, at Gresha and Marie's place, I took a large number of photos both inside and out. This is a rough sketch of their Hof or lot. Our Rapid City chapter of Germans from Russia Heritage Society hoses the national convention September 2003 and if my photos come out well, I may do a large mock up of the yard and house for the convention.
Fifth Letter: In the Sky Between Odessa,
Vienna and Stuttgart
3 June 2002
Dear Dad,
Bedclothes in the Ukraine are odd. On the mattress is a cloth-covered pad around which the bottom sheet is wrapped. The top sheet is really a duvet into which a blanket of heavy wool is tucked. This duvet and blanket just covers the top of the bed, doesn't lop over the mattress. Despite this, we were usually toasty warm even though we had only single beds.
Gresha and Marie's communal farm was decollectivized about a year and a half ago. The decision to do this was made administratively at a level about the collective. The division of the land was apparently by lottery. Gresha and Marie each got 4-1/2 hectare. (Comment: A hectare is a square 100 meters on each side and is equivalent to 2.471 acres.) Therefore, they have about 22 acres between them. Not much, but it shows why the collectives weren't efficient. Too much manpower and too few acres. For Gresha and Marie there is another problem. Their land is out in the communal land (now private) somewhere and not contiguous with their yard.
Then, there is no one in their family to work the land. Then, there is no one in their family to work the land. Then, no machinery. My interpreter, Natasha, told me that the higher officials in at least some communes expropriated the best machinery from themselves and now rent it back to those without. This apparently was done at auction and the machinery sold for little. My understanding was that Gresha said that he had enough to get by from his yard a lot with animals and garden and that he didn't need to fuss with the land. It seemed to me that he didn't understand sharecropping, but all of this might be erroneous.
During our flight from Odessa on Tyrolian Air/Austrian Air, we were served a meal with metal silverware, the cockpit door was open and a group of kids from Switzerland were allowed to wander in and out. Guess they haven't heard of 9-11!
Odessa is a city of contrasts. Our hotel was on the edge of the stately old section of the city, about a 1-1/4 mile walk down Richeleuskaya Street to the opera house, built in the late 1800s and said to be second only to the one in Vienna. On June 1, we went to the ballet recital by young people from a ballet school. Outside, classical statuary graced the main entrance, and inside everything was guided. Seats were wide and comfortable. Admission=5 grivna=just under $1. I saw many of the major buildings in old Odessa.
I tried to key in on the oldest ones that Michael Vogele on down to Christian Vogele and Christof Schumacher would possibly have seen. I don't know if Michael ever had to go to Odessa for anything. Gregoriopol and Glueckstal are about 100 kilometer (60 miles) from Odessa so I doubt he personally hauled grain there to sell. The Dniester River is only 10 kilometers from Glueckstal so maybe grain was transported by boat. Mere speculation.
As I understand it, Christof Schumacher as head of household and Christian Vogele, as single traveler, would have had to go to Odessa to apply for permission to leave Russia. Today, I spent just over an hour in the oldest residential section of Odessa taking photos of what my guide Natasha thought were the oldest buildings. Our main guide Elvira lives in a house in this district that is over 200 years old and she will send me some photos of it, she says.
Surrounding the old city are newer sections including apartment complexes built during the Stalinist era (bigger, better constructed, nicer architecturally and in demand today) and the Khrushchev (1960s) and Brezhnev (into the 1980s) eras. I will describe a Krushev era apartment momentarily. On the outside these latter two apartment complexes are drab, monotonous, uninspired architecturally, and seem not well kept up.
No on in Ukraine we met had heard of Mt. Rushmore. Many people in Ukraine and Odessa are extremely poor. Gresha and Marie each get pensions of about 130 grivnas a month ($25 US). Teachers make $25-30 per month; college professors make $100 per month. Some profs apparently sell crafts in the markets because they can make more on the side there than from their teaching positions. People begging are fairly common and one sees people digging through dumpsters. Many older people look rather shabbily dressed. Contrast this with the young women of Odessa-paradise! I have never seen so many great bodies in all my life and dressed (or undressed) to the 9's! These women ooze fashion from their hair down to the tips of their 3-inch heels.
They can walk across cobblestones better than I can walk down a flat sidewalk. American men come to Ukraine to get wives. Apparently, this is arranged through agencies. A German guy on our airplane said there were about 50 guys at this hotel looking for wives/women. The agency brought in about 300 women and the men had their pick. I had heard of such a thing from my guide earlier. Cathy says he was a braggart and a storyteller. These guys must arrange visas for their women, but the guy Cathy met was despondent because the lady he was to marry only wanted his Visa card!
For about the first 30 minutes of our flight from Vienna to Stuttgart, we flew along the Danube River, which I could see meandering through the Austrian countryside. Scattered here and there were towns and villages, the houses mostly red roofed (tiled). Separating these were small green fields and some golden ones, patchwork style, and tree lined roads or fences and small deep green forests. Many Germans traveled the Danube by boat from Ulm, Germany, to at least Vienna where they began to overland trek to Russia. Others made the whole trip to the Black Sea by water. Michael Vogele might have boated from Ulm to Vienna and probably went overland most of the way to Russia.
On May 31, 2002, Cathy, I, and our guide/interpreter Natasha paid a visit to Anna Steinbach's apartment, a Kruschev era complex built in 1967. She has lived there since it was completed. Her sister Zina had been invited to meet us also. Anna was born about 1931 and Zina was born in 1944. Anna was round and somewhat ruddy faced with white hair. Zina, in contrast, was thin. Anna, being the elder, had most knowledge of the family and of WWII times, but she couldn't remember back further that Adam Steinbach and his wife.
Her story about the family during WWII was so different from Gresha's that it is hard to believe the stories are from siblings. Anna said that her father went into the army in 1943 and was killed fighting, or maybe probably was. There was no mention of her father being Jewish or of a Jewish collective. She did see Nazi soldiers at times and the Czeck soldiers were the kindest. I will have to decipher my cassettes to be able to reconstruct in detail what Anna said. We got to Anna's about 3 p.m. and left about 7 p.m. We ate a little dessert while there. Anna provide wine, strawberries, sour cream and a kind of green eggplant that was breaded (YUM!). We brought a Black Forest cake from the bakery.
Anna had many photos and I took photos of some of them with my camera including one of Adam Steinbach and his wife and four or five of their 12 kids. I think Matilda, mother of Anna, is included. If not, I have another picture of her. Anna's son Victor had died at age 31, I believe. He was captain of a large fishing trawler out of the Kamchatka peninsula in the East. He was killed in an auto accident. A large number of people attended his funeral. Zina's son, I believe Alexander, is an actor in an Odessa drama and musical theater and is about 28. Ukrainian women are not having many children these days, and many are going childless. Both Anna and Zina are widows. Anna worked most of her life in a furniture factory. For that reason, she has nice furniture that is finely lacquered. There are double doors into her house. The outer is provided and is shabby.
The inside one and the door into her bedroom are very nice lacquered doors. Anna lives on the fourth of six floors. No elevator. Steps are of plain concrete with paint slop spots. They seem to be slanted slightly downward. Natasha thought this was from wear, but I think constructed that was (inexact). The tiles on the landings were not quite put in flat so have a crude appearance. Balconies seem to be somewhat ramshackle, but Anna's was solid. That is where I took her pictures.
She had parquet wood flooring in the living room and bedroom but not tightly approximated so there are little gaps between boards. On the wall behind the couch was a Persian style carpet, fairly new. This wasn't an actual Persian rug. Putting a Persian rug or a copy (I didn't ever see a real Persian while in Ukraine) on the wall behind the couch is common practice in the Ukraine. This is a rough rendering of Anna's apartment. I would guess that it is no more than 600 square feet in size.
Sixth Letter:
Stuttgart, Germany, 5 June 2002
Dear Dad,
Awakening in the Ukrainian villages would remind you of home with cooing doves and crowing of roosters, but then there is another sound, that of the coo coo bird. There is a Russia/Ukrainian folk belief that the number of times the coo coo coos is the number of years you have yet to live. Fortunately, coo coos coo coo many times in succession!
Huffnunstal means "Hope Valley" and 8 kilometer (5 mile or so) to the south and east is NeuGlueckstal, birthplace of your mother Fredericka Schumacher. Neu-Glueckstal is a fairly small village and the only public building that I could find there that may have been extent in Fredericka's time was the school. - Only the back party may have existed then. The director or principal thought this part was built in 1900 (about) and Fredericka left for America in 1884. The rooms in the old section had slightly irregular (wavy) junctions of walls with the ceilings and there were noticeably rounded on the ends almost as if the rooms had been created by the rising of the squarish loaf of bread. The rooms built 50 years ago had much separated by 3-1/2 foot partitions on the boy's side and I surmise similar for girls.
Probably there blocks back from the school was the old German cemetery, which was there in Fredericka's time. It is not completely overgrown by lilacs. A few gravestones and some headstone bases were lying out on the grass near the lilacs. I could not read a name on any of these. In fact, only on one did it appear that there had ever been a name, but I couldn't see all the sides of all markers. I walked into the tangle of lilacs for 20-30 feet and found a couple of pillars about 5-1/2 feet tall. These were constructed of stones mortared together and plastered over. They appeared to mark the perimeter of a plot or possible even the cemetery itself. They were still standing. I didn't see many stones through the brambles, but it is possible that the overgrowth has prevented complete desecration of this cemetery.
Most German cemeteries in the Ukraine have been destroyed. In Neudorf, we saw about four headstones in the wall of a communal barn. Apparently, most stone from Glueckstal were broken up and used in the construction of bridges and other structures. The old German cemetery at Kassel is under a patch of bushes just outside the fence of the current Ukrainian cemetery there. We saw the Kassel cemetery first hand. There were a surprising number of crosses there despite years of official atheism. There are no old iron crosses of the type used by the German pioneers in Dakota (like your brother Johann's) but there were many made out of pipe with end decorations made of three rings of 1-1/2 inch pipe welded on a cross created from pipe.
The map of Neu-Glueckstal from 1930 doesn't list any Schumachers or other relatives of Fredericka of Christian, but it does show home sites of three Perman families. I spent considerable time trying to find these. There is definately nothing left of two of them and probably nothing at the third either though it was very hard to correlate the remains of Neu-Glueckstal with the old map so I wouldn't completely give up on the latter.
In the Ukraine, I ha an experience which very much contrasts the mentality there with that in the USA. We were visiting the train station at Kotovsk because it was probably one of the places where some Germans got on the train to begin their journeys to America. The old name for this place was Birsula. I had taken photos of the front and side of the station and had gone through onto the platform adjacent to the tracks where the (stinky) toilet was. On returning, I stepped out over the first set of rails to take a picture of the backside of the station when a police officer called me.
I stepped onto the platform and the only word I could understand was "passport" which I produced. I said "Amerikansky" and "tourist". A second officer came up and then a couple Ukrainian citizens. I think I might have been hauled off to the police station if at that moment Helma Eberle from our tour grouped hadn't returned from the toilet. She is a German who was born in Mariental, one of the German colonies. She was six at the time the Nazis were pushed back in 1944, and she went by wagon train back to Germany only to be sent back to Russia with her family somewhere in the Ural Mountains.
She was too young to work in the mines and had just reached the working age of 18 when the Supreme Soviet under Kruschev pardoned all Germans. She married her husband Oskar not long after and they moved to Tajikistan where she worked as a crane operator while Oskar was a diver for the local commissar. Anyway, Helma speaks Russian and German, but not much English. She hurried up and began speaking in Russian and after about 5 minutes, the officer let me go. Helma and Oskar emigrated to Germany in 1972. She was able to find her childhood home in Mariental while on this tour.
We flew from Odessa to Vienna in Fokker 70s made in Germany. A member of our group was reminded of this story: An American WWII Ace was describing an air battle on the Johnny Carson Show. On Fokker was coming from this direction and another Fokker from that, but he finally got on the tail of one of those Fokkers and shot it down. Johnny asked the Germans were only flying Fokkers. The Ace said, "No. Those Fokkers were only flying Messerschmidts!"
Seventh Letter:
In the Air Oven Atlantic Ocean, 7 June 2002
Dear Dad,
This letter will likely be a Hodge podge of thoughts. Forgive me if I repeat myself.
Houses in the villages in the Ukraine and Moldova were frequently fancifully decorated. They had a board nailed upright at the front end of the peak of the roof. About half the time, this was cut out in a unique way. I doubt that any two of these were alike. There were many simpler ones, as well. My guide Natasha thought that these were a Ukrainian tradition but our main guide Elvira felt this was a German innovation. The boards facing the roof were sometimes scalloped not notched or serrated or some combination.
Often there were designs in the triangle underneath the roof on the front of the house facing the street. Common was some variant of a rising sun. Jan and Tom Stangle who were with us on the first portion of our trip had postulated that these might have a religious significance. I didn't agree because the motif is seen very often on fences and is ever seen very commonly in one form or another in the metal grates over windows to prevent break-ins. However, I saw a couple on tombstones at Neu-Glueckstal and on the stone at the school in Glueckstal, which supports the Stangle's conclusion.
Almost every yard in the villages were fronted by a fence. Fences and gates are now a days often of metal. Sometimes these were of sheet iron punched out with repetitive designs and sometimes wrought. Metal gate doors often had designs created by welding bent rods on to the sheet metal or the upright bars. These might be geometric; especially diamonds, the sunrise design, flower, and I saw at least one with deer and one with dolphins. All of these metal fences were painted in bright colors, usually with blue or green background color. More common are picket fences as I noted earlier.
Less common are fences of plastered stone. Some of these are probably old German fences, but I couldn't be certain. Katya Steinbach said that a fence I though was old was actually recently made. She said sometime like, "Some people like that style of fence." Here is a drawing of the type of fence Katya was referring to. The pillars are about 1-1/2 feet square. They might have wood or iron fence material between. They were usually white with some other color for trim. Sometimes these fences between the pillars were stone covered with plaster. These seemed more likely to be old to me.
Plowing, planting and harvesting are done mechanically as is most of cutting of hay. However, large groups of people were in the fields even on Sunday hoeing row crops. Fairly large fields were raked by hand using rakes 3-4 feet wide, sometimes with wooden tines. Handles on most tools and the tongues of wagons were clearly hand made from branches of trees. We saw many people cutting with hand scythes. I saw numerous people forking hay into wagons by hand, or into sidecar motorcycles. I didn't see a single hay bale in the Ukraine. Men could be seen carrying 1-3 large bags of hay.
I saw few newer pieces of farm machinery. Tractors were relatively small compared to the large models used in our country today. Combines I saw were small and somewhat faded and rusty on the outside. More than half of all cows were still the old German red cow, bred in the colonies in about the mid 1800s. It is apparently both good as a milk cow and beef cow. The cattle industry is extremely important for villages, especially milking. A good milk cow costs $380-400 US dollars. Most people own 1-5 cows, usually 1-2.
I saw a fair number of goats, but few sheep. I think hogs are raised, but I saw very few. Animals were obviously allowed in town and are must be taken when walking to avoid cow pies. Chicks are everywhere and geese with 10-15 goslings were common. The ganders could be nasty when their space was invaded, as expected. Not many ducks or turkeys. Sometimes foul are herded with a little whip. I think I saw a lady herding her geese with a stick about four feet long. Some pigeons are raised including by Gresha and Marie Steinbach, and at least on other household I saw. I have photos of a pigeon sitting on a guy's outstretched arm.
Wild animals were few other than for birds. I saw one toad and one fox. In Novosamarka, the croaking of frogs in the evening was boisterous and wonderful, coming from the pond in the common pasture. Frogs were accompanied by the lesser choir of crickets. There is some bee keeping as in the days of the earlier colonist, but the only hives we saw were in Pavel Pratchuk's father's yard in Novosamarka. These hives were like a rectangular box laying flat to the ground rather than upright as in the U.S. I saw no deer.
There were a surprising number of churches both old and new. The Odessa State Archives is in an old Jewish synagogue. Lilia, the archivist, said that the Ukrainian President has said that all former churches would have to be turned back to their religious groups in the next few years or so the archives will have to be moved. Apparently, the new home will be better as the current building is not heated. Obviously, old Lutheran churches in the villages can't be turned back to the Lutherans because there are no Lutheran there anymore.
The Russian/Ukrainian Orthodox churches that are being built are in general, smaller than the former churches of old. We saw two old Lutheran churches that are now being sued by Russian/Ukrainian Orthodox congregations, one in Neudorf between Bergdof and Gluckstal and one I believe at Rohrbach in the Beresan group of colonies. We happened upon that church during its service. There was hay all over the old wood floor except where several runner type rugs lay. The singing was great to listen to there. They don't seem to discourage taking photos in the Orthodox churches, even during services. Except for a few benches towards the back of the Orthodox churches for the frail, there are no seats and the people stand during the service.
The onion domes tend to be odd in number. The Orthodox cross has three cross bars. The short upper one said "Golgotha" where Jesus was nailed to the cross. Below that, the long bar represents the part of the cross where Christ's hands were nailed. His feet were nailed to the angled bar at the bottom. It was tied to the upright, not fixed, so it was angled.
We left Odessa for Stuttgart on 3 June. Stuttgart is almost like another world when compared to the Ukraine. It was bombed very heavily in WWII but has been rebuilt. Some old buildings have been reconstructed. The facades appear old, but the construction techniques on the insides of these building are modern. Thus, there is a mix of old and new architecture. We stayed in the Hotel Royal in the center of town. It had all the amenities which was quite a change. Hotel Royal had been built after the war. In Stuttgart, I went to the Heimat Museum der Bessarabiendeutchen (Home Museum of the Bessarabian Germans).
Bessarabia is the piece of land between Dniester and Pruth rivers. It was heavily colonized by Germans. Early in the war, Hitler and Stalin divided up the part of the world so these people were taken back to Germany where they suffered like all Germans later in the war, but they didn't have to return to Russia afterwards so were not in the USSR work camps. Since Glueckstal is only 10 kilometers East of Bessarabia, there are almost certainly Vogeles who were in the Bessarabian colonies, probably mostly women who were married to men from Bessarabia.
The genealogy list on the computer at the museum had many Vogeles listed, but since I didn't have a copy of my family tree with me, I couldn't be sure they were in my family. Bessarabia is an old name, which apparently derives from a group of people who lived there long ago, the Bessen, and their king Bessarab. Many things at this museum interested me, but especially two things. One was a couple of "Hutchele" (for little horses) which are foot bones of a horse that were painted and used by kids as toys. These fascinated me because our good Lakota friend Emma Amiotte (Born 1911) also played with these as a kid and in later life, made little beaded leather Indian dolls to ride them.
Cathy even sold some of these in her trading post. Her logo for her first business (Travios, Inc) was an artist's rendering of one of Emma's bone horses with rider and travois. The second thing that really interested me was the "Placht" or baby carrying blanket. These were tightly hand woven, very colorful wool blankets. Apparently, the baby was carried in front and not on the back. These blankets are similar to a couple we bought in Guatemala where women carried kids front and back. An old lady modeled a Placht and I took photos.
Cathy and I went to the Linden Museum in hopes of seeing their great American Indian collection, but a change in display is in process so the material was unavailable except for a small room of stuff. On a city tour of Stuttgart, we actually spent half the time 15 kilometers away at the Ludwigsburg Palace. This is a Versailles type palace and was the home of the Wuerttemberg Duke or King (after Napoleon crowned him King) from the early 1700s until the late 1800s.
Our tour was fantastic because our guide was learned and humorous and the number of rooms we saw was much greater than at Versailles previously. It was apparently in part the expense of maintaining trappings like this place that resulted in high taxes that drove my Swabians (Wuettembergers) to emigrate to South Russia. In Michael Vogele's case, it probably wasn't religious persecution that caused him to leave, because he was Lutheran as were most other Swabians.
We arrived safe and sound last night! It is hard to beat our own bed (even with jet lag), and our own shower can't be topped!
Love, Ken


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The Canyons has a pretty cool system for getting you up to the goods; when the upper lot is full you can park behind the 7-11 at the bottom of the hill (great for coldies after your shred) and take the Cabriolet people-mover lift from "Base Camp up to the Village area. From there it's a safety meeting length ride in the Flight of the Canyons gondola to the Red Pine Lodge zone where you can access the Short Cut, High Meadows and Saddleback Express lifts. After a few laps on the Peak 5 lift, a quick hike out the backcountry access to grab some pow and a snack at the red Pine Lodge we decided to check out some of the other terrain. We found some fun little natural jibs off the Saddleback lift and we were able to hook back over to the mini-park jib line on our way back for more laps. Next we hit up the Sunpeaks lift and there we found some really fun lift accessed powder. It didn't take us long to work out a fun line of slashes and hits to keep us occupied until the end of the day.
It snowed through most of the afternoon and there is a report of a dump heading towards the 801/435 zone for the weekend. There's also a rumor that the 9990 Express might open this weekend providing access to a ton more high terrain so check it out. Thanks again to Steven Duke and all the Canyons employees...especially the cute cashiers at the Red Pine Lodge! See ya at The Canyons.
For up to date conditions go to: thecanyons.com


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Honeydripper (DVD)
John Sayles
From Oscar® nominated director, John Sayles, comes an electrifying and vivid rock 'n' roll fable. When Tyrone, owner of the Honeydripper lounge, is faced with having to shut down his juke joint, his hopes rest on one man - the famous Guitar Sam. It's a make or break weekend for the Honeydripper, this better be some Saturday night!
With exquisite performances by Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Stacy Keach, Mary Steenburgen and Sean Patrick Thomas; and featuring musicians Keb' Mo' and Dr. Mable John - Honeydripper is an award-winning film, full of great music and plenty of soul.
Product Details
- Starring: Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Yaya Dacosta, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Daryl Edwards, Dr. Mable John, Kel Mitchell, Ruben Santiago-Hudson
- Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Number of Discs: 1
- Rating: PG-13
- Label: Screen Media
- Release Date: 06/24/2008
- Run Time: 124 minutes
- Catalogue #: 68104699
Special Features
- Cast and Filmmaker Interviews
- Director's Commentary
- Behind the Scenes


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This is the second in a two-part series. Read Part I here.
In the first article, we examined the impact of innovation and intellectual property strategies. In this article, we summarize the major issues in developing and implementing an intellectual property strategy. Startup and emerging technology companies in particular should have a clear innovation and intellectual property strategy in place—and these strategies should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that it continues to match the company's business strategy.
The elements of an effective innovation and intellectual property strategy include:
I. Patent strategy.
Utility patents protect inventions which are new, useful and not obvious (other types of patents, design patents and plant patents are used in a limited number of companies). Such inventions can be electrical, biological, mechanical, and chemical or even a business process. Example of works protected by such patents are the laser, genetically engineered bacteria for cleaning up oil spills, a method of running cash management accounts and a method for curing rubber.
1. The company should have a process for identifying potentially patentable inventions. The decision should take into account the trade-off between patent and trade secret protection. Many companies prefer to focus on "chokepoint" inventions, which can control similar products made by competitors. The strategy should consider patenting both the product and the method of manufacture. The company should have experienced counsel review the patent portfolios of its competitors to determine which company inventions are most valuable to protect. If possible, the strategy should take into account the patents filed by competitors in order to be able to respond to potential challenges by such competitors.
2. This process should also provide a method for deciding the countries in which the invention will be protected, based on the importance of the market as well as the cost and the availability of protection under local law.
3. The patent strategy should ensure that the decisions regarding protection of inventions are made prior to public disclosure to obtain international protection. This strategy will need to be changed in 2013 when the U. S. shifts to a first-to-file patent system, rather than the current "first-to-invent" system.
4. The patent strategy may also include a decision to disclose some inventions that the company has decided not to file as a patent so a third party cannot patent it. Many large companies such as IBM have a substantial publication strategy but startups can also benefit from this approach.
II. Copyright strategy.
Copyrights protect "original" works of authorship which are "fixed" in a tangible medium of expression. The standard for originality is very low. Technology products covered by copyright are manuals, firmware and computer software as well as more traditional works such as songs, novels and motion pictures. Unlike patents, copyrights arise automatically when a work is created and do not require an application to the government. However, a U.S. company needs to "register" the copyright prior to bringing a court action for infringement.
1. The company should ensure that it has appropriate transfers of copyrights developed by employees and independent contractors.
2. Employees should be sensitized to copyright issues to avoid unauthorized use of third party software, manuals or other copyrightable materials.
III. Trademark strategy.
Trademarks are words, names, symbols, slogans, smells, sounds or devices used by manufacturers of goods or providers of services to identify their goods and services. Trademarks include the bitten apple logo for Apple computers, the word "Google" for Internet searching, the roar of the MGM lion for films, and the three-dimensional design of the Coca-Cola bottle for soft drinks. Trademarks can endure forever, so long as they are continuously used.
1. The selection, clearance and protection of trademarks is expensive and the company should limit approach to these decisions in a structured way. The most common trademark strategies are
a. A single trademark for virtually all products. Adobe is close to this strategy
b. A primary trademark used on all products, with secondary marks for certain products. Microsoft has adopted this strategy using Microsoft on all products and secondary marks such as Internet Explorer, Windows and Word for specific products.
c. A trademark for each product with customers rarely knowing who manufactures the product. The best example is Procter & Gamble (P&G) which uses Tide, NyQuil and Metamucil, but does not use P&G on its products.
2. Prior to adopting a trademark, it should be "cleared" to ensure that another company does not have rights in the trademark both in the U.S. and other relevant countries.
3. Once cleared, the company should determine in which countries to protect the trademark. These decisions may vary for different trademarks depending on the importance of the trademark and the product. For example, one large Silicon Valley company adopting a new major trademark started clearing the trademark in more than 20 countries at least nine months prior to the introduction of the product.
4. The company should ensure that it has a trademark use policy to ensure that the trademark is used properly and that the company's use of its own trademark does not undercut the company's ability to enforce the trademark. For example, Intel lost the right to use '386 as a trademark because they did not control its use by third parties.
IV. Trade secret strategy.
Trade secret law protects information of any type that is valuable to its owner because it is not generally known in the industry and its owner has taken reasonable steps to maintain the information in confidence. Examples of trade secrets include customer lists, source code and semiconductor manufacturing processes. Trade secrets can include both positive and negative information.
1. The company should have procedures in place to protect its trade secrets and be able to prove the use of such procedures in order to enforce trade secret rights in court. To enforce its trade secret rights, the company needs to prove that it used "reasonable measures" to protect their confidentiality. These measures can include employee assignment and confidentiality agreement, non-disclosure agreements and a marking program. The misappropriation of trade secrets can be very expensive. For example, Lexar Media obtained damages of $460 million from Toshiba Corp. for violation of its trade secrets.
2. The employees should be trained to recognize and properly protect trade secrets.
3. The trade secret program should coordinate with the patent program, because the issuance of a patent will terminate trade secret protection.
V. Licensing strategy
1. The company should carefully review inbound licenses to ensure that they include license rights that are sufficiently broad to take into account the evolution of the company's product. For example, the growth of cloud computing requires a review of standard software license restrictions on time sharing. Another critical issue is to ensure that such a license can cover the "collaborative" nature of development for many products. For example, the ability to sublicense these rights may be important, particularly for life science startups who will be partnering with large pharmaceutical companies to manufacture the startup's product. These licenses, if critical, must also be transferable in the case of a merger or asset sale.
2. The company should ensure that its exclusive licenses do not preclude it from exploiting its technology in markets it intends to enter, and include appropriate minimum performance requirements.
3. The company should carefully consider how much risk of liability it will accept through warranties and intellectual property indemnities to its clients. Startups will sometimes accept unlimited liability for infringement of third party rights to "get" the deal. For a startup, this liability is theoretical because of its limited resources. However, such unlimited liability will be a significant risk to a potential acquirer and may cause the acquirer to lower the purchase price to reflect the higher risk.
The development and implementation of an intellectual property strategy is critical to the success of a company's ability to innovate and succeed in the markets where the pace of innovation has dramatically increased.


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Police are warning residents about a scam where fraudsters con people to obtain their bank account details and debit cards.
The con men call the victim and pretend to work for their bank telling the victim there has been fraudulent activity on their account.
They then ask for their PIN and then tell them a courier will be sent to collect their cards.
They encourage the victim to ring their bank to clarify the call is genuine but don't hang up, leaving the phone line open. When the victim believes they are dialling their bank, they are actually speaking to another fraudster on the same line.
Either a genuine courier firm, or a taxi firm employed by the scammers, then call at the victim's house to collect the cards.
The victims later discover that money has been withdrawn from their accounts.
Have you been a victim? Call police on 101.


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"[Glacier Bay National Park] was founded in the spirit of John Muir, with a strong tradition of scientific inquiry [and] an historic focus looking only as far back as the arrival of European explorers. Perhaps it was this short-sightedness that led to many of the conflicts to come."
Wayne Howell
A visitor's 1993 discovery of human remains eroding from a knoll along the shores of Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Texas, began a three-year process of consultation between the National Park Service and affiliated tribes. Over the course of the process, which involved nearly all the consultation provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the remains were excavated and analyzed, and then blessed and reburied during a tribal ceremony. Consultation about the remains, and about Lake Meredith collections, has created a new relationship between the park and the tribes.
The visitor spotted the remains at the water's edge, where they had rolled from an eroded burial site atop a small hill, and brought them to a ranger. Ranger Ed Day took them to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, where much of the park's 750,000-item collection is housed, to ensure careful treatment until the tribes could be consulted. Due to their highly deteriorated condition, the remains were assumed to pre-date European contact, but since no objects were found associated with the burial, an exact age and cultural affiliation could not be determined.
Lake Meredith had not yet begun its NAGPRA-mandated inventory of human remainswhich calls for consultation with tribesand therefore did not know which could be culturally affiliated, nor even which to consult. So, acting on consultation guidelines then in use, the park turned to Edward Natay, chief of the office of American Indian programs at the Southwest regional office. He contacted the Kiowa Tribe, Comanche Tribe, and Mescalero and Jicarilla Apache Tribes; two responded, saying they could advise only if the remains were proved conclusively to be affiliated with them. The tribes and the park decided to keep the remains in the museum until affiliation was determined for the rest of the inventory.
The following month, at an Oklahoma City consultation with the NPS regional NAGPRA team on the inventories of several parks, the Kiowa Tribe, Comanche Tribe, and Wichita and Affiliated Tribes expressed an interest in human remains from Lake Meredith. The Jicarilla Apache Tribe and the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma also claimed general affiliation with geographic areas encompassing the lake. Although the Comanche and Kiowa were still considering how to approach affiliation with human remains over 500 years old, tribal representatives said they wished to be consulted further about the discovery.
Meanwhile, events at Lake Meredith hastened a decision: additional remains were actively eroding downslope. Those that were disarticulated and too close to the water's edge were collected and carefully placed among stone cobbles next to the grave until they could be properly treated.
At a New Mexico consultation a month later, a coalition of Apache tribes said that they did not wish to claim pre-European contact human remains at present (although they may develop a policy in the future).In November we contacted Virgil Swift, historic preservation officer with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, and Lawrence Edge, then NAGPRA coordinator for the Kiowa, to follow up. Both agreed that the remains should be reburied and wished to be involved. Plans were made to meet at the burial site in January to work out a course of action. The recovered remains were returned to the park for inspection at the meeting and to reunite with the other remains for reburial.
In addition to ourselves, Park Service attendees included Chief Ranger Dale Thompson, Environmental Protection Specialist Wesley Phillips, Ed Day, and graduate research student Deborah Summers. Virgil Swift and Ira French represented the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes while Lawrence Edge and Leon Hunter represented the Kiowa. A representative from the state historic preservation office was invited but unable to attend.
We went to the grave site by boat to discuss the eroding remains and where they could be reinterred. Later in the day, at Lake Meredith headquarters, we explained to tribal representatives that the Park Service was mainly interested in their concerns about what had happened since the discovery and what to do with the remains now.
The group agreed that the two of us would prepare a scope of work outlining excavation and in-field analysis. The following provisions would apply: 1) the remains would be exposed, documented, inventoried, and then relocated to another area on the same ridge; 2) the Wichita and Kiowa would conduct the reburial ceremonies; 3) the grave would be two to three feet deep to minimize the area of impact, with fill including two layers of wire mesh and a layer of concrete above the remains and vegetation planted to camouflage the site from vandals; 4) both the original and the reburial grave would be recorded with Global Positioning System mapping for future monitoring; and 5) for record-keeping, the location would be associated with a larger, previously recorded archeological site nearby.
The Kiowa Tribe, the Wichita Tribe, and the Texas SHPO concurred. To make the identity of the remains less ambiguous, the Wichita requested that they be radiocarbon-dated to determine if they were from the Antelope Creek phase (AD 1250-1500), a period to which the tribe traces ancestry. NPS consulted with the other four interested tribes (the Kiowa, Mescalero Apache, Jicarilla Apache, and Apache Tribe of Oklahoma), none of whom objected, and agreed to honor the request (coincidentally, final NAGPRA regulations had just lifted a Park Service moratorium on destructive analyses in the Southwest).
The remains were excavated in mid-March of last year. Both the Wichita and Kiowa were asked if any ceremonies were necessary before the removal of the remains, and neither said there were. The skeleton was in very fragile condition; part was missing, including the cranium, having eroded downslope. Some of the long bones, partially exposed for quite some time, were heavily sun-bleached. No associated artifacts were found.
Michael Schillaci, a physical anthropologist, was hired to conduct the inventory and analysis, which concentrated on determining sex, age, and biological affinity as well as identifying any pathology or developmental disorders. The remains were those of a female between 49 and 55, who stood about 4 feet 2 inches at the time of her death. She had at least one child, suffered from osteoarthritis severe enough to restrict her mobility, and had broken a wrist at some point in her life. Her cause of death and biological affiliation could not be determined, but radiometric dates of AD 1180-1265 (68 percent probability) and AD 1150-1285 (95 percent probability) unquestionably placed her remains in the early Antelope Creek phase.
Before the Wichita could rebury her, still other measures had to be taken. According to the final NAGPRA regulations (43 CFR 10), which had taken effect just days before the January meeting, the Park Service was required to "publish general notices of the proposed disposition in a newspaper of general circulation in the area in which the human remains . . . were excavated . . . or discovered inadvertently . . . and, if applicable, in a newspaper of general circulation in the area(s) in which affiliated Indian tribes . . . now reside." The notice had to be published at least two times a week apart, and the disposition could not take place until 30 days after the second notice "to allow time for any additional claimants to come forward" (43 CFR 10.6[c]). Published in the Amarillo, Texas, Globe-News and the Anadarko, Oklahoma, Daily News, they were the first Park Service notices for an inadvertent discovery under the new rules. No other claimants came forward.
Due to the rough terrain on which the remains were originally buried, and the physical limitations of the Wichita Purity Priest who would conduct the ceremony, it was agreed to move the grave site to a more accessible location in the same area of the park. In compliance with section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, this area was surveyed and found clear of sites eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
Approximately 20 people attended the mid-October ceremony, including Virgil Swift, George Akeen, Sr., and Timothy Baugh of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Superintendent John Benjamin and Wesley Phillips from Lake Meredith NRA, and Director Walter Davis and archeologist A.J. Taylor from the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. The reburial went extremely well, bringing together a diverse group for a common cause on common ground.
The entire process, from discovery to reburial, was successful due to the integrated and multidisciplinary approach of all those involved. The park's request for its regional experts; the blending of ethnography and archeology in consultation, excavation, and analysis; the Wichita's request for radiometric datingall were essential to the outcome. The interest and participation of the other tribes ensured that no concerns were overlooked.
Today, Lake Meredith has requested and received funding to develop a long-range consultation plan. As a first step, the park is working with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes to craft a NAGPRA consultation protocol agreement. Thus, through a lengthy but careful process, one discovery ultimately led to another: of a new relationship between the park and its tribal partners.
The authors wish to thank John Benjamin, superintendent at Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Timothy Baugh, archeologist for the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, and Virgil Swift, historic preservation officer for the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes for their review of a draft of this article. We also wish to thank them for their continual enthusiasm and efforts to maintain an active and positive dialogue.
For more information, contact Alexa Roberts, anthropologist for the NPS Southwest Support Office Cultural Resources Program at (505) 988-6764 or Jim Bradford, archeologist and program leader, at (505) 988-6758.


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C.J. Cron's earliest memory of being on a professional baseball field had nothing to do with the smell of the clubhouse, meeting the players or playing catch.
"My earliest memory about the summers was catching fireflies," Cron said.
After that, he said, "it all kind of blends."
The 24-year-old Cron didn't have to check his sense of awe at the clubhouse door when he arrived with the Angels this week. That's been gone for a while.
C.J. Cron was too young to remember the playing career of his father. Chris Cron's final major-league game, with the Angels in 1992, came when C.J. was 2.
But the younger Cron remembers visiting his father as a manager each summer in minor-league outposts like Hickory, N.C., and Birmingham, Ala. Along the way he came in contact with dozens of future big leaguers. Carlos Lee and Kip Wells called Chris Cron their manager at some point. So did current Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto, albeit briefly.
Funny thing is, C.J. Cron doesn't remember the names. Those blended too, receded into his memory banks like living room furniture.
"He's coached every level, so I'm sure there's a bunch of guys," he said. "A lot of the guys I remember when I was there have already been done playing. I'm sure there's guys out there. I just don't really remember."
Cron did remember the baseball lessons his dad tried to pass along, and those have proven useful. This week, he was able to give something back.
Chris Cron, now the Arizona Diamondbacks' minor-league hitting coordinator, was at Angel Stadium for each of his son's first five major-league games this week. C.J. said his dad arrived from the Dominican Republic, where he was working with Diamondbacks prospects, in time for the sixth inning of his major-league debut Sunday.
"He changed his flight," C.J. Cron said. "Instead of the Dominican to Arizona, he came straight here."
The week has been a homecoming for both father and son. Chris Cron went to Esperanza High School in Anaheim; his mother, Linda, went to El Dorado High in Placentia. C.J. was born in Fullerton, but spent his childhood years in Arizona when he wasn't visiting his father at work.
"Most of my family still lives around the area," he said.
C.J. will play his first major-league game without his father in attendance Friday, when the Angels begin a six-game road trip in Toronto.
Wednesday night was the younger Cron's last chance to remind his father of a rather remarkable fact. By the time his first game was over, C.J. had more hits (three) than Chris did in a 12-game major league career (two).
"I wanted to say it, but I didn't say it," C.J. Cron said. "Me and my brother (Kevin, a baseball player at Texas Christian University) would always say that we were going to have better careers than he would. His comeback was, 'hey I have two hits. I've still got you guys.'
"I'm sure I'll poke a little fun at him later. I'll let it slide this time."
Paging Josh Hamilton
Josh Hamilton (left thumb surgery) was scheduled to catch a flight to Arizona on Wednesday night to continue his rehab regimen at the Angels' facility in Tempe. He ran the bases and took live batting practice one-handed Wednesday afternoon.
Soon, Hamilton is expected to begin swinging the bat with both hands for the first time since he had surgery on April 11. The slugger has targeted returning to the Angels during their three-game series against the Kansas City Royals on May 23-25.
It can't come soon enough for the Angels, who have used four different players in the cleanup hole since Hamilton went on the disabled list. Through the first eight games of the Angels' nine-game homestand, they were batting .200 (6 for 30) with three RBIs.
"We've had to do a lot of mixing and matching in our lineup," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "That big presence behind Albert is something we're searching for. You're not going to be able to replace Josh."
Pitcher Dane De La Rosa (shoulder) is expected to make one more rehabilitation start for Triple-A. Scioscia said the right-hander "a strong possibility" to join the team on its road trip. … Sean Burnett (elbow) threw in extended spring training Wednesday. The Angels will know today whether or not he will need another extended spring training outing before making his first rehabilitation appearance. … The Angels' starting rotation will not change after their off-day today. Garrett Richards, Tyler Skaggs, Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson will start the four-game series against the Blue Jays in that order.


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I know everyone just wants to dump the veterans because most of them are horrible but we should double check Larry Hughes. He is an overall good player. He can hit his shots, has range, plays defense by racking up steals, has a good awareness on the floor, and has shown a good ability to pass the ball. Don't forget he has been rebounding the ball surprisingly well.
Getting Hughes for a cheap deal next year and plugging him as a role player would be beneficial to our team. We need smart players that can play at both ends of the court and Hughes mainly creates fast brakes with his steals.
What does everyone think about signing Hughes to a cheap one year deal for next year and letting him be a main role player?


text: I haven't gotten to read this whole post, but I'm down with this concept so Ill post this before reading it all. Honda vf700s. Bought it in April or around then for $700. It ran but not well. Went through a cycle of reading the manual (which seems to be for every 80's v4) and buying parts and putting the carbs together and trying it out and taking the carbs off and ordering parts and so on. Probably spent $1000 overall with a couple outstanding expenses that I know about. Also, I almost burned this bike, like it was on fire and I was smacking it out with a shop rag. singed some of the wiring but not too bad.