text:
Oracle retail solutions helps clients achieve high performance in four key areas—retail planning, merchandise management, supply chain management and retail point-of-service.
For retailers, emerging technologies, globalization and changing economic and demographic trends are exerting pressure from all sides. Accenture's studies of high-performance retailers have uncovered three key characteristics shared by all: effective use of customer insight, a relentless growth agenda and simple and agile operating models. At the same time, Oracle has identified a fundamental disconnect between the planning and execution sides of many retail businesses. When the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing, it's hard to create anything that works well.
Working with Oracle, Accenture is helping retailers leverage technology to chart a course to high performance. With Accenture's experience and Oracle's retail solutions, clients are finding options for growing and thriving in a climate marked by struggle.


text:
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is a huge baseball fan.
Earlier this year, Bernanke who has an engraved Louisville baseball bat, told ABC News that he is "very optimistic" about the Nationals this year.
Naturally, after this week's meeting where there was much pressure on the Fed to act, Bernanke went off to watch a baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies. Happily, the Nationals won 3-0.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Welcome to our Searchable Resources Directory! We've pulled together the best stewardship, conservation, and environmental resources for you to use and share.
Looking for a specific resource that you can't find? Or do you have a resource you think we should include? Send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com and let us know!


text:
Pharmacist-Led Medication Therapy Management Innovations Friday, September 9, 2016
Managing multiple medications can be a complex process, especially for at-risk patients with chronic conditions. Evidence shows that clinical pharmacists can improve patient care and in some cases, lower costs by helping patients manage their medications (an approach known as medication therapy management or MTM). In addition, applying MTM, pharmacists can help patients better manage their chronic conditions (e.g. diabetes and hypertension) by improving medication adherence, reducing potential drug interactions, and ensuring that patients get the services they need.
The featured Innovations describe both a statewide consortium that provided a shared learning community and other support to help federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) offer pharmacist-led MTM services to at-risk patients; and a companion profile about how a participating FQHC implemented its pharmacist-led medication therapy program.
Featured Innovations:
- Statewide Consortium Increases Use of Pharmacist-Led Medication Therapy Management in Federally Qualified Health Centers, Improves Management of Hypertension and Diabetes
- Integrated Patient Care and Pharmacist-Led Medication Therapy Improve Chronic Disease Management for At-Risk, Underserved Patients
Featured QualityTools:
- Implementation of a Medication Therapy Management Intervention in Ambulatory Care Settings: Experiences and Lessons Learned From the MyRx Pilot
- Multi-Center Medication Reconciliation Quality Improvement Study (MARQUIS) Toolkit
- Pathways to Safer Opioid Use
- Improving Medication Safety in High Risk Medicare Beneficiaries Toolkit
- Improving Medication Safety in Community Pharmacy: Assessing Risk and Opportunities for Change
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.


text:
This is a really good article that appeared in iMedia Connection today. Journalist, Blaise Nutter, checked in with Fanscape's CEO, Larry Weintraub, to find out whether we'd be seeing niche social networks sooner than later.
Keep your mind open to interesting communities
When approaching niche social networks, it's good to keep an open mind — a very, very open mind. More than likely, you have only a vague idea of all of the places your target audience might be. So if users are going beyond big social networks, where are they heading?
Odds are, if you can dream it, there's an online network of people out there who are into it. Doug Schumacher, founder and creative director at Basement Inc., can attest to this. His firm was tasked with developing the marketing around a new installment of the popular Resident Evil movie franchise — a project with ties to audiences with a variety of interests, including pop culture, video games, horror movies, and CGI, among others. But the weirdest special-interest target audience? Zombie aficionados. And as it turns out, the web is teeming with zombie-centric social networks.
In Basement's online conversation analysis, the firm found that people were already talking about zombies and "Resident Evil" on these networks — and they were doing so passionately. Thus, these networks represented an ideal niche audience to target with "Resident Evil" marketing efforts.
Zombie social networks might sound pretty niche. But the point is, somewhere out there, people are talking about your brand — and you'd better find them.
Larry Weintraub, CEO of Fanscape, says that in the future, we're going to see even more fragmentation when it comes to social networks. "You're going to see niche social networks, and then you're going to see niche-niche social networks," he says.
As an example, Weintraub proposes a scenario in which the plumbers of the world, sick to death with the lack of plumber-related features on Facebook, start their very own social network, PlumberSpace. And within that niche social network, niche-niche social networks appear, such as Southern California PlumberSpace. Although this world of niche-niche social networks is largely theoretical at this point — or at least in its infancy — Weintraub believes it will offer great opportunities for marketers. Whether you're Home Depot or a plunger manufacturer, finding an audience as specialized as SoCal plumbers is a marketer's dream — a highly targeted audience that will likely be particularly responsive to your marketing messages.
Click HERE to read the full article.


text:
OAKLAND – Warriors coach Mark Jackson was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Thursday for comments that the league said were "an attempt to influence the officiating" after several statements in recent days about the physical play of the Nuggets in the first-round series.
He responded later in the day, about 90 minutes before tipoff of Game 6 at Oracle Arena, by saying he was "extremely thankful" he did not get disciplined for criticizing referees. The inference was clear: Jackson wanted it known he did not question the performance of the officials, but had to live with the ruling that his comments were a coach playing psychological games with referees, a ploy that doesn't exactly make him a pioneer.
"I don't like it," he said of the decision. "And I disagree. And that'll take care of itself. But at the end of the day, we've got a game at 7:30 and I'm excited about the opportunity that this team has in front of them. That's the most important thing right now. We will not get sidetracked with anything that's not on the track. We've got our blinders on and everything else will take care of itself."
Jackson said he cannot remember being fined before, as a player or coach. When asked if he thinks he will get a fair whistle in Game 6 in the wake of the penalty, his replied:
"I will not try to influence anybody."


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There are 1 item(s) tagged with the keyword "disparities".
Displaying: 1 - 1 of 1
Achieving Optimal Well-being by Reducing Disparities and Promoting Health Equity During National Minority Health Month
On this last day of National Minority Health Month, let us continue to live our commitment to eliminate disparities and to advance health equity. Health Equity exists when all people — regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status, geographic location or other societal constructs — have the same access and resources to achieve optimal health and well-being. Social, economic and environmental factors are strong contributors to health inequities. Employers can make a difference through intentional design of programs and policies to support health and well-being across diverse populations in the workplace, as well as through partnerships in community to impact areas where people live, work and play.
Displaying: 1 - 1 of 1


text:
Vikings' Ponder Has Sore Elbow
Viking quarterback Christian Ponder was limited in practice Wednesday due to a sore elbow. He sustained the injury when he hit the helmet of a Packer player on his follow through. He stayed in the game and is expected to play Saturday at Green Bay.
Cornerback Antoine Winfield missed his 2nd straight day of practice Wednesday with a broken right hand. He is still hoping to play in some capacity against Green Bay. Adrian Peterson (groin) and safety Harrison Smith (shoulder) are both expected to play despite missing practice time this week.
The Vikings will play at Green Bay in the wildcard round of the playoffs Saturday night at 7pm, pregame on WJON at 6:00.


text:
The Mets are 2-5, and Gary Cohen's advice is not to jump off bridges. It's early, after all.
I agree nobody should be jumping off bridges. (Ever.) But when you think about the problems afflicting the Mets, they've been obvious a lot longer than seven games.
* Gary Matthews Jr. and Mike Jacobs have shown themselves as clearly inferior players to (respectively) Angel Pagan and, well, anybody over the small sample size of seven games. But Mets fans didn't start saying that — or questioning how the Mets construct rosters — in the last seven games. Fans have been saying it since approximately midwinter. Judging by the cherry blossoms and the daffodils up and down my street, midwinter was a while ago. These are not early concerns.
* Concerns about the starting pitching haven't exactly been limited to the first seven games of the season. John Maine was horrible tonight, but then he was horrible all spring and not so good the last two seasons. Oliver Perez was bad in his first start, awful all spring and mind-bogglingly terrible last year — the first year of the three-year, $36 million contract Omar Minaya gave him in the face of determined counteroffers from … somebody. These concerns existed this winter, when Joel Pineiro seemed to want to pitch for the Mets and the Mets reportedly couldn't simultaneously manage signing Jason Bay and picking up the phone to express interest in him. These concerns existed last month, when Nelson Figueroa — a useful swing starter who'd had a good spring and was out of options — was let go in favor of guys who'd had bad springs, weren't suited to duty as swing starters, and had options remaining. These concerns existed last month, when Jenrry Mejia was anointed a short man despite no record of success above the Florida State League, sidetracking his development as a starter. These aren't early concerns either.
* Surveying tonight's wreckage, Keith Hernandez talked about Plan B. But the epitaph of the Minaya regime should be the stubborn absence of a Plan B. Plan B for the shaky starting rotation? It's in Anaheim, Philadelphia, and miscast in the bullpen. (At least Pat Misch is still around. Oh my God, I actually just typed that.) Plan B for backing up the varsity? That's been a concern since Jose Valentin failed to bottle lightning twice in a row and Moises Alou was first felled by the impact of an errant raindrop. Plan Bs are apparently false hustle, a category that also covers remembering your ace had elbow problems in spring training, correctly judging the market for gregarious but useless middle infielders and taking steps to avoid looking like a fool by publicly spouting bizarre conspiracy theories about the motives of beat writers. No, concerns about Omar Minaya's ability to do his job have been around a lot longer than seven games.
* The job security of Minaya and Jerry Manuel is a hot topic seven games into the season — every fan who called Gary and Keith tonight asked some variant of "When do they get fired?" But calls for their heads from fed-up fans are not new, and neither is the obvious lack of enthusiasm for them in the owners' suite. The Wilpons, one hopes, are not having early concerns about whether it's finally time to clean house. Because we're far beyond that point.
Did I just say it's time for Omar and Jerry to get pink-slipped? Yes I did. Are we just seven games into the 2010 season? Yes we are. But I would not say I have early concerns. I've been concerned since last summer, when the Mets turned a season of bad luck into a pitiful farce. My concerns intensified in the offseason, when Minaya and his lieutenants operated without the slightest evidence that they were following a coherent plan. My concerns became impossible to ignore in spring training amid bizarre roster decisions and apparently willful ignorance that the starting pitching was a disaster in the making. The first seven games of the season have been just the latest bead on a depressingly long string.
It's just seven games into the season, but it's not too early for someone with the last name Wilpon to say enough's enough.
If anything, one wonders if it's too late.


text: Can I mix different operating systems in Master/Slave configurations? I understand that I can have one slave be Apache, another Nginx. But can I have my Master running Ubuntu, with a Slave running CentOS? Currently I have all slaves running Ubuntu and I wanted to add another CentOS box -or is this not recommended? ISPConfig 3 Rocks! Thank you for creating this!!!


text: I'd keep both and forget the weighted keyboard bed, but that's just me. I've never been a fan of them on synths anyway. I think the closer a synth gets to a piano like action the less someone tends to think of it as a synth but what do I know.


text:
I didn't quite know how to take that. On one hand, she thought I
smelled good. However, she thought it was whatever I had for breakfast.
"I had a blueberry muffin," I said.
I guess it's not so bad to smell like blueberry muffins.
"No," she said. "You smell like pork sausage."
Pork sausage does smell good when you are going to eat it, but would you wear it? My daughter thought I smelled good.
Perhaps I should look to my laundry detergent for an explanation. No,
the label said Lavender Mist... not pork sausage. In fact, Lavender
Mist did not suggest any kind of foodstuffs.
If I went to the grocery store to get laundry detergent, would I buy
one on which was a picture of a nutritious breakfast? Probably not. But
what if my other choices were Skunkweed and Dairy Farm? Maybe.
My husband however, might believe that nothing smelled better than
pork sausage and that is what he'd want his clothes to smell like. He'd
be hungry all day long.
I think that someone must've asked a woman what aromas are pleasing
in laundry detergents and other scented products; otherwise we might
receive a Christmas gift of perfume called "Eau de Pork Sausage."
There might be deodorant labeled "Fresh Bacon Breeze." Nothing brings out the beast in men like bacon-scented deodorant.
If pig meat is truly what turns men on, why do women wear scents that smell like a field of wildflowers?
Honestly, to smell mouth-watering to our husbands, we should buy body lotion with a hint of hot ham and cheese.
Perhaps our feet wouldn't smell so bad after a long day if we used
foot powder that smelled like beef burritos. Actually, my feet sometimes
do smell like beef burritos. It would be dangerous to allow my feet to
be rubbed if they, in any way, reminded my husband of food.
I could get my husband to try almost product if, somewhere on the label, it mentions hot wings.
"Honey, would you like a glass of wine?"
"You know I don't like wine."
"I know. But this wine is called Chateau de Hot Wings."
"Really. Must be good."
Okay, let's be real. Even if men love the smell of food whenever
possible, it doesn't mean that women want to smell like jalapeno dip or
chili fries, even to please our man.
However, there are products out there that are made just for men that
still smell like a flowery arbor with a hint of gym locker. If a man's
favorite aromas come from food, why wouldn't they offer a
barbecue-scented after shave?
How about an air freshener to hang on his rear view mirror which emits the pleasing scent of a bacon double cheeseburger?
To all of those smart people in the marketing department of Proctor and Gamble: I think you're missing the boat.
Laura Snyder is a nationally syndicated columnist, author & speaker. You can reach Laura at email@example.com Or visit her website www.lauraonlife.com for more info.
© Copyright 2002-2014 by Magic City Morning Star
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text: [Apologies if you got multiple copies of this email. If you'd like to opt out of these announcements, information on how to unsubscribe is available at the bottom of this email.] -------------- next part -------------- International Symposium on Cloud Computing and Services for High Performance Computing Systems (InterCloud-HPC 2013) CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION As part of The International Conference on High Performance Computing & Simulation (HPCS 2013) http://hpcs2013.cisedu.info or http://cisedu.us/rp/hpcs13 July 1 ? July 5, 2013 Helsinki, Finland Extended Submission Deadline: March 22, 2013 Submissions could be for full papers, short papers, poster papers, or posters SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES ?Cloud? is a common metaphor for an Internet accessible infrastructure, hiding most of the implementation and deployment details of the system from users. Cloud computing delivers IT-related capabilities as services over the Internet, allowing resources be managed and accessed in an Internet scale. Cloud computing has been envisaged to be one of the main-stream powering technologies of future IT systems. This symposium focuses on techniques, experiences, applications, and lessons learned for interoperable services in the cloud, particularly in the realms of high performance computing. For instance, HPC may be used for the construction of mathematical models and numerical solutions and techniques for solving scientific, socio-scientific and engineering problems. It often requires a huge number of computing and storage resources to perform large-scale analyses and experiments. Users could get access to their own virtualized HPC cluster in a self-service, dynamically scalable and fully configurable environment. Cloud computing can address many of the aforementioned concerns. Such a computing paradigm shift provides a flexible high performance computing environment. The symposium aims at providing a forum to bring together researchers and scientists to share and exchange cloud computing related research, technologies, experiences, and lessons for building various types clouds with interoperability and coordination capabilities in a high performance and high availability setting. The Symposium topics include (but are not limited to) the following: * Middleware Frameworks * Cloud Architectures * Cloud Interoperability and Federation Protocols * Programming Models for HPC Clouds * Semantic Web Services Definitions for Clouds * Directory of Services for Clouds * Management of Interoperability and Federation for Clouds * Interoperable and Federated Cloud Security and Trust * Cloud Interoperability and Federation Governance and Regulatory * HPC Cloud-based Services * QoS/SLA in Interoperable and Federated Clouds * Converged Implementations of Clouds and Grids * Geo-balancing in Interoperable and Federated Clouds * Common Programming Models across Clouds * Cloud Broker, Exchange, Arbitrage architectures * Semantic Web for Clouds * Cloud Protocols * Virtualization Technologies and Techniques * Virtualization Techniques for HPC GPU/Multicore Systems * Management of Clouds * Performance Evaluation and Monitoring of HPC Clouds * Scalable Fault Resilience Techniques for HPC Clouds * Cloud Application * Experiences and Lessons PAPER SUBMISSIONS You are invited to submit original and unpublished research works on above and other topics related to Cloud Computing and Services for High Performance Computing Systems. Submitted papers must not have been published or simultaneously submitted elsewhere. For Regular papers, please submit a PDF copy of your full manuscript, not to exceed 8 double-column IEEE formatted pages, and include up to 6 keywords and an abstract of no more than 400 words. Additional pages will be charged additional fee. Submission should include a cover page with authors' names, affiliation addresses, fax numbers, phone numbers, and all authors email addresses. Please, indicate clearly the corresponding author(s). Short papers (up to 4 pages), poster papers and poster (please refer to http://hpcs2013.cisedu.info/home/posters for posters submission details) will also be accepted. Please specify the type of submission you have. Please include page numbers on all preliminary submissions to make it easier for reviewers to provide helpful comments. Submit a PDF copy of your full manuscript to the symposium paper submission site at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=intercloudhpc2013 . Acknowledgement will be sent within 48 hours of submission. Only PDF files will be accepted, sent by email to the symposium organizers. Each paper will receive a minimum of three reviews. Papers will be selected based on their originality, relevance, significance, technical clarity and presentation. Submission implies the willingness of at least one of the authors to register and present the paper, if accepted. At least one of the authors of each accepted paper will have to register and attend the HPCS 2013 conference to present the paper at the symposium. Accepted papers will be published in the Conference proceedings. Instructions for final manuscript format and requirements will be posted on the HPCS 2013 Conference web site. It is our intent to have the proceedings formally published in hard and soft copies and be available at the time of the conference. The proceedings is projected to be included in the IEEE Digital Library and indexed in all major indexing services accordingly. If you have any questions about paper submission or the symposium, please contact the organizers. IMPORTANT DATES Paper Submissions: ---------------------------------------- March 22, 2013 Acceptance Notification: ------------------------------------ April 05, 2013 Camera Ready Papers and Registration Due: -------------------- April 23, 2013 Conference Dates: ---------------------------------------- July 1 ? 5, 2013 SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZERS Justin Y. Shi Computer and Information Sciences Department Temple University Philadelphia, PA, USA Phone: +1 (215) 204-6437 Fax: +1 (215) 204-5082 Email: shi at temple.edu Pavan Balaji Mathematics and Computer Science Division Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, USA Phone: +1 (630) 252-3017 Fax: +1 (630) 252-5986 Email: balaji at mcs.anl.gov International Program Committee*: All submitted papers will be rigorously reviewed by the symposium technical program committee members following similar criteria used in HPCS 2013. * Abdallah Kreishah, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Jew Jersey, USA * Yaser Jararweh, University of Arizona, Arizona, USA * Chiu Tan, Temple University, Pennsylvania, USA * Waleed Smari, University of Dayton, Ohio, USA * Mengjun Xie, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Arkansas, USA * Yan Zhang, Simula Research Laboratory, Norway * Chuan Yue, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA * Bingsheng Zhang, University of Buffalo, New York, USA * Yi Yang, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA * Zhefu Shi, Microsoft, USA For information or questions about Conference's paper submission, tutorials, posters, workshops, special sessions, exhibits, demos, panels and forums organization, doctoral colloquium, and any other information about the conference location, registration, paper formatting, etc., please consult the Conference?s web site at URL: http://hpcs2013.cisedu.info/ or http://cisedu.us/rp/hpcs13 or contact one of the Conference's organizers. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://www.beowulf.org/pipermail/beowulf/attachments/20130315/296e2997/attachment.html> -------------- next part -------------- ******************************************************************************** The hpc-announce mailing list has been setup to have a common mailing list to share information with respect to upcoming HPC related events. You are included in this mailing list based on your participation or interest in a previous HPC conference or other event. The purpose for providing a single mailing list is to allow participants to easily identify such emails, and handle them appropriately. Some options include: 1. If you feel that the number of such emails is too many, filter them to less-frequently-read folders in your email client. 2. Change your subscription to a digest option (https://lists.mcs.anl.gov/mailman/listinfo/hpc-announce) which will consolidate emails sent that week into a single summary email. 3. Finally, if you do not wish to receive any emails from hpc-announce, you can unsubscribe from the mailing list (https://lists.mcs.anl.gov/mailman/listinfo/hpc-announce). Once unsubscribed, we guarantee that you will not be added back in through participation in a different HPC related conference or event. You will need to send an email to hpc-announce-owner at mcs.anl.gov to be added back on. If you need help with any of the above, please email us at hpc-announce-owner at mcs.anl.gov. ********************************************************************************


text:
Running multiple data centers can be costly and complex. While using shared WAN links is a viable option for cutting costs, many organizations would rather incur the additional expense of private lines than sacrifice performance.
This resource details the challenges of sharing WAN links and explores how WAN optimization � which employs a set of technologies to improve the bandwidth, latency, and loss characteristics of WAN links � can help you achieve the private line performance you need without the high price tag.


text:
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Our communities encompass many different hobbies and interests, but each one is built on friendly, intelligent membership.
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text:
Whiskey Sour Cocktail
Continuing with our coverage of Whiskey, in this episode we show you how to make a "Whiskey Sour". While these days the Sour is lumped into the Cocktail category, technically it is a drink style all its own, and includes such drinks as the Daiquiri, Margarita, Lemon Drop, and even Cosmopolitan.
2 oz Bourbon Whiskey
1 oz simple syrup
3/4 oz lemon juice
1 tsp egg white
Shake without ice to emulsify.
Add ice and shake to chill.
Strain into rocks, sour or pisco sour glass.
Tim 27 Aug 2007
9:04 am
Robert, you mention that you 'could' add the entire egg white into the drink, but choose to just add a tsp… does that mean some recipes have called for an entire egg white?
Also…any recipes that use the yolk sack?
Great episode…never knew about the egg white in sours before.
pedro 27 Aug 2007
6:11 pm
Hi Robert,
why did you decide to skip Angostura bitters?
Boavida 28 Aug 2007
7:34 am
Just a few days ago I tried to do a Whiskey Sour for some friends (without the egg white), with some sucess (I need to replenish my bourbon). I will certainly try with the egg white.
You mention other Sour's, like the Daiquiri and the Marguerita, could we also use the egg white on those? Or would it change too much the drink? (my Marguerita's were not a sucess :-( )
john 29 Aug 2007
1:35 am
Why is the simple syrup brown?
Robert Hess 29 Aug 2007
7:28 am
In a sour, it is typical (or used to be) to just use a teaspoon or so of egg white, although the "Pisco Sour" uses the entire white. The result is a much more pronounced foam on top, and a silkier texture. You can use a full egg white in a sour, which will, like in the Pisco Sour, add more foam and texture.
As for using the yolk as well… the drink style that uses that the most would be the "Fizz" (1 tablespoon sugar, 1 oz lemon juice, 2 oz spirit, shake, strain into collins glass, and top with charged water). When you use egg, it becomes a "golden fizz" (if just the yolk) or "royal fizz" (if the whole egg), or "silver fizz" (just egg whtie).
Robert Hess 29 Aug 2007
7:30 am
The "Whiskey Sour" doesn't typically use bitters, the Pisco Sour, which is a somewhat similar drink, does use a dash or two of bitters to the foam which forms on top.
Robert Hess 29 Aug 2007
7:32 am
You could certainly add a little eggwhite to any of the "sour" style drinks. Before just hapazardly trying it however, I might suggest looking up some of the other drinks which use eggwhite as an ingredient and see what it does for those drinks, understand it's culinary value, and then see which other drinks might be able to use it similarly.
Robert Hess 29 Aug 2007
7:34 am
My simple syrup is brown because I made it with Demerara sugar, I feel that it adds just a little bit of extra character to the syrup… or at least that's the excuse I use :->
Thomas Ufer 29 Aug 2007
10:30 pm
This video brought me back to when my Grandfather was still alive. I remember he would make Whiskey Sours for my Grandmother and Manhattans for one of my Aunts. I remember him always calling drinks "highballs", no matter what the drink was.
I think I'll make a Whiskey Sour this weekend and reminisce about the old days with GrandPa.
Paulius Nasvytis 5 Oct 2007
4:20 am
One of the top five cocktails ever, in my opinion. Mr Hess, what is your syrup ratio of sugar to water?
Robert Hess 8 Oct 2007
4:54 pm
For my simple syrup, I use 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water, which is often referred to as a "rich" simple syrup.
perry willis 12 Oct 2007
4:50 pm
We just made one with and without the egg white. What a difference! Mouthfeel was something I usually reserve talking about when discussing wine,but this cocktail with the egg white has great mouthfeel. Creamy. I really like your pisco sour glasses. I make the occasional pisco sour and would like to get these glasses or something similar. Might I inquire as to their source? Thank you for this series.
Robert Hess 12 Oct 2007
5:35 pm
People have tended to forget about mouthfeel with their cocktails for some reason. Used to be that simple syrup was refered to as "gum syrup", which meant it was made with gum arabic, which also adds a certain level of mouth feel as well.
As for the Pisco Sour glasses… Those were given to me by a Peruvian friend of mine. Not sure where/how he got them.
Mark 15 Oct 2007
10:03 pm
I've noticed that the ingredient ratio differs here (the video) from DrinkBoy.com's recipe section, and each of these in turn differs from the IBA ingredient ratio. This is difficult for me to mesh with your insistence that measuring even for skilled bartenders is important. Please help.
Also, could you say a word on using simple syrup rather than gomme syrup?
Much appreciated. I love the show. Keep up the good work.
Robert Hess 16 Oct 2007
7:38 am
I see that somebody has been doing their research! Great! Keep it up!
The issue here is that there is no "one" perfect recipe for any cocktail, if there were, then you could simply make an automated cocktail dispenser which would potentially put bartenders out of business.
The importance of measuring isn't to make sure that your drink follows "my" recipe (of the moment), but that the drink you make accurately follows YOUR recipe. It is also important when trying a new recipe for the first time to make sure that the drink you prepare matches what the recipe was intended to communicate. Once you do that, you can then taste the "real" drink, and determine if you think it is too sour, too sweet, too weak, or too robust, and adjust as necessary. For example, try a Sidecar using the "original" measures of equal parts brandy, Cointreau, and lemon juice. Me, I find that WAY too tart. I adjusted this and came up with what I feel is "my" perfect recipe… 4 parts brandy, 2 parts Cointreau, 1 part lemon juice. However that is not the recipe you'll find somebody like Dale DeGroff, Gary Regan, Dave Wondrich, or Ted Haigh using… each of them uses a slightly different recipe, which "they" feel is the perfect recipe for their tastes. And there in lies the beauty of the cocktail. The "participation" aspect that each of us plays in it.
As for gomme syrup, also known as "gum syrup", because it is made just like simple syrup, but with the addition of gum arabic. To use the "gomme" name, it would probably be more appropriate to call it "sirop de gomme", which is French for "gum syrup". The gum arabic adds an extra mouth feel to the syrup (as well as a slight tan coloring). In something like the Whiskey Sour, it sort of plays the same roll as the egg white does, although in addition to mouthfeel, the eggwhite will also produce a fine foam on the top of the drink, which gum syrup won't.
Matt 1 Nov 2007
4:24 pm
Wow. I made this the other day and I really liked it. I usually don't drink whiskey, but I happened to have a little bit of Maker's Mark on hand and tried it. I really like it. I made one today with the egg white (last time I didn't); AWESOME. What a great drink. Thank you very much Robert.
Robert Hess 1 Nov 2007
5:21 pm
The Whiskey Sour is one of those "bygone" drinks which people tend to pass over a lot for drinks that they think are a little "trendier".
Sometimes a simple drink like this is just the ticket… as long as the bartender is familiar enough with it to get the balance right.
Glad you liked it!
Alex 15 Nov 2007
5:50 am
What about using dried powdered eggwhite, or even maringe powder, to make it a bit easier for oneself? It is real eggwhite after all, unlike those foaming agents you mentioned.
Also, your sweet-to-sour ratio seems a bit different to most recipes I've seen for sours. I'm only a beginner to mixology, but 1 oz of "rich" simple syrup to 3/4 oz of lemon juice seems quite sweet to me. To be honest I'm also partial to sweet-tasting sour mix, but even so, I've come to think that a "sour" should naturally live up to it's name and be kind of sour, and it's simply an acquired taste that I'll have to work on acquiring :)
Anyway, this guide is great! I'll be using it to make Scotch Sours later today (I know from past experience that Scotch and lemon combine very nicely to my tastes). Thanks!
Robert Hess 16 Nov 2007
10:51 am
For me, the best eggwhites to use are honest to goodness, fresh out of the egg product. They are better than even the liquid pasturized eggwhites in a noticeable way, in fact they are even better than whites from a pasturized "whole egg" that are now on the market. Using a powdered eggwhite is just simplifying a step at the cost of quality…. or that's my opinion any way.
One of the things I like about cocktails, is that there is no single "recipe" which is etched in stone. It's all about individual participation in the process, and making the adjustments that the craftsman thing is appropriate for the particular product being used, the environment it is being served in, and even the particular taste-profile preferences of the craftsman. Folks often say that I tend toward slightly "sweeter" recipes… although I personally don't see myself as having a sweet tooth.
If you prefer your sours to be more sour, then by all means make adjustments to the recipes presented here as appropriate.
One of my touchstones about the proper "balance" in a recipe, is that if as I am taking the final sips of the drink I find myself wanting to order a second of the same, then it's just right. Often a drink might start off tasting just right, but the sweet or sourness of it builds as you work through the drink, and by the end you find that you're ready for something else. This is a situation where the drink isn't quite properly balanced.
clare 17 Nov 2007
8:55 am
Does anyone have an issue with eating/drinking raw eggs? There is so much info about "bacteria" and "food poisoning" form raw eggs. Or does the alchol kill off the bacteria?
Robert Hess 17 Nov 2007
4:11 pm
Yes, some folks have issues with the use of raw eggs, just as some folks have issues with Sushi and Steak Tartar.
People with immune system problems should avoid raw eggs, but for the most part, I haven't found that there is really much of a problem. Alcohol and citric acid (from lemon juice) both go a long way in destorying the harmful bacterias.
Adam 16 Dec 2007
10:58 pm
Hi Robert,
I was wondering if you could help me with the answer to this question. Here in the UK it's pretty much standard practice to make all our sours to the same recipe of 2oz spirit, 1oz lemon juice, 1oz sugar syrup, 1 egg white and a couple of dashes of bitters. However, I've noticed that most of the recipes in cocktail and mixology literature omit the use of egg white and bitters with some even calling for the use of 'sweet and sour' mix! Is this an evolution of the sour cocktail or is this how they were originally made?
Thanks Robert.
Robert Hess 17 Dec 2007
6:37 am
Egg white is something that periodically shows up in older recipes for a "sour", it wasn't one of the original ingredients, but came in a little later. I should look through my old books to see if I can spot when it first appeared. Usually it wasn't a whole egg white, but just a spoonful or so which would provide just a little bit of texture and consistency, along with a slight carpet of foam across the top. I wonder if this came about as an alternative to using "gum arabic" syrup?
As for bitters, you'll never find me object to having a bit of bitters in my drink! But this is even less common than adding eggwhite. The Pisco Sour of course demands a dash or two of bitters on the eggwhite foam. I wonder if the UK bartenders are taking the Pisco Sour and using it as the basis for their sours? A proper Pisco Sour (according to my Peruvian friends) is a 3-1-1 ratio.
As for "sweet and sour mix"... just say no! As you note, "all" of your sours use an equal amount of lemon juice and sugar syrup. At one time somebody thought they could speed up their drinks by simply mix up a larger amount of "mix" that was equal parts of fresh lemon juice and simple syrup. Which I think can work well as long as it is freshly made each shift, if not more often. Problems with this however come in two forms. One is when this mix is used as a "hammer" and applied to drinks which wouldn't normally use the specific "recipe" behind the mix in the drink recipe. The other is when commercialism rears it's ugly head and mass produces this mix off-site using chemicals, preservatives, and stableizers, resulting in a ugly mess.
While many bartenders I know, love, and respect make fresh sour mix (aka. sweet & sour mix) for some of their drinks, and do a good job of it, I personally avoid ever listing "sour mix" as an ingredient in a recipe. My feeling is that when a knowledgeable bartender sees a recipe which calls for "xxx of lemon juice, xxx of simple syrup", they can do the math and determine if they want to use their home-made sour mix for that, and a budding home mixologist will just use the lemon juice and simple syrup separately and make a great cocktail. While if the recipe calls for "sour mix", the experienced bartender will still use their home-made mix (but may be concerned if "their" sour mix is of similar "balance" to the one used in the recipe), but the budding home mixologist will be confused, but then see a bottled "sour mix" at the grocery store and think this is the right thing to use, and end up making a very sad drink. Which is why I specifically removed all references to "sour mix" in the new edition of "Mr. Bostons".
In my mind, using sour mix in a cocktail is like using instant rice to make paella. :->
John 7 Mar 2008
8:46 am
I tried this the other day and really enjoyed it. It is, truly, a classic. I also used a quality bourbon in mine. However, I was thinking that a good quality bourbon, such as Maker's Mark, may be a little too nice for mixing with lemon juice and suger. I used Ridgemont 1792 and actually felt a little guilty about it. Do you think a less expensive bourbon would spoil the drink?
Robert Hess 7 Mar 2008
8:51 am
John, I don't think you should ever feel guilty about the quality of the spirit you use in a cocktail. You should never feel like you "have" to use an ultra-premium, or a bargain-basement brand however. Use what you like, and periodically try different brands to see how that changes the taste.
Just as a chef will use quality ingredients to make a stew, a mixologist should always choose ingredients of appropriate quality when they make cocktails.
blair frodelius 4 Apr 2008
3:40 pm
How about using Irish Whiskey, American Rye, Canadian Blended or be really adventurous and try a Highland Scotch? Seems like they are all whiskies.
Robert Hess 5 Apr 2008
8:32 pm
A "sour" is essentially just a style of cocktail, so you can use any spirit to make one. A "Rum Sour" is essentially just a Daiquiri. And while a whiskey sour is traditionally made with American whiskey, since the whisk(e)y category is so… er… complicated, making it with irish, or other forms of whiskey would technically still be a whiskey sour. The REAL issue however, is of course what it tastes like, how the different whiskies might require slightly different measures, and most important, which you prefer.
Lester 29 Apr 2008
5:23 pm
Hi Robert great stuff. I am revamping are bar which holds up 300 people. We are only using fresh fruit, I am concerned my bartenders won't be able to keep up with making the whiskey sour and pisco sour from scratch. Do you have any suggestions? Do you think we could make up batches ahead of time?
Robert Hess 30 Apr 2008
6:53 am
Lester, while there are certain drinks which have complex enough preparation that might require some batch processing of them, I don't really think I'd consider either the Whiskey Sour or Pisco Sour to fit this category. The secret is going to be proper mis en place, or making sure that the necessary ingredients are readily set up at your fingertips so you can quickly construct the drink. The lemon juice (or lime juice in the case of the Pisco Sour) can be pre-squeezed, but not too far in advance.
And always be sure to use fresh eggs!
Ian 20 Jul 2008
11:03 pm
Mmmm. Just made one for the first time. It's very different from other drinks I've tried—perhaps because it is sweet and silky and decadent.
On thinking about the recipe—whiskey, sugar and lemon—it is a bit like a chilled version of a hot toddy. As such, maybe an interesting twist would be to use honey as the sweetener instead of simple syrup? Honey is very traditional in a toddy.
Also on the subject of sugar, I realized with alarm that 1 oz of simple syrup contains 1 oz of sugar (and I just confirmed it with an impromptu bit of kitchen chemistry). That's a lot of sugar and a lot of calories! 100 kilocalories, no less. This is not a drink to make a habit of!
I suppose luxuries have to be taken in moderation… :-)
Alex Staherski 18 Mar 2009
1:47 pm
Hi Robert, I was just making a Whiskey Sour, which happened to draw me back to reference this video. A couple things:
1. I am so appreciative that you are doing this podcast. I have gone from knowing next to nothing about cocktails to being what my friends all consider a massive cocktail geek. I owe that mainly to you and your infectious passion for them.
2. I was using that exact french shaker you were using in the podcast, but I can never get the thing apart! You may have addressed this before, but do you have any tricks for it? I always end up having to bang it on the counter, which is far less dignified than I like my cocktail making to be.
3. I have been looking for a cooking podcast that is up to the same sort of standard you have established here and have yet to find one. Any recommendations? Thanks a lot!
Robert Hess 18 Mar 2009
2:24 pm
Alex, Glad you've been enjoying the show!
On separating the Parisian shakers, my preference is to grab top firmly in one hand, bottom firmly with the other, and "twist" them apart. I've noticed that some brands come apart better than others. I usually use the WMF version, which usually works pretty well. If they have gotten hoplessly stuck together, then lower the bottom half into a pan of hot water, which will cause it to expand, and release.
Lawrence Spies 21 Aug 2009
11:03 am
Just made one with egg! First time to try it, I won't go back to a non egg version, what a difference!! Great drink Robert!
Ian sometimes I use BarenJager Honey Liqueur in place of sweetener. Great stuff!! Honey and Bourbon go great together…adjust to taste/balance
charlie 28 Sep 2009
8:47 am
Hi Robert -
I notice you haven't used a garnish on this drink. Like many bartenders, back in the 80s I was trained to use a slice of orange and a "maraschino" (*ahem*) cherry in my sours. Do you have a favorite garnish for this, or do you prefer to go without? Personally, I think the proper garnish can make or break a cocktail.
Robert Hess 28 Sep 2009
9:00 am
I agree, garnishes are a nice touch to many drinks, I should be a little more dilligent about adding a focus to the garnishing process here.
For a whiskey sour, I'll typically just use a cherry as a very simple garnish. Since the drink has lemon juice in it, a lemon twist is a good way to complete that story, but whiskey and orange go so good together that an orange twist, or half of an orange wheel wouldn't be bad either.
To go a little overboard with the garnish, I could even see doing BOTH a lemon twist and an orange twist, wrapped sort of cage-like on a pick around a bing cherry.
charlie 28 Sep 2009
1:01 pm
Oh, man. I'm not nearly coordinated enough to do that!
I like the orange half-wheel as well. I'm trying to talk my boss into getting us some better cherries.
Thanks for the quick response. I love this site and recommend it to people all the time. Take care.
Clint 21 Nov 2009
5:35 am
I really enjoyed watching this. The Whisky sour was the first cocktail I ever made myself after having had one at a bar the night before. Personally I like a ration of 5 to 4 to 3 whiskey to lemon juice to syrup.
Oh, and by the way, you know what was the best part of the whole video? After you had added te ice to the shaker and started shaking again. I just love that noise. At that moment I could almost taste a whisky sour on my tongue ;)
Keep up the good work and greetings from Germany.
Guido Di Fraia 2 Dec 2009
9:41 am
i'm amazed with your site!!! please keep up the good work.
i had a question, why do you shake like that… i mean i'm a bartender here in argentina and i was taught and teach that you have to shake doing 2 eights(8) united, that is very easy and this also shakes and mixes the cocktail alltogheter…
obviusly this is just a comment and a simple appreciation…
thank you very much, i'll keep watching!!!
Robert Hess 2 Dec 2009
9:45 am
Shaking technique is one of thos things that everybody seems to form their own style of. While I've heard various bartenders claim this, that, or the other style is "the best" way to get a proper chill, I frankly have a hard time thinking that there is more then just a modicum of difference. As long as you shake firmly, and long enough, with good ice, you are 98% of the way there. Adding a particular "Pattern" or such to your shaking process might take it a little further, but I think that is more about presentation, then about actual end results… of course, I could be wrong :->
kim bye 9 Jun 2010
12:12 am
Gone out of fashion?
Don`t know when this video was made, but where i work whiskey sour is among the most requested drinks. An all time classic.
Robert Hess 9 Jun 2010
12:51 pm
Kim, Thats great to hear! What part of the country, and what bar do you work at?
kim bye 9 Jun 2010
1:17 pm
Hi Robert. i`m not an American. I Live i Norway. I work in a small bar ( called Champoo)in Oslo (the capitol) in a part of the city called grunerlokka. It`s the area to go to in Oslo if you wan`t good food and a nice cocktail.
Lots of small bars, we even have a Tiki bar called aku aku with a decorating theme from Thor Heyerdahls Kon-Tiki expeditions ( check wikipedia)
Cocktails are very popular in Oslo. It`s mostly the classics or variations of them that`s popular. The No. 1 drink request is the Mojito. I make mine with 3 year old havana club, 3 barspoons demerera sugar, juice of a lime and a generous amount of fresh mint leaves. We serve it in a big collins glass and with crushed ice.
Cheers from Oslo
blair frodelius 9 Jun 2010
2:31 pm
It's posts like yours that make me glad to be a part of the bartending experience! It is amazing how our cocktail culture has transcended boundaries and nationalities.
Blair Frodelius
kim bye 9 Jun 2010
4:16 pm
Thank you sir. I guess cooking and bartending is among those few professions that can take you around the world and despite not talking the same language, the philosophy and techniques are the same, so there is imidiate understanding.
BenjaminD 17 Mar 2011
5:49 pm
Hi Robert. Thank you for maintaining such an informative and enjoyable site! I made a whiskey sour for the first time tonight and was quite pleased with the result. My only concern has to do with the egg white… Although the flavor was excellent, I noticed a bit of an unpleasant odor. The eggs I'm using are pretty fresh (or at least the expiration date on the carton would have me believe this). Is it possible that I used too much? Is a slight odor typical?
Robert Hess 17 Mar 2011
6:00 pm
Benjamin, might the odor be described as a "wet dog" smell? This is one of the problems with egg white drinks, and is quickly solved by a dash of bitters. Either in the drink itself, or on the top of the drink as the foam forms.
David R. 19 Nov 2011
5:16 pm
Every time I dry shake the ingredients to emulsify the egg, they start to splash out of my shaker (Boston). I thought perhaps I had not made a tight enough seal at first, but no matter how many times I do it, the same thing happens. Do you know why this is? I decided to include the ice in the shake and I did not encounter this problem.
Robert Hess 21 Nov 2011
7:08 am
David, for dry shaking you need to make sure you have tight sealing shakers, but even then, you will most likely have some problems. I "believe' this is happening due to the protiens expanding in the acid? Ice prevents this because as liquids chill, they contract in volume, thus reversing this action for the most part.
blair frodelius 21 Nov 2011
12:00 pm
David, you might try a different Boston shaker. I have several, and each has it's own quicks and merits. Perhaps yours, doesn't work as well with dry shakes.
I've found that when using ice in a two part shaker, it creates a vacuum seal relatively quickly due to lowering the air temperature inside. Even more so, when both parts are metal. I avoid three part shakers at all costs, especially with egg based cocktails.
David Williams 20 Jan 2012
3:00 pm
I really like that lemon press that Robert uses in the video. Does anyone know where I could order one?
8stringfan 7 Feb 2012
9:14 pm
I've really been digging these videos. One thing I've noticed is that juice presser you've got. That thing is sweet! Looked at Amazon and couldn't find one. Do you have any info on it?
Robert Hess 7 Feb 2012
9:45 pm
Alex, the juicer I am using in this (and several other) episode, is an "Ebaloy" juicer. Which unfortunately is an antique, and therefore not something you'll find on Amazon or other sites that sell "currently available" products. I got this one from eBay.
8stringfan 8 Feb 2012
12:57 pm
Robert, thanks for the response. I figured it was some sort of antique. I did check eBay last night but couldn't find one, however, now that I have name for the juicer, it might make it easier to track down in the future.
Andreas 3 Sep 2012
5:47 am
Hi Robert,
I was in Berlin last week and visit the bar: Lebensstern. What an excellent bar and what a collection of rum, rye, gin and whisk(e)y. The bar manager created a whiskey sour, but with no egg white. Instead he 'garnished' the drink with port. It was late in the evening (or very early in the morning) and I can't remember the story behind the cocktail. Robert, have you ever heard about this cocktail?
Robert Hess 5 Sep 2012
10:09 am
The Bar Lebensstern is indeede a great little find, in addition to serving great cocktails, it is also wonderful to peruse their display cases scattered in the various rooms.As for a "whiskey sour" topped with port… I can't recall having heard of it being made that way before.
Manny Delgado 26 Feb 2013
7:02 pm
Hi my name is Hector M Delgado my nick name is Manny and I lived in America all my life, now I moved to the Philippines in island call Boracay and I'm starting a Bar Business.
I'm not a bartender but I know how to mix the basic drinks, I played bartender in event like weddings and big parties and big event
The Bar well is front beach where there is lots of entertainment.
The Bar will start small like 10 to 15 tables
What kind of tips can you give to someone like me?
Ernie Slubik 27 Jan 2014
1:01 pm
I have gotten in to the habit of using Meyer Lemons. This variant is so well received that when the Meyer Lemons are not in season I simply make another cocktail until the Meyers are once more around.
a10tive1 27 Jul 2015
11:16 pm
Robert, how perfect that your video was reposted today. I have a "rescue" Meyer lemon tree—it was abandoned after a neighbor moved a couple years ago. An 18" Charlie Brown tree, really. I nursed the rag-tag stalk back to health, and lo and behold it bloomed (in Seattle!). One blossom lasted, and over the course of many months, a beautiful Meyer lemon took shape. Now, as it grew in size, I was confronted with the dilemma of how to use the sole lemon. Not enough for lemonade, and I didn't wish to hide its splendor amongst the overpowering flavors of some complicated dish. The lemon, now ripening, sat there on its bent and straining branch for weeks, waiting for me to decide its fate. I wonder if it began to lose faith in me as I stalled, waiting for inspiration. That inspiration came today, in the form of your video. I plucked that plump lemon off its thin branch, and transformed it into a Whiskey Sour. It eagerly gave up enough juice for two. Perfect timing. Thanks, Robert!
-Chris Mosio
Robert Hess 28 Jul 2015
10:42 am
I think you just spawned a new saying: "When life gives you lemons, make a Whiskey Sour!"


text:
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Veiled Racism - Update
All last night I tossed and turned trying to figure out how I should deal with my co-worker. She is a work friend, not someone that I would hang out with outside of work but we chit chat and have lunch on a regular basis. I didn't want to hurt the good working relationship we have together but I felt like I needed to say something to her. I decided that the best thing was to send her an email in response that read:
Hi X,
I wanted to let you know that I appreciate the jokes you forward to me, they really brighten the work day. I wanted to raise an issue about the one you sent yesterday "Immigrants." Having many friends as well as in-laws who are immigrants I was offended by the hurtful nature of the poem. It cast a very negative view of immigrants, grouping them all into a group of people that are out to make a buck off of the US. I understand that there may be a few individuals that do these things but that can be said of US citizens as well. I have never met an immigrant who came to the US to manipulate the system, but I have met plenty of folks from the US that have. It pains me to see this kind of material sent out to further prejudice this group of people. After all if you go back far enough we are all immigrants.
Just wanted to let you know my viewpoint.
So what do you think? I haven't received a response from her yet, and I can say I am a little bit of a chicken shit to go and talk to her about it. Do you think I should just let this email speak for itself?
I also bring up this topic because I have become increasingly concerned that this attack on immigrants is really thinly veiled racism. Any thoughts on this?
Okay, stepping off the soapbox now, but I figured I would just start the discussion.
Update: I am not calling anyone a racist I am reacting to the poem that was of a racist nature and discussed the US as the white man land (nice huh?). So from a certain fringe of the population this is a racial issue.
I would like to think that most people who come here would like to become US citizens, but it is often very hard when you do not speak the language, are just trying to survive. I am all for trying to fix the system which I know is broken but I also don't believe the answer is to demonize a large group of people as criminals.
I realize that no matter what I say this issue can not be dealt with in a simple blog post but because of the email it sparked something in me that I needed to get out.
13 comments:
- Cityslicker Mom said...
kudos to you for standing up for what you believe. She might feel a little embarassed, and that's why you haven't heard from her. she'll get over it.
- : JustaDog said...
For the life of me I can't understand why liberals warp the issue of illegal aliens into an issue it is not - racism.
Since when did upholding the law have anything to do with race? I find those that are most racist are those that "play the race card".
As far as illegal aliens having an affect on the social programs of the USA, just ask one of the states that is BILLIONS of dollars in the red - just because of the huge outlay to illegals - California.
Now I suppose you can call me racist - a favorite thing liberals like to do, but no where in my comments did I pick on any specific group of people - just those of any race that are illegally here.
So count me in as being prejudice - against those that break the law. Do I feel guilty? Nope - this 2nd generation immigrant is proud - and proud my grandparents came here legally. People have a choice - they come across legally, or they choose to break the law. You choose to cuddle those that break the law.
- greenInk said...
Heather, just ignore JustaDog. He/she is the worst sort of troll. Nothing in your email accuses your coworker of being racist. If JaD had actually read the post to see that the offending poem "cast a very negative view of immigrants, grouping them all into a group of people that are out to make a buck off of the US," he/she/it would see that you are opposed to exactly the sort of broad-brush stereotyping that JDog also claims to oppose. So what's the problem?
Your email was well-considered and a good response. Your co-worker will reveal herself by her actions. Just treat her as you always have. She'll either give you the cold shoulder or get over herself. Either way, you'll know where she stands.
take care.
- HeatherJ said...
Thank you for your comments, I just wanted to start a discussion. The email that I received was racist it referred to the US as the "white man land". yes there are people out there that see this as a racial issue.
As far as your comment on illegal aliens sending California into the red, I worked for the state of California from 2001-2005 and yes there are issues dealing with illegal aliens but that state as many other problems that have caused it to go into the red.
- PeetsMom said...
Being the daughter of a first generation immigrant I think gives me my own perspective (as does everyone elses life experiences.) My father came here to become a citizen. He went to Citizenship school and he had to pass a test most American High School kids could not pass today. I am proud of him for doing that. He taught me to be honest and have integrity; that there is a difference between right and wrong. Breaking the law is wrong.
That said, our current immigration system is completely outdated and so obviously overwhelmed by the numbers of people wanting to come to the US that many people choose to ignore the system..to ignore the laws of the place they want to call their country.
I can respect the people who want to see a change in the system - it's in dire need, but making it a racial issue only serves to ignite emotions that, more often than not, lead to people hurting each other. All we get from that is a lot of hyped up media.
Not having read the poem your co-worker sent you, I can only say that your response seemed to be well thought out. Probably she/he sent the email via FWD without really thinking about the content - some people are not very discriminating (!) about their choices!
- nonlineargirl said...
I am glad you said something to this work friend. It is hard to maintain even a working relationship if you can't be honest about your values. You have to stand up for what you believe, even when it makes you feel nervous.
I disagree with JustaDog. Not only is much anti-immigrant sentiment about race now, it has been this way for a long time. If you look at anti-immigrant propaganda from the turn of the previous century, you'll see racist diatribes against Italians, Jews, even the Irish, who most Americans now see as the bedrock of "traditional" America.
One of the stories in the news yesterday (related to the main story about the pro-immigrant rallies across the country) was that we should not let people sing the Star Spangled Banner in languages other than English? What is this about? Certainly not about illegal vs. legal immigration, but about a crazy fear that our "culture" (whatever that means) and values will be dilluted by immigrants. Right. Those hard-working people who clean our offices and hotels, pick our food, care for our children... would not want to value hard work, nope. Not me.
- landismom said...
I think that veiled racism is one of the hardest kinds to deal with, because it does allow people to retreat behind the veil of "well, I didn't mean it that way." That being said, I think you handled the situation with your co-worker very well.
- jayne d'Arcy said...
I've been called a racist, by a very good friend, but I deal. I think my feelings on the immigrants is very clear; if they snuck in, if they didn't go through proper channels, etc., then they simply have no rights whatsoever in America. There are many immigrants (my own great-grandparents and my grandfather) who went through the process which included a four month stay at Ellis Island because my grandfather (a little kid) was sick. Those immigrants that make the effort to be legal deserve the rights and privileges they earn.
- sunshine scribe said...
Heather I am glad you wrote this post and the email to your friend. It would have been easier to ignore it. That is what most people do. But tolerating inappropriate and offensive behaviour with inaction is often no better. I think you did a beautiful job of challenging her and expresssing your point without accusing her of racism.
That having been said I agree with you completely that much of the immigration issue that seems to be happening in the US (and many other parts of the world) is veiled in racism. There are far too many generalizations and assumptions cast on large groups of people, many who are hard working individuals or who have stories of struggle that brought them to a new life that would make you weep. And you could not be more true that countries like Canada and the US are really, essentially made up totally of immigrants if you trace back not very far in history.
I think you are brave for sending the email and writing the post. Good for you!
- Gurukarm Kaur said...
My opinions (manyfold, as always) are that:
1) you dealt well with the issue, Heather. Your email back to her was pretty neutrally worded (ie, not judgmental of the sender);
2) Peetsmom has hit the nail on the head - the immigration laws are so arcane, weird, and malleable, it's no wonder many feel they have no recourse to come here legally. And therefore;
3) we ought to be working to fix/revise/correct/update the laws that exist so people don't have to wait up to TWENTY-THREE years (yes, I read that recently) to be allowed to come in legally. And when a legal immigrant is made a promise about how to become a permanent resident (a commentator on NPR this morning), that promise should be kept - he is a doctor working in medically underserved area, was told if he and his wife worked there for three years, they'd get their green cards. Nine years later, they're still waiting, and shoved to the end of the list every year.
OK. Off the soapbox now. Thanks!
- Mama M said...
I just can't believe the kind of emails people pass around the workplace and think they are ok. I'm glad you said something!
- Bridgermama said...
It is so important to stand up for what you believe in. I think so many people lose sight of this due to their need to be "polite." I am so anxious to hear what happens with the co-worker. Hopefully there will be a future post!
This country got rich off the backs of unpaid labor--largely slavery. The "U.S. buck" is a stolen buck at best. Please spare me all the self-righteousness around this issue. Your co-worker was lucky you didn't complain to the boss. Laws need to be updated and until they are, people trying to feed themselves and their families will do what they need to do to make that happen--just as "American" people do. What if the Natives placed long-term rediculous laws on our entrance into their land? We probably would have just killed them all and taken it. Ooops--that's what we did do. America was suppose to be everyone's country--not those that got here first.


text:
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Titanium Matte Lime
Front / Rear - Single lever 4-wheel hydraulic disc with hydraulic rear foot brake
Parking - Park in transmission / lockable hand lever
Front - 26 x 8-14; 489 II
Rear - 26 x 10-14; 489 II
Headlight - White LED; Hi / Low Beam
Taillight / Brakelight - Single
Front -Dual A-arm 9 in. (22.9 cm) travel
Rear - Dual A-arm, rolled 10.25 in. (26 cm) travel


text:
Remember Make Up For Ever's unretouched ad campaign last year? It was a first of its kind ad, with the model wearing MUFE's HD Foundation without any digital enhancements. I try to wear this foundation myself for big occasions or if I just want my skin to look camera-ready in the off-chance photos will be taken. There's no digital enhancements in my life, either.
Make Up For Ever is taking it a step further this month with an open casting call to find a "real woman" to be the face of the next unretouched HD Complexion ad. The open call for entries kicked off earlier this week and goes through February 1. To enter, Make Up For Ever wants you to create your very own look and submit a photo at www.hd.makeupforeverusa.com. Finalists' photo will be featured in a photo album on the MUFE Facebook page, and the winner will be announced on February 9 and flown to New York for a photo shoot. The ad will highlight Make Up For Ever's new HD Complexion Starter Kit.
If you have yet to try the HD Foundation, this is a great kit. It includes the HD Microperfecting Primer, Foundation and HD Microfinish Powder and Kabuki Brush. Buying each item separately would set you back $109, so the kit is a decent value at $79. It comes in all shades, so need to worry about finding a match in a pre-set color. I'm 117 in the HD Foundation – which is exactly what MUFE's Shade Finder puts me at.
Let us know if any of you decide to enter! We think it sounds pretty cool.


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As with the rest of the world, we wanted to celebrate the high possibility that Obama could become our next president. Bush will hopefully soon fade out of memory and we can look forward to something better... Let's drink and yell.
We got to Yerba Buena for their election party around 7 to find long lines to get in and long lines already for their bar... hum?
Through the window we could see people huddled around TVs as the results came in.
They setup walls where people could draw some Obama stuff... I love YBCA, and I bet it was awesome later, but not feeling it then.
And the long lines to get in... I got grumpy but wasn't going to let lines get me down... Let's go back to the gallery and have a cheaper drinking party there. They stream video live now right? NPR and live streaming will get this done.
And this happened right as we got there!
Champagne time!
Huddled around the laptop, we actually watched a president (a politician) speak to us, not using double speak or hitting the bland touching points of a typical victory speech, but instead speaking in a honest and sincerely beautiful way... Very uplifting... This is going to be great!!! I love this man.
No one moved. Tingles down our spins... Everyone agreed that this was the best speech we've ever heard. It was pretty fucking amazing.
If you've yet to watch the speech... well...
Part 1
Part 2
We drank and talked into the night as car horns honked and people screamed OBAMA as they walked down the street!
Matt, a Canadian, was quite pleased!... Maybe now us Americans can travel overseas and won't need to stitch a Canadian flag on our backpacks anymore?
Scroll back up and watch the speech!
Congratulations, America!!!!!!
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The procedures in this section show how to perform the following tasks for a conventional cluster:
Managing a Conventional Cluster's Configuration Change Record
There are two general methods of connecting brokers into a conventional cluster: from the command line (using the -cluster option) or by setting the imq.cluster.brokerlist property in the cluster configuration file.
Whichever method you use, each broker that you start attempts to connect to the other brokers in the cluster every five seconds; the connection will succeed once the master broker is started up (if one is configured). If a broker in the cluster starts before the master broker, it will remain in a suspended state, rejecting client connections, until the master broker starts; the suspended broker then will automatically become fully functional. It is therefore a good idea to start the master broker first and then the others, after the master broker has completed its startup.
When connecting brokers into a conventional cluster, you should be aware of the following issues:
Mixed broker versions. A conventional cluster can contain brokers of different versions if all brokers have a version at least as great as that of the master broker. If the cluster is not configured to use a master broker, then all brokers must be of the same version.
Matching broker property values. In addition to cluster configuration properties, the following broker properties also must have the same value for all brokers in a cluster:
This restriction is particularly important when a cluster contains mixed broker versions that might contain properties with different default values. For example, If you are clustering a Message Queue version 4.1 or later broker together with those from earlier versions than Message Queue 4.1, you must set the value of the imq.autocreate.queue.maxNumActiveConsumers property, which has different default values before and after version 4.1 (1 and -1, respectively), to be the same. Otherwise the brokers will not be able to establish a cluster connection.
Multiple interface cards. On a multi-homed computer, in which there is more than one network interface card, be sure to explicitly set the network interface to be used by the broker for client connection services (imq.hostname) and for the cluster connection service (imq.cluster.hostname). If imq.cluster.hostname is not set, then connections between brokers might not succeed and as a result, the cluster will not be established.
Network loopback IP address. You must make sure that no broker in the cluster is given an address that resolves to the network loopback IP address (127.0.0.1). Any broker configured with this address will be unable to connect to other brokers in the cluster.
In particular, some Linux installers automatically set the localhost entry to the network loopback address. On such systems, you must modify the system IP address so that all brokers in the cluster can be addressed properly: For each Linux system participating in the cluster, check the /etc/hosts file as part of cluster setup. If the system uses a static IP address, edit the /etc/hosts file to specify the correct address for localhost. If the address is registered with Domain Name Service (DNS), edit the file DNS lookup is performed before consulting the local hosts file. The line in /etc/nsswitch.conf should read as follows: hosts: dns files/etc/nsswitch.conf to change the order of the entries so that
The method best suited for production systems is to use a cluster configuration file to specify the configuration of the cluster:
Create a cluster configuration file that uses the imq.cluster.brokerlist property to specify the list of brokers to be connected.
If you are using a master broker, identify it with the imq.cluster.masterbroker property in the configuration file.
For each broker in the cluster, set the imq.cluster.url property in the broker's instance configuration file to point to the cluster configuration file.
Use the imqbrokerd command to start each broker.
If there is a master broker, start it first, then the others after it has completed its startup.
If you are using a master broker, start it with the imqbrokerd command, using the -cluster option to specify the complete list of brokers to be included in the cluster.
For example, the following command starts the broker as part of a cluster consisting of the brokers running at the default port (7676) on host1, at port 5000 on host2, and at port 9876 on the default host (localhost):
imqbrokerd -cluster host1,host2:5000,:9876
Once the master broker (if any) is running, start each of the other brokers in the cluster with the imqbrokerd command, using the same list of brokers with the -cluster option that you used for the master broker.
The value specified for the -cluster option must be the same for all brokers in the cluster.
If you want secure, encrypted message delivery between brokers in a cluster, configure the cluster connection service to use an SSL-based transport protocol:
For each broker in the cluster, set up SSL-based connection services, as described in Message Encryption.
Set each broker's imq.cluster.transport property to ssl, either in the cluster configuration file or individually for each broker.
The procedure for adding a new broker to a conventional cluster depends on whether the cluster uses a cluster configuration file.
Add the new broker to the imq.cluster.brokerlist property in the cluster configuration file.
Issue the following command to any broker in the cluster:
imqcmd reload cls
This forces each broker to reload the imq.cluster.brokerlist property. It is not necessary to issue this command to every broker in the cluster; executing it for any one broker will cause all of them to reload the cluster configuration.
(Optional) Set the value of the imq.cluster.url property in the new broker's instance configuration file (config.properties) to point to the cluster configuration file.
Start the new broker.
If you did not perform step 3, use the -D option on the imqbrokerd command line to set the value of imq.cluster.url to the location of the cluster configuration file.
(Optional) Set the values of the following properties in the new broker's instance configuration file (config.properties) :
imq.cluster.masterbroker (if necessary)
imq.cluster.transport (if you are using a secure cluster connection service)
When the newly added broker starts, it connects and exchanges data with all the other brokers in the imq.cluster.brokerlist value.
Modify the imq.cluster.brokerlist property of other brokers in the cluster to include the new broker.
This step is not strictly necessary to add a broker to a functioning cluster. However, should any broker need to be restarted, its imq.cluster.brokerlist value must include all other brokers in the cluster, including the newly added broker.
Start the new broker.
If you did not perform step 1, use the -D option on the imqbrokerd command line to set the property values listed there.
The method you use to remove a broker from a conventional cluster depends on whether you originally created the cluster using a cluster configuration file or by means of command line options.
If you originally created a cluster by specifying its member brokers with the imq.cluster.brokerlist property in a central cluster configuration file, it isn't necessary to stop the brokers in order to remove one of them. Instead, you can simply edit the configuration file to exclude the broker you want to remove, force the remaining cluster members to reload the cluster configuration, and reconfigure the excluded broker so that it no longer points to the same cluster configuration file:
Edit the cluster configuration file to remove the excluded broker from the list specified for the imq.cluster.brokerlist property.
Issue the following command to each broker remaining in the cluster:
imqcmd reload cls
This forces the brokers to reload the cluster configuration.
Stop the broker you're removing from the cluster.
Edit that broker's instance configuration file (config.properties), removing or specifying a different value for its imq.cluster.url property.
If you used the imqbrokerd command from the command line to connect the brokers into a cluster, you must stop each of the brokers and then restart them, specifying the new set of cluster members on the command line:
Stop each broker in the cluster, using the imqcmd command.
Restart the brokers that will remain in the cluster, using the imqbrokerd command's -cluster option to specify only those remaining brokers.
For example, suppose you originally created a cluster consisting of brokers A, B, and C by starting each of the three with the command
imqbrokerd -cluster A,B,C
To remove broker A from the cluster, restart brokers B and C with the command
imqbrokerd -cluster B,C
As noted earlier, a conventional cluster can optionally have one master broker, which maintains a configuration change record to keep track of any changes in the cluster's persistent state. The master broker is identified by the imq.cluster.masterbroker configuration property, either in the cluster configuration file or in the instance configuration files of the individual brokers.
Because of the important information that the configuration change record contains, it is important to back it up regularly so that it can be restored in case of failure. Although restoring from a backup will lose any changes in the cluster's persistent state that have occurred since the backup was made, frequent backups can minimize this potential loss of information. The backup and restore operations also have the positive effect of compressing and optimizing the change history contained in the configuration change record, which can grow significantly over time.
Use the -backup option of the imqbrokerd command, specifying the name of the backup file.
For example:
imqbrokerd -backup mybackuplog
Shut down all brokers in the cluster.
Restore the master broker's configuration change record from the backup file.
imqbrokerd -restore mybackuplog
If you assign a new name or port number to the master broker, update the imq.cluster.brokerlist and imq.cluster.masterbroker properties accordingly in the cluster configuration file.
Restart all brokers in the cluster.


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Kiko's Friends
Kiko has a number of
very special friends including
members of Royal Families, Heads of State and
Government, Ministers, Speakers of Parliament, heads of
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welcome to invite one of those special friends to join Kiko!
Kiko is part
of the Council of Europe ONE in FIVE campaign to
eliminate sexual violence against children. Kiko
is a very special character who is helping the
violence against children.


text:
One Direction Unimpressed With Paul Rudd in 'SNL' Promos [VIDEO]
One Direction joined hilarious comedic actor Paul Rudd for a fresh batch of promos for their stint as musical guests and host, respectively, of this week's 'SNL' (airing on Dec. 7). They boys were decidedly unimpressed by the 'Anchorman' star, who is on his third turn as host.
In a series of segments that span this minute-long video, the Ruddinator reveals he was booted from the band and has hard feelings. He invites himself to be a member --remember when New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees was a temporary, satellite member? -- and even demonstrates his amazing vocal range, which does not impress Harry Styles and Co.
Niall Horan drops what Rudd terms a "truth bomb" for mentioning that Rudd is too old to be a 1Der, and they do a trust fall, with the boys catching Rudd as he tosses himself backward.
In case you missed it, Rudd fangirled over 1D in the promos from earlier in the week. Prepare for a monster giggle. Watch it here.


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By Gail Zawacki. Republished with author permission from Reader Supported News.
Photo by Rowan Wolf of tree death due to beetle blight in the region of Crater Lake, Oregon.
I live in New Jersey where it looks like the ecopocalypse has arrived.
It seems obvious that the sea-level rise and the size of the storm are related to the energy humans are adding to the system by burning fuel and releasing millions of tons of greenhouse (heat-trapping) gases into the atmosphere. That's high school science and as obvious as plate tectonics. Remember when that was a controversy? Or that seat belts in cars, or helmets for bikes save lives? Asking if climate change has something to do with Sandy is like asking if smoking has something to do with lung cancer. Remember when people could say with a straight face that it didn't?
Having said that, there is a very large story that isn't being reported which has little to do with climate change although it derives from the same processes. What is being ignored in this storm (and Irene as well) is the real source of the massive power outages that are so disruptive – which is all the trees that are falling on the lines. Trees didn't used to fall with regularity on power lines – or people, cars and houses. The winds in both those storms were not extraordinary, nothing that a healthy tree shouldn't be able to withstand.
Why are they falling now? The answer is pretty obvious if you trouble to actually LOOK at them. They are all dying. Every species, every age, every location. They have obvious symptoms – broken branches, cankers, splitting bark, holes, thin crowns, early leaf drop, lack of autumn color, yellowing needles, bark covered with lichens and fungus. You can't find a healthy tree anymore.
So the question becomes, why are they dying? Most foresters and scientists will say, climate change and/or invasive pests. But those explanations don't fit the empirical evidence which is that even native pests and diseases have run amuck, and even young trees grown and watered and fertilized in nurseries exhibit the identical symptoms of decline. Even annual, tropical ornamentals in enriched soil in pots that like heat, and aquatic plants in ponds have injured foliage and stunted growth.
What do all of these plants have in common? The answer is, the composition of the atmosphere. Most people don't realize it, because it's invisible, but the background level of tropospheric ozone is inexorably increasing. Precursors from Asia travel across oceans and continents, and the persistent concentration has reached a threshold that is intolerable to the plants that absorb it when they photosynthesize. Agricultural yield and quality are reduced, and especially trees that are exposed to cumulative damage season after season are universally – around the world – in decline.
This process has been well known to foresters and agronomists for decades, and demonstrated in field observations and controlled fumigation experiments. They just don't want to publicize it, or even admit it, because the source is the emissions from industrial civilization itself. They would rather point to drought, insects, fungus and disease EVEN THOUGH it is well known that ozone debilitates plants causing their root systems to shrink as they allocate more energy to repairing damaged foliage, rendering them more vulnerable to drought and wind…AND impinges on their natural immunity to attacks from insects, disease and fungus, which exist precisely to break down dying trees, not destroy healthy trees.
Most of the trees that fell during Sandy were rotted inside. Photos here: http://witsendnj.blogspot.com – At Wits End
Gail Zawacki has an excellent photo documentation with her discussion in this post – This Imposter at her blog At Wits End.


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Here are some things I don't really like: Lines. Crowds. Extreme heat. Unrelenting sun. Porta Potties. Suffering. Anyone who knows anything about RAGBRAI (The Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) knows all of these things are an integral part of the event. When I signed up for RAGBRAI, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. Hey! Let's ride our bikes across Iowa! In 7 days! 450 miles, that couldn't be so bad, could it? That sounds like a good idea and not hard at all! Let me just say that it is, in fact, hard. Very, very hard. At least if you're me. Now, most people are not me, so maybe they will have a different opinion on the difficulty of this ride. But right now we care about my opinion (and to give you some idea of the crowds I experienced- about 10,000 people signed up to ride the whole week. I heard reports it swelled up to 22,000 during the week from one/two day riders. That's a lot of freaking people).
Had I known beforehand the amount of suffering doing RAGBRAI would cause me, I'm not sure I would have done it. It truly was a miserable experience for me. The three things which most adversely affected me were the sun, the heat, and my saddle. Iowa, being part of the plains states, does not have many trees to offer blessed shade while you are riding. So riding in the full blazing sun all day is par for the course. I have no idea what the actual temperature was most of the time (I was too afraid to find out!), but I know it hovered around 100 most of the week. Add the extreme heat to the unrelenting sun and the humidity and you have the perfect combination to knock me out. I really don't think I can adequately express how much the sun and heat makes me want to die. I can literally feel the heat beating on me- it feels like a physical pressure on my body. And this pressure is burning me up- like someone had laid a super hot, heavy electric blanket over my body. It presses me towards the ground and all I want to do is cry. Even though most days would be pretty overcast until about noon, when the sun did come out, it was brutal. My favorite days were either totally overcast days or the ones with plenty of clouds to offer relief from the sun.
THEN, there was the saddle. It transformed my bike into a two wheeled torture device. Because it pretty much felt like I was sitting on nails. Specifically two nails, one on each of my sits bones. And then when I went over bumps, it was like two gnomes were taking hammers and pounding them into my butt. And let's not even talk about how bad some of the roads were in Iowa. When I was on the bike, all I wanted to do was get off the bike, but when I was off the bike, the heat was so much that all I wanted was to get back on the bike- a vicious cycle. Then the sores started from all the sweating and rubbing from an ill-fitting saddle. So then pedaling was a chore. It got to the point where I was dreading getting on the bike in the morning. But for some reason, every morning I would put my ass back on the saddle. And this is how it went. (check out more photos here)
Day 1: Glenwood to Atlantic: 60 miles; 4,298 feet of climbing
About half way through the first day, I thought, "If every day is like this, I don't think I can finish." The sun was out in full force and it was ridiculously hot out. It was the 2nd hilliest day, as well. It only took about two hours for me to become totally demoralized. The sweat was just dripping off of my face and the hills were causing me to feel like I was going to hyperventilate. I was off the back (of our group- there's no back in RAGBRAI) by myself and wondering how I was going to make it. Luckily, at some point I ran into Shannon and she was kind enough to stay with me through the rest of the day. She would go on ahead, but wait for me at the next town or at the top of a particularly brutal hill. Her presence really helped get me through that first day.
Today was the day I had my first flat. Luckily, it happened within a short distance of a nice shady tree, so changing it wasn't too much work. Except for the part where I forgot to put the tire back on before I inflated it- duh! So to avoid having to deflate the whole tire, I just took off one of the brake pads to get it back on.
Atlantic was a cruel end town. The sign welcoming you to Atlantic was about a mile outside the town and there was a steep little kicker right outside of town. We were staying at a family friend's house and the route to their house was suuuper hilly. It had some nasty climbs and I was thisclose to getting off my bike, but decided I had ridden the rest of the day, so dammit, I wasn't going to let this last hill break me! Shannon and I were the last ones in, at about 5:30. It was a long, hard first day, and I was glad to be able to take a real shower and sleep in a bed!
Day 2: Atlantic to Carroll: 65.5 miles; 4,719 feet of climbing
The day started off overcast and humid. That was perfectly fine by me- I don't care how humid it is, as long as there is no sun! For whatever reason, today was not as horrible as the first day- maybe because it was not as sunny? The day went really fast, although I have no idea why. The shock of climbing also seemed to have worn off as well, as I don't have much recollection of suffering much on that front.
Day 3: Carroll to Boone: 71 miles; 1,787 feet of climbing
It is safe to say that this day was the lowest point of the ride for me. The sun was out in full again today, I'm sure it was over 100 most of the day, and the saddle pain was reaching its heights, not to subside until the ride was over. The meetup town (the town, usually about halfway through the day, designated as the lunch stop) for this day was horrid. There was no shade anywhere, there was no nice place to eat your lunch, there was no chance of catching a good breeze. In fact, many of the towns we stopped in were not nice towns- just depressing little towns with no character. Today, when the meetup town failed to offer any relief or break from the oppressive heat, I just couldn't take it any more. There were tears. There was drama. And there was Liza. She saw how upset I was and sent the others along and she shepherded me through the day. She put up with my crying and whining to help me get to Boone.
Day 4: Boone to Altoona: 56 miles; 1,147 feet of climbing
In keeping with the tradition so far that a bad day was followed by a good(ish) day, today's ride was not so bad. It was totally and utterly flat- how those not from Iowa imagine Iowa is like. The one thing that really kept me going was the thought that I would be meeting some friends once we got to Altoona- although I felt bad because Shannon and I were so tired, we weren't great company!
Day 5: Altoona to Grinnell: 57 miles; 3,202 feet of climbing
About 5 miles outside of town, I had my second flat (another slow leak). I was with my dad and as we pulled off and turned the bike upside down, this guy joined us and was like, "I can help!" then proceeded to start surgery on my tire. I just wanted to change the tube and get on with it, but he insisted we try and find the leak and patch it. This involved a lot of steps that seemed unnecessary to get me back on the road. While I appreciated his willingness and desire to help, I really didn't need it and just wanted to stop wasting precious overcast minutes.
Once that flat was out of the way, it was a pretty normal day. The riding groups had been established by this point- Liza with her dad, uncle and family friend in the front; Shannon and John in the middle; and Dad and I off the back. The road into Grinnell was pretty brutal, with some nasty climbs the last 5 miles or so into town.
Tonight I got to sleep in a real bed, do laundry, use a proper shower and sit in the AC for a bit, as Grinnell is where my parents live. My brother who lives in California was also home this week, and I desperately wanted to hang out with him, but I was just so fecking tired, I barely made it past 9:00.
Day 6: Grinnell to Coralville: 75 miles; 2,681 feet of climbing
It felt weird to ride on roads that I've driven on countless times. It was a day full of rollers and by this time I had stopped caring about the climbing. It used to demoralize me when I would get to the top of one hill, only to see another on the horizon. Not anymore. Up, down, then up again. It started to have its rhythm. I just expected the hills to go on endlessly and they did. I can't say I loved the hills or that they were easy, but the sight of them didn't depress me anymore.
Day 7: Coralville to Davenport: 65.5 miles; 2,363 feet of climbing
The mileage today was average, but it felt like it went on forever. I got my 3rd slow lead today. I thought about changing it, but we were so close to the end, I thought, "If Johan Van Summeren can win Paris-Roubaix on a slow leak, I can finish this damn ride on one!" So I filled it with air and soldiered on. I was very ready to be off my bike and done with this ride. But…there was a part of me that was a bit sad the experience was ending. Not so much the bike part of it, but the rest of RAGBRAI that went along with it- the atmosphere, the traditions, the people. Even if the riding hadn't been fun, just the experience of RAGBRAI was a little bit. And thus ended RAGBRAI.
Total mileage: 454 miles
Total feet of climbing: 21,206 feet
Time dulls all pain so women will give birth to more than one child and so people will continue to do RAGBARI year after year. During the week of RAGBRAI, if you asked me if I would do it again, I would've said "HELL NO." But a few weeks later it's possible to remember the fun bits of the ride. I loved the sheer number of cyclists. I loved being around so many bikes, all the time. Bikes literally covered every inch of ground in the pass through towns. It was fabulous to see whole towns closed off to cars and to see bikes be given preference everywhere. I love the neat RAGBRAI traditions: bike parking made of cables strung between tractors; cornfield potty breaks; Beekman's Homemade Ice Cream; the people who set up sprinklers or hoses for cyclists to ride through; the unique free water stations set up by the towns; afternoon naps in the shade; cyclists of all shapes and sizes; the musical bikes; advertisements for "free shade;" rest stations set up by anyone and everyone (especially rest stations set up at the top of hills!); High School pep band entertainment; pie; beer gardens everywhere; fair food everywhere. It was really fecking tough and most days I wondered how I was going to make it to the overnight town. I think only the fact that I never envisioned a scenario where I didn't finish the ride kept me on the bike. Will I do it again? I'd consider it ONLY if I had a saddle I knew I could sit on for 6+ hours a day without wanting to die. The heat and humidity- that I could get used to, as much as I hate it. And weather's constantly changing. But your saddle- once that's bad, it doesn't go back! This year, I suffered every minute on the bike, and dreaded the thought of ever coming back. But…now…ask me again in January!
Things I learned while on RAGBRAI
- when a Prius tells you it needs gas, it needs gas RIGHT NOW
- Cornfields make suitable bathrooms (although I never had need of their services)
- Although you may not be a big breakfast person when you start RAGBRAI, you will by the time you finish
- Climbing is just climbing- turn the pedals over and get to the top, coast, repeat
- Tree shade is vastly superior to tent shade
- There is no right or wrong way to be a cyclist
- Having big eyebrows would come in handy when trying to keep sweat out of your eyes
- If you have forgotten to sunscreen one millimeter of your body, the Iowa sun will find it and fry it
- It is possible to sleep through concerts, busing coming and going, noisy generators, and any other odd assortment of night noises
- Iowa roads have lots of seams in them which, when ridden over, cause much bouncing and pain on the saddle
- I really hate porta potties and will do almost anything to avoid using them
- I love riding through the sprinklers by the side of the road
- I don't like to suffer and I'm whiny when I am
- Sometimes 2 miles can seem like 15 and sometimes 15 can seem like 2
- It's okay to be slow. It's okay to be off the back. (I've yet to fully convince myself of this, but I'm working on it)
- Sometimes you can train a lot and not notice any difference
- When someone is looking out for you, it's easier to finish a rough day


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Message Board
Deon Meyer Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Meyer has written!
Author Meyer's Book Reviews
Heart of the Hunter
Little, Brown & Company, Jul 2004, 23.95, 374 pp. ISBN: 0316935492 In Cape Town, South Africa, former freedom fighter (or assassin depending on which side you supported) during the �Struggle�, Thobela �Tiny� Mpayipheli has become a dedicated family man. He contentedly works at a low paying job because he looks forward to going home every night to his beloved Miriam Nzuluwazi and her son. His violent past returns when a distraught Monica Klein...