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7 Means of Movement: Riding
The Byrds, Chestnut Mare.
Al Duffy and Tony Mottola, Light Cavalry Overture.
R.E.M, Bandwagon.
When the Man and the Dog came back from hunting the Man said, "What is Wild Horse doing here?" And the Woman said, "His name is not Wild Horse any more, but the First Servant, because he will always carry us from place to place to place for always and always and always. Ride on his back when you go hunting."
Rudyard Kipling, "The Cat That Walked By Himself," Just So Stories.
The other day I was driving along a narrow valley road and, as I curved around one blind turn, I saw a man sitting astride an enormous grey horse. Man and horse stood in the mouth of a gravel driveway that spooled down into a dell, as though they meant to defend the entrance by force. Now horses are no great novelty in the fairly rural area where I live, but I rarely see people riding them. The horses mainly stand out in the fields, looking off to the mountains, having done with mankind.
So a man (a great chunk of a man, as it turned out) atop a horse that stood at perhaps fifteen hands was a bit shocking. A man on horseback seems noble, threatening and a bizarre anachronism, as though you spotted someone on the street wearing a ruff and brandishing a saber. It all felt a bit like the past silently judging the present, and finding it wanting.
If walking remains, if embattled, a common method of transportation, horse riding, or riding any beast for that matter, sometimes appears to be on the verge of winking out. There will always be riders, of course, as long as there are the wealthy, the established and those who want to be either, and riding is still commonplace in the less overrun sections of the United States. But a person born today, or even thirty years ago, stands a good chance of never riding a horse in their lifetime. My only experience riding dates from my Virginia childhood, and my memories of the event are so dim that they've been long supplanted by the pair of photographs taken of the ride: me atop a brown pony, standing in what appears to be a field of straw.
To make a ridiculous generalization, the history of riding is that of civilization--a brutal phase of conquest and domestication, an era of great horseback warriors (Alexander the Great, tramping through Persia on his bull-headed Bucephalus), an aristocratic age when only the powerful and rich rode, a great democratic era in which even the poor owned mules and donkeys. And now, in our current muddle of a time, riding is a sport for the dedicated wealthy; a colorful way to gamble; an intensive, costly hobby, like black-and-white film photography; or a weekend novelty, a trip to an outdoor museum where you can mount the exhibits.
and of course, Henry the Horse dances the waltz
Yet man and horse were once the greatest of partners. Horses (and mules and asses) made hunting easier and more productive, made agriculture feasible, and were the bringers and defenders of empires, from the Romans to the Mongols. The horse is in the psychic depths of the human race: they are the root of the most common of phrases (nightmare, horsepower) and horses tramp through our dreams, myths and religions, whether as centaurs or Valkyrie mounts, from Odin atop Sleipnir to Christ riding an ass into Jerusalem to Mohammed journeying through the heavens on al-Burak (below).
The ego's relation to the id might be compared with that of a rider to his horse. The horse supplies the locomotive energy, while the rider has the privilege of deciding on the goal and of guiding the powerful animal's movement. But only too often there arises between the ego and the id the not precisely ideal situation of the rider being obliged to guide the horse along the path by which it itself wants to go.
Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, Lecture 31, 1933.
Songs about riding tend to fall into specific categories (as though mirroring the various breeds of horses), such as racing songs, labor songs, fairy-tale ballads, cowboy songs, Hollywood cowboy songs. They're often filled with quests and dreams, they tend toward the epic whenever possible, and they currently seem to be out of fashion, as most of the riding songs written in the past few decades seem deliberately nostalgic. (And if not, then they're utterly cheesy, like Dan Fogelberg's "Run for the Roses" or whatever wretch was responsible for "Wildfire".)
Three initial sallies:
The Byrds' "Chestnut Mare," from 1970, is the last great Byrds song and possibly the strangest, a tall tale that is also an erotic ode to a horse. (You could place some of the blame on co-lyricist Jacques Levy, who directed Oh! Calcutta! and also helped Dylan write some of Desire.) "Mare" is from a stillborn Byrds' rock opera called Gene Tryp, a remaking of Ibsen's Peer Gynt as a psychedelic Civil War drama (the Byrds had a number of odd failed projects--Roger McGuinn once envisioned a double-LP that would encapsulate the history of music, beginning with folk ballads and ending with Moog synthesizers).
Goofy lyrics aside, what drives the song is Clarence White's guitar, offering a subtly different phrase after nearly every line, and the chorus, which breaks upon the listener like a wave. Recorded 4 June 1970; on Untitled.
Nicholas Sarkozy, on white horse
"The Light Cavalry Overture" was composed by the Austrian conductor Franz von Suppé in 1866, as, unsurprisingly, the overture to his opera The Light Cavalry. (Sample here.) The overture's driving pace, galloping in triplets, made it a regular feature of Hollywood movies of the '30s and '40s, including Mutiny on the Blackhawk, Stars and Stripes Forever and a host of Warner Brothers cartoons.
Here's a version by violinist Al Duffy, who played for Paul Whiteman and the Bell Telephone Orchestra, and the guitarist Tony Mottola who was one of Frank Sinatra's favorite session players and would go on to have a long career in television. They rage through the piece, even throwing in "Jingle Bells" at one point. Recorded 5 May 1944; the only place to find it is on the not-cheap but absolutely essential That Devilin' Tune, Vol. 3. (Duffy died this past December--he lived to be 100 years old.)
And R.E.M.'s "Bandwagon" is one of the goofiest tracks the band ever recorded, and seems, along with tracks like "Voice of Harold," to suggest an alternate history for the band, in which they were a beloved country music novelty act. Peter Buck said R.E.M. called this "the fruity song" because of what he called its "stupid chord changes." Released in June 1985 as the b-side of "Can't Get There From Here"; on Dead Letter Office. (If you haven't been reading Matthew Perpetua's song-by-song R.E.M blog, take a look.)
The First Servant
Spotted horses ca. 20,000 B.C., Pech-Merle cave, France.
National Promenade Band, The Horse Trot.
Los Congos del Espiritu Santo, Ensilla Mi Caballo (Saddle My Horse).
Woody Herman and His Woodchoppers, Four Men On a Horse.
Duke Ellington, Caravan.
Martin Denny, Caravan.
Mary Lou Williams, Caravan.
The horse! The horse! The symbol of singing potency and power of movement of action in man.
D.W. Griffith.
The great families of hominidae and equidae, future collaborators in the domination of the world, spent a great many centuries trying to kill or escape from each other.
At the end of the last ice age (10,000 B.C. or so), humans had begun hunting the various members of the equidae family--the wild asses (equus africanis) in North Africa, zebras (equus burchelli) throughout Africa and some odd ass-hybrid, now extinct (equus hydruntinus) in Southern Europe. The most treasured beast, however, was the wild horse--equus caballus--the fastest and largest of the clan, prized for its meat and skin. Over time, man came to be quite adept at killing the horse, whether by driving a herd off a cliff or by waiting in large numbers in a narrow valley or crevice, hoping for a herd to squeeze by.
At some point, perhaps around 4,500 B.C., the horse was domesticated and first ridden by humans. You could say perhaps the horse, facing extinction, gave up living in the wild and sold out, much like his compatriot the dog, nature's finest con artist, who learned quite early that there was a great deal more food to come out of befriending man than in attacking him. Domestication was likely not some grand man-versus-beast struggle, in the way of many Western movies where some cowboy gets in a corral with a bucking horse and subdues it via stealth and mojo. It may well have been that some humans, while slaughtering a herd, found the foals cute and took them back to their camp, thus raising a generation of horses that had only known captivity.
He came nearer and heard a crunching of gilded oats, the gently champing teeth. Their full buck eyes regarded him as he went by, amid the sweet oaten reek of horsepiss. Their Eldorado. Poor jugginses! Damn all they know or care about anything with their long noses stuck in nosebags. Too full for words. Still they get their feed all right and their doss. Gelded too: a stump of black guttapercha wagging limp between their haunches. Might be happy all the same that way. Good poor brutes they look. Still their neigh can be very irritating.
James Joyce, Ulysses.
The sound of the horse--whether the rapid pulse of the gallop or the waltzing sway of the canter--is an age-old feature of music, regardless of culture. Where walking rhythms are typically unvarying 4/4, the ancestor of everything from rock & roll to house, horse rhythms are more complex: shifting, swaying, adding different textures, changing time signatures more often than the band Yes--and they have been conveyed by everything from woodblocks to maracas, from bongo drums to the organ synthesizer that my grandmother owned in the late '70s, with the "gallop" switch located next to the "bossa nova" one.
Alastair Robinson, "Horse riders on the edge of the Sahara, Ouarzarzate, Morocco," 2005.
Three equine inspirations:
"The Horse Trot," from 1913, is by the National Promenade Band and was released as Edison Blue Amberol 2076. The National Promenade Band was your standard-issue recording outfit in the early 20th Century, offering various fox trots, marches, polkas, and even the "hurricane two step." Courtesy of the amazing Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.
"Ensilla Mi Caballo" ("Saddle My Horse") is performed by Los Congos del Espiritu Santo, from the Dominican Republic. Los Congos consisted of Vicente Vargas, alcahuete (a small drum), Donatilia Vargas, canoita (a sort of woodblock struck with a stick), Albertino "Moreno" Gradiano, maracas, Victoriano Fortunato Vargas, palo mayor (a five-foot high hollow drum), and Bienvenida Vargas Depozo, the lead singer and another maracas player. Recorded January 1976 in Villa Mella, D.R.; on Music from the Dominican Republic, Vol. 3.
And "Four Men On a Horse" is by four members of Woody Herman's Woodchoppers--songwriter and master bassist Chubby Jackson, Jimmy Rowles (piano), Billy Bauer (guitar) and Don Lamond (d). One of the first bebop-inspired compositions Herman's band recorded, "Horse" features a restless, varying time structure: sometimes the track clips along, sometimes it stops dead. Recorded in Chicago on 16 May 1946 and released as Columbia 37227. The track is not available on CD, as far as I can tell--I got it off a compilation LP called The 1940s: The Small Groups--New Directions.
Team of mules and zebras, Transvaal, 1895.
One of the first tasks for the domesticated horse and ass was to serve as a brute labor force--hauling carts, dragging plows--but by 2,000 B.C. or so, horses were pulling Mesopotamian chariots, and a millennium later, riding horses had become widespread throughout Europe and Asia. (It was the Chinese, around the time of Christ, who likely invented the stirrup, though the Indians may have done it first.) The growth of metallurgy, leading to stronger, more durable wheels and carts, and simply the sheer amount of stuff that human beings now had--trade goods, crops, slaves--led to a vast increase in horse-, mule- and camel-driven caravans, linking Egypt with Persia, India with China.
From China to the Atlantic, and from the northern Taiga to the Indian ocean the old world was threaded all across with pack trails snaking from water to water over the deserts and pastures, the forests and the hills...From China to Europe was a three years' journey, not because of the distance but by reason of the robbers who made the trail unsafe. At each market town the packtrain captains waited, perhaps for months, until a caravan assembled sufficiently large to undertake the journey.
Roger Pocock, Horses.
"Caravan" was written by Duke Ellington and his trombonist, the Puerto Rico-born Juan Tizol. Tizol was a valve trombonist, rather than a slide trombonist, which allowed him to play faster and across a wider range, and "Caravan" begins with Tizol offering the main theme while Harry Carney hovers beneath with a simple, repeating countermelody; then Cootie Williams appears on trumpet, squawking and buzzing around the menagerie.
Recorded 14 May 1937 (the same session they cut "Azure"!) and released as Master 131; on Masterpieces. (Here's a phenomenal live performance from 1952, with Tizol center stage, and Ray Nance on violin.)
"Caravan" was covered by seemingly everyone and their mother in the '40s and '50s, ranging from Perez Prado to Art Blakey to Bill Haley and His Comets. Cover versions either played up the "exotic," with shrieks, chimes and a slow, swaying beat (such as Martin Denny's 1959 rendition), or kicked up the tempo so that the caravan seems to be booking along at 70 mph. (Denny's take, recorded in July 1959, is on Exotica III.)
Child camel riders, United Arab Emirates.
My favorite version of "Caravan" is an obscure Mary Lou Williams solo piano recording from 1944. Williams' take centers on Tizol's main theme, which Williams' right hand dances out, while her left offers a few ominous chords. Sometimes Williams flies away--one phrase sounds like a bop interpretation of a Debussy Prelude--but she always comes back to the theme, dancing and brooding.
At the time she recorded this track for Moses Asch, Williams was playing regularly in New York at Cafe Society Downtown, an integrated club, co-founded by members of the Communist Party's Popular Front, that was so purist it banned cigarette girls. She had been working with Ellington for some time, doing arrangements, and had grown bored with the band, which she felt was in a funk. Until one night, she heard "Caravan":
This particular time we were in Ohio. I said, 'I'm gonna listen one more night, but I want to get out of here and leave.' And I'm telling you, when that band hit, I've never heard anything like that before in my life. And I think everybody else was just in hysterics or something. Duke was vamping. They played 'Caravan.' When the band hit, his vamp--I never heard anything like that before. It sounded like Stravinsky and I said, 'Well, this is the greatest band on earth.'
Williams' "Caravan" is on 1944, a CD that's close to being out of print, if not already.
Horse Nobility
In hierarchical order: Queen Victoria, Princess Louise, horse, John Brown.
Robin Hendrix, Ride a Cock-Horse to Banbury Cross.
Robert Schumann, Kinderszenen: Ritter vom Steckenpferd (Knight of the Rocking Horse).
Jacky, White Horses.
XTC, Holly Up On Poppy.
So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!
That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;
This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
Would he not stumble?...
Forgiveness, horse! why do I rail on thee,
Since thou, created to be awed by man,
Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse;
And yet I bear a burthen like an ass,
Spurr'd, gall'd and tired by jouncing Bolingbroke.
Shakespeare, Richard II.
A genial view of humanity has it that at the dawn of history, no man was greater than his neighbor; a more cynical view assumes that there always was some form of hierarchy, even up in the trees. And the initial whispers of aristocracy, the first morning of the Second Estate, may lie in the simple fact of transportation. That is, the common people, for most of our history, have always walked; the uncommon have always ridden.
Isn't there something inherently aristocratic about riding? Think of the great horsemen and horsewomen, and you generally come up with a collection of knights, royalty and their at-times grotesque descendents, victorious generals, crusaders, wizards, cowboys and Indian chiefs. Horses are embedded in the very names of nobility--the Latin equus leads to equites, the old Roman cavalry and ruling class, and, later on, esquire; the French cheval bred chevalier and chivalry; the Spanish caballo gives us cavalier, and so on.
If walking is fundamentally democratic (most everyone can and should walk, though many don't), riding seems a fundamentally elite practice. Perhaps it lies in the very nature of riding--a horse is larger, stronger and more impressive than a human, so for a human to ride a horse, to make an amazing beast submit to his or her will and make the horse run for miles or perform tricks, indicates some measure of skill and power. There's also the simple matter of economics--for much of human history, horses were relatively scarce and extremely valuable. Feeding and caring for a horse was beyond the means of your typical peasant, and having a stable full of horses was usually only the province of kings.
Further, horseowners and nobles share another obsession: tracing bloodlines back for centuries. Is there any other animal whose ancestry is so fussed over? The horse is a eugenicist's dream, with breeds emerging from elaborate, dedicated attempts to perfect genetic selection, as breeders tried to make horses larger, swifter, and ever more powerful.
Take the Arabian horse, for example, which emerges out of myth and the desert some 3,500 years ago. The Arabian's ancestry is more renowned than that of any European royal family--the Arabian was said to have been bred via the efforts of Ishmael, Abraham's cast-out son, or Baz, a descendant of Noah. The Bedouin horsebreeders would often race each other's finest, with the loser's herd providing breeding stock to the winner's.
The great rulers of the Middle East were tied to the Arabian. King Solomon, disregarding Mosaic tradition (in Deutoronomy 17:16) that "the king shall not multiply horses to himself," established a vast stables of Arabian horses in Jerusalem. And there is a legend in which the prophet Mohammed deprives 100 of his best horses of any water for three days, then sets them loose. As the hundred horses stampede toward water, Mohammed sounds a battle horn, to which only five mares respond. These mares became the Five Mares of the Prophet--their progeny were called asil, Arabian horses of pure blood.
The Arabs, once converted to Islam, became great horse-warriors, driving through and conquering all of what was once Roman Africa, up into Spain until they were finally checked in France by Charles Martel, who pushed for the Arabian horse to be imported into the European kingdoms, a slow immigration that went on for a millennium.
Charles I on horseback
And horses, throughout myth and memory, gratefully bear the weight of princesses, knights, grand ladies, emperors and even gods. Children, early on, come to associate horses with magic and power. The children's rhyme "Ride a Cock Horse," for instance, is allegedly about Queen Elizabeth I's visit to Banbury to see a new stone cross that had been erected upon a hill. The hill was so steep, however, that a cock-horse (a stallion) had to be enlisted to haul Elizabeth's carriage up to the summit. When a carriage wheel broke, Elizabeth simply mounted the horse and rode up herself, to musical accompaniment provided by the Banbury villagers.
That story seems a bit suspect--it smacks of something the Banbury board of tourism would devise. Other competing origins have it that Lady Godiva was the equestrienne, or that the "fine lady" of the rhyme is actually a pun on "Fiennes," the name of a wealthy local family. In any event, the Banbury Cross was destroyed by Puritan zealots around the time of Elizabeth's death; some 250 years later, Queen Victoria ordered it to be rebuilt.
The rhyme "Ride a Cock Horse" was first printed in the late 18th Century, but likely had been circulating for years beforehand. Robin Hendrix's version is from a recent record called Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Tunes (also available on iTunes, which, in a bit of modesty, lists the track as "Ride a C*** Horse").
And Robert Schummann 1838's composition Kinderszenen ("Scenes from Childhood"), Op. 15., featured a brief adventure of a knight on a hobbyhorse, complete with wild galloping. (Weirdly enough, "Ritter vom Steckenpferd" is sometimes translated as "Ride a Cock Horse" though there's no connection with the nursery rhyme at all.) Performed by Jurgis Karnavicius; on Schumann: The Romantic Piano, also on eMusic.
The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.
The horse continues to be associated with power, wealth and mastery: to use one minor example, take how horses keep reappearing in gangster stories, whether it's the decapitated horse Khartoum in The Godfather, whose head is placed in the bed of a movie mogul who needs convincing, or the doomed Pie-O-My, Tony Soprano's favorite horse, whose suspicious death leads Tony to brutally kill his psychotic captain (and best earner) Ralph Cifaretto.
Two equestrienne fantasies:
"The White Horses" was a television show from 1965, co-produced by Germany and Serbia, filmed in Slovenia, and starring an Austrian actress (it was like a reunion of the Central Powers). This is the UK version's theme song, from 1968, sung by the '60s mayfly Jacky (Jackie Lee). While it's likely a great many European readers know this song by heart, I had never heard of it until Dean and Britta covered "White Horses" on their recent record. (Anyone by chance seeing Dean & Britta in Northampton, MA, in July?) On Leaders of the Pack.
Chagall, Equestrienne.
"Holly Up On Poppy," Andy Partridge's ode to his daughter on her rocking horse, is from XTC's 1992 album Nonsuch. Originally called "Holly High On Poppy," until Partridge realized he'd accidentally written a dope song. Holly Partridge is now a session singer in the UK.
Knights Errant
Charles Trenet, Vous Oubliez Votre Cheval.
Eddy Arnold, Tennessee Stud.
Howlin' Wolf, Saddle My Pony.
Whenever the horse stopped (which it did very often), he fell off in front; and whenever it went on again (which it generally did rather suddenly), he fell off behind. Otherwise he kept on pretty well, except that he had a habit of now and then falling off sideways; and as he generally did this on the side on which Alice was walking, she soon found that it was the best plan not to walk quite close to the horse.
"I'm afraid you've not had much practice in riding," she ventured to say, as she was helping him up from his fifth tumble.
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass.
The horse has been a part of warfare since the Mesopotamians and Greeks, and seemingly every famous warrior has had his own legendary mount, whether the Duke of Wellington's Copenhagen, which carried him at Waterloo, or Robert E. Lee's Traveller, or Richard III on White Surrey (the latter's death on Bosworth Field leads to the classic/cliche line "my kingdom for a horse.")
The era of knighthood was relatively short--beginning around the time of Charlemagne, and reaching a zenith between 1100 and 1300, when knights were considered the only true soldiers, pledging service to whichever king or lord supported them. But by the 15th Century, and with the rise of more powerful centralized monarchies with standing armies, the knight began to be seen as, if not a danger needing to be crushed (e.g., the Templars), then an obsolete figure.
The popular idea is of a great ponderous carthorse, standing about seventeen hands, onto which the armored warrior had to be hoisted on a crane...the crane business is pure nonsense, invented by a modern theatrical producer as a funny gag. No the medieval war-horse was a good, strong working horse, like the old bus horses that few remember now.
R. Ewart Oakeshott.
In a chanson written around 1360, the French poet Eustache Deschamps, who mainly spent his time bemoaning life, instead offered a detailed schema of the types of warhorses suitable for nobles. There are three primary horses, Deschamps wrote--the destriers, the Horse of Kings, suitable for the joust (tall and majestic and strong), the coursers, ideal for mounted battle (they were lighter and swifter than the destrier), and the rounseys, horses of less noble breeding, fit for warriors not born into the nobility.
As the mounted knight faded in prominence, he grew all the more potent in legend. Great journeys by horse (like walking pilgrimages set in a grander key) became a standard trope in poems and stories, and reoccur throughout history as well: think of Paul Revere's midnight ride, or the highwayman Dick Turpin, riding Black Bess from London to York in 15 hours.
And with the rise of brutal, mechanized warfare, there came the great rides of utter, deadly futility, whether the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War, or the Polish cavalry's battles against Nazi German forces in 1939 (the Polish actually succeeded for a few days).
Dicksee, La Belle Dame Sans Merci.
We jumped the infantry positions. Below us, in the trenches, the men were just receiving their evening mess...the air was filled with the smell of smoke and coffee. Several chevaux-de-frise were moved aside so that we could pass, and we continued on our way. The advance sentries looked after us in silence as we rode into the unknown, in style already belonging to times long past, and in dress and arms equally antiquated.
Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Baron Bagge.
One of the eeriest cavalry rides in literature, and one which seems to be a fitting end to the knight, is Alexander Lernet-Holenia's 1936 novella, Baron Bagge. The title character, a minor Austro-Hungarian noble, enlists in his country's cavalry after World War I begins, and finds himself in a battered division based in Hungary which is headed by a vain lunatic Semler, whose other officers include an American from Kentucky in the war for kicks, and whose riders are a bunch of "Galician Poles." Told to scout out advancing Russian positions, Semler instead orders the cavalry into an apparently suicidal charge over a bridge into a Russian-held village on the Ondava River, in what is now eastern Slovakia.
The cavalry division somehow miraculously survives the assault, and then things grow increasingly odd. They ride to a village where everyone is drunk and endlessly celebrating, despite the fact that the Russians should have taken the town weeks before. Bagge encounters a girl he's known about since childhood, immediately falls in love and is married. There are no signs of the Russians, or even any animals. The troupe rides on to the Carpathian mountains, past empty villages, until they at least reach a bridge of gold. They are riding towards death, as it turns out--there is nowhere else left for them.
The last cavalry charge: Poland v. the Wehrmacht, 1939
One thing we often neglect in recounting the many wars of human history is the horrific casualty rates of animals, especially horses. In the 20th Century, some 300,000 horses were killed in the Boer War alone, and somewhere around eight million horses, mules and camels were slain in the course of the First World War. Thankfully for the horse and mule, human technical ingenuity finally freed them of their servitude before the Second World War began--the mule was replaced by trucks and jeeps, the horse by airplanes and tanks. (That said, as the war deteriorated for Germany, the Nazis began using horses more and more, as the horse fields of East Prussia were not considered bombing targets.)
And so the past sixty years, while bloody as usual for mankind, have been the longest era of peace for horses that the animals have likely ever known.
Three modern quests on horseback:
"Vous Oubliez Votre Cheval" (You're Forgetting Your Horse), from 1936, begins with a stranger, wearing a sombrero and with a Toulouse accent, arriving in town and leaving his horse in a hotel cloakroom. Fifty years later, a jockey pretending to have been a sailor is ridiculed by his grandchildren. It's a weird song, to put it mildly (lyrics (in French). On 48 Titres Originaux.
"Tennessee Stud," written by Jimmie Driftwood, was recorded most notably by Eddy Arnold in 1959 and Johnny Cash a few decades later. The story is your typical sort of quest--after being chased away from the woman he loves by her father and thuggish brother, our rider heads down to Mexico, races bulls, kills a gambler, then returns to Tennessee, whips his girl's father and brother, and all's well that end's well.
Released in June 1959 as RCA 7542; on RCA Country Legends.
And Howlin' Wolf's "Saddle My Pony", subtitled "Gonna Find My Baby Out in the World", finds Wolf ready to head out into the wild in search for his lost girl, or something else he can't quite define. Recorded in Memphis on 17 April 1952 and released as Chess 1515 c/w "Worried All the Time"; on 1952-53.
Riding the Range
Dave Fredrickson, A Cowboy's Life Is a Very Dreary Life.
The Skillet Lickers, Ride Old Buck to Water.
Gene Autry, The Last Round-Up.
Sons of the Pioneers, Ride Ranger Ride.
Range Riders, Range Riders Stomp.
Vaughn Monroe, (Ghost) Riders in the Sky.
Tex Ritter, Blood On the Saddle.
Frankie Laine, Blazing Saddles.
The Marshall Tucker Band, Desert Skies.
A light chestnut stallion which presently died.
An excellent chestnut mare for sport and for racing.
A light chestnut stallion, with three white feet; no good.
A silver grey mare, barren. Fair, but a poor racer.
A dun stallion with black points, does not go well...
Bernard Diaz del Castillo, inventory of horses in the fleet of Cortez, 1519.
The cowboy on horseback, the American symbol loved and loathed by much of the world, is the descendent of the Spanish invasion of the Americas and a few Hollywood producers.
The horse long had been extinct in North and South America before the Spanish arrived (though there are theories the equids had originated in what would become the American landmass, which would make the arrival of Columbus and Cortez a strange homecoming for the horse). Once horses began to spread across both continents, it led to great changes for the various Native American tribes--the Sioux, for example, were once a forest people, living in the headwaters of the Mississippi River, until they were pushed out into the Great Plains and became some of the finest horseriders in the West.
After enough Indians had been killed or hounded off of their former lands, the West was considered fit for settlement, and a great many Civil War veterans headed West to supervise the great cattle herds now littering the plains. By the end of the 19th Century, these cowboys (about 30% of which were either black or Mexican) had become semi-mythical figures, known for their outfits and songs. Cowboys sang to stave off boredom or sleep, or to quiet skittish cattle, and a typical cowboy ballad often had its origins in a scrap or two of verse the cowboy half-remembered from a local newspaper, which was then set to a standard English/Irish tune and sung either a cappella or with minimal accompaniment (fiddle, jew's harp).
One cowboy standard is "A Cowboy's Life Is A Very Dreary Life," performed here by Dave Fredrickson, from 1963's Songs of the West. It's typical of the old cowboy songs in that it's not very melodic (it's sung flatly by Frederickson, who was inspired by a recording of an old cowboy, Sloan Matthews of Alpine, Texas) and its subject matter is realist to the point of despair. Ballads like "Dreary Life" or "When the Work's All Done This Fall" are often filled with boredom, weariness and death, a cowboy's regular companions.
As an alternative, there was also the "Southern" horse song--ballads and reels that had mutated from old Irish/Scotch tunes. Take the Skillet Lickers' "Ride Old Buck to Water," from 1930: compared with the typical "Western" cowboy riding song, "Buck" seems dense, muddy and constricted, moving at a wild clip and with a near-incomprehensible lyric.
(The Skillet Lickers were a supergroup of sorts, a bunch of country pros brought together in the recording studio, including Gid Tanner (banjo), Lowe Stokes (fiddle), Riley Puckett (guitar, vocal) and Clayton McMichen (f). "Ride Old Buck" was recorded in Atlanta on 4 December 1930; on Old-Time Fiddle Tunes.)
As massive ranches replaced the open range, and what were once wild territories were converted into boring law-abiding members of the United States, the cowboy's era was ending just as Americans were growing increasingly nostalgic for a half-fictional past. The cowboy was already a popular figure in Hollywood films, but with the introduction of sound in the early '30s, producers realized they could have the perfect gimmick--a cowboy who sang "country" pop hits on screen. Republic Studios, inspired by the success of the first singing cowboy, Ken Maynard, began looking around for candidates.
I only know two ways to act: With or without a horse.
Robert Mitchum.
Republic settled on one Orvon Gene Autry, a former relief telegrapher who was obsessed with Jimmie Rodgers (Autry had rushed out a farewell record just weeks after Rodgers died in '33). Autry's first serial was the unbelievably weird The Phantom Empire, in which Autry discovers the lost civilization of Murania, and its horny Queen Tika, buried underneath his ranch. It was a hit and Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Autry's first feature in 1935, soon followed. Autry would make some 90 pictures in the two decades afterward.
And while Autry wasn't a fraud--he had grown up on a ranch in Oklahoma and knew some legitimate cowboy ballads--his material was far from "traditional" cowboy songs. Instead, Autry had his pick of professional songwriters from Broadway and Tin Pan Alley. So "Take Me Back My Boots and Saddle" was co-written by Walter Samuels, who came up with the idea sitting the penthouse garden of the Hotel Orcott in New York; "Back in the Saddle Again" was composed by an Alabama-born kid working in Hollywood; "The Last Round Up" was written by Billy Hill, a New England Conservatory student.
"The Last Round Up," allegedly inspired by an account of a cowboy being killed in a Texas round-up, was recorded in Chicago on 9 October 1933; on The Essential Gene Autry.
Autry's success set off a gold rush. Among the aspiring singing cowboys were the Sons of the Pioneers, a trio of singers and guitarists who consisted of a Canadian, Bob Nolan, who was the group's main songwriter, Tim Spencer and Ohio-born Leonard Slye. When Autry left Republic Pictures in 1937 after a contract dispute, Slye, changing his name to Roy Rogers, jumped to fill his place.
"Ride Ranger Ride," written by Spencer, was recorded 18 June 1936 and released as Decca 5243; on Country Music Hall of Fame Series.
And "Range Riders Stomp," a bit of hot Western swing from 1937, is about as far away from "A Cowboy's Life Is a Dreary Life" as Greenland is from Texas. The Range Riders are a complete unknown--there is no record as to who actually was in the band, as they were likely a studio-only concoction meant to compete with Bob Wills. Recorded 1 March 1937 and released as Vocalion 03579; on Doughboys, Playboys and Cowboys.
After WWII, cowboy songs kept getting churned out by the dozens, growing ever more cliched, dark and sometimes just bizarre. For instance, there's the camp classic "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky," from 1949, lugubriously sung by Vaughn Monroe like a man who's swallowed a jar of molasses, in which a cowpoke riding along spies a herd of Satanic cattle in the sky, driven by a group of damned cowboys. Or Tex Ritter's "Blood on the Saddle," which John Morthland accurately described as "an out-of-tune guitar whanging away in an echo chamber and Tex braying out the lyrics (about a man who had his head bashed in by a bronco) like he was crumbled up in pain." Ritter later claimed "Blood" was meant to be a comedy song.
("Riders" is on Hits of '49; Ritter first recorded "Blood on the Saddle" in the mid-'40s--this version is the title track of his 1959 album (Capitol ST-1292), a deliberate attempt by Ritter to return to "older" styles of Western music. (On Rebels and Outlaws.))
So when in 1974 Mel Brooks was filming his Western farce Blazing Saddles (bringing to the screen at long last a black cowboy), he had an enormous reservoir of cowboy songs to ridicule. Placing an ad in a Hollywood trade paper that he was looking for a "Frankie Laine-type singer," Brooks was contacted by Laine himself. Laine, having told Brooks, with tears in his eyes, "this is a beautiful song," sang it with utter sincerity. ("I didn't know what to do," Brooks recalled in 2000. "I didn't want to tell him it was funny...People in the studio said, 'Jesus, he's really singing the shit out of this thing.'") (On Way Out West.)
And fade out to the Marshall Tucker Band's "Desert Skies," from 1977, with its swaying horse-gait rhythms, its references to six guns and saddles, and its frank admission that it's all been heard a hundred times before. (I still love this song, a childhood favorite, with its lengthy guitar, saxophone and fiddle solos--it's like a country version of Steely Dan; on Carolina Dreams).
They'd Only Ever See Her Heels
Degas, Race Horses.
Richard Thompson, The Angels Took My Racehorse Away.
Leadbelly and the Golden Gate Quartet, Stewball.
Sonic Youth, Bull in the Heather.
Total chaos, no way to see the race, not even the track...nobody cares. Big lines at the outdoor betting windows, then stand back to watch winning numbers flash on the big board, like a giant bingo game.
Old blacks arguing about bets; "Hold on there, I'll handle this" (waving pint of whiskey, fistful of dollar bills); girl riding piggyback, T-shirt says, "Stolen from Fort Lauderdale Jail." Thousands of teen-agers, group singing "Let the Sun Shine In," ten soldiers guarding the American flag and a huge fat drunk wearing a blue football jersey (No. 80) reeling around with quart of beer in hand...
We went back to the clubhouse to watch the big race. When the crowd stood to face the flag and sing "My Old Kentucky Home," Steadman faced the crowd and sketched frantically. Somewhere up in the boxes a voice screeched, "Turn around, you hairy freak!" The race itself was only two minutes long, and even from our super-status seats and using 12-power glasses, there was no way to see what really happened to our horses. Holy Land, Ralph's choice, stumbled and lost his jockey in the final turn. Mine, Silent Screen, had the lead coming into the stretch but faded to fifth at the finish. The winner was a 16-1 shot named Dust Commander.
Hunter S. Thompson, The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.
Affirmed, the last Triple Crown winner to date, 1979.
The knights are all long dead, the cowboy has been reduced to celluloid, the rich are now transported by private jets and chauffered SUVs, and so the most renowned riders in the world today are short men and women who flog horses around and around racetracks while people bet on the result.
While racing horses has been a sport for three thousand years, the era of the Thoroughbred, a horse bred primarily to race, begins in 18th Century England, when three Arabian stallions were mated with English mares. The Darley Arabian, for instance, was a bay Arab stallion who was the forebear of generations of English champion racehorses--his grandson was Flying Childers, his great-grandson Eclipse, the latter owned by one Col. O'Kelly, an Irish adventurer who later became a count in the Holy Roman Empire.
...as for your right horse, whip him
and urge him along, slackening your hands to give him his full rein,
but make your left-hand horse keep hard against the turning-post
so that the hub's edge of your fashioned wheel will seem to be
touching it, yet take care not really to brush against it,
for, if so, you might damage your horses and break your chariot,
and that will be a thing of joy for the others, and a failure for you.
Homer, The Iliad, Bk. 23.
Man O' War, 1920.
A trifecta of racing songs:
"The Angels Took My Racehorse Away," in which the chief suspect in the horse's murder is a wonderfully wicked-sounding "bookmaker from Crail," is on Richard Thompson's first solo album, Henry The Human Fly, from 1972. This track is the first time Thompson and his future wife, Linda, sang together.
"Stewball"'s pedigree goes back to the founding of the thoroughbreds--the song was inspired by "Skewball," a British racehorse popular in the 1740s. A popular ballad since the late 18th Century, "Skewball" or "Stewball" has been covered by hundreds of artists, in a number of versions--there is a folkier rendition, made popular by Lonnie Donegan, Peter, Paul and Mary and Joan Baez (and whose melody John Lennon nicked for "Happy Xmas"), as well as a version that came out of the blues, demonstrated here by Leadbelly and the Golden Gate Quartet.
Leadbelly's "Stewball" was recorded in New York on 17 June 1940 and released as RCA Victor RCX-146; on Take This Hammer.
And Sonic Youth's "Bull In the Heather" was named after the longshot winner of the Florida Derby (29-to-1) in 1993 (called "Bull Inthe Heather," probably just to drive newspaper copy editors insane). On 1994's Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star. (Bull Inthe Heather is now in comfortable retirement in Kentucky.)
Out to Pasture
The Flying Burrito Brothers, Wild Horses.
The Rolling Stones, Wild Horses (early mix).
The riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voice of friends and to say to one's self: "The work is done."…The canter that brings you to a standstill need not be only coming to rest. It cannot be, while you still live. For to live is to function. That is all there is in living.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, radio address on his 90th birthday, 1931.
Finally, let's end with the horse returned to his original state of grace:
"Wild Horses" was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in mid-1969, the lyrics being about, take your pick of Stones gossip, Keith's reluctance to leave Anita Pallenberg and his son Marlon to go on tour, or the disintegration of Jagger's relationship with the smacked-out Marianne Faithfull. But Gram Parsons claimed it was written for and about him, and the Flying Burrito Brothers did the first official recording, in 1970. (On Hot Burritos!.)
The official Stones take was released on Sticky Fingers in April 1971. The track featured here is basically the official take without the steel guitar and vocal overdubs.
Toulouse-Lautrec, Le Cirque.
Keep riding: Pocock's Horses; Gerard and Loretta Hausman's The Mythology of Horses; Juliet Clutton-Brock's Horse Power.
Monday, June 18, 2007
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Everything In Excess
I have a girlfriend who has a boyfriend who has an apartment the size of Moby Dick. It is a two or three bedroom behemoth in lower Manhattan (I haven't checked) and it is mostly empty, though a small congregation of us cook dinner there once a week. Note: Its owner lives in Europe.
Without a proper caregiver we must bring the salt, pans, forks, etc. Our girlfriend steals serving trays (and a leftover salad) from office catering. Everything else here is double-wide and stainless steel, so we scavenge like paupers but cook like kings.
Last night we made quick work of tacos, champagne, and Velveeta. Who are we? I wondered. We are five girls eating dinner in a grand apartment in a beautiful city or we are five girls eating cheese off of stolen plates. Or we are friends who are filling this empty apartment with laughter and forgetting to pretend we belong in it.
We are so much better at forgetting than pretending.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Standing here in an empty place; looking out into the nothingness, I wonder if there's anything out beyond the edge of the galaxy. Is there anything; something left for me to grab onto and pull myself forward? I want to move forward; to soar, to fly. My goals, my dreams, they mean everything to me. Someday, I'll be beyond simply reaching for the stars, I'll be amongst them, but you'll never see it. Those stars, you'll never see them shine, because they live within my soul, where they give forth light and warmth to my words that you're reading. I want my words, my thoughts to be free, free to create more, but you'll never see them because you don't believe that I can bring beauty and meaning to life. All you see are my weaknesses and my flaws, which keep you from seeing the good things in my life. Sometimes, I think that you don't see me at all and it hurts. I try to hide my feelings and my words from eyes so; you don't cast dirt upon them. Nothing, I do ever seems to please you, so why should I fight it? Why should I raise above your expectations? I do what I do, because you say that I can't. Know that I'm marching forward and looking towards the future with my head held high, and I won't let anything drag me down. I will climb so high that everyone will see me and know that I've made it after all.


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Cloud View | List View
Tag: "environmental philosophy"
Seeing True Nature
John Worthington-Hill explores Buddhist environmental thought.
[Issue 132 :: June/July 2019 :: West Meets East]
Heidegger & Faulkner Against Modern Technology
Bob James sees similarities in the two writers' dark perceptions of industrialisation.
[Issue 125 :: April/May 2018 :: Heidegger]
Ecological Ethics by Patrick Curry
Vincent Di Norcia looks at various approaches to ecological ethics.
[Issue 122 :: October/November 2017 :: Books]
Green Philosophy by Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton's critiques of our actions are under scrutiny by Paul Keeling.
[Issue 98 :: September/October 2013 :: Books]
How Can We Eradicate Poverty Whilst Avoiding Environmental Destruction?
The following answers to this timely and vital question each win a random book.
[Issue 96 :: May/June 2013 :: Question of the Month]
Chris Gill's Cartoon (1)
by Chris Gill
[Issue 96 :: May/June 2013 :: Cartoon]
by Tim Delaney
[Issue 88 :: January/February 2012 :: Editorial]
Three Challenges For Environmental Philosophy
Jim Moran explains why saving the planet will be an uphill struggle.
[Issue 88 :: January/February 2012 :: Sustainability]
Ecological Ethics
Tim Madigan asks, what is the right attitude to take to all life?
[Issue 88 :: January/February 2012 :: Sustainability]
Rethinking the Discourse
Kevin Gibson wants to revise an influential way of thinking about sustainability.
[Issue 88 :: January/February 2012 :: Sustainability]


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My darling cat, Houdini, needs to have some tests done to him to determine whether or not he has cancer, and if he has cancer, to undergo therapy for that. I just took him to get an ultrasound today, and the vet told me he a swollen lymph node that is surrounding other organs. The vet told me that there is a chance that he has some sort of cancer, since she did identify some strange tissue around the lymph node. I am asking close friends and strangers for help in financing the vet-related costs, since these costs are too high for me to cover, and I want Houdini to receive treatment for whatever he is experiencing.
His stomach had to be shaved for the ultrasound, but the vet mentioned to me that he was so good/sweet to her, unlike some of her other ornery patients!
The Team: $0 TOTAL RAISED SO FARJOIN THE TEAM
Want to help Fundraise or Volunteer for this amazing Fundraiser? Join the Team


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Christmas Around the World
It's not long until Christmas 2017! Christmas is the highlight of the year, every year. It's a time to gather, be close to family and enjoy each others company; eat, drink and be merry.
Around the world, people celebrate the Christmas holidays in many different ways. Many Christmas celebrations reflect local culture and traditions and the festivities can be very different from country to country, focusing on different aspects.
No matter where you are in the world, if you celebrate Christmas you are sharing in the wonder and magic of the Christmas season.
Bright Horizons Nursery in Twickenham designed a fun fact infographic full of interesting information. It shares some lovely facts about Christmas Around the World and how it is celebrated in different countries; how to say Merry Christmas in different languages, about different cultures' idea of 'Santa Claus' and much more


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Will Kickstarter Without a Founder at the Helm Go the Way of Etsy?BY Zoe Henry - 28 Jul 2017
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
When Yancey Strickler launched Kickstarter in 2009, along with co-founders Perry Chen and Charles Adler, it was unclear that the business would ever turn a profit--let alone incubate new startups. Yet to date, the company has funded more than 128,000 projects, raising $3 billion in pledges from more than 13 million backers; in the process, it has reportedly taken more than $40 million in revenues, and launched high-profile businesses such as Yeti Coolers and the now-defunct Pebble smartwatch.
So it's perhaps surprising, then, that Strickler on Wednesday announced that he would be stepping down as CEO, just three years after taking over the role from Chen. In a blog post entitled "Our Next Great Leap," the co-founder insisted that the company has never been in better health, but explained that it was time to bring in new blood: "2017 will be our eighth straight profitable year," he writes. "Great stuff is cooking in the oven. Being the CEO of Kickstarter is an unreal opportunity for someone with a deep connection to creative projects, someone who doesn't believe in putting profit above all, and someone who's excited by the challenge of building on a successful business that's oriented to the long term."
Strickler, who could not immediately be reached for comment, also hinted that he's looking to start a new company.
Some analysts see the timing as suspicious. "If he was stepping down purely because he wanted to go do something else, he would have waited until there was a successor in place," suggests J.P. Eggers, an associate professor of management at NYU's Stern School of Business. "The timing seems a little odd," he added. Meanwhile, it's worth pointing out that Kickstarter saw its first-ever decline last year, when just 39,521 projects were successfully funded, compared with more than 54,000 in 2015, according to research firm ICO Partners. The business generates sales by taking a 5 percent cut of successfully funded projects.
Others point out that for Kickstarter, success is measured in terms other than growth in its bottom line. Under Strickler's tenure, the company re-incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation, meaning that it must serve the community, its employees and the environment ahead of shareholders, or risk being sued. To that end, in its first-ever PBC statement, Kickstarter revealed this year that the company pays a higher-than-average tax rate of 25 percent. (Federal tax rates vary between 15 percent and 35 percent, depending on the amount of corporate income subject to federal taxes.)The company says it also employs an equal number of women and men, and it pays executives less than fives times what an average employee earns.
Some might wonder, though, whether a Kickstarter risks losing some of its verve without a founder at the helm. (Chen remains a chair of the company; it's unclear whether Strickler will serve on the board going forward.) It's an inexact comparison, but when craft marketplace Etsy went public in 2015, it struggled to keep up with investor demands. Recently, the New York City company revealed that it lost nearly half a million dollars in the first quarter of 2017, cut 8 percent of its workforce, and said that it would be replacing longtime chair and CEO Chad Dickerson.
Charlie O'Donnell, a New York venture capitalist and founder of the firm Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, says he isn't concerned for Kickstarter. "They're in a very different spot than Etsy," O'Donnell tells Inc. "They have nobody to answer to but themselves and their community. When you take on a few hundred million dollars in financing, like Etsy did, it's harder to do that," he adds. To his point, Kickstarter has raised only $10 million in venture capital over the course of its nearly nine-year history, from investors including Jack Dorsey and Chris Sacca.


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Good times: I was looking through old pictures that I took and found a box from when I was in the Navy. I was living in Virginia Beach, VA (1996) at the time and when I got off work I would sometimes drive around taking pictures with my new camera that I bought on base. Some of these shots were taken outside of VA.
The camera I had was a Canon Rebel (Film of course). I shot most of my pictures in black and white. I used the cheapest film possible and the cheapest places to get it developed, I had no money.
I did not scan these pictures in, but instead used my Fuji X-Pro1 to take a picture of them. The scanner made them look too grainy. I thought I would share some of these film shots with you...
Camera specs at the time:
Canon EOS Rebel Film SLR Camera Kit with 35-80mm EF Lens. This was not an expensive camera at the time, I probably paid $299 for it and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.


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Year 4I is taught by Miss Irons and Mrs Gould. Year 4P is taught by Miss Pascale and Miss Byrne.
Click below to find out what we are learning in Year 4 this half term.
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Click here for more information.


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It is Halloween and I managed to not play either The Evil Within 2 or Observer (thanks Ys!!) but I do want to, at the very least, bring up a very effective moment in an old, underrated game. This is not a classic moment from a dedicated horror game. Nothing like the pyramid head rape voyeur scene from Silent Hill 2, the bleeding walls in Silent Hill 3 or the ropes in Fatal Frame. It is not a modern example like most of Amnesia: The Dark Descent or the spooky crib from Layers of Fear. I would put it more in line with a frightening section from an otherwise not terribly frightening game; think the shalebride cradle in Thief or the haunted hotel in Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Unexpected and effective.
Step into the way back machine with me so we can talk about Doom 64.
Doom 64 was my Nintendo 64 launch title in spite of it not coming out at launch. Neither Super Mario 64 nor Pilotwings 64 did anything for me so I bought the console and waited, patiently, for something to play. Doom 64 did not disappoint. For the uninitiated (or the young) Doom 64 was not a port of any existing Doom. It was its own monster, designed specifically for the new Nintendo system, and is viewed as something of a side story to the main Doom series. It has never been legitimately ported, remade, or in any way made legally available for purchase since its initial release. Midway, its publisher, is long gone, so there is no hope to see it again.
It was also a legitimately exceptional shooter. Concessions were made for the bizarre controller and they worked. Monsters were redesigned in a distinctly late 90's manner. Weapons were reskinned and levels took advantage of what the Nintendo 64 could do. The shooting was good, the level design expansive, but the sound, oh my.
I was in college in 1997. I did not have as much time on a daily basis to play games as I do now but was capable of incredible marathon sessions on the weekends, provided I was sober(ish). I once played Turok 2 for so long that when I closed my eyes I was still running down corridors. It was just that kind of session, hours upon hours of Doom 64, sitting unmoved, cross legged, on the floor of a darkened dorm room, when this happened:
That is how you break a man. I was sleep deprived, zoned out, bleary eyed and that starts playing? I do not recall the level but I recall my reaction: pause the game, turn and look around the room. No one here? Am I sure? Ok, maybe I'll play a little more. Just a little. Even the BFG is no match for a terrifying soundtrack.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Obligatory Halloween post
Posted by chamberlain at 2:02 PM
Labels: Doom 64
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What is Buzz?
Buzz allows for the empowerment of student learning within the classroom. The platform allows for students to take ownership and challenge students in their learning. The Buzz platform allows for multiple user levels (i.e. parent, administrator, teacher, and student) to help keep students motivated within their learning environment. Further, it is a platform that allows for learning on the go, in today's mobile world.
To learn more about Buzz and what it can do for you and your classroom, please read the following Buzz Pamphlet.


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About Us Low Carbon SME
Low carbon SMEs provide free, expert energy efficiency support and advice to SMEs in the Black Country, Greater Birmingham and Solihull.
For your SME this is business critical support. Did you know that even low and no-cost actions can typically reduce energy costs by at least 10%? Even more compelling is the financial case: a 20% cut in energy costs represents the same bottom line benefit as a 5% increase in sales in many businesses.
That's where we can help. Low Carbon SME is a free service that brings together the best academic minds; industrial expertise; and a solid understanding of the low carbon drivers that impact on SME businesses in our region. The result is a holistic approach to energy efficiency that will lead your SME to higher productivity and increased net profit. This programme is delivered by Aston University and is co-financed by ERDF (European Regional Development Fund).
Find independent advice and grants to support your carbon reduction journey.
Connect with our team of specialists and find new ways to your optimise energy use.
Acquire new skills and knowledge to help identify carbon reduction opportunities.
Discover how we are helping other businesses to reduce carbon and improve efficiency.


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AVA India Services (P) Limited is a Private Company incorporated on 04 July 2013. It is classified as Indian Non-Government Company and is registered at Registrar of Companies, Patna. Its authorized share capital is Rs. 500,000 and its paid up capital is Rs. 500,000.
AVA India Services (P) Limited Is aleading Information Technology, Consulting Services, and Business Process Outsourcing organization that has envisioned and instigated the adoption of the flexible business practices that today enable our client companies to operate more efficiently and produce more value.
IT outsourcing is the use of external service providers to effectively deliver IT-enabled business process, application service
eBusiness (electronic business) is using technology to improve your business processes. This includes managing
Civil construction is a segment of the broader construction industry focused on building core infrastructure like pipelines,
E-governance involves a public investment in information and communication technologies (ICTs) to strengthen governance processes.
We provide integrated design, testing, installation and commissioning services for our esteemed clients. We work
The conversion of 3G sites to 4G helps in improving bthe quality of services due to higher speeds and better bandwith.Beside


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(815) 272-4213
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Rentals of Bounce Houses, Slides, Water Slides, Tents, Tables and Chairs
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Tables and Chairs
bounce houses, bouncy houses, jump houses, moonwalks, slides, slip n slide, water slides or inflatables slides, call them what you like but they are definitely the hit of the party
They have become a must have in every event involving children's not only because they are a fun way to keep them busy, but also its a great way for them to exercise in a fun way that will make a memorable and total success event at an affordable cost to you. When people rent from us they will receive excellent customer service experience, on time delivery, clean and safe equipment. Bounce houses, combo units, water slides, tents, tables and chairs rentals is what we specialized on, we have been providing affordable party rental equipment for over 8 years, we have a large inventory of jump houses, combo units and water slides available for rent from basic colors to characters such Disney bounce house, Batman bounce, Incredibles bounce house, Frozen bounce house and water slides of different shapes and sizes such double lane water slide, palm tree water slide, slip n slides, single lane water slides, combo bouncy water slides, kids water slides, toddlers water slides, sports themed slides and also we carry diferent size of party tents such 20′ x 20′ pole and frame tent, 20′ x 40′ pole tent and all party tents can be ordered with sidewalls and lights.


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Hyperhomocysteinemia is a medical condition characterized by an abnormally high level of homocysteine in the blood, conventionally described as above 15 µmol/L.[1]
|Other names
|Total plasma homocysteine
|Nutrition, medical genetics, endocrinology
As a consequence of the biochemical reactions in which homocysteine is involved, deficiencies of vitamin B6, folic acid (vitamin B9), and vitamin B12 can lead to high homocysteine levels.[2]
Hyperhomocysteinemia is typically managed with vitamin B6, vitamin B9 and vitamin B12 supplementation.[3] Hyperhomocysteinemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease; however, supplements of these vitamins do not improve cardiovascular disease outcomes.[4]
Signs and symptomsEdit
Elevated levels of homocysteine have been associated with a number of disease states.
Cardiovascular risksEdit
Elevated homocysteine is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease as well as thrombosis.[5] It has also been shown to be associated with microalbuminuria which is a strong indicator of the risk of future cardiovascular disease and renal dysfunction.[6] Homocysteine degrades and inhibits the formation of the three main structural components of arteries: collagen, elastin and proteoglycans. In proteins, homocysteine permanently degrades cysteine disulfide bridges and lysine amino acid residues,[7] affecting structure and function.
Neuropsychiatric illnessEdit
Evidence exists linking elevated homocysteine levels with vascular dementia[8] and Alzheimer's disease.[9][10][11] There is also evidence that elevated homocysteine levels and low levels of vitamin B6 and B12 are risk factors for mild cognitive impairment and dementia.[12] Oxidative stress induced by homocysteine may also play a role in schizophrenia.[13]
Bone healthEdit
Elevated levels of homocysteine have also been linked to increased fractures in elderly persons. Homocysteine auto-oxidizes and reacts with reactive oxygen intermediates, damaging endothelial cells and increasing the risk of thrombus formation.[14][15]
Ectopia lentisEdit
Homocystinuria is the second most common cause of heritable ectopia lentis. Homocystinuria is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder most often caused by a near absence of cystathionine b-synthetase. It is associated with intellectual disability, osteoporosis, chest deformities, and increased risk of thrombotic episodes. Lens dislocation occurs in 90% of patients, and is thought to be due to decreased zonular integrity due to the enzymatic defect. Lens dislocation in homocystinuria is usually bilateral and in 60% of cases occurs in the inferior or nasal direction.
Deficiencies of vitamins B6, B9, and B12 can lead to high homocysteine levels.[2] Vitamin B12, or cobalamin, acts as a cofactor for the enzyme methionine synthase (which forms part of the S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) biosynthesis and regeneration cycle). Vitamin B12 deficiency prevents the 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF) form of folate from being converted into THF due to the "methyl trap".[16] This disrupts the folate pathway and leads to an increase in homocysteine which damages cells (for example, damage to endothelial cells can result in increased risk of thrombosis).
Chronic consumption of alcohol may also result in increased plasma levels of homocysteine.[17][18]
Homocysteine is a non-protein amino acid, synthesized from methionine and either recycled back into methionine or converted into cysteine with the aid of the B-group vitamins.
- About 50% of homocysteine[citation needed] is converted back to methionine by remethylation via the methionine synthase major pathway. This requires active folate and vitamin B12, in order to donate a methyl group. Active folate is known as 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF).
- Another pathway for the conversion of homocysteine back to methionine also exists, involving methylation with trimethylglycine (also called betaine or abbreviated to TMG) as a methyl donor.
- The remaining homocysteine is transsulfurated to cysteine, with vitamin B6 as the co-factor.
Genetic defects in 5-MTHF reductase can consequently lead to hyperhomocysteinemia. The most common polymorphisms are known as MTHFR C677T and MTR A2756G.[19][20] These polymorphisms occur in about 10% of the world's population.[citation needed] Elevations of homocysteine can also occur in the rare hereditary disease homocystinuria.
A blood test can be performed to quantify total homocysteine concentration in the plasma, of which approximately 80% is generally protein-bound. Classification of hyperhomocysteinemia is defined with respect to serum concentration as follows:
- Moderate: 15–30 nmol/mL (or µmol/L)
- Intermediate: 30–100 nmol/mL
- Severe: > 100 nmol/mL
If total homocysteine concentration is not found to be elevated, but clinical suspicion is still high, an oral methionine loading challenge several hours prior to quantification of homocysteine concentration may be used to increased sensitivity for marginal abnormalities of homocysteine metabolism.[21]
Fasting for 10 hours is sometimes recommended prior to measurement of homocysteine levels, but this may not be necessary for diagnostic yield.[22]
Vitamins B6, B9, or B12 supplements, while they lower homocysteine level do not change the risk of heart disease, stroke, or death.[4][needs update] This also applies to people with kidney disease on dialysis.[23]
Hypotheses have been offered to address the failure of homocysteine-lowering therapies to reduce cardiovascular events. When folic acid is given as a supplement, it may increase the build-up of arterial plaque. A second hypothesis involves the methylation of genes in vascular cells by folic acid and vitamin B12, which may also accelerate plaque growth. Finally, altered methylation may catalyse l-arginine to asymmetric dimethylarginine, which is known to increase the risk of vascular disease.[24]
See alsoEdit
- ^ Guo, H; Chi, J; Xing, Y; Wang, P (2009). "Influence of folic acid on plasma homocysteine levels & arterial endothelial function in patients with unstable angina". The Indian Journal of Medical Research. 129 (3): 279–84. PMID 19491420.
- ^ a b Miller, J. W.; Nadeau, M. R.; Smith, D; Selhub, J (1994). "Vitamin B-6 deficiency vs folate deficiency: Comparison of responses to methionine loading in rats". The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 59 (5): 1033–9. doi:10.1093/ajcn/59.5.1033. PMID 8172087.
- ^ Stehouwer, Coen DA; Guldener, Coen van (2005). "Homocysteine-lowering treatment: An overview". Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy. 2 (9): 1449–60. doi:10.1517/146565220.127.116.119. PMID 11585023.
- ^ a b Martí-Carvajal, Arturo J.; Solà, Ivan; Lathyris, Dimitrios (15 January 2015). "Homocysteine-lowering interventions for preventing cardiovascular events". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 1: CD006612. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006612.pub4. ISSN 1469-493X. PMC 4164174. PMID 25590290.
- ^ Cattaneo, Marco (1999). "Hyperhomocysteinemia, atherosclerosis and thrombosis". Thrombosis and Haemostasis. 81 (2): 165–76. doi:10.1055/s-0037-1614438. PMID 10063987.
- ^ Jager, A.; Kostense, P. J.; Nijpels, G.; Dekker, J. M.; Heine, R. J.; Bouter, L. M.; Donker, A. J. M.; Stehouwer, C. D. A. (2001). "Serum Homocysteine Levels Are Associated with the Development of (Micro)albuminuria : The Hoorn Study". Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 21 (1): 74–81. doi:10.1161/01.ATV.21.1.74. PMID 11145936.
- ^ Jakubowski, H (2006). "Pathophysiological consequences of homocysteine excess". The Journal of Nutrition. 136 (6 Suppl): 1741S–1749S. doi:10.1093/jn/136.6.1741S. PMID 16702349.
- ^ McVeigh, Catherine; Passmore, Peter (September 2006). "Vascular dementia: prevention and treatment". Clinical Interventions in Aging. 1 (3): 229–235. doi:10.2147/ciia.2006.1.3.229. ISSN 1176-9092. PMC 2695177. PMID 18046875.
- ^ Morris, Martha Savaria (2003). "Homocysteine and Alzheimer's disease". The Lancet Neurology. 2 (7): 425–8. doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(03)00438-1. PMID 12849121.
- ^ Smach, Mohamed Ali; Jacob, Nelly; Golmard, Jean-Louis; Charfeddine, Bassem; Lammouchi, Turkia; Ben Othman, Leila; Dridi, Hedi; Bennamou, Soufien; Limem, Khalifa (2011). "Folate and Homocysteine in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Patients with Alzheimer's Disease or Dementia: A Case Control Study". European Neurology. 65 (5): 270–8. doi:10.1159/000326301. PMID 21474939.
- ^ Smith, A. David; Smith, Stephen M.; De Jager, Celeste A.; Whitbread, Philippa; Johnston, Carole; Agacinski, Grzegorz; Oulhaj, Abderrahim; Bradley, Kevin M.; Jacoby, Robin; Refsum, Helga (2010). "Homocysteine-Lowering by B Vitamins Slows the Rate of Accelerated Brain Atrophy in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial". PLoS ONE. 5 (9): e12244. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...512244S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012244. PMC 2935890. PMID 20838622.
- ^ Stanger, Olaf; Fowler, Brian; Piertzik, Klaus; Huemer, Martina; Haschke-Becher, Elisabeth; Semmler, Alexander; Lorenzl, Stefan; Linnebank, Michael (2014). "Homocysteine, folate and vitamin B12in neuropsychiatric diseases: Review and treatment recommendations". Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics. 9 (9): 1393–412. doi:10.1586/ern.09.75. PMID 19769453.
- ^ Dietrich-Muszalska, Anna; Malinowska, Joanna; Olas, Beata; Głowacki, Rafal; Bald, Edward; Wachowicz, Barbara; Rabe-Jabłońska, Jolanta (2012). "The Oxidative Stress May be Induced by the Elevated Homocysteine in Schizophrenic Patients". Neurochemical Research. 37 (5): 1057–62. doi:10.1007/s11064-012-0707-3. PMC 3321271. PMID 22270909.
- ^ McLean, Robert R.; Jacques, Paul F.; Selhub, Jacob; Tucker, Katherine L.; Samelson, Elizabeth J.; Broe, Kerry E.; Hannan, Marian T.; Cupples, L. Adrienne; Kiel, Douglas P. (2004). "Homocysteine as a Predictive Factor for Hip Fracture in Older Persons". New England Journal of Medicine. 350 (20): 2042–9. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa032739. PMID 15141042.
- ^ Van Meurs, Joyce B.J.; Dhonukshe-Rutten, Rosalie A.M.; Pluijm, Saskia M.F.; Van Der Klift, Marjolein; De Jonge, Robert; Lindemans, Jan; De Groot, Lisette C.P.G.M.; Hofman, Albert; Witteman, Jacqueline C.M.; Van Leeuwen, Johannes P.T.M.; Breteler, Monique M.B.; Lips, Paul; Pols, Huibert A.P.; Uitterlinden, André G. (2004). "Homocysteine Levels and the Risk of Osteoporotic Fracture". New England Journal of Medicine. 350 (20): 2033–41. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa032546. hdl:1765/8452. PMID 15141041.
- ^ Nijhout, H. Frederik; Reed, Michael C.; Budu, Paula; Ulrich, Cornelia M. (2004). "A Mathematical Model of the Folate Cycle: new insights into folate homeostasis". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 279 (53): 55008–16. doi:10.1074/jbc.M410818200. PMID 15496403.
- ^ Bleich, S.; Bleich, K; Kropp, S; Bittermann, H. J.; Degner, D; Sperling, W; Rüther, E; Kornhuber, J (2001). "Moderate alcohol consumption in social drinkers raises plasma homocysteine levels: A contradiction to the 'French Paradox'?". Alcohol and Alcoholism. 36 (3): 189–92. doi:10.1093/alcalc/36.3.189. PMID 11373253.
- ^ Bleich, Stefan; Carl, Marco; Bayerlein, Kristina; Reulbach, Udo; Biermann, Teresa; Hillemacher, Thomas; b??Nsch, Dominikus; Kornhuber, Johannes (2005). "Evidence of Increased Homocysteine Levels in Alcoholism: The Franconian Alcoholism Research Studies (FARS)". Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. 29 (3): 334–6. doi:10.1097/01.alc.0000156083.91214.59. PMID 15770107.
- ^ Qin, Xianhui; Li, Jianping; Cui, Yimin; Liu, Zeyuan; Zhao, Zhigang; Ge, Junbo; Guan, Deming; Hu, Jian; Wang, Yanni; Zhang, Fumin; Xu, Xin; Wang, Xiaobin; Xu, Xiping; Huo, Yong (2012). "MTHFR C677T and MTR A2756G polymorphisms and the homocysteine lowering efficacy of different doses of folic acid in hypertensive Chinese adults". Nutrition Journal. 11: 2. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-11-2. PMC 3274435. PMID 22230384.
- ^ Yakub, Mohsin; Moti, Naushad; Parveen, Siddiqa; Chaudhry, Bushra; Azam, Iqbal; Iqbal, Mohammad Perwaiz (2012). "Polymorphisms in MTHFR, MS and CBS Genes and Homocysteine Levels in a Pakistani Population". PLoS ONE. 7 (3): e33222. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...733222Y. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033222. PMC 3310006. PMID 22470444.
- ^ Kang, S. S.; Wong, P. W. (1996-01-26). "Genetic and nongenetic factors for moderate hyperhomocyst(e)inemia". Atherosclerosis. 119 (2): 135–138. doi:10.1016/0021-9150(95)05648-3. ISSN 0021-9150. PMID 8808490.
- ^ Fokkema, M. Rebecca; Gilissen, Marleen F.; Doormaal, Jasper J. van; Volmer, Marcel; Kema, Ido P.; Muskiet, Frits A. J. (2003-05-01). "Fasting vs Nonfasting Plasma Homocysteine Concentrations for Diagnosis of Hyperhomocysteinemia". Clinical Chemistry. 49 (5): 818–821. doi:10.1373/49.5.818. ISSN 0009-9147. PMID 12709379.
- ^ Nigwekar, Sagar U.; Kang, Amy; Zoungas, Sophia; Cass, Alan; Gallagher, Martin P.; Kulshrestha, Satyarth; Navaneethan, Sankar D.; Perkovic, Vlado; Strippoli, Giovanni F. M.; Jardine, Meg J. (31 May 2016). "Interventions for lowering plasma homocysteine levels in dialysis patients". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (5): CD004683. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004683.pub4. ISSN 1469-493X. PMID 27243372.
- ^ Watson, KE (Fall 2006). "Lowering levels of lipids and homocysteine". Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine. 7 (4): 248–50. PMID 17224870.
External linksEdit
|External resources


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Just got off the horn with the AD, Mike Hamrick, and he's a little bit caught off guard by the Columbus Dispatch asssertion that Marshall received 4,000 tickets and returned 1,000. He says MU didn't return any.
Here's what he tells me: The ticket office requested just over 3,000 and sold them all. Neither Hamrick nor his ticket manager know where the 4K figure came from. … is that what Ohio State typically offers Big Ten foes, or ????
Here's the part where I could have a beef: You had to be a $600 donor to buy those tickets. For some reason, I had a lower threshold in my mind.
Hamrick did say several donors upped their donation to meet that threshold. … In any event, I am disappointed there won't be more green in Columbus.


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Capitol reporter Katie Meyer covers Pennsylvania politics and issues at the Pennsylvania state capitol.
The State House Sound Bites Podcast is now called State of the State and is a part of PA Post, a digital-first, citizen-focused news organization to hold Pennsylvania's government accountable to its citizens.
Authorities have captured Eric Frein, the suspect in a police barracks shooting in Blooming Grove, Pike County, ending a seven-week manhunt for the man thought to be a practiced survivalist with a grudge against law enforcement.
Fugitive Eric Frein was apprehended Thursday evening in a protracted search after the September 12 ambush of state police that left Cpl. Bryon Dickson fatally shot and Trooper Alex Douglass seriously injured.
State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said Frein surrendered after being found by U.S. marshals in an abandoned airplane hangar.
"When they approached it they saw an individual that they thought was Eric Frein and they ordered him to surrender, to get down on his knees and raise his hands, which is what he did," Noonan said. "Once they approached him he admitted his identity and was taken into custody."
Noonan said Frein was captured and transported with Dickson's handcuffs and patrol car, a circumstance Governor Corbett called "very appropriate" in his remarks to reporters. Frein was found "in good physical condition," said Noonan. A bloodied mark on the bridge of the suspect's nose was a "scratch, but he had that before" being apprehended, Noonan said.
Frein faces charges including murder in the first degree and homicide of a law enforcement officer, both capital offenses. The Pike County district attorney said he'll seek the death penalty for Frein.
The lengthy search for Frein, added to the F.B.I.'s Most Wanted list, tried the rural northeastern region, at times disrupting school schedules, closing roads, discouraging tourism, and changing daily life as police and helicopters combed the woodsy area.
Noonan thanked law enforcement partners as well as residents of the surrounding area of Pike and Monroe counties, and attributed the protracted manhunt to the difficult terrain of the woods and Frein's familiarity with the region.
"Eric Frein had a mission, and that was to attack law enforcement," Noonan said. "If he got out of those woods, we were very concerned that he would then kill other law enforcement, and if not them, civilians. That's why we had to keep the pressure on."
The Scranton Times-Tribune reports police first named the 31-year-old after linking him to a Jeep abandoned in the woods near the barracks with empty rifle cases, camouflage face paint, and two spent cartridge casings matching those found in the woods near the shooting.
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drosophila(redirected from drosophilas)
Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia.
Related to drosophilas: Drosophila melanogaster
Any of various small fruit flies of the genus Drosophila, especially D. melanogaster, used extensively in genetic research.
[New Latin Drosophila, genus name : Greek drosos, dew + New Latin -phila, feminine of -philus, -phile.]
n, pl -las or -lae (-ˌliː)
(Animals) any small dipterous fly of the genus Drosophila, esp D. melanogaster, a species widely used in laboratory genetics studies: family Drosophilidae. They feed on plant sap, decaying fruit, etc. Also called: fruit fly or vinegar fly
[C19: New Latin, from Greek drosos dew, water + -phila; see -phile]
fruit′ fly`
1. any of numerous small, black or steely green flies of the family Tephritidae, whose eggs are deposited in fruit for the larvae to feed on after hatching.
2. Also called drosophila. any of numerous similar yellowish flies of the family Drosophilidae, which feed on the yeasts of fermenting fruit used in laboratory studies.
Any of various small fruit flies, one species of which is used extensively in breeding experiments in genetic research to study patterns of inheritance.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Switch to new thesaurus
|drosophila - small fruit fly used by Thomas Hunt Morgan in studying basic mechanisms of inheritance
fruit fly, pomace fly - any of numerous small insects whose larvae feed on fruits
genus Drosophila - a genus of Drosophilidae
n → Drosophila f, → Taufliege f


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Axact moved more than Rs8 billion in tax-free, foreign currency from Dubai to Pakistan over the last four years, a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probe has revealed, as the bureau prepares to register cases of money-laundering, tax evasion and illegal use of cyberspace against the IT company.
Investigators scrutinising Axact's financial records, including audit reports and balance sheets, said the company transferred foreign exchange worth Rs1 billion to Pakistan in 2011. This amount, they said, was presented as income from the sale of software and IT-related services. The company moved the funds without paying any tax by taking advantage of government concessions aimed at promoting software export.
In 2012, Axact moved thrice the amount to Pakistan, investigators said, avoiding tax using the aforementioned concessions. The company continued this practice over subsequent years until, by 2014, it had moved as much as Rs8 billion to Pakistan without paying any tax on the income, they added.
According to investigators, the money was transferred to Pakistan via Dubai through transactions involving a few hundred to thousands of dollars.
Sources said Axact is adamant that this foreign exchange was generated by the sale of software and IT services.
But investigators said the company has failed to provide documentary evidence to back up the claim. If the income was generated from any means other than the sale of software and IT services, then Axact has committed money-laundering, they added.
FIA officials are preparing to lodge three to four cases against Axact on charges of money-laundering, tax evasion and illegal use of cyberspace based on irregularities found in the company's financial records. The agency's IT and forensic experts have also collected important evidence from emails and computers, sources said.
The FIA director is set to present a comprehensive report on evidence against Axact collected so far to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan today (Saturday), they said. A decision on whether cases will be registered immediately or if investigators will be given more time to collect additional proofs will be taken after the meeting, the sources added.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2015.


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Click on picture above…more detail will appear
This is a newer and barely used Men's Jaeger LeCoultre "Grande Reverso 8 Day" having an automatic winding movement with 8 day power reserve. The steel 29x39x45.7mm. (lug to lug) reverso (flip) case looks like new. This watch comes with its original strap and signed steel deployant clasp. The silver guilloche dial looks quite elegant, having offset sub-seconds. The crystal is sapphire. This watch comes complete with its box and papers.


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According to Biryini Associates the S&P 500 has risen 76% of the time from the day after Thanksgiving through year end. This phenomenon is known as a "Santa Claus Rally" as stock markets typically only go up about 55% of all calendar months. There is actually quite a bit of truth (at least on the surface) to Santa's Rally as looking at the last 40 years December is the best performing month for stocks with an average return of 1.71%.
This begs the question, "Will we get a Santa Claus Rally in 2012?"
"There are three types of lies: Lies, damn lies, and statistics" - Benjamin Disraeli
While December as a whole has been a good month, it's not without plenty of pretty bad times too. Consider some of these years:
12/2002: -6.03% 12/1996: -2.15% 12/1986: -2.83% 12/1981: -3.01% 12/1980: -3.39% 12/1974: -2.02% 12/1968: -4.16% 12/1957: --4.15%
Truth is, most of the time December is great. In fact, there are a whole bunch of great months where the market goes up 2% or more (sometimes even 5% or more). What I do find interesting though is the general pattern of poor Decembers. Looking at the data above you can see that typically at least once every 10 years and always at least once every 11 years December has produced a loss of 2% or more. This could just be me reading between the lines into nothing, but that is what has happened historically.
Since the last time we've had a 2% or greater drop in December was 10 years ago I suppose we just might be "due" this year. In statistics though this would be moot and total randomness - so for me its more of just a simple observation.
On the flip side I can't help but take a look at where we are in the market and think something "big" is going to happen. Take a look at this chart below:
I've shown this chart via my Market Update videos over the past year. This one is zoomed in a bit more than those used in my videos, but show the same thing - the market is at a critical Inflection Point.
After a 8.3% drop from the 2012 high the market has recovered to roughly 1,406 (looking at the S&P 500). This has been a level the market has been bouncing off from for the better part of the last 6 months. If it can stay above that level I would suspect it will rally into the year end. If it fails to stay above it I suspect it will drop at least to the recent low (about 4% lower than current).
None of this has anything to do with Santa ;)
The idea of a December rally has mostly to do with consumer confidence. People are feeling more jovial than normal and they willfully rack up debt and spend money. Businesses prosper, earnings are strong, and investors drive the market higher.
While spending has been good this year, there are plenty of market headwinds. Namely the "fiscal cliff" and tax and spending cut repercussions that go along with it.
Since many investors with taxable accounts don't want to sell holdings with gains if taxes go up next year, many are selling this year. When investors sell the value of stocks go down. Since Government spending is one of the largest contributors to our economy, if budget cuts are enacted the economy will not be as strong. At least that's the simple logic.
As we round out the calendar year 2012 I think the markets will decisively finish in the black. Even if the market falters from here it would require the largest December sell off in market history for the years gains to be eliminated. However, how far we finish in the black I feel will be decided in the next few days - as we find out if the market can hold the current levels or fail and produce one of the worst Decembers in market history.
Over the next couple of weeks I'll revisit this chart regularly and keep everyone updated. If we see a breakout (either good or bad) I'll work up a video update and post it here on my blog. In the meantime - don't worry. December is typically a great month for investors and this year should produce positive returns for investors no matter what happens. The real value in seeing if we can hold the current levels is likely going to happen in 2013, so consider this year end work prepatory to a good year then.
Jason Wenk


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Co. Laois is the most landlocked county in Ireland and is home to one of the oldest mountain ranges in Europe, and once the highest, the Sliabh Blooms.
Co. Laois is the most landlocked county in Ireland and is home to one of the oldest mountain ranges in Europe, and once the highest, the Sliabh Blooms. Co.
Laois plays host to numerous gardens and houses, and with this tour we aim to give you a chance to experience some of the best. From the 18th century house and gardens at Emo Court to the more modern private Gash Garden we hope your senses will relish this varied horticultural experience.
Hotel: County Arms Hotel, Birr (3 nights D, B&B)
Our hotel sits on the edge of Birr, the historic centre of Ireland. All 70 bedrooms come with satellite TV, hairdryer, tea/coffee-making facilities and WiFi. There is an indoor swimming pool, a gym, sauna, whirlpool and steam room.
Day 1
On leaving Belfast we travel to the oasis of calm and beauty that is the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, before continuing our journey to Birr.D
Day 2
A little further afield today to Emo Court for a guided tour of this neo-classical mansion. We the have free time to explore its beautiful gardens before taking a guided tour of the South gardens, Courtyard and Walled garden of Castle Durrow Country House. Enjoy some tea/coffee and Castle made biscuits!
Day 3
This morning we make the journey to Gash Gardens and enjoy a tour of many interesting and unusual plants. After some light refreshments we return for a free afternoon in Birr. Some interesting gardens to visit are at Birr Castle and Oxmantown MallB, D
Day 4
Our return journey home takes us to Burtown House and Gardens to discover its flower gardens, vegetable patches, parklands and woodland walks. We are expected back in Belfast at 5pm.B
B=Breakfast Included , D=Dinner Included
Tour Highlights
National Botanic Gardens Gash Gardens Emo Court and Gardens Castle Durrow Country House Burtown House and Gardens
Price Excludes
Single Room Supplement £60
Holiday Insurance
Below is a list of pick-up points available on this tour.
Below is a list of pick-up points available on this tour.
|Contact Details
|Europa Buscentre
| Ulsterbus Tours, Europa Buscentre Stands 2-5
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Philadelphia Flyers at Detroit Red Wings
|Date & Time
|Sunday February 17, 2019, 7:00 PM (EST)
Little Caesars Arena
Detroit, MI
|The Line
Detroit Red Wings -102 / Philadelphia Flyers -120
|TV Channel
The Philadelphia Flyers and the Detroit Red Wings meet in the 2nd half of a home-and-home set from the Little Caesars Arena on Sunday evening.
Philadelphia was able to make it back-to-back wins while Detroit picked up a point for the 3rd straight game as the Flyers took Saturday's meeting by a final score if 6-5 in overtime.
Philadelphia took the lead 4:34 into the game thanks to a goal from Shayne Gostisbehere before Gustav Nyquist tied the game at 1-1 heading into the second period.
The Flyers opened the 2nd by scoring a pair of goals 1:03 apart thanks to Travis Konecny and Scott Laughton at 2:59 and 4:02 respectively, helping the Flyers take a 3-1 lead into the final period where things started to get interesting.
Philly pushed the lead to 5-1 thanks to a pair of goals :53 apart within the first 1:24 of the final frame, thanks to Jakub Voracek and Nolan Patrick. The comeback was on from that point from the Red Wings, as Tyler Bertuzzi responded just 1:15 later and Thomas Vanek added a goal just :44 later. Anthony Mantha would cut the deficit to 5-4 at the 8:36 mark of the 3rd and would save his 2nd of the game for the dying moments, scoring with :07 to go, sending us to overtime.
The extra frame lasted all of 1:27 before the aforementioned Travis Konecny scored his 2nd of the game to secure the win for the Flyers.
Carter Hart got the win for Philly to improve to 12-6-1 after stopping 33 of 38 shots faced in regulation and OT while Jimmy Howard was pulled in the start after allowing 5 goals on 24 shots faced, leaving Jonathan Bernier to take the OT loss after allowing only the OT goal, falling to 6-13-3 this season.
Philadelphia is 4-0 in their last 4 road games and 5-2 in their last 7 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games as a road favorite. Detroit is 4-12 in their last 16 games against the Eastern Conference and 0-5 in their last 5 Sunday games while the under is 7-2 in their last 9 games overall. Philadelphia is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings between these two teams.
I would've expected this to be a battle of the backups, but I don't know what's going to happen for Detroit after both goaltenders were used on Saturday. Even still, I'm still rolling with Philly here. The Flyers remain one of the hotter teams in the league over the last little bit while Detroit has been far from that in their own right. The fact that we are getting a low line doesn't hurt either, so I'll lay the cheap price with Philadelphia in this one.


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Outdoors columnist Jeff Lilly says fun can be had at the lake even if you catch nothing. Just watching novice boaters can bring some laughs. He also gives the dates of the upcoming hunting seasons. His column is available this week in The Anderson News, available at newstands across the county.
Former Anderson County basketball player C.J. Penny has had a change of heart.
Penny, who was a first team all-state selection last spring, signed to play for Southeastern Illinois, a junior college located in Harrisburg, Ill., in June. But after moving to the school, he returned home after less than one week.
"I just realized it was not what was best for me," Penny said Friday, while attending the Anderson County-Garrard County football game.
LANCASTER – Dustin Combs ran for 130 yards and four touchdowns as Anderson County rolled past Garrard County 47-10 in the football season opener for both teams on Friday night.
The Bearcats scored on their first possession, opened some breathing room in the second quarter, then put things away with a 12-play, 91-yard drive to open the second half. Combs, a senior, scored from eight yards out to cap the drive and put Anderson in front 27-3 midway through the third quarter.
Combs also had 51 yards receiving and 38 on kick returns.
On paper, it would not look like Anderson County's football team would have a routine opener to get the kinks out at Garrard County.
But Bearcat coach Mark Peach is quick to point out that Garrard's 4-7 record last year has nothing to do with what will go down Friday. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
"I saw them scrimmage (Class 6A foe) Madison Central," Peach says. "They gave Madison Central all they wanted. They will be a formidable opponent."
It did not take long to get thawed out from that night at Doss High School last Nov. 21.
That night, temperatures were in the 20s and wind chills were in the single digits as the Louisville team ended Anderson County's season 49-41.
Late changes from the print edition of The Anderson News are highlighted.
Anderson County High School
Friday, Aug. 21: Anderson Co. at Garrard Co., 7:30 p.m.
Girls' soccer
Wednesday, Aug. 19: Anderson Co. at Western Hills, District 25 seeding game, 7 p.m.
Junior varsity game at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 26: Anderson Co. at West Jessamine, 7 p.m.
Junior varsity at 5:30 p.m.
Boys' soccer
It finally happened last fall.
Anderson County's Taylor Gillis qualified for the state golf tournament, the first Anderson golfer to do so since the girls' team was organized seven years ago.
The current Lady Bearcats are hoping to ride some of Gillis' coattails, mixed in with the good fortune of having the regional tournament on their home course at Wild Turkey Trace, to join Gillis at the state tournament in Bowling Green.
Anderson coach Lynn Gritton says it will be difficult but his team knows it is possible to advance, just like their teammate.
Kate Wickizer, a junior at Anderson County High School, has been named the female winner of the EuroSport Young Referee of the Year award as given by the Kentucky Youth Soccer Association. She was selected for her impact on the local community and across the state of Kentucky.
Wickizer represented the state for the Region II Olympic Development Program in DeKalb, Ill.
Wickizer was selected after being nominated by Daniel Rogers, former head of officials for the Anderson Independent Youth Soccer Association.
There is little doubt that 2008 will go down as one of the benchmark years in Anderson County volleyball history.
The Lady Bearcats finished 19-13, claimed a win over Scott County, swept a very good Henry County team, and after faltering in the District 28 championship game, rebounded to win the first regional match in the program's history.
Moments after the team's final match, a regional semi-final loss to eventual champion North Oldham, there was a quick transition to looking ahead. After all, nearly everyone that played was expected to return.
It is sometimes extremely hard to get a read on a football team in a scrimmage setting but it was clear on Friday night that Anderson County has the potential to be a very special football team in 2009. The Bearcats dominated Lincoln County in every way possible and it could have been worse than it was. Scores are not kept in such scrimmages, but this one was played in game conditions. About the only differences from real game situations were some extra protections against kick returners and no defensive rush on extra point attempts.
Copyright © 2019
The Anderson News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Lawrenceburg, KY and the surrounding area.


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Our brown ale, Milk & Honey, is newest to the line-up of cans, and we've canned another batch of the Sailor Mouth IPA. This round of Sailor Mouth has incredibly fresh hops, which will create a more vibrant flavor that is freaking fantastic. Our cream ale Lawn is available as well. Stop by and pick up your favorites this weekend!
Back to All Events
Earlier Event: January 17Trivia Tap Takeover
Later Event: January 20The Return of Patsy Rides Again Party


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Thinking of taking the pludge and make one of the biggest purchase in your life? Unless you have lots of cash, you're probably going to finance the purchase. A big part of procuring a loan at the lowest interest rate posible is to have a good credit score. There are some things that you can do to improve your scores.
1/3 of americans can not qualify for a mortgage because of their credit scores.
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- 25,000 Reasons to Pamper Your Credit (wisebread.com)
- What Does 'Piggybacking' Mean for Credit Card Users? (applyforacreditcard.com)
- One-third 'highly unlikely' to get mortgage (money.blogs.time.com)


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Midrasha Hebrew School is a combined school between Temple B'nai B'rith and Temple Israel. School sessions are on Thursday afternoons and Sunday mornings. The school is led by the Rabbi's from both synagogues along with school principal, Gerri Kaplan.
If you would like more information about our school, please feel free to call us at (570) 287-9606.
May 2019 Midrasha News
April showers bring May flowers and it also brings Passover. Midrasha participated in model Seders on April 14th. Each class had a Seder that was appropriate for their age and ability. The pre-school and Kindergarten loved the story of the Exodus. The children were very interested in the ten plagues. Not all the children were thrilled with all the Seder food, but they were willing to sample some of it.
The older students were also divided into different groups to participate in their own Seder. Discussions ensued about the Exodus and the crossing at the Red Sea. The children asked great questions and the morning was a great success. I enjoyed going from room to room to listen to the discussions and watch the children learn the story of Passover. I am sure they were all eager to participate in their own family Seders. Thank you to all of the parents and board members who helped to prepare the Seder food. The children had all the Seder food including matza balls and soup.
As our school year is coming to a close the school board is continuing to evaluate our agreement between both temples and will make changes if necessary to ensure the smooth running of our school. We look forward to meeting Rabbi Eric Mollo from Temple B'nai B'rith. Rabbi Mollo will begin his duties as of July 1st. The board looks forward to working with Rabbi Mollo.
As we conclude our second year we wish everyone a wonderful summer and we look forward to next year. As always if you have concerns about anything please call Gerri. Remember to ask your children about their year in Hebrew school and what they have learned.
Bedonna Mitchneck
School Board Chair