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Manny Ramirez is a deeply frustrating employee, the kind whose talents are so prodigious that he gets away with skipping meetings, falling asleep on the job, and fraternizing with the competition. He makes more money than everyone else at the company yet somehow escapes the usual class resentment, and even commands more respect from the wage slaves, who suspect he is secretly one of them, than from his colleagues in business class. It's not that he is anti-establishment, exactly, but in his carefree way he's just subversive enough—"affably apathetic" is how one of his bosses put it recently—to create headaches for any manager who worries about precedent. Despite his generous compensation, he is sufficiently ungrateful to let it be known that he would be happier working elsewhere. He is also, for a man of stature, strangely sensitive, and although his brilliance is accompanied by sloppiness, one criticizes him, as with a wayward teen-ager, at the risk of losing him to bouts of brooding and inaccessibility.
Ramirez, now entering his seventh season with the Boston Red Sox, is the best baseball player to come out of the New York City public-school system since Sandy Koufax, and by many accounts the greatest right-handed hitter of his generation, though attempts to locate him in time and space, as we shall see, inevitably miss the mark. He is perhaps the closest thing in contemporary professional sports to a folk hero, an unpredictable public figure about whom relatively little is actually known but whose exploits, on and off the field, are recounted endlessly, with each addition punctuated by a shrug and the observation that it's just "Manny being Manny." When I asked his teammate David Ortiz, himself a borderline folk hero, how he would describe Ramirez, he replied, "As a crazy motherfucker." Then he pointed at my notebook and said, "You can write it down just like that: 'David Ortiz says Manny is a crazy motherfucker.' That guy, he's in his own world, on his own planet. Totally different human being than everyone else." Ortiz is not alone in emphasizing that Ramirez's originality resonates at the level of species. Another teammate, Julian Tavarez, recently told a reporter from the Boston Herald, "There's a bunch of humans out here, but to Manny, he's the only human."
Ramirez, who was born in Santo Domingo in 1972 and moved to the heavily Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights, in northern Manhattan, when he was thirteen, still spoke little English by the time he was drafted, and he remains a man of few words. Those words, however, have a way of sounding aphoristic: "All I need to see is the ball," or "Do what makes you happy." In 1999, after he'd established himself as a superstar with the Cleveland Indians, written messages began appearing on the backs of his cleats, like admonitions from a prophet: "There will be hell to pay"; "Justice will be served"; "Can't we all get along?"; "Live and let die." Greg Brown, a journeyman minor-league catcher who worked out with Ramirez last winter, said, "Sometimes I think it's Manny's world, and we all just exist in it."
According to lore, Ramirez has, or had, two Social Security numbers and five active driver's licenses—none of which he managed to present to the officer who pulled him over in 1997 for driving with illegally tinted windows and the stereo blasting at earsplitting volume. "The cop knew who he was," as Sheldon Ocker, the Indians beat reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal, tells it. "He said, 'Manny, I'm going to give you a ticket.' Manny says, 'I don't need any tickets, I can give you tickets,' and reaches for the glove compartment. Then he leaves the scene by making an illegal U-turn and he gets another ticket."
Ramirez's appearance—he styles his hair in dreadlocks, wears a uniform cut for a sumo wrestler, and smiles broadly and indiscriminately—hints at this extracurricular flakiness, and even gives off a whiff of pothead. (In 2002, he requested that the song "Good Times," by Styles P, be played over the Fenway Park P.A. system before one of his at-bats, and unsuspecting fans were treated to lyrics such as "Every day I need a ounce and a half . . . take a blunt, just to ease the pain . . . I get high, high, high.") During pitching changes at Fenway, he has been known to disappear behind a door in the left-field wall, and on one occasion he nearly missed the resumption of play—an averted transgression that he at one point blamed on his bladder.
In the outfield and on the base paths, Ramirez can seem oafish and clumsy, and many of the baseball-related incidents for which he is best known reflect a chronic absent-mindedness, but I prefer the most Roy Hobbsian anecdote, in which he hits a home run with a broken bat—it was broken before he swung, that is, and he used it anyway because he was fond of it—since it illustrates both his enthusiasm and his preternatural gift for hitting. He is an intensely serious batter who practices with greater determination than almost any other, but the magic in his swing—minimal stride, maximal weight shift—comes from somewhere within. He is thick but not big by today's standards, about six feet and two hundred pounds, and without the sculpted Hulk Hogan physique that has become the norm, yet only Mark McGwire, Harmon Killebrew, and Babe Ruth hit four hundred and fifty home runs more quickly than Ramirez, and only Lou Gehrig, who, like Ramirez, spent his formative years practicing in Manhattan's Highbridge Park, hit more grand slams.
In Boston, where the "knights of the keyboard," in Ted Williams's famous formulation, cover baseball the way affairs of state are covered in Washington, Ramirez remains a phenomenon more discussed than understood. They share sightings, transcribe every utterance, and speculate about the induction speech he'll give in Cooperstown circa 2015. But for some reason I have not seen it remarked upon that Ramirez chose to name both of his first two sons Manny, Jr.
A running joke in Boston has it that none of Ramirez's coaches know when he gets to the ballpark in the morning, because he's always there (if sometimes napping) when they arrive. His punctuality does not extend into the off-season, however, the length of which varies depending on whether you ask the team or Ramirez. Few people affiliated with the Red Sox have a good idea about where he might be or what he's up to in the winter months, other than that he tends to visit the Dominican Republic for about a week and always stays in shape. This year, it turned out, he had a 1967 Lincoln Continental convertible he wanted to sell.
"Manny Ramirez, you know, good guy," Jay Silberman, one of the promoters of the Atlantic City Classic Cars Auction, said on the last weekend in February, while sitting in a makeshift office in the convention center on Miss America Way. "But Manny is a space ranger—flies by the seat of his own pants. When he called, I said, 'Manny, is it my imagination or isn't it spring-training time?' " The Red Sox had asked pitchers and catchers to report to the team training facility, in Fort Myers, on February 16th, with infielders and outfielders to follow on the 20th, but Ramirez, who had attended the car show once before, merely to browse, evidently thought it might be nice to be there on the auction stand in person. "He said, 'Oh, yeah,' " Silberman went on. "He said, 'No, I'll just fly in, go back. I'll get a private jet, come in, and leave.' But, apparently, what I didn't know was that he told the Red Sox that someone was ill."
That someone was Ramirez's mother, Onelcida, who is sixty, and with whom Ramirez remains extremely close. (He attributed a rare batting slump in 2005 to her health, saying, "My mom's been real sick. I've been thinking a lot about that.") Ramirez told this not to the Red Sox front office—which spent the winter trying, at his request, to trade him—but to the pitcher Julian Tavarez, about a week before the car show, in the course of explaining, by the bye, that he wouldn't be joining the squad until March 1st. Tavarez, who was already in Fort Myers, mentioned it to a newscaster, and thus in a roundabout way the team's manager, Terry Francona, came to understand that he'd be starting the Grapefruit League season without his cleanup batter. (Francona is not without a sense of humor—he said on ESPN, "If Manny has to urinate in the scoreboard every once in a while, we can live with that"—and he now refers to Tavarez as Ramirez's publicist.) Then came word of radio commercials up north that were promising Ramirez's personal appearance at a classic-cars event in Atlantic City ("TAKING SOX FOR A RIDE?" asked the Herald), and the Red Sox were put in the position of needing to confirm that their enigmatic star would be staying home with Mom.
Ramirez has bailed on commitments before. Near the end of his stint with the Cleveland Indians, in 2000, team officials stopped asking him to make public appearances altogether, since he predictably failed to turn up. ("I would have to stand around the clubhouse and wait, to make sure he didn't duck out on me," Abraham Allende, the team's former director of community relations, says.) He was the M.V.P. of the 2004 World Series, which Boston won for the first time in eighty-six years, yet he neglected to accompany the team to Washington for the customary Presidential handshake.
I went to Atlantic City, just in case. The auction, billed as "America's largest indoor collectible car event," occupied twenty acres of floor space, or a little more than twice the area of Fenway Park, with a grandstand at one end and beer and popcorn venders lining the perimeter. In addition to the usual 'Cudas and Studebakers and DeVilles, the offerings included a limousine belonging to Donald Trump and the Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson's 1987 Buick Grand National, with "Reggie 44" plates. (Reggie himself was on the premises, meeting and greeting.) A small crowd had gathered around a pin-striped Rolls-Royce signed by a hundred and fifty current and former New York Yankees. Vinny Caraccio, the Rolls owner, had brought "Red Sox Suck" and "Yankees Suck" T-shirts with him, in anticipation of Ramirez's appearance. "I was dying for him to come here," he said. "I wanted to take pictures with Manny—drape the shirts in front of us. I was going to ask him to drive it up. I hear he's a character."
Ramirez's Lincoln—enormous, flat like a boat, painted Neptune blue and upholstered in ostrich—was parked directly across from the Rolls, unattended. "It's received so many compliments," Silberman, the promoter, said. "You might not even like that kind of car, but you can still admire what he did to it. He totally customized it. He's got TVs in it. He's got a computer in it. It's just a tricked-out car."
Ramirez paid ten thousand dollars for the Lincoln and, in 2004, took it to the shop of a hot-rod specialist whom he'd seen on the Discovery Channel. "This is a car you're going to keep for the rest of your life—you're not going to sell it," he said at the time, adding that he intended to give the car to his father, Aristides, who is now sixty-nine, as a birthday gift. Now Ramirez was hoping to get two hundred thousand for it, and selling duty, in his absence, fell to a New Jersey-based Cadillac dealer named Tony Averso, who wore a Red Sox cap, a yellow oxford shirt, and jeans, and sucked on an unlit cigar.
Bidding on the car began—fierce at first, and then tapering off to a final offer of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, considerably short of Ramirez's goal. No sale. Averso took a seat at his dealership's booth, in the corner, and, despite the no-show, in effect wondered why the Red Sox and their fans find Ramirez so elusive. "This guy calls me up at least five times a week just to say hello," he said. "He calls me up for Thanksgiving. Knows my wife's Jewish—he called her up for Hanukkah. Around Christmas, I said, 'You gain any weight?' He says, 'Yeah, a few pounds. Why don't you come and run with me?' He wants me to go down to his mother's house and eat dinner when I go down to Florida. I mean, that's the kind of guy he is. Manny would love just to come here and sit. He'd hang out with my group."
"They say, 'Manny being Manny,' but we used to say, 'That's Manny,' " Steve Mandl, the baseball coach at George Washington High School, on Audubon Avenue at 193rd Street, said recently, as he stood sentry by the locker-room door before a midmorning gym class. "It wasn't crazy stuff—it's just that he didn't really care about anything other than playing. Even team pictures—it wasn't important to him. You had to drag him by the hair. But if you said we had a game at three o'clock he'd, like, want to sit out there at seven o'clock in the morning, waiting." Mandl has been coaching at George Washington for twenty-four years, and his team has won its division title in each of the past twenty-three. While he talked, a properly officious-looking school administrator with a mustache accosted one of the current George Washington players in the hall and shouted threats about the consequences of cutting class. Mandl rolled his eyes; he was familiar with such displays. Ramirez was suspended periodically as a freshman for truancy, and did not graduate, although he attended enough classes to get through three seasons of varsity baseball as a center fielder and third baseman. (He later got his G.E.D.) His picture hangs only in Coach Mandl's office, but he is at least as good a model of success as the alumni—Harry Belafonte, Alan Green-span, Henry Kissinger—whose framed portraits grace the entrance hall.
Onelcida Ramirez worked as a seamstress in a dress factory; Aristides drove a livery cab and fixed electronics. Manny and his three older sisters, Rosa, Evelyn, and Clara, lived in a sixth-floor walkup on 168th Street. They had no telephone. The neighborhood at the time was one of the city's worst—only East New York, in Brooklyn, had more homicides in 1990. Every morning at five-thirty, Manny left the apartment to run up Snake Hill, behind the high school, with a rope tied around his waist attached to a spare tire that dragged on the pavement behind him. "He was the hardest worker I ever had," Mandl said.
The baseball field at George Washington is oddly shaped, long in left and center fields, and short—about two hundred and eighty feet—in right, which is constrained by the downward slope of the Harlem River Valley. For Ramirez, who already displayed instinctive patience at the plate, this provided an added incentive to wait on pitches, see them longer, and drive them the opposite way, a rare habit among pros, let alone teen-agers. In his final year, the Hitman, as he came to be called, batted .643.
Ramirez was extremely shy, and never asked his family to come watch him play. His first year away from home, in the minors, he borrowed a phone card belonging to Mel Zitter, who had coached him in the summer and on weekends in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, and ran up an eight-hundred-dollar tab in a month. (Now, as a millionaire, he worries about the cost of talking on the phone for longer than a minute at a time.) He didn't fully grasp that he had a future as a professional baseball player until 1993, when he reached class AA, in Canton, Ohio. That year, he also met his future publicist Tavarez, a fellow-Dominican who, as it happened, shared his love for the internal-combustion engine. As big-league rookies, they asked the newspaper reporter Sheldon Ocker if they could borrow sixty thousand dollars. "We were in Kansas City," Ocker recalls. "I reached into my pocket, and I'm, like, 'I don't have that much.' Manny says, 'How about thirty thousand?' Each of them wanted to buy a Harley." Abraham Allende, who at the time went by the Anglicized name Allen Davis, was put in charge of tutoring the two pals in English. Tavarez became a dedicated student; Ramirez played hooky. Allende referred to them as his good son and his bad son. They referred to each other as Rambo. For years afterward, Ramirez raided his teammates' lockers, borrowing their bats and clothes—even their underwear—for luck. The baggy-uniform look, now popular across the league, can be traced to his swiping the pants of Dan Williams, a bullpen catcher in Cleveland, who outweighed him by at least fifty pounds.
Once it was clear that he'd finally made it, the entire Ramirez family moved with Manny to a suburb of Cleveland, and eventually to Florida, and stopped returning to Washington Heights. "We'd like him to help the program out, which he doesn't, unfortunately," Mandl said. "The kids, every day, it's 'Why doesn't Manny do this? Why doesn't Manny do that?' We'd like to put lights on the field."
In the winter of 2000, Ramirez became eligible to file for free agency, and his agent at the time, Jeff Moorad, allowed cameras to film the negotiation process. The video, which aired on ESPN that December, shows Moorad fielding inquiries from the Indians, the Yankees, and the Mariners, before the Red Sox enter the picture. "I'm one of those guys that don't talk a lot," Ramirez warns Boston's general manager, Dan Duquette. "I just go and try to play the game." Toward the end, with Boston emerging as the front-runner, Moorad adds an unusual request. "I want you to think on the way up about how you would add to your clubhouse payroll a new clubby, who would be coming over from Cleveland," he tells Duquette.
The clubby's name was Frank Mancini. He mixed Ramirez's protein shakes, advised him to eat sushi, and, most important, set the pitching machine so that it would issue sliders, low and away—a routine he picked up from the Indians' slugger Albert Belle, who believed that these were the toughest of all pitches to hit. Ramirez spent as much as a half hour every day hitting nothing but hard sliders on the rail, attempting to drive them to the opposite field, and came to see Mancini as yet another kind of lucky charm. The Red Sox, in the end, were willing to oblige his unusual request, but Lucky Charm declined the offer ("Manny, I love you like a brother, but I can't do that"), preferring to stay at home with his family. Mancini cautioned Ramirez, "Boston is a lot harder place to play than Cleveland," but Ramirez signed with the Sox: eight years for a hundred and sixty million dollars, the second-largest contract, after Alex Rodriguez's, in baseball history. During his inaugural appearance in Boston, Ramirez draped his arm around a Red Sox clubhouse attendant. "You and me are going to be friends," he said.
Duquette had been following Ramirez's career since high school, but he now concedes that he had no idea "exactly how unique" his new left fielder was. "When Manny first came to the Red Sox, he would stand in the batter's box, and the umpire would call ball four, and he would get back in the batter's box," Duquette, who is now the president of the fledgling Israel Baseball League, told me. "He did this in his first series at Fenway Park and again on his first road trip." After the third such incident, Duquette ventured down into the locker room. "I said, 'Manny, let me ask you something. I was just wondering why you get back in the batter's box after ball four.' He said, 'I don't keep track of the balls.' He said, 'I don't keep track of the strikes, either, until I got two.' Then he said, 'Duke, I'm up there looking for a pitch I can hit. If I don't get it, I wait for the umpire to tell me to go to first. Isn't that what you're paying me to do?' "
Duquette was fired after Ramirez's first season in Boston, when a new ownership group took over the club. Bill James, a senior adviser who was brought in by the new regime, conducted a couple of studies to try to measure, among other things, the effect of Ramirez's quirks—his tendency to glare at badly hit balls without running to first, his sporadic inability in the field to follow the arc of a fly ball. In 2003, James identified fifty-three instances in which Red Sox players had demonstrated a game-altering failure to hustle; twenty-nine of them involved Ramirez. He also concluded that Ramirez was the team's second-sloppiest fielder. (A Times column last month underscored this point, quoting an analyst who said, "Manny is at the far end of the as-bad-as-you-can-get-in-the-field spectrum.") In theory, playing defense and hustling are also things that he is paid to do, and in the fall of 2003 the new management, convinced that Ramirez's twenty-million-dollar salary was an albatross, placed their best hitter on irrevocable waivers, asking nothing in return for any team's willingness simply to take him (and his contract) off their hands.
There were no takers, and the next spring, according to the writer Seth Mnookin, Ramirez let the Sox ownership know that he felt angry and insulted. Thus began the semiannual "rite of passage," as the Sox C.E.O., Larry Lucchino, calls it, in which Ramirez pleads to be shipped out of Boston—a city where, as his former teammate Johnny Damon once said, "Manny could be Mayor."
The local obsession with the Red Sox is such that David Wells, the former Yankee and Red Sox pitcher, and a night owl, likes to call Boston Picturetown, rather than Beantown, because of all the fans with cell-phone cameras in restaurants and bars, ready for deployment like civilian paparazzi. (One well-travelled series of candid shots, posted on the Web, shows a smiling Ramirez wearing a boater and a football jersey, first at a bar and then, evidently having been talked into visiting a collegiate apartment, dancing with young women, one in her pajamas.) In a famous incident in August of 2003, Ramirez called in sick during a big series against the Yankees, only to be accused by someone at the Ritz-Carlton of having a post-game cocktail with the Yankees' Enrique Wilson, another Santo Domingo native. Ramirez, who was publicly excoriated and even benched for this affront, lives in the Ritz, with his wife, Juliana, a Brazilian whom he met at a gym in 2001, and their two sons, Manny, Jr., who is four, and Lucas, who is one. (The other Manny, Jr., who is eleven, lives in Florida with his mother.) His defenders maintain that the Wilson visit was social but not libational.
The Red Sox management believe that Ramirez does not dislike Boston per se. "If he was really upset about it, he wouldn't live in the Ritz-Carlton, in the middle of the city," one executive told me. Since his arrival in town, Ramirez has expressed interest, at one time or another, in playing for more than a dozen different teams, including the Yankees and the Mets. According to a Sox official, he even once requested a trade to Pawtucket, the team's AAA affiliate in Rhode Island—a transaction that the chamber of commerce in that city of seventy-three thousand would no doubt welcome. Lately, he has favored Anaheim and Seattle as alternatives, though for several years he told friends that he regretted leaving the relatively anonymous comfort of Cleveland and wished he could return.
Ray Negron, a special adviser to George Steinbrenner who previously worked in Cleveland as a mentor to the team's Hispanic players, is familiar with Ramirez's moods and vulnerability. "I remember one time he was hurt and feeling sorry for himself," Negron said. "And I knew I was going to be in the car with him for half an hour, so I made him listen to Frank Sinatra's rendition of 'That's Life'—did you ever hear the words?—and he caught it. He understood what I was trying to say to him." Ramirez, ordinarily a hip-hop man, walked around humming Sinatra for days.
Clinical explanations for Ramirez's unpredictable behavior vary. Steve Mandl once suggested that Ramirez suffers from attention-deficit disorder—a diagnosis that Dan Duquette disputes, arguing that he "did a lot of due diligence" before signing Ramirez, and that, if anything, Ramirez's approach to batting suggested an essential undistractibility. Popular diagnoses abound—"If we didn't have Manny to talk about, who would we talk about?" Duquette says—and tend toward the faintly condescending, clichés about Ramirez as man-child ("He's great with kids") or idiot savant or holy fool.
Negron, for one, thinks Ramirez is misunderstood in Boston. He compared him with Joe DiMaggio. "Manny's more emotionally reachable than Joe was, O.K.?" he said. "They should be fair about this. I got to know Joe DiMaggio, and I was very close to Billy Martin, who knew everything about Joe DiMaggio. You know the difference? Manny's probably a better hitter." He went on, "I came up with the craziness of the Yankees in the seventies—the 'Bronx Zoo,' and Sparky Lyle and all of them sitting on cakes without clothes on. Manny was mild compared to what I had been used to." In Cleveland, I pointed out, Ramirez used to walk into the video room naked to study tapes of pitchers. "Do you understand why I would see that as normal?" Negron said. "He wasn't sitting on a birthday cake."
I got a tip from an informant that Ramirez was going to be in Fort Myers earlier—or, rather, less late—than planned, on Monday, February 26th, so I wrote the Red Sox to request a press credential. When John Blake, the director of media relations, informed me that I'd be wasting my time—that Ramirez wasn't expected until Thursday, March 1st—I made the mistake of mentioning that I'd been led to believe otherwise. Fifteen minutes later, I got an angry call from the informant, who said I'd blown my shot at an interview by leaking the news of Ramirez's surprise appearance.
Ramirez, unlike many superstars, has traditionally been affectionate, even playful, with reporters—hugging, tickling, piggybacking. "I remember one time, in the clubhouse in Cleveland, somebody jumped on my back like I'm supposed to carry him," the Beacon Journal's Sheldon Ocker said. "And it was Manny. I have no idea why he did that. When he got off, he just smiled." In his early years in Boston, when he'd gone a while without hitting a home run, Ramirez would sometimes squeeze the biceps of passing beat writers and say, "Got no pop!" But he has never expressed much interest in actually conversing with the press, and in recent years, as relations between Ramirez and his employers cooled to their current state of détente, he has taken to ignoring the media outright, giving them what the Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy calls the "Patrick Swayze-in-'Ghost' treatment, like you're not there." Last year, Ramirez answered questions for only seven minutes on the morning of his arrival in Fort Myers, and then called it a season. ("I'm here," he said. "I get paid to play baseball. That's why I'm here. That's it. What else can I say?") In August, during what many who follow the team now refer to as "the shutdown," when Ramirez pulled himself from the lineup for twenty-eight of the final thirty-six games with a knee injury that teammates and front-office executives alike have privately questioned, Shaughnessy approached him for comment, and asked him questions for fifteen or twenty seconds, with no response. "He was in the bat rack going through some lumber, and he turned on his heels—he sort of wheeled around—and he kind of patted me on the back and took off smiling."
My tipster, in any event, was right. On the Monday following the car show, Ramirez showed up in camp, sporting red streaks in his dreads (last spring, they were orange) and a beard on his chin, and he proceeded directly to work—to the batting cage—letting his agents handle the questions.
Q: Why is Manny here today?
A: He was ready to report, and he's excited to be here. . . .
Q: Manny is thirty-four now. Do you think it's time for him to be more accountable, instead of being babied like a twelve-year-old?
A: Well, I wouldn't accept your characterization of his behavior. . . . He's happy to be here. He's here before he's required to be here.
Q: Do you think, since he's your meal ticket, you should try to help him grow up?
A: Again, I wouldn't agree with your characterization. . . .
Q: What has changed since he asked to be traded last fall?
A: He's here right now, and he's excited to be here.
Inside the cage, hitting soft tosses from his new clubhouse sidekick, Ino Guerrero, Ramirez betrayed no awareness of the surrounding frenzy. He began each swing almost daintily, laying his bat down against the outside edge of the plate, using his left, or bottom, hand, to mark his territory before assuming the ready stance—wide, upright, half cocked—that instills fear in so many pitchers.
Later, Terry Francona sat by a fence in front of the clubhouse, chatting with the press. He'd recently returned from a meeting with league officials, where a new set of rules had been introduced, intended to speed up the game—for instance, forbidding managers from leaving the dugout to protest umpires' warnings. "I don't particularly agree with these rules," Francona said, jabbing a fungo bat into the ground. "I'll follow 'em, because we have bosses, but . . ." His voice was drowned out by the adoring shouts of fans ("Manny! Manny!") as the team's most notorious rule breaker jogged back toward the clubhouse to shower.
"It's just impossible to insult the fans if you're that good," Shaughnessy, a frequent Ramirez critic, said later. "It's the equivalent of the beautiful woman who's loved by all the guys regardless of anything else she may contribute." (Shaughnessy's son, a freshman on the Boston College baseball team, wore Ramirez's No. 24 throughout high school, in homage.)
After a few days in Fort Myers, I began to sympathize with Ramirez's sense of baseball as a game to be played rather than analyzed, and also to suspect that it was not so much quaintness as shrewdness that explained his tunnel vision. During the off-season, the Sox had paid fifty-one million dollars merely to win the right to negotiate a contract with the Japanese pitching star Daisuke Matsuzaka, or Dice-K, as he is commonly known. (The contract itself ended up costing fifty-two million more, for six years' service.) Matsuzaka's arrival brought more than a hundred members of the Japanese press corps to Florida, and his every move—what he ate for lunch, whether or not he put ice on his arm—was scrutinized for daily news reports and video segments back home. Local real-estate agents canvassed the press box, dispensing condominium brochures stapled to free bags of snow-pea crisps.
In Japanese baseball, the most highly prized virtue is doryoku, or unflagging effort, and Ramirez's stubborn stand-offishness, at least in the early days, seemed a direct clash with the polite forbearance of Matsuzaka. Without much chance to see Ramirez's prowess at the plate in live action, and in the absence of any of his signature comic moments (give him time), the foreigners were left with a primarily negative impression. "I just know he's kind of selfish," Naofumi Murakami, a writer for the Asahi Shimbun, said of Ramirez, on the afternoon of his first start, against Toronto. "He doesn't speak a lot, and the people are afraid of him." Then he added, "I just talked to Matsuzaka. He said Ramirez is very kind to Matsuzaka. They spoke Spanish, and he said hello."
Buried but hardly forgotten in the Fort were stories involving Terry Francona's decision to quit dipping ("Spit Tobacco Abstinence & Recovery War Begins Tonight," said an official Red Sox press release) and the launch of Curt Schilling's blog. Schilling, the team's Opening Day starter, somehow managed to post more words in an evening, after practice, than many beat writers produce in a week, and he even scooped the scribes on the biggest recurring story of the spring—the question of who would fill the bullpen closer's role (answer: Jonathan Papelbon). Although he never mentioned Ramirez by name, Schilling, one of the few players who has never seemed to find amusement in the Tao of Manny, did write, "I talk to the media because part of what I do, win or lose, is stand at my locker and answer questions about the game. I was taught that was part of the job when you are in the big leagues."
Ramirez, for his part, distributed T-shirts with the words "Manny being Manny" on the back, along with his career statistics. During a game against the Mets in Port St. Lucie, he was heckled after trotting to first base prematurely, on what he thought was ball four; and in the third week of March, just as things were beginning to drag, he was responsible for the introduction of some welcome levity, when the clubhouse television, tuned to "Pardon the Interruption," showed that an industrial-sized Jenn-Air barbecue, apparently belonging to Ramirez, had turned up on eBay. "Hi, I'm Manny Ramirez," the product description said. "I bought this AMAZING grill for about $4000. . . . But I never have the time to use it because I am always on the road." The Web posting was accompanied by pictures of a smiling Ramirez standing in a garage with the grill by his side, in a T-shirt and shorts and bare feet.
His teammates teased him about it. "I'm a businessman," Ramirez replied. This wasn't sufficient explanation for the journalists, and as the eBay mystery gained momentum—it elicited an editorial from the Globe—Ramirez even felt compelled to converse with the press, breaking his silence of three hundred and eighty-four days. He told the Globe's Amalie Benjamin that it was his neighbor's grill, and the Herald's Karen Guregian that it was his own ("I need the money"), before gently deflecting most baseball-related questions. "Why do people want to know what I think?" he asked Guregian. "I like to play the game. I don't like to give opinions."
The grill auction lent a nice merchandising symmetry to the spring season, which had, of course, begun with the car auction. (Next month, courtesy of Longball Vineyards: Manny Being Merlot, available from your local New England vintner.) And it provided ample fodder for the chatterboxes on WEEI, Boston's sports-talk radio, who tallied incoming bids like election returns deep into the night, from forty-eight hundred to seventy thousand to two hundred and ninety-five thousand to—this could no longer be serious—fifty million, or the amount of Matsuzaka's contract.
EBay eventually cancelled the auction, which maxed out at $99,999,999, citing irregularities, but the next afternoon, during batting practice, Ramirez told Maureen Mullen, from MLB.com, that "the grill people" had been in touch with his agent about the possibility of doing a commercial. Television cameras later caught Ramirez goofing around in the dugout with teammates, practicing a new handshake that incorporated a burger-flipping gesture.
Ramirez, for all his antics, is feeling the effects of age, and this past winter, for the first time in his career, he swung a bat to get ready for the upcoming season. Beginning December 1st, he trained almost every day at a facility called Perfect Competition, outside Fort Lauderdale. For two months, he worked exclusively on hitting the ball to the right side, but he has decided to abandon his years-long attempt to master the outside rail—the old Frank Mancini special—and concede those rare pitchers' pitches rather than try to drive them the other way. "Getting old," he remarked in the final week of spring training. "I don't mess around with it no more." That's an exclusive, because the scribe he said it to was me.
Karen Guregian, the Herald reporter who spoke with Ramirez about his grill, likened her experience to being granted a papal audience. On this day, when I managed to hold Ramirez's ear for more than nine minutes in the clubhouse, the shortstop Julio Lugo consecrated the occasion by showering us both with talcum powder, before turning the bottle loose inside his pants.
Ramirez's dreads were bundled up in a translucent red hairnet, like a Rastafarian kippah, through which I could see that he is starting to go gray. He has always said that he lives in the present, not the past, but he seemed nonetheless to be thinking more about history. "I like to travel, man," he said. "I been to Europe—you know, Spain. Dominican, Aruba, Costa Rica. Just to learn about different cultures. You know where I want to go? I want to go to China. I want to go and see—it's a city that I don't know how to say the name. It's the Prohibit City?" He meant the Forbidden City, in Beijing. "I saw it on the History Channel. They do a lot of tours over there." He said he'd been reading books in Spanish about the Dominican Republic ("so I know more about my country"), where he thinks he'll probably move when he retires. In the Dominican Republic, Julian Tavarez told me, Ramirez is "like a god," and, unlike here, no one cares about "what's going on with his life and all that."
On that sore subject, he seemed at peace in Boston for the time being ("I don't think it's hard to play there, man. I think you make it harder"), but he also wasn't sure where or when, exactly, he'd finish his career. "Hey, I don't know," he said. "Baseball, you know, one day you're here, the next day you're in another place. So you really cannot say, 'Oh, I'm going to be here for a long time.' "
We talked a little about cars. "I'm looking for a '62 or a '63 Lincoln convertible, because the one that I have now is a '67, and the '67 is too long," Ramirez said, adding that he was planning to try to sell it again in a month. "If I could find a '63, it would be nice, because, you know, that's the historical Kennedy car. I've been looking for one for seven months already. I can't find nothing. Everybody seems to like, you know, classic cars. Sometimes you just want to go and have one."
His mom had had a stroke, he said, but she was doing much better. "What happened to her was that they found, like, a lot of bad blood behind her stomach. So now they're giving her some pills so they could thin the blood." And he confirmed, with some regret, that he hadn't been back to his old neighborhood in Manhattan in a long time, even though he travelled to New York three or four times a year to play the Yankees. "For me it's hard, because I'm just focussed, you know, on having good years," he said. "And after the game I like to go to my hotel. I'm not twenty-five years old anymore. I'm not a boy. I take my time and get to bed." ♦


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The first room guests see when they enter your home isn't usually a room at all. Foyers exist somewhere between that and a hallway - functional and elegant, cursory but incredibly important. While you rarely linger in your home's foyer for longer than a minute - certainly not as long as you spend in a dining room or living room - its design is still incredibly important.
So what kind of foyer do you want to craft for your home? No matter what style you choose and décor you adopt, the foyer should be comfortable. Whether you're coming home from a long day at the office or guests are being welcomed into your home, it's essential that the foyer be a temperate and inviting spot. Installing radiant floor heating can help you find that ideal comfort zone. It's easy to put in under a variety of floor types, eco-friendly and offers a far more satisfying experience than central heat. Rather than getting hot gusts of air, adjust your radiant heat system to the temperature you want, or pre-program it to heat up and cool off depending on the time of day.
Now it's time to consider your foyer's style. Should it flow with the rest of the house or make a grand statement? Browse these options before settling on your foyer's look.
1. Bringing the outside inside. Since the foyer is an entryway - a portal to and from the outdoors - why not let nature inform your style. Consider a wallpaper styled with leaf and flower prints, a collection of botanical paintings or even a simple side table topped by a vase of flowers.
2. Going location-themed. Decorating an entire home in a seaside theme can be a bit much. Too many rooms bedecked with shells and model ships can kill your home's style, but focusing on one space - especially a house's entrance - can be a great nod to your locale
3. Keeping it sparse. If you're a fan of mission-style furniture and austere décor, you may want to simply keep your foyer clean, clear and reliant on wood and ceramic hues to give it its warmth. Rather than overwhelm yourself or guests with a bombardment of color and design, let your home's natural charm do the work.
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Best Chiropractors in Homewood, AL
Homewood Chiropractors Listings:
The capability to live a healthy life surpasses access to quality physicians, cost effective health care services and even classy healthcare facilities. A city's health, to a huge degree, takes into account the options its homeowners make to reduce their individual health dangers. Most current data shows that locals residing in Homewood, Alabama are amongst the ones who lead a healthy way of life. According to the stats, 68 % of grownups reported a BMI less than 30, 79 % are nonsmokers, 81 % have medical insurance cover while 70 % reported leisure-time exercise.
If you are like many people, living a well balanced way of life does not have to be an uphill struggle. There are lots of methods to guarantee your health stays in a healthy state. Below are a couple of ideas to assist you keep your health.
1) Stroll When You Can – Most individuals choose driving instead of strolling, specifically to their offices. Strolling is a great low-impact workout that plays a critical function in conditioning your legs and abs, burning sugars and making you feel tired. Attempt to prevent taxis and tubes as much as you can, and rather, stroll to any close location. Guarantee you have comfy shoes and light-weight clothing, unless it is a cold season. You can likewise go to various locations within Homewood as part of the workout. Additionally, you can decide to take a bike trip to your location if you discover it a more enticing alternative.
2) Utilize the Stairs – Most individuals choose to utilize escalators and elevators not just when they are late however even when time is not a concern. They discover it less tedious and most likely more satisfying. Nevertheless, fortunately is that many work environments have numerous stairs, something you must make the most of if you consider leading a healthy way of life. Instead of utilizing the elevator or escalator, why not utilize the stairs? It is an exceptional method to do light workouts even throughout your working hours. In addition, it is terrific for your legs and back.
3) Embrace Local Facilities – Most cities and states have numerous gym or fitness centers in addition to remarkable parks. Spend some time to participate in a health club or swimming pool for light workouts. It is not a need for you to begin weight-lifting, however doing some aerobics in the health club will go a long way in assisting you enhance your health. If you have kids, then it is recommended to take them to a neighboring park, stroll with them for a couple of hours and invest a long time having fun with them. These easy workouts are an outstanding method to support health for the entire household. Your chiropractor will thank you for this.
4) Welcome Outdoor Activities – If you can not discover time to go to the health club, it does not indicate that your mission to lead a healthy life is doomed. You must attempt brand-new physical fitness hacks such as vigorous walking and run. Moreover, you can too invest a long time to loosen up with a couple of outside yoga impersonates this will assist unwind your muscles and burn a couple of calories.
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6) Pick the Right Hotel – This particularly goes to those on a getaway in Homewood, AL. If you have a possibility, then pick the ideal hotel where you have open door to the gym/pool/spa. Such facilities will make your getaway even much better considering that it makes it practical for you to not fret throughout the vacations and stress over your total health.


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"Casablanca" ends with Humphrey Bogart's Rick telling Claude Rains' Captain Renault, "Louie, I think this the beginning of a beautiful friendship," a memorable line in a movie with a hill of them. The audience, of course, didn't get to see how that "beautiful friendship" plays out, except in our collective imagination, where the classic film resides in a special spot.
With the Oscar-winner approaching its 70th anniversary this month, the New York Post reports a new proposal for a sequel is being floated – this time by producer Cass Warner, the granddaughter of a Warner Bros. cofounder who is reviving a three-decade old idea by "Casablanca" co-writer Howard Koch. While we admire her spirit and dedication, there's no compelling reason – to paraphrase Woody Allen's paraphrase of Bogie's Rick – to play "Casablanca" again.
Why, after all, tempt fate by returning to a movie about fate? "Casablanca" offered the perfect ending, in part, because it left us wondering what would happen next: Would star-crossed Rick and Isla ever meet again, at another gin joint or otherwise? Would Isla and Victor make it to America? Would Rick and Renault's alliance take them to the French Resistance?
That it's not a particular happy ending – just the right one – makes it all the more powerful and enduring.
Not that we're shocked – shocked! – by the push for a sequel. There have been several attempts over the years to revive the "Casablanca" franchise in book and TV form, including a short-lived early 1980s NBC drama staring David Soul and the great Scatman Crothers.
In the post-"Star Wars" era, Hollywood moguls plot sequels as potential blockbusters are made. Some of this started with a few years earlier when the success of "The Godfather" in 1972 spurred the relatively quick turnaround of "The Godfather Part II," to some minds a better film than the original. The follow-up benefitted greatly from the presence of Al Pacino and other actors from the first movie.
As the Post recounts, there were a couple of efforts not long after "Casablanca" to pull together sequels of sorts. That would have been the time to reunite the usual suspects – Bogart, Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid and Ingrid Bergman – who shined in one of the best-cast movies in Hollywood history. But unlike Isla and Victor's plane, those plans never got off the ground.
Whatever comes of the sequel bid, it likely won't amount to a hill of beans compared to the original. Either way, we'll always have "Casablanca."
Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.


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By John Goralski
Sports Writer
Jordyn Moquin smiled as she gripped the pen and began scrawling her signature across the pages of the contract. Her family and friends lined the wall of the conference room, and a look of relief washed across her parents' faces.
With a flick of her pen, Moquin secured her dreams of playing at the next level. Next year, she'll pitch for Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY. More importantly, she is one of only 40 students accepted into their business honors program.
"It's been so much stress over four years. To finally reach my goal is such a big accomplishment," said Moquin. "I'm so glad it's finally settled. I know that all my friends are still worried about where they're going to go, but I'm all set."
Over the past few months, Moquin has been deluged by coaches from Roger Williams University, Molloy College in Long Island, Stonehill College near Boston, and Stevens Institute of Technology. They were all interested in the pitching arm that has already compiled a 26-3 record and a 0.42 ERA in three years as a Lady Knight. They showed interest in her .372 batting average and the success of all her teams.
It's one of the benefits to being a premier high school athlete. It opens doors at the next level.
"It was a long process. They showed interest in me all summer, but after I had an overnight visit, I really thought it was a perfect fit for me," she said. "It's somewhere that I can really see myself going."
Moquin is the second Lady Knight player to commit to college athletics and she's the next in a long line of Southington pitchers to be wooed by college coaches.
"We're obviously doing something right. Kids want to come here and play here. They want to exceed and excel because they all want to get to the next level. Jordyn is proof of the pudding," said Lady Knight softball coach John Bores. "This is a really proud moment, and I couldn't be happier for her. She worked so hard over the last three years. A lot of people think that a two-sport or three-sport athlete is just three or four months and you go on to something else. She works 12 months per year. She takes pitching lessons, hitting lessons, for 52 weeks per year."
Bores said that coaches liked Moquin's pitching abilities, her ability to throw strikes, and her composure and leadership on the mound.
"She's very athletic, and she's a pitcher that throws strikes," he said. "When you have a pitcher that throws strikes, it puts the ball in play and keeps the defense on their toes. She can hit the ball, too."
Moquin is the second Lady Knight to commit to a college program. Lady Knight catcher Rachel Harvey committed to the University of Maine last week. Four Southington baseball players have already signed letters to play at the next level, and Bores said that they won't be the last.
As a high school coach, Bores likened a college signing to winning a state title.
"This is just as good. I like to see the kids grow up and how successful they become. Some of my proudest moments is having a kid graduate and coming back as doctors or accountants or all kinds of things. It's unbelievable," he said. "It doesn't necessarily have to be division one. When I see kids continue with a college career—whether it's division three, division two, or division one—it's something for other kids to aspire to."
And that begs the ultimate question: Who's going to be next?
To comment on this story or to contact sports writer John Goralski, email him at email@example.com.


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A North Shore icon with classic Scandinavian ambiance and style. A variety of king, queen and double room types are available.
These spacious and fully-furnished units have 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, dining and living room, gas fireplace, deck and a private Jacuzzi room. Sleeps up to 9.
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Spacious and serene villas just feet from Lake Superior, with breathtaking views, wood-burning fireplaces, and lakeside decks. One and two-story units available. Sleeps 2 to 8.
At Lutsen Resort, we offer a number of seasonal and year-round specials and packages. Find one that's right for you!
Spring on the North Shore is short but adventurous. One day may bring rays of sunshine, while the next a foot of fresh powder! From spring skiing to exploring the area's raging rivers and waterfalls, spring is a beautiful time of year.
There is nothing like summer on the North Shore. Explore the beauty of our untamed wilderness and make memories that will last a lifetime. Whether you take part in one, two or all of our complimentary activities, or venture out on your own, you will find something fun for everyone!
The fall colors are unlike anything else you've ever seen. Soak up the vibrant palette of reds, oranges and yellows while you're paddling in the BWCA, hiking the Superior Hiking Trail or fishing along the shoreline of one of our many inland lakes.
With one of the largest cross-country ski trail networks in North America, over 450 miles of snowmobile trails, the largest alpine skiing and snowboarding park in the Midwest and countless other activities, the North Shore provides ample reasons to get outside and play this winter!
With the lake as the backdrop and a perfect blend of lodging, dining and event spaces, you and your guests can enjoy your entire wedding in one beautiful location.
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Our culinary team strives to prepare cuisine that will allow guests to have a memorable experience with us, while utilizing fresh and sustainable products whenever possible. Learn more about the team.
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|Home >> Course Descriptions >> College of Arts and Sciences
|Brass Class
|Two semester hours.
A course which introduces the fundamentals of each brass instrument (cornet/trumpet, horn, euphonium, trombone and tuba). The course is taught in a laboratory setting with hands-on training on actual instruments. Prerequisite: Must have upper level standing as a music major/minor or consent of instructor.
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A Vibrant Backyard Wedding at a Private Residence in Brooklyn, New York
White spray paint, a bold wedding dress and a little imagination were all Steph Goralnick (35 and a photographer and graphic designer) and Dylan McCullough (43 and a publications editor) needed to pull off the DIY backyard wedding of their dreams alongside 80 guests, who were all asked to wear white for the occasion. Shortly after Steph and Dylan because Mr. and Mrs. in a public park, The PitchBlak Brass Band led a second line parade from the ceremony site to the couple's recently renovated backyard, where guests noshed on chicken and waffles to the tune of a sentimental soundtrack. "I created a 49-song playlist as a love letter to Steph," Dylan says of the folk-and-soul-filled surprise. On-demand cappuccinos and espresso shots kept guests caffeinated throughout the night.


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The Top 7... Reasons the Wii U might win the next console generation
Welcome to the next generation
The Wii U arrived on shelves just yesterday, officially throwing down the gauntlet and kicking off the eighth console generation. As of now, the console is undisputed in its respective gen, though Microsoft and Sony have indicated the imminent arrival of their own entrants. This status gives Nintendo a healthy head start... or sets it up to be in the same position Sega was in when the Dreamcast was crushed under the PS2's powerful processor.
We can't predict the future, but we still think there are some reasons to believe that Nintendo might win the console generation by outselling its competitors (when they actually arrive). Think were insane? We might be, but we have seven reasons to back up our claims.
7. The Wii won the last one
Momentum matters in the gaming industry, especially when it comes to hardware sales. In recent history, "winning" one console generation has historically set up its successor to do well during the next one. The NES' success led to the SNES' dominance, the PlayStation's massive sales helped the PlayStation 2 sell more hardware than either of its rivals, and the Wii's gargantuan triumph could definitely shepherd in a golden age for the Wii U. Nintendo found an entirely new audience with the Wii, and it'll no doubt hope that same audience lines up for the new console (if its still alive--because, you know, old people).
Unless the Wii's incredible sales were a fluke, and the large casual chunk of its audience doesnt care anymore. The Wii was the thing to get for the few years after release, but software sales were never all that impressive, and it's totally possible that Nintendo's new system won't court the same audience that the Wii did.
6. The second screen really is innovative
Though some games use the GamePad's screen (and will continue to) as a needless supplement, other developers have already proven that the Wii U's inventive controller is capable of greatness. ZombiU shows that the screen can be made intentionally cumbersome to ramp up tension in a horror game, and Nintendo Land provides a suite of examples as to how it can work in other instances, enhancing single- and multiplayer games alike.
Unless developers decide not to invest their design ideas in the screen. While it's possible to achieve great things with the GamePad, developers or publishers could opt not to put the work in from a sheer porting-convenience standpoint, resulting in the GamePad being reduced to an in-hand radar/map that needs to be charged every few hours.
5. Powerful hardware hasn't helped a console win in years
"But it's not much more powerful than current-gen consoles!" you're screaming at your computer, frothing at the mouth in a mix of anger, confusion, and Twinkie deficiency. "How can it compare when the Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4 are set to leapfrog over its hardware!?" While it's true that the other next-gen consoles will likely have more graphical and processing horsepower than Nintendo's, history dictates that it really couldn't matter any less. What do the NES, Game Boy, PSX, PS2, DS, and Wii all have in common? They all sold the most during their generations, and they were all underpowered compared to their competitors.
Unless it's too weak to compete. Sure, the less-powerful hardware usually does just fine (or better) than the super-powered competition, but we still haven't seen what the other next-gen consoles have to offer. If they're significantly better looking than the Wii U, Nintendo might be in trouble.
4. It has a head start
Though the system that launches first isnt guaranteed success by any means, coming out potentially a full year before the competition puts Nintendo in a good place to gain an early lead. The Wii shipped over 20 million units in the first 12 months, and if the Wii U does anywhere near as well, it'll go into the console war with a large user base, which third-party publishers always love. Oh, and it'll likely still be cheaper than the other systems when they launch since the technology likely won't be as cutting edge, giving it another head start when it comes to the second major part of the new console generation: the inevitable price drop.
Unless the first year of sales doesn't go well. The 3DS had a rough first year, failing to capture gamers due to its lackluster library and high price of $250--which is $50-100 cheaper than the Wii U is at launch. It eventually found its place and is doing quite well now, but Nintendo might have to call an audible and drop the price if the next 12 months dont perform up to par.
3. It already has a fairly strong game library
Nintendo seems to have learned its lesson when it comes to launching new hardware. The 3DS lacked anything of real value at launch, and it took months before it had a game library that any would call "strong." The Wii U, in comparison, brought with it a new Mario title (the first to hit a system launch since the N64), the inventive Nintendo Land, and some cool third-party games like Scribblenauts Unlimited and ZombiU. There are even some great games on the just-launched eShop, with indie gems Little Inferno and Mighty Switch Force available for download at launch.
Unless the third-party support fades away. The Wii had incredible third-party exclusives early on when developers saw it as a goldmine, but they backed out after lackluster sales numbers and a market littered with shameful shovelware. If the Wii U's software sales are similar, we might see this happen again--maybe sooner, too.
2. Miiverse is actually (sort of) awesome
We're still messing around with Nintendo's Miiverse, the mysterious online system/social network that launched with the system, but so far we've already seen it accomplish some cool stuff. It's a true evolution of the "post this achievement to Twitter and see your Avatar dance" thing that the other consoles have been doing, merging the gameplay experience with a social one in a meaningful way. Individual message boards that can be accessed in-game to ask for help is incredibly useful, even if it might make you less likely to come check your favorite game site for a guide.
Unless Nintendo never updates it. Though the Miiverse is bursting with potential, some aspects of it aren't really that evolved yet, making it hard to use and understand. With a few iterations, it can be a (literal) game changer, but for all we know, Nintendo could be content to leave it the way it is right now, considering how little love it gave the Wiis online side post-launch.
1. The hardware's future looks bright
The launch, while strong, can't carry the Wii U forever. Luckily, it won't have to--the next few months look just as solid, with Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, Game & Wario all hitting within the "launch window," which extends through March 2013. But beyond that, there's also the future of Nintendo's first-party games. We already saw glimmers of a Zelda game last year, and we're excited to see what Nintendo does with its other big franchises. Just thinking about how an HD F-Zero or Metroid would look on the system has us excited, especially after playing the Metroid and F-Zero levels in Nintendo Land.
Unless Nintendo focuses too much on the GamePad and makes everything weird. Listen, we like the new controller as much as anyone, but we still want games to have a traditional vibe to them. If Nintendo falls too in love with the tablet, we could see it making things that focus too much on touch, and after playing a lot of games on the iPad we know how dangerous it is to go that route.
Join the Nintendo Fun Club
We're super excited for the future of Nintendo's console, and we expect that many of you are, too. Because of that, we'll be writing about the games we're looking forward to the most this week, and running through how we want them to play out. Let us know in the comments below which games you want to play on the Wii U.
And if you're looking for more, check out every Wii U launch game and the Top 7 launchiest launch franchies.


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Fanta's Story: Playing Her Part to Improve the Lives of Others
Fanta's Story: Playing Her Part to Improve the Lives of Others
Publication info
Fanta Bangura is 17 years old and grew up in Yiben, a rural community in the Koinadugu district. Early in her marriage, she moved to Freetown with her husband and shortly after became pregnant with their first child. Unfortunately, like so many children under five in Sierra Leone, Fanta's first son Foday, died. Fanta explains, "I introduced the child to water and bottle feeding from the time he was a week old. I know now that this is the wrong practice."
Fanta and her husband then returned to the Koinadugu district. Soon after a CARE staff member in her community established a community health club (CHC). Fanta became interested and decided to join the group. Based on her participation and commitment to her community, she was selected by the group to be the CHC secretary and then a short time later selected to be trained as one of the community growth promotion volunteers by CARE.
Fanta has learned a lot from her time working with CARE and from her participation in CARE's health clubs and support groups. When her time came to give birth to her second child, she had her mother-in-law and the traditional birth attendant take her to the birth waiting home – an initiative started by CARE that has since been adopted by the Window program. At the birth waiting home, Fanta participated in daily health education sessions, which were focused on early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, and timely complementary feeding.
After two weeks of waiting, Fanta delivered a healthy baby girl at the peripheral health unit (PHU). Fanta immediately put into practice what she had learned.
"I placed my child on the breast within 30 minutes of delivery and started practicing exclusive breastfeeding. Now I am a proud mother with a healthy growing child," she said.
Fanta later seized another opportunity to be trained as a mother-to-mother support group facilitator in Yiben. When asked why she decided to be trained as a mother facilitator, she said:
"I wanted to contribute to the development process of my community and ensure community cohesion. People like me have gained so much knowledge from the mother-to-mother support group, the community health club and the pregnant women's support group sessions. I have a role to play in the lives of other women in this community."
Fanta has expressed her gratitude for CARE for contributing to the health and survival of her child.


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I'm extremely excited to be able to announce that my new, sparkling blog is ready and can be found at the (much easier to remember) URL - www.therawchefblog.com. So if you have bookmarked this site you will need to change it.
I would like to thank every one of my readers who have recommended my blog, posted links to me and generally helped me, in the last few weeks, get the largest readership in the site's history. It was only just over a year ago that I started writing and was only getting 14 visits a day, and I think 7 of those hits were from me! Thank you again, sooooo much.
This blog will stay here for the foreseeable future as there are many links to it. If you have linked to it, and if it's possible, I would appreciate linking to the same article on the new blog. All previous posts from this version have been transferred over, so there's nothing missing! If you need help finding the same link on the new blog just email me the details and I'll send you the relevant link.
If you have subscribed to the RSS feed or the email udpates, you don't need to worry about changing over as I have done all that for you :-)
I'm also very excited about launching my new eZine, 'News From The Kitchen'. This will be starting in the next couple of weeks so you can sign-up here to make sure you don't miss a thing.
I will be publishing Indulgent raw recipes and revealing essential tips and techniques to your email every two weeks, so be sure to sign-up!
I'd also like to ask for your questions for a Q&A feature. So whether it's a recipe you'd like, a recipe you can't quite get right, ingredients you like more info on, or something that bugging you such as how to get your flax crackers really thin, then send an email with as much detail as possible to [email protected]
Thanks again for your attention and I look forward to seeing you over at the new site!


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Unsatisfied with sitting atop its mountain of cash, Apple is using $45 billion of its $100 billion in liquid assets to buy stock back from its investors, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
This means sharing the wealth -- literally.
The company will offer a dividend of $2.65 per share beginning in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, which begins July 1, according to the newspaper. The company will also begin a $10 billion share repurchase program on Sept. 30.
Apple has felt pressure from investors to "give back some of the $100 billion in cash it had accumulated in the past few years thanks to red-hot iPhone and iPad sales," the Mercury News reported.
Former company head Steve Jobs was reluctant to undertake such a program while at the helm of the company, in part because of memories of Apple's lean years. Jobs died in October, and CEO Tim Cook approved the plan on Monday.
In January, Apple reported a 118 percent jump in profit. Shares are hovering around the $600 mark.
Aside from rewarding Apple's investors, this move also means that more investors can pump cash into highly-profitable Apple: shares that pay dividends can be purchased by a wider range of investment funds, the newspaper reported.


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A Day in the Life of a CPA
by PRESLEY S. FORD, JR. Partner, Tulsa Office
Presented before the Oklahoma State University Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, Stillwater, and the University of Tulsa Accounting Club, Tulsa—February 1962
AS A MEMBER of Beta Alpha Psi each one of you is a serious student
of accounting. Within a short time each of you must choose what rôle you will play in the accounting profession. Some of you will find positions in industry, in commerce, in financial institutions, or in government. Others will choose the role of the certified public accountant.
My assignment this evening is to describe a day in the life of a CPA. On April 4, Mr. S. D. Williams will give a similar talk on a day in the life of a controller. These two talks, we hope, will bring into sharper focus your image of the opportunities presented by industrial
accounting and public accounting, respectively. They will, we trust, help you decide which role in the accounting profession you are best suited to fill.
For my part, I propose to state the facts plainly. There will be no attempt to glamorize my profession, no attempt to overdramatize the inconveniences that are one of its features. As faithfully as I can, I propose to describe briefly one day in the life of each of four men associated with a national public accounting firm. For want of better designation, let's call them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The names, though biblical, are entirely appropriate. Matthew, we are told, was an accountant. Mark, Luke, and John each gave us an account of the life of the Master.
At 7:00 A.M. Matt sips his last cup of coffee, kisses his wife goodbye, bolts for the door of his garage apartment, and makes a Dagwood Bumstead run for the bus. At 7:30 he transfers to the bus to the factory district. At 7:55 he shows his identification badge to the guard at the gate of the Ajax Chemical Company plant. A walk across the factory grounds brings him to the factory office.
Tom, the chief factory accountant, is just unlocking the vault. Matt picks up the Haskins & Sells workbag and carries it to the two


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linux-source-2.6.38 2.6.38-11.48 (i386 binary) in ubuntu natty
This package provides the source code for the Linux kernel version
This package is mainly meant for other packages to use, in order to build
custom flavours.
If you wish to use this package to create a custom Linux kernel, then it
is suggested that you investigate the package kernel-package, which has
been designed to ease the task of creating kernel image packages.
If you are simply trying to build third-party modules for your kernel,
you do not want this package. Install the appropriate linux-headers
package instead.
- Package version:
- 2.6.38-11.48
- Status:
- Superseded
- Component:
- main
- Priority:
- Optional
Downloadable files
i386 build of linux 2.6.38-11.48 in ubuntu natty RELEASE produced these files:
- linux-source-2.6.38_2.6.38-11.48_all.deb (76.0 MiB)
Package relationships
- Provides:
- Suggests:


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Parliament Funkadelic
- Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey
- George Clinton
- William Collins
- Raymond Davis
- Tiki Fullwood
- Glenn Lamont Goins
- Michael "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton
- Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins
- Eddie Hazel
- Walter "Junie" Morrison
- Cardell "Boogie" Mosson
- William "Billy Bass" Nelson
- Garry M. Shider
- Calvin "Thang" Simon
- Gene Grady Thomas
- Bernie Worrell
Vivid. Surreal. Psychedelic. Unpredictable.
Parliament and Funkadelic were the mind-blowing, soul-expanding musical equivalent of an acid trip. They grabbed the funk movement from James Brown and took off running.
Under the guiding hand of mastermind George Clinton, the affiliated groups Parliament and Funkadelic established funk as an heir to and outgrowth of soul.
If James Brown is funk's founding father, Clinton has been its chief architect and tactician.
Over the decades, Clinton has presided over a musical empire that included Parliament and Funkadelic, plus numerous offshoots (such as the Brides of Funkenstein and Parlet), solo careers (Clinton's and bassist Bootsy Collins' being the most notable) and aggregates (the P-Funk All-Stars). The pioneering work of Parliament and Funkadelic in the Seventies—driven by Clinton's conceptually inventive mind and the band members' tight ensemble playing and stretched-out jamming—prefigured everything from rap and hip-hop to techno and alternative. Clinton's latter-day disciples include Prince and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Between them, Parliament and Funkadelic virtually defined the melting pot known as funk: a melding of rhythm & blues, jazz, gospel and psychedelic rock. With them, Clinton has purveyed larger-than-life characters and concepts from the stage, culminating in such theatrical milestones as the Mothership, a mock flying saucer from which the black space "aliens" of Clinton's musical entourage alighted onstage. Though his musical productions have been typified by danceable grooves and driven by a laser-sharp sociological wit, Clinton's ultimate goal is serious: "I am intent on making the word funk as legitimate as jazz and rock and roll."
George Clinton spent his teenage years in Plainfield, New Jersey, where he founded a vocal group called the Parliaments. They recorded as far back as 1956 but didn't impact the charts until 1967, when "(I Wanna) Testify"—a prescient mix of Sixties soul, rock and pop—went Number Three R&B and Number Twenty pop. That year, Clinton began listening to the new wave of psychedelic rock by bands such as Cream, Vanilla Fudge and Sly and the Family Stone. The dual influence of cutting-edge soul and rock served as inspirations to Funkadelic. In 1970 Clinton dropped the "s" from his other band, and Parliament was born.
Each group had a distinct identity and alternated releases into the late Seventies on a variety of labels—Invictus, Westbound, Warner Bros.—with Clinton dividing his time between them. Parliament was essentially a horn-based soul group and Funkadelic a guitar-based rock group, but both were built on a foundation of funk. Parliament and Funkadelic were flip sides of the same coin, and these overlapping entities' respective outputs were referred to in stylistic shorthand as "P-Funk." In Parliament's self-referential theme song, "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)," Clinton and entourage referred to themselves as "dealers of funky music, P-Funk, uncut funk, The Bomb."
Parliament and Funkadelic frequently resorted to allegorical concept albums to make larger points about societal injustices and ways in which a community of like-minded souls could liberate themselves from its constrictions. Clinton animated the moral conflict between opposing forces of good (the trippy funkateer "Starchild") and evil (the uptight, uptight "Sir Nose D'Void of Funk") over the course of a five-year run of Parliament albums, from Mothership Connection (1975) to Trombipulation (1980). Meanwhile, Funkadelic gelled on one of the finest funk albums ever produced, One Nation Under a Groove (1978), whose title track was a rousing anthem of union and community.
Parliament and Funkadelic dominated and revolutionized the music scene in the latter half of the Seventies—particularly in 1978 and 1979, when they racked up four Number One R&B hits: "Flash Light," "One Nation Under a Groove," Aqua Boogie" and "(Not Just) Knee Deep." Clinton's main collaborators during Parliament-Funkadelic's heyday included keyboardists Bernie Worrell and Walter "Junie" Morrison and bassist William "Bootsy" Collins. Known for his star-shaped sunglasses, glittery "space bass" and cartoonish demeanor, Collins became a funk icon and solo star in his own right. Melding soul, funk, jazz and psychedelia, a succession of P-Funk guitarists—including the late Eddie Hazel, Mike Hampton and DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight—have carried forward the legacy of Jimi Hendrix with their adventurous, exploratory soloing.
During the 1970s, Parliament, Funkadelic and a host of related offshoots placed roughly sixty singles on the R&B charts and were among the hottest attractions on the concert circuit. They were responsible for some of the most theatrical tours ever undertaken, deploying one of the largest props—the otherworldly "Mothership"—ever dragged from city to city. Financial, legal and personal problems grounded the Mothership in 1980, but Clinton resurfaced stronger than ever as a solo artist on Capitol Records. "Atomic Dog," the popular dance-funk centerpiece of 1982's Computer Games—one of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Albums of the 80's—topped the R&B chart for four weeks. In 1983 Clinton also released an album credited to "the P-Funk All-Stars," which drew on the talents of various members of Parliament and Funkadelic (including Bootsy Collins), plus guests like Sly Stone and Bobby Womack.
A new generation of hip young listeners discovered P-Funk via rap and hip-hop records that heavily sampled Clinton's vast body of work. By the Nineties, Clinton was widely recognized as a black-music patriarch and pioneer whose contributions put him in a league with James Brown. In fact, Clinton is second only to Brown as the most heavily sampled artist. Meanwhile, the Parliament-Funkadelic juggernaut has shown no signs of slowing down, remaining active on the recording and touring fronts as George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars. One of their later albums—The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Mothership (T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M.), released in 1996—returned the funk collective to the concept that helped establish them as visionaries twenty years earlier.
George Bernard "Bernie" Worrell, Jr. passed away on June 24, 2016.
Inductees: Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey (drums; born August 20, 1950), George Clinton (vocals; born July 22, 1940), William "Bootsy" Collins (bass, vocals; born October 26, 1951), Raymond Davis (vocals; born March 29, 1940, died July 5, 2005), Tiki Fulwood (drums, vocals; born May 23, 1944, died October 29, 1979), Glenn Lamont Goins (vocals, guitar; January 2, 1954, died July 29, 1978), Michael Hampton (guitar; born November 15, 1956), Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins (vocals; born June 8, 1941), Eddie Hazel (guitar, vocals; born April 10, 1950, died December 23, 1992), Walter "Junie" Morrison (keyboards, synthesizers; born 1954, died January 21, 2017), Cordell "Boogie" Mosson Jr. (bass; born October 16, 1952, died April 18, 2013), William "Billy Bass" Nelson Jr. (bass; born January 28, 1951), Garry Shider (vocals, guitar; born July 24, 1953; died June 16, 2010), Calvin "Thang" Simon (vocals; born May 22, 1942), Grady Thomas (vocals; born January 5, 1941), Bernie Worrell (keyboards, vocals, born April 19, 1944; died June 24, 2016)


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This item is only available online. It will be delivered to your location.
Louisville Camera Rentals - EOS50D Digital Canon Cameras for Rent - Kentucky Photography Equipment Rental
Lexington Camera Rentals - EOS7D Digital Canon Cameras for Rent - Kentucky Photography Equipment Rental
Louisville Camera Rentals - EOS60DDLSRHD Digital Canon Cameras for Rent - Kentucky Photography Equipment Rental
Louisville Camera Rentals - EOS1DMARKIV Digital Canon Cameras for Rent - Kentucky Photography Equipment Rental
Louisville Camera Rentals - D3X Nikon Digital Cameras for Rent - Kentucky Photography Equipment Rental:
D3X Nikon Digital camera rentals in Louisville, KY. Nikon D3X is a 24.5-megapixel FX-format D-SLR—meticulously engineered for professionals whose work demands extreme resolution, file size and image fidelity. RIT offers Camera rentals, camcorders, photography, video and digital equipment in Louisville, Lexington, Northern Kentucky, Bowling Green, Frankfort, and all of Kentucky.
The Nikon D3X is a 24.5 megapixel professional-grade full frame (35mm) digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) announced by the Nikon Corporation on 1 December 2008. The D3X is the third camera in Nikon's line to offer a full frame sensor, following the D3 and D700. As Nikon's new flagship model, it augments the Nikon D3S, Nikon's high-speed professional model, and while the D3S retains advantages in terms of high ISO performance and higher frame rate, the D3X offers a dramatic increase in resolution and image detail.
The D3S and D3X follow the earlier Nikon D1, Nikon D2H, Nikon D2Hs, Nikon D2X, Nikon D2Xs, and Nikon D3 as the company's top-of-the-line DSLRs intended for professional photographers, which in turn share a lineage with the Nikon F through Nikon F6 series of film SLRs.
Photography and Digital Equipment Rental Policies:
-Mail order rentals are available on all Lenses and selected Digital Cameras minimum 1 week rental (which is a 3 day rate).
-Most lenses please add a flat rate $40.00 for round trip insured shipping to anywhere in the US
-The rental duration begins as the item leaves the RIT premises and ends as it is returned
or you are welcome to supply your own account number
-Mail order renters must fill in a special request authorization form and submit to RIT along with a photo copy of both sides of credit card and a photo id.
-We will pre authorize your credit card for the full value of the rented items prior to shipping your rental and then bill credit card for rental charges.
RIT is the one stop camera rental shop based in New York City that ships equipment nation wide. They are able to meet the any needs for photo and video equipment rentals all under one roof, featuring camera and lighting rentals for still and video at the same location as well as expendables photo and video supplies They feature professional Camera rentals including DSLR HD, Medium format, Pro digital capture, Video and Cinema, Motion follow focus rigs and accessories. Their extensive rental inventory is maintained in peak condition by experienced professionals, every piece of equipment is triple tested and every order is checked before it leaves our door. RIT offers Camera rentals, photography, video and digital equipment in Lexington, Louisville, Fayette, Owensboro, Bowling Green, Covington, Newport, Fort Thomas, Florence, Richmond, Hopkinsville, Henderson, Frankfort, the Northern Kentucky Area & all of Kentucky as well as the whole United States., and the United States (Nationwide Shipping!).
For additional information you can view this item at Rent It Today-Louisville or you can use the contact form below.


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Hadean Lands: Interactive Fiction for the iPhone
Update, Nov 1, afternoon
So, I'm over the top. On day 1. I am perilously close to speechless (or even textless). The outpouring of support has been overwhelming.
But maybe you've just discovered this page -- you just read a news article, or a blog post, or you saw it on Kickstarter's "most popular" list. Have you missed out on the fun? Is the Hadean Lands funding project now in past tense? Certainly not!
By Kickstarter's rules, you can contribute until December 6th -- the original deadline. And here are some reasons you might want to:
* The more donations, the more time I can spend working on the community projects and open-source work. Finishing Hadean Lands will be top priority, of course. But like I say, this Kickstarter project is not about just one game.
* If you want to play Hadean Lands on Mac, Windows, Linux -- anything but iOS -- you must pre-order. The Special Runs-Anywhere Limited Edition is only available as a $25 Kickstarter reward. If you wait until next year to buy the game, you will find it available only for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch.
* The immediate plan is iOS only. But the more people donate, the more resources I will have for other mobile ports such as Android.
* You think I look fantastic in that Werewolf t-shirt.
And so on. Regardless: this is the best Monday present I've had in a long, long time, and I am absolutely grateful to each and every one of you.
I'm Andrew Plotkin. I want to write text adventures.
Of course, I already do write text adventures. I've been writing them for fifteen years now. If you're not familiar with my work, check it out -- you can play all of my existing games online, for free.
(If you're not familiar with text adventures at all, I guess you weren't playing videogames in 1981. Sometimes we say "interactive fiction" -- that ring a bell? You've heard of a "maze of twisting little passages"? Or a lurking grue? Zork? Or read one of those silly game transcripts where someone types "HIT TROLL WITH SWORD"? Sure you have.)
But I was saying. I write text adventures... in my spare time. I've been writing short games, art pieces, experiments. They're fun, but I haven't written a long-form game since 2004. I'd like to buckle down and create a new full-length interactive story.
I'd like to try selling IF. Crazy! I know. Not too many people have tried to make money off IF since the 1980s ended. But now is the time. Text is more popular than ever -- what do you think Twitter is made of? People are reading. People are carrying around book-readers. I can write a world-class narrative game, and I think people will pay for that. So let's give commercial IF a shot.
Hadean Lands: An Interactive Alchemical Interplanetary Thriller
The Unanswerable Retort is a starship, and you're the second assistant alchemist. Sound like an easy job? It was -- up until one second ago, when the Retort crashed out of hyperspace, into some God-forsaken airless landscape. Or maybe it crashed only halfway out of hyperspace. Time seems to be fractured, the crew is missing, and you've been trying to fix the ship for... well, that "one second" has been going on for weeks.
You didn't think a starship ran on coal, did you? Too bad the ritual circle is cracked, and most of the elemental supply cabinet is stuck two seconds in the future. You'll need to figure out how this disaster happened -- eventually. It's not your first problem.
You're going to have to calcine, dissolve, separate, conjugate, ferment, distill, and coagulate. You're going to have to improvise rituals based on every element of the shipboard environment. And you're going to have to hurry. Because the ship's Dragon of Pneuma is off-line, and without it, the air will only get staler....
Want a preview? Play the teaser intro to Hadean Lands (the game's opening scene) in your web browser.
I will create a full-length adventure game for the iPhone.
Hadean Lands will have old-school puzzles, a modern-era storyline, cutting-edge game design, all the textual immersion I can bring to bear, and it'll be an iPhone app. Five dollars, flat. ($4.99, really.)
Obviously, it'll run on the iPad and iPod Touch also. A game in your pocket or backpack. Android? Kindle? Could be next; we'll see. I use an open-source text-game format; it should be easy to port to different platforms. If it takes off, PC and Mac versions would be a snap.
I'm asking for a fair bit of Kickstarter money, because this is not a knock-off effort. It might take six months; it might take more. Even a short IF game is a lot of writing. If Infocom is your IF touchstone, fear not -- Hadean Lands will be built on that scale, and to that level of sophistication.
(Higher, really. I blush to say it, but IF technique and standards have moved up since 1990. We kick ass now. I kick ass, and I have the design awards to prove it.)
Plus, of course, Hadean Lands will be a polished iPhone experience. There's nothing wrong with iPhone Frotz -- you should grab it, it's free, it's got some of my games -- but I'll make an iPhone game that'll sell as a game. The feelies will be included as browsable documents. There will be dynamic hints and a map. Why not record your progress as GameCenter achievements? Today's gaming isn't solitary work.
But that's not the whole story.
If I wanted to take six months and write a game, I could cram that into my spare time. If I wanted to write an iPhone interpreter, I could probably manage that too. That's not how I want to run this project.
I will quit my day job at the end of December, to work on interactive fiction full-time. That means all my IF-related projects. Most of these are not commercial; they benefit the whole community.
- Remember that open-source IF game engine? I've been promising to add CSS and Javascript integration for a year now. Fund me, and I'll get that done.
- I'll release my iPhone game framework as open source. Anybody will be able to use it to put IF in the App Store.
- I'll spend time optimizing and accelerating my IF web app. I need to add graphics, too.
- Hadean Lands will be my day job -- but I'll be able to keep doing smaller text games in my spare time.
- I'll have more time to help out the Boston-area IF group. More events at PAX East in 2011!
- Blogging at The Gameshelf, game reviews on my web site -- all my usual work.
- Maybe I'll finally figure out that rule-based IF programming model I keep tossing around.
And then, if it pays off, I'll write more of them.
Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I'm optimistic (naturally). But even if Hadean Lands isn't a big seller, it'll still exist -- I'll have written one more game, and you'll have one more game to play. Plus all the open-source code and related IF projects.
Let's make it happen.
About Andrew Plotkin
Follow @zarfeblong on Twitter!
I hang out with the People's Republic of Interactive Fiction, Boston's IF discussion and writing group.
My entry on IFDB. (Yes, we have an Interactive Fiction Database site. Of course we do!)
My entry on IMDB. I know, it's got nothing but my name and my appearance in Get Lamp, Jason Scott's (immense, rich, detailed) documentary on the history and culture of interactive fiction. But Get Lamp was just added to IMDB this weekend, and that means I was too. I'm kind of tickled about this.
A quick Zarf ludography:
- Inhumane (IF parody, 1984)
- Praser 5 (puzzle game, 1989)
- System's Twilight (puzzle game, 1994)
- Capture-the-Flag With Stuff (field sport, 1994)
- A Change in the Weather (short IF, 1995) (First place in IFComp (of 6))
- So Far (IF, 1996) (Four XYZZY awards)
- I did not invent the party game called Mafia, but I invented the idea of renaming it Werewolf (1997)
- The Space Under the Window (short IF, 1997)
- Barsoomite Go (board game, 1998)
- Spider and Web (IF, 1998) (Five XYZZY awards)
- Glk (IF display library, 1998)
- Hunter, in Darkness (short IF, 1999) (8th place in IFComp (of 37); two XYZZY awards)
- Glulx (IF virtual machine, 1999)
- Shade (short IF, 2000) (10th place in IFComp (of 53); one XYZZY award)
- The Dreamhold (IF, 2004) (Two XYZZY awards)
- Delightful Wallpaper (short IF, 2006) (6th place in IFComp (of 43); four XYZZY awards)
- Dual Transform (short IF, 2010) (Tied for second place, JIG CGDC#7)
- Hoist Sail for the Heliopause and Home (short IF, 2010)
Funding period
- (36 days)


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Stoplight Parrotfish in Atlantic Coral Reef
Two stoplight parrotfish have been added to our Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit!
Stoplight parrotfish can be found throughout the tropical waters of the western Atlantic!
Did you know? Parrotfish are herbivores that depend on algae from the reef for sustenance. Their fused teeth help the fish crush coral, which passes through their digestive system and is deposited back on the reef as sand! A parrotfish can produce up to one ton of coral sand a year!
Fairy Basslets in Atlantic Coral Reef
Fairy basslets are small, vibrantly colored fish. With purple fronts and yellow tails, their bodies are split into two colors with a black spot on their dorsal fins.
These fish are known to swim upside-down under ledges and along cave ceilings. They live in colonies and defend their territory from other species (and even other fairy basslets). Male fairy basslets are responsible for guarding and caring for the eggs and the nest!
Be sure to check back every Friday to find out what's happening!


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With the end of October, we feel many things shift. Depending where you live, the leaves change color and fall, and migrating birds cross the sky. The temperature changes, the days grow short, and business-owners sharpen their pencils as we move into Q4. It is a time of reckoning.
As it turns out, for millennia, people in diverse cultures have found this time of year especially significant, specifically the period between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. For instance, both the Celts and the Maya—high civilizations perched at opposite ends of the pagan world– honored this season as the time of the year when the barrier between the realms, seen and unseen, briefly became permeable.
Both cultures believed that during this "thin" time, both the living and the dead could "cross over". Echoes of these beliefs, which included the wearing of masks for safe passage when crossing between worlds, pranks, and offerings, persist in the secularized holiday of Halloween. And, some of the resonance and profundity of the season, I feel, explains the contemporary adoption of Dia de los Muertos and its rollicking, yet poetic imagery far beyond its original Mexican roots.
I find this to be a contemplative time of year, and of course I find tea to be an excellent companion for this contemplation. My favorite of the moment is a rare Margaret's Hope Darjeeling, which is about as profound as a cup of tea can be. Our pick this year from Margaret's Hope is what's known as the "first flush of the first flush" among tea-growers and tea-pickers. This tea hits the palate with a burst of fresh nectar, like biting into a perfect apple. The feeling I get from this tea, which is available only in limited quantities, is a feeling not of closure and ending, but of promise: first buds, and dormant energy waiting to burst out. It is, incidentally, fitting to enjoy this tea, with its apple-like essence, as the Jewish New Year 5772 unfolds.
While the frost may not literally be on the pumpkin where you live, the wheel of the seasons has just made a major turn. From all of us at the Art of Tea, May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year!


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Restock Date: April 7, 2016
Price: $200
Originally believed to be part of the Yeezy Season 1 release, the Moonrock adidas Yeezy 350 Boost is getting its own drop on November 14. Featuring varying shades of gray on the Primeknit upper, laces and midsole, about the only thing that isn't the gray are the Boost capsules itself.
The shoe will be restocking via European retailer END.Clothing on April 7th.
Latest News:
The Pirate Black And Moonrock adidas Yeezy Boost 350 Will Be Restocking Soon
Swish: adidas Yeezy Finally Jumped Over The Jumpman… But Can It Last?
adidas Yeezy Boost 350 Moonrock Worldwide Online Retailer List
adidas Yeezy Boost 350 Moonrock Official Images And Full Retailer List
Thought Experiment: Does Kanye West Need Kim Kardashian To Make The adidas Yeezy Boost Mainstream?
End Clothing (11/11/2015):
Solebox (11/11/2015):
Official Images (11/10/2015):
christopher42 (11/9/2015):
Don C (11/5/2015):
sneaker_mob (11/4/2015):
laertepappalardo (11/4/2015):
Kim Kardashian (11/2/2015):
YeezyTalkWorldWide (11/2/2015):
Kourtney Kardashian (11/1/2015):
News Archive:
Kim Kardashian Shows Off The New adidas Yeezy 350 Boost
Kourtney Kardashian Debuts A New adidas Yeezy 350 Boost
Other Yeezy Releases:
Author's Take
Juan Martinez, Editor-In-Chief: You know that feeling where one is all you need? Yeah, I'm kind of there with the Yeezy Boosts. I'm pretty happy with my Turtle colorway and it's only a matter of time before I actually wear them. If anything, calling these Moonrock just reminded of those awful Nike Air Max 90 Lunar Moon Landing kicks that dropped a year ago. That's not a good thing.
Andres Carrillo, News: Probably the best colorway yet to release in my opinion but still not worth the $200. The most I would pay for these shoes is probably around $100. Good luck to those trying to get a pair though.