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Rhubarb plants
Champagne Rhubarb is a great speciality here and much sought after but Johns Market Garden grows the very widest range of Rhubarb plants in several different varieties. Rhubarb crowns and Rhubarb plants are a speciality here. Rhubarb plants are so easy and undemanding yet very productive. Grow your own Rhubarb with quality crowns and plants ready to plant from our Rhubarb plant beds. Rhubarb plants can be harvested from the second year. We grow most our Rhubarb plants from special virus free stock. This ensures Rhubarb plants of the highest quality and makes sure the resulting crops are of a very high grade. In recent years Rhubarb plants of many stocks throughout the country became diseased and sickly. It was necessary to clean up stocks before offering them once again to the public. The results achieved from our Rhubarb crowns are really special.[more...]
Rhubarb plants Catalogue


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Let the reader understand: This list would almost certainly be longer if I had read every book I had planned on reading in 2019. There are some notable books still on my desk which I have not yet begun but which I am quite sure are excellent. Nevertheless, among the many wonderful books I read that were published in 2019 these are my top picks...
I was priviledged to write a response to the question, "If God is love, why won't everyone be saved?" for the December edition of the excellent online journal CREDO.
Calvin's sensitivity to the different circumstances in which people live lead him to flip-flop, or at least to be somewhat ambivalent in his attitude to the magistrate. Citing the case of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 27), Scripture requires obedience to bad kings, and even to pray for the well being of the country of exile (Jer.29). No doubt Calvin has his own city of exile, Geneva, in mind. But should not rulers, who also have responsibilities, be kept on track? Yes, but not by ourselves, but by Almighty God. This leads to discussion of the vexed question of civil disobedience.
No doubt having the Anabaptists in mind, and having already defended the right to litigate, Calvin proceeds to defend the entire judicial process. He discourages using the law for the taking of revenge, but upholds the use of due process, 'through which God may work for our good'. (It is interesting that in his teaching Calvin primarily seems to have mind not Geneva, which by this time in his career he believed was governed along right lines, but countries where the law may remain hostile to evangelical Christianity).
Following Elijah's stunning victory over the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18, he turns his attention to drought that continued to linger over the land. Back in 1 Kings 17, Elijah had announced a drought on the land because of the apostasy of the people. They had backed into Baalism and paganism. And their failure to remain faithful to the Lord carried the judgment of God removing his word from the people, signified by the lack of rain or dew. This was also a polemic against Baal, the storm god. The Baal cycle would be broken and the LORD would show himself to be God.
"With which person in the Bible do you most identify?" This is a question I have often asked others in the church over the years. Most of us lack even enough self-awareness to able to answer the question. Others among us have a propensity to appeal to the best characters in Scripture.
Another curious word game introduction sets the stage for answering a few listener questions. Tackled today: Liturgical dance, Carl's colorful pants and his "Christian journey," Todd's no-book deal, studio cough switches, and more.
Great questions keep coming from our listeners, and the Spin Team speaks ex cathedra, putting to rest once and for all a few queries related to this topic.
Is there a true tension between being missional and being confessional? What does it mean to be missional in the current context? The crew addresses a few schools of thought related to the use of the term missional, some of the dangers of its misuse, and the real mission of the church, according to Matthew 28.
Many congratulations to both Jon Master and Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on his appointment as their new president, starting July 1 next year.
Just over a decade ago, the big surprise in American evangelicalism was the sudden popularity of Calvinistic theology captured by Collin Hansen's memorable phrase, 'young, restless, and Reformed.' More recently, another unexpected trend has emerged – an interest in classical theism, Nicene Trinitarianism, and Chalcedonian Christology. Both movements connect to significant correctives within the field of historical theology, epitomized in the early modern period by the work of Richard Muller, in Patristics by Lewis Ayres and Khaled Anatolios, a
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world" (Jam. 1:27).
"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God" (Heb. 13:16)
"... that which is pleasing in his sight" (Heb. 13:21)
The issue of abortion is one of the most divisive in modern political discourse. The option for a woman to end a pregnancy has been proclaimed by some to be a basic right, while others have decried it as the murder of a fellow human being. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult for so-called "pro-life" and "pro-choice" advocates to engage positively on this issue, not only because it involves a great deal of emotion, but also due to the vastly different foundational assumptions held by each side.
Through sophisticated statements on social media, certain prominent voices in the evangelical wing of Christendom have revealed their penchant for pitting Jesus' ethical teaching against that of the Apostle Paul. To elevate what Jesus taught over against what His apostles taught reveals a fundamental deficiency with regard to the doctrine of biblical revelation. Such false dichotomizing is ostensibly driven by a desire to distance oneself from the Apostle's condemnation of homosexuality and his teaching about gender role distinctions in the church.
If you could give a new mom the perfect gift, what would it be? Would it be full night's sleep? Maybe you'd give her a hot meal without interruption or maybe the confidence that she'll be a good mom. Those would be precious gifts to any mom. But what do moms need most?
J.V. Fesko, Reforming Apologetics: Retrieving the Classic Reformed Approach to Defending the Faith. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019. 250pp. Paperback.
As promised, I have another response to Mark Jones' review of Rachel Miller's book Beyond Authority and Submission, by another endorser of the book, since he seemed bothered by all the warm endorsements.
Hilary of Poitiers and the Wonder of the Triune God
"He Who upholds the universe, within Whom and through Whom are all things, was brought forth by common childbirth; He at Whose voice Archangels and Angels tremble, and heaven and earth and all the elements of this world are melted, was heard in childish wailing. The Invisible and Incomprehensible, whom sight and feeling and touch cannot gauge, was wrapped in a cradle."[1]
Simon Goulart – Preacher of Confident Hope
One summer, a family man (and personal friend) traveled to Paris, where he spent a morning enjoying Luxembourg Gardens. In time, he noticed a group of mothers who, he realized, were so engrossed in their conversation that they tilted toward neglect of their children. He watched as one child wandered ever farther from her mother in the crowded park. Not yet two, she began to follow a family, apparently thinking its mother was her mother. When the group crossed a street and hurried onward, the child was finally quite alone.
In recent years, it seems increasingly rare to hear believers say, "I grew up in a happy home and we had everything we needed." I almost never hear anyone say "I am making progress as a disciple," although healthy believers should keep growing (below). The unfettered gratitude we hear in Psalm 16:6 has gone missing: "The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed I have a beautiful inheritance." It has become difficult, even fraught, to say "My life is good," in public at least.
Christians are frequently reminded to "remember the reason for Christmas," meaning, of course, that we should turn our attention away from the cultural trappings and to the fact that Jesus was born to Mary in Bethlehem. But this Christmas, perhaps we should fix our attention a little more closely, not just on the details of Jesus' birth, but on the miracle of the incarnation. In so doing, we join a great cloud of Christian witnesses, who have reflected deeply on this glorious mystery.
The concept of love has been cheapened beyond words over the past half century and longer. This is not only true in the secular realm, but sadly also for Christians. In all kinds of ways, the church's view of love – reflected in song and sermon alike – owes more to the culture of our time than to the Bible.
Humans have been fascinated by themselves since the earliest times in the history of our race. From the crude stick figures painted on the walls of caves in prehistoric times through to the sophisticated image of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, or the mathematical musings around the Fibonacci sequence in the beauty and balance of the human form, there has been a never-ending search for the perfect paradigm for humanity.
This month, the Alliance is pleased to offer a free MP3 download of Discipleship from the Alliance Teaching Series. Curated from years of biblical teaching, Discipleship presents listeners with thirteen encouraging messages on sanctification, the Church, and the Christian life. Download your copy here!
Our featured resource this month is The God of Creation – Truth and Gospel in Genesis 1 by Richard Phillips. We've discounted the price, so get your copy at Reformed Resources today!
In Anthony and Cleopatra (3:2) Shakespeare described it as the "green sickeness". In Othello, he called it the "green eyed monster".
Immanuel Kant described it thus: "inherent in the nature of man, and only its manifestation makes of it an abominable vice, a passion not only distressing and tormenting to the subject, but intent on the destruction of the happiness of others and one that is opposed to man's duty towards himself as towards other people."
It is listed as the fourth of the "Seven Deadly Sins"…
At face value, the 9th commandment could be read as merely a prohibition against committing perjury or lying under oath. However, this commandment encompasses so much more.
Our dynamic duo brings up a topic that is usually difficult, and—many times—hard to swallow in the local church. Church leaders and congregants alike can also often misunderstand its procedure and purposes.
What is church discipline, and what does Scripture teach about it? What's the purpose of church discipline, and what does it represent to the body of Christ? Jonathan and James answer those questions, and explain what ecclesiastical discipline is meant to protect as well.
God Without Passions
What do we mean when we say that God is without passion…that He's indifferent to His creation? Is God moved by anyone or anything? How should we handle the difficult Bible passages that seem to contradict the doctrine of impassibility?
We probably all have bank accounts with savings, and maybe investments and 401(k)s. Wisdom would suggest that while we trust God we also should be good stewards and save. You want to have in inheritance—at the end of the road of your work life, you want to have a nest egg. This doesn't make you greedy, in most cases it means you were prudent. But all of this should make us ask, where is my real inheritance? What is the real price? Where, or better, in whom is my true retirement.
What season did we recently enter? Spring. What comes next? Summer. Then what? Fall. Then what? Winter. And then? Spring. And so on until Christ's Second Coming. The year's seasons are cyclical—and somewhat predictable. So the seasons of our years should not surprise us but rather inspire our adaptability, acceptance, and appreciation.

subset: commoncrawl


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Worcester, Mass. – Behind a powerful display during doubles and singles action, visiting MIT defeated host Clark 8-1 in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's tennis action on Saturday afternoon.
The Engineers swept through doubles play winning all three matches in relatively easy fashion including an 8-2 win by Lauren Quisenberry and Julia Hsu at No. 1.
Quisenberry also handed Gaby Suriano her first-ever loss in singles action with a straight set win at No. 1 by a 6-4, 6-2 score. Hsu took care of business in second singles, allowing only one game in a 6-1, 6-0 victory.
Melissa Diskin was was able to outlast Maggie Swann at No. 4 singles. After winning the first set 14-12 in a tiebreak, Diskin crusied to a 6-1 second set victory to grab the point for MIT.
Clark's lone victory came at No. 3 singles with Olivia Levine taking a three set win over Hillary Jenny. Levine won the first set 6-1 but Jenny fought back to a 6-3 victory to even the match. In a hard fought third set, Levine edged out Jenny in a 13-11 tiebreak to prevent the shutout for the Cougars.
At 2-0 overall, MIT returns to the court on Tuesday when they will visit Babson College. The 3-3 Clark Cougars are also back in action Tuesday when they host Springfield College.
The final results from Saturday's match, including exhibition matches:
Tennis Match Results
MIT vs Clark University
09/25/2010 at Worcester, Mass.
(Corash Tennis Courts)
MIT 8, Clark University 1
Singles competition
1. Lauren Quisenberry (MIT) def. Gaby Suriano (CLK) 6-4, 6-3
2. Julia Hsu (MIT) def. Sarah Sachs (CLK) 6-1, 6-0
3. Katie O'Neal (MIT) def. Julia Bergeron (CLK) 6-2, 6-2
4. Melissa Diskin (MIT) def. Maggie Swann (CLK) 7-6 (12-14), 6-1
5. Olivia Levine (CLK) def. Hillary Jenny (MIT) 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (11-13)
6. Jen Ress (MIT) def. Emily Schweitzer (CLK) 6-4, 6-2
7. Jenny Dohlman (MIT) won 6-2, 6-1
8. Sonya Makhni (MIT) lost 8-4
9. Sonya Makhni (MIT) won 6-3, 6-3
10. Caitlin Pomeroy (MIT) won 6-3, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Lauren Quisenberry/Julia Hsu (MIT) def. Gaby Suriano/Sarah Sachs (CLK) 8-2
2. Melissa Diskin/Katie O'Neal (MIT) def. Emily Schweitzer/Julia Bergeron (CLK) 8-2
3. Jenny Dohlman/Jen Ress (MIT) def. Maggie Swann/Olivia Levine (CLK) 8-6
4. Hillary Jenny/Caitlin Pomery (MIT) won 8-3
Match Notes:
Clark University 3-3, 0-1 NEWMAC


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I realized that I consider God's revelation more valid than human reason, because I experience His recreative power in my life daily.
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Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.


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To start, it's important not to be scared off by headlines. The Nation Association of Realtors reports that 93 metropolitan statistical areas showed price increases for existing homes in the third quarter of 2007 when compared with a year earlier. In comparison, 54 metro areas had declines. View Entire Article > > >
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Durango boasts a well-deserved reputation as a foodie town. So three brand-new entrepreneurs are gambling that even in the middle of a four-year recession, our little burg will transform their American dream into a profitable business.
Downtown alone has at least five Asian restaurants, yet that isn't stopping three friends – itinerant sushi chefs who have worked together since high school – from opening a sixth. It offers a well-known chocolate factory at the base of Main Avenue, but that isn't deterring a first-time businesswoman from opening her own chocolate shop. It includes six stores selling wine and yet, a former photographer-cum-wine aficionado is betting Durango will support one more. And two experienced restaurateurs are wagering their customers will go with them – one figuratively, to a bigger, sleeker space and the other literally, to a more complete understanding of fine Italian wine.
Beyond revealing their stories of struggle and hope, success and chance, these five new or expanded enterprises challenge us to build our stature as the town where foodie dreams come true.
Animas Chocolate Co.
They look like little mountains and taste like cocoa-enrobed macaroons, sending you simultaneously to the snow-capped San Juan range and a Caribbean coconut plantation.
If you can find heaven in a single bite, then Carley Felton can create it for you in one of her custom-made truffles. She uses everything from local blackberries to Colorado Cabernet to craft chocolate sensations from the explosive – try the chili sea salt taster – to the sublime (the drive-in malt truffle can't be beat.)
After college, Felton worked at the Rochester Hotel for four years, dreaming all the while of starting her own business. This summer, she traded long hours as general manager to long hours as sole proprietor of Animas Chocolate Co. But now she imports French and Belgian chocolate, tempers it into a smooth elixir, adds flavorings like coffee, jelly beans and cranberries and crafts divine odes to the mountain scenery she adores.
You can try the mudslide, with peanuts and honey; the twilight, with dark chocolate and red painted swirls or the Grasshopper Creek, a tiny square of dark chocolate with a mint center. And if you do, believe me, you'll be happy.
Felton is staking her career on customizing her concoctions strictly for you or your event. At the Foxfire Farms dinner, she invented a cabernet truffle as well a strawberry and white chocolate confection for the occasion. She can imprint the name of your company on her simple dark and milk chocolate bars or add colors and flavors as you like for a wedding, a party or just for you (if you call in advance, of course.)
Her biggest worry? Not that she'll fail and lose her life savings or that she won't enjoy it – she does. She's terrified her truffles will melt. She covers them in ice packs and wraps the fragile goodies in blankets and still she says, she rushes when she delivers a major order.
Even more troublesome, Felton worries customers will buy her treats now and save them for later.
"You have to eat them right now, when they're freshest," she said. "You can't wait."
Indeed, you can't.
Animas Chocolate Co.: 317-5761, 555 Rivergate Lane, suite B1-103. Open from 1 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday or by appointment.
Fired Up Pizza
Ted Brown was drinking a beer and contemplating what to do now that he'd been laid off from his career job as a therapist at a boarding school. Travel the world, switch careers, leave his long-time Salt Lake City home?
Two days later, his wife, Vilma, learned she was pregnant with their first child.
The leisurely fantasies screeched to a halt. Drawing on his own dream to become a pizzaiolo and a well-timed gift from his grandmother, Brown channeled his anxiety and energy into opening a gourmet, Neapolitan-style wood-fired pizzeria from a cart he pulled behind his car.
That was five years ago. Last week, Brown, his wife and their two young sons celebrated the success of that initial venture when they opened Fired Up Pizzeria in its large, new clamorous location on a prime Main Avenue block.
"It's so big, it's so fast," Brown said, tears welling in his eyes as he looked around the new restaurant and realized how fully his and Vilma's hard work had paid off.
A dab at the eyes and a big intake of breath and Brown acknowledged how frightening it is, too.
"We're all in. Your heart thumps when you think about it," he said, noting that the loan to open in such a premier spot was about the equivalent of buying a fancy house.
But the new space – of the old one, which seated eight, Brown said: "I knew I had a problem from the start" – offers snazzy, spacious booths, an enormous bar, an open kitchen where the 900-degree wood-burning oven is on display and enough servers to storm the doorway, should the need arise.
Brown proudly details the 15 new employees he has hired, the back patio crowded with chopped wood to be transformed into outdoor dining, the primo locally sourced ingredients, to say nothing of the enthusiasm of the early crowds for his thin-crusted, authentic Neapolitan-style pizza.
The goat cheese, mushroom and mozzarella one I tried was salty, creamy and earthy – tasty all around, even gluten-free – confirmed when my husband took the other half for lunch the next day.
Should Brown ever forget the struggle of his first years in the business, he keeps a reminder in the back parking lot – his original pizza cart.
Fired Up Pizzeria: 247-0264, 741 Main Ave. Open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Put a Cork In It
If simplicity is the key to life, then Alan Cuenca has it all figured out.
His new wine shop on 10th Street is shoe-box shaped and about the same size. The difference, however, is the store is loaded with scrumptious wine gems often for $30 or so. A red Sancerre from Domaine Hippolyte Reverdy, a Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Domaine Juliette Avril, a Mercatto Barbaresco, a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, all for about the price of an entree at one of Durango's better restaurants. Those are hard wines and even harder prices to come by in the world of good grapes.
Cuenca, a tall man with dark hair and an enormous white dog named after an earlier love, Guinness, came to own his own specialty wine shop after a career in photography, selling wine at a large store and launching a local wine bar. He went to lunch with a friend to discuss the viability of opening his own place – after all, yet another wine shop downtown – and inspired, they hurried over to a former boutique with a for-rent sign in the window.
"Put A Cork In It" was born. He named the shop to let customers know when they step in the door that this isn't a pretentious place. You may be a wine snob, but he isn't.
"My philosophy is to educate the world through wine, one glass at a time," he said one afternoon in his shop. "The name is to thumb my nose, in a way, at the intimidating experience buying wine can be. In the end, it's fermented grapes."
Cuenca's mission, if you will, is to share the best yet affordable small-batch wines from different regions in the world with his customers. ("We're supporting small farms, which are more sustainable.") It's also to educate them to understand the various tastes you can experience in a glass of wine. He offers free wine tastings on Saturday afternoons and teaches classes to help wine-lovers develop that oh-so-vaunted quality, a refined palate.
He hopes to foster not just knowledge, but confidence in his customers and class-takers, so they'll feel comfortable ordering wine at a restaurant and talking to wine merchants. After six months, the venture has gone well, he said – better, in fact, than he expected.
"I don't want much," he said, "a life that's rewarding and a business that's sustained by locals."
Don't we all.
Put a Cork in it: 375-9463, 121 E. 10th St. Open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Rice Monkeys
You wouldn't think a land-locked mountain town would be a felicitous place to open a restaurant based on raw fish, but Jimmy Nguyen, Dung Tran and Ezrick Villuferte are undaunted.
"It's sushi, man," says Nguyen, 28, a native of Florida and long-time friends with his business partner Tran and fellow chef Villuferte. "Everyone loves sushi."
And in Durango, that's true. Both East by Southwest and Sushitarian, located across the street from each other, are packed on any given night. Cosmo Bar & Dining will bring you back again and again for its nightly changing sushi appetizer.
Nguyen, 28, ditched a blossoming career as a medical technician 10 years ago – "I didn't like it" – to do something he did like: eating and making sushi. He quickly learned it wasn't easy (it typically takes a decade to become a head sushi chef). But even after initial years of cleaning up after and prepping ingredients for other chefs, Nguyen stuck with it, traveling from Houston to Chicago to Arizona to here on a seasonal basis, rising through the ranks as he went.
He discovered snowboarding, and it became his second love. To marry it to his first – sushi – he and Tran planned to open a food cart on the streets of Durango. But at the end of summer, Fired Up Pizzeria's former Main Avenue store front shop became available.
"A food truck would have been our dream come true," Nguyen said. "This is a better dream."
While still an under-construction mess, in two weeks, Rice Monkeys will open its doors to what Nguyen and Tran hope will be hordes of hungry diners who want a quick bite of sushi or an easy take-out meal (the space seats just 10) and a no-muss-no-fuss dining experience that suits the lifestyle of the young and, dare we say, hip.
Oh, they'll gladly feed the rest of us with the substantial offerings they both grew up eating in the kitchens of their Vietnamese-born mothers. The delicious brothy brew called pho will come in both the traditional beef version and a lighter chicken-ginger offering, the first with brisket and tenderloin, the second with pulled chicken and both finished with rice noodles and fresh herbs.
"We'll be the fastest sushi chefs," Nguyen said. "It's fast food, but it's gourmet."
Rice Monkeys: 1050 Main Ave. Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday-Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. Opening date is scheduled for Nov. 15.
Susan Devereaux of Guido's Favorite Foods struck on the bright idea of turning the restaurant's small kitchenware shop into a wine store specializing in fine Italian wine not too long ago.
"I thought, it can't be that hard," she said, shaking her head ruefully.
It wasn't hard, it was impossible.
The state refused to give her a license to sell wine in a retail shop because she already has one to sell wine in the restaurant. Not that you can't buy a bottle from Guido's to take home. You can, but first a server must open it and pour you a taste before packaging it to go.
Sometimes you just have to say, that's government for you.
So Devereaux, dismayed but undaunted, switched course. She transformed the little room behind the cashier's desk that once held cheese graters and mixing bowls into a visual embodiment of the restaurant's extensive all-Italian wine list.
The bottles are arranged sideways with the labels facing out, providing instant recognition of the familiar (I spotted a bottle of Barbaresco my husband and I adored in Venice) and intriguing forays into the unknown. There's a smooth white from Friuli, a fruity Chianti, an amazing – and yes, expensive – Brunello di Montalcino.
The notion behind the wall-sized wine list is to give customers a chance not just to see a particular bottle, but to learn about it. Labels tell quite a lot about a wine – where it's made, who imported it, what types of grape went into it. And Devereaux hopes customers will take advantage of the knowledge Guido's sommelier, Sam Hobson, brings to the task.
"Someone may not be able to go to Italy, but they can get pretty darn close here," she said.
In fact, she is going to Italy next week to train at her favorite Roman trattoria, Agustarello. The restaurant specializes in quinto quarto, or the nose-to-tail cooking always popular in Italy and France and just now gaining a following in the United States.
"I'll just be glad if I get a great oxtail out of it," said Devereaux of the savory, slow-simmered stew beloved by Italian-Americans.
Guido's Favorite Foods: 259-5028, 1201 Main Ave. Open from 11 a.m. to closing Monday-Saturday.


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Jennifer Hudson was taken to a New York hospital Friday morning with abdominal pains, according to online reports.
The Chicago native felt severe pains after performing on "Good Morning America," a spokesperson told RadarOnline.com. Hudson was treated at the hospital for food poisoning and then released, according to Radar.
She missed an appearance on the CBS Early Show because of the incident.
Hudson is currently promoting her second album, "I Remember Me," and her upcoming movie, "Winnie," about Nelson Mandela's wife.


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Buckeyes come back, but fall in overtime 72-68
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State has two wins against top three teams and its hard-driving coach is not in the mood to celebrate the feat.
Keith Appling made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 29 seconds left in overtime and finished with 20 points, seven assists and six rebounds to help the fifth-ranked Spartans beat No. 3 Ohio State 72-68 on Tuesday night after blowing a 17-point lead in the second half.
"I should be happier than I am," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "But I'm a big picture guy and you shouldn't have those kinds of letdowns."
The Spartans (14-1, 3-0 Big Ten) led 55-38 and the Buckeyes forced overtime with a 20-3 run to close regulation.
"We kind of let our foot off the gas," Appling said.
During the collapse, Izzo yelled at Denzel Valentine and grabbed his jersey to turn the sophomore guard toward him during a timeout.
"I talked to (Valentine) about all the fancy stuff and one of these days, he'll figure it out," Izzo recalled, lamenting one of Valentine's turnovers. "Good player. I love him to death. But he's going to learn tough lessons and it would've been a tough lesson if we would've lost the game because we didn't do some of the things we're supposed to do."
Izzo was also upset that junior forward Branden Dawson had just four rebounds — all in the first half — leading to the Buckeyes outrebounding Michigan State 42-28.
"They killed us on the boards because we had a couple guys who didn't show up," Izzo said.
Ohio State (15-1, 2-1) entered the day as one of six unbeaten teams in Division I, getting off to its best start since 2010-11 when it began 24-0.
The Buckeyes almost ended the night still undefeated after a remarkable comeback.
Aaron Craft had a lot to do with it.
We kind of let our foot off the gas
-Keith Appling
The senior guard's three-point play with 2:02 left pulled the Buckeyes within three points. After Ohio State missed shots, Craft dived on the court to get a loose ball and called time out with 1:01 left.
"That's what he does," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "That's how he plays."
On the ensuing inbounds play, Craft passed the ball off Michigan State's Adreian Payne's backside, got the ball back and made a layup to cut the deficit to one.
"I did that a year ago," Craft said of his savvy play that surprised Payne. "I saw it was open and we wanted to get a quick score."
Payne made one of two free throws on the ensuing possession, allowing Amir Williams' putback dunk with 19 seconds left to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Ohio State scored the first points of the extra period, taking its first lead since it was ahead 19-17, but gave up some pivotal 3-pointers.
Michigan State redshirt freshman Kenny Kaminski made a season-high third 3-pointer to break a tie with 2:40 left in overtime and Payne connected on a shot beyond the arc on the Spartans' next possession.
Appling made two free throws with 14.4 seconds left to give Michigan State a three-point lead and Ohio State's Marc Loving missed an off-balance 3-pointer with 3 seconds left. Appling made one of two free throws with one second to go.
The Buckeyes had a season-high 21 turnovers, leading to them not having a double-digit scorer until there was fewer than 4 minutes left in regulation. Sam Thompson finished with 18 points, including six straight late in regulation, and Loving scored 10 points.
"I'm proud we came back, but we weren't as sharp as we needed to be in this caliber of a game," Matta said. "You can't come on the road and have 21 turnovers."
I'm proud we came back, but we weren't as sharp as we needed to be in this caliber of a game
-Thad Matta
Payne didn't start because of a right foot sprain, but was healthy enough to play 32 minutes and score 18 points.
"I got to talk to the doctors and figure it out," Payne said of his lingering injury.
Gary Harris scored 13 points for the Spartans, the first team to score 70-plus points against Ohio State this season. Travis Trice, one of the team's top reserves, didn't play because he was "sick," according to Izzo. Appling played 43 of 45 minutes despite having cramps in both legs.
Michigan State, which beat then-No. 1 Kentucky nearly two months ago, has won seven straight games since losing to North Carolina.
The Spartans led 28-21 at halftime and appeared to take control with 13-4 run midway through the second half.
"I saw it wasn't over, but it was hard to get that through to the rest of the team," Payne said. "We can't look at the scoreboard.
Michigan State appeared to try to focus on taking time off the clock with each possession and Ohio State took advantage and earned a chance to win the game in overtime.
Izzo said that was more out of necessity that strategy.
"We looked completely out of sync because Keith couldn't go," he said, referring to Appling being slowed by cramps.


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The Surveyor's Office is the public records steward of survey records for Davis County. This includes all maps of survey, road records, subdivisions, condominiums, partitions, and property line adjustments. The Surveyor's Office ensures conformity with state law and local ordinances prior to filing of maps and plats. We restore and maintain government corners, perform geodetic surveys, and provide professional support and guidance to the public on surveying matters.
Physical Address Davis County Admin Building 61 South Main Street (Room 107) Farmington, Utah 84025
Mailing Address Davis County Surveyor P.O. Box 618 Farmington, Utah 84025
Phone Numbers (801) 451-3290 :: Main (801) 451-3233 :: Fax
Hours Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (except county holidays)


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17x19 Picture frame, Picture frame 17x19 brown, Photo frame
17x19 picture frame for your home wall art decor. This 17x19 picture frame will help you put all your photography and personal artwork on display
- Wall hanging picture frame, saw tooth hanger included
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This picture frame will be an eye-catching display in your home for your friends and family to see. Home wall art decor is to showcase your own personal art taste, framed wall art offers a way to incorporate yourself into your home decor. Our custom picture frames come ready to hang once delivered. You can hang this framed piece of art the day it arrives!
Modern Memory Design is your Wall art and custom framing shop Made in USA (Lodi, New Jersey)


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John Calvin, Commentary on Joel
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Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, by John Calvin. Now first translated from the original Latin, by the Rev. John Owen, vicar of Thrussington, Leicestershire. Volume Second. Joel, Amos, Obadiah. W. M. Eerdsmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, 1950, Michigan. Printed in the United States of America.
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How to Assemble a Double-Screened Inner Cover
Assembling the bits and pieces of a double-screened inner cover for your bee hive is an easy build — just a frame with a couple of screened inserts. Your bees will certainly enjoy the great ventilation!
Assemble the frame.
The short rails align with the notches that were cut from the ends of the long rails. It's kind of like building a picture frame.
Check alignment and fit, and insert one deck screw halfway into each corner of each long rail using your power drill with a #2 Phillips head bit. Place the screws through the long rails and into the short rails. Center each screw top to bottom and place it about 1/2 inch from the outside edge of the assembly. Don't put the screws all the way in quite yet.
First make sure everything is square and fits properly; then, when all looks good, you can screw them in all the way. You have no room for adjustment when all the screws are in! Now add one extra screw in each of the frame's corners. Place them centered top to bottom and spaced about 1 inch from the original four screws (each corner of the long rails will have two screws).
Consider using a weatherproof wood glue in addition to the screws. It helps make the screened inner cover as strong as possible. Apply a thin coat of glue wherever the wooden parts are joined together.
Attach the screening material and place the cover on your hive.
Attach the #8 hardware cloth to the "opening" of the frame (on both sides). The screening settles into the 1/8 inch deep rabbet cut you made. Use 3/8 inch staples spaced approximately 2 inches apart. Staples go around the entire perimeter of the screening. There should be no gaps where the bees could squeeze through.
Don't paint the screened inner cover. Leave it natural and unfinished, as with all the internal parts of any beehive.
Position the screened inner cover on the hive body with the notched entrance facing down and toward the front of the hive (when you want to create an upper entrance for your bees to travel in and out of the hive; see the image on the bottom in the following figure). Or flip it over to close the upper entrance to and from the hive (see the image on the top).Credit: Illustration by Felix Freudzon, Freudzon Design


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Pokémon Rumble Blast is the first Pokémon game for the Nintendo 3DS, but it's not a real Pokémon game any more than the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon or Pokémon Ranger games are. This is no role-playing game involving turn-based battles and gym trainers.
You're controlling Pokémon directly in this one, collecting some 600 of them in a beat-em-up played from an overhead view. It's an action game. It's something you could inaccurately but provocatively call Pokémon: Diablo. And it's in 3D. Worth getting?
Stephen Totilo, who has been playing Pokémon Rumble Blast for a week, hoping to make his subway rides: I've played most 3DS games, and this one has the best 3D effects I've seen. They're comfortable even with the slider at max and impressively deep, enabling the game world to recede deep below the system's upper screen while ejecting each captured ("befriended") Pokémon up from the screen at the player. But those are the only depths I can praise in a game that could have been special but is a monotonous bore. In theory, you're picking and training the best Pokémon to battle solo or in teams against a variety of classes of enemy Pokémon. In practice you're just tapping the attack button(s). A lot. For hours on end. The Pokémon Ranger games, which were based on literally drawing circles around Pokémon, had more stimulating gameplay that this.
My vote is NO, unless you know a kid who has high tolerance for dull Pokémon games, in which case, well, he or she is probably under seven and Nintendo recommends those of that age shouldn't play games in 3D, so they'd be missing the best part. So, across the board: NO
Joel Johnson, our obligatory non-player: Here's how out of the loop I am on Pokémon: I had to go to our own website to figure out what Pokémon game was coming out. Now I've discovered it's Rumble Blast, which frankly looks completely boring. I greatly respect the design that goes into the Pokémon series, but the offshoots have never piqued my interest one bit. On the other hand, 3DS owners can't really be too picky right now, and a first-party title shouldn't be ignored.
Still, speaking as the Gut Checker who hasn't played it, I just can't recommend it based on what little I've seen. It looks thin and for die-hards only. NO
Brian Crecente, who has dabbled with PRB: Maybe it's the relative drought of 3DS games informing my opinion, but Pokémon: Rumble Blast is on my short list of games I plan on spending some time with during the long hours of my semi-regular commute to and from New York City this fall. I haven't quite played an hour of this game yet, but what I saw of it I liked. It was a game that had me crawling around dungeons summoning up monsters to do real-time battle for me with an eclectic mix of attacks and powers. It may end up being a little too light, a little too Pokémon for my tastes in the long run, but for now I remain intrigued. YES
Gut Check is an off-the-cuff impression of what we think of a game: what we'd tell a friend; how we'd respond on Twitter or Facebook or over a beer if someone asked us "Would you buy this game?"
You can contact Stephen Totilo, the author of this post, at firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.


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The approval comes on the heels of President Barack Obama's unveiling of his plan to reduce US carbon emissions, which includes having the DOI approve another 10GW of renewable energy projects on public lands by 2020.
The DOI said there are another 14 active renewable energy proposals slated for review this year.
Although the project has the green light, it is not clear when construction will begin. BP, which has put its US wind business up for sale, did not immediately respond to a request for that information.
The proposed project calls for the installation of up to 243 wind turbines on 38,000 acres of federal land.
The company agreed to undertake significant mitigation efforts to minimize impacts to wildlife, including reducing the project's footprint by 19% from the original proposal.
A smaller footprint will protect golden eagle habitat and reduce visual and noise impacts to the Lake Mead National Recreational Area, the department says.


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Testosterone trouble: Men getting their mojo back
We've heard of menopause-hormones go crazy, sending women into hot flashes and mood swings. But did you know the same things happen to the opposite sex? Manopause can wreak havoc on the male psyche and physique. We'll tell you how some men are fixing their testosterone troubles.
For Popeye, all it took was some spinach. But other guys just can't seem to get their mojo back!
"I was listless, un-energetic," said Oliver Power.
"Depression, lethargic, lack of focus," Chris Runnings added.
These men were in manopause or andropause.
"Often I hear, they've lost their edge," said Karron Power, M.D, MPH, Founder of the Youth Renewal Center and Creator of the Peak Performance for Men Program.
Lost it, because they've lost their testosterone.
"It really starts from the early 20's on," Power said.
But most symptoms don't appear until men reach their 40's or 50's and Dr. Power says many are misdiagnosed. The severe change in her husband's own mental state almost cost the doctor her marriage.
"It was obviously a problem when he got his own apartment," Power explained.
A blood test showed her 40-year-old husband had the testosterone level of a 70-year old! Men inject themselves twice a week with testosterone replacement therapy. They got their energy levels back, lost weight, are sleeping better and have increased sex drives. But they're cautious of the downsides.
"Testosterone is a very powerful tool it makes a huge difference in a man's health, his quality of life and how he looks. However you have to respect the hormones," Power added.
"It's not a magic bullet. I still have to eat right. I still have to exercise," said Power.
But it's giving these guys the boost they need.
"It's like I got my mojo back," said Oliver.
Researchers estimate up to six million men suffer from low testosterone, but only five-percent realize it's a treatable problem. Treatment does not come cheap. Power says it typically runs about $200/month and it must be continued for life or levels will drop and the effects of manopause will return.
Studies show men with lower levels of testosterone have a higher risk of death from heart disease and cancer than men with higher testosterone.
Copyright 2012 by Ivanhoe Broadcast News and News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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What should we be looking for in shoes for the Summer? Well it would seem that this summer is one for small details in shoe and sandal design. We can feast our eyes on a real shoe carnival. There is a great variety of styles for summer available, so looking fashionable and stylish does not mean wearing the same styles as everyone else.
The big designers are using a lot of strappy shoes, but strappy shoes with a difference. There is a tendency towards small details; straps are more creative than usual, while shoe laces and ropes are being used for a more creative and interesting effect.
If shoes laces and rope are a step too far for you, then there is what I think is an even more attractive alternative – fabric straps. These can create a really feminine look, especially when they are in fun and colorful prints, matching the shoe.
Printed shoes add a splash of color to our outfit, but are not as limiting as one color shoes.
Many designers are using bows this summer; this is another of the easiest ways to add a feminine touch.
Something else new is the combination of wedgies and flatties – the 'flatforms'. They give you some overall height, but are not as uncomfortable as some wedgies and high heels can be.
For formal shoes, the little black sandal has a lot of added feminine details, for example the bows, in flirty lace or sumptuous silk. The ever popular sequins can give an elegant but feminine touch to an evening outfit.
When we are looking into the fascinating realms of this summer's shoes, we should always remember of course the basics for our feet and legs. Pampering your feet is essential for that smooth summer look and so should be done quite frequently.
Many women only get a pedicure in the summer months, because that is when the feet are most on show. However pedicures can be expensive and there have been a lot of hygiene warnings about shared facilities lately.
However you do not have to spend a fortune, if you learn how to take some simple steps to care for your feet.
If you have thick, dead skin build-up, on the heel, ball and sides of the feet, use a pumice stone or a foot file. The best way is to soak the feet in warm water for at least five minutes, then rub gently to smooth calluses and eliminate dead skin.
Never use a foot razor, or allow anyone else to use one to remove dead skin. This can result in permanent damage and can cause infection if too much skin is removed.
Trim your nails carefully, using a toenail clipper with a straight edge and cut your toe nail straight across. Using manicure scissors or fingernail clippers increases the risk of ingrown toenails, because they are curved. You can keep your toe nails clean by running a manicure stick under them.
Never forget to keep the moisture balance in skin, by always applying a moisturizer to your feet after thorough drying when you have taken a bath.
No matter how expensive and fashionable the shoes are, they will not look good on unkempt feet.


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Let Food, Exercise and Lifestyle be your Medicine!
Welcome to Ambition Health & Performance. Thank you very much for taking an interest in our services.
We promise to provide measureable, outstanding results to all health, fitness and wellness questions in the least complicated manner, demanding the least amount of time and commitment from you. We promise to inspire by example and always walk the talk.
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Who are Ambition?
Ambition Health & Performance is an expert provider of unique health, wellness and fitness therapy.
Our integrated health solutions involve medical consultation with our own in-house doctor, and then a combination of diet, exercise and lifestyle changes together with the medical intervention of osteopathy and/or physiotherapy where necessary – all supervised and delivered by our highly qualified exercise, injury rehabilitation, nutrition and lifestyle professionals.
Our team at the clinic includes a medical doctor, osteopaths, a physiotherapist, corrective exercise specialists, exercise specialists, injury rehabilitation experts, massage therapists, a reflexologist and diet and lifestyle coaches. With a mix of experience and youth we create a dynamic and friendly working environment.
What can we do for you?
We are dedicated to two things:
First, the prevention, diagnoses and treatment of pain, ill health, injuries, disability and poor physical conditioning;
Second, the improvement, protection, maintenance and/or restoration of outstanding health and fitness – at any age.
We change and save lives through the intervention of diet, exercise and lifestyle modifications based on a personal medical consultation, plus any appropriate osteopathic or physiotherapy treatment, with the minimum medication necessary.
We reverse or reduce the risk of the following:
- type 2 diabetes;
- poor physical conditioning;
- risk of heart disease;
- obesity;
- high cholesterol;
- high blood pressure; and
- other illnesses associated with the ravages of a modern diet and lifestyle.
How do we achieve this?
We reverse pain and dysfunction through the intervention of osteopathy, physiotherapy, massage and corrective exercise. Once we have achieved this, we will then get you in the best physical and mental condition of your life with a personal training programme with our astoundingly qualified and experienced multi-disciplinary team.
With our unique approach based on:
- eating the food each individual is genetically designed to eat;
- individual exercise programmes;
- changes to lifestyle patterns;
- taking advantage of the wonders of modern science; plus
- the right coaching and support;
it is not an under-statement to say that if you follow our programme you will not believe the results. They are truly amazing, with an improved and active life awaiting. Here's what people say about us.


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Coral Springs, FLHome Sitemap Contact
Emergency Information
Hurricane Dorian
Sizzlin' H.I.I.T.
- Date: 02/14/2019 6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
- Location: Aquatic Complex
12441 Royal Palm Boulevard
Coral Springs, Florida 33065
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Sizzlin' H.I. I. T: High Intensity Interval Training! : Spice up your workout with a total body workout in just 45 minutes! Utilizing High Intensity Interval Training! (H.I.I.T- short periods of intense exercise followed by periods of rest) and circuit training, this class includes sizzlin' cardio & endurance training and spiced up strength building. This is not your average, boring workout! Have MORE fun and burn MORE fat in less time!
For more information contact:
Aquatic Complex 954-345-2121 or
GeminiDanz & Fitness 954-464-8143
COST: Walk-in $8 • 10-Class Card $55 • 20-Class Card $85


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NEW YORK – Real Salt Lake acquired 22-year-old former Everton reserve forward Cody Arnoux in a weighted player lottery held on Friday afternoon.
There were six MLS teams that opted to participate in the Arnoux lottery and RSL (5.4 percent) had the fourth-best chance to secure Arnoux's services. The Houston Dynamo (48.9 percent), Seattle Sounders (24.2 percent) and Columbus Crew (19.4 percent) had better odds to claim the player.
The percentage chances are calculated by taking into account a team's record over its last 30 regular-season games. The Portland Timbers (1.6 percent) and Vancouver Whitecaps (0.5 percent) had the lowest-percentage chance.
In Arnoux, Real Salt Lake will acquire a player who made enough of an impression to stick with the reserve side of Everton FC in the EPL. It was his 17 goals in 24 matches for Wake Forest in his 2008 junior year that opened the door for the Everton tryout.
"Cody's a unique forward, a dynamic forward" his former college coach, Jay Vidovich, told MLSsoccer.com. "He has tremendous work rate, he finds himself in dangerous spots and he's a good goal-scorer."
Arnoux, who is an Italian and American citizen, attempted to stay in the UK following the expiration of his one-year deal with Everton. However, after trials with Plymouth Argyle and Motherwell in Scotland did not result in a contract, he returned to North America.
He signed on with the Vancouver Whitecaps in the USSF D-2 in August of last year with an eye toward playing in MLS during the club's 2011 expansion season. What he lacked in game fitness while with Vancouver, he made up in hustle and work rate.
However, because Arnoux was offered an MLS contract prior to moving to England, he could not make the jump to MLS without being placed in a weighted lottery and made available to all MLS teams.
Arnoux has most recently been recovering from a knee injury picked up in November while training with the Whitecaps Residency squad in November.
The Wilmington, N.C., native has a reputation of being a good teammate in the locker. He is called a "beach guy" by his college coach, who likes surfing, hunting and the outdoors. The 2005 North Carolina Player of the Year not only stayed in North Carolina for college but he also played for the PDL's Carolina Dynamo from 2007 to 2009.
Real Salt Lake will now be precluded from participating in future lotteries during the 2011 season along with the San Jose Earthquakes, who landed goalkeeper David Bingham in the first lottery held earlier this year.


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Topic Page: Law, John (1671 - 1729)
1671–1729, Scottish financier in France, b. Edinburgh. After killing a man in a duel (1694) he fled to Amsterdam, where he studied banking. Returning to Scotland (1700), he proposed to Parliament plans for trade and revenue reforms and published Money and Trade Considered (1705). His ideas and a proposal for a national bank were rejected, and Law went to France. The finances of France were in critical condition at the death of King Louis XIV, and Law succeeded in winning the support of the regent, Philippe II, duc d'Orléans, for a scheme that promised to reduce the public debt and stimulate French trade and industry. Law believed that credit and paper money, by encouraging investment, would regenerate the French economy. In 1716 the regent chartered Law's private Banque générale and authorized it to issue paper currency. In 1717, Law acquired the monopoly of commercial privileges in the French colony of Louisiana and organized the Compagnie d'Occident, or Mississippi Company, which was consolidated (1719) with the French East India Company and other organizations as the Compagnie des Indes.
The Banque générale was made the royal bank in 1718, and its issues of notes were guaranteed by the state. Finally (1720), Law, made controller general of finances, merged the huge stock company with the royal bank and took over most of the public debt and the administration of revenue. A rash of speculation swept France. Numerous small investors bought stock, which soared to heights far beyond what could be expected in returns from the exploitation of the colonies (see Mississippi Scheme) and from trade with Asia. The bubble burst suddenly. Well-informed speculators sold their stock at huge profits, setting off a frenzy of selling that ruined thousands of investors. The system collapsed (1720), and Law fled France in disgrace. He died in Venice, where he had supported himself by gambling.
The dizzy speculation caused by Law's system greatly helped to discredit the regency and the idea of a national bank. Although the immediate results of Law's schemes were disastrous, colonial enterprise received a lasting stimulus. His monetary theories have found defenders among later economists.


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Road racing is great fun. The principal is simple, you start alongside a group of riders and the winner is the first over the finish line. It's a sport where fitness is key, even at beginner level races are fast and furious but you need to think about tactics as well. The strongest rider doesn't always win but often the smartest rider by their positioning and decision making will regularly take the points. As said beginners races are tough and it can be an achievement just to finish a race with the main group, but as any experienced racer will tell you, getting the win is nice but a top 10 position is a good result.
Kingston Wheelers likes to put a big emphasis on camaraderie and whilst unlike professional cycling where everyone works for one "team leader", in lower level road racing you are essentially racing to collect points for yourself which go to your race licence. Saying that you will often find during a race that another Kingston Wheeler team mate is in a better position than yourself and do your best to help that team mate get a result. This can by be done in a myriad of ways, for example, disrupting and slowing any chases organised by other teams, working to bring back other escape groups or just working on the front to keep the tempo high. Doing this for team mates can be great fun and is as satisfying as earning points for yourself, they will no doubt return the favour when you are the better rider on the day. Our road racer members often know each other well, as they train, ride and often socialise together, so it is common to know a lot of other Kingston Wheeler members at races.
Many members of Kingston Wheelers Cycling Club race. As a large club we have many newcomers trying out racing each year to established members who have raced for many year and have higher category race licences. UCI and with that British Cycling implements a race licence system for road racing. All junior and senior licence holders, male or female are categorised by their ability. Riders of the same ability category continue to compete together in races irrespective of their age , except in the case of age related events like vets or juniors.
Licence points run until 30 November each year when they are reset to zero - any points gained from 1 December (e.g. in Winter Series criteriums) go onto the following year's licence.
Senior Riders
- 4th Category - A new junior or senior licence holder.
- 3rd Category - Any junior or senior licence holder who has gained 12 points during any one season whilst holding a 4th category licence. Note: Riders are never downgraded to 4th category once a 3rd category licence has been achieved.
- 2nd Category - Any junior or senior licence holder who has gained 40 points during any one season whilst holding a 3rd category licence. To retain a 2nd category licence for the following season, a rider must obtain at least 25 points in events open to that category of rider.
- 1st Category - Any junior or senior licence holder who has gained 200 points during any one season whilst holding a 2nd category licence. To retain a 1st category licence for the following season, a rider must obtain at least 100 points in events open to that category of rider.
- Elite Category - Any Senior licence holder who has gained 300 points during the previous season whilst holding an Elite or 1st category licence.
Getting started
Once you have decided you would like to give racing a go, all you need to do is get a race licence and go to a race. This is straight forward and can be done on the British Cycling website, both getting the licence and finding a race to enter. You need a British Cycling Silver membership and the Race Licence. All your results and points are managed through the British Cycling website and you can also view how the club is standing against other clubs in the region, country etc.. All your points count towards your club.
If you are nervous about racing or have any questions it is best to speak to a couple of racers in the club. Everyone is very approachable and was just like you, worried if it was for them. They will be able to offer you a wide range of advice and also what a race will be like and probably what the circuit will be like. There are often training rides that go out in the evening on weekdays and these are usually 40km and take about an hour, this is a typical 4 category race length. Join one of these rides advertised on the forum and you will get a good idea about your current level of fitness. If you struggle and get dropped, don't get dis-hearten it is hard, it happens to everyone, just keep at it for a few weeks and you will be soon up to pace in no time. Everyone will be friendly and helpful but it is good to take the route although you are never far from home. Just remember everyone was a new racer at one point.
The Surrey League
The Surrey League is an organisation set up to co-ordinate racing amongst clubs in Surrey and beyond. Thanks to the effort and dedication of the Surrey League, we have the best programme of racing in the UK on our doorstep. Its races are run under British Cycling rules, it is not a separate organisation. The Kingston Wheelers is a big supporter and many road racers are members of the league. As part of our affiliation with Surrey League, Kingston Wheelers puts on three road races a year to continue the success of road racing in our area. You can enter Surrey League races on-line.
Trophies and Awards
Whether you win races or not, you can get rewarded for your efforts at the end of the season at the club's annual Prize Presentation. There's a lot of silverware on offer for lots of disciplines, you can see the award winners on the awards page.
Annual Club Championships
Every year Kingston Wheelers hosts a club road racing championship, typically in October at the back end of the race season. We usually hired Hillingdon cyclo park that is a popular criterium circuit based in Hayes. We have a number of races typically an hour long, one of which is aimed at new racers only. This race is designed for people who either fancy a go in a safe environment or don't usually have the time but fancy a go. If you have raced previously then you will be placed in the main event. The main race is for all categories of licences E/1/2/3/4 but we handicap the race. This means the cat 4 riders go first, then cat 3 and so forth. The intervals between groups are worked out to give everyone a fair race and this is a popular system in Surrey League road racing. We are looking to add a women's race to the day but this is dependent on number, women are of course able to race with the men if they wish as they can do for all British Cycling races.
So you have become a road racer and enjoying all that this part of cycling can offer. These races are put on by us and clubs just like ours all over the country, without these volunteers to help organise and run the races the sport would not exist. With this in mind Kingston Wheelers expects it's racing community to help out that little bit more than the average member. What this means is that should volunteer and help out at where you can, for example at one of our time trail events or our road races by marshalling, baking a cake or even step up and help organise the event. We do lots of other none racing events and these all need volunteers to help so it doesn't necessarily get in the way of a race day! So look out for the requests and do your bit for the club and sport.


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I was only 8 when "The French Chef" first appeared on American television in 1963, but it didn't take long for me to realize that this
Every so often I would watch "The French Chef" with my mother in the den. On WNET in New York, it came on late in the afternoon, after school, and because we had only one television back then, if Mom wanted to watch her program, you watched it, too. The show felt less like TV than like hanging around the kitchen, which is to say, not terribly exciting to a kid (except when Child dropped something on the floor, which my mother promised would happen if we stuck around long enough) but comforting in its familiarity: the clanking of pots and pans, the squeal of an oven door in need of
But "Julie & Julia" is more than an exercise in nostalgia. As the title suggests, the film has a second, more contemporary heroine. The Julie character (played by
That learning to cook could lead an American woman to success of any kind would have seemed utterly implausible in 1949; that it is so thoroughly plausible 60 years later owes everything to Julia Child's legacy. Julie Powell operates in a world that Julia Child helped to create, one where food is taken seriously, where chefs have been welcomed into the repertory company of American celebrity and where cooking has become a broadly appealing mise-en-scène in which success stories can plausibly be set and played out. How amazing is it that we live today in a culture that has not only something called the Food Network but now a hit show on that network called "The Next Food Network Star," which thousands of 20- and 30-somethings compete eagerly to become? It would seem we have come a long way from Swanson TV dinners.Continue reading the main story
The Food Network can now be seen in nearly 100 million American homes and on most nights commands more viewers than any of the cable news channels. Millions of Americans, including my 16-year-old son, can tell you months after the finale which contestant emerged victorious in Season 5 of "Top Chef" (Hosea Rosenberg, followed by Stefan Richter, his favorite, and Carla Hall). The popularity of cooking shows — or perhaps I should say food shows — has spread beyond the precincts of public or cable television to the broadcast networks, where
But here's what I don't get: How is it that we are so eager to watch other people browning beef cubes on screen but so much less eager to brown them ourselves? For the rise of Julia Child as a figure of cultural consequence — along with
That decline has several causes: women working outside the home; food companies persuading Americans to let them do the cooking; and advances in technology that made it easier for them to do so. Cooking is no longer obligatory, and for many people, women especially, that has been a blessing. But perhaps a mixed blessing, to judge by the culture's continuing, if not deepening, fascination with the subject. It has been easier for us to give up cooking than it has been to give up talking about it — and watching it.
Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that's less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia arrived on our television screens. It's also less than half the time it takes to watch a single episode of "Top Chef" or "Chopped" or "The Next Food Network Star." What this suggests is that a great many Americans are spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves — an increasingly archaic activity they will tell you they no longer have the time for.
What is wrong with this picture?
When I asked my mother recently what exactly endeared Julia Child to her, she explained that "for so many of us she took the fear out of cooking" and, to illustrate the point, brought up the famous potato show (or, as Julia pronounced it, "the poh-TAY-toh show!"), one of the episodes that Meryl Streep recreates brilliantly on screen. Millions of Americans of a certain age claim to remember Julia Child dropping a chicken or a goose on the floor, but the memory is apocryphal: what she dropped was a potato pancake, and it didn't quite make it to the floor. Still, this was a classic live-television moment, inconceivable on any modern cooking show: Martha Stewart would sooner commit seppuku than let such an outtake ever see the light of day.
The episode has Julia making a plate-size potato pancake, sautéing a big disc of mashed potato into which she has folded impressive quantities of cream and butter. Then the fateful moment arrives:
"When you flip anything, you just have to have the courage of your convictions," she declares, clearly a tad nervous at the prospect, and then gives the big pancake a flip. On the way down, half of it catches the lip of the pan and splats onto the stovetop. Undaunted, Julia scoops the thing up and roughly patches the pancake back together, explaining: "When I flipped it, I didn't have the courage to do it the way I should have. You can always pick it up." And then, looking right through the camera as if taking us into her confidence, she utters the line that did so much to lift the fear of failure from my mother and her contemporaries: "If you're alone in the kitchen, WHOOOO" — the pronoun is sung — "is going to see?" For a generation of women eager to transcend their mothers' recipe box (and perhaps, too, their mothers' social standing), Julia's little kitchen catastrophe was a liberation and a lesson: "The only way you learn to flip things is just to flip them!"
It was a kind of courage — not only to cook but to cook the world's most glamorous and intimidating cuisine — that Julia Child gave my mother and so many other women like her, and to watch her empower viewers in episode after episode is to appreciate just how much about cooking on television — not to mention cooking itself — has changed in the years since "The French Chef" was on the air.
There are still cooking programs that will teach you how to cook. Public television offers the eminently useful "America's Test Kitchen." The Food Network carries a whole slate of so-called dump-and-stir shows during the day, and the network's research suggests that at least some viewers are following along. But many of these programs — I'm thinking of Rachael Ray, Paula Deen, Sandra Lee — tend to be aimed at stay-at-home moms who are in a hurry and eager to please. ("How good are you going to look when you serve this?" asks Paula Deen, a Southern gal of the old school.) These shows stress quick results, shortcuts and superconvenience but never the sort of pleasure — physical and mental — that Julia Child took in the work of cooking: the tomahawking of a fish skeleton or the chopping of an onion, the Rolfing of butter into the breast of a raw chicken or the vigorous whisking of heavy cream. By the end of the potato show, Julia was out of breath and had broken a sweat, which she mopped from her brow with a paper towel. (Have you ever seen Martha Stewart break a sweat? Pant? If so, you know her a lot better than the rest of us.) Child was less interested in making it fast or easy than making it right, because cooking for her was so much more than a means to a meal. It was a gratifying, even ennobling sort of work, engaging both the mind and the muscles. You didn't do it to please a husband or impress guests; you did it to please yourself. No one cooking on television today gives the impression that they enjoy the actual work quite as much as Julia Child did. In this, she strikes me as a more liberated figure than many of the women who have followed her on television.
Curiously, the year Julia Child went on the air — 1963 — was the same year
Whichever, kitchen work itself has changed considerably since 1963, judging from its depiction on today's how-to shows. Take the concept of cooking from scratch. Many of today's cooking programs rely unapologetically on ingredients that themselves contain lots of ingredients: canned soups, jarred mayonnaise, frozen vegetables, powdered sauces, vanilla wafers, limeade concentrate, Marshmallow Fluff. This probably shouldn't surprise us: processed foods have so thoroughly colonized the American kitchen and
I spent an enlightening if somewhat depressing hour on the phone with a veteran food-marketing researcher, Harry Balzer, who explained that "people call things 'cooking' today that would roll their grandmother in her grave — heating up a can of soup or microwaving a frozen pizza." Balzer has been studying American eating habits since 1978; the NPD Group, the firm he works for, collects data from a pool of 2,000 food diaries to track American eating habits. Years ago Balzer noticed that the definition of cooking held by his respondents had grown so broad as to be meaningless, so the firm tightened up the meaning of "to cook" at least slightly to capture what was really going on in American kitchens. To cook from scratch, they decreed, means to prepare a main dish that requires some degree of "assembly of elements." So microwaving a pizza doesn't count as cooking, though washing a head of lettuce and pouring bottled dressing over it does. Under this dispensation, you're also cooking when you spread mayonnaise on a slice of bread and pile on some cold cuts or a hamburger patty. (Currently the most popular meal in America, at both lunch and dinner, is a sandwich; the No. 1 accompanying beverage is a soda.) At least by Balzer's none-too-exacting standard, Americans are still cooking up a storm — 58 percent of our evening meals qualify, though even that figure has been falling steadily since the 1980s.
Like most people who study consumer behavior, Balzer has developed a somewhat cynical view of human nature, which his research suggests is ever driven by the quest to save time or money or, optimally, both. I kept asking him what his research had to say about the prevalence of the activity I referred to as "real scratch cooking," but he wouldn't touch the term. Why? Apparently the activity has become so rarefied as to elude his tools of measurement.
"Here's an analogy," Balzer said. "A hundred years ago, chicken for dinner meant going out and catching, killing, plucking and gutting a chicken. Do you know anybody who still does that? It would be considered crazy! Well, that's exactly how cooking will seem to your grandchildren: something people used to do when they had no other choice. Get over it."
After my discouraging hour on the phone with Balzer, I settled in for a couple more with the Food Network, trying to square his dismal view of our interest in cooking with the hyperexuberant, even fetishized images of cooking that are presented on the screen. The Food Network undergoes a complete change of personality at night, when it trades the cozy precincts of the home kitchen and chirpy softball coaching of Rachael Ray or Sandra Lee for something markedly less feminine and less practical. Erica Gruen, the cable executive often credited with putting the Food Network on the map in the late '90s, recognized early on that, as she told a journalist, "people don't watch television to learn things." So she shifted the network's target audience from people who love to cook to people who love to eat, a considerably larger universe and one that — important for a cable network — happens to contain a great many more men.
In prime time, the Food Network's mise-en-scène shifts to masculine arenas like the Kitchen Stadium on
These shows move so fast, in such a blur of flashing knives, frantic pantry raids and more sheer fire than you would ever want to see in your own kitchen, that I honestly can't tell you whether that "last-minute garnish grab" happened on "Iron Chef America" or "Chopped" or "The Next Food Network Star" or whether it was Chef Flay or Chef Batali who snagged the sprig of foliage at the buzzer. But impressive it surely was, in the same way it's impressive to watch a handful of eager young chefs on "Chopped" figure out how to make a passable appetizer from chicken wings, celery, soba noodles and a package of string cheese in just 20 minutes, said starter to be judged by a panel of professional chefs on the basis of "taste, creativity and presentation." (If you ask me, the key to victory on any of these shows comes down to one factor: bacon. Whichever contestant puts bacon in the dish invariably seems to win.)
But you do have to wonder how easily so specialized a set of skills might translate to the home kitchen — or anywhere else for that matter. For when in real life are even professional chefs required to conceive and execute dishes in 20 minutes from ingredients selected by a third party exhibiting obvious sadistic tendencies? (String cheese?) Never, is when. The skills celebrated on the Food Network in prime time are precisely the skills necessary to succeed on the Food Network in prime time. They will come in handy nowhere else on God's green earth.
We learn things watching these cooking competitions, but they're not things about how to cook. There are no recipes to follow; the contests fly by much too fast for viewers to take in any practical tips; and the kind of cooking practiced in prime time is far more spectacular than anything you would ever try at home. No, for anyone hoping to pick up a few dinnertime tips, the implicit message of today's prime-time cooking shows is, Don't try this at home. If you really want to eat this way, go to a restaurant. Or as a chef friend put it when I asked him if he thought I could learn anything about cooking by watching the Food Network, "How much do you learn about playing basketball by watching the
What we mainly learn about on the Food Network in prime time is culinary fashion, which is no small thing: if Julia took the fear out of cooking, these shows take the fear — the social
Surely it's no accident that so many Food Network stars have themselves found a way to transcend barriers of social class in the kitchen — beginning with Emeril Lagasse, the working-class guy from Fall River, Mass., who, though he may not be able to sound the 'r' in "garlic," can still cook like a dream. Once upon a time Julia made the same promise in reverse: she showed you how you, too, could cook like someone who could not only prepare but properly pronounce a béarnaise. So-called fancy food has always served as a form of cultural capital, and cooking programs help you acquire it, now without so much as lifting a spatula. The glamour of food has made it something of a class leveler in America, a fact that many of these shows implicitly celebrate. Television likes nothing better than to serve up elitism to the masses, paradoxical as that might sound. How wonderful is it that something like arugula can at the same time be a mark of sophistication and be found in almost every salad bar in America? Everybody wins!
But the shift from producing food on television to consuming it strikes me as a far-less-salubrious development. Traditionally, the recipe for the typical dump-and-stir program comprises about 80 percent cooking followed by 20 percent eating, but in prime time you now find a
The historical drift of cooking programs — from a genuine interest in producing food yourself to the spectacle of merely consuming it — surely owes a lot to the decline of cooking in our culture, but it also has something to do with the gravitational field that eventually overtakes anything in television's orbit. It's no accident that Julia Child appeared on public television — or educational television, as it used to be called. On a commercial network, a program that actually inspired viewers to get off the couch and spend an hour cooking a meal would be a commercial disaster, for it would mean they were turning off the television to do something else. The ads on the Food Network, at least in prime time, strongly suggest its viewers do no such thing: the food-related ads hardly ever hawk kitchen appliances or ingredients (unless you count A.1. steak sauce) but rather push the usual supermarket cart of edible foodlike substances, including Manwich sloppy joe in a can, Special K protein shakes and Ore-Ida frozen French fries, along with fast-casual eateries like Olive Garden and Red Lobster.
Buying, not making, is what cooking shows are mostly now about — that and, increasingly, cooking shows themselves: the whole self-perpetuating spectacle of competition, success and celebrity that, with "The Next Food Network Star," appears to have entered its baroque phase. The Food Network has figured out that we care much less about what's cooking than who's cooking. A few years ago, Mario Batali neatly summed up the network's formula to a reporter: "Look, it's TV! Everyone has to fall into a niche. I'm the Italian guy.
The Food Network has helped to transform cooking from something you do into something you watch — into yet another confection of spectacle and celebrity that keeps us pinned to the couch. The formula is as circular and self-reinforcing as a TV dinner: a simulacrum of home cooking that is sold on TV and designed to be eaten in front of the TV. True, in the case of the Swanson rendition, at least you get something that will fill you up; by comparison, the Food Network leaves you hungry, a condition its advertisers must love. But in neither case is there much risk that you will get off the couch and actually cook a meal. Both kinds of TV dinner plant us exactly where television always wants us: in front of the set, watching.
To point out that television has succeeded in turning cooking into a spectator sport raises the question of why anyone would want to watch other people cook in the first place. There are plenty of things we've stopped doing for ourselves that we have no desire to watch other people do on TV: you don't see shows about changing the oil in your car or ironing shirts or reading newspapers. So what is it about cooking, specifically, that makes it such good television just now?
It's worth keeping in mind that watching other people cook is not exactly a new behavior for us humans. Even when "everyone" still cooked, there were plenty of us who mainly watched: men, for the most part, and children. Most of us have happy memories of watching our mothers in the kitchen, performing feats that sometimes looked very much like sorcery and typically resulted in something tasty to eat. Watching my mother transform the raw materials of nature — a handful of plants, an animal's flesh — into a favorite dinner was always a pretty good show, but on the afternoons when she tackled a complex marvel like chicken Kiev, I happily stopped whatever I was doing to watch. (I told you we had it pretty good, thanks partly to Julia.) My mother would hammer the boneless chicken breasts into flat pink slabs, roll them tightly around chunks of ice-cold herbed butter, glue the cylinders shut with egg, then fry the little logs until they turned golden brown, in what qualified as a minor miracle of transubstantiation. When the dish turned out right, knifing through the crust into the snowy white meat within would uncork a fragrant ooze of melted butter that seeped across the plate to merge with the Minute Rice. (If the instant rice sounds all wrong, remember that in the 1960s, Julia Child and modern food science were both tokens of sophistication.)
Yet even the most ordinary dish follows a similar arc of transformation, magically becoming something greater than the sum of its parts. Every dish contains not just culinary ingredients but also the ingredients of narrative: a beginning, a middle and an end. Bring in the element of fire — cooking's deus ex machina — and you've got a tasty little drama right there, the whole thing unfolding in a TV-friendly span of time: 30 minutes (at 350 degrees) will usually do it.
Cooking shows also benefit from the fact that food itself is — by definition — attractive to the humans who eat it, and that attraction can be enhanced by food styling, an art at which the Food Network so excels as to make Julia Child look like a piker. You'll be flipping aimlessly through the cable channels when a slow-motion cascade of glistening red cherries or a tongue of flame lapping at a slab of meat on the grill will catch your eye, and your reptilian brain will paralyze your thumb on the remote, forcing you to stop to see what's cooking. Food shows are the campfires in the deep cable forest, drawing us like hungry wanderers to their flames. (And on the Food Network there are plenty of flames to catch your eye, compensating, no doubt, for the unfortunate absence of aromas.)
No matter how well produced, a televised oil change and lube offers no such satisfactions.
I suspect we're drawn to the textures and rhythms of kitchen work, too, which seem so much more direct and satisfying than the more abstract and formless tasks most of us perform in our jobs nowadays. The chefs on TV get to put their hands on real stuff, not keyboards and screens but fundamental things like plants and animals and fungi; they get to work with fire and ice and perform feats of alchemy. By way of explaining why in the world she wants to cook her way through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," all Julie Powell has to do in the film is show us her cubicle at the
"You know what I love about cooking?" Julie tells us in a voice-over as we watch her field yet another inconclusive call on her headset. "I love that after a day where nothing is sure — and when I say nothing, I mean nothing — you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It's such a comfort." How many of us still do work that engages us in a dialogue with the material world and ends — assuming the soufflé doesn't collapse — with such a gratifying and tasty sense of closure? Come to think of it, even the collapse of the soufflé is at least definitive, which is more than you can say about most of what you will do at work tomorrow.
If cooking really offers all these satisfactions, then why don't we do more of it? Well, ask Julie Powell: for most of us it doesn't pay the rent, and very often our work doesn't leave us the time; during the year of Julia, dinner at the Powell apartment seldom arrived at the table before 10 p.m. For many years now, Americans have been putting in longer hours at work and enjoying less time at home. Since 1967, we've added 167 hours — the equivalent of a month's full-time labor — to the total amount of time we spend at work each year, and in households where both parents work, the figure is more like 400 hours. Americans today spend more time working than people in any other industrialized nation — an extra two weeks or more a year. Not surprisingly, in those countries where people still take cooking seriously, they also have more time to devote to it.
It's generally assumed that the entrance of women into the work force is responsible for the collapse of home cooking, but that turns out to be only part of the story. Yes, women with jobs outside the home spend less time cooking — but so do women without jobs. The amount of time spent on food preparation in America has fallen at the same precipitous rate among women who don't work outside the home as it has among women who do: in both cases, a decline of about 40 percent since 1965. (Though for married women who don't have jobs, the amount of time spent cooking remains greater: 58 minutes a day, as compared with 36 for married women who do have jobs.) In general, spending on restaurants or takeout food rises with income. Women with jobs have more money to pay corporations to do their cooking, yet all American women now allow corporations to cook for them when they can.
Those corporations have been trying to persuade Americans to let them do the cooking since long before large numbers of women entered the work force. After World War II, the food industry labored mightily to sell American women on all the processed-food wonders it had invented to feed the troops: canned meals, freeze-dried foods, dehydrated potatoes, powdered orange juice and coffee, instant everything. As Laura Shapiro recounts in "Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America," the food industry strived to "persuade millions of Americans to develop a lasting taste for meals that were a lot like field rations." The same process of peacetime conversion that industrialized our farming, giving us synthetic fertilizers made from munitions and new
Shapiro shows that the shift toward industrial cookery began not in response to a demand from women entering the work force but as a supply-driven phenomenon. In fact, for many years American women, whether they worked or not, resisted processed foods, regarding them as a dereliction of their "moral obligation to cook," something they believed to be a parental responsibility on par with child care. It took years of clever, dedicated marketing to break down this resistance and persuade Americans that opening a can or cooking from a mix really was cooking. Honest. In the 1950s, just-add-water cake mixes languished in the supermarket until the marketers figured out that if you left at least something for the "baker" to do — specifically, crack open an egg — she could take ownership of the cake. Over the years, the food scientists have gotten better and better at simulating real food, keeping it looking attractive and seemingly fresh, and the rapid acceptance of microwave ovens — which went from being in only 8 percent of American households in 1978 to 90 percent today — opened up vast new horizons of home-meal replacement.
Harry Balzer's research suggests that the corporate project of redefining what it means to cook and serve a meal has succeeded beyond the industry's wildest expectations. People think nothing of buying frozen peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches for their children's lunchboxes. (Now how much of a timesaver can that be?) "We've had a hundred years of packaged foods," Balzer told me, "and now we're going to have a hundred years of packaged meals." Already today, 80 percent of the cost of food eaten in the home goes to someone other than a farmer, which is to say to industrial cooking and packaging and marketing. Balzer is unsentimental about this development: "Do you miss sewing or darning socks? I don't think so."
So what are we doing with the time we save by outsourcing our food preparation to corporations and 16-year-old burger flippers? Working, commuting to work, surfing the Internet and, perhaps most curiously of all, watching other people cook on television.
But this may not be quite the paradox it seems. Maybe the reason we like to watch cooking on TV is that there are things about cooking we miss. We might not feel we have the time or the energy to do it ourselves every day, yet we're not prepared to see it disappear from our lives entirely. Why? Perhaps because cooking — unlike sewing or darning socks — is an activity that strikes a deep emotional chord in us, one that might even go to the heart of our identity as human beings.
What?! You're telling me
Bear with me. Consider for a moment the proposition that as a human activity, cooking is far more important — to our happiness and to our health — than its current role in our lives, not to mention its depiction on TV, might lead you to believe. Let's see what happens when we take cooking seriously.
The idea that cooking is a defining human activity is not a new one. In 1773, the Scottish writer James Boswell, noting that "no beast is a cook," called Homo sapiens "the cooking animal," though he might have reconsidered that definition had he been able to gaze upon the frozen-food cases at
For Lévi-Strauss, cooking is a metaphor for the human transformation of nature into culture, but in the years since "The Raw and the Cooked," other anthropologists have begun to take quite literally the idea that cooking is the key to our humanity. Earlier this year, Richard Wrangham, a
Cooking gave us not just the meal but also the occasion: the practice of eating together at an appointed time and place. This was something new under the sun, for the forager of raw food would likely have fed himself on the go and alone, like the animals. (Or, come to think of it, like the industrial eaters we've become, grazing at gas stations and skipping meals.) But sitting down to common meals, making eye contact, sharing food, all served to civilize us; "around that fire," Wrangham says, "we became tamer."
If cooking is as central to human identity and culture as Wrangham believes, it stands to reason that the decline of cooking in our time would have a profound effect on modern life. At the very least, you would expect that its rapid disappearance from everyday life might leave us feeling nostalgic for the sights and smells and the sociality of the cook-fire. Bobby Flay and Rachael Ray may be pushing precisely that emotional button. Interestingly, the one kind of home cooking that is actually on the rise today (according to Harry Balzer) is outdoor grilling. Chunks of animal flesh seared over an open fire: grilling is cooking at its most fundamental and explicit, the transformation of the raw into the cooked right before our eyes. It makes a certain sense that the grill would be gaining adherents at the very moment when cooking meals and eating them together is fading from the culture. (While men have hardly become equal partners in the kitchen, they are cooking more today than ever before: about
Yet we don't crank up the barbecue every day; grilling for most people is more ceremony than routine. We seem to be well on our way to turning cooking into a form of weekend recreation, a backyard sport for which we outfit ourselves at
To play at farming or foraging for food strikes us as harmless enough, perhaps because the delegating of those activities to other people in real life is something most of us are generally O.K. with. But to relegate the activity of cooking to a form of play, something that happens just on weekends or mostly on television, seems much more consequential. The fact is that not cooking may well be deleterious to our health, and there is reason to believe that the outsourcing of food preparation to corporations and 16-year-olds has already taken a toll on our physical and psychological well-being.
Consider some recent research on the links between cooking and dietary health. A 2003 study by a group of Harvard economists led by David Cutler found that the rise of food preparation outside the home could explain most of the increase in obesity in America. Mass production has driven down the cost of many foods, not only in terms of price but also in the amount of time required to obtain them. The French fry did not become the most popular "vegetable" in America until industry relieved us of the considerable effort needed to prepare French fries ourselves. Similarly, the mass production of cream-filled cakes, fried chicken wings and taquitos, exotically flavored chips or cheesy puffs of refined flour, has transformed all these hard-to-make-at-home foods into the sort of everyday fare you can pick up at the gas station on a whim and for less than a dollar. The fact that we no longer have to plan or even wait to enjoy these items, as we would if we were making them ourselves, makes us that much more likely to indulge impulsively.
Cutler and his colleagues demonstrate that as the "time cost" of food preparation has fallen, calorie consumption has gone up, particularly consumption of the sort of snack and convenience foods that are typically cooked outside the home. They found that when we don't have to cook meals, we eat more of them: as the amount of time Americans spend cooking has dropped by about half, the number of meals Americans eat in a day has climbed; since 1977, we've added approximately half a meal to our daily intake.
Cutler and his colleagues also surveyed cooking patterns across several cultures and found that obesity rates are inversely correlated with the amount of time spent on food preparation. The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female participation in the labor force or income. Other research supports the idea that cooking is a better predictor of a healthful diet than social class: a 1992 study in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that poor women who routinely cooked were more likely to eat a more healthful diet than well-to-do women who did not.
So cooking matters — a lot. Which when you think about it, should come as no surprise. When we let corporations do the cooking, they're bound to go heavy on sugar, fat and salt; these are three tastes we're hard-wired to like, which happen to be dirt cheap to add and do a good job masking the shortcomings of processed food. And if you make special-occasion foods cheap and easy enough to eat every day, we will eat them every day. The time and work involved in cooking, as well as the delay in gratification built into the process, served as an important check on our appetite. Now that check is gone, and we're struggling to deal with the consequences.
The question is, Can we ever put the genie back into the bottle? Once it has been destroyed, can a culture of everyday cooking be rebuilt? One in which men share equally in the work? One in which the cooking shows on television once again teach people how to cook from scratch and, as Julia Child once did, actually empower them to do it?
Let us hope so. Because it's hard to imagine ever reforming the American way of eating or, for that matter, the American food system unless millions of Americans — women and men — are willing to make cooking a part of daily life. The path to a diet of fresher, unprocessed food, not to mention to a revitalized local-food economy, passes straight through the home kitchen.
But if this is a dream you find appealing, you might not want to call Harry Balzer right away to discuss it.
"Not going to happen," he told me. "Why? Because we're basically cheap and lazy. And besides, the skills are already lost. Who is going to teach the next generation to cook? I don't see it.
"We're all looking for someone else to cook for us. The next American cook is going to be the supermarket. Takeout from the supermarket, that's the future. All we need now is the drive-through supermarket."
Crusty as a fresh baguette, Harry Balzer insists on dealing with the world, and human nature, as it really is, or at least as he finds it in the survey data he has spent the past three decades poring over. But for a brief moment, I was able to engage him in the project of imagining a slightly different reality. This took a little doing. Many of his clients — which include many of the big chain restaurants and food manufacturers — profit handsomely from the decline and fall of cooking in America; indeed, their marketing has contributed to it. Yet Balzer himself made it clear that he recognizes all that the decline of everyday cooking has cost us. So I asked him how, in an ideal world, Americans might begin to undo the damage that the modern diet of industrially prepared food has done to our health.
"Easy. You want Americans to eat less? I have the diet for you. It's short, and it's simple. Here's my diet plan: Cook it yourself. That's it. Eat anything you want — just as long as you're willing to cook it yourself."Continue reading the main story