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(1) To start a round-robin MC game, create a singleplayer Survival world, with cheats turned on, in your own game. If you spawn in water, move out of the water and reset the world spawn (/setworldspawn).
(2) Make a communal area. It doesn't have to be complicated or fancy...just make a secure, fair-sized warehouse with supply chests which can be labeled as they're filled (where you may leave some extra supplies if you like--or not--depending on how it works out for you) and a basic crafting area, somewhere within a 100x100 block of the original (or reset) world spawn point. Be sure you also add (in the warehouse) at least four "startup" chests inside the warehouse (marked with a sign) for players to use when they first pick up the world. Those chests should each have a full set of basic wooden tools, and 12 torches. After that, it's up to the players to gather what else they will need.
(3) Make your own (no more than 100x100) home "lot" somewhere within 100 blocks of any edge or corner of the communal area block.
(4) Somewhere out about 200-400 blocks from any edge or corner of the communal area, create a single challenge that is contained within a 100x100 block area (it can be smaller, but not larger). If you map out the area with a boundary of torches & corner signs before you actually set the challenge, it will help when posting the parameters. A challenge should contain at least two elements: (a) something to build that may be a little more difficult than just a simple shelter and/or a farm; (b) something to find, that is hidden. You may add more elements, but you must give at least one hint for everything that needs to be accomplished in the challenge, when you post. Nothing in your challenge should contain anything that MUST be found in the Creative inventory--unless a command block is necessary for the player to use, which you would have to specify in your post. It would be better for you to use your own command blocks when creating, as creating MAY be done in Creative if you like--entirely up to you. As I well know, from one of Lydia's prior challenge creations, command blocks can be used to throw a player all over the place!
(5) All those block measurements are approximate, and don't have to be followed to the letter. Stay close, though, so that we don't just get too spread out to far, too soon. The further out the map goes, the bigger the file will be, for trading back and forth. So keep your exploring to a minimum at first, too. As the map gets filled up with stuff from other people, it should grow outwards in a "circle," basically...not just all in one direction. The center should always remain pretty much the center. It's never going to be exact, but let's try to keep it balanced.
(6) THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! When you have everything done that you want to have done, you MUST go to the warehouse and put your inventory into your own named chest there (when you pick up a starting chest, be sure to change the sign to your own name). This is because this is NOT a multiplayer game! When you log in, you are going to be the ONLY player. If one player leaves his inventory full, the next player will look as expected, and be the correct name, BUT...will be in the place where the previous player left off, with the previous player's inventory! So REMEMBER...when done and ready to pass the map on, go to the warehouse and empty your inventory before quitting the map.
(7) This brings up another important point, which there isn't a way around. Once a bed is slept in, it becomes THE player's spawn point. We can work around this. While YOU are playing, you may sleep in your own bed, in your own home. However, ONCE YOU ARE READY TO PASS ON THE GAME, after you have emptied your inventory, GO TO THE BED IN THE WAREHOUSE, and sleep in it! DON'T LEAVE THE GAME UNTIL YOU POP OUT OF THE BED. This means you will have to be sure to quit at night, and that the next player will ALWAYS come into the game, in the morning, right next to the warehouse bed, then go pick up the proper inventory from the named chest.
(8) When you're ready to post your map, be sure you have it named what you want, then open a new topic in this forum. Name the topic the same as the map name.
(9) Tell us about it. Post coords and at least one picture for anything already built on the map--including the warehouse, your home, and the entrance to the challenge you pose.
(10) State your challenge. Give some clues, but not too many, about hidden objects. People need to know WHAT it is they're looking for (at least a good description of it), at least. Don't just say, "I've hidden something...blah blah blah."
(11) Zip up your save, and post it here. We may have to resort to posting maps on different sites if they get too big, but at first, they should be able to just be attached here. You can attach a file up to 15 MB (at least I can). You might get by with bigger files, with faster internet speeds. I have satellite lag.
(1) When you pick up a map to play, you don't HAVE to let us know, here, if you don't plan to re-upload it for another player to chime in later. Feel free to just use these maps as starts, and build for yourself from what the first player did.
(2) If you do plan to re-upload it with another session done, please post that you have downloaded the map, and that you are now taking your turn! No map should OFFICIALLY be being worked on at the same time, by more than one person. That could just get way, way too confusing--for now, at least. Let's figure out how to do it one rotation at a time, before we get any more complicated. We changed our minds (11/07/14)! This is too much fun to confine the maps to having to only be used by one person at a time. If you want to download a start map, please feel free. You could then share it here as an alternate version for someone else to play, or you could just continue to watch for new challenges, and do them all in your own game, without ever having to upload anything here. Just have fun!!!
(3) All turns should be constrained to no more than two weeks. If you need longer, please post that you will be delayed a bit in re-posting.
(4) If you thought you were going to re-upload, then decide you can't, for whatever reason, please also post, just so we know.
(5) If you have already worked on a map once, you may again, as long as you don't take two turns in a row.
(6) If you haven't yet created a home on the map, you need to do that. After that, you have two other things to do: (a) complete the challenge issued before you; and (b) create a challenge for the next player.
(7) Use the (very loose) guidelines from the "Map Creators" section, above, for these things, regarding placement and posting.
(8) If you need to make changes to the Warehouse (such as labeling the signs for the chests, adding more chests, fixing things if a creeper should happen to drop by unexpectedly, adding more space, decorating, etc., etc., etc., please feel free to do so. Everyone shares in that part, and it's OK to make changes.
(9) Do NOT change anything in another player's home space, unless they have said there is something you may change or may use, or perhaps they have asked you to continue with that area in their own issued challenge. Otherwise, private areas are just that. Be honest...don't borrow, either...unless you've been told it's OK!
(10) Oh! I almost forgot. Play the map in YOUR game, on any difficulty you prefer! If you never want to leave Peaceful, that's OK. If you play on harder difficulties, just be sure you repair any damage that may happen, in the community area, or in a private area, if you get too close!!! If nothing else, at least put a fence around anything damaged!!! Stuff happens. We all know that, but do your best to repair damages. (11/07/14) If a challenge says you need to teleport to a set of coords, you do NOT need to teleport if you'd rather not. Just walk or run there. That's entirely up to you!
(11) If you want to play in Creative, please feel free to do so. I just don't want anyone to be FORCED to do so, if they don't want to. The point is to have fun with the map. Whether or not you gather your resources or get them from the Creative inventory is not going to harm the map, either way. There is plenty to go around, and it's no skin off anyone's back, if you would rather just build, without gathering.
(13) If you do use stuff from the community warehouse, please try to replace it and donate more things for someone else to use in a pinch.
(14) If you should happen to pick up a map and someone has forgotten to change out their inventory and sleep in the warehouse bed, just put their stuff into a new chest wherever they stopped, and then get yourself over to the warehous to get your startup stuff or your own inventory from before. Then remember Rules 6 & 7 in the first part of this post and Rule 12 in the second part, when YOU quit. Thanks!
(15) When you've finished with the issued challenge and issued a new challenge (and made your home, if you were in for the first time), zip up the save folder again, and re-upload it here (or elsewhere, with a link). Be sure to post coords and pictures of the new things you did, so the next person will know where to find them.
OK...that pretty much sums it up, I think. We can change things here as we go along, if we need to.


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The Out of School Alliance (OOSA) provides information and support to individuals and organisations setting up and running out of school clubs, including breakfast clubs, after school clubs, holiday clubs and playschemes.
Setting up a club
If you are thinking about setting up a club, we have everything you need to get you started, including information about qualifications, staffing, premises and Ofsted registration. We even have packs of template documentation to save you time in inventing your own.
Up and running
With your club already up and running, you'll find our in-depth articles, on issues such as the use of photography in clubs, parental responsibility and transporting children, essential. Or visit our members' lounge to share ideas with other clubs and enjoy.
Working in a club?
If you work in an out of school club you can keep up to date with the latest developments in the sector with our newsletter. Our library of activity ideas - all tested on real children - will keep things fresh at your club, and if you are looking for a change.

subset: commoncrawl


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UPDATED: May 11, 2014, at 2:37 a.m.
Despite condemnation by the Archdiocese of Boston, Harvard Chaplains, student religious groups, and many alumni and students on campus, an organization of Harvard Extension School students will move forward with plans to host a staging of a satanic "black mass" on campus on Monday.
A black mass ceremony is a ritual performed by satanic cults to parody the Catholic Church Mass. Historically, the ceremony features a ritual of sacrilege of the Catholic host, or the sacred bread used in the Eucharist, which becomes the body of Jesus Christ upon consecration.
The performance, which will take place Monday night at Cambridge Queen's Head Pub in the basement of Memorial Hall, is organized by the Extension School's Cultural Studies Club with help from the New York-based Satanic Temple.
The ceremony will model the script of the black mass articulated in novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans' work "Là-Bas," although a consecrated host will not be used. In addition, Christopher Robichaud, an ethics and public policy professor at the Kennedy School of Government, will speak at the demonstration to frame the event in terms of religious liberty and tolerance, according to the club.
In a statement posted to the school's website on Friday, Extension School Dean of Students and Alumni Affairs Robert H. Neugeboren '83 said that though the School does not endorse activities of individual student organizations, it will "support the rights of our students and faculty to speak and assemble freely." The statement followed a similar post on the Extension School's website on Wednesday that affirmed the club's right to host the event.
"We do not agree with the [Cultural Studies Club's] decision to stage an event that is so deeply disturbing and offensive to many in the Harvard community and beyond," the statement read. "While we support the ability of all our students to explore difficult issues, we also encourage them to do so in ways that are sensitive to others."
To address concerns about the event, the Extension School ensured that the reenactment would not make use of a consecrated host and also encouraged Cultural Studies Club student leaders to "foster a positive dialogue" with Catholic student organizations, according to Neugeboren's statement.
The club said that the events were motivated by educational purposes only in the statement posted on the Extension School's website Wednesday.
"Our purpose is not to denigrate any religion or faith, which would be repugnant to our educational purposes, but instead to learn and experience the history of different cultural practices," the club said.
Several on- and off-campus groups have raised objections to the event.
The Harvard Chaplains, a group of religious and spiritual leaders who, according to their website, represent a diverse array of spiritual and religious practices, expressed concern about the event, which they said is a reenactment of a ritual that mocks foundational beliefs held by many Christians about the importance of Holy Communion.
"Just because something may be permissible does not make it right or good," Reverend Luther Zeigler, President of the Harvard Chaplains, wrote in a statement to The Crimson on behalf of the Chaplains. "Whether or not these students are 'entitled' to express themselves through the ceremony of a 'black mass' as a matter of law or University policy is a distinct question from whether this is a healthy form of intellectual discourse or community life. We submit it is not."
Read more in University NewsI-lab Startup Applies Socially Conscious Mission to Yemeni Coffee Imports


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Colorado high school football's 4A and 5A championships will continue to be played on the state's grandest stage.
CHSAA and the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame signed a deal this week to keep the title games at Sports Authority Field at Mile High through the 2016 season. There are options to extend it an additional three years to 2019 and 2022, respectively.
This year's championship games will take place Nov. 30. Last year, Valor Christian beat Cherokee Trail 9-0 in the 5A game, while Monarch edged Denver South 17-14 for the 4A title.
The relationship between CHSAA and the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame started in 2005.
Championship games for 6-man through 3A will be hosted at a home site.


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House GOP reverts to 90-day stopgap measure.
House Republican leaders are planning to vote on Thursday on a 90-day extension of federal highway authority under a rule that would require a simple majority to pass. They expect to pass it without help from Democrats. They will then adjourn for a two-week recess, daring the Democrat-controlled Senate to reject the extension or allow highway authority to expire on Saturday.
House leaders are holding open the possibility that Democrats will yield on their refusal to support any highway extension. Republicans claim that Democrats earlier had agreed to a 60-day stopgap, and that 60-day bill is still available for an expedited vote on Wednesday that would require two-thirds majority to pass.
Democrats remain stalwart that they won't support a temporary extension because they say House leaders have a perfectly viable option to end the highway debate now—pass a bipartisan Senate bill that would fund highway programs for two years with $109 billion. Both Republicans and Democrats in the House accuse the other side of playing political games.
The Senate version of the longer term highway bill is more friendly to feds than the House alternative, which includes provisions that would increase the amount civil servants contribute to their pensions.


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Day 4 on the Dakhla Kiteboard Pro 2009 and there looked to be some tired legs out there after a good long day of racing yesterday.
The wind was at a good speed this morning and the race director decided to set out the course for 3 more races.
Skippers meeting was held at 11h00 and the race director briefed the riders on the course and the programme of the day.
Wind speed was at a constant 14knots and the course was again set out in the shape of a triangle. 3 laps were to be completed over a 4,5 km course.
Jesse Richman (HAW, CABRINHA) started where he left off yesterday and took the first race, followed closely by Bruno Sroka (FRA, CABRINHA).
Bruno looked determined though to win a race here in Dakhla and really gave everything he had in the next race to put one over his young friend and team rider, Jesse.
After the Course Races, the wind had increased to 17 knots average and the race director moved the competition area in front of the judge tower and decided to run the Kiteloop discipline.
A short skippers meeting was held at 16h45 where the riders were briefed on the judging criteria and the draw. The first round was completed, but unfortunately the wind did not hang around and the day was called off at 18h00.
Race One Men:
1. Jesse Richman (HAW, CABRINHA)
2. Bruno Sroka (FRA, CABRINHA)
3. Blazej Ozog (POL, NORTH)
Race One Women:
1. Kari Schibevaag (NOR,OZONE)
2. Gisela Pulido (SPA, AIRUSH)
Race Two Men:
1. Bruno Sroka (FRA, CABRINHA)
2. Jesse Richman (HAW, CABRINHA)
3. Abel Lago (SPA, RRD)
Race Two Women:
1. Kari Schibevaag (NOR, OZONE)
2. Nuria Goma (SPA, LIQUID FORCE)
3. Gisela Pulido (SPA, AIRUSH)
Race Three Men:
1. Jesse Richman (HAW, CABRINHA)
2. Bruno Sroka (FRA, CABRINHA)
3. Abel Lago (SPA, RRD)
Race Three Women:
1. Kari Schibevaag (NOR,OZONE)
2. Gisela Pulido (SPA, AIRUSH)
3. Nuria Goma (SPA, LIQUID FORCE)


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Reading My Father
Paperback, 285 pages, Simon & Schuster, List Price: $15 |purchase
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Book Summary
The daughter of Sophie's Choice author William Styron discusses what it was like growing up in the same house as a moody literary giant, whose life spiraled out of control when he sank into a deep depression. By the author of All the Finest Girls. 100,000 first printing.
NPR stories about Reading My Father
Note: Book excerpts are provided by the publisher and may contain language some find offensive.
Excerpt: Reading My Father
WE BURIED MY father on a remarkably mild morning in November 2006. From our family's house on Martha's Vineyard to the small graveyard is less than a quarter mile, so we walked along the road, where, it being off-season, not a single car disturbed our quiet formation. Beneath the shade of a tall pin oak, we gathered around the grave site. Joining us were a dozen or so of my parents' closest friends. The ceremony had been planned the way we thought he'd have liked it—short on pomp, and shorter still on religion. A couple of people spoke; my father's friend Peter Matthiessen, a Zen priest, performed a simple blessing; and, as a family, we read the Emily Dickinson poem that my father had quoted at the end of his novel Sophie's Choice.
Ample make this bed.
Make this bed with awe;
In it wait till judgment break
Excellent and fair.
Be its mattress straight,
Be its pillow round;
Let no sunrise' yellow noise
Interrupt this ground.
My father had been a Marine, so the local VA offered us a full military funeral. Mindful of his sensibilities, we declined the chaplain. We also nixed the three-volley salute. But we were sure Daddy would have been pleased by the six local honor guards who folded the flag for my mother, and the lone bugler who played taps before we dispersed. Of military service, my father once wrote, "It was an experience I would not care to miss, if only because of the way it tested my endurance and my capacity for sheer misery, physical and of the spirit." The bugler, then, had honored another of my father's quirks: his penchant for a good metaphor.
A year and a half later, I was walking across the West Campus Quad of Duke University, my father's alma mater. Passing beneath the chapel's Gothic spire, I opened the heavy doors of Perkins Library and headed for the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. It is there that the William Styron Papers, 22,500 items pertaining to his life and work, are housed. I was at the end of my third trip to North Carolina in as many months. Before I flew home to New York that afternoon, there were two big boxes I still hoped to get a look through.
In 1952, when he was twenty-six, my father published his first novel, Lie Down in Darkness. The book was an immediate success, and he was soon hailed as one of the great literary voices of his generation. Descendants of the so-called Lost Generation, my father and his crowd, including Norman Mailer, James Jones, and Irwin Shaw, embraced their roles as Big Male Writers. For years they perpetuated, without apology, the clichÉ of the gifted, hard-drinking, bellicose writer that gave so much of twentieth-century literature a muscular, glamorous aura. In 1967, after the disappointing reception of his second novel, Set This House on Fire, my father published The Confessions of Nat Turner. It became a number one bestseller, helped fuel the tense national debate over race, and provoked another one regarding the boundaries of artistic license. Sophie's Choice, published in 1979, won him critical and popular success around the world. Three years later, with the release of the film adaptation starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, that story also brought him an extraliterary measure of fame. Winner of the Prix de Rome, American Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, the Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and France's LÉgion d'Honneur, my father was considered one of the finest novelists of his time. He was also praised, perhaps by an even larger readership, for Darkness Visible, his frank account of battling, in 1985, with major clinical depression. A tale of descent and recovery, the book brought tremendous hope to fellow sufferers and their families. His eloquent prose dissuaded legions of would-be suicides and gave him an unlikely second act as the public face of unipolar depression.
As it turned out, the illness wasn't finished with my father. I think we all recognized, in the aftermath of his cataclysmic breakdown, that Bill Styron had always been depressed. A serious drinker, he relied on alcohol not only to self-medicate but to charm the considerable powers of his creative muse. When, at sixty, liquor began to disagree with him, he was surprised to find himself thoroughly unmanned. For many years after his '85 episode, he maintained a fragile equilibrium. But the scars were deep, and left him profoundly changed. He was stalked by feelings of guilt and shame. Several setbacks, mini major depressions, humbled him further and wore a still deeper cavity in the underpinnings of his confidence. It seems that my father's Get out of Jail Free card had been unceremoniously revoked. And though he went about his business, he'd become a man both hunted and haunted.
ONE DAY WHEN I was still a baby, not yet old enough to walk, my mother went out, leaving me in the care of my seven-year-old brother, Tommy, and nine-year-old sister, Polly. Before she left, my mother placed me in my walker. For a while, Polly, Tommy, and the two friends they had over played on the ground floor of our house while I gummed my hands and tooled around the kitchen island. Then, one by one, the older kids drifted outside. Maybe a half hour later, they found themselves together at Carl Carlson's farm stand at the bottom of our hill. On the makeshift counter of his small shed, Carl sold penny candy; no one could resist a visit on the couple of days a week he was open. It took a little while, scrabbling over bubble gum and fireballs, before, with a sickening feeling, my siblings realized that nobody was watching the Baby. Racing back up the hill, Polly burst into the kitchen but couldn't find me. After a minute or so, she heard a small moaning sound and followed it to the basement door. I was still strapped in my walker, but upside down on the concrete floor at the bottom of the rickety wood stairs. My forehead had swelled into a grotesque mound. My eyes were glassy and still. Cradling me, Polly and Tommy passed another stricken, terrified hour before my mother got home and rushed me to the hospital.
I've known this famous family story for as long as I can remember. But I was in my thirties before Polly confessed a detail I'd never known: our father was upstairs napping the whole time. Afraid for her own life as much as for mine, she couldn't bring herself to wake him.
Until 1985, my father's tempestuous spirit ruled our family's private life as surely as his eminence defined the more public one. At times querulous and taciturn, cutting and remote, melancholy when he was sober and rageful when in his cups, he inspired fear and loathing in us a good deal more often than it feels comfortable to admit. But the same malaise that so decimated my father's equanimity when he was depressed also quelled his inner storm when he recovered. In my adult years, he became remarkably mellow. A lion in winter, he drank less and relaxed more. He showed some patience, was mild, and expressed flashes of great tenderness for his children, his growing tribe of grandchildren, and, most especially, his wife.
He also managed, for the first time, to access some of his child-hood's unexamined but corrosive sorrows. In 1987 my father wrote "A Tidewater Morning," a short story in which he delivered a poignant chronicle of his mother's death from cancer when he was thirteen. The story would become the title of a collection of short fiction, published in 1993, that centered on the most significant themes of his youth. During these years he also wrote several essays for The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, Newsweek, and other magazines. He published a clutch of editorials; wrote thirty some odd speeches, commencement addresses, eulogies, and tributes; and traveled frequently to speak on the subject of mental illness.
As for long fiction, it was less clear what he was doing. (If there was a golden rule in our house when I was growing up, it was, unequivocally, "Don't ask Daddy about his work.") First and foremost, my father was a novelist. "A high priest at the altar of fiction," as Carlos Fuentes describes him, he consecrated himself to the Novel. He wrote in order to explore the sorts of grand and sometimes existential themes whose complexity and scope are best served by long fiction. With a kind of sacred devotion, he kept at it, maintaining his belief in the narrative powers of a great story—and he suffered accordingly in the process. His prose, laid down in an elegant hand on yellow legal pads with Venus Velvet No. 2 pencils, came at a trickle. He labored over every word, editing as he went, to produce manuscripts that, when he placed the final period, needed very little in the way of revision. But, even at the height of his powers, this meant sometimes a decade or more between major works. Like that of a marathoner running in the dark, my father's path was sometimes as murky as it was long.
THE AIR-CONDITIONED HUSH of the Duke library was, as always, a relief to me. Zach, my favorite student employee, gave me his familiar smile and nod, then passed a small lock across the circulation desk. If you've ever spent time in a rare book library, you know that the system for protecting its contents can be a little intimidating. You may not bring coats or hats, purses or bags of any kind into the reading room. No snacks or drinks, including water. Pencils only. And notebooks, but preferably without the complicated pockets or linings that might abet an act of smuggling, were you so inclined. White cotton gloves are provided for handling photographs. And at Duke, anyway, they'll give you a sheet of laminated paper to use as a place marker, plus a folder for transferring documents up to the copier. When you leave, you're subject to inspection. Notebooks are riffled, papers are stamped. It's a polite but mandatory ritual, necessary for the safekeeping of all that is unique and fragile under the institution's custodial care. When I started spending time at the library, I was struck by how curiously familiar it all was to me. Then I had a good laugh when I realized why: it's a lot like the routines of a psychiatric hospital.
Taking a spot at one of the long wood tables, I flipped through the inventory list for the call numbers of the boxes I would need that morning. Up until then, I'd spent most of my time at Duke reading my father's correspondence, trying to shake loose some memories of this man I'd rather impetuously agreed to write a book about. Somehow, in the time since his death, I'd mentally misplaced him. I thought if I heard his voice, sifted through his epistolary remains, he'd resurface—which he did, and then some. Not only had I begun to remember the father I'd known but I became acquainted with the son, mentor, and friend he was to others. In addition to the letters, I'd trolled through scrapbooks, magazine essays, interview transcripts, journals, audiocassettes, and all sorts of other ephemera. Being neither a scholar nor a critic, I'd written off my list the enormous cache of typescripts, proofs, and fragmentary monographic work that had been published before. After several months of work, there were only a couple more boxes of curiosity to me: "WS16: Speeches Subseries, 1942–1996," and "WS17: Unfinished Work Subseries, 1970–1990s and undated."
IN THE EARLY 1970s, shortly after the publication of The Confessions of Nat Turner, my father began work on a new novel. The Way of the Warrior, its title taken from the Japanese Bushido, or samurai code of conduct, was a World War II story. In it he hoped to explore the military mind-set, and his own ambivalence about the glory and honor associated with patriotic service. Just as the civil rights movement echoed in the themes of Nat Turner, my father's new book, conceived during the Vietnam conflict, would, he hoped, gather force from the timeliness of its subject. But the central elements of the story failed to coalesce, and Daddy grew discouraged. Then, in 1973, he awoke from a powerful dream about a woman, a Holocaust survivor, he'd encountered while living in Brooklyn as a young man. Putting aside The Way of the Warrior, he quickly began work on his new idea. Six years later, Random House published Sophie's Choice.
Just as some people can tag a family event by remembering what bank Dad was indentured to that year or which shift Mom worked, each phase of my youth is joined in my mind to the novel my father was writing at the time. I was twelve years old when Sophie's Choice came out. Newly arrived on the shores of adolescence, I was acutely conscious of myself and my family's place in the world. It seemed I'd been waiting my entire life for my father to finish whatever he was doing. With only the vaguest memory of Nat Turner, I'd begun to seriously doubt my father did anything really except sleep all morning and spend the rest of the day stomping in and out through his study door. So it was a huge personal relief to me when Sophie's Choice was completed at last, validating my father's years of work and, in the process, me.
If the story of Sophie played in the background of my schoolgirl years, my father's book about the Marines set the mood through my teens. In the early eighties, after the hullabaloo surrounding Sophie had died down, he returned to The Way of the Warrior with renewed vigor. The project, his Next Big Book, took on a kind of stolid permanence in our home, like a sofa around which we were subconsciously arrayed. About this time, I left home, as my siblings had before me, for boarding school. And though I knew little about what my father was writing, it was useful to have the title. For the part of myself defined by his profession—and for anyone who asked—it was enough.
In its 1985 summer reading issue, Esquire magazine published "Love Day," billing it as an excerpt from his long-awaited novel. My father was showered with mail, from friends and fans alike, the reaction immediate and overwhelmingly positive. The world had been put on alert. Bill Styron was at it again; great American literature would live to see another day.
And then he cracked up.
These days, the characterization of my father's illness would be readily identifiable. But this was back in the Stone Age of clinical depression. The mid-eighties was not only a pre-Prozac world but one without any of the edifying voices that would cry out from the wilderness in the years ahead. There was no Kay Jamison, no Andrew Solomon, and, of course, no Bill Styron—no one yet back from the fresh hell of depression with any cogent field notes. So, like everybody else around my father, our family was mystified by his sudden spiral. By his paralytic anxiety, his numb affect, his rambling, suicidal ideation. He had everything going for him, didn't he? Loving family, towering talent, money, friends. When, just before Christmas, my mother admitted him with his consent to the psychiatric ward of Yale–New Haven Hospital, we had absolutely no idea what would become of him. When he emerged two months later, declaring himself cured, we were just as quick as he was to embrace the diagnosis.
For the third time, he returned to The Way of the Warrior. I don't know for how long he worked at it this go-round. Away at college by then, I was not only uninterested in my father but determinedly on the run from him, from my mother, from the whole crazy-town scene in which I was raised. Fulfilling my long-standing efforts to grow up as fast as I could, I'd moved with my much older boyfriend into a stodgy building where I lived like someone three times my age. Like someone who neither had, nor needed, parents, especially ones as nutty as mine.
What remained between my father and me was our enduring common ground, and practically the only place we ever met: our shared sense of humor. The youngest of my parents' four children by a wide margin, I was known, long past the time it was seemly, as the Baby. As a girl, I often found myself home alone with him. My sisters and brother were all gone by the time I was in fourth grade; my mother, escaping the tinderbox her marriage had become, had begun traveling constantly by the time I was five. The house where we spent most of the year, a creaky old Connecticut farmhouse bound by woods, was scary. My father was scarier. I survived by employing a child's best instinct for getting what she needs. I didn't whine, I didn't demand, and I hid my multiple failings and fears behind a smooth and carefully cultivated mask of self-sufficiency. But, above all, I soothed my father's savage breast by making him laugh—and standing up to even the most extreme of his humor in kind.
After Darkness Visible, my father was inundated by mail. Not simple fan letters but the raw outpourings of depression's many victims—breathless fellow escapees; those still in its clutches; the grief-struck mothers, husbands, and daughters of the countless suicides who simply could not live with the pain one more day. Occasionally, his readers breached the boundaries of letter writing. People accosted him on the street, at parties, when he lectured. They spoke to him as though he were, at the very least, a supremely trained doctor, if not some divine medium who might heal them with empathy. More than once, he got a late-night call from the police. Someone somewhere was intent on committing suicide, but they kept mentioning Bill Styron. Was it possible he might try talking the poor fellow down?
My father devoted an enormous amount of time, time that might otherwise have been spent on his own work, reacting to his readers. He talked and wrote, listened and opined. Of course, not everyone who reached out to him was a fan. The day's post often included missives from disgruntled readers who didn't think much of his opinions on mental health, or who urged him to consider their own protocols for recovery and happy living. And some were just plain bananas (which came as no surprise to him—my father was the first to admit he himself had, during his depressive episode, been totally off his rocker). He'd always received mail from cranks and kooks—writing about slavery and the Holocaust will bring them out of the woodwork—but never as many as after Darkness Visible.
During my visits to Duke, I read through scores of these letters. Most of them are intimate, confessional, harrowing, and occasionally inspiring. Taken collectively, they are a stunning testament to the power of my father's memoir. But they're also completely overwhelming, a kind of paper Babel from which even the most patient psychiatrist might flee in search of quiet and sanity. As I flipped through them, I began to imagine all this material peck-peck-pecking away at my father's still fragile psyche. Every day, year after year. I also thought, not for the first time, of the exquisite irony embedded in my father's relationship with his readers, an irony I was still trying to reconcile as I worked to make sense of the man after his death: how could a guy whose thoughts elicit this much pathos have been, for so many years, such a monumental asshole to the people closest to him?
I felt like picking the letters up by the fistful and shouting into the silence of the library, PEOPLE! Do you have ANY idea who you are dealing with here?
In the spring of 2000, fifteen years after his first depression, my father once again heard "the wind of the wing of madness."* Swiftly, he succumbed to a depression easily as fierce as his 1985 episode. In June, Mum admitted him to the Yale Psychiatric Institute. Thrown again into triage mode, all of us gathered around. We took turns sitting with him, monitoring his bouts of psychosis, consulting with his doctors, and walking him along the fluorescent-lit corridors of the ward. When the four kids—Susanna, Polly, Tom, and me, now adults—were alone together, we fretted and laughed and traded "you won't believe what happened today" stories. And each of us, pushing the mute button on our ambivalent feelings, willed our father onward in the hope that he'd achieve the same kind of recovery he'd had before. Not this time. Our father left YPI later that summer, sprung by our mother after a frightful and chaotic two months, in which any improvement in his mood was entirely undone by his physical deterioration. He came home to the Vineyard, ragged, out of his mind, patched together with psychopharmaco-logical tape and thread. And then the shit really hit the fan. Though he would live another six years, the summer of 2000 undisputedly marked the beginning of the end.
A COUPLE OF years before my father's death, I caught a glimpse of his last manuscript. It was September, and my husband and I had taken our son up to the house in Connecticut, which had for months been uninhabitable. The prior spring, in a perfect metaphoric act, a prolonged stretch of rain had caused the living room floor to collapse. Inspections revealed not only water damage but termites, a dodgy foundation, and a fireplace hearth of highly questionable integrity. My mother relocated to the Vineyard place, from which my father came and went on what had become a merry-go-round of hospital stays. A crew spent the summer propping up and patching the Connecticut house, while in Massachusetts our family continued a similar project on Daddy. No one, except maybe our unrestrainedly optimistic mother, expected him to write again.
I'd been wandering around the house, checking on the state of things, when I walked into my sister Polly's old bedroom, where, when all the kids had grown, my father had chosen to write. A thin layer of dust covered his tilt-top desk. But everything else was laid out just so, as if he'd stepped out for lunch and might come back to work any minute. On the right side of the desk lay a thick wedge of yellow legal paper, filled with my father's script. And on top of that was a sheaf of yellowing stationery with an envelope paper-clipped to it, postmarked 1914.
"Dear Eunice," it began. I scanned the letter, picking up phrases. "I went down to Goldsboro that Sunday expecting to see you and to hear your voice 'for old time's sake' … my mind and soul tortured by the ghosts of former days, my conscience tortured by the might have beens … I can hardly say the words—your approaching wedding. … I can only hold your friendship in the shrine of memory."
The letter, which struck me as unbearably poignant, had been written by my grandfather William Clark Styron, Sr. Though I'd never read it, I knew what it was and why it was on my father's desk. For a while, he had worked on a novel loosely based on the life of his father, a marine engineer whose singular character had done more than anything else to mold my father's own. I knew of this book only vaguely, having heard my mother talk about it once and maybe having read something of it in an interview my father had given some years before. As always, it was to be a "Big Book," about the skeins of troubled history running through the American South in which he was raised. It was about War and Race. And, at its heart, it was to be a love story. I remember, when I first heard the idea, thinking of GarcÍa MÁrquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, and how much more I would enjoy a tale of romance than the war story Daddy seemed forever bent on. That day in his study, I leaned in and began to read the manuscript's opening paragraph, my guilt for snooping so deeply ingrained I didn't allow myself even to follow the last sentence onto the next page. Somewhere in the basement, I could hear drills and nail guns. And suddenly I thought, This thing is just sitting here. What if someone steals it? What if the house goes up in flames? Someone ought to take better care of this stuff.
Several days later, on a fiercely rainy day, I carried the manuscript in a pink Jill Stuart shopping bag up to the offices of Random House and my father's editor, Bob Loomis. I deposited the bag on Bob's desk, wiping the edges with the sleeve of my shirt. We chatted for a bit about my father's health, about our families, and about the upcoming tribute to my father being hosted by The Paris Review. Getting him there was going to be a challenge. We'd probably have to spring him from Mass General, his residence of the moment, and hire a car or something to bring him down. But then again, I said, who knew where he'd be several weeks on? He might be fine by November.
Well, not fine. Or I wouldn't have been standing there. For what Bob and I were tacitly acknowledging, with that bag on the table, was that my father would never be fine again.
THE BOX OF speeches in the Duke library turned out to be much more interesting than I'd expected. There were nearly fifty compositions inside, including the commencement address my father had given at my high school graduation, a great recounting of how he missed out on a Rhodes scholarship, and a college address that fascinated me because, from its date, I knew he was in the midst of a depression when he delivered it. With no more than a half hour before I had to leave to catch my flight home, I finally opened the last box, that of his unfinished work.
Several fat folders dominated the box. Flipping them open, I found that the contents of each one was prefaced by an explanatory note from the man who had been my father's Boswell of sorts, James West. Having spent a decade on his 1998 authorized biography, William Styron: A Life, Jim had gone on to become a crucial figure in the preservation of my father's legacy. He frequently served as a conduit for the donations to Duke. And, in my father's final years, he had begun the complex task of organizing and editing material that my father no longer had the strength for and that would, more than likely, be published after he was gone.
"THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR," began the first note, in caps. And then it continued, "The Material in this folder appears to be part of the first effort Styron made to write a novel under this title." Jim added some information about the material in general, concluding with qualifying testimony. "I cannot absolutely vouch for the fact that these materials are part of the first effort on Warrior," he wrote, "but I think I've made the identifications correctly."
I looked at the manuscript but found that the first page was page 5 and began in the middle of a sentence. The second page was page 11, after which the manuscript moved on sequentially till page 33. The page after that was 39, and then the numbers began to run backward, then forward again. 22, 199, 68 twice. Four different pages numbered 74. 77, 70, 1, 3, 173.
On and on it went like this. Hundreds of pages jumbled, others omitted entirely. In the order they were in, the manuscript made no sense at all, though I had little doubt that Jim and everyone at Duke had taken exquisite care of these documents, as they had with all the archives. I opened the second Warrior folder. It was much the same, except bigger—maybe 90,000 or 100,000 words of prose—and, if possible, even more disorganized. The first page was 105, the last 211. The third folder was, blessedly, organized, pages 1 to 159, and included a short note from Daddy to the library's curator of manuscripts. It was dated February 2, 1985.
I sat for a while, trying to understand what I was looking at. What the hell had happened? Looking through the folders again, I could see it wasn't just a matter of putting the pages in order. Even when I held up two pages so the numbers followed sequentially, the sentence fragments didn't flow. It was like someone had taken a cabinet full of puzzles, tossed a bunch of pieces into two boxes, and thrown the rest out. Nothing fit. More unnerving still was the sheer volume. This World War II story, whatever it was, he ran at it again and again. Two hundred fifty thousand, maybe 300,000 words. Crafted sentences, polished, honed. Avenues of thought, narrative built on mountains of research. Great, long loops of memory and emotion. The edifice of a story, constructed, deconstructed, and constructed again and again over the course of years. Images of Daddy clicked through my head, a slide show cascading suddenly as urgent and disordered as the pile of prose before me. My head reeled. Was it any wonder he was depressed?
I turned back to the box, which contained several more folders. My eyesight telescoped as I began flipping through the material, a kind of fuzziness taking over the outer edges of my vision. I could actually feel all my other body functions slowing down in the service of my brain and its need to absorb the information before me. Could it be? There was not one, as I had thought, but four other books my father had started on over the years. The folder tabs, marked "Father," "Grandfather," "Nicaragua," "Hospital," hinted at the contents. Some of the manuscripts were thick, some thin, all of them produced on Daddy's signature legal-length paper, his carefully wrought hand covering the pages from margin to margin. These, too, were disordered, filled with stops and starts, the page numbers suggestive of chunks missing, or thrown away. The whole huge pile vibrated with the strength of his effort. And with a certain madness.
I went outside to get some air. Under practically every willow oak lining the quad stood flocks of prospective students and their parents. Their young guides gestured animatedly, mouths shaping words I couldn't hear. The sun was blazing. I wandered around the corner to the shelter of a magnolia and called Susanna on my cell phone. Though she is the eldest of my siblings, and there are twelve years between us, it is Susanna to whom I've grown closest over the years. We speak frequently; on that day, she knew where I was and what I was doing.
"Hi," she answered, seeing my number on her screen.
"Holy shit," I said.
"I don't know," I replied, pacing, sucking in the dense Southern heat. "It's like A Beautiful Mind in there. There are all these manuscripts. A whole bunch of them. And none of the pages follow each other. It's bizarre. And kind of horrible. Did you know about them?"
She did not. But, in talking to me, she put words to what I was thinking.
"Wow," she said, after a bit. "Perfect metaphor, huh?"
"Yeah," I replied. "But was he depressed, and then he couldn't write? Or was he unable to write? And it drove him completely mad."
*William Styron, Darkness Visible (New York: Random House, 1990), p. 46, quoting Baudelaire.
© 2011 Alexandra Styron


text:
Marson pulled from game after collision with Jennings
ST. PETERSBURG -- Indians catcher Lou Marson left Saturday night's game against the Rays after the third inning with a cervical/neck strain after getting hit hard in a collision at home plate.
Marson said after the game that he did not sustain a concussion on the play, but his neck was still sore, making it difficult to look from side to side or up and down. Indians manager Terry Francona said the club would continue to evaluate Marson, who didn't expect the injury to keep him off the field for long.
After drawing a leadoff walk then stealing second and third, Rays center fielder Desmond Jennings sprinted toward home on Matt Joyce's grounder to third base. Lonnie Chisenhall fielded the ball and fired it to Marson, and Jennings ran straight into the 26-year-old catcher, resulting in a violent collision that clearly shook up Marson. Both sides agreed it was just a good, clean baseball play and that Jennings had no other way of getting to home plate.
"Neck's a little sore. He got me pretty good. It was clean, absolutely. He had nowhere to go," Marson said. "I had the plate blocked pretty good. But just my neck's a little sore. No concussions."
Marson held on to the ball to record the out and save the Indians a run, and he remained in the game to finish the third inning after taking a few warmup throws from right-hander Trevor Bauer. But Francona took Marson out of the game before the Tribe took the field for the fourth inning.
"If there's a gray area, I'd rather be accused of being overly cautious," Francona said.
Carlos Santana moved from designated hitter to catcher as the Indians gave up their DH, which resulted in Bauer assuming the ninth spot in the lineup and eventually getting an at-bat.
That was the risk Francona took in starting Santana at DH on Saturday after he caught all of the Tribe's first four games. An injury to Santana at that point would've resulted in Ryan Raburn lining up behind the dish.
"I think it's the right thing to do as far as our team goes, but you run the risk of that when you do that," Francona said.


text:
|Suffolk, Va.
|High School:
|Norfolk Collegiate School
|House Affiliation:
Senior (2011-12):
Team co-captain ... Named to Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List ... Selected to Lou Henson Preseason All-America team ... Tabbed to College Sports Madness Preseason Mid-Major All-America second team and All-Ivy first team ... Honored as Preseason Ivy League Player of the Year by Rivals.com, Athlon Sports and the Sporting News ... Earned spots on Athlon Sports, Rivals.com, CBS Sports, Lindy's and CollegeHoops.net Preseason All-Ivy League team ... Named as one of College Basketball's Top 100 Players by CBS Sports ... Named to the USBWA All-District Team ... Tabbed to All-Ivy League second team ... Honored on College Sports Madness All-Ivy First Team ... Selected to NABC All-District First Team ... Named to NABC Division I All-Star Game ... Tabbed to Portsmouth Invitational Tournament ... Selected as College Insider Ivy League Most Valuable Player ... Stands 16th in school history with 1,178 points and ranks fifth with 743 career rebounds ... Ranks first in school history and 11th in Ivy League history with 149 career blocks ... Is third in school history with 109 games played ... Started all 31 games during senior season ... Was second in Ivy League in shooting percentage (.594) ... Ranked second on the Crimson with 10.6 points per game and led team with 8.1 rebounds per contest, which ranked second in Ivy League ... Averaged 10.1 points and 8.1 boards per game in Ivy contests ... Recorded five double-doubles on the season ... Grabbed 10 or more rebounds 10 times, while reaching double figures in scoring in 17 games ... Hit 6-of-8 shots from the floor and finished with 13 points against MIT (Nov. 11) ... Recorded his first double-double of the season, tallying 15 points and pulling down 10 rebounds, including seven offensive, at Holy Cross (Nov. 15) ... Shot 7-of-9 from the floor for 15 points at Loyola Marymount (Nov. 19) ... Sank 5-of-6 shots and was 3-of-3 for the line, finishing with 13 points, seven rebounds and three rejections against Utah at Battle 4 Atlantis (Nov. 24) ... Came down with a team-high eight boards against No. 20 Florida State at Battle 4 Atlantis (Nov. 25) ... Tallied 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Central Florida at Battle 4 Atlantis championship (Nov. 26) ... Named Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament MVP ... Tabbed Ivy League and COOP Athlete of the Week (Nov. 28) ... Made six baskets for 13 points and added eight rebounds at Vermont (Dec. 1) ... Earned his second double-double, scoring 12 points and adding 11 rebounds against Florida Atlantic (Dec. 22) ... Came down for 11 rebounds in win at Boston College (Dec. 29) ... Made eight field goals for 16 points against Saint Joseph's (Dec. 31) ... Scored 1,000th career point and grabbed 11 rebounds at Fordham (Jan. 3) ... Amassed a season-high for points (18), rebounds (15) and blocks (six) at Monmouth (Jan. 10) ... Went 4-of-4 from the field for 11 points and eight rebounds against George Washington (Jan. 14) ... Named Ivy League Player of the Week for second time Jan. 16 ... Hit four baskets and scored nine points, while collecting 11 rebounds and blocking two shots at Brown (Jan. 28) ... Sank six buckets and made three free throws for 15 points against Columbia (Feb. 4) ...Came down with 13 rebounds at Penn (Feb. 10) ... Hit 7-of-11 shots for 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for fourth double-double of year at Princeton (Feb. 11) ... Earned fifth double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) against Brown (Feb. 17) ... Hit five baskets and finished with 10 points against Yale (Feb. 18) ... Became Harvard's all-time leading shot blocker by making a rejection against Penn (Feb. 25) ... Went 8-of-11 from the field, scoring 16 points and pulling down eight rebounds at Columbia (March 2) ... Collected 11 boards in regular-season finale at Cornell (March 3).
Junior (2010-11):
Team co-captain ... AP All-America honorable mention ... Tabbed to Lou Henson All-America team ... Ivy League Player of the Year ... Unanimous selection to All-Ivy first team ... Named to NABC All-District First Team ... Tabbed to Rush The Court All-Ivy team ... Honored as CollegeInsider.com Ivy Player of the Year ... Recipient of Harvard's Raymond Lavietes Most Valuable Player Award and Hamilton Fish Most Improved Player Award ... Led Harvard in scoring (14.8 points per game) and rebounds (8.3 rpg) ... Ranked third in the Ivy League in scoring and second in rebounding ... Was second in the Ivy League with 12 double-doubles on the season ... Started all 30 games ... Reached double figures in scoring in all but three games and scored double digits in final 15 games of season... Led the Crimson with 54 blocks, which ranks second in school history for a single season ... Ranked 15th in the nation in shooting percentage (.584) ... In Ivy play, averaged 15.4 ppg, 8.9 rpg and 2.1 bpg ... Grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds and had 22 points en route to a double-double at George Mason (Nov. 13) ... Named Ivy League Player of the Week (Nov. 15) ... Earned his second double-double of the season, scoring a then career-best 24 points and picking up 10 rebounds, while blocking three shots at Bryant (Nov. 24) ... Scored 19 points, grabbed nine rebounds, handed out a career-best six assists and swatted three shots in win over Colorado (Nov. 28) ... Took home Ivy League Player of the Week and COOP Athlete of the Week honors Nov. 29 ... Earned his third double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds) at Michigan (Dec. 4) ... Recorded his fourth double-double scoring 17 points and collecting 10 boards in win over Boston University (Dec. 11) ... Made 8-of-12 baskets for 18 points at No. 4 Connecticut (Dec. 22) ... Earned his fifth double-double, grabbing 13 rebounds, including eight offensive, and scoring 15 points against MIT (Dec. 31) ... Hit six field goals and tallied 15 points in victory at Boston College (Jan. 5) ... Recorded his sixth double-double by coming down with 12 rebounds and scoring 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting at Dartmouth (Jan. 8) ... Added 14 points, sinking six baskets, and grabbed seven rebounds against Columbia (Jan. 28) ... Scored 21 points and collected 11 rebounds for seventh double-double against Cornell (Jan. 29) ... Earned his eight double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds at Princeton (Feb. 4) ... Tallied a career-best 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting and collected six boards in double-overtime victory at Penn (Feb. 5) ... Notched 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting in win over Yale (Feb. 11) ... Tallied 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds in comeback victory over Brown (Feb. 12) ... Earned 10th double-double by scoring 10 points and collecing 11 boards in win at Cornell (Feb. 18) ... Tallied 16 points and collected 12 rebounds while going 6-of-6 from the line for 11th double-double at Columbia (Feb. 19) ... Recorded 12th double-double by scoring 12 points and pulling down 11 rebounds, while dishing out four assists at Brown (Feb. 25) ... Made a career-high six blocks and shot 5-of-6 from the field for 13 points in Ivy title clinching win over Princeton (March 5) ... Hit 7-of-11 baskets for 16-point effort in Ivy League playoff against Princeton (March 12) ... Had 10 points and pulled down four rebounds at Oklahoma State in NIT (March 15).
Sophomore (2009-10):
Played in 24 games, starting 18 ... Ranked second in the Ivy League in field goal percentage (.561) ... Averaged 8.9 points and 4.6 rebounds in over 21 minutes per game ... Went 5-7 from the field, scoring 11 points in season opener at Holy Cross (11/13) ... Shot 5-10 from the field and pulled down a team high eight rebounds in triple overtime win over William & Mary (11/15) ... Had 11 points and three blocks in 21 minutes at BU (11/29) ... Was 8-of-10 from the floor for 16 points with three blocks in 19 minutes against Rice (12/2) ... Had 10 points and six boards at #13 UConn (12/6) ... Scored a career-high 21 points in 31 minutes in a 74-67 win at Boston College (12/9) ... Ivy League Honor Roll (12/14) ... Had four blocks versus MIT (12/28) ... Had 16 points, five boards and three blocks at Seattle (1/02) ... Scored 22 points in 25 minutes with six rebounds against Dartmouth (1/09) ... Had 13 points and eight rebounds in the return game against Dartmouth (1/23) ... Grabbed six rebounds and netted 10 points in win over Brown (2/26).
Freshman (2008-09):
Appeared in 24 games while making 17 starts ... Missed four games due to mono ... Two-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week ... Averaged 8.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game ... Ranked among team leaders with 20 blocked shots ... Finished season with five straight double-digit scoring efforts ... Named Ivy League Rookie of the Week 11/24 after averaging 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in his first two collegiate contests ... Was 6-of-7 from the floor, connecting on first four collegiate shots and first collegiate free throw, with 15 points and five boards during 24 minutes of play in first collegiate game and start at New Hampshire 11/19 ... Had a game-high 18 points on 9-of-15 shooting and a team-high six boards at Colorado 11/22 ... Named Ivy League Rookie of the Week 12/1 ... Had game-high 12 rebounds against Holy Cross 11/25 ... Had his first career double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds (seven offensive) to go with four blocked shots in a win over Army 11/29 ... Had 14 points, six rebounds and four blocks against Columbia on 2/27 ... Had 11 points and eight rebounds in a career-high 35 minutes against Cornell on 2/28.
Son of Sabrena Tabron ... Four-year letterwinner at Princess Anne High School and the Norfolk Collegiate School, the latter of which he attended from 2006-08 and graduated from ... Played forward and center in high school ... Senior captain at Norfolk Collegiate ... Two-time Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools first team selection and conference player of the year as a senior ... Also named tournament MVP ... Two-time all-state selection ... Was named to the TCIS all-tournament team as a senior ... Named Princess Anne's most improved at co-MVP as a sophomore ... Averaged 20.5 points, 13.0 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game as a senior while scoring at least 30 points in a game five different times ... Recorded a pair of triple-double outings including in the first round of the conference playoffs ... National Honor Society member ... Hobbies include music, singing and video games.
Co-captains Oliver McNally and Keith Wright with Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust, in her office in Massachusetts Hall. President Faust is the 28th President of Harvard University - the first female president - and is also the Lincoln Professor of History.


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The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Pfc. Joshua S. Ose, 19, of
Hernando, Miss., died Sept. 20 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, . He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Afghanistan Camp Lejeune, N.C.
For additional background information on this Marine, news media representatives may contact the 2nd Marine Division public affairs office at 910-449-9925 or http://www.marines.mil/unit/2ndmardiv/Pages/Media/default.aspx.


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The second season of Downton Abbey came to a somewhat merry, certainly satisfying conclusion on Sunday night by wrapping up some subplots and leaving others dangling, tantalizingly. Abbey is, at bottom, a work of pastiche. Creator-writer Julian Fellowes is using literary models that have worked for a long time, freshening them with his vivid characterization and (most of the time) crisply precise dialogue. What Fellowes has done so cannily is to render the servant-master relationship in two distinct modes: His models are Charles Dickens melodrama downstairs, and Anthony Powell archness upstairs.
The night commenced with a 1919 Christmas celebration, with a tree arriving by car. The only thing missing was Tiny Tim tied to a fender shouting, "God bless us, one and all!" Alas, the Lord seemed to have averted His gaze from Mr. Bates, on trial for murdering his ex-wife. By New Year's Eve (you can't say writer Julian Fellowes doesn't move things along briskly), Mary was confiding to Matthew, of Sir Richard Carlisle: "The awful truth is, he's starting to get on my nerves." And ours: Richard has been a character misstep for Fellowes, I believe. He could have been an interesting figure, a working-class lad who'd worked himself up the social ladder via a disreputable but influential profession (newspapers; remember them?). But Fellowes has no feeling for this sort of striver character — in his world, you're either a ruler or an obeyer. Consequently, Sir Richard, who at the least ought to have displayed some personality traits that allowed us to believe Mary could be attracted to him: a bawdy sense of sarcasm, perhaps, or a slightly sympathetic aspect to his ruthlessness, born of a fundamental insecurity about his place in society. Instead, Richard just became more stiff, more unconvincingly rude to the entire Crawley clan.
The result was to make Mary's split with him blithely inevitable, and in this episode, almost beside the point. Because the real source of Mary's agony was that she was "damaged goods" to Matthew for having slept with that Turkish diplomat.
In other areas, this Downton was far more satisfying. The trial of Bates was wrung for every tear and well worth it. (Life imprisonment will be a piece of treacle, if it means he can still gaze adoringly at Anna on visitors' days and mount a defense for early release.) The new maid Miss Shore was delightfully sniffy, our stand-in smirker for the ongoing, ridiculous innocence of Daisy. Nigel Havers turned in a very nice job indeed as "fortune hunter" Lord Hepworth, his character managing, unlike Carlisle, to exude just enough curiosity and charm to render it believable that Lady Rosamund would find him tolerable as possible marriage material.
One of the charming things about Julian Fellowes is that he's shameless. Using the Ouiji board to trick the gullible and literally guide some of the action? Underscoring Thomas' villainy by having him steal Robert's dog? Oh, the cur! (Thomas, not Isis.)
Maggie Smith's Dowager Duchess Violet continues to risk devolving into a cartoon toff; going forward, she needs to be brought into the action of the plot more frequently, as she was here in a touching little scene dispensing advice to Daisy.
The two most warming moments were probably the father-daughter talk between Lord Grantham and Mary, and the episode's final moments, with Matthew proposing to Mary amidst what looked like a flurry of old soap-detergent snowflakes. The advice Dad gave Daughter was exactly what a girl wants to hear from her father: You're a good girl, I'll always be proud of you no matter what you do, now go to America and find a good cowpoke to poke. Phrased elegantly, to be sure.
Twitter: @kentucker


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Brek Shea completes Barnsley loan
Barnsley have signed U.S. international Brek Shea from Stoke City on a 28-day emergency loan.
Shea, who joined Stoke from FC Dallas a year ago, has struggled for first-team opportunities at the Britannia Stadium and, as ESPN FC reported on Tuesday, he will now join Championship strugglers Barnsley to gain further experience.
Barnsley announced on their official Twitter account that he would make his first appearance for the club in the New Year's Day fixture away to Birmingham.
@BrekShea makes his debut for Barnsley today against Birmingham #BCFCVBFC pic.twitter.com/ZybCTdhqDV
— Barnsley FC (@bfc_official) January 1, 2014
The winger has featured often for the U.S. national team since Jurgen Klinsmann's arrival as manager in July 2011, and he scored his first two international goals in July during the Gold Cup, including the winner against Panama in the Gold Cup final.
But a stubborn foot injury that plagued Shea throughout much of his first half-season in the Premier League, and his subsequent struggle to break through under new Stoke manager Mark Hughes, has had Klinsmann urging Shea to seek a loan move to ensure that he is playing at a peak level entering the summer.
Klinsmann, who is required to choose his 23-man squad for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil by May, has made it clear that only players who are playing regularly for their club sides will be considered for selection for the World Cup.
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The Czech film tradition dates to the very beginnings of the industry itself. Its high quality can be demonstrated by its several Oscar winners. The real master of the film, also known worldwide is director Milos Forman.
The situation of the film industry did not begin to develop substantially until after the end of the First World War and the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak Republic. Post-war euphoria gave a boost to all of Czech society, including film. New film companies were formed and the first professional studios were established. Ambitious projects were begun based on Western models.
Czech cinema started to be an active player in all genres, and a strong mainstream of productions emerged. Outstanding directorial figures began to materialize who pulled Czech film forward during the important period when sound arrived – Martin Fric,Karel Lamac and Gustav Machaty.
The first Czech actress to become a European-caliber star was Anny Ondrakova. She later played the lead role in Alfred Hitchcock's first film with sound, Blackmail (1929). The historical drama Stavitel chramu (The Cathedral Builder) and the social drama Erotikon (Seduction), as well as the contemporary melodrama Varhanik u sv. Vita (The Organist at St. Vitus' Cathedral) represent the apex of Czech silent-film output (comparable with foreign productions).
Besides the arrival of sound, a crucial event for Czech film was the building of Barrandov Studios. A large film complex was constructed on the outskirts of Prague, and was at that time the most modernly equipped studio in Europe. It became one of the symbols of the Czech film industry. The first film was made here in 1933.
The fact that Czech film was finally enjoying a proper upsurge is evident from how successfully it managed to overcome the years of economic crisis. The vitality of Czech film was partly provided by experienced and professional filmmakers (Lamac, Fric, Machaty ) and partly by new acting stars (Vlasta Burian,Hugo Haas,Jan Werich and Jiri Voskovec,Adina Mandlova,Lida Baarova and others).
Films that were major hits primarily included the movies Extaze (Ecstasy, directed by Gustav Machaty) and Reka (The River, sometimes known in English as The Ecstasy of Young Love, directed by Josef Rovensky), which also enjoyed considerable success abroad.
Naturally, starting in 1938, circumstances began changing radically all over Europe. From the moment Czechoslovakia was forced to accept the Munich agreement, it was only a short step to the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (and an autonomous Slovak state) under the "wings" of an aggressive Germany ruled by Hitler. The German administration naturally had a huge interest in Prague's Barrandov Studios, which became the main film center of the Reich.
At the beginning of the war, it was still possible, albeit to a limited extent, to make Czech films for the Czech public. By the end, however, this truncated cinema industry was fighting for survival. Filmmakers often used themes from Czech history and literature, but films were also made, especially comedies, which addressed audiences all over Europe – the most popular of these pictures in foreign countries was the drama Nocni motyl (The Nocturnal Butterfly, directed by Frantisek Cap). Some of these films are still permanent features on the schedules of Czech television stations – e.g. Kristian (directed by Martin Fric), in which the greatest actor of the 1940s, Oldrich Novy, gives a dazzling performance.
With the end of the war came the end of private enterprise in the field of film. The entire film industry was nationalized soon after the end of the occupation (1945). Other post-war occurrences relating to film included the foundation of an Academy of Performing Arts with a film school (FAMU) as well as the establishment of a film festival in Mariánske Lazne in 1946, which was later moved to Karlovy Vary, and which, over the course of time, became the largest showcase of films in the country: the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
In February 1948, however, the Czechoslovak Republic suffered another blow in the form of a governance monopoly of the Communist Party that overruled film as well. It installed official dramaturgy of socialist realism and the Czechoslovak film industry again suffered under censorship and propagada.
Apart from a small number of interesting feature films (including perhaps the most successful Czech film of all time – the fairytale Pysna princezna, or The Proud Princess, directed by Borivoj Zeman), a surprisingly large number of outstanding animated films were produced. In the 1950s, beautiful films were made by important filmmakers such as Karel Zeman, a pioneer with special effects (culminating in successful films such as Cesta do praveku (Journey to the Beginning of Time) and Vynalez zkazy (A Deadly Invention), which combined acted drama with animation, and Jiří Trnka, the founder of the modern puppet film. The artistically exceptional film Vynalez zkazy, based on the Jules Verne novel received the Grand Prize in Expo 58 in Brussels.
Another Czech cultural phenomenon came into being at the end of the 1950s. This project was called Laterna magika (The Magic Lantern) and it was the brainchild of renowned film and theater director Alfred Radok. This resulted in productions that combined theater, dance and film in a very poeticizing manner and that premiered at the EXPO '58 world exposition in Brussels, where they enjoyed enormous popularity. Alfred Radok and his collaborators returned to Prague from Brussels with the gold medal.
A relaxation of totalitarian conditions came at the start of the 1960s, and this paved the way for one of the most celebrated eras in Czech film, the New Wave (named after the French model).
} was the most notable forerunner of the New Wave and later became its main exponent. In 1963, he made Cerny Petr (Black Peter), the first Czech film shot according to a cinéma-verité template. Forman made another two films in Czechoslovakia (Lasky jedne plavovlasky, or Loves of a Blonde, in 1965, and Hori, ma panenko, or The Firemen's Ball, in 1967) before emigrating to the United States in 1968 (where he shot a number of excellent films with his regular collaborator, cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek).
In the 1960s, two masterworks were also made by other film collaborators of Forman. Ivan Passer shot Intimni osvetleni (Intimate Lighting, 1966); he also later emigrated to the United States and made films there). Jaroslav Papousek made Ecce Homo Homolka (Behold Homolka, 1969). The actual core of the New Wave was made up of young graduates from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) – Jiri Menzel,
Vera Chytilova,
Jan Nemec and others.
All filmmakers strove to exploit the relaxation of attitudes (e.g. director Otakar Vavra, who made his debut as far back as the time of the Protectorate. He shot a historical film, Kladivo na čarodějnice (Witches Hammer), about witch trials in the 17th century. It was possible to perceive a clear indictment of the Stalinist era of the 1950s in the background of this film.
Impressive new films were made that contained fresh, more complex perspectives on the war , such as Demanty noci (Diamonds of the Night), directed by Jan Nemec; and most notably Obchod na korze (The Shop on Main Street), directed by Elmar Klos and Jan Kadar; and Ostre sledovane vlaky (Closely Watched Trains), directed by Jiri Menzel, which were awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film by the American Film Academy in 1965 and 1966). Films were also made that took a new more complex look at ancient history (e.g. Marketa Lazarová directed by Frantisek Vlacil ) as well as the recent past: Spalovac mrtvol (The Cremator), directed by Juraj Herz;Vsichni dobri rodaci (All My Good Countrymen), directed by Vojtech Jasny;Skrivanci na niti (Larks on a String), directed by Jiri Menzel; and contemporary circumstances such as Zert (The Jok), directed by Jaromil Jires and based on the book by Milan Kundera.
Besides Laterna magika, another remarkable film project was conceived in the minds of Czech artists. This was Kinoautomat,"the first interactive film in the world," which allowed the audience to stop the movie anytime. It was successfully presented at EXPO ´67 in Montreal.
After the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968, another large wave of emigration followed, and not just of filmmakers. The film poetics of the 1960s were irretrievably lost and the creators of the New Wave were at the very least banned from making films in the first half of the 1970s (if they hadn't already emigrated). Many films could not be shown and some (those which most sharply criticized the communist regime) were impounded by the censors – these movies are known as vault films and include The Cremator, Larks on a String, Ucho (The Ear), All My Good Countrymen and others).
Films with children's themes could even be made by otherwise troublesome artists, such as Karel Kachyna's Uz zase skacu pres kaluze (Jumping Over Puddles Again, 1967), based on the book by Alan Marshall. Parodies became a very popular comedy sub-genre. The duo of Zdenek Sverak and Ladislav Smoljak, working in both theater and film, came up with a type of humor that was specific to the Czech environment and which is practically impossible to translate for foreign audiences.
All Czech film are available via the Czech Film Center.
Successes of more recent Czech cinematography are introduced under Modern Czech cinematography.
The Czech sporting elite includes numerous famous personalities whose achievements during the Olympic...
Tomáš Baťa, a Czechoslovak born in Zlín (the region of Moravia), is considered to be one of the world...
The Prague Metro (known as "Pražské metro" in Czech) is an immensely popular means of...
Legislative, executive and judicial power in the Czech Republic
What happened in the realm of fine art at the very beginning of the Czech…
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Last year, Karl Lagerfeld collaborated with Coca Cola Light on an aluminum limited edition soda bottle. For 2011, Uncle Karl has revisited the partnership and has designed three new bottles. All three bottles feature a color scheme of black, white and fuchsia. Lagerfeld also photographed the ad campaign that features Coco Rocha, Heidi Mount and Jeneil Williams. The bottles will be available in June. I'm wondering if Coco Rocha is a huge Diet Coke fan since she was in the first ad campaingn (pictured below).
March 29, 2011
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Living with HCV (hepatitis C virus)/HIV co-infection can be very challenging. Along with our physicians, we are learning about co-infection and living with it day-to-day. In addition to living with our dual illnesses, many of us are also dealing with recovery and mental health issues. I personally am living with all four of these conditions. Every day I am challenged to stay clean and sober and mentally fit. I approach life one day at a time, and I try to apply this principle to everything I encounter. So when the difficulties stack up, I deal with them one at a time. I would like to discuss a few of these challenges and my approaches to conquering them.
Maintaining sobriety certainly is a challenge that I encounter on a daily basis. To me, this is invaluable. Without my sobriety I have nothing! I spent many years trying to get clean and sober, and I know that a healthy lifestyle is impossible if I'm using. I remember lying in an alley crying while shooting up because I did not want to do it anymore. Getting arrested was a relief. At least I would have "three hots and a cot." I also wanted to believe that the police cared.
It took me many years to admit, and understand, that I was powerless over drugs and alcohol; but once I did, my life took on a different meaning. Today we have many programs, including abstinence-based 12-step programs, harm reduction programs and recovery homes that can assist us in our quest for sobriety and a healthy lifestyle.
Recovery homes can be a valuable asset in establishing a strong foundation, and obtaining the support that a person needs for sobriety. Most recovery homes model themselves after the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, and require that you remain drug and alcohol free. If a relapse occurs, they will simply ask you to leave. This happened to me many times, and at the time I did not understand why. Harm reduction programs were not available to me at this time, so I felt rejected every time I was asked to leave a recovery home because of relapse. I asked the director of one of the many recovery homes that I participated in why was I being asked to leave, just because I relapsed. My argument was that if drug abuse and alcoholism is considered a disease, relapse is a symptom, and should be treated as such (compassion). Her response was simply that within a therapeutic community there needs to be consistency (zero tolerance) both personally and for the rest of the residents.
Harm reduction programs are another option, or lifestyle, for those who choose not to work a 12-step or spiritual program. The harm reduction model upholds that abstinence is the ideal goal for those using illegal drugs. Working with drug users from a harm reduction perspective involves accepting that some people simply are not going to give them up at this time, but nevertheless offering them services to assist them in reducing the harm associated with drug and alcohol abuse. An open door policy can result in a harm reduction snowball effect: small changes can pave the path for further reduction of drug use and an improved lifestyle in other ways. This snowball effect can continue, eventually to the point of abstinence. I believe that everyone must find a program that works for them, and harm reduction certainly is a newer option worth exploring.
Of the many programs available, I choose to work a 12-step program to help me stay clean and sober. Relapse is an everyday reality and I must deal with it one day at a time. When temptation crosses my path, I recall the turmoil I felt while in my addiction and remind myself that I never want to experience the life of drugs and alcohol again. Instead of following temptation, I try to learn from every negative event that enters my life and turn it into something positive.
After living with HIV for approximately 11 years, I was diagnosed with HCV. Soon afterward, I began experiencing feelings that were all too familiar to me from the early days of recovery and HIV: isolation, sadness and fear, plus obsessive tendencies and depression. I never realized how important life was to me, and how much I wanted to live until my life was threatened -- threatened with addiction, co-infection, and all the symptoms that accompany it, including depression.
I had always been known as a positive person with an optimistic outlook on life, and I viewed depression as a weakness. But I was willing to do what was recommended, though I did not like the sound of a psychiatric evaluation. My depression had to be stabilized, however, especially before I could start HCV treatment.
The first step in the healing process was to go deep into my soul and apply the steps that I had learned from my recovery process... back to the basics! It is amazing the changes that will occur in your life when you simply shift from a negative attitude to a positive one. Today I do not view depression as a weakness, but more as an element of life that needs the human touch. Along with strengthening my 12-step program, I am also working with a therapist. My positive outlook has returned, and I look at every event in my life as a learning experience, something that I can share with others.
I have followed the scientific advances made in both HIV and HCV treatment in the last 10 years. I began HIV treatment in the early days of AZT in San Francisco, and was very fortunate that I did not develop resistance. I am now benefiting from a HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) regimen. Research advances are being made daily, so I live each day the best that I can, one day at a time, so that I can be alive and healthy and able to take advantage of what the future may bring. The future is unknown, but living the best I can one day at a time has brought me much solace and hope.
To treat or not to treat -- that has been my dilemma until recently. As with HIV treatment, beginning HCV treatment is an individual decision that should be made with your physician's assistance and as much information about your options and the chances of treatment success as possible. It is important to begin therapy while your immune system is still intact, and your liver is showing minimal signs of liver deterioration. After many hours of research and meditation, I decided to begin treatment in January of 2002. Now that the decision has been made, I am preparing myself in mind, body, and spirit so that I can be 100 percent present to make this experience a success.
Living with co-infection presents many challenges. What keeps me going is the future and what it may bring. In the early days of the HIV epidemic the only hope many of us had was through visualization and meditation. Today we have real hope for long-lasting treatments and eventual cures. Scientists move ahead the same way as the rest of us: one day at a time.
Update: I began treatment for HCV with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (once a week pegylated interferon injection and twice a day single capsule of ribavirin). I did experience the normal course of side effects, flu-like symptoms, and the treatment interacted with my HIV medication. Therefore, I had to temporarily halt all medications for two weeks. I then restarted the interferon, and slowly reintroduced the other meds. I will discuss my treatment experiences in my next article for Positively Aware. Everyone's experience with and response to treatment is unique, by no means do I discourage anyone from beginning treatment. I look at this as a learning experience.
Read Part I of Gerald Moreno's story, "HCV/HIV Co-Infection I: A Patient's Perspective."
Read Part III of Gerald Moreno's story, "HCV/HIV Co-Infection III: A Patient's Perspective."
Gerald Moreno is a health educator/trials screening coordinator with the University of California San Diego's Antiviral Research Center (AVRC). This research facility conducts clinical research for people living with HIV and HCV. For more information, please contact Mr. Moreno at (619) 543-8080 ext. 237.


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If you missed any of our 2010 articles on the preservation of the modern movement, DOCOMOMO US e-news briefs are now archived online. Articles for 2010 include: the Christian Science Center complex in Boston, Tour Day 2010, the Given Institute in Aspen, and the continuing work of our New Orleans, Louisiana chapter to preserve the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School and the George Washington Carver Junior-Senior High School.
To read all of our articles for 2010, visit the newsletter page.