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Thoughts on the "7 Worst International Aid Ideas" by Richard Stupart
Richard Stupart's "7 Worst International Aid Ideas" is an excellent article about misunderstanding cultural needs and ministering ineffectively. This cross-cultural ministry "mismatch" is most often unintentional and with a well-meaning heart and passion. One can have good intentions in their ministry efforts cross-culturally and yet cause significant damage or detriment in the ongoing Christian ministry.
Whenever we serve or minister to a person or community, we must be careful to separate "perceived" needs from the true needs.
A Texan sees a church in Russia without air conditioning and thinks, "I must help this church get an air conditioner for the glory of God!" The hot Texas summers have created a lens through which the Texan has a high value of cool air. This high value then translates into a perceived need when the Texan is transplanted into a different culture. But, the Russian church members do not need an air conditioner. They do not have a problem with the temperature in the church, and an electric bill to maintain an air conditioner would be a burden to them.
Another example occurs in disaster relief situations. After the earth quake in Haiti in 2010, many Americans collected flip flops, stuffed animals, etc. to send in giant shipping crates for the children in Haiti. The heart behind this act was most likely out of genuine concern and love. But, the excessive cost of shipping these items could have been better spent by spending money on the ground in Haiti to assist the local economy. More items could have been purchased by cutting out the shipping costs and buying locally. In addition, more strategic items could have been given to the children that truly met a need. Most children did not need flip flops or a stuffed animal. They needed food, uncontaminated water, and a place to sleep. The nice gesture of flip flops or a stuffed animal may not be received well or may even be seen as flippant (pun intended) or insulting in light of the overwhelming reality of true needs.
As Christians, we are to be good stewards of our time, money, gifts, skills, etc. Let's include in that list to be a good steward of our strategy. Thinking through how to best meed needs in a particular context is vital. We must depend upon good wisdom, godly counsel, and input from those actually on the ground.
Ministry is not supposed to be trendy, cool, or easy. Ministry should be contextual, authentic, and in accordance with what God is doing. Bono and other celebrities have brought social justice issues to a heightened level in the secular arena as well as the Christian arenas. But, we still have a lot to learn when ministering cross-culturally.
Check out Richard Stupart's article below on the "7 Worst International Aid Ideas." You may or may not agree with all of his thoughts and conclusions, but we can all agree that we can continue learning to be more knowledgeable, contextually aware, and strategic in our social justice ministries.
7 worst international aid ideas
Maybe their hearts were in the right place. Maybe not. Either way, these are solid contenders for the title of "worst attempts at helping others since colonialism."
1. One million t-shirts for Africa
Foreign aid circles employ the cynical acronym SWEDOW (stuff we don't want) to describe initiatives like Jason Sadler's 1 Million T-Shirts project. Sadler had admittedly never been to Africa, and had never worked in an aid or development environment before. But he cared a great deal, and came up with the idea to send a million free shirts to Africa in order to help the people there.
Like some sort of lightning rod for the combined venom of the humanitarian aid world, Jason found himself pilloried across the web in a matter of weeks. Everyone from armchair bloggers to senior economists spat fire on his dream until it eventually ground to a halt. In July 2010, Jason threw in the towel and abandoned his scheme. And somewhere in Africa, an economy sighed in relief.
Why was the idea so bad?
Firstly, it's debatable whether there is actually a need for T-shirts in Africa. There is practically nowhere that people who want shirts are unable to afford them. Wanting to donate them is a classic case of having something you want to donate and assuming it is needed. Just because you have a really large hammer does not mean that everything in the world is a nail.
Secondly, dumping a million free shirts is inefficient. What it would cost to pack them, ship them, and transport them overland to wherever it is that they are meant to go would cost close to the manufacturing cost of the shirts in the first place. That's just incredibly wasteful. If you wanted to get people shirts, it would be far more cost effective to simply commission their manufacture locally, creating a stimulus to the local textile economy in the process.
Which brings us to the third critique of free stuff. When people in the target community already have an economy functioning in part on the sale and repair of the stuff you want to donate (shirts in this instance), then dumping a million of them free is the economic equivalent of an atom bomb. Why buy a shirt anymore when you can get a five-year supply for free? Why get yours repaired when you can simply toss it and get another? And in the process everyone who once sold shirts or practiced tailoring finds themselves unemployed and unable to provide money for themselves or their families to buy anything.
Except shirts. Because those are now free.
And before you think dumping free shirts is the sin of an uneducated maverick, Jason's poor logic was subsequently repeated by World Vision, in accepting 100,000 NFL shirts to dump on some poor, shirtless village in Africa.
2. TOMS Buy-One-Give-One
Bearing in mind all of the criticisms above, TOMS shoe brand has built a brand on the premise that buying one pair of their shoes automatically includes the provision of another pair of shoes to an underprivileged child in a developing nation somewhere. Three months after Jason abandoned sending a million shirts to Africa, TOMS celebrated sending a million pairs of shoes to the underprivileged. It continues to do so.
While there are possibly more people in the world who need shoes than might need shirts (though this is debatable), TOMS can be (and has been) broadly criticised for the same kinds of unintended consequences of dumping shoes in places where people might otherwise be employed to make them.
Further, though, the TOMS campaign — like the million shirts — misses the fundamental point that not having a pair of shoes (or a shirt, christmas toy, etc.) is not a problem about not having shoes. It's a problem of poverty. Shoelessness, such as it is, is a symptom of a much bigger and more complex problem. And while donating a pair of shoes helps shoelessness, it does not help poverty.
Things like jobs help poverty. Jobs making things like shoes, for example. But TOMS doesn't make its shoes in Africa, it makes them in China where it's presumably cheaper to make two pairs of shoes and give one away than it is to get people in a needier community to make one pair of shoes.
The result of this setup, as Zizek explains most succinctly, is that on a big-picture level, TOMS (and other buy-my-product-and-donate companies) are busy building the exploitative global structure that produces economic inequality, while on the other hand pretending that supporting them actually does something to fix it.
It doesn't. It just gives people shoes.
3. Machine gun preacher
The criticisms of TOMS, Jason, and other purveyors of SWEDOW tend to be intellectual, economic concerns. Problems with Sam Childers, the machine gun preacher, are so much more straightforward.
It's dangerous and insane.
After a misspent youth in the United States and a few years spent behind bars, Childers headed to Sudan on a missionary project to repair huts devastated in the war. There he would be commanded by God to build an orphanage for local children and, incidentally, take up arms against the Lord's Resistance Army, who was terrorizing the region. With an AK-47 and a bible, Sam would spread the wrath of the Lord and rescue abducted children for the next few years.
Imagine John Rambo with a biker's beard hunting rebels in the savannah and you pretty much get the idea.
No matter how much you care to help the women/children/villages/gorillas in a particular warzone, trying to solve what is in effect a problem of armed insecurity through establishing another minor armed militia is never a good idea. However entertaining the film turns out to be, it's the security studies equivalent of pouring gasoline on a forest fire. Peace — and a long-term future for those affected by violence in what is now South Sudan — can only be guaranteed through a diplomatic agreement between the groups that command the thousands of men with guns. Playing Rambo in the bush would not be tolerated back home, and it shouldn't be here in Africa.
Childers is not the first person to get the crazy idea of solving violent situations by running in with guns. Hussein Mohammed Farah Aidid is an ex-Marine, and the son of Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid (of Black Hawk Down fame), who returned to Somalia in 1996 to lead the powerful Habr Gedir clan in the country's civil war. That hasn't worked out so well either.
4. 50 Cent ransoming children in Somalia
Just this month, rapper 50 Cent visited Dolow in Somalia at the request of the World Food Programme. The trip was presumably intended to raise awareness of the issues in the way that Angelina Jolie and George Clooney did for Sudan and Oprah did for South Africa. There are quite a few examples of celebrities connecting with Africa actually. There is even a map to keep track of who has "dibs" on what region.
If the trip was nothing more than Fifty touring hard-hit areas in order to bring the world's lazy media along, then it would have been useful at best, and benign at worst. But there is more.
If you Like the Facebook page for his Street King energy drink, he will provide a meal for a child in need. If the page received a million Likes before Sunday, he would donate an additional million meals.
So let's break that down.
- If you Like Fifty's Facebook page — without even buying the drink — a child, presumably in Somalia, gets fed.
- We can infer that there is a pot of dollars somewhere earmarked for feeding needy children. Two million meals worth of feeding if you count the million Like-meals plus the potential million bonus.
- Those meals, while they could be donated, and have presumably been budgeted for, will not be, except to the extent that you give Street King props online.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is called extortion. Dramatically photographed, concealed-as-humanitarian-activism, extortion. I can feed so very many meals to these starving children, but I won't unless you give me something.
The benefit of involving celebrities in aid work is often that it works to focus the attention of their fans and the media machine more generally on understanding, for however brief a moment, something that is happening somewhere in the world. Out of that can come the kind of empathy and activism that makes things like the Save Darfur campaign possible.
The celebrity's contribution, though, hinges on whether they can successfully translate attention on them into attention to the issues. When a humanitarian issue becomes a platform for pushing an energy drink on the back of people's suffering, we should be ashamed.
5. Donor fund restrictions
Not so much an organisation or a specific event, this a policy constraint that isn't as widely known as it should be. When many governments donate aid money to countries that have been wracked by disasters, or which require long-term assistance, it often comes with a giant asterisk in the fine print:
A significant portion of the cash provided for such assistance must be spent on goods and services provided by suppliers from the donating country.
Not only inefficient, this policy prescription can lead to outright ridiculous results. In the case of the Mozambique floods in 2000, I met a medical volunteer who explained how the only US-made bikes that they could find to get around the country on short notice were Harley Davidsons. And so three of them ended up running between medical stations like some breed of medical Hell's Angel. Fascinating to behold, but utterly wasteful.
Far more troublesome, as is often the case, are the economics of this sort of donate-and-bill-back activity. Where the donor aid money is tied to spending on donor-country products and services, far less of the amount spent in aid actually ends up benefitting the recipient country. Few local people are employed, and few local organisations see any new opportunities to bid for and provide aid-goods.
This has two effects: firstly, what could have been a large financial boost arriving with the aid is effectively neutered — shunted into a much smaller economy-within-the-economy; secondly, without the opportunity for competitive pricing on local goods, the money is spent on buying comparatively expensive imported products and staff. Harley Davidsons, rather than dirtbikes, for a tenth of the price.
6. Making food aid the same colour as cluster munitions.
Probably the most devastating screw-up in the history of helping was the decisions that lead to cluster munitions and daily food ration packets both being coloured canary yellow.
Left is delicious. Right will kill you. You try tell the difference if you can't read English and live out in the steppes.
Each yellow BLU-97 bomblet is the size of a soda can and is capable of killing anyone within a 50 meter radius and severely injuring anyone within 100 meters from the detonation. A Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDR) package contains a 2,000 calorie meal.
It was inevitable that Afghans coming across the yellow packages in the field would confuse the two. Children in particular — with no English and little idea of what a BLU-97 is even if they did — would investigate the yellow containers and try to pick them up, with devastating consequences that an Air Force general described as "unfortunate."
7. Making USAID a foreign policy tool
In 1990, on the eve of the first Gulf War, Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Saleh al-Ashtal voted no to using force against Iraq in a security council session. US Ambassador Thomas Pickering walked to the Yemeni Ambassador's seat and retorted, "That was the most expensive No vote you ever cast." Immediately afterwards, USAID ceased operations and funding in Yemen.
USAID, despite its appearances as a benign, well-intentioned member of the humanitarian aid community, is deeply compromised in being beholden to the whims of US foreign policy. Unlike organisations like Médecins Sans Frontières which strictly guard their neutrality, USAID's ability to hand out food aid and other assistance is subject to the political agenda of groups like Congress and the US Military.
In the case of the army, USAID in Afghanistan has repeatedly had to participate in administering humanitarian relief in cooperation with army elements engaged in the "hearts and minds" strategy of manipulating assistance in order to win over civilian populations. The unfortunate side effect of this relationship is that USAID's operations come to be seen by opposing forces as complicit in the enemy war effort and thus legitimate targets. An even more unfortunate side effect is that other humanitarian groups with far more benevolent agendas may find themselves tarred with the same political brush and unwittingly targeted for attacks and abductions too.
Sometimes bad aid is just the consequence of someone caring too much, but knowing too little. Other times it's people who should have known better not being diligent in considering the consequences of their actions. And sometimes politicians and unscrupulous businessmen are simply manipulating the suffering of others for their own ends. When it's benign or thwarted, it's easy enough to laugh it off. But when a bad idea is carried through, the results can be diabolical.


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I am experiencing quite major problem with Ubuntu 11.10.
Here is what happened:
I installed the closed source video driver suggested by Ubuntu (my graphics card is ATI Mobility Radeon HD 560v).
Having installed the driver I restarted the computer, and after that some parts of the Gnome UI didn't show up properly, wrong colors & unclear.
I decided to remove the driver installed as everything had worked before installation, again rebooted my computer, but this time after showing the purple boot screen, whole screen turns black and nothing happens.
I tried restart couple of times, same black screen instead of login screen.
The recovery mode of Ubuntu works so I can access terminal, only problem is that I don't know what to do.
Anyone got any ideas?

subset: commoncrawl


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DENSO Introduces New VS-Series 6-Axis Cleanroom Robots
World's fastest, most precise in their class
LONG BEACH, Calif. — DENSO announced the introduction of ISO 5 (class 100) cleanroom versions of its new VS-Series six-axis articulated robots. The new VS-Series robots offer the world's highest speed an
d precision in their class, with cycle times from 0.37 to 0.33 sec. and repeatability from ±0.03 to ±0.02 mm. Reaches are from 500 to 900 mm and payload capacities from 4 to 7 kg.
The new VS robots are also extremely flexible, with an even more compact design than previous models, including ultraslim arms to facilitate integration and a new optional bottom-side cable connection that saves valuable floor space. The robots can be mounted on the floor, ceiling or wall with no special hardware needed.
A new internal wiring option allows connection of Gigabit Ethernet devices and servo grippers directly to the robot flange, preventing cables from becoming tangled or interfering with peripheral equipment. ANSI and CE safety compliance allows global deployment.
Typical cleanroom applications include assembly, dispensing, encapsulating and potting, insertion, inspection, laser welding, machine tending, material handling, nut driving, packaging, pick and place, press fitting, screw driving, soldering, test handling and ultrasonic welding.
Industries include aerospace, alternative energy, appliances, automotive, biomedical, chemicals, consumer products, disk drives, electronics, general manufacturing, injection molding, life sciences, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, plastics and semiconductors.
"Our new VS-Series robots have received a tremendous reception from the marketplace," said Peter Cavallo, robotics sales manager, DENSO Sales California. "The new cleanroom models will let us extend the benefits of these robots into many new application areas."
More information about the new VS-Series cleanroom robots is available on the DENSO Robotics website at densorobotics.com/products-vs-6axis-new.php.
DENSO is the world's largest user of small assembly robots, with more than 16,000 DENSO robots designed and used in its own manufacturing facilities. More than 60,000 DENSO robots are used in other companies worldwide.
DENSO offers a wide range of high-speed, four-, five- and six-axis industrial robots, with payloads up to 20 kg, reaches from 350 to 1,300 mm and repeatability to within ±0.015 mm. DENSO's compact, space-saving design facilitates integration, while a high maximum moment of inertia allows a wide variety of end effectors and applications. Standard, dust- and mistproof, dust- and waterproof, cleanroom and aseptic models are available. Programming software, controllers and teaching pendants are also offered. ANSI and CE compliance enables global deployment. UL-listed models are available for the U.S. and Canada.
DENSO Corporation, headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan, is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electric, electronics and information and safety. Its customers include all the world's major carmakers. Worldwide, the company has more than 200 subsidiaries and affiliates in 35 countries and regions (including Japan) and employs approximately 120,000 people. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, totaled US$38.4 billion. Last fiscal year, DENSO spent 9.5 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development. DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges.
In North America, DENSO employs more than 13,000 people with consolidated sales totaling US$6.2 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.


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How did Amy Cuddy, Ron Finley and Glenn Greenwald choose their TED Talk outfits? By being themselves
Amy Cuddy bought a showstopper dress to wear for her talk at TEDGlobal 2012. But a few days before, she decided not to wear it. "I had agonized over what to wear. I went out and bought the most expensive dress I've ever bought. It was Fendi, multiple markdowns at Barneys," she told the New York Times. "But a couple of […]Continue reading


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Ballroom dance: 1 to 3 p.m. on the fourth Saturday of the month through October at the Carl Gipson Senior Center, 3025 Lombard Ave., Everett, With Lauren Petrie for this 50-plus ballroom dance; refreshments provided by Cascadian Place. Admission is $4; 425-257-8780; www.everettwa.org\seniors.
Ballroom dance: 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesdays, Northshore Senior Center, 10201 E. Riverside Drive, Bothell; dance lessons and dancing with a live band; $4 members, $8 nonmembers; 425-487-2441; www.northshoreseniorcenter.org.
Edmonds Senior Center: Dance with live bands, 1 to 3 p.m. Fridays, Edmonds Senior Center, 220 Railroad Ave.; foxtrot, swing, waltz; $3 to $4 donations, no partners necessary; 425-774-5555.
Everett Senior Swingers square dancing: 1to 3 p.m. Fridays with caller Doug Coleman, Everett Senior Center, 3025 Lombard Ave., Everett; donation; 425-257-8780, 425-334-2919.
Freewheelers Square Dance Club: Dances are 7 to 10 p.m. first, third and some fifth Sundays at the Lake City Community Center, 12531 28th Ave. NE, Seattle (nice wood floor). Cost is $6 per dance night; partners are not required; singles and couples welcome. Call Joe at 425-774-6574 or Sally at 425-293-4510 or email firstname.lastname@example.com or email@example.com.
Happy Hopper Square Dance Club: 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. first and third Saturdays from September to June. Families and observers are welcome and dancers 17 and under are free. Variety of local and national callers. Stillaguamish Senior Center, 18308 Smokey Point Blvd.; 360-387-8727.
Hayloft dance: With DJ Merly Camarino on the second Saturday of the month. Dance lessons from 7 to 8 p.m., followed by dancing from 8 to 11 p.m. And with Ron Bolin, the "dancin' DJ," on the fourth Saturday of the month. Dance lesson, 7 to 8 p.m.; dance (foxtrot, cha-cha, swing, waltz), 8 to 11 p.m. No partner required. Admission is $12. At The Hayloft, 15320 35th Ave. W., Lynnwood. Call 425-743-6180 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Jay's Dance Experience: Ballrooom, Latin and swing dance with DJ Terry West at Jay's Dance Experience, 18005 Aurora Ave. N. (above the Highland Ice Arena), Seattle. West Coast swing lessons at 7 p.m. (beginning) and 8 p.m. (intermediate) with social dancing from 9 to midnight. Admission is $8 for the dance, $15 for lessons and dance. Call 206-786-3421 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Lake Goodwin Community Club: 17323 42nd Ave. NW, Stanwood; 360-435-5874; www.considerthisministries.org. Dance to live music from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. every third Saturday. $10 suggested donation includes snacks and beverages. Clean and sober.
Line dance lessons: Thursdays, Beginner lessons start at 4 p.m., intermediate and advanced at 4:45, open dance from 5:30 to 7 p.m., $5. Cyndy's Broiler, 27021 102nd Ave. NW, Stanwood; 360-629-4800. Instructor is Kathy Leone, 425-205-0870.
Line dancing classes: Wednesdays, beginners at 11 a.m., intermediate and advanced at 11:45 a.m.; Harbor Square Athletic Club, 160 W. Dayton St., Edmonds. $25 for four weeks for members, $30 for nonmembers. Call Kathy Leone at 425-205-0870.
Skandia Folkdance Society: First Friday dance, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. lesson, 8:30 to 11 p.m. dance, first and third Fridays, Cedar Valley Grange, 20526 52nd Ave. W., Lynnwood; $10 nonmembers, $7 members; www.skandia-folkdance.org or 206-784-7470.
Sky Valley Whirlwind Square Dance Club: Beginners' lessons, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursdays, $5. Round dance workshops, 7:30 p.m., plus mainstream dances, 8 to 10:30 p.m. third Fridays, $6. Tri Way Grange, 35th and Seattle Hill Road, Mill Creek; 360-794-8240.
Snohomish Senior Center: Dance classes, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Snohomish Senior Center, 506 Fourth St., Snohomish; all ages; $5 to drop in, $30 per person for a six-week session to learn a specific dance; 360-568-0934.
Sno-King International Folk Dance Club: Folk dance, 7 p.m. Saturdays and 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Cedar Valley Grange, 20526 52nd Ave. W., Lynnwood; $5 for members and $7 for nonmembers; 425-385-2088, 425-889-0541; www.sno-king.org.
Sons of Norway: 9910 270th NW, Stanwood. Third Friday dance, April 20. 7:30 p.m., beginning rumba lesson; 8:15 to 10:30 p.m. general dancing, mix of swing, ballroom, Latin and country. Admission is $8. Call 360-387-6842 or email email@example.com for more information. No partners needed.
Veterans of Foreign Wars dances: Potluck dinners 6 to 7:30 p.m. last Saturdays; $5; free lessons 6:30 p.m., music and dancing 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays, Eddy Fukano Band performs; $5; VFW building, 2711 Oakes Ave., Everett; year-round; 425-252-2100.
Whirlybird Square Dance Club: The Hayloft, 15320 35th Ave. W., Lynnwood. Cost is $5. For more information, call 425-308-9559 or 425-806-8423 or go to sqdance.org/clubs/whirlybirds.html.
Woodinville Square Crow Square Dance Club: Dances at 7:30 p.m. first and third Fridays at the Sammamish Valley Grange Hall, 14654 148th Ave NE, Woodinville. Call Alice at 425-319-1093 or go to www.squarecrows.org.
Talk to us
- You can tell us about news and ask us about our journalism by emailing email@example.com or by calling 425-339-3428.
- If you have an opinion you wish to share for publication, send a letter to the editor to email@example.com or by regular mail to The Daily Herald, Letters, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
- More contact information is here.


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Rihanna accompanied Chris Brown to court for his probation hearing and wound up… punching him out!
The 24-year-old singer, who recently admitted she was back together with the R&B star, followed him into the Los Angeles courthouse for his latest hearing stemming from his 2009 assault of her.
According to court sources when Rihanna was reminded of the beating Chris Brown gave her she said some words to the him and then – started punching him.
Brown reportedly tried to fight back, but Rihanna was too much for him. She landed a number of blows on his head, but she really bruised his biceps with a some strong kicks. His attorney, Mark Geragos got hit in the jaw, when Brown tried to duck.
Brown was in court to hear allegations from the Los Angeles prosecutors office that he may have lied about completing his community service. The judge ordered the bailiffs to "stand down" when Rihanna was giving Brown a beating. Some sources in the courthouse said that the judge was heard saying under his breath, "give it to him, give it to him."
Brown started crying when the paramedics came. Rihanna left – reportedly happy that she finally got revenge on him.
Rihanna, 24 and Brown, 23, had arrived at the court together. But she left on her own.
Rihanna wore sunglasses and kept her head down with her long hair partially covering her face.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office declined to comment on Rihanna's beat down.
Brown also recently had a fight with R&B singer Frank Ocean, including Ocean's allegation that Brown 'threatened to shoot him in the brawl over a parking space,' according to a police report of the incident.
Ocean suffered cuts on his right index finger and minor cuts to his left temple.
Rumors are that Rihanna is now dating Frank Ocean.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
"The Fiscal Court of the County of Henderson does adopt as follows:
In pursuance of the authority granted by Kentucky Revised Statutes, Chapter 100, Section 100.201 through 100.271, to a legislative body to regulate and restrict the height, number of stories, and size of buildings and other structures, the percentage of the lot that may be occupied, the size of yards, courts and open spaces, the density of population, and the location and use of buildings, structures and land for trade, industry, residence, or other purposes, that the County of Henderson be divided into districts as herein after described, and that the regulations, restrictions, and boundaries of districts shall be established, enforced and amended as provided in this Regulation.
Zoning Regulations and districts as herein set forth have been made in order to promote public health, safety, morals and general welfare of the community, to facilitate orderly and harmonious development and the visual character of the community, and to regulate the density of population and intensity of land use in order to provide for adequate light and air. Further, these regulations provide for vehicular fire and police protection and preventing the overcrowding of land, blight, danger and congestion in the circulation of people and commodities and the loss of life, health or prosperity from fire, flood and other dangers. It is further employed to protect airports, highways and other transportation facilities, public facilities, including schools and public grounds, commercial, industrial, residential, farmland and other specific uses which warrant special protection by the Community."


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HorizonTech Falcon 2 Sector Mesh Replacement Coil
HorizonTech Falcon 2 Sector Mesh Replacement Coil
Regular price$1799 $17.99
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Warning: Please ensure to properly prime each coil and pod before you use them. Always use proper precautions and handling. If the coils has a sub-ohm resistance, sufficient technical knowledge and understanding is required on the use of batteries, mods, and kits that can handle Sub-Ohm coils. If you are unsure whether you are familiar or not on particular products and/or set-ups, please do not use. Never use short or flat 510 connections on any hybrid/hybrid style devices. There is always an inherent risk when using any rechargeable batteries at any time and under any circumstances. Please ensure that you have great knowledge on all rechargeable batteries before you use them with your vaping device. Always charge batteries at the clean and fire-proof surface. Never leave charging batteries or vape devices unattended. If batteries are visibly damaged, do not use. Please have sufficient understanding of the batteries/chargers and any rechargeable cells you are using and how to care for them properly. Always store, keep and transport the rechargeable cells in a safe, non-conductive container in a controlled environment whenever possible. Rechargeable cells are very sensitive to charging characteristics and may explode or burn if mishandled
Use collapsible tabs for more detailed information that will help customers make a purchasing decision.
Ex: Shipping and return policies, size guides, and other common questions.


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The book is full of lovely pictures, great recipes and tips and I'll definitely be baking from here again. I made some madeleines following the success of this recipe but that's for another day :)
I decided to jazz up this simple cake with some raspberries and homemade raspberry sauce. The verdict - everyone really enjoyed it especially the intended recipient. I've made another one tonight as the first one disappeared so quickly, not everyone had a chance to try it!
100g unsalted butter, melted
200g golden caster sugar
4 large eggs
200g ground almonds
1 teaspoon almond essence
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Grease and line a 20cm sponge tin.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs together at medium-high speed until they double in volume.
- Whisk in the melted butter and then the ground almonds and almond essence.
- Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 30-45 minutes until the top of the cake is golden brown and the cake is shrinking away from the side of the tin.
- Allow to stand for 10 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
- I served mine with fresh raspberries on top and a homemade raspberry sauce (blitz 150g raspberries with a few drops of lemon juice (to taste) and a few teaspoons of icing sugar (to taste) )


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'Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose.'
Vanda Scaravelli
When I first thought of writing this article, I struggled as to how to get my point across without sounding like I was whining about how things have changed. Change can be a good thing. Some of the changes I have seen over the years have made Yoga more accessible to those who would have never attempted it in the past, which is of course, a good thing. So then, if the changes have brought good things then what is the point of bringing up the things that aren't so good about what I like to call the "Lululemonization of Yoga"? Well, I think bringing the not so good things to the forefront can also be a good thing and that hopefully we can be made aware of and will, hopefully change our views and actions.
Now, I know there will be those who will not be happy with my title. I am not blaming Lululemon on the demise of Yoga, but there is a correlation between the rise of Lululemon paralleling the rise the Yoga in Canada and the United States.
I began practicing Yoga in 1998. I had been injured running and saw a poster on a local telephone pole for Yoga at the church in my neighbourhood in Hamilton. At that point in time, I believe there were one or two Yoga studios in all of Hamilton and maybe a few classes at local recreation centres. After moving the chairs out of the way at St. Cuthbert's, the ambiance was perfect for Yoga. The teacher was fresh out of her teacher training and was warm and welcoming. She doted on each and every one of us as if we were the only students in her class. The class was filled with a diverse group of mainly women, although there were a couple of men in the class even at that time, and of varying size, shape, and athletic ability. The hour and a half long Hatha class was anything but slow moving. Although Hatha Yoga is labelled often as gentle, the class was challenging but non-harming, which I fear is missing from today's typical repertoire in most Yoga classes, my own included.
At the time when I began my practice, Yoga was still a fringe activity that was not a 'workout' enough for most people. Yoga was for the old throwbacks from when the first wave of Yoga made its way to the west in the 60's or for those who were looking for some stress relief. As the years went by I saw the classes become more popular, which is when I first noticed the other trend beginning; the rise of the Lululemon. Admittedly, at first I thought the gear was cool. Although it was expensive, I thought it was great that Yoga was growing in popularity and everything that I loved about it would spread like wild fire to the public. My preaching about what I was getting out of my own classes would finally be understood. When I said, 'I do Yoga', I wouldn't be looked at with a questioning stare, but others would be able to comprehend where I was coming from when I talked about Yoga. What was so wrong about Lululemon?
In 2006, I began teaching Yoga after receiving my teacher training certification from Sheridan College. This was a two year, night school program that was very comprehensive and included 4 units of philosophy as well as asana work. I started my teaching by instructing classes for many different offices on their lunch hours as part of employee health promotion initiatives. The students were eager and very open to learn. They were looking for stretching, strengthening, but mainly for stress relief. They were surprised when they would find some of the poses challenging and we often talked afterwards about the different poses and what the benefits of each were. The students were warm and welcoming, much like my first teacher was. There was no Lululemon worn at any of these classes. Coincidence? Maybe.
Then came the emergence of Hot Yoga.
About 5 years ago, I attended my first hot yoga class. Now, this was not a traditional Bikram class, which yes, is supposed to be hot. Bikram was developed to mimic the hot, humid, weather of India for those who were not able to practice there. The heat, they also believe allows for the body to sweat out toxins. Lululemon was fast to jump on this band wagon because it meant a whole new line up for sexy new Yoga clothes. Soon after that, some studios stopped offering not hot classes as the popularity rose for the sweat filled, music thumping, Cirque De Soleil type classes. In fact, if you didn't offer hot Yoga, your studio was soon falling behind the times. Now we see studios that offer no traditional Hatha Yoga at all and only offer their own brand of Yoga taught by teachers that are only trained by them.
Fast forward almost 10 years and if I allow myself to look back, I have mixed feelings about this Yoga evolution. Whether I am a student in a class at the local studio (one of at least 10 in my end of the city, not including the classes available the gym and rec centres), or teaching at a studio, Lululemon is present at each and every one of them. As a student, I have had teachers who have minimal training taking us through poses with the exuberance of a drill sergeant, only to have people praise them for the great 'workout' they just had. The feel of the class is dramatically different from the St.Cuthbert's classes I once attended. I feel that the warm and welcoming openness is lost in the sea of spandex and crop tops. My own practice alters during these classes as I force my body into poses it has no right being in, ignoring old injuries all for the sake of fitting into the model Yoga student profile, complete with Lululemon ensemble.
As a teacher, my classes have changed as well, to a more Vinyasa (sequence) filled class to ensure that my students get what they are paying for; a workout. I reflect on this evolution and feel disappointed with myself. I have allowed the pressure to 'perform' cloud my judgement of how I would like my classes to be. The Lululemonized class I teach now is not the same as it was when I first began. When the guilt overwhelms me and I go back to my roots and how I was taught, more often than not, there is a student or two leaving never to return to my time slot. The class was not fast enough. The class was not challenging enough. The class was not advanced enough; at least in their heads it wasn't. I can't really blame them. The Yoga they started with is not the same as the one I did but isn't it my job to show them all Yoga can give them? Am I just as guilty as Lululemon because I am forcing myself to fit in to not only their clothes, but their version of what Yoga is?
But from this evolution, can we learn anything?
I find that lately, perhaps because of this guilt, I make sure I instruct my students to attend many different classes. I express all of their individual benefits, but encourage them to welcome Yoga of all types into their practices, just as Yoga is for all students. I reiterate to them that the mind must listen to the body, instead of the other way around. Most of all I try, and will continue to tell those who ask, that Yoga is just as much for the mind as it is for the body. If we are moving mindlessly through sequence after sequence, then we are missing out on so much that Yoga can give us.
Sure Lululemon can't be held responsible for the guilt in my own practice, nor can I point the finger at their clothing for what I see as a slide in the purity of Yoga, but I change the way I teach. Change is good, after all.
Nicole Jessome lives in Hamilton, Ontario where she can be found running in the trails or down at the waterfront. Nicole has completed many 5km and 10 km races along with 9 Around the Bay 30km road races. When she isn't at work, she is teaching Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga, baking and writing for cravelife.org.


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A U.S. Army sergeant was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Thursday for killing five fellow servicemen in a shooting spree in Iraq, one of the worst cases of violence by an American soldier against other U.S. troops.
In a deal that spared him the death penalty, Sergeant John Russell pleaded guilty last month to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers at the Camp Liberty combat stress clinic, near Baghdad's airport.
The military has said the 2009 shooting might have been triggered by combat stress.
Russell faced an abbreviated court-martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to determine the level of his guilt, and the military judge in the case ruled on Monday that the 48-year-old Texan had killed with premeditation.
At an early morning hearing at the Pacific Northwest military base, the judge tasked with determining Russell's sentence, Army Colonel David Conn, said Russell had been mentally ill at the time of the killings but was nevertheless responsible for his actions.
"You are not a monster," Conn said. "But you have knowingly and deliberately done incredibly monstrous things."
"Sergeant Russell, you have forced many to drink from a bitter cup. That cup is now before you," Conn said, before asking Russell, who wore green military dress, to stand.
He sentenced the 48-year-old Texas native to life in confinement without the possibility of parole, a reduction in rank and a dishonorable discharge from the Army, which is accompanied by forfeiture of pay.
Emotions were high in the courtroom, which was filled with more than a dozen family members of the victims and witnesses to the attack, several of whom testified this week to the personal pain they experienced from the attack.
One woman watching cried out with relief and clapped her hands as Conn gave the sentence.
State of mind
Russell's state of mind before, during and after the attack has been central to legal proceedings over the past year.
Conn, in ruling that the killings were premeditated, ultimately sided with prosecutors who said Russell tried to gain an early exit from the Army and then sought revenge on a mental health worker who would not help him achieve that goal.
"I have never been so aggrieved as I have been by learning the impact of Sergeant Russell's crimes on the lives of so many," Conn said before making his ruling, his voice flickering with emotion.
Prosecutors said Russell stole a Ford sport utility vehicle, loaded a 30-round magazine into an M16-A2 rifle, and drove roughly 40 minutes to the clinic to exact revenge. There, he smoked a cigarette, removed identification tags and the gun's optical sight and slipped into the clinic through a back entrance.
An Army forensic science officer who analyzed the scene after the attack testified that Russell killed with the tactical precision of a trained soldier.
Defense attorneys countered that Russell's mental health had been severely weakened by several combat tours, and that he was suicidal prior to the attack and provoked to violence by maltreatment at the hands of healthcare workers whom he sought for help.
In the final hour, filled with suicidal despair and rage, they said, he cracked.
A forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Sadoff of the University of Pennsylvania, concluded that Russell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis at the time of the shootings and had death wishes related to his illnesses.
"My plan was to kill myself," Russell said during his plea hearing. "I wanted the pain to stop."
Those killed on May 11, 2009, were Major Matthew Houseal,54; Commander Keith Springle, 52; Sergeant Christian Bueno-Galdos, 25; Specialist Jacob Barton, 20; and Private First Class Michael Yates, 19.
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Grand Hotel Abyss is a towering work of staggering scholarship. It is so comprehensive that even its own existence falls within its purview. Stuart Jeffries, a former Guardian arts editor, reflects, in the closing pages, on the "mini-boom in popularising critical theory books" – a "perverse consequence of the global capitalist crisis" – comprising "graphic guides, dictionaries, perhaps even this book".
It is as if his magnum opus were enacting one of the Frankfurt School's central tenets: the absence of any external perspective from which to critique the system. "There is," lamented Theodor Adorno, "no exit from the entanglement" – a maxim that also applies to these thinkers' pervasive influence and, dare I say, aura. Those whom Bertolt Brecht dismissed as the "Frankfurturists" are now an integral part of our theoretical make-up, whether we agree with them or not.
Jeffries should be applauded for sticking to a broadly chronological narrative rather than experimenting with Walter Benjamin's rather baffling "dialectical image". His engagement with these thinkers' ideas is, contrarily, very much in keeping with the Frankfurt School ethos.
He counters Benjamin's technological utopianism by stating that "one could also argue the opposite" and reminds Adorno, beyond the grave, that Germany was first defeated by "Soviet totalitarianism", not by a "more advanced form of capitalism".
Jeffries is unafraid of giving voice to common sense – "isn't it ludicrous to compare the Third Reich to Hollywood?" – or being didactic when needs be: apropos of Adorno's constellation theory of knowledge he writes, "This is all quite tough stuff and, even for adepts of critical theory, hard to swallow."
Unexpected humour
Humour ("to get dialectical for a moment") is one of the most unexpected facets of this book devoted to hard-core German intellectuals. Benjamin's somewhat ludicrous resemblance to Groucho Marx or Charlie Chaplin is remarked on, and a quotation from his Neapolitan peregrinations elicits the following gloss: "It's hard to tell in this passage whether Walter Benjamin is being given directions or being propositioned. Either way, he seems to like it." And Herbert Marcuse's meeting with Jean-Paul Sartre (above) at La Coupole is recounted in hilarious detail.
His "group biography" is an intellectual saga. Readers looking for upskirt pictures of Hannah Arendt will be sorely disappointed: titillation in these rarefied climes is of a purely cerebral nature. The infamous Busenaktion of 1969,when Adorno was surrounded by three female students who "bared their breasts and scattered rose and tulip petals over him", barely raises an eyebrow. A benign, possibly enviable form of protest to be faced with, in theory, but one that proved profoundly hurtful in praxis.
Commendably, Jeffries only ever adduces private matters to highlight glaring discrepancies between rhetoric and reality. A prime example is the highly conventional lifestyle led by Marcuse, despite publishing works "indicting bourgeois repression".
The New Left darling's fondness for a stuffed hippo is as close as we get to tittle-tattle. Yet even this cuddly-toy fetish proves significant, highlighting how some of the last century's finest minds were also overgrown children. Incapable of making himself a cup of coffee, Benjamin was bankrolled by his parents until "well into his thirties". Marcuse could neither cook nor drive. Adorno is described as a "child prodigy who never grew up (because he didn't have to)". Few of them did, given their wealthy backgrounds and the women – conspicuous by their absence at the Institute for Social Research, to give the Frankfurt School its proper name – who waited on them at home. Practice was never the school's forte; nor, to be fair, was it ever meant to be.
Although ostensibly Marxist, the institute was founded, at Goethe University in 1924, not to promote revolution but to analyse its failure. Focus on the ill-fated Spartacist uprising soon shifted to understanding the triumph of Nazism – which led the scholars into exile – and Germany's postwar "psychopathology of denial".
Capitalism had moved on since Marx. It was no longer a mere mode of production but an entire superstructure, encompassing the mass media and show business, geared towards concealing its exploitative nature. As Marcuse astutely observed, anticipating today's ludic work environment, "the pleasure principle had absorbed the reality principle".
Under the aegis of Max Horkheimer, who became its director in 1931, the institute took a "multidisciplinary turn" so as to embrace all aspects of this complex system, thus giving birth to critical theory. Such hybrid studies conducted "at the trough of mass culture" would indicate, contra Marx, that the proletarian revolution was not inevitable. As a result the Frankfurt School became "modern-day monks working in retreat from a world they could not change".
Adorno and Horkheimer jettisoned the Enlightenment's legacy, arguing that reason had become an instrument of oppression rather than emancipation (Dialectic of Enlightenment, 1944). They did so, in brilliantly paradoxical style, by taking "the corpse of reason" and making it "speak of the circumstances of its own death".
In Negative Dialectics (1966) Adorno went on, quite logically, to reject Hegel and Marx's "conception of history as moving dialectically towards a happy ending". If the Holocaust had produced a "new categorical imperative" – that is, ensuring it never repeated itself – revolution was perhaps no longer even desirable. He sought utopia through art that was at odds with the affirmative culture that had done "little more than supply a soundtrack to mass murder": art that could express "the truth of suffering 'in an age of indescribable horror'" by daring to be radically negative.
It is this embrace of negativity that is so bracing to some and frustrating to others, even within the school.
During the 1960s student protests, change was deemed possible by Marcuse, who embodied a sunnier, Californian take on critical theory. The institute's "late ethos" is likewise predicated on the feasibility of "ameliorating the conditions of capitalism and liberal democracy".
Yet Café Marx, as it used to be called derisively, remains tainted by Georg Lukács's quip that these representatives of the chattering classes – branded traitors by Brecht – had holed themselves up in a beautiful hotel "equipped with every comfort, on the edge of an abyss, of nothingness, of absurdity".
There is a great deal of wisdom, however, in Adorno's suspicion of revolutionary students' "aversion to introspection", which he had already observed in the dark days of Nazism. "I established a theoretical model of thought," he told an interviewer in 1969. "How could I have suspected that people would want to implement it with Molotov cocktails!"
There is also a great deal of hope in his belief that "whoever thinks offers resistance".
At its best the Frankfurt School was always a think tank – in the armoured-fighting-vehicle sense of the word.
Andrew Gallix teaches at the Sorbonne and edits 3:AM Magazine


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For the 17th year, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly presents its annual survey of alternative dispute resolution providers in the commonwealth. These mediators and arbitrators offer a diverse and comprehensive menu of services for attorneys in need of ADR services.
This special section, compiled from answers to an online survey, is intended to provide a useful resource and reference for readers exploring the ADR option.


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Barracuda Point
Barracuda Point dive site got its name from the huge shoals of barracuda that are often found in this area. It can be an interesting experience to enter the eye of the shoal and feel thousands of fish circling around you.
Other than the main lead (barracudas), sea squirts, nudibranchs, flat worms, sting rays, moray eels, cuttlefish, pufferfish, flounders, Green Turtles, Garden Eels and Whitetip Reef Sharks can also be found at this site. However, it will not be easy to get near the sharks because of their timid nature. Corals can also be found in the shallower waters.
For amateur divers, it is advised not to venture too deep to the north of Barracuda Point dive site as the currents can get very strong and novices are advisable to stay close to the divemaster.
Min Depth: 5m
Max Depth: 40m
Recommended Level: Advanced Open Water Diver and Above


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The Secret Beyond Matter
|Denge TV, July 3, 2008
"EVERYONE CAN KEEP THEIR OWN STATE, BUT THERE MUST BE A SPIRITUAL UNION. That is the Turkish-Islamic Union since all the Turkic countries are Muslim. This is huge element for equilibrium in the region. Its greatest advantage will be the immediate ending of terror. No such thing as terror will remain. Terror will be eradicated from the face of the Earth. Secondly, there will be an enormous economic revitalization. Most importantly, however, it will lead to peace and well-being. Everyone will be at ease, the atheist as well as the true believer."
|Azerbaijan TV-June 11, 2008
" This is a union of hearts. IN THE TURKISH-ISLAMIC UNION I AM THINKING OF, ALL COUNTRIES WILL REMAIN NATION STATES. This is a union of hearts, of love and a shared reason. To take a joint decision and eradicate terror when it arises somewhere, for instance, or to take a joint decision and thus resolves an economic crisis. Great love is essential. Intense enthusiasm is essential. These things cannot be produced by red tape, but by fervor and enthusiasm. In other words, you need love to extend a helping hand to another country, to take a common decision when terror raises its head anywhere...
|Konya TV-February 28, 2008
"The liberation of Palestine is down to us. And the salvation of Israel. Israel will be able to relax with us. Armenia, Turkistan, Tajikistan, Iran and Pakistan will all attain salvation with us at the helm. Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria will jump for joy if Turkey becomes leader. THAT IS WHY WE MUST DELAY NO LONGER. TURKEY MUST ACTIVELY WANT THE JOB. Nobody will object. Nobody will stand up and say they refuse to accept if Turkey asks for the job. It is something everyone wants."


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The exhibition of the Hermitage and the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation was held in Las Vegas in 2001.
The Venetian Casino-Resort
October 2001 saw the opening of the first joint exhibition of the State Hermitage and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation at the Venetian Casino-Resort in Las Vegas. On display were 45 masterpieces - canvases by Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and early exponents of Modern Art - stressing both the differences and the mutually complementary character of these two world-famous collections. The exhibition was sponsored by the Moscow-based holding company INTERROS.
The creation of the exhibition centre in Las Vegas is the first result of the agreement on long-term collaboration signed between the State Hermitage and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in June 2000.
The aim of the collaboration is to make the priceless collections of the two museums more accessible to the wider public. The agreement envisages such forms of co-operation as the exchange of exhibitions, the reconstruction of the eastern wing of the General Staff building and the creation in one of its galleries of a museum of contemporary art, as well as the implementation of joint projects on the Internet.
The agreement envisages the creation of joint exhibition centres which will host exhibitions of classical art and works by 20th-century artists.
The authors of the joint project are the Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky and Thomas Krens, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The new building, with a floor area of around 6000 square metres, is located within the Venetian Casino-Resort - an immense complex in the heart of Las Vegas. The museum building was designed by Rem Koolhaas, Professor of Architecture at Harvard University and winner of the 2000 Pritzker Prize.
As Mikhail Piotrovsky stressed in his speech, "We intend to use our stocks to obtain a unique cultural effect. The exhibitions that we organize for Las Vegas will also be shown in the State Hermitage in St Petersburg and at the Guggenheim Museums in New York, Bilbao and Venice. Yes, we are aiming to capture a new audience... But the Hermitage-Guggenheim museum is also a new platform upon which we can carry out our research work, create a new model for collaboration in the field of culture and continue to fulfil our main mission."


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At Women's Self-Defense Institute we believe that women's self-defense training is more than just kicking and punching. We assist women in three ways to combat crime:
As women, our self-defense training consisted of having been taught not to hit or fight back. That someone else will protect us. Unfortunately, the statistics show that the "someone else" usually turns out to be our attacker/abuser.
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CEO & Personal Safety Expert
Women's Self-Defense Institute
Online University
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My father grew up in Ramey, Clearfield Co, Pennsylvania, and many of the men up there worked in the coal mines. But my father's step mom did not want Robert to work in the dangerous mines. So when Dad's biological brother, Russell Stryke, offered to take him from Ramey to Alexandria, Virginia, and start him as an apprentice in the Linotype operator trade, a deal was made. Russell was a composing room Foreman at the Alexandria Gazette, which is still the oldest newspaper in America still in circulation. However, the name has been changed to the Alexandria Packet.
My father worked at the Gazette until he finished his apprenticeship but then struck out on his own. He worked years for the Washington Evening Star in the District of Columbia. Later he switched his employ to the Government Printing Office, Patent Section.
One day in June, 1948, my mother dressed me and my brother and took us down town to the Washington's Star Company dentist, Dr. Shea. Now, our dentist still used the string and pulley system to turn the drill bit in our mouths and we were not exactly thrilled to sit in the dentist's chair for what seemed like hours. Perhaps mom thought she would dress us in our cowboy outfits we got for Christmas to keep our minds off the dentist's drill. I don't believe that idea worked too well. Nevertheless, after a tour of Dad's workplace at the Star, we did get our pictures in the newspaper. And we did indeed love to wear those cowboy outfits.
Caption for newspaper article on left: "Two cowboys straight from the west- west of the Potomac, that is. They're Billy, 4, (left) and Bobby, 6, of No. 7 Auburn Garden Apartments, Alexandria (See "Just Between Ourselves"). Junior Star Photo."
And here is what Philip H. Love wrote about us for his column, "Just Between Ourselves" for this edition of the Junior Star:
"Like every other boy, Billy and Bobby Kramp wanted cowboy suits. I can remember the times when I expected to find a cowboy suit under my Christmas tree every year. Usually I got what I wanted, but occasionally Santa Claus crossed me up, as the saying be, and brought me an Indian suit instead. I wasn't very happy about the substitution. A cowboy suit is one thing, as every boy, say between 4 and 10 will understand and that an Indian Suit is something else again. But whether I stepped out at Christmas as a cowboy or an Indian, the suit was of such flimsy material that it lasted about two days and then with the suddenness of a war hoop, fell apart."
"The situation is different with Bobby and Billy. Their mother, Mrs. Robert C. [Mary Margaret] Kramp, wanted them to have suits that would last until they outgrew them. And that's the kind of suits she made for them."
And here is a live action shot of me getting the point across to my brother. Billy looks like he's really wondering if I was going to pull the trigger. Boy, that was the BIGGEST Christmas tree I ever saw or even remember.
If you click on the image to enlarge it, you will see red-colored stars and other embellishments on the shoulder patches. These were all hand-embroidered. Something even Gene Autry would be proud to wear. You will also NOT see any dirt or grime on the suit- sort of unusual for boys. Well, my mother would not allow us to spoil or get the suits dirty. Consequently, we only wore them a few times. And when I donned the suit again, the ends of the sleeves were half way up to my elbows. Oh well, Billy got the hand-me-down.
REFERENCES and LINKS:
A history of the Washington Evening Star and a picture of the building, by Wikipedia.
See previous blog entry: Linotype Operators, a dead occupation
Here is what other Genealogy bloggers had to say about their families in the newspapers (57th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy)