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Leisurely, Alfresco Lunches & Summer Garden Inspiration: Italian Style…
Dining Italian Style – Inspiration from Italian Country by Robert Fitzgerald
Food, wine and alfresco dining beneath the shade trees… I can't stop thinking about Italy's Amalfi Coast today, and I am going to go ahead and blame it all on my new Italian friend, Rosanna. I am working on an interesting, long-distance landscaping project with Rosanna; designing a garden for her home on Long Island, (I will share some of the details of this project later this week). Because she is in New York and I am in Vermont, Rosanna and I have been spending quite a bit of time on the phone these days as we work through project details. Over the weekend, our conversation slowly took a leisurely turn, meandering back to our international childhoods. Although our extended families come from different nations, we have discovered many things in common. Rosanna and I are both first generation, European-Americans (though for me, this is but one set of Alpine roots on my mother's side) and we both maintain connections to our families and cultural histories abroad.
I love all of South Central Europe —homeland of my extended family—but like many romantics the world-over, I lost my heart somewhere on the Amalfi Coast long ago. Those effortlessly stylish Italians, is there anything they don't do with perfect flair? From an intimate table beneath a wisteria-draped pergola or a secluded cafe setting inside a shady loggia, to a casually elegant stone terrace or grand plein air dining room bound by clipped hedges and formal topiary; when it comes to meals out of doors, Italians always get the garden setting right. Lucky Rosanna will be vacationing in Italy later this summer. I may be a little envious, but although a trip abroad is not in the cards for me this summer, (maybe fall?) I can still enjoy a bit of Southern European style in my garden here at home. Looking for some outdoor dining-room inspiration? Flipping through my dog-eared copies of Italian Country, Mediterranean Gardens, Italian Style and Tuscany Artists Gardens,with a glass of chianti in hand, I am reminded of why it is that I always fall for the Italians…
Understated Elegance on the Terrace  – Italian Country by Robert Fitzgerald
Refreshment – Italian Styleby Jane Gordon Clark with photography by Simon Upton
Wine and Bread, the Art of Living – Italian Styleby Jane Gordon Clark and Simon Upton
Italian Eye Candy – Tuscany Artists Gardens
Here at Ferncliff, I seem to be revealing my Southern European roots. Raised Goshen stone terrace and steps by Vermont artist Dan Snow…
A rusting bench for sipping wine and a rustic clay pots for oregano at Ferncliff. The stone terrace is by artist Dan Snow.
Some European-inspired outdoor dining and decorating pieces for the garden, found online at the always stylish
Rustic, Beer-Garden-Style Table and Benches from Terrain
For Casual Elegance Beneath a Porch or Pergola – Terrain's Scrolling Teak Chair and Graceful, Matching Settee
Terrain's Miniature Garden Torches Light Up the Dining Area by Night
Article and photographs of Ferncliff © 2010 Michaela at The Gardener's Eden
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4 Replies to "Leisurely, Alfresco Lunches & Summer Garden Inspiration: Italian Style…"
Deb Weyrich-Cody
Hi Michaela, Much as I know that "rustico" is very hot (pun intended) right now, I can't help but wonder about sitting there without staining your clothes. Too much practical – not enough romantic, I guess?
But I really wanted to mention "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes as being an incredibly transportive book… Makes me wonder about having been there in a previous lifetime, it's pull is so evocative. oxDeb
Deb Weyrich-Cody
P.S. Where do you get all of these wonderful clay pots?
Christine Jansen
Beautiful Tuscan Style!! What a pleasure awsome!!!! from Christine from South Africa!!!!!!!!!
Comments are closed.


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It was a bit of a shock for me finally to see the TV news and hear the words 'Prime Minister Morrison'. Yes, I knew it had happened, but some days had passed, and here I was back in the land of the living. What else had happened? Much is still unclear. 'Envoy' positions for Mr Abbott and My Joyce may keep them quiet and out of harm's way. They may also heal some of the hurt. I don't know, and I doubt that anyone else does either. Are we going to have an early election? My sources say No, that the new PM needs as much time as possible to present some kind of united front to the electorate. There isn't much time available to do that, but I would agree that he is more likely to go later than earlier.
In the meantime, Mr Shorten has finally becomethe most preferred Prime Minister, but not at anything like an exalted level. On the face of it, there will be a Labor Government whenever the election is held. It is hard to know what the electorate thinks about all of this, and since I have been out of circulation myself I haven't been able to find out what my friends think. They're not representative of the electorate, anyway. The whole episode has been rather like a bad movie. You come out of the cinema wondering how all that happened, and what might happen now. And although yet another Prime Minister has been weighed in the balance and found wanting, his deposition does not seem to have solved anything. There is a great deal of discontent abroad, and what follows is my attempt to deal with the roots of some of it.
The lack of a settled order
Australians are not, in my judgment formed over fifty years of study and survey research, fascinated with politics. In general they do have some strong views, nonetheless. One is that the politicians are there to do a job, and they need to be seen to be doing it. What is that job? Keeping a predictable, settled order in which people can get on with their lives: things ought to be running well, there should be jobs for people who want them, the public services should be efficient and free from the smell of obvious corruption, and political leaders should say the same things on Friday as they said earlier on Monday.
If that is all happening, to repeat, then Australians can get on with managing their own lives, jobs and families. Oh, and we Australians take voting seriously. We approve of compulsory voting — in part, I think, because we recognise that it would so easy to let the whole thing slide, and just give up on the politicians. That has not been our way. I wrote about all that in Stability and Change in Australian Politics forty years ago, and even the last few years, which have been pretty drear in terms of the standard of our politics, have not shaken this basic driver of our system and its culture.
There is, I think, a widespread apprehension about not only what is happening, but what might happen. We have passed the era of jobs for life, tenure and protection. Jobs can disappear with frightening speed. Technological change is rampant in many areas, and many middle management, administrative and clerical positions that used to exist have simply disappeared. The housing market involves those who take out loans with what to me are astonishingly high levels of debt. The buyers cannot afford to be without work, indeed most often without two income streams. Yes, the economy is strong, though we cannot expect Chinese or Indian levels of GDP increase. But I detect real anxiety out there. And the finger is being pointed at the political system and those who operate in it, and indeed operate it.
The lack of clear direction
The best solution for Australians over the long haul, politically speaking, seems to have been a Liberal or Coalition Government implementing ideas and policies that largely have come from the ALP, or the Left, more broadly. That was much the case during the long reigns of Sir Robert Menzies and John Howard. We are neither a capitalist society nor a socialist one. We try to spread the wealth through better social welfare. Our big parties are collections or coalitions of people who share some important views of the world though they may disagree on others. And because electoral politics is a zero-sum game, they are united in believing that the most important task is to keep the other side out of office as long as possible.
I do not think that Australia is ungovernable, but l do think that it is much harder for any government now to give clear direction than it was during the period of the Cold era, for example, or in the 1980s, when I think we have had, in the early Hawke Governments, a team that knew what they wanted to do and were able to persuade the country that it was the right thing to do (and, by and large, it was). We are now wealthy, apprehensive, and many of us are fixated on what I think are small-scale issues. We do not have a great divider, or cleavage, in our society.
The call for rights of various kinds, the notion that there are crises wherever we look (obesity, domestic violence, gender equality, Aboriginal issues, autism, drugs, bullying, you name it), and the almost automatic political/electoral response that we (X Party) have a solution, and that if you vote for us we will provide it and everything will be wonderful again — all of this is pervasive. It means also that it is quite unclear what any of the governments of the last decade actually wanted to do that was in the interests of everybody. More, none of those governments was ever able to communicate its sense of what was possible and sensible with any clarity, if there had been any clarity to start with. Electoral auctions in Australia are not new, but it seems that we have nothing much else any more.
A certain lack of decency on the part of the politicians
Over the last half-century I have known a good many politicians, mostly those in Canberra, Sydney and the Federal Parliament. The great majority were decent, well-meaning and serious about their work. Most have been back-benchers, concerned about the needs of their constituents. They have learned quickly how the political and governmental system works, and they have used their knowledge to effect. Those who become senior and thus ministers or shadow ministers have had to learn a lot of new skills, and how to cut deals. None of it is easy, and I have seen all that at close hand both at the Federal level and in the ACT.
In the past decade I have felt at the Federal level the ordinary standards of decency have slipped, and that too many politicians, both at the senior and junior levels, appear to see what is possible and available to them as a sort of entitlement that can be screwed to what is well past breaking point. Spurious official trips, over-egging expenses, and needless hires of helicopters and cars, because you could do it, seem almost to have become the norm. There are safeguards, nonetheless, and the mass media delight in pointing out the miscreants.
There are just too many of them. I do not know what the solution is. There needs to be a real culture change. But who is to lead it? The point is that all this is plainly visible to the electorate. If you add it to the lack of confidence about what may happen and the lack of clear direction from our political leaders you get some idea of the frustration and irritation that I feel is abroad. I do not think I have seen anything like it in my time, and I do not know where it will lead. But it is there, I am sure of it.

subset: commoncrawl


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In Egypt, resurgence of militant Islamists
Third Sinai blast in 18 months shows new strength of domestic terror groups.
Three bombs spaced just minutes apart ripped through the crowded Egyptian beach resort of Dahab on Monday, killing at least 18 people and confirming the extent to which domestic terror groups have reestablished themselves after years of relative peace.
It's the third time since October 2004 that Egypt's popular Sinai Peninsula beaches have been targeted. Prior to that first attack - three suicide bombs that killed 31 at Taba - Egypt had not experienced any terror attacks since 1997.
After each previous strike, Egyptian authorities sought to paint the bombings as isolated incidents that could be prevented in the future by stepped-up security measures. But while analysts say that the government was successful in dismantling domestic terror networks of groups like Jemaah Islamiyah and Islamic Jihad in the 1990s, the intellectual roots of modern Islamist militancy run deep in Egypt and appear to be bearing new fruit.
Egyptian police said they weren't sure if Monday's bombs at two cafes and the Ghazali supermarket were suicide attacks or not. The government said Tuesday that it had made 10 arrests. Four of the dead were foreign tourists, the rest Egyptians.
Egypt has moved hundreds of officers into the area, shut most of the roads out of the city, and established a network of checkpoints.
Dahab, once the playground of backpackers and hippies, saw $500 million in new investments last year. Like the rest of the peninsula's beaches, it has shifted toward higher-spending tourists.
Since the tourism industry rebounded well after each of the past two attacks, the mood in Dahab in the wake of the latest attack was grim, but hopeful. Tourism is Egypt's second-largest foreign-currency earner.
"The workers and business owners here are very angry," says Emad Nawar, a Cairo real-estate agent on vacation in Dahab. "I've talked to some who just finished a small business project that they were about to sell. Still, they hope that business will bounce back quickly like it did after the Taba bombings."
In addition to attacks on the Sinai, there have been at least three smaller terrorist incidents involving tourists in Cairo since 2004. In the 1990s, domestic terror groups targeted tourism in an effort to undermine the country's finances, to devastating effect. The 1997 attack on foreign tourists in Luxor sent Egypt into a deep recession.
Memories of that past are still fresh for some. "It's a disaster," says Mohamed Kabany, owner of Dahab's Inmo Hotel. "It could mean that we won't have business for the next year or two."
Still, many average Egyptians were furious at the attackers, which offers hope, since anger at the Islamic Jihad in the 1990s helped undermine support for that group. "No religion, not Islam or Christianity, accepts killing," says Lamia Farouk, a young mother in Cairo. "The people who did this are deranged."
It was business as usual in Dahab Tuesday despite the bombings, according to sources there. Shops opened, as did restaurants. Hotels reported few early checkouts. Tourists were out enjoying the sun, residents said.
"We are continuing," says Hany Aly, manager of the Neptune Hotel. "Our hotel, diving center, and coffee shop are full.... Life is going back to normal. This is to show those who set off these bombs that we are strong."
Located next to one of the bombing sites, the Neptune Hotel had its windows shattered. New glass has already been ordered, Aly said.
There were also several small antiterror protests in Dahab Tuesday. About 100 people marched through Dahab in remembrance of the blasts' victims on Tuesday.
Many Dahab residents and visitors seemed shocked by the horror of the bombings. "I was sitting on a high balcony and could see everything," says Mr. Nawar. "There was a big fire and the land was shaking like an earthquake. I heard people crying and an Egyptian boy, maybe eight to nine years old, looking for his father. It was terrible."
Nawar, a Christian, says he may take his faith more seriously now: He would have been at the Ghazali market when the blast occurred if a friend hadn't delayed him.
The attack came during the Egyptian spring holiday of Shem al-Nessim and a day before what Egypt calls Sinai Liberation Day, marking the return of the peninsula by Israel after the two countries agreed to a peace deal in 1979. That peace deal, and the repressive approach of President Hosni Mubarak's government to all Islamist movements, has long made the country a target of militants. Much of Al Qaeda's senior leadership, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's chief deputy, are exiled Egyptians.
While there is no evidence that Mr. Zawahiri's last videotape from March, or Mr. bin Laden's long screed on Sunday urging attacks against dozens of nations, helped trigger the strike, experts say Al Qaeda continues to serve as a potent guiding light for militants.
Bin Laden's audiotape, released by Al Jazeera, came too close to attacks that would have taken at least weeks of planning to be directly involved. But Al Qaeda, with its senior leaders cut off from directly contacting global followers, has evolved into a source of inspiration for a host of smaller Islamist groups who may share its goals but plan and execute attacks on their own.
That's been the pattern worldwide. Global terror attacks have soared since 2003, with anger at the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan inspiring new operatives.
"Virtually every single attack since 9/11 can be laid at the doors of other terrorist groups, even though they may have been inspired by bin Laden's ideology of global jihad,'' says M.J. Gohel, president of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, which focuses on security issues. "After 9/11, Al Qaeda effectively became decentralized ... and it continues as a deadly source of ideological inspiration for mass murder but there isn't any kind of central organization."
Increasingly, that's the view of other experts. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Dia Rashwan, one of Egypt's leading scholars on Islamist groups, says small, cellular groups are emerging without direct ties to Al Qaeda or each other.
He says these new structures make it much harder for intelligence services to penetrate them than the old, more highly coordinated groups.


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LCN 9550 Series Senior Swing Electromechanical Door Operator - Door Closer
9540 Series Door Closer by LCN
Simultaneous Pair, Surface Mount (Push/Pull) Double Egress
9550 Series Door Closer by LCN
LCN automatic operators are the proven standard in schools and health care facilities for over 20 years. They are easily retrofitted into existing doors and frames, as well as new construction. LCN low energy electrohydraulic and pneumatic automatic operators feature a heavy duty closer with a slow opening function. LCN's electromechanical automatic operators utilize a motor gearbox and control box to perform the opening and closing function. LCN's electromechanical products are designed primarily for automatic opening applications that occasionally require manual opening. A control box provides all electrical functions. These self-contained units are suitable for use on single leaf doors or pairs of doors. These products combine all the control and power elements into a single operator package, only some actuators are required to complete the system.
The 9550 SENIOR SWING by LCN is an ADA door operator that is a two-in-one swing door operator. SENIOR SWING operators when activated, opens doors automatically for wheelchair access, yet allows for manual operation for regular pedestrian traffic.
Features and Benefits:
- Push 'N Go permits non-switch activation.
- Power Boost provides additional latching force.
- Electromechanical unit with microprocessor control.
- Digital keypad for easy setup.
- Meets International Building Code requirements and ANSI A156.19.
- UL approved for fire doors.
- Available in Aluminum (ANCLR) finish.
9550 Series is fully compliant with UL325 & UL1998 and meets the provisions of ANSI A156.19. The 9550 Series is UL listed for fire-rated applications. The 9550 Series also meets the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- 9550 Series operator is shipped with motor gearbox, control box, arms, header, and mounting hardware.
- Simultaneous pair, surface mounted.
- Meets ADA requirements (power mode only).
- Handed for right (RH or LHR) or left (LH or RHR) swinging doors.
- Pull, Push or Double Egress applications available.
- 72" header length is standard. Specify other length 60" to 98".
- Adjustable hold open period of 1 to 32 seconds in automatic or manual mode.
Arm Function Option:
REG2 (Regular Arm 9550-3077): Handed arm. Includes 77 main arm assembly and 79 linkage assembly.


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This is the Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:00 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parcel it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
1st Gear: Chrysler Sales Jump 27%, Everyone Else Just Does OK
Most of the October sales reports are in, and the real shock is that Chrysler did well. Three reasons: First, last October's Chrysler sales were pretty awful. Second: There's a ton of new product. The third comes from Reuters: Chrysler spent big time on incentives. At least that last tactic never led to disaster in the past. Oh, wait...
2nd Gear: Volvo's Peter Horbury Has The Balls To Design Geely's Cars
Automotive News reports that Peter Horbury is going to head up design for Geely, the Chinese company that bought Volvo. So maybe this means there will finally be a Chinese car company cars that don't look like melted knock-offs of other companies' models. Meanwhile, Volvo gonna need a new designer.
3rd Gear: Subaru Reveals Production XV Crossover
It's an Impreza on stilts. We weren't expecting anything different. See more at AutoExpress.
4th Gear: Honda's Supercharged a V6 Accord Coupe for SEMA
Oh goodness, Honda's gone and stuffed a supercharged on its V6 Accord coupe. They say the front wheels now are responsible for 335 hp. Everyone likes more horsepower, except when it's done like this.
5th Gear: Brian Scotto's RAUH-Welt Porsche Bows at SEMA
One of the first RWB Porsches in America, this baby was built by Nakai-San himself. Scotto — a jack of many trades and the man who rode the Segway in that little Ken Block video with a few million views — drove the car 850 miles to the SEMA show in Vegas. It looks gorgeous.
6th Gear: Infiniti Is Setting Up a Global HQ in Hong Kong
According to the company, "As Infiniti grows its presence in the global luxury markets of North America, Europe, China and South East Asia, we selected Hong Kong as the optimum location for our new global Infiniti headquarters." What went unsaid: It's so much nicer there than on the mainland.
⏎ Chevy finally sells more than a thousand Volts in a month [Detroit News]
⏎ Toyota made another robot nurse. So Data works for Dr. Crusher. [Toyota]
⏎ To celebrate Chevrolet's centennial, AdAge has a cool historical timeline of the company's ads [AdAge]
⏎ Toyota's stock hits 52-week low [TheStreet]
⏎ Peugeot unveiled its new Fiesta-sized subcompact. French cars used to be pretty. [CAR Magazine]
⏎ In Japan, new laws penalized a rental car company for renting to a member of the Yakuza [Business Insider]
Today in Automotive History:
Engineer Andrew Riker delivers the first four-cylinder, gas-powered Locomobile-a $4,000, 12-horsepower Model C-to a buyer in New York City on this day in 1902. The Locomobile Company had been known for building heavy, powerful steam cars, but by the turn of the century it was clear that the future of the automobile-and thus of the Locomobile-lay in the internal-combustion engine. Until it went out of business in 1929, the company built elegant, luxurious touring-cars and streamlined racers for wealthy patrons. A Locomobile, ads crowed, was the "Best Built Car in America."
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You can keep up with Justin Berkowitz, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.


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15280 Jog Rd Ste E
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Delray Beach , FL 33446
Phone: (561) 637-9992
Get your child ready for tip off, kick off, or the first pitch, while paving the way for a lifetime of positive sports experiences. Our trained coaches run drills and simulated games for many popular sports including soccer, baseball, basketball, football, hockey and golf with an emphasis on teamwork and sportsman- (and woman!) ship. And that's a home run in any parent's playbook.
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At The Little Gym of Boca/Delray, our Sports Skills classes nurture your child in every dimension of their development. See the benefits of this class below!
Hand-eye and foot-eye coordination, agility, strength
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Come join us to make new friends, learn new things and build self-confidence in a super fun, supportive environment.


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Welcome to BVEStation.
Hmm, maybe I can take a crack at it. Since the (7) is the most easiest, I will try my best on it.
Oh, what about the (4)?
It is currently in development. There is a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLtdYPshgyo. You can, of course, develop a route on your own even if it's already in development. Just know that route developing is a very serious project.
That is not the 4 line that is the 6 line. There is a reason why they start on the wrong side of 125, go local, & terminate at Brooklyn Bridge. Don't get confused by the announcements.
Bad Behavior has blocked 793004 access attempts in the last 7 days.
Page created in 0.087 seconds with 26 queries.


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A Future Without Coal: In New Mexico Supreme Court, Again
By Mariel Nanasi
25 July, 2011
It's time we secure a future without coal in New Mexico, across America, and around the world. It won't be easy. Along the way, we will need a lot of help, creativity and inspiration.
While we draw strength from each other, our movement to end coal and save our planet from climate change also honors the millions of people viciously poisoned and ruthlessly exploited by the relentless, destructive impact of coal. From infants and children to adults and our beloved elders, the litany of coal's negative effects is brutal and it's growing.
Coal mining, coal transportation and coal-fired electricity generation are widely recognized to increase rates of asthma, emphysema, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, neurological damage in children and infant mortality. The more we learn, the worse it gets. Everyday, tons upon tons of CO2, ozone, nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxides, particulate matter and mercury—all from coal, exact a staggering price in blood and sorrow.
Of course, these terrible health threats from toxic pollution are not the whole sad story. Coal is also a primary driver of human–made climate change—the defining global environmental challenge of our age. The production cycle of coal is a cycle of death. Coal threatens our loved ones, our friends and our planet—all of us.
Despite the grave threat climate change poses to the planet and the future of human civilization, 2010 saw the highest recorded emissions of greenhouse gases in history—thirty billion tons of energy–related carbon pollution. By the way, thirty billion tons equals sixty trillion pounds. Half of this pollution came from coal.
Obviously, global climate change is an enormous and complex problem. Scientists are still just beginning to understand the impacts on health, biodiversity, economies and food supply. We've been trying to address climate change for at least thirty years, yet carbon pollution continues to increase. No doubt, it's easy to get discouraged and be confused about what to do.
Remember, change starts with one person, one act. Our struggle to end coal is built one person at a time, but the power of one becomes the power of many. Creating a future based on democratic and equitable principles is within our reach.
While we have to keep our eyes on global solutions to this planetary challenge, we also have to find ways to take action locally and find solutions everyday, right here and right now.
PNM's Sooty New Mexico Story
In my home state of New Mexico, the poison and devastation of coal has a name and that name is PNM (pronounced pee-en-em). New Mexico's largest utility is addicted to coal. Remember a moment ago I mentioned that half of the world's carbon pollution comes from coal. Well, half of New Mexico's carbon pollution comes from PNM.
PNM's pollution habit is having a dreadful impact on our air, land and water; our economies; and our survival. PNM has racked up more than sixty thousand air quality violations—sixty thousand pollution violations at our expense!
PNM's San Juan Generating Station. Photograph by Erika Blumenfeld | see an album of photos here
The pollution levels coming from PNM's coal plants are among the highest in America. Just one of these plants, the San Juan Generating Station produced more than 8.5 million tons of carbon air pollution and consumed more than 9.3 billion gallons of clean water in 2010. PNM must be held accountable for causing more than half of all of New Mexico's carbon pollution and devastating toxic emission for local communities. According to the Environmental Protection Agency the San Juan Generating Station is the 18th highest NOx emitter (nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide) out of the 496 US coal plants.
The nexus of coal, water management, climate change and drought is especially important in America's southwest. New Mexico, as well as parts of Arizona and Texas, is currently in the midst of a catastrophic drought. In recent weeks, the skies outside my home have been thick with smoke from wildfires raging out of control in all directions: from fifteen miles away near the Santa Fe Ski Basin—the Pacheco Fire; to thirty five miles away just outside Los Alamos National Laboratory—the devastating Las Conchas Fire, the largest fire in New Mexico history; to two hundred miles away, the largest wildfire in Arizona state history—the Wallow Fire.
PNM's outdated coal–fired power plants waste billions of gallons of clean water each year. Coal is the single greatest contributor to climate change that pushes New Mexico deeper into long–term drought. Drought destroys the economic value of New Mexico's crucial agriculture and ranching sectors and wildfires destroy the economic value of New Mexico's significant tourism industry. PNM's coal plants are also increasingly reckless, short–sighted and volatile investments. Thus, PNM's coal addiction pushes New Mexico's families and businesses into an economic hole that just gets deeper and more desperate.
New Mexico is seeing the disastrous consequences of climate change sooner and more clearly than many other US states. PNM is sacrificing the health and livelihood of New Mexicans, right now and far into the future, at the throne of coal.
PNM tells us that we must have coal to have electricity in New Mexico. That is a lie. PNM is addicted to coal because they think it makes them more money today, and they don't need to care about tomorrow. Money means more to PNM than a child with asthma, a sky full of smog, or a legacy of drought, wildfires and economic failure.
Here are some questions that all have the same answer:
>> Why New Mexico, the state with the second highest solar energy potential in America, has almost no solar power generation?
>> Why are the working lives of New Mexico's dilapidated, antiquated coal plants being extended for another thirty years while dozens of similar, old coal plants are being closed across America?
>> Which company paid its top twelve executives huge, ninety–three percent bonuses from 2008 to 2009, right in the middle of the worst economy New Mexico has seen in sixty years?
The answer to all these questions is PNM. Despite all the scientific and economic facts, coal is a habit that PNM simply cannot break on its own.
Of course, the pain and destruction coal brings to people and the planet is not a natural disaster. There are men and women who are doing this to us and they have to be held accountable. The leaders of PNM have earned our scorn for years of reckless business practices that prey on public health, destroy the environment and stifle innovation.
PNM could not maintain its course of malfeasance and greed without the enthusiastic help of so–called public officials who sell the public trust for campaign contributions—officials like New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez. The Martinez administration has become the mouthpiece for PNM in their shared drive to overturn and undermine every environmental safeguard they can get their pollution–stained hands on.
Here's the deal. PNM took thousands of dollars of the money it gets from ratepayers—families and businesses in New Mexico. They took this money from us and they gave it to Susana Martinez as a campaign contribution to help her become the governor of New Mexico. Now, Governor Martinez is doing whatever PNM asks her to do, so they can make even more money from New Mexico ratepayers. The Governor's newly appointed Environmental Improvement Board has just rubber stamped PNM's plan to keep polluting.
This is payback for political contributions masquerading as public service and it is an outrage!
Four Corners Area Coal–Fired Power Plant. Photograph by Erika Blumenfeld | see an album of photos here
There is a wave of coal plant closings in the US and tragically PNM is moving in the opposite direction: In its current rate case before the Public Regulation Commission (PRC), PNM is raising rates by 18% and extending the life of its coal plants, despite public opposition. This means that while other utilities are retiring their coal plants and investing in renewable energy resources, PNM is reinvesting in dirty coal, with our money. The company presents its supply of coal–fired energy as "low–cost" to the PRC and that is the end of its shortsighted analysis.
New Energy Economy's Fight Against Coal
Together we can end coal in New Mexico. Together we can create a just and equitable energy system, stop the poisoning of our environment, and do our part to save our planet from disastrous climate change. That is our mission at New Energy Economy (NEE). We take a more holistic long–term view—we want to have competitively priced energy that is also safe, reliable, and responsive to public concern. That means instituting aggressive energy efficiency and installing renewable power systems. This will create jobs and reduce pollution.
New Energy Economy led a two–year effort to create New Mexico's landmark carbon pollution reduction law. This law, adopted in 2010 requires facilities discharging more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gas pollution to reduce emissions by 3% per year with a goal to reduce this pollution 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. The Petition before the Environmental Improvement Board went in strong with stellar expert testimonies that addressed the urgency of climate change and its impact on New Mexico; the feasibility of implementing the 5–page regulation; and the economic, health and social benefits of acting now to curb carbon pollution. Further, there was a significant effort to coordinate with diverse constituencies and partner organizations to produce compelling public testimonies.
Solar Installation at Crownpoint, Navajo Nation, New Mexico. Photo courtesy New Energy Economy
Hundreds of people state–wide testified vigorously and passionately: Mark Starr, a Veteran, spoke of climate change as a national security concern; Miguel Santistevan, a Taos farmer, Mayordomo, and PhD candidate, relayed stories from the ground: of seeds not sprouting and birds not coming to pollinate as a result of the changing seasons and temperature; and Tina Garnanes, a Navajo student, described the effects of pollution in the Farmington area—living in the toxic shadow of the coal plants. There were solar power employers, a strident and fervent team of youth change makers, people of faith, a Republican for the Environment, green business owners from Silver City, Albuquerque and Las Cruces, doctors, a local radio celebrity and many more. The fabric was multi–colored and multi–layered and convincing. Lisa Donahue, an assistant art teacher at Santa Fe Art Institute, delivered her spoken word and brought three lawyers to tears. Here are a few of her lines:
We have no choice but to look inside and retrieve our own powers
We must think in solar
We must think in wind
We must think in circles
For if we do, there is no end.
Winona LaDuke, an environmental activist, Harvard-trained economist, and educator aptly forecasted, "You could either be in the back seat of the bus and let everybody drive the choices, or you could make the choices ahead of time and ensure that you have a strong economy." Rick Sprott, Director of Air Quality under Republican governor Huntsman (Utah) said, "The rule is among the most effective and efficient strategies I have seen to address global warming and climate change—the most complex yet compelling environmental problem of our generation. The results required for New Mexico under the proposed rule is what the science demands and could serve to drive national policy makers to act on the larger stage for global results."
This carbon reduction law enables effective and procedurally efficient carbon pollution reduction that is legally durable and lays a crucial policy foundation for clean energy job creation and related economic growth. We have engaged and defeated major polluters and their lobbyists in the state Supreme Court and Legislature to maintain New Mexico's hard–won carbon pollution reduction law and prevent the rollback of other vital environmental protections.
New Energy Economy actively engages, educates and activates thousands of New Mexicans to effectively advocate for pollution reduction, renewable energy and job creation. We need to swell this interdependent movement. Together we will defend our right to clean air, water and land. Please visit our web site www.newenergyeconomy.org to see how you can get involved in our different initiatives.
We are back in the New Mexico Supreme Court, again, because PNM and Governor Martinez's new Environmental Improvement Board seek to overturn our carbon pollution reduction law. We succeeded in getting this law passed last year, now we must use the same creative chutzpah to push for its implementation, against PNM and Governor Martinez who seek only short term profit at the expense of our life and health.
Notes on Photographs: An album of 6 photographs of coal–fired power plants, coal's health impact, and solar energy in New Mexico can be seen here. Three of the photographs are by artist and Guggenheim Fellow Erika Blumenfeld. She made the photographs specifically to support New Energy Economy's campaign to end coal and we thank her for sharing these photos with us. This album was specifically prepared to accompany this piece.
Mariel Nanasi is Executive Director and President of the Board of New Energy Economy. Adopted in 2010, Mariel led the effort to establish New Mexico's breakthrough carbon pollution reduction program. When Governor Martinez refused to publish the rule, New Energy Economy sued her and won in the New Mexico Supreme Court. Mariel is also a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer. Additionally, she serves on the Board of the Santa Fe Art Institute. Understanding the urgency of a changing climate and wanting to create a healthy and sustainable future for our children, Mariel has made a personal and professional commitment to climate leadership.
Copyright 2011 Mariel Nanasi
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Michael Pollan is a bona fide food celebrity, and rightly so: much of America's changing attitudes towards food is due to his peruasive and intelligent writing. But what's his deal with those pesky "feminists?"
Broadsheet's Anna Clark draws attention to Pollan's discussion of local food movements in the New York Review of Books. There is, she writes, one segment - that on Janet A. Flammang's new The Taste of Civilization: Food, Politics, and Civil Society - that she finds troubling: "In a challenge to second-wave feminists who urged women to get out of the kitchen, Flammang suggests that by denigrating "foodwork" — everything involved in putting meals on the family table — we have unthinkingly wrecked one of the nurseries of democracy: the family meal."
Says Clark,
Pollan chooses not to challenge the assertion that second-wave feminists are responsible for "wrecking one of the nurseries of democracy" because they urged women to explore possibilities outside of cooking the family meal. Nor does Pollan question the notion that feminists are to blame for "urging" women to leave the kitchen, when one might imagine that those who left the aprons behind were thinking beings who made their own choice to leave, regardless of the persuasions of feminists and family alike.
And she points to Pollan's controversial "return to the kitchen" article of last summer, which many took to task for a rather disingenuous disregard for the obvious corollation between women's historically fraught role "in the kitchen," and contemporary eating habits.
I, too, was struck by this segment of Pollan's review, but I was also surprised by what seemed to be an obvious disconnect. Pollan may snipe at - or at least condone snipes at — "second-wave feminism," but to suggest that the "return" to food is the work of a new population regretting a prior generation's excesses and reclaiming lost arts just seems...odd. If "second-wave feminism" was the purview of progressives, well...who does he think is spearheading the return to local and sustainable? It's very much a progressive, frequently (for good and ill) political movement, and less a refutation than a continuation. Indeed, I'd venture to suggest that many of the same people have championed both causes — Alice Waters, anyone? — and seen the two not as ideologically opposed but as natural bedfellows. To lump "second-wave feminism" in with the scourge of fast-food and obesity seems not just wrong-headed but serves to distract attention from the actual root causes of these serious issues. Clark worries that "nonsensical feminist-baiting is a pattern for the leading thinker of the vibrant food movement." Let's hope not.
The Food Movement, Rising [NY Review of Books]
The Foodie Indictment Of Feminism [Salon Broadsheet]


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Rarest Rhino Filmed
Critically endangered and rarely seen rhinos with their calves were filmed by WWF in Indonesia with motion-activated cameras. Video.
Deep in Indonesia, motion-activated cameras have recorded two critically endangered Javan rhinoceroses with their calves. Though the footage is "great news," only 40 individuals remain—with none in captivity, conservationists say.
© 2011 National Geographic; Video courtesy WWF
Pictures: 14 Rarest and Weirdest Mammal Species Named
Javan Rhinoceros Facts
New video offers scientists encouraging evidence for the survival of critically endangered and rarely seen rhinoceroses in Indonesia.
WWF recently released motion-activated camera video captured in the Ujung Kulon National Park on the island of Java.
The first video shows a female Javan rhino with her male calf walking through the rain forest and munching on leaves. At one point, the calf turns away and wags its tail, possibly to swat a fly.
WWF points out that the Javan rhino is one of the world's rarest mammals, with as few as 40 left in the wild. None are in captivity.
The confirmed population exists on the western tip of Java, in the national park. Its small, concentrated population size contributes to its vulnerability—any natural disaster could wipe out the remaining animals. In addition, because of its perceived medicinal qualities, the rhino remains a target of poachers. A Javan rhino was killed for its horn in 2010 in Vietnam.
The second video shows a different female and her female calf of about one year of age.
A WWF scientist says the videos are great news, and prove the rhinos are breeding in the park.
Conservationists hope to protect the existing animals, and establish a new population through relocation.


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Showing Collections: 1 - 2 of 2
Delaware County Historical Society records
Identifier: MSS-369
Scope and Contents This collection consists of records and photographs from the Delaware County Historical Society (previously, Delaware County Historical Alliance) in Muncie, Indiana ranging from circa 1920s to 2017. Records include Board of Directors meeting minutes, bylaws, correspondence, financial statements, mission statements and policy documents, membership listings, newsletters, informational pamphlets, and calendars. Photographs include images of historic homes and other buildings in Delaware County...
Dates: circa 1920s-2005, 2015-2017
Found in: Stoeckel Archives of Local History
Gene McCreery collection
Identifier: MSS-303
Scope and Contents This collection consists of records ranging from 1790 to 2009 documenting the personal and professional life of Dr. Gene Sharp McCreery of Harrison Township, Delaware County, Indiana. Records include personal documents (transcripts, certificates and diplomas, land deeds, membership cards, daily planners, yearbooks, greeting cards, and correspondence); international records documenting McCreery's humanitarian work in various countries (program administrative records, foreign language study...
Dates: 1790-2009
Found in: Stoeckel Archives of Local History
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*Book Tour & Review of Je Suis A Toi (Monsters in th Dark Novella) by Pepper Winters*
Q is Back in
Je Suis A Toi by Pepper Winters!
"Life taught me an eternal love will demand the worst sacrifices. A transcendent love will split your soul, cleaving you into pieces. A love this strong doesn't grant you sweetness—it grants you pain. And in that pain is the greatest pleasure of all."
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1TQeVIO
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/22tC1YZ
iBooks: http://apple.co/1Tm62pT
Nook: http://bit.ly/1UkClWo
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1qSfCa5
Q made me the happiest esclave in the world. He gave me his heart, his empire, his ruthless unforgiving love. And life finally left us in peace.
A man like my maître has special needs though, growing stronger as our lives intertwine. The only way to survive his monster is to agree to all his desires.
Including his latest wish.
I'm his.
And I won't refuse.
"Don't struggle. You know I'll keep you safe." Q's murmur danced down my back.
My panic receded as trust billowed fast and true.
Q was born into darkness, but he'd never baptized me in his blackest desires. And because of that, I could implicitly say he spoke the truth. No matter what he did to me, he would never truly harm me.
Q paused, his tattooed chest soaking. His feathered sparrows fluffing off droplets almost alive on his skin. "I told you once never to fall for me. That I didn't want the curse of breaking your heart while I broke so many other pieces of you." His hands landed on my breasts, cupping them reverently. "Yet you fought me, just like you said you would. You fell for me, just like you promised me you would. And now, you're willing to give me what I need even after I tricked you and lied."
I swayed as I fell even deeper for this complex husband of mine. Q was all my fantasies in one glorious lifetime. The fact he finally wanted to share me with his child spoke volumes about his capacity to love.
"I'm so glad you ignored me, esclave." His fingertips branded my nipples with pain. "So fucking happy you married me." Pushing me backward, he smiled harshly as my spine met the pool wall. His chest strained as he sucked in a heavy breath. "You're so fucking beautiful."
My heart hammered in my ears as he kissed me.
His tongue laced with mine, and I sank into the sweet embrace, knowing it would be the last I received tonight. The air crackled with an impending storm. Q's control frayed every second, his eyes drenching in determination and the salacious need to hurt.
Breaking the kiss, he opened his hand, revealing the other item he'd retrieved.
A tiny pair of silver scissors.
Jeanette's Review of Je Suis A Toi by Pepper Winters
5 Magnificent Stars
Pepper Winters does it again....she takes us over to the dark side once again and makes us fall even harder. Q and Tess's story was my first ever this dark of a read, I immediately fell in love with their story. Q and Tess's journey is one that will stick with you. I loved the whole Monsters in the Dark Trilogy and was super excited to see that Pepper Winters was giving us more of their story in a novella.
Je Suis A Toi is beautifully written and will make you fall in love all over again with Q and Tess!! I floved this novella from start to finish. I loved every dirty minute of reading this beautiful addition to their story. This is a must read if you have read the Monsters in the Dark Trilogy and I highly recommend that you read the Monsters in the Dark if you haven't already.
Happy Reading Everyone!!!
Haven't met Q & Tess yet?
Grab the Monsters in the Dark Box set here:
Amazon US:
Amazon UK:
Barnes & Noble:\
iTunes: http://apple.co/1MBZr4O
Google Play: http://bit.ly/1zSget3
About the Author
Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex... her books have sex.
She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends.
STALK Pepper: Website | Pinterest | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Goodreads
January 2019


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(RNS) A hotel in the United Kingdom has replaced in-room Gideon Bibles with the soft-porn best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey.
The change was made earlier this month in all 40 guest rooms at the Damson Dene Hotel in the Lake District of England.
The hotel's owner Jonathan Denby explained his decision in a blog post:
"Tonight millions of women will be curling up in bed with a good book and you can bet your life it won't be the Bible. More likely than not it will be Fifty Shades of Grey. I haven't read the book yet – I'm not in the target audience – but I'm told it's a ripping good yarn and everyone who's in the target audience loves it. This made me wonder about the sense of providing a book, the Gideon Bible which no one reads, and many dislike, in the bedside cabinet of our hotel bedrooms, instead of a book which everyone wants to read, such as Fifty Shades of Grey."
Denby bought the hotel from a Methodist group 10 years ago, according to NBC News.
He said he had been considering substitutions for a long time.
"I was thinking originally of putting in a book by Ayn Rand — Atlas Shrugged was my first thought," Denby told NBC News.
Denby said he did not do it for any philosophical reasons.
That hasn't stopped the local vicar from publicly denouncing the change.
The Rev. Michael Woodcock — parish priest at St. Mary's Church in Crosthwaite, where the hotel is located — told British media that the hotel's decision is just a gimmick, according to NBC.
There is also much criticism coming from the United States, where the Gideon Bible is more popular, Denby said.
"People in the States feel much more strongly," he told NBC. "We've had quite a few e-mails quoting the scriptures to us and suggesting that it would be a good thing to put the Bible back."
In an update on Thursday (July 26), Denby posted that response in England to the move had been "overwhelmingly favourable" but that emails continued to pour in from the U.S. characterized by a "very un-Christian combination of lies, threats and intimidation."
He also noted that an NBC online poll on the move drew nearly 32,000 responses to the question "Which book would you be more likely to pick up in your hotel room?" As of Thursday, 42 percent said Fifty Shades of Grey and 37 percent said the Bible, with the rest expressing no preference.
Denby said in his blog that he's not completely giving up on the Bible. "I'll keep a couple behind the reception desk so that if any guest whose preferred bedtime reading happens to be the Bible finds that they have forgotten to pack their copy, they'll be pleased to read in the guest handbook that they can borrow a copy from the receptionist."
(Nancy Trejos writes for USA Today.)


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Sixes and sevens
Page 2 of 2 | Previous page
Semper Ubi Sub Ubi
Page 2 of 2 | Previous page
David Bovee:
Grand Guy Grand and his aunts, in Terry Southern's The Magic Christian, maintain that the expression refers to craps: you come out on your point (in this case six) and then throw a seven, in which case you lose. "What gives the expression bite," says Grand, "is that six is usually an easy point to make…."
This reference from memory–I may have it wrong.
Mike Byrne:
Surely more likely to be from the early days of east meets west. The figure for 6 used in arabic cultures and the one we use for 7 are such that in the early days when the cultures mixed and one of those figures was written alone it must have been difficult to decide which it was meant to be. Just my theory.
Ivan Finkle:
I believe "all sixes and sevens" derives from golf. Most golf holes have as par four, some five. When a golfer is all sixes and sevens he's not making any pars, but bogies (1 over par) and double bogies (2 over par). In other words he's having a lousy day.
Jon Camilleri:
In my opinion it more likely to be from the game of Cribbage … if you are all 6's and 7's in cribbage you are truly in a dilemma as to which card to throw into the crib … and at a huge disadvantage for the game … unless you are the dealer (as seen in the attache dsolutions to what to do if you are BOTH all sixes and sevens.
Craps, Cribbage and Golf are all outdated by Chaucers reference. The East meets West may have a little validity but the middle east was still in turmoil after the crusades during Chaucers time. I'd say the cinque and cice would hold the most validity as English was the second language of England during this period. The primary (official) language was bastardised French as spoken by the nobility.
It may have been a game of dice game that the phrase, '6's and 7's was originally termed. But, it good that it is re-termed through the ages. I was when I was in a rehab on a 12 step programme for alcoholism, when I was on steps 6/7, look at our behavioural defects, that I was led to believe that's where the phrase comes from. It was a set up and I told the full rehab of my findings. Until that time, I was always at 6's and 7's. Five years on and I have not had an alcoholic drink. 6's and 7's worked for me.
Ha! Looking at my grammatical errors above, I believe I'm still at 6's and 7's?
As a mathematician I feel that, apart from historical considerations, the phrase still works for me because six and seven are incompatible, I.e. have no common factor. Of course, five and six also works.
Vivienne Vine:
I understood it (and was double checking) to be number of barges following the King's Barge … they couldn't make up their minds which of six and seven was more impoortant, so it was decided that first 6 went first in the order of things, then 7. I am not sure what these barges carried but if you could find out what all of them carried, we would be nearer the answer to this one.
[…] you enjoy it, or does it leave you all sixes and sevens, which I'm feeling myself these […]
Mike Wilson:
Mike, I agree
Yours is the most logical reference with the base of East and West confusion — lost in translation.
Wars have been started on less.
I have been told all my life that 6's and 7's means — "I don't know whether I am coming or going with you" and is easier said "I'm at 6's and 7's".
The confusion that derives from the ambiguity of similar script form could well have spawned been anchored to…….the 6 and the 7.
6s (and 7s) | Roof Pig! Most Unexpected.:
[…] playing a dice game called Hazard, where betting on rolling a 5 and a 6 was thought a risky move; the phrase gradually morphed to involve 6 and 7 instead–a pairing not possible through rolling dice (so clearly the riskiest bet of all). Betting on […]
And remember that six and seven add up to 13!
Whatever the answer to its origins, I suspect it is the secret origin of a famous question. Stephen Fry could confirm or deny this, but he may take the secret with him when he dies, either way.
Douglas Adams, in the Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, describes life as full of irrationality, indeterminacy, The 'everyman' figure of Arthur Dent is dropped into this world like a goldfish into an ocean, and the confusion is total, and persistent, and points out that our life is pretty much like this even without a strange story to go with it.
All we can do is combine the irrationally related parts of life around us as best we can. So what do you get if you combine each of those sixes with one of those sevens?
M M Sands:
42. Of course. Thanks, Crow. I think you're on to something. Now, if we can just get its relationship with 23 …
As a newcomer to watching English Football (soccer) I first heard the phrase " they are at 6's and 7's " The formation of the football defence is usally 4 men in the backfield. When 6 or even 7 men are called into support a defence under attack and behind the ball, the team is said to be at 6's and 7's. That was the way that my imagination explained a term with which I was unfamiliar.
Biblically speaking, sixes (666) is the number for the Antichrist while sevens (777) is the number for the true Messiah – two entities in eternal conflict with one another. Just sayin'.
Dressed up to the nines at sixes and sevens with you.
Wards in old London. Ninth ward was known for its fancy attire. The sixth and seventh ward always battled for political control of the old city. Ergo, the phrase.
What about the bird shooter who cannot decide which size of shot to use – 6s and 7s being the commonest usually used?
Clyde Bickford:
I've often thought this could or even should have been the origin, but regardless of the origin, it certainly is apt for golf..
I can't tell you how often I've been at sixes and sevens with my round (of golf) :(
There was a famous race between a field of Triumph TR6's and the newly introduced TR7's in the mid 1970s. It looked like a mismatch of the stronger TR6 6-cyliders and the weaker (yet nimbler) 4-cylinder TR7's. The only time I've heard the reference to 6's and 7's was in an Austin Powers movie, and I thought/hoped the reference was about the Triumph race. Thanks for the notes on the likely history of the term… I like to think of this more modern application as well. :-)


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Puerto Rico - Online Guide/Rules
Starting The Game
With /join 3-5 players can join the game. With /start the game begins. Alternatively, you can use the Game Tool!
Object of the Game
The game proceeds over many rounds. Each round, each player selects one of the six or seven available roles and usually all players get to perform a certain action for each role chosen. These roles may provide goods, buildings, plantations or colonists, or they may allow players to ship goods for Victory points or sell goods for money. The player selecting the role gets an additional advantage specific to the role chosen. In addition, the role selected may include money for the player selecting it. Players must plan a careful strategy of building, producing, trading and shipping. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game wins.
The Interface
- Players Dashboard (see below)
- Field for Quarries and Plantations
- Constructed Buildings
- Game Actions (see below)
- Marketplace
- Game Roles
- Game Information - Feedback
- Player's name
- Collected Produce
- Current Doubloons
- Active Player flag
- Unplaced settlers
- First Player flag
- Victory Points (only your own are visible)
- Available Victory Points
- Available Settlers
- Currently selected role (here: Builder)
- Currently required action by you (here: building)
- Arrow to End Turn or Pass
- Settlers on the Ship
- Available Produce
- Merchant Shipping (Activated by Captain)
- Marketplace (for selling to the Trader)
- Currently available quarries and plantations (During Settler Phase)
- Building Menu Icon
Each player starts the game with one less doubloon than the number of players in the game, as shown:
|# Players
|Start Player
|Player #2
|Player #3
|Player #4
|Player #5
There is always 1 more plantation available in the supply area than the number of players. (See end of guide for inventory of Game Pieces).
Flow of the game
The game is played over several rounds. A single round is as follows:
The player who has the governor flag starts. He clicks one of the role cards from the bottom right and then plays out this role. Thereafter, each players can take this action also. Once everyone has been given the opportunity, the next player chooses a different role from the set of the remaining roles. Starting with that player (not the player with the governor flag) each player can take this action also. The current active player has their name highlighted with a '*'. You can see what the current action is by looking at the 'Game Action' interface. The end of the round happens once all players have taken a role everyone had the chance to carry out that action. Any role not selected during that round wilkl have a doubloon added to it as an incentive.
The Roles
Every role brings a special privilege for the player who chooses it, and also a common action that all players carry out in turn. (Exception: the Prospector.)
The following applies:
- if there are one or more doubloons on a role card, the player who takes that card collects them, even if the player cannot or does not perform any action for the role
- An Action begins with the player who selected that action and is then offered to each player in turn.
- A player MUST take a role when it is their turn. They should also take a role that they can or will use.
- All actions (except for Captain) are voluntary. Click on the Red Arrow (top right) to pass.
Each role can only be chosen once in a round.
If the Settler is selected, then each player may take one of the available plantations. Simply click on it. A player may not have more than 12 quarries and plantations in total.
Chooser's Privilege: You may take a quarry instead of a Plantation.
The plantations, quarries and building showing a grey silhouette are 'vacant' while those showing a white figure are 'occupied'. Only occupied locations can perform their functions, unoccupied locations can never be used!
If the role of Mayor is selected, then the settlers from the ship in are distributed individually to the players in turn. These settlers can also be used to 'occupy' any player's quarries, plantations or buildings during this phase. If a player has settlers unused, they will be left in his home port until the next mayor phase. Once a player has placed all of their settlers as desired, they click on the Red Arrow to confirm completion.
The Colonist Ship is now replenished with colonists equal to either the number of players or the total number of grey (vacant) building slots, whichever is the greater.
Chooser's Privileged: Selecting this role gets you one extra settler from the supply.
Master Builder (Baumeister)
When the Builder is chosen, all players can in turn build a building. To do this, open the build menu (click on the building icon located slightly above the Builder Action Card) and click on the desired building.
The black numbers are the building costs, the red numbers are the VPs the buildings are worth. Each occupied quarry a player has lowers the construction cost by one Doubloon, to a maximum of the building's VPs. Thus if you have 3 occupied quarries, you will pay 3 less for a building worth 3 or 4 VPs, but only 2 less for a building worth 2 VPs.
No player may build a building more than once. The green building cover two of the twelve building locations. If you want to remove a building, click on the hook icon in the top right.
Chooser's Privileged: Selecting this role lets you pay 1 doubloon less for building.
If the Craftsman is selected then each player produces all the goods they can, in turn, starting with the selecting player. An occupied slot in a plantation of the relevant type AND an occupied slot in a production building of the relevant type is required for each barrel of any good to be produced. Exception: corn does not require a production building. You may find that you don't get to produce some goods if the supply has run out before your turn.
Chooser's Privileged: Selecting this role gives you 1 extra produce (provided you are able to make that produce) from the main supply. This occurs once everyone else has been allocated their produce. To do this click on a barrel of your choice from under your name.
Trader (Händler)
If the Trader is selected, then each player in turn, starting with the selecting player, may sell one barrel of any one good to the trading house. Barrels sell for the following number of Doubloons: Corn=0, Indigo=1, Sugar=2, Tobacco=3, Coffee=4. If the trading house is full, then nothing else may be sold this round. At the end of the trading phase, the trading house is emptied ONLY if it is full.
N.B. You may not sell a barrel of any good that is already in the trading house. (Exception: Office)
Chooser's Privilege: Receive one extra Doubloon if you sell a barrel.
Selecting the Captain initiates the shipment of goods which means that barrels are placed on the ship ready to be shipped. During the Captain phase, players can ship several times. The general rule is that during your turn if you can ship goods then you MUST ship goods. You can however choose which goods to ship (if there is a choice). You may only make shipment of ONE TYPE of good each time you ship. To ship goods, drag and drop barrels from your supply to the ship of your choice. If a ship already contains goods then you can only ship to hat specific ship. The Captains phase continues until no-one else can ship.
Chooser's Privilege: Receive 1 extra VP for your first shipment.
Shipping Rules
- A Ship may not carry goods of more than one type simultaneously.
- The same type of good may not be carried by more than one ship simultaneously.
- a full ship cannot take any more barrels.
- Whoever's turn it is to ship must , if they can. They can only provide goods of one type.
- Each shipment is automatically of ALL your barrels of the type you choose, or as many as there is room for on the ship you choose.
- If a player has several different types, he can choose which ones to ship.
Victory Points
You receive one VP for every barrel you ship. The total number of VPs you have accumulated is kept secret from the other players. Each player can see his/her own total next to his/her Doubloons.
Storing Goods
When no more goods can be loaded on the cargo ships, players who were unable to ship all their barrels must choose which barrels to discard if they cannot store them. Each player may store one barrel of one type.
NB. Small and Large Warehouses can be used to store more barrels.
At the end of the captain phase all full ships are emptied.
Chooser's Privilege: Receive 1 Doubloon from the bank. There is no action associated with the Prospector role.
N.B. There are no Prospector roles in a 3-player game, 1 Prospector with 4 players, and 2 Prospectors with 5 players.
Each New Round
After everyone has selected a role and all actions have been carried out the round ends. The roles which were not selected have a doubloon added to them, and the Governor's flag passes to the next player.
End of the Game
The game ends at the end of the round in which at least one of the following three conditions is satisfied:
- at the end of the Mayor phase there are not enough colonists to fill the colonist ship as required.
- during the Builder phase, at least one player builds on his 12th city space.
- during the Captain phase, the last of the victory point chips is used.
The player with the most VPs wins. Victory points are obtained through shipping + buildings + extra points from occupied green buildings. If players are tied then the player with the highest total of barrels + doubloons wins (1 Doubloon = 1 Barrel).
Game Options
The Basic buildings are used
The Puerto Rico Expansion is used. The buildings are selected before the game play.
This option uses the Puerto Rico expansion. The buildings are chosen at random from the basic and expansion sets.
Game Pieces
This is the main game set up for the Basic option.
|# Players
|Minimum Colonists/ship
Victory Points
|# Players
|Victory Points
Transport Ships
|# Players
|Building type
|Small Production Buildings (Sm. Indigo, Sm. Sugar)
|Large Production Buildings (L. Indigo, L. Sugar, Tobacco, Coffee)
|City Hall, Customs House, Fortress, Residence, Guild Hall
|All others
An explanation of the different Buildings is given separately.


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Most drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen are eventually reported. Not so in Afghanistan. Since they are part of an ongoing war, they don't make the news. But Stuart Ackerman, writing in Wired, finds that the Air Force reported last week that there have been 447 drone strikes in Afghanistan this year.
"Never before in Afghanistan have there been so many drone strikes. For the past three years, the strikes have never topped 300 annually, even during the height of the surge. Never mind 2014, when U.S. troops are supposed to take a diminished role in the war and focus largely on counterterrorism. Afghanistan's past year, heavy on insurgent-hunting robots, shows that the war's future has already been on display."
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Sorry, there are no Linkin Park dates.
It all began in the west San Fernando Valley of Southern California when Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon became fast friends while attending high school in Agoura Hills. After graduation, with the addition of Joseph Hahn and Phoenix, the band took the name Xero, then morphed into Hybrid Theory, with changes to its membership. The final piece fell into place in 1999 in the form of Arizona vocalist Chester Bennington, and they chose the name Linkin Park, a wry variation of a local park in Santa Monica, California.
Their signing to Warner Bros Records led to debut album Hybrid Theory in October 2000. Exploring frustration, anger, fear and confusion from a younger person's perspective, Hybrid Theory was lauded by Rolling Stone as "twelve songs of compact fire indivisibly blending alternative metal, hip-hop, and turntable art." It launched three chart-topping singles including In The End, received a 2002 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for Crawling, and won nominations for Best Rock Album and Best New Artist. Following the innovative Reanimation, a remix album which featured collaborations with Black Thought, Jonathan Davis and others that rose to number 2 on the Billboard 200, Linkin Park underwent a painstaking approach in the creation of their next album, Meteora. Released in March 2003, the album offered a wider sound palette and an even more diverse array of styles: from wildly distressed samples and heavy guitars on songs such as Somewhere I Belong, to strings and piano on Breaking The Habit to complex beats on Easier To Run, all complemented by Bennington's and Shinoda's powerful vocals. In late 2004, the ambitious Collision Course again found Linkin Park in collaboration, creating mash-ups of seven LP songs and six Jay-Z songs, and winning another Grammy for Numb/Encore.
Minutes To Midnight was the third studio release from Linkin Park, released internationally in 2007. The album, co-produced by the legendary Rick Rubin and band frontman Mike Shinoda, took 14 months to write and record. This intensive process resulted in the recording of over one hundred rough ideas for songs.


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Authorities defend decision to douse pipeline protesters in subfreezing weather
CANNON BALL, N.D. — Authorities on Monday defended their decision to douse protesters with water during a skirmish insubfreezing weather near the Dakota Access oil pipeline, and organizers said at least 17 protesters were taken to the hospital – including some who were treated for hypothermia.
The clash occurred late Sunday and early Monday as protesters trying to push past a long-blocked bridge on a state highway were turned back by authorities using tear gas, rubber bullets and water hoses. One officer was injured when struck in the head with a rock. One protester was arrested.
CBS Evening News
Will Trump presidency play role in controversial pipeline's completion?
Despite daily protests and sometimes violent clashes, construction on the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline is nearly finished. The company's …
Protesters and officers massed at the bridge again late Monday morning, but protesters dispersed a few hours later at the request of tribal elders after police warned the crowd that they'd identified firearms and that anyone with a weapon should leave.
The Standing Rock Sioux and others oppose the 1,200-mile, four-state pipeline being built to carry oil from western North Dakota to a shipping point in Illinois because they say it threatens drinking water on their nearby reservation and cultural sites. Pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners has said no sites have been disturbed and that the $3.8 billion pipeline will be safe.
The pipeline is largely complete except for the section under a Missouri River reservoir in southern North Dakota, and ETP Chief Executive Kelcy Warren said Friday the company is unwilling to reroute the project.
What's known as the Backwater Bridge on state Highway 1806 has been shut down for weeks because authorities say it might be unsafe due to earlier fires set by protesters. Protesters say the closed bridge near their main camp blocks emergency services, and they accuse authorities of keeping it shut down to block their access to pipeline construction sites.
There were reports of protesters setting fires, said CBS Bismarck, North Dakota affiliate KXMB-TV. Area fire departments were on-scene, the station said. Later, the sheriff's office put the number fires at about a dozen.
Authorities dispute that. Additional testing is needed to make sure the bridge is safe, and that can't be done until the area is deemed safe for inspectors, said state Transportation Department spokeswoman Jamie Olson.
At least 17 protesters were injured severely enough to be taken to hospitals during the overnight skirmish at the bridge, said Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network.
"Hypothermia, a number of head injuries from being shot with rubber bullets, one individual had a heart attack," he said.
Daniel Kanahele, 64, a native Hawaiian, said he was hit with tear gas, water spray and a rubber bullet in a leg, and "it took me off my feet." He was treated at the scene.
Although Goldtooth said a water cannon was used to douse the protesters, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said only fire hoses were used. Sheriff's spokesman Rob Keller said a tactical vehicle spraying tear gas has been mistaken by some people as a water cannon.
One protest organizer tweeted from the scene:
Kirchmeier defended the use of water hoses, saying protesters were using aggressive tactics themselves.
"We're just not going to let people or protesters in large groups come in and threaten officers. That's not happening," the sheriff said.
Mandan Police Chief Jason Ziegler said authorities won't rule out using water again if it's deemed necessary "to maintain control and order."
Margaret Huang, executive director of the human rights organization Amnesty International, sent a letter to Kirchmeier on Monday saying the water tactic "risks potential injury and hypothermia." Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune issued a statement calling the use of water an "act of brutality" and "inhumane." Greenpeace spokeswoman Mary Sweeters called it "nothing short of horrific."
U.S. Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, calling the use of water "excessive and unnecessary" and urging the Justice Department to "prevent further escalation of violence."
Protesters also were active Monday in Bismarck, about 50 miles to the north. A group briefly blocked streets in the downtown area, and protesters later locked arms outside the police station and refused to leave. There was one arrest in the first incident and 16 arrests in the second.
Doors at the state Capitol, where protesters have previously demonstrated, were locked due to the protest activity in the city. Access to the building was granted only to workers with security key cards and members of the public with legitimate business, according to Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson. The patrol provides security at the Capitol.
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Those familiar with NewsOne, know that I have been writing about Ron Paul and his racist and conspiracy theorist beliefs for some time. It seems like the mainstream media has stopped covering Ron Paul's racist newsletters and New World Order paranoia and started focusing on his son, Rand and his anti-civil rights ideologies that mirror his father's. Well racism isn't the only thing that Rand inherited from his father. Rand is also a "New World Order" conspiracy theorist, in the mold of Timothy McVeigh and the John Birch society. Mother Jones has a piece exposing Rand and his "Patriot Movement," "New World Order" philosophy.
Paul, like his father Ron (the libertarian Republican congressman), fancies himself a strict constitutionalist opposed to globalists and what he and others in the so-called "Patriot movement" call the New World Order. And this view of politics has led Paul to keep unusual company—such as his appearances on the radio show of Alex Jones, an anti-government conspiracy theorist and one of the more prominent proponents of the idea that the Bush administration was complicit in the 9/11 attacks.
Ron Paul's former director communications, Chris Hightower, who is a racist who posts pictures of African Americans being lynched and writes "Happy Nigger Day" on Martin Luther King Day was forced to resign after revealing 9/11 conspiracy theories. When asked about Hightower's 9/11 conspiracy theories, Rand said it was a "complicated situation" with "truth on both sides."
Mother Jones' strongest link between Paul and conspiracy theories is his relationship with conspiracy theorist host, Alex Jones. both Rand and his father Ron have appeared on Jones show several times and Jones is an enthusiastic supporter of both of them. Jones is a conspiracy theoriest from the John Birch Society school of thought who is constantly building up conspiracies involving the Bilderburg group, the United Nations, the Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones as well as a supporter of white supremacists.
Throughout this particular show, Paul graciously accepted Jones' support for his pending Senate candidacy. He gave the impression that he and Jones were like-minded foes of the globalists and international financiers plotting to undermine, if not destroy, the United States for their own gain. And Paul noted that career politicians are no match for this enemy force: "the ones that evolve to the top of the Republican and the Democratic Party end up being the people who don't believe in anything…and they get pushed around by the New World Order types."
Rand Paul On The Alex Jones Show
LaTosha Brown Is A Black Joy Blazer Who Has Dedicated Her Life To The Cause
Heart In Your Hands: Important Lifestyle Changes For Heart Failure Recovery
Life In Heart Failure Recovery
How To Support A Loved One Who Is Living With Heart Failure
702 Member Irish Grinstead Dies At 43, Sister Says
Suspected White Supremacist Mad He's Getting Death Threats After Allegedly Vowing To 'Kill Me A N*gger'
Lawsuit Will 'Absolutely' Be Filed After Denny's Waitress Refused Serving Black Truckers In Viral Video: Lawyers
'Karen' Arrested After Holding Black Woman Delivering Newspapers At Gunpoint In South Carolina


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Courtesy Will Adams, here are two photos during filming of STEP OFF THE BLOCK back in October. I am looking forward to this film and will promote it here as more information is available.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Whenever I mention my gigs on the Chicago shows, I will always add that it would not have been possible if I hadn't been hired by Will Adams for his film STEP OFF THE BLOCK. Check out the Facebook page The Work of Will Adams for some of most motivational lines that anyone involved in Creative needs better than a kick in the ass.
And go on Amazon to buy a copy of Greg's sketchbook, CRUEL & UNUSUAL. He does a lot more than take photos. I'm very lucky to be surround by such good people.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Will Adams, producer at LowKey Productions is responsible for all of this good fortune. I appeared in a small newsroom scene for his upcoming film #StepOffTheBlock #StepOffTheBlock and learned of how to get my foot in the door with CC. Will's Facebook page is The Work of Will Adams.
The episode I will be in will be a three part crossover between CHICAGO MED, CHICAGO FIRE, and CHICAGO PD, and do not have any idea of the date of airing. Here is a shot of how much acreage Chicago Cinescape purchased several years back. Of everyone I know in Creative, writers, artists, it is the filmmakers that really make me feel it. A transcendence. Knowing I'm in one scene, big or small, and after I'm gone that same guy, that same Will Adams, remains working his ass off while I'm heading home to my own vice, which is my writing.
Friday, October 16, 2015
I found this at a Unique Thrift Store in McKinley Park the other day. The cover was facing out and that is what intrigued me. The table of contents intrigued me more, as I had a poem in it. I know there were several books I had to find on my own in the pre-Google Machine days. I moved to Burbank in 1999, but so many publishers still had my Chicago mailing address because I had lived there for decades, I fault no one. Anyhow. Have a look:
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Thursday, October 1, 2015
I am now also registered with CHICAGO FIRE and CHICAGO MED.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Abandoned Industry in Bedford Park
Many of you know that I have about 2000 photos on Google Earth via Panoramio. Here's a few of the most recent run-down business I could find. About two miles NE of my house.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Thursday, September 10, 2015
By Wayne Allen Sallee
Nine weeks now, the man has felt anger and anxiety and fear for all the right as well as all the wrong reasons. The past was a constant, everything that occurred with horrifying quickness on that achingly blue late summer morning framed in video and glossy magazine print, yet for the man, who turned 42 just two days before the terrorist hijackings, the present comes in fragments. One day he is right with his reasonings, that same evening it is as if his very existence is a terrible mistake.
The man had left downtown Chicago in a rush that Tuesday, heading south and west to suburban Burbank. The train line ended at Midway Airport and he saw hundreds of unfamiliar faces. The FAA had landed all aircraft; these unknown bodies were finding Chicago a way station, shambling about towards taxis and hotels. The man still did not know the severity of the terrorist events. He did not know of the fourth hijacked flight, where the passengers fought their captors and all died in a Pennsylvania field.
He just wanted to get home and see his nine year old niece and godchild, who would be home from school on lunch. He walked briskly past workmen on 87th Street digging a new sewer and wondered if they had heard any news at all that morning. He cut across the parking lot of the Jordan Baptist church and was up the steps and in the door, flipping on the living room television before even extracting the keys from the lock.
When the man saw the film of the planes crashing, the towers falling, all he could think of was that this was the world we were leaving to the next generation. And then, walking into the small, suburban kitchen, with a suncatcher over the sink and a refrigerator with school drawings and pizza coupons held in place by magnets of dogs in police and firefighter uniforms , and seeing his godchild eating grilled cheese sandwiches and reading a Dear America chapter book, his heart dropped. Not long before, he had realized that he had attained middle age, and saw himself as being less and less a protective source towards the young and the innocent, his godchild's peer group. What good would it be to follow her back to class, dodging behind trees to remain unnoticed, if some religious lunatic decided the whole place should be bombed to dust?
And he had, for the first time this century, his first dark feelings towards ending his life. That is, he wanted to write a story in which the main character ends his life, not through suicide, but through heroism or some other form of self-sacrifice. He had gotten away from killing his narrators off over the years, as his godchild and now his sister's twins, now going on three, were aware that their uncle wrote books and stories. In the twins case, they knew their uncle had his picture on some book covers, just like Mickey Mouse or The Cat In The Hat did. And so his stories carried a happier tone.
He had stopped writing stories for shock value, attempting to create reaction regardless of it was good or bad. In a collection of stories published in 1996, he dedicated the book to his godchild, saying that when he was gone, she could read the stories and see how he tried to make sense of his days.
In the weeks that followed, the aftermath burrowed into his brain. At first, the man was angry, feeling in that detached it-didn't-happen-to-me way the betrayal and violation a rape or mugging victim might share. What could he have done?
The terror of the hijacked passengers. A glass and steel and concrete tomb, collapsing, girders and jumping bodies from a hundred stories up looking like confetti. Mass murderers who use another language to speak to another God before gunning the motors towards the Promised Land.
The man had faith because he had been born crippled. Faith told him God made him this way for a reason, to learn, to teach, to write. That played a good part in why so many of his main characters weren't around for subsequent stories; why they died, or succumbed to madness. This attempt at playing with his future kept him sane when he needed to be lucid the most. One of his fantasies of years past was of making a planned disappearance; of course, this was before his sister had a family. People end up missing in the big, bad city every day. He thought of getting on a Greyhound and doing a Richard Kimble to Portland. Or maybe Denver. Take his new name from the TV Guide movie listings. William Hurt played seedy lawyer Ned Racine in Body Heat. Mitchum portrayed Jonny Algiers in the sequel to Thunder Road. Instead of accelerating his future by dying in his stories, a new name and job in a city of strangers would be like changing the present, of having it run parallel to the "old" present. But now (if he ever really could) the man couldn't even do a painless thing like vanishing, knowing that in time even family would forget, if only in a small, diminished way.
And it was all because of the nine year old washing her lunch plate in the sink, telling him how the second grade teachers had everyone looking up words in dictionaries, while in the other room, on a big screen television, two towers collapsed like white sand. The man had to stay sane for her.
And staying sane meant writing stories. Telling tales of other peoples' psyches. And so he wrote. The man's godchild spent several weekends at the house, eager to use the man's computer and access various websites involving pop singing stars and cartoons on cable. But the news would always come on, or a news break; most times, there was news right there when America Online popped up on the screen. The girl knew Bush and bin Laden, and knew of some other things in generalized form. She said that the Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld looked like her friend down the block's grandfather. She knew about Afghanistan, and in talking with other nine year olds on the playground, decided that the reason everyone talked about New York City and not the Washington was because the two tall buildings had fallen, whereas the Pentagon was just broken up a little.
The man listened to her tell him this, he loved their one on one talks, and he thought back to 1968. What the hell could the topic of conversation have been in the brick gangway of Charles Gates Dawes grade school? Certainly not Vietnam or the Apollo space program. How does a nine year old process what goes on in the world of today? The world we are leaving them?
Yes, he could experience the end of his days through his fictional characters.
And he could think of ways to alter or adapt to the present, by starting fresh, even though he never would, short of being in a Witness Relocation program. But there was no changing the past. The seasons had changed, leaves of red and orange fallen, window decorations of ghouls and spider webbed hedges madly juxtaposed with flying flags hanging from poles near driveways and smaller flags on suction cups in windows next to the goblins and toothy witches. September 11th had happened. It wasn't a story. And it might never be simply a thing of the past. Let go and let God. Maybe he would, come the snows of December or January. For now it was more difficult.
The man was putting up a front for the people around him; his family, co-workers, his godchild. Mostly his godchild, because of how he felt on that beautiful sky blue day when he realized he could no longer expect to protect her with absolute certainty. He had written horror stories for fifteen years, but the hijackers made him feel little and inconsequential. For that is what terrorists do so well. Mohammed Atta did what Hannibal Lecter never could. And the man understood why.
He was no longer sleeping well. He would type his stories to the point of exhaustion, masking the spasms with pain-relieving gel, laying down long past midnight, only to waken at three-fifteen to the sound and image of a passenger jet crashing into the Sears Tower in a sky the brightest blue. He would lay there unblinking in the darkness, his nostrils burning from the pain gel pressed into his shoulders and neck muscles only now, the smell was that of jet fuel.
Awake then until the false dawn that Chicago's Octobers bring, he sees himself jumping from a hundred stories up because the very air around him is on fire, of the crunch of body parts beneath his feet, the crunch of the last hijacker's nose as he, the greatest hero ever, wrestles control of the cockpit and then that final hijacked plane goes into a nose dive but destroys no other building.
He imagined screams and then the dreams were of explosions in Union Station or of several swarthy men leaping forward on an elevated train, praising their God, before blowing everybody up. The man used to remember when serial killers were the worst thing to conceive. His godchild knew all about Stranger Danger, but the Christopher Wilders, Andrew Cunanen and the BTK Stranglers operated almost by chaos theory.
But how do you live with terrorists who will just as easily die with you? Certainly, the man knew enough people of European extract who would say this terrorism is nothing new if you have ever been anywhere else in the world. His doctor emigrated from Croatia in 1984 and often spoke of mass graves. Even rotund Henry, who sold lottery tickets in the lobby of a downtown building, said that a plane crash and mass death meant next to nothing in Pakistani life. Just another day in paradise.
He explained this in simple terms to his godchild, how in other lands, you could not own a television or radio, women could not laugh in public and had to hide their faces.
The man finished up a story he would be reading that next week at a bookstore near the University of Chicago. He lay back in his chair and dreamt one last time. In his dream, he is on the rooftop of a building several blocks from the Sears Tower. It is overcast, rainy. He turns to stare at me, a distance away.
"Remember the plane hitting Tower Two?", he asked. It came up in a graceful arc on the television while everybody was watching smoke coming from the north tower. A commercial plane, the newscasters were saying. " Then, boom, the fireball." I jerked away.
I looked over LaSalle Street, the elevated tracks like Lego blocks far, far below. But the air around me was not on fire, nor would it ever be. A gull arced past, not a bit of sky in its path, flying gracefully past building after building. Like the second hijacked jetliner.
The man wanted me to look at him, as if I was seeing into a mirror. He took a gun from his jacket pocket, waved it in an arc. Though the sky was grey, the weapon glinted and it could have been a less-benign bird. Aside from gulls and pigeons, Chicago also has peregrine falcons that roost like gargoyles on upper ledges.
"Look how it curves upward, purposefully, with a mission." He stares at me, unblinking. He has an almost beatific smile. "Tell her I can't take the dreams or the reality anymore, will you?" I don't move.
Then he arced the gun away from him, off to the right, like a gunslinger in a bad film. He pulled the trigger then, after pointing the gun at me, and the last thing I could think was what was faster, the jet hitting Tower Two, or the bullet coring into my left eye socket?
I awaken on the couch with a start. It is an early Sunday afternoon and my godchild is typing away at my computer's keyboard. I shut my eyes. A passenger jet hits the Bank One building and the keyboard clacking becomes severed bodies slapping into the plaza's water fountain. I shake the image away and then I see a pair of hands in plastic handcuffs, a woman's wedding ring on one bloody finger. The hands are twisted in a weird type of desperate prayer, and the tendons and muscle are severed past the wrists. A man's torn, clenched fist opens to reveal a child's equally torn and tiny hand.
I do not know when I will stop living like this. The man who shot me in his dream nods his head in solemn agreement.
The gray behind my eyelids is a field of containment.
Wayne Allen Sallee
Burbank, Illinois:23 October 2001
Friday, September 4, 2015
It has been easy to come up with reasons as to why I have not been more productive this year. Part of it, certainly, has included all the outdoor chores and the aches that follow. Not all from my CP, many are frm old age now. I turn 56 on the 9th, but I really don't want to celebrate anymore, because last year I received my father's urn on my birthday. More shots of my father, and then onward to new posts of new things.
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