text:
By: Mildred Leedy Armao
Daniel Boone is iconized as the man who blazed the trail across the Cumberland Mountains from Virginia to Kentucky. This important route, then, opened the door for tens of thousands of pioneers to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. Initially, the trace was simply that; a constellation of worn Indian footpaths and buffalo trails that were marked and cleared of underbrush to facilitate access to the Bluegrass Region.[1] It is commonly thought that the Wilderness Trail remained in that state, impassable to wagons, until after Kentucky attained statehood: "The road marked out was at best but a trace. No vehicle of any sort passed over it before it was made a wagon road by action of the State legislature, in 1795."[2] Some historians acknowledge earlier gestures at improving the path but conclude that little of consequence was done until 1792.[3] Until now, little has been written to dispute either point of view but primary sources prove that the transition from Wilderness Trail to Wilderness Road began in the summer of 1780 when William McBride of Kentucky County joined forces with John Kinkead of Washington County and paved the way for wagons to pass.[4]
As Kentucky began to be settled there were, generally speaking, two routes for those who wished to settle there: the Ohio River or the Wilderness Trail. River travel allowed settlers to freight their possessions but was dangerous for two reasons: navigational hazards and British-armed Indians that still controlled the Ohio River Valley. Indian attacks were also a threat to those who chose the overland route, but the trail led through territory owned by Virginia and travelers could assemble at frontier stations to form large parties; there was safety in numbers. However, the land route was restricted to packhorses, which necessitated leaving bulky household items behind. As a result, four years after Boone blazed his trail, Virginia authorities addressed the need for the path to be improved for those who wished to establish permanent homes in Kentucky.
In October 1779, the Virginia Assembly passed [sic] "an act for marking and opening a road over the Cumberland mountains into the County of Kentuckey."[5] The intent was to create a wagon road to the western regions of the state, but the Assembly recognized that the traditional method of road building, giving oversight to counties and residents along the way, was not viable for a route that traversed predominantly uninhabited country. As such, two commissioners were appointed to mark the passage, clear it for packhorses, and then report back to the Assembly with an estimate of distances between way stations and costs for the construction of a permanent wagon road. The commissioners were also asked to present an account of their expenses and, if approved, laborers and militia guards hired for duty would be paid by their choice of 300-acre treasury warrants or £120. Additionally, the commissioners were empowered to conscript local county militias for protection along the way.
Evan Shelby and Richard Calloway were specifically named as the intended superintendents for this project, but were given the option to appoint someone else to act in their stead. Shelby and Calloway were logical choices for the job. Evan Shelby resided in Fincastle County, Virginia [vicinity of present-day Bristol, Virginia] and, at the time, was Colonel of the Washington County Militia. Richard Calloway had accompanied Daniel Boone on the initial 1775 trail-blazing expedition and was a prominent resident of Boonesborough. However, according to Lewis Preston Sumners in the History of Southwest Virginia, on June 20, 1780, John Kinkead was appointed to act for Shelby and Kinkead and Calloway then completed the enterprise.[6] This cannot be true. Richard Calloway was killed by a Shawnee war party three months prior to Kinkead's appointment.[7] An interview conducted by Reverend John D. Shane with William McBride (Jr.) in Woodford County, Kentucky circa 1842 sheds new light [sic]:
"John Kincaid, of Powell's Valley, Evan Shelby, from somewhere there father of the governor, & Rd. Calloway of Bnsbrgh: were appointed commissioners, fall session 1779. to survey & mark a road from the Blockhouse near Abingdon, on to the Crab-Orchard. (Calloway was killed at Bnsbrgh:) Kincaid and Shelby declined going for want of a guard, as no appropriation had been made, either for personal services, or any value to be fixed upon, for such services. (no amount was specified for commissioners, was the reason Shelby & Kincaid wouldn't act.) After this, Wm: McBride, having been appointed, started on from Hdsbgh: entirely alone. No one was willing to go with him, going in [to Washington County] because he was marking his way for men to follow. He was authorized by the law to hire hands which were to be paid in land warrants, 200 acres each. When he got in [to Washington County], he hired 60 markers & 2 wagons. Part were for a guard, which guard was commanded by Col. Murrell, senator from Madison. He died at Fkft:. His return was late in the fall."[8]
Thus, we learn that William McBride, in fact, was the Kentucky commissioner who supervised the first effort at improving the Wilderness Road.
William McBride, a resident of Botetourt [later Rockbridge] County, Virginia, became an early settler of Kentucky when in 1776 he cleared several acres of land, built a cabin, and planted a crop of corn five miles southeast of Fort Harrod.[9] Two years later, his entire family permanently relocated there.[10] When the Virginia Land Commission began hearing settlers' claims in October 1779, McBride was awarded a 400-acre settlement and a 1,000-acre preemption.[11] As a master blacksmith[12] he quickly became an active and respected member of the Harrodsburg settlement community. In June 1780, he signed a petition to the Virginia Assembly asking for the establishment of a town at the Falls of the Ohio [Louisville].[13] He later served as a justice of the peace for Lincoln County,[14] deputy surveyor to John Thompson,[15] and as a Captain in George Rogers Clark's Illinois Regiment.[16] A record specifically confirming McBride's appointment to act in Richard Calloway's place has yet to be found, but it is believed that the county court in Harrodsburg made the choice.[17] And, while Thomas Speed states that in 1790 the Wilderness Trail was still "only a track for the weary, plodding traveler, on foot or horseback, whether man, woman, or child,"[18] significant evidence of the extent of McBride's work on the Wilderness Road in 1780 exists.
Virginia Soldiers of 1776, a compilation of historic documents from the Virginia Land Office, contains [sic] "A list of the labourers, Gard, packhorsemen and bulock drivers imployed in the service of the Rod to Kaintuck, under the derections of John Kinkead and Wm MBrid, Comiseners."[19] This record, dated November 19, 1780, certified that 49 men were entitled to receive land grants for their work. Several names on this list are of particular interest: Joseph Lapsley, Albert McLeur [Halbert McClure], Captain James Snoddy, Allen Simson [Simpson], and Charles Bickley. William McBride was married to Martha Lapsley,[20] the McBrides and the extended family of Halbert McClure (1684-1754) were connected to one another in Augusta [later Botetourt/Rockbridge] County as early as 1762,[21] and Allen Simpson's treasury warrant for 300 acres of land given in consideration of his service still exists.
Also extant is the pension application of Charles Bickley [sic]:
"This declarent remained at his home upon the frontier [Washington, later Russell County], and in the vicinity, engaged in many skirmishes, and performing some occasional service of great danger, but only of a volunteer character, without either military orders or compensation, until the year, he thinks, of 1780, when he was ordered out again about the month of August or September, under Captain John Snoddy, as a military guard for the opening of a new road from the valley of Holston River, via Cumberland Gap, to the settlements in the now state of Kentucky, near the Crab orchard in that state, in which service they were engaged at least two months and a half, and were then marched back to [Washington County], as well as this declarent now remembers. One Mr. McBride was the superintendant to open the road which he has mentioned."[22]
Having thus established William McBride's role in the improvement to the Wilderness Trail in 1780 we must now attempt to quantify the extent of his work. In 1915, Dr. Earl Gregg Swem, Assistant State Librarian of Virginia, discovered vital information for doing just that.[23] Exactly as the Virginia Assembly had directed, McBride and Kinkead submitted an invoice for expenses incurred over the course of their project. This invoice provides insight into the scope of the construction and names additional workers who did not qualify for land warrants.[24] The vouchers include, but are not limited to [sic]:
July 17, 1780: To pd Thomas Mountgomery for 69 yd Linen at 18£ per yd £1242
July 29, 1780: To pd. William McBride for repairing tools used in clearing the road £200[25]
July 29, 1780: To pd. Tho. Jenkins for herding horses 11 days @ 15 dolls. p. day £49.10
August 22, 1780: To pd. Christopher Acklen for 3 horses & one waggon £5500
September 19, 1780: To pd. Robert Hughston for 3 Beaves £900
October 10, 1780: To pd. Richard Pryer for 20 days Bullock driving at 80 dollars p. day £480
Harrison Randolph, one of three auditors for the public accounts of Virginia, approved the £54,003.11 invoice on April 20, 1781. Interestingly, 78% of the listed expenses are for food and packhorses and nearly half are dated July 29, 1780.[26]
This invoice also reveals that the total amount submitted by McBride and Kinkead was offset by £4,923.5 obtained from the sale of used or unused items to the workers when their task was complete. William McBride's purchases are of particular interest; he spent £1,500 for 1 wagon and cloth. The fact that William McBride purchased this wagon necessarily means that it traversed the Wilderness Road back to his home at Fort Harrod; according to the testimony of William McBride, Jr. and Charles Bickley, construction commenced in Washington County, then crossed the mountains into Kentucky. The men's rate of movement along the road, 1.8 miles per day, is also significant.[27] Coincidentally, in 1754, George Washington and the Virginia militia constructed a road across the Alleghany Mountains from Will's Creek[28] to the Great Meadows[29] following an old Indian trail[30] at the exact same rate of 1.8 miles per day.[31] Washington's road accommodated artillery and wagons.
So, why have historians consistently maintained that no wagons passed over the Wilderness Road until 1796? The only answer can be the dearth of testimony concerning the quality of the road or travel upon it prior to that date. A closer examination of two known sources is interesting.
In 1775, Richard Henderson of the Transylvania Company, followed Daniel Boone's expedition and recorded his journey over the newly blazed trail. His diary, then, provides a benchmark for travel on the Wilderness Trail at its conception.[32] Henderson's journal indicates that in 1775 wagons were able to travel the route to Martin's Station.[33] After that, one entered the wilderness through a network of trails. Henderson's diary further records that he travelled the 109 miles from Martin's Station to the Dix River in ten days,[34] averaging 10.9 miles per day. At the Dix River, the Wilderness trail forked and Henderson continued north to Boonesborough; the other branch led northwest toward Crab Orchard.[35] That is the road William Brown took in 1782, just two years after McBride and Kinkead had performed their work.
Brown, too, kept a journal of his travel[36] and it witnesses clear improvement to the Wilderness Trail. Brown travelled from the Blockhouse near Gate City, Virginia to the Dix River, a distance of 162 miles, in seven days. His travel time of 23.14 miles per day beat Henderson's by a factor of two.[37] This supports the theory that the trail was significantly improved between 1775 and 1782, posited here to be the result of McBride's and Kinkead's work in 1780.
Brown's commentary is enlightening as well. The road from the Blockhouse to Wallen Ridge was deemed "generally bad" but Brown acknowledges that this particular segment courses through mountainous territory. He then states that the road from Wallen Ridge to the Cumberland Gap was "pretty good" and that the way through the Gap was "not difficult." From Middlesboro, Kentucky to the Rockcastle River, Brown notes "very little good road" and again describes mountainous conditions in addition to mud. From the Rockcastle River to Crab Orchard the road was considered "tolerable good." Missing is any observation that the Wilderness Trail could not accommodate wagons. In fact, between 1775 and 1790 over 75,000 pioneers settled in Kentucky suggesting that the route, while difficult, was not a hindrance.[38]
The bill enacted by the Virginia Assembly in 1779 provided only that a road be located and traced, but the two commissioners who performed the work exceeded expectations. On December 1, 1781, when John Kinkead petitioned the Assembly for payment he stated [sic]:
"… although dangerous and Difficult as the Task was, at that Critical Juncture, the business was Completed so that waggons has passd, and has rendered much ease and Expedition to Travelers…"[39]
The date of Kinkead's application is interesting when taken into consideration with one journey across the Wilderness Road noted by Thomas Speed.[40]
In September 1781, Reverend Lewis Craig brought his entire congregation, numbering 200-600 persons [estimates differ between sources], from Spotsylvania County to Gilbert's Creek near Stanford, Kentucky. This exodus is documented in various histories of the Baptist Church,[41] but a particularly vivid account is found in George H. Ranck's The Travelling Church.[42] Curiously, Ranck focuses on the congregants' wagons. He describes their physical and emotional importance to the pilgrims and depicts a heart-wrenching scene in which they are traded for packhorses at Fort Chiswell. From there, according to Ranck, the beleaguered congregation travelled the remaining 273 miles to Stanford, Kentucky on foot. But, there are at least two problems with Ranck's account; there is no documented source given for the details of the pilgrims' journey and the role of their wagons, and his story does not appear to correspond with the known facts.
The 1782 journal of William Brown, written only nine months after Craig's migration, states that the road from Hanover County [which abuts Spotsylvania County] to the Blockhouse, 100 miles further down the road from Fort Chiswell, was "generally very good." Furthermore, the 1775 journal of Richard Henderson states that wagons could travel the Wilderness Road to Martin's Station. Why, then, would this congregation abandon their wagons at Fort Chiswell, 154 miles before necessary? Indeed why, then, would the pilgrims have even begun their journey in wagons loaded down with family heirlooms and possessions that would not be able to cross the mountains into Kentucky? One might suspect that, if in fact they did, it was because in September 1781 they believed they could make the trek to Kentucky in wagons. For the purpose of brevity, a thorough analysis of Ranck's story is not included here. However, the following information is noted with interest; the History page of the Craigs Baptist Church's website states that in 1781 its members went to Kentucky in covered wagons. Here, then, is the final question; were these the wagons to which Kinkead referred in his petition on December 1, 1781?
When history is painted with broad brush strokes, fine details can be missed. With regard to documenting the story of the Wilderness Road, a closer examination of primary sources has shown that significant work was done in 1780 to clear the way for wagons to pass. This revelation is not inconsistent with previously held beliefs; it simply adds to the narrative. It is not difficult to understand why the road would require further work in 1792 and 1796. Nature abhors a vacuum. During a period of war, irregular travel, and difficult logistics for maintenance, time certainly quickly conspired with vegetation, falling rocks, and dead tree limbs to render the road yet again impassable. Nonetheless, William McBride's contribution to the timeline of this important passageway can finally be recognized:
"The road thus located by Captains Kinkead and [McBride], became what was known as the 'Wilderness Road,' and for twenty years subsequent thereto was the principal highway traveled by an immense train of emigrants to the West."[43]
William McBride never petitioned the Virginia Assembly for compensation as the commissioner from Kentucky County for the construction of the Wilderness Road. He had every intention of accompanying John Kinkead to Richmond in December 1781 but fell ill in Rockbridge County and did not recover until after the Assembly had met.[44] McBride planned to return the following fall but was killed leading the Harrodsburg militia across the Licking River at the Battle of Blue Licks on August 19, 1782.[45] Thirty years later, on January 24, 1812, the Kentucky Legislature awarded the heirs of William McBride, his sons William (Jr.) and Lapsley, 2,800 acres of land in consideration of their father's service in opening the Cumberland Road from Holston to the Crab Orchard.[46]
About the Author:
Mildred likes to dig. For the past eight years, she's been unearthing information and sifting through facts about her Scotch-Irish heritage and then turning the gems she's uncovered into magazine articles and soon a creative nonfiction novel. A native Missourian, who now lives in Virginia, Mildred enjoys learning about her people's history, but more than anything, she loves figuring out how (and why) those people made that history. It's that backstory that brings the history to life.
Augusta County Judgments A: November 1764, [Estate of] Halbert McClure vs. James McBride, photocopies of original documents provided to the author by the Augusta County (Virginia) Genealogical Society.
Bruce, H. Addington. Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910.
Burgess, Louis A., Ed. Virginia Soldiers of 1776, vol. 3, database on-line: Provo, Utah, Ancestry.com, originally published: Richmond, Va., 1927-29, reprinted for Clearfield Company by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Md., 1994.
Chalkley, Lyman. Chronicles of the Scotch Irish Settlement in Virginia, vol. 2, database on-line, Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com, originally published: Rosslyn, Va., 1912-13.
Collins, Richard H. History of Kentucky, vol. 2, Covington, Ky.: Collins & Co., 1874.
Draper, Lyman C., ed. Ted Franklin Belue. The Life of Daniel Boone. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1998.
Genealogies of Kentucky Families from the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, vol. 1, database on-line, Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com.
Henderson, Archibald. The Conquest of the Old Southwest. New York: Century Co., 1920.
Hening, William Waller. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the first session of the Legislature in the year 1619, 13 vols. (Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York, 1809-1823), vagenweb.org.
A History of Roads in Virginia: "The Most Convenient Wayes." Richmond, Va.: Virginia Department of Transportation, 2006.
Hulbert, Archer Butler, Boone's Wilderness Road. Cleveland, Oh.: Arthur H. Clark Company. 1903.
James, James Alton, Ed. George Rogers Clark Papers 1781 – 1784. Springfield, Il.: Illinois State Historical Library, 1926.
Kentucky Doomsday Book. Kentucky Secretary of State, Land Office website.
Krakow, Jere L. Location of the Wilderness Road at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, August 1987.
Pension Application of Charles Bickley, September 8, 1836, Russell County, Virginia. U.S. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900. Database on-line, Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com, 2010.
Petition for the establishment of a town at the falls of the Ohio River. June 8, 1780. Legislative Petitions of the General Assembly, 1776-1865, Library of Virginia, Accession Number 36121, Box 287, Folder 13.
Petition of John Kinkeade, Washington County, Virginia, December 21, 1781, Legislative Petitions of the General Assembly, 1776-1865, Digital Collections, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va., Record No. 000300699.
Pusey, Wm. Allen, A.M., M.D. The Wilderness Road to Kentucky. New York: George H. Doran Company. 1921.
Ranck, George. The Travelling Church. Louisville, Ky.: Filson Club, 1910.
Reverend John D. Shane Interview with William McBride, Lyman C. Draper Manuscript Collection. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Series CC: Kentucky Papers, vol. 9-12, 257-263.
Semple, Robert B. A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia. Richmond, Va.: Pitt & Dickinson, Publishers, 1894.
Smith, W. T. A Complete Index to the Names of Persons, Places and Subjects Mentioned in Littell's Laws of Kentucky. Lexington, Ky.: Bradford Club Press, 1931.
Speed, Thomas. The Wilderness Road, a Description of the Routes of Travel by which the Pioneers and Early Settlers First Came to Kentucky. Louisville, Ky.; John P. Morton & Co., 1888.
Spencer, J. H. A History of Kentucky Baptists, vol. 1. Cincinnati, Oh.: J. H. Spencer, 1885.
Sumners, Lewis Preston, History of Southwest Virginia 1746 – 1786, Washington County 1777 – 1870. Richmond, Va.: J. L. Hill Printing Company, 1903.
Swem, Earl G. Work on the Cumberland Road. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 1, no. 1, June 1915, 120-121.
Taylor, James B. Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers. Richmond, Va.: Vale & Wyatt, 1838.
Taylor, John, ed. Chester Raymond Young. Baptists on the American Frontier: A History of Ten Baptist Churches. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1996.
Todd, Chapman C. The Early Courts of Kentucky. Register of Kentucky State Historical Society, vol. 3, no. 9. Kentucky Historical Society, September 1905. JSTOR (23366218).
Toner, J. M., M.D., Ed. Journal of Colonel George Washington. Albany, N.Y.: Joel Munsell's Sons, Publishers, 1893.
Verhoeff, Mary. The Kentucky Mountains: Transportation and Commerce 1750 – 1911. vol. 1. Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton & Company, 1911.
Virginia Apprentices, 1623-1800. Database on-line, Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com, 1997.
[1] Mary Verhoeff, The Kentucky Mountains: Transportation and Commerce 1750 – 1911, vol. 1 (Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton & Company, 1911), 81-82. According to Verhoeff and others, the Wilderness Road forked near the Rockcastle River. Boone's Trace continued north toward Lexington and Benjamin Logan blazed a northwesterly trail past Crab Orchard toward the Falls of the Ohio [Louisville]. The Crab Orchard trail became the preferred branch of the Wilderness Road.
[2] Thomas Speed, The Wilderness Road, a Description of the Routes of Travel by which the Pioneers and Early Settlers First Came to Kentucky. (Louisville, Ky.; John P. Morton & Co., 1888), 29.
[3] Archer Butler Hulbert, Boone's Wilderness Road (Cleveland, Oh.: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1903), 194 and Verhoeff, The Kentucky Mountains, 83-110.
[4] William McBride and his family were residents of Fort Harrod from 1779 to 1781. They then moved out to McBride's Station, five miles southeast of Harrodsburg. John Kinkead's son, Archibald, married William McBride's niece, Priscilla McBride, in Woodford County, Kentucky in 1792. – Author.
[5] William Waller Hening, The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the first session of the Legislature in the year 1619, vol. 10, ch. 12 (Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York, 1809-1823), 143-144. Vagenweb.org, accessed March 17, 2016.
[6] Lewis Preston Summers, History of Southwest Virginia 1746 – 1786, Washington County 1777 – 1870. (Richmond, Va.: J. L. Hill Printing Company, 1903), 279-283. Sumners states that Boone's Trace had been improved by 1781.
[7] Lyman C. Draper. The Life of Daniel Boone. Ed. Ted Franklin Belue (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1998), 558. Calloway was killed near Boonesborough on March 8, 1780.
[8] Reverend John D. Shane Interview with William McBride, Lyman C. Draper Manuscript Collection. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Division of Archives and Manuscripts, Series CC: Kentucky Papers, vol. 9-12, 257-263. (Hereafter William McBride Interview, DC).
[9] Kentucky Doomsday Book, 39-40. Kentucky Secretary of State, Land Office website, accessed July 9, 2011. (Hereafter Kentucky Doomsday Book). In 1781, William McBride built McBride's Station on his claim.
[10] William McBride Interview, DC.
[11] Kentucky Doomsday Book.
[12] Virginia Apprentices, 1623-1800 (database on-line, Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com, 1997, original data: March 17, 1768, Augusta Parish Vestry Book 1746-1780, 397).
[13] Petition for the establishment of a town at the falls of the Ohio River. June 8, 1780. Legislative Petitions of the General Assembly, 1776-1865, Library of Virginia, Accession Number 36121, Box 287, Folder 13.
[14] Genealogies of Kentucky Families from the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, vol. 1, (database on-line, Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com), 323-324.
[15] Richard H. Collins, History of Kentucky, vol. 2, (Covington, Ky.: Collins & Co., 1874), 476.
[16] James Alton James, Ed. George Rogers Clark Papers 1781 – 1784. (Springfield, Il.: Illinois State Historical Library, 1926), 346. Also, George Rogers Clark Papers, Library of Virginia, microfilm roll 9, 15359 – 15757.
[17] Earl G. Swem, Notes on the Cumberland Road. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 1, no. 1, (June 1915), 121, and William McBride Interview, DC.
[18] Speed, The Wilderness Road, 30.
[19] Louis A. Burgess, Ed. Virginia Solders of 1776 (database on-line, Provo: Utah, Ancestry.com, originally published Richmond, Virginia, 1927-29), 1272.
[20] Lyman Chalkey, Chronicles of the Scotch Irish Settlement in Virginia, vol. 2, (database on-line, Provo: Utah, Ancestry.com, originally published: Rosslyn, Virginia, 1912-13), 277.
[21] Augusta County Judgments A: November 1764, photocopies of original documents provided to the author by the Augusta County (Virginia) Genealogical Society. On December 6, 1762, James McBride, the brother of William McBride, signed a promissory note for £5 to Halbert McClure. This debt was in litigation for the next two years.
[22] Pension Application of Charles Bickley, September 8, 1836, Russell County, Virginia. U.S. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 (database on-line, Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com, 2010, original data: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.).
[23] Swem, Notes on the Cumberland Road.
[24] Jere L. Krakow, Location of the Wilderness Road at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. (U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, August 1987), Appendix C: Bill for Services and Supplies in Road Building over Cumberland Mountain, April 20, 1781, 88-91.
[25] As previously noted, William McBride was a master blacksmith. – Author.
[26] Specifically, 47% of the expenditures were for packhorses, and 31% for foodstuff (beeves, salt, and flour). – Author
[27] This calculation assumes that the crew worked for 92 days (July 1 – October 1) on the 165-mile stretch from the Blockhouse (Gate City, Virginia) to Crab Orchard, Kentucky.
[28] Present-day Cumberland, Maryland.
[29] Fort Necessity.
[30] The Nemacolin Trail.
[31] J. M. Toner, M.D., Ed. Journal of Colonel George Washington [1754 – 1755]. (Albany, N.Y.: Joel Munsell's Sons, Publishers, 1893), 42-74. Washington's journal indicates that he arrived at the Great Meadows on May 24th. It is assumed, in this calculation, that he left Will's Creek on April 25th and that the distance traversed was 52 miles.
[32] Hulbert, Boone's Wilderness Road, pp. 101-107. Hulbert also reproduces a second journal dated 1775, William Calk's, 107-117, which provides an experiential look at life on the Wilderness Trail but does not give any indication of the speed of travel or road conditions.
[33] For the purpose of comparison, the following locations were used to calculate distances: the Blockhouse/Gate City, Va., Wallen Ridge/Stickleyville, Va., Martin's Station/Rose Hill, Va., Yellow Creek/Middlesboro, Ky., Cumberland River/Pineville, Ky., Richland Creek/Barbourville, Ky., Laurel River/London, Ky., Dicks [Dix] River/Brodhead, Ky. – Author
[34] Only days upon which travel was recorded were used for this calculation. Days spent in camp were not considered "travel-days." – Author
[35] Historians state that the two branches of the Wilderness Road forked at the Rockcastle River. However, both Henderson's and Brown's journals refer to a camp at the head of the Dix River, 25 miles beyond the Rockcastle River. – Author
[36] Speed, The Wilderness Road, 17-20.
[37] Hulbert, Boone's Wilderness Road, 123. The assumption has been made that all seven days of Brown's journey were travel-days.
[38] Wm. Allen Pusey, A.M., M.D. The Wilderness Road to Kentucky. (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1921), 14.
[39] Petition of John Kinkeade, Washington County, Virginia, December 1, 1781. Legislative Petitions of the General Assembly, Digital Collections, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va., Record No. 000300699. Accessed 2/21/16.
[40] Speed, The Wilderness Road, 39-40.
[41] J. H. Spencer, A History of Kentucky Baptists, vol. 1 (Cincinnati, Oh.: Printed for the author), 1886, 25-32; Robert Baylor Semple, History of the Baptists in Virginia. (1810) revised and extended by G. W. Beale, 1894. (Paris, Ar.: The Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc., 2005), 200, 472-473.; James B.Taylor, Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers. (Richmond, Va.: Vale & Wyatt, 1838), 84-88; John Taylor, Baptists on the American Frontier: A History of Ten Baptist Churches. (1823), third edition, ed. Chester Raymond Young. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1996), 41-44. These sources note the occurrence of the pilgrimage, but do not detail the actual travel experience.
[42] George Ranck, The Travelling Church. (Louisville, Ky.: Filson Club), 1910. 12-30.
[43] Sumners, History of Southwest Virginia, 280.
[44] William McBride Interview, DC.
[45] Collins, History of Kentucky, vol. 2, 663. Lewis Rose shot an Indian in the act of scalping Captain William McBride.
[46] W. T. Smith, A Complete Index to the Names of Persons, Places and Subjects Mentioned in Littell's Laws of Kentucky. (Lexington, Ky.: The Bradford Club Press, 1931), 128-129. (Littell, Volume 4, page 330). archive.org, downloaded February 18, 2016).
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text:
The School of Computer Science at Reykjavik University has, at long last, created its own YouTube channel. See https://www.youtube.com/user/rucomputerscience. We are uploading videos of talks from season one of our Pearls of Computation seminar series and from last year's Alan Turing Year events, as well as other material that might be of general interest.
In case you are interested in following the events we organize, I'd be grateful if
you could spend approximately 5 seconds to open the page and click
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subset: commoncrawl


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Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park has an important mission that includes protecting and restoring park resources. In order to accomplish our mission, park staff and partners occasionally utilize aircraft to carry out the work. Helicopters are used in particular because they are an essential tool for activities such as volcanic monitoring of eruptive activity and hazards, controlling invasive species, suppressing wildland fires, and search and rescue operations in the backcountry.
The underlying purpose of all of these activities is to provide for public safety and health and for resource protection and restoration. Use of aircraft allows park staff and cooperators to accomplish these activities in a safe, timely, and efficient manner while minimizing the impacts to the park's natural and cultural resources and the visitor experience.
The park is developing a plan (Mission Critical Administrative Aviation Plan) and accompanying Environmental Assessment (EA) to document any potential impacts of its aviation operations. The objectives of the plan are to (1) ensure the safety of park visitors and staff and the public through monitoring of volcanic hazards and safe and timely response to eruptions, wildfires and backcountry emergencies; (2) ensure the ability to effectively protect and restore natural and cultural resources; (3) minimize any impacts to park resources and values such as soundscapes and visitor experience; (4) ensure compliance with the National Park Service policies and federal regulations; and, (5) maximize efficiency of flights and minimize costs to park operations.
To this end, park staff and partners have started working on a plan that will provide internal park guidance for utilizing aircraft to conduct our work where necessary. This plan will formalize best management practices, define sensitive areas to avoid, and include mitigation measures to reduce any potential impact of the park's operational use of aviation.
PLEASE NOTE: This plan/EA will guide internal NPS aviation activities occurring within the park and those of contract aircraft doing business for the park only, not the activities of commercial air tours or general aviation aircraft. An Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP)/EIS to address commercial air tours flying over the park is being developed through a separate process and is discussed at the following link: https://www.nps.gov/havo/parkmgmt/havo_planning_atmp2011.htm
The public is invited to comment on the park's intent to develop a Mission Critical Administrative Aviation Plan/Environmental Assessment (plan/EA) for Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Your observations and suggestions are appreciated. If you would like to provide comments or suggestions for us to consider during the development this plan/EA, you may submit comments on-line at: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/havo. You may also mail your comments to the park, Attn: Superintendent, PO Box 52, Hawaii NP, HI 96718-0052. Please send us comments by March 26, 2012.


text:
If you need assistance finding help or services in Pike County, please call the United Way of Pike County at 570-296-9980 during normal office hours or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Feel free to send us feedback on the website with the form below. However, you must include your email or phone number if you would like a reply.
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All information on this web site was provided by the listed organization or from their published materials. The accuracy of the information is the responsibility of each organization. Inquires concerning the listed information should be directed to that organization. Other inquires should be directed to the United Way of Pike County at the below.
United Way of Pike CountyMail: PO Box 806 Milford PA 18337Office: 105 West George Street, Milford PA 18337Phone: Toll Free (888) 306-6963 or (570) 296-9980Fax (570) 296-5571www.unitedwaypike.orgMain Office: firstname.lastname@example.com: email@example.com
This project was also made possible with the cooperation from the following organizations:
Financial support was provided by a Monroe/Pike Community Block Grant and the Pike Human Services Development Fund for 2004 to present. Support was also provided by the AmeriCorps*Volunteer In-Service To America (VISTA) program in 2002-2004 and 2007.
Funded ByUnited Wayof Pike County


text:
It seems like 2008 has flown by, doesn't it?
This past week has been difficult to say the least.
I'm not sure I've shared the fact that my 91 year old great aunt
(my grandmother's sister) "Aunt Polly" lives with us.
She has been with us now for 8 years.
Aunt Polly is an independent, feisty, spirited, southern lady.
Never married, with no children, and has out lived her 9 siblings.
She has aged "gracefully" as they say.
Her favorite past time is reading and
doing the jumble puzzle in the newspaper.
"To keep her mind sharp" she would say.
Aunt Polly's snack of choice.....
Little Debbie snack cakes with a cup of hot coffee.
In the past few weeks Aunt Polly became confused.
Over the little things.
She was sleeping more and eating less.
On Sunday we felt it necessary to call an ambulance.
She didn't have the strength to ride in the car.
Unfortunately, she has a urinary tract infection.
Quite common in the elderly the Dr said.
And was dehydrated.
She will be hospitalized for a week or so.
My hope is that she will be able to return home.
She has, for years, made me promise
not to put her in a nursing home.
I pray I can keep that promise.


text:
I sported my awesome Cassie Stephens hair clip that I was gifted at NAEA, got many compliments on that alone...Thanks Cassie!
I already posted pictures of some of the work from when I first hung it, but here is the full walls for a little refresher!
|Jefferson Elementary
|Kennedy Elementary
|McDill Elementary
Are your art shows anything like ours?
I would love to do an arts night next year at one of my buildings to start, think it is a good idea or too much work?


text: In this game you'll be playing as an elf dude - one of several Santa's helper. You will be helpingin leaning up Claus' building. Where you are going to realize that mrs Claus remains fairly hot woman and mr Claus is not paying any attention at all. Well, llooks like somebody requires an elven help tonight... The sport sbased on you response. Simply press and hold mouse button to do sexual deeds with mrs Claus... while mr Claus is sitting right next to yo and studying his newspaper! Your job will be to wifey and try not to get into hubby's view - looks like cheating problems may occur even on a magic north pole! If you not get caught in the living room then you will learn that there are mor eplaces at the palace where mrs Claus would really like to get fucked!


text:
SPIDER-MAN 100th ANNIVERSARY Special: New Symbiote, Same Spidey
Every Spider-Man fan has trenchant anticipation as to what Marvel's wall-crawler will do next – so what would they do if they could see what he's going to do in the far-flung future? People will get that answer next week in the one-shot story 100th Anniversary Special – Spider-Man. Created as part of a broad and hyberbolic look at the future 100th Anniversary of these characters created in 1961, writer Sean and Ryan and artist In-Hyuk Lee are providing a glimpse into the future of a Spider-Man comic from the year 2061.
Newsarama talked with Ryan about this flash-forward story, taking this tongue-in-cheek fictional anniversary and delving into a series story that sees Spider-Man facing off against a classic adversary, meeting a new symbiote, and getting a new costume.
Newsarama: Sean, what can you tell us about this story in 100th Anniversary Special – Spider-Man?
Sean Ryan: The story in this issue is the last part of huge eight issue story that sees Peter Parker getting a new costume. A techno-symbiote suit. So it's a symbiote suit that has outstanding wi-fi. And since it's the future, everything is connected to the internet, so basically, it's a powerful suit that can control everything. Our issue is the last part of the story that sees Peter getting rid of the suit and all the fallout from that.
Nrama: Spider-Man's changed a lot from his birth in the 1960s to now here in 2014. Who is he – both literally and figuratively – in 2061?
Ryan: Has he changed that much? I think what I love about Spider-Man, and what this 100th Anniversary issue is sort of about is how great of a simple concept Spider-Man is, and how Spider-Man will basically never change. Sure, he might get a black costume, or six arms, or join the Fantastic Four, but at the end of the day, he's a guy just like us, who's trying to do the right thing. With great power, comes great responsibility, I think will be as relevant to people 50 years from now, as much as it was fifty years ago.
Nrama: The Kingpin got his start as a Spider-Man villain, but people know him best as a Daredevil adversary. What's he doing here as the key villain in this 2061 tale?
Ryan: Yeah, he's a Daredevil villain, but I've always considered him a pretty important Spider-Man villain. That might be the influence of the 90's Spider-Man cartoon on me. I seem to remember him all over that show. He's basically the big bad here. The story revolves around power and the abuse of unearned power. And when I was thinking of a villain who goes with the abuse of power, Kingpin seemed like a perfect fit.
Nrama: And he has in his hands a techno-symbiote. That means Venom right – but a techno-Venom?
Ryan: Right. It's a new symbiote. As I said above, it's a symbiote, but one that's connected to the internet. It gives you the usual powers a symbiote gives you, but now you can basically control everything, because I can't imagine that in 50 years everything won't be connected to the internet.
Nrama: Spider-Man stories have been as much about New York as it is Spider-Man's adversaries. What's the wall-crawler's town like now? Does he still maneuver around town in the traditional swinging way, or is there hovercars or something changing that?
Ryan: Ha! Yeah, this story definitely takes place in New York. And Spider-Man's way of getting around town is still swinging. (Though he doesn't actually do any swinging in this issue.) As for the New York of 2061, we don't go too far into what the city's like. I didn't want it to get too crazy as to distract from the story. But it plays an important role. Central Park, specifically. In-Hyuk Lee did an amazing job designing a great future looking New York City. One of the big changes you'll see is that cars don't hover, but they do drive themselves. Like everything else in the future, it's all the internet, so people can just get into their car and watch TV as their car gets them to where they want to go.
Nrama: You mentioned earlier that this one-off issue is envisioned by you as the finale of a fictional 8-part storyarc as if ripped straight from the comic shelves of 2061. How much planning did you go into making this not just a one-off story, but seemingly a glimpse into a future with a lot of water under the bridge?
Ryan: I did a pretty decent amount of planning. I basically outlined the whole eight issue story inside my head, so I could figure out and make sense of how we got to where we are at the beginning of this story. There are certainly hints in this issue to what has come before. Unfortunately, I couldn't get in a mention of Silver Sable in this issue, because she plays a big role earlier in the story. Trust me, it was great stuff.
Nrama: This might be out of nowhere, but I have to ask: "Spider-Verse" is coming up – any chance we could see this Spider-Man in there as well?
Ryan: That is certainly an interesting idea! But honestly, I wouldn't hold your breath for that.
Nrama: Last question – I know this is just a one-off story, but could you see yourself returning to this Spider-Man?
Ryan: Yeah, of course. But to me, this Spider-Man is just like the Spider-Man now. The world around Spider-Man might always be changing, but at his core, I think Spider-Man will always be who he is.


text: Did you get a phone call or text message from (606)922-1708? Other formats of number (606)922-1708 are 6069221708 and 606-922-1708, area code is 606, in Sharpsburg, KY. The phone number (606)922-1708 is a neutral phone number and there are not many reports are available about the phone number. It is found that the caller is not so harmful. So, you should not take any action against the phone number and you must not block the phone number. It is important to remain safe and that is why you must not share any information with this caller or anyone. Maybe this caller is not harmful but if you do not remain alerted, you may face more problems in future from other callers. Remain attentive always when you get a call from unknown.


text:
Dual Disorders Are Rarely Treated Properly
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Danny Watt once leapt from a moving train. He hurtled through the windshield of a rolling car. Got pummeled by drug dealers. Overdosed. Swallowed rat poison. Tried to hang himself.
In his tumultuous 21 years, Danny Watt danced with death in the most amazing, horrible ways. In the end, two college students spotted him facedown in the cold, murky water of the C&O Canal one afternoon in April 2008. The medical examiner said Danny had drowned.
It was an end that Danny's parents, Bobby and Mary Watt of Reston, had struggled to stave off for many years. But after refinancing their house three times to put their son in every substance abuse and mental health program imaginable, after going to countless meetings and hearings and hospitals and jails, after badgering every possible person in Fairfax County who might help them, they could not save Danny.
"We just went through so much for so long," said Mary Watt, breaking into tears. "We tried and tried for so many years, fighting, only to lose."
Danny Watt was a walking symbol of a phenomenon called co-occurring disorders, or dual diagnosis, which is estimated to affect 7 million adults in the United States. These people are both seriously mentally ill and abusing drugs or alcohol. About half of all adults who are seriously mentally ill are also thought to be addicted. The mental health community calls this "self-medication." The federal government estimates that 90 percent of people with co-occurring disorders do not get the treatment they need.
Danny's death shows how hard it can be to treat people with co-occurring disorders and why so many die young.
Danny Watt's story, gleaned from his mental health records, extensive interviews with his family and Fairfax County mental health officials and from his own notes, also shows a county that seemed baffled by his dual demons. Although Danny was given a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder (a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) on multiple occasions, many Fairfax therapists thought that Danny's addictions were the sole source of his problems and that if he stayed clean long enough he could help himself.
Danny's parents pleaded for their son to be placed in long-term care in a locked facility. Fairfax has three dual-diagnostic centers, but none is locked. Danny frequently walked out to resume drinking and taking drugs, accompanied by at least one destructive voice in his head and a firm belief that others could hear his thoughts and that he was close friends with entertainers Jay-Z and Mariah Carey.
"They don't understand the voices here, Dad," Danny told his father shortly before his death, referring to "Roy" and others who spoke to him, sometimes from the television, sometimes from Hollywood.
Officials at the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, one of 40 Virginia agencies that handle mental illness and addiction treatment for those who can't afford private hospitals, made an exception to their policy of not discussing their clients after Bobby and Mary Watt signed a waiver for this article. They said that they did everything they could for Danny, that he repeatedly refused their help. It was his right as an adult, they said.
"He is responsible for his care, and he has decisions and choices to make," said William H. Williams Jr., the agency's director of alcohol and drug services. "When you look at the number of challenges that faced this particular case, I think we did an exceptional job in trying to resolve this young man's issues."
"We didn't see anything that we might have done different that would have changed the outcome," said Gary Axelson, director of clinical operations for the Community Services Board, or CSB.
But E. Fuller Torrey, a psychiatrist with the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington and a prominent critic of the widespread deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients, says forced treatment is essential when people are too mentally ill to realize they need help.
Saying that Danny had responsibility for his care is "fine for someone with substance abuse, but if you're dealing with psychosis, then there's no way you're going to treat someone like that in an unlocked facility," Torrey said. "What you're looking at is the system is not set up to treat the difficult patients."
Danny's parents came to that belief repeatedly.
"It was always, 'Get him stable, get him out,' " said Bobby Watt. "No long-term plans. . . . We wanted him in a place where he was locked up with proper medical attention until he became stable. I begged them to put him in a mental hospital. I told them, 'If you put him out on the streets, he'll be dead in a week.' "
That was April 3, 2008. Eleven days later, Danny was dead.
* * *
"My proudest moment was when I borrowed my guitar teacher's amplified acoustic guitar and played in front of the whole school. They had an assembly just for me! My most prized possession is my electric guitar. In about ten years from now I hope to be going to Harvard, Yale or Princeton university."
"My Life," by Danny Michael Watt,
Sixth grade, 1998
Danny, a happy and healthy child, took up the guitar as an 8-year-old. "You could play him a song and he'd play it back to you right there," his father said. The guitar would forever be a part of Danny's life, whether he was busking on the streets of Georgetown or sitting in a solitary corner of a treatment center.
In fall 1998, when Danny was 12 and in seventh grade at Langston Hughes Middle School in Reston, he began a long slide into drug abuse. He drank beer and wine, often swiped from a friend's parents' supply, and smoked marijuana.
Bobby, a U.S. Customs Service agent, engineered a reassignment for himself and moved the family to Savannah, Ga., mainly to "get Danny out of this." Things didn't change, though. One night Bobby went downstairs to the refrigerator and found Danny, then 13, guzzling a bottle of wine.
"I can't get to sleep," Danny told his father. "I've got racing thoughts."
The Watts would hear the term "racing thoughts" often from Danny in the coming years, but they didn't connect it to mental illness.
They returned to Reston in 2002. Danny entered South Lakes High School as a junior and soon distinguished himself as one of the top drug users, the school resource officer told his parents. He began staying out all night.
So in March 2003, Bobby drove his son to his first inpatient alcohol rehabilitation, at Clear Brook Lodge in Pennsylvania. He was 16.
That was the first of many such treatments the Watts tried, many at private facilities costing thousands. Records show that Danny told the staff he not only drank large amounts of beer, but he also smoked pot daily and was snorting cocaine and taking "unidentified pills." He completed a month of treatment, at a cost of $7,000. It didn't take. Neither did Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Danny began skipping school, and one fall morning he showed up at South Lakes high on drugs. The school resource officer drove him to juvenile court in Fairfax City and recorded their conversation along the way.
"Danny told the officer he met a guy in AA who took him to another guy up in Maryland," Mary recalled, and the men would give Danny money or booze or pot or crack in exchange for sex. "I thought it was the worst day of my life."
After three weeks in juvenile jail, Danny went back to Clear Brook, but his parents said he was asked to leave after two weeks because of aggressive behavior.
After a drug overdose in February 2004, the Watts placed Danny in a private hospital in Maryland, then one in California, and still another in New York. The Watts ran up huge credit card debts, then began remortgaging their home.
It was that fall, after another overdose, that Mary was first told by doctors at Dominion Hospital in Falls Church that Danny was bipolar, or manic depressive. Doctors prescribed Depakote, but Danny refused to take it, wary of side effects. (The manufacturer says those include an "increase [in] the risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior.")
As the Watts ran out of money, they turned more to the Community Services Board. By 2005, records show, Danny reported that he was shooting heroin and smoking methamphetamine as well as crack.
He had turned 18, so the Watts had lost any legal control over him. Every weekend he would disappear and return with a wad of bills, enough to finance his next round of booze and drugs. One time he showed up with a full-length fur coat. Another time, a Chevy Camaro.
Bobby and Mary said they tried to get Montgomery County police to investigate the men Danny hung out with in Maryland, but the police couldn't find anyone committing a crime.
Danny began having minor scrapes with the law: reckless driving, petty larceny, public drunkenness. Often, Fairfax police would just bring him home. "The cops here are unbelievably patient," Bobby said. "They understand the mental health system."
Bobby said a Fairfax officer once pulled him over for a traffic violation, looked at his license and asked, "Are you Danny Watt's father?" Bobby said yes, and the officer handed his license back and wished him good luck.
It was around his 18th birthday that Danny started having delusions. "We're sitting there watching TV," Bobby recalled. "Danny says, 'I just made David Letterman laugh. I think of a joke in my head and he laughs.' " Soon Danny couldn't watch certain shows because "he would become part of the show."
His parents took him to the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, a private mental hospital, in August 2005. He was given a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
"They said, 'Your son is severely deranged,' " Mary recalled. "I was shocked."
Mary began doing research. She found a private clinic in California that specialized in co-occurring disorders and put Danny on a plane for Los Angeles, but he got off during a stop in Las Vegas.
Danny was treated numerous times for short periods by the CSB, five times that December alone. He was almost always released within days, after therapists determined he was no longer dangerous.
* * *
"I'm sorry I had to do this. I'm surprised I can even do it, especially since I don't want [to] . . . Roy is always stuck in my head and he wants me dead and that's what he got, he was gonna torture me if I don't. You'll get over it and I'm in a better place."
Suicide note, from Danny
Watt's journal, March 2006
The terrible calls that Bobby and Mary Watt received came at all hours. Here's how they remember some of them:
-- January 2006: "Hello, this is Harlem Hospital in New York; we have your son Daniel here. He jumped from a moving subway train and fractured his skull."
-- February 2006: "Mrs. Watt? This is JFK Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey. Your son was found unconscious on an Amtrak train; he apparently had some sort of drug overdose."
-- March 2006: "Hi, this is the Fairfax County police. Your son was unconscious on a bus in Reston; can you please come pick him up?"
-- March 2006: "Yes, this is Suburban Hospital in Bethesda; your son was found having a seizure in the middle of the street."
That March, after Danny's third overdose in two months, Bobby asked the Montgomery County police to arrest his son, simply to keep him in a safe place. A drug possession charge was filed, and Bobby persuaded a Maryland judge to set a $5,000 bail to ensure that Danny would stay in jail.
While in jail, Danny saw a documentary on Travis Roy, a college hockey player who became paralyzed from the neck down while playing his first game for Boston University in 1995. Danny came to believe that "Roy" was speaking to him. "He said he was scared to death that Roy was coming to kill him," Mary said.
Danny tried to hang himself with his shoelaces. That act put him in solitary confinement, where he tried to hang himself with a sheet, records show. He was sent to Springfield Hospital Center, a state-run psychiatric hospital in Sykesville, where he hanged himself with a sheet again and had to be resuscitated.
After five months in Maryland, Danny was transferred to the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute near Falls Church. The CSB wanted Danny to go to its main dual-diagnosis residential home, Cornerstones, but it had an eight-month waiting list.
Around that time, the agency assigned Danny a therapist named Stephanie Goodwin. She had experience in dealing with co-occurring disorders, and somehow she connected with Danny. Goodwin persuaded him to attend therapy and to stay on his meds. (Goodwin declined to be interviewed.)
In September 2006, a bed opened at Cornerstones. Danny lasted about a week before bringing in wine and being kicked out. The Watts began using Virginia's involuntary commitment process more desperately.
Most outside examiners gave Danny a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and recommended he be hospitalized. But within the CSB, therapists weren't so sure he had both mental illness and substance abuse, records show.
Fairfax County mental health therapist Cynthia Anderson wrote that Danny "has not had enough sobriety/clean time after eight years of polysubstance use/dependence to ascertain that he has a separate and comorbid thought disorder."
Williams, the CSB's alcohol and drug services director, said in an interview after Danny's death that his staff thought Danny needed to stabilize his addictions before treating his mental illness.
"Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder," Williams said. "That's the answer. The question is his unwillingness, or inability because of his disorder, to have enough stabilization to accept treatment at the level we were attempting to offer it to him."
Top experts in co-occurring disorders say that attitude needs to change as research sheds light on how to treat such patients. "It's a relatively new phenomenon to talk about co-occurring," said James Reinhard, commissioner of the Virginia mental health department. "In my residency in the '80s, we were taught you treat substance abuse first, because you can't get a clear picture of mental illness first. . . . We've at last realized that doesn't make sense."
Finally, therapists at Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute hospitalized Danny for several months to test him at length. In February 2007, they determined that he had "schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type," as well as "poly-substance dependence."
The Watts said Goodwin, the CSB therapist Danny trusted, recommended in a meeting with CSB officials that Danny be placed in a more intensive, locked psychiatric hospital where psychotropic medications could be tried until a prescription was found to stabilize him for the long term.
Instead, Danny was released in April 2007, clean but still delusional, his parents said. The CSB recommended Cornerstones again, but again there was no bed available, the Watts said.
Danny kept getting arrested for minor charges, usually shoplifting. By the summer, Danny was spending most of his time in jail. Mary began pleading with anyone with a phone or an e-mail address to help her son survive.
Though the Watts felt their son needed the intensive treatment of a locked state mental hospital, Fairfax kept cycling him through their unlocked facilities. In August, he was again committed involuntarily to Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute.
For reasons that still aren't clear, a doctor at the institute granted Danny a pass to leave the grounds on Sept. 7, 2007, records show. He met up with another dual-diagnosis patient, a young woman, and he later told doctors that they spent the day smoking crack and drinking liquor.
That night, Danny was driving the woman's Toyota sedan the wrong way on Centreville Road. Police gave chase, and Danny veered off the road, overturned the Toyota and was ejected through the windshield. He suffered six broken vertebrae; the woman, a broken arm.
Danny walked out of the hospital three days later, when he learned police planned to file charges. After another series of binges and hospitalizations, Fairfax police picked him up on warrants charging him with eluding the police, reckless driving and driving on a suspended license, and he spent Christmas 2007 in the Fairfax jail.
This time he told his parents he was suicidal, and he was put in isolation.
At Danny's court date in February 2008, Fairfax prosecutors and police agreed to suspend a six-month jail sentence in exchange for his entering treatment. Danny chose not a co-occurring disorder center, but A New Beginning, a substance abuse treatment center in Chantilly, where the focus would be on abstinence and following rules. His parents were stunned that Danny was allowed to make the choice, rather then the judge or the CSB.
In mid-March 2008, Danny walked out and drank a bottle of wine. He was warned not to break the rules again. On March 31, Danny got another bottle of wine, brought it into A New Beginning and was expelled from the center.
The CSB told him he could have no services from the county for 90 days, other than perhaps to see a psychiatrist at a homeless shelter. CSB records show that the county had Danny phone some shelters. No beds were available, so he was allowed to stay at A New Beginning temporarily.
But the CSB also was required to notify the court that Danny had violated the conditions of his suspended sentence. Given Danny's long history of misdemeanors, he was looking at six months in jail.
On April 3, 2008, Danny walked out of A New Beginning, and days later showed up at his parents' house. Mary gave him clean clothes and two days' worth of medication. Two days after that he showed up again, for the last time, and handed over a well-worn book of poems he'd written. "He was really, really crying," Mary said. "Then I was crying. Then he was begging me to stop crying."
When Danny didn't call or show up after several days -- he always called, even when he was high -- Mary knew something was wrong.
About 3:30 p.m. on April 14, two seniors at Georgetown University were walking along the C&O Canal when they spotted what looked like a pile of rocks in the shallow water between the Whitehurst Freeway and the Key Bridge.
Police pulled the body out of the canal around 4 p.m. Television crews reported the discovery of an unidentified man on the air and on their Web sites. In follow-up comments that appeared that night on WRC-TV 4's Web site, someone posted one word: "Danny!!!"
But the body wasn't identified by police until the next day, after they found the business card of Danny's last counselor in his pants pocket. The medical examiner ruled the death was suicide by drowning.
* * *
"This feeling of peace
After I've been deceased,
Is a feeling to envy,
Despite me being missed.
So farewell to all,
And to me a good flight,
Down straight to heaven,
And for once, feel all right."
"I Wanna Drink With You,"
by Danny Watt, undated
Comments: email@example.com.


text:
Very interesting article from Cartoon Brew.
Not so much the southpark aspect, but more so, what the internet could mean for creators owning control of their products.
"This is a must-read article in the New York Times about the new deal that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have struck with Viacom. The deal, which is reportedly worth $75 million to its creators, includes a three-year extension of the series and the creation of SouthParkStudios.com, an incubator for new projects that, I believe, Parker and Stone will have an ownership stake in."
"The most attention-grabbing part of the deal, and very likely a first for the creator of an animated TV series, is that Viacom has agreed to give Parker and Stone a 50-50 split of ad revenues on digital platforms, though not on television. The deal was made possible thanks to the duo's lawyer, Kevin Morris, who in 1997 had the foresight to demand that the creators would share in any revenue not derived from the episode airings on cable. What was then a seemingly minor contract clause has today "created what may be a new model in the balance of power and money between creative artists and companies like Comedy Central," as so succinctly put in this op-ed in the Times. The precedent-setting contractual victory of the South Park creators is a cause of celebration for all creators, as the antiquated exploitation-based business models of the entertainment industry crumble in this new digital age and artists slowly but surely begin to receive equitable compensation for their creations."


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An International Space Station Expedition 13 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at the Kuwait Scientific Center, Salmiyah, Kuwait on Wednesday, 28 June, 2006. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 11:26 UTC. The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and WH6PN. The contact should be audible to anyone in the Hawaiian Islands. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. Additional listening options are listed below. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. IRLP - Connect to the IRLP reflector 9010. You may also connect via the IRLP Discovery website at http://www.discoveryreflector.ca/listen.htm. EchoLink - The audio from this contact will be available on the EchoLink *AMSAT* (node 101 377) and the *JK1ZRW* (node 277 208) conference rooms. Please connect to the *JK1ZRW* server to keep the load light on the *AMSAT* server. This will ensure good audio quality for all listeners. _________________________________ AUDIO STREAMING AND AUDIO REPLAY PARTICIPANT INFORMATION: To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 9052080 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO To access the Audio Replay of this call, all parties can: 1. Go to the URL listed above. 2. Choose Audio Streaming under Join Events. 3. Enter the conference number and passcode. (Note that if this is a recurring event, multiple dates may be listed.) Replays are available for 30 days after the live event._________________________________ The Scientific Center of Kuwait's (TSCK) mission is dedicated to the advancement of the sciences and cultural heritage of Kuwait. The Center promotes public awareness, knowledge of and commitment to the care and conservation of the wildlife and ecosystems of the Arabian Gulf region. The Center is a gift to the nation built by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences and was opened in April 2000. The Scientific Center serves as an excellent center for environmental education in the Arabian Gulf region. Visitors can observe natural habitats such as the desert and marine life. Participants at the Scientific Center of Kuwait will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. What are the effects of zero gravity on your body? 2. How far are you from Earth? 3. How do you feel when you are in space? 4. How is the weather up there? 5. Will there ever be human life on the moon? 6. What types of experiments are you running and how does micro-gravity affect them? 7. How do the stars look like from the ISS? 8. What are your feelings while spacewalking? 9. How do you communicate in space? 10. What do you miss most while living on ISS? 11. What is the view like from the ISS? 12. Are there any smells inside the ISS? 13. What are you in charge of on the ISS? 14. Why and how did you become an astronaut? 15. What is your timetable on board up there? 16. How can you cope without gravity in space? 17. How do you use toilet in space? Where does waste go? 18. What is your favorite activity when you are in space? 19. What noises do you hear on board? 20. Does your body have a feeling for daytime and nighttime? 21. What do you feel during take off? 22. What kind of food do you eat on the ISS? Please note, the amateur equipment on the ISS will be turned off prior to the contact. It will be returned to regular amateur radio operations as soon as possible afterwards. Information about the next scheduled ARISS contact can be found at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/upcoming.htm#NextContact. Next planned event(s): TBD pending shuttle launch date. ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.rac.ca/ariss (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada). Thank you & 73, Kenneth - N5VHO ---- Via the sarex mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe sarex" to firstname.lastname@example.com
AMSAT Home


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Cherry Blossom Almond Hand SoapReviewing: The Dial Corporation Pump Hand Soap | Rating:
We needed new hand soap for the bathroom and I normally buy lavendar or watermelon scents. Or sometimes just an unscented one.
This time I saw The Dial Corporation just came out with one I had not yet seen. It's a Cherry Blossom and Almond Pump Hand Soap. For anyone familiar with the regular/original version of Jergen's hand lotion ... well, this hand soap smells exactly like that lotion. That is my favorite scent and reminds me of being a little girl remembering my mom always using that lotion. It's a pleasant scent for me. But this soap is not made from the same company as the lotion, so I was surprised. But you can't trademark a scent and I am glad that Dial came out with this one!
I normally find Dial soaps a little hard, but this hand soap is great. Most of their soaps seem to be anti-bacterial and they dry my skin out and sometimes make me sneeze. Guess I am allergic to the anti-bacterial stuff they use?
My husband loves the smell of this soap too and tells me EVERY time he washes his hands! Ok, so I understand the scent is nice, but every time?
It's gentle and suds up nicely.
There is a slight pink tint to the soap. The scent isn't so overpowering that men won't like it. They actually do like it and it seems I will be buying this one for both our bathrooms now. If they come out with a bar soap, I'm definitely buying that too.


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The American Enterprise Online
Another NHL No-Star Game
by Howard Fienberg
On Saturday afternoon, North American will take on the World at the National Hockey League (NHL) All-Star Game. Players will strut, more goals will be scored than in an entire week of regular season games and the fans will be treated to the best that hockey has to offer. In theory. But what is the point of this annual exhibition game: making money, serving the greater glory of the game, or entertaining the fans?
Voting for the All-Stars has become an important tradition for most American sports leagues, so that they can demonstrate that truly care about and listen to their fans' wishes. It has been an imperfect exercise. But do the leagues ultimately trust the fans to do what's right?
Not really. Roy MacGregor, a hockey writer for Canada's National Post, uses baseball to illustrate the dilemma. In 1957, seven players from the Cincinnati Reds were voted to the National League All-Star Team by fans stuffing ballot boxes. A Cincinnati newspaper printed tear-off ballots and encouraged fans to fill in and enter them. As a result of the skewed balloting, seven of Cincinnati's mostly sad-sack players were voted to the All-Star team that year, despite the team finishing around .500 and in fourth place. True baseball fans exploded in rage. Commissioner Ford Frick took control, in the best interests of the game, yanked two of the Reds, Wally Post and Gus Bell, in favor of two fan faves: Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.
But the commissioner did not stop there. All-Star voting was snatched away from fans the following season and turned over to the experts: players, managers and coaches. The fans did not regain power until 1970.
Fan balloting rarely results in what could be called the "best" starting line-up. The NHL All-Star game is no exception. This year's North American starters include forwards Vincent Damphousse and Owen Nolan, (both of the San Jose Sharks) and the World starters include forwards Sergei Federov (Detroit Red Wings) and Teemu Selanne (Sharks) and defenseman Sandis Ozilinsh (Florida Panthers). A problem emerges from this roster. Nolan, Federov, Selanne and Ozilinsh are four exciting stars having mediocre to abysmal seasons. Damphousse has not only played poor hockey this year, he has never been, nor will ever be, a star. So while those four made the cut based on past achievements, what convinced NHL fans that Damphousse belonged anywhere near an All-Star game?
Now that many votes are taken online for All-Star games, can hackers screw up the voting? Roy MacGregor all but made this accusation when he noted that three of the undeserving players come from San Jose, which also happens to be the heart of Silicon Valley. Once more, baseball provides the most frightening anecdote. Chris Nandor, a Red Sox fan convinced that Nomar Garciaparra needed to start the All-Star game a few years ago at shortstop, designed an automated program to stuff Major League Baseball's online ballot-box. By the time the league realized there was a problem, Nandor's program had sent in 39,259 votes.
Despite the NHL's assurances, encryption and security measures never outpace the ingenuity of those out to crack them and the Internet is teeming with hackers of all skills and motivations from around the world. But you don't need to be a talented computer geek to disrupt fan voting. Just sit down with a big pile of ballots and write them by hand. It is more time consuming, but much more simple.
Or, in the case of the NHL, just make sure that enough of the people coming to see your games fill out ballots. That could be why the Sharks, who regularly sell-out their arena, can muster so many ballots in favor of their lackluster players, while teams with more players than fans, like the Carolina Hurricanes, can never muster enough voting power to put Ron Francis, one of the best players of all time, into the starting line-up.
But Francis is not the only great or exciting player left on the bench this year. Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Darius Kasparaitis came close to being voted as an All-Star starter for the World team this season. Unfortunately, his undeserved reputation as a "dirty" player means that he will never be invited to an All-Star game. He is one of the league's most exciting defenseman; he simply hits people into the boards rather than dancing around them to score goals. The league has tended to allow dirty players into the game only when they can also rack up points, like Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe.
The NHL has yet to decide who its fans are, let alone how best to serve them. It thus is unsurprising that the end product at the All-Star game is often bland, pasteurized hockey, regardless of the number of goals scored. The game is a microcosm of a long-running identity crisis and the current system of haphazard voting is the mere throwing of a bone to hockey fans. At some point, the NHL must decide who knows best and give them control-the fans, the "experts," or the league.
Hopefully, if the NHL ever learns to trust the fans, it will at least devise a better system of collecting fan opinion.
Howard Fienberg is editor of PuckHog.
return to Howard's published works... or Howard's main page....


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Sunday, June 5, 2016
Food and Beauty Expo July 2016
There are two interesting exhibitions coming up in the month of July.
Mark your calenders from 8th July (Fri) - 10th July 2016 (Sun) and head to Mid Valley Exhibition Centre for some great offers.
This is a very unique fair as it houses two fairs at the same place. For those interested in FOOD, head on to the Food Festival and for Beauty Fanatics visit the Healthy Living and Beauty Expo. But why not visit both since you're already there?
Here's a sneak peak at some of the categories at the Healthy Living and Beauty Expo.
* Health and Organic Food
* Food and Beverage Products
* Fruits and Vegetables
* Eco / Healthy Food
* Vitamins and Health Supplements
* Herbal Products
* Spa and Health Products
* Slimming Solutions
* Beauty Centres
* Cosmetic Products
* Cosmetic Surgery
* Aesthetic Surgery
* Fitness Centres
* Fitness Equipments
* Weight Management
* Hair and Nail
For Food Festival Event, expect a variety of food and beverage products which include the following categories.
* Health and Organic Food
* Biscuits and Snacks
* Bakery Products
* Beverages
* Canned, Frozen and Processed Food
* Dairy Products
* Ice Creams
* Rice, Noodles, Pastas
* Fruits and Vegetables
* Eco/ Healthy Food
* Seafood, Meat and Poultry
* Instant Food
* Sauces and Seasoning
* Kitchen Appliances
* Vitamins and Supplements
* Herbal Products
Admission is FREE!
Operating Hours: 10.00am - 9.30pm
See you there and Happy Shopping!
Posted by choypengism at 8:29 PM
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We're a rolling strolling bunch of rag tag folk. We make theatre, music, festivals and other bits and pieces in between. We're as likely to be found in the back of a country pub as a fancy theatre. We are always up for a chat.
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
A Fleeting Invite - A Little Drink & A Shindig
So we asked if we should open a pop up arts space and a whole host of folks said yes. They not only said yes, they have rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in up to their wonderful-arty-community-helpful-imaginative necks.
And after gallons of paint, a few skips, a lot of white spirit, trips in vans and a lot of good fun, the time has come for us to open our temporary doors.
Our little venue will throw its arms wide on Friday 6th March from 7pm. There will be a working bar, there will be music, some art, some poetry, a few little nibbles and a whole lot of wonderful folks. We'd love you to come and join us. There is no charge, no levy, nothing for you to do other than to come and enjoy yourself - a little or a lot.
So come one, come all. Feel free to bring your dancing shoes.
The Fleeting Arms is about to set sail!
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"Vision Is More Like a Song than a Painting"
About two weeks ago, in Part II of my article A Fundamental Flaw in Numenta's HTM Design, I wrote that "visual recognition is not unlike speech or music recognition." Yesterday, I did a little search on Google and discovered that Jeff Hawkins and I are pretty much in agreement. On page 58 of his book, On Intelligence, Hawkins writes that "vision is more like a song than a painting." On page 31, he writes, "this is how people learn practically everything, as a sequence of patterns." Hawkins and I are on the same page, at least as far as this aspect of intelligence is concerned.
One would think that Hawkins would stick to his original principles about how the brain learns but he turns around and contradicts himself after he co-founded Numenta Inc. In Numenta's HTM model, Hawkins abandons his gut instincts and gives in to Dileep George's erroneous ideas on how visual learning should work. George believes that the visual cortex sees an image as a hierarchy of small patterns, as opposed to a hierarchy of sequences of patterns. He thinks that the brain sees an entire image all at once and that the visual receptive field increases as one goes up the hierarchy. As I have shown previously on this blog, George is wrong, period. Hawkins is correct that we learn and see everything as a sequence of patterns. We never see a whole picture all at once, in terms of small concurrent patches. There is no pattern learning except at the bottom level of the memory hierarchy and it does not work the way George believes it does either. Why did Hawkins change his mind?
Blinded by that Old Math Magic of Academia
I think Hawkins allowed himself to be bamboozled by George's mathematical sleights of hand. It's the old "when all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" sort of thing, all over again. George is still playing the math hand at his new AI venture, Vicarious Systems, Inc. I wish him well but he will fail, in my opinion. AI and the brain are not about math. As Hawkins claims in his book, On Intelligence, intelligence is almost entirely about prediction and sequences of patterns. When we finally unravel the workings of the brain, we will be amazed at the simplicity of its principles.
Bayesian Crap
I am going to say something that will come as a surprise to many. Some may even take offense. But, you know me, I always tell it like I see it. That whole Bayesian learning crap that Dileep George introduced to Numenta's HTM is just that, crap. The brain does not use Bayesian statistics to learn which pattern may succeed another. The brain learns as many patterns and sequences as it can, regardless of their probability of occurrence. What matters is that they occur frequently enough to be more than just random noise. Probability only comes into play long after the learning phase, during decision making, e.g., when it comes time to determine whether an object is an apple or an orange. Recognition happens correctly because many branches of the tree of knowledge compete for attention and the strongest (i.e., the most appropriate) branch wins. It's that simple. No Bayesian crap is required. I'll have more to say about temporal learning in an upcoming article.
Shooting AI in the Foot and Bragging About it
My advice to Hawkins is to be true to his original vision and stop listening to academia. Academia have been shooting AI in the foot for the last sixty years or so. That whole symbolic AI nonsense would be laughable if it weren't so pathetic. What a waste of time and brains. But guess what, they are not about to change anytime soon. Worse, they have no shame about their failure. They brag about their "accomplishments".
You've heard it here first. :-)
See Also:
Jeff Hawkins Is Close to Something Big
A Fundamental Flaw in Numenta's HTM Design
Friday, August 5, 2011
How Jeff Hawkins Reneged on His Own Principles
Posted by Louis Savain at 12:36 PM
2 comments:
- The Neanderthal said...
"AI and the brain are not about math. As Hawkins claims in his book, On Intelligence, intelligence is almost entirely about prediction and sequences of patterns. When we finally unravel the workings of the brain, we will be amazed at the simplicity of its principles."
Right on spot. It ought to be simple, otherwise something as complex as the brain couldn't work at all. However, we still MIGHT need powerful math to figure it out (though I hope that that's not the case, for purely selfish reasons)
- December 15, 2011 at 4:59 AM
- Alexander B. said...
Wow. Glad to meet you Louis.
Right my thoughts here.
When I read On Intelligence, I mention that Jeff was already double minded on this question. And later it goes worse, dark side prevail within him :).
- December 29, 2015 at 4:12 AM
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Olivia and Steve first encountered each other as students at Winthrop University when she invited him on a blind date to Carowinds theme park—the same place where her parents met. As fate would have it, the two fell in love and dated for three years before getting engaged. In January 2016, Olivia came home to find their apartment filled with flowers and candles; Steve proposed to the sound of her favorite song, "Ocean" by John Butler Trio. The wedding was held on Folly Beach followed by a reception at Tides Folly Beach hotel.
Image by Southern Tides Photography, LLC


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I'm so late to the party it's frightening, but I JUST read The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua yesterday. I could not put it down -- and I was reading it on my phone. It was SO GOOD.
So, first of all, after the poor woman has been excoriated and vilified in the press, its really important to start where she started. She started writing this book at the moment she thought that everything she had done -- the very fiber of who she was as a parent -- had backfired on her in the worst way possible. She had, if you will, hit rock bottom. Her younger daughter had rejected her wholly and completely (it will probably not surprise you to learn that her daughter was 13 at the time) and Amy was devastated.
From that place of devastation, of questioning herself, of pain, frustration, and probably anger, Amy began writing. And the beginning of the book is laugh-out-loud funny. She makes fun of herself. She admits that she may not have chosen the best path for parenting, but like all of us, she started with what she knew. Who you are as a parent is shaped so much by your own experiences as a child. Maybe you swing completely the opposite way, maybe you follow your parents' lead exactly, and maybe you take what worked and change what didn't.
I think that my parenting style is very different from my own parents -- and because I am a genius and the best at everything in the world, my way is better. If you ask my parents, it is entirely possible that they will tell you that my children are feral animals over whom my husband and I have no control. This, in stark contrast to the docile "seen and not heard" children my siblings and I were (although I seem to remember my fair share of terrible behavior as a child). And there have been perhaps a handful of times that I questioned the wisdom of my parenting and wondered if I should maybe knock some respect into my kids. Metaphorically, of course.
Anyway, Amy started with what she knew, and it worked. Beautifully! Her older daughter followed the rules and excelled and sparkled. And then her second daughter came along. And everything Amy thought she knew turned out to be wrong.
Amy's book is about her flaws as a mother. Anyone who reads it and comes away thinking that Amy is telling every parent everywhere to follow her methods with every child has a serious reading disorder. There are several moments in the book where Amy tells you what she was thinking -- and what she said out loud. Because -- and perhaps this has never happened to you, because I am sure that YOU are perfect, because you read my blog and I AM PERFECT -- sometimes we are stubborn. And sometimes admitting a mistake is really, really hard.
The crux of Amy's argument, as I read it, is that good parenting is HARD. Guess what? IT IS. It is damn hard to parent effectively.
My youngest is two years old. If I worked a little harder, he could be toilet trained. But that would require a lot of effort on my part. Right now, we have a system where, when I remove his diaper and free his baby manhood, Baby A. grabs himself and shouts "Peepee! Peepee!" and then runs around the house screaming maniacally and laughing.
I follow him around for a few minutes, regularly scooping him up and taking him to the toilet, where he does not pee. Then, I either put a diaper on him, or go do something else -- whereupon he pees on the floor.
I am lazy.
Amy would never do that.
My daughters took music lessons. And like most Western parents, I settled for MAYBE half an hour of practice daily. Currently, neither of my daughters takes lessons. Amy's daughters are concert-level musicians, and they are grateful. Yes, both of them.
Anyway, all of this is to say, if your only exposure to Amy Chua is what you've read ABOUT her, you should read her book. And Amy, we should really have coffee.
P.S. I JUST read Amy's web site now, and it made me laugh a lot because she basically says exactly the same thing about her book that I just said.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
An Open (Love) Letter to Amy Chua
I'm so late to the party it's frightening, but I JUST read The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua yesterday. I could not put it down -- and I was reading it on my phone. It was SO GOOD.
Posted by WriterGrrl at 3:44 AM
Labels: All My Children, As the World Turns: You Mean it Doesn't Revolve Around Me?
4 comments:
- Tori said...
Great post about the best book I've read in a long time! I laughed and cringed (from looking at my own very few imperfect parenting moments). Will certainly come back to read your blog as well now, thanks!
- Kristen said...
I am really surprised that you felt this way. You seem to have bought into Amy's theory that anyone who doesn't parent like her is lazy. I think missing from most discussions of Amy's book is how privileged you have to be to even attempt her patenting style. It takes a lot of money to pay for those lessons and instruments. You need even more money to pay someone to get your kids to the lessons or have a very flexible job. Finding a flexible rewarding job is not easy, and not available to everyone. Moreover, I thought her parenting and her life in general showed a complete lack of creativity. Yes, being a parent is hard and there is no right way, but Tiger Mom left me feeling empty, like she had nothing to offer.
- WriterGrrl said...
Tori -- thanks!
Kristen, I really didn't get that from Amy's book. I definitely did not think she was calling other parents lazy. And yes, it costs money to pay for lessons, but I think we all make choices about how we spend our money. And Amy seems to have made parenting her priority over the job -- she describes racing home from office hours to sit with her daughters at lessons. I don't know, I really liked the book, and I think it takes a certain amount of courage to look at what does and doesn't work, as Amy did here.
- Anonymous said...
Great posting bro, keep up the good work! Had a great time in your site.
Love Letters


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I can only imagine what it feels like to go hang gliding. Standing there at the end of a massive drop off of some kind; with the world open ahead and below you. While you have every intention of soaring into the sky and having the ride of your life, there is a very real possibility you may plummet and crash. Tonight is the eve of my new job. I've started new jobs before and this one is actually easier than the ones before it, but it is still filled with anxiety and emotion. The possibility and potential with any new opportunity is awesome and inspiring but there is a very real possibility of screwing things up. I think I worried a lot more about screwing things up when I joined other organizations, but I think I've got that part under control right now. So the horizon is ahead of me with every intention of having the ride of my life! But I want to go over some of the things that got me to this point – specifically what I learned from my other jobs.
I think what makes this opportunity a little more secure and exciting is that I really took the time to figure out what I like to do and what environment I thrive in. The easy part is what I like to do, lots of stuff. I have a strong computer background with almost a decade of experience, I love to do business process improvement, and I really like to get stuff done. Kind of vague but it gets me pointed in the right direction – I am not in finance, HR or engineering. I also had to narrow down the computer stuff a little since I am not a good programmer. Don't get me wrong, I had to write code for my undergraduate degree but at this point 12 year olds program better than I do.
The much bigger (and more important) aspect for me to figure out was what kind of environment I thrive in. What I mean by this is what kind of organizational culture, workplace structure and team interaction makes me happy. I did not give this aspect of my professional life any consideration before but I can tell you that it is number one on my list of what I look for in an employer today. Work is work. For the most part, it is all similar with challenges, expectations, up and downs. I found out that the true distinction is the culture of the company. Do people come to work just to get a paycheck and work just enough not to get fired or is there true cohesion and focus with the team? Are the people who love their jobs only at the top of the heap or does the person on the bottom of the ladder also enjoy coming to work each day? This is actually important stuff!
When you are in a work environment that is not a good fit culturally, it makes going to work painful. Since we spend a majority of our waking day at our jobs, being happy or at least satisfied pretty darned important. I took these lessons learned from my own personal experience and made that my deciding factor going forward. I can say that my new company has an awesome culture and I don't even work there yet! It energizes me just to think that I get to be a part of it! That is my overall point, because my new opportunity is so awesome I am anxious tonight but I am not afraid. I am on the edge of a new adventure but I believe that I am going to soar because I am so ready to jump off and not worry about the potential downfalls.
Lori Buresh


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If you share your name with the Olympic badminton silver medallist P.V. Sindhu, go get a free pizza today.
Leading food brand Pizza Hut is celebrating the success of Sindhu by offering free Pan Pizzas on Saturday to those who share the badminton player's name.
Pizza Hut earlier announced a similar offer to celebrate wrestler Sakshi Malik's bronze win.
The initiative received an overwhelming response as hundreds of women named Sakshi walked away with a free pizza.
"The initiative is a small token of our appreciation for the Indian Olympians who have won medals at Rio," said Unnat Varma, Managing Director of Pizza Hut (Indian subcontinent) in a statement.
Pizza Hut also tweeted out a message for women who were named Sindhu.
Let's celebrate stellar performance by #Sindhu. Ladies, A Personal Pan Pizza is on us if your name is Sindhu.
T&C* pic.twitter.com/e9wA1zsPFA
— Pizza Hut India (@PizzaHutIN) August 19, 2016
The fast food chain also tweeted something similar out when Sakshi Malik, India's bronze medal winner achieved her accolade in the women's 58kg wrestling.
Let's celebrate the Pride & honour #SakshiMalik got us.
Celebrate 'Sakshi' with us. #PizzaHutINhttps://t.co/Q8JUJKlG6E
— Pizza Hut India (@PizzaHutIN) August 18, 2016
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Updated Date: Aug 20, 2016 16:18:37 IST


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Market Buzz: Oil prices and US 'fiscal cliff' weigh down markets
Russian equities traded mixed Thursday as declining oil prices overshadowed optimistic sentiment on global floors. The MICEX added 0.2% and the RTS shed 0.2%.
European markets closed higher on Thursday after the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged as expected, while strong factory-order data from Germany also contributed to growth. The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.7%. Germany's DAX 30 rose 1.1% – its highest closing level since January 2008 – as data showed that factory orders jumped 3.9% in October. France's CAC 40 rose 0.3% on gains in oilfield services firm Technip SA.
US stocks made modestly advances Thursday amid corporate gains in tech sector while investors closely watched the 'fiscal cliff' budget negotiations. The Dow Jones added 0.3%, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.5%.
Asian stocks advanced on Friday, supported by commodities and banking gains. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.8%, while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.3% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.2% and the Shanghai Composite jumped 1.2% on the successful IPO of the state-owned insurance giant People's Insurance Company (Group) of China.


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'Heavy Metal' magazine, December, 1982
December, 1982, and 'Maneater' by Hall and Oates in in heavy rotation on MTV and on the FM radio stations.
Montxo Algora provides both the front and back covers for this month's issue of Heavy Metal.
This issue is actually rather good, one of the better ones for the year. There are ongoing installments of Kaulta's 'Starstruck', Pisu and Manara's 'The Ape', Duillet's 'Yragael', Fernandez's 'Zora', Jones and Wrightson's 'Freak Show', and Corben's 'Den II'.
In the Dossier, we have capsule reviews of the year's LPs; groups like Saxon, Girlschool, U. S. metal, and Shooting Star have, sadly, disappeared from the musical consciousness in the intervening 30 years.
Billy Idol sulks for the camera; an article about sensory deprivation tanks represents a late follow-up to the theme of the 1981 movie 'Altered States'; and we're given reviews of a large number (of what turned out to be entirely forgettable) fantasy novels.
Higher-end advertisers still elude HM; this issues features a full-pager from a mail-order Head Shop. Back in December '82, the idea of pot being legalized in Washington state - or in any state - seemed very, very, far off....
Moebius ably represents with a nice little four-page entry, 'The Emerald Lake', which I've posted below. It's all about Brazil and emeralds.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Posted by tarbandu at 2:09 PM
Labels: Heavy Metal December 1982
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