text:
Little men. I can still hear my dad and mom's voices calling my toy soldiers that in my mind. Usually it was in some derogatory sentence such as " pick up all these damned little men", or some really good expletive followed by "little men" when someone stepped on one in the night going to the only bathroom in the house.
Some kids were sports kids with baseballs, basketballs and footballs (who the hell ever heard of soccer in the states until the arrival of Pelé?). Some kids were into trucks with Tonka, Buddy L and Ertl vehicles (and Matchbox and, later, Hot Wheels) of various shapes and sizes to fulfill a multitude of construction or general maintenance work. A few kids were into chemistry sets and telescopes – but you didn't hang around those kids. Me, I was a toy soldier kid.
Marx was the primary producer of toy soldiers. Oh sure, there were others. Ideal, MPC ( They made the weird ring-hand soldiers that came with weapons you put in the hands and always lost within a couple of days), Tim-Mee, Remco, Britans, Swoppet, Elastolin (if your old man was in the military and you lived in Europe) and Airfix (who had a plethora of HO scale soldiers). But, Marx was the main supplier of toy soldiers.
Depending on your whims, allowance, birthdays and holidays you could have a varied collection of figures from cavemen to spacemen. Along with a smattering of the aforementioned, I also had calvary; cowboys & indians; revolutionary rebels and British; Zorro and Mexicans and Texians; Romans; and, of course, army soldiers. All manufactured by Marx. When you tossed in the assorted collections from other manufactures it was a significant collection.
In addition to the figures, there were the accessories and the playsets . Again, the other manufacturers put out some half-hearted playsets, but Marx ruled the domain. Tin lithographed buildings, all sorts of hard plastic accessories. Cannons that actually shot tiny plastic shells/cannon balls. Animals too, Camels, cattle, dogs & cats, sheep, chickens and, of course, horses. Fort Apache was probably the most famous of all the playsets. Thank the stars that John Ford always had a wooded stockade in his westerns to authenticate Marx's bastion of the wild west.
And as much stuff that Marx cranked out for the non-army playsets; they shined with the military equipment to support the green troops. Pillboxes, jeeps, trucks, tanks, landing craft, halftracks. Even aircraft! And if the Marx military industrial machine wasn't enough to satisfy your lust for mobilizing your forces, the other manufacturer's cranked out vehicles as well. Auburn made this great half-track out of hard rubber that had a machine gunner moulded into it. It actually would hold a few of your Marx soldiers. Ideal made a tracked Howitzer that was huge in comparison to the Marx vehicles, but was probably closer in real scale to the troops.
The thing I always wondered about was why the Marx tanks for US/allied forces were M-48 Pershings and not M-4 Sherman. Marx did eventually crank out both Panther and Tiger tanks for the german troops they began manufacturing in the mid-60's. In fact, they created British, Russian, Japanese and French forces as well as the green US G.I.'s. And, they began to sell them in small packages in the 5 and Dime stores so that, for a portion of your allowance, you could have a few krauts or brits to augment your regular forces.
Then 1964 and the world of "little men" would never be the same. In February of that year, Hasbro introduced G.I. Joe, the 11 ½ inch tall "action figure" and his plethora of equipment and the proverbial handwriting was on the wall. The growing dissatisfaction with the war in Viet-Nam also contributed to the demise of the toy line. In addition to growing up, we were growing out our hair, listening to rock and roll and discovering girls. Getting a driver's license became more important than looking through the Sears catalog.
A gaping hole in the toy soldier production was super heroes. Oh, Ideal came out with a playset that included Batman, Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Joker and Riddler in 1966 as Batmania took the nation, but by and large the spandex crowd never really took off (no pun intended). You just didn't have the opportunity to have Superman or Captain America kick the crap out of the Nazis or have Spiderman help tame the wild west with the 7th Calvary. Oh, Marx put out some oversized figures of Ironman, Spiderman, Thor, Captain America and Daredevil, but unless you were going to do the Godzilla thing and have them step on the enemy they were really useless for make believe battles.
Fast forward to the new century and WizKids began to manufacture HeroClix. Originally designed to be gaming pieces, old fart comic and toy soldier fans like me became enamored with the cool static poses and the variety of figures available. I tried to resist the siren song of these multicolored "little men and women and creatures of undetermined sex, but the combination of being super hero focused and the possibility of recreating hordes of figures became overpowering.
The one thing that drove me crazy with HeroClix was the fact that you had to buy a box and it was up for grabs as to what you got in the box. Sort of like cracker jacks, but without the popcorn and peanuts. Several decades ago, I would have traded with my friends the duplicates I had for something they might have that I wanted, but today that isn't an option. For better or worse I don't give a rat's ass about the game itself. I only am interested in the figures and I simply am not going to waste a day at a game session to see if some kid wants to trade figures. Thank the heavens for ebay! Although it's more expensive, I've been able to amass my DC, Marvel and Independent heroes and villains without the frustration of having six or seven mole men or mirror master figures. Considering the continuing escalation of the price of regular action figures, this may be my solution to the problem of deciding whether to pay the mortgage or buy that latest series of figures.
17 Comments »
If only you had a time machine! Now Hasbro os making those Marvel "Handfull of Heroes" that you could take back and play with your green army men!
Great blog Glenn.
I recently saw those and I picked up a bag of them. And, you're right about wishing I'd had them "back in the day" to assist my army men!
What a great read!
Thanks for the kind words!
nice article though never understood why any one would want those little soliders that looked like they were ment to try and destroy a persons foot. though given the cost of figures heroclix and the smaller figures may be the new way of collectors getting their fix
Chad, It was simply a case of using what was available at the time. You always preferred the guys shooting or throwing hand grenades or using a flame thrower to the minesweeper or the radio man. Ant the last choice was the guy marcing. What a bore. The marching guys were the first ones killed in battle.
And, yes, I am really getting into collecting the HeroClix figures. Just got a custom Negative Man to complete my Doom Patrol. AND, I got a Hammer of Thor chariot for under $20 including postage!
I never had more than a handful of army men but I always had plenty of Cowboys and Indians. I remember playing with some of my uncles hand-me-downs as well, and I had the remnants of Fort Apache. That really was one of the best playsets.
Yea, the Fort Apache was the coolest. The original was a rectangle, but later they introduced a covered top for soldiers to fire from and they made the wall attachments for the watchtowers L-shaped so they would remain in place better. They also produced a damed cool blockhouse that was two stories. You could remove the roof to position pioneers and soldiers to shoot at the marauding indians.
Very cool read, Glenn! Didn't Marx make a 'Guns of Navarone' playset?
Yea, Jason, they did. It was a giant hard plastic mountain with an opening near the top for the guns. Came with a butt load of german soldiers and some green army men.
LOL@ "the Marx military industrial machine"
Thanks for this glimpse into the past, Glenn. I've always kinda wondered what I would have been playing with had I been born a decade or two earlier. I'm sure it would have been exactly as you've just described. The other kids can keep their Tonka trucks, baseballs and chemistry sets!
Great blog.
You guys were lucky to be born in the age of action figures, but I gotta say that army men and their brethern were a damed fine way to pass the hours of my youth. Although I had to live with static poses I did have enough troops to mimic the mongul horde. I even had my stuff divide up into army men to take outside and play with others and army men that stayed in the house and were played with only by me.
I could never see the interest in trucks. All you could do was either crash them into one another or play construction. Little men, however, gave you a chance to command forces and pit the lives of your men agaist others in epic battles that could change the course of history!
Great blog, Glenn. I was wondering if you'd ever touch on a few other Marx toys? My dad would go on and on about how one of his two favorite toys was his Johnny West figure.
Tell you what, Tanner, I'll do my next blog on Johnny West and the Marx large scale action figures!
Thanks a lot, Glenn. I've been interested in Johnny West and Mike Hazard for a long time after hearing about them from my dad.
I was born in '78 and I had a ton of little army men, and some cowboys and indians. I'm not really sure how I ended up with them but I'm guessing my dad got them for me out of nostalgia. I did play with them but not as much as He-Man or GI Joe or whatever came down later. They were from another era but I still remember having battles with my dad when I was home sick from school. They never defined my inner toy-nerd but I understand the affection others have for them. I'm still amazed when I see bags of them for sale in drug stores.
Great blog!
Thanks for the kind words about my humble blog!
Belive it or not, I actually asked for a full size ironing board for christmas once as I was always using my mom's to set up my "little me" and stage battles. I loved that I could adjust it to the right height and didn't have to sit on the floor and deal with the carpets making it hard for the soldiers to stand up!
There were only certain kids that "got it" regarding the rules of engagement and the strategy of playing with little men. Many oafs thought you were supposed to blow them up with black cat firecrackers or set them ablaze with lighter fluid (yes, the stores would sell lighter fluid to kids back in my youth – it was assumed you were sent to the store by your mom because her lighter needed refilling.) and turned into goo.
I think the static figures from Hasbro and Mattel (Super-Hero Squad, Batman Brave & Bold) are rekindling some interest in little men…
Leave a Comment
- April 2019 [113]
- March 2019 [144]
- February 2019 [150]
- January 2019 [156]
- December 2018 [125]
- November 2018 [166]
- October 2018 [173]
- September 2018 [138]
- August 2018 [134]
- July 2018 [140]
- June 2018 [212]
- May 2018 [191]
- April 2018 [174]
- March 2018 [182]
- February 2018 [156]
- View complete archive...


text:
Techwin high stability diodes laser sources adopt high-performance LD and has stable wavelength and high output power. The control system based on advanced microprocessor, together with high-precision ATC and ACC control circuit, realize stable output and ensure the simplicity and immediacy of the manipulation simultaneously. Techwin can offer the corresponding communication interface and control software according to the requirement of the user in order to achieve computer control.
Techwin diode laser sources can adopt different kinds of LD according to the requirement of the user, including F-P,DFB,ECL; the typical operating wavelengths which can be selected include: 750nm?808nm?852nm?1035nm?1064nm?1550nm etc.; single mode fiber output, polarization-maintaining fiber output as well.
Techwin single-mode diode laser source is a highly integrated system source. The desktop encapsulation uses high-definition LCD which displays the current and voltage synchronously and has continuously tunable output power; suitable for scientific research and manufacturing testing. In addition, Techwin can provide modularized encapsulation according to the requirement of the user, which is characterized by compact structure, DC supply and convenience for system integration.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
It looks like your browser is out of date.
To use all features of KLM.com safely, we recommend that you update your browser, or that you choose a different one. Continuing with this version may result in parts of the website not being displayed properly, if at all. Also, the security of your personal information is better safeguarded with an updated browser.
|28.72 m
|36.25 m
|Cruising speed:
|850 km/h
|Max. range:
|4.500 km
|Max. passengers:
|Seat pitch
|Europe Business Class:
|33 in./84 cm
|Seat pitch
|Economy Comfort seat:
|33 in./84 cm
|Economy Class:
|31 in./79 cm
30 in./76 cm (row 8/9/10)
Have you booked a KLM flight? Log in to My Trip or go to Flight Guide (available from 31 days before departure) for lots more info about your aircraft and crew.


text:
Rio-style Celebration with Brazilian Beats and Cachaca Drinks
Tuesday, February 21
5:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Free to Attend
Can't make it to Rio de Janeiro this year? Nacional 27 in River North will offer the next best thing at their "Carnival 2012" cocktail party on Fat Tuesday, February 21. The Nuevo Latino restaurant and lounge, inspired by the flavors and ingredients from the 27 countries comprising Central and South America, will feature live Brazilian music by the Bossa Tres Trio from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. and custom cocktails made with Brazilian-based ingredients.
In-house mixologist and general manager Liz Samples will offer three different types of Caipirinhas, a classic Brazilian drink made with cachaca (a Brazilian liquor made from distilled and fermented sugarcane juice). Guests may select the Classic Caipirinha, the Smooth & Spicy Caipirinha made with coconut, mango, ginger and lime or the Lux Caipirinha, made with yuzu sour juice ($8 each). The restaurant will also feature a Veev Acai Berry-blended Mojito for $10. Acai is a "superfood" berry found in the Brazilian Amazon.
Executive Chef Francisco Vilchez's full tapas and dinner menus will be available.
Nacional 27
325 West Huron
Chicago, IL 60610


text:
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he will issue a decree banning Afghan security forces from asking international troops to carry out airstrikes under "any circumstances."
The announcement came amid anger over a joint Afghan-NATO operation this week that Afghan officials said killed 10 civilians, including women and children, in northeast Kunar province.
"I will issue a decree tomorrow that no Afghan security forces, in any circumstances, in any circumstances can ask for the foreigners' planes for carrying out operations on our homes and villages," Karzai said in a speech at the Afghan National Military Academy in Kabul.
Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces, in particular airstrikes, have been among the most divisive issues of the 11-year-old war, although the U.S.-led coalition has implemented measures to mitigate them. But the Afghan military also relies heavily on air support to gain advantage in the fight against Taliban militants and other insurgents.
Many have expressed concern that the impending withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014 will deprive government security forces of that crucial weapon. President Barack Obama has announced that he will withdraw about half of the 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan within a year.
According to Gen. John Allen, the former top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, the coalition can provide air support to troops on the ground anywhere in Afghanistan within 12 minutes of a request. He said Afghan forces would have to get used to not having the same abilities in the future.
Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, declined to comment on Karzai's remarks because alliance officials have not yet seen the decree.
Karzai said Allen's successor, U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, told him that Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, had requested the airstrike late Tuesday in Kunar's Shigal district, which borders Pakistan. When Dunford met with Karzai two days later, the coalition said the general expressed "his personal condolences for any civilians who may have died or been injured as a result of the operation" and said investigators were trying to assess what happened.
Karzai said Afghan forces were ready to take over their own security despite concerns about persistent violence that have cast doubt on their capabilities.
"We are happy that foreign forces are withdrawing from our country," he said. "We are happy for all their help and assistance so far, but we don't need foreign forces to defend our country. We want our Afghan forces to defend their homeland."
However, former Afghan Gen. Amrullah Aman was surprised by the remarks, saying international air power is essential since one of Afghanistan's main weaknesses in defending itself is the lack of a fully developed air force.
"In a country like Afghanistan where you don't have heavy artillery and you don't have air forces to support soldiers on the ground, how will it be possible to defeat an enemy that knows the area well and can hide anywhere?" he asked.
"There must be air support to help all those ground forces on the battlefield."
The U.N. has said the number of civilian deaths and injuries attributed to foreign and Afghan forces, including airstrikes, has declined as both groups strengthened policies to protect civilians, but it also expressed concern there could be an uptick as the summer fighting season approaches.
Local Afghan officials claim five boys, four women and one man were killed in the bombardment. Four insurgents also were reported killed, but Karzai said that did not justify the loss of so many civilian lives. He said the public had complained not only about foreign forces but about Afghans as well.
'The people must not be afraid of you," Karzai told the military audience. "They must feel safe when they see you in their areas and villages."
Associated Press writer Kim Gamel in Kabul contributed to this report.


text:
The nation's premiere
Grappa-focused bar
with over 100 Grappas
for tasting.
Bar 888, located on the lobby level of the InterContinental San Francisco, is the nation's premiere grappa bar and offers one of the finest selections of grappa and grappa cocktails in the country. Offering over 100 hand-seleced grappas to taste, Bar 888 also offers an innovative selection of grappa-based cocktails, along with a carefully cultivated selection of wines, beers, and premium spirits. Some of the bar's most popular cocktails include the Italian Mojito with Marollo Honey Infused Grappa, mint sugar, lime juice and soda and the Grappa's Bay with Grappa Nardini Bianca, blood orange bay leaf infusion, maple syrup and lemon juice, as well as the The Cable Car, with Bar 888's twist on a classic featuring Arzente Brandy, triple sec, lemon and lime juice.
Bar 888 is adjacent to the InterContinental Michelin-starred restaurant, Luce, which serves New American cuisine. A menu of light but satisfying bar bites at Bar 888 is offered from Luce's kitchen.


text:
Oma hosting teenuse kasutamiseks valige allosas kasutada soovitud domeen.
Note: For non .uk domain names we'll add 1 year to it's renewal date on successful transfer, therefore 1 years renewal is charged at the time of transfer. If you can't transfer your domain, or you decide not to transfer we'll fully refund this fee. .uk domain transfers are free, however it will keep the same renewal date.
The Business and Pro Hosting include a free domain registration or transfer & renewal on selected types.
Copyright © 2019 HostPresto!. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Behind the Temple of the Three Graces
This is a really lovely temple, and it even looks better from the front. But as there were too many people there, to make a really nice shot. So I went and took one from the back :)
In the shot, the Temple of three Graces in Lednice, Czech Republic.
HDR from three shots, taken with Canon 7D with Sigma 10-20mm lens, from a tripod.


text: On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 04:26:00PM -0500, Lechner, David A. wrote: > > Hello Again to all you Beowulf users! > Similar to Doug Edline's poll.... > > I was a subscriber in the late 1990s, but had to sign off the list for several years as my job changed. > I used to follow many of your posts with such interest, and hope you oldtimers (and newer subscribers as well) are all doing well !! > > I'm working on a study on computer system recapitalization and thought this might make an excellent topic to engage on the Beowulf list. > We expect the results to have broad implications for US Federal Government IT planning as well. > > I am researching the optimal life expectancy for a military program to plan for The rules may differ from the public to the private sector. In the public sector there is an issue with write down for tax purposes that comes to play. These schedules are set by various tax rules and decisions often made at purchase time. Once written down to zero it can make sense to invest in more hardware. If you must operate with a five year tax write down then you are effectively paying for the hardware over a five year life and an upgrade three years later become much more expensive than it would if a three year schedule was established at the onset (and accepted by the tax man). A federal contractor may have to factor in both public and private aspects. In all cases there is a 'growth' need. i.e. the demand for the cluster resources will likely increase. A computer room, with fixed air conditioning and AC power is much harder to upgrade than the machines in the room. i.e. It is hard to write down a building in three years to justify an expansion. This alone can justify a computer hardware refresh in the same space. Some military programs have very long contractual obligations that involve qualification and acceptance cycles. These obligations can dominate any schedule so read or write this fine print with care. It should be possible to mine the history of the top 500 computer system hardware to draw some graphs that will establish key expectations. Moore's law comes to play. Warranty is key.. fast disks tend to have a 3 year warranty. Same for CPUs motherboards and other stuff. In my limited experience the warranty is set by product factory and market life not so much by operating life time. When hardware comes out of warranty any analysis must 'spike' service and repair costs at the end of warranty. An end user might purchase hardware with a five year purchase cycle. A developer organization that needs to stay current and Moore's law is often able to justify a yearly 50% hardware refresh cycle. But "computer system recapitalization" is a financial phrase/ decision and has financial accounting rules at its core i.e. financial and legal not computational science. Some grant money limits and bounds the life of hardware, some releases it at the end of the grant to a 'pool'. In terms of hardware, a cluster purchased today will do tomorrow what it does today. Thus some attention must be made to changes in care, feeding, problem sets, competition, data sets and algorithms over time. A company that has double the transactions and inventory after two years of growth may need four (N=?) times the computation resource because the algorithms to process future data sets are non linear. A contractor would do well to have a staged hardware plan such that development is done on hardware as current as you can get followed by deployment, operation and refresh on much more slower and deliberate schedules. The agency may set a number of constraints that have consequences. One example is the FAA computer system upgrade plans. By the time hardware is qualified it is all but impossible to purchase and deploy. The problems with the FAA air traffic control system problems are well documented as are some of the homeland security computer system programs.... In the next couple of years I also expect to see Green clauses in federal contracts and laws that mandate or reward the replacement of hardware when a sufficiently green alternative is available and deployed. Yet another constraint... that may constipate things even more. -- T o m M i t c h e l l Found me a new hat, now what?


text:
LEDs (light emitting diodes) are light sources based on semiconductor devices. LEDs are used for a broad range of applications, such as backlight illumination of mobile phones or displays, traffic signals with low maintenance, car head lamps and rear lights, head-up displays, projectors and general illumination. They offer a number of advantages compared to other light sources, including long lifetime, low total lifecycle costs, compact size, easy implementation into end devices, and particularly, very high efficiency. The use of LEDs for illumination can save up to 85 % in energy consumption compared to standard light sources, offering the potential to reduce about 15 % of the total worldwide energy consumption if all standard light sources were substituted.
At epitaxy, the lattice constants of the epitaxial substrate and the active layer have to match very well to avoid lattice defects. Typical epitaxial substrates do not provide the appropriate properties for operation of the LED, such as high heat conductivity, transparency or high electrical conductivity.Therefore, to produce high power LEDs, manufacturers often perform a layer transfer process step to transfer the active layer from the epitaxial substrate onto the final carrier with the suited properties. This is accomplished by eutectic bonding or by direct bonding on wafer level, depending on the process and LED material, with subsequent lift-off of the epitaxial substrate.
EV Group wafer bonding systems support the required layer transfer techniques. Using multi-subtrate bond chucks, several LED wafers can be bonded in parallel. In addition to offering the lowest cost of ownership through an optimized wafer bonding process, EV Group provides all levels of automation from manual to fully automated tools. Moreover various wafer to wafer alignment options, ranging from mechanical to high accuracy optical alignment, are available. Please see our related products EVG®520IS and GEMINI® for detailed information.
Ostar high power LED 100 - 1000 lm. Courtesy of Osram.
EV Group Partners with NSI to Enable First Wafer-Level Heterogeneous Integration of GaAs on Silicon for RF Front-End Module Manufacturing
more news ..
MEMS Engineer Forum 2019
Imec Technology Forum 2019
more events ..
Related Products
EV Group Introduces Industry's First Fully Automated Wafer Bonding System for HB-LED Manufacturing
Compound Semiconductor and Silicon-Based Power Devices
Technical Papers
Solutions for R&D
Product Range Brochure
EV Group Corporate Video


text:
Baseball Bat Robbery Lookout Pleads Guilty in District Court
KECI-TV is reporting that Cruz Sebastian Bernardi, one of the men involved in the baseball bat beating and robbery at Jayz Mart convenience store in January, appeared in Missoula District Court Tuesday and changed his plea to guilty.
Bernardi told Judge Karen Townsend that he was the lookout during the robbery in January in which four men assaulted Patrick Bendig, the store clerk, with a baseball bat and stole money out of the cash register to pay their rent,
Bernardi admitted he checked to make sure the store was empty and called the others inside. He will be sentenced in August.


text:
The shiny, 278-page book titled "Tangled Up in Tapes Revisited" is an exhaustive chronicle of Dylan's 32-year career and a testimony to the public's continuing obsession with the most influential songwriter of the rock era. The book lists every song Dylan has sung--and in what order--at almost all of the hundreds of concerts he has given.
If the book's contents reveal every detail of his performing career, the color portrait on the cover--an expressionless Robert Allen Zimmerman, circa the late '80s, eyes concealed by dark glasses--is a teasing reminder of everything else Dylan has kept hidden these many years. Like the man himself, the drawing gives away almost nothing.
On the bus this night, the real Dylan, who has placed his own dark glasses on the table in front of him, flips quickly through the book. He's sitting in the dining nook and shows more interest in when the coffee will be ready than in the book.
Other performers might be curious enough to look back on, say, an earlier show they played in Wisconsin. (For example, from Page 164: On Nov. 1, 1978, at the Dane County Memorial Coliseum, Dylan sang 27 songs, opening with "She's Love Crazy" and "Mr. Tambourine Man," closing with "Forever Young" and "Changing of the Guards.") Or maybe a more recent one along the same highway, 11 years later. (Page 209: July 3, 1989, at the Marcus Amphitheaterin Milwaukee; 17 songs, starting with "Early Morning Rain" and ending with "Maggie's Farm.")
Dylan finally just hands the book back to the man who brought it aboard the bus.
Told he is welcome to keep it as a souvenir, Dylan says, "Naw, I've already been all those places and done all those things."
Then he pauses slightly and adds, with a trace of a smile, "Now if you ever find a book out there that's going to tell me where I'm going, I might be interested."
BOB DYLAN HAS ALWAYS BEEN A POP OUTSIDER, AND THERE ARE few signs, as he enters his sixth decade, that he is surrendering his independence. When he first appeared in the folk clubs of New York's Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, there was an element of choirboy innocence--and mischief--in the smoothness of his cheeks and the gentleness of his smile. He not only taught rock 'n' roll to think during that decade but he also showed a stubborn refusal to play by anyone else's rules.
Today, Dylan can still disarm you with a sudden smile, but there is wariness in the eyes. It's the instinctive suspicion of a survivor who knows, after years of public scrutiny, the dangers of letting down his guard.
On May 24, 1991, Dylan turned 50, and the media thought it would be the ideal time to try to put this cultural hero--and puzzle--into perspective. But he refused more than 300 requests for interviews, agreeing only to a brief telephone Q & A that ended up in Spy magazine, another in a journal published by the National Academy of Songwriters and a radio interview syndicated by Westwood One.
Instead, he hit the road, in year four of what Dylan-watchers now call the "Never-Ending Tour"--an ongoing road show that to date has racked up 450 performances and been seen by about 3 million fans in the United States, Europe and South America. By design, the tour has avoided the usual media glare. Dylan has concentrated on smaller venues and turned his back on the sort of superstar hoopla that would put him in a national spotlight. Madison was one of the final stops on a trek last year that took him from Burlington, Vt., to Zurich, Switzerland.
A notable exception to his low-profile stance during his 50th-birthday year was the infamous Grammy Awards appearance in New York City last February. During the '60s, a conservative pop Establishment declined to honor the prolific Dylan with a Grammy. The ice broke a bit in 1979, when Dylan won the Best Male Rock Vocal award for his single, "Gotta Serve Somebody." At the 1991 awards ceremony, a new generation of directors of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences tried to make up for the years of slight with a Lifetime Achievement award. Instead of a mellow Dylan, caught up in the sentimentality of the occasion, taking the stage, he remained the outsider.
Exhausted after a flight from Europe and suffering from the flu, he looked disheveled and distracted. And on a night when most of the country was caught up in the fervor and patriotism of the month-old Persian Gulf War, he and his band launched into a blistering if all but unintelligible version of "Masters of War":
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.
It was classic Dylan--enigmatic and provocative. Fans and reporters asked themselves what happened. There were whispers about drugs or drinking. But Dylan remained outside of the controversy: no apologies made, no answers offered.
For much of his career, Dylan's reluctance to explain himself or his actions seemed to be a strategy to heighten interest in his legend. Now, on the bus to South Bend, with a reporter allowed along for the ride, he sounds genuinely uninterested in his own notoriety. He wants no part of the confessional talk that fuels most celebrity interviews. Most of all, he has no patience with dissections of his famous past.
"Nostalgia," he says sharply, "is death."
As he gazes across the tour bus table, Dylan even smiles wickedly as the reporter suggests the hackneyed headlines that editors might have tacked on the birthday retrospectives that never appeared:
"Mr. Tambourine Man Turns 50!"
"Bringing It All Back Home."
Or--and this suggestion draws a full-scale laugh--"Knockin' on Heaven's Door."
There's no hostility in his manner, but he fences instinctively, warding off certain questions. He listens to--and ignores--one after another until one catches his interest. He dismisses old-days inquiries as "ancient history" and counters a query about his personal life with, "Do people ask Paul Simon questions like that?" Like a lot of artists, he feels that his work expresses all that people need to know about him.
"It wasn't me who called myself a legend," he says sternly and suddenly in response to a question about his revered place in rock. "It was thrown at me by editors in the media who wanted to play around with me or have something new to tell their readers. But it stuck.
"It was important for me to come to the bottom of this legend thing, which has no reality at all. What's important isn't the legend, but the art, the work. A person has to do whatever they are called on to do. If you try to act a legend, it's nothing but hype."
But isn't it flattering that critics and artists have pointed to him as rock's most important songwriter? He just shakes his head.
"Not really," he continues, more softly. "Genius? There's a real fine line between genius and insanity. Anybody will tell you that."
CHICAGO'S AMBASSADOR EAST, ON THE HISTORIC AND TONY GOLD Coast, is one of the city's grand old hotels, the home of the Pump Room restaurant, where everyone from gangsters ( Al Capone) to Presidents (Nixon and Reagan) have dined. The hotel also has its share of show-biz ties. Alfred Hitchcock shot scenes with Cary Grant here in the late '50s for "North by Northwest," and Led Zeppelin caused a stir in 1977 by throwing a couch out of an 11th-floor window.
On the Never-Ending Tour, Dylan does a lot of sleeping on one of two tour buses as they eat up the miles between concert cities. But today, Dylan has unobtrusively checked into the Ambassador, which is a short drive from the Evanston campus of Northwestern University, where he is scheduled to perform at 9 p.m.
It was in Chicago in 1974 that Dylan, with the Band in tow, returned to live performing after an eight-year hiatus prompted by a reported motorcycle accident in 1966 and his subsequent desire to spend more time with his family. The atmosphere then, however, was dramatically different.
About 6 million mail orders were received for tickets to the tour's 40 shows. The city was abuzz with reporters from around the world, all seeking an exclusive interview, and with scores of fans hoping for private audiences with the man frequently referred to as the "spokesman for his generation." Dylan's hotel at that time was on alert--security had been warned about Dylan-seekers--fans with a "glazed look" in their eyes.
Today, the midafternoon atmosphere at the Ambassador East is relaxed--just the usual flow of guests, most of them in town on business. Dylan is upstairs in his room, relaxing until the bus picks him up around 7 p.m. for the ride to Northwestern's McGaw Hall, a basketball gym-cum-auditorium. Tonight he'll play for about 3,500 fans, a crowd a little more than a fifth the size of the one that gathered at Chicago Stadium in 1974. But these small halls are his choice; he prefers the intimacy and audience rapport they provide.
By the time he has driven over freezing streets to the concert site, a heavily bundled crowd is filing into the hall. As they unwrap their mufflers and take off their hats, another contrast between then and now is made clear. Until the mid-'80s, Dylan played chiefly to fans from his own generation. Now he performs to mostly college-age audiences, young people who weren't even alive when "Blowin' in the Wind," recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, hit No. 2 in 1963, fans who see him less as a superstar or personal savior than as a gifted artist, an American icon.
Kevin Martell is 20 years old and seeing Dylan for the first time. He and two friends sit quietly in the hall waiting for the show to begin, displaying none of the raucous exuberance usually found at rock shows. When he talks about why he wanted to see the show, he sounds a bit like he's signed up to hear an honored novelist or historian deliver a lecture.
"There are a few bands today, like U2, that talk about real issues," he says. "But I think the '60s artists were the ones who were really into it, and Dylan is one of the few you can still see. I think songs like 'Masters of War' are as important today as when he wrote it. He's like a legend."
A few rows away, Robert Blackmon, 19, a chemical engineering student, can reel off a long list of his favorite new bands--including Jane's Addiction, Nirvana and Primus--that he feels speak directly to the frustrations and aspirations of his generation. But, like Martell, he sees Dylan from a broader perspective: "He has a timeless, universal quality," Blackmon says.
The band walks out on stage first, a three-man group made up of guitarist John Jackson, bassist Tony Garnier and drummer Ian Wallace--veterans whose collective resumes range from Asleep at the Wheel, the lighthearted Western swing band, to King Crimson, the arty veteran British rock group. They've been on the road with him now for more than a year.
There is a charge of electricity as the houselights dim. Without a word of greeting, Dylan, in a black shirt and striped black pants, steps to the microphone. With a quick glance back at the band, he starts to play. The lighting is so dim that it's hard to make out his features, but his familiar raspy voice is unmistakable.
Dylan seemed at times in the '70s and early '80s to be fighting his way through concerts--stiff and largely motionless as he faced challenging audiences that often complained about anything in his song selection or arrangements that didn't conform to their expectations. But now, in his introverted way, he enjoys the interaction with the audience. He's comfortable enough on stage to move a bit, and there's an occasional trace of playfulness in his eyes. And there's no rush to get it all over with--the instrumental interludes between verses get more of an airing-out than in the past.
Over the next 90 minutes, he runs through songs from the '60s, '70s and '80s--love songs and social commentaries, mostly his own songs and some by other writers. Dylan surprises the older fans early in the set by gliding into a tender, shields-down rendition of Nat King Cole's pop ballad "Answer Me, My Love." He stands stock-still, his head slightly tilted as if to recall the emotion that the song triggered the first time he heard it. Later, looking like a young rock upstart in a Memphis roadhouse, he bobs and weaves to kick off a spirited version of Johnny Cash's old "Folsom Prison Blues." The band supports Dylan with a frisky, rockabilly-and-blues-accented sound.
At first, the audience simply watches politely. It takes Dylan's old "All Along the Watchtower," a song that the younger listeners may best recognize from a recent recording by U2, to get them moving. By the end of the set, hundreds have raced to the edge of the stage, moving in time with the music.
Dylan looks down at them briefly, seems pleased and just keeps playing. As usual, he has said little during the entire concert beyond an occasional "thank you." No introductions, no eye contact, no chitchat. The show ends and there's a tremendous burst of applause when Dylan returns for a quick two-song encore. Then he bows slightly toward the audience, turns abruptly and heads offstage, directly into the chill of the night and onto the bus--no post-show handshaking or small talk. His only question to his aides: "How was the sound out there?"
When the bus arrives around midnight at the entrance of the Ambassador East, the band members file off, heading for their rooms. But Dylan stands on State Street, shifting his weight back and forth in the cold and staring into the distance. He wants to stop in at a blues club in the neighborhood for a while and then get some dinner.
After an hour of blues, Dylan, his bodyguard and a tour aide end up in a nondescript diner a few blocks from the hotel. Sipping at a bowl of soup, Dylan says he likes the mandolin riff in R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion," which is playing on the radio. He listens to a run-through of comments from the new generation that filled the seats the Northwestern show.
"Older people--people my age--don't come out anymore," he says. "A lot of the shows over the years was people coming out of curiosity and their curiosity wasn't fulfilled. They weren't transported back to the '60s. Lightning didn't strike.
"The shows didn't make sense for them, and they didn't make sense for me. That had to stop, and it took a long time to stop it. A lot of people were coming out to see The Legend, and I was trying to just get on stage and play music."
He shifts restlessly in the chair. The brightly lit room is almost empty, and no one recognizes him at first. After a few minutes, however, the diner manager and a customer at the other end of the room start huddling and looking his way. Dylan doesn't notice. He's still thinking about the comments of the students and their interest in the '60s.
"A lot of people say the '60s generation didn't turn out well--that they didn't live up to their dreams or follow through or whatever--and they may be right. But there still was a lot that no one else has been able to do," he says firmly.
"People today are still living off the table scraps of the '60s. They are still being passed around--the music, the ideas.
"Look at what's going on today: There used to be a time when the idea of heroes was important. People grew up sharing those myths and legends and ideals. Now they grow up sharing McDonald's and Disneyland."
When Dylan and his party leave the diner half an hour later, the manager approaches the singer at the cash register and asks for a photo or an autograph. "Maybe tomorrow or something, OK," he says, not very convincingly. But he doesn't want to be rude. Just before he walks out, he shakes the manager's hand.
Back at the hotel, Dylan pauses at the entrance to the Pump Room and stares at some of the hundreds of celebrity photos on the wall. He moves slowly down the hallway as his aide and his bodyguard point to faces they recognize-- Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, even David Bowie and Mick Jagger. Dylan's picture is not on the wall.
He stares briefly at a photo of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, but then loses interest. It's 2:30 by now, and the outsider heads toward the elevator.
THE NEXT NIGHT, DYLAN PACES IMPATIENTLY BACKSTAGE AT THE Dane County Memorial Coliseum in Madison. A snowstorm had snarled traffic, and it has taken Dylan's bus four hours instead of two to get here from Chicago. He seems anxious to get the whole evening over with. Finally, he goes back to the bus to wait out the opening act.
On stage, instead of the relaxed mood he brought to the concert at Northwestern, he struggles for inspiration. The audience cheers as much as the fans at Northwestern, but Dylan's vocals--on the very same songs--lack the emotional edge of the previous show. The exception is the ballad "I Believe in You":
They ask me how I feel
and if my love is real
And how I know I'll make it through
They look at me and frown
They'd like to drive me from this town
They don't want me around
'Cause I believe in you.
It's a nakedly personal song, a reflection on the isolation of an outsider's life, and the tension in Dylan's performance emphasizes its poignancy.
Despite a standing ovation at the end of the concert, Dylan can't seem to wait until he is on his way to the next town. He again walks directly from the stage to the bus. The heater is on but he sits bundled up in a rumpled sweat shirt and jacket at a small table in the front compartment. Across the aisle, in the TV-lounge area, the band members are laughing as they listen to a bootleg tape of Buddy Rich. On the tape, the great jazz drummer is delivering a tongue-lashing to his band. Dylan, who plans to produce a movie of the late drummer's life, has heard the tape before and his mind is elsewhere.
"That was a useless gig," he says flatly.
When someone mentions that the audience seemed to enjoy it, he waves his hand. "Naw, it just wasn't there. Nothin' wrong with the audience. Sometimes the energy level just doesn't happen the way it should. We didn't invite this weather to follow us around."
He lapses into silence.
The night before, after the Northwestern show, he had been more talkative, and more philosophical about the ups and downs of touring. "You hear sometimes about the glamour of the road," he said then, "but you get over that real fast. There are a lot of times that it's no different from going to work in the morning. Still, you're either a player or you're not a player. It didn't really occur to me until we did those shows with the Grateful Dead (in 1987). If you just go out every three years or so, like I was doing for a while, that's when you lose touch. If you are going to be a performer, you've got to give it your all."
At the blues club in Chicago, he had let his guard down--briefly--when an old friend, who had heard that Dylan was in town, tracked him down. The tour bodyguard braced as a middle-aged man in a business suit walked up to Dylan and put an arm around him. But the smile on Dylan's face said that it was OK. The man's name was Arnie, and he had gone to high school with Dylan in Hibbing, Minn.
Dylan sat bemused while Arnie regaled the reporter with tales. "Back in English class," Arnie confided, "Bob wrote me a note: 'Arnie, I'm going to make it big. I know it for sure, and when I do, you bring this piece of paper and for two months, you can stay with me, no matter where I am at.' I still have it at home."
Dylan laughed easily.
"You know, I took off and joined the Navy and Bob went down to the University of Minnesota and the next thing I know, he's got this record out," Arnie continued. "I've got some of his albums at home and some picture books of his life story. The song I like the best is 'Slow Train'--that and 'Lay, Lady, Lay.' "
Dylan stepped in only when the reporter asked Arnie his last name. "Naw," he said protectively, "don't drag him into all this."
Tonight on the bus, just out of Madison, Dylan is much less at ease. He looks like a street person--as drained as he appeared on last year's Grammy telecast, as he waits for someone to bring him whiskey and coffee, trying to separate himself from the frustrations of the night.
When the band members retire to their bunks in the back of the bus, Dylan begins to loosen up a bit. Still, with no Arnie to make the revelations, Dylan keeps the veil tightly drawn around his personal life. Any talk about his former, 13-year marriage to Sara Lowndes, or their four now-grown children is strictly off-limits. So is his longstanding relationship with Carole Childs, an Elektra Records artists and repertoire executive.
The music, however, is not off-limits. He is intrigued by a comparison between the message of "I Believe in You" and the speech he had delivered at the Grammy Awards. "It's possible to be so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you," he had said that night. "And if this happens, God will always believe in your ability to mend your own ways."
When the reporter tells him that the song and speech both seemed to be about the need to be true to one's own beliefs, Dylan responds easily. "That song is just about overcoming hardship," he volunteers. "Songs are mostly personal--something happens in your life or flashes through and then it's gone, and sometimes it's a song and sometimes it's just lost. Sometimes things works, sometimes they don't."
These days, he says, they don't more often than they do. At one point in the conversation, he pulls a notebook from his jacket and starts scribbling. "It's a song I'm workin' on," he offers, and then adds: "Part of the secret of being a songwriter is to have an audacious attitude. There was a time when the songs would come three or four at the same time, but those days are long gone."
It's a delicate topic, but Dylan continues.
"Once in a while, the odd song will come to me like a bulldog at the garden gate and demand to be written. But most of them are rejected out of my mind right away. You get caught up in wondering if anyone really needs to hear it. Maybe a person gets to the point where they have written enough songs. Let someone else write them." Still, he writes enough for a new album every couple of years, and some--including 1989's "Oh Mercy"--are widely acclaimed.
He shrugs at the mention of all the "new Dylans" who have been touted over the years--displaying a rare flash of pride.
"That's never been a worry," he says. "There wasn't anybody doing my thing--though I'm not saying it was all that great. It was just mine and no one was going to cover that territory. No one frames language with that same sense of rhyme. It's my thing, just like no one writes a sad song like Hank Williams or no one writes a bitter song like Willie Nelson. My thing is the forming of the lines."
Dylan is loose now. He's not letting the questions go unanswered. He could easily say he was tired and call an end to the discussion. But he is leaning back on the seat, involved in the conversation rather than fencing. Like most songwriters, he doesn't like to dissect his material, but he agrees to give his opinion about some of the reporter's favorite Dylan songs.
He nods when "Every Grain of Sand" is mentioned.
"That's an excellent song, very painless song to write," he says without hesitation. "It took like 12 seconds--or that's how it felt."
He doesn't seem as enthusiastic at the mention of "Tangled Up in Blue," one of his most-performed post-'60s songs. "I always thought it was written too fast, too rushed. Sometimes that happens in a song--just too many lines, as if I were racing to get from here to there."
Dylan nods again at the mention of "Just Like a Woman."
"That's a hard song to pin down," he says. "It's another one of those that you can sing a thousand times and still ask what is it about, but you know there's a real feeling there."
Dylan pauses, as if suddenly self-conscious.
"I'm not trying to say any of these are great songs--that they'd be high up on a list of all the songs ever written."
His answers become increasingly short at the mention of other, older songs, but he does comment on the large number of love songs on the critic's list as opposed to the political songs that earned him his greatest fame in the '60s.
"They call a lot of my songs political songs, but they never really were about politicians," Dylan says, lighting a cigarette. "The politicians don't make a difference. It's the businessmen behind them."
Dylan smiles, then adds: " 'All Along the Watchtower' may be my (only) political song," apparently referring to the line in the song: "Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth/ None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."
It's well past 1 o'clock when the driver announces that the bus is approaching Chicago, about a third of the way to South Bend, and the conversation has switched to Hollywood's fascination with rock 'n' roll. Given his role in the culture of the '60s, it seems probable that some filmmaker would want to use his story to explain America in the '60s.
Would he welcome such a film?
"Absolutely not," he says, almost contemptuously. "No one knows too much about (my life), so it's going to have to all be speculation. Who was it that said it: Fame is a curse. There's a lot of truth in that."
Looking through the side window at the lights on the outskirts of Chicago, he adds: "Look at Elvis--he's bigger now than when he was living. He lives on in people's mind. But you wonder if people are remembering the right things about his music, rather than all the stuff that people wrote about him."
WHEN THE TOUR BUS stops to let the reporter off at a motel near O'Hare International Airport, Dylan says he wants a cup of fresh coffee. One would assume that somebody would go and get it for him. Instead, Dylan walks into an all-night diner and sits at the counter with a tour aide. He's unnoticed amid a handful of truckers and motorists taking a break from the icy highway. It's a bleak scene, worthy of an Edward Hopper painting, and seeing Dylan as part of it suggests, at least momentarily, a clear image of faded glory.
Not everyone at 50 would want to spend all these months on the road, especially in the numbing cold of winter.
If Dylan maintains the pace of the Never-Ending Tour, he'll do about 120 shows this year. "That may not sound like a lot," he says. "Willie (Nelson) and B. B. King do a lot more, but it's a comfortable number for me." He also says that he reserves the right to halt the tour at any time. "Whenever it does start feeling like work, that's when I want to stop," he says. "Get away from it for a while. You don't want to be a prisoner of this (touring) any more than you want to be a prisoner of anything in life if you can avoid it."
But for now, the road is his choice and he seems grateful for the chance, after all these years, to be able to move about the world at his own pace, freed somewhat from the prison of his '60s mantle.
In the last analysis, the reasons for Dylan's cultural impact are as much a puzzle to the enigmatic performer as they are to others.
"There's no one to my knowledge that isn't surprised by their longevity, including myself," Dylan said wearily, wiping the sleep from his eyes as the bus made its way from concert to concert. "But it's very dangerous to plan (far ahead), because you are just dealing with your vanity. Tomorrow is hard enough. It's God who gives you the freedom, and the days you should be most concerned with are today and tomorrow.
"It's one thing to say, 'There's a new record out and people are responding to the new songs,' which is encouraging. But that's not the case. There's no new album, and it's hard for me to know just what that means, why people come out and what they are looking for or listening for. . . . Maybe the same things I was looking for when I wrote them."


text:
Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
Recent remarks by Israeli and foreign experts all appear to confirm that Iran has already passed the "point of no return" in its quest for atomic weapons, despite years of solemn vows that the Islamic Republic would never be permitted to reach this stage in its nuclear program.
"We are going in the wrong direction and there is now certain capability," former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Deputy Director Olli Heinonen said last week.
Heinonen noted that Iran now possesses all the material and know-how to construct the nuclear component of a warhead in less than a month, if it so chooses. In other words, Iran is already a nuclear power that just hasn't yet decided to actually build a bomb.
That assessment was backed up by Israel's former military intelligence chief, Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin, who told reporters at the Jerusalem Press Club that Iran could construct a complete nuclear warhead in three months if it began now.
Yadlin still believes America will attack Iran if all diplomatic efforts fail, and he urged Washington to not worry about full-scale war, since all that is really needed is a brief, but determined aerial campaign.
But by now, Iran, and most Israelis, understand that the West is not going to take military action to stop the Islamic Republic from going nuclear. They failed to keep the materials out of Iran's hands, they failed to prevent Iran from passing the "point of no return," and, like with North Korea, the West seems content to sit on its hands, figuratively speaking, until Tehran conducts a nuclear test.
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates
For Information & Reservations:
E-Mail: email@example.com
Israel Today
Free to Your Inbox


text:
What do you need help on?Cancel X
It's cold, dank, and the peasants hate you. As lord of your realm, you've built the castle of your dreams, battled bloodthirsty dragons, engaged in brutal treachery, sent troops abroad to war, and defended your land against marauding armies. But they are still not happy. Maybe you shouldn't have poured hot oil on their heads? Can you maintain peace and happiness for all in your land?
Game List Statistics
Now Playing
0 Users
Wish List
1 User
Hot List
0 Users


text:
Port St. Joe city commissioners are willing to give thought to moving the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency out of the county Welcome Center.
Port St. Joe city commissioners are willing to give thought to moving the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency out of the county Welcome Center.
First, however,, they�d like to see a little give from the Board of County Commissioners.
City commissioners agreed Monday to consider a proposed move of the PSJRA offices from the Welcome Center to the Local Color building now housing the Gulf County Chamber of Commerce, but only if the county will rework an interlocal agreement, pick up the insurance at the Welcome Center and cover PSJRA moving costs.
The county has broached the city about moving the PSJRA out of the Welcome Center as the staff at the Gulf County Tourist Development Council has grown.
The TDC and PSJRA share the Welcome Center under a lease agreement from the city, which owns the land on which the Welcome Center sits, to the county.
The building itself was moved from St. Joseph Peninsula to the city using TDC funds, and city attorney Tom Gibson noted that the lease agreement indicates the city owns the land and building.
The city is amenable to considering the PSJRA move, but only if the BOCC agrees to changes in an interlocal agreement long sought by the city.
The interlocal agreement was entered into in 2005 as part of the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) review for WindMark Beach.
The provisions of that agreement, Gibson noted, have either been met or dropped in the years since as the bursting of the housing bubble took the wind out of the sails of development at WindMark Beach.
The city has for nearly a year attempted to have a provision that requires the city to pay a fire tax to the county for establishment of a fire station at WindMark Beach reworked to reflect the changing dynamics on the ground.
Specifically, the city wants to divide the fire tax � equal to a fraction of a mill worth roughly $25,000-$30,000 a year depending on property values and building at the development � into three equal parts.
One part would go to the Highland View Volunteer Fire Department, another to the Beaches Volunteer Fire Department and the final third would go to the Port St. Joe Fire Department.
The reasoning for the change is that those three fire departments are the primary units responding to any fire at WindMark Beach or along much of the southern end of Gulf County.
�There is not any reason to build a fire station out there until there are a certain number of homes,� said Mayor Mel Magidson. �That is a no-brainer.�
Despite proposing the change several times during joint meetings, the city has yet to secure county sign-off on the change to an agreement that has long been a source of tension between the city and county.
And, Magidson noted, the amended interlocal agreement lets the county off the hook for $600,000 to be spent as the county�s share of a proposed new recreational complex.
Yet, still, the BOCC was holding out on the fire tax changes.
�We keep hearing about the county wanting to have better relationships with the city, and we are trying our best do that and I feel like we are just spinning our wheels,� Magidson said.
The county also wants the city to agree to charge utility consumers the same rate, whether inside or outside the city limits, a practice the city embraced more than two years ago.
Lacking any give from the county, city commissioners wondered during a special meeting Monday why the city should consider moving the PSJRA.
�I don�t know why we are discussing moving out,� said Commissioner Phil McCroan. �We have a contract. We own the property the house is on.�
Commissioner Rex Buzzett said the city has a valid lease for 10 years under which the PSJRA must be provided working space in the Welcome Center.
Unless the county was willing to pick up the moving costs � at least $800 � and pick up the insurance on the building which is now paid by the city, commissioners had no real incentive to agree to the move.
�There is no reason for us to move and it cost our agency money,� Buzzett said.
Gail Alsobrook director of the PSJRA, said that estimates showed that the monthly operational costs would not change with the new location; the only new expenses would be that associated with the move.
Commissioners unanimously approved a motion from Buzzett that would leave the PSJRA in place until the county agreed to cover the moving costs, pick up the Welcome Center insurance and amend the interlocal agreement language on the fire tax.


text:
This $20 OFF coupon is only valid tomorrow, Friday November 29th (Black Friday). Just spend $75 or more and save the $20 when you show this coupon at most Shoppers Drug Mart stores in and around the Greater Toronto area.
The usual SDM exclusions apply, like prescriptions, tobacco products, stamps, lottery tickets, etc. Limit of one coupon per customer.
Just click on the image below to bring a full-size version to the front of your monitor and print the image like you normally would.
Happy Shopping!