text:
The old fella makes me go into the house in my stocking feet. The old lady's in a big chair next to the window. In fact, the whole room is full of big chairs, but she's only in one of them—though, big as she is, she could fill up several. The old man says, "I found this one in the loose-horse pen at the sale yard."
She says, "What's he supposed to be?"
He says, "Supposed to be a cowboy."
"What's he doin in the loose horses?"
I says, "I was lookin for one that would ride."
"You was in the wrong pen, son," the old man says. "Them's canners. They're goin to France in cardboard boxes."
"Soon as they get a steel bolt in the head." The big old gal laughs in her chair.
Now I'm sore. "There's five in there broke to death. I rode 'em with nothin but binder twine."
"It don't make a shit," the old man says. "Ever one of them is goin to France."
The old lady don't believe me. "How'd you get in them loose horses to ride?"
"I went in there at night."
The old lady says, "You one crazy cowboy, go in there in the dark. Them broncs kick your teeth down your throat. I suppose you tried them bareback?"
"Naw, I drug the saddle I usually ride at the Rose Bowl Parade."
"You got a horse for that?"
"I got Trigger. We unstuffed him."
The old lady addresses the old man. "He's got a mouth on him. This much we know."
"Maybe he can tell us what good he is."
I says, "I'm a cowboy."
"You're a outta-work cowboy."
"It's a dying way of life."
"She's about like me—she's wondering if this ranch's supposed to be some kinda welfare agency for cowboys."
I've had enough. "You're the dumb honyocker drove me out here."
I think that'll be the end of it, but the old lady says, "Don't get huffy. You got the job. You against conversation or something?"
We get outside and the old sumbitch says, "You drawed lucky there, son. That last deal could've pissed her off."
"It didn't make me no nevermind if it did or didn't."
"She hadn't been well. Used to she was sweet as pudding."
"I'm sorry for that. We don't have health, we don't have nothin."
She must have been afflicted something terrible, because she was ugly morning, noon, and night for as long as she lasted—she'd pick a fight over nothing and the old sumbitch got the worst of it. I felt sorry for him, little slack as he cut me.
Had a hundred seventy-five sweet-tempered horned Herefords and fifteen sleepy bulls. Shipped the calves all over for hybrid vigor, mostly to the South. Had some go clear to Florida. A Hereford that still had its horns was a walking miracle, and the old sumbitch had a smart little deal going. I soon learned to give him credit for such things, and the old lady barking commands offen the sofa weren't no slouch neither. Anybody else seen their books might've said they could be wintering in Phoenix.
They didn't have no bunkhouse, just a LeisureLife mobile home that had lost its wheels about thirty years ago, and they had it positioned by the door of the barn so it'd be convenient for the hired man to stagger out at all hours and fight breech births and scours and any other disorder sent us by the cow gods. We had some doozies. One heifer got pregnant and her calf was near as big as she was. Had to reach in with a saw and take it out in pieces. When we threw the head out on the ground, she turned to it and lowed like it was her baby. Everything a cow does is designed to turn it into meat as fast as possible so that somebody can eat it. It's a terrible life.
The old sumbitch and I got along good. We got through calving and got to see them pairs and bulls run out onto the new grass. Nothing like seeing all that meat feel a little temporary joy. Then we bladed out the corrals and watched them dry under the spring sun at long last. Only mishap was when the manure spreader threw a rock and knocked me senseless and I drove the rig into an irrigation ditch. The old sumbitch never said a word but chained up and pulled us out with his Ford.
We led his cavvy out of the hills afoot with two buckets of sweet feed. Had a little of everything, including a blue roan I fancied, but he said it was a Hancock and bucked like the National Finals in Las Vegas, kicking out behind and squalling, and was just a man-killer. "Stick to the bays," he said. "The West was won on a bay horse."
He picked out three bays, had a keg of shoes, all ones and oughts, and I shod them best I could, three geldings with nice manners, stood good to shoe. About all you could say about the others was they had four legs each, and a couple, all white-marked from saddle galls and years of hard work, looked like no more summers after this. They'd been rode many a long mile. We chased 'em back into the hills and the three shod ones whinnied and fretted. "Back to work," the old sumbitch says to them.
We shod three 'cause one was going to pack a ton of fencing supplies—barb wire, smooth wire, steel T-posts, old wore-out Sunflower fence stretchers that could barely grab on to the wire, and staples—and we was at it a good little while where the elk had knocked miles of it down, or the cedar finally give out and had to be replaced by steel. That was where I found out that the old sumbitch's last good time was in Korea, where the officers at the front would yell over the radio, "Come on up here and die!" Said the enemy was coming in waves. Tells me all this while the stretcher's pulling that wire squealing though the staples. The sumbitch was a tough old bastard. "They killed a pile of us and we killed a pile of them." Squeak.
We hauled the mineral horseback, too, in panniers—white salt and iodine salt. He didn't have no use for blocks, so we hauled it in sacks and poured it into the troughs he had on all these bald hilltops where the wind would blow away the flies. Most of his so-called troughs were truck tires nailed onto anything flat—plywood, old doors, and suchlike—but they worked good. A cow can put her tongue anywhere in a tire and get what she needs, and you can drag one of them flat things with your horse if you need to move it. Most places we salted had old buffalo wallers where them buffalo wallered. They done wallered their last—had to get out of the way for the cow and the man on the bay horse.
I'd been rustling my own grub in the LeisureLife for quite some time when the old lady said it was time for me to eat with the white folks. This was not necessarily a good thing. The old lady's knee replacements had begun to fail, and both me and the old sumbitch was half afraid of her. She cooked as good as ever, but she was a bomb waiting to go off, standing bowlegged at the stove and talking ugly about how much she did for us. When she talked, the old sumbitch would move his mouth as though he was saying the same words, and we had to keep from giggling, which wasn't hard. For if the old lady caught us at that there'd a been hell to pay.
Both the old sumbitch and the old lady was heavy smokers, to where a oxygen bottle was in sight. So they joined a Smoke-Enders deal the Lutherans had, and this required them to put all their butts in a jar and wear the jar around their necks on a string. The old sumbitch liked this O.K. because he could just tap his ash right under his chin and not get it on the truck seat, but the more that thing filled up and hung around her neck the meaner the old lady got. She had no idea the old sumbitch was cheating and setting his jar on the woodpile when we was working outside. She was just more honest than him, and in the end she give up smoking and he smoked away, except he wasn't allowed to smoke in the house no more, nor buy ready-mades, 'cause the new tax made them too expensive and she wouldn't let him take it out of the cows, which come first. She said it was just a vice and if he was half the man she thought he was he'd give it up as a bad deal. "You could have a long and happy old age," she said, real sarcastic-like.
One day me and the old sumbitch is in the house hauling soot out of the fireplace, on account of they had a chimbley fire last winter. Over the mantel is a picture of a beautiful woman in a red dress with her hair piled on top of her head. The old sumbitch tells me that's the old lady before she joined the motorcycle gang.
"Them motorcycle gangs," he says, "all they do is eat and work on their motorcycles. They taught her to smoke, too, but she's shut of that. Probably outlive us all."
"Looks to me she can live long as she wants."
"And if she ever wants to box you, tell her no. She'll knock you on your ass. I guarantee it. Throw you a damn haymaker, son."
I couldn't understand how he could be so casual-like about the old lady being in a motorcycle gang. When we was smoking in the LeisureLife, I asked him about it. That's when I found out that him and the old lady was brother and sister. I guess that explained it. If your sister wants to join a motorcycle gang, that's her business. He said she even had a tattoo—"Hounds from Hell," with a dog shooting flames out of his nostrils and riding a Harley.
That picture on the mantel kind of stayed in my mind, and I asked the old sumbitch if his sister'd ever had a boyfriend. Well, yes, quite a few, he told me, quite a damn few. "Our folks run them off. They was just after the land."
He was going all around the baler hitting the zerks with his grease gun. "I had a lady friend myself. She'd do anything. Cook. Gangbusters with a snorty horse, and not too damn hard on the eyes. Sis run her off. Said she was just after the land. If she was, I never could see it. Anyway, went on down the road long time ago."
Fall come around and when we brought the cavvy down two of them old-timers who'd worked so hard was lame. One was stifled, one was sweenied, and both had crippling quarter cracks. I thought they needed to be at the loose-horse sale, but the old sumbitch says, "No mounts of mine is gonna feed no Frenchman," and that was that. So we made a hole, led the old-timers to the edge, and shot them with a elk rifle. First one didn't know what hit him. Second one heard the shot and saw his buddy fall and the old sumbitch had to chase him around to kill him. Then he sent me down the hole to get the halters back. Lifting those big heads was some chore.
I enjoyed eating in the big house that whole summer until the sister started giving me come-hither looks. They was fairly limited except those days when the old sumbitch was in town after supplies. Then she dialled it up and kind of brushed me every time she went past the table. There was always something special on the town days—a pie, maybe. I tried to think about the picture on the mantel, but it was impossible, even though I knew it might get me out of the LeisureLife once and for all. She was getting more and more wound up, while I was pretending to enjoy the food or going crazy over the pie. But she didn't buy it—called me a queer and sent me back to the trailer to make my own meals. By calling me a queer, she more or less admitted what she'd been up to, and I think that embarrassed her, because she covered up by roaring at everyone and everything, including the poor old sumbitch, who had no idea what had gone sideways while he was away. It was two years before she made another pie, and then it was once a year on my birthday. She made me five birthday pies in all—sand cherry, every one of them.
I broke the catch colt, which I didn't know was no colt, as he was the biggest snide in the cavvy. He was four, and it was time. I just got around him for a couple of days, then saddled him gently as I could. The offside stirrup scared him, and he looked over at it, but that was all it was to saddling. I must've had a burst of courage, 'cause next minute I was on him. That was O.K., too. I told the old sumbitch to open the corral gate, and we sailed away. The wind blew his tail up under him, and he thought about bucking but rejected the idea and that was about all they was to breaking Olly, for that was his name. Once I'd rode him two weeks, he was safe for the old sumbitch, who plumb loved this new horse and complimented me generously for the job I'd did.
We had three hard winters in a row, then lost so many calves to scours we changed our calving grounds. The old sumbitch just come out one day and looked at where he'd calved out for fifty years and said, "The ground's no good. We're movin." So we spent the summer building a new corral way off down the creek. When we's finished, he says, "I meant to do this when I got back from overseas and now it's finished and I'm practically done for, too. Whoever gets the place next will be glad his calves don't shit themselves into the next world like mine done."
Neither one of us had a back that was worth a damn, and the least we could do was get rid of the square baler and quit hefting them man-killing five-wire bales. We got a round baler and a DewEze machine that let us pick up a bale from the truck without laying a finger on it. We'd tell stories and smoke in the cab on those cold winter days and roll out a thousand pounds of hay while them old-time horned Herefords followed the truck. That's when I let him find out I'd done some time.
"I figured you musta been in the crowbar hotel."
"How's that?"
"Well, you're a pretty good hand. What's a pretty good hand doin tryin loose horses in the middle of the night at some Podunk sale yard? Folks hang on to a pretty good hand and nobody was hangin on to you. You want to tell me what you done?"
I'd been with the old sumbitch for three years and out of jail the same amount of time. I wasn't afraid to tell him what I done 'cause I had started to trust him, but I sure didn't want him telling nothing to his sister. I told him I rustled some yearlings, and he chuckled like he understood entirely. I had rustled some yearlings, all right, but that's not what I went up for.
The old man paid me in cash, or, rather, the old lady did, since she handled anything like that. They never paid into workmen's comp, and there was no reason to go to the records. They didn't even have my name right. You tell people around here your name is Shane and they'll always believe you. The important thing is I was working my tail off for that old sumbitch, and he knew it. Nothing else mattered, even the fact that we'd come to like each other. After all, this was a God damn ranch.
The old fella had several peculiarities to him, most of which I've forgotten. He was one of the few fellas I ever heard of who would actually jump up and down on his hat if he got mad enough. You can imagine what his hat looked like. One time he did it 'cause I let the swather get away from me on a hill and bent it all to hell. Another time a Mormon tried to run down his breeding program to get a better deal on some replacement heifers, and I'll be damned if the old sumbitch didn't throw that hat down and jump on it, right in front of the Mormon, causing the Mormon to get into his Buick and ease on down the road without another word. One time when we was driving ring shanks into corral poles I hit my thumb and tried jumping on my hat, but the old sumbitch gave me such an odd look I never tried it again.
The old lady died sitting down. I went in, and there she was, sitting down, and she was dead. After the first wave of grief, the old sumbitch and me fretted about rigor mortis and not being able to move her in that seated position. So we stretched her onto the couch and called the mortician and he called the coroner and for some reason the coroner called the ambulance, which caused the old sumbitch to state, "It don't do you no nevermind to tell nobody nothing." Course he was right.
Once the funeral was behind us, I moved out of the LeisureLife, partly for comfort and partly 'cause the old sumbitch falled apart after his sister passed, which I never would've suspected. Once she's gone, he says, he's all that's left of his family and he's alone in life, and about then he notices me and tells me to get my stuff out of the LeisureLife and move in with him.
We rode through the cattle pritnear ever day year round, and he come to trust me enough to show how his breeding program went, with culls and breedbacks and outcrosses and replacements, and took me to bull sales and showed me what to expect in a bull and which ones were correct and which were sorry. One day we's looking at a pen of yearling bulls on this outfit near Luther and he can't make up his mind and he says he wished his sister was with him and he starts snuffling and says she had an eye on her wouldn't quit. So I stepped up and picked three bulls out of that pen, and he quit snuffling and said damn if I didn't have an eye on me, too. That was the beginning of our partnership.
One whole year I was the cook, and one whole year he was the cook, and back and forth like that, but never at the same time. Whoever was cook would change when the other fella got sick of his recipes, and ever once in a while a new recipe would come in the AgriNews, like that corn chowder with the sliced hot dogs. I even tried a pie one time, but it just made him lonesome for days gone by, so we forgot about desserts, which was probably good for our health, as most sweets call for gobbing in the white sugar.
The sister never let him have a dog 'cause she had a cat and she thought a dog would get the cat. It wasn't much of a cat, anyhow, but it lived a long time, outlived the old lady by several moons. After it passed on, we took it out to the burn barrel and the first thing the old sumbitch said was "We're gettin a dog." It took him that long to realize that his sister was gone.
Tony was a Border collie we got as a pup from a couple in Miles City that raised them. You could cup your hands and hold Tony when we got him, but he grew up in one summer and went to work and we taught him "down," "here," "come by," "way to me," and "hold 'em," all in one year or less, 'cause Tony would just stay on his belly and study you with his eyes until he knew exactly what you wanted. Tony helped us gather, mother up pairs, and separate bulls, and he lived in the house for many a good year and kept us entertained with all his tricks. Finally, Tony grew old and died. We didn't take it so good, especially the old sumbitch, who said he couldn't foresee enough summers for another dog. Plus that was the year he couldn't get on a horse no more and he wasn't about to work no stock dog afoot. There was still plenty to do and most of it fell to me. After all, this was a God damn ranch.
The time had come to tell him why I went to jail and what I did, which was rob that little store at Absarokee and shoot the proprietor, though he didn't die. I had no idea why I did such a thing—then or now. I led the crew on the prison ranch for a number of years and turned out many a good hand. They wasn't nearabout to let me loose until there was a replacement good as me who'd stay a while. So I trained up a murderer from Columbia Falls, could rope, break horses, keep vaccine records, fence, and irrigate. Once the warden seen how good he was, they paroled me out and turned it all over to the new man, who was never getting out. The old sumbitch could give a shit less when I told him my story. I could've told him all this years before when he first hired me, for all he cared. He was a big believer in what he saw with his own eyes.
I don't think I ever had the touch with customers the old sumbitch had. They'd come from all over looking for horned Herefords and talking hybrid vigor, which I may or may not have believed. They'd ask what we had and I'd point to the corrals and say, "Go look for yourself." Some would insist on seeing the old sumbitch and I'd tell them he was in bed, which was pritnear the only place you could find him now that he'd begun to fail. Then the state got wind of his condition and took him to town. I went to see him there right regular, but it just upset him. He couldn't figure out who I was and got frustrated 'cause he knew I was somebody he was supposed to know. And then he failed even worse. The doctors told me it was just better if I didn't come round.
The neighbors claimed I was personally responsible for the spread of spurge, Dalmatian toadflflax, and knapweed. They got the authorities involved and it was pretty clear that I was the weed they had in mind. If they could get the court to appoint one of their relatives ranch custodian while the old sumbitch was in storage they'd get all that grass for free till he was in a pine box. The authorities came in all sizes and shapes, but when they were through they let me take one saddle horse, one saddle, the clothes on my back, my hat, and my slicker. I rode that horse clear to the sale yard, where they tried to put him in the loose horses 'cause of his age. I told them I was too set in my ways to start feeding Frenchmen and rode off toward Idaho. There's always an opening for a cowboy, even a old sumbitch like me if he can halfway make a hand. ♦


text:
TEHRAN, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Co. called on his international affairs director to work on a new framework for crude oil exports.
NIOC Managing Director Ahmad Qalebani appointed Mohsen Qamsari to serve as his international affairs director.
The managing director was quoted by the Oil Ministry's official Shana news agency as saying Tuesday that Qamsari was tasked with "presenting a comprehensive strategy and program on NIOC's role in international markets and introducing a new framework for boosting export of crude and oil products."
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said he would work to lay the groundwork so Iran could cooperate better with international oil companies. He said he was determined to hit a target rate of 4 million barrels per day for oil production during his term.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its August market report Iran produced approximately 2.6 million bpd in July.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed to be more engaged with the international community than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran's economy is struggling to cope with Western sanctions designed to starve Iran of oil revenue it could use to finance a controversial nuclear program, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Welcome to the Circvs Maximvs: Everything and Nothing.
These forums cover a variety of topics, from random chat to movies, books, comics, science, technology, and food.
The pub on the corner. Off topic. General discussion. Whatever you want to call it. Talk about anything and everything that doesn't go elsewhere.
June 27th, 2019, 02:18 PM
For media & stuff. Y'know, TV, movies, music, plays, books, and comics that sort of thing.
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Random This Shit Is KEWL Thread
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In the back of every taberna there lies its 'culina' - the kitchen. Here you can share recipe ideas and discuss other food related topics. This of course includes Bacon!
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Forum for endless hand-wringing, wailing, gnashing of teeth, and edition wars. Threads and users looking for fights end up here.
Remind me of why MarkCM is an asshat?
June 5th, 2019, 02:32 AM
A lot of us are gamers. Not just RPGs, but video games, board games, messageboard (PbP) games, and so on. This also includes Play-By-Post games, and convention/gameday organization.
RPGs, computer & console games, board games, and sports - for gaming discussion away from grandma's ears.
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Gauging interest - Pathfinder PbP - Way of the...
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The underground beneath the floor of the Coliseum, the hypogeum is where the gladiators and animals gather before an event. A place to talk about gaming conventions. Events planned here are not official Circvs Maximvs events and they are in no way sponsored nor supported by Circvs Maximvs or ENWorld nor the owner of said websites.
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These are the forums where everyone gets down and dirty. You know what they say - never discuss politics or religion with your friends. This is where most of CM's arguments happen. Stay clear if you want to remain friends with people!
Social Shenanigans (Second Verse)
June 27th, 2019, 02:20 AM
Behind the scenes stuff. The Aqueducts is for forum business, announcements, questions, and help. The news forums are for Truth Seeker IV.
These forums are where Truth Seeker IV diligently posts links to news items about various things. You can't start a thread in here, but you can reply to one.
This section includes the adult forums (Subolesco Orgia and Laconicum), the women-only forum (Vesta), Rel's Private Forum (Formerly reveals Private Forum) and the admin forum (The Black Plague). You may not be able to see forums you don't have access to.
The 'after hours' forum, where adult conversation is kept from prying eyes. No porn. Access for Community Supporters.
Vesta was the goddess of the hearth. There are six Virgines Vestales, Vestal Virgins, in charge. The sacred fire in the Aedes Vestae, Temple of Vesta, symbolized continuity of life of state. This forum is for women only. To get access you must (1) be female; and (2) request access via your account settings. This forum is run by Queenie.
Welcome to our newest member, agohikoqat


text:
In 1978, the Redevelopment Commission closed out the Urban Renewal Project and conveyed the remaining 14 unsold acres to the city of New Bern. The vacant tract, now referred to as Bicentennial Park, was used for public events and recreational fields as the city and county began selling lots in a piecemeal fashion.
An ongoing series about downtown New Bernrevitalization.
In 1978, the Redevelopment Commission closed out the Urban Renewal Project and conveyed the remaining 14 unsold acres to the city of New Bern. The vacant tract, now referred to as Bicentennial Park, was used for public events and recreational fields as the city and county began selling lots in a piecemeal fashion.
In 1981, an office condominium complex was constructed on a one acre tract at the southwest corner of Craven and South Front Street and a single office building on the opposite corner. At the same time, a financial institution was exploring the feasibility of buying a parcel facing South Front Street and constructing a new bank building.
In the July 1981, the Main Street Resource Team Report for New Bern, consultants recommended marketing and feasibility studies should be done quickly as unified waterfront development could be a major stimulus for downtown�s revitalization and the entire county. By selling the land on a piecemeal basis, the long term development potential would be lost. A unified plan would establish a comprehensive, clear direction, incorporate the land as a natural extension of the downtown and interface with the existing central business district growth pattern.
The Report emphasized the need to provide areas for the public to be on the water including a 60-foot space right of way on Craven and Middle Streets extending to the water, a 30-foot right of way of public space (riverwalk) along the waterfront and provide a setting for a marina, hotel and other tourist related amenities.
In response, Swiss Bear organized an ad hoc Economic Task Force upon obtaining an agreement with the Craven County Board of Commissioners and New Bern Board of Aldermen allowing Swiss Bear 12 months to develop a comprehensive general site plan for the Bicentennial Park property and recruit potential developers and tenants for the proposed project. The ad hoc Economic Task Force, composed of architects, developers, bankers and city officials, completed a general site plan, to include a hotel and marina. Letters of interest were sent to numerous firms who visited the site. These private development firms recognized New Bern and the downtown was a marginal market for a major development, lacked potential financing and they quickly declined.
In late 1982, recognizing a professional feasibility and marketing approach was needed to entice developers with verifiable information, Swiss Bear acquired a $15,000 grant from the Tryon Palace Commission, matched by the city and county and hired Zuchelli, Hunter & Associates, Inc. (ZHA) Annapolis, Md., to conduct a study of the remaining 14 acre waterfront site, defining development potentials of the property to include a feasibility study, market analysis, illustrated site plan, design concepts and funding strategies.
The ZHA report indicated there was not a market for a lodging facility like a hotel, but there was a market for a conference/meeting facility, retail/restaurant mix, 100 slip marina and 150 residential condominiums under a hotel type (condohotel) of operation that investors could purchase and make available for rental either part or year round. Financing could include public-sector sources including federal Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) funds, State Community Block Grant (CDBG) funds and land sale proceeds. Upon completion of the report, the city applied to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a UDAG and ZHA was charged with assisting the city in recruiting a developer for the $21.8 million project in June 1983.
A Request for Qualifications for the proposed ZHA waterfront development project included a financing plan requiring the city�s acquisition of a UDAG to finance construction of a conference center with no net repayment to the city. The major question also existed, whether residential development could take place without the conference facilities and vice-versa. The ZHA prospectus for the site generated little interest by the state and national development community.
In March 1983, Marvin Davis became Swiss Bear�s executive director, replacing Kay Williams, who had become director for Tryon Palace. With a strong background in economic development, Marvin couldn�t shake lingering, nagging development and financing questions. Why there might be a market for condo-hotels but not a hotel? Condo-hotel projects, primarily located in resort areas, would cut off the public�s link to the waterfront, the build-out was longer, the financing more difficult and there had to be a complete sell out of the free-standing units for the project to be successful. Individual units would not function as a hotel that would create the dynamic activity needed to facilitate a conference/convention center.
Restructuring the downtown economy with a focus on developing tourism as a major industry would require construction of a quality waterfront hotel, restaurant, conference/meeting facilities and marina.
It was an incredible challenge.
The downtown economy was weak, tourism was a fledgling industry, and there was limited population growth and no accommodation�s occupancy tax to provide funds for promotion and marketing. Bank financing would require obtaining a known national hotel franchise and special preferred financing. Federal Urban Development Action Grants were designed to provide assistance to distressed cities and stimulate new private investment to revitalize local economies. Private sector financial participation was also a requirement for a proposed project. However, these grants were in national competition and difficult to obtain.
Coming up June 9: Putting it all together and meeting the challenge � a new Sheraton Hotel and marina June 9.
Susan Moffat-Thomas is executive director of Swiss Bear Downtown Development Corporation.


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Caution: The documentation you are viewing is
for an older version of Zend Framework.
You can find the documentation of the current version at:
Zend_Layout Advanced Usage - Zend_Layout
Zend_Layout has a number of use cases for the advanced developer who wishes to adapt it for different view implementations, file system layouts, and more.
The major points of extension are:
Custom view objects. Zend_Layout allows you to utilize any class that implements Zend_View_Interface.
Custom front controller plugins. Zend_Layout ships with a standard front controller plugin that automates rendering of layouts prior to returning the response. You can substitute your own plugin.
Custom action helpers. Zend_Layout ships with a standard action helper that should be suitable for most needs as it is a dumb proxy to the layout object itself.
Custom layout script path resolution. Zend_Layout allows you to use your own inflector for layout script path resolution, or simply to modify the attached inflector to specify your own inflection rules.
Zend_Layout allows you to use any class implementing Zend_View_Interface or extending Zend_View_Abstract for rendering your layout script. Simply pass in your custom view object as a parameter to the constructor/ startMvc(), or set it using the setView() accessor:
Note: Not all Zend_View implementations are equal
While Zend_Layout allows you to use any class implementing Zend_View_Interface, you may run into issues if they can not utilize the various Zend_View helpers, particularly the layout and placeholder helpers. This is because Zend_Layout makes variables set in the object available via itself and placeholders.
If you need to use a custom Zend_View implementation that does not support these helpers, you will need to find a way to get the layout variables to the view. This can be done by either extending the Zend_Layout object and altering the render() method to pass variables to the view, or creating your own plugin class that passes them prior to rendering the layout.
Alternately, if your view implementation supports any sort of plugin capability, you can access the variables via the 'Zend_Layout' placeholder, using the placeholder helper:
- $placeholders = new Zend_View_Helper_Placeholder();
- $layoutVars = $placeholders->placeholder('Zend_Layout')->getArrayCopy();
When used with the MVC components, Zend_Layout registers a front controller plugin that renders the layout as the last action prior to exiting the dispatch loop. In most cases, the default plugin will be suitable, but should you desire to write your own, you can specify the name of the plugin class to load by passing the pluginClass option to the startMvc() method.
Any plugin class you write for this purpose will need to extend Zend_Controller_Plugin_Abstract, and should accept a layout object instance as an argument to the constructor. Otherwise, the details of your implementation are up to you.
The default plugin class used is Zend_Layout_Controller_Plugin_Layout.
When used with the MVC components, Zend_Layout registers an action controller helper with the helper broker. The default helper, Zend_Layout_Controller_Action_Helper_Layout, acts as a dumb proxy to the layout object instance itself, and should be suitable for most use cases.
Should you feel the need to write custom functionality, simply write an action helper class extending Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_Abstract and pass the class name as the helperClass option to the startMvc() method. Details of the implementation are up to you.
Zend_Layout uses Zend_Filter_Inflector to establish a filter chain for translating a layout name to a layout script path. By default, it uses the rules 'Word_CamelCaseToDash' followed by 'StringToLower', and the suffix 'phtml' to transform the name to a path. As some examples:
'foo' will be transformed to 'foo.phtml'.
'FooBarBaz' will be transformed to 'foo-bar-baz.phtml'.
You have three options for modifying inflection: modify the inflection target and/or view suffix via Zend_Layout accessors, modify the inflector rules and target of the inflector associated with the Zend_Layout instance, or create your own inflector instance and pass it to Zend_Layout::setInflector().
Example #1 Using Zend_Layout accessors to modify the inflector
The default Zend_Layout inflector uses static references for the target and view script suffix, and has accessors for setting these values.
Example #2 Direct modification of Zend_Layout inflector
Inflectors have a target and one or more rules. The default target used with Zend_Layout is ':script.:suffix'; ':script' is passed the registered layout name, while ':suffix' is a static rule of the inflector.
Let's say you want the layout script to end in the suffix 'html', and that you want to separate MixedCase and camelCased words with underscores instead of dashes, and not lowercase the name. Additionally, you want it to look in a 'layouts' subdirectory for the script.
Example #3 Custom inflectors
In most cases, modifying the existing inflector will be enough. However, you may have an inflector you wish to use in several places, with different objects of different types. Zend_Layout supports this.
Note: Inflection can be disabled
Inflection can be disabled and enabled using accessors on the Zend_Layout object. This can be useful if you want to specify an absolute path for a layout view script, or know that the mechanism you will be using for specifying the layout script does not need inflection. Simply use the enableInflector() and disableInflector() methods.


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Siegel & Stockman has been making tailor's dummies, window bustforms, mannequins and accessories hangers since 1867.
Stockman's mannequins are famous worldwide thanks to the accumulation of knowledge and skill passed from generation to generation. These mannequins are used by the finest Haute-Couture and fashion industry companies. Handcrafted in the workshop near Paris, Stockman's bustforms have the elegance and the refinement of the French Savoir Faire.
Specializing in tailor's dummies, Stockman has been reflecting women, men and children's body shapes for 150 years. Stockman mannequins are made from papier-mâché which gives them longevity, resistance and charm. A Stockman bust is an heritage. Moreover Siegel & Stockman got the 'Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant' French label in 2012.
The most important part of the Stockman's activity is the production of display busts, mannequins and accessory stands for stores to show off clothes and fashion accessories. Most famous international luxury brands and department stores and most influential concept stores choose Stockman's products.


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While there isn't an "official" Fitbit Windows Phone app, Fitbit Companion is nice option for the Fitbit users in the house and a step in the right direction by giving you access to most your Fitbit statistics. For those not familiar, Fitbit is a small fitness monitoring device that tracks your activities and sleep patterns.
Along with the monitoring device, Fitbit also offers a fairly extensive web based tracking app that syncs with the data from your Fitbit device and allows you to enter meals, activity and track your weight. The Fitbit Companion app taps into the web based app and delivers most of your Fitbit stats to your Windows Phone. The app uses the Fitbit API and doesn't share your personal information outside of the app.
Main pages for the Fitbit Companion includes:
- Activity Page: This details your daily activity pulled from your Fitbit device that includes calories burned, steps taken, floors climbed, elevation, activity score and distance traveled.
- Activity Log: Details your daily activity as logged from your Fitbit app or entered directly from the Fitbit Companion app.
- Daily Activity: A pie chart reflecting how you spent your day (sedentary, fairly active, lightly active, very active).
- Body: Charts your weight loss/gain.
- Sleep: This details your sleeping patterns for the previous night based on the data collected from your Fitbit device.
- Profile: Your Fitbit profile that includes age, location, height, gender, etc.
At the bottom of the screen you'll find button controls to access the app's settings, a refresh button and an add button. Depending on the screen, the add button will let you log an activity, your weight or sleep information. The entry screens can also be pinned to your Start Screen for easy access. These add buttons make it convenient to log data to your Fitbit account without the need to find a computer.
Up under the three-dot menu you will find options to hide charts, go to yesterday's data, set the date and see the about screen.
Settings for the Fitbit Companion include options to hide/display any of the main pages, erase your profile (data will be present but not your profile info), and chart settings.
The Fitbit Companion is a nice option to view your activities and log daily activities while on the go. The downside to things is that the Fitbit Companion doesn't provide any of Fitbit's meal tracking stats. It would be really nice to be able to add meals and monitor your daily calories from the Fitbit Companion.
On the plus side, the Fitbit Companion does give you access to most of your Fitbit data and does allow you to enter data for most of your monitored activities. While Fitbit Companion isn't an official Fitbit app for our Windows Phone, it's not too shabby.
Fitbit Companion is a free app for your Windows Phone and you can find it here at the Windows Phone Store.
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for more details.


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Extra Inside (061617)
Extra Inside (061617)
Title: Extra Inside
Size (including mounting): 12.5 X 12.5 inches
Date Created: June 16, 2017
This handmade collage is mounted on smooth white acid free Cougar® Double Thick 130 lb. cover paper. This original piece is composed of found images sourced from vintage and modern magazines and constructed using an acid-free, heat resistant dry adhesive. A signed Certificate of Authenticity is included with this piece and this piece is also signed by the artist.
Each original collage is packaged in a clear protective sealed bag with a rigid backing board to prevent bending during shipping.


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Addison, TX – May 20, 2017 –
Orlando Group Roofing and General Construction of Addison, Texas, has received the most prestigious contractor award GAF offers: The GAF President's Club Award. This highly coveted award recognizes Orlando Group Roofing and General Construction as one of the "elite of the elite" residential roofing contractors in the United States.
GAF is North America's largest roofing manufacturer, and only GAF Master Elite(R) Contractors can compete for its residential President's Club Award. To qualify for this award, a residential roofing contractor must meet specific criteria in at least one out of three different pathways: the Performance pathway, where contractors focus on giving their property owners the best possible service, quality, and protection; the Reliability pathway, where the contractor has a long history of offering their customers the best quality and protection; and the Service pathway, where contractors consistently offer their customers the best protection available in the marketplace.
Orlando Group Roofing and General Construction has been a GAF Master Elite(R) Contractor since 2012; the company received the President's Club Award due to its excellent performance in 2016. To become a Master Elite(R) Contractor–a status that less than 2% of roofing contractors nationwide are able to achieve–a candidate must demonstrate proper licensing, maintain insurance (in states that require it), have a proven reputation, and show commitment to ongoing professional training.
For more than 30 years, homeowners, businesses, and property owners have turned to Orlando Group for their roofing needs. With years of experience in expert residential roof installations and repairs, the company has successfully protected thousands of local homes. It installs both low- and steep-slope roofs using a number of different materials, including asphalt shingles, slate, tile, and metal. No matter how big or small a home is, or how challenging the roofing need, Orlando Group has the top-quality materials and highly skilled personnel necessary to design and install a roof that will provide peace of mind and lasting protection.
In the highly specialized field of commercial roofing in Dallas, Orlando Group provides its clients with the unparalleled quality of premium roofing materials, and the company's certifications by leading manufacturers ensures that its installations are done properly and professionally. Whether a commercial property needs a full roof replacement, repairs following a storm, or an inspection, Orlando Group's staff of expert roofers can promptly and professionally perform the job.
The Orlando Group is no stranger to the kind of storms that frequently batter the Dallas, Fort Worth, and Oklahoma City areas. Commercial and residential properties alike benefit from the company's comprehensive storm-damage repair and restoration services. Its experienced crews respond quickly to emergency situations, making immediate repairs to minimize additional damage with the goal of keeping families and properties safe through the storm. Orlando Group also has strong working relationships with most major insurance companies and provides the paperwork and documentation necessary to file a complete insurance claim.
Active in the industry, Orlando Group is a member of the National Roofing Contractors Association, the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association, and the North Texas Roofing Contractors Association. The company is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and holds an A+ rating.
As Orlando Group has grown as a company, it has remained true to its founding ideals of integrity, confidence, and trust. The company's dedicated staff of roofing experts works hard every day to ensure that the construction process is enjoyable and stress-free for its clients. With the goal of growing and improving as a company to better serve its neighbors in Texas and Oklahoma, Orlando Group is securing its place as the leading choice in the roofing industry.
About Orlando Group Roofing and General Construction
Since 1979, Orlando Group has provided top-quality residential and commercial roofing from Dallas to Oklahoma City. The company's wealth of industry experience and knowledge has made it the go-to company for roof maintenance, new roofing, and effective roof repair, as well as a wide range of exterior renovations.
Orlando Group Roofing and General Construction
15851 Dallas Parkway
Addison, TX 75001
(214) 624-3326
Toll-free: (855) 469-4600
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Orlando-Group-Roofing-General-Construction/309961532380630
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OrlGrpRoof
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/orlando-group-general-construction
YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/OrlandoGroupRoofing
About GAF:
Founded in 1886, GAF is the largest roofing manufacturer in North America. The Company is an operating subsidiary of Standard Industries.
GAF products include a comprehensive portfolio of roofing systems for residential and commercial properties, which are supported by an extensive national network of factory-certified contractors. Its success is driven by its commitment to Advanced Quality, Industry Expertise, and Solutions Made Simple. GAF was the first roofing manufacturer to offer a Lifetime limited warranty on all of its laminated shingles, which then evolved with the introduction of the GAF Lifetime Roofing System by extending the Lifetime coverage beyond just the roofing shingles.
With a focus on social responsibility, GAF developed Advanced Protection(R) Shingle Technology, providing excellent durability and wind resistance while reducing the use of natural resources. The Company has also developed single-ply and asphaltic roofing membranes with excellent durability and high reflectivity to meet the most rigorous industry standards while helping commercial property owners and designers reduce energy consumption.
GAF also supports the roofing industry through CARE, the Center for the Advancement of Roofing Excellence(TM), which has provided education to over 230,000 professionals. CARE's mission is to help professional contractors and distributors build their businesses through sales and management education, and to provide product and installation training to contractors, distributors, architects, property owners, and related industry personnel.
For more information about GAF, visit: gaf.com
About Standard Industries:
Standard Industries is a privately-held, global, diversified holding company with interests in building materials, aggregates, and related investment businesses in public equities and real estate. With over 7,500 employees and operations in more than 80 countries, Standard maintains a team-oriented culture of meritocracy and operational excellence, and a passionate focus on investing in its people.
Media Contact
Company Name: Orlando Group Roofing and General Construction
Contact Person: Doug Hasty
Email: email@example.com
Phone: (214) 624-3326
Country: United States
Website: http://www.orlandogroup.com


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Foundation for Spinal Cord Injury
|Helpful Resources
Recovering from SCI Medical Mistakes
Consumer Product
Sam Maddox
Steven Newman, M.D.
Mark Odum
Robert Yant
|The Foundation for Spinal Cord Injury Prevention, Care & Cure (FSCIPCC) is a non-profit educational group dedicated to the prevention, care and cure of spinal cord injuries through public awareness, education and funding research. Founded by its current Chairman Ronald R. Gilbert, FSCIPCC is committed to improving the quality of care for persons with serious spinal cord injuries and to raising funds that support the search for a cure. FSCIPCC is comprised of victims of spinal cord injuries and their families, persons dedicated to the prevention, care and cure of SCI and professionals who provide free counsel to SCI victims.
FSCIPCC serves as an informational exchange and a forum for people who suffer from this infliction. Victims and families of victims are encouraged to talk with one another, to share support and encouragement. The FSCIPCC provides SCI victims with information about: the facts of spinal cord injuries; prevention of SCI injuries; care of SCI victims; ongoing SCI research for a cure; financing and managing disability-related expenses; liability, compensation and your rights; legal options available; and accessing professionals and organizations that will provide free help and counsel.
FSCIPCC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.


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The day after Wrestlemania (about a month ago) Brock Lesnar came back to WWE. Shortly thereafter there was a video interview with Lesnar about his return where he basically sat there and bragged up his accomplishments while menacing bad-ass music played in the background. WWE replayed this video several times in the following weeks:
Personally, I think this promo is AWESOME. As I watched it again and again, I began to wonder if I will EVER have anything to say that would warrant such an awesome presentation with menacing music playing in MY background. Then it hit me:
This video was made to promote an upcoming wrestling match.
I'm in an improv group, and we have a show coming up. A show that deserves to be promoted.
I couldn't find the actual promo music / noise online, but have always been fond of the Brawl For All tune they used in the late '90s and later remixed for Ezekiel Jackson. Mr. Lander Yeoman and I went over some ideas, decided what we could directly take from the Brock video and added some new material, and we shot the following promo.
Please enjoy:


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By Lisa Capobianco
Staff Writer
Former Governor John Rowland joined local politicians, business owners, and other guests at the annual Celebrity Breakfast last week, hosted by the Southington Chamber of Commerce, shedding light on the current partial shutdown of the federal government.
Curtis Robinson, the operator and president of C&R Development, a construction management company, sponsored the event. He also serves as the cofounder and chairman of the Curtis D. Robinson Men's Health Institute at St. Frances Hospital.
"John is a dear friend," Robinson said. "You have to judge John not by what comes out of his mouth, but what comes out of his heart."
Rowland, who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives at the age of 23, assured the town that it will not be affected by the situation in Washington.
"It is 100 percent political theater—it does not mean anything, it is a game," said the former governor, who served Connecticut for three terms from 1995 until 2004, leaving amidst scandal. "In essence, it is the Republicans and Democrats squaring off and trying to build public support."
Three years ago, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, passed the House of Representatives and the Senate. Rowland said Republicans in Washington promised to defund, delay or repeal the new legislation to support their conservative "fan base."
"They are playing to their conservative supporters," Rowland said during his speech, assuring the public that the government shutdown is temporary. "The fallout is going to be really bad—the civility, whatever was left, is really gone."
Despite commenting on the current situation in Washington, Rowland reminded the public that the United States continues to be a nation filled with opportunities, and Americans should take advantage of them.
"We are exceptional because our great grandfathers, our grandfathers, and our fathers made some incredible risks to be here," said Rowland, who hosts his own radio show on WTIC NewsTalk 1080. "As individuals, what we should fight for more than anything is making sure we are a country, a state and a city or town of opportunity."
Former Gov. Rowland speaks at Chamber breakfast
By Lisa Capobianco


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New York, May 20, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Guatemalan authorities to launch a thorough investigation into the death of television journalist and teacher Yensi Roberto Ordoñez Galdámez, at left, who was found dead Thursday in southern Escuintla province.
According to press reports, Ordoñez's body was discovered Thursday in a black vehicle parked outside the primary school where he taught. He had knife wounds in the neck and chest, according to the volunteer firefighters who found him.
The fire department was tipped off by an anonymous call, the press said. Family members cited by Guatemala City-based daily Prensa Libre said that the television host had left home Wednesday night and never returned.
Ordoñez was a news reporter on Channel 14, a local cable television station, according to local news reports. Prensa Libre quoted the station's director, Roberto Santizo, as saying that Ordoñez had received threats in relation to his reporting. The journalist and teacher also hosted children's and music programs in Channel 14, the local press reported.
According to the journalist's family members, Ordoñez had told them he was being extorted for 25,000 Guatemalan Quetzales (about US$ 3,250), Prensa Libre reported. The press and investigators have not specified the nature of the alleged extortion.
"We are deeply troubled by the death of Yensi Roberto Ordoñez, who is said to have been threatened prior to his death," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas. "We call on Guatemalan authorities to launch a thorough investigation of this brutal crime and consider the victim's journalism as a possible motive."


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Unique Corporate Identity
We have a collection of 355 designs in this area!
Our unique corporate identity package includes logo, standard letterhead, envelope, and business card design templates which is useful for any company that wants to have a particular style on all of their paperwork. A company's corporate style is of vital importance to any business and usually can cost thousands of dollars to create. We have created these to help company's on a smaller budget get a professional look at a much lower cost. These corporate templates are fully customizable which allows you to replace the company name, colors, and more so that it meets you exact needs. When a unique corporate identity package is purchased at the unique price it will be removed from the market and you will receive an absolute exclusive corporate design. If one of our corporate identity packages are purchased at the regular price it will no longer be available for a unique purchase because another company will already have it.


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Is it possible to embed a map image inside a Crystal Report using ArcGIS 10?
I have seen articles about creating reports based off of map fields, but I would like to include an image of a selected area (i.e. a specific parcel on a map).
Is there a way to do this?


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President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday could drive market focus straight to the next skirmish in the budget and deficit battle with Congress, depending on his tone.
Traders are watching to see how the president addresses the "sequester," or the automatic spending cuts that would kick in after March 1, if there is no action by Congress to stop them.
"I think we're going to see more of a line drawn in the sand on sequestration," said David Gilmore of FX Analytics. "It will be interesting to see where he is on reducing the deficit. I think we've learned about the fiscal cliff is stuff happens at the last minute. Can kicks should be expected. There's no reason for suicide watch when it comes to fiscal policy."
Sitting with First Lady Michelle Obama while the president speaks at 9 p.m. ET., will be Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook has a big speech of his own earlier Tuesday, when he appears at the Goldman Sachs technology conference at 10:15 a.m., and will no doubt be bombarded with questions about how Apple plans to share its cash pile with shareholders.
(Read More: With Apple CEO in Attendance, Obama to Talk Jobs in Address)
Apple has been an even bigger focus than usual for stock traders, who focused Monday on the idea of an Apple watch. The company, in an usually forthcoming statement, said last week that it was in active discussions about returning additional cash to shareholders. The company made the statement in response to hedge fund manager David Einhorn who is fighting Apple over a plan to make it more difficult to issue a dividend paying preferred.
"It was a Herculean thing for them," said ISI analyst Brian Marshall, of the Apple statement. "They don't usually comment or say anything. In my view, we're going to get a bump to what they said." Marshall was speaking on CNBC's "Fast Money."
"This is a company that grew double digits for so long and now kind of just slammed on the brakes very quickly. I don't think demand for Apple products went away overnight…I think they're going to continue to grow but clearly this is a much more of a value story going forward," he said. "I think they realize what they need to do. A $300 drop in the stock woke up a lot of eyes in Cupertino. I think they want to do what's right for their shareholders."
State of the Union


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Reporting on 'The Right Honourable Club': My 25 years of following Canada's prime ministers
Mark Kennedy is the parliamentary bureau chief of Postmedia News in Ottawa. For nearly 25 years, he has covered the nation's politicians. His special new series, The Right Honourable Club, includes interviews with all of Canada's living former prime ministers. In his own words below, he explains the series and some of his memories of this country's leaders.
OTTAWA — They are six Canadians who have held the highest political office in this country before Stephen Harper. I had the good fortune to follow them up-close.
For nearly 25 years, as a political journalist on Parliament Hill, I have found myself in remarkable places.
I watched two former prime ministers, Joe Clark and John Turner, humiliated by electoral defeat but able to redeem themselves gracefully with public service to the country — either in cabinet or in the opposition.
I stood at the back of a hall in snow-swept Baie Comeau, Que., listening to a Conservative prime minister, Brian Mulroney, give his re-election victory speech in November 1988.
I stood at the back of another hall on election night in Montreal in January 2006, listening to a defeated Liberal prime minister, Paul Martin, announce his plan to quit politics.
Surrounded by optimistic Tories at a Vancouver hotel ballroom, I watched an energetic Kim Campbell launch her bid in March 1993 to become Conservative leader (and prime minister) — unaware that victory at a party convention would be followed several months later by a rousing election defeat.
On a cold day in January 1990, I sat in the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, watching the return of the Liberals' little guy from Shawinigan, Jean Chretien, who would ultimately lead Canada for a decade.
There have been countless direct encounters with prime ministers — in hallway scrums on Parliament Hill, at campaign news conferences that brought me to all corners of the country, and in hotel room interviews during election marathons.
And there have been occasions when I sat in the prime minister's wood-panelled corner office on Parliament Hill to conduct a one-on-one interview.
After all these years, as the parade moves on with the likes of Harper, Tom Mulcair and whomever the Liberals choose as their next leader, it's hard to believe how Canada's former prime ministers have slipped into the background — some would say into obscurity.
And yet, it seems to me, these are Canadians who served their country and whose accomplishments should not be forgotten.
Moreover, outside of politics, they still have expertise on which we can draw for the good of the nation. They have opinions and advice about the pressing issues of the day. All we need do is ask.
In the United States, Americans celebrate their ex-presidents. This year, the best-selling book, The Presidents Club, chronicled how former occupants of the Oval Office have maintained relationships with each other.
In Canada, where there are six living former prime ministers, the only lasting distinction bestowed upon them is the title Right Honourable.
And so, to borrow a phrase, they are members of The Right Honourable Club. Apart from Harper, they are the only people to know the responsibilities, pressures and anxiety that come with being prime minister of a country as large and diverse as Canada.
Earlier this summer, I embarked on a project unsure of how much success I would have. The goal: Interview the six former prime ministers on six broad, forward-looking questions.
One by one, each paid me the courtesy of granting my request. The result is the six-part series being published this week.
The interviews brought back a flood of personal memories from past decades, and confirmed my expectations about why each of these six Canadians from our past deserves to be heard today.
My first brush with Joe Clark occurred in January 1983 in Winnipeg, where Conservatives had gathered for a convention.
Clark had been prime minister in 1979-80 before losing to Pierre Trudeau's Liberals. Clark was fighting a rearguard action within his own party and was facing a leadership review at the convention.
He received the support of 66.9 per cent of delegates that night but shocked everyone by announcing it wasn't enough. There would be a leadership race, in which he would run, but lose to Brian Mulroney, several months later.
As he walked out of the hall that night, surrounded by a frenzied mob, he brushed by me. I was there with my Carleton University journalism class.
Five years later, in August of 1988, I arrived on Parliament Hill in the Ottawa Citizen's bureau. By then, Clark's defeats — losing an election, then a leadership — were history.
He had been a well-respected external affairs minister for four years, a job he continued to perform until Mulroney turned to him for help in the early 1990s.
Clark became constitutional affairs minister and successfully negotiated with the provinces a comprehensive set of changes to the Constitution — the Charlottetown Accord — only to see it rejected by Canadians in an October 1992 referendum.
At the time, I wrote of how Clark — strengthened by previous defeats — responded to this rejection in a "measured, honest, dignified address."
"I regret that I do not share the optimism that has been expressed by some others that we can simply ride over this as another event," Clark said of the vote.
Twenty years later, Clark walked into my Ottawa office and patiently posed for photographs. We chatted about how politics has changed so much, especially since the 1979 campaign he had won to become prime minister.
Then the interview began, and it became apparent why Clark had earned a reputation as a thoughtful politician.
John Turner was on fire the evening of Oct. 25, 1988. The country was midway through an election campaign dominated by the proposed Canada-U.S. free trade deal. Turner, as opposition leader, was about to get his revenge on Mulroney — who had defeated him in the 1984 election after a televised leaders' debate highlighted Liberal patronage.
In this election's three-hour TV debate, Turner turned the tables on Mulroney, accusing him of lacking patriotism. I watched the two of them glare at each other, as I took notes and wrote the account for the next day's newspapers.
Turner accused Mulroney of reducing Canada to a colony of the United States with one stroke of the pen — an accusation Mulroney ridiculed, insisting the deal was just a commercial document that could be cancelled.
"A commercial document?" roared Turner. "That's a commercial treaty. It relates to every facet of our life. It's far more important to us than it is to the United States. Far more important."
"Please be serious," Mulroney replied.
"I've never been more serious in my life," Turner said flatly.
Despite the strong debate performance, Turner lost the election and quit politics the next year. It was the end of a long career that had included distinguished service in various cabinet portfolios in the 1960s and 1970s.
This summer, I went to see him at the Toronto law office where he still works. At age 83, he walks slowly now, with the aid of a cane.
But in his office — where one wall features a photo of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, and where a portrait of Liberal icon Wilfrid Laurier hangs on another — Turner was in his element.
He spoke articulately and with passion — just as he had done in that debate so many years earlier.
There was a time when election campaigns in this country seemed to inspire passion and make a difference.
That happened in the fall of 1988, when I spent two months travelling with Brian Mulroney across the country.
Free trade emerged as the only issue. Night after night, rally after rally, Mulroney squared off against opponents who heckled him from the backs of gymnasiums and halls.
The raw emotion that the election inspired was palpable.
I still vividly remember how, during one of the campaign's last rallies, in Toronto, Mulroney had just finished praising the virtues of free trade and had turned, hand outstretched, to thank his supporters.
The hall was rocked by a massive explosion. In the next millisecond, another blast filled the air.
"Many shared the same thought," I wrote at the time, "and some braced themselves for ugliness as they turned toward the sound."
Then, I wrote: "Streams of confetti drifted from the ceiling. That's all it was — two huge firecrackers some organizer thought would provide the perfect grand finale."
Mulroney's time in office was as polarizing as it was historic. He was not content to govern quietly. He attacked big issues: free trade, the Constitution, the GST.
On June 3, 1993, just a week before he was replaced as Conservative leader, I sat down with Mulroney in his Parliament Hill office for an extensive interview to discuss his record.
It had begun with a classic Mulroney gesture. His aide had heard that my two-year-old daughter had broken her leg the previous evening. It was the first thing Mulroney inquired about as I entered his office and he approached me with his hand outstretched.
In the interview, Mulroney described himself as a "happy warrior" exiting the political stage, saying he left his successor a more serene nation.
"Strong leadership provokes intense reaction," Mulroney told me.
"If you want to be popular, run for church warden. But don't run for prime minister. The problems are too difficult."
Two decades later, despite a health scare in 2005 that nearly killed him, Mulroney is running strong — as a Montreal corporate lawyer who still travels the world regularly.
One recent afternoon, I received a call from his assistant who informed me that Mulroney would grant my interview request, but that his travel schedule was tight and he could only do it by telephone the next day.
The next morning, I called his office and was put through to him.
The baritone voice was unmistakable. And the interview was just as revealing as our session 19 years earlier.
In March 1993, I was sent to Vancouver to research and write a 5,000-word profile of a woman who had been confidently dubbed by her political handlers "the cure for cancer."
She was Avril Campbell — otherwise known as Kim Campbell. She had been elected an MP from British Columbia just five years earlier and had turned heads as an intelligent, quotable minister in the justice and defence portfolios.
That spring, Mulroney had just resigned and all the buzz centred on Campbell — how she seemed to be a refreshing antidote to Mulroney and how she might rescue the governing Tories from electoral defeat through the same kind of "New Generational Politics" that had swept Bill Clinton into the White House.
My research brought me to a small Vancouver home where I interviewed her father, to the high school that she attended, and to the school board she once chaired.
A picture emerged of a bright politician whose candour often surprised the media and frightened her political handlers.
"I'm an unconventional politician and you guys are going to have to get used to me," she said.
When Campbell announced her Conservative leadership candidacy on March 25, 1993, I was there to record the hoopla and follow her into the Hotel Vancouver's British room for her first news conference as a candidate.
Someone asked how her government would be any different than Mulroney's.
"I'm not looking for occasions to kick the prime minister in the shins," she said. "I am different from Brian Mulroney — by virtue of my generation, where I came from and my gender. I have no qualms whatsoever about articulating an independent and separate identity."
Sure enough, Campbell did become Canada's first female prime minister. She governed for several months, until an election came and a Liberal steamroller flattened the Conservatives, reducing them to two seats.
In the ensuing years, Campbell has remained active — lecturing at Harvard, acting as Canada's consul general in Los Angeles, and working for international women's groups and organizations promoting democracy.
She lives much of the year abroad, but found time for our interview during a trip home to Vancouver, where she stood in a sun-filled backyard garden and spoke to me by Skype.
The candour that typified her political career had not diminished.
Anyone who has lived in Canada the last half-century cannot have missed the political phenomenon named Jean Chretien.
He emerged from Quebec in the early 1960s, barely speaking a word of English, and became one of the most powerful politicians in the federal cabinet.
He was minister of revenue under Lester B. Pearson, and in Pierre Trudeau's cabinet, he climbed the ladder: Indian Affairs, Treasury Board, Industry, Finance, Justice and Energy.
Chretien was personally hurt when he lost the Liberal leadership to Turner in 1984, and he quit as an MP in 1986.
My first exposure to him was during the 1988 election, in which Chretien was not running as an MP and the Liberals were still being led by Turner.
Midway through the campaign, Chretien spoke to students at Ottawa's Algonquin College. I was sent to cover the event, during which Chretien was to speak about free trade. He was repeatedly asked if he was interested in the Liberal crown he had lost to Turner in 1984.
"There's no opening, no offering," Chretien told the students. "At that time, if there is, I have always said that I will never refuse the call of duty. If I'm needed in five years, 10 years, 25 years . . . if I feel that it is my duty to come back, I will come back. I will be happy to serve."
Sure enough, after Turner quit the leadership in 1989, Chretien returned and I watched him, on Jan. 23, 1990, officially come out of the shadows to become the front-runner in a fresh leadership race.
At a news conference at the National Press Theatre, he adopted the folksy style that had become his trademark.
That winter, the country was undergoing a crisis of national unity — unsure of whether provinces would meet a June 23 deadline for ratification of the Meech Lake constitutional accord negotiated three years earlier. Chretien urged first ministers to ignore the deadline and remain calm.
"We're stuck in the snow," he told us in the packed press theatre.
"We know as Canadians what to do when we're stuck in the snow. You don't get excited. You don't spin your wheels. You just go forward and backward, forward and backward. And eventually, you're back on the road."
It was vintage Chretien.
Three months later, as he was heading for victory at a June leadership convention in Calgary, I sat down with Chretien in Ottawa for an interview.
He was brimming with confidence, said he was "way ahead" in the race and added that his two rivals, Paul Martin and Sheila Copps, "pray to God that I will make a mistake."
"That's all right," he said. "It's normal for them. I did not make a big mistake in the last 12 months. There's still a chance I'll make a big mistake in the last two months."
Then he leaned across the desk in the sparsely decorated office and looked me straight in the eye.
"I know you want me today to make the mistake. You will be the reporter that will be the one who will have won the prize."
He leaned back and smiled. "And I wish you good luck. I won't do it."
Chretien was right. He didn't flub it. I followed him to Calgary and watched him win the Liberal leadership.
Three years later, after his rocky stretch as opposition leader, I watched him win the 1993 election with a massive majority.
And for two elections after that — 1997 and 2000 — I watched him win two more majorities.
This fall, I sat down with Chretien again — this time in his Ottawa law office just two blocks from Parliament Hill.
During the interview, he still had the twinkle in his eye, and the confidence in his voice.
Paul Martin is probably the former prime minister I know best. Stretching back two decades, I have interviewed him countless times — in his role as Liberal leadership candidate, finance minister, prime minister and retired politician.
To understand him is to realize that he is, in essence, a kind man with an immense curiosity and an insatiable desire to contribute to public policy debate.
That was apparent during the 1990 leadership race in which Chretien was counting on his own folksy charisma and Martin was hoping to spark debates in areas as dull — although important — as industrial policy.
Back then, the former head of a shipping company had only been an MP for two years and we still called him "Paul Martin Jr.," in reference to his father, a leading Liberal cabinet minister in previous decades who had made his own — failed — attempts to win the party leadership.
In March of 1990, as he tried to stop the Chretien leadership juggernaut, Martin spoke to me about the front-runner.
He said Chretien had displayed a serious lack of understanding of Canadians by predicting that English Canada would probably join the U.S. if Quebec separated.
"English Canada is very nationalistic and very proud to be Canadian," Martin told me. "English Canada is not prepared to sell out to the United States. Canadians want to be Canadians.
"If Jean Chretien does not understand that fact, it makes you wonder about why he thinks he could be prime minister."
Of course, Chretien did become prime minister — and he turned to Martin to be his economic lieutenant. Martin became one of the country's most successful and respected finance ministers — eliminating the deficit, working with provinces to restructure the Canada Pension Plan, and becoming a founding father of the G20.
Relations between Chretien and his finance minister eventually turned sour and by 2002, Martin was out of cabinet.
Once the leadership race was underway in 2003, I spent weeks researching and writing a 10,000-word profile on Martin.
Such was his stature within the party — and with the opposition parties so divided — that it was widely assumed Martin would govern for as long as he wanted once he became prime minister.
Martin granted me three extensive interviews for the profile. Throughout, he was polite, admitting, however, that he is shy about himself and reluctant to talk about his own personality.
A picture emerged of a man who is deeply religious, and who has a strong sense of social conscience while also believing in the certitude of good economic, business and fiscal policy.
He told me he believes humans have "three great responsibilities" during their lives.
"No. 1 is to make sure that the people who are closest to you get through life as well as they possibly can."
The second duty applies to looking out for people beyond our own families, he said
"Our responsibility to those who live on Earth with us is to make sure that the lives they lead are as fulfilling as they possibly can be. I have that responsibility to you, and I have that responsibility to somebody living in Africa, as you have to me and to them."
Third, said Martin, we all have an obligation to ensure the state of human knowledge constantly progresses.
"Ultimately, what our responsibility is, is to make sure that every single generation discovers more about what makes the world go tick."
Martin easily won his own leadership juggernaut, but no one anticipated the phenomenal damage of the sponsorship scandal that had been brewing within the Chretien government, or of how the unification of the political right would make Conservative leader Stephen Harper such a force.
I travelled with Martin in the 2004 election that he won, though reduced to a minority, and during the 2005-06 race that he lost to Harper.
I remember a moment five days before the 2006 campaign ended, at a cramped, overheated rally in Toronto one evening, when Martin dropped his prepared text and spoke from the heart.
"When you elect a government to the national government, you're not simply choosing somebody to go up there and sit in an office," he shouted.
"You're choosing somebody who represents what you believe, what you hope, and what you hope and believe for your children."
He then said that if voters didn't rally together, they would leave a shattered heritage to their children.
"And then, at some future time, they will look back and ask us: 'How did you let us down? How did this country, which had done so much to build itself up, which had demonstrated its capacity to work together, how come that fell apart? Why did we simply turn inside and turn selfish? Why?'"
One recent afternoon, I drove to Martin's home in Quebec's Eastern Townships. It was there that I conducted the interview for this series.
As he had been on so many previous occasions, Martin was courteous, eager to talk about issues of public policy, and determined to make his case that Canada's government has a legitimate role to play in our lives.
Related Links:
The Right Honourable Club in their own words: Joe Clark
Canada risks losing ties that bind, warns former prime minister Joe Clark


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The Hope College Concert Series will feature the Jamaican Queens on Friday, Nov. 8, at 8 p.m. at the Park Theatre.
The concert will be a "Detroit Showcase" featuring three up-and-coming artists from the Detroit area.
Having recently released their debut album, "Wormfood," Detroit natives Jamaican Queens have garnered acclaim in the Detroit area and around the country for their unique "odd-pop" sound. "Wormfood" has been deemed "The Coolest Album of 2013" by "The L Magazine" of new York City Jamaican Queens has spent most of the year touring behind the album.
Opening for the evening will be the bands Flint Eastwood and Five Pound Snap. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets for the concert are $10 for regular admission and $5 for students. Tickets will be sold at the door but are also available in advance at the ticket offices in the main lobby of the DeVos Fieldhouse (222 Fairbanks Ave.) and the Events and Conferences Office located downtown in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center (100 E. Eighth St.). Both offices are open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called at (616) 395-7890.
The Park Theatre is located at 248 South River Ave., at the intersection at River Avenue and 10th Street.


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For Alison Chemla, designer and creative mind behind Alison Lou, communication is key. Her first signature collection is a thoughtful and cheeky commentary on the expression of feelings - from the banal to the intimate - through the language of emoticons. With these pieces it's easy to wear your emotions on your sleeve - or rather your neck, ear, finger or wrist. Simple pendants, studs, rings and bracelets adorned with emoticons allow you to state your mood without even saying a word.
Never content moving in just one direction, this New York-based designer complements her emoticon collection with a wide assortment of dainty, mix-and-match gemstone studs and stacking rings and bracelets. Colorful stones including emeralds, topaz and rubies pair with white diamonds to create pops of color, while her individually sold studs allow you to create your own palette of color and shapes - limited only by the number of piercings in your ears.


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"I've always been fascinated by large carnivores," says Brian Kertson, a wildlife research scientist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). "Not just because of the physical adaptations they have, which are remarkable, but because they have to go out, search, locate, capture and kill other animals—despite the fact those animals have spent hundreds of thousands of years developing tricks to get away from them. That's a really challenging way to live your life."
You could argue the same about studying major predators. But that's exactly how Kertson wants to spend his life, and he's currently living his dream as a large carnivore researcher for the state.
Growing up in Woodinville, Wash., Kertson says he knew early on that he wanted to study wildlife. As part of a high school project, he remembers coming down to the University of Washington and visiting the College of Forest Resources (CFR). He ended up meeting Professor Dave Manuwal, head of the wildlife science program at the time, and Josh Millspaugh, a doctoral candidate who is now a professor of wildlife management at the University of Missouri.
Kertson talked with Millspaugh about his interest in wildlife and working outside, and that he was thinking of pursuing zoology in college. Millspaugh said that if Kertson really wanted to spend his career in the field and working hands-on with animals, he should consider training as a wildlife scientist.
As it happens, Kertson nearly opted for an entirely different form of training since UW had been recruiting him to play football as a defensive end or outside linebacker. Yet the call of the outdoors and wildlife research won out, and he decided to accept an academic scholarship, enrolling as a freshman at UW in the fall of 1997. "I declared a wildlife science major right out of the gate and never looked back," he says. "It was a perfect confluence of my three real passions: wildlife, science and just being outdoors."
CFR, now the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS), would end up being his home for most of the next dozen years. He stayed on after his undergraduate degree to earn a Master of Science and then a Ph.D. in 2010, all under the same advisor, Professor Chris Grue.
An associate professor with the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Grue is the unit leader for the Washington Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, which funds research through a number of cooperating agencies. In Kertson's case, his graduate
research received support through WDFW. "Chris is a great scientist and really adept at working with a wide variety of projects," says Kertson. "He saw me all the way through for a little more than seven years."
Cat Scratch Fever
Looking back on his tenure at SEFS, Kertson marvels at the abundance of research outlets the school and university afforded him. It's an urban campus yet less than an hour from forest and mountain wilderness areas, and only three hours from desert landscapes. He says access to such diverse natural laboratories helped sharpen his tools as a scientist and researcher and, most importantly, helped establish his expertise with carnivores and cougars (also known as mountain lions, pumas or panthers).
Specifically, Kertson's dissertation involved several years of investigating cougar behavior and ecology in wildland-urban environments in Washington. He looked at how cougars use these environments—how much time they spend in residential areas, how often interactions with people occur, and how the landscape and other demographic factors influence their behavior.
His findings were rather surprising, even a bit hair-raising. "What [my research] showed was that cougars spend a lot more time in residential areas than we knew—a little more than 17 percent of their time," he says. "Cats use these residential portions of the landscape just like they do wildlands, including hunting for deer and elk in greenbelts and other forested habitats."
However, the average cougar generates about one report—as in, someone would spot or bump into it on a trail—every 629 days. "So coexistence levels were very high despite a relatively high level of cougar occurrence in residential areas," he says. "All that was very new. Most work and research on cougars was in wildland environments, and this was one of the first projects to look at people as a permanent presence and a key driver in shaping landscape dynamics for cougars."
To be clear, Kertson wasn't talking about downtown Seattle or Bellevue or other highly urban environments. He was investigating border areas of east King County and southeast Snohomish County where residential and other developments abut or overlap with parks, forests and natural areas. The takeaway, though, was that the borders weren't as defined as previously thought. "Unbeknownst to many of us, we share our neighborhood greenbelts, forests and trails with one of America's foremost predators—and we'd never know it," he says.
That doesn't mean you should get the willies the next time you take the trash out or stroll down the road for a latte. "The reality is, from a safety standpoint, there are a lot of things people should be way more concerned about," says Kertson. It's an issue of risk perception. Since 1900, there have been 18 documented cougar attacks on humans in the state of Washington, and only one of them proved fatal, way back in 1924. Plus, he says it's helpful to remember that a key part of a cougar's survival strategy is to minimize its exposure to people, even as it lives and hunts in fairly close proximity. So don't expect to find a cougar curled up and purring in a sunbeam on your sidewalk.
On the Prowl
Kertson, in fact, has to work awfully hard to locate and capture cougars, and he often spends entire days in fruitless pursuit. Yet he says it never gets old when you've caught one of these cats and are kneeling next to it (while it's sedated, of course). "It's always exciting and a bit awe-inspiring, because they're just muscles upon muscles. Big cats like cougars, I would argue they're the epitome of predation efficiency. Everything about their body is the result of thousands of years of evolutionary adaptation to make them more efficient and effective hunters. That's pretty incredible to see firsthand. It sort of puts you in your place in the universe."
With such intimidating quarry, there's plenty of thrill in the chase, too. "When I'm out doing radio tracking sessions, I'm not afraid of cougars or large carnivores," he says, "but I have a healthy respect for them. And when you do find yourself in close proximity, even when you know exactly where they are with the radio tracking equipment, you have a very primitive, primordial reaction—your heartbeat picks up, you breathe a little quicker, your senses are a little more attuned. You hear a little better, see a little better, you're a little more on edge. That reaction is deeply hard-wired."
Having felt that kind of pulse-pounding excitement, Kertson knew what he wanted to do after school. But when he completed his Ph.D. in 2010, a strapped state budget meant fewer opportunities in his field. He managed to secure a few months of post-graduate work funded by WDFW, and then he found an opening investigating wolf and elk dynamics as a researcher with Idaho Fish and Game. Not long after he moved to Idaho and took that job, a position finally opened up back with WDFW, so he applied and ended up getting hired and moving closer to home. Then, about four months after that, a research position with carnivores opened up in Issaquah, Wash.
The job roulette wasn't ideal, he says, but finding the right fit isn't always a linear process or something you can line up perfectly on a calendar. "It was kind of a funny period where I bounced around between really good jobs, but I finally had the opportunity to pursue my dream job—so I went after it and was fortunate enough to land it."
In his role with WDFW today, Kertson doesn't spend all of his time in the field prowling for predators. Seasonally, the winter is his busiest season for cougar capture. For much of the rest of the year, field work is interspersed with time in front of a computer analyzing data, writing reports and grants, and reviewing and providing expertise to other agency staff working with large terrestrial carnivores. Such tasks might seem mundane by comparison, but Kertson says they're all vital parts of the scientific process. "I think my favorite part of the job is that there're always so many new questions to be answered," he says. "Whenever you think you've got a good idea of how the world works, you're constantly surprised by what you see and what you learn."
Husky Ties
Back in Issaquah and back in the orbit of UW, Kertson was eager to reconnect with his alma mater. Shortly after accepting his current position, he reached out to several colleagues at SEFS to obtain affiliate faculty status. Academic partnerships are common at WDFW, he says, and agency professionals are encouraged to interact with universities and mentor students as much as they can. "It's very much a mutually beneficial relationship," he says.
As an affiliate assistant professor, he currently sits on the committees of a few SEFS graduate students, including Laurel Peele, Justin Dillinger and Carol Bogezi, who he's helping capture cougars in the Issaquah area.
These relationships are especially meaningful to Kertson. When he reflects on his own education and career path, he's grateful for the insight and instruction of so many people along the way. Now he's returning the favor. "I think the biggest factor allowing me to get where I wanted to go was utilizing the relationships and friendships I've made, and reaching out and creating new connections," he says. "I was fortunate to meet the right people to point me in the right direction."
It's worth noting that Kertson didn't meet those people and make connections by accident. He pounced on research opportunities he came across as an undergrad to help broaden his skillset and network with practitioners. "A big part was early on I knew what I wanted to do, so I volunteered a lot," he says. "That allowed me to meet people and obtain the skills that would make me more marketable. The summer before my junior year, I began volunteering on a research project with WDFW. I got to meet their staff, they got to meet me. I made sacrifices and put in a lot of work, but as a result I've had a lot of opportunities."
The payoff for his persistence and opportunism came in many forms, and one of the most memorable was getting to volunteer on a field project that was way above his pay grade. "It was crazy," he says. "As an undergraduate intern with WDFW I was assisting with black-tailed deer captures, running around in helicopters, participating in net gunning operations, running around in the forest and tackling deer to put on radio collars."
Had he chosen to play football, he could have been tackling an entirely different type of cougar. Instead, he's working with one of the most powerful predators in North America. He's tracked and caught and measured close to 100 of these big cats, cradled their heads in his lap and felt the immense power of a 185-pound cougar at his fingertips. How many people get to say that?
Photos © Brian Kertson.


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Apr 24, 2011
It's like Fresh Air for Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts. Find out what's going on in the world of Sherlock Holmes, including pop culture, Sherlock Holmes societies around the world, and a reflection on how this great character - from William Gillette to Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone to Benedict Cumberbatch - has inspired generations of dedicated literary and non-literary types alike. Entirely interview-based, IHOSE airs twice a month: on the 15th and 30th. Subscribe today - it's elementary!
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