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One bright September morning in Rome, when it still felt like summer, Her Serene Highness the Principessa Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi stood with half a dozen Japanese tourists and a German couple under "Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune," the only painting Caravaggio is known to have executed on a ceiling. The painting, a luminous depiction of the three sons of Chronos looking down from the clouds at the milky universe as Jupiter repositions the sun and the earth with his outstretched hand, is on the second floor of the Villa Aurora, a forty-thousand-square-foot palazzo in which the Principessa has resided for the past eight years. "It's hard to imagine that Caravaggio didn't know Galileo," she said. "Look at his hand—he's pushing away the sun."
"He's opening up the old Ptolemaic sphere," the German man said, gazing at Jupiter.
"Yes, I think so." The Principessa, a very trim, pretty woman with platinum-blond hair and the sharp, perfectly symmetrical features of a Madame Alexander doll, is sixty-one, but she looks about forty-five, and she was wearing a short, tight black dress with white polka dots and shiny leather pumps. "But it's like Marshall McLuhan—hot media," she continued. "You interact with it and you decide what you want to see."
The Principessa speaks English with a slight Texas twang. She was born Rita Carpenter, in San Antonio, and grew up in Austin. She spent five years in Washington, D.C., married to Representative John Jenrette, a South Carolina Democrat; shortly before their divorce, in 1981, she appeared in Playboy, in photographs that featured a feather boa and a brandy snifter. She lived in Los Angeles next, and pursued an acting career—she appeared on an episode of "Fantasy Island" as a character called Nurse Heavenly, and in a film entitled "Zombie Island Massacre"—and subsequently moved to New York City, where she worked as an on-camera reporter for "A Current Affair," and then as a real-estate broker. Her biggest deal was the sale of the General Motors Building to Donald Trump, in 1998. She met her current husband, Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, in 2003, when a friend of his asked her to serve as his broker. "They called me and said, 'We have this prince who would like to develop a hotel on his property,' " she recalled. "I said, 'Oh, for heaven's sakes! Everybody in New York calls themselves count or prince or whatever—they're not.' " She was ultimately persuaded to go to Rome, where she fell in love and became a princess.
"It was probably written in the stars," Prince Nicolò told me. A bald man of seventy, with light-green eyes, he has grown a bit heavy around the middle, but he was legendarily handsome in his youth. When they first met, he explained, "I said, in the clumsiest way one can even imagine, 'Well, you are not ugly.' She's beautiful, of course, but she's as beautiful inside. She's candid like a child but shrewd like a fox!"
"This is my husband's coat of arms—our coat of arms now," the Principessa said to her guests early in the tour, as they admired a large Guercino fresco on the first floor. Since she moved to Rome, the Principessa has devoted herself to the restoration of the Villa Aurora, which was erected in 1570 by Francesco del Nero, on the site of the ancient Gardens of Sallust. "From my perspective, the whole history of the West is in that building," T. Corey Brennan, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor-in-Charge at the American Academy in Rome, told me. In the garden, there is a statue of Pan by Michelangelo. A marble trough near the front gate dates back to Hadrian's time. There are frescoes by Domenichino, Tassi, and Valesio. The Principessa thinks that a tunnel beneath the kitchen connects the Villa Aurora with what was once the Medici palace—it is now the French Academy—so that Cosimo de' Medici could dine with the house's second owner, Cardinal Francisco del Monte, without being disturbed on the way over.
Last summer, the Prince and his wife happened upon a trove of a hundred and fifty thousand pages of historical documents, including letters from Marie Antoinette and King Louis XV, in a storage room. The Principessa put on a pair of white gloves and spread a few of the letters on a table for us to see. "This is from Maria Theresa, written in Latin," she said, and pointed to the bottom of the page. "Here's her crest. Marie Antoinette was her youngest daughter, married to Louis XVI when she was only fourteen." She showed us the adolescent queen's swooping signature at the bottom of a letter, and declared, "She never said 'Let them eat cake!' She got a bad rap."
The Caravaggio is upstairs, in a little foyer that Cardinal del Monte used as an alchemist's laboratory. "It's quite obscene," the German man observed. Caravaggio rendered all three figures in the composition nude, and—possibly to prove to his detractors his facility with the most difficult type of perspective, di sotto in su, or looking up from below—he put Neptune at such an angle that the viewer must look directly up into his crotch. "In-your-face sexuality," the Principessa said, nodding vigorously. "His penis and everything else! He was courageous. You're talking about post-Reformation, when they were still burning people at the stake!"
Rita Jenrette found the social climate in Washington to be only slightly less repressive when she conducted her own experiment with in-your-face sexuality, thirty years ago. In 1980, John Jenrette was convicted of accepting a fifty-thousand-dollar bribe, in what became known as the Abscam scandal. Rita wrote about it in an article that accompanied her Playboy spread, entitled "The Liberation of a Congressional Wife," in which she also catalogued Jenrette's philandering, and expressed her own sense of exclusion in Washington. ("She was not a player in the social-political scene," the Washington hostess and journalist Sally Quinn told me. "Let me just say, it means something that I didn't immediately remember who she was.") Jenrette wrote, "I never looked like a Congressman's wife. Instead of wearing tailored gabardine suits and sensible pumps, I favored silky—some said clinging—dresses and high-heeled boots. I preferred mink to camel's hair." She went on to claim that, late one night, in front of the Capitol, she and Jenrette "made love on the marble steps that overlook the monuments." That salacious detail went viral, to the extent that such a thing was possible in 1981. "It was a firestorm—everybody was asking about it," she told me.
A memoir, "My Capitol Secrets," advanced her notoriety when it came out later that year, after her divorce. On the cover, Rita Jenrette was billed as "the lady who blew the lid off Washington." She detailed "the endless parties, drop-your-clothes-at-the-door orgies, alcoholic bashes, the cocaine, the call girls—and call boys" she had encountered in her time as a political spouse. (It was a best-seller.) Hers was the sensational story of someone who went to Washington "to be a serious career woman," and "desperately wanted to be accepted," but ended up feeling "like a prisoner" in her marriage, and an outcast after she went public with her revelations and her bosom. When she appeared on the Phil Donahue show, he remarked, "I have this feeling that you are looking over your shoulder and that you feel that everyone is saying, 'There she is.' " She agreed that this was so, and added that she was accustomed to "being picked apart."
That period of her life still haunts her, the Principessa said, after she finished giving her tour and was seated on a silk-upholstered settee, drinking tea that a man in a red uniform had brought on a gilded tray. "I'm a serious person and I read a lot. I have a 139 I.Q.! So to have this other image—which was just like another person—was so traumatic for me. I was lost." She admires Kendra Wilkinson, a Playboy model who is now the star of her own reality television show, for her indifference to disapproval: "I need to develop that attitude like Kendra, like, 'Hey, here I am, folks! This is me.' " Her husband has that sort of self-confidence, she asserted. "He doesn't care what other people think. He loves me. Someone in Rome will say, 'She was in Playboy?' He'll say, 'Yes, I'm very proud of it! I think it's great.' Now I have someone who will stand up for me, with a whole thousand-year lineage behind him."
There is a vivid sense at the Villa Aurora that the past is present, partly because of the frescoes and the sculptures and the dozens of family portraits hanging on the walls, and partly because there is a steady flow of people coming through whose expertise and livelihood intersect with the restoration or preservation of the villa and what's inside it. Because of the villa's designation as a national monument, various government ministries have had to be consulted throughout the renovation, which has been under way since 2003, when Prince Nicolò took up residence there after the death of his father. So far, he has spent more than a million dollars, on work ranging from removing the plumbing above a glorious periwinkle-blue Valesio fresco—it suffered water damage after a visiting cousin let the bathtub above it overflow—to erecting thirty-five thousand dollars' worth of scaffolding outside the retaining wall at the front of the property, at the behest of the city government, because the roots of a tree were starting to burst through, knocking bricks onto Via Lombardi.
When Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi bought the place, in 1621, from Francesco del Monte, he intended to use it for entertaining. He built the vast Palazzo Grande—which is now the American Embassy—for his residence, and to house his collection of Roman antiquities. "Ludovisi was the greatest collector of his day," Corey Brennan told me. "And the fastest. In eighteen months, he amassed the greatest art collection in Italy." The Cardinal hired Giovanni Battista Agucchi to landscape forty acres between the houses, with help from the artist Domenichino, and he studded the grounds with statuary.
The Ludovisi Gardens were magnificent; André Le Nôtre, who designed the gardens of Versailles, said they were the most beautiful in all Rome. Goethe, Gogol, and Tchaikovsky sought them out, and in 1829 Stendhal wrote that he strolled "with delight among the grand avenues of green trees." But by the end of the nineteenth century the family had overextended itself financially—having built, among other things, a private rail line to expedite its gatherings for Sunday lunch—and the estate was subdivided and sold off. In 1885, Via Veneto was constructed, right through the middle of the property.
Until recently, a lovely little landscape around the Villa Aurora remained as a memento. But last May, after the city demanded the scaffolding, it sent over a team to assess the trees on the property, determined that twenty-six of them were diseased, and ordered all of them removed. The Principessa was dismayed. "It was heartbreaking! I used to love sitting out there," she said one afternoon in her glassed-in sunroom. She was dressed in a crisp black Armani skirt suit with white buttons. She pointed at a tree outside. "I said, 'Don't you touch this Lebanon cedar! Henry James sat under this tree.' " (James stayed at the Villa Aurora while he was writing "Italian Hours"; from the rooftop, he would gaze at the city set "against a sky of faded sapphire.") "I said, 'I'll chain myself to it and call every newspaper in the world!' " The cedar was spared.
In the yard, behind Henry James's tree, is a colossal pit, next to which a bulldozer and a backhoe have been sitting since the summer. "We wanted to put in a garage underneath the property to give an income stream," the Principessa explained. But a disagreement broke out between the archeologist sent by the city and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage over who had jurisdiction of the site. "We got a letter saying everything has to stop," she went on. "Meanwhile, we have this gaping hole, and we have no idea when they'll let us start again!"
The Principessa, like Francesco del Monte and Ludovico Ludovisi, wants the villa to be a haven for intellectuals and artists. This fall, she gave a dinner for Woody Allen, for whom she once auditioned, decades ago. (When she was toasting him at the table, she said, "I didn't win an Oscar, but I won the Oscar in life—I met my Prince.") Annie Leibovitz has come for a tour. The Principessa has artistic aspirations of her own as well: she is at work on a novel called "Caravaggio's Treasure," a thriller about a blond art conservator with "impossibly long legs," who is "totally unaware of her good looks, which make women hate her." She is sent to Rome, where she meets a handsome prince.
The day of my visit, the Principessa was joined by two scholars: Brennan, who has been closely involved in studying the documents that turned up in the storage room last summer, and Jana Dambrogio, a senior conservator at the National Archives in Washington, who had offered to assist him. "The thing that's so interesting about this archive is that it's personal," Dambrogio said. She was particularly enthusiastic about the way Marie Antoinette's letters were "locked"—folded with a little tab that fit into a slit. She showed me a model that she'd made out of regular paper. "This piece still exists!" she said, pointing to the tab. "If you lose the bits and pieces of the artifact, then it loses its voice." The documents haven't been exposed to pollution or light, and they have barely been touched, other than by their authors, their recipients, and the Principessa's white-gloved hands. "The Marie Antoinette letters are as if she wrote them yesterday," Dambrogio said.
In 1947, the family donated the bulk of the Boncompagni Ludovisi papers to the Vatican. But the documents that were retained, Brennan pointed out, have the family genealogy and "very important proofs of status going all the way back." Before devoting himself full time to antiquity, Brennan, an affable and excitable person, was the guitarist for the Lemonheads and Bullet LaVolta. He explained his enthusiasm for the Boncompagni Ludovisi family as a subject of study: "It's not like a family that was famous; it's that every single generation of the family has a very, very significant player." Gregory XIII gave us the Gregorian calendar, which is still in use. "The single most impressive thing that I've found so far is a letter—I think it's unique in Western history—from Gregory, when he was a cleric, before he's Pope, explaining the circumstances of the conception of his son," Brennan said. "It's literally 'I was in Bologna after the Council of Trent, I met this woman, one thing leads to another, pretty soon she's pregnant. However, I did the right thing, I found her a dowry, I found this guy to marry her.' "
The Principessa was summoned away, and returned with a new visitor: the Marquis Giovanni Battista Guerrieri Gonzaga, an elegant older gentleman who looks the way Valentino would if he had let his hair go silver. Gonzaga, whom she calls G.B., was responsible for the restoration of the Rockefeller property Kykuit, in Pocantico Hills, and is now overseeing the renovation of the villa. "G.B. is from a very prestigious, really one of the most important families in Italy—Gonzaga," she said. "My husband's oldest son is married to—I guess she would be your cousin?"
"Sì," the Marquis said, extending a manicured hand and wiggling his pinkie, on which he wore a gold ring. "My crest."
Gonzaga had wanted to do all the floors in an elegant marble mosaic, but one of the cultural ministries objected to his plan. "We don't understand why the people are so stupid at the Belle Arte," he said with disgust. He sighed dramatically, and reminisced about the joys and the challenges of working for the Rockefellers. "Nelson was really so clever and cultivated; somebody who felt so deeply all the Italian tradition, so we got along perfectly. After his death, everything changed. His family started saying, 'Well, but it cost too much.' Happy Rockefeller was not enthusiastic about it," the Marquis said sadly. "And she raised sons that were without any interest."
The Marquis took us all up to an echoing, empty room behind the Caravaggio alcove, which will eventually be the master bedroom, to show us some of his sketches. "Here you have a sort of sitting room," he said, indicating a vestibule between the famous painting and what he will call the Galileo Suite, so named because Cardinal del Monte was a patron of Galileo, who visited the villa. "Bathroom will be there, but separated," Gonzaga said. "So if you have guests, let's say to have a cup of tea, they have just to wash their hands, make peepee."
"It's going to be beautiful," the Principessa said.
Prince Nicolò has a complicated relationship with his sons, Francesco, Ignazio, and Bante, from his first marriage, to Principessa Benedetta Maria Barberini Colonna di Sciarra. "When they were small, you would've eaten them up," he said one evening, driving to his private club for dinner in his navy-blue Mercedes with his wife, who was wearing a short beaded black dress and emerald-and-diamond earrings. "When they grew up, you sort of regret that you didn't."
"He says they are not Boncompagni," the Principessa said, and laughed.
"Darling, of course they are," Prince Nicolò said.
"He says they have the characteristics of their mother," the Principessa continued. "Who's a Barberini."
"You can't find in them my mentality," the Prince conceded. His oldest and youngest sons, Francesco and Bante, live at the family's country estate, not far outside Rome, with Francesco's wife, Violante, their two children, and Bante's wife, Delphina, the daughter of the American editor Lewis Lapham. The middle son, Ignazio, is a financier in Milan, and has three children with his wife, Gaia Bulgari, of the jewelry dynasty. "Young family, young money," the Prince said matter-of-factly.
The car pulled up in front of the colossal Palazzo Borghese.
"His great-great-great-grandmother's palace!" the Principessa exclaimed.
On the second floor, a club called the Circolo della Caccia is, as the Principessa pointed out, open "only to aristocracy." In the entry hall, there is a photograph of Prince Charles—a member—with Princess Diana, looking young and regal and miserable, amid a sea of pictures of less recognizable Italian aristocrats. After a liveried attendant took their coats, the Boncompagni Ludovisis greeted Barbara Massimo, a young woman with tumbling wheat-colored hair who could have stepped out of a Botticelli painting. "Barbara has a beautiful castle," the Principessa told me. "Her family existed in Rome, it's said, before Christ."
Massimo shrugged modestly, and introduced her fiancé, Scipione Borghese, who kissed my hand by way of greeting. He lives upstairs, in a grand apartment that is still in the Borghese family; the couple had come down for drinks at the club in a room with towering windows and gilt-trimmed walls covered with paintings of stern and regal clergymen.
"These families, they didn't come from the king handing out titles in the eighteen-hundreds," the Principessa informed me. It is said that Scipione Borghese's namesake, a cardinal and famed art collector, lured Caravaggio back to Rome in 1610 after the artist fled to avoid punishment for murdering a man. Another relation is Prince Lorenzo Borghese, who was a contestant on Season 9 of "The Bachelor." "These are the august families," the Principessa continued. "The real nobility."
I asked the women how many such families were in their circle.
Massimo counted on her fingers and murmured, "Uno, due, tre . . . " She got up to six before concluding, "Not so many."
The club's dining room is perhaps the most exclusive restaurant in Rome—it was dead quiet. The Principessa, who is a vegetarian, ordered pasta, and the Prince requested veal. "He was a great hunter—until he met me," she said, and placed her hand on her husband's arm. "You don't like to kill animals anymore."
"Aye, aye!" the Prince said, and laughed a little gruffly. "Yes, Ma'am!" In his youth, Prince Nicolò hunted the Big Five in Africa and flew his own plane. He grew up in Rome with his mother, a British noblewoman, but not in the Villa Aurora. "My mother and father separated on the day of my christening," he said sombrely. "I was christened by a Jesuit, God bless him, and my beloved grandfather was my godfather." His grandfather Francesco Boncompagni Ludovisi was the governor of Rome until Mussolini's rule became intolerable to him, and he went underground and lived as a farmer among the people who worked his lands. "He wrote me a letter when I was ten: 'You are the only and last hope of our family.' " The Prince and his wife agreed that their childhoods had been similar: privileged and lonely.
Rita Carpenter was born into Texas royalty: she was one of two daughters of C. Hunt Carpenter, a self-made millionaire who founded the Shamrock Insurance Company, in San Antonio, and discovered natural gas on one of his ranches. Rita's mother, Reba Garlington, was a homemaker and a very formal person. "She was like Nicolò," the Principessa said. "She was a blue blood. She felt I had finally married someone like her."
" 'Darling man,' she called me," the Prince remembered, happily. One of Nicolò's great regrets is that he never got to spend time in Texas with his wife's father, who died before they met. "I would have had a great time with him, instead of this bullshit here in Rome," he said.
"Darling!" the Principessa cried. "I've met some wonderful people here!"
"The French say noblesse oblige—I've been brought up that way," the Prince answered firmly. "These people are not giving anything to humanity! They seem to think only of how important they are, because they have a history. But it's not their history. It's the history of their family, which is quite different. What is important is what we are able to achieve in our lives."
I asked the Principessa what she would like to achieve.
"My goal now is to protect his archives for posterity," she said. "To make certain they are preserved and that his sons don't come in and rip them apart and sell them. That's what I hope. It's important to me because history is important. I think it's vital we preserve, when we find something like this, a treasure trove of materials. I'm up at four o'clock every morning! I have tremendous responsibilities."
In her youth in San Antonio, Rita Carpenter was a tomboy who loved to climb trees and read. But after she was skipped two grades in school life became difficult. "I felt like an alien being," she said. "It was just at the point when all the girls were growing up: they were thirteen and I was eleven, and I had glasses and I was trying to wear makeup, but I was a disaster." She often ate her lunch alone in the bathroom. "I remember I used to sit on my glasses, so they would let me out of school." She laughed. "Every day from the seventh to the ninth grade was hell—absolute hell."
The summer before she entered tenth grade, Rita blossomed. "People would say, 'Oh, who's the new girl?' One boy came up to me and said, 'Hi, do you want to go out?' I'll never forget it. I said, 'No, I don't want to go out with you! You were so cruel to me when I was in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, I cried every single night!' "
This miserable sense of being ostracized reverberated for Rita in Washington, and occasionally it still "comes back to slap me in the face," she said. Last December, she attended an event at the New York Public Library with her husband, and the Post's Page Six ran an item about it: "Rita Jenrette, who had sex on the Capitol steps, now an Italian Princess." "That Page Six item was just devastating," she said. "I've been through a lot of pain. It's been horrible. I mean, really, to think that people would betray you like this—so flippantly—like the woman from Page Six, just writing and not thinking what it would do."
The item, which referred to her as a "brainy beauty," had seemed innocuous, if not flattering, and I must have looked baffled. " 'Rita Jenrette, who had sex'—not made love but had sex—'on the Capitol steps,' " she said. "For me, being a princess now, and coming from a very august family, one of the most in all of Europe, and having grandchildren and children come over, you don't want them to read something like 'had sex on the Capitol steps.' They didn't even call me to say, 'Is this true?' "
In fact, she now says, it isn't. That infamous detail was an exercise in artistic license. Or, as the Principessa put it, "It was a lie. Why I included it is beyond me. I think part of me said, O.K., this is the image you think of me now. I'm this sexy Playboy femme fatale, and I'm here to take over and marry rich and famous men—that's what you think of me, so that's what I'll give you, somehow." She sighed. "I wanted to be accepted and liked. I found that playing along with this whole image made me liked."
It sometimes seems that Rita doesn't quite see the link between her actions and the way other people respond to them. Her good friend Bob Rose remembers having lunch with Rita and his wife, Linda, after the Playboy shoot: "She brought the proofs. I said, 'Holy shit! What are you, crazy?' They were very explicit—they were Playboy pictures! It was almost like she didn't know what she was holding in her hands."
Her family did not approve. "My father called me and he said, 'Baby, you didn't take off your clothes, did you?' And I said, 'Well, it's not Town & Country, Daddy.' And then the full impact of what I had done set in." She had fallen from grace. "My dad just goes, 'Move back to Texas.' Then everything would've been fine financially, but I would've been in Texas!" She laughed. "With all that stigma? No, I like New York. I said, I'm going to do it!"
She lived with Rose and his wife on Riverside Drive at first, and briefly dated Dan Aykroyd. He used to pick her up in a car he kept from "The Blues Brothers," and they'd drive down Broadway to the Village. "You could only get in by crawling through the window," she recalled. "I think he thought I was from the mountains of Virginia or something. He said, 'You look so . . . fresh!' " For a time, she went to Studio 54 and Chez Josephine at night, but she felt scrutinized and was having anxiety attacks. It was her job as a television reporter, she said, that "got me out of being so introspective and back into life." Yet still she felt persecuted. "My female boss was the boss from Hades," she said. "I'll never forget the demeaning way she spoke to me—never. She had the chance to save the life of a young girl!" Her colleagues proved unsupportive as well: "They didn't want me to shine."
It is only since she met the Prince that Rita feels she's been recognized for who she really is. She has felt misunderstood, assessed as somehow different, over and over, throughout her life. Now, as a noblewoman, she is not outside—she is, like the Caravaggio, above. The status she has married into is for her a vindication. Consequently, she is vigilant for slights against her husband's standing. The Principessa recently got into a "Wikipedia war," as she put it, when she noticed that the site had misidentified her husband as a cosmetics baron. "I went in and said, 'My husband is not a perfume executive,' " she told me, her voice lowered to a fervent whisper. " 'He is a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, and you will respect him as such!' "
The Boncompagni Ludovisis have a bichon frise named Angel, whom they refer to as "our daughter." One day, when they were at lunch with the dog at a restaurant with orange tablecloths and potted palms, the Principessa recalled a scene in her favorite movie, "Pretty Woman." Julia Roberts's character, a hooker, walks into a shop on Rodeo Drive and is treated cruelly by the haughty salespeople. Later, elegantly dressed, she stops by the store again, her arms loaded with shopping bags. "And she says, 'You work on commission, right? Big mistake!' I love that line," the Principessa said.
"Big mistake!" The Prince said, laughing heartily. "Big mistake!"
"He tells them that, too," she said. " 'You weren't nice to my wife? Big mistake.' That's the greatest scene for me in the movie."
It can be gratifying, of course, to suddenly be the one with the power, as when Rita rejected the young man in tenth grade who had taunted her before she became a swan. But it hasn't always worked out that way. She told me the real reason she posed for Playboy was to spite John Jenrette, who, after years of cheating, had said to her that nobody would want to look at a twenty-nine-year-old woman with no clothes on. "I just thought, I'll show you," she said. (It turned out that many people did want to see a woman at that advanced age naked, and they were even willing to look at her at thirty-four, when she appeared in Playboy again, on the cover, with a twenty-four-year-old dancer she was dating, in a special issue about older women and younger men.) But when you hear her describe the decades of judgment, real or imagined, that she has endured, it's not entirely clear if the big mistake was her former husband's or her own.
"She did it—there must have been a reason," Prince Nicolò said, as he tucked into a plate of ravioli. "Who am I to judge?"
The Principessa was not satisfied with this assessment. "But, darling, you always say to people that you're happy about it. You told me the other day!"
"I accept it! You made a choice and that's that! What's the point?"
"But I'd really like to know what you think of it," she protested. "I'm perplexed."
"If I had been your husband at that time, I wouldn't have pushed you to," he offered diplomatically.
"If you'd been my husband, I wouldn't have done it!"
The Prince rolled his eyes. "For her it's this fixation—she keeps bringing it up," he said, tapping the table with his hand. "Why go on talking about it? Playboy is a footnote! Period. Period!"
But this is unlikely to have been the last conversation on the topic in the Boncompagni Ludovisi household. The Principessa can't quite give up the defensive. Sometimes she thinks how wonderful it would be, how much suffering she could have been spared, if only she could visit her younger self and tell her, "You're going to be a princess." ♦


text:
Author Notes: This is very loosely based on a rice recipe that my mother used to make. I also added the big spash of red wine and that addition gives the dish an extra tang. It makes a great side dish or, with the addition of chicken pieces a main course. —dymnyno
Serves: 8
1 cup yellow onion, medium diced
2 cups white (arborio) rice
1 gypsy pepper, medium diced
1 cup salami, diced
1/2 parsley, minced
1 quart canned tomatoes (your own or San Marizano)
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup good red wine (Cabernet is fabulous!)
3 tablespoons olive oil.
- In a large heavy pot over high flame pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Dump in the onions, pepper , parsley and salami.
- Add the rice.
- Stir continuously until most of the rice has browned a golden color.
- Add the wine. Make sure it is good wine. If it is not good enough to drink it is not good enough to use for cooking
- Add the tomatoes.
- Add the chicken stock and stir a little
- When it begins to boil, cover and lower the heat to a simmer.
- Simmer for about 30 minutes…check to make sure that the bottom does not burn.
- Turn off the heat and leave it for a few minutes.
- This makes a great side dish or you can add cooked chicken pieces before you put the lid on and simmer and make it a main course.

subset: commoncrawl


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Yesterday, my twitter account got hacked, it's nice to have a story happen just so you can have something to put on your blog!
That was less nice that it made me send spammy DMs to all the sorry people that followed me, i had to clean that up after i changed that password in a hurry. I'm glad it was not somebody or something smart enough to change my mail/password before i did, it could have been quite worse.
But that taught me a lesson, i had fuzzy plans to change my weakest passwords for some time, these that i used for so long because i didn't know any better back then, so no, i'll never use this one anymore, and i'll not stick to passphrases, that is, a succession of words that may or may not mean something, because if you think about it, and consider letters of the English language as letters of bigger alphabet with which you can do words (valid English sentences) with, you quickly see it's a much larger alphabet than the ~60 symbols you get with ascii on a keyboard, a 4 words passphrase is a lot better than an 8 letters password, and it's far easier to remember an 8 words (or more) passphrase than a 20 letters password.
Of course, you are not limited to English, or to valid words, but you are already making things way harder to break, so you can aim for easy to rembember sentences, they could be your favorite in a book, in a song, a movie, a poem, or even a speech, people building dictionaries of all the known literature to bruteforce your passwords using that will have a lot of fun…
Anyway, lesson learned, and a few passwords were changed, some weak passwords were used for quite important things like amazon (duh), i'm glad twitter was the thing that got hit.


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Governor Scott: Florida Wins 2nd Medicaid Waiver Granting Flexibilities
Governor Rick Scott today announced that after months of negotiations with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Florida has won its request for a waiver granting additional flexibilities in Medicaid to better coordinate care and help prevent hospital visits. HHS's agreement to give Florida a medical assistance waiver in the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Program comes just weeks after HHS granted the Governor's first waiver request in the state's long-term care program.
Gov. Rick Scott said, "This is a great win for Florida, and it would not have been possible without the support of legislators who began the fight for this Medicaid flexibility many months ago. Improving the coordination of care in Medicaid means we will be able to better-manage chronic conditions and give more preventative treatments to help keep Florida families healthy. When I met with Sec. Sebelius in Washington, D.C. in January, I stressed the importance of the state receiving flexibilities in our current Medicaid program through the long-term care waiver and this medical assistance waiver for the implementation of the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Program. Getting this waiver approved by HHS, just after our long-term care waiver, makes us two-for-two in our request for Medicaid flexibilities. This helps Florida taxpayers by lowering costs and Florida families by improving healthcare services."
HHS communicated the state's Medicaid Managed Care medical assistance waiver approval in a letter expressing the department's "agreement in principle" to the Agency for Health Care Administration earlier today.
The Statewide Medicaid Managed Care program was designed to:
- Emphasize patient-centered care, personal responsibility and active patient participation;
- Provide for fully integrated care through alternative delivery models with access to providers and services through a uniform statewide program; and
- Implement innovations in reimbursement methodologies, plan quality and plan accountability.
Additional information about the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care program and the opportunity to sign up to receive email updates about the program can be found on the SMMC website at: http://ahca.myflorida.com/Medicaid/statewide_mc/index.shtml.


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"This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Budleigh.' Two parishes in the Diocese of Exeter, in which district Bodilly is well known, and whence Sir Thomas Bodley, (1545-1613) the founder of the Bodleian Library, sprung. His father was a Bodleigh, 'descended from an ancient family of Bodleigh, or Budleigh, of Dunscombe-by-Crediton" [2]CITATION[CLOSE]
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Some of the first records of the family include: Hamelin de Bodlei who was listed in the Pipe Rolls of Devon in 1196; Roger de Bodele who was listed in the Feet of Fines for Oxfordshire in 1269; and later, Emma Bodely who was listed in the Feet of Fines for Surrey (1457-1458.) [3]CITATION[CLOSE]
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 list John de Bodel in Cambridgeshire and the Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III list William de Bodele in London and Dennis de Buddelegh in Devon.
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI's surprise announcement on Monday that he will resign on Feb. 28 sets the stage for a succession battle that is likely to determine the future course of a church troubled by scandal and declining faith in its traditional strongholds around the world.
Citing advanced years and infirmity, Benedict became the first pope in six centuries to resign. Vatican officials said they hoped to have a new pope in place by Easter, while expressing shock at a decision that some said had been made as long as a year ago.
Saying he had examined his conscience "before God," Benedict said he felt that he was not up to the challenge of guiding the world's one billion Catholics. That task will fall to his successor, who will have to contend not only with a Roman Catholic Church marred by the sexual abuse crisis, but also with an increasingly secular Europe and the spread of Protestant evangelical movements in the United States, Latin America and Africa.
The resignation sets up a struggle between the staunchest conservatives, in Benedict's mold, who advocate a smaller church of more fervent believers, and those who believe that the church can broaden its appeal in small but significant ways, like allowing divorced Catholics who remarry without an annulment to receive communion or loosening restrictions on condom use in an effort to prevent AIDS. There are no plausible candidates who would move on issues like ending celibacy for priests, or the ordination of women.
Many Vatican watchers suspect that the cardinals will choose someone with better management skills and a more personal touch than the bookish Benedict, someone who can extend the church's reach to new constituencies, particularly to the young people of Europe, for whom the church is now largely irrelevant, and to Latin America and Africa, where evangelical movements are fast encroaching.
"They want somebody who can carry this idea of new evangelization, relighting the missionary fires of the church and actually make it work, not just lay it out in theory," said John L. Allen, a Vatican expert at the National Catholic Reporter and author of many books on the papacy. Someone who will be "the church's missionary in chief, a showman and salesman for the Catholic faith, who can take the reins of government more personally into his own hands," he added.
The other big battle in the church is over the demographic distribution of Catholics, which has shifted decisively to the developing world. Today, 42 percent of adherents come from Latin America, and about 15 percent from Africa, versus only 25 percent from Europe. That has led many in the church to say that the new pope should represent a part of the world where membership is growing quickly, while others say that spiritual vision should be paramount.
But while most of the world's Catholics live outside Europe, most of the cardinals come from Europe, pointing to a central tension: while the Vatican is a global organization, it is often run like an Italian village.
Under normal circumstances, the cardinals would descend on Rome after the death of the reigning pope. In this case, said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the pope will carry out his duties until Feb. 28 at 8 p.m., with a successor probably elected by Easter, which this year falls on March 31. But he said the timing for an election of a new pope was "not an announcement, it's a hypothesis."
Already, speculation is rife about who best fills the perceived needs of the church. Cardinal Angelo Scola, the powerful archbishop of Milan, is seen as the strongest Italian contender. A conservative theologian with an interest in bioethics and Catholic-Muslim relations, he is known for his intellect, his background in the same theological tradition as Benedict, his media savvy and his strong ties with the Italian political establishment. Vatican experts laud his popular touch, even if his writings are often opaque.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, a dogmatic theologian and a Canadian, is widely seen as a favorite of Benedict, who named him head of the Vatican's influential Congregation for Bishops to help select bishops around the world. Critics in his native Quebec said that he was out of step with the province's more progressive bishops, but that is not necessarily a drawback in today's church.
Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson of Ghana, the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Justice, is seen as the most likely African contender for the papacy. Educated in Rome and New York, he is known for his semiorthodox views on the use of condoms, saying that married couples could possibly use them to prevent infection when one partner is H.I.V.-positive, although he has also defended Pope Benedict's remark that condom use increases the risk of AIDS spreading.
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the prefect for the Congregation for Eastern Churches, is an Argentine, who would excite the Latin American wing of the church. He is also a skillful Vatican insider who served in the Secretariat of State under John Paul II and knows how to navigate the Vatican's complex bureaucracy, which might make him effective, Vatican experts say.
During the cold war it would have been a long shot, but for the first time there is talk that an American, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, could be a contender for pope. His deep conservatism combined with a folksy charisma make him popular with the faithful, at a time when the church is focused on "new evangelization."
Benedict was seen as a weak manager, and his papacy was troubled by debilitating scandals, most recently one in which his butler was convicted by a Vatican court in October of aggravated theft after he admitted stealing confidential documents, many of which wound up in a tell-all book that showed behind-the-scenes Vatican intrigue.
His successor will have to contend with a range of staggering practical challenges, including a perennial shortage of priests and nuns worldwide, as well as a sexual abuse crisis that has undermined the church's moral authority, especially in Germany and the English-speaking countries where it has been most aggressively discovered.
"I'd say the biggest challenge was the collapse of Catholic numbers across Europe," where "Christianity is in such free-fall in former Catholic countries, that the prognosis is not good," said Philip Jenkins, distinguished professor of history at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, in Waco, Tex., citing Ireland as a particularly telling case.
In much of the developing world, especially Latin America — which accounts for half of the world's Catholics — and parts of Africa, evangelical churches are moving in on territory once dominated by the Catholic Church, drawing in new faithful with services that offer upbeat music and an emphasis on self-improvement.
"If I were investing the church's efforts, I would put Latin American high, to avoid a second Europe," Mr. Jenkins said.
But the church's concern about the developing world will not necessarily lead to the selection of a pope from that part of the world, Vatican experts said.
Pope Benedict has appointed 67 cardinals and of these, 37 are from Europe, which remains the most substantial voting block, and potentially the most influential.
Nearly all of the 117 cardinals who will vote for the new pope were appointed by Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul II, both strong traditionalists, and it is likely that the next pope will share their vision and doctrine.
With more than 150 million Catholics and a rapidly growing population, Africa represents one of the church's few avenues for expansion, and church leaders have assiduously promoted charismatic bishops and cardinals in nations with substantial Catholic populations, like Nigeria and Ghana.
In 2002, Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, spoke of the merits of electing an African pope. "For all its condemnation of racism, the Western world still has reservations about the third world," he said then. "Yet, in Africa for example, we have truly great figures whom we can only admire. They are fully up to the job."
But most Vatican experts said that was not likely. "There's a very strong likelihood that it will be someone from Europe," said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center, at Georgetown University.
The Vatican spokesman, Father Lombardi, said Monday that after Feb. 28, the pope would retire from public view and would not participate in the appointment of his successor. But many wondered whether his presence would have an impact. "The fact is that he's alive, and it's obvious that his opinion, his perception will be felt," said Paolo Rodari, a Vatican reporter for the daily Il Foglio.


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Jerry Dixey's '27 Ford roadster has come a long way from the Retro T
Maybe it was growing up standing on the running board of his great-grandfather's '27 Ford woodie wagon. Maybe it was his involvement at age 10 in its restoration with his dad, John. But one thing's for sure, Street Rodder's Road Tour wizard, Jerry Dixey, has spent a lifetime under the magical spell of Ford's Model T.
It's interesting, in fact, that a guy who has crisscrossed the country countless times over the past 15 years in some memorable hot rods, amassing over 375,000 miles would want nothing more than one of Henry's earliest offerings. To put it mildly, Jerry has pretty much seen it all, done it all, and knows what spins his crank when it comes to his own cars.
Nothing tracks the evolution of hot rodding better than studying all the subtle changes the hobby has experienced as the decades have passed. With each era personifying different facets of taste and style, the '70s sure raised the bar when it came to retro. No we're not talking about disco, bell-bottom jeans, or eight-track players, however, it certainly was a transitional time for rodding. With the resurgence of hot rods infused with daring designs and innovations, the '70s was an era that always appealed to Jerry.
This is where our story shifts to where a young machinist named Bob Gutzke from Detroit began to gather parts in 1970 to build an era-perfect '27 Ford T roadster. After corralling a low-mile Buick 215ci Nailhead V-8 and early '60s Jaguar XKE suspension components, he fabricated a 2×4 rectangular steel frame to support all of the critical parts and topped it with an original Ford '27 roadster body. With the car in mock-up form, he suddenly got the urge to start construction on a '27 Ford coupe so the roadster project was moved to the back of the shop. The innovative T coupe went on to win the coveted Ridler Award in 1975 while the little roadster still managed to gather parts living under a veil of cobwebs.
Flash forward to the Road Tour at the NSRA Southwest Nationals in 2003 when Jerry just so happened to strike up a conversation with Bob Reynolds of the NSRA who mentioned the subject of Bob Gutzke recently selling off his Ridler-winning coupe. Reynolds then mentioned that Gutzke had relocated to Florida and that he just so happened to still have his unfinished T roadster project. Enthused by hearing of the 30-year-old project, Jerry contacted Gutzke and in the course of the conversation made a deal to buy the car sight unseen. Excited didn't even come close to the level of enthusiasm surrounding the new purchase since the car was born in the '70s and Jerry was determined to keep the car era-correct for the remainder of its build.
Once the project was picked up and delivered back to his Classic Automobilia shop in Youngstown, Ohio, every patina-covered part was laid out and evaluated prior to getting started. Sifting through all the goodies was like stepping back in time, and while items like brakes and steering would be updated, the majority of the components would be retained. Jerry wasted no time enlisting the help of Tony Stanko to undertake the arduous task of glass beading 30 years of grime off all the steel and aluminum parts, as well as tidying up the frame to prepare the roadster for its next stop. At the same time, the body was sent out to American Metal Cleaning in Cincinnati, where James Taylor prepared it to be dipped and stripped, revealing whatever dirty little secrets lurked under its surface. With everything tidied up, the chassis was reassembled and along with the body, was delivered to BMS Engineering in Youngstown, for Brian Mulichak, Mark Lucicosky, and Sam Tufaro to begin work. The talented team got busy by first clamping the body, fenders, and running boards to the rolling chassis to establish and fabricate all of the needed mounting brackets. From there, the Buick mill and transmission were set in place along with a Walker Radiator "cooler," and custom mounts were fabbed to anchor them to the chassis.
Once all of the fabrication was complete, the body was removed and sent over to the legendary Wade Hughes in Cincinnati. Hughes and his team brought the vintage sheetmetal back to life by first replacing any questionable panels, then setting the body lines, and finally priming and blocking the body to perfection. Having a low-mile mint 215ci Buick V-8 ready to go, Jerry enlisted help from Nailhead guru Dan LaGrou of D&D Fabricators in Almont, Michigan, to set up the induction using an Offenhauser intake matched with a pair of re-jetted Rochester carbs. For gear changes, a modified GM 700-R4 automatic by Gearstar Performance Transmissions of Akron, makes sure shifts are crisp.
With the body reattached to the rolling chassis it was then delivered to Lobeck's V8 Shop in Cleveland, to be put through its paces. A thorough evaluation by chief fabricator Dan Tesar proved that the Jaguar front suspension wouldn't make the cut. Also, in order to properly locate the front wheels within the fenders, a decision was made to stretch the chassis and fenders an additional 2 inches. Tesar then focused on the rear of the chassis by first fabbing rear-axle stabilizer bars and then adding a set of Pete & Jakes coilover shocks to soften the bumps to the Jaguar rearend tidied up by A-Plus Powder Coating. With the elimination of the Jaguar front torsion bar setup, a Chassis Engineering 2-inch dropped axle with matching spindles, Pete & Jakes hairpins and tube shocks, and a Durant Enterprises monoleaf spring gave the spine an era-correct feel. To bring the car to a screaming halt, fluid pushed through a Kenny's Rod & Custom dual master cylinder via stainless lines gets the message across with Chassis Engineering discs up front and Jaguar discs rebuilt by Stainless Steel Brakes out back. For a perfect hot rod rake, steelies from Wheel Vintiques are capped with Michelin front and Goodyear rear rubber all navigated through a Unisteer box.
While the chassis was being dialed in, Mark Mindzora and Jack Taunt were busy installing new steel floors and custom-fabbed trunk area sheetmetal. The team also installed the vintage Triumph TR2 seats, lined up the new hood and sides from Hagan Street Rod Necessities, and Shadow Rods windshield frame and stanchions. Once Jack gave the body a final going over, Mark loaded his spray gun and laid down a decadent coating of custom-blended PPG Retro T polished green suede bringing the car to life. Once reassembled and wired, the T was fired up by the Lobeck's team, giving Jerry the chance to shakedown the car prior to its final detailing. The car was then delivered to Woody's Hot Rodz in Bright, Indiana, where Matt Baldwin designed a business office using plenty of comfy golden tan vinyl to recover the vintage Triumph seats and lay down complementing saddle brown carpet. The interior was completed with a Flaming River column topped with a Lobeck's steering wheel while vitals are monitored through Classic Instruments dials. Woody's also fabbed up the neat headlight bar and rollbar, which went off to Sherm's Custom Plating for added dazzle. Thanks to the cumulative efforts of numerous talented stars and the support of his devoted wife, Mary Ann, the Retro T was debuted at the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville in 2010. Knowing Jerry's reputation for driving thousands of cross-country miles, we're sure this is one hot rod that will never gather any dust.


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'meditation' tag.
Meditation is a practice of remembering. It is taking the time to sit still and get quiet enough to have the memory of peace. We all have it. True peace rests waiting in the center of our beings. I picture the quiet, expressive eyes of a gentle child watching all the bustling and working and posturing and passion that whizzes constantly in circles. Peace just watches and waits. Waiting, tranquil enough for the world to stop spinning is good practice, but sometimes more is necessary. Sometimes taking it back—active reclaiming—is the essential next step.
On Monday, November 29th I took my annual silent retreat. It is a midnight to midnight time for no speaking, no music, no news, no flashing screens. Entering into the cone of silence is walking full aware into the echoing voices. When you get quiet, which voices echo for you? Mine tell me about how I ought to be so much more efficient. They worry about the winter heat bill. They ask me if I'm crazy. They wonder if I'll ever be worthy of love. They show me pictures and sing me snippets from the vast and ridiculous catalog of rock, folk, new wave, and punk that lives in my head. Then they quiet down. Gratitude and meditation happen. I notice the warmth in my room created by altar candles. The touch of the air on my arms and chest feels so much more physical than in the chattering times.
The only word I've been able to come up with to adequately describe the silence, once it really settles in, is delicious. It gets easier each time to enter into silence, and if it weren't for outside demands clamoring to get in, I could let it go for days. There may have been moments of delicious this time, but that was not mostly the case. This was a difficult silence. I did not have the usual tools to stuff down what had been circling in — nervous tears and caged-animal uncertainty.
My friend Elisa once said "Whenever I come to your house, I feel like I did yoga." I loved that observation. That was the problem. My home had lost its yoga and it needs it back. In the midst of the erratic every day, I was forgetting the essential yoga in my being. Showing up again on the zafu to sit still more and more often is a first step. I have discovered that the Universe is fond of placing obstacles in the way of those who ought not to forget to meditate.
I have other more physical actions in motion: changing the current living situation, managing and releasing old family items, honoring my need to be free of disarray. Depression had its hooks in deep this summer, and I am letting go of punishing myself by lack of exercise and stupid food. It's back to Ballys for me, and I love it. I will chant and play guitar and boogie oogie oogie openly in the living room again. It doesn't always take a seismic shift to take back what you need. Sometimes we dwell just a half step to one side of our essentials.
At the Integral Yoga Institute holiday party in Princeton this Saturday, Jayadeva told the crowd that we are never alone. If we are all One and all Love, how can we ever be abandoned? I wonder if I made my cameo at their Holiday Hoopla just to hear that message. It was another moment of returning focus.
There has been chaos in my household over these past few months, but that will be changing. I am taking back the yoga. The Christmas cactus by the kitchen door is blooming right on schedule.


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LeTourneau University President Dr. Dale A. Lunsford was re-elected to the board of directors of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas Monday morning by independent college presidents meeting in Dallas. Lunsford was also elected to serve as the board secretary through 2014. Lunsford previously has served on the ICUT board as treasurer..
"Forty independent colleges in Texas serve thousands of students annually and have graduated many of the state's leaders," Lunsford said. "These campuses are essential to the future of Texas. I am honored to be elected to serve."
ICUT is a nonprofit that has served for over 40 years as a voice for Texas' accredited, nonprofit, tax-exempt private colleges and universities with state policy makers in support of higher education. Its mission is to help policymakers understand the importance of independent higher education.
LeTourneau University is an interdenominational Christ-centered university located in Longview, Texas, with undergraduate and graduate programs online and at education centers around the state.
Academic majors include aviation, business, communication, computer science, criminal justice, education, engineering, health care administration, health science-nursing, human services, kinesiology, the liberal arts, psychology, the sciences and theology.
Claiming every workplace in every nation as its mission field, LeTourneau University graduates are professionals of ingenuity and Christ-like character who see life's work as a holy calling with eternal impact.
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GNU Sysutils - News
posted by scotty, Mon 24 Aug 2015 07:57:50 PM UTC - 0 replies
Some more shinny code and a lot of bug fixes are coming.
posted by tao, Sat 10 Jan 2009 12:36:51 AM UTC - 0 replies
Since CVS is such a useless, braindead VCS, I single-handedly decided to migrate our repo to SVN. The old repo is still available, but at least I won't make any further commits to it; hopefully no one else will either.
If anyone is upset with this, well... Be upset all you like.
[Read more]
posted by tao, Wed 29 Mar 2006 08:47:27 PM UTC - 0 replies
Yes, it's true! A brand new tarball (or CVS-tag) is awaiting you.
Now get testing!
posted by tao, Mon 31 May 2004 12:55:55 PM UTC - 0 replies
A lot of things are happen, though few things emerge here. Basically,
most of the changes taking place currently are done by Barry deFreese,
but since he has not yet received his clearance from the FSF on the
copyright transfer issue, his code is embargoed until this issue has ...
[Read more]
posted by tao, Fri 14 May 2004 12:20:54 PM UTC - 0 replies
I'm in the process of preparing the first real checkin of GNU sysutils now,
with several nearly feature-complete programs, as well as some other programs in various states of usability. All programs come complete with manual-pages, but Texinfo-documentation remains to be written. Feel free to contribute to the documentation, complain about the code etc.
Checkin will probably happen on Monday, maybe earlier.
Regards: David Weinehall


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New York Times Editorial Page editor Andrew Rosenthal displayed his usual class, charm, and mastery of current events in his Twitter posts leading up to and through the start of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Before Tuesday night, Rosenthal didn't seem very clued in to the news, posting this on Monday: "If the GOPers love Chris Christie so much, why is he scheduled to speak tomorrow after 10 pm, when no one will be watching? Some keynote." He later stated: "Was wrong before about the timing of Christie speech. 10-11 is prime time for convention. Hope nothing really good on at that time." Oops.
The previous day he linked to a Times story with this tweet: "Romney is going to get more combative. Be ready for more birther nonsense and other GOP propaganda."
Rosenthal really got mean on Tuesday night, after Republican speaker and former Romney rival Rick Santorum mentioned his ill daughter Bella in his speech: "Can't Santorum leave his daughter, Bella, alone?"
James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, a cogent critic of Rosenthal, responded on Twitter: "Classy as ever."


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The Original Regulators
Before Warren G, Doctor Dre, and Snoop Doggy Dog had a stint as modern day "regulators"; there was Billy the Kid, Doc Scurlock, and Jose Chavez y Chavez. The original Regulators. In 1878 in New Mexico Territory, a conflict took place that would later become known as the Lincoln County War. The conflict arose between two factions over the control of dry goods trade in the county. The older more established faction, often referred to as The General Store Monopoly, was a group run by organized "business men" Lawrence Murphy and his partner James Dolan. These men ran and completely controlled a lucrative empire that manipulated all the dry goods sales in Lincoln County. The Murphy-Dolan faction were allied with Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady, and supported by the Jesse Evans Gang.
The new comers and competing faction in the dry goods war were led by wealthy Englishman William Tunstall, young attorney Alexander McSween and one of the most famous cattlemen ever; John Chisum. In 1876, these men opened a general store to directly compete with Murphy and Dolan. After a legal court battle in 1878, Murphy and Dolan sent Jesse Evans and his crew to gun down William Tunstall. After Tunstall's death, several of his men formed a vigilante group called The Regulators. The main group of men in the Regulators were known as the "iron clad" and they were: Richard "Dick" Brewer, Frank McNab, Doc Scurlock, Jim French, John Middleton, George Coe, Frank Coe, Jose Chavez y Chavez, Charlie Bowdre, Tom O'Folliard, Fred Waite, Henry Newton Brown, and the bandit of all bandit's; Billy the Kid. After the group was formed, the Murphy-Dolan gang and The Regulators murdered one another with wanton abandon killing 21 men in all and forging the outlaw reputation of Billy the Kid.
The Lincoln County War has been brought to the big screen many times by Hollywood producers. Most notably in 1970's Chisum, starring John Wayne. And again in 1988 with the movie Young Guns, starring Emilio Estevez as Billy the Kid, Kiefer Sutherland as Doc Scurlock, Lou Diamond Phillips as Jose Chavez y Chavez and even a young Charlie Sheen has a role as Dick Brewer.


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eLibrary - Quick Help: File List and Request List
If more than one file is shown, use the File List screen to display, print or download parts or all of the files for a selected document.
Note: There may be up to approximately 200 different files for one accession number
The Request List
The function of the Request List screen is to track documents and pages selected by the user. After adding documents to the Request List, the user can then continue their research by scrolling through the Search Results screen or performing searches.
In order to see documents in the Request List, the documents have to be added. You can add documents to the Request List by checking the appropriate boxes in the Files column on the Search Results and on the bottom left, clicking on "Add" under "Select an Action" and "To Request List" then click on "Go." You can add documents to the Request List from the Document Information screen or the File List screen by clicking the Add to Request button. When you do this, a confirmation window will be displayed momentarily and the document will be available on the Request List.
Note: On a 56K modem, users will encounter approximately 3 1/2 minute wait to download a 1 MB file.
Updated: June 28, 2010


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If you're in the process of decorating a family room and you've never had this type of space before, you might not know where to begin. This area of your home is similar to your living room, but it may serve a difference purpose - perhaps you want to use it for entertaining or dedicate it to child's play. Regardless of how you want to utilize the area, there are a couple of strategies you can use to ensure this living space is practical as well as pleasing to the eye. Here are some tips on how to create a sense of comfort in your family room while making it aesthetically pleasing.
Install radiant floor heating
Whether your family room is located underground in your den or upstairs, you can install a radiant floor heating system to boost the coziness level of the space. Not only can this reduce your reliance on oil or gas, but it can provide comfort underfoot and make the family room an area everyone wants to use. Radiant heat can be easily installed, and you won't have to worry about coping with a noisy heater or vent kicking on the next time you want warmth in this area of your home.
Make it functional
To let your kids frolic through your family room without worrying about them creating a mess, make functionality a priority as your decorate and design your family room. This means investing in furniture covers if necessary or easy-to-clean decor that makes housekeeping less of a chore, according to Better Homes and Gardens magazine. In addition, think about providing shelves and cabinets for storage to prevent clutter from becoming a problem.
Incorporate fine detail
Just because your family room is an area dedicated for heavy use doesn't mean that it has to be more durable than stylish. There are ways you can boost the appeal of this space without sacrificing its eye-pleasing decor. House Beautiful magazine recommends looking for furnishings and decorative accents that include fine detailing. For example, try to incorporate throw pillows or wall paper with a pattern such as paisley to make a statement. This can keep any functional space from becoming too boring.
Embrace art
Even if you aren't an expert on impressionism, there's no reason why you can't embrace art and use it to enhance the interior of your family room. This is another strategy you can use to make the living space truly special. Southern Living magazine recommends casually hanging art on your walls wherever you see fit to generate conversation and dress up the room. Don't feel the need to invest an ample amount of cash in gallery-worthy art, either - simply choose what appeals to your personal taste to make the family room truly unique.
Value nostalgia
Another way to ensure you and your loved ones are always comfortable in your family room is by bringing in items that evoke a sense of nostalgia. This might involve incorporating a pattern that reminds you of your wedding dress or a figurine that reminds you of a vacation. Involve your family to help you find items that you all love and want to include in this frequently used room. A brainstorming session can do wonders for the designing process!
Whether you want to redecorate your family room now or in the near future, these tips can help you achieve your interior design goals. In the end, making comfort a priority can help ensure this space is one you'll all want to utilize for years to come.
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text: GET HOOKED ALL OVER AGAIN! HOOKED! AGAIN replicates all the excitement and tension of fishing without having to leave the comfort of your living room. Participate in one of the many modes and unlock the latest lures that'll help you catch the elusive lunker. Once you think you've mastered the single player modes, you can take your angling skills to the ulti mate test and challenge the best fi sherman online.


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Contemplating a career centered on mathematics? Mathematical research and education are at the heart of some careers, while other careers utilize mathematics and its applications to build and enhance important work in the sciences, business, finance, manufacturing, communications, and engineering.
Visit the AMS for Students site for the latest news and program offerings.
Undergraduate Students: Find information about applying to graduate programs and see school-by-school information about available support for graduate study online at Find a Graduate Program. Undergraduate math majors interested in exploring mathematical research should investigate summer REU programs, and consider residence at one of the special semester programs designed for math majors. Find further career resources, clubs, conferences, and job opportunities by exploring the undergraduate student page.
High School Students: Have you considered a challenging summer math camp to explore the world of mathematical research along with other gifted high school students from around the country? There are also competitions and contests featuring math problems for students from around the country or around the world. Need help with homework or self-study? Find a variety of resources on the high school student page.


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According to Wikipedia November 16, 2010 will be the release on DVD .
According to Wikipedia November 16, 2010 will be the release on DVD .
Disney will release the film on November 16, 2010 in a single-disc DVD, single-disc 2D Blu-ray and in a four-disc combo pack that will include a 3D Blu-ray, a 2D Blu-ray, a DVD and a Digital Copy.
This will mark the first time that a movie is available in Blu-Ray 3D the same day as a standard 2D Blu-Ray. The DVD will contain deleted scenes and two feaurettes called "On Set with Sammi" and "Capturing a Christmas Carol"; the 2D Blu-ray will also have a "digital Advent Calendar" and the feaurette "Behind the Carol: the full Capture Motion Experience. The 3D Blu-ray will have an exclusive 3D game called "Mr. Scrooge's Wild
Source: Wikipedia
Last edited by olga; 08-29-2010 at 11:24 PM.
And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God Bless us!! Everyone!!''
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (1843)
I am going to get it as well
Here's a $10 off coupon for the DVD 4-pack. Expires 11/28/2010
http://XmasDVD.com - Watch Christmas clips, movies, commercials, cartoons and more, online all year long!
I watch that myself as well as christmasvideos.org another good one.


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text: Located in Concepción, Chile, Los Andes was established in 2011 by Daniel Hernandez, Miguel Hernandez and Luciano Vergara as a spin-off of LatinoType. Their goal was simple: to make typefaces that would simplify the job of the designers who used them. The young foundry published its first typeface, Pantano, that same year and the rest, as they say, is history.With talented design... All


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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — International envoy Kofi Annan gave a bleak assessment of the crisis in Syria on Tuesday, saying violence remains at "unacceptable levels" and warning that his peace plan is the country's last chance to avert a disastrous civil war.
Annan insisted there is still hope and said the presence of U.N. observers has had a calming effect on the crisis, which has killed at least 9,000 people since March 2011.
"There is a profound concern that the country could otherwise descend into full civil war and the implications of that are frightening," Annan told reporters in Geneva after briefing a closed-door session of the U.N. Security Council in New York by videoconference. The observation mission, he said, "is the only remaining chance to stabilize the country."
Syria has become one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Arab Spring, and world powers have been unable to stop the violence. Syrian President Bashar Assad still has a firm grip on power, and his regime portrays his opponents as terrorists out to weaken the country.
Although the death toll mounts daily, the U.N. has ruled out any military intervention of the type that helped bring down Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, in part out of fears that it could make the conflict worse. Syria is an important geopolitical linchpin with a web of allegiances to powerful forces, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and close ally Iran.
Annan said a civil war in Syria would bleed outside its borders.
"It will not affect only Syria," he said. "It will have an impact on the whole region and this is why we should all be so concerned for the Syrians, for Syria, and for a region that for geopolitical reasons we should all be concerned about."
Annan has led diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the crisis, promoting a plan that calls for a truce monitored by observers to lead the way to negotiations for a resolution. But his efforts have been troubled from the start. A truce that was to begin on April 12 has never really taken hold. About 60 U.N. observers are currently in Syria and Annan said Tuesday that a full deployment of 300 should be on the ground by the end of the month.
He said even the small number of observers have had an effect so far.
"We've been small in numbers, but even where we've been able to place two or three observers, they've had a calming effect," he said. "And I think that when they are fully deployed and working as a team, establishing relations with the people, we will see much greater impact on the work that they are there to do."
On Tuesday, a cargo jet arrived in Damascus carrying 15 SUVs, computers and telecommunications equipment for the observers, a U.N. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Also on board were dozens of helmets and flak jackets, a sign of the conflict's dangers.
Although the uprising began with mostly peaceful protests, the deadly government crackdown led many opposition supporters to take up arms. Now, the regime is facing an armed insurgency targeting government installations, soldiers and security forces.
Annan called on both sides to stop the violence, not only the government. He appealed to anybody carrying guns to "think of Syria, think of the region," and disarm.
"There have been worrying episodes of violence by the government, but we have also seen attacks against government forces, troops and installations," he said. "And there have been a spate of bombings that are really worrying and I'm sure creates incredible insecurity among the civilian population."
He said there has been "some decrease in the military activities, but there are still serious violations in the cessation of violence that was agreed and the level of violence and abuses are unacceptable." He noted that government troops are still present in and around cities and towns and human rights violations are extensive and may be increasing.
After Annan's briefing, Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said his country was committed to Annan's plan but accused "terrorists" along with members of al-Qaida of murdering civilians and military forces in Syria.
"This is the core issue we are facing right now and what we need to deal with urgently. As far as the Syrian government is concerned, we are still committed to guaranteeing the maximum success of the mission of Mr. Kofi Annan," Ja'afari said.
Earlier Tuesday, Jakob Kellenberger, president of International Committee of the Red Cross, said the conflict is transforming into a guerrilla war with combatants carrying out more ambushes and bombings. He also said 1.5 million Syrians are struggling to meet basic needs for food, water and shelter.
As the country struggles, the regime is pushing a reform agenda that the opposition says is little more than window dressing. On Monday, Syrians voted in parliamentary elections that the government praised as a milestone in promised political reforms. But the opposition boycotted the polls and said they were designed to strengthen Assad's grip on power.
Counting was under way Tuesday, but it was unlikely the election for the 250-member parliament will change the trajectory of the revolt. Parliament is considered a rubber stamp in a country where the president holds the real power.
U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday that balloting in the current atmosphere in Syria "borders on ludicrous."
On Tuesday, Annan acknowledged that his peace plan could fail.
"We may well conclude down the line that it doesn't work and a different tack has to be taken, and that will be a very sad day, and a tough day for the region," he said.
Asked what the next steps will be if his peace plan fails, Annan appeared at a loss.
"As to what else we do," he said, "I think if there are better ideas I'll be the first to jump onto it."
Heilprin reported from Geneva. AP writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.


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Wen Jiabao: Please Forget Me
More In Wen Jiabao
- Still Here: Parade Gives Former Chinese Leaders a Moment in the Public Eye
- Not Part of the Bargain: Chinese Premier's Speech Omits Key Phrase for Workers
- China Dam Project Slated for Tibet Quietly Passes Key Hurdle
- What a Difference a Year Makes – A Tale of Two Economic Work Conferences
- China's Wistful Wen Gets His Wish
- Return of the Retired Leader: Why Wen Spoke
Chinese Communist Party leaders typically do all they can to ensure their names earn a permanent spot in the history books, scratching and biting so their signature ideas – Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, Jiang Zemin's Three Represents, and the latest, Hu Jintao's Scientific Development – are inscribed indelibly in the country's seminal documents.
But not Premier Wen Jiabao. He prefers everyone just pretend he never existed.
In a recent speech to members of the Chinese community in Thailand, footage of which was posted to the website thaicn.com on Wednesday, Mr. Wen gave what sounded like farewell speech, despite having another four months at the helm of the world's second-largest economy.
What was remarkable about the speech was not so much its content as the way it ended.
"In the pursuit of truth, I would die nine times without regret. If I'm going to die, I want to die with honesty and integrity," he said as he was wrapping up, a paraphrase of his favorite poet, Qu Yuan. To that he added: "I hope everyone will forget me – that includes Chinese people and overseas Chinese. Forget me."
While it's not unreasonable for a leader approaching the end of 10 years in office to get emotional, this was an odd thing to say, even for a man far less reserved than China's stoic No. 2. So what was he trying to say?
Certainly Mr. Wen has reason to crave anonymity. After all, for the past several months, he's had to watch as the economic machine he once piloted to record growth has sputtered and slowed, stoking speculation that the China miracle might not be all it's cracked up to be. And then there was the recent foreign media report on his relatives' considerable holdings – the sort of bombshell that would make any politician, not to mention one who cultivated an image as a reformer, want to slip from the stage and be forgotten.
But it should also be noted that Mr. Wen has a flair for dramatic acts of rhetorical humility -– a tendency that fed into now-exiled writer Yu Jie's characterization of the premier as China's "greatest actor." So in that sense, maybe he was trying to employ a little reverse psychology: Remember me because I didn't want to be remembered.
In any case, at least one prominent Chinese citizen, real estate mogul Ren Zhiqiang, insisted that Mr. Wen would not be forgotten. "Some things can never be erased," he wrote Thursday night in a post on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service.
It wasn't clear if Mr. Ren was responding to the skyrocketing property prices that happened under Mr. Wen's watch, the premier's subsequent effort to push prices back down, or something else.
-- Josh Chin. Follow him on Twitter @joshchin
Like China Real Time on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.
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Coffee Taffy
One pound of our Coffee Taffy. Our iconic Salt Water Taffy has been a part of Forbes Candies since the beginning. Our classic recipe creates the perfect balance between soft and chewy that has made our Salt Water Taffy famous. We take pride in our recipe and know that this Salt Water Taffy will satisfy any sweet tooth. You can find our Salt Water Taffy in many different boxes across the coast or get your seabreeze and sunshine directly from us. We know you'll love it as much as we do!
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What I learned from a homeless guy
Now that the Edinburgh Fringe is over for another year, now that the reviews are in, the stars discovered and the mental breakdowns over, I want to write about one of my most fulfilling Fringe experiences as a stand-up.
At about 2.15pm on the fourth day of the festival, I was on stage performing in a Free Fringe show when I noticed a face in the audience that I felt that I recognised, but didn't especially think anything of it.
Later that same evening, I was on the street flyering for my show, The Rise Of The Comedy Dictator, when I saw that face again, this time sitting on the pavement with an old blanket covering him. The man was homeless, though I had not, of course, known that when I had seen him in my audience a few hours earlier.
I went back to him, to ask where I knew him from, just to check if he was the same guy. He responded that he had indeed come to my show and that he had greatly enjoyed it.
And I realised why his face looked familiar – as he had been to the show several times before. It brought a lump to my throat, realising that a man with no roof over his head had been in the audience of my show, and that he had enjoyed it so much that he had come back.
I immediately forgot my relatively trivial worries of whether reviewers were going to come to my next show, I forgot about whether or not I was going to have a packed audience. It felt just then that this was the really important reason I had come to Edinburgh: to make contact with people – and in a small way help entertain one of the marginalised in our society, not just those who can afford to pay for shows.
It dawned on me that whilst he was at my show he had found some comfort, shelter and that I had made him laugh. I hope that for that hour the guy got to forget some of his troubles, maybe even about where he would lay his head that night.
There is a view that the Edinburgh Fringe has become too commercialised, that comedy is only for those who can afford it and excludes those poorer and more marginalised members of society. But that is not necessarily true, especially with free shows.
As I left Edinburgh on the final day of the Fringe with my four-star review (from The Wee Review) which had once seemed so important, and with my award for Best Comedian Flyerer, I realised that those accolades meant little to me when compared with the pleasure I hope I had given by performing to that homeless guy.
I hope the Free Fringe continues to grow from strength to strength and become increasingly even more accessible to folk like my homeless guy. Despite the criticisms of the Free Fringe, it offers a chance for those with lower budgets – and hopefully some of the more marginalised people in society – to enjoy stand-up comedy.
I am very grateful to the homeless guy, we had some nice chats. He helped me put my concerns into perspective. And, what a lovely story he has provided me with to share at every gig!
I dedicate my Edinburgh show to the homeless guy. For in the manic, frenetic and competitive environment of the Fringe we can sometimes fail to see the impact that comedy can have on the communities around us.
Published: 7 Sep 2017


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Van Drunen Farms Introduces Freeze-dried Kale
At one time, kale was regarded as a garnish; but today, this hardy and bold-tasting vegetable is making its way to the center of the plate. Individually Quick Frozen and Freeze-dried Kale from Van Drunen Farms helps to conveniently create nutritious products for your customers.
In recent years, healthy eating has gotten a lot of buzz, and people are making changes that fit into healthier lifestyles. As consumers are considering new, better-for-you options, kale is becoming a popular pick. This leafy green is high in vitamins A, C and K, and is an excellent source of calcium, antioxidants and fiber. This vitamin- and mineral-packed superfood aids in promoting normal eye, liver, bone, and digestive health, and helps to support a strong immune system.
IQF and Freeze-dried Kale from Van Drunen Farms is offered in conventional or organic forms, and is grown in VDF's own fields in Momence, Illinois.


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waiting waiting waiting
sold out
waiting waiting waiting
This oil transfer is an original drawing created by Caitlin Connolly using oil paint and cotton rag paper. Inspired by sketchbook doodles, each drawing is unique and one of a kind.
8x10", packaged with chipboard in a cello sleeve, shipped in a bend-proof flat mailer.
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A while ago a found these old nine-patch blocks I made from my mom's fabric scraps sometime around 1987. I kept them for the sentimental value – some of my first quilt blocks (they're pretty sloppy – but that's so charming right? Pre-"wonky"-cool. 🙂 I also kept them because they're such a relic of the dusty color pallette that was so popular in the late 80's.
|image here


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Text messaging is popular with teens, however they may not think twice about texting while doing another activity. Multitasking, such as walking or driving while texting can be dangerous and lead to injuries. Let your teen know that there are times when texting is fine, and other times when multitasking will lead to trouble.
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DEMOREST, Ga. – Paul Caudill pitched five scoreless innings with five strikeouts help Birmingham-Southern (3-2) earn an 11-1 win over Piedmont College (3-5) in the final game of the Piedmont Spring Classic on Sunday.
BSC scored a run in the first and five in the third inning to take a 6-0 lead. Jacob Mayfield, who went 2-for-5 with three runs scored, singled and later scored on a wild pitch in the first. Matt Brown and Stephen Denton had run scoring singles in the five-run third.
The Panthers took advantage of six errors to add two runs in the fourth and two in the fifth innings and added a run in the seventh on a Mayfield RBI single to take an 11-0 lead.
Caudill scattered two hits over his five innings, facing 20 batters to improve to 1-0. Miles Nordgren did not allow a run or hit over two innings while Blake Yance gave up an unearned run on three hits over the final two innings.
Matt Lisk left the game after three innings, striking out four but allowing six runs, four earned, on seven hits to take the loss and fall to 0-2.
Taylor McCracken was the only other Panther with two hits while David Bourbonnais, Ethan Netherton, Brown, Denton, Grovenstein had one hit apiece.
Birmingham-Southern hosts Transylvania and North Park for a weekend round robin tournament on Saturday and Sunday at Striplin Field. Transylvania plays North Park open the Saturday schedule at 11 p.m. followed by BSC versus North Park at 2:30 p.m. and Transylvania at 6 p.m. On Sunday BSC plays North Park at 11 a.m. followed by Transylvania at 2:30 p.m.