text:
Two Fairfax journalists will ask the Victorian Supreme Court to review a magistrate's decision to compel them to give evidence over a banknote bribery scandal.
The Age journalists Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker have been subpoenaed to give evidence over a story related to the committal hearing for Reserve Bank of Australia subsidiary executives alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to bribe public officials at foreign banks in a bid to secure contracts to make plastic banknotes.
Magistrate Phillip Goldberg on Thursday refused their application to set aside the summons.
The subpoena requires them to give evidence and provide documents which would identify confidential sources behind an article on December 8 entitled "Bagman to tell all in notes scandal".
The article says Indonesian businessman Radius Christanto had agreed to testify that the executives had used him to pay bribes to Indonesian officials in return for contracts.
It said he had made a deal with the Australian government to plead guilty to bribery and was likely to get a greatly reduced jail term in return for his evidence.
Mr Goldberg said the identity of whoever provided the information to the journalists for their story was crucial to the case because it went to the defence argument that the charges should be dismissed.
The accused have argued that in the interests of justice, some or all of the charges should be dismissed because of the misbehaviour of investigating officials in the case, including the leaking of information to the media, said Mr Goldberg.
"It does not need great intellectual gymnastics to see that if the source of the article is investigating officials or government or offices related to government, then that might go to significant consideration of the issue that is raised in relation to the application to dismiss (the charges)," he said.
Fairfax barrister Matthew Collins SC told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that an application for a judicial review of the decision would be filed in the Supreme Court this week.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Collins argued the witness summons should be set aside because they served no legitimate forensic purpose, or alternatively, because they were premature, given the prosecution was still unable to inform the court of whether Mr Christanto would be called to give evidence.
He said the journalists were bound by The Age's code of conduct, as well as the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance code of ethics, not to reveal the identity of sources to whom they had promised anonymity.
"These journalists are responsible journalists," said Mr Collins.
"Your honour will know what their response will be if they are forced to address questions."
Mr Collins said the men considered journalist's privilege, the right to refuse to reveal confidential sources, as being as serious as legal professional privilege, which protects communications between lawyers and their clients.
Mr Goldberg said the journalistic principle of protecting sources was not recognised by Victorian law.
The former executives from RBA subsidiaries Securency and Note Printing Australia are alleged to have paid multimillion-dollar commissions to middlemen with connections to high-ranking public officials at foreign banks in Indonesia and Malaysia between 1999 and 2004.
Large portions of the commissions were allegedly passed on to the officials as bribes, to obtain and retain contracts for the banknote companies.


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WASHINGTON (AP) — Teachers who aren't up to snuff shouldn't be in classrooms and should find new professions, the head of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of Teachers said Monday.
Randi Weingarten told a gathering of her union's rank-and-file members that they should be more vigilant about their colleagues' abilities and said weak educators who don't make improvements only hurt the profession. The tough warning comes as state education chiefs have been trying to implement tougher standards for those in the classrooms and weed out teachers whose students aren't making progress.
"If someone can't teach, after they've been prepared and supported, they shouldn't be in our profession," Weingarten said to applause from more than 2,000 union members meeting here.
Weingarten said too often teachers are left "to sink or swim" without help from more senior teachers or their schools' leaders. She stressed new teachers should be mentored and offered more training if their college coursework was inadequate.
But she acknowledged she did not want to be the business of defending all teachers. She said union-backed evaluation systems would help keep successful teachers in the classrooms — and remove those who aren't helping students.
"It recasts tenure as a guarantee of fairness and due process, not as an excuse for managers not to manage, and not to cloak incompetence," Weingarten said.
School reform advocates often point to teacher tenure as a roadblock to change. Those advocates say the promise of essential lifetime jobs has left teachers unaccountable and leaves students in classrooms with uninspired teachers. If a teacher has no real prospect of being dismissed, there is little a school official can do to force changes.
Correct, Weingarten said. Some teachers fit that bill and should be kicked out of classrooms if they have been given a manageable classroom and sufficient supplemental training.
"We want people to be prepared and supported," she told reporters after the speech. "But if they can't do our job, which is the hardest job in America, then they shouldn't be there."
But she also had harsh words for those who would fire teachers based on students' performances on standardized tests. That practice has gained popularity as states have implemented school improvement plans to hold teachers accountable.
"I have a plea for those who fixate on how to dismiss teachers — a plea — fixate instead on how we nurture, support and keep them," Weingarten said.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

subset: commoncrawl


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By Dominique Dodley and Michael Pearson
(CNN) -- It has all the trappings of a proper murder mystery: an attractive, up-and-coming victim, a sudden death, a mysterious stranger, whispers of poison.
Only this case involves a dog, the highly competitive canine show circuit and a professionally adorable Samoyed named GCH CH Polar Mist Cruz'n T'party At Zamosky -- Cruz for short.
The 3-year-old dog fell ill and died on February 16 in Lakewood, Colorado, barely a week after he appeared -- but didn't place -- in the prestigious Westminster dog show.
"I think somebody deliberately poisoned this dog," Cruz's handler, Robert Chaffin, told CNN on Friday.
But, as with any good mystery, it's not that cut and dried.
The profuse bleeding that killed Cruz can be caused by a number of conditions, according to the veterinarian who examined Cruz, Molly Comiskey. After Chaffin rushed the dog to the vet when he threw up blood, Cruz owner Lynnette Blue says, Comiskey listed rat poison as a possible cause.
But because Chaffin and Blue declined a necropsy or further testing, the final answer won't ever be known, Comiskey said in a statement.
Blue says Comiskey told her a necropsy wouldn't have shown anything if the dog had been poisoned days before. The few she's allowed before all turned up inconclusive, she said.
"Also, the thought at the time of him being cut open was too much for me," Blue said.
Westminster dismissed the poisoning suggestion, saying no other dogs fell ill at the show.
"We have never, to our knowledge, had an incident at our show where a dog has become ill or was harmed as a result of being poisoned," the group said in a statement this week.
But the sudden death of an otherwise healthy, closely watched dog seems to point toward poisoning, Chaffin and Blue say.
Chaffin says he watched Cruz closely to make sure he didn't get into anything dangerous. The trip to New York was uneventful. He and Cruz dined on steak from a Manhattan restaurant the night before the show. He scoured their hotel room for no-nos.
And they traveled together to Colorado, where he was appearing in the Rocky Mountain Classic dog show.
The only unusual thing happened during the Westminster show, when a "scowling" woman emerged from the crowd and accused him of being "cruel" and a "horrible person."
The Westminster show has been "plagued by activists" upset with the dog show circuit, Chaffin said. Among other things, people have been upset about a procedure called bark reduction, in which a dog's vocal cords are modified to make it quieter. Cruz had the procedure, Chaffin said.
But he wouldn't go so far as to implicate activists -- or the mysterious, angry stranger -- in Cruz's death.
"I don't know who it was. I think it was done by someone who was sick," he said.
It certainly wasn't us, said Lisa Lange, senior vice president of communications for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
"It's absolutely outrageous. The people who should be charged with cruelty to animals in this case are the owners for having cut the vocal cords of this poor dog because they didn't want to hear him bark," she said. "And unfortunately, this is not unique to these people. In the really creepy world of dog shows, animals are having their vocal cords cut, their ears cut, their tails are cut off, to make them look a certain way so that their owners can become famous or make money. And it's just sick and it's perverse, and of course it's cruel."
With so much uncertainty, Blue says, the mystery will probably never be solved.
Whatever happened to Cruz, Chaffin and Blue are mourning the loss of the fluffy white dog, who was named best in breed at recent shows in Louisiana and California, and won best in show at contests in Mississippi this year and Louisiana and Texas last year, according to the website doggiestats.com.
"I just can't seem to stop crying and can hardly see," Blue wrote on her Facebook page.
CNN's Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.


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Swimming Pool Blog
by Rob Cox, September 19, 2010
Treatment of Yellow Algae in Pools
Also known as Mustard Algae, Yellow algae is a unique type of algae. The most distinctive distinction between other colors of algae - blue, blue-green, or black algae, is that Yellow algae finds a home in the uneven surfaces of your pool.
Pits or crevices in plaster, or dips and dirty areas on a pool liner create a safe harbor for this particular strain of pool algae. A weak, cowardly algae, it hides in the places that our cleaning equipment and sanitizers don't always reach effectively.
Many pool owners find yellow algae to be one of the more difficult strains of algae to control. This is due to it's ability to hide small cells of life, deep in a crack or buried sufficiently that it can escape complete chlorination. Yellow algae is not a very strong algae, nor is it hard to kill - it's just hard to kill all of it.
With proper techniques, you can effectively eradicate it.
Identifying Yellow Algae in a swimming pool:
1. Clinging, Hiding blooms, not Free-Floating.
2. Bright yellow to dark yellow mustard color.
3. Brushes off the wall fairly easily.
4. May prefer shady spots of your pool.
5. Found under ladder treads, behind pool lights, and inside pool filter.
Where does Yellow Algae come from?
Yellow algae is not a strain that is commonly found in pools, and in many cases the plant can be introduced to a pool in the swimsuits or hair of swimmers who were just enjoying the river or the ocean. We have also found that most pools with Yellow Algae contamination also had high levels of Nitrates in the pool water. Nitrates provide an excellent food source for all types of algae. Phosphates can also be contributing to growth of Yellow Algae in your pool. Read our earlier blog post on Phosphates and Nitrates in swimming pools.
How to Remove Yellow Algae from a Swimming Pool
1. Clean the Pool. Brush every spot of algae off, using a quality pool brush with stiff nylon or stainless steel bristles will give you the best success. If you don't own at least one good pool brush, this may be why you have algae in the first place! Pools need to be brushed regularly, and for algae removal, the action of brushing is extremely important. Brushing removes it from the surface or exposes vulnerable layers of the algae, so that the chlorine can do it's job. After brushing, vacuuming to waste, very slowly and carefully, all of the settled shock dust and dead algae cells. If you cannot vacuum to waste, vacuum into the filter, but do this before you have cleaned the filter (as below). Very important to vacuum out all dead algae cells, which can regenerate if left in the pool.
2. Bleach everything. Use a solution of 1 gallon of bleach per 5 gallons of water. Use a trash can for larger items. Soak for 5 minutes, then flip over to soak the upper half. You can also soak your skimmer baskets and pump basket. If you have a pool cleaner, hoses, bags and other parts can also be bleach soaked for several minutes. Yellow algae likes to find a home underneath hose floats especially. Anything that goes into the pool could be contaminated. Floats, Noodles, Balls, maybe even you! Give everything a good bleaching, even your cleaning tools.
3. Use a Chlorine Accelerator. This is the preferred treatment for Yellow Algae. Not an algaecide, but a proprietary mixture (usually Sodium Bromide) that boosts the effectiveness of pool shock. Sold under many names such as Mustard Buster or Yellow Out or Yellow Treat, these chemicals are added to the pool at the same time as the shock (after balancing the water).
4. Use a Phosphate Remover chemical. As mentioned above, in our experience most pools with Yellow Algae blooms also test positive for Phosphates or Nitrates in the water. Removing the food source for the algae is just good solid warfare.
5. Clean the Filter. Cleaning of the filter media thoroughly is key to removing yellow algae from your pool. If you have a DE or a Cartridge filter, remove the filter from the tank, and clean thoroughly with a hose. Then soak in a pool filter cleaner product to remove oils and minerals. Rinse again. If your cartridge filter has other internal plastic parts, soak these also. The entire cartridge or grid assembly should be soaked in a chlorine solution as described above. For Sand Filters, use a Filter Cleaner product to remove oils and minerals from the sand. Then remove dome or valve top, and pour into the tank 5 gallons of a bleach solution. Allow it to soak for several hours.
In lieu of cleaning or bleaching the filter media thoroughly, one could replace the filter media instead. New filter sand or new cartridge or de filter grids would ensure that Yellow Algae is not harboring in our filter. Especially if the sand or cartridge is old (over 5 years), it may be time to replace anyway.


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Engaging young people through art unlocks
Creativity allows them to express and trust themselves. It builds a spirit of inquiry and exploration.
With explorers' spirits, they fall in love with learning.
Add caring and life skills, and they are empowered to take charge of their lives.
Participants come away loving art, loving learning, and realizing they're not powerless but powerful beyond measure.
They use their belief in themselves to flourish and improve their lives - to test better, engage in their education, graduate high school, and get jobs.
They bring the power of public art to their communities and connect New York City's diverse neighborhoods.


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|The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, State and local government services, businesses that are public accommodations or commercial facilities, and in transportation. The ADA also mandates the establishment of telephone relay services for people who use TTYs (teletypewriters, also known as TDDs or telecommunications devices for deaf persons).
Title I of the ADA prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment by businesses having 15 or more employees, or by State and local governments. Title I with respect to private employers is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Title II of the ADA prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in State and local government services, programs, and activities. All programs, services, and activities of State or local governments are covered. These include public education and social service programs, State legislatures and courts, town meetings, police and fire departments, motor vehicle licensing, employment services, and public transportation programs. State and local governments must operate their programs so that, when viewed in their entirety, they are readily accessible to and usable by people with disabilities. They must provide programs and services in an integrated setting, unless separate or different measures are necessary to ensure equal opportunity, and must eliminate unnecessary eligibility standards or rules that deny individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to enjoy their programs or services. State and local governments must also make reasonable modifications in policies, practices, and procedures and provide effective communication through the use of auxiliary aids and services when necessary to ensure equal access for individuals with disabilities, unless an undue burden or fundamental alteration would result. When State or local governments design and construct new facilities, or alter existing facilities, they must do so in accordance with standards for accessible design adopted under the ADA. Title II (other than transportation) is enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The U.S. Department of Transportation enforces the provisions of title II relating to public transportation services.
Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in places of public accommodation and commercial facilities. Places of public accommodation include over 6 million privately owned business establishments of all sizes such as restaurants, hotels, theaters, convention centers, doctors offices, retail stores, museums, libraries, private schools, health spas, and day care centers. Commercial facilities are businesses whose operations affect commerce, such as office buildings, factories, and warehouses. Public accommodations must: provide goods and services in an integrated setting, unless separate or different measures are necessary to ensure equal opportunity; eliminate unnecessary eligibility standards or rules that deny individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to enjoy the goods and services of a place of public accommodation; and make reasonable modifications in policies, practices and procedures that deny equal access to individuals with disabilities, unless a fundamental alteration would result in the nature of the goods and services provided. They must also ensure effective communication through the use of auxiliary aids and services when necessary, unless an undue burden or fundamental alteration would result. They must remove architectural and structural communication barriers in existing facilities where readily achievable, and provide goods and services through alternative measures when removal of barriers is not readily achievable. When public accommodations or commercial facilities design and construct new facilities, or alter existing facilities, they must do so in accordance with the Standards for Accessible Design. Title III is enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Title IV of the ADA mandates that telephone companies offer TTY/telephone relay services to enable individuals who use TTY's.
For information on how to contact Federal agencies with ADA responsibilities, see ADA Information Services.
The ADA and Businesses
Removing Barriers In Existing Facilities
Many business facilities were built with features that do not accommodate people with disabilities, including people who use wheelchairs. This lack of accessibility makes it impossible for many people with disabilities to take part in everyday activities such as going to work, eating in a restaurant, or shopping in a store. The ADA recognizes that, for people with disabilities to participate in the everyday activities in their communities, they need to have access to employment as well as to the goods and services provided by businesses.
To improve access, the ADA established both requirements for removing barriers in existing facilities and the ADA Standards for Accessible Design for new construction and alterations. In existing facilities, where retrofitting may be expensive, the requirement to provide access is less stringent than it is in new construction, where accessibility can be incorporated in the initial stages of design and construction without a significant increase in cost.
If you own or operate a business that serves the public you must remove physical barriers when "readily achievable," which means easily accomplishable without much difficulty or expense. The "readily achievable" requirement is based on the size and resources of the business. So larger businesses with more resources are expected to take a more active role in removing barriers than small businesses. The ADA also recognizes that economic conditions vary. When a business has resources to remove barriers, it is expected to do so; but when profits are low, barrier removal may be reduced or delayed. Barrier removal is an ongoing obligation -- you are expected to remove barriers in the future as resources become available.
In evaluating what barriers need to be removed, a business should look to the ADA Standards for Accessible Design as a guide. These standards are part of the ADA Title III regulations. Seeking input from people with disabilities in your community can also be an important and valuable part of the barrier removal process, because they can help identify barriers in your business and offer advice on what solutions may work.
New Construction, Alterations and Additions
New Construction
All newly constructed business buildings or facilities must be readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. This means that new buildings or facilities must be built in strict compliance with the ADA Standards for Accessible Design. The ADA Standards are comprehensive and require accessibility to most areas and features found in buildings or facilities. The requirements for work areas are more limited than those for public and common use areas.
If an alteration to a business building or facility is begun after January 26, 1992, the areas or elements that are altered must be readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities in accordance with the ADA Standards for Accessible Design to the maximum extent feasible.
When an alteration is made to a "primary function area," the alteration must be done in compliance with the ADA Standards for Accessible Design, but there must also be an accessible path of travel from the altered area to the accessible entrance. The "path of travel" requirement includes an accessible route to the altered area and the bathrooms, telephones, and drinking fountains serving the area. Alterations to provide an accessible path of travel are required to the extent that they are not "disproportionate" to the original alteration, that is, to the extent that the added accessibility costs do not exceed 20 percent of the cost of the original alteration to the primary function area.
A primary function area is any area where a major activity takes place. It includes both the customer services areas and work areas and the public and common use areas in places of public accommodation. It includes all offices and work areas in commercial facilities. It does not include mechanical rooms, boiler rooms, supply storage rooms, employee lounges or locker rooms, janitorial closets, entrances, corridors, or restrooms.
Policies, Practices and Procedures
Businesses offering goods and services to the public must provide auxiliary aids and services when needed to communicate effectively with people who have hearing, vision, or speech impairments, unless providing the aid or service would be an undue burden or a fundamental alteration to the nature of the business. Auxiliary aids and services include reading written information to a person who is blind or who has low vision or providing large print, audiotape or Braille; and using written notes, sign language interpreters or using captioning to communicate with a person who is deaf, hard of hearing or who has a speech disability.
To Learn More...
last update February 22, 2002


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Fischer stands for the development, production, marketing and distribution of first-class skiing equipment. As a single source supplier for both Alpine and Nordic skiing equipment, Fischer offers only premium quality products.
Innovation, product leadership and development expertise in the core areas form the basis that secures the success of the company in the long term. As an independent company that has been under family ownership ever since it was founded, Fischer is a reliable partner for its customers, its top athletes and its employees.
Stable financing, a strong brand and efficient business processes support the successful working environment. Fischer's greatest asset is its loyal customers who consistently turn to the brand for an outstanding skiing experience.


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Geocacher Competes in the 2012 Olympics
Portuguese Olympian João Costa embodies his Geocaching.com username. It's "Neverfail1" That tenacity leads João to find an average of 2.5 geocaches day. He joined Geocaching.com in April of 2011 and has accumulated more than 1200 finds. The spirit of "never fail" also led João to the 2012 Summer Games in London. These are his fourth Olympic games. The Portuguese Air Force Sergeant competes in Shooting.
He ranked 7th in his first event: Men's 10m Air Pistol. And he's not the only geocacher at the Olympic Games. João says, "My coach is and I know two more shooters, I'm sure there are more, but we all aim to have good results in the Olympic Games, and geocaching goes to a second level."
Geocaching took awhile to hook João. He says, "A friend was in my car and said, 'Stop, stop I want to go there.' I asked, 'Why?' He said, 'I'm looking for something.' He explained what geocaching was, but then I made fun of him. A few months later it was the same thing, but then I found the cache and it was a very nice one. The switch turned on and I was infected."
João quickly became part of the tight-knit Portuguese geocaching community. His wife encouraged his geocaching outings. João says, "My wife loves geocaching as I get off the sofa and go walking or go hiking."
He attended the Mega-Event 12 years Geocaching – Portugal in May. That's where he met Geocaching.com Lackey Arne Moen, username RandolphAgarn – and shared his story about competing in the Olympic Games.
You still have time to root on your fellow geocacher. Leave a message below in comments for João. João's competing in his final Olympic event, the Men's 50m Pistol, on Sunday August 5th.


text:
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection
This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.
This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process. This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.
This page first made public: Aug 17, 2010
Google My Maps: Simple Quantitative Analysis
Carsten Braun, Westfield State College
SummaryThis activity shows how to use Google My Maps for simple quantitative analysis, for example to find the latitude and longitude of a location or the length and area of a geographic feature (e.g. a stream or a glacier).
Type and level of course
This activity is suitable for an introductory Geoscience course, an introductory GIS course, or any other GIScience course that includes field mapping and data collection. Google My Maps makes it easy to determine geographic coordinates, distances, and areas anywhere on the planet.
Geoscience background assumed in this assignment
GIS/remote sensing skills/background assumed in this assignment
minimal: geographic coordinate system, latitude and longitude
Software required for this assignment/activity:
Internet Browser
Time required for students to complete the assignment:
2 hours
GIS/remote sensing techniques students learn in this assignment
Minimal. If anything: geographic coordinates and spatial measurements.
Other content/concepts goals for this activity
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
The students learn to compare measurements using different sources and tools.
Description of the activity/assignmentThis activity focuses on one of the many free web mapping applications available: Google My Maps. Google My Maps allows you to create personalized maps, complete with linked photographs and YouTube videos. However, Google My Maps also includes a series of tools for simple quantitative analysis, for example to find the latitude and longitude of a location or the length and area of a geographic feature (e.g. a stream or a glacier).
Determining whether students have met the goalsStudents submit a written report with the answers (if done as an assignment). If done as an in-class exercise we informally compare our results to ensure everyone is able to use the tools successfully.
More information about assessment tools and techniques.
URLs and References
Download teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment: Google My Maps: Simple Quantitative Analysis (Microsoft Word 424kB Aug15 10)
- Instructors Notes:
- Solution Set:


text:
Starting MSRP from * $31,620
Plainfield Chevrolet Impala Inventory
Webb Chevy Plainfield features a huge stock of the Chevrolet Impala in Plainfield, IL for you to view. If you are searching for a brand new Impala, our Plainfield Chevrolet showroom is a wonderful place to begin your search. Above you will find any specific information regarding Chevrolet Impala promotions that we are currently offering, together with our present number of cars on hand, vehicle specs and more.
Plainfield New Chevrolet Impala
Chevrolet vehicles are known for their wonderful performance, dependability and overall value. Though it's difficult to make a mistake with any one of the new Chevrolet models, the Chevrolet Impala really is a wonderful vehicle which we are optimistic you'll enjoy. Feel free to contact us anytime at (815) 261-0118 to schedule your test drive or come visit our showroom in person. Plus, Webb Chevy Plainfield has a helpful financing department to help you afford the automobile you're looking for at your neighborhood Plainfield, IL Chevrolet dealership. Drop by today!
New 2020 Chevrolet Impala at Webb Chevy Plainfield
Discover the new Chevrolet Impala, available to buy or lease today at Webb Chevy Plainfield. On this page, you will find the 2020 Impala vehicles that are currently available to buy or lease at our Plainfield dealership, be able to see the exterior color options, view photos, and more. If you have a question about this new Impala or any other new or used vehicle at Webb Chevy Plainfield, please give us a call at (815) 261-0118, and our friendly staff will be happy to assist you.


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A light, cool dessert with the fruit flavor of summer!
Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Extra Time: 4 hrs
(for freezing)
Yield: 4 x approx. 2/3 cup servings
Combine water and sugar in a saucepan. Stir constantly over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer, uncovered for five minutes, stirring frequently. Cool sugar syrup to room temperature.
Blend or process strawberries and yogurt until smooth, add sugar syrup and egg white, processing until combined (churn according to ice cream machine manufacturer's instructions). When ready place in container and freezer.*
* Sorbet can be made up to 3 days ahead; keep covered in freezer.
Best made using an ice cream machine.


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Review: Tallarico Vodka
Tallarico is the brainchild of Giancarlo Tallarico, a Beverly Hills-based entrepreneur with his eyes on his own vodka (and a $45 price tag). Distilled from common rye and white winter wheat, this vodka (tagline: "Imbibe Elegantly.") comes in a monolithic and mostly opaque, black decanter that fades to clear at the bottom.
On the nose, it's a classic blend of Old World and New — lightly medicinal, but with hints of something spicy and sweet beneath.
On the body it's a whole other animal: Intense and alternately rum- and white whiskey-like, with a big grain character plus a whole host of other things you don't get with vodka — banana, coconut (both meat and husk), and indistinct fuel notes.
The finish is long and turns rough, with more of that whiskey character than you might expect. Funky and wholly unexpected, like pot-distilled, unaged rum, this is a spirit that will find a few big fans and plenty of detractors. Frankly, it's just much too far from "neutral" for me. Let the debate begin in the comments below.
80 proof.
B- / $45 / tallaricovodka.com


text:
Click below for Kevin McTurk's latest project:
Thanks, Andrew!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
A Kickstarter Project
Posted by Rot at 6:22 AM
Labels: artist, puppets, sculptures, special effects
2 comments:
- girl6 said...
those projects are sure packed with Love...
you could just swear, the "barbara steele" puppet is a movie still straight outta "black sunday"...
now that's true Love!!...
& the dude was in "black sheep"...
aaaarrrrrr!!!!... : D
that's crazzzy... <33333
rot..these projects are sooo "you guys"... :)
p.s...& there's that "elijah wood" Again...little (psycho) cutie!!..
- February 27, 2013 at 11:57 AM
- Willow Cove said...
Holy cow! He did the "Narrative of Karloch"? I am still waiting to see that. And I can't wait to see this when its completed. If he ever puts them out on DVD- I will buy them!
- February 27, 2013 at 3:57 PM
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text:
47°29' / 22°35'
Translation of
Tasnad; tei'ur le-zekher kehilat Tasnad ve-ha-seviva
ve-yeshivat Maharam Brisk, Me-reshitan ve-ad le-aha y'mei ha-shoah
Translation of
Editor: Avraham Fuks
Published in Jerusalem 1973
Published in Jerusalem 1973
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
Yizkor Book Project JewishGen Home Page
Copyright © 1999-2019 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 6 Nov 2009 by LA


text:
For students who plan to go into research, a postdoctoral fellowship is a great way to further develop as a researcher, accumulate more publications, and work with other world class researchers without having to worry about the responsibilities of a tenure track position. It can also increase your job prospects in private industry; some would say it can command you a higher salary over the long term, though this is debatable. In some disciplines postdoctoral fellowships are a required step, especially as positions at universities become more competitive. But there are many stressors in the life of a postdoc, especially in terms of securing grants, publishing (or perishing), completing any teaching duties, and balancing all of this with a family life. These resources will help you decide whether or not a postdoctoral position is for you, and what you can expect should you move forward.
- A Day in the Life of a Postdoc
This handout prepared by a former postdoctoral fellow at UCLA defines exactly what a postdoc is as well as what it can be and how you can secure a position. It also offers a little glimpse into the life of a postdoc, which can be helpful if you're deciding whether or not such a position is right for you. However, this is just one person's experience, and so we highly recommend pairing this resource with the following two articles for a more complete picture: The Postdoc: A Special Kind of Hell; What It's Like To Do A Postdoc at the NIA.
- Doing Postdoctoral Work -- Should I?
While this particular resource was prepared with psychologists in mind, the questions posed here are important for anyone considering a postdoc position as a means of self-examination. It also articulates exactly what the outcomes of a postdoc should be, as well as the kind of support postdocs should feel while in the job. This resource from UCSF poses similar questions, and also provides links to a number of other resources to help you through the decision making process. And of course, you'll want to check the NSF posdtoc site for a comprehensive listing of science and mathematics postdoc opportunities.
- The Harvard Guide to Postdoctoral Fellowships
Trying to find the right postdoc position for you? Navigate down to the bottom of this Harvard guide for links to databases that list available fellowships across the country, or click the link right up top and explore Harvard's own. In the middle you'll find structured advice for navigating the application process, including a listing of all necessary steps to track and documents to gather.
- 10 Habits for a Successful Postdoc
These tips, offered by MIT Professor Cathy Drennan, are just what new postdocs need as they make the transition from graduate student into working professional. She emphasizes the importance of taking ownership of your projects, reading broadly, training people, writing papers and giving talks, and networking, among many more. This is a must-read collection of advice from one of the world's top researchers, who has mentored many postdocs through the experience.
- International Postdoc Survival Guide
Starting a postdoc can be overwhelming enough. Add to that the task of navigating a new culture and possibly a new language, and you'll have a lot to think about. This survival guide for international students provides everything from advice on getting started to filing income taxes and ensuring you've got the right visa. After reading this guide, you'll be setup to thrive in your postdoc position and beyond.
- Proposals & Funding
As any researcher knows, securing funding can be just as important as conducting research itself. These successful proposal examples provided by Eastern Michigan University's Office of Research Development offer excellent jumping off points. Reading these proposals will give you a good sense of what works and what doesn't, so that you can apply the best techniques to your own work.
- Postdoctoral Non-NIH Funding Opportunities
The NIH is a huge provider of funding for science research, but they are by no means the only resource. On this site, explore the numerous funding opportunities available across the disciplines, with links helpfully provided to each one.
- Grant Proposals (or Give Me the Money!)
Even with excellent examples, the process of writing a grant can be intimidating, especially if you don't work regularly with words. This in-depth guide from the UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center takes you through every step of the writing process, and even maps the process visually with helpful diagrams. It also encourages you to think deeply about a number of issues before you even begin writing, suggests details to include, and offers tips for navigating the crucial revision process. There are many other helpful grant writing guides online, but we highly recommend beginning with these 2 resources: the NSF's Guide to Proposal Writing and the NIH's How to Write a Research Project Grant Application.


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Story highlights
- The law, passed this year, is "legally unenforceable," the Justice Department says
- Assistant U.S. attorney general argues its voter ID requirement could be discriminatory
- South Carolina's governor calls the decision "outrageous"
The Department of Justice on Friday deemed South Carolina's new law requiring voters to present a state or federal photo ID "legally unenforceable," arguing that it could be discriminatory against minorities in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
The proposed law, signed by Gov. Nikki Haley in May, would require voters wishing to vote in person to present one of five forms of photo identification. The current law, in effect since 1988, does not require a photo ID. The stated intention in changing the law was to reduce voter fraud caused by someone impersonating another voter.
"Although the state has a legitimate interest in preventing voter fraud and safeguarding voter confidence ... the state's submission did not include any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any other type of fraud that is not already addressed by the state's existing voter identification requirement," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez wrote in a letter to the office of the South Carolina attorney general, explaining the decision.
Perez cited a number of statistics in showing that the law does not meet the burden required by a portion of the Voting Rights Act saying that states must demonstrate their laws will not have a discriminatory impact on minority voters. Among them: "minority registered voters were nearly 20% more likely to lack DMV-issued ID than white registered voters, and thus be effectively disenfranchised by" the law's requirements, Perez wrote, citing data provided by the state.
South Carolina can appeal the decision to the U.S. District Court in Washington, but until then, "the submitted change continues to be legally unenforceable," Perez wrote.
The state was one of 14 recently named in a report by the NAACP that passed laws that restrict the voting or voter registration process in ways that it says disproportionately impact minorities. The report said such restrictive laws "assault" Americans' voting rights.
The report, released December 5, calls the laws "coordinated efforts to suppress the growing voting strength of communities of color, the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and the young."
Haley, in a statement provided to The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, slammed Friday's decision by the Department of Justice, calling it "outrageous."
"We plan to look at every possible option to get this terrible, clearly political decision overturned so we can protect the integrity of our electoral process and our 10th Amendment rights," The State quoted Haley as saying.


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US whistleblower condemns data laws
The US whistleblower who UK spy chiefs say has put the country at risk through blanket intelligence disclosures has condemned surveillance legislation that will be fast-tracked through Parliament.
Edward Snowden, who is wanted by the American authorities for betraying his country, said the bill, which will maintain the ability of police and security services to access telephone and internet data, "defies belief".
He claimed the legislation is being pushed through without proper scrutiny using fears of terror threats in similar way to laws in the United States were under the Bush administration in 2007.
Snowden, who is hiding out in Moscow, leaked top-secret files to a number of locations, including the Guardian newspaper, revealing details concerning America's National Security Agency (NSA) and UK listening post GCHQ.
He told the Guardian: "I mean we don't have bombs falling. We don't have U-boats in the harbour.
"I mean the NSA could have written this draft," he added.
"They passed it under the same sort of emergency justification. They said we would be at risk. They said companies will no longer cooperate with us. We're losing valuable intelligence that puts the nation at risk."
T he Data Retention and Investigation Powers Bill announced last Thursday will maintain the authorities' existing powers rather than add to them, according to the Government.
It includes measures that ministers say will maintain the balance between security and privacy, including a "poison pill" clause which will terminate the legislation at the end of 2016, forcing the next government to debate and pass a replacement bill.
Labour has agreed to support the bill but civil liberties campaigners warn it is being rushed through without the necessary examination.


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Caputo: High prices, Obama-paranoia at Miami gun show
The Miami gun-show line stretched 200 people long. Many blamed President Barack Obama.
This is what the president's gun-control talk has wrought: long waits to get into gun shows, higher firearm and ammunition prices and more paranoia.
The word "Obama" was frequently mumbled, muttered, hissed, cursed at Saturday's Southern Classic Gun and Knife Show.
"Obama" was a catch-all word, a gun-rights shibboleth of sorts, a no-longer-shocking swear, a conversation starter.
To Calvin Hudson, a Miami Gardens resident bargain-hunting at the Miami-Dade fairgrounds firearms bazaar, the Obama-blaming was a sign people were being fooled into paying more in a firearms market panic.
"The industry is getting people all scared of Obama so they can kill us with some of these prices," Hudson said.
Hudson told a stranger or two next to him not to worry about the president's gun-control plans, announced in response to last month's deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.
"Obama's not taking away guns," Hudson said to one couple. "He just wants semi-automatic rifles off the street."
It's extremely unlikely Congress will go along. Many say gun control hurts law-abiding citizens and does little to stop bad guys.
The president might drop his "assault-weapons" proposal if Congress agrees to close the so-called "gun-show loophole," which can allow people to buy arms without a background check.
But Republicans in Congress are likely to stop that, too.
Asked the day before the gun show if universal background checks are needed for any gun purchase, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio suggested he was opposed.
"Well, let me give you an example, the individual who carried out the atrocity in Colorado passed two background checks, one of them erroneously. And obviously the individual who carried out this atrocity in Sandy Hook didn't pass any background check because they weren't his guns," Rubio said.
"The bottom line is, if you write a law, law-abiding people will follow that law. And people that are criminals ignore the law because they are criminals," he continued. "What is effective is mandatory sentences like those we have in Florida."
Rubio, when he was in the Legislature, repeatedly voted along with his fellow Republicans to loosen restrictions on guns. Democrats predicted a crime wave.
But the violent-crime rate in Florida has been declining.
And though the push for universal background checks ostensibly targets gun shows, the stark evidence of the loophole wasn't inside Saturday's gun show at all.
It was outside, next to the soda machine, where a guy and his friends were hawking a semi-automatic rifle, ammunition and case for $3,000.
No paperwork, background checks needed.
A plumber in line who didn't want to give his name fretted: "That's dangerous. That's how stuff gets on the street. I have no problem treating them like licensed firearms dealers."
When he first got in line, he shook his head at the long wait ahead: "Obama."
He was there to buy some high-capacity magazines for his AR-15. The cost has skyrocketed.
Inside, there were bins of gun clips, and tables of shotguns, semi-automatic rifles and handguns, switchblade and throwing knives, sharp steel Ninja stars, swords, stun guns, batons, night-vision scopes machine-gun-conversion kits for semi-automatic rifles.
The tables of Sure Fire Florida, which background-checks buyers, were swamped.
A clerk said they quickly sold 40 AR-15s for as much as $2,800 shortly after opening. Some people had to wait two hours until their paperwork cleared before taking their guns home.
At a nearby booth, one seller soon ran out of hundreds of "bump-fire" trigger kits that, as a video showed, convert a semi-automatic weapon into a full machine gun that can fire 800 rounds a minute.
With numbers like that, it's safe to say more firearms were bought in the first few hours of the Miami gun show than were returned at an unrelated Miami police gun buy-back program that netted about 130 firearms Saturday and violence-plagued Liberty City.
"I've never seen it this busy," said Naim Alherimi, in his fourth year at the Miami gun show. "Some people are talking about civil war and arming themselves like its World War III."
But many have been heavily arming themselves and others and worrying about Obama long before a madman shot the school children of Sandy Hook with an AR-15.
In 2010, Florida gun shows were a major stage for Operation Castaway, "the most significant firearms trafficking investigation in Central Florida history," according to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The key player: Hugh Crumpler, a Vietnam vet turned small arms dealer who sold weapons to alleged affiliates of drug cartels and gangs in South and Central America, primarily Honduras, one of the most-violent countries in the world.
Crumpler was identified only because he was buying multiple handguns from federally licensed firearms dealers, primarily in his home of Brevard County. The handgun transactions were reported to ATF.
Had Crumpler only bought less-regulated (and more-powerful) semi-automatic rifles, no report would have been sent to ATF, which might not have jumped on his trail.
Crumpler sold at least 1,000 guns at shows from Tampa to Miami. He should have been a licensed firearms dealer because he sold so many weapons.
If a person isn't a licensed firearms dealer and is technically a small-time private seller, he doesn't have to do background checks on buyers.
"All my business is cash and carry," Crumpler, working a booth at the Southern Classic Gun and Knife Show in Orlando, told an undercover ATF agent at the beginning of the investigation.
Asked if he background checked buyers, Crumpler said: "No. Obama won't know that you have it."
At another point, Crumpler explained his no-paperwork business model to an undercover agent.
"Most people are afraid that Obama is going to come take their guns away. Now whether he is or isn't is not important. It's just important that he might," he said. "So they don't want anybody to know. So I don't keep a record. And if somebody comes and asks where the gun is at, I say I don't remember."
Crumpler's quotes come from a plea deal he signed after becoming an informant. Later, Crumpler tried to appeal his sentence.
Crumpler compared his case to the botched Operation Fast and Furious, in which ATF agents in Arizona allowed guns to cross into Mexico to help track them.
Crumpler claimed Fast and Furious and Operation Castaway were ways for Obama to try to justify more gun control. The federal government denied it.
The ATF said Operation Castaway and Fast and Furious are different. No one has shown that the agency knowingly allowed Crumpler-sold guns out of the country once he was under investigation.
A judge on Oct. 25 ruled that Crumpler's 30-month sentence should remain intact because he admitted guilt.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Fast and Furious, the ATF took executive action and required firearms dealers in the four Mexico-border states to report multiple rifle purchases.
The rule, however, doesn't apply to Florida, where Southern gun culture can blend seamlessly with Latin American cartel middle men like Crumpler's clients.
While selling arms, Crumpler said, he believed he was a "lone ranger" helping arm families, not cartels.
But some of his buyers were pretty shady and bought illegal AR-15-style short barrel rifles that Crumpler converted for them.
At least one was an illegal immigrant. One of his Miami gun-show buyers Jesus Puentes, worked for a Miami-Dade shipping company with strong ties to Venezuela.
Puentes wouldn't talk much to the feds after he was caught, saying he feared people in his native country of Colombia.
"A life is nothing to them," he said.
Puentes wouldn't say if he shipped arms or not, although secretly recorded conversations with Crumpler indicated he did. Both profited.
"It's not about the guns," Puentes told agents. "It's about the money."
Three years later, at the same gun show where Puentes had been busted, that sentiment was as true now as it was then, but for different reasons.
"You can't find ammo right now at Wal-Mart or Outdoor World and it's really expensive online, said Darryl Washington, a Miramar resident shopping Saturday with Hudson.
"This place has the best prices."


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Flying around globe: Afghan woman creates history
Flying around globe: Afghan woman creates history
KABUL (Pajhwok): An enterprising Afghan refugee has created history by emerging the youngest woman to fly around the globe in a single-engine plane, a media report said on Thursday.
Concluding a 138-stop flight, including Dubai, Shaesta Waiz landed her Beechcraft Bonanza A36 aircraft in Florida on Wednesday night, a UAE-based newspaper reported.
In a tweet after her record flight, the 30-year-old thanked the plane that made her dreams soar around the globe, according to The National.
She was the first-ever Afghan woman to become a certified pilot after her parents emigrated to the US. She was born in a refugee camp in Pakistan.
During her 25,000-mile journey, she also landed at the Dubai International Airport in early July, when she took a commercial flight to Afghanistan.
In Kabul, Shaesta Waiz met President Ashraf Ghani and civil society activists. The longest leg was a 14 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to California.
After flying from Dubai to Afghanistan, she said her flight was not aimed to set a world record, but to inspire women and young people to embrace aviation careers.
PAN Monitor/mud
Related Article
Download "Pajhwok" mobile App, on your smartphone to read and access latest news, features, interviews, videos and photos about Afghanistan.


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Ukraine's cultural godfather was an orphaned serf who became a painter; a painter who became a fearless poet; and a poet who endured imprisonment and exile to become the voice of a people.
Taras Shevchenko became one of the best known symbolic figures of the Ukrainian nation not just for his creative achievements, but also for his fight for freedom, against slavery and the institution of serfdom itself.
At the exhibition you will find the reproductions of some of Taras Shevchenko's most famous artworks, facts of his life as well as artworks of modern Ukrainian painters who created pictures on Shevchenko's world-known poems. You will be enchanted by Shevchenko's poems translated by American poet, translator and journalist Petro Fedynsky.


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Interactive Counsel
About Interactive Counsel
Interactive Counsel, Arent Fox's blog for interactive media regulations, highlights major developments and case studies for brands and businesses.
Our Interactive Counsel blog features three core practice areas – advertising, intellectual property, and privacy. Our goal is to help guide readers as they operate and grow their businesses through digital and data-driven problems.
We address the issues affecting leading US and international entities today as they protect their interests and their consumers.
Smart in Your Interactive World
Sarah Bruno, a triple-threat leader in the Advertising & Promotions, Trademark, and Privacy, Cybersecurity & Data Protection groups, serves as the key contact and editor-in-chief of Interactive Counsel. Her intersecting practice areas allow her to advise on cutting edge issues for her clients with a comprehensive perspective, earning her acclaim nationally and as one of the Top 100 Women Lawyers in California.


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Latest News
New Egypt appointments so far going to advocates of military rule
Transitional Egyptian President Adly Mansour, named by the Egyptian military to lead the country after it ousted Mohammed Morsi from office, announced several key appointments Sunday, all of whom were members of the military or supporters of a nation guided by the armed forces.
The development raised questions about whether Mansour's government would, as promised, represent a broad spectrum of Egypt's political factions or become simply a vehicle for control by the military, which had until Morsi's election last year led the nation either directly or through a retired military officer for six decades.
Of the six new appointees announced by Mansour, three were from the military. The others were known for having never spoken out against the armed forces or the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces when it was in control of the government for 18 months after the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Meanwhile, prominent supporters of Morsi remain in military custody, while members of the so-called youth movements that were instrumental in organizing the protests that led to Mubarak's fall two and a half years ago said they have not been consulted in the formation of Mansour's government.
There were also fresh rumors about what role Mohammed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who leads a large political bloc that had opposed Morsi, would have in the new government. ElBaradei's appointment as prime minister was opposed by the conservative religious Nour party; there were reports he might now be named vice president as early as Monday. If that appointment takes place, he would be the first person named to the government who had openly criticized military rule.
On Sunday, for the eighth straight day, Cairo was again the scene of massive demonstrations. Tens of thousands rallied in iconic Tahrir Square and in front of the Ministry of Defense in support of the military's toppling of Morsi last Wednesday, with some chanting slogans slamming the United States for its perceived backing of Morsi. Morsi backers held large counter protests, primarily in Cairo's eastern Rabaa district, calling for Morsi's reinstatement.
There were no reports of violence in Cairo, but the military and Islamists clashed again in the restive Sinai, near the border with Israel, and there were signs of sectarian tensions as a Muslim man killed four Coptic Christians in the southern resort town of Luxor. On Friday, at least 30 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in pitched battles between pro- and anti-Morsi crowds.
Mansour's appointments included Maj. Gen. Abdel Moemen Fouda Kabeer as chief of staff of the army, Maj. General Mohammed Ahmed Farid Thami Aleoran to head the country's intelligence agency, and Maj. Gen. Mohamed Raafat Abdel Wahed Shehata to head the country's security services.
Civilians named to government positions were Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud Meslemany, a former television newscaster who will be Mansour's media adviser, Ali Awad Mohammed Saleh, a lawyer who will advise Mansour on constitutional affairs, and Sekina Fouad, who will be a presidential adviser for women's affairs. Fouad was the only woman among 14 people who sat on the stage when Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, the minister of defense and head of the military, announced that Morsi had been removed from office.
That group included Islamic leaders, the Coptic Christian pope and members of Tamarod, a newly formed youth opposition group that claimed it had collected 22 million signatures on a petition demanding Morsi's resignation and whose leaders also supported the military's intervention.
A Tamarod spokeswoman said the group had met with the miliary leadership and expected to be represented in the Mansour government.
"The desire to meet was mutual between us and the military to protect the popular will," said Eman El Mahdy, 28. "We are not seeking power. We only want to monitor against corruption and stability."
But activists opposed to any kind of military rule said they were never contacted by the military leading up to Morsi's ouster and have not been contact in the days since.
"They wouldn't dare," said Ahmed Maher, head of the April 6 Youth Movement and a leader of the demonstrations that toppled Mubarak who also favored Morsi's stepping down. The military "should have then left," he said.
On Saturday, ElBaradei, a once fierce critic of the military's Supreme Council, was expected to be named prime minister. But that appointment never came, apparently after objections from conservative Islamist who'd also backed the military.
ElBaradei had been scheduled to appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday but canceled at the last minute because of "laryngitis and a fever," he told the network. But David Gregory, the program's host, said that during a phone call explaining why he would not appear, ElBaradei had told him he expected the appointment to be made.
"He also said, his words, 'The country is falling apart,' " Gregory said.
Maher said he would like to see ElBaradei represent the views of the opposition.
The exclusion of key groups and leaders from the government could pose a problem for Obama administration, which has avoided using the words "military coup" in describing what has taken place and has called for the new government to chart an inclusive path.
"The only solution to the current impasse is for all parties to work together peacefully to address the many legitimate concerns and needs of the people and to ensure Egypt has a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the millions of Egyptians who have taken to the streets to demand a better future," Secretary of State John Kerry said in his latest statement. "Lasting stability in Egypt will only be achieved through a transparent and inclusive democratic process with participation from all sides and all political parties."
Many Egyptians have been objected to calling Morsi's ouster a military coup, saying it was a necessary measure to save the nation from three more years of Morsi's incompetence. The first democratically elected leader in Egypt's history, Morsi angered many for naming members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the secret organization through which he ascended to the presidency, to several key posts. He also arrested critics for insulting him, repeatedly said he was unwilling to work with opponents and presided over a failing economy.
But Morsi's supporters freely use the term. In an appearance on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" on Sunday, Amr Darrag, Morsi's minister of planning and international cooperation, acknowledged complaints about Morsi's competence. But, he asked, "Does this justify a coup?"
McClatchy special correspondent Amina Ismail contributed to this report.


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Naltrexone — an opioid blocker that can dampen the desire for alcohol, heroin and nicotine, as well as the pleasures of eating — helped men quit smoking. It improved their quit rates after three months of treatment in a large controlled trial, from 17 percent for those who did not get the drug up to 30 percent for those who did.
The drug did not improve quit rates for women beyond that of the placebo. But for the women who successfully quit smoking, their weight gain was reduced by more than half. After three months, those who took naltrexone gained an average of 2.3 pounds while those who took a placebo gained 5.1 pounds.
"When trying to stop smoking, women tend to gain more weight than men and to be more concerned about gaining that weight," said study author Andrea King, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago Medicine. "Women who try to quit may be so worried about putting on weight in the process that they soon give up, and this is less commonly found in men. Adding naltrexone to standard treatment might help women get through that difficult early period."
While tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, obesity is the second leading cause. Ironically, more than 80 percent of those who are able to stop smoking put on at least five pounds in the year after quitting. Up to 25 percent of those who quit gain more than 15 pounds.
For this study, researchers combined data from the two largest trials using naltrexone to help volunteers stop smoking. The trial included 700 participants, 315 from the University of Chicago and 385 from Yale University. For six to 12 weeks after their quit date, participants took either naltrexone or a placebo. They also used a nicotine patch and attended smoking-cessation counseling for the first month.
After six months, 159 of the 700 participants (23 percent), including 77 women, remained verifiably smoke-free. After 12 months, that number fell to 115 (16 percent), including 57 women.
Over the first 12 months after quitting, weight gain continued to increase for successful quitters, but the benefits of the early treatment with naltrexone persisted. The effect was diminished, however. From a 50-percent reduction in weight gain for those taking the drug when measured at three months, the difference decreased to 40 percent (7.3 vs. 12.1 pounds) at six months, and to 20 percent (13 vs. 16.3 pounds) at 12 months.
"Naltrexone has produced the most promising results to date for helping women who quit smoking gain less weight," King said. "It is possible that the opioid blocker reduces women's tendency to eat high fat and sweet foods when they quit smoking."
But the available tools to help people stop smoking "are not satisfactory," King added. Smoking remains "a huge health problem and most adults in the United States are either overweight or obese. Our study demonstrates that naltrexone may be a promising medication to treat tobacco dependence and unlike the other approved medications, appears to help reduce weight gain for many."
Additional authors of the study include Lingjiao Zhang of the University of Chicago, Dingcai Cao of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Stephanie O'Malley of Yale University. The National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supported this research.
The University of Chicago Medicine
950 E. 61st Street, Third Floor
Chicago, IL 60637
Phone (773) 702-0025 Fax (773) 702-3171


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Template:Cub Scout Monthly Themes/2008/August
From MeritBadgeDotOrg
August 2008 BSA Theme - S'More Summer Fun
"Summer memories can last a lifetime and memories made with your Cub Scout den or pack can be some of the best. So let's make "S'More" Cub Scout memories this month. Since "outing" is part of Cub Scouting, let's get outside and have some fun. Be it having a picnic, water party, softball game or campout; there is no limit to the amount of fun to be had by all this month. Why not have a pack family campout following the guidelines your leaders learned in BALOO training? What could be better than an outdoor pack meeting complete with a campfire? Whether you make a real or synthetic fire, the fun is 100% genuine. This would be a good opportunity to work on the Softball belt loop and pin or the Weather belt loop and pin." - Program Helps
Character Connection:
Monthly Program Resources:
Belt Loops and Pins:
Webelos Activity Badges:
Theme-related activities:


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Henry Steer continued his strong freshman campaign as he went 1-0 in singles play and helped Harvard to a 5-2 victory against Princeton. (Gil Talbot)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.- The No. 24 Harvard men's tennis team improved to 3-1 in Ivy League play and 19-2 overall, as it defeated Princeton, 5-2 on Saturday night. The Crimson went 3-0 in doubles action and 4-2 in singles play to secure the victory.
For the second-straight day Harvard swept doubles play as MacMaster and Felton downed Siow and Spindler, 8-7 while Pearlman and Shultz defeated Shoji and Lin, 8-5. In the No. 3 position Denis Nguyen and Andy Nguyen took down Bloom and Davies, 8-2.
With the doubles point in tow Harvard began singles play and went 4-2 in the match. Denis Nguyen defeated Matt Spindler, 6-2, 6-2. Harvard also got wins from the No. 4 through No. 6 as freshmen Shaun Chaudhuri, Alex Steinroeder and Henry Steer all tallied victories. Chaudhuri defeated Richardson 6-2, 6-4 while Steinroeder downed Siow 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 while Steer defeated Yengar-Raman 6-4, 7-6.
The Crimson will next play Yale at the Beren Tennis Center on April 20. The Match is slated 12 p.m. Full results are below:
Felton/MacMaster def. Siow/Spindler 8-7
Pearlman/Schultz def. Shoji/Lin H 8-5
A. Nguyen/D. Nguyen def. Bloom/Davies 8-2
J. Pearlman lost to Pecotic 6-3, 6-0
D. Nguyen def. Spindler 6-2, 6-2
C. Schultz lost to Bloom 4-6, 6-2, 4-6
S. Chaudhuri def. Richardson 6-2, 6-4
A. Steinroeder def. Siow 6-3, 2-6, 6-1
H. Steer def. Yengar-Raman 6-4, 7-6


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Instagram Inspiration (Pinterest) #09
2nd December 2014
Just your weekly Instagram Inspiration board. The Pinterest board widget above only shows the most recent 30 uploads. I upload way more than that on a daily basis so click through to see the entire board.
The user account of the Instagrammer is in each Pins description. These pictures are not mine (unless stated).
Also don't forget to follow me on Instagram @itchban


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George S. Kaufman, a founding wit of the Algonquin Round Table and probably the greatest hitmaker in Broadway history—"You Can't Take It with You," "The Man Who Came to Dinner," "Of Thee I Sing," and a score more—is currently being celebrated, or, you might say, exhumed, by the Library of America, in a volume of nine plays called "Kaufman & Co." ($35). Why "& Co."? Because Kaufman (he pronounced it "Koffman") was the American theatre's busiest collaborator: of the dozens of straight plays he wrote, only one—"The Butter and Egg Man"—was by him solo. Presumably, he did it to show that he could, but, despite its success, he went right back to working with others. To Howard Teichmann, the co-author of his last hit play, "The Solid Gold Cadillac," he wrote, "A thought on collaboration. It is marriage without sex, and subject to many vexations. But pay no attention to them, because in one respect at least it is wonderful. The total result is frequently far more than the combined abilities of two people might give you… . And if I don't know about collaboration who the hell does?"
There had been many collaborators before Teichmann. The first, when Kaufman was fourteen and growing up in Pittsburgh, was Irving Pichel, who was to become a Hollywood director; the play was a father-son melodrama called "The Failure." Needless to say, nothing came of it. Kaufman's first significant partner was Marc Connelly, with whom, in 1921, he wrote his first hit, "Dulcy" (the play that made Lynn Fontanne a star), and two other hits, "Merton of the Movies" and "Beggar on Horseback." But the work habits of the two men were different, their ambitions were different, and they agreed to part company—Connelly to write "The Green Pastures," a Pulitzer Prize-winning all-black fantasy featuring "De Lawd." None of the Connelly collaborations are included in the Library of America volume, probably because none are really known today. The movies made of them, both silent and in sound, are obscure, and so the plays, rarely revived, have no recognition value for us. But "Merton" might well have been squeezed in, to flesh out the concept of "Co." And "Beggar on Horseback," a somewhat bizarre adaptation of a German Expressionist romance, if that isn't a contradiction in terms, was considered adventurous and literary in its day, and has novelty value, at least.
In 1924, Kaufman began his long working relationship with the best-selling novelist Edna Ferber ("Show Boat," "So Big," "Giant"). Theirs was a fraught friendship and collaboration. Many people thought she was in love with him, but she was physically unattractive, demanding, and aggressive—not qualities that appealed to him in women. They had three great successes together, spread out over ten years—"The Royal Family," "Dinner at Eight," and "Stage Door"—all of which we know best today through the movie versions. The latter two are considerably superior to the plays they're based on: not only does film tone down their staginess, but wouldn't you rather see Hollywood's "Dinner at Eight" cast—Jean Harlow, John and Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Billie Burke, and the sublime Marie Dressler—than the cast of some pallid revival? Ferber, caustic as usual, resented the fuss about David O. Selznick's all-star spectacular. "Very good," she commented. "I wonder who wrote it."
As for "Stage Door," the wonderful Gregory La Cava film doesn't have the luminous Margaret Sullavan repeating her stage triumph, but it does have Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers in brilliant contrast, and far sharper and more amusing dialogue, a lot of it improvised. Too bad the Library of America couldn't have given us the movie script, instead of, or in addition to, the more sentimental stage version. (Ferber was incorrigibly romantic about the theatre; Kaufman was more skeptical.)
In her autobiography, "A Peculiar Treasure," Ferber downplays the tensions between the two partners, but in later years (and after two flops) Kaufman refused to have anything more to do with her. "I am an old man and not well," he wrote to her. "I have had two or three strokes already and I cannot afford another argument with you to finish my life. So I simply wish to end our friendship." Eventually they made up, and, shortly before he died, she visited his sickbed. He barely responded to her presence, but as she left the apartment she heard him calling, "Edna! Edna, come back here." When she rushed into the bedroom, he was sitting up and alert. "Edna," he asked, "are you going to the funeral?" "What funeral?" "Yours. You're dead, Edna, dead!" And fell back onto his pillows. This macabre incident hardly suggests that Kaufman was deeply invested in their reconciliation.
And then there were the Marx Brothers. "The Cocoanuts" and "Animal Crackers" were the only two shows that Kaufman wrote specifically for stars, and, since the boys were constantly changing lines and stage business, they amounted to (unwelcome) collaborators. As Alexander Woollcott put it, the Marxes were "inclined to get out of any vehicle and carry it instead." Backstage at "The Cocoanuts" one night, Kaufman irritated his pal Heywood Broun by interrupting him in the middle of a story. "Well, I had to," Kaufman apologized. "I thought I heard one of the original lines of the show." Working with the Marxes was hell all the way—at the first reading of the "Cocoanuts" script, Harpo and Chico fell asleep. Besides, Kaufman said, "how can you write for Harpo? What do you put down on paper? All you can say is 'Harpo enters,' and then he's on his own."
Oddly, though, the work he did for the Bros. holds up better than some of his more highly praised, conventional comedies. He doesn't fight their anarchic spirit but reaches out to it. The stage business is appropriately demented, the dialogue for Groucho is echt Groucho. "You want ice water in Room 202? I'll send up an onion. That'll make your ice water." And Groucho's ad-libs became an added attraction—playgoers kept coming back to see what he'd pull next. One night, with President Coolidge in the audience, he stopped the show: "Isn't it a little bit past your bedtime, Cal?" But, despite the liberties he took with the script, Groucho knew what he had in Kaufman. "Kaufman molded me," he said. "Kaufman gave me the walk and the talk." You could make a case for Groucho being George S. Kaufman's most lasting contribution to posterity.
Kaufman's assistant on "The Cocoanuts" was Morrie Ryskind, who was also involved in his other Marx Brothers projects, including the script for "A Night at the Opera." More important, he was the co-author of "Of Thee I Sing," the 1931 satirical musical about politics that not only became a smash hit but was the first musical to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Produced at the height of the Depression, "Of Thee I Sing," with a gleeful score by the Gershwins, was something totally new on Broadway—unless you count its obvious debt to Gilbert and Sullivan. The hero is John P. Wintergreen—"Wintergreen for President! / Wintergreen for President! / He's the man the people choose; / Loves the Irish and the Jews"—who gets elected on a platform of Love: "Love is sweeping the country; / Waves are hugging the shore; / All the sexes / From Maine to Texas / Have never known such love before." It's all breezy fun, with Kaufman's chief target the utter pointlessness of America's Vice-President, in this case the bumbling but adorable Alexander Throttlebottom. (Where is he, now that we need him?) The Supreme Court, beauty contests, and "Ze French" also come in for gentle ribbing, but the satire, like all of Kaufman's, is good-natured: it's not that he pulls his punches but that there are no punches, just featherweight jabs. The ferocious bite of a true satirist—a Molière, a Swift, a Twain (Kaufman's hero)—is absent from his work, reserved for his famous put-downs at the expense of private victims.
The most important collaboration, of course, was that with Moss Hart, which began, in 1930, with "Once in a Lifetime"—a satirical take on Hollywood—and went on to the two biggest hits of Kaufman's career, "You Can't Take It with You," which ran for two years and won him a second Pulitzer, and "The Man Who Came to Dinner," based on the shenanigans of his great pal Alexander Woollcott. "You Can't Take It with You" is deservedly the best known of Kaufman's plays, frequently revived and still enjoyable. What sets it apart is that the characters, however calculated their zaniness, seem human, not stick figures cracking wise. Frank Capra's film version (which won the Best Picture Oscar for 1938) is how we know it best, and, unless you're irredeemably anti-Capra, you can't help falling for Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, Spring Byington, Ann Miller, and the other residents and visitors at the house of Grandpa Vanderhof—Lionel Barrymore, in one of his typical smarmy-gnarly impersonations. The message is pure Capra, but it's also pure Kaufman: naïve goofballs outfox greedy business types; money is the root of all evil; don't waste your life on uncongenial hard work. Instead, take up the xylophone, make fireworks (or fudge), take ballet lessons from impoverished comic Russians, write silly plays. It's the theme of a lot of Depression-era movies: perhaps it provided comfort to people who had already stopped doing uncongenial hard work because they'd lost their jobs.
"The Man Who Came to Dinner" is closer to the typical Kaufman farce, but it stands out because of the fun of its awful hero, Sheridan Whiteside, who not only was based on the famous Woollcott but was played by him for a few weeks in a West Coast production. The idea is simple but immediately engaging. The great Whiteside, lecturing in a small Ohio town, fractures his hip and is laid up for weeks in the home of the despairing couple who have had him to dinner, and whose crime is that they're ordinary middle-class Midwesterners. Indulging himself in every petty tyranny, Whiteside disrupts their lives—undermining their authority with their children, tormenting his nurse and doctor, commandeering the phone, offending anyone in earshot with a barrage of insults. Celebrity friends turn up to amuse him—barely disguised replicas of Harpo ("Banjo"), Gertrude Lawrence, Noël Coward. And then he reveals his good heart by promoting the romance of his acerbic secretary with an idealistic young journalist, after having done his selfish best to gum it up. As usual, Kaufman draws back from the kill. (Try to avoid the disastrous Warner Bros. version, which gives us Bette Davis bravely coping with finding herself in a comedy.)
Kaufman and Hart had another hit with "I'd Rather Be Right," in which the incomparable George M. Cohan returned to the stage to play F.D.R. (whom he loathed) in a fanciful romance set in Central Park and featuring the usual Kaufman bland young couple and, again, the Supreme Court—apparently an irresistible target in the New Deal era. The Library of America editors don't make the mistake of including it in their collection.
Hart went his own way after a perfunctory 1940 farce called "George Washington Slept Here" failed to do very well, but the two men remained intimate friends for life—the much younger Hart the closest thing to a son the older man ever had. Kaufman, who had enjoyed more than a score of hits in a score of years, now experienced an almost unbroken series of failures. In the next twenty years, the only successful shows he wrote were an adaptation of John P. Marquand's "The Late George Apley"; "The Solid Gold Cadillac"; and the Cole Porter musical "Silk Stockings." Hart's career accelerated: "Lady in the Dark," "Winged Victory," the scripts for "Gentleman's Agreement" and the Judy Garland "A Star Is Born," and the direction of both "My Fair Lady" and "Camelot." But his most lasting work is the memoir "Act One," a tremendous best-seller in 1959, which recounts his long and painful apprenticeship in the theatre, climaxed by the triumph of that first collaboration with Kaufman, "Once in a Lifetime." Hart had written a promising play, but the amount of work needed to turn it into a success was staggering, and more than once the venture nearly foundered. Hart, the ardent neophyte, was in awe of his new partner, the most successful man on Broadway, and he provides us with our closest look at the way Kaufman approached his work:
**{: .break one} ** There was an element of the demoniacal in his tireless search for just the right word to round a sentence into its proper unity, for the exact juxtaposition of words and movement that would slyly lead the audience along the periphery of a scene to its turning point and then propel them effortlessly to its climax… . No moment, however small, seemed unimportant enough to escape his almost fierce attention, and his grasp of the play's latent values was immediate and complete. My eyes and ears were opened anew each day to the thousand-and-one endless details that go to make up the subtle and infinitely fragile clockwork of a play's interior mechanism, and to the slow cultivation of its subsoil that gradually makes it blossom into something vital and alive. I watched and listened with the consecration of a yogi. **
"Clockwork," "mechanism"—the words can be applied to the entire Kaufman oeuvre. But these are not the inexorable, subversive mechanisms of the farces of Feydeau, whose riotous chain reactions lead to berserk confusions that turn the bourgeois world upside down; they're maneuvers calculated to please and, finally, comfort a very different bourgeois world, the world of Broadway. Kaufman's ruling impulse, always, is to succeed, to win, not to impose his mordant view of life.
Winning was crucial to Kaufman not only in the theatre but at croquet, his one sport, and bridge, his chief hobby, which he played at a near-expert level. "I'd rather be a poor winner than any kind of loser," he once acknowledged—or boasted. And he always had to be in control, which is no doubt why, starting in 1929, with "June Moon," the one play he wrote with Ring Lardner, he preferred to direct his own work. (He had already started directing the work of other playwrights: the string of hit shows he staged runs from "The Front Page," in 1928, to "Romanoff and Juliet," in 1957, by way of "My Sister Eileen" and "Guys and Dolls.")
The seeds of his compulsion to control and to succeed, and of others of his more disturbing characteristics, lie in a difficult childhood. The Kaufmans were relatively well-off German Jews in the Pittsburgh of 1889, the year George was born. His father was a good-natured businessman who kept changing businesses—whenever something was panning out, he got bored and moved on. His mother was both arrogant and severely neurotic. For most of her adult life, she was beset by frenzied jealousies and imaginary illnesses leading to wildly dramatic deathbed scenes; nurses—eventually, psychiatric ones—were kept on hand to deal with her. Her husband responded by just leaving the house when things got bad: "Nettie, I'm going out for a walk. I'll be home when you get back to your senses." George had an older and a younger sister, but the sibling who affected him most powerfully was an older brother who had died as a baby. It was this tragic death, exacerbating her intense hypochondria, that led Mrs. Kaufman to the extreme measures she took to protect little Georgie. No milk—milk could make children sick. All water to be boiled. No rough games. And, especially, no close contact with others, since others could transmit disease. Georgie grew up painfully thin, painfully shy, and painfully unconfident of his abilities.
By the time he was an adult, he had become the victim of countless phobias—constantly washing his hands, compulsively picking up real or imagined lint from the floor, and so frightened of death that sometimes he wouldn't go to bed for fear of dying in his sleep. As for contact with others, he couldn't bear to be touched: no handshakes, even. A famous story involves one of his innumerable girlfriends, who made the mistake at dinner one night of tasting his soup with her spoon, at which he immediately sent for a new bowl. Later, when he was kissing her, she remarked, "I see. You're not so worried about my germs now." "I've been looking at you all evening," he replied, "and I've decided it's worth the risk."
His sexual history was peculiar from the start. In 1905, when he was sixteen, he and six other boys signed a pact to remain pure until they married—they called it the Black and White Club, because they had set down their vow in black-and-white. It seems that they all kept their word: certainly, Kaufman was a virgin when, at the age of twenty-seven, he married Beatrice Bakrow. And when, the next year, Beatrice had a stillborn child, Kaufman was so disturbed that he was never able to resume sexual relations with her. In due course, although they remained dependent on each other, adopted a baby, and obviously cared for each other deeply, they went their separate sexual ways.
Kaufman, in fact, became known for the number of women he took to bed, with some of whom he maintained affairs for years (while enjoying other adventures) and with all of whom he remained on good terms. For a man who abhorred physical contact, he managed to rack up a good deal of it. In 1936, to his horror—and to the amazement, and relish, of the general public—he became notorious as a lover when the diaries of the beautiful movie star Mary Astor became public during an acrimonious divorce proceeding. We'll never know whether some of the entries that were printed were forged, whether they were really written in purple ink (or was it lavender? or violet?), whether there were really "many exquisite moments … twenty—count them, diary, twenty… . I don't see how he does it." We do know that it all exploded into scandal, and that Kaufman had to slip out of Los Angeles to avoid having to appear in court. The two top headlines in the New York Times of August 11, 1936, were "corn crop worst since '81" and "warrant out for kaufman." The staunch Beatrice stood by him: "We have been married twenty years. We are adults, leading our lives in adult fashion. George is a good husband. I love him very much. He is in love with me despite the things that may have happened… . She kept a diary. Very stupid, that."
Beatrice Kaufman was as formidable a figure as her husband. She had done clever work as a press agent, a script reader, a book editor, but it was her style, her intelligence, her judgment that drew people to her. In 1928, this magazine published a hilarious Profile of her by Ring Lardner. ("It is her modest boast that she is never seen in the same costume twice and generally not even once.") This ran almost a year before the magazine got around to her husband, with Woollcott doing the honors. By then, the Round Table at the Algonquin had secured its relentless grip on the public imagination, and Kaufman, Woollcott, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Harpo, the Lunts, The New Yorker's Harold Ross, and other current demigods were indulging themselves at lunch while slicing each other up. Typical: Kaufman, responding to a mock-anti-Semitic remark that the half-Jewish Parker was studiously ignoring, stood up and announced, "I've had enough slurs on my race. I am now leaving this table, this dining room, and this hotel. And I trust that Mrs. Parker will walk out with me—halfway."
Humor had been Kaufman's entrée into the great world. After a half-baked education and some stabs at ordinary jobs (ribbon salesman was one), he began sending comments to the immensely popular column put together for the Evening Mail by Franklin Pierce Adams—F.P.A. to the world. Adams was impressed, and found young Kaufman a column of his own, on the Washington Times, which lasted until the owner spotted him one day and demanded to know "What is that Jew doing in my city room?" With that, Kaufman's career in Washington was over, but, with the help of fairy-godfather F.P.A., he was absorbed into the world of New York journalism, and ended up running the theatre desk at the Times, a job he clung to for years after he became a successful playwright. It was a safety blanket—security against the disaster he was always certain was about to strike. His opening-night anxieties went well beyond the norm. After the curtain came down on one rollickingly triumphant première, the leading actor found him slumped against a wall "looking a little like the late Marie Antoinette in the tumbril."
This complicated, tormented man, who talked aloud to himself in the street, was generally silent in company until, suddenly, he would spring one of those famous put-downs. In Palm Springs one day, Moss Hart turned up in ludicrously elaborate Western garb, from expensive Texas boots to twenty-gallon Stetson. One look was all Kaufman needed to greet him with "Hi-yo, Platinum." When Hart bought a country estate in Bucks County, near the Kaufmans', and rebuilt and reforested it, Kaufman remarked, "This is what God could have done if He'd had money." When an inept bridge partner got up to go to the men's room, Kaufman snapped, "Fine. This is the first time this afternoon I'll know what you have in your hand." And so on. These quips, in the heyday of the Round Table, were passed around and savored, like Dorothy Parker's. They're still funny, but they lack the pure brilliance of Oscar Wilde's; and, unlike Wilde's, they were often meant to wound.
But if Kaufman could, on occasion, be brutal, he was consistently warm and attentive to his family, to Bea's family, to his daughter, Anne. And though he rarely allowed familiarities, and fled from any kind of sentimental gesture or utterance, he was secretly generous to friends and acquaintances down on their luck. Similarly, although he constantly fretted about money and knew how to cut a deal, he was known in the business for his absolute integrity and fairness, both in financial matters and in matters of billing. His policy was simple: whichever collaborator came up with the idea for the play was billed first. Thus, "Dinner at Eight" is by Kaufman and Ferber, while "Stage Door" is by Ferber and Kaufman. On the opening night of "Once in a Lifetime," as the applause rolled in, he stepped forward during the curtain calls—he was appearing in the play—and, breaking an iron-clad rule of his, made an opening-night speech. It wasn't long: "I would like the audience to know that eighty per cent of this play is Moss Hart."
When Beatrice suddenly died, in 1945, Kaufman was undone. "I'm through," he said. "I'll never work again. I'm through." But he did work again, and he married again, too, four years later. She was Leueen MacGrath, a beautiful and successful English actress many years his junior. At first, they were extremely happy—his daughter later said that these were the happiest years of his life—but the usual problems developed, and they were divorced in 1957. The divorce left them good friends, and they went on collaborating on plays, despite the fact that they had given birth to a couple of Broadway flops. But even being married to two women he loved didn't help Kaufman express feelings in his work. As he himself acknowledged, he simply could not write a love scene—if a plot required anything resembling one, it was left to the collaborator of the moment. And he was weak on characterization. Hart humanizes him, Ferber supplies sentiment, and in "June Moon" it is clearly Ring Lardner who provides the hint of disagreeable reality that is generally absent from the other comedies.
"June Moon" gives us Fred, the typical Kaufman young rube headed for the big city with stars in his eyes and cotton between his ears. Once he hits New York as an aspiring songwriter, he encounters not only the usual Kaufman phonies who try to take him for a ride but a pair of conniving sisters, one after his money and the other cheating on her husband. This is close-to-the-bone realism for Kaufman. Of course, the sisters are eventually outmatched, Fred strikes gold with "June Moon, shining above, / Will my true love come soon? / June Moon, I am so blue; / I know that you long for her, too," and sweet young love prevails. This is Broadway, after all.
You will encounter the equivalent of young Fred in the young George of "Once in a Lifetime," who blunders into a triumph over the caricaturized moguls of Hollywood, and whose only discernible feature, apart from stupidity, is that he never stops cracking Indian nuts. You'll meet up with him again in "The Butter and Egg Man," Kaufman's solo effort about the theatre; this time around, he's young Peter, the wide-eyed sucker who learns fast and ends up outsuckering the sharpies. And here he comes again, as young Merton in "Merton of the Movies," another swipe at Hollywood, in which a total naïf (he starts out as a clerk in Gashwiler's General Store in Simsbury, Illinois) stumbles his way to stardom. Needless to say, in all these plays boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl—in other words, they're romantic comedies masquerading as satires.
When, in the more spacious collaborations with Ferber and Hart, Kaufman strays from this formula, his sure command of structure, dialogue, and pace holds everything together. But when he strikes out into serious territory, as in the 1939 patriotic pageant "The American Way," written with Hart and starring Fredric March, the results are unfortunate. We follow through the decades the lives of the Gunthers, a German immigrant couple who succeed in America and love their adopted country. At a rabble-rousing Fascist meeting, Martin Gunther as an old man speaks up ("Do not bring this madness over here! … Democracy is not finished") and is beaten to death by local goons. His funeral oration:
**{: .break one} ** To Martin Gunther we pay a just homage. For it may be truly said that he was an American. He lived as an American; he died as an American. I can think of no finer epitaph. I see in the life of Martin Gunther, and even in his death, high hope for America. It will go on, this country, so long as we keep alive the thing that Martin Gunther died for. Let us keep this land of ours, which we love so dearly, a land of hope and freedom. (A single voice starts "The Star-spangled Banner." Another joins in, then more and more, until every voice in the Square is uplifted in the national anthem. Men, women, children—their voices mount to a fervid finish.) CURTAIN. **
I'll say.
Kaufman died in 1961. In the seventies, three long biographies were published—by Howard Teichmann, Scott Meredith, and Malcolm Goldstein—on which I have drawn for the facts of his life. These books differ in approach and tone, but they share the assumption that Kaufman was an important figure, whose work mattered. A quarter of a century later, the Library of America is making the same claim. But then the Library of America is, as its publisher, Max Rudin, recently stated in Publishers Weekly, "expanding what the notion of great American literature is." Is this code for dumbing down? Or are we really meant to believe that "The Royal Family" and "Animal Crackers" fulfill anybody's notion of what great literature is?
When I was a kid, and theatre-mad, I not only spent all my allowance on Broadway matinées but avidly read plays of the past. One of my favorites was "The Man Who Came to Dinner"; I couldn't get over the hilarity of Sheridan Whiteside's first line—"I may vomit"—or his comeback to a nervous neighbor who has brought him a jar of calf's-foot jelly: "Made from your own foot, I have no doubt." This play, unlike most of the others by "Kaufman & Co.," still has some vitality, but I no longer find myself laughing. Either I've lost my sense of humor or it has evolved. Or the world has moved on.
The easy laugh, the insistent cleverness of the plot mechanisms—the very qualities that delighted prewar Broadway—may explain why today, with the well-made play a thing of the past, Kaufman's work seems for the most part so bloodless and predictable. Even at the height of his fame, the danger was clear to some observers. In a 1939 Time cover story, Louis Kronenberger wrote, of Kaufman's career, "It proclaims an amazing foresight in always taking the pulse of Broadway as the clue to its heart, a habit of always writing fashionable plays and never revolutionary ones. It proclaims a playwright who has made sport of everything while never giving offense to anybody. It proclaims a really great practical theatre mind, with no philosophy except that the theatre is entertainment and that good entertainment pays."
Great literature endures, but even first-rate entertainments fade. It doesn't take away from Kaufman's genius for success or from the pleasure he provided audiences for so long that today his work reads like a footnote to literature, rather than the thing itself. ♦