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10th November 2017
A recent report from National Cyber Security Alliance found that most Americans are more concerned about having their identity stolen than losing their main source of income. At the same time, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, six in 10 admitted to not changing their passwords regularly and reusing login credentials across multiple sites (security 101!).
As a communicator, this contradiction tells me a few things. First, that breaches like Equifax and Yahoo! are making consumers sit up and take notice. Second, that cybersecurity companies pumping millions of dollars into PR and advertising are actually getting through to the average American (phew!). But the third thing it tells me is the most concerning, namely that although the public understands the risks and knows what's at stake, that for all the fearmongering, behavioral change isn't happening.
Consumers – and businesses - are almost continually bombarded with commercials that tell them (I'm paraphrasing) "your security is at risk – buy our product!" This clearly isn't working. To effect change, security companies must take a more constructive approach to their messaging. Think public education; think a collaborative approach to solving the hacking crisis. Point solutions and FUD just aren't resonating.
At the enterprise level, driving action is even more difficult. According to PWC, the overwhelming number of security incidents are caused by employees, former employees or trusted contractors that are already inside your network. Given that the previously mentioned NCSA survey found that nearly all Americans were at least "somewhat concerned" about having their identity stolen, it's hard to make an argument that the average office worker is unaware of the impact that a breach could have on their employer. Rather, it's that they just don't care.
At both the public and enterprise level, security companies are failing to achieve their number-one objective: to change behaviors. Sure, most Americans know they should be doing something to make their own identities and their employers' data secure. But whether it's that they're overwhelmed with the choices presented to them, or that they simply believe that it won't happen to them, they're not taking precautionary measures.
Here's my advice – stop selling just for a minute and start educating. Cybersecurity has the potential to be our next national crisis and it's on us all to stem the bleeding before it's too late.
Elliott Suthers is a Grayling senior vice president in San Francisco.
Grayling Team
15th November 2016
Will Kunkel, Executive Vice President for Creative and Content in Grayling New York, on the final of our #7for17 trends, Live and Uncut'Timing is everything' has been a favorite line to many but...Read More
8th November 2016
Danica Ross, Grayling San Francisco US Executive Vice President, on how brands can guide themselves through the 'the new space race' – part of our #7for17 trends series.In an era where brands...Read More
3rd November 2016
Russell Patten, Chair of Grayling's European Public Affairs practice, looks at one of the major political trends as part of our #7for17 series. It's been a turbulent year in politics, with the...Read More


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The demo tape that started it all… well, at least the first demo tape. Somehow, we lost track of the master copy of the tape so all that's left is a few severely degraded dubs. Dumbasses.
MTV, here we come!
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Playing with Red Devil, Stkinking Lizaveta & The Invasive Species at the Beaumont Wherehouse in wild, wonderful West Philly the Sunday after Turkey Day. Come out and get your punk on!
CJ is apparently tougher than Cancer and Brain Surgery now. Josh may have a hole in his head now, but nothing's gonna keep us old punx down!
It only took 15+ years, but we finally got our first press mention. Guess we are just late bloomers. Check it out here.
CJ will be playing at the "Rock City Reunion II" benefit show at The Note in West Chester with Mischief Brew, Thee Nosebleeds & Vacant Progress.
CJ will be opening up for Mishchief Brew and Bloodbomber at The Barbary in Philly!
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UH student teachers now integrating laptops
Initiative part of drive to integrate technology in Hawaiʻi schoolsUniversity of Hawaiʻi
College of Education
HONOLULU—While the use of laptop computers by college students is an accepted way of life today, a new standard requirement for new students enrolled in the UH College of Education's Institute for Teacher Education (ITE) is considered a major step forward in the integration of technology in Hawaiʻi's schools. Initiated this fall, the new requirement is intended to increase the technology literacy for those going into the teaching profession.
All newly admitted students in ITE's teacher licensing programs will now be required to have a laptop computer meeting specifications outlined by the College of Education. The requirement anticipates the Hawaiʻi Department of Education's own initiative to ensure that teachers in Hawaiʻi's public schools have access to a computer in every classroom within a few years.
"Our graduates will leave us ready and comfortable with technology, and be able to be take advantage of the efficiencies provided by computers and the resources available on the Internet," said Paul McKimmy, Director of Technology & Distance Programs with the UH-Manoa College of Education. "Our instructors are enthusiastic about universal computing access."
The requirement standardizes software so that instructors will be assured all students will have immediate Internet access as a standard tool in every class, instead of waiting for computer lab availability. A survey conducted in the spring of 2005 (prior to the requirement) found that 70 percent of students enrolled in the College of Education's teacher training programs already owned laptop computers.
The cost of the laptop can now be included in students' financial aid packages, enabling more of them to afford a computer.
A related program provides laptop computers to the college's instructors and field supervisors, further encouraging classroom integration of technology.
For more information about the program, contact Paul McKimmy at 808-956-6266


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Blue sweater Bertoni Lukas, |
No ratings. Art.No.: 2040.0020-2-1
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Blue sweater Bertoni Lukas, |
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Throw sweatshirt into a corner and then pick up the sweater.
A good opportunity to do not worry - the possibility from breakfast to dinner.
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Material: 100% cotton
Dimensions for size L:
shoulder width - 43 cm
length - 69 cm
Washing: 40 °C
We are happy to inform you about a price change of this product respectively when it hits the price you want to purchase.
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Surya Alameda AMD-1000 Tans & Ivories Rugs
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Excess Land and Airspace – Cal Trans Upcoming Sales and Auctions
Here you will find information on our current inventory of properties for sale. This is your source for information on upcoming sales and auctions by Caltrans Right of Way Excess Land Branch. Feel free to browse through our listings. Information will be updated frequently, so please check back often.
All auctions are open to the public and normally conducted either by an oral or sealed bid format. In most cases a minimum bid amount is set before the auction. Credit terms are available under certain circumstances. By statute, all sales are subject to final approval of the California Transportation Commission.


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27 members10 Comments 1 Like
Paul K has not received any gifts yet
Welcome, paul! Glad you could join us. :D
Please consider joining a group to meet people and talk about anything that's on your mind, Hang With Friends. You might also like Atheists who love Science! and Astronomers.
I also recommend Eco-Logical and Climate Concerns, since the climate is changing so drastically.
After you've searched for topics of interest in "Groups" above and in the "Forums", don't forget to look at recent activity which hides along the right margin of the page all the way at the bottom.
On a personal note, I've developed an animated gif technique, sort of "pull quote marries slideshow". Samples are scattered across various groups, but you can find them easily by going to my twitter account. Each tweet has a link (after the description and before the hashtags) to a visually rich example here at Atheist Nexus. If you like them, please follow me
Welcome, Paul. I am glad you are here, too. I am also in recovery and working the steps. I find it to be quite compatible with A/N.
Hi Paul
Welcome to this world of rationality and peace, where pure common sense is enough to lead to the open freethinking wisdom common to non-believers like you and us.
We invite you to join the busy group "ORIGINS: Universe, Astronomy, Life, Earth, Humans, Religion, Gods, Atheism, Evolution, Darwin..." with 720 discussion topics and 3700 members.
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Growing your hair out always starts with providing it better care. After all, you don't simply want long hair, you probably want long hair that looks and feels good. Try these expert tips on how to grow your hair out the right way. Getting good looking long hair will have an impact on more than just your hair care routine. Hair is dead, but the follicles that produce it are very much living and they need to be properly cared for. Reducing the friction between your hair and the pillowcase is a good place to start and you can try a s... Read More


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NH authorities to seek man who fled into Merrimack HUiver in Hudson
HUDSON, N.H. (AP) � New Hampshire authorities are planning to search along the Merrimack River in Hudson and downstream after a suspect seen breaking into cars was last seen swimming in the river while trying to escape police
Hudson police say they received a report at about 6:40 p.m. Wednesday of a man seen breaking into cars near Maple Avenue and Fulton Street.
Police say the suspect was last seen after he waded into the river and appeared to be swimming upstream.
The area along the river was searched and nothing was found.
Rescue crews from Hudson and Nashua then began searching the river with boats while a Fish and Game search dog assisted with the search, but nothing was found.
Conservation officers are expected to resume the search Thursday.


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Guest blog post by Francisco J. Sánchez, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade
Yesterday I was honored to participate in the opening ceremony for the new Embraer assembly facility in Melbourne, Florida. Embraer is a Brazilian manufacturer of commercial, general aviation, and defense aircraft, and this new plant will employ up to 200 people from the area.
The ceremony embodied what I believe in about the future:
- Exports create jobs;
- The key to the future of the American economy is international trade; and
- Economic integration among the nations of the hemisphere is how all of us remain competitive in the face of rising global competition.
The aircraft assembled in the new facility symbolize the growth of the hemispheric market and represents how international trade brings the economies of the hemisphere closer to each other.
Brazil and the United States understand that hundreds of millions of new consumers are giving birth to a new global market that will demand quantity as well quality. Quantity and quality almost define Embraer itself.
Defining the future, too, are the United States and Brazil, which is why President Obama will be travelling to Brazil next month. The gathering of dignitaries yesterday in many ways can be looked upon as part of the President's visit to Brazil, for it incorporates the spirit and intention of the journey.
The United States is also interested in launching an Aviation Cooperation Program with Brazil. We see this as a way of elevating and deepening our relationships with the Brazilian government and industry.
All of us should embrace Embraer's decision to build this assembly plant in Florida. It foreshadows the greater future that lies before us and Florida – and before the United States and Brazil as well.
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Warm up exercise:
Some World cup warmer questions:
1. Where and when was the last World Cup? Germany 2006
2. Where and when is the next World Cup? Brazil 2014
3. How many years is there between each World Cup? 4 years
Questions to ask every day during the World Cup:
What countries played yesterday?
What were the scores?
What players scored?
What country is at the top/bottom of group x?
First half – Countries , flags & mascots
Word relay game:
Ask the students to make groups.
Ask the groups to stand in separate lines in front of the board.
The student at the front of the each group is given a pen/piece of chalk.
Students have to write down all the countries in the world cup. The first student from each group writes a country and then passes the pen to the next in line.
Give the students a time limit(3 mins) and see how many countries they can write within the time limit.
Each group checks the 'wordle' to see how many words they managed to get and deduct points for wrong spellings.
World cup countries 'Wordle'
Match the flag with the country
In groups the Students look at the flags and match the countries with their flags. (Give the students a time limit)
Ask the students what the mascot is for the South Africa World Cup. Why do they think that a leopard was chosen to represent the world cup.
Ask the students if they can remember any previous world cup mascots and if they can, have them try to describe what they looked like.
Show students the picture of the previous mascots and ask them what country the mascot represents.
Click here for an article on the 10 dumbest World Cup mascots.
Answers: Goleo VI – Germany, Ato, Kaz & Nik – Korea & Japan, Footix – France, Stryker – USA, Ciao – Italy, Pique – Mexico, Naranjito – Spain, Gauchito – Argentina, Tip & Tap – West Germany, Juanito- Mexico, Willy – England
Ask the students what their favourite 'mascot' is and why. Find out which is the most popular mascot within your class.
Students have to design a mascot to represent their own country.
Divide the class into teams. Ask the students if they know what countries are in each group. Have a contest to see which team can write the countries in each group correctly.
Second half – Video dictation.
The alternative England anthem.
Watch the following video by the legendary; Mark E Smith. His vocals are usually difficult to comprehend so it is very helpful that there are subtitles for the lyrics. Ask the students to write down the words that they see.
Music video – 'England's Heartbeat '- Shuttleworth feat. Mark E. Smith
Extra time – Samurai Blue
If I haven't already told you, the team I will be following this World Cup is shown in the clip below.
If only they were as strong as this:
What's your prediction?
Ask your students who they predict to win the world cup and what team they think will actually win the world cup. Put their predictions on the wall and check if they were correct at the end of the cup.
A British music magazine, 'the NME' recently did a feature on who the musicians predict will win the world cup. Click here from some predictions by musicians. Ask students to listen to the celebrities and have them write down the countries each artist thinks will win.
Sticker album
I have nostalgic memories of collecting stickers during the world cup when I was a wee boy.
I was always really excited to try and get as many stickers as possible. It was always fun swapping stickers with friends.
You could hand out world cup country stickers every time a student answers a question correctly. Give students stickers outside the classroom as well, if they ask you questions in English about the world cup.
I usually use images I find from 'clipart', laminate them and put double-sided tape on the back. You could make a sticker sheet for the students to collect their stickers on. MES English has a great selection of ideas for stickers and sticker sheets and has recently put up some great football stickers.
I hope you and your students enjoy the world cup and my lesson 😉


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Researchers at Yale University need your help for a study on the creative process. Participants will be asked to submit samples of their work and answer a short prompt about their process once a month. All writing submitted will be used for academic purposes only, and a $20 Amazon gift card will be given as compensation for your time.
Please contact email@example.com if interested.


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This Week at State: April 7, 2017
By DipNote Bloggers on April 7, 2017
Did you miss key foreign policy developments this week? We've got you covered. Each week DipNote will recap the latest U.S. Department of State highlights covering a wide range of global issues, events, and initiatives in one easy to read post.
Here are the highlights from This Week at State:
The United States Responded to Recent Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria
At the direction of President Trump, U.S. forces conducted a cruise missile strike against a Syrian Air Force airfield on April 7. The strike that targeted Shayrat Airfield in Homs governorate was in response to the Syrian government's April 4 chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun, which reportedly killed and injured hundreds of innocent Syrian people, including women and children. In remarks delivered by Secretary Tillerson following the airstrike, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said:
"It's important to recognize that as Assad has continued to use chemical weapons in these attacks with no response – no response from the international community – that he, in effect, is normalizing the use of chemical weapons, which may then be adopted by others. So it's important that some action be taken on behalf of the international community to make clear that the use of chemical weapons continues to be a violation of international norms." - Secretary Tillerson, Palm Beach Florida, April 7, 2017
The United States' military action followed condemnation of the attack from a range of U.S. officials, including President Trump, Secretary Tillerson, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who addressed the UN Security Council at an April 5 emergency session called in the aftermath of the attacks.
Secretary Tillerson Joined President Trump for Meetings with China's President Xi Jinping
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson traveled to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to join President Donald J. Trump for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping April 6-7. At the outset of the visit, Secretary Tillerson delivered remarks to the media underscoring the importance of the United States' relationship with China and our commitment ensuring the ties between our nations endure for the future.
State Department Announced Secretary Tillerson's Travel to Travel to Lucca and Moscow
Secretary Tillerson will travel to Lucca, Italy, April 9-11 to attend the G-7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The G-7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting provides a venue for the foreign ministers to discuss global political and security issues of the mutual concern. Their discussions will set the stage for the G-7 Leaders' Summit, which President Trump will attend in Taormina, Italy in May 2017. On the margins of the G-7 Foreign Minister's Meeting, Secretary Tillerson will also meet with several of his counterparts for bilateral discussions. On April 12, Secretary Tillerson will travel to Moscow, Russia for meetings with senior Russian officials.
Follow Secretary Tillerson's travel to Lucca and Moscow via @StateDept on Twitter and go to the Department's Flickr account for the latest trip photos.
Secretary Tillerson Hosted the Mexican Foreign Secretary in Washington, DC
On April 5, Secretary Tillerson met with Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray at the U.S. Department of State. During their meeting, the two leaders discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues, including economic cooperation, security, and migration. They also discussed cooperation in Central America and ongoing efforts to combat transnational criminal organizations and efforts at the Organization of American States to encourage Venezuela to resolve its current political and humanitarian issues.


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Premier League: Gareth Bale brace inspires Tottenham to victory at West Ham
A Gareth Bale double helped Tottenham leapfrog Chelsea into third place thanks to a sensational 3-2 victory at West Ham.
Last Updated: 26/02/13 2:43pm
Bale continued his red-hot form after breaking the deadlock after 13 minutes with a clinical finish. However, Andy Carroll levelled from the spot before Joe Cole put the Hammers ahead on the night the club commemorated the 20th anniversary of Bobby Moore's death.
But the visitors were not to be denied victory as Gylfi Sigurdsson restored parity before Bale's astonishing winner in stoppage time.
West Ham were on top for the first 10 minutes, with Mohamed Diame and Matt Jarvis both drawing saves from Hugo Lloris. Bale shot wide early on and teed up Aaron Lennon, whose shot took a deflection which Spurs thought struck a West Ham hand in the box.
Bale, like former Hammer Scott Parker, was subjected to jeers from the home fans, but he had stunned the West Ham faithful with the opener after 13 minutes. The Welshman, operating up front alongside Emmanuel Adebayor, gained a yard on James Collins and another two Hammers defenders before firing across Jussi Jaaskelainen into the back of the net.
Bale led a rampaging Spurs break soon after but he shot tamely, much to the frustration of the unmarked Jan Vertonghen, who was screaming for the ball at the far post. Soon after, Spurs were made to pay thanks to Carroll's second goal of 2013. Parker put in an ill-advised two-footed challenge on Carroll in the box and Howard Webb pointed to the spot. The former Newcastle striker picked himself up and smashed the ball past Lloris.
Spurs almost took the lead again just after the break when Vertonghen's shot flew off Guy Demel's leg, but Jaaskelainen scrambled across his line and tipped wide. The big Finn then saved brilliantly to tip Sigurdsson's shot on to a post and he quickly regained his ground to save Adebayor's follow-up.
West Ham still had the majority of possession and they made it count with their second just before the hour. Cole timed his run to perfection, gaining two yards on Steven Caulker before slotting past Lloris and removing his shirt in a wild celebration. Sam Allardyce almost spilled his cup of tea in another raucous celebration on the Hammers bench.
Spurs threw everything at the hosts and had it not been for another two outstanding saves by Jaaskelainen from Bale and Caulker, they would have retaken the lead. Lloris pulled off a top-drawer save of his own when Matt Taylor beat the offside trap and fired on goal. The save proved crucial as Tottenham went up the other end and equalised.
The Hammers failed to deal with Bale's free-kick, a melee ensued in the box, but Sigurdsson held his nerve to poke past Jaaskelainen from close range. Jaaskelainen pulled off another two top-class saves to deny Adebayor and Sigurdsson as the clock ticked towards 90 minutes.
Then with 10 seconds left, the man of the moment picked himself up after being flattened by a tackle, collected the ball off Tom Carroll and let fly with an audacious 25-yard bullet that beat Jaaskelainen for his sixth goal in his last four Premier League matches, taking his overall tally for the season to an impressive 19.
Andre Villas-Boas' side now have all the momentum heading into Sunday's north London derby at home to Arsenal.


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Sept. 14, 2011
(Dartmouth, MA) - For the ninth consecutive year, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Athletic Department will team up with the Southeastern Massachusetts Shrine Club and Shriners Hospital for Children to co-sponsor a pair of athletic events involving Corsair teams this Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011.
The day kicks off with the 39th annual UMass Dartmouth Cross Country Invitational, a series of four races across the UMass Dartmouth campus. Later in the day, the Shrine Bowl Game will take place, pitting the Mariners of Maine Maritime Academy against the UMass Dartmouth Corsairs at Cressy Field. Kickoff is set for 1 pm
"All of the day's activities are an opportunity for the Shrine Club of Southeastern Massachusetts to raise public awareness for its work as "the world's greatest philanthropy," said UMass Dartmouth Athletic Director Ian Day. "We are very proud to work with the Shrine Club and its members to help them in their charitable efforts."
The longest running cross country race of its kind in New England, the UMass Dartmouth Invitational brings together almost 1,000 of the top NCAA Division III male and female cross country runners and teams from throughout New England. The events begin with the women's sub-varsity race at 10:30 am, followed by the women's varsity race at 11:15 am. The Robert "Buddy" Harris men's varsity race is scheduled to go off at 12 noon with the final race of the day, the men's sub-varsity race to start at 12:45 pm. An awards ceremony will cap the day's events at 2 pm.
With 500,000 Shrine members in North America, the Shrine Club sponsors Shrine Hospitals throughout the country and in Canada and Mexico. The hospitals provide treatment, research and education along with free care and services for children under age 18. The Shriners have two hospitals in Massachusetts, including the Shriners Burns Hospital in Boston and the Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield, providing orthopedic and spinal care and research.
Parking for both the cross country races and the football game will be available in lot seven on the UMass Dartmouth campus, across Ring Road from the start/finish line.


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Expert Solutions from a Certified Honeywell Integrated Dealer
The key to managing an effective facility is maximizing security without slowing production. The security camera systems from Honeywell that we install are personalized to fit your needs and incredibly reliable. No other manufacturer offers such innovative, reliable, and flexible products. With our experience, we're able to leverage these great products more efficiently than others.
To ensure complete security, our team will first determine what your security issues are and how you use the building(s). Depending on your needs, your system might include radar video surveillance that detects and tracks potential threats using radar and video technology. Your security setup can include IP camera systems or CCTV security cameras, depending on what will integrate best.
We've designed and installed security camera systems for:
- Airports
- Seaports
- Rail Facilities
- Power Plants
- Chemical Manufacturing Sites
- Sensitive Industrial Environments
- Correctional Facilities
- Border Protection
- Government Buildings
- Commercial/Retail Businesses
Alarm Systems & Monitoring
In order to capture activity and potential breaches quickly, most facilities need access to multiple cameras simultaneously. In the event of an alarm, our camera systems turn on automatically.
Our team can program your system to send you a video clip and text alert to keep you in control, wherever you are. You'll be able to simultaneously watch the live footage and securely record the feed at the time of an alarm.
Scalable systems designed for expansion and seamless third-party communication.
Get the most out of your building management system by integrating alarm monitoring with our powerful security cameras and card access systems. With a fully integrated system, you'll have security, energy efficiency, and building usage statistics all at your fingertips.
Our Honeywell systems technology communicates freely with your other systems and applications to achieve more streamlined building management. These modular systems are built around a scalable open architecture, allowing system expansion and life cycle savings. Take advantage of leading standards like BACnet®, LonWorks®, OPC®, and Modbus™ for easier configuration and seamless, third-party communication.
Client Testimonials:
"The Melvindale Housing Commission has had security cameras in its residential facility for several years and it was time to upgrade in 2015. We solicited for proposals and based on their experience and price, selected Security Designs, Inc.The work called for replacing some analog cameras with digital, added twenty plus new digital cameras, relocating all monitoring equipment from one location to the property manager's office, installation of a 42-inch screen for monitoring activity and tying it all together with a new computer server. Security Designs, Inc. was very helpful and responsive to our needs. The contract was completed on time and we would confidently recommend Security Designs, Inc. for all your security equipment needs." Cynthia Telfer, Executive Director - Melvindale Housing Commission
The team at Security Designs Inc. are reviewed on our product knowledge, engineering capabilities, computer technology certifications, and customer satisfaction. As a team, we are committed to being the best and doing the best installations, and it shows. Secure your building today by contacting Security Designs for a free security consultation!


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Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Decanter Set
Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Decanter Set
The Jack Daniels Old No. 7 decanter set includes one 750 ML decanter, two 10 oz rocks glasses and two black leather Jack Daniel's coasters. The perfect Jack Daniel's bar accessories!
Please note: This item ships via standard/ground shipping within the USA ONLY, separately from the rest of your order. No express mail services or international shipping are available for this item. Please allow 3-5 business days for this item to ship.Note: Since this is shipped directly from the manufacturer, this item does not fall under our standard return policy and cannot be returned for refund/exchange.
- Color: Clear
- Type: Accessories - Bar Accessories
- Do you ship worldwide?
- Yes! We're located in the United States but can ship almost all of our products all over the world. However, a select few items cannot be shipped outside of the USA and they are marked as such.
- What payment methods do you accept?
- We accept Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and American Express as well as debit cards that have the Visa/Mastercard Logo. We also accept Paypal. If you would like to pay by check or money order, please call us to place your order and we will provide instructions on paying by mail.
- Do you accept returns?
- We want you to be happy with your purchase. If you are dissatisfied with your order for any reason, you have a full 60 days to return it for a refund. Read our return policy for more info about returns and exchanges.
- How quickly is my order shipped and when should I expect to receive it?
- Most orders placed by 2pm EST are shipped on the same day from our warehouse in Pennsylvania. Shipping time depends on your shipping method preference at checkout. Orders submitted after 2 PM on Friday will ship out on Monday. On rare occasions, an item may be backordered or out of stock, and you will be notified of any delays. Be sure to enter an accurate email address at checkout so we may contact you if there is a situation concerning your order.
- How do I track my order?
- US customers will receive an email including order information and a tracking number. You can track your package at USPS.com or UPS.com depending on which service you selected. Note: Tracking numbers may take 24 hours to update information on the previously mentioned websites. Tracking for international packages is only available through International Express Mail. Regular international airmail does not come with tracking.
- Do you sell your products wholesale?
- We do offer discounts on large quantities of many of our items. We also offer drop-ship services. Please contact us with your needs and we'll happy to help.
- Do you have mailing catalogs?
- At the moment we do not offer paper catalogs. We add products to the site every few days, so a paper catalog would not be able to show our newest merchandise. To receive special offers and updates, please sign up for our email newsletter.


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OUR particular good cause couldn't be gooder. We're raising money for teens:)unite who support young people who have a life-limiting illness. Please sponsor us, the link below will make it very easy to donate....
Friday, 25 November 2011
Runnin' fo' fun. teens:)unite
I bet most of you, at one time or another have longed to don festive attire and run, quite fast in a non-competitive, "fun" way for, say 4, maybe 5 kilometers.Be jealous, be VERY JEALOUS, For on Sunday 4th December one half of Lush Designs will be running around Greenwich with a load of other Santa-alikes to raise money for good causes.
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Facing A Global Need
FACE TO FACE is a humanitarian and educational surgical exchange program conducted under the auspices of the Educational and Research Foundation for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS Foundation).
Our surgeons assist those who suffer from facial deformities caused by congenital birth defects or by trauma. Most of those we have helped abroad have been children.
Unlike other programs, FACE TO FACE makes the educational exchange among facial plastic and reconstructive surgeons all over the world an integral part of its program. Our surgeons are men and women who believe that a more lasting impact is made on communities when our FACE TO FACE teams work together with local medical personnel to manage an individual's care. Mutual respect grows as different surgical approaches are discussed and demonstrated.
In addition to providing "hands-on" training, our volunteers exchange case analysis and share published information. This exchange of information, knowledge, and techniques is encouraged and contributes to the long-term success of the program.
The Faces Behind Our Program
FACE TO FACE is staffed by medical personnel – facial plastic and reconstructive surgeons, nurses, speech pathologists and anesthesiologists – who donate their time and expertise, frequently for two weeks at a time. Members of the FACE TO FACE delegation have, for example, helped a two-year-old toddler in Russia abandoned by her parents at birth because of a congenital facial deformity. They have administered to a twelve-year old boy in a war zone in Croatia where he sustained severe facial trauma after playing with a loaded rifle. And they have cared for women and children in this country where domestic violence has wreaked havoc on their lives both emotionally and physically. These are faces that you have seen on the news and sometimes in your own community.
Our surgeons travel all over the world, but their mission is the same wherever they go: they treat one face at a time, one person at a time.
Skill At Work
The FACE TO FACE program both in the United States and abroad offers individuals the opportunity to overcome the physical limitations placed on them by circumstances beyond their control – deformities at birth, domestic violence and war. Our surgeons use their expertise to perform plastic and reconstructive surgery of the face, head, and neck. This includes the following procedures: cleft lip and cleft palate repair; microtia reconstruction – the surgical creation of external ears for infants born without them; rebuilding of all forms of congenital facial and cranial deformities; reconstruction of facial soft tissues after war injuries, burns, domestic violence and cancer excisions; the excision of childhood facial tumors and reconstruction.
These are examples of the work that our dedicated surgeons perform on FACE TO FACE trips. While the patients still have enormous hurdles to overcome, at least they are given a chance to deal with them without physical limitations.
We are very proud of our humanitarian programs and how they are changing lives for the better. The American Society of Association Executives' (ASAE) honored AAFPRS with the 1995 Summit Award for FACE TO FACE: The National Domestic Violence Project and the 1995 Award of Excellence for FACE TO FACE: International. The American Medical Association Board of Trustees has given the AAFPRS the 1995 President's Citation for Service to the Public Award.
A Partnership Approach
FACE TO FACE depends on people like you to make a difference. Although surgeons and other medical personnel give freely of their time and expertise, FACE TO FACE still needs funding to cover ancillary expenses. We always appreciate donations of medical supplies and equipment, but when one of our international colleagues is in urgent need of equipment we provide the funding for the purchase. We also need funds to offset costs for developing teaching symposia and producing educational materials.
Because the Educational and Research Foundation for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is a non-profit organization a 501 (c)(3), your contribution to FACE TO FACE is tax deductible to the fullest extent provided by law.
Your gift now can change the lives of thousands – of men, women and children, both here at home and abroad.


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The BBQ Grilling Guide
Back in the good old days, Dad would wheel the grill out of the garage, fill it with charcoal, douse the briquette with lighter fluid and start a glorious fire to cook our Fourth of July meal.
While many grill masters today still extol the virtues of charcoal, others enjoy the convenience of gas grills, while a few have become wood pellet converts. If you are not familiar with wood pellet grills, or if you are in the market for a new backyard cooking device, check out our list of the top 32 barbecue grills.
1) Char-Griller 2-2424 Charcoal Grill | 2) Char-Broil Charcoal/Gas/Smoker Combo | 3) Weber 10020 Smokey Joe Portable Grill | 4) Blackstone 3-in-1 Kabob Charcoal Grill | 5) Master Cook Propane Gas Grill | 6) Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Smoker | 7) Camp Chef SmokePro DLX Pellet Grill | 8) Coleman Road Trip Propane Portable Grill | 9) Camco 57305 Olympian 5500 Portable Grill | 10) Bonfire 3 burner propane grill | 11) Magma Marine Kettle Gas Grill | 12) Napoleon BILEX730RBIPSS Propane Gas Grill | 13) Masterbuilt 20070910 Electric Digital Smoker | 14) Cuisinart CCG-190RB Charcoal Grill | 15) Party Griller 32" Charcoal Grill | 16) Char-Broil Bistro Electric Grill | 17) Char Broil Performance 475 Gas Grill | 18) George Foreman GFO201RX Electric Grill | 19) Hamilton Beach 25361 Indoor Grill | 20) Weber 67014001 Natural Gas Grill | 21) Marsh Allen 30052AMZ Hibachi Charcoal Grill | 22) Zojirushi EB-CC15 Electric Grill | 23) Tayama TG-868 Tayama Indoor Grill | 24) Weber 51010001 Q1200 Propane Grill | 25) Lynx L600PS Sedona 36-Inch Gas Grill | 26) Lion Premium L75625 32″ Propane Grill | 27) Cuisinart CGG-180T Petit Gas Grill | 28) George Foreman Indoor/Outdoor Electric Grill | 29) Coleman Road Trip Propane Portable Grill | 30) Char-Broil Classic 280 Gas Grill | 31) Weber 46100001 Spirit S210 Gas Grill | 32) Weber 46810001 Propane Gas Grill |
Types of Barbecues and Grills
There are three major types of grills, being gas, charcoal or pit.
Gas Grills
Today, gas grills are by and far the most popular on the market. Commonly using propane to ignite and hold the flame, they also use natural gas direct from the home. They are quick, reliable, consistent and the easiest to learn on. The come in various sizes and when building an outdoor kitchen, are often the most common found as the main cooking source.
Easily kept clean, they often start at one or two burners (the flame source) and extend past the five to seven mark. Ideally, you want at least two burners to provide you with the option of cooking on direct and indirect heat sources.
For daily grillers and party hosts, the gas grill is one of the most worthwhile investments you can cook on. Starting at under $100, they range in price upwards of $50,000 for a gas kitchen or some custom models by companies like Lynx.
Aside from choosing a gas grill with two or more burners, you also want to invest in one with a good temperature gauge and, ideally, a marker that shows how much propane you have left in the tank. I myself always pick a grill that either comes with or has the option to attach an aftermarket rotisserie which makes cooking meats like chicken, duck, roasts or lamb a lot of fun.
A great benchmark gas grill is the Weber Genesis that should serve you well, no matter if you are a single family or an apartment building owner with 50 units – it will always work reliably. If you want to be mobile, take a look at these portable gas grill versions.
You can even buy a stand for them that allow you to use it at home. While they are perfectly fine for burgers and brats, you will not get the same heat you would get from a full-size grill, and so it is not ideal for searing steaks or fish. Of course, you can use it for finer cuts, and it is better to have a grill than no grill at all, just bear in mind that is has certain limitations.
Charcoal Grills
Charcoal grills are my favorite grills and I especially recommend the Weber 22″ charcoal grill or the Big Green Egg if you're as frequent a barbecuer as I am. Although I own a large seven burner gas grill, I reserve my gas grill for quick grilling on weeknights when I'm tired or when I'm cooking for large groups of people.
Sometimes, I'll also use it as an auxiliary cook source if my charcoal grill is too full or I want to seperate the flavor profiles without them marrying together. A good example of that is if I'm barbecuing ribs and my homemade bourbon baked beans but want to quickly grill up some veggies on the side.
Charcoal grills burn much hotter and drier than gas grills for the most part which helps to sear the meats and invoke a naturally smoked flavor. Aside from making better food (in my opinion), they're also far less costly than gas grills, but do require a bit of a learning curve and more of a time investment.
When buying a charcoal grill, my favorites are the kettle style or egg shaped grills which, in my opinion, provide a much more satisfying grill experience.
The dome of the lid actually helps to allow both direct and indirect cooking and therefore makes it an ideal choice for your daily barbecue. They aren't usually very large, but you can buy larger table grills. For the most part, charcoal grills come in camp size perfect for traveling up to about 25 inches or a little more depending on the manufacturer.
Unlike a gas grill, a charcoal grill relies on one of the following types of fuel to make and maintain the flame:
Charcoal Briquettes
Charcoal briquettes are probably the most common fuel source for a charcoal grill, although the one that I don't recommend. Often they come with various chemicals or additives treated into them such as borax, petroleum or coal dust. It makes them easier to light, but they aren't as natural as the lump charcoal and can often alter the flavor of the food.
Lump Hardwood Charcoal
This is my go-to for the grill. Lump, real hardwood charcoal that's untreated and left for me to play with. The lump charcoal is something we can consider organic, and like anything organic, is usually more expensive. However, not by much.
If a large bag of briquettes costs you $16 at the store, the lump charcoal might be around $18. It takes a bit more effort to light, but it burns far hotter and imparts the smoke you're looking for from a charcoal grill.
Hardwood Logs
Like the fire pit listed below, the hardwood logs are also one of my favorite fuel methods to cook over. They are often used simply to enhance flavor, but if your money or neighborhood allows it, try using them in lieu of the charcoal. I will warn you though, it takes far more effort.
Not something to use as a primary fuel source, wood chips are used to impart wood and smoke flavors into the food. Able to be purchased in bulk or by the bag, wood chips come in a variety of flavors including hickory, cherrry, oak, pecan, mesquite and apple, among others.
One point that's noteworthy is that not all wood is conducive to cooking. If you try using your leftover Christmas tree you'll be very saddened to find that softer woods impart some very harsh flavors into the food. You might as well add bug repellent to your marinade.


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Explore21: Tracking an Amazing Metamorphosis main content.
by AMNH on
This month, Museum Curator John Sparks is leading The Explore21 Solomon Islands Expedition. A part of the Museum's Explore21 initiative, this three-week research journey is headquartered aboard the Research Vessel Alucia.
Expedition member Dawn Roje (second from left, below), who is a fourth-year graduate student in the Comparative Biology program at the Museum's Richard Gilder Graduate School, recently wrote in with this dispatch.
Finding treasure during my first two days out at sea is an odd mix of exhilaration and calm. Exhilaration in finally obtaining the specimens I crossed the dateline for and reassuring in that anything else I collect beyond this point is an excess of riches.
The animals I am focused on collecting are the larvae and juveniles of what we are used to seeing on our plate at dinner: halibut, flounder, sole, and fluke, the flatfishes.
Before flatfishes make it to the fish market they travel the world's oceans as plankton, looking and living quite differently than the adults. As larvae, they appear to be like all other fishes, with an eye on each side of the head. But then something truly amazing happens. Their skull softens, one eye moves over the top of the head, and they begin swimming on their side as they settle out of the water to live the rest of their life hiding in plain sight of the bottom of the sea.
How and why do they do this, you ask? Well, that is exactly that I am trying to figure out. I, along with the much-needed and appreciated support of my friends and colleagues, have been collecting different species of flatfishes during various stages of development to study their metamorphosis. From our first mid-water trawl in 600 meters of water off the Solomon Islands, I got a beautiful flatfish larva still swimming upright, but with its right eye inching its way over to the left side of its head. The very next day on a scuba dive I collected another individual, but this one was a juvenile that had just completed its metamorphosis.
Fortuitously, this all happened in the first couple of days. This kind of luck is rare, but glorious. This expedition and these samples make it possible to understand the mechanism of the one of most amazing body plan transformations in biology. Today I am a happy biologist and I can't wait until tomorrow's catch.
Read more about the Solomon Islands and Explore21.


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Family Member
From MeritBadgeDotOrg
|Family Member has been discontinued. (See Discontinued awards.)
| Webelos
Family Member
Activity Badge
Family Member requirements
Do all of these:
And do two of these:
View the change list (history) of these requirements. The text of these requirements may be locked. In that case, they can only be edited by an administrator.
Please note any errors found in the above requirements on this article's Talk Page.
Requirement resources
1. Tell what is meant by family, duty to family, and family meetings - pp. 229-30
2. The job chart you need is in the Family Member Worksheet - pp. 231-4
3. Make a list of some things for which your family spends money. Tell how you can help your family save money - pp. 234
4. The budget form and expense tracker are in the Family Member Worksheet. - pp. 234-6
5. Family meetings - pp. 242-3
6. The BSA Home Safety Checklist you need is in the Family Member Worksheet.
7. Energy-saving plan - p. 2347
8. Fun - p. 238
9. Clean your home properly for one month. - p. 238
10. Take care of your clothes…help at least twice with the family laundry. - p. 239
11. Family meals - pp. 240-2
12. Academics belt loop for Heritages.
13. Garbage and trash - p. 240
|— Cub Scout Academics and Sports Program Guide #34299B, p.4 and Cub Scout Leader Book, p. 31-1.
- General Resources
- CubRoundtable: Family Member Activity Pin Outline
- KISMIF: Family Member Links
- Bill Smith's Webelos Leader Resources: Family Member
- Webelos Roundtable Packet: Family Member
Related awards
Personal Development Awards
|Personal development-related awards
See also
|Webelos Den Leader portal
External links
- National Safety Council
- American Assn. of Family and Consumer Sciences
- Food Network
- Healthy Fridge
- ExpertVillage Video Lessons
- Home Energy Audits
These Activity Badges were replaced with Adventure Pins in 2015.
Physical Skills group: Aquanaut | Athlete | Fitness | Sportsman
Mental Skills group: Artist | Scholar | Showman | Traveler
Community group: Citizen | Communicator | Family Member | Readyman
Technology group: Craftsman | Engineer | Handyman | Scientist
Outdoor group: Forester | Geologist | Naturalist | Outdoorsman


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Achieve healthy aging with daily activities and community programs
Growing older doesn't have to be scary, especially when so many resources are available to ensure healthy aging is achievable. After all, September is Healthy Aging ® Month!
"There are no magic bullets or pills for healthy aging. But healthy aging is achievable by engaging in everyday activities," says Dr. Marcia Ory, Ph.D., M.P.H., Regents Professor and director of the Program on Healthy Aging at the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) School of Rural Public Health.
Dr. Ory emphasizes simple things can be done every day, not just during Healthy Aging Month. They include the following:
- Have a positive attitude about aging.
- Keep an active mind.
- Stay physically active.
- Maintain a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables.
- Be socially engaged.
- Learn how to manage stress.
- Build healthy communities for active aging.
Providing support to these everyday steps, the Program on Healthy Aging conducts research to identify social, behavioral and environmental risk factors for health and illness across the life-course. It also seeks to understand factors associated with self-management and coping with chronic illnesses and disabilities in later life.
But the most important part of its mission may be translating this research into practical solutions for local communities.
"It's very important we translate this research into practice and work with communities to disseminate and sustain evidence-based programs that can make a difference in seniors' lives," Dr. Ory says.
For example, her team works closely with the Brazos Valley Area Agency on Aging and other Brazos Valley Health Partnership members to disseminate chronic disease self-management programs throughout the seven-county Brazos Valley region, with expansion to East Texas and the Houston areas. With recent funding from WellCare Health Plans, Inc., Dr. Ory's team also is engaged in a novel effort to build and test private-public partnerships that will transcend public health, aging and health care boundaries. Such programs help seniors learn and adopt the keys to successful aging.
September also marks National Falls Prevention Awareness Week (Sept. 22-28, 2012), designated to increase awareness about how to prevent and reduce falls among older adults. For the past five years, the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health has been documenting the success of falls prevention programs through the Texas Healthy Lifestyles Program.
Dr. Ory is especially pleased with a new program available to Brazos Valley residents. Through a mini-grant from the Community Research Center for Senior Health, the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health will be helping local community agencies implement Fit and Strong! – an evidence-based program designed to improve older adults' fitness and thereby reduce the risk of falls.
For more information about the Program on Healthy Aging visit the website at www.programonhealthyaging.info or contact firstname.lastname@example.com.
Interested in this topic? Contact us for more information.


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The Vietnamese Centipede
Vietnamese Centipede
Scolopendra subspinipes
"I am found all over Southeast Asia!"
Being very aggressive and large, the Vietnamese Centipede is often depicted as having
a bad attitude!
The beautiful Vietnamese Centipede is not recommended for beginner centipede keepers, however it is a hardy species and it's care is relatively easy.
Scolopendra subspinipes is found most readily in Southeast Asia, but actually is found all over the world in tropical and subtropical locations. It is not only found in Vietnam, as it's name suggests. This centipede is also divided into five subspecies… Read More


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Check Out LTHForum's New Website
The latest happenings around Chicago.
Published: Last Updated:
We're big fans of the LTHForum, which you've probably noticed from the few dozen times we've mentioned it. It's sort of like Chowhound, but funnier and more in-depth. But while the information was often invaluable, the site wasn't exactly the most pleasant to look at or navigate through. So we're excited to see that the site has been completely redesigned. In particular, we're psyched about the new search feature, because the old one was sort of as pathetic as the one The Onion just parodied a day ago.
Check out the new website by clicking here.
This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.


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- Home
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The Brunswick County Senior 4-H Horticulture Judging Team of Darby Dawkins, Carlyn Clark, Tori Norris and Camden Clark won first place in the North Carolina statewide horticulture judging competition at North Carolina State University in Raleigh on May 19. Dawkins also accrued the highest individual score.
The Horticulture Judging Competition entailed three components: 1. Judging the quality of horticulture products (plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables); 2. Identification of 100 plants; and 3. A written test on horticultural practices.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the The Brunswick Beacon, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
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"We're designing Wheelman to play like a Hollywood blockbuster," said Vin Diesel, Wheelman star and executive producer, Tigon Studios. "Playing this game will be just like taking control of the greatest car chases from feature films, except this time you're in the driver's seat."
"Featuring Vin Diesel and set in Barcelona, Wheelman is a title with enormous sales potential," said Martin Spiess, executive vice president, international of Midway Games Ltd. "We're making a multi-million dollar marketing investment to make sure that gamers around the world are ready when Wheelman goes on sale worldwide, which we have planned for February 2009."


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The Next Best Thing
The telephone rang.
If it's good news, there's going to be a lot of people on the call, Dave had told me. Bad news, it'll just be one person from the studio, the executive in charge of the project. I lifted the phone to my ear, feeling like the air had gained weight and my arm was moving through something with the consistency of tar. My heartbeat hammered in my ears. My jeans and T-shirt felt too small, my bedroom looked too bright, and the atmosphere felt thin, as if I was working harder than I normally did to pull oxygen into my lungs. Please, God, I thought—me, the girl who hadn't been in a synagogue since my grandma and I had left Massachusetts, who'd barely remembered to fast last Yom Kippur. But still. I was a woman who'd lost her parents, who'd survived a dozen surgeries and emerged with metal implants in my jaw, the right side of my face sunken and scarred, and an eye that drooped. In my twenty-eight years, I hadn't gotten much. I deserved this.
"Hold for Lisa Stark, please!" came Lisa's assistant's sing-song. My breath rushed out of me. Lisa was my executive at the studio. If she was the only one on the call, then this was the end of the road: the pass, the thanks-but-no-thanks. The no. I pushed my hair—lank, brown, unwashed for the last three days—behind my ears and sat on the bed. I would keep my dignity intact. I would not cry until the call was over.
I had told myself to expect bad news; told myself, a thousand times, that the numbers were not in my favor. Each year, the network ordered hundreds of potential new programs, giving writers the thumbs-up and the money to go off and write a pilot script. Of those hundreds of scripts, anywhere from two to three dozen would actually be filmed, and of those, only a handful—maybe four, maybe six, maybe as many as ten—would get ordered to series. My sitcom, The Next Best Thing, loosely based on my own life with my grandmother, had made the first cut three months ago. I'd quit my job as an assistant at Two Daves Productions in order to work full-time on the script, progressing through the steps from a single-sentence pitch—a college graduate who's been laid off and her grandmother who's been dumped, move to an upscale assisted-living facility in Miami, where the girl tries to make it as a chef and the grandmother tries to live without a boyfriend—to a paragraph-long pilot summary, then a beat sheet detailing each scene, then a twelve-page outline, and, finally, a forty-page script.
For months I'd been writing, holed up in my bedroom, or doing the clichéd thing of bringing my laptop to a neighborhood coffee shop, where I was surrounded by my more attractive peers, the ones who carried on long, loud telephone conversations in which they used the words my agent as often as possible, and did everything but prop tip cups and WRITER AT WORK signs in front of their laptops. I wrote draft after draft, turning each one over to the studio that had funded my efforts and to the network that would, I hoped, eventually air them. I considered each round of notes; I cut and edited, rewrote and rewrote again. I pored over books for expectant parents to give my characters just the right names, and spent days in the kitchens of local restaurants so I could nail the details of my heroine's job.
Two weeks ago I'd delivered the absolutely, positively final final draft. I'd brushed my lips against every single one of the pages, kissing each one lightly before I slid the script into the hole-puncher, then slipped the brass brads through the holes and pushed them shut. To celebrate, I'd taken Grandma out to lunch at the Ivy, at her insistence. My grandmother, a petite and stylish woman of a certain age, was a great fan of the tabloids. Any restaurant where the paparazzi were a regular presence on the sidewalk was a place she wanted to be.
When we walked up to the stand, the maitre d' looked at me—in a plain cotton shift dress and five-year-old zippered black leather boots, with my laptop tucked under my arm—and gave a small but discernible shrug. My grandmother stepped toward him, smiling. If I dressed to maximize comfort and minimize attention, in shades of black and gray and blue, with a single necklace or a single bracelet and sensible shoes, my grandmother had style enough for the both of us. That day she wore a black-and-white cotton dress with a black patent-leather belt and black canvas espadrilles with bows that tied at her ankles. Her necklace was made of vintage Bakelite beads in poppy red, and she had a matching red patent-leather clutch in her hand and a red silk flower tucked behind one ear.
"How are you today?" she asked.
"Fine." The host's eyes lingered on her face as he tried to figure out if she was someone he should know, a screen star of yesteryear or one of the Real Housewives' mothers. "This is my granddaughter," said Grandma, and gave me a brisk poke in the small of my back. I stumbled obediently toward the podium with a can-you-believe-her look on my face, wishing I'd worn a necklace or a flower, or had thought to carry a pretty purse, or to have purchased one in the first place. "Ruthie is a writer." The man behind the podium could barely suppress his wince. Writer, of course, was not the magic word that would cause him to usher us to the finest table in the restaurant and send over a bottle of free Champagne. Maybe writing for TV was a big deal elsewhere in America. In Hollywood, it meant less than nothing. Television writers were as common as cat dirt, and anyone with a working laptop and a version of Final Draft on her hard drive could claim to be one. You could almost see the word nobodies in a balloon floating above the man's neatly barbered head as he led us to a table so far in the back it was practically in the kitchen. "Ladies," he said.
Grandma paused and rested her hand on the man's forearm. She tilted her face up toward his, batted her eyelashes, and gave him her gentle smile.
"Would it be possible for us to have a booth? Or a table with a little more light?" Even at her age—seventy-six, although she'd have shot me if I'd said it out loud—her skin was still smooth, her eyes still bright, face vivid with rouge and lipstick, eyeliner and curling false lashes. Her waist was still slim, and her teeth were all her own. "We're celebrating."
He smiled back—it is, I have learned over the years, almost impossible to resist my grandma's smile—and led us to a booth halfway between the open front porch, where the stars would pose and preen for the cameras, and the dim back room, where the nobodies were sequestered. We shared pasta and a chopped salad, had a glass of wine apiece, and split tiramisu for dessert. As we ate, Grandma told me stories from the set of OR, the medical drama where she'd been working as an extra that week. "The kids they bring in," she complained, running the edge of her spoon along the ridge of whipped cream that topped the tiramisu. "They're out partying all night, so by the time they get in their gurneys they're exhausted. One of the ADs has to run around set five minutes before every take just making sure they're not sleeping."
"Tough gig," I said. Grandma herself was spending eight hours a day sitting in the fake OR's fake waiting room. Every day, from ten in the morning until six o'clock at night, with union-mandated breaks for lunch and snacks, she'd get paid to do what she might have done for free on a normal day—sit in an uncomfortable plastic chair with a tote bag of knitting in her lap, looking somewhere between bored and worried as she waited for her name to be called.
"You have to respect them," she said, nibbling at the strawberry that sat on the side of the dessert plate. "Finding a way to get paid for sleeping. That's initiative."
"Nice work if you can get it," I said, and flagged down our waiter, and paid the bill. Then Grandma had gone back to the Radford lot in the Valley, a neighborhood ten miles away from and ten degrees hotter than Hollywood, where a number of television shows and movies were shot, and I drove back to Hancock Park, a pretty neighborhood with spacious sidewalks and green lawns, to our apartment in an Art Deco building called the Moroccan, to wait.
The network had started picking up its comedies a week after our lunch. I'd spent my days with my phone in my hand, from the moment I opened my eyes to the moment I closed them. I would perch it on the edge of the sink while I showered or brushed my teeth, and sleep with it plugged in underneath my pillow. My thumb was permanently attached to the screen, hitting "Refresh" on Deadline Hollywood and L.A. Confidential and all of the websites that covered the industry. I'd quit going to the gym after I realized how much I was annoying my fellow swimmers by pausing at the end of each lap to check my phone, which I'd stowed in a waterproof plastic Ziploc bag and left by the deep end. I was too nervous to sit through a meal but I was snacking constantly, eating bags of pretzels and dehydrated carrot chips and Pirate's Booty and sunflower seeds that I didn't really want, and ignoring my boyfriend Gary's phone calls, because there was, we'd learned, nothing he could say or do that would possibly calm me down.
Now here was my news, I thought, waiting for Lisa to get on the line, and the news wasn't good. Oh, well. At least I'd be disappointed in private. After I'd made the mistake of telling Grandma that I should be hearing something this week, she'd announced her intention of giving me my space. "You don't need an old woman breathing down your neck," she'd said, all the while hovering within five feet of my person, dressed in her at-home attire of lounging pajamas or a vividly embroidered silk robe, her slippered feet noiseless on the wooden floors as she found one task after another to keep her busy. So far she'd polished the silver, rearranged the china, emptied, scrubbed, bleached and refilled the kitchen cupboards and the refrigerator, and regrouted the powder-room tile. That morning while we drank the smoothies she'd made of pineapple and mango and Greek yogurt, she'd announced her plans to rent a steamer and replace the dining-room wallpaper, even though I'd begged her to leave that job to the professionals.
"Nu?" she'd ask casually, just once every night, as she served dinner to me and Maurice, her gentleman caller. As usual, her nerves were made manifest in the reemergence of her Boston accent and in her cooking. On Friday, when the first wave of pickups was announced, she'd prepared a standing rib roast, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes au gratin, and homemade horseradish sauce. On Saturday, she'd served a breast of veal stuffed with cornbread and sausage and studded with garlic and rosemary, and on Sunday, she'd produced an entire Thanksgiving dinner, complete with two kinds of potatoes and a turkey she'd brined in the hot tub (our down-the-hall neighbors, devoted fitness buffs, had howled when they'd gone up to the roof for a little post-hike relaxation and found, instead of clear water, a fragrant brew of bay leaves and garlic cloves and juniper berries, with a kosher turkey bobbing merrily in the middle).
I would pick at my food, then excuse myself, telling Grandma and Maurice that I needed to work, closing my bedroom door behind me. Of course, I wasn't working. I was staring at my phone, trying to will it to ring, and when I wasn't doing that I was dialing the first nine of the ten numbers that would have connected me with Dave.
"Ruth?" The voice on the other end of the line startled me so badly that I gave a little squeak. The assistant, who had probably grown accustomed to the quirks of neurotic writers, pretended not to notice. "I have Lisa on the line. Please hold for Tariq, and Lloyd and Joan from the network." I got to my feet, my heart lifting as quickly as it had sunk. The network. Oh God oh God oh God. The network doesn't call unless it's a pickup, Dave had said. They give the bad news to the agent, not the writer, and probably you'll read it online before someone has the decency of telling you to your face that your show is dead. But maybe Dave was wrong. It had been years since his own show was green-lit, years since he'd had to sit, in breathless, chest-pounding agony, waiting for the call, this call.
Voices came back on the line, one after another, ringing like bells.
"I have Tariq," said Tariq's assistant.
"Holding for Joan," said Joan's.
"Ruth?" asked Lisa. "Still there?"
"I'm here." My voice was faint and quivery. I stood up,
clenching my fists, my jaw, my abdominal muscles, trying to keep from shaking.
"Please hold," said a new voice, male and brusque and impatient, "for Chauncey McLaughlin."
I reeled back toward the bed. It felt like Christmas morning, New Year's Eve, a birthday cake blazing with candles, a man down on one knee with a diamond ring in his hand. Joan was ABS's head of comedy, and Chauncey McLaughlin (rumor was, he'd been born Chaim Melmann, then changed it to Charles, then gone full WASP with Chauncey) was the president of the network, a man I'd glimpsed once at a holiday party and had spoken with precisely never. Chauncey McLaughlin was the man who ultimately decided which of the pilots would get shot and, of those, which would make it onto the air in the fall and which would die quietly in the springtime.
"Who've I got?" he asked in a booming voice. Names were reeled off—Tariq, Lisa, Lloyd, Joan. "And Ruth, of course."
"Hi," I managed.
"Chauncey McLaughlin. I don't want to keep you waiting. We're going to go ahead and shoot The Next Best Thing."
I closed my eyes. My legs went watery with relief. "Thank you," I said. With the phone still pressed to my ear, I got up and unlocked the bedroom door to find my grandmother standing there. Evidently she'd given up even pretending that she wasn't waiting for the call. I flashed her a thumbs-up. She sprang into the air and actually clicked her heels together, a feat she couldn't have managed before her hip replacement two years before. Then she held my face in both of her hands. I could feel her hand on my left cheek and felt, as usual, nothing on my scarred right side.
Grandma kissed me, first on one cheek, then the other, before stowing her cell phone in her brassiere ("God's pocket," she called it) and hurrying off to the kitchen, undoubtedly to start giving her hundred closest friends and relations the news. A moment later, Maurice appeared in the living-room doorway, dressed for golf, with his tanned hands clasped over his head. He stood on his tiptoes to kiss me—Maurice, while not technically a little person, is a long way from tall, and a good six inches shorter than I am—then turned back down the hallway. Maurice had two sons, no daughters, and even though he'd never said so, my sense was that he liked having a young lady in his life. He'd pull out my chair, hold doors open for me, ask me if my boyfriend was treating me well, and say that if he wasn't, he, Maurice, would be happy to talk to him about it.
As congratulations spilled over the line, from Lisa and Tariq and Chauncey, I found myself wishing not for my boyfriend, Gary, but for Dave. Dave, one of the Two Daves, was my boss and my mentor, the one who'd helped me craft the concept for The Next Best Thing, who'd overseen each revision of the script and assured me that I had just as good a shot at writing my own show as any other writer in Hollywood, even if I'd never even been a staff writer, even if I was only twenty-eight. Dave's promise to serve as my co-executive producer had gotten me the meeting with Joan, and Dave's involvement, I was sure, had gotten the network to take a chance on an unknown quantity. A Hollywood veteran who'd cocreated and run a successful sitcom for the past five years, Dave would know what to do next. And Gary. I'd have to call Gary, my boyfriend, and let him know.
"Ruth?" Chauncey's voice was deep and warm, the sound of your favorite uncle who'd come for the holidays with fancy barrettes and foil-wrapped chocolate kisses and the latest Babysitter's Club book. "Did we lose you?"
"No, I'm still here. I'm just a little overwhelmed. I . . . oh, God, I don't even know what to say except thank you."
"And that the show will be brilliant," Lisa quickly added.
"We're counting on it," said Tariq. I could hear, or thought I could, the edge of desperation in his voice. Last year, Tariq shepherded five pilots through the development process. The network had green-lit only one of them, a trippy hourlong dramedy set in an alternate universe where the dinosaurs were not extinct. The network had lavished millions of dollars on the sets and had cast a big-name former movie star as the lead. Even with all that, the show had lasted for exactly three episodes. Dave had told me, and the commentators on Deadline had confirmed, that if Tariq failed to improve his game, he'd be looking for a new job by the fall.
"Thank you," I said again. "Thank you all so much for believing in me."
"Of course," said Chauncey casually, "we might need you to make some changes. Nothing drastic, just a little rewriting."
"Oh my God. Of course. Absolutely. Whatever you need." I'd thought the script was perfect when I turned it in, but obviously I'd be willing to tweak or cut or change it in whatever way the network deemed necessary to get it on the air.
There was another round of congratulations, and Chauncey said, "Got more calls,, kiddo," and, just like that, the moment was over, and I sank onto my bed, clutching my telephone in one sweaty hand. I'd survived the first round of cuts. I would get to hire a cast, find my star, build the sets, shoot my show. Instead of competing against dozens of scripts, I was up against maybe twenty-four . . . and even if the show never made it on the air, I'd have a lovely souvenir, a DVD of my dream made real.
I got to my feet, the same person I'd been ten minutes ago: average height and average weight (which made me practically obese in Hollywood), with thick, shoulder-length hair that could be coaxed to hang, sleek and glossy, when I spent the time or money to have it straightened. I had brown eyes, my Grandma's full, pink lips, features that might have been almost pretty before the accident, broad shoulders and curvy hips, a solid torso thanks to years of swimming, and olive skin that tanned easily and stayed that way, even in what passed for winter out here. Except for the scars, which my clothes covered, and my face, which my clothes did not, I was normal—even, from certain angles, pretty. It was a problem. Sometimes, people would react to me after they'd seen me from behind, or from my good side. Hey, baby, lookin' good! construction workers would shout when I was walking with my gym bag over my shoulder and a baseball cap's brim shadowing my face . . . or, if I was meeting my grandmother at a restaurant, a man would approach from my left side at the bar and start chatting me up. I'd turn as quickly as I could, pulling off my hat, pulling back my hair. I would show them the truth, who I really was. The catcalls would stop abruptly, and the man at the bar would suck in his breath, then scowl as if it were my fault, as if I was somehow playing a joke on him. Once, a homeless man had asked me for change, ignoring my muttered "sorry" and chasing me down Sunset, until I'd turned. His eyes had gotten big as he'd taken in my face. Then he'd pulled a dollar out of his pocket. And handed it to me.
I had learned to dress to deflect attention, to make myself as unobtrusive as possible, even though my grandmother was always encouraging me to show off. "You have such a pretty figure!" she'd say, and I'd smile at her old-fashioned compliment and pull on a boxy button-down a size too big, and loose-fitting jeans, and clogs, with my hair pulled into a ponytail or tucked up underneath a hat.
I started to punch the button that would connect me to Gary. Then I stopped. Should I tell Dave first? I certainly could, now that I'd gotten the Call. He'd want to know. Maybe he'd even want to celebrate. Or maybe I should sneak out of the house, head to the airport, and buy myself a ticket to Hawaii, where he was vacationing, to tell him in person. I knew where he was staying, which flights he'd taken, where he was eating dinner the nights he'd asked me to make reservations. Whether I'd be a good showrunner remained to be seen, but I had been an excellent assistant. The hard part would be getting past Grandma. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me," she'd say, and point out that I had already had my heart broken once by a Hollywood writer and that I should endeavor to make new and interesting mistakes rather than repeating the ones I'd made before.
She was right, I thought, and picked up the phone and called Gary. "Good news?" he asked, and I bounced on the bed, smiling as I said, "The best."
The Next Best Thing
- Genres: Fiction
- paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Washington Square Press


text:
Chris Paci | KF16 & KF17 | Azerbaijan
We Kiva Fellows are a lucky bunch. Not only do we do truly consequential work in the field to turn Kiva's social mission into reality – we also get to travel to places we never could have imagined, experience brilliant flashes of cross-cultural connection, and come back with stories our friends in the developed world can't match. But here in Baku, Azerbaijan, I'm having an experience few other Kiva Fellows have: I am working to alleviate poverty while surrounded by wealth as far as the eye can see.
Baku is beautiful in many ways. Beautiful, but jarring. Thanks to its rapid accumulation of oil wealth since the 1990s, the city is reinventing itself as a flashy, ultra-modern metropolis that's ready to take its place on the international stage. Towering glass-clad high-rises are popping up in every neighborhood; wildly futuristic museums, stadiums, and concert venues are being constructed at a breakneck pace; all of the city's aging Soviet-era utility networks are being ripped out and replaced, leading to frequent outages. Right now, Baku is gleefully gearing up to host the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest this May, which it regards as its best opportunity yet to strut its stuff in front of the world.
Needless to say, practicing microfinance in such an environment has been weird.
I first came to Azerbaijan in November after completing my previous Kiva placement in Tajikistan – a place you can't mistake for anything but one of the world's most impoverished countries. The immense contrast between these two republics, which had both risen from the ash heap of the former Soviet Union, left me bewildered at first. I had been told that Baku and the rest of Azerbaijan were like night and day, that one needed to travel out to "the regions," as rural Azerbaijan is known, to truly grasp the plight of the country's poor. This was true – but it also struck me as simplistic. There are wealthy people in the regions too, and I was sure there were thousands of others here in Baku who had been cut out of the city's renaissance. I'd traveled 6,000 miles from home to find these people and, in some small way, to help them raise themselves from poverty in a city notoriously unforgiving to the poor.
Why couldn't I find them?
My epiphany came while drinking tea in a public men's room in the middle of a traffic circle in western Baku.
When a stranger invites you to drink a cup of tea with them, always say yes. This is the rule I follow in the former Soviet world, and it's never steered me wrong; it has sparked fascinating conversations, fostered transformative moments of cultural insight, and led me into some of the craziest situations I've ever had to wriggle out of. It's also my only explanation for how I wound up in the ice-cold maintenance alcove of an underground public restroom, discussing politics with four motley park workers in stained coveralls while drinking tea off a tiny electric stove. It was one of those endearingly wacky experiences that make the post-Soviet republics such a blast.
The leader of the group was an interestingly round man in his early 70s, clad in one of those dubious sartorial adventures that I can only describe as "the Azeri sweater" (examples: here, here, here). "Откуда сам?" were his first words to me – "Where are you from?" "From America," I told him, "the city of Philadelphia." "Oh, I've been there!" he said brightly. "It was while I was in the KGB!" He had lived, it would seem, in Washington, D.C. for several years on a spy mission for the USSR. "But that was in the '70s. I've forgotten my English since then," he told me apologetically. I really, really wanted to believe him.
Despite strenuous efforts to get him talking about his super-secret life as a Soviet spy, the conversation always returned to me. Most Azerbaijanis have never left the territory of the former Soviet Union – claims to KGB-hood aside – and that, coupled with their friendliness to guests, led to boundless curiosity about my life. I gave them a quick-and-dirty explanation of microfinance – "It's very small loans to poor people!" – and explained that Kiva was about connecting these poor people with lenders in the developed world who wanted to help them.
My KGB friend laughed, a short, percussive bark. "Well, don't work yourself to death! Everyone is poor in Baku!"
Wait a second. I leaned forward. "Can you say what you mean by that? To me, Baku looks so rich! New buildings going up in every neighborhood…."
"Yes, and who gets to live in them?" he asked rhetorically. "You know, Baku is one of the most expensive cities in the world. Just to live here costs 500 manat a month [about 633 USD]. Minimum! And as for me," he continued, starting to get fired up, "I have a government pension. Do you know how much it is? One hundred fifty manat! That's all. What can you use that for? Nothing! Where can you live? Nowhere! But what does the government care? The least expensive apartment in all of Baku is about 200 manat a month. And then, even if you can find one of those – how will you eat?"…
"Listen" – he leaned across the melted green tablecloth, appearing to forget about his coworkers around him – "I'm seventy-one years old, and I pick up trash in the park. I should be staying at home with my wife. But what will happen if I do? How will my wife and I live?"
Many economists sum up oil-rich Azerbaijan in two words: Dutch disease. In this all-too-common economic phenomenon, a country happens upon a natural resource windfall (in Azerbaijan's case, oil) and begins to export it with abandon. The high demand for its natural resources causes its currency to become stronger relative to those of other nations. As a result, it suddenly becomes more expensive for the country to manufacture anything else; the country's other export industries become uncompetitive in the global market and eventually collapse.
Azerbaijan fits the bill. Even as its oil extraction efforts continue to expand, many of the country's huge Soviet-era factories have shut down. This is partly a blessing – Baku is among the world's most polluted cities, in part because of the environmental disaster that was its industrial sector under the USSR – and partly a curse, as Azerbaijan's formerly diverse economy continues to unravel. What's going to happen when the oil runs out?
It's a question that troubles the Azerbaijani government. Azerbaijan's leadership is acutely aware that it can't depend on oil forever – not even in this, the land where crude once bubbled freely through the sands of the Absheron Peninsula. It feels strongly that Azerbaijan is on a timeline, and that the country needs to develop as rapidly as possible before the wealth runs out. Breakneck infrastructural development is the name of the game, and an absurd percentage of that development centers on Baku, turning the city into a mix between ultramodern fantasy and construction site. Meanwhile, maintaining the country's lackluster social services, and helping citizens displaced by the country's rapid economic transformation, becomes ever less of a priority.
Ordinary Bakuvians, meanwhile, are getting triply hammered. They have to contend with Azerbaijan's strong currency, which raises the cost of everyday goods; with rapid price inflation caused by the city's out-of-control construction boom; and with the loss of countless industrial jobs after the fall of the Soviet Union (the oil industry is surprisingly lightweight). The difficulty of making ends meet in Baku, combined with the lack of meaningful assistance from the government, makes life especially hard here. And that's without even mentioning those who have been most violated by Baku's progress: the families evicted from their lifelong homes to make way for yet more new construction.
At the time, though, little of this crossed my mind. As I sat there in the maintenance alcove of an underground public restroom, listening to a former KGB aspirant agonize about not being able to make ends meet, all I could think about was how familiar it all seemed. How many times had I heard similar stories in America after the financial crisis? How many families who can no longer afford their homes? How many older workers who will never be able to retire?
And there was my epiphany. Why couldn't I find Baku's poverty? It was because I wasn't looking at it properly. I had experienced extreme poverty in Tajikistan, and I was expecting to be smacked in the face by something similarly shocking, disturbing, and – yes – visibly different from home. But no, poverty in Baku is insidious. It's hidden behind glitz and glamour. It's ordinary people living once-ordinary lives that are turning ever more wretched as the ground shifts underneath them.
In short, it's not so different from the reality many Americans face every day.
So what's it like to live in Baku? Look around you. It's more familiar, and more desperate, than you might imagine.
Chris Paci is a roaming Kiva Fellow (KF16 and KF17) currently wrapping up a four-month stint in Azerbaijan. He has been living in Baku and working with three diverse field partners: Komak Credit Union, which lends primarily to internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Nagorno-Karabakh War; Aqroinvest Credit Union, which focuses on both IDPs and Azerbaijan's rural poor; and VisionFund AzerCredit, Kiva's newest and largest field partner in Azerbaijan. Join the lending team Supporters of Azerbaijan, and make a loan to a Komak, Aqroinvest, or AzerCredit borrower today!
Previous posts by this author:
Beginning of a Tajikistan Journey
Loan Use: Not As Simple As You Might Think
This Is Urban Poverty in Tajikistan