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How To Clean Trout
How To Clean Trout
You will want to have a clean trout to be able to enjoy the soft tender meat of your catch. Besides the fishing itself you must prepare the trout for whatever you decide to do next. In any case the trout needs to be cleaned to protect it from being spoiled or damaged and to provide a good tasting meal either now or in the future. If you plan to cook the trout right away or if you plan on freezing it and cooking it later, you will want to know how to clean trout either way. To clean a trout follow the steps below.
Items/Tools you will need to clean trout:
- Sharp fillet knife
- Cutting board
- Garbage/Trash/Waste receptacle/Waste bucket
Optional tools:
- Fillet glove for extra grip
- Fillet board with tail clip for stability
- Scaling knife
- Spoon
You may wish to scale the trout if you plan on eating the skin of the trout. Some people prefer to scale it before cooking the trout with the skin on but it is not a necessity. Biting into a scale is not pleasant when eating the tender meat of your trout however trout scales are quite small and not as bad as other fish.
To Scale Trout:
- Hold firmly by the tail or use a fillet board with clip.
- Using a scaling knife or the back of a fillet knife scrape firmly against the skin from the tail to the head a few times on both sides of the fish to scale trout.
- Rinse with clean water.
How To Clean Trout:
- Scale trout first
- Place trout on cutting board
- Insert tip of knife into fish gut cavity at anus
- cut upward towards gills along the belly of the trout taking care not to cut into guts/entrails
- Grab the gills firmly and rip down the fish towards the anus taking all of the attached entrails out of the fish
- Dispose of entrails in the waste bucket or you can bury them 3 feet deep next to trees in your yard for extra nutrition for them.
- Optional: At this point you may wish to cut off the head (some people like to leave it intact when cooking the trout).
- To cut off the head of your trout simply lay the trout on its side, grip it firmly at the middle of the fish and cut through the spine and body (perpendicular to the previous cut) just below the gill area leaving you just the body where the good meat is
- Using your finger or the optional spoon scrape away the blood vein along the inside of the spine of the trout
- Rinse the inside and outside of the fish with clean water
Now you know how to clean trout!
Note: Your trout can now be cooked just the way it is. Once cooked the meat slides right off the bones and out of the skin with no effort at all.
You may continue on with filleting the trout depending on your style of cooking.


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Greetings. I have some fabulous photo negatives from the family of ALFRED UTLEY BRANDER, b. 28 October 1876, Goose River, NS; m. ELIZABETH WOOD, 20 May 1903; b. 03 June 1879.
If interested, please see my listing: http://www.etsy.com/listing/157730504/seven-antique-negatives-from-1900s?ref=shop_home_active
My apologies if this type of listing is not allowed or welcome. I like to reunite descendants of my photo subjects when I can.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Fundamentals of Flexible Nutrition
cost: $27.50 each (pdf document)
This "Fundamentals of Flexible Nutrition" guide features 12 major topics that have been found to carry the most questions. These 21 pages of information is essentially the summary of Nicole's seminar. It is a basic reference guide of the ins and outs of Flexible Nutrition and is meant to provide insight into the fueling and nutrition method that so many have found success and sustainability in. Think of this as the "Cliff Notes" of Flexible Nutrition. It is our hope that you can use this as a reference guide and find some clarity and understanding in the fundamentals of this incredible nutrition approach! This is a must have.
Fundamentals covered in this document include:
-What is Flexible Nutrition?
-Macronutrient Summary
-Energy Metabolism
-What If I Am Not Perfect?
-Off Limit Foods?
-My Fitness Pal
-Tracking While Traveling
-Tracking While Dining Out
-Reverse Diet


text:
A structure for practice
This is part 3 of a three-part mini series on practice.
Read part 1: "My personal learning curve"
Read part 2: "Making practice playful"
No matter what I practice, there is a simple structure that I use. It helps me to make the most of my practice and to make sure I take something from the practice into the work I do.
There are three steps:
1. Explore
Pick a particular aspect you want to explore in your practice. This could be exploring size, spacing, colour, contrast, posing, exaggeration, stroke thickness, or anything to focus on and play with during practice. If you pick playing with size, for example, try to change up the size of things you are sketching in your practice. What happens if you sketch much smaller than usual…or much bigger? How do your sketches change when you mix shapes of very different sizes? How do different proportions influence the meaning of your sketches? Etc.
Once you picked your focus, go wild. Try out a lot of different things. Go broad, go deep. Dive into the details. Experiment.
Practice gives you the possibility to really experiment without the pressure of the result having to be good, usable or appropriate. You want to push out of your comfort zone, push things until they break. Like that you can explore the boundaries of what you usually do and you will probably make some interesting discoveries that usually don't happen in your regular work when you focus on solving a problem and producing a piece that solidly 'works'.
2. Observe
The next step is to observe what is happening in your explorations. How do the sketches change when you push them in different directions? When do they break? How does the style and the meaning change when you play with different parameters?
This step requires paying attention to the details, allowing yourself to notice subtle shifts in the quality of the work. Be interested in your own work! As a practitioner, it is your job to be interested. Nothing in itself is interesting, it becomes interesting when you put your attention and interest in it. Over time, you'll become much better at noticing details of interest – not only in your own work, but also in the work of others. You'll start spotting the finer details which make their work look so great or interesting… and you'll be able to take these details into your own practice and use them as a new focal point to play with.
3. Pick up the goodies
After you explored and observed, it's time to reflect a bit more on what you just did. It's time to go through your experiments with a more analytical mind. Which your sketches do you like? Which ones are oddly interesting? Which ones really work? And why? What did you do, that makes them 'better' than others on the page.
Make a mental (or physical) note of those sketches and try to use the same approach in your future work. An example could be that you played with size and you discover that the times when you used very contrasting sizes in one sketch, the results are really interesting and very different from your normal work. Make a note of that and try to consciously use more size variation in your usual work. You can even re-sketch some of the 'good' sketches from your practice, emphasising the aspect you want to keep and pin them around your workspace as a reminder.
Get yourself into trouble
Practice has a great advantage: you just do it for yourself without the pressure of having to produce anything good or usable. You have the freedom to screw up, to make mistakes, to get yourself into (visual) trouble without any bad consequences. So why not use this freedom to do all these things and see what happens? Try to push your experiments until they fail. See what it feels like to screw up. You might discover that it is not that bad after all, and that it can be quite a lot of fun to get yourself into trouble and to sketch your way out of it again.
Embracing the challenge of working with whatever is in front of you and trying to make the best out of it will make you more confident to take chances in your regular work. If you know that you can sketch yourself out of sticky situation, you'll be more open to pushing your work beyond the obvious and safe. What seemed like 'taking risks' before will become a more positive action of 'taking chances'. Instead of being afraid to fail, you learn to be curious about what is going to happen.
Over to you!
Now turn off your computer and get practicing. Just a little every day. Be curious. Have fun. And don't forget to get yourself into trouble every now and again :)
This is part 3 of a three-part mini series on practice.
Read part 1: "My personal learning curve"
Read part 2: "Making practice playful"


text:
Yeah, the cold that has been tearing its way through my fellow B&N employees hit me with a vengeance yesterday, and so for my two days off I have mostly been in damage control, trying to alleviate the symptoms as much as I can before going back in to work tomorrow. Cough drops, DayQuil, hot water with honey, nasal rinsing, I've tried just about everything I can think of, and it seems to have done at least some good. So, however healed up I am, tomorrow I go back to work.
Tomorrow, I am also hosting several friends over at my place, for the first time since… well, since I had my apartment-warming party back in August, I think. Other than that, I have never had more than one other person here at a time. which is a little odd. But we'll be hanging out, playing games, talking, eating, and waiting to ring in the New Year, and I can't think of a better way to do it than with friends I care about. I wish that there was a way for other people to be here, but I know they can't, so maybe they'll be here in spirit, at least.
That way, they can't steal the chips and dip.


text: What a fun time I had In KC on this shoot! It was an honor to be photographed by Eg Schempf. Rachel Anne Gottlieb made me look like piece of high art in her original garments, Mark Sutherland's styling made me feel like a star; and hair and makeup by Peregrine Honig took me to a new level of elegance and beauty that makes me smile with my heart.


text:
If you're tired of your competitors (or companies you've never heard of) consistently outranking you in search engine results, then you need to work with Marketing Refresh. We will help you develop an integrated strategy targeting the keywords we know your potential customers are searching. And, over time we will increase qualified traffic and overall placement in the search engines.
Our SEO programs:
- Attract more of the traffic you want to your website
- Aid in closing the gap between where you currently rank for target keywords, and where you need to rank
- Clearly outline the steps we (meaning us and our client) need to take to improve results
Our team leverages the best enterprise-level SEO platform that gives us the data we need to guide your program.


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Typhoon Kills at Least Eight People in the Philippines
(MANILA, Philippines) -- At least eight people were killed, as Typhoon Nanmadol hit parts of the Philippines over the weekend.
Among those killed, were two children, who were fatally injured Saturday when a garbage tip wall reportedly collapsed in the city of Baguio, according to a report by BBC News.
The weather system, which is also known as Typhoon Mina locally, has affected over 29,500 people in various parts of the Philippines, officials say. Several homes were reportedly damaged and government officials say 44 evacuation centers were set up in affected areas, with over 7,900 people checking into those centers. Affected individuals are also being assisted in the form of relief goods released by the Philippines government.
Forecasters say Typhoon Nanmadol is expected to hit the eastern part of Taiwan on Monday.
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio


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I absolutely love the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding paper. I've been trying to use bits of it here and there. This card layout was cased from a card that we made at Sharon and Milette's North Texas Shoebox Swap in October. I changed the colors and papers, but kept the cool fold.
Cardstock - White, Stampin' Up! Soft Sky, Basic Grey Figgy Pudding
Ink - Stampin' Up! Ruby Red
Stamps - Season of Joy (Stampin' Up!)
Another one using Figgy Pudding. This card is way outside my normal color range, but I love the way it turned out.
Cardstock - White, Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip and Ruby Red, Basic Grey Figgy Pudding
Ink - Stampin' Up! Basic Black, Versamark, Stampin' Up! markers - Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red
Stamps - Believe
Accessories - Detail Gold Embossing Powder (SU!), sponge, Stickles, dimensionals
Here's a new stamp set that I couldn't wait to try out. I love this big swirl! This is a set from Gel-a-tins called Spiral Symphony. The card is very simple, but I love the way it turned out.
Cardstock - Stampin' Up! Shimmery White
Ink - Stampin' Up! Blue Bayou and Purely Pomegranate
Stamps - Spiral Symphony (Gel-a-tins), Playful Christmas (Kitchen Sink Stamps)


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Monday, January 2, 2012
No Kiss Blogfest
"The No Kiss Blogfest! This is when you get to write a scene or post one from your favorite books, movies, or tv shows that show the almost kiss-- the rising, crushing, excruciating, longing, tension that comes when two characters get oh-so-close to kissing that you can just feel it, want it, NEED it....and then...they don't!"
I wasn't sure what to post for my No Kiss, but then Mr. GreenBeanSexyMan and I were listening to Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog on our car trip and I thought "this would be perfect!" That moment when you really want Billy and Penny to kiss and you want them to realize that they would be adorable together and you want Penny to see that Billy has been crushing on her all along and then....they don't kiss! ARGH!! I could watch Dr. Horrible over and over (and I do!) and this scene always kills me. Why don't they just kiss already???
What do you think? What's the most annoying no kiss you've come across in movies, TV or books?
15 comments:
- Emily TharpJanuary 2, 2012 at 9:18 AM
Okay, so I'm totally a geek on this one, but I'd have to say Jacob and Bella in New Moon. They're as close to kissing as can be and then the phone rings. Why does the phone always stop kissws anyway?ReplyDelete
I know-isn't that one annoying? I didn't really like Jacob in the books, but I liked him in the movie and that scene is torture!ReplyDelete
Ahh, it is cute!ReplyDelete
I am going to go ahead and say THE ENTIRE SERIES OF STAR TREK VOYAGER because Janeway and Chakotay totally needed to kiss and get it together and then the end of the series came and they totally never did! I felt like I was yelling at the television for the whole series.
Amalia-AGREED 100%!!:) I love that series and wanted Janeway/Chakotay to get together so much. Then they started that whole Seven/Chakotay thing and it was just wrong. (I do love Tom and B'Elanna though-they're so adorable!)ReplyDelete
The dumbest thing about Seven and Chakotay was that there was no BUILD UP to it. Like, one day, she's doing Holo-roleplaying with fake Chakotay, and the next day she's dating real Chakotay?! OUT OF NOWHERE?!ReplyDelete
Exactly! It was out of nowhere and made no sense at all! I love finding other Voyager fans!:)ReplyDelete
Ahhh I love this scene! Dr. Horrible is awesome!ReplyDelete
Oh that's so fun! I never actually watched this before, now I think I should. Thanks so much for participating!ReplyDelete
Oh I love that bit. The song and the moment are one of my favorites from Dr Horrible. Great choice!ReplyDelete
Geeky as it sounds, the almost kiss in the first X-Files movie... after YEARS of build up... it was KILLER.ReplyDelete
This was actually a feeling I tried to emulate a couple of times when writing my YA book. It's HARD to get it right.
- AnonymousJanuary 2, 2012 at 8:04 PM
I've never seen that before! Going to have to check it out in its entirety. I get frustrated by every almost kiss, but I also love them for prolonging the story.ReplyDelete
Donna-Yes Dr. Horrible is one of my favorites!!ReplyDelete
Frankie-WHAT? You've never seen Dr. Horrible? You must remedy this now!
Loralie-Mine too-it's so sweet and frustrating at the same time.
Shauna-Agreed! I wish I would have thought of that one too! That moment was so horrible and yet so awesome. I love Mulder and Scully!
Portrayal-You're right-no kisses are annoying but they make the story even better because you have to wait for it. And you must watch Dr. Horrible-it's awesome!
How did I never hear of Mr Horrible? I liked your scene!ReplyDelete
that rebel, Olivia
- AnonymousJanuary 4, 2012 at 12:57 AM
I haven't seen this before, but I see how they would be adorable together. Most almost-kisses irritate me, but I see how it's a great device for tension.ReplyDelete
Olivia-You must watch it!ReplyDelete
Media-Ditto for you-it's a must see! I feel as though I am spreading the good work of Dr. Horrible via my no kiss post!:)


text: We took the bull by the horns at this Rodeo-style event with a professional bull riding show, and of course a mechanical bull for the guests. The rodeo event featured live entertainment by Grammy award-winning artists John Fogerty and Taylor Swift. Cowboy hat giveaways and hay bale seating paid homage to the round 'em up rodeo theme.


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Peter Sagal, host of the wildly popular NPR quiz show, Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!, admits to embracing the over-zealous adoration from a good many of his fans.
"I want to be a piece of meat, frankly," said Sagal, when Boise Weekly caught up with the self-proclaimed "cultural Lothario" at Austin's SXSW Festival. "My dream is to have some beautiful young woman say to me, "Shut up, stop talking; I just want to look at you."
To that end, Sagal has jumped the shark, and, while not doing the full monty, will reveal himself to his fans as the host of a new PBS television series on the Constitution.
The four-part program, with the decidedly un-"Wait Wait" title of Constitution USA with Peter Sagal, begins airing Tuesday, May 7. Sagal was in Austin recently to promote the series at SXSW, where both PBS and NPR were pumping their brands.
It remains to be seen whether the subject matter will lure the kind of female groupies he's longing for, but Sagal's producers do have a gimmick up their sleeves: They found out he likes riding motorcycles. So for his journey across the country asking Americans about one of their founding documents, he's on that great symbol of freedom, a Harley, painted like an American flag, with "We the People" airbrushed on its gas tank.
"It's an icebreaker," said Sagal. "If you show up in a big, colorful motorcycle wearing boots and a helmet, people are happy to talk to you."
For those who tire of brilliant but ponderous historians droning on about our rights in dimly lit rooms with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, Sagal promises his program will take a more hip approach.
"The whole point of having me host the show rather than one of the many experts is we wanted to get away from the model of a very, very smart person telling you the truth," said Sagal. "We wanted to have a smart but relatively uninformed person such as myself find out the truth along with you."
But wait, wait… Peter Sagal didn't make it to Idaho on his trip? He didn't come to a state whose governor often carries a copy of the Constitution, and whose lawmakers routinely send memorials to Congress protesting violations of their citizens' constitutional rights?
That is correct. What's more, we are one of only three states Sagal has never been to, sharing that distinction with North Dakota and New Mexico. It's an oversight he said he'd be glad to remedy.
"Let's get noisy in Boise," he said.
BW's Marcia Franklin chatted with Sagal about his new show, his chopper and she even put him in the hot seat with our own quiz about Idaho's constitutional connections:
Comments are closed.
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or send letters to firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
I developed a habit of buying a book each month (mostly e-books). Time is passing and I'm trying to read as much as possible. I believe in books more than I believe in tutorials. Here are the books that are currently keeping me occupied:
Launch It
I highly recommend this book. Shane Mielke does an excellent job packing every advice and experience he gained into a small batch of easy-to-read pages. I've finished it last week and now I'm reading it again. It's a book I needed in a time of need.
Designing VUIs
In the following months I will dive in more into AI and the use of chatbots and conversational user interfaces, so in order to be more prepared for what's ahead I've managed to discover this little gem thanks to Ion. I'm still at the first chapters and I can't wait to discover all the Voice User Interfaces principles the author has to offer.
Designing Bots
Another great piece on chatbots, but this time with more focus on platforms such as Messenger, Kik, Slack, Google Assistant and many more. When I bought the draft, the book was still being written, now I see it has been fully released. Nice!
Designing for touch
I had the opportunity to see Josh Clark in action while participating at UX Bucharest (1st edition, 2015). Being impressed with his IoT knowledge, I had no hesitations when I saw he had a book. The best part that it covers design for physical medium, not just mobile devices. Being a gadget buff, the book represents a great pleasure to read.
Designing Interface Animation
If you browse animations on Dribbble and you want to learn the core of UI animation, I highly recommend you give Val Head's book a try. She really does a great job taking you through various animation types, each with clear examples (videos included). Also, you should really check out her newsletter.
Product design for web
I don't remember how I found this book and I admit I only bought it out of curiosity. Yes, I'm curious how the web designer = product designer debate goes along. Haven't started it yet.
Atomic Design
I've been an early adopter of Brad Frost's vision since I first heard of atomic design. Moreover I successfully implemented it with the team for one of Grapefruit's major clients. Moreover we are planning to adopt it for another big player.
The Sketch Handbook
I'm moving more and more to Sketch. Not fully switched since I have Adobe CC at work, but all my side projects are now done in Sketch. I really enjoy reading this book since is jam-packed with tones of tips and tricks.
User Experience Revolution
In a time where we need to fight for what UX stands, means and consists of (especially in Romania, trust me), Paul Boag's new book comes a breathing space and light of hope on how we can advocate UX the proper way.
Disciplined Entrepreneurship
No surprises here. It was pretty obvious that I will pursue more product knowledge and opportunities, especially having support from Marius and Georgiana and their MIT Bootcamp experience. I'm halfway through the book and let me tell you... it's a woosie. I'm taking notes with each step in order to fully understand the concept presented.


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The Musselman Family welcomes you to our newest restaurant in Grants Pass. We have been honored to serve you at the One Fifteen Broiler located in the downtown Historic district.We have over 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry and are passionate about exceeding your expectations. Our goal is to provide you both a superior customer experience and tremendous value for your hard earned dollar.
Start your evening off with an appetizer or selection from our "Antipasti" menu, followed with a fresh salad or bowl of traditional house made Italian soup. Enjoy Veal Marsala, Chicken Parmesan, or our vegetarian Eggplant Parmesian. Choose your own Pasta combination, made just the way YOU like it. We even have a wide selection of "Kid friendly" meals. Don't forget to leave room for our specialty Tiramisu dessert. Ciao Amico!
Have questions about the daily specials or need to make reservations?
Use our Contact Us page or call


text:
On Sat, Apr 26, 2003 at 02:35:30AM -0400, Anthony DeRobertis wrote: > A copyright holder has legal standing to sue anyone he damn well > pleases. Not true; questions like this are frequently decided in the early phases of civil trials, and not always in favor of the plaintiff. "Standing" is a legal concept and a matter of law that is litigated by attorneys and decided by judges, often with reference to statutes which *define* standing in various types of cases. Please consult a legal dictionary. -- G. Branden Robinson | There's no trick to being a Debian GNU/Linux | humorist when you have the whole email@example.com | government working for you. http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | -- Will Rogers
Description: PGP signature


text:
Youtube is packed full of content aimed at either informing or selling information (and/or products) to photographers at various stages of their journey. Much of these are nothing more than the low hanging fruit of subjects that have been covered to death or they are paid product endorsements that are well disguised lies, or at best part-truths, with an aim to do nothing more than generate dollars from misplaced trust.
Much of the really useful content that is available for photographers can be found at sites such as Creative Live or RGGEDU though these do come with a (justifiably) high price tag.
But here are 5 videos that, whilst not intended for photographers, still offer some valuable information, fresh perspectives & universally applicable advice.
So here are...
5 non-photography videos that will help your photography
1. "Composition In Storytelling" - Channel Criswell
The first but not the last time we will visit this channel for some incredibly articulate and thought provoking theories on the subject of visual art. Now whilst this is aimed of DoP's and Directors looking to develop stronger storytelling skills, anyone hoping to engage their audience and immerse them in a visual scene (still or otherwise) can learn so much about the psychological effects you can create with simple yet effective techniques.
2. "Sparkles & Wine" - Nacho Guzman
Just watch and be amazed by how light can augment a persons appearance...
3. "David Fincher - And The Other Way Is Wrong" - Every Frame A Painting
Just a fascinating video about my favourite movie director and his philosophy on how inform an audience of what is important. A thoroughly entertaining dissection of a great artists work and this channel is flooded with great videos on all things cinematic.
4. "Colour In Storytelling" - Channel Criswell
Back to Criswell and possibly my favourite video on youtube. Covering the psychological impact colour has on everyone. How to create dominance or to pacify. How to single something out or how to create a wall of complimentary tones. Just watch!
5. "'The Revenant' Cinematographer Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki - Variety Artisans" - Variety
OK, so you could take most any still frame of the multi-oscar winning movie "The Revenant" and it would be a stronger, more engaging image than 99.99999% of photos that have been taken in the history of still imaging! There I said it, and if you disagree you are wrong.
Even if you don't like the movie itself, the visuals are unreal and this short video which speaks to several cinematographers and the films colourist gives so many glimpses into the genius that is Chivo Lubezki! So what can you take away from this video? If you watch this and aren't inspired, awe-struck and terrified, I have some bad news for you!
Thanks for reading and watching!


text:
January 7, 2015
My sister in law is a real whiskey lover. So when we started a big pot of mulled wine – she would counter with 'hot toddie'. This hot boozy drink comes originally from Ireland – it's mainly whiskey – so no surprise there! The original hot toddie asks for whiskey, hot water, sugar and spices. So this special recipe is the Courtney approved version with ginger, lemon, cloves and honey instead of sugar. If you are having problems justifying that you want another hot toddy – just do it like the Irish. They argue that it's good against the cold and flu – Vitamin C for health, the honey to soothe and the alcohol to numb :)
_ boil water with ginger and lemon juice [for at least 15 minute]
_ pour whiskey into individual glasses [as much as everybody likes]
_ top off with ginger-lemon-water
_ add 3 cloves to each glass [adapt amount to your liking]
_ stir in 1 to 2 teaspoons honey
_ feel as it warms you through from the inside
Tags: bourbon, christmas, ginger, hot toddie, whiskey
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text:
You know when you make a new friend and the first time you go to their house you have to check out their bookshelves to make sure you picked a good'un? What do you mean you don't do that?! It's essential friend screening…
We'd def be friends with these guys.
lottelikesbooks has seriously beautiful shelves and we're not at all jealous. Nope. *cries*
We can't stop looking at BookMarauder's gorgeous shelfie. Plus, 100 cute points for BB-8.
There are few things more aesthetically pleasing than mistyangelofsky's beautiful classics collection. We aspire to this level of awesome…
sweetbookobsession's rainbow shelfie is to die for. We're a bit scared to rainbow our shelves as we'll probably want to put it back straight away… Do you guys have rainbow shelves?
I love rearranging my books and I decided it was time to finally try something different, but it's still organized by color. I won't go back to alphabetical! I tried to keep track of how long it took me to reorganize them and I think it was somewhere around 3 1/2 hours. What do you think?
A photo posted by Emily Sweet (@sweetbookobsession) on
Okay, someone needs to tell us where to get shelves like fatma_sozen's because seriously. Seriously.
#benimkitapligim Merhabalar kitap dostlarimm Benim kitapligimi merak eden arkada?lar?m varm?? hepinize ithafen payla??yorum bu gönderiyi biraz kar???k hali amabiraz daha düzenlemem laz?m ama ?imdilik böyle ____________________ #kitap #book #books #bookstagram #fotograf #severekcekiyoruz #fotografheryerde #kadraj #kadrajturkiye #bookaddict #booklover #bookish #bibliophile #read #reading #bookworm #bookshelf #benimgozumden #benimobjektifim #benimobjektifimden #benimkadrajim #vscogallery #vsco #edebiyat #kitaplaryolda #kitaplik #kitaplarim
Now this shelfie from tugceninkitaplari is looking like a room MADE for shelfies and we're dying to see what else is hiding out of view…
Art?k bardaklarda buzlu kola ya da meyvesuyu görür oldunuz. Aynen. Sabah kahvesinden sonra Eylül olmas?na ra?men bu ne s?cak? Adana Eylülü hiç umursamam?? arkada?. ?kinci bir kahvenin ?s?s? çekilmiyor. Neyse, benim de Bookstagram barda??m var diyerek buraya sevimli bir gün payla??m? b?rak?yor, temizli?e devam etmeye gidiyorum ne ho? Herzamanki gibi Superonline sorunlu?u oldu?u için instaya zor at?yorum foto?raf?, kimsenin foto?raf?n? da göremiyorum ?ükür. ?n?allah düzelir yoksa stalker gibi sayfalar?n?zda foto?raflar?n?z aç?lana kadar yirmi dakika bekleyece?im. Esenle kal?n efendim #bookstagramfeature #instabook#bookstagram #okumakgüzeldir#okumakayr?cal?kt?r#kitaplayasamak#kitapseverlerkulubu#like4like#kitap #bookaddict#bookneed#bookish#vscoblog#reading#booklover #yasamtarziniz #lifestyle#mutluyumcünkü #kitapokuyorum#dasbuch#bookaholic#bibliophile#bookworm#booknerdigans#bookshelf#shelfie
A photo posted by Tu?çe (@tugceninkitaplari) on
The wonderful booksugar also has gorgeous rainbow shelves and we're totally in love with the pattern sneaking in behind the books. FANCY.
Here are three of my bookshelves in what I like to call the library. It needs a new chair and rug and more art but it will happen eventually. There are actually six shelves in this room but I can't fit them all in one pic. There are also two in our family room, one in the kitchen, three in our family room, one in the laundry room, one in the playroom and one in each of the kids' rooms. And piles all over the house. ~ ~ Hi, I'm Maria and I have a book problem. HI MARIAAAAAAA! ~ ~ I know I'm not the only one. Come on, fess up people. What's the book situation like at your place??
Artfulreader's gorgeous shot of the shelves from London's Daunt Books makes us want to jump on a train and be in that shop right now. See ya!
First breakfast at home,second breakfast in the air and elevenses in London. Now a browse at Daunt books. Sun is shining and I'm glad to be here. #dauntbooks #bookshops#london#wanderlust
A photo posted by Artfulreader (@artfulreader) on
The lovelies over at Persephone Books may be the winners of the best shelfies. We're total suckers for the simple, beautiful design of their titles and the shop is just a total delight.
Share your best shelfies with us at @maximumpopbooks
- How many books do you own with an "inspired by" title?
- 7 working titles that never made it to the front cover of these much loved Classics
- Do you think classics aren't for you? Take a look at these and think again
- 10 essential cosy reads to fall for this Autumn
- John Green, Stephanie Perkins and 7 other authors we desperately want a new book from
- You Review: We need 10 lucky MP!ers to read & review the 'Broken Sky' trilogy


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Stephen Foster Story cast members offer free concert in the park
After more than 80 years of learning in the same three-room schoolhouse, the students and teachers of St. Ann School in Howardstown have a new home — and it's just a few feet away.
The new parish center for St. Ann Church was completed about two weeks ago and features four classrooms, which will be the new learning space for the small Catholic school that has served the community since the late 1800s.
"It was staffed by Ursuline nuns," and lay teachers later continued the work, said teacher Sue Boone, an alumna of St. Ann School.
Fourteen young ladies are vying Aug. 18 for the title of Nelson County's next Distinguished Young Woman, part of a long-running national scholarship program designed to promote leadership, improve self-confidence and recognize young role models.
Open locally to high school juniors, the scholarship program was founded in 1958 as Junior Miss. Since its creation, thousands of teens from across the country have taken part. Contestants are judged on scholastics, interview skills, talent, fitness and self-expression, each counting for a percentage of their overall score.
Large creatures comparable to grass-covered Sasquatch will be roaming around Bernheim Forest in a few weeks thanks to the work of a visiting British artist.
Ashley Peevor, who is enjoying a month-long residency at Bernheim as part of a grant, is introducing his living costumes known as "Grass Men" at this year's Bernheim CONNECT festival. The costumes are a combination of fabric, grass and soil substrate, with seeds growing through fabric layers to compress them into a living material.
Children swapped paint colors and brushed designs on their canvases while gathered at tables outside of the Nelson County Public Library. The evening of outdoor art was part of the On the Move Art Studio's tour through Nelson County, which continues with a stop in New Haven July 31.
The idea came after social worker Josh Nadzam and artist Kathy Werking teamed up to bring art to kids in need.
The River Cities Concert Band will be the featured group at this week's Edward Jones Summer Concert Series, co-sponsored by the Stephen Foster Music Club and the Bardstown Parks & Recreation Department.
The series, now in its 16th season of free, family-oriented concerts, is held at Bardstown Community Park each Friday at 7 p.m. from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
The River Cities Concert Band will be presenting a concert of wind band works, featuring the music of some of America's favorite composers.
Bloomfield City Council
Bloomfield City Council will meet at 6:25 p.m. Monday, July 9, at the Northeast Nelson Fire Station, 130 Perry St. in Bloomfield. Items on the agenda include a public hearing for the purpose of obtaining written or oral comments from the public regarding the proposed use of Municipal Aid and Local Government Economic Assistance program funds for this Fiscal Year 2018-2019. The regular meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Bardstown City Council
At the June 4 meeting of Chapter 1050 of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE), Cathy Sanders Williamson from Central Kentucky Retired and Senior Volunteer Program and Sandy Bowsum spoke to the chapter about "No Veteran Dies Alone" and "Companionship" programs at the 120-bed State Veteran's Home in Radcliff. To contact Sandy about supporting these veterans' programs, call (270) 300-7551. To stay current on the latest NARFE news like us at -www.facebook.com/narfe1050.
Workers at Bardstown's NPR of America plant recently struck a blow against hunger and food insecurity when they brought in 4,740 pounds of food and supplies as part of a charity drive.
Four teams — from first, second and third shifts and the warehouse and office personnel — donated the supplies at collection points set up at the plant from June 4-29.
One rainy afternoon, Mark Thomas of Louisville was poring over heavy tomes in the Nelson County Public Library's genealogy room.
He comes here because the library has resources his hometown library doesn't.
"They have a complete set of birth and death books, whereas the main library in Louisville … only goes to 1959, and there are missing volumes. It's almost easier … to come down here than to go downtown and have to pay to park," he said.
Copyright © 2019
The Kentucky Standard is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Nelson County and Bardstown, KY, and the surrounding area.


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Tulip is in the clutches of a mysterious enemy from her past, and Eugene has an interesting new mentor in Hell, in a promo for season 2, episode 4 of AMC's Preacher.
In last week's episode, Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy arrived in New Orleans but Tulip was clearly not happy to be there and hid away while Jesse scoured the city's jazz clubs looking for God (and finding Featherstone, an agent of the mysterious organization The Grail). At the episode's end we learned why Tulip was so nervous about visiting New Orleans - when she was busted in on by a bunch of thugs, working for a mysterious figure named Viktor. We also caught up with Eugene, who has been serving time in Hell endlessly reliving the horrific shotgun incident that led to his disfigurement, and Tracy Loach going into a coma (the episode served up that horrifyingly comedic scene in all its gruesome detail).
Related: What Preacher Season 2 Has in Store for Eugene
In the above promo for episode 3 from AMC, tellingly titled "Viktor", Tulip is taken to a giant mansion and confronted by a menacing bald man who scares her enough to crack her usual unflappable demeanor and make her cry. The promo also focuses on one of Viktor's henchmen, who is later seen fighting with Tulip. We can guess that the episode will fill us in on the nature of Tulip's past relationship with Viktor, and reveal what it is about him - or what he knows about her - that could make her so scared and upset.
In addition to the Viktor storyline, the episode will also go back to Hell to show Eugene meeting with his new mentor, the one and only Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor). With Hitler taking over his education in Hell, we can only imagine the terrible path Eugene is about to be placed upon. Nothing good ever happens when Hitler becomes your teacher.
The promo also teases what goes on with Jesse and Cassidy back in New Orleans after they realize Tulip is gone. Clearly, their quest to find God will have to be put on hold until they can determine Tulip's whereabouts and bring her back into the fold. The promo shows a brief glimpse of a torture room where some poor soul is being worked over by a man in a blood-spattered plastic apron. We later see Jesse fighting with the man in the apron while his victim hangs from a harness, minus an arm. Somehow this torturer must fit in with Jesse and Cassidy's efforts to find out who took Tulip.
It doesn't look like we will be seeing much of Herr Starr (Pipp Torrens) or Featherstone (Julie Ann Emery) in next week's episode, but those characters are sure to become major players in the weeks to come. Already this season we've seen those two villains, plus The Saint of Killers, and now we're getting Viktor and for good measure Hitler himself. It seems Preacher is trying to set some kind of record for Most Bad Guys Ever.
NEXT: All the Big TV Shows Attending San Diego Comic-Con 2017
Preacher continues next week with 'Viktor'.
Source: AMC
- Preacher release date:


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Toy Sapiens: Figures and More in Hot Toys' Flagship Tokyo StoreJanuary 13, 2017
Hot Toys' flagship Tokyo retail shop, Toy Sapiens, is certain to render visiting fans of pop culture action figures and collectibles giddy with excitement. We've given our readers a look inside in prior posts (first and then ), but given the ever-changing assortment items on display it's easy to justify another look behind the doors.
Nestled in Tokyo's modish Harajuku district, Toy Sapiens is a brief stroll from the Harajuku and Jingumae train stations. The store's distinctive elegance and incandescent awesomeness are evident even before entering as guests and passersby are treated to a window display of several dozen new and classic sixth scale action figures fully viewable from the street outside. However, it's even better beyond the doors. Toy Sapiens' 21,000+ square feet of retail space filled with collectibles inspired by the luminaries of popular culture. Hot Toys and Sideshow Collectibles fill the store's center area with glass display cases showcasing the latest ultra-detailed sixth scale figures to purchase or view. Visitors can count on seeing a healthy complement of pieces based on cornerstone favorites like Alien, Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Appleseed as well as those based on perennial darlings like Star Wars and the breadth of the Marvel and DC superhero universes.
In addition to the featured pieces by Hot Toys and Sideshow Collectibles, Toy Sapiens always has a huge variety of collectibles by other major toy manufacturers lining the shelves. In particular, Funko enthusiasts have plenty to revel in with an entire wall dedicated to the stylized vinyl figures and bobble-heads. Rounding out the display is a robust selection of action figures, statues, and other licensed items by DC Collectibles, Bandai, Kotobukiya, Bowen Designs, and others.
Toy Sapiens should be on the short list of frequented destinations for pop culture fans and collectors of all interest levels. Hot Toys' stylish shop joins Square Enix's , , and as can't-miss spots for collectors in Tokyo. For additional store information and detailed directions, be sure to visit Hot Toys' official Toy Sapiens page here.


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Sunday, March 14, 2010
How did the know-it-all inventor of Vanishing Threshold not know to name the rooms inside her home?
Dulcimers, piano, autoharp, turn-table, antiquated stereo system, comfy seating, art, lamps, window with fabulous view.... Years of junking. Nothing had to be bought.
Hardly used for 23 years, SS (since Susanne), this is my morning spot. Reading the paper & watching the sun rise behind contorted filbert, witchhazel, Southern Indica azaleas, pieris...
Notice vase on the piano? A bouquet of antique tools.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
Music Room wasn't finished when I took the pic so you're seeing only a sliver. Found the chair, broken, in the basement of our family house on Lake Rabun, a delight & worth your time, promise. It's an American windsor dated 1897 on the bottom. Red Beck, in Tucker, GA, now closed, fixed the chair & finished it with historically correct wax.
5 comments:
- La Petite Gallery said...
Tara, Y
Years ago in Miami Beach, I had a room with arched windows
that over looked the Cruise ships. I made it a Music room for Renee's piano lessons. Also used it for
plants as it was so sunny, I painted in there too. Really
miss the room. It is a good room to have. You made a good point.
- March 14, 2010 at 9:52 AM
- Linda at Lime in the Coconut! said...
Bouquet of antique tools...on a grand piano...LOVE it! Enjoy your morning room!
- March 14, 2010 at 9:56 AM
- Things That Inspire said...
I love the idea of a music room - and yours turned out beautifully! Please make sure that the bouquet of garden tools doesn't tumble into your beautiful piano and damage the strings - in my house there would be a high likelihood of that happening!
What are your outdoor rooms called?
- March 14, 2010 at 11:21 AM
- A-M said...
Gorgeous room! Gorgeous. I too have a music room... it is much loved and used... piano practice x 2 boys x daily. I name all my rooms too. Off to have my morning coffee in the 'music room'. A-M xx
- March 14, 2010 at 3:54 PM
- the gardeners cottage said...
Oh Tara,
How beautiful. I love glimpses into your home. Show more!
- March 15, 2010 at 2:28 PM


text: I'm unfortunately stuck in the hair cycle. Cut it short, hate how short it is, grow it out, hate how long it is, cut it again. :P right now I have long hair that goes down mid back, a couple inches longer than the bottom of my shoulder blades. So now I'm wanting opinions! which hairstyle would my hair look with? (Not from the pictures, just in general) I've attatched a few pictures of how I look with long and medium length hair, but I don't have any short pictures because I've never cut my hair above my shoulders. What do you think? Also, what hair looks good with my face shape? I really am not sure what face shape I am; I think sometimes oval or square, but i measured it and my forehead is the widest with my chin being the narrowest, but I don't look like a heart shape, do I? What do you think? :) All opinions are appreciated!


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|Project by dustyal
|posted 02-18-2011 03:14 AM
|2618 views
|10 times favorited
|11 comments
These are my versions of the scraper shapers we did in a Mason-Dixon Woodworker workshop. See Karson's work for background - save me some writing.
These are large round, small round, flat, and chamfer of maple and sapele and tung oil.
I may not ever use these much, but they were great fun to make in our weekend workshop.
-- Al H. - small shop, small projects...
11 comments so far
#1 posted 02-18-2011 03:35 AM
Really nice, this will be on my to do list.
-- MAD F, the fanatical rhykenologist and vintage architect. Democraticwoodworking.
#2 posted 02-18-2011 04:03 AM
good looking scrapers :-)
thank´s for sharing them with us
take care
#3 posted 02-18-2011 04:32 AM
I was talking to a friend today, and we were discussing how a scraper was just the thing I needed. Your post was perfect timing! It got me looking at past posts that you and Karson did on making scrapers – now I have a project to try. What kind of hardware did you use?
#4 posted 02-18-2011 05:03 AM
great work. Karson has some nice scrapers too!
-- Ike, Big Daddies Woodshop, http://[email protected]
#5 posted 02-18-2011 07:09 AM
Al: A great looking finish to you shaves. We talked about you tonight and we wish you the best. Roger got the money for the two new members.
-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Appomattox Virginia [email protected] †
#6 posted 02-18-2011 05:44 PM
@ Vasko: We had our blades custom made by a local metal fabricator, since for the group, we needed over 60 shaped blanks. The original plans call for cutting up regular 3×5 (?) card scrapers. They are not too hard to cut by scoring with file and bending back and forth. Grind to whatever shape you want, but don't overheat to lose temper.
The other parts are just the two #10-32×1.5 flat head brass machine screws with round knurled nuts that you can get at a good hardware store.
-- Al H. - small shop, small projects...
#7 posted 02-19-2011 03:57 AM
Thanks, Al. Now for the stupid question (I have to ask at least one a week – lol) Since I've never seen a scraper before – I'm really new at this – is the metal shaped to match the curve/chamfer of the maple, and so when making draws on the wood, the wood eventually matches the profile? Will any good steel work for the blades? Does the working edge need a burr? Sorry for all the questions…
#8 posted 02-19-2011 03:53 PM
Cindy, the answer to the first question is yes. The way we got the curves to match was to start with a radius cut in the blade, but we used an oscillating sander to sand the blade and wood together to form the match. Two things about that… one, the radius is not a "perfect size" and second, we ate up sandpaper spindles. I think I did final shaping of the V notch in blade and wood with a file.
Yes, the way to sharpen the shaper is to put a burr on the edge of the blade—use a burnish tool for that. There is a video somewhere on the internet as to how to sharpen. As to steel… you could cut up old cut off saw blades. Or, cut up inexpensive card scrapers. Tempered tool steel (hard) will work better than a untempered (soft) mild steel.
BTW: Questions are fine… that's how I got started and continue…
-- Al H. - small shop, small projects...
#9 posted 02-19-2011 03:56 PM
Cindy, wait, I misspoke about the chamfer blade tool… it is not shaped. It is just a straight blade and set very shallow in use to ease an edge. Only the two round blades where worked to be shaped with the wood insert.
-- Al H. - small shop, small projects...
#10 posted 02-19-2011 04:25 PM
Thank you Al!
#11 posted 05-22-2011 01:01 AM
Mine are made and I love them, thank you for inspirering.
-- MAD F, the fanatical rhykenologist and vintage architect. Democraticwoodworking.
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Classes in the casa level were divided to represent each of the 7 continents of the world. Henry's class got Asia and he was assigned to represent China.
Here's the costume that he needed. Aside from this he was also required to have a sash with the name of the country written on it. Parents were also given the freedom to modify the costume.
Good thing I found My China Dolls easily online. They sell imported cheongsams for kids directly from China. I chose this emperor outfit with red vest. I also purchased the head dress from them. The owner was very easy to talk to and I even picked up the costume at her house.(If you want to order from My China Dolls then you better hurry because she mentioned that she will stop importing them to concentrate on her kids and day job. So stocks are very limited now.)
|Closing Song with the whole casa level
|Me with my little trooper
|Kung Fu Panda


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The pain of Fibro really does suck, like right now the sun is shining but all i want to do is lie down in bed because my back and knees are killing me. YUCK! PAIN!.
However, one of the worse things about this condition is the brain fog, so please give me back my brain. Brain fog is like not being able to concentrate, think of a thousands things are once and attempt to walk whilst your head is being pushed towards the ground and spun around.
I literally have no idea how to overcome fibro fog. When i asked my friends to ask me questions about fibro one of the questions was "what do you wish wasn't a symptom?" and quite simply i want my brain back so i can be the productive person i want to be.
Fibro fog is one thing that makes me less confident because it can make me sound like I am stupid if i forget something that was ONLY just said to me. I do try to laugh it off sometimes and say what a rubbish short term memory i have but the truth is it really annoys me how i cant remember something. I also have to check everything twice I just never feel like the important stuff (have i got keys, purse etccc) is there unless i check it more than once! I have to get to the point where I can physically picture myself checking these things otherwise i panic.
I honestly feel like fibro makes me come across really stupid, forgetful and lazy when i try not to be any of those things but when the fibro fog is at its worse its when i feel really self conscious about going out there and following my dreams. Pain can be controlled by painkillers, but i am yet to find a way to get fibro fog under control and i really wish i could because I worry that i'll never have the life i want if i am worrying about forgetting something all of the time (or actually doing the forgetting too!)
Next time you see me forget something important remember that it is something I can't help and if any of you fibro sufferers out there have any great ways to combat fibro fog please send them my way either by email (email@example.com) or twitter (onceuponafibro) 🙂


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Enigmatic cases with a mystery ailment, reports Science Mag. These patients were convinced gluten was making them sick but there was no evidence that this was true.
The patients weren't crazy . Yet they didn't have celiac disease, an autoimmune reaction to that often-villainised tangle of proteins in wheat, barley, and rye. And they tested negative for a wheat allergy. They occupied a medical no man's land.
According to a Science Mag report, about a decade ago, gastroenterologists like Knut Lundin, based at the University of Oslo, came across more and more of those enigmatic cases. "I worked with celiac disease and gluten for so many years," he says, "and then came this wave." Gluten-free choices began appearing on restaurant menus and creeping onto grocery store shelves. By 2014, in the US alone, an estimated 3m people without celiac disease had sworn off gluten. It was easy to assume that people claiming to be "gluten sensitive" had just been roped into a food fad.
"Generally, the reaction of the gastroenterologist (was) to say, 'You don't have celiac disease or wheat allergy. Goodbye,'" says Armin Alaedini, an immunologist at Columbia University. "A lot of people thought this is perhaps due to some other (food) sensitivity, or it's in people's heads."
But, the report says, a small community of researchers started searching for a link between wheat components and patients' symptoms – commonly abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhoea, and sometimes headaches, fatigue, rashes, and joint pain. That wheat really can make nonceliac patients sick is now widely accepted. But that's about as far as the agreement goes.
The report says as data trickle in, entrenched camps have emerged. Some researchers are convinced that many patients have an immune reaction to gluten or another substance in wheat – a nebulous illness sometimes called nonceliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS).
Others believe most patients are actually reacting to an excess of poorly absorbed carbohydrates present in wheat and many other foods. Those carbohydrates – called FODMAPs, for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols – cause bloating when they ferment in the gut. If FODMAPs are the primary culprit, thousands of people may be on gluten-free diets with the support of their doctors and dietitians but without good reason.
The report says those competing theories were on display in a session on wheat sensitivity at a celiac disease symposium held at Columbia in March. In back-to-back talks, Lundin made the case for FODMAPs, and Alaedini for an immune reaction. But in an irony that underscores how muddled the field has become, both researchers started their quests believing something completely different.
Known wheat-related illnesses have clear mechanisms and markers. People with celiac disease are genetically predisposed to launch a self-destructive immune response when a component of gluten called gliadin penetrates their intestinal lining and sets off inflammatory cells in the tissue below. People with a wheat allergy respond to wheat proteins by churning out a class of antibodies called immunoglobulin E that can set off vomiting, itching, and shortness of breath. The puzzle, for both doctors and researchers, is patients who lack both the tell-tale antibodies and the visible damage to their intestines but who feel real relief when they cut out gluten-containing food.
Some doctors have begun to approve and even recommend a gluten-free diet. "Ultimately, we're here not to do science, but to improve quality of life," says Alessio Fasano, a paediatric gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston who has studied NCGS and written a book on living gluten-free. "If I have to throw bones on the ground and look at the moon to make somebody better, even if I don't understand what that means, I'll do it."
The report says like many doctors, Lundin believed that (fad dieters and superstitious eaters aside) some patients have a real wheat-related ailment. His group helped dispel the notion that NCGS was purely psychosomatic. They surveyed patients for unusual levels of psychological distress that might express itself as physical symptoms. But the surveys showed no differences between those patients and people with celiac disease, the team reported in 2012. As Lundin bluntly puts it: "We know they are not crazy."
Still, sceptics worried that the field had seized on gluten with shaky evidence that it was the culprit. After all, nobody eats gluten in isolation. "If we did not know about the specific role of gluten in celiac disease, we would never have thought gluten was responsible for (NCGS)," says Stefano Guandalini, a paediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Chicago Medical Centre in Illinois. "Why blame gluten?"
The report says defenders of NCGS generally acknowledge that other components of wheat might contribute to symptoms. In 2012, a group of proteins in wheat, rye, and barley called amylase trypsin inhibitors emerged as a potential offender, for example, after a team led by biochemist Detlef Schuppan of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany (then at Harvard Medical School in Boston) reported that those proteins can provoke immune cells.
But without biological markers to identify people with NCGS, researchers have relied on self-reported symptoms measured through a "gluten challenge": Patients rate how they feel before and after cutting out gluten. Then doctors reintroduce gluten or a placebo – ideally disguised in indistinguishable pills or snacks – to see whether the symptoms tick back up.
The report says Alaedini has recently hit on a more objective set of possible biological markers – much to his own surprise. "I entered this completely as a sceptic," he says. Over his career, he has gravitated toward studying spectrum disorders, in which diverse symptoms have yet to be united under a clear biological cause – and where public misinformation abounds. His team published a study in 2013, for example, that debunked the popular suggestion that children with autism had high rates of Lyme disease. "I do studies (where) there is a void," he says.
In NCGS, Alaedini saw another poorly defined spectrum disorder. He did accept that patients without celiac disease might somehow be sensitive to wheat, on the basis of several trials that measured symptoms after a blinded challenge. But he was not convinced by previous studies claiming that NCGS patients were more likely than other people to have certain antibodies to gliadin. Many of those studies lacked a healthy control group, he says, and relied on commercial antibody kits that gave murky and inconsistent readings.
In 2012, he contacted researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy to obtain blood samples from 80 patients their team had identified as gluten sensitive on the basis of a gluten challenge. He wanted to test the samples for signs of a unique immune response – a set of signalling molecules different from those in the blood of healthy volunteers and celiac patients. He wasn't optimistic. "I thought if we were going to see something, like with a lot of spectrum conditions that I have looked at, we would see small differences."
The report says the results shocked him. Compared with both healthy people and those with celiac, these patients had significantly higher levels of a certain class of antibodies against gluten that suggest a short-lived, systemic immune response. That didn't mean gluten itself was causing disease, but the finding hinted that the barrier of those patients' intestines might be defective, allowing partially digested gluten to get out of the gut and interact with immune cells in the blood. Other elements – such as immune response–provoking bacteria – also might be escaping. Sure enough, the team found elevated levels of two proteins that indicate an inflammatory response to bacteria. And when 20 of the same patients spent 6 months on a gluten-free diet, their blood levels of those markers declined.
For Alaedini, the beginnings of a mechanism emerged: Some still-unidentified wheat component prompts the intestinal lining to become more permeable. (An imbalance in gut microbes might be a predisposing factor.) Components of bacteria then seem to sneak past immune cells in the underlying intestinal tissue and make their way to the bloodstream and liver, prompting inflammation.
"This is a real condition, and there can be objective, biological markers for it," Alaedini says. "That study changed a lot of minds, including my own."
The report says the study also impressed Guandalini, a long-time sceptic about the role of gluten. It "opens the way to finally reach an identifiable marker for this condition," he says.
But others see the immune-response explanation as a red herring. To them, the report says, the primary villain is FODMAPs. The term, coined by gastroenterologist Peter Gibson at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and his team, encompasses a smorgasbord of common foods. Onions and garlic; legumes; milk and yogurt; and fruits including apples, cherries, and mangoes are all high in FODMAPs. So is wheat: Carbs in wheat called fructans can account for as much as half of a person's FODMAP intake, dietitians in Gibson's group have estimated. The team found that those compounds ferment in the gut to cause symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, such as abdominal pain, bloating, and gas.
Gibson has long been sceptical of studies implicating gluten in such symptoms, arguing that those findings are hopelessly clouded by the nocebo effect, in which the mere expectation of swallowing the dreaded ingredient worsens symptoms. His team found that most patients couldn't reliably distinguish pure gluten from a placebo in a blinded test. He believes that many people feel better after eliminating wheat not because they have calmed some intricate immune reaction, but because they've reduced their intake of FODMAPs.
Lundin, who was firmly in the immune-reaction camp, didn't believe that FODMAPs could explain away all his patients. "I wanted to show that Peter was wrong," he says. During a 2-week sabbatical in the Monash lab, he found some quinoa-based snack bars designed to disguise the taste and texture of ingredients. "I said, 'We're going to take those muesli bars and we're going to do the perfect study.'"
His team recruited 59 people on self-instituted gluten-free diets and randomized them to receive one of three indistinguishable snack bars, containing isolated gluten, isolated FODMAP (fructan), or neither. After eating one type of bar daily for a week, they reported any symptoms. Then they waited for symptoms to resolve and started on a different bar until they had tested all three.
Before analysing patient responses, Lundin was confident that gluten would cause the worst symptoms. But when the study's blind was lifted, only the FODMAP symptoms even cleared the bar for statistical significance. Twenty-four of the 59 patients had their highest symptom scores after a week of the fructan-laced bars. Twenty-two responded most to the placebo, and just 13 to gluten, Lundin and his collaborators – who included Gibson – reported.
Lundin now believes FODMAPs explain the symptoms in most wheat-avoiding patients. "My main reason for doing that study was to find out a good method of finding gluten-sensitive individuals," he says. "And there were none. And that was quite amazing."
The report says at the Columbia meeting, Alaedini and Lundin went head to head in consecutive talks titled "It's the Wheat" and "It's FODMAPS." Each has a list of criticisms of the other's study. Alaedini contends that by recruiting broadly from the gluten-free population, instead of finding patients who reacted to wheat in a challenge, Lundin likely failed to include people with a true wheat sensitivity. Very few of Lundin's subjects reported symptoms outside the intestines, such as rash or fatigue, that might point to a widespread immune condition, Alaedini says. And he notes that the increase in patients' symptoms in response to the FODMAP snacks was just barely statistically significant.
Lundin, meanwhile, points out that the patients in Alaedini's study didn't go through a blinded challenge to check whether the immune markers he identified really spiked in response to wheat or gluten. The markers may not be specific to people with a wheat sensitivity, Lundin says.
The report says despite the adversarial titles of their talks, the two researchers find a lot of common ground. Alaedini agrees that FODMAPs explain some of the wheat-avoidance phenomenon. And Lundin acknowledges that some small population may really have an immune reaction to gluten or another component of wheat, though he sees no good way to find them.
The report says after the meeting, Elena Verdù, a gastroenterologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, puzzled over the polarisation of the field. "I don't understand why there is this need to be so dogmatic about 'it is this, it is not that,'" she says.
She worries that the scientific confusion breeds scepticism toward people who avoid gluten for medical reasons. When she dines with celiac patients, she says, waiters sometimes meet requests for gluten-free food with smirks and questions. Meanwhile, the conflicting messages may send nonceliac patients down a food-avoidance rabbit hole. "Patients are withdrawing gluten first, then lactose, and then FODMAPs – and then they are on a really, really poor diet," she says.
But Verdù believes careful research will ultimately break through the superstitions. She is president of the North American Society for the Study of Celiac Disease, which this year awarded its first grant to study nonceliac wheat sensitivity. She's hopeful that the search for biomarkers like those Alaedini has proposed will show that inside the monolith of gluten avoidance lurk multiple, nuanced conditions. "It will be difficult," she says, "but we are getting closer."Science Mag report


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Almost a century after the dark days of Prohibition, so-called speakeasy culture lives on — though you might not know it. The Secret Society: Modern Speakeasy Style and Design takes readers on an indulgent, voyeuristic tour of a secret world that exists all around us, where the nightlife elite revel in their exclusivity, hidden in plain sight.
From a converted synagogue where Parisians can enjoy late-night sacrilege and debacle, to luxurious members-only clubs that cost thousands of dollars annually and require finger-print scans for admittance, nightlife connoisseur Christian Alexander takes you through back alleys, pawn shop basements, refrigerator doors, and neon-lit sex shops, past the man asking for the secret password, and into the decadent underworld of the night.
Part interior design book, part nightlife cult bible, The Secret Society features over 300 never-before-captured photos of unseen venues around the world, along with revealing interviews with the scene's most iconic figures. These spots are so cool that even David Lynch's secret club didn't make the cut.
Let's let the author speak for himself.
ANIMAL: How did you come up with the idea for this project?
Christian Alexander: My publisher, Patrice Farameh, had this concept of modern speakeasy style and design. I explained to her how that whole world is like a secret society, and that became the title of the book. It's never been done before, and I've worked in nightlife 25 years, since I was 15 years old… I used to throw private clubs in my basement in high school, and charge kids a couple bucks to get in and sell them beers for a dollar, so you know, it was natural for me, just sort of evolution, I guess.
How did you find out about/select the locations featured in the book?
I worked with a lot of the people who work at these places. There's sort of a network that extends. It branches out, so we're all connected. I'm kind of the only one that could actually do this book. I have relationships with all these people, as opposed to being a competitor. They would never come together otherwise, but I brought them all together, so I see the project as sort of unifying nightlife. It's sociology. It's anthropology. It's not just an interior design book. It is a beautiful interior design book, but it's not a "nightlife" book. That's the thing. I just felt it would be good to tell the stories of the designers, door people, the music, the owners, these places, and how these places became.
Did you come across any issues, trying to expose these clubs that pride themselves on their secrecy?
Not really. I give you the city, and the latitude and longitude, but I don't give you the address, or the actual location. I mean, it's an interior design book, you're not like seeing people do anything actually inside them. The photos don't have people in them. I'm not really exposing anything that people don't already know.
From an interior design perspective, are there any aesthetic qualities that these places have in common?
Aesthetically, it's just the vision of the owners. They each have their own sort of vision and concept, but the exclusivity of them is the real commonality, the fact that you can't just roll up and get in. You have to know someone to get in. They all kind of respect each other, there's a mutual respect, but they're all unique, too, like the designer or the owner.
How long did you spend working on the book?
Six to seven months. It's hard to find these places, first of all, cause there are places in, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, London, Paris, Mexico City, Berlin, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, they're all over, you know? And Prohibition was an American thing, but the whole idea of just, people having a refuge, away from the masses and that sort of thing, watchful eyes on everyone, is everywhere. I would say that might be something, aesthetically, but even more, physically, that they have in common, that you can hide, in plain sight.
I noticed that a lot of the locations featured in your book are in New York. Do you think that New York has a special significance within the "speakeasy culture"?
New York is, well, think about Prohibition. We have that whole culture now, and it's always been kind of based in New York. You see it in Boardwalk Empire, things like that, you know? But it's not just "speakeasies." It's private clubs like Core: Club on the Upper East Side, which is $50,000.00 for membership, 15 annual, and they have a finger print scan. You have Soho House NY, Soho House Berlin, Home House in London, so it's not just speakeasies, some places are known about but you just have to be a member to get in. So, in that way, they sort of block certain people, that makes it exclusive.
Would you say that financial wealth is a common requirement for admittance to all these places?
No, not at all. That totally has nothing to do with it. Some of those places, because they're members-only clubs, and you pay a membership fee, well, yes. But for, like, Electric Room, you have to just, be cool, you know? Or like, Le Baron in China Town, or at La Esquina, which is a restaurant, you just have to make a reservation, but you can't just walk up and go in there, unless… There's a way you have to go about doing it. So, money is not an issue, for a majority of the places, you know? It's speakeasy culture.
When you say that for some of these places you just have to "be cool," does that mean that if you're cool enough, you can just go up to the door without any connections and get in?
Well that all comes down to doorman discretion. Your vibe, your energy, you know, like Megan Ronney, Disco, and Mina Soliman, and Fabrizio [Brienza], you know, those are all like legendary door people that are featured in the book. And they get more into that. They talk about, like, their experiences with how people treat them, how they get spit on, or punched in the face, by people that get turned away. So it's kind of dangerous being a doorman, you know? You're kind of setting yourself up for a lot of drama.
You call doormen the "gate keepers," right?
Yeah, the "Gate Keepers," yeah. But I also have some of the iconic nightlife people, like Nur Khan, Amy Sacco, Serge Becker or Richie Akiva, I call them "The Order of the Midnight Sun," because in Scandinavia they have this season where it's daytime at night, like 24 hours of sunlight for weeks, and it's called the "midnight sun". So those are the people that bring light into darkness, they illuminate the night. I have "The Sounds of Silence" for the music people. The Sounds of Silence. And then you have the "All Seeing Eyes", those are like, the visionaries.
Am I picking up on some Illuminati-type references here?
Yeah, the "All Seeing Eyes," like on the dollar bill, there's a pyramid called the "all-seeing eye," so I played off of that for the visionaries, the designers. It's this idea of a secret society. It's not just "nightlife people". I have Waris Ahluwalia, the actor — you may have seen him in a lot of Wes Anderson films. I have Mazdack Rassi, he owns Milk Studios, where they have this hidden space, the Milk Jam Room, in the basement. That's where, like, Patti Smith and Michael Stipe used to jam… Most of the people that work at Milk Studios are musicians so he created like a little garage, with instruments and stuff. But no one knows that it's there, you gotta go through the garage…
I have Michael Holman, who was in a band called Gray with Vincent Gallo and John-Michel Basquiat, and he just released a documentary called Downtown Calling… So it's not just nightlife people, it's people who are sort of just, in The Society of the Night. It all intertwines. It's not a monarchy. There are no kings and queens. It's a society. They all respect each other. There's small degrees of separation between everyone. It's all connected. They're either friends with the owner, or they work with the club, or they've done something there, or they're just in that network… This is what I see. This is my opinion, when I curated the book.
There are some people that aren't in the book that may be like huge, and popular, and that everyone knows, but I don't see them as being relevant. I don't see them doing anything avant garde, or cutting edge.
Did you have any bizarre or particularly interesting experiences while researching for the book?
Well, I interviewed David Lynch. That was kind of bizarre… Although David's not in the book, but he designed a club in Paris, Silencio, that didn't actually make the final cut, for whatever reasons… But trying to think of questions for David Lynch! Even just finding him. That club was based on a club, also named Silencio, which was in Mulholland Drive. So what he did was he opened a club in Paris, six floors underground, and each room is sort of inspired by the movie Mulholland Drive. But just to get to him, I had to go through a lot of his transcendental meditation people… I had to go through that to find him. Because the club wasn't so readily eager to put me in touch with him. So I was like… Find David Lynch. Finally, I got in touch with him, but it wasn't face to face.
The last question I asked him was, who's David Lynch? Because all his movies have a club. Blue Velvet has a club, Lost Highway has a club, you have like the Bang Bang Bar in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me… There's always some relationship between dreams, and clubs, in his work. So I was like, what is the deal with that?
What did he say?
Well… I'm saving that. I'm saving that for something.
Fine, fine. That would be like learning the meaning of life, if I found out, it would probably kill me. Anyway, can you see yourself ever opening up one of these places?
Yeah. Some day. But if I did it I would do it in like, Zurich or something weird like that. I wouldn't do it in New York. I like to move around, I can't lock myself into one place, you know?
What are some of your personal favorite spots featured in the book?
I would say, Electric Room, which is in the basement of the Dream Hotel. You go down a ramp, and through the garage entrance, underneath the Dream Hotel, you walk in there and its rock n' roll couture, very rock n' roll old school… It's just such a beautiful place.
There's The Box, obviously, I used to run The Box for 3 years, when it opened, and that place is just amazing. You have Le Pompon, in Paris, which used to be a synagogue. Then there's this pop-up, that Tony Hornecker does, it's called The Pale Blue Door, and he builds these installations inside a warehouse and makes it like you're outside, but you're inside, at night. He has these private dinner parties, and it looks like Alice in Wonderland, like a tea party for Alice and Wonderland, just super bizarre. He does it in London and different places, he moves all around.
But you have to understand, no one's ever shot these places. You're not even allowed in, let alone to shoot them. So I'm opening up the doors for the world to see what the doors look like inside. It doesn't mean you can get in, but, like, you know, you can just have all these places in one book. All the places you've always wanted to go.
The Secret Society: Modern Speakeasy Style and Design is currently available for purchase at Barney's New York. Fred Segal, Clic Bookstore, Maison 24, Mendo Creative Bookstore, and Treasure & Bond, and online through Farameh Media.
(All images: Ronald J. Abbate)


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Deynaba Farah is a native of Danlahel, Somalia who moved to Syracuse in 2006 and graduated from Nottingham High School. At OCC she majored in Human Services. Her career goal is to work with children and help them understand the benefits of getting an education. During the 2014-15 academic year Farah was the Student Representative on the College's Board of Trustees. "I was honored to be selected as the voice of the students. It was great to meet people, realize they are just like me and learn about all of the great things happening here." Farah credits OCC with being a prefect fit for her. "I'm so glad I came here. It gave me a head start on life. If I went to a four-year university first I would have been lost. This was perfect for me."
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Remember your high school English teachers? One of them was the strict grammarian, right? He seemed like he was always on the edge, ready to break into a million jagged pieces if you wandered just a little bit from the tidy corner of Strunk & White. There was the classic lit teacher—she was at least 100 years old and could quote Shakespeare and Dante better than Shakespeare and Dante. And what about the grizzled fireplug who taught you bits and shards about Twain and Hemingway and Faulkner when he wasn't investing way more energy coaching the school football team, visions of state championships and college sidelines swirling in his head.
But then there was the other English teacher. The cool one, as cool as you dared believe any high school English teacher can be. He seemed to get you, and you seemed to get him, and even though neither of you had a clue about what the other did off school grounds, to this day you smile when you remember what he taught you about reading and writing that matters.
That man is our guest today on the Gazalapalooza Author Spotlight. His name is Geoffrey Girard, and his new scary thriller Cain's Blood is fresh of the presses. When he's not teaching English at a prestigious private boys' high school in Ohio, he's writing, and winning awards and accolades for what he writes. Exemplifying the latter, no less an authority than the National Book Examiner calls Cain's Blood, "Compelling and repulsive… A page-turner par excellence."
It appears our esteemed authorial colleague Mr. Girard copes masterfully with the grisly, and the macabre. Cain's Blood is exhibit one on that score, trust us. Perhaps it's too much to hope that the piercing beams from our array of unforgiving klieg lights will make the man sweat, or squirm a bit. But hope o we will, as we get this edition of the Author Spotlight underway.
Gazala: In my omnipotence, I've sentenced you to be stranded alone on a desert island for offenses best left unnamed. In my beneficence, I've decided to allow you a limited amount of reading material to make your stay a little less bleak than it would otherwise be. I'll spot you your religious text of preference, and the collected works of William Shakespeare. In addition to those, name the one fiction book, and the one nonfiction book, you'd choose to take with you, and tell why you choose them.
Girard: Literary practicality wins here. There are perfect books I've reread a dozen times (e.g., A Prayer for Owen Meany, Shadowland, Dubliners), but the idea of having to read only one of them for the rest of my life is not appealing. And while The Lord of the Rings is probably the most pivotal fiction of my life, the writing itself ain't all that hot. So… I'm gonna go with Infinite Jest. I think Wallace is a brilliant writer and thinker. I reread his shorter work often just for the language, but have only tackled Jest once. At 1000+ pages, that's a lot of ground still to cover a few more times. Broken up, Infinite Jest can be hundreds of stand-alone stories/scenes. It's my generation's The Divine Comedy in a way, I think. So, plenty to think over there.
Since you've stranded me alone on a desert island, under those circumstances there is no nonfiction book I'd ever want to re-read other than 1000 Ways to Cook a Seagull. (Ed. note: despite valiant effort, to date Gazalapalooza's crack staff of expert librarians has been unable to confirm the existence of this book. The closest they've gotten is 1001 Ways to Cook Jonathan Livingston Seagull.)
Gazala: Your latest book is an excellent and gripping novel titled Cain's Blood, centered on the U.S. Defense Department's use of cloned DNA from nefarious serial killers to develop a new breed of terrifying bioweapon. I've read it. I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it highly. Shockingly enough, however, from time to time my bare recommendation doesn't always motivate a book's potential reader to become a book's actual reader. Tell us something about Cain's Blood, and why its potential reader should make the leap and become its actual reader.
Girard: Thank you for the endorsement.
For thriller/horror fans: Cain's Blood is Jurassic Park with serial killers. If you're a serial killer aficionada, you might enjoy. They're all here: Gacy, Bundy, Dahmer, Fish, etc. And they're all teens, some of who would scare the shit out of their genetic forefathers. There's some dark fun to be had. The Ruins author (ed. note: Scott Smith) called Cain's Blood "deeply twisted," and R.L. Stine says it "still creeps him out." Coming from those guys…
For you English-class lovers: Cain's Blood is something more like Huckleberry Finn, or On the Road. Two broken characters (a war vet not quite home yet and a teen who's just discovered he's the clone of Jeffrey Dahmer) make their way across America (and all that means), figuring out how to deal with each other and themselves, and hopefully come out okay on the other side.
Gazala: What are books for?
Girard: Easier than finding a cave to paint on, I suppose. I teach high school English and am always reminding the guys that Art is Art: be it a book, song, painting, dance, video game, movie, etc. Even when it's "just" entertainment, there's usually a legit and worthwhile portrayal/ examination of "being human" within that entertainment. And for those books, songs, etc., that strive to dig a little deeper, all the better. Books are simply one way to do that.
Gazala: W. Somerset Maugham said, "There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." Do you agree, or disagree, and why?
Girard: I might make it ten rules to writing to muck it up even more. Yes, I agree no one knows what these rules (three, ten, or 50) are. I believe Twain has some line to the effect that the three rules are: write, write and… write. Other than that, who knows? I've been doing this seriously about ten years and have met a hundred other authors, each with his or her own style, methods, voice, habits, weaknesses, craft, etc. And even once you've tied it down to one writer, they'll change it up too. Cain's Blood was written in an entirely different way than Project Cain (a spinoff I wrote for teen readers). I changed up the devices used, voice, story structure, mechanics, etc. Wanted to try something new for that particular wall painting. Part of the fun of writing (and reading) is trying new things, even it proves personally unsatisfying in the end.
Gazala: I'm knee-deep in a robust philosophical argument about nature versus nurture with a weird guy who calls himself Tad Bundy. This may take a while. Ask yourself a question, and answer it.
Girard: Q: Do you think the science in Cain's Blood is possible? A: We went from cloning sheep to cloning monkeys in just three years. And that was 15 years ago. You're asking me to believe we haven't gone from monkey to human in those ensuing 15 years? That's absurd. Furthermore, America spends more money researching weapons than it does on medicine, agriculture, manufacturing, education, and transportation combined. And most all of that research is conducted via black budgets with 0.0 regulation or public accountability. I'd say "possible" is fair.
Compelling and repulsive though it surely sounds, we still can't track down a copy of 1000 Ways to Cook a Seagull. We're not often stumped—it's quite disturbing. How can we make this up to you, our very gracious and stunningly attractive reader? By positioning you with the merest mouse click to get your own copy of Geoffrey Girard's Cain's Blood right from Amazon.com, that's how. We overpay our debts, here. You're welcome.


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A quick one before bed.
I hope you are well.
Yesterday after work I went to a local store for scrapbooking. She celebrate 1 year. All in the store 35% discount.
PTW - Anything goes #69
Pink Ink sketch - Kylie´s sketch #18
The Pink Elephant Challenge - Lets see those layers TPE138
Here is the sketch
Image - Whiff of Joy
Coluring medium - Promarker
DP - Maja Design "Crea Diem"
Chalk - Orchid Pastel
Card Candy - Crafty Emmas Store
ribbon, pin, flowers from stash
Thanks for stopping by.


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Saturday, 26 February 2011 11:50 AM
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett has offered Berkshire Hathaway shareholders a few new details about how the company will function once he is no longer running it, but he hasn't significantly altered the succession plan he's outlined before.
The 80-year-old chairman and CEO of Berkshire says in his annual letter Saturday said that investment manager Todd Combs will manage between $1 billion and $3 billion of Berkshire's $158 billion investment portfolio.
Berkshire hired Combs last fall, and Buffett says Combs has the risk aversion, dedication and track record he wants in an investment manager.
Buffett also reminded investors that Berkshire has little chance of matching its past stellar performance because the company is so large.
But Buffett says he's looking for more big acquisitions.
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Gabrielle Carey is often unfairly referred to as 'the other writer' of Puberty Blues (first published in 1979), overshadowed by the effusive Kathy Lette, who has written a series of laugh-out-loud best sellers. While Gabrielle might prefer a life with less publicity, she is no lesser a writer.
I first read Puberty Blues in 1981, and on re-reading it this year to coincide with the new Channel 10 miniseries based on the book, it's hard to see where Kathy stops and Gabrielle begins, and vice versa. This is a seamlessly co-authored book about a no-holes-barred coming of age.
It's Sydney in the 70s. To be correct, it's The Shire in the 70s – the Sutherland Shire for those who are unfamiliar with the term; a parochial and rather picturesque waterside part of Sydney's sprawl, south of the city. The Shire doesn't really associate itself as being part of Sydney, it's its own entity, but that's by the by.
Debbie and Sue are thirteen and best friends. Like any teenage girls in their first year in high school, they are desperate to fit in, to be accepted, to be two of the cool kids. Most of all, they want to be part of the gang that hangs at Greenhills beach at North Cronulla, where the best surfers and the coolest chicks spend their lives on the beach. Long blonde hair, a deep suntan and a packet of Malboros are de rigeur.
They were the 'uniform' of "little white shirts, short-sleeved jumpers, thongs and straight-legged Levis covering little black bikinis", signalling they are cool Cronulla girls and not "Bankies" from the western suburbs who wear flared Amcos. They are slaves to their surfie-chick lifestyle and slaves to the surfies, fetching the boys food such as Chiko Rolls but not eating themselves. "Girls never ate in front of their boyfriends. It was unladylike to open your mouth and shove something in it. We were also busting to go to the dunny but that was too rude for girls. Our stomachs rumbled and our bladders burst. It was a great day at the beach." Women's lib may have been turning around the lives and careers of their mothers, but surfie culture saw girls taking a back and very adoring seat to their boys. Being surfer chicks meant not going in the water oneself. Debbie and Sue are destined to sit on the beach, not even taking a dip on the hottest days; picking up a surfboard themselves is totally out of the question. They are subservient but they love it, they are living their teenage dream.
Cheating in an exam and not dobbing on other cheaters gets Sue and Debbie into the coolest gang, the one that sits at the back of the bus. "The best thing about being in the gang was that all the spunkiest guys on Cronulla Beach were in it. It didn't matter what boy picked you, 'cause in the looks department, you never got a bummer."
They're longing to lose their virginity – boys have already 'titted them off' and put hands down their pants, but they haven't gone the whole way yet; they have, however, progressed to dry roots on Cronulla beach. But now it's time for the "spreading of the legs and the splitting up the middle".
Debbie is 'chosen' by Bruce, who is 17, and Sue by Danny. A kiss and "Will you go round wiv me?" is standard courting practice. The boys, note, choose the girls and not the other way around. The girls are delighted but also pragmatic about sex. "You had to 'go out' with a guy for at least two weeks before you'd let him screw you. You had to time it perfectly. If you waited too long you were a tight-arsed prickteaser. If you let him too early, you were a slack-arsed moll. So, after a few weeks, he'd ask you for a root, and if you wanted to keep him, you'd do it."
For Debbie, Bruce's panel van is the chosen venue; first attempts don't go well. This is an underdeveloped girl who hasn't even had her first period, but she is too embarrassed to admit it.
Parents and family barely feature in Puberty Blues. (In the 1981 film and in the current miniseries, parents and family play a much larger role) For teenagers, your gang and your friends are your life. We meet Sue's mother Mrs Knight, briefly, as the girls and their friends and boyfriends huddle together in the family's tv room downstairs. When Mrs Knight comes downstairs with a packet of chips the kids spring off each other, hastily zippering up Levis.
Debbie's parents, who are apparently reasonably well-off with a three storey brick house and a swimming pool, disapprove of Bruce and his panel van with sex posters on the walls. She reverts to subterfuge, meeting him on the corner of her street instead.
Parents who read this book when it was first released were horrified to find out that this work of fiction was based on reality and the behaviour of kids in the Shire at the time. Underage sex, gang rapes, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol (Brandivino! My God, I'd forgotten it existed!). Debbie and Sue lie cheerfully to their parents about spending evenings at the movies as they wander through a world of sex and surfers. When I first read this book I was 19 and had endured a very strict North Shore upbringing; hell, I wasn't allowed out in daylight at 13 or 14, let alone at night. I was at first envious of the freedom Debbie and Sue had, then sorry for them, as fitting in with the cool kids doesn't always bring happiness.
Debbie is still mortified that every time Bruce tries to root her, he can't get in; she's just too small and he's too big. Finally he drops her, and she 'goes round' with Garry instead, becoming real friends with him. After three months together she and Garry haven't had sex and Debbie is concerned Garry will drop her. Finally she has sex with him at Sue's parent's holiday house.
But times are changing. The girls turn fourteen and suddenly marijuana is in fashion. "Garden hoses all over Sylvania started shrinking. If we didn't bong it, we smoked it in a joint." Garry, however, has gone one step further and discovered heroin although Debbie doesn't realise it at the time. She finds him remote and unaffectionate, and then finds Wayne instead.
As her body develops Debbie discovers she enjoys sex after all, and she and Wayne use every opportunity to root. She finds out she's pregnant and can't tell her parents, but miscarries almost immediately, to her relief. As a reader I was surprised that something so major could be covered in less than a page and rather unemotionally at that. In fact the book rushes to a conclusion in the last third at a pace that suggests to me the authors just wanted to get it finished.
Seeing Garry stoned out of his brain in the street is a wake-up call for Debbie and Sue; if they keep getting stoned on marijuana themselves and work their way up to heroin this could be them. He is pale and thin, his surfie physique now a 'soggy slouch'. "He lifted up his blank face and seemed to stare straight through me."
"It stinks," I said, stamping out my cigarette.
So Debbie and Sue pool their money and buy a surfboard. Practising with the nerds first on South Cronulla, they work their way up to Greenhills beach. Their gang drops them. Their boyfriends drop them. Girls don't surf, remember? The girls have a brilliant time on the board that afternoon. The reader gathers they've decided they don't need boys, drugs or booze to be happy, they want to do their own thing and be respected for it, and they walk away from the beach leaving the others there. The End. An epilogue reveals that other characters in the book end up on drugs, in jail or unmarried mothers. Debbie and Sue, however, drop out of school and write this book when they are 18. As school dropouts, they have done much better than their old friends, which is scary in itself as a concept.
What I did love about re-reading this book was the language. It's the language of my own teens, the slang, the way everything was unrool and guys were spunks and you didn't have sex or make love, you rooted (which confused Americans!). If you're not Australian you won't get it. Um, if you're not of a certain age you mightn't get it either. Maybe it should come with footnotes or a glossary!
It's not a long book – in fact it took me less than two hours to read it – and the voices in it are authentic. It's funny as hell. I would love to see the term 'slack-arsed moll' come back into usage! It's also scary as hell; as a semi-autobiographical novel, you ache for what these girls go through.
While Debbie is the main narrator, the book switches occasionally from first person to third when an episode concerns Sue; this can be a bit annoying and I'm surprised it wasn't edited more carefully to make it more fluent and flowing.
It's a time capsule of the 70s, with sexist attitudes and behaviour, but the issues for girls these days haven't changed much. There is still the pressure to fit in with peers, although these days it's likely to be having the right smartphone or the right charms on your Pandora. There is still the pressure to have sex with boys, to take drugs. Teenagers still sneak out the window at night and roam the streets. For teens there will always be a subculture adults can't comprehend, and Puberty Blues captures it beautifully. It's unrool. Deadset.
(I read Puberty Blues as a Kindle e-book.)