text:
The MM Hub is delighted to report on the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA. On Sunday 10 December 2017 an oral abstract session took place entitled: Session: 653. Myeloma: Therapy, excluding Transplantation: Upfront Therapy for Multiple Myeloma: Induction and Maintenance. In this session, Di. Mitsuo Hori from the Ibaraki Prefectural Central Hospital, Ibaraki, Japan, presented the findings of a phase II study. The title of the talk (Abstract 434) was: Elotuzumab Plus Lenalidomide/Dexamethasone (ELd) Vs Ld in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma: Phase 2, Randomized, Open-Label Study in Japan. This article is based on the pre-published abstract.
The study was designed to test the effects of elotuzumab with lenalidomide plus dexamethasone in comparison with lenalidomide and dexamethasone alone, in patients with Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma (NDMM). Elotuzumab has shown efficacy in Relapsed Refractory MM (RRMM), but this is the first trial testing efficacy in NDMM.
Key Findings:
- Patients (pts), n = 82 total
- Elotuzumab, lenalidomide, dexamethasone (ELd) = 40 pts
- Lenalidomide, dexamethasone (Ld) = 42 pts
- Median Age = 72 years (ELd) and 73 years (Ld)
- Clinical Response Results
- CR: 3% ELd vs 5% Ld
- VGPR: 38% ELd vs 21% Ld
- PR: 43% ELd vs 45% Ld
- Progressive Disease: 0% ELd vs 2% Ld
- ORR: 88% ELd vs 74% Ld
- Most common adverse events (AEs) (ELd vs Ld): constipation (43% vs 31%), pyrexia (35% vs 7%), rash (28% vs 36%), diarrhea (28% vs 21%), nasopharyngitis (25% vs 26%), dysgeusia (23% vs 19%), malaise (23% vs 2%), peripheral edema (20% vs 14%), neutropenia (20% vs 14%), leukopenia (20% vs 7%), and back pain (18% vs 21%)
- Most common grade 3-4 AEs (ELd vs Ld): neutropenia (10% vs 7%) and leukopenia (15% vs 0%)
While data for PFS and OS are not yet available, ELd did show improved ORR when compared to Ld therapy. ELd had a comparable safety profile, which makes this therapeutic option attractive for further study in patients with NDMM.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Home Set - English $ 19.99
Home Set - English
$ 19.99
This simple tool supports parents' ability to reinforce 14 positive character traits in their children. When used consistently, the HONORABLE CHARACTER™ Home Set eliminates the frustrations of nagging and negative discipline. The chore chart can be used to incorporate monetary rewards and provide a way for parents to train children in money management principles, including saving, giving, and delayed gratification.
The Home Set includes:
- 5" x 15" HONORABLE CHARACTER™ Poster
- 8.5" x 11" HONORABLE CHARACTER™ Character and Chore Chart pad - 55 weekly charts
- HONORABLE CHARACTER™ Bookmark
- Recommend one pad per child


text:
Thank you to our 2019 gardeners and visitors we are looking forward to seeing you during our 2020 garden festival!
Take a walk around an urban permaculture garden and food forest with gardener and teacher Dee Turner. See how soil is built by layering carbon and nitrogen layers from waste materials from the home and garden. Look
at how you can combine fruit trees, fruiting crops, perennials, root crops, bulbs and climbers into an enhanced foodscape that feeds itself. Dee has done away with the conventional orchard and mowing, and instead grows plant guilds around her fruit trees to feed them, keep away the bugs, and obtain a yield all at the same time. Herb and edible groundcovers grow where grass once was, and annuals self-seed every season along with alpine strawberries. There's always food to harvest all year round with minimal weeding and pruning – a great solution for a busy lifestyle.


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Thank you for reading our post. We welcome your comments, shares and even your input. Have you seen our Sports Wear Kit Designer? You can design
Welcoming Aberavon Harlequins to #TeamSTC
Jamie Warner – MD at STC Teamwear with over 15 years' experience in the custom design and manufacturing of sportswear


text:
ELIZABETH — Dressing up to dance the night away at prom is a rite of passage enjoyed by a new generation of teens each spring. However, it's an experience from which many with developmental disabilities such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism are excluded.
So, Community Access Unlimited is throwing a prom and everyone is invited.
Since this year's theme is disco, flashing strobe lights and the thump of funky 1970s hits will transform the CAU Auditorium at 80 West Grand St. into a boogie wonderland Friday, July 27.
Gary Rubin is the president of Helping Hands, a self-advocacy group that works with CAU's staff to create the prom and many other projects. He has helped plan the prom for several years and said the upcoming evening will be fun, especially for those with developmental disabilities, or different abilities.
"The people with different abilities, a lot of us didn't get to go to our proms, our senior proms, when we were going to school," Rubin said. "This kind of makes up for it because we weren't treated so equally growing up as other kids were in school and whatnot. This kind of makes up for what we missed growing up."
Charlene Walker, an advocate coordinator for CAU and an advisor for Helping Hands, said the prom is open to anyone of any age, not just those enrolled in CAU's programs.
There will be food, a DJ and a photo booth. Most of the people with different abilities in attendance will be older than the typical teenage prom-goer.
Walker said that many people with developmental disabilities were not invited to their proms and others didn't want to go because they feared being singled out, a fear that some carry into adulthood.
"Unfortunately, we have a long way to go when it come toward acceptance in this country, especially in our immediate area," Walker said. "So, some of the individuals who are coming will have dates and are in long-term relationships, but they don't necessarily feel comfortable going to a local club. They don't feel as if they will be accepted. So, this is their outing to be able to go out dancing."
Disco fever had started to recede when CAU launched in 1979, with a $90,000 grant and the desire to help take people out of developmental centers and institutions to help them live more independent lives, Walker said.
In the decades since, CAU has become a $70 million corporation with 1,200 staff members. It provides several services for people with different abilities, such as a placement program that locates housing. CAU provides supervision, whether it's round the clock or for a few hours a day, to help balance checkbooks, draft grocery lists and other daily tasks.
In addition, CAU has other programs, including one for at-risk youth who are aging out of the foster care system; a home health service that goes to the homes of seniors to help clean gutters and mow lawns; and an employment-support program that works as a bridge between employers and employees with different abilities.
Helping Hands is run by its members, and CAU advisors such as Walker are there, she say, to "carry out what their vision is," whether by planning presentations with school systems about the needs for people with different abilities or organizing a prom.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates in the United States that about one in six children, ages 3 through 17, have a one or more developmental disabilities. It defines developmental disabilities as "a group of conditions due to an impairment in the physical, learning, language or behavior areas."
Prom attendee Marcella Truppa looks forward to the event each year, and said she is excited to go with Mark Bloom, her boyfriend of 19 years.
"We have a great time dancing at the prom each year," Truppa said. "He loves to dance. I can't get him off the dance floor."
For more information or to preregister, log on to caunj.org. A fee is charged to attend this event.


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datetime package (obsolete) FAQ
This is the FAQ for the obsolete datetime package. This package has been replaced by datetime2.
- General Queries
- How do I change the date separator for numerical dates?
- How do I change the time separator for numerical times?
- How can I save a date for later use?
- Is there multilingual support for the days of the week?
- Is there multilingual support for \textdate?
- Why is there only limited multilingual support?
- Why is the default format UK English?
- How can I set up a different set of default package options?
- How do I make just the year appear?
- Why can't my package manager find datetime.sty?
- Unexpected Output
- Package Errors
- LaTeX2HTML support
General Queries
The default date separator for numerical dates is / as from version 2.43, this can be changed by redefining \dateseparator.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 16:49:49.
As from version 2.43, this can be changed by redefining \timeseparator
Last modified: 2013-12-08 16:50:19.
As from version 2.45, you can save a date using \newdate. See the datetime documentation for details.
Last modified: 2013-12-09 10:26:04.
Currently there is only limited support for the days of the week. If you want support for another language, please post a feature request with the equivalent of the following code, replacing english with the language name (as used by babel) and replacing Sunday etc with the appropriate translations (including accent commands etc):
\providecommand{\dayofweeknameidenglish}[1]{% \ifcase#1\relax \or Sunday% \or Monday% \or Tuesday% \or Wednesday% \or Thursday% \or Friday% \or Saturday% \fi} \providecommand{\shortdayofweeknameidenglish}[1]{% \ifcase#1\relax \or Sun% \or Mon% \or Tue% \or Wed% \or Thu% \or Fri% \or Sat% \fi}Please use actual LaTeX commands for the accents as the package code needs to be encoding-independent.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 16:54:53.
\textdate was defined before multilingual support was added, and so uses the English style of writing a textual date, which won't be appropriate for other languages, so it won't look right if used if the current language is not English. If you want to write your own textual date format, you need to bear in mind that the fmtcount package (which is used to convert numbers and ordinals into words) only has very limited multilingual support, and see also Is there multilingual support for the days of the week?.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 16:56:36.
Because there is a limit to the number of languages I can speak! I am therefore dependent on people supplying me the information for all the other languages.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 16:57:16.
I originally wrote datetime as an alternative to ukdate, which isn't in the major TeX distributions. (This was before babel.) datetime was only intended as a UK date formatting package, but after repeated requests, I added multi-lingual support. The UK format remained as the default.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:03:14.
Create a file called datetime.cfg, and put the appropriate commands in it. Then save it to somewhere on the TeX path. However, if you share your document code with other people, make sure you also supply your custom datetime.cfg file if it's important that they replicate your date and time format.
Last modified: 2013-12-09 09:36:37.
You don't need datetime for this. Just use \the\year.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:06:29.
The datetime package has been made obsolete. The replacement package is datetime2.
Obsolete packages remain available in the CTAN obsolete tree. Your TeX distribution may not contain some obsolete packages. If this is the case, you will need to download datetime.sty from CTAN and manually install.
It's your choice if you want to continue to use an obsolete package, but you should be aware that any issues with unmaintained packages won't be fixed.
Last modified: 2015-03-27 05:57:18.
Unexpected Output
This has been fixed in version 2.46.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:07:18.
Make sure you are using at least version 2.49 of the datetime package, and at least version 1.07 of the fmtcount package. If you are using UKenglish or USenglish, make sure you are using at least version 2.53 of the datetime package. Remember also that you must load babel before loading the datetime package.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:08:41.
This has been fixed in version 2.48.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:09:19.
This has been fixed in version 2.55.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:09:44.
Package Errors
In versions prior to 2.46, you need to \protect it. As from version 2.46, \currenttime has been made a robust command.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:11:43.
In versions prior to 2.46, you need to \protect it. As from version 2.46, \today has been made a robust command. The same also applies to declarations which change the date format (e.g. \longdate), and also \currenttime.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:12:53.
In versions prior to 2.46, you need to \protect it. As from version 2.46, \longdate etc have been made robust.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:14:08.
Make sure you are using at least version 2.49 of the datetime package, and at least version 1.06 of the fmtcount package.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:14:54.
Make sure you are using at least version 2.49 of the datetime package, and at least version 1.06 of the fmtcount package.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:15:39.
You are probably using an old version of datetime with a new version of fmtcount.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:16:32.
LaTeX2HTML support
Because I haven't worked out how to implement it.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:17:48.
Because they are not supported by the LaTeX2HTML implementation of the babel package.
Last modified: 2013-12-08 17:18:22.


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Off The IceFebruary 14, 2009
I, like many cunts I know, have unhealthy obsessions. And the one that hurts our wallets the most has to be Fluevog.
When you can identify the shoe's name and the family it belongs to, you know it's gone too far. You're sucked in, and the only way out is by spending every penny you save on foot orgasms.
Those of us besotted with the brand are currently squealing with joy in response to a few new releases.
Body Part: The Business Boots! The only boot that's a shoe and a boyfriend (if i need to spell it out for you, the heel is shaped like a cock). $549
The LA: Melrose! The long awaited cousin to the legendary Grand Nationals. $445
The Earl of Warwick: Coventry! The fairest of the 2009 Men's line. $295


text:
Troway Wall Mirror In Natural Metal Finish With Radius Top Reminds you of Window Frame which can be mounted on any wall without any hesitation
Finish: Natural Metal Finish
Troway Wall Mirror In Natural Metal Finish With Radius Top
Natural Metal Finish
With its iron grid and curved top.
Timeless Classic look with it's Radius Top
This unusual and striking mirror reminds you of a window frame
The item can be mounted to any wall with no fuss.
It will define a room and add extra depth to your existing
It's sure to be a great conversation starter.
This high quality product is sure to become a much loved feature in any home.
Ideal for your Hallway, Living, And Dining Room or Bathroom
Available at an affordable price
Height: 91cm
Width: 76cm
© 2020 Furniture in Fashion


text:
David Rosenfeld is a Vice President / Sr. Complex leader for a fortune 500 Wealth Management Firm covering the Palm Beach County area offices. Dave oversees a team of Financial Consultants, Associate Financial Consultants, Client Relationship Managers as well as Client Relationship Specialists. His roles include sales coaching, process management, client presentations, analysis of performance data for trends and actions, interviewing prospective employees and collaborating with business partners including compliance and human resources. For 20 years, Dave's ultimate responsibility has been the meeting of client needs while increasing the branch office's presence in his respective markets.
Dave's experience with nonprofit work includes a board member seat with the Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County as well as an advisor to Youth Expressions. Dave has mentored numerous children in the area and has been a speaker in several schools regarding finance and overall leadership.
Dave is married to his wife Rachel and they have 5 children between them. 3 – 15 year olds and 2 – 13 year olds. In his "spare time", Dave loves to watch his boys play ice hockey and will get on the ice with them from time to time. He also enjoys travelling with Rachel, 1:1 time with each of his girls and playing sports with all of his kids.


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As 2011 comes to a close, I've decided to review the new Clone Wars vehicles I've acquired over the past year. Hasbro continues to produce an exciting array of action figures and accessories for this latest line of Star Wars products, and their figures remain as consistent in quality and scale as ever. Unfortunately (given the compromises necessary to maintain such a large and varied toy line in an ever-changing market), their vehicle line is constantly hampered by gross inconsistencies in scale and proportion. To my frustration, the five new vehicles presented here (while all intended for use with their line of 1:18 action figures) were each produced at a uniquely different scale.
The only one accurately to scale with their action figures is the "Republic Swamp Speeder," or ISP (that's Infantry Support Platform), not to be confused with Kenner's ridiculous ISP-6 (nor your Internet Service Provider, for that matter). Among the various automobiles in Star Wars — or speeders, to use the in-universe nomenclature — this one's one of my favorites, even though it can only barely be glimpsed in Revenge of the Sith, and doesn't appear in The Clone Wars TV series at all. The best reference image I could find comes from Star Wars: Complete Cross-Sections (one of the only images in the book that isn't, in fact, a cross-section):
Illustrated by either Hans Jenssen or Richard Chasemore (or John Mullaney, or Jon Hall); DK Publishing is not clear on this point.
It appears more frequently in movie tie-in video games, and its single Clone Wars appearance comes from a comic book.
The toy is lovingly detailed, with appropriately weathered paint applications, and includes a design feature entirely unique to Star Wars vehicles: seat belts!
However, despite being made of soft, flexible rubber, actually fitting them over a figure in Clone Trooper armor requires the patience and dexterity of a Jedi.
I somehow managed to get the starboard driver belted in without incident, but the port seat belt wouldn't stay in its housing and eventually needed to be glued down.
The figure's hands kept popping out of his forearms, too, since the control sticks on the seats are just a little too far forward for the figure to comfortably reach. Again, Krazy glue provided a permanent (if problematic) solution, and my Clone Troopers look right at home at the controls.
There are pegs molded into the platform on either side of the craft, so other figures can be mounted standing on the vehicle. Of course, unless there's some kind of "anti-gravity plating" or "acceleration compensators" built into the floor, there's no way anyone could remain standing while the craft is in motion… and if they could, then seat belts for the drivers hardly seem necessary, do they?
Those pegs are perfectly adequate for keeping figures firmly attached, even when the vehicle is in motion. Wheels concealed on the underside of the toy allow it to roll smooth and easily across the floor.
The package even comes with this gorgeous cardboard backdrop depicting Felucia… although for some reason, mine didn't.
The other speeder I picked up this year also came with an impressive cardboard display diorama, this one beautifully depicting a vast industrial sector of Coruscant:
The painting accurately recreates a setting featured in the Clone Wars episode "Lethal Trackdown."
In the episode, Plo Koon and Ahsoka take a Praxis Mk. I down into the seedy underworld of Coruscant.
It's a huge speeder (larger than even most of the fighter craft seen in Star Wars), and its sleek, manta ray profile suggests great speed. The open-air cockpit looks awfully dangerous — no seat belts here! — and the windshield's not quite high enough to cover the top of Plo Koon's head.
Maybe that's how he lost his hair.
The toy version, as you can see, is considerably under-scaled; about 1:24, I estimate. Two figures can sit in the cockpit (provided they're of frail Clone Wars proportions), but the windscreen's reduced to little more than a dashboard cover.
Behind the cockpit there's an astrodroid socket, and putting an R2 unit back there makes the scale discrepancy even more apparent… but without a droid there's just a gaping hole in the fuselage, which is equally unattractive.
Still, the dashboard's nicely detailed, including instrument panel stickers, and even the floor of the craft has sculpted detail!
Unfortunately, there are unsightly holes in the engine pods for loading and firing spring-loaded missiles.
More missile launchers are concealed in the front of the speeder (retractable sections pull out from either side), and the rear section opens to reveal further guns facing fore and aft, with pegs to attach gunners. Jedi don't carry guns, of course — as Yoda famously tells Luke, "a Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack" — so naturally, Hasbro's "Jedi Turbo Speeder" is armed to the teeth.
Another toyetic compromise to appeal to gun-loving American boys, perhaps? Or is this part of a larger Hasbro agenda to fuel the military-industrial complex? (Hey, what blog is complete without wild conspiracy theories?)
Despite its abundant play features, however, this one does not have wheels concealed in the undercarriage; it may look fast, but it won't move an inch.
The graceful backswept wings are made of soft PVC plastic, and don't hold their shape well; they also have hinges attached at their base, for no apparent reason. In order to keep the engine pods properly aligned, I needed to pull the ends of the wings out of their housings in the fuselage. They have to sit at an angle facing forward in order to hold the engine pods parallel to the plane of the speeder. A minor design flaw, but it does further detract from the sleek lines of the vehicle (even with all the weaponry concealed).
The engine pods, the wings, the clean lines and symmetry of the design, and the total lack of weathering all give a distinctly Star Trek feel to the craft, and I'm sure it would look at home in J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek movie series.
Next up is the HMP (Heavy Missile Platform), a flying battle droid seen over the skies of Kashyyyk in Revenge of the Sith:
At about 1:32 scale, the HMP toy (known simply as "Droid Gunship") is considerably smaller than it ought to be… although its actual size is difficult to determine onscreen, since they only appear briefly in a few aerial shots. The scale of the toy is largely irrelevant.
This craft also has a Star Trek flavor to it, reminiscent of Klingon or Romulan starship design. It's appropriately bristling with weaponry, most of which can be rotated, aimed, and fired. Unfortunately, these play features require large, round buttons for launching missiles and dropping bombs, protruding from the surface of the craft both on the sides and on top.
They might've been less obtrusive, if the sculpted detail on the hull had been painted to stand out a little more, but the two-tone blue color scheme is so bland that the HMP almost looks like an unpainted model kit.
As with the Octuptarra Droid and the Corporate Alliance Tank Droid toys, Hasbro has seen fit to include a cockpit to accommodate a Battle Droid pilot. Why a droid needs a droid to pilot it remains a mystery to me, but I imagine Hasbro sells more action figures this way…
Again, the intricately sculpted detail cries out for a decent paint job.
Props to the Hasbro design team for the practical addition of a retractable landing leg. Without it, the only viable display option would be to hang it from the ceiling (which is what I'm going to do anyway)…
This next vehicle, the AV-7 Mobile Cannon, actually makes a couple of significant appearances in The Clone Wars, first in the dismal pilot film and again in the second-season episode "Weapons Factory."
The Hasbro toy is well-proportioned (with the possible exception of the legs), and appears to closely match the CGI model.
The gunner seat fits Clone Trooper figures, and looks appropriately scaled…
…until you attach it to the cannon.
See the scale discrepancy?
It looks even more pathetically small when posed with troopers on the ground.
In the aforementioned episode, Clone Troopers can be seen walking under these cannons — that's how big they're supposed to be — and if the legs of the toy were better articulated, the base of the cannon could at least be raised a little higher off the ground; alas, the legs only hinge upwards, the ankle joint is severely limited, and the knee joint is fake.
To add insult to injury, Hasbro has seen fit to include half-assed play features, such as a flimsy flip-down platform to mount additional figures on the left side. There are pegs for three figures, but it can barely handle the weight of one, much less three; see the precarious angle these two are leaning at?
Fold up the back legs, and spring-loaded tank treads swing down from the undercarriage. There's no mechanism to lock them in place, however, and they collapse back into their housing with even the slightest downward pressure. What's more, the treads are as fake as the knees, merely a single plastic piece painted black on the outside edge. The whole thing is even more awkward and unstable than it appears.
If only they'd spent those tooling costs on properly-articulated legs instead, this vehicle might not be a total write-off… but being so pathetically small to begin with (not even 1:35 scale, I reckon), it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference.
I really wish I hadn't wasted my money on this one. It's a big disappointment.
Even more ridiculously under-scaled, however, is the improbably-named Republic Attack Shuttle, seen early in the first season of The Clone Wars. Being a big fan of the Imperial Shuttle from the original trilogy, I fell in love with this ship as soon as it appeared in "Rookies":
Hasbro's toy version is reasonably well-proportioned (all things considered), and looks almost as cool.
This elegant design is both aggressive and graceful at the same time.
The cobalt-blue engines and gunmetal grey housings have a distinctly Gundam vibe, and from the rear it looks more like a Bandai toy than a Hasbro one.
The triangular folding wings, the shape of the fuselage, and the overall dimensions of the ship are clearly derived from the Return of the Jedi shuttle design, another nice touch of visual continuity bridging the gap between the original trilogy and The Clone Wars. As the wings fold up and the shuttle lands, the pilots are visible through the cockpit canopy:
That's Captain Rex and Commander Cody in the two-man cockpit.
The toy cockpit actually seats two figures — well, perhaps "seats" isn't the right word, since they're in more of a standing position — but only one is visible through the cockpit cover.
The included Clone Pilot figure features an entirely new helmet sculpt, and isn't merely a repack of 2008's "Odd Ball" figure. It's an extremely well-articulated figure, by necessity: you've got to get him into a pretty funky pose for him to fit in that cockpit, after all!
In the show, troops are seen exiting the ship from the front ramp. Cody and Rex walk down the ramp side-by-side.
The shape and inclination of the ramp is more apparent in this image from "Lair of Grievous":
The engineers at Hasbro even managed to get the height of the landing gear correct (something they failed to do with either the Imperial Shuttle or any of their various iterations of the Millennium Falcon).
There's just one problem:
Obviously, a shuttle properly scaled to the action figures would be ridiculously large and prohibitively expensive — making it impossible to market as a toy — so why make this half-hearted attempt to accommodate 1:18 figures in a 1:48 scale vehicle? The inclusion of a couple 1:48 figures would've made a lot more sense, and the ship wouldn't look so absurdly small by comparison; the interiors could've been reproduced as accurately as the exterior, providing much more authentic play value.
Instead, we get intricately detailed interiors that look terrific empty…
…but are much too small to suit the action figures they're designed for.
How are these guys supposed to get out?
A child-like "Kubrick" figure, at least, would likely fit through that door…
…but even Kubricks are too tall to get though here.
I did, however, manage to find one appropriate Hasbro figure suited to the interior proportions.
Regardless of the scale issues, this vehicle is packed with electronics and play features. Flip up the wings, pull up the top of the fuselage, and pop out the side panels, and suddenly the ship is transformed into an "attack base" with "recon fighter." It's completely apocryphal, of course (having no basis in Star Wars fiction whatsoever), but it's the perfect playset for kids who care more for cannons than canon.
Figures can be pegged in all over the place, manning consoles, pillboxes, and rotating gunner stations; it could easily be marketed as Hasbro's first Star Wars/G.I. Joe crossover.
Figures can even be mounted on the lookout tower, although it doesn't look like a particularly safe place to stand…
This guy appears to be in the firing path of his own guns!
Even the recon fighter has a slot on top to accommodate a gunner for the built-in cannon.
The weapon racks molded into the panels on both wings are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. The white rifle is included with the vehicle, and appears to be the same ABS plastic as the hull; the black guns are PVC plastic accessories sold with individual figures.
Criticizing the accuracy of Hasbro's Star Wars toy line is becoming increasingly time-consuming, and preparing this latest post has clarified the reasons why this blog was neglected for such a long time: it takes too much damn time! I'd much rather be painting model kits and customizing Transformers than writing weblogs, after all. While the continued attention and feedback this blog receives is encouraging, I lack the motivation to keep this up on a regular basis.
Thanks to anybody who's actually read this far, and Season's Greetings for 2012! I've got some awesome new Transformers acquisitions to share, but I doubt I'll get around to it before Christmas… -_-


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This time two weeks ago, we were in Crescent City, California, after attending my 40th high school reunion in Ashland, Oregon.
While there, we saw the first of several wild creatures — in this case, a whole bumch of seals lounging in the harbor.
We also saw some pelicans on the beach.
At one beach, while Tim was wading in the surf, I spotted this little guy on a nearby driftwood log.
Midweek, we camped a couple nights at Sunset Bay State Park, on Cape Arago.
Wednesday morning, July 26, there was a tidepool exploration with a park ranger. I tagged along after her for about half an hour, gathering bits of information about what there was to see.
We looked at limpets and barnacles . . .
. . . and tiny snails. At first glance, these were just little black dots on the rocks. You had to get very close to see that they were snails. I didn't have anything to put in the photo for size comparison, but I would say that this little guy was less than one-eight inch in diameter.
I also saw a fair number of anemones, but I didn't go out far enough to see any sea stars. The range shared a story about one time when she was leading a tour of a bunch of middle schoolers. She told them that it was okay to gently touch the tentacles of an anemone and feel it try to grab one to your finger. She described how the fat in our fingertips protects us from the anemone's venom. However, unbeknownst to her, some of the boys were daring each other to lick an anemone. One of them later complained that his tongue felt numb.
I also got a good look at some coralline algae.
Each one of those little segments is an individual; they aggregate to form what looks like one big plant.
The second morning at Sunset Bay, I was headed over to brush my teeth, but crossing the path ahead of me were a doe and her fawn.
Before we left Cape Arago, we visited the lookout at Simpson Reef. I had heard the seals barking from farther south at Cape Arago, and had been able to see the seals through my camera's zoom, but got a better view at the lookout.
There was a fellow there with a scope set up aimed at an elephant seal, which he was allowing people to look through.
I also got a picture of a bird with its breakfast, though it didn't seem to be in any hurry to eat it.
At the second campground we stayed at, Cape Lookout, there was a swallow's nest near the restrooms. I might not have noticed except that in the evening the two parents were swooping in and out of the passageway, which prompted me to look up. At first, I only saw two hungry chicks.
But the next morning, I could clearly see that there were three.
I also got a picture of one of the adults perched on a door handle across the way.
And lastly, before leaving the campground, I saw a waxwing perched on a branch.


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Friday, 6 May 2016
Linky to Rip off Britain
Here is a link to the programme on iplayer. I am on near the beginning, they gave me a big build up, and again near the end. I fast forwarded the middle bit. Probably UK only at this point, it may come on yooootoooob later.
Catch you later. Toodle pip
38 comments:
HI, Ilona,ReplyDelete
I left a comment on your previous post. What a super TV personality you have turned out to be, and how you can teach people to shop! I think it was absolutely great! But one has to be prepared to shop late in the day to grab the bargains, turning the phrase about the early worm on it's head ... the night owl gets the bargains! You should be invited to do a series on saving money!
Margaret P
Great TV item - well done! I have just had a cup of tea with milk that has a use by date 14/4/16. Nothing wrong with it. My eyes, nose and taste buds tell me that. It's the new yellow top skimmed 'but with the taste of whole milk' and very nice it is too. But I am a bit puzzled as to how milk can last so long though. Maybe I don't want to know what they do with it?! Rose xReplyDelete
It was alright without the extra smiles! well done!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous6 May 2016 at 13:04
For what it's worth, I thought you came across perfectly! YxReplyDelete
I saw part of the programme this morning , I was amazed at how much food you managed to buy for the money . We live in France and there are very few or no reductions here no matter what the sell by date , hubby and I have talked about this on several occasions and wondered what happens to all the food . The French government have recent key passed a law saying that any food that is surplus or on the sell by date must be donated to the poor , judging by what I have seen the poor are going to have very poor pickings around here . I admire the fact that you stick to your principles well done .ReplyDeleteReplies
Same thoughts here Christine. I have been in France 27 years and we would never get those kinds of deals. For instance in UK iceberg lettuce 49p in France (LIDL) last week 1.98 euros! Ilona I am in Dorset for my moms funeral and caught a bit of your clip. I thought you did very well - quite the celebrity in fact! Well done. AnnaDelete
Well done Ilona. A star in the making!ReplyDelete
It was brilliant, you looked brilliant (not overdone and not tarted up), it was so interesting and you really drove the message home. Well done!ReplyDelete
J xReplies
How I agree that you looked brilliant ("not overdone and not tarted up"). While the three presenters are, shall we say, women of a certain age (which I am also) I do think they must try and outdo each other with all their changes of outfit in this prog, the superabundance of blusher/bronzer, and in the case of Ms Hunniford, the clunky jewellery and in the case of Ms Somerville, the dangly earrings. Less is more, ladies ... but you all look good, I have to say only please bear in mind you're not attending a cocktail party or a wedding reception.Delete
Margaret P
Margaret, I'm chuckling to myself, as I was thinking exactly the same thing! Angela's elocution lessons drive me round the bend ... ;-)Delete
I would love to see these ladies looking more like their natural selves. They all have good bone structure and would no doubt put many of us to shame. Angela Rippon was brave enough to be seen minus all make up in that How to Stay Younger programme the other week and look lovely and fresh faced, but I've never seen the other two without overdone panda eyes and plastered in foundation and blusher etc. In fact in one episode of this programme I could barely make out Ms Hunniford eyes they just looked like black splodges!!Delete
I haven't watched your episode yet, I'll make a point of sitting down to it tonight. I have the whole series recorded and keep trying to catch up as and when I'm sat on my bum for more than 10 minutes :-)
Oh, I'm so glad you didn't think I was being unkind about the three lay-dees! The other thing which drives my friend and myself mad is that funny little scrunchie thing that Ms Rippon wears on the back of her head! I had elocution lessons but I trust I don't have strangulated vowels. I prefer Julia Somerville's voice. But voice is so important. I think someone can look lovely, wear the most wonderful clothes, have great deportment, but as soon as they open their mouths and speak with a strong regional accent (one where I find I'm listening to how they are speaking, not what they are saying) that drives me mad. One of the worst voices I know at the moment on TV is Naga on Breakfast. Nice enough person, bubbly personaility (sometimes too bubbly, the laugh is awful) but, oh, that voice ... Best speaking voices on TV for me are Frank Gardner and Bridget Kendall. But then, as I say, I had elocution lessons. Hope I wouldn't drive you around the bend. No glottal stops or dropped aitches with me, kid! (And I can't stand when someone pronounces the letter "h" as "haitch". They should be taught in school from the word go that "h" is pronounced "aitch". Sorry, I'm being pedantic, but when you know how these things are done/said, that too, can irritate! Sorry Ilona, I've blathered on too long ...Delete
Margaret P
Sue, I thought I was the only one who couldn't see Ms Hunniford's eyes ... just black splodges, as you say! I thought I needed to go to Specsavers (again!)Delete
Margaret P
Oh dear, Margaret P, I don't think you would like me! I am a Scot with a North East of Scotland accent, although I modify it when necessary. I love the different dialects of Britain, although, like you, I do not like glottal stops. Shame that you can't just enjoy what people are saying. No offence intended. Kind regardsDelete
I don't know what a glottal stop is, I'll have to googlie it. I must admit, I struggle to understand some accents. We have a lovely young weather man with a Welsh accent. I love the way he speaks.Delete
I meant to say, Ilona, that I was delighted to see you on TV. I follow your blog every day, and it was like seeing an old friend! I can just imagine meeting you and having a good old natter about money saving. My youngest son was made reduntant some months ago (oil industry) but is enjoying his money saving life. I regularly get texts from him with photos attached of his latest "prize". You mentioned 15p potatoes, well we got 2.5lb potatoes for...........2p, yes TWO PENCE just because the sell by date was up!Delete
Grand job! Your skin was glowing!ReplyDelete
I've never seen a scuffle like the one shown at the beginning. My bargain today - 2 big pieces of cod loin, pre-packed, reduced from £5.50 to 92p. It's in the freezer now! I'm never as lucky as you though.
"Only available in the UK" was the message I got from your link. But so nice to "know" a celebrity!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous6 May 2016 at 14:38
Can't view it yet in the U.S. but certainly hope to soon. I am so glad it turned out well and will be thrilled to see it. Any U.S. readers please post when and how it becomes available! JanFReplyDelete
- Anonymous6 May 2016 at 15:05
You came across as very sensible and practising what you preach. Some excellent bargains and I like how you make interesting meals with what you buy. Loved the bags! CatrionaReplyDelete
Brilliant Ilona! What a star! Thank you for all those helpful tips. We shall all be converging on the superstores without our shopping lists as soon as possible. It is all so obvious really and thanks to you we can all be canny shoppers like you. Ann xReplyDelete
Hello Ilona; I watched the report as well; but was disappointed by someone on the Rip Off Britain Facebook page who made a very nasty comment; but no fear, I put him right. He made a comment to the effect that you bought a load of junk and spent a lot of money on petrol; I did try to explain that the shopping haul was not representative of the items you normally purchase; that you're a vegetarian and that you're a keen walker who tries her best to lead a healthy life and stays away from ready meals and junk food. Unfortunately the report from Rip Off Britain did not convey that very well. However, those who follow you know that. All best wishes to you, KarenReplyDelete
Hi Ilona, I too have just watched it as i didnt have time this morning as i was cleaning the house before going to work, you came across brilliantly and the savings you made where absolutely fantastic. It just shows how much money can be saved by being a savvy shopper.ReplyDelete
I too use milk way past the use by date. I also have had the yellow topped new milk (BOB - best of both) and that was 2 weeks past the use by date but by far the best milk that keeps for the longest is the Cravendale milk. It has a long date on it to start with and always can be used up to about 4 weeks after the date. I have to be crafty with this though as my hubby wouldnt touch the stuff if he knew it was even a couple of days OOD so i hae taken to giving the bottle a wipe over with a tiny spot of bleach where the date stamp is and he is none the wiser.
keep up the good work,
love jane xx
- Anonymous6 May 2016 at 16:05
Saw you this morning, nice to see you! Great savings!ReplyDelete
In the Netherlands there are no such big reductions. The reduction at my supermarket is 35%, the only rate.
The only time you get a real great price is when the product is on sale. You get the sale price and the 35% reduction on the full price! This week it was a bag of lettuce for 1.69, on sale for 1 euro and 35% off, i paid 0.41 cent. Great if that happens, but it is rare!
Brilliant Ilona! You did really well. It was very positive and you get plenty of air time. I actually thought you looked good. I liked your jacket!ReplyDelete
I just saw it now. I thought it was a great programme and you came across really well. Hurrah for money saving. kitxReplyDelete
I am a bargain hunter already , but you have made me think more about shopping at different times, xReplyDelete
I disagree. You look lovely and smiley xxReplyDelete
Loved the video, some great tips as always Ilona.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous7 May 2016 at 09:34
Just watched the programme on iplayer. Ilona you came across really well and looked extremely fit and healthy too, unlike the rather heavily made up presenters. Well done for all your hard work. KristelReplyDelete
Just watched the programme and enjoyed it. You did come across very well. I hope they pay you for doing these programmes. At least they didn't insist on you going in to "hair and make-up beforehand. I agree with the previous comments about the presenters trying too hard. They all have great bone structure so don't need all that shading and blusher. I hope I can still find some bargains now that everybody knows when to look! the scrums and fights don't happen anymore but people still follow the person with the sticker gun around the shop and families split up and phone each other in order to grab stuff. It's a jungle in our shops.ReplyDelete
You did so well on this programme Ilona. Very impressive.ReplyDelete
Just watched the programme, you came across as smiley, as you have a naturally smiley face!ReplyDelete
We don't get many yellow stickered foods around here, but just occasionally I find a bargain. I'm not up to your standards of yellow sticker hunting yet, but am practising!
I enjoyed the programme, admittedly the three presenters are a tad over made up, but I have no problem with their voices!
I've never had elocution lessons, I was brought up to speak properly, so they were never needed!
I enjoy listening to people with differing regional accents, and listen to what they are saying, not how they are saying it. To do anything else is extremely rude, and frankly, ignorant!
- Anonymous8 May 2016 at 14:56
thanks for the link. I have just had time to watch it. you came across very wellReplyDelete
Hi Ilona! I've just finished watching you on rip off Britain and thought you were brilliant. As someone else previously said, as I read your blog every day (even though I don't comment much) I felt like I was watching an old friend, I even called my husband down to watch I was so excited :-) I wish I could get your reductions on food, unfortunately it is a total fight at our local Tesco at markdown times, everything is usually reduced to a penny then brought out and the fight begins. I was with my baby once and someone almost toppled the pram over in their haste to get into the scrum! I pick up reductions now when and where I can. Keep up the good work :-)ReplyDelete
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Asking Alexandria's Danny Worsnop Responded To Claims Of Him Being Rude To Fans
I usually don't bother with bands such as these, i'm not huge into post-hardcore (or any core related metal for that matter) although i have listened to Asking Alexandria and others on a rare occasion. I'm mostly into melodic death metal, death metal and black metal. But after hearing a fan's awful experience it bugs me that Danny couldn't be a bit nicer to his fanbase.
Q: Do you appreciate your fans support & all?
A: Lots of people seem to think I hate our fans and don't appreciate them at all. I really do. Our fans are awesome and I owe them everything I have. I just have a different way of showing. I've never been the people to sit and hang out with a group of people. I like my own space, I like being with just a couple of people that I know in my own little world. I have an antisocial disorder and I like to stay in my comfort zone. People never realize it and assume I'm an asshole.
Q&A with Danny Worsnop regarding the rumours, the stories and his all round bad reputation
I don't know whether or not this guy realizes but when you have a fairly large fanbase it is disrespectful to push them away. It's ok if you want to have your space you don't need to spend hours on end talking to your fans, although it would be nice to get to know some of the people who appreciate and help your success. It's sort of a two way street and in the end if you simply push them away it won't help your image any. Some musicians are really cool and laid back people. Take Nergal (Adam) from Behemoth, a somewhat of a satanic band (or perceived as such), the guy seems brutal and mean on stage but i have heard great things about how he treats his fanbase.
I've met Jonny Santos from Spineshank (didn't get to talk to him much mostly said hey and got to shake his hand) and hung out with Fear Factory a bit, i think i talked to one of the drummers (during the Archeype tour) and overall they are really cool laid back people. But upon hearing how Danny treats his fanbase, it's nearly the opposite from my experiences. Now i'm not saying that Danny should change, although he needs to change on his own. I understand he's anti-social, but even when i was like that i still wasn't really.. i'm just really nice and i still am although still very introverted. I wasn't really gabbing off with the Fear Factory band although, Burton chuckled when there was some metalcore or deathcore band screaming at the top of their lungs. Someone mentioned something about, "i wonder how long he'll have his vocals for". Burton was preoccupied with the History or Animal channel. It was definitely a cool experience but at the same time, the band was really cool to all the fans that were flocking in and out (which wasn't much, but still..).
But as a fan, you gotta prepare yourself to be disappointed. In fact it's best to not really be so preoccupied with when meeting the band that you gotta hug them or shake their hand or try to be friends with them. In any case don't set your mind to one thing and one thing only and you won't be disappointed. Not everyone is as nice as the other person and the whole lesson here is appreciate the bands that do show their appreciation and don't be too bothered by those who don't show it.
So is Danny Worsnop disrespectful/rude to fans? In a way yes, his attitude does show and fans can see it. Whether or not he thinks that is really up to him and it's up to him to change.


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Sunday afternoon the Calgary Flames placed forward Jaromir Jagr on waivers. Jagr cleared waivers and will finish out the season playing in Kladno in the Czech league. This season, he was limited to only 22 games, scoring only one goal, and adding six assists. It appears this will be the last of Jagr we see in the NHL, instead of dwelling on the way it ended, let's take a look back into the 26-year career that was Jaromir Jagr.
Career Achievements:
Points- 2nd All time (1921)
Goals- 3rd All time (766)
Assists- 5th All time (1155)
Games played- 2nd All time (1733)
Power Play Goals- T – 11th All time
2X Stanley Cup Champion
1X Gold Medalist
2X World Champion
Career Awards:
Art Ross- 1995, 1998, 2000, 2001
Hart Memorial- 1999
Lester B. Pearson Award- 1999, 2000, 2006
Stanley Cup Champion- 1991, 1992
Here are my top 3 favorite Jaromir Jagr goals from his career
The pure strength and size of Jagr was no match for any team through the 90's where he completly dominated the NHL. His size matched with the NASTY hands, and amazing skating was just unheard of in this era of hockey. And to think that he was doing this at such a young age and played in the NHL until the age of 45 is truly jaw dropping.
It is sad to see such an amazing career come to an end in such an unfortunate fashion, but the legend that is Jaromir Jagr will forever live on. What Jagr was able to bring to the city of Pittsburgh and to the game of hockey is something no other player in history will be able to do. To be able to play at such a high level for over two decades is nearly impossible, but yet Jagr did just that. From the city of Pittsburgh and the hockey community I salute Jagr to an amazing career.


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SANTIAGO – Three Catholic churches were the target of arson attacks in Chile during the early hours of Tuesday, hours after Pope Francis arrived in the country, police said.
The attacks affected Catholic churches in the town of Cunco, about 700 kilometers from Santiago, in the region of La Araucanía, which were totally consumed by the flames, said Cooperativa Psblo Oackley, commander of the local fire brigade.
The chapels attacked "were in the area of Lagunillas and Río Negro and the flames started simultaneously in both places," Oacley said.
"The chapels were consumed absolutely, there was no vestige left so it will be difficult to determine the origin and cause of the fire," he added. The police, meanwhile, perform various skills in order to find clues to find the authors.
Pope Francisco, in the framework of his visit to Chile, which will last until Thursday, will arrive on Wednesday at La Araucanía, where he will lead a mass in Temuco, the capital of the region.
In Puente Alto, a municipality adjacent to Santiago, meanwhile, an arson attack affected the parish Mother of Divine Providence, which resulted in considerable damage, according to the police.
According to neighbors of the sector, five people threw incendiary bombs towards the exterior door of the building, besides burning a Chilean flag and another of the Vatican. With the attacks on Tuesday, a total of nine Catholic churches have been the target of arson attacks or explosives since last week in Chile.
The Pope will also visit, next Thursday, the city of Iquique, in the north of the country.


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text: 5 Popular Cruise Passport Questions Douglas Parker May 5, 2015 Cruise Radio, Cruise Tips One topic gets brought up the most is passports. So I've spent the morning going through emails and pulling all the passport questions I've received and put them in this post. Passport 101 The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) when fully implemented on June 1, 2009 will require all travelers to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda to present a valid passport or other approved document that establishes the bearer's identity and citizenship in order to enter or reenter the United States. Common Cruise Passport Questions 1. What is a closed loop cruise? If you are a U.S. citi … Click Here to Continue Post The post 5 Popular Cruise Passport Questions appeared first on Cruise Radio. Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Name* Email* Website Comment


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"Many people…find it hard to analyse, and even more difficult to express in words, what appears to be destroying them from inside."
~ J.B. Phillips
"Many people…find it hard to analyse, and even more difficult to express in words, what appears to be destroying them from inside."
~ J.B. Phillips
"It is necessary, above all in the beginning of our spiritual life, to do certain things at fixed times."
~ Thomas Merton, OCSO
One of the challenges of getting to daily Mass is the illusion it creates of superior personal piety. Those of us who've adopted the practice, though, are under no such illusions. We don't go to daily Mass because we're holy; we go to daily Mass because we know we're not.
Saturday mornings, for me at least, readily demonstrate this reality.
For decades now, I've done my best to work daily Mass into my schedule. It was one of the first lessons I learned from Jim, my sponsor, in the months leading up to my reception into the Church. Retired now, Jim served as a public high school teacher in Chicago for many years, which was exacting, exhausting work. He also ran an Uptown soup kitchen twice a week – he still does! – serving hundreds of guests and involving the coordination of scores of volunteers.
Yet, somehow or other, he still gets to church nearly every day. It has been the lifeblood of his spirituality, a foundational discipline that had both fed and formed him. I could see firsthand how the practice was central to who Jim was and what he did: nourishing him as he taught and cared for his students; strengthening him as he managed the controlled chaos of soup kitchen week in and week out; buoying him in the ordinary battles of faith.
Jim would've laughed if you'd called him a saint, but his hunger for sanctity was nonetheless palpable. He not only shepherded me into Catholicism, but also became himself a de facto template for how to take it seriously, and central to that was daily Mass. I wanted to be like him, and so I followed his lead. Plus, it just made sense. If it was true, as I'd read in the Council documents, that the Mass was "the fount and apex of the whole Christian life" (LG 11), then why wouldn't I want to participate in it as often as possible? Sunday Mass was obligatory, I knew, but daily Mass, while optional, was optimal.
Every morning, then, even before I could receive the Eucharist, I'd trudge up Kenmore Avenue to St. Thomas of Canterbury for early Mass. It was like liturgical remediation for this lifelong Evangelical, a daily immersion in the wonder of the Eucharistic drama that I'd been on the edges of for so long. And it increased my hunger for the sacramental communion that awaited me at the Easter Vigil – an augmenting of the long Lenten fast I was experiencing before I could finally feast on the Lord on Holy Saturday.
Yet, it was a different story on all those preceding Saturdays. Herein lies my tale.
Heavily Catholic communities like Chicago are golden for those who frequent daily liturgies. Parishes dot the map everywhere, and each has its own sacramental schedule. Most will have Masses in the morning seven days a week – some at 7:00, some at 8:00 or 8:30, and school parishes will even have them at 9:00 or 10. Then there are the downtown churches (and Catholic hospital chapels) which will frequently feature midday Masses to accommodate the lunchtime crowd. Some parishes will also offer early evening liturgies to catch folks on their way home from work – or to accommodate those whose early morning schedules make it impossible for them to get to daily Mass otherwise.
Hence, getting to weekday Mass is less a matter of schedule coordination than it is a matter of the will. That's especially the case now that I live in South Bend, which, like Chicago, is very Catholic. But in addition to all the variables I listed above, we also have the University of Notre Dame in our backyard, and there are daily Masses all over campus, morning, noon, and night. It's an embarrassment of Latin-rite riches such that, if I'm determined to get to Mass Monday through Friday, there'll undoubtedly be one that fits into my agenda. I just have to get myself there.
But Saturdays?
Saturday Mass is complicated by the fact that it is liturgically encroached upon by Sunday. That is, the Catholic sabbath, liturgically speaking, begins Saturday evening, so there's no such thing as a true Saturday evening weekday Mass. Plus, priests and pastors have obligations in preparation for the Sunday celebrations – not the least of which is the preparation of a Sunday homily – and it seems fitting to leave a bit of a liturgical breather between Saturday morning and Sunday vigil Masses. Thus, even Saturday midday Masses are generally cut from weekday schedules.
That leaves Saturday mornings alone for daily Mass habitués, and, in Chicago at least, that was complicated by our frequent Friday night reveries following soup kitchen, often into the wee hours of the morning. So it was that, despite my best intentions, I tended to skip Saturday morning Mass when I lived in the city, which disrupted my daily Mass routine in imitation of Jim. That disruption was perpetuated after I married Nancy and God started blessing us with babies. By the time the end of the week rolled around, getting up early for Saturday morning Mass was a taller order than ever, and over time I simply gave up on the idea.
Recently, however, I've made a liberating discovery. It's been a boost to my spiritual equanimity, and I want to share it with you: The 8:15 a.m. Saturday Mass at St. Anthony's.
You see, while I don't have babies around the house any more, my aging frame nonetheless groans mightily when I attempt to rise at the crack of dawn on the weekend. Try as I might (and I've tried), I just can't seem to make it regularly to the Saturday 7:00 at my own parish, or even any of the 8:00 opportunities around town. Maybe that's sloth, pure and simple, but there's something about St. Anthony's 8:15 that helps me get past my inherent indolence.
Perhaps it's the psychological assurance of that fifteen minutes past the top of the hour – a trick my brain plays on my will to push me beyond my lethargy. "Let's see," I'll tell myself if I roll out of bed at 7:30 a.m. "I can still shower and dress and get there before the Gospel." That sounds shamefully crass, I know, but it's enough to get me moving, and I almost always get there in time for the opening rites.
What's more, I'm not the only one. It seems like the Saturday 8:15 is a magnet for all manner of daily communicants, and not all of them are St. Anthony's parishioners. Routinely, I spy numerous faces I recognize from other daily Mass hotspots around town – folks who've I've come to know by sight (if not by name) because we regularly cross paths at St. Patrick's or the med center during the week. I've no idea if their reasons for being there on Saturday morning are similar to mine, but it's comforting to see them all the same. They're like my comrades on the spiritual battlefield, and meeting them at St. Anthony's is like a weekly reunion of yawning saints in the making.
Which is, of course, the point. Daily Mass, like any spiritual discipline, isn't an end in itself. "The ultimate end of all techniques," writes Thomas Merton, "is charity and union with God." If my efforts to get to Mass every day (including Saturdays) should begin to overshadow my commitments to family or interfere with my work – or if, what's worse, I begin to pharisaically imagine myself somehow holy because of those efforts – then, by all means, I'd best set them aside. Nonetheless, as Merton writes, we all have to employ spiritual discipline of some kind, and it must "have a certain element of severity about it." He goes on:
If we do not command ourselves severely to pray and do penance at certain definite times, and make up our mind to keep our resolutions in spite of notable inconvenience and difficulty, we will quickly be deluded by our own excuses and let ourselves be led away by weakness and caprice.
For me, participating in Mass every day is that one spiritual discipline I'm resolved to follow whenever possible, and the Saturday 8:15 has become its keystone. Even if you're not ready to take up a daily Mass discipline yourself, why not join me at St. Anthony's next weekend and check it out for yourself – maybe adopt it as part of your Lenten discipline. If you're not in the South Bend area, see if you can find something comparable in your own area. Trust me, you'll be among friends who won't think twice about your yawns, and you'll definitely encounter our Eucharistic Lord no matter what.
Who knows? You just might become a regular.
A version of this reflection appeared on Catholic Exchange.
"The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of our own self-hood."
~ Thomas Merton, OCSO
"It is not to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes delight."
~ St. Thérèse of Lisieux
My bus ride took me west on Lawrence and then up Milwaukee Avenue to J.F. Morrow and Sons. This was some 30 years ago, and I was on a quest for a holy thing.
I'd volunteered to become an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion to the sick, despite being a baby Catholic convert. Frankly, I was amazed I was even eligible – I knew so little, I understood so little. But my parish, St. Thomas of Canterbury in Chicago, had many sick and home-bound members, and our lone priest couldn't possibly visit them all. Moreover, the parish's Uptown boundaries encompassed Weiss Memorial Hospital, so St. Tom's was technically responsible for serving the sacramental needs of the in-patient Catholics there. My pastor needed help; I signed up.
After instructing me in how Communion visits were conducted, Father showed me where he hid the key to the Tabernacle, and then he set me up with the appropriate book of prayers and a pyx – that little gold disc of a container that priests and Communion ministers carry Jesus in. The one that my pastor gave me was standard issue – some kind of amalgam with gold plate and a bright religious design painted on the hinged cover. Probably he bought them in bulk – there were numerous ministers to the sick at St. Tom's.
But that just didn't set right with me. After all, I was going to be carrying around the Lord himself, and it was like we'd just met. So, I was thinking I ought to invest in a liturgical litter worthy of its occupant – or, at least, more worthy. These were my do-gooder days, and I had limited discretionary funds, but I scraped together what I could. Then, following the advice of my cradle Catholic friends, I made the trek to J.F. Morrow's – the north side's Catholic goods emporium.
To a neophyte, a place like Morrow's is like an open-air bazaar in Marrakesh or Samarkand – enticing, exotic, and a sensory overload. There's thuribles and monstrances, copes and candles, and piles of liturgical stuff that clearly had some sacred purpose – but for what? Who knows – and who cares? It was exhilarating, and my ignorance only added to the thrill. "Somehow, God is mixed up in all this," I thought to myself. "And I'm a part of it now!"
Which is why I was there in the first place: I wanted to give back to the Church, and visiting the sick, comforting them, praying with them, bringing them the edible God, seemed like a decent place to start. The clerk directed me to the pyx bins, and I started weighing my funds against my ardent desire to honor the Eucharistic Presence I'd be hauling.
Eventually, I settled on a simple 24K gold-plated design with a plain cross on the cover. It had a slight raise in the bottom, which I figured would make it easier to retrieve the consecrated hosts when administering Holy Communion. Nobody told me that I might've also purchased a silken burse with a loop of string to suspend the pyx from around my neck and under my clothing, close to my heart, for I would've without a doubt.
The pyx, though, was plenty. I approached the counter, handed over my cash, and left the store with my purchase – a mini-tabernacle – in an ordinary retail bag. For all anyone knew as I got on the bus to head back to Uptown, I could've been carrying greeting cards or a pocket calendar. Instead, I felt like I was carrying religious contraband – a little metal box that will soon enough contain Divinity himself. Me, a clueless convert, in possession of this exquisite, rarefied object. I could hardly contain my joy.
And that, in a sense, captured the gist of the astonishing labor I was intending to take up: Carrying the joy of the community's Eucharistic celebration to those who were prevented from participating themselves, and then releasing it – like 10,000 balloons on a beach, like ticker tape over Broadway, but a 1,000 Broadways. There's no hoarding involved, only transport – and then emancipation! What a privileged work – a Work of Mercy that Jesus himself enumerated, and thus an endeavor surely associated with spiritual benefits…but only after we discharge our Detainee.
Now, decades later, and worlds away from my Uptown Catholic beginnings, I'm a registered nurse and a nursing instructor – and largely due to my experience with that pyx.
Every Sunday, I'd retrieve the Blessed Sacrament from the church – maybe five, maybe six consecrated Hosts carefully concealed in my circular treasure box – and then, prayer book in hand, I'd trudge over to Weiss to track down the Catholics there. At the time, I was convinced I'd eventually go to seminary, yet, watching the nurses go about their duties, I remember thinking, "If I don't become a priest, maybe I could do what they do," for what they did seemed itself pretty priestly. The floor nurses were constantly engaged in things I associated with ordained ministry: advocating, interceding, attending, encouraging, and, most importantly, acting as instruments of healing. They themselves didn't order the treatments and medications – the docs did that. Even so, it was the nurses who fetched the medications and brought them to the languishing and the dying and the ones who really needed them.
Eventually, I went to nursing school and found out all these things for myself, but here's the funny thing – and the impetus for this little remembrance.
For many years, the healthcare facilities in our area have utilized sophisticated medication management systems to help cut down on errors and tighten up inventory. There are several such systems on the market, but the one that seems to dominate in our region is called… (wait for it)… Pyxis™, put out by CareFusion. I've been getting drugs for my patients and my students' patients from Pyxis dispensing stations for years, but the significance of its name never struck me before – how could I miss it? I couldn't find any evidence that the connection was intentional, and it is true that "pyx" is simply Greek for "receptacle" – so maybe that's the only touchpoint. Still, the Pyxis, just like my golden pyx, holds the substance required for recovery and restoration, and we nurses (like Extraordinary Ministers) return time and time again to replenish our supply of balms for those in our care.
Of course, more than the healing drugs we give our patients, it's the presence and attendance and listening and compassionate care we give them that communicates the healing Christ. In so doing, nurses can be like Mary, carrying the Savior to the bedside inside their very persons – as do we all, particularly when we receive the Lord in the Eucharist. Communicated and sent forth, we're all Marys, we're all pyxes, we're all harboring heaven. All that's left is to let him go.
"Something strange is happening…."
~ Bp. Melito of Sardis
This past Holy Saturday I had the privilege of sponsoring my friend Chris as he made a profession of faith and became a Catholic – Deo gratias! What a joy to stand with him, attest to his readiness, announce his new name – "Monsignor, this is Thomas Aquinas" – and then celebrate with him afterwards.
And he was hardly nervous – way less nervous than I was 31 years ago as I awaited the same watershed moment. For those coming home to the Catholic Church, there's a daunting realization that nothing will ever be the same after Holy Saturday – that life will get harder, not easier – and yet for some of us, there's also a fear that something will mess it up. "What if I say the wrong thing and it doesn't take," is how my mind raced. "What if I'm not properly disposed – or that my Presbyterian baptism wasn't valid?" I wanted to be a Catholic so bad that I couldn't believe it was actually going to happen.
Even so, it did happen, despite my scruples and paranoia – again, praise God! The Easter Vigil is always glorious, especially for converts – those joining the Church that night as well as those who'd already done so, whether the previous year or even decades before. The rising action of the liturgy and multiple readings, the darkness and fire, the bells, oils, and dousings – the entire Holy Saturday mystique conjures up our first enthusiasms for Christ and his Church, which in turn remind us why we made such a reckless break with our relatively sedate trajectories and safer worlds.
Yet even that foolhardy conversio – that radical turning around which leads to new passions, new futures, new living through dying – is often accompanied, in the best circumstances, by delicate connections to pre-Catholic histories and experience. They won't be tethers that hold back, but rather echoes that signify continuity. Our Easter conversions do not extinguish our past selves, but rather baptize and elevate them.
For me, there were two such echoes when I joined the Church. One was my friend Kevin, who was a student at Chicago's Moody Bible Institute at the time, whereas I was in Uptown, part of a Catholic Worker extended community. I was so glad Kevin agreed to attend the Easter Vigil – to support me as a longtime pal, despite his evangelical reservations.
He came up on the subway and sat in the way back – it was standing room only that night at St. Thomas of Canterbury. Kevin and I didn't get to talk that night – he left to catch a late train downtown as soon as the liturgy ended – but I know it constituted one of the more bizarre worship experience of his life. As if the Easter Vigil liturgy itself wasn't strange enough for a Moody student (let alone seeing an old youth-group buddy become a Catholic), the rich cultural diversity of St. Thomas was on full display that night: Readings, hymns, and preaching in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese; a congregation that included immigrants from Korea and Cambodia, Brazil and Eritrea; and representatives from every conceivable socioeconomic and ideological stripe, anarchists and John Birchers, retired professionals and homeless vets. Kevin's presence in that highly charged and holy setting embodied a true bridge between my old life as a suburban evangelical and this (evidently) wild, unpredictable Catholic life I was embracing, and it gave me great comfort.
The other echo happened earlier in the day. Following my midday visit to St. Peter's in the Loop to make my first confession, I anxiously watched the clock, anticipating the evening's climactic events, going over the profession of faith repeatedly, and checking in with my sponsor, Jim – "What am I forgetting?" Then, a knock at the door – the FTD guy with a bouquet. "Congratulations," read the card. "Love, Mom and Dad." It was a long-distance gesture, an affectionate embrace from my folks in Colorado – most particularly my mom. She'd been raised in a Masonic, anti-Catholic home, and I knew she was worried sick about her crazed, do-gooder son joining the big Popish cult. Still, in the end, her mom-ishness overcame her Masonic prejudices, and she sent me flowers – a clear signal that she wanted to love what I loved to the degree that she could.
Such were the echoes that connected me to my pre-Catholic life back when I was received, but what about now? Easter compels us forward – are backward glances still appropriate?
It's an idea that came up as I was driving to Mass the other day, listening to Van Morrison on the stereo. "We'll walk down the avenue and we'll smile," he was singing. "And we'll say, 'Baby, ain't it all worthwhile?' when the healing has begun." That's the song's title – "And the Healing Has Begun" – and it's from his 1979 Into the Music album. It's bright and cheerful with a buoyant violin accompaniment, and all the restorative references seemed apropos to the Octave.
Yeah, sure, I know the song is not exactly about spiritual matters, particularly in light of its later, more lascivious images, but its jubilant tone is hard to resist, and I hummed along as I drove – then this line popped up: "I want you to put on your pretty summer dress," the singer requests. "You can wear your Easter bonnet and all the rest." OK, bonnets, joy, healing – maybe it is an Easter song, or at least I made it one for myself that afternoon.
A few bars later came a jarring moment, however, when Morrison gleefully tossed out an odd declaration: "I can't stand myself." Wait – what? But he kept right on going with his jaunty melody and veiled seductions, and I was left scratching my head. "'Can't stand yourself? Where's the healing in that?"
At Mass, Fr. Lapp seemed to pick up on the same theme in his homily. "The Easter feasting continues, and that's as it should be," he said. "But in the midst of it, the Lord is still calling us to repentance and conversion." It's like Peter in yesterday's Gospel, out on his boat following the Resurrection – returning to his fishing occupation, a pre-Jesus safe zone. Suddenly, the Lord appears and calls out advice from the shore: "Cast your net on the other side!" – an acknowledgement, in part, of this occupational echo. The Apostle perks up and swims back in to face his Savior, leaving the fish, but dragging his past with him. This is the same Peter – the "Rock" – who denied Jesus three times, betraying him despite an oath not to. I can just see him rushing to the Master to be close, and yet hanging his head in shame – wouldn't you?
Anyway, that's me for sure – that's me! It's the painful part of Holy Saturday every year, for I know better – I've studied the Faith, I've received the Sacraments, and I know how I'm supposed to conform my life to Christ, but I still don't. There's Easter celebration, no doubt, but an awkwardness, a disgrace: "I've been a Catholic 31 years, and I'm still…this?" Like Van, "I can't stand myself;" like Peter, I rush to the Lord, then hold back, abased.
There's more to that seaside Gospel, however, and it comes later this Eastertide. We see the risen Lord simultaneously eliciting Peter's repentance and enveloping him in healing. "Do you love me?" he asks three times, and three times a sign of trust, "Feed my sheep." In the end, Jesus points ahead: "And when he had said this, he said to him, 'Follow me.'"
So, Easter looks forward and backward – it's not static, nor is anything else static associated with this resurrected Messiah. "The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise," goes the ancient Easter Vigil homily. It's a look back, but then, ahead: "I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven." He's always on the move, saving indiscriminately, past, present, future – everything in his path.
We dare not duck.
A version of this essay appeared in Crisis Magazine.
The call came while I was out Friday night, so I didn't hear the message until the next morning: Old Eddie had died. His apartment manager hadn't seen him for a few days and found his body in the flat.
Eddie was the salt of the earth, and one of my heroes.
I met Eddie when he showed up at the Catholic Worker many years ago. He was a down and out veteran with an obscure story, but he didn't reek of alcohol, nor did he seem like the sort to start a fight, so he got to stay.
Eddie was Polish – a dumb Polack, as he used to say – and so a Catholic, though I don't think he was practicing his faith at the time. Whether he was or not, he certainly experienced a resurgence of piety after the Worker took him in, and he became very devout almost overnight.
The intellectual side of religion was of no interest to Eddie, so he shied away from the theological sparring that characterized much of our table-talk and porch conversation in those days. Instead, he loved to pray with anyone he could corner – the Divine Office, the Rosary – and he encouraged me in my efforts to get to daily Mass. Plus, Eddie started helping out at the soup kitchen, clearing tables and mopping up afterwards. For him, religion was something you did, not something you thought about.
Once he started receiving disability checks, Eddie got his own place – at the YMCA at first, but later on his own apartment. By then, I'd moved on from Chicago, but Eddie kept up with me, sending me Mass cards for Christmas and Easter, always with a personal note to the effect that he was remembering me in his prayers.
Later still I married, and Eddie's prayers just multiplied along with my growing family. Every year, without fail, Eddie would send us Mass cards – Christmas, Easter – and every year a personal note.
So, Eddie is dead, but it's hard to be sad, for I have a pretty good hunch that he had been been given a hero's welcome on the other side. Like I said, Eddie was the salt of the earth, and I suspect Jesus always makes room for the likes of him.
Still, the news of Eddie's death got me thinking: Salt of the earth – what does that mean? Usually the term refers to simple folk whose natural goodness is not necessarily matched by gifts of intellect or sagacity, but that seems too patronizing, even vaguely insulting, when applied to people as golden as Eddie and those like him.
Instead, I prefer the image that Pope Francis outlined in his homily the other day: "The Word of God…is alive in the hearts of the simple, of the humble, of the people of God." In other words, the salt of the earth – the simple, the humble, the people of God – are those in whom the Word of God is energized. Referring to the day's Gospel, in which the masses protected Jesus from the intellectual Pharisees bent on revenge, the Pope went on:
That simple crowd — that followed Jesus because what He said did their hearts good, warmed their hearts — this people wasn't wrong. They…listened and sought to be a little bit better.
That's an apt description of the salt of the earth, an apt description of my friend Eddie. He encountered Jesus, it did his heart good, and he sought to be a little bit better. No spectacular feats, no flashy accomplishments. Just a warmed heart, a bit of sweeping and mopping at the soup kitchen, and a whole lot of prayer. Eddie's life was quiet and unassuming, but what he added was a richness that was palatable.
In fact, the Pope could've been thinking of old Eddie when he specifically referenced salt in another homily about a year ago: "When salt is used well, one does not notice the taste of salt…. What one tastes is the flavor of the food: salt helps improve the flavor of the meal."
That was Eddie. He humbly and quietly improved life's flavor for me, my family, and countless others. Rest in peace, old friend. Your subtle seasoning will be missed.
Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
~ Gerard Manley Hopkins
The propped up coffee-table book caught my eye as I was leaving the library. The cover photo of a man raising his gnarled hands in prayer was itself arresting, but what really froze me in my tracks was the title in gold caps: U P T O W N.
I grabbed it, checked it out, and re-entered a world I'd left behind some 30 years ago.
The book, subtitled Portrait of a Chicago Neighborhood in the Mid-1970s, is a collection of black-and-white photographs by Robert Rehak that evokes the raw grittiness of that urban neighborhood with an eerie precision.
Although I arrived in Uptown on Chicago's north side about a decade after Rehak took his photos, the landscape he depicts and describes was largely the same one I encountered. Uptown was unusual for the wide variety of ethnic and cultural groups represented within its borders. Also, many of the de-institutionalized mentally ill had made their way to Uptown, along with the poor who were pushed out of other neighborhoods experiencing redevelopment. "By the early 1970s, Uptown had the second highest population density in Chicago and high unemployment," writes Rehak. "It had become skid row."
A skid row was exactly what I had been looking for.
At the time, I was a wet-behind-the-ears, suburban-raised, angst-ridden and disillusioned Evangelical trying to rediscover Jesus in the inner city. The 'L' train deposited me at Wilson and Broadway, and Jesus wasn't there to greet me – a disappointment, but not really a surprise. What did surprise, however, was the sensory overload that engulfed and enraptured me, and which I came to know intimately after I embraced Uptown as my home.
First, the smells. There was plenty of smoke, because everybody smoked everywhere back then. And the whiff of chili, garlic, and curry, fried meats and broiled cheese, bizarre combinations of spices and foodstuffs representing every manner of international cuisine hanging in the air outside storefront restaurants and street level apartments – not to mention the accompanying tastes!
But the first smell to hit you was the acrid odor of the city itself. You didn't quite know what to make of it – where it emanated from, what it was – but you'd never forget it. After moving on, years can go by, even decades, and you still expect that sour scent to envelope you when you visit again, and you're never disappointed.
The smells hit you first, but the sights went right along with them, and you can get a pretty good idea of what the sights were like back then from Rehak's book: A bleak and crumbling infrastructure, dirt and trash and broken glass, shuttered businesses and empty lots, and people. Lots and lots of people, and every sort imaginable. Black, white, Hispanic, and Asian. Young, old, men, women, and babies. Poor, very poor, and destitute – so I guess not every sort imaginable, because the rich didn't come around all that often, at least to stay.
Finally, the sounds. There was the rumble and screech of the 'L,' of course, and the constant din punctuated by shouts and crashes and laughter at all hours. And the United Nations of faces and ethnic cuisine was naturally accompanied by a Pentecost of spoken word, from Polish to Portuguese, from Eritrean to Hmong.
Nevertheless, English was still the lingua franca, but with a twist that was startling to my untrained ear:An augmented, earthy vocabulary, and, hence, a challenge as I continue to relate this story. Writing requires words, and the words that I'd like to employ in this regard are, shall we say, an acquired taste.
But, I'll do my best.
After disembarking from the 'L' and wandering through the Uptown streets for a bit, I made my way to the St. Francis Catholic Worker on Kenmore Avenue. After climbing the rickety wooden stairs to the expansive front porch, I got up my courage and knocked on the door – again hoping to run into Jesus.
No one answered my knock, so I rang the bell. After a moment, the door was flung open, and a torrent of foul abuse spewed forth. It was a magnificent display, almost like a verbal fireworks finale at an Independence Day picnic. The greeter/verbal artiste's name was Rosalie, and although we would eventually become pretty good friends, Rosie made it unerringly clear at the time that, in her opinion, I deserved not only death, but damnation as well for making such a racket just to gain entrance to the building.
And that was just the beginning. Jimmy was another Catholic Worker denizen who had a constant mumbling patter that was peppered with spicy phrases and exotic words. And there was old Zeke in the basement, who declared himself God the Father (making the more common claim to be Christ or the Blessed Virgin seem almost trite by comparison), and who accordingly pronounced all manner of colorful denunciations from his smoky corner La-Z-Boy in the St. Francis House basement.
Then there was Love.
Love used foul language the way Matisse used color, mixing and playing and pushing the limits. Plus, Love had a very subtle British accent – whether natural or a pretense was hard to guess – and it only added additional, ironic sophistication to her salty rants.
And here's the funny thing about Love: She used the same language to express exasperation and kindness, derision and delight. One particular word was her favorite, and by altering her pronunciation and intonation, she could use it in a seemingly endless variety of ways, including the expression of her namesake, love, along with affection and even tenderness. Love was remarkable in that, her speech and unusual behaviors aside, she truly loved her friends, and she helped me begin to really see beyond appearances for the first time in my life.
I went to Uptown to find Jesus,and what do we know of Jesus? "The Word became flesh and lived among us," St. John tells us. Jesus doesn't come to us in spirit alone, but in the flesh, to know with our senses, and sometimes it's not easy to recognize Him.
Dorothy Day alluded to this idea in her essay "Room for Christ" back in 1945:
It would be foolish to pretend that it is easy always to remember this. If everyone were holy and handsome, with "alter Christus" shining in neon lighting from them, it would be easy to see Christ in everyone. But that [is] not Christ's way for Himself now when He is disguised under every type of humanity that treads the earth.
For those of us who sought God in Uptown, the disguises – and the salty language – were all part of the adventure. Too bad it's only with hindsight now that we can recognize when He came by then.
That He had come by, however, is not in doubt.
After I leafed through Rehak's book, I Amazoned a copy to my friend Jim in Chicago. Jim lived in Uptown long before I got there, and he lives there still, so I knew he'd appreciate it.
A week or so later Jim sent a postcard. He had gone through Rehak's photos and shared them with others – including Paul, a mutual friend from those bygone days. Here's what Jim wrote:
Thanks for the wonderful treasure of the Uptown picture book. Sure brings back memories and provokes reflection. Paul kept saying, "We were so naive."
Were we though?
Versions of this story appeared on Catholic Exchange and Oblation.


text:
I have my first piece in The Nervous Breakdown, "an online literary publication type deal." It's titled "A Tale of Two Nominees: Justin Bieber and Esperanza Spalding," and it uses the 2011 Grammy awards as a pivot to discuss two very different types of musicians. Bieber you might have heard of. Spalding is a jazz bassist and vocalist.
(Please go read the article. And leave a comment at the end. For complicated technical reasons, the piece had a rough birth, so it didn't get a lot of promotion. Thus, the comment stream consists mostly of my mom's friends, which is gratifying, but also makes me feel like a nine year old who's full of promise … but I digress.)
When I wrote the piece, I spent a little time researching Bieber, especially since I heard that after Spalding won the Grammy for Best New Artist, instead of him, he went to congratulate her. (MTV has video of that encounter, but it's tiny and inaudible.)
What's a lot more prominent is a cringe-worthy interview of them together, apparently jammed onto the same stool, where they compliment each other, and each other's hair … and then Bieber pets her hair.
After I saw Esperanza Spalding perform, I wanted to write about her, and realized that the notoriety she gained after Bieber fans attacked her Wikipedia page made Justin Bieber and appropriate comparison.
But after suffering through that video of him and Spalding at the Grammys, I'm pretty sure I'll never write about Bieber again.


text:
This vividly coloured stallion is one big ball of muscle.
Unshown himself, he has produced national and Multi state champions and reserve champions in both halter and under saddle.
All his foals have inherited his wonderful temperament, very trainable mind and laid back attitude, making them lovely to handle and very people friendly, they just want to please their human owners.