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I have great news to report: I have a publication date for Volume II of The Goldberg Variations. For the details, I'll just copy the announcement from the ArnoLand Press:
"This is by far the most ambitious venture I have ever attempted, I wanted to take the journey of Jamie Goldberg to its inevitable conflicts that Jamie has wanted to so dearly put off," stated Jonathan Taylor the author of new forthcoming entry into The Goldberg Variations series, The Redemption of the Damned.
The ArnoLand Press is pleased to announce the long awaited second volume of The Goldberg Variations. The book is anticipated to be on the market this coming May.
The first volume, entitled The Rites of Passage, was critically acclaimed and well received. The second volume, titled The Redemption of the Damned promises to be an even more gripping and compelling read than volume 1 has proven to be. In volume 1 we saw Jamie struggling with many things but specifically his being gay.
Now in volume 2, Jamie Goldberg, newly out of the closet in 1980 Detroit, thinks coming out of the closet will solve his problems. But his darker secrets remain. He cannot seem to face these traumatic secrets let alone accept them. He discovers that human sexuality is a lot more complex than merely gay versus straight. He experiences profound societal pressures, parental rejection, and social alienation after openly admitting he is gay. But he also learns that his struggles with sexual acceptance, low self-esteem, and suicidal thoughts only begin with coming out. In short, he realizes that coming out of the closet can pose more problems than it solves. Sometimes he is sustained only by his own wry sense of humor; other times he is sustained by music, theater, and ultimately by a cast of Detroit characters who accept him as he is even if he does not. Ultimately, he has a date with his past he cannot escape. That confrontation threatens to damn him or possibly redeem him.
I have many heroes, I am embarrassed to list some of them here. People who have played positive roles in my life and inspired me to do as well as I can. A random partial list—people with an incredible strong sense of integrity, and wisdom: Harvey Milk. Gustav Mahler, Golda Meier, Winston Churchill, Malcolm X, Theodore Heschel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hermann Hesse, John Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Menelik II, Johannes Brahms, Martin Luther King, Jr, Senator Phillip Hart. Part of my embarrassment is that I know to many people some if not al of these people had their very negative sides. That's what fascinates me.
I have come to ask myself what a great leader is? I think one must separate a great leader from a great person. No one is perfect and we are all a product of our times. They were flawed people, they had traits we deplore, some did absolutely terrible things but they also attained great things. Things that inspire me. Things we certainly could not have attained and without them our lives would be significantly less than they are now.
So, I wonder what makes a great leader. What makes someone you can respect for what they have achieved if not for the person they are.
I also look inward at myself and at these great people and know they achieved tremendous feats from which I benefit and which I certainly could have never attained myself.
I look at myself too and I see myself in their time and in their situation and I dare say I would have made fare greater errors in my own stumbling road to mown imperfection.
As I contemplate these heroes of mine—I am reminded of a prayer from the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people: the ashamnu. The ashamnu is a prayer where we confessor sins from a-z—literally according the Hebrew alphabet. When I was a kid I remember saying to my Rabbi that I thought the prayer was silly because why did I need to confess—for example to murder as I had never committed such a crime. He did not respond to my question until his Yom Kippur sermon when explained that we confess our sins communally and though we may not have commit this or that sin as a community have committed all of these sins. As a community we therefore confess our failures—even if we did not commit these sins we have failed to prevent them and failed to live in a community that does not participate in them.
In a way, if you take the arbitrary list of heroes I list at the title of this post, I think you would end up with an entire Ashamnu's worth of sins and failures.
I won't nor do I want to apologize or defend or even justify the shortcomings of my heroes. They have inspired me and they have inspired me to do well. To do better. To think better. And to realize in my own humanity I am not a bad person but imperfect. I look back on 2018 and see mistakes as well as achievements. My mistakes and my flaws do not diminish me—even when I think they should. They are a testament to 2019 where I will continue to make mistakes and attain achievements.
At the end of the my life, as Jean-Paul Sartre put it, they will draw a line under my acts and deeds and tally up my life. Though I live in the shadows of my heroes and on the backs of generations who have fought before me so that I can be a step ahead. I realize, with warts and all my heroes still stand tall because we still reap the benefits they have given even with the pain they also have imported on us.
Harvey Milk. Gustav Mahler, Golda Meier, Winston Churchill, Malcolm X, Theodore Heschel, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Menelik II, Johannes Brahms, Martin Luther King, Jr, Senator Phillip Hart.
There is a humanitarian disaster going on in Yemen. In a world of humanitarian disasters this one truly has our hand in it. The root cause is the civil war whcih is being relentlessly conducted with American backed Saudi support to the goverment forces against the Houthi rebels. But this is no time to blame one side or the other it is a time to act to help the best we can those staring and dying.
I had often been saddened because I could nothing about this. The military situation was so bad no aid organization coud be there. Now I learn that Doctors Without Borders is daring to be there to do what they can with their clinics.
Children are dying, people are starving. I appeal to anyone reading this: please give what you can to Doctors Without Borders. The link is here. Those of you employed check out if your employee will match your funds. Mine will 50% so I will give through them. But if you dion't please use this link.
The link: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org
(Mein Führer: Besser Rot als tot)
Writer's note: I started out writing a satrirical piece about how far would the republican populists go in their murderous racism, and i decided to place it in the future as a vehicle to actually explore the current tenor and trend of the debate if we continue to leave this unchecked. So read this piece and wake up America!)
Washington DC— Sometime in the future a house judiciary committee meeting
John Conyers XVI: Rico we have to talk about this later. The Chair wants to start the debate now.
Rico Oakman: John, this won't take long, what do you think of my idea?
Conyers XVI: Changing the name of the Democratic party is something we should not take lightly, Rico.
Oakman: But this way, we can compete with the Republican Trump Imperium by appealing to their base as well.
Conyers XVI: But The name—
Oakman: I like adding word 'socialist' as our forbearer Mr. Bernhard Sanders would have liked.
Conyers XVI: I know combining it with your pro labor idea…I don't like it. Putting all that together has a bad connotation—know what I mean, Rico?
Oakman: What do you mean, it has a nice ring to it. I like the name what's wrong this it?
Radolph Duke-Cruz: Gentleman! The hearings are about to begin.
Oakman: Yes Radolph we're done! (aside to Conyers)We'll discuss this later but I have the votes.
Duke-Cruz: The House Judiciary Committee will come to order. We have a proposal from Congressman Oakman—
Josephus Schmoe: I object Chairman! Are you really going to let a democrat talk? We saw from Mr. McConnell, what happens when he let just one democrat talk, look what happened to him.
Duke-Cruz: I doubt they will hang me upside down from a cross just for letting them talk about what Congressman Oakman said was a small matter, Continue Mr. Oakman.
Oakman: Thank you Chairman Duke-Cruz. The current proposal does need some explaining before this key vote. We, the Democratic party—or I should say as we shall soon be know as the National Democratic Socialist Workers Party—
Conyers XVI: I object we have not approved the name—we haven't voted on that.
Duke-Cruz: Please Congressman Conyers we have learned absolutely nothing, if we have not learned that voting is a mere formality. Continue uninterrupted Rico.
Oakman: Thank you, I want to address people's concern about the current proposal. We feel this is the only real democratic people-focused solution to both racism and immigration. With our current technology we can use gene therapy to make everyone white. We have tried affirmative action, operation head start, the peace corp, immigration reform and these have not worked. Indeed we all know the definition of insanity is to try the same thing again and again even though it has proven not to work. Let me repeat, we all know the definition of insanity is to try the same thing again and again even though it has proven not to work. Making every body white solves the problem. White police cannot accidentally shoot a black man if he is white.
Duke-Cruz: It's even better than that, The police couldn't shoot someone who does not exist. (Oakman chuckles)
Schmoe: You can't agree with him!
Duke-Cruz: Wait your turn, Joe.
Oakman: The problem is solved! The lack of darker skin color also means we can at last abandon policies that make no sense: affirmative action, outreach to ghettos, multi-cultural hypersensitivities. Indeed there will be no ghettos since nowhere will there be a concentration of anything other than white people. And with the immigration problem. Economically speaking, we know there was never an immigration crisis. Moreover, this country's only native population was mercilessly annihilated by my friends across the aisle.
Schmoe: Objection! This is a committee meeting there is no aisle.
Oakman: Okay, by my friends on the other side of this podium.
Schmoe: Thank you.
Oakman: Nevertheless, I repeat there has never been—from an economic stand point—an immigration crisis. Our economy would grind to a halt if it were not for our generous immigrants to the south who will work at slave labor wages to gather our food, take care of our children, wash our dishes and paint our houses—that remind me my sink needs repairing. Anyway, the only real problem with immigration is their skin color, which makes many people across the aisle—other side of the podium!—uncomfortable. Their newly lightened skin would ease these concerns and allow our economy to flourish as they work for their slave wages along side their newly lightly colored black neighbors.
Schmoe: If everyone will be white what would prevent one of us—I mean one of the white people from working for slave wages? Besides, if I may, the very idea that anyone not racially related to us could possibly pass as us is at best mendacity and at worst deception. Call a spade a spade, that's what I say! Let's have racial integrity and pay them what they re worth and we what we are worth.
Conyers XVI: You can't do this, I am shocked! This would mean the annihilation of entire cultures.
Oakman: Well, we do have a precedence in what we did to the Native Americans.
Conyers XVI: That's like saying concentration camps are a precedence for putting us all in death camps.
Shmoe: Well objectively speaking, it is a precedence.
Conyers XVI: Are you saying death camps were a good thing?
Shmoe: I am just saying it is a precedence. Whatever we think about it, there is an international legal precedent. We are a nation of laws. Don't start judging the law, we are nothing without the rule of law and this was one of them …somewhere… we can't cherry pick the laws we like and the ones we don't like.
Peter Flinder: I would like to speak in support of this proposal.
Conyers XVI: You, Flinder!
Flinder: As a member of our newly named NDSWP, I want to say I would support this.
Conyers XVI: Your supposedly my friend Peter!
Flinder: I am, but this would stop your constantly jamming down my throat that I am an invisible minority. Now you would be just as invisible and we can be minorities on equal footing! That's all I want, equality.
Nick Chauchesqueue: Stop this gentleman. This a charade.
Duke-Cruz: We've heard long enough from the Democrats, Nick, what have you got to say?
Chauchesqueue: This is unacceptable, making black people white, the idea is absurd. We need this plurality to exist, if for no other reason than to sustain our GDP in the revenue from private jails. My goodness God almighty, we might as well close death row! Think of that: the unemployment! Not just the laid off workers but the walking undead, too. Entitlements will skyrocket!
Schmoe: I can see other problems. How could we control lower quality white people, like Eastern Europe—no offense Congressman Chauchesqueue— these people would take advantage of this whole program and claim to be whitened. How would we know? They could claim to take advantage of our slave labor program—I mean our reduced minimum wage program—for new illegal residents. This would make us the new European Union—good grief then California, New York and who knows else would exit the union.
Chauchesqueue: Exactly. These black people, which you don't change just by changing the hare's fur—their skin color is also but a superficial covering up of bleeding hearty Communism of the worst kind. We see right through this. Does changing their skin color change the way the would vote? If we give them a voice, they'd be a trojan horse of democracy!
Oakman: Gentlemen, you are quite wrong, changing their skin color will change them—it will give them White man's privilege.
Chauchesqueue: Oh! Genius man.
Oakman: And if we have learned anything we have learned the lengths people will lie to themselves and others to protect their white privilege. Well, to protect their newfound white privilege they would be obliged to step up in solidarity with us to do the same—probably even against their own people who refuse to participate in our program.
Conyers XVI: Good god!
Duke-Cruz: Stop trying to hijack God as your argument! Preposterous: black people turning white!
Oakman: We have proof! Look at Clarence Thomas or Ben Carson. I imagine how much more easily we can make more of them if their skins really were white.
Chauchesqueue: But they aren't white.
Oakman: What are they then? Conyers doesn't even admit black republicans into the so-called non-partisan black causcus. They might as well be white already.
Conyers XVI: Good god!
Duke-Cruz: Jesus Christ, stop using God as a defense.
Jesus Christ: It doesn't bother me, he's talking the name in vain.
Duke-Cruz: All right.
Shmoe: I am confused. They'd be white black people or white latinos. What do we do then?
Oakman: If there's any problem it will right itself out in a generation: the long range effects are perfectly clear.
Duke-Cruz: Then we'd have to have some system of registration to track them for the first generation—you know keep an eye on them. We could put them automatically on the sexual predators list and no fly zones, etc. Oh, I have it, let them wear a black triangle on their coats.
Schmoe: And the latinos can wear brown ones.
Duke-Cruz: That's discrimination.
Shmoe: Then have them wear triangles the color of their original sin--I mean skin.
Duke-Cruz: That's an even worse idea we won't be able to tell anyone apart. Just make it brown, that's what most of them are anyway despite what they say.
Chauchesqueue: We have agreement?--Oh no, no no, what was I thinking? This can't work! Cruz-Duke! This is just white washing the problem—literally whitewashing. If I may say, what I like, is this legal precedence—LEGAL precedence—of the concentration camps.
Shmoe: But, consider the expense?
Duke-Cruz: Now gentlemen, let's compromise. Work camps, clinics, they'd both be expensive. We could give them government guaranteed loans that would automatically garnish from the wages. They could finance their own camps or their own clinics whichever way we go.
Conyers XVI: Good god! Whichever way—it's already a choice between the two? Let's drop the hole matter.
Shmoe: You see! This is a democratic power grab pure and simple. So I would like to introduce the amendment. I'll make it a friendly amendment to Oakmnan's proposal with a budgetary tie in.
Duke-Cruz: Then, depending on which way this vote goes, we can buy stocks in the supporting company.
Oakman: Oh wow, I never even thought of that one.
Shmoe: Why you are a Democrat and we are in charge. I'll even support the Democrat's who cross over to vote with us to get them lobbying jobs before they get lynched in their hometowns.
Conyers XVI: You are the one's doing the lynching, Sir!
Shmoe: If we do away with black people then who lynches who is a mere academic issue.
Oakman: I do object as well. I mean, Do I still get credit for passing the law if the amendment is accepted?
Shmoe: We'll see Oakman. And Conyers, lobbying is not that bad once you try it. Trust me the hours are better … so is the food.
Agnus Merkle: There is no problem with immigrants why are we even debating this?!
Duke-Cruz: Congresswoman Merkle? Get her out of here! Jesus, who let her in anyway. This is a men's committee. It is so difficult being a leader in these conditions. John, let me ask you a question, which would you prefer? Death camps or becoming white?
Oakman: You could get a sun tan after the operation. I don't have a problem with that.
Chauchesqueue: Wouldn't bother me either.
Conyers XVI: My leader, I suppose better red than dead.
Duke-Cruz: Thank you, common sense prevails. Next, item—oh it's irrelevant now, putting prisoners in coal mines. I guess we can go home, our work is done.
It is very hard to take that almost 50% of this country supports a blatantly incompetent president. No one has done more damage to America's greatness and its reputation. Yet an alarming number of people continue to cheer him on. We've become the laughing stock of the foreign press. We are destroying our precious country's environment with a fervor never seen before in the face of a direness of climate destruction never seen before. It seems like huge swaths of our country live in denial. It's hard not to see this as totally hopeless. This is even more so for those of us who suffer from depression.
For those who do not know, Depression is a chemical imbalance that withholds any sense of joy or hope in the brain. It causes an artificial feeling of utter hopelessness and despair. This can get so strong that people can sometimes kill themselves while in the throws of this terrible affliction. Add to this already pernicious affliction the daily onslaught of stupidity and evil that emanates from the White House. The result is the feeling that not only will the depressed person never recover it seems like America will also never recover.
But one must remember the depression is not you. Depression tries to convince you that you are your depression. But it is important to remember you are not your depression, it is only a temporary chemical imbalance. Patience and perseverance is what is needed—and strength lots of strength.
But how does one withstand this added burden of the failure of the country to this mix. The answer is: not very well. The suicide rate is soaring soaring suicide rate. Drug abuse is also at an all time high and opioids are a particularly pernicious epidemic. However these are just the symptoms. The core lies actually in the taking away of many many safety nets and checks and balances. So that we are perilously left to our own devices with no help or compassion to be found.
One safety net, the safety net from tyranny is the checks and balances, which are currently missing in the government (and hopefully this will be corrected by January).
The death of trade unions, the loss of another safety net, meant the majority of our workers now lie at the mercy of their employers. If you are lucky enough to have a needed skill, you can do very well so long as that skill is needed and you are able to deliver more than anyone else out there. However, once you are inconvenient you are quickly dismissed with no recourse. At some famous silicon valley companies this predictably happens before a worker is vested in their valuable stock options.
Pensions, some sense of security in your retirement, has also vanished. Social security now does not have a prayer of paying your expenses in retirement. And Medicare does not really help until the end, their hospice is quite generous once you are on the road out of this life.
Now you must save and put your money as foolishly as you dare into the stock market so you can try and build your own pension. If someone starts this too late or their investments don't payoff, they find themselves facing a most perilous time just when they thought they could relax.
For the seasoned manufacturing worker, the ladder to success is now a shambles, as these jobs have been all squandered off to a combination of automation and free trade.
I live in San Francisco. And when I first moved here in 1985, there was a sense of community. I arrived penniless and jobless. A gay community under siege from AIDS nevertheless had the energy to take me in until I could settle down into what turns out to be a rather lucrative profession as a designer and writer. Anyone trying to come penniless to San Francisco now, will come up against a brick wall of overpriced housing, overpriced goods, overpriced services that only the rich can afford. The safety net in the city of San Francisco no longer exists—except in pier 60 where there is a huge homeless shelter. No one who can afford any kind of rent in San Francisco can qualify for any kind of assistance because their income is too high even if they are barely making ends meet due to the cost of living. The service industry lives in suburbs that are farther and farther away from the city.
I go to my corner gas station and fill up my car. I go into pay the bill and I have no idea where this person can possibly live. Turns out, some live with their parents. Some live with their families or friends (sometimes 6 people to a four bedroom house). Some live out in exurbs which can be an over 2 hour commute away from the city. Those who are lucky enough to live closer to the city by hold down 2-4 jobs to make ends meet. San Francisco is an extreme, but visiting shuttered small towns and you can see the safety net has likewise been retracted though mostly by poverty instead of silicon valley excess as ion the bay area.
Many other safety nets are gone as well: those for the environment. Just access to national or state parks is getting limited as they close their doors or limit their hours. The safety net of drinking water, there are more and more municipalities where drinking tap water is done at their own peril. The safety net of political debate and pluralism has ossified into us against them, good against evil shouting match.
All this lack of safety nets leads the poor soul who has fallen into depression to face odds that seem almost impossible. With no safety net, as someone in a frefall of depresion, they hit the ground with a hard splat. This puts the one who is depressed at far greater risk. The greater risk because those safety nets that could have comforted them, or given them confidence are gone. The institutions, the nature, the community that could once shine light in the darkness abandon people now to face it alone.
Without safety nets the only soft places to land are the quicksands of substance abuse, resentment, hatred and nationalism. I believe these phenomenon come from the same source: the hopelessness and depression of our society and it's obstinate to understand one thing and one thing alone: uncontrolled greed at the expense of all safety nets, at the expense all victims that must be run over to get their way to the top.
And we see people lying in a pool of substance abuse, as the only affordable flight from their depression
We also see people teeming with resentment. Resentment foolishly aimed at each other — instead of aimed at the rich. For it is the wealthy that profit from this depression. The wealthy likewise manipulate us into hating immigrants, they very people who help us, help clean our house, watch over our children when we work, and befriend us because they are grateful to be here.
There is none nor has there ever been an immigration crisis. We are an immigrant nation how did we survive all these years without a wall? The wall was never necessary. The only immigrants than seem to be causing trouble are some of the more pesky white immigrants. Senseless hatred or fear of immigrants is ridiculous as there are no latino terrorists—yet we act like a weak people scared of our own shadow. The exact opposite of what a great nation should be.
Then we see vicious internecine hatred. I find it very difficult to understand the venom we inflict on each other these days for just having differing opinions. Moreover the extremity of those beliefs have gotten so hyperbolic as to be not worth even defending. Political ideology has gotten blown way out of proportion to consume any kind of human decency or community many once had.
Lastly, and most dangerously is the rise of nationalism. If there is ever a sign of a nation's weakness it is the growth of nationalism. Nationalism must not be confused with patriotism. Patriots love their country and honor and protect both its moral fibre and its institutions that make it great. Nationalist, by contrast, do not love the country they love the vision of having their own country and want to take it away from you. Nazism is the most durable example of how nationalism destroys a country and does not protect it. Nazism only died away in Germany after the countries total and utter moral collapse and physical destruction. Nationalists do not love: they would rather kill, shoot, build walls, exclude and call their idiocy superiority. Natioanlists would rather kill their own people to hold up their romantic fantasies of a master race or a master country.
So the depressed individual has the triple whammy of their illness, the lack of safety nets or some semblance of humanity, and an epidemic of the most inhumane response to an inhumane situation. By god, how does anyone survive that! If you do, then you have have my undying awe and respect. If you can't you have my sympathy and the shame of a nation once great before the "Make America Great Again" movement dragged this country into the mud.
The strange thing is, this new lethal depression effects all sides both Trump supporters and detractors. As reprehensible as I find Trump, I do not extend that condemnation to his supporters. Unless we find somewhere some common ground both sides will end up cannabilizing eachother.
In the meantime, we who suffer from depression have to trudge on, against perilous odds to struggle and survive. No matter who you are, you have my sympathy. Remember it's just a chemical imbalance.
For the prospective reader I thought it would be helpful to post a sample chapter.
You can read the text below, or click here to hear me read it to you.
Chapter 1: Jamie Goldberg
Detroit, Michigan, Spring 1970
"I am sorry, Mrs. Goldberg, it is against the school rules." Mrs. Bradford's temples were pulsating. I, Jamie Goldberg, was her least favorite student. I was as annoying as a precocious ten year old student could be. Too smart for my own good, but not smart enough to make life easy for myself. She regularly humiliated me in front of my classmates, leaving me to wonder when I would ever feel like I belonged somewhere.
Mrs. Bradford enjoyed thwarting me with brute strength, if not mental superiority; but my mother was a force for which she was unprepared.
"You can't let me take my own son out of school?" scolded my mother. Her small five-foot-one frame, bobbing red hair, and outrageous blood-red designer coat with the black tentacle fringe, made her look more menacing than her size.
The tall, gray-haired Mrs. Bradford towered over my parent. "He's not sick; he's perfectly well. There is no reason to take him out of school, Mrs. Goldberg."
"Stopping a war isn't a reason to take my son out of school?"
"No, it isn't."
"You won't let me take my son out of school?"
"No!" Mrs. Bradford barked.
I saw my mother relax. I could not suppress a smile; I knew Mrs. Bradford had lost.
"Okay, just try and stop me then." With that my mother, Mrs. Ruth Esther Goldberg, demanding wife, defender of the people of Detroit and mother of the school's most unpopular student, walked over to my chair and picked me up by the arm. I almost stumbled out of my chair.
"Go, Mrs. G!" cried Brian Germaine, one of the school's first black students—courtesy of my mother's political machinations.
"We're going," she said as she hauled me out of class.
Amid hoots from the other kids, Mrs. Bradford ran to the school intercom, yelling something I could not hear because, in an instant, I was out of the room.
Mom whisked me into the car where my older brother, Steven, was already sitting.
"What Neanderthal schmucks," she fumed. Off she drove with us downtown. The ride was jerky, but for us it was normal. Mom's foot didn't quite reach the gas pedal so she resorted to giving it a good kick in order to maintain speed.
In the back I was breathless from the tension in the school. I was thankful that the fight was over and settled in my mother's favor, my terror of the later consequences notwithstanding. I was certain Mrs. Bradford would take revenge on me in front of
class in some dark and horrific way, while my mother, who was trying to save the world, was more than ready to sacrifice her son just as Abraham willingly offered up Isaac. Whether God would stop her at the last minute, I was unsure.
Mom was driving Steven and me to an anti-war demonstration, and it wasn't the first time her political activities had gotten me in trouble with authorities and my pressuring peers.
When I was seven years old she had maneuvered to desegregate the local school district. She succeeded in getting only one African-American child, the aforementioned Brian Germaine, into our school. Mom's accomplishment turned all my friends against me. Not at first, but as the kids compared notes with their parents, they ended up hating my guts, calling me "nigger lover" and other names my mother would never allow me to repeat, let alone complain about.
The only real close friend I had after that episode was this very same Brian Germaine, the single African-American whose family had the courage to choose the all-white school.
Unfortunately—that is for me, not for the United States—around my eighth birthday my mother tried again. Any remaining sympathizers disappeared when she and a local civic organization successfully sued the school district for discrimination. The presiding judge ordered the school board from the neighboring African-American township to resign. Then the judge fused the two school districts into one. Instantly my school went from seventy-five percent Jewish and twenty-four percent Catholic to fifty percent African-American and forty-nine percent "beleaguered" Caucasian. The latter group couldn't get out of town fast enough—except my family; we were in it for the duration.
The school became an integrated/segregated school. The African-Americans stayed among them-selves and took my only friend, Brian, with them. This left me with no one. Neither side thanked me for my association with the ruining of both schools. I was alone, but not left alone.
At first the new world order shocked me.
"Hey, Jamie."
I heard a familiar voice. I looked up from my gym locker. I smiled. It was Brian. I thought my lost friend was coming back. "Oh, hi, Brian. How is it going?"
Then, he was joined by three more unsmiling kids. "Brian?"
"Get up, Jamie."
Brian's voice resonated with that friendliness I associated with our former relationship. I even thought this was a discrete moment for us to declare our mutual friendships with new friends to boot. It wasn't until he kicked me in the groin and his new buddies kicked my legs from behind that I realized something was amiss. The feelings of friendship quickly blended with howling pain and humiliation, creating a cognitive dissonance from which I was never to recover.
I came home bruised and my clothes dirty, chiefly because they were thrown into the garbage by Brian's friends. My mother gasped, but she was on the phone.
"Mildred, you have to realize desegregating the schools is the most important—wait a sec, what happened to you?—nothing Mildred, my son just came home a mess. Anyway, keep me posted on Oakland County. I'll come up there for a strategy meeting … knives? Mildred, that's no excuse for cowardice … Millie, we have to start somewhere … pragmatism breeds poverty … What do you mean who said that? I did—look I gotta go; I'll call you right back … Okay, then I am calling the mayor … Fine. Goodbye." She slammed down the phone, then glanced at the damage. "What happened to you, Jamie?"
"I fell." She accepted the excuse with a surprising ease.
"You fell? Again? Honestly, how can you be such a klutz. You have to be the most uncoordinated kid in school. What am I supposed to do with you?" It was a question she often asked but never answered. "Can you stop looking so sad all the time? Why not invite Brian and his new friends over to play sometime?" She stared at me and heaved a disgusted sigh. "Oh, go wash up—and change your clothes before your father comes home."
I wasn't just the butt of the black kids' fury. I had become an equal opportunity target; both whites and blacks felt a compulsion to bully me.
But by then, I felt I deserved this fate, even the furtive beatings that followed. My situation lightened inadvertently when Jeremy, a high-voiced sissy tried to come to my rescue. Poor Jeremy. His weakness attracted the malicious beatings of our schoolmates with a fervor unmatched by those associated with
my political views. On the one hand I felt a vague kinship for Jeremy. This kinship extended just enough to make me feel guilty about his torment, but not so far as to join his side. Though I suspected even at
that early date that his was the side on which I really belonged.
At the Kennedy Square demonstration, by com-parison, the action was orderly. We marched resolutely around the square in a vain attempt to stop bloodshed in a distant land. My mother's passion failed to allay my fear of the intimidating police. On horseback with grim unfriendly faces, they circled the marchers. Other sneering policemen in riot gear stood ready to pounce at a moment's notice. I was shaking. My mother was defiant. For all their scary intimidation, the police did nothing. To Mom's disappointment, there would be no arrests this time, unlike the 1968 Poor People's March, the highlight of my youth.
Then, I was in a sea of strangers, the only white kid. My mother and father had run ahead so Mom could hobnob with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s second in command, Ralph Abernathy. I was marching down Woodward Avenue mouthing what seemed like
the words to songs I did not know. We all walked hand in hand, my eight-year-old white hand clasped by larger black hands. It was a beautiful experience. I was not afraid at all … until the march ended at the waterfront. There, white policemen on horses knew how to deal with people who marched in peace. Without warning, the men on horseback charged the crowd. A terrifying chaos ensued, during which I was pushed away, threw a tantrum, and was subsequently whisked away by Eileen, our house cleaner, who had somehow lost her shoes in the fracas. It was a nail-biting wait for my parents to return.
It was not until much later that night that my father and mother reappeared with a small African-American child named Ladon. He was maybe two years younger than I was. He lived with us for barely six months. Why, I am not exactly sure, though I was quite angry when he left. He was my last real buddy, someone who looked up to me. Ladon's departure made me realize how alone I was in my own home.
This anti-war demonstration in Kennedy Square was pretty tame by comparison. Still, in spite of the solemn chants—"What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!"—and our orderly marching with placards, I braced for the police to come and destroy us at any second. I was, for some reason, waiting for the hammer to fall. My brother Steven, looking completely unperturbed, shook his fists at them. My mom, noticing this, followed suit. Luckily, all to no avail, Mom's only achievement was to heighten her youngest son's fear.
The police surrounded the demonstration but left us alone, much to Mother's disgust. "What a bunch of cowards," she muttered. "If there were three more blacks here, we'd be getting trampled right now."
I stared at the policemen on their horses. They seemed belligerent and proud. I swallowed. I began to chant, "Trample me! Trample me!"
Fortunately for me, they did not comply.
It has been a little over two years since the passing of my husband, Morris Taylor. And strangely enough it is only now that I am beginning to finally clean up the house. You see, I have been holding on to Morris's possessions like a life preserver: afraid anything important to him during his lifetime was a dear treasure to him in the afterworld/life. I was worried that the absence of any of this stuff would send his spirit off to join the company of his first wife in the grave of far off Berrien Springs, never to be seen again. But this was really only the beginning.
For me, it was the start of the most elaborate and puerile superstitions I would acquire int eh coming two years. Fancying myself a devout a-religious person, I was horror stricken as I started believing in ghosts and spirits, talking to candles and all sorts of strange things all of which was somehow entwined with the compulsion to keep dear Morris with me. I actually believed that, if not bringing him back, these beliefs or faiths would keep him from going away.
After two years of tenacious disregard for reality (a trait I picked up from right wing politicians) I finally realizes these beliefs or faiths were actually nothing more than sentiment or wishful thinking born of a fear to go it alone. That somehow an enjoyment or a success without him would be a betrayal as if I didn't need him any more. So I tried to perpetuate a need for him. Rather self-destructive since he wasn't coming back—at least not in a form I would ever recognize again.
The futility and hopelessness was only stopped as I realized this was all a folly born of fear and in direct conflict with my deepest convictions: my a-religousness which I explain to you as a disinterest in religion of spirit as driver of anything other than good or bad literature.
I have settled back to my main belief, which is: God or spirits may or may not exist, but I would prefer not to mix in. Religion is a murky bog of quicksand, once ensnared you will find difficult to free yourself or even write about it with any hope for objectivity. So it's best to just let those sleeping dogs lie and remain confident if there is a truth to any of it that will then take care of itself whenever or wherever it chooses. In the meantime I returned to my belief or faith that if I keep my nose clean I shall suffer the consequence, if any, with the equanimity I have suffered the loss of Master Morris Taylor the former CEO of my life.
So I am surprising myself with the alacrity and determination I now find in discarding Morris's precious belongings. As dear as his rave review in the 1964 London Times was, it means nothing to me. Nor does, a very itchy afghan knitted by his derelict, if deceased, mother.
But the things I have the hardest time dealing with are the things that seem to have an apparent, if unknown, value.
For example, Morris did scrawl on a plastic envelope that this faded colorful circus advertisement from the Detroit Free Press of 1881 was a Strobridge Lithograph. I have no doubt it is worth the $3,000 he claimed but finding someone willing to pay it is another matter entirely (dear reader, care to buy it?).
Master Morris was a collector and collected things that really boggled my mind: a collection of antique postcards, old Seventh Day Adventist propaganda textiles, old sheet music, and my absolute least favorite and yet most ubiquitous: his rock collection. I can honestly say in the 8 years I have served and lived with Morris, this was the only practice of which I contemporaneously frowned upon, to very little effect. I had a recent visit with one of Morris's children and could barely hide my glee—when I was trying to feign generosity—when he said he actually wanted the rock collection.
I was bitterly disappointed to see that he had scarcely picked through a tenth of the collection. But he made the point I am grappling. He took just those stones—regardless of its aesthetic quality—which he had collected with his father when they were in Maine. These stones had more than intrinsic beauty or value to him. I was giving them away until a horrified friend told me I was throwing away untold amounts of money—and that really didn't bother me except the fear I was wasting something. I mean I could auction them off and give the money to charity that does far better work than those who just took his rocks away.
But rocks are the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended): he collected all sorts of antiques, memorabilia and other things I can only best describe as junk.
But the Indian Spring cleaning has been thwarted by these so-called or presumably valuable items. I don't really know what todo with them. So I hope I discern the junk and just throw it away (first offering it to family or friends who might be attached to them in some sentimental way. For the rest. I wish I could shovel them all on to the set of Antique Roadshow and be done with them. None of these things embody Morris's spirit or what he meant to me—except the rocks and that's a negative influence.
I need not fear that I am getting rid of Morris's memory. His brilliant watercolors still line the house, yielding only for one wall that has the paintings I have used on the covers of the books I have or will have written. But even then, if the house succumbed to fire or earthquake, I am left with such rich memories and life lessons that my life even without all that stuff is still a living tribute to him.
The bright spot in all this, apart from relieving myself of unproductive superstitions if making the house more my own a place I can live in the present.
But you can take away from everything he ever touched and what I am left with is an enduring emptiness in my heart, a place where he once resided. Even if I get blessed to have a new love or a new husband, he will take his place alongside Morris. The hole Master Morris left in my heart shall never fill up—no curator can touch that. Its this emptiness that I treasure and proof of my deep and abiding love for him.
Did I also mention he has a substantial post card collection of rare and…
I have had to struggle with suicidal thoughts these past years. I am surviving with them, coping with them. And maybe if i share some of my experience it can help you too? As many know my husband/Master of almost 10 years died. I suffered a depression, so I am no stranger to suicidal thoughts. Sometimes they seem so strong I fear they will overwhelm me. And sometimes they do. But those thoughts never switch into actions. I find myself stronger than the thoughts. But I also keep in mind three things: First, I am conscious that I am depressed. That those thoughts are my depression talking not me. It gives the me the wisdom to tolerate them and not hate them; but not act on them. Second, i realize in the depths of depression, or a yearning to kill myself, i long to justify people would be better off without me. I even but up this whole argument about prevention, that by killing myself i was saving people from far further misery than if i had lived. These arguments, though, are simply delusional. Lies meant to ignore how much i am really loved. Third, as Master Morris Taylor taught me. If you do commit suicide, the misery you will inflict on everyone who has ever known you is enough to warrant being cursed. I simply cannot do that to my loved ones, my friends, my colleagues -- all who believe in me. I simple cannot let them down. I heard people say that suicide is a selfish act, and i am not convinced that is so. People who find themselves so drowned in misery can't see the results of their actions, and delude themselves that they are not loves nor valued. All I can say is that consciousness is the only antidote. Be conscious of your the state of your body, the state of your mind. Be aware of the gratitude that quivers through every soul, even yours. If suicide is meant to be a call for help, then listen to your own distress call--and help yourself. If suicide seems like an answer, realize it is a Permanent solution to a temporary problem. Problems constantly change, death never does. So I use suicide as a trigger to tell me: don't kill myself, instead kill time (even if its a marathon session of my favorite movies) something to get me to the point I can fall peacefully asleep and wake up the next day to try again. Give yourself time to prove that to yourself, you deserve at least that much. Lastly, for what it's worth: I don't want you to commit suicide because you are smarter than that. I wrote this not because it will save your life, if you are feeling suicidal, but it will hopefully give you tools that you can save yourself with. And if you do, maybe you will discover your own tools. Then i hope you will share those with others, we can never have enough of that kind of wisdom. Need to talk to some? There is a 24 hour hotline that would love to talk to you: Call 1-800-273-8255 (The National Suicide Prevention Hotline).
Today our electoral college, our last line in defense of fascism will officially elect a fascist dictator to the US presidency. Our country is on the precipice of its final destruction as a democracy. An authoritarian regime is about to take over. One so completely divorced from democracy that they currently aim to harm the very people who elected them. So does this mean we are doomed? No. We can descend into fascism, but we can also descend into chaos. Or we can repeat the last 8 years and descend into gridlock with a bad taste in our mouths. Nevertheless we should be prepared for the worst. It leads me to contemplate the fate of the most vulnerable for they will surely bear the brunt. Time has taught us that the 'vulnerable' are not the poor or the downtrodden they are the 'different'. Think your wealth will protect you? I am sure the rich Jews of Germany thought exactly the same thing. So using that analogy, if this were Nazi Germany (and it very well may be) what kind of Jew will you be? There were Jews who disbelieved in what was happening. Surely this cannot happen here? They cried to themselves even as they were being herded onto trains, to experience exactly what they could not fathom. These were the believers in civil society, the believers in institutional safeguards. The vast majority of the 9,500,000+ Jewish population (https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005161). There were Jews who desperately tried to escape. Some succeeded and went to another country where they could get on with their lives while the rest of Germany crashed and burned. Of those who escaped not all fared well. Many were miserable refugees, some, like Stefan Zweig and his wife, committed suicide, and yet others found they had not escaped far enough like Anne Frank's father Otto who escaped to Amsterdam only to be captured there and sent to a concentration camp. There were also those Jews slow on the uptake. "Oh my god, this is really happening!" they would realize in various degrees of too late. For these Jews a dilemma came up: they had to fight their fate but how? Some went into the underground. Some went into hiding. Some tried marrying Aryans (some 4,700). Others tried forged papers, and even went so far as to fight in the army for the Germans. There were also the apathetic, the apolitical, the ones with their heads in the sand or up their ass. They simply reacted to consequences as they appeared. They went into hiding when kicked out of their homes. They stole food when they were deprived of money. They were shoved into lower and lower levels of pragmatic survival. (about 1,400 of these survived living in Berlin throughout the war). (http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/berlin.html) Then there were these special class of Jews, call them delusional, call them the elites, call them the traitors. They thought working with the Germans would be the way to help attenuate the circumstances. They enjoyed privilege for so long they were useful to the Germans. They gave an air of legitimacy for the fellow disbelievers that it really wasn't so bad. Their leaders after all would protect them. But nobody could protect them. Even this Jewish elite, somewhat serendipitously called in German the Jewish Rat, could not protect them nor themselves. (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/judenrat.html They were actually called the Judenrat or Jewish Council) Though some did abuse their 'privileges' to help their friends or themselves, others wanted to only to find out that wasn't so easy. They ended up helping the Nazi cause more than they ever hurt it. Of course these Judenrat members did not find these jobs very cushy and were often subjected to the same intimidation, torture and murder as the others. And to be fair, many were forced into the Judenrat, I am referring to those who more willingly participated in them thinking they could reform the Nazis from within. Then there was those Jews who opposed the system from the very beginning. They became the easiest targets of retaliation and often used as symbols of the impending martyrdom to follow. They certainly died with clear consciences. They raised awareness. They disabused the disbelievers, allowing many of them to take action. Many of them won credibility among the underground and as resistance fighters often got free passes from the underground to safer ground. That was surely the fate of Victor Lazlo, the secondary hero of Casablanca. So the question remains. Given on impending Trump presidency: what kind of Jew do you aspire to? Or are you confident this can't happen here and certainly not to you?
Apart from literature, current events pull at my attention. Donald Trump's stunning takeover of the Republican Party. His candidacy, I originally saw as a joke. This joke has gotten very serious. I am very concerned for the message his ascendancy sends about America. The threat and concern that many groups of people, Women, Muslims and Latinos, must now feel. My Jewish background compells me to call this out and state uncategorically America must defeat Defeat Trump and the attitudes that allow him to flourish.


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1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
1 1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoons sugar
4 large egg whites
Pinch salt
Pinch cream of tartar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
This recipe was provided by a chef, restaurant or culinary professional. It has not been tested for home use.
Recipe courtesy of Wayne Harley Brachman, Mesa Grill, Bolo, New York, NY
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subset: commoncrawl


text: Steve Gash - November 29, 2018 Review: Franchi Momentum .308 Winchester Chambered in .308 Winchester, the author's Franchi Momentum has a 22-inch barrel with a threaded muzzle and a black synthetic stock with a recoil pad and integral sling-swivel studs. The internal box magazine holds four rounds. Franchi was founded in 1868 in Brescia, Italy. It's now part of the Beretta Holding Group, which also includes Benelli, Stoeger, Uberti, Steiner, and Burris Optics. While these firms coexist under the same corporate umbrella, each is a separate entity, and they are competitors within their respective markets. Of course, Franchi is a well-known and respected name in shotguns, with a diverse line of over-unders, side-by-sides, pumps, and semiautos. The brand-new Momentum bolt action that is the subject of this review is the company's first-ever centerfire sporting rifle. I think the new rifle is momentous.The Momentum Inside & OutThe Momentum is made in Italy and incorporates several features that enhance accuracy, ergonomics, and appearance. Officially introduced on January 22, 2018, at the SHOT Show, the Momentum is now available in the United States in a variety of configurations. Overall, it has smooth contours on the metal and stock surfaces for improved ergonomics. The action's one-piece bolt is chrome-plated and is the same diameter as the three locking lugs. This produces a quick, 60-degree bolt lift that's aided by the sleek, cone-shaped bolt knob. The recessed boltface surrounds the cartridge case head in steel and has a sliding extractor and a plunger ejector. The bolt-release lever is at the left rear of the receiver. The two-position safety does not lock the bolt, so the chamber can be unloaded with the safety "On." The barrel is cold hammer-forged steel.The Momentum's one-piece bolt has three large locking lugs, a plunger-type ejector, a sliding plate extractor, and a bolt guide groove on its bottom that moves over the bolt release for smooth travel.The Momentum is chambered for several of today's most popular cartridges, including .243 Winchester, .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, .30-06 Springfield, and .300 Winchester Magnum. Barrel length is 22 inches, except for the 6.5 Creedmoor and .300 Win. Mag., which have 24-inch tubes. All versions are available with threaded muzzles, and thread-protecting caps are provided. Non-threaded barrels are available on all models except the 6.5 Creedmoor, .30-06, and .300 Win. Mag. The three .30-caliber models have 1:11-inch twists, the .270 and .243 have 1:10-inch twists, and the 6.5 Creedmoor has a 1:8-inch twist. The internal box magazine has a hinged floorplate, and the capacity is four rounds for all chamberings except the .300 Win. Mag. Capacity for the Magnum is three rounds.The Momentum website says the single-stage trigger is "adjustable from 2 to 4 pounds," but my gun's owner's manual says the trigger mechanism "can only be adjusted by the gun maker or by an authorized gun dealer." The trigger on my test gun broke at 3 pounds, 5.2 ounces and was very crisp, with little take-up. The Momentum's sturdy synthetic stock is very different from most "plastic stocks" these days, as it's very stiff, highly functional, and attractive. Its rigid midsection has solid bedding points under the action, and the fore-end has molded-in reinforcing cross-members and a longitudinal stabilizing bar along the bottom. Instead of yucky molded-in "checkering," the stock has what Franchi calls "integrated grip panels" that look like square fish scales. They are classy and provide a good handhold. There are even textured gripping panels right above the magazine, should you want to hold the stock there for offhand shooting, and there's a cut-out at the toe of the stock for your hand when you're shooting off a bench. Both swivel attachment points are recessed. Plus, the stock has Franchi's proprietary "Twin Shock Absorption" (TSA) recoil pad that not only soaks up recoil, but also provides for a length of pull adjustment.I've saved one of the Momentum's best features until last. All models are available as a "Rifle Combo" package that includes a new Burris Fullfield II 3-9X 40mm riflescope, 1-inch steel Burris Zee rings, and a pair of Weaver-type bases, all in the box with the rifle. I've used Burris Fullfield scopes for years, and they are top notch and represent an excellent value. But, as they say on TV, there's more. The MSRP of the Momentum combo package is only $120 more than the rifle alone. Now, I can cipher, so it's obvious that getting a $239 scope and $28 mounts for only $120 more is obviously a heck of a deal. However, if you opt for the Momentum without scope, the receiver is drilled and tapped for the popular Remington Model 700-pattern two-piece bases.The rifle's two-position safety does not lock the bolt, so the chamber can be unloaded with the safety "On."In the Field & on the Range I tested the Momentum in two venues. The first was last December when I hunted whitetails, feral hogs, javelina, and raccoons in Zavala County, Texas, with C-T Outfitters on a ranch of about 80,000 acres that is literally crawling with thousands of deer, including many 8- and 10-point trophy bucks, lots of feral hogs, plump Rio Grande turkeys, and the little native javelina.The Franchi rifle I used was chambered to .308, and it performed to a "T." Over the course of three days, I took two 8-point bucks; two hogs, including a 200-pound boar; two javelinas; and three raccoons. I have taken dozens of deer and quite a few hogs over the years, but never a javelina, so it was great to check this species off my bucket list.From the bench, the .308 Momentum averaged 0.95 inch for five-shot groups at 100 yards with 10 factory loads and five handloads. Its best groups wereunder 0.75 inch.The rifle I used on the hunt was the European model, and I noted that the space between the barrel and stock on this model was pretty slim, which could possibly adversely affect accuracy. If a flexible synthetic stock has too little space between the barrel and the stock channel, it can flex enough under recoil to touch a "free-floated" barrel, which is then, of course, not free-floated for that shot. This can lead to erratic accuracy. However, the clever engineers at Franchi have avoided this problem in the Momentum by redesigning the barrel channel to be a bit larger than on the one I used and by making the stock stiffer. This modification paid off, as the production Momentum I later used for a thorough shooting session on my home range shot uniformly good groups throughout my testing. Making another stock mold to implement this change is expensive, so kudos to Franchi for biting the bullet and making this important change. As I just mentioned, my second opportunity with the Momentum was to wring out a brand-new production model on my home range. It also was chambered for .308. In addition to the changes to the stock, the barrel of this Momentum is slightly larger in diameter than the rifle I used in Texas. The bolt has spiral fluting that makes bolt travel smoother, and it looks pretty snazzy, too.My test gun is the "Rifle Combo" package with the Burris 3-9X scope, rings, and bases. I had the scope mounted on my test gun in a jiffy and was ready for the range.Since the Momentum is first and foremost a hunting rifle, I stuck mostly with big-game ammo. I fired 10 factory loads and five of my favorite .308 Win. handloads from my shooting building at 100 yards, and the results are shown in the accompanying chart. Overall, the Momentum averaged 1.01 inches with factory loads and a sizzling 0.83 inch with handloads.On our Texas hunt, we used Fiocchi's Extrema Hunter ammo loaded with the Hornady 150-grain SST bullet, and it was a pure death ray. Here at home, the velocity of the Fiocchi load averaged 2,808 fps, which produced 2,627 ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle. Groups averaged 0.98 inch.Tops in the accuracy department for factory fodder was Hornady's Custom Lite loaded with the 125-grain SST bullet, which averaged a terrific 0.60 inch. This ammo is great for recoil-sensitive shooters, as the reduction in recoil over full-strength loads is about 45 percent. And with 1,654 ft-lbs at the muzzle, this makes a good deer load. The Federal 150-grain Fusion load averaged 0.83 inch, and Hornady's new Precision Hunter ammo with the 178-grain ELD-X bullet was close behind at 0.87 inch.Franchi offers the Momentum in several configurations, including a "Combo" that comes with a factory-installed Burris FullField II riflescope.I used some new Starline cases for my handloads, and they proved tough and long lasting. I've had such good luck with Hodgdon CFE 223 and VihtaVuori N540 powders that I used them exclusively for the handloads.Overall, I give the new Momentum high marks. It is good looking, pleasant to handle, and uniformly accurate. It's offered chambered for a variety of cartridges, so there's one that would be suitable for just about any hunting scenario. And at the price, especially the scoped combo package, it represents real value.This year is Franchi's 150th anniversary, so the company decided to celebrate by offering a special "Anniversary Limited Edition" of the Momentum. This beauty's stock is made of AA-grade satin walnut, and it has a 22-inch barrel and glossy blue metal finish. It's a real looker. And it is chambered for the good old .30-06. Production is limited to 1,000 units. GET THE NEWSLETTER Join the List and Never Miss a Thing. Sign Me Up


text:
How to Improve Your Call Answering Services
Many businesses deal with customers who may not be within the vicinity of the business premises. Such businesses include hospitals, companies in the communication sector and even regular businesses. Clients will make their enquiries, orders, appointments or make complaints through making calls to numbers given by the companies. The number of calls coming through in a single day may be overwhelming and having to employ as many call attendants to answer to the client calls is an expensive undertaking. Call and telephone answering services have been evolving and improvements have seen the development of call service innovations. One of the improvements and innovations in the telephony and calls sector is the entrance of business call answering machines into the broader picture.
The need for businesses to give clients best call services has since prompted the development of call answering services. It is important for any business to answer and respond to as many calls as possible if not all. The business call service machines make this possible. Let us see how these systems help to get the calls attended to and the advantages they have over real call attendants.
It is natural for human beings to get ill or get fatigued and this necessitates the need for breaks from work. The ability of people, therefore, to attend to all the calls made to the business becomes impossible. There are also times when humans get moody. Moody attendants may give clients a bad impression of the firm. No call machine is affected by bad moods, therefore, making them superior to humans in terms of customer relations.
A call answering machine has the ability to attend to more than one client at a time. It would be impossible for a human to answer fifty calls at the same time but a business call answering machine can handle that comfortably. As the client waits for the available call agents to attend to his or her call, the call service machines keep them engaged with informative messages from the business.
Calls by clients will be received quickly when call service machines are used. Call attendants might not be able to attend to as many calls as required due to engagement with other tasks. A call service system is only dedicated to calls and the calls are therefore answered as they come. This improves your customer relations.
A call service machine can also be able to forward the clients call to the necessary personnel. During the introductory part of the call on the service, clients are presented with instructions to be followed Clients on call will be presented with among other information, the type of services they can get in a call. Through programming, the systems will be designed such that the client's options are translated and call forwarded to respective people.
5 Key Takeaways on the Road to Dominating Services


text:
How to Hire Software Developers: The Basic Guide
Adding new developers who can bring real value to your software engineering teams can be quite an ordeal.
Recruitment is difficult, it is challenging, and a whole lot of things can go very wrong, very easily. No one knows this better than we do.
STX Next has been in the software development business for over 13 years now. We employ over 170 Python and JavaScript developers—more than any other Python software house in Europe—and we keep adding new members to our teams month after month.
It was a long road to get to where we are today. The recruitment strategy we started developing early on changed more times than we can count, as hundreds of candidates and co-workers came and went through our door. We made mistakes, we learned our lessons, we gained experience—and in the process, we perfected our recruitment.
That is why we have decided to write about hiring software developers: we know how to do it well and we understand that a sound recruitment process is absolutely essential for your company's well-being. And it's in your best interest to understand this, as well.
So if you find yourself looking to expand your software development teams with fresh talent, you're in the right place.
Here are the essentials of hiring software engineers.
What should you consider before kicking off the recruitment process?
There is one fundamental question you have to ask yourself before you even start thinking about recruiting:
"Do I need to hire another developer in the first place?"
This may seem a bit self-evident, but it really isn't. You'd be surprised how often developers get hired without a well-defined purpose, just to "expand the team."
Don't make that mistake. You have to know exactly why another developer is necessary, otherwise you end up wasting their valuable time.
In order to establish whether you do need to add a new member to your team, ask yourself something else:
"Who do I need? What kind of skill set do they need to possess?"
This depends on what projects you have in the works. Are they missing something? Are you falling behind schedule? Are there any areas in need of improvement? If so, well, there you have it—that's where you should allocate more human resources.
The easiest way to learn what is missing or could be improved is to talk to your developers and get feedback directly from them. Your current team is also your best window into diagnosing the possible symptoms of work falling behind schedule, which may include unfinished tickets at the end of a development sprint, low team velocity, or failure to meet deadlines.
Having identified your needs, you can set clear and specific expectations for your developers right from the start:
What projects will they be working on?
What will their responsibilities be?
What role will they serve on the team?
That last question in particular is crucial. Skills are one thing, but sometimes you may require someone to fill a specific role that's missing from your team. Beyond needing just another software developer—which is a very valid reason in itself—it usually goes one of three ways:
1. A specialist
You may be missing a specialist who fits a certain niche with their unique expertise and know-how. A developer experienced with a particular framework, such as Flask or Django. Someone well-versed in React Native, so you can build a cutting-edge mobile app. A Machine Learning expert, if you're getting into new technologies. Those are but a few examples. As your projects change, so do your personnel needs. Adapt accordingly.
2. A leader
You may have all of your technical requirements met, but still lack a team member with the right personality to lead the others and make sure the work runs smoothly. A Scrum Master is someone you always want to have on your team, but an arguably greater necessity is an individual who is a developer themselves and understands all the ins and outs of both coding and the technical requirements of a particular project.
3. A breath of fresh air
You may have assembled a full team of highly skilled professionals, whose only additional need is someone to bring something new to the table. This can benefit the team in all sorts of ways: increased motivation, improved atmosphere, reshuffling of responsibilities, teaching and learning from one another, approaching potential problems from a different angle—you name it.
Once you've addressed all of these preliminary concerns, the time is ripe to begin formulating your recruitment process.
5 fundamental dos and don'ts of recruiting
It's relatively common knowledge that a lot of people on the job market genuinely hate going through recruitment. Ever wondered why that is the case?
If so, we have the answers you seek.
Let's shed some light on the most common complaints candidates have about recruiting:
1. Too much to do
Don't make recruiting unnecessarily hard on your candidates. If it's too strenuous, a nuisance, or has too many steps, you will discourage them from putting their best foot forward before you even hire them. If you make your process effortless, your candidates will thank you for it.
2. Wasting time
If you value your applicants' time, you value them as people—now, that is a good start of any relationship. This goes both ways, too; their time is precious, but so is yours. Don't take too long. Be efficient, plan ahead, make the process as swift as possible.
3. Homework
Candidates resent being forced to go through a bunch of useless, pointless motions just because. If there's one thing people absolutely can't stand, it's getting bogged down in bureaucracy. Ask only as much as you really need from them, and they will happily oblige. Plus, it bodes quite poorly for your future cooperation if you swamp them with a million things to do this early in the process.
4. Vagueness
Be transparent, not vague. Keeping your candidates in the dark isn't doing you or them any favors. Provide them with a complete set of information from the get-go, be upfront about your expectations, and deal in specifics only. The salary formula, tech stack, or work experience are but a few examples where being honest and straightforward is in both yours and your candidate's best interest.
5. Poor feedback
"Poor" doesn't mean "negative," mind you. Positive or negative, it's the quality of your feedback that matters. Give it always, give it well, and give it fast—otherwise, don't even bother. Point out specific reasons that led to the ultimate decision to sign a contract or not. Both sides stand to gain a lot from giving and receiving feedback, but only if it's done properly. Stay in touch, set a date, then stick to it.
Keep these fundamental concerns in mind when figuring out your recruitment process. Address them beforehand, and both you and your candidates will greatly benefit from it. Even those you don't end up hiring will then likely leave on a somewhat positive note, with a sense of clarity and closure, instead of feeling sour and bitter. This, in turn, should produce favorable word of mouth for your company, which is the greatest silver lining you could hope for under the circumstances.
5 reasons to turn down a candidate
Hiring is one thing, but there are also multiple reasons why you wouldn't want to recruit certain developers. We could group these reasons into categories and apply a bunch of theory to it, but the simplest and clearest way to think about this is the stage of the recruitment process where the problems should be identified.
Some red flags can only come to light at the IT interview stage, due to the technical nature of this step, but a great deal of issues with your applicant can easily be picked up as early as during the HR interview.
Here are some of the characteristics you definitely do not want in the developers you hire that your HR department should pick up during their interview and immediately disqualify such candidates:
1. Lack of soft skills
In one of our upcoming posts, you will learn the differences between soft and hard skills, and which of the two are arguably more important in your potential hires. However, for the time being let's just say that soft skills are people skills. If a candidate appears to be lacking in those already during recruitment, there is a strong possibility they won't be a good fit for your team.
2. Excessive financial expectations
The salary formula exists for a very good reason. It sets clear, reasonable expectations for your developers and realistically outlines their career paths for them. The formula is transparent and fair, preventing earnings from dividing your team members and spoiling their relationship. If you start bending the rules for one candidate, you risk losing the trust and confidence of your current employees.
3. Insufficient work experience
This naturally depends greatly on whether you're looking for a junior, advanced, or senior developer. However, even at the junior level you need to hold your developers up to certain standards and have some basic, inflexible requirements. Providing software engineering newcomers with an environment to learn and grow is commendable and can be good practice, but a complete amateur may hinder your workflow, not improve it.
4. Inadequate knowledge of the English language
This is a must if you're based in a country where English is not an official language and you're looking to hire local talent. Your candidate's command of English has to be good enough to use it on a daily basis and communicate in it effectively. A vast majority of online activity in the software engineering world happens exclusively in English, and your developer will never be on the same level as the others if this is an issue for them.
5. Unwillingness to sign a B2B contract
Like it or not, the reality of the tech world is that a great deal of business is done via the B2B model. Your candidate must be aware and accepting of this, as well as willing to set up his own company to do business with you if they don't yet have one during the recruitment process. You should also be understanding—and appreciative—of their setting this up solely for the purpose of working for you, but their reluctance to agree to B2B should immediately eliminate any possibility of further talks on your end.
Last piece of advice… okay, 2
To conclude this short hiring guide, we'd like to leave you with not 1, but 2 last pieces of advice:
1. Welcome your candidates with open arms
It's true that you should set clear expectations for your candidates from the start. But in no way does that mean being uninviting toward applicants who do not meet your requirements.
Never alienate your candidates. Always encourage them to apply.
Granted, in some extreme cases they may end up pointlessly wasting your time, but a sincere effort to work at your company generally goes a long way. If anything, you have succeeded in making them want to be a part of what you're doing, which is exactly what you're going for.
This is why feedback is so important for the good image and reputation of your company. You have no obligation to hire a candidate whose skills are lacking, but why not help them get better and get feedback about your process, too?
They chose you. They came to you. They tried. That alone deserves praise and gratitude. It's fine to turn them down, just don't put them down.
A candidate may be underqualified now, but that may change in the future. Once their skills grow, it's likely they'll reach out to you again. Why? Because they'll remember the positive recruitment experience at your company. And when they do come back for another interview, the conversation may go quite differently. It might even lead to a successful hire.
Regardless, all of the above can only happen if people apply. Your job is to convince them to get their foot in the door.
And then… just talk. See what happens. Nothing beats a good old sit-down face to face.
2. Don't lose track of the competition
The competition never sleeps. The rules of the game are ever-changing and keeping up with the latest developments is how you stay one step ahead of the others.
This is especially true in the software engineering world. Your developers will be expecting to work with new technologies and constantly think of new ways to build, execute, and deliver. Otherwise, they will burn out and leave your company in search of other opportunities and challenges.
Always keep things fresh and interesting if you want your teams to be productive and satisfied.
Final thoughts
Thanks a lot for reading our basic guide to hiring software developers.
Keep the pointers we have outlined for you in mind, and you will find more and more developers applying to work with you, leaving positive feedback whether you ultimately sign a contract or not.
And if you're hungry to learn more about the ins and outs of recruiting developers, I have good news for you. Not only is this post the first in a series of 4 we'll be putting out in the coming weeks on the subject, it is also but a taste of the hiring knowledge waiting for you in our brand new ebook!
The basics aren't enough? Get our ultimate guide to hiring software engineers—everything you need to know about growing your software development teams, just one click away.


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Branding is critical to your growth strategy. But how strategic is your branding?
- Is your brand's story authentic?
- Is your story being told?
- Is it the "right" story?
As growth-stage companies focus on developing their teams, product lines and operational systems, executives can lose sight of the deliberate planning and execution needed for effective branding.
But this is no time to take your eye off the brand, considering the reach, speed and superabundance in the mobile, social and web spheres. The digital economy has fundamentally changed how consumers and businesses alike come to recognize brands, research product purchases and develop brand loyalty.
(Image, right: I am ALWAYS personal branding)
Take consumer purchasing decisions. According to Nielsen/inPowered MediaLab, Consumers rely five times more on trusted content today than five years ago when deciding what to buy. This trusted content includes your own communications as well as user reviews, but more often than not, consumers are consulting third-party experts.
In the B2B market, 88% of business buyers say online content has played a moderate to major role in vendor selection, according to a report by the CMO Council and NetLine Corp. Expert influencers also predominate in B2B as well as B2C.
This is the environment in which strategic branding becomes not only more important, but potentially more effective (and measurably so) in helping your company make its mark, build a customer base and differentiate itself from the competition. How you tell your brand's story is critical. C-level engagement in branding is essential to determine how best to drive interest in your company and solutions among prospects, customers and key influencers.
- Make your brand's story authentic: Brand authenticity sets the stage for earning familiarity, developing trust and building ongoing relationships in your market. Authenticity must run deep. C-level executives need to prioritize brand communications for the whole team.
- Make the brand the "north star" for your company: The unifying idea about who you are as a business and what you stand for. Far more than just a visual identity or tag line, this is your commitment to the marketplace. Through your brand architecture, all products or subsidiaries roll up to this unifying idea, along with unified messaging aligned with clearly stated corporate values.
- Empower your people with the right direction, structure and processes: Don't silo the brand. Rather, instill it across all business functions and levels, from the C-suite to brand ambassadors on the front lines of sales and customer service.
- Make sure your marketing and public relations efforts are integrated as well: These functions should be working together on earned, paid and owned media, establishing "connected communications"— an integrated approach across digital, social and offline channels such as events and print media.
- And keep the branding strategy on track with business development: Branding is not an 11th exercise as you go to market or face a crisis situation.
Right story = effective story.
This consistent, multifaceted approach leverages all channels to build an ongoing story, compounding the visibility of your brand and paving the way forward.
Reinforce your brand message continuously along the continuum from familiarity to trust to engagement with content that educates, inspires, advises or supports. Rethink your definition of news, to remain top of mind in an environment of ever-shorter attention spans and ever-faster circulation of information.
Issuing news releases and matte releases at key milestones in your company's growth is no longer enough to keep your brand in circulation. Innovative companies are also expanding social channels, blogs and content marketing programs—using press releases to extend the reach and impact of these communications efforts, as well.
Distribution drives ongoing message discovery to existing and new constituents. Distribute messages not only to journalists on your targeted media lists, but to analysts and other experts, as well as your brand's followers on social networks. Compelling, well-crafted messages are found by new audiences, redistributed across peer and professional networks and surfaced in search engine results. They can ripple across the web and back to your site for months after the messages are originally issued.
- Listen to your customers, potential customers and other key audiences in social media to determine what they care about and whose opinions they respect.
- Use social tools to analyze these influencers. Who are they? What are they talking about? These are the bloggers, analysts, trendsetters and other opinion-makers who can help amplify your message and build your community.
- Redouble efforts to establish relationships with key influencers. Bring them ideas that could help their audiences as a group and position your company as part of the solution.
- Use press releases to bring the imprimatur of your brand to bear on new areas of your brand strategy. Issue announcements on branded research, seasonal consumer tip sheets on your web site, B2B thought pieces on your blogs and other branded content.
- Unleash the power of multimedia. Statistics show that rich graphics and video make most communications more effective, including multimedia press releases. Here's just one way: video increases people's understanding of your product or service by 74%, according to recent research by Digital Sherpa.3
- Ongoing monitoring will help continually generate new ideas that underscore the value of your brand. An added benefit of monitoring is the capacity of social tools and other web techniques to measure the impact of public relations as never before—whether in terms of traffic driven to your web site, responses to calls-to-action or readings of sentiments surrounding your brand.
Even while driving a continuous flow of brand messaging, companies have to be careful to avoid volume simply for the sake of volume. You're not going to get anywhere today if you don't have a credible, unique story...Your content needs to provide value to the reader— be it fresh insight, entertainment or problem solving.
At some point, you may find the very reputation of your brand relying in real time on all these investments in authenticity, consistency and engagement—on your unflagging enterprise- wide brand commitment and empowerment. At times of crisis communications, it is even more critical that you and your customers have a very clear idea of your brand identity, its promise to the market, your corporate values, your key messages and how they all relate. Establish shared responsibility for monitoring to help pick up on stories—good or bad for your brand—very quickly. Plan ahead and have a SWAT team of pre-selected, media-trained company experts in place for rapid response. With crisis response that is true to your company's inherent values, you may find that brand loyalty wins the day.
Bottomline… Stay top of mind: Brand awareness can help on many levels: building credibility, nurturing relationships, generating demand, driving revenue and attracting stakeholders to your venture. Consistent messaging continuously reinforced across channels and over time will help your brand remain top of mind in your market, with a valuable share of voice not only in the media but in all of the channels that are most relevant to your success.


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Animal NDC 54771-1003-2 Aureomycin
Chlortetracycline Hydrochloride
Animal NDC Product Code 54771-1003-2
Aureomycin Animal Product Labeling Information
The product labeling information includes all published material associated to a drug. Product labeling documents include information like generic names, active ingredients, ingredient strength dosage, routes of administration, appearance, usage, warnings, inactive ingredients, etc.
Product Labeling Index
Active Drug Ingredient
Chlortetracycline calcium complex equivalent to 100 g chlortetracycline hydrochloride per lb.
Dried Streptomyces aureofaciens Fermentation Product and Calcium Sulfate.
Use Directions
Mix sufficient Aureomycin 100 Granular Medicated Article to supply desired concentration of chlortetracycline per ton with part of the feed ingredients to make a preblend. Add the remainder of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. For specific use levels, see Indications.
Mixing Directions
Level desired grams per tonAmount of medicated article per ton*501/2 lb1001 lb2002 lb4004 lb5005 lb† It is recommended that 1 pound of Aureomycin 100 Granular Type A Medicated Article be diluted with 3 pounds of one of thefeed ingredients to form a 4 pound workingpremix. Use 2 pounds of the working premix tomake a preblend (see Use directions) for aType C feed containing 50 g Aureomycinchlortetracycline / ton of feed.
Indications Chlortetracyclinemg per lb bodywt per day Cattle Beef Cattle (over 700 lb): Control of active infection of anaplasmosis caused by Anaplasma marginale susceptible to chlortetracycline. 0.5 Beef and Non-Lactating Dairy Cattle: As an aid in control of active infection of anaplasmosis caused by Anaplasma marginale susceptible to chlortetracycline when delivered in a free-choice feed. Free-choice feed must be manufactured under a medicated feed mill license utilizing an FDA approved formulation. 0.5-2.0 Calves, Beef and Non-Lactating Dairy Cattle: Treatment of bacterial enteritis caused by Escherichia coli and bacterial pneumonia caused by Pasteurella multocida organisms susceptible to chlortetracycline. Feed for not more than 5 days. The appropriate amount of Aureomycin-containing feed supplement may be mixed in the cattle's daily ration or administered as a top-dress. If the Aureomycin-containing feed supplement is administered as a top-dress, it must be spread uniformly on top of the ration and sufficient space must be provided so that all cattle can eat at the same time. 10 Swine Control of porcine proliferative enteropathies (ileitis) caused by Lawsonia intracellularis susceptible to chlortetracycline.Treatment of bacterial enteritis caused by Escherichia coli and Salmonella choleraesuis and bacterial pneumonia caused by Pasteurella multocida susceptible to chlortetracycline. (Note: this drug level is equivalent to approximately 400 grams per ton, depending on feed consumption and body weight.)Feed for not more than 14 days. 10 Turkeys Control of complicating bacterial organisms associated with bluecomb (transmissible enteritis; coronaviral enteritis) susceptible to chlortetracycline. Feed continuously for 7 to 14 days. 25 Indications mg per headper day Cattle Growing Cattle (over 400 lb): For the reduction of the incidence of liver abscesses. 70 Beef Cattle: Control of bacterial pneumonia associated with shipping fever complex caused by Pasteurella spp. susceptible to chlortetracycline. 350 Beef Cattle (under 700 lb): Control of active infection of anaplasmosis caused by Anaplasma marginale susceptible to chlortetracycline. 350 Sheep Breeding Sheep: Reduction in the incidence of (vibrionic) abortions caused by Campylobacter fetus infection susceptible to chlortetracycline. 80 Indications In complete feedChlortetracyclineg per ton Swine Reduction in the incidence of cervical lymphadenitis (jowl abscesses) caused by Group E Streptococci susceptible to chlortetracycline. 50-100 Breeding Swine: Control of leptospirosis (reducing the incidence of abortion and shedding of leptospirae) caused by Leptospira pomona susceptible to chlortetracycline. Feed continuously for not more than 14 days. 400 Ducks Control and treatment of fowl cholera caused by Pasteurella multocida susceptible to chlortetracycline. Feed in complete ration to provide from 8 to 28 mg per pound of body weight per day depending upon age and severity of disease. Feed for not more than 21 days. 200-400 Chickens Control of infectious synovitis caused by Mycoplasma synoviae susceptible to chlortetracycline.Feed continuously for 7 to 14 days. 100-200 Control of chronic respiratory disease (CRD) and air sac infection caused by Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Escherichia coli susceptible to chlortetracycline.Feed continuously for 7 to 14 days. 200-400 Reduction of mortality due to Escherichia coli infections susceptible to chlortetracycline. Feed for 5 days. 500 Turkeys Control of infectious synovitis caused by Mycoplasma synoviae susceptible to chlortetracycline. Feed continuously for 7 to 14 days. 200 Control of hexamitiasis caused by Hexamita meleagridis susceptible to chlortetracycline. Feed continuously for 7 to 14 days. 400 Turkey Poults not over 4 weeks of age: Reduction of mortality due to paratyphoid caused by Salmonella typhimurium susceptible to chlortetracycline. 400 Indications mg per g feed Psittacine birds Warning: Psittacosis, avian chlamydiosis, or ornithosis is a reportable communicable disease, transmissible between wild and domestic birds, other animals and man. Contact appropriate public health and regulatory officials. Caution: Aspergilliosis may occur following prolonged treatment. Treatment of psittacine birds (parrots, macaws, cockatoos) suspected or known to be infected with psittacosis caused by Chlamydia psittaci sensitive to chlortetracycline. Feed continuously for 45 days. Each bird should consume an amount of medicated feed equal to one-fifth of its body weight daily. During treatment, parrots, macaws, and cockatoos should be kept individually or in pairs in clean cages. 10
A withdrawal period has not been established for this product in pre-ruminating calves.Do not use in calves to be processed for veal.Do not feed to ducks or turkeys producing eggs for human consumption.
Store below 25°C (77°F), excursions permitted to 37°C (99°F)Restricted Drug (California) - Use only as directed. Not for human use.NADA 48-761, Approved by FDA
* The information on this page is for an ANIMAL PRODUCT, please review the complete disclaimer below.


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Skid-steer loaders and excavators, especially those of the Bobcat brand, do the removing of large materials and demolitions efficiently. Therefore, numerous service providers these days have mushroomed in Australia. Most of which are supplying Perth Bobcat services and solutions, for instance.
What types of machines do they cater to? Some of the equipment that these providers often maintain consist of excavators, skid loaders, compact track loaders, mini-track loaders, and tractors.
Many providers offer enticing service deals, as well. Thus, choosing the best provider of Perth Bobcat services can be overwhelming. There will always be dependable ones and unstable service providers. You will have to make sure that you get the top of the line Perth Bobcat services.
The following are the qualities of the best provider of Perth Bobcat services:
Skilled and knowledgeable
When you are dealing with a job that's rather made complex, you are far better off picking a company that has been in the market for a long time. Working with an experienced provider of Bobcat services Perth wide will take a lot of concerns off your plate.
You will be at peace, given that they will have numerous options for tending to various technological troubles. In addition, such companies have mastered the altering trends in the market. They also probably monitored the latest technological innovations in industrial machines and upkeep.
Good reputation among clients
Prior to inking an agreement with the service provider, you will need to think about the track record of the company. Are they respectable? A provider of Bobcat services in Perth that's wonderful in the delivery of quality services will certainly be known.
Therefore, ask around to understand why people are fond of sending their Bobcat machines to the provider. The internet also offers a great platform to do research and review client reviews, as well as ratings on the company you are considering.
Are insured
In this industry, it's important that you collaborate with a provider that's insured. This is because the equipment and the tools entailed can possibly harm employees.
You also should confirm the legitimacy of the insurance policy certificates to make sure that you are not fooled. A credible company will readily present you proofs of their legitimacy.
Offers a wide variety of solutions
Working with a business that has a wide range of solutions and products can commonly be really convenient. This is true specifically when you require several provisions for a task.
In addition, when you get all the services and products from one supplier, then you'll save on the transportation costs—as opposed to doing business with different service providers and suppliers. You can also avoid the inconvenience of transferring from one place to another.
Final Thoughts
Keep in mind—while aspects such as expense are just as crucial, cost ought to never override quality. Always take note of that when you're searching for Bobcat service providers.
Now, do you want to find Bobcat services Perth has these days? Check out a certified supplier like Match Tec. Visit http://matchtec.com.au/bobcat-repairs-landsdale-perth-wangara/ to take a look at their products and services.


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Business Trifecta Program
April 19-20, 2020
Denver, CO
Early Bird Pricing: $299 (standard price: $350)
Promo Code: DN420
(expires: 03/15/20)
What To Expect During This 2-Day Event....
Day 1:
*You'll Be Given A Proven Formula To Dramatically Increase Your Service & Retail Dollars Through Your Authentic Brilliance
*You'll Tap Into The Powerful Leader Inside Of You That's Been Hiding
*You'll Discover Why You Must BE YOU In Order To Have Sustainable Success
*You'll Have Greater Understanding As To Why You're Feeling Stuck & How To Propel Yourself Quickly
*You'll Walk Away From The Program Feeling More Empowered, More Inspired, And More Clear So You Can Create The Results You So Badly Desire
It's ALL about Business on Day 2:
We Will Be Sitting Boardroom Style, Dissecting Your Numbers, Applying Immediate Growth Strategies, And Getting You To Treat Your Business Like A BUSINESS. This is an incredible day of taking everything from Day 1 and propelling your forward into the FUTURE!
You'll Also Be Learning How To:
*Learn to LEAD your organization from a Mission, Culture, and Purpose Driven mindset.
*Increase your Principle-Based Profits for sustainability in the marketplace.
*Discover WHY you must go from Good To Great NOW.
* Be ready to dive deep into your current numbers and discover immediate opportunities.
* Experience real-time application of new business strategies and see results happen right before your eyes.
NOTE: Please bring your laptop, Ipad, or whatever is easiest for you to access your numbers.
Class Time Is 10am-4pm both days
Business Trifecta Program - Denver, CO
The Salon and Spa Institute and The SSI Agency has a no refund policy. In the event you need to cancel, we will issue you a house credit for up to one year from program date.


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Oakland, California (EastBayDaily) — Pan Theater sponsors the Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company at the Oakland Metro. Pan Theater is pleased to bring top UCB performers to the San Francisco Bay Area to perform at the Oakland Metro on July 23rd and July 24th.
Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company performers are scheduled to perform two sets of comedy improv each evening. The shows will include the long form comedy techniques and style that has made the UCB Theaters in NYC and LA the top training grounds for both television and film. These comedy improv shows are sure to be the hottest Bay Area comedy shows of the summer.
This is the second time Pan Theater has sponsored UCB shows in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior Pan sponsored Upright Citizens Brigade comedy shows have sold out.
UCB instructors will also be offering workshops in comedy improv at Pan Theater on July 24th and July 25th. Four additional workshops have been scheduled; the first workshops scheduled for July sold out in two days.
Pan's Awkward Face troupe is excited to bring UCB to Oakland.
Pan's Awkward Face performs every Saturday at Pan Theater at 8:00pm and 9:10 pm at 2135 Broadway in Oakland.
UCB Touring Company Shows are scheduled for: July 23rd at 8:00pm and 9:30pm July 24th at 8:00pm and 9:30pm Tickets are $20 online through Brown Paper TIckets or $25 at the door.
Performances will be held at the Oakland Metro at: 630 3rd St ⢠Oakland, CA 94607
For more information visit: http://www.comedyimprovshows.com
UCB Comedy improv workshops are scheduled for July 24th and July 25th For more information visit: http://www.improvcomedybayarea.com Note: Workshops are selling out fast.
Pan Theater


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The Leewood Route (5.5 miles)
You can get an interactive map by clicking on the above link.
Many Routes are defined by the terrain. On this Leewood one, as you head north, and particularly after crossing Main Street in Tuckahoe, you're at the base of a ridge so that any turns to the right (toward Route 22) will send you up a decent hill. The Route is defined on the west by Sagamore/Columbus and the MetroNorth tracks behind them and on the north by the Leewood Country Club.
The Leewood Route is simple and has fewer turns than some of the others. One must briefly run on Midland Avenue (north of Avon) and cross Main Street and Fisher Avenue (in Tuckahoe). Marbledale Road, the key to this Route, is a commercial stretch with a fair amount of traffic, but it is wide and well-lit. You can see that the objective is to parallel a major road, such as Park Avenue vs. Midland and Oakland vs. Columbus Avenue. The traffic will be on those roads, not where you're running.
This Route is basically an up-and-back. There are variants. This one has you running on an alternative to Marbledale heading south. It is, however, an object lesson in the local terrain as you'll see a mighty hill up Fairview in Tuckahoe. So head to Sagamore perhaps. Again, experiment with what feels comfortable.