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What did Jesus look like? The many different depictions of Christ tell a story about race and religion in America. Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey explore that history in their new book, The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America. The book traces how different races and ethnic groups claimed Christ as their own — and how depictions of Jesus have both inspired civil rights crusades, and been used to justify the violence of white supremacists.
The Ku Klux Klan could not rely on Christian doctrine to justify their persecution and violence, so they had to turn to religious icons. "The belief, the value, that Jesus is white provides them an image in place of text," Blum tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "It gets them away from actually having to quote chapter and verse, which they can't really do to present their cause."
If Blum had to paint a realistic portrait of Jesus, he says he wouldn't be white: "I would probably paint him darkly complected, not pure black, more in a kind of light brownish [color]."
Up until the late 1800s, Blum says Americans were comfortable with Jesus' Semitic roots and depicted him with brown eyes. But as waves of Catholic and Jewish immigrants came to the United States, some Americans "became concerned that it was changing the face of America too much, changing it racially, changing it religiously." In the early 20th century, there was an attempt to distinguish Jesus from his Semitic background. Religious writers and artists who were advocating for immigration restrictions began to depict Jesus with blond hair and blue eyes.
Interview Highlights:
On how slave owners presented the image of a white Jesus
"When slave owners try to Christianize their slaves, they bring Jesus in two forms — one is as a servant, and that's to say, 'Hey look, service is good, service is godly, so your work service is good.' But they also present Jesus as master ... You have to follow his lead to not lie, not steal. But when slaves take this Jesus, how they reconnect the dots is to say, 'OK, well if Jesus is master, then my earthly master isn't my only one, he's not my most powerful one, in fact I have a master above my master ... and that master can challenge the slave owner, can teach a higher law.' And then when we get to service, when slaves hear that Jesus was a servant, they say, 'Hey, wait a second, he also suffered, he was crucified, but that wasn't the rest of the story. The rest of the story was he was resurrected, and not only was Jesus resurrected, but he resurrected his friends in the story of Lazarus.'
"So for African-Americans who have death all around them — and not just literal death, but also the death of families, you know, when you see your wife or child sent away ... Jesus has resurrection power for him and his friends. So what slaves do is they basically take those models of master and of servant, and they just connect them differently than the way the slave masters intended, and they create basically a wholly new form of Protestant Christianity."
On how Mormons claimed a sacred America with the image of a white Jesus Christ
"Geographically, one of the problems Americans had had before Mormonism was they wanted to stake their belief on Jesus, but a Jesus who never lived here, never lived in this space. So when the Book of Mormon has prophecy of [Jesus] and then [has] Jesus here on the American continents, all of a sudden America is sacred. ... It precedes Columbus, and the fact that this Jesus is white with blue eyes — it gives Americans long history; not theft from the Indians, but a reclaiming of the land. So the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they're reclaiming the faith, they're reclaiming the land, and they're doing it through a white notion of the sacred."
How Joseph Smith explained race in America
"In Mormon theology — and Smith himself would claim he's not explaining any of this, that these are revelations to him from on high — that basically physical distinctions like light skin, white skin, dark skin, black skin, that those are made by God in part from the Book of Genesis, where after the flood, Noah curses his grandson and, supposedly, his son and grandson then go to Africa. So it seems that Noah's curse is actually from God, and so people of African descent are cursed. But also in Mormon theology, there is a sense that one's skin tone reflects one's pre-this-life sinfulness.
"For Mormons, one's body existed before in a pre-life state, and it'll exist after our lives — our literal bodies will — and so when Joseph Smith looked around him and saw Native Americans, when he saw black Americans, when he saw white Americans — the revelation told him the lighter the skin, the more blessed one and the less sinful one was in the past. And he actually thought that societies would lighten. So the more Native Americans, for instance, would join the church and be good Latter-day Saints, they would actually lighten over time as part of becoming more sacred. But the curse of those [of] African-American descent is intense. Brigham Young, for instance, would say that if a white man was caught having a sexual relationship with a woman with any African descent, he should be executed, perhaps even beheaded on the spot. So while Native Americans could be redeemed more with time, Africans-Americans, people with African descent, were seen really as the ultimate other."
On when the image of a black Jesus emerged
"During the 1920s and 1930s, we see people out of W.E.B. Du Bois' circle drawing Jesus as a Southern black man who is lynched, basically. And then the second time we see it is during the civil rights movement, during the mid- and late-1960s and the 1970s ... that Jesus is more Africanized. He might have an Afro, he might wear a dashiki. ... We see the rise of identity politics, and so making a Jesus who looks like you as part of an expression of power, it becomes important — and that's exactly the same time that African-Americans are quote unquote 'discovering their roots,' as Alex Haley put it. And so going back to Africa, looking more ... 'African' becomes important culturally, and so doing that to Jesus happens at the same time."
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. The new book "The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America" starts with this provocative question: How is it that a Jewish prophet from the Roman era ran so explosively into the American obsession with race that his image has been used to justify the worst atrocities of white supremacy, as well as inspire the most heroic civil rights crusades?
My guest, Edward Blum, is the co-author of the book. He said he wanted to explore the ways Americans gave physical forms to Jesus, where they placed those forms and how they remade him visually into a sacred symbol of their greatest aspirations, deepest terrors and strivings for racial power and justice. Blum is also co-author of "Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism." He's an associate professor of history at San Diego State University.
Edward Blum, welcome to FRESH AIR. So knowing what you know about religious history, if you were painting a picture of Jesus Christ, what color would he be?
EDWARD BLUM: Well, the best American painting I've ever seen of Jesus is by Henry Ossawa Tanner, and what he does is he has a figure, a human figure veiled, where the colors are somewhat grayish and brownish colors are over the face. And so we can make out that there's a man there, and he has skin that seems a little darker and hair that seems a little darker, but we can't make out the actual skin tone. We can't make out the eye color.
And I would choose that for a couple reasons. One, because America was founded by a whole bunch of Puritans who didn't want to see Jesus. They thought it was a violation of the Second Commandment to have images of Christ. And when they had dreams, when sometimes Puritans would dream about seeing Jesus, he was described as behind a spider web, and I think that's a beautiful image.
Even Joseph Smith, when he claimed to see his - to see Jesus and God the Father - Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, his first description was that it was indescribable. And so I like the notion of behind a veil or behind a webbing, that there's something, someone there that we desperately want to see and get to but just quite can't.
GROSS: OK, so you've answered and avoided the question at the same time.
BLUM: Uh-huh.
GROSS: So I'm going to ask it again because, I mean, you know, Christ was actually a man. You know, he starts as a man. And he was a man in a place at a time, and he was flesh and blood, and that flesh had a color. And our depictions, historical depictions of him have differed over the centuries, but he had a color when he was alive. So if you were - if you were painting a realistic image of what you think Jesus looked like in his time, what color would he be?
BLUM: So, for that I can say he definitely wouldn't be white, and you know, the Middle East that Jesus, the historical Jesus was a part of, was the crossroads of the world, of the known world at its time. And so I would probably paint him darkly complected, not pure black, more in a kind of light brownish.
I'd probably pay a lot more attention to his size. I'd probably put him as relatively short. Usually most paintings have him as pretty tall. I'd have him as pretty short. I'd have him as non-substantial muscularly, unlike Jesus in "The Passion of the Christ," where Jim Caviezel is kind of chiseled. I'd have him pretty much look average to ordinary. So the color would be brownish.
GROSS: OK, and is that because he's of Middle Eastern descent?
BLUM: Well, mostly because it's really hard to trace back, actually, 2,000 years what people looked like back then. You know, forensic scientists want to play with this, but it's kind of like - remember that Michael Jackson video, where there were those human bodies morphing into one another? Yeah, "Black or White" was the name of the video.
And if you were to just stop in the middle of a morphing, it would look weird, and that's kind of what forensic scientists are trying to do. They're trying to take a population of millions of people and boil it down into one look. When you have people - this is the cool thing about the Bible is in the New Testament, all these people from all these different regions are running into each other. So the level of social interaction, of sexual interaction was just a - was significant.
So what would a person 2,000 years ago, one single individual, look like then? I don't know, and it's unknowable. There were four Gospel writers. Why didn't one of them say, oh, and here's what his skin looked like, and here's what his hair looked like. They didn't, none of them did, because it wasn't important to them. It's important to us.
GROSS: So one of the things you do in the book is talk about how different groups historically used Jesus and used a white depiction of Jesus to justify what they were doing. And the example I will use here is white supremacists, and let's go to the Ku Klux Klan, that had the burning crosses, the white sheets. How did a white Jesus play into their justification for their own actions?
BLUM: So in the 19-teens, 1920s, when this KKK emerges, they are adamant that they are Christ followers. And why that's so important to them and why making, seeing Jesus as white, as Jesus who wears a robe, that's important to them really because they're trying to justify things that other Christians had challenged.
For a long time, Christians had challenged racial discrimination. For a long time, there had been a group of Christians who had challenged, you know, violence against people of color, exploitation against them. They said - a number of Christians had said, we should do unto others as they would have done unto - you know, do unto others as you would have done unto you.
And so when the Klan wants to justify violence, when they want to justify exclusion, they don't have Biblical texts for it. They just don't have written texts. So they have to turn to image. And so the belief, the value that Jesus was white provides them an image in place of text.
And so that's why, you know, depicting, showing Jesus as white with Klansmen, it gets them away from actually having to quote chapter and verse, which they can't really do to present their cause.
GROSS: So were there any specific images of Jesus that were embraced by the Klan?
BLUM: The Klan, interestingly enough, they created their own. And they would actually draw pictures of new Bible scenes where they would put Klansmen in them. So there's one where Jesus is passing out the loaves and the fish to feed the thousands, and the disciples are Klansmen, and they actually put an American flag behind Jesus to show, you know, not only was Jesus in favor of white supremacy but also American supremacy.
So what the Klan mostly does is they don't take - they don't really take too much European art or American art. They just create their own drawings that insert themselves into typical Christ moments.
GROSS: Slave owners used a white Jesus to help justify enslaving people, but that same white Jesus, as you point out, was seen as a friend and as a symbol of freedom for the slaves. So can you talk a little bit about how that image of a white Jesus was perceived differently by slaves and slave owners?
BLUM: Yeah, so when slave owners bring, when they try to Christianize their slaves, they bring Jesus in two forms. One is as a servant, and that's to say hey, look, service is good, service is godly. So your work, you, slave, your work and service is good. But they also present Jesus as master, master Jesus, you have to follow his lead to not lie, not steal.
Well, when slaves take this Jesus, how they reconnect to the dots is to say, OK, well, if Jesus is master, then my earthly master isn't my only one, he's not my most powerful one. In fact, I have a master above my master. And when there's a master above your master, that master can challenge the slave owner, can teach a higher law.
And then when we get to service, when slaves hear that Jesus was a servant, they say, hey, wait a second, he was also - he also suffered. He was crucified, but that wasn't the rest of the story. The rest of the story was he was resurrected, and not only was Jesus resurrected, but he resurrected his friends in the story of Lazarus.
And so for African-Americans who have death all around them and not just literal death but also the death of families, you know, when you see your wife or your child sent away, that's the kind of death of your family, Jesus has resurrection power for him and his friends.
So what slaves do is they basically take those models of master and of servant, and they just connect them differently than the way the slave masters intended, and they create basically a wholly new form of Protestant Christianity.
GROSS: And are there, like, journals or writings by people who had been slaves or who were slaves at the time that they were writing, describing how they felt about a Jesus who was white, because Jesus was depicted as white?
BLUM: Yeah, there's a couple different places. One, there are free - fugitive slave narratives, like Frederick Douglass' or Henry Box Brown's narratives, where they talk about what they think about Jesus. Henry Box Brown actually thought as a child that his master was God, and his master's son was Jesus. He didn't see the difference between the biblical characters and the human ones.
And then after the Civil War, a number of former slaves gave interviews, talking about their time in slavery. And there's a great book called "God Struck Me Dead," which has conversion stories, tales from former slaves about how they became Christians.
And they run into Jesus. They meet him. They sometimes run into the devil. He's there in the forest. He's there in the field. And they meet a white Jesus, and he's kind of dripping with whiteness. His hair is white, everything around him is white. But he's also really short. He's also a short man who then engages them as a friend, as a savior, as a liberator.
And so what seems so striking here is that their Jesus is a trickster. He's a trickster of the Trinity, in that he's a white man who's small, who kind of challenges and destabilizes everything about white power. And none of these slaves, former slaves, ever talk about having a problem with him being white. They're usually struck more by his shortness than anything else.
GROSS: My guest is Edward Blum, co-author of the new book "The Color of Christ." We'll talk more after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: My guest is Edward Blum, co-author of the new book "The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America," about how different races and ethnic groups have interpreted Jesus and depicted him. The Mormons play a significant role in your book "The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America," in part because Mormons, at least, you know, earlier in Mormon history, depicted not only a white but a - correct me if I'm wrong here - a fair-haired, blue-eyed Jesus.
BLUM: Mormonism is this great case study of what happens to Jesus in America, in that when Joseph Smith first has a vision of Jesus and God, he writes of it as indescribable, as he saw blinding light. So he's kind of like the Puritans. He didn't know how to describe what he saw.
And then as Mormons were embattled, as they were persecuted, they fought back. One of the ways they fought back was by saying, hey, look, no, we're genuinely American. We have, you know, our savior is white with blue eyes. And so, while Mormons are being challenged as fundamentally un-American by other white Americans, they push back by saying, no, we're the most American, and, look, even our Jesus is white, and the most white.
GROSS: And the most American in the sense that Joseph Smith said that Jesus had come to America after he was resurrected so that he precedes Columbus. And so, what is the Mormon telling of how Jesus came to America and why?
BLUM: So in the Book of Mormon, it precedes, you know, centuries before Jesus, a group of lost tribes from Israel end up making it to North and South America, and while they're here, they have their fights, their squabbles. Jesus comes to the Middle East, and we actually see it in America because there's a great light that the people of North and South America can see.
And then when Jesus is crucified, it all goes black. It all goes dark for three days. Well, then, Jesus is resurrected in the Middle East, and as the Book of Mormon goes, after he ascends into heaven over there, he descends from Heaven here. And so he comes to the Americas, and he teaches most of the same things that he taught in the traditional Gospels.
He calls the children to him, he tells everyone to stop fighting. He preaches basically the Sermon on the Mount, and then he ascends again, and the Americans at that time, the Americans live well. They do well for a little while after that, before they eventually kind of descend into chaos again.
GROSS: In the late 1800s, when immigration starts becoming a big, controversial issue in America because a lot of people living in America don't want the Jews and the Catholics coming in. They don't want the Irish and the Italian coming in. You say that the image of Jesus starts to change a little bit then. How does it change?
BLUM: Yeah. Typically, Americans had been completely comfortable with Jesus being Jewish, and they had assumed Jews had brown eyes, and so they depicted Jesus as brown-eyed. Well, as waves of Catholic immigrants with - who, you know, didn't speak English, or Jewish immigrants came to the United States, many nativist Americans became upset with that, concerned that it was changing the face of America too much, changing it racially, changing it religiously.
And so in the early 20th century, we see some writers, like a fellow named Madison Grant, who talks about, talks about how, you know, didn't it seem that the Jews treated Jesus as somehow un-Jewish, as not Jewish? There was a film by D.W. Griffith called "Intolerance," where he portrays Jesus as being intolerantly treated by Jews, and this film came out in 1916.
And we get other Christian writers talking about: haven't you ever noticed that Jesus was more cosmopolitan or more occidental, meaning European, than Oriental, meaning from the Middle East? And it's at that time that we see Colonel Henry Todd paint the first popular Jesus with blond hair and blue eyes.
And the distancing Jesus from his Semitic, his Jewish background, becomes important to a whole bunch of artists and religious writers and to folks like Madison Grant, who was actively against - actively for immigration restrictions.
GROSS: So this was a way, you're saying this was a way of distancing Jesus from the Jewish and also from the Catholic immigrants that a lot of Americans didn't really welcome here.
BLUM: Yeah, especially in the case of Jewish immigrants, where how can you bar Jewish immigrants, how can you keep them out if you believe in a Jewish savior? So that's one of the issues. Now, and then keeping Catholics immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe out, one of the arguments is that their fetish for Jesus images; all their icons, that that somehow marks them as not civilized, that the most civilized will have, you know, an image of Jesus but recognize that it, itself, isn't an idol, it itself has no spiritual power.
So Catholic immigrants were seen as less than civilized because of their continued kind of having fetishes for these Christ and Madonna images.
GROSS: So let's jump ahead in time. At what point do you start seeing depictions of Jesus as being black?
BLUM: Two primary moments. One is the Harlem Renaissance. So during the 1920s and the 1930s, we see people out of W.E.B. Du Bois' circle drawing Jesus as a Southern black man who's lynched, basically. And then the second time we see it is during the civil rights movement, during the mid- and late 1960s and the 1970s. And that Jesus is more Africanized. He might have an afro, he might wear a dashiki. So those are the two kind of biggest explosive moments of when we see black in Jesus figures.
GROSS: Now are those meant, do you think, to be, you know, like commentaries, to be metaphorical or literal because, you know, Jesus wouldn't have been wearing a dashiki, you know, in his time?
BLUM: Yeah, in the '60s and the '70s, we see the rise of identity politics, and so making a Jesus who looks like you as part of an expression of power, it becomes important. And that's exactly the same time that, you know, African-Americans are, quote-unquote, discovering their roots, as Alex Haley put it. And so going back to Africa, looking more, quote-unquote, African becomes important culturally, and so doing that to Jesus happens at the same time.
Then there's also a move among theologians who want to make a geographic claim. And they say, hey, when Mary and Joseph had to hide Jesus, where'd they take him? Egypt. And so he must have been dark somehow because there's this assumption that, you know, folks in Egypt at the time would've been dark-skinned.
GROSS: Well, Edward Blum, thank you very much for talking with us.
BLUM: Yeah, thanks for having me, Terry.
GROSS: Edward Bum is the co-author of the new book "The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America." You can read an excerpt on our website, freshair.npr.org. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Aujourd'hui, le quatorze juillet, ma mere m'a donné un petit (petit? bah non…grand!) cadeau. Une cocotte* ovale Le Creuset. Bonne fête à (pour?) moi.
Today, the fourteenth of July, my mom gave me a small (well, not so small … actually pretty large!) gift. A Le Creuset oval French oven (sometimes referred to as a "Dutch oven"). Happy Bastille day to me!
The Le Creuset Outlet near my parents was having a sale on all red enamel cookware, and when my mother called, they even offered to ship this incredibly heavy pot to me for free. It should arrive this weekend. I can't wait.
For those who are loyal readers of this little project of mine, first off, thank you! Second, you might recall a little complaining that I've done about braising meat in a too-big pan without a cover and ending up with some extra, ahem, unintended caramelized crusty bits. I now finally have the right sized pot!
Fear not. The cocotte will be used. Many times.
Merci bien, mommy! Yes, I'm t****-something years old and I still call my mother "mommy."
* I will adopt the terminology cocotte for my cadeau — much cuter than French or Dutch oven, n'est ce pas? It refers to a casserole or stewpan, but I like how it sounds a bit like coquette — let's focus on its fun flirty nature, and ignore its insincerity and hope that my little (heavy!) cocotte treats me well.
Post script: the top picture was taken at the port of Nice, near the old city (vieille ville). For those who have asked or who are curious, this is also where my banner picture comes from. Contrary to some who have thought it is a random Caribbean island, it is not. If you walk from the port along the water in the direction of the main beach (towards the Promenade des Anglais), you'll happen upon this concrete "beach" which I discovered on my last day in Nice and found strangely irresistible for some summer-end reflection and journaling. I'll probably change my banner to a more foodie-appropriate one at some point, but for me, France — both Paris and Provence — holds special food and life inspiration.

subset: commoncrawl


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Congratulations! You've made the decision to become a real estate agent in Hamlin Iowa 50117. Now you have the training and licensing part of the process to take care of next. If you want to get your license quickly, there are a few tricks you can employ to help speed things up.
In Iowa you have to pass a real estate licensing exam before you can join an agency and start selling in Hamlin Iowa 50117. Each state, including Iowa, also has a set requirement of courses you have to take to qualify for the exam. Sadly, there is no national exam that you can take that would allow you to be an agent in any state in the country. This also means that if you live near a border, you might be selling in both states. To do so, you will need to pass the licensing requirements in both of them.
If you are looking to be a broker in Hamlin Iowa 50117, make sure you take the right courses for being a broker. You will also have a separate test you'll have to take, so you can factor that into your timeline.
Depending on your state, your education requirements will vary. In New York, you only need to take 45 hours of applicable courses, while in Texas, you need to take 180 hours of courses. If you are looking to get certified in two states, some of the courses will be the same. This will help speed up your process because you won't have to retake them. Some schools require that you attend all classes in physical classrooms, while others offer online courses.
Online courses comprise another one of the ways you can get your license quickly in Iowa. Many online courses are self-paced for the most part. So, if you are motivated, have the time, and are a fast reader, you can finish your real estate courses in as little as three weeks. Many agents recommend taking the licensing exam right at the end of the course, while you retain as much of the information as possible.
Because you are dealing with a state licensing board, you will need to employ some patience. You can do all you can to get everything ready, and even apply at the office to try to speed things up. Ultimately, however, you will be at the mercy of a government agency, and they can be inconsistent in how quickly they process the paperwork.
The real estate market has taken a strange turn in the last few years in Hamlin Iowa 50117. Thousands of homes have been sold and or built all across America. Each time someone lists with an agent there is a commission paid when the house sells. The agent has certain duties to perform in order to get paid this fee. The agent went through real estate training in order to know what these duties are.
The training can differ from state to state. Most of the classes cover the same basic material. There are things an agent, no matter the location, must know. How to measure square footage is one. Determining the fair market value of a house is another. Real estate training prepares someone to go into the field and list a house. The information will also teach how to sell.
Real estate training classes are now being offered over the Internet. Some states, like Ohio, will not allow this type of training. Ohio requires the classes be from an accredited technical school or college. Some of the classes required are things like Principles and Practices of Real Estate, Finance, and others similar to this. Once the classes have been taken and passed, the student can apply with the state to take the real estate license test.
In real estate training, the student will also learn about finance. These classes will teach how to amortize a mortgage. It will teach the students about interest rates, points, premium mortgage insurance, and other financial matters. Students must know how the financial aspect of real estate works. Being an agent means pre-qualifying the buyer to ensure he or she can afford the property being looked at.
Agents with a license Hamlin Iowa 50117 have learned through real estate training how to attract buyers and sellers. The agents will know how to list a home within the price range dictated by the market. They will be able to calculate what the seller proceeds will be after a sale. The agent can determine a ball park figure for house payments when the buyer asks. The agent will have been trained to do his or her job.
Real estate training is good for someone who is thinking about investing in the market. The person can quickly assess a property to determine if it would be a good investment. They would be able to calculate payments and financing with the training offered.
The cost of the real estate training classes is substantially less than any other professional license. The time involved is less too. In many states the real estate training classes can be finishes in 6 months or less, depending on scheduling. There are some states where licensing can be completed in two months from the day of the first class to the day of the state exam. For someone wanting a career with very little up front investment, real estate training may be just what is needed in Hamlin Iowa 50117.


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And there's Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz too!
The Toronto International Film Festival announced its lineup today. As you know, award season really begins at TIFF. And they're coming...
Let's deal with the ex-connection first:
Ben Affleck's new film Argo will have its world premiere at TIFF. The festival will be a double-shot for him though as Terrence Malick's To The Wonder (Olga Kurylenko is in it too) will also be screened. Ben's ex-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow also has a film at TIFF - Thanks For Sharing with Mark Ruffalo (yay! I love when Mark Ruffalo comes to TIFF!) about sex addiction will premiere in Toronto.
Ben's best friend Matt Damon could also make an appearance. Matt is featured in Imogene alongside Annette Bening and Kristen Wiig and he tries to get to TIFF as much as he can especially with the work he does with OneXOne. Matt of course used to date Penelope Cruz even though they both tried very hard to deny it. Pene is a TIFF regular. This time she'll be representing Twice Born. Her husband Javier Bardem is actually also in Ben's movie. Maybe they'll come together.
And Rachel McAdams is in Malick's To The Wonder too. Being from Toronto, you would think she'd try to make it. Two years ago at TIFF is when she and Michael Sheen really started getting into it with each other. Interestingly enough, her most famous ex-boyfriend, Ryan Gosling, will likely show up too.
Ryan's The Place Beyond The Pines, directed by his friend Derek Cianfrance (of Blue Valentine), will be world premiering in Toronto. I can't imagine Ryan wouldn't want to support that effort. And ... well... of course that's the film set on which he and Eva Mendes hooked up. So...yes, we can expect her too. And they will have to walk their first carpet together.
Other gossipy TIFF preview mentions:
-Looper, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, and Bruce Willis, will open the festival.
-Bradley Cooper should be around with a double-shot too: he's in The Place Beyond The Pines and The Silver Linings Playbook with Jennifer Lawrence. Katniss at TIFF!
-Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, and Hugh Grant in Cloud Atlas (did you read that book? I worry about transitioning it to film but am also intrigued by the fact that it's a Wachowski feature) will be presented at TIFF
-Robert Redford's The Company You Keep with Shia LaBeouf, shot in British Columbia, will have its North American premiere at TIFF
-After opening Venice, Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is then coming to Toronto. Which means... Kate Hudson.
-Emma Watson in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower! But that means Ezra Miller could make a return to Toronto after last year's We Need To Talk About Kevin. Click here if you missed how that went down.
-Jake Gyllenhaal's End Of Watch
-Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing
-Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible
Which means...
Yes, yes, Keira Knightley and Jude Law but mostly Aaron Taylor-Johnson, hopefully! With his wife Sam Taylor-Johnson. The Taylor-Johnsons! My Obsession!
Bill Murray.
It's always a good year when Bill Murray is around.
Update: Variety says Matt Damon is in Imogene. Click here for the link. I've also screencapped their article.


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Everyday runs require a shoe that you can trust, like the Nike Air Max 1 Premium Men's Running Shoes. The legendary status of this classic running shoe is not all hype, as anyone who has worn these premium running kicks can attest. Get the support, comfort and style you need from these iconic running shoes.
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Orisa Overwatch Racerback-Tank by Fauxro is printed all over on our premium, hand−cut fabric. Your Orisa Overwatch Racerback-Tank is then sewn together by our skilled local artisans leaving no white blemishes.
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深圳窗帘布艺安装招聘 is a free CSS web template. This design uses pure CSS and no tables for layout and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Philippines License, which basically says that:
- You 窗帘布艺连锁店译 use this design for both personal or commercial purposes free of charge.
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What do you get when you donate to the nonprofit National Book Foundation, the sponsor of the National Book Awards? This week the answer is, "A financial stake in a fiasco."
First the foundation mistakenly announced that it had selected Lauren Myracle's young-adult novel Shine as a finalist for a 2011 National Book Award. Then the organization said that the book would remain on the shortlist despite the error. Now the foundation has reversed itself and persuaded Myracle to withdraw and accept the consolation prize of a $5,000 donation to a charity that she supports.
All of which raises the question: Can't the foundation afford to hire staff members who can do better than this? You might think so from its budget. As a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, the National Book Foundation must by law make its federal income-tax returns available to the public. And its figures show that it paid executive director Harold Augenbraum $196,964 plus $8,464 in additional compensation in 2009, the latest year for which its return appears to be available for free online. The median salary for a foundation director in the New York City area is $144,948 (and $122,113 nationwide), according to a survey by Salary.com. So Augenbraum earns at least $50,000 more than a typical peer even if he received no raise in 2010. The foundation also has a generous travel budget: It claimed $40,455 in travel expenses although its marquee events take place in Manhattan.
For that kind of money, the National Book Awards ought to be able to hire a director who can steer the program away from turbulence, not directly into its path. If the trustees of the organization don't do this on their own, donors should demand it. The foundation must stop sending the message that with friends like the National Book Awards, authors like Lauren Myracle don't need enemies.
A report by NPR has more on the debacle. I can't link to the tax return mentioned above, but you can find it on websites that rate and provide free information on charities (search them for "National Book Foundation" and click on links to financial details). You may also request the return from the NBF or the Internal Revenue Service. The compensation figures cited come from the tax Form 990 filed by the NBF for 2009. You may be able to get the 2010 return by paying a fee.


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When retirements were buoyed by employer-sponsored pensions and a robust Social Security, the most difficult challenge earlier generations of retirees had to face was how to fill their hours when they got tired of playing golf. Modern retirement is more precarious. As the responsibility for paying for retirement shifts off employers' shoulders and on to employees' — and to some degree, advisors' — myriad challenges emerge.
Between political pressure, economic uncertainty, a decidedly insecure Social Security, investment products that make planning harder instead of easier and the risk of outliving their assets, investors and their advisors have to keep several different issues in view whether they're still planning for retirement or already retired.
To help advisors bring clarity to their clients' retirement plans, Investment Advisor, a Summit Business Media publication, talked to several of the main players on the retirement stage to get their thoughts on the big challenges of modern retirement.
1. Fiduciary and DOL
Phyllis Borzi, assistant secretary of labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, has said that while she "appreciates continued feedback" from the industry regarding EBSA's previous proposed rule to amend the definition of fiduciary under ERISA, she is "moving on to the publication of a new proposal, and there will be ample opportunity for public comment when it is published."
Indeed, Borzi has gotten an earful since issuing her controversial fiduciary proposal last year, which she eventually pulled and has since been redrafting. That redraft is scheduled to be released in July, and there's no guarantee that Borzi and her team will agree to make yet another proposal after the next round of comments flood in.
In an email exchange with Investment Advisor in early February, Borzi would only reiterate remarks she made in December that the new version of the fiduciary rule will prove EBSA has listened to industry concerns. "When people see the reproposal, reasonable people with open minds will say DOL listened, that DOL addressed the legitimate issues that were raised in the long comment process," Borzi said again. "The reproposal will be better, clearer, more targeted and more reasonably balanced."
Critics remain skeptical. For instance, Brad Campbell, former head of EBSA who's now an attorney with the Financial Services ERISA Team at Drinker Biddle & Reath in Washington, said that the changes to the revised fiduciary rule would have to be "quite significant" to address the concerns raised by many service providers, including broker-dealers.
Campbell added that he believes the revised rule proposal will actually become "more controversial" with respect to IRAs.
John Carl, president of the Retirement Learning Center, argued that small plans would face a huge challenge under Borzi's previous fiduciary proposal. While most firms are willing to have "some higher fiduciary standard for mid- and large-sized plans," it's the small plans that will face the biggest challenge. Small plans "are sold, and in order to sell something, there has to be compensation," Carl said.
But Borzi told Investment Advisor in her email correspondence that EBSA has "never said that people shouldn't be compensated. As for the effect on the small plan market, we have spoken with individuals in the financial services industry who say they can and do offer fiduciary-level service to small plans now."
Ken Bentsen, executive vice president of public policy and advocacy for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), stated in mid-January that DOL's previous fiduciary proposal was "contrary to where Congress wanted the SEC to go in Section 913 of Dodd-Frank." Section 913 of Dodd-Frank "makes it clear that you could have dual models under a uniform standard of care," however, "the way the DOL is moving would eliminate the ability to have a commission-based model for ERISA accounts."
The DOL fiduciary proposal would create "operational challenges" for brokers at the retail level if, for instance, they have a client who has multiple accounts with that broker, including retirement accounts. The broker "would have to operate under conflicting rules from two different agencies for one client," Bentsen said. — Melanie Waddell
Photo by David Johnson
2. Complex Annuities
In the wake of the financial meltdown that left retirement and investment accounts critically depleted, investors have increasingly sought some way to ensure their so-called golden years won't turn to tarnished brass. One way they've done this is to look increasingly to annuities in their various forms. However, consumer advocates have been ringing alarm bells about the more complex annuity products and their suitability as retirement funding.
Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, said that the "annuitization of retirement plan assets [is] an idea many people find attractive. The [ability to] get retirement plan payouts as an income stream over years, instead of as a lump sum, has the potential to offer significant benefits to many individuals." Gaining an income stream via the more complex annuities, however, could be another kettle of fish.
Although annuities offer the promise of a continuing income stream, their various features and riders can provide more limits than security, she said, and their complexity means customers will have a rough go in trying to find the best product. Roper pointed out a number of factors that advisors and their clients should be aware of in considering an annuity product.
"A huge percentage of annuities," she explained, "are actually held inside tax-advantaged retirement accounts, so you're buying a product whose primary benefits are tax advantages inside a plan that already provides those tax advantages. The SEC has said in the past that these are questionable and not appropriate [for a retirement product]. There may be some isolated circumstances in which that might be an appropriate strategy—I wouldn't say never," but Roper was still doubtful.
Another caveat is their very complexity. "When you buy an investment, they say you shouldn't buy it unless you understand what would have to happen for you to make money and lose money. I think too often annuities — at least the more complex exotic annuities […] fail that test. The investor can't make an informed choice and tell which would be better for them.
"It's really hard to compare these products," she continued, "because they're so complex in terms of the different features they have: minimum withdrawal benefits, guaranteed lifetime payouts. One product could offer a higher percentage gain, for example, and not allow for as large an accumulation because of different features." There are other hazards hidden in complexity as well.
She cited, as an example, the disclosure about the maximum penalty for early withdrawal in an equity indexed annuity prospectus. "This is an annuity that may tie your money up for years," she said. "Knowing what the downside is, is pretty important, but it's an algebraic equation: i equals that and j equals that and m equals this. So they've disclosed the calculation that determines the withdrawal penalty, and there's not one investor in a thousand who would look at that and have a clue what that penalty might actually be.
"The complexity, the less-than-transparent disclosures about key features, the very high costs that are often associated with these products make them highly suspect in our minds," Roper continued. "Add to that, that they're disproportionately sold by salespeople who don't have to act in your best interests — [it makes us] skeptical."
Roper warned, "Market forces are not operating here. If people who have expertise can't compare the products and determine what's best for a particular investor, it means the products don't have to compete based on being best for the investor. They compete based on paying the salesperson. That to me is a market I want to avoid." — Marlene Y. Satter
Photo by John Johnston
3. The Feds and the States
Prepare for "a lot of fighting between the industry and the Department of Labor" this year as Phyllis Borzi is "hell bent" on reproposing her rule to amend the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), said John Carl, president of the Retirement Learning Center.
Borzi, assistant secretary of labor for DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), plans to repropose the fiduciary rule likely in July and issue an open comment period. Carl told Investment Advisor that while most firms are willing to have "some higher fiduciary standard for mid- and large-sized plans," it's the small plans that will face the biggest challenge. Small plans "are sold, and in order to sell something there has to be compensation," Carl said.
The previous fiduciary draft stated that "any advice on a rollover would also be a fiduciary act," Carl said. "That doesn't work on many levels because IRAs are open architecture — you can buy bonds, stocks" and so on, and acting in a fiduciary capacity "would likely limit investment options and access to advice."
"The same thing applies in the small plan market — if you make [employers] write a big check to start up a plan, they won't do it, but if they can pay an advisor, [employers] will start one."
Another retirement planning issue that will play out this year will be the "serious discussions" on Capitol Hill about including retirement incentives as part of any deficit reduction efforts. "I would say it makes more sense to look at the mortgage deduction." However, Carl said, it's too early to tell which way Congress will go.
As to solving the retirement deficit crisis, Carl said there is bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for Sen. Tom Harkin's plan to provide universal access to pension plans through his Universal, Secure and Adaptable (USA) Retirement Funds.
Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, announced in late January that he would not seek re-election after his 2014 term ends. However, a spokesperson for Harkin told Investment Advisor that he would likely introduce legislation in February to advance his USA Retirement Funds effort.
Harkin's plan will be two-pronged: USA Retirement Funds — which he described as innovative, privately run, hybrid pension plans that incorporate many of the benefits of traditional pensions while substantially reducing the burden on employers — as well as expanding Social Security benefits by $65 per month.
Similar types of retirement planning options are cropping up in California and Massachusetts. California has passed two bills, Senate Bills 923 and 1234, which establish a framework for a state-sponsored retirement plan for private-sector employees.
With the passage of Senate Bill 1234, California became the first state to create a statewide retirement savings plan for private workers who do not participate in any other type of employer-sponsored retirement savings plan. Also, legislation was passed in Massachusetts in 2012 that allows nonprofit organizations of fewer than 20 employees to set up a contributory retirement savings plan that will be overseen by the state treasurer's office.
However, the Columbia Learning Center noted that the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust (CSCRST) is "still one giant step away from implementation," as Senate Bill 923 mandates that the "board shall not open the program for enrollment until a subsequent authorizing statute is enacted that expresses the approval of the legislature for the program to be fully implemented."
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 10 other states have proposed the idea of a state-run retirement plan for employees of private companies, including Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Wisconsin lawmakers are expected to introduce a proposal in the near future. — Melanie Waddell
Photo by David Johnson
4. Fixing Social Security
Matt Greenwald has given a lot of thought to the demographics of retirement, and it's not just because he was born in 1946, the year that the first baby boomers were born. Although the president and chief executive of annuity research firm Mathew Greenwald & Associates is now eligible to begin collecting Social Security, he isn't yet ready to retire.
If anything, he's busier than ever. The National Academy of Social Insurance recently hired his firm to conduct a survey of how Americans would like to see Social Security close its funding gap, and Greenwald and colleagues are now conducting their 23rd retirement confidence survey for the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
Based on the funding gap survey, one thing is clear: Americans strongly oppose cuts to their Social Security benefits and would prefer increasing the payroll tax rate or raising the retirement age to 68 rather than see their benefits decrease.
On the other hand, the 2012 EBRI study of retirement confidence made it equally clear why Americans so strenuously oppose Social Security cuts: Their belief that they will be able to retire comfortably is at historically low levels, with just 14 percent of those surveyed claiming to be very confident of having enough money to live comfortably in retirement. A disheartening 60 percent of workers reported that the total value of their household's savings and investments was less than $25,000, excluding the value of their home and any defined benefit plans.
As a result, Greenwald said, the No. 1 issue for retiring boomers is Social Security and Medicare.
"Right now, of Americans 65 and over, half of them get more than half of their income from Social Security," Greenwald said in a recent interview, adding that Medicare is an even greater issue because health care costs are rising at astronomical rates. "The large numbers of retiring boomers create great stress on entitlement programs, and the financial pressure caused by their large numbers is exacerbated by their longer life expectancy."
Still, Greenwald believes that Social Security is "very easy to fix" and that benefits can be maintained without loss of the cost of living adjustment.
"There's an earnings cap on Social Security," he said. "People right now only pay — and I use the word 'only' advisedly — Social Security taxes on the first $113,000 of income, which for about 85 percent of the population is everything. But for the most affluent, there's a lot of money that could be subject to the tax but is not. Even a gradual increase in the tax would keep Social Security solvent."
To be sure, raising taxes goes to the center of debate over the future of Social Security, but Greenwald's greater concern is Medicare's rising costs.
"Medicare is under severe funding pressure, and the premium cost is likely to go up, especially for the more affluent," he said. "The reduction of Social Security [benefits] is happening because while [they're] adjusted up for the cost of living, Medicare premiums are also being taken out of Social Security, and Medicare premiums are going up significantly faster than inflation."
As the debate rages in Washington over cuts to entitlement spending, millions of boomers now depend on Social Security and Medicare, Greenwald noted.
"There are some projections that in a couple of decades, if things just go as they are, all the money the government collects will be spent on interest on the debt, the military, Medicare and Social Security. What the government could wind up being is a big insurance company with an army, and nothing else," he said. "Something has to be done. It's likely that there will be means testing, which means more affluent people will pay more or get less. The key question there is: How do you define affluent? How far down will it go?" — Joyce Hanson
Photo by David Johnson
5. Replacing the 4% Rule
After years of working with clients to develop a financial plan that helps them accumulate enough assets to meet their goals for retirement, advisors can't neglect their need to decumulate when they're ready to stop working. The old standby of withdrawing 4 percent per year, though, isn't as safe as it was once believed to be.
Michael Finke, a professor in the personal financial planning department at Texas Tech University, called the success of the 4 percent rule a "historical anomaly" in a working paper published in mid-January.
"The 4 percent rule was based on the historical asset return in a market environment that doesn't look like the one that exists today," Finke told Investment Advisor.
In the new market environment, interest rates are about 4 percent less than they historically have been, Finke found. When he tied bond returns to current TIPS yields, "which is the best estimate we have on real rates of return on bond investments," he said, the estimated 6% failure rate on the 4 percent rule skyrocketed to 57 percent.
The reason yields are so low is a matter of supply and demand, according to Finke. "We have the largest cohort [of retirees] ever saving and building assets," he said. It's not just the boomers in the United States driving up demand. "There's a large post-war cohort among populations in other countries in the Western world," Finke added. "There's also the addition of Asian countries that are dominating the capital markets. They're all bidding for the same products."
Furthermore, the United States is a "minor player in the global capital market. What that means is we're competing with citizens in countries who have a higher savings rate," Finke said.
Even if current bond yields remain low for the first five years of retirement then return to historical levels, the failure rate of the 4 percent rule increases to 18 percent, still much higher than it was in the past. That's because "the first five years are the most important ones for investment returns in retirement," Finke said.
"From my perspective, if the emphasis is on safety" — safety meaning not running out of money in retirement, he clarified — "the only reasonable solution is longevity insurance or some kind of deferred annuity product."
Finke noted, "The possibility of running out of income is what most retirees worry about." However, "that worry is relatively easy to take care of" if you pool longevity risk among retirees as with an annuity.
Finke referred to separate research from his co-author Wade Pfau who "estimated the optimal investment frontier for retirement." He found that a combination of stocks and annuities, rather than bonds, provide a more efficient retirement portfolio.
"The other reality is that people need more money to sustain their retirement income. That means they have to save more or work longer," Finke acknowledged. "It's depressing, but now is a bad time to retire."
Another challenge for advisors trying to determine the best withdrawal rate for their clients is the risk of cognitive decline in their clients.
"We're living in a new era where the responsibility for retirement funding is increasingly on investors. The prospect of cognitive decline is also an essential part of planning," Finke said. He suggested advisors have their clients designate a friend or relative that the advisor can contact if the client shows signs of dementia.
Similarly, future health care is a serious concern when planning for the decumulation phase of retirement, Finke said.
"Society or financial services providers need to help solve the problem of the small probability of a financially devastating health event," he said. "One of the biggest questions in most retirees' minds is about how to deal with prolonged illnesses." — Danielle Andrus
Photo by Jim Olvera
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Vita Grow plant food is a proven nutrient with a great field record. Both the dry and liquid plant food are derived from the same formula, the only difference is that water has been added to one and not the other. This means that you can switch from one to another without any growth difference in the plants. Vita Grow offers a three-part formula that is used differently than most three-part formulas.
All of the micronutrients are in the Super Micro formula part one. The Super Grow and Super Fast formula is Nitrogen and Calcium. The Giant Bloom formula is Phosphorus and Potassium.
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When plants are in a vegetative state the Super Micro and Super Grow recipe is used. If you want a plant to be pushed into bloom, the Giant Bloom formula is added to the Super Micro and Super Grow recipe. By separating the formulas this way the grower can increase or decrease nitrogen (Super Grow) or phosphorus (Giant Bloom) as the plants demand without interfering with the micronutrients (Super Micro). This is how the professional greenhouse growers mix and match elements and compound for each stage of plant growth.
Super Fast Grow is a blend of ammonia and nitrate nitrogen with calcium to spur faster growth and take advantage of the higher candlepower of the light. With higher light levels a faster photosynthesis is achieved and more prolific stem cell growth is acceptable because micronutrients and calcium can be translocated to the stem cells before their completion, thus making sure they are strong and capable of handling heavy fruiting sites.
By the way, be sure to use Vita Grow Water Conditioner to condition your water before watering or feeding your plants. It's good stuff.


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Dresden's Zwinger Palace is famous around the world for its beautiful baroque architecture. It was built in 1709 during the reign of Augustus the Strong. The remarkable sculptures adorning the gallery walls are by various artists and help make this one of the main attractions in Saxony's regional capital.
The Zwinger Palace in Dresden was built in 1709. It was originally an open area surrounded by wooden buildings which was used by the Saxon nobility for tournaments and other courtly pursuits. The sandstone palace was built between 1710 and 1719 by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, under Elector Augustus the Strong. Its pavilions and galleries on the side of the ramparts were used as an orangery. The Crown Gate, the most photographed part of the Zwinger, is decorated with gods from Greek mythology. Next to the Rampart Pavilion is the Nymphaeum, one of the finest baroque fountains in Germany. Today, various museums are to be found inside the Zwinger Palace. The Dresden porcelain collection is one of the largest ceramics collections in the world. Another highlight is the armoury with its exquisite collection of weapons, suits of armour and ceremonial garments. It's also well worth visiting the Semper Gallery, which was built between 1847 and 1854 to plans by Gottfried Semper. To this day, the gallery contains the world's most important collection of paintings dating from the baroque to the Renaissance period, including the famous Sistine Madonna by Raphael. Another near neighbour to Zwinger Palace is the Church of Our Lady. First erected between 1726 to 1743, this baroque masterpiece was destroyed during the Second World War before being rebuilt from 1994 to 2005, thanks to a combination of public funds and donations. In architectural terms, it is one of the finest church buildings in Europe from this period. Still in Dresden, Grosser Garten park covers a total area of 147 hectares and is perfect for leisurely strolls and breaks from the hustle and bustle.
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Prince Dawson is my 1st cousin 2x removed – in other words he is my granddad's cousin. He was born sometime in the third quarter of 1893 in Keighley, West Yorkshire, to parents John Dawson and Elizabeth Bradley.
I have found Prince, his parents and siblings on the 1901 census and in 1911 when he is working as an iron plainer.
Fortunately for me Ancestry.co.uk has a copy of Prince's WW1 service records and they are in pretty good condition so I can work out quite a lot of information about him.
I know that he enlisted for four years in Keighley on 28th September 1914 about eight weeks after Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August.
According to the medical report Prince was not a very tall chap – in fact he was only 5 feet 4 inches. He had normal vision and good physical development.
His first posting was to the 2/6th Battalion of The Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) – part of the Territorial Force. His regimental number was 2757. The 2/6th was formed at Skipton in September 1914 as a home service ("second line") unit.
On Christmas Day 1914 he was transferred to the 1/6th Battalion The Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment).
Prince remained billeted in Doncaster until April 1915. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for Prince and all the other troops waiting to be shipped to France.
Anyway the day eventually came and he embarked from Southampton on 13th April 1915 and landed at Le Havre on 14th April 1915. The 1/6th then became the 147th Brigade of the 49th (West Riding) Division.
By the 19th April the Division had concentrated in the area of Estaires – Merville – Neuf Berquin. They remained in France and Flanders and took part in The Battle of Aubers Ridge (9th May 1915) and the defence against the first Phosgene attack (19th December 1915).
I can see from Prince's medical record that he was admitted to the field hospital on 25th June 1915 with diarrhea. He rejoined his unit the following day.
The next available information shows that Prince was wounded in action with gas poisoning on 19th December 1915 – the first day of the Phosgene attack mentioned above. He was admitted to hospital at Paris-Plage but died at 5.50pm on 21st December 1915.
The following extract is from the book "Craven's Part in The Great War" by John T Clayton (editor of the Craven Herald, Skipton).
On the 22nd December 1915 a telegraph was received at the Territorial Force Records Office in York notifying them of Prince's death with instructions to "inform relatives". I don't know when the knock on the door came or when the family telegraph arrived but you can bet it was a lousy Christmas in the Dawson house that year.
Just over two month's later on the 1st March 1916 the War Office at St. James's Park, London wrote to the Territorial Force Records Office asking them to despatch any of Prince's personal property in their possession to Mr John Dawson at 42 High Street, Steeton, Keighley.
The next document is dated 7th March 1916 and is a signed acknowledgement from John for Prince's effects which included a badge, belt, cig case, knife (pocket), letters, 2 pencils, photos and wallet.
I felt really sad when I came across that document and was left wondering how John and Elizabeth must have felt.
Prince served for 1 year and 85 days and didn't come home. This same story can be told for many, many thousands of military casualties from the UK and around the World.
Prince is buried at Le Touqet-Paris Plage Communal Cemetery in Plot II. A. 35.
The Duchess of Westminister's Hospital (No.1 B.R.C.S) was at Le Touquet from October 1914, to July 1918, and the British graves in the Communal Cemetery were made from that hospital. The Communal Cemetery contains a number of French and Italian military graves, and two British Plots in the corner. A wooden obelisk in memory of the British dead was erected in the cemetery by the Lifeboat men of the commune. There are now 142 Commonwealth burials of the 1914-1918 war here. All of whom died in the period November 1914, to April 1916.
I very much doubt that John and Elizabeth had the opportunity to visit Prince's grave. So I make a promise now that I will go and pay my respects for them.


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The nature reserve is situated between the forests of the Rennsteig and the castles on the Saale river – a picture-perfect landscape of mountains and valleys, streams and rivers, meadows and woods.
Blue slate houses in small towns and villages are testimony to the skill of the slate roofers of the past and to local mining traditions. Several visitor mines, aimed at both adults and children, provide more information. On the historical, densely-wooded Rennsteig trail, the peaks reach heights of almost 800 metres, and you may spot the rarely-seen dipper bird fishing in one of the clear, cool streams. You can also go nature spotting throughout the reserve on a walk with an experienced guide.
With its great reservoirs, the 'Thuringian Sea' in the Saale valley is a popular choice for holidays and excursions, offering plenty of walking and cycling routes, vantage points, water sports and scenic campsites. The 'Land of a Thousand Ponds' (Land der Tausend Teiche) is a stopover for migratory birds and provides a habitat for various waterfowl, fish and other creatures. Food lovers will appreciate the cuisine based on regional produce, particularly in the hunting and fishing season of October.
But the reserve has so much more to offer than natural beauty and good food. There are galleries, art markets, artisan crafts and small specialist workshops steeped in tradition, and many of them give you a chance to get creative yourself.
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Bring a taste of the sweet Southwest to your backyard with the American Fyre Designs Cordova Ventless Outdoor Fireplace. This fireplace, a work of genuine masonry artistry, raises the standard for outdoor living.
- Glass-fiber reinforced concrete body won't degrade
- Customizable gas plumbing included
- Tailored hearth options to fit your needs
- Choose between many different finishes
- Easy assembly with use of only bolts
Design this fireplace to fit your outdoor concept. Select from multiple hearth styles and finishes to suit your design taste. Each hearth will add additional depth the to until, but provides a traditional look. There are eight finish options as well that will cover the fireplace unit and hearth to create a uniform look.
Built from a glass-fiber reinforced concrete frame and a high-temperature refractory cement firebox, this unit is specifically designed for longevity and consistent durability. Ready-made for discreet gas conversion, the American Fyre Designs Cordova Ventless Outdoor Fireplace is a herald of the outdoor fireplace movement, easily customized to put the gas key and gas line right where you want them.
This fireplace is Ventless and has two panels - one at the top and one at the throat - to block any venting. The available burners will push all the heat generated out of the front of your firebox so the heat won't be lost through the chimney!
Please Note: This unit is non-convertible from Ventless to vented - the refractory panels are permanently installed.


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3.75 in. Forged Ice Chisel
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The cover story of the April issue of Research magazine takes an in-depth look at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management's revamped training program. Wholesale revisions began in 2011, aimed at creating what Dwight Mathis, Merrill's chief of new advisor strategy, calls "the Ivy League of financial advisor training."
"Clearing Firms Gain a Human Touch," a feature article in the issue, examines the clearing industry's ongoing efforts to move beyond its traditional transaction focus. High on the agenda: helping advisors appeal to women clients and navigate social media.
In the latest "Finke on Finance" feature, Michael Finke examines "The Disclosure Paradox," which is that too much information can be as harmful to retirement plan decisions as too little. Prof. Finke has some thoughts on what kind of information makes for the most helpful disclosures.
There's much more in the issue, including Bill Good's "Sales Seminar" column and Alexei Bayer's latest look at " The Global Economy."
To preview this month's cover story and feature articles, click through the following slides.
The April cover story by Ellen Uzelac examines an effort to remake advisor preparation, spearheaded by Dwight Mathis (pictured). Excerpt:
In a bold bid to boost performance, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management has re-engineered its iconic training program—adding a national curriculum, compensated mentors and even "breathing breaks."
The move is likely to be watched closely by industry insiders. As the recruiter Rick Peterson, who heads Houston-based Rick Peterson & Associates, frames it: "I'm not sure any training program has been judged to be good, not when historically only two out of 13 trainees make it in this industry after five years. Any new approach is better than anything that's been tried in the past. The fact of the matter is we desperately need new financial advisors."
Clearing Firms Gain a Human Touch
Jane Wollman Rusoff reports on the clearing industry's latest moves to broaden its horizons. Excerpt:
One smart way clearing firms are fostering client growth is making broker-dealers aware of the nation's changing demographics and how this affects their very livelihood. Some clearers have even become founts of knowledge on how to embrace the female investor and the tremendous opportunities therein.
These firms have funded white papers detailing how FAs can better tap into this fertile market by trying to psych out the female psyche.
In the latest "Finke on Finance" feature, Prof. Michael Finke analyzes the effects of retirement plan disclosure requirements. Excerpt:
The defined contribution revolution saw employers shift responsibility for funding retirement to employees who weren't well equipped to become their own pension manager. One easy solution would seem to be information. Give people the right tools and they'll be better able to select the right investments, the right advisors, and save the right amount of money. But is more information the key to improving retirement security?
New research provides insight into the promise and perils of disclosure as a policy tool.
See the contents of the April issue.


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Informations sur l'événement
Date et heure
Dallas-Fort Worth
Dallas-Fort Worth
Dallas-Fort Worth, CA 94103
À propos de cet événement
Olympic Talents & Arts /
O.T.A. is a talent competition that showcases the best models kids without size criteria in the world created by Topgiirl Agency .
Whatever your silhouette, TEAM USA + your Fashion category will be part of your show in front of fashion professionals
Come and live a unique fashion experience in Paris. Photographers, a make-up team, model coaches will be there to pamper you and help you realize your dream.
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So register now, as space is limited, so don't miss your chance to join TEAM USA to represent your Fashion at Paris Fashion Week.
Fashion Week from April 8 to 12 in Paris.
At the end of the stay:
- A trip to Paris to participate in the Grand Finale Olympique Talents & Arts Sans Critère, which will bring together more than 2500 people!
- You will be pampered, made up. You'll be photographed, we'll make a video clip of you. We will teach you how to avoid boosting your image as during Fashion Week in Paris.
More than half a million dollars in profit. Don't miss the biggest parade without criteria
To register send:
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Send it all to email@example.com
A unique opportunity to confirm or start your career
Dallas-Fort Worth
Dallas-Fort Worth
Dallas-Fort Worth, CA 94103


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As part of AdvisorOne's Special Report, 20 Days of Tax Planning Advice for 2013, throughout the month of March, we are partnering with our Summit Business Media sister service, Tax Facts Online, to take a deeper dive into certain tax planning issues in a convenient Q&A format. In this ninth article, we look at determining the value of a property donation.
Q. How is fair market value of a gift of property determined?
Where property other than money is donated to charity, it is necessary to determine the property's fair market value.
Fair market value is "the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or sell and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts."
The willing buyer has often been viewed as a retail consumer, not a middleman. However, in the case of unset gemstones, the ultimate consumer is generally a jeweler engaged in incorporating the gems in jewelry. Therefore, to acquire such stones.
It is often helpful to rely on expert appraisals in determining the fair market value of property. In fact, an appraisal is required for some gifts. However, it is possible that the IRS or the Tax Court will consider factors in addition to those considered by the taxpayer's appraiser(s) which may reduce the value of the gift and, thus, the charitable deduction. See Williford v. Comm. (involving oversized artwork); Doherty v. Comm. (involving artwork of questionable quality and authenticity); Arbini v. Comm. (involving newspapers; and holding that the appropriate market for purposes of determining the fair market value of the newspapers is the wholesale market). The IRS has warned taxpayers that some promoters are likely to inflate the value of a charitable deduction for gemstones and lithographs, thus subjecting the taxpayer to higher taxes and possible penalties. Earlier case law has indicated that an auction price may be helpful in determining the value of art.
The burden of proof is on the taxpayer to establish fair market value. Evidence of what an organization is willing to pay for copies of a manuscript is evidence of the value of the original manuscript, but it is not conclusive.
The price paid for hospital equipment purchased from a bankruptcy trustee was not determinative of the equipment's fair market value; instead the substantially higher appraisal established the value of the donated equipment.
For property that is transferred to a charity and subject to an option to repurchase, fair market value under IRC Section 170 is the value of the property upon the expiration of the option.
Guidelines for valuing property generally can be found in Rev. Proc. 66-49, and Announcement 2001-22. See also Crocker v. Comm. (describing the three methods of determining fair market value of commercial real estate: (1) the replacement method, (2) the comparable sales method, and (3) the income capitalization method). No charitable deduction is allowed for a contribution of clothing or a household item unless the property is in good used condition or better. Regulations may deny a deduction for a contribution of clothing or a household item which has minimal monetary value. These rules do not apply to a contribution of a single item if a deduction of more than $500 is claimed and a qualified appraisal is included with the return. Household items include furniture, furnishings, electronics, linens, appliances, and similar items; but not food, art, jewelry, and collections.
>>>Planning Point: It is a good idea to take photographs of these items prior to donation to document that they are in good used condition or better.
Intellectual property. The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (AJCA 2004) provides strict rules for charitable donations of patents and intellectual property. For the temporary regulations providing guidance for the filing of information returns by donees relating to qualified intellectual property contributions, see Temp. Treas. Reg. §1.6050L-2T; TD 9206; and Announcement 2005-49.
See all the articles from Tax Facts Online, part of AdvisorOne's Special Report, 20 Days of Tax Planning Advice for 2013.


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Archive - Feb 14, 2013
Back to AZ
As I drove towards Fargo last night, the weather worsened. Freezing rain, sleet, whatever you call it. Slick roads. Huge snowbanks. Just the stuff you stay in Arizona to avoid.
However, the people at the airport weren't even worried. With a slight delay for de-icing, the plane took off as planned and within three hours I was back in snow-free country.
This morning dawned clear and beautiful, with birds singing.
The trip home was good. I got to visit Aunt Olla twice. She is in such good spirits and looks great. I also got to spend a few hours playing the family game, Boggle.
Joe's wife Kae is the life of the party, importing Thai cheer to the farm place where we can get preoccupied with the drear. She is the instigator for Boggle, even though she is just learning English. She tries out words and gleefully reports her score at the end of almost every round: Egg! Either for goose egg (zero), or for the shape a zero makes when you circle it, denoting your final score--it looks like a fried egg. It is difficult not to have fun when Kae is around.
While Lance and I are in AZ, sister Tracie is using the house for a massage studio. I got worked over yesterday. Well, worked over is the wrong term as Tracie is a practitioner of a more subtle form of massage called cranial sacral therapy. She worked on my brain yesterday. It certainly needs it. She got at my brain by putting on a glove and pressing against the roof of my mouth until she found the right spot and thunk! I was out.
While I was home, we also had a delightful house guest, Megan, who is a sister to a friend of Lance's. She is a student and was spending a week at the Fertile Hilton job shadowing. They put her to use right away, so when she'd get back to the house, thunk! out she went on the couch.
Sometimes it is good to have a house full.
Meanwhile, Lance stayed back in Phoenix where he has been exploring the metropolis, finding the neighborhoods of Tempe much to his liking.
I am inclined to start exploring the spring training complexes of some of the 15 teams who train here. What a menu of options!
In any case, the trip home to snowbanks and cold really woke me up to how good things are in February in Arizona. Wow.


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Select from Three Distinctive Colors: Clear, Bronze and Gray.
CRL Offset TV Glass Mirror Plates have highly polished beveled edges and are available in three popular colors.
Color: Clear
Width: 3-1/2 in (89 mm)
Height: 5-1/4 in (131 mm)
Mounting screws included.
Important Note:
Replacement Screws Are Available on Special Order by Asking for Part Number 632X120HS.


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Russ Koesterich, chief investment strategist for BlackRock, told the advisor attendees at Commonwealth Financial Network's Chairman's Retreat on Monday that while he sees some investing opportunities in Europe, he also believes the European banking sector is the "Achilles' heel of Europe."
Speaking just after plans were announced for a European Central Bank bailout of Cyprus, Koesterich (left), who is also chief global investment strategist for iShares, drew a contrast between U.S. and European banks. While the U.S. financial sector has mostly delevered and the U.S. economy is "on a sounder footing than I expected," he argued in a response to a question from Commonwealth chief investment officer and fellow CFA Brad McMillan that "Europe never fixed its banks." That Achilles heel can be pricked if depositors start withdrawing from Greek, Italian and Spanish banks, he said.
However, Koesterich suggested that there were areas of Europe that provide opportunities for investors, notably in Norway and Sweden. And while valuations among U.S. companies have increased to the point that many are trading at a premium to their book value, especially smaller-cap stocks, the "valuation cushion" might be stronger internationally, especially in smaller developed countries like Singapore and Switzerland.
Returning to domestic matters, in answer to an advisor's query on whether the markets are currently experiencing a "great rotation" back into equities, Koesterich was dubious. "It's not happening," he said, arguing that fund flows into equities are not coming from bonds, but rather that investors are moving out of cash accounts back into equities, using proceeds from sales of appreciated equities last year.
As for U.S. economic growth, Koesterich said that while debt as a percentage of GDP has stabilized, "total nonfinancial U.S. debt" stands at 251% of GDP. "When debt gets this high," Koesterich warned, "it has an effect on growth."
McMillan began the session, which took place during the 10th annual Chairman's Retreat for top-producing Commonwealth Financial reps, by asking if Washington was still the "financial capital of the world."
Koesterich's response: "We've spent too much time worrying about Washington," and that at least in the short term, "we've dodged most of the issues" around government debt. Longer term, he said that "the U.S. can go on like this for another four to five years," spurred by quantitative easing and slow though stolid economic growth, and that the deficit "won't start looking bad until 2017." By then, he warned, the increasing numbers of retiring baby boomers may contribute to a "crowding-out factor," when the government's need for financing may bump up against consumers' borrowing needs.


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