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Charity announces first programme to tackle superbugs
Common denominator that triggers allergic sensitisation and asthma identified
Ivacaftor: a quantum leap in treating cystic fibrosis?
Warfarin and aspirin 'similar' for heart failure treatment
NicOx releases first half 2012 results
Behind the headlines: innovations in anticoagulation
Antibiotic Research UK will announce at its Annual General meeting its first research programme to tackle antibiotic resistant bacteria (superbugs). Superbugs are becoming an increasing problem in hospitals as bacteria become more and more resistant to our existing antibiotics. The Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies recently said that if we don't tackle the problem now our grandchildren will not thank us. All the medical procedures we currently take for granted such as cancer treatment, open heart surgery, hip and knee replacement and organ transplantation will become much more risky. Ashley Burgess, the chairman of the charity said 'we should be afraid since so many of us rely on antibiotics working'.
The research programme, which requires the charity to raise £120,000, will focus on an under-researched area of finding drugs that can break antibiotic resistance allowing the life of our current antibiotics to be extended. Some 2000 existing drugs used to treat any disease will be tested as Antibiotic Resistance Breakers to see if any of them can work alongside the antibiotic to break resistance.
Professor Garner, the charity's Chief Executive, said 'this is an exciting opportunity to look at drugs such as those used for heart disease, arthritis, psychiatric disorders etc. to see if they when put together with an antibiotic can kill superbugs. The advantage of the approach is that it is faster and cheaper than trying to find a new antibiotic from scratch. We need the public to help us fund this programme, which we anticipate will start in early 2016'.
The charity, with some of the UK's top antibiotic resistance researchers behind it, aims to develop its first new antibiotic therapy by the early 2020's. The charity hopes to help in filling the hole left by many of the big pharmaceutical companies who have withdrawn from antibiotic drug development. The charity needs to raise up to £30 million on the next 5–7 years, through a combination of traditional fundraising, corporate sponsorship, giving by trusts and foundations as well as newer fundraising methods such as crowd funding over the next five years.
Expanded line of auxiliary labels for neuromuscular blocking agents announced
COPD: overview of updated NICE guidance
Managing chronic hypoparathyroidism
Once-daily single inhaler triple therapy receives positive opinion for appropriate patients with COPD
NicOx to present at the UBS Global Life Sciences Conference

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Nuôi Dạy Con là trách nhiệm và niềm vui của cha me
Về Blog Nuôi Dạy Con
October 20, 2008 Nuôi-Dạy-Con
Giáo dục giới tính cho trẻ – How to talk to your child about sex ( 6-8 years old)
Mời các bạn tham khảo thêm bài viết về GDGT cho bé 6-8 tuổi …
What to expect at this age
During the early grade-school years, children's natural interest in their own bodies starts to give way — at least some of the time — to an increasingly compelling interest in their social world. They're busy trying to make and keep friends and develop their social and physical skills on the playground and ball field. Their interest in sex at this age can vary widely. In many grade-schoolers it surfaces only briefly, now and then — just one of many other things they're curious about. Other children are more consistently curious about sex and demand more detail than before.
Your grade-schooler is also exposed to lots of opinions, ideas, and misconceptions that come from other children. He's likely to believe the "facts" he hears from his friends, no matter how outrageous they are. And if your 8-year-old has some 10-year-old buddies, he may be asking you questions you didn't think you'd have to handle so soon. When he hears your answers, he might take them in stride or he might react with a loud "Yuck!" This is a clear — and healthy — sign that he's just not ready to learn more details about sex yet. Most children under the age of 8 can't, and don't need to, grasp the actual mechanics of sex, and discussions of erections, periods, labor, and other aspects of sexuality may frighten them.
How to talk about it
Be calm and relaxed. It's not easy to keep from cringing when your child asks you what a "boner" is. Just do your best to speak calmly, so you can respect your child's natural curiosity without being judgmental. Each time you successfully tackle a sensitive topic, the anxiety level (for both of you) goes down. If you avoid these talks, your child won't learn your values about sex, but will develop his own from what he gleans from friends and the media.
Many adults feel awkward talking about sex with their child because they don't have much practice doing it and because they're afraid of telling too much once a discussion gets going . The best strategy is to try to answer questions calmly and succinctly, however unusual or embarrassing it seems. If talking about sex is difficult for you, try rehearsing your answers in advance, either alone or with your spouse or partner. Take advantage of questions that come up when you're both at ease — in the family room, on a walk, or during those quiet moments when you're tucking him into bed. The car is also a great place to talk, since having to keep your eyes on the road allows you to avoid eye contact, which may help you stay more relaxed.
"The important thing is for a parent to explain difficult topics without seeming anxious," says Jerome Kagan, professor of psychology at Harvard University. "The child is picking up the melody line, not the words."
Really listen. Resist the temptation to jump in with speeches the minute your child asks a question about sex. Parents have been known to embark on a long explanation of conception and birth only to hear their 6-year-old interrupt, "No, I mean Timmy said he's from California; where did I come from?" To make sure that you understand his question,you might try responding to your child's question with another question. "How do babies grow — do you mean, how do a mom and dad start a baby growing? Or how does the baby get food when he's growing inside the mother?"
Keep it simple. Answers to questions about conception and birth can be a bit more detailed for grade-schoolers, but you probably don't need to go into detail about sexual intercourse yet. And while you don't want to sound like a doctor, you should use appropriate language ("penis" and "vagina," not "wee-wee" or "pee-pee"). It will lessen the sense that sexual topics are off-limits and embarrassing. "How are babies made? The dad has seeds, called sperm, which are made in the testes, in that special pouch of skin hanging behind his penis. Millions of tiny sperm are made there all the time. They get mixed with a white liquid called semen. The mom's eggs grow inside her body, in her ovaries. Every month the mom's ovaries make an egg. When we made you, semen from Daddy's penis carried the sperm into my womb. Just one sperm joined up with the egg, and that was the start of a new baby — you!" Your child may or may not be satisfied with that answer. Keep answering his questions as long as he shows interest, but don't overload him with information if his next comment is, "Okay. What's for dinner?"
Encourage his interest. No matter what your child's question, try not to snap, "Where did you get that idea? We don't talk about things like that," and don't try to steer the conversation elsewhere. Either way, your grade-schooler will get the message that his perfectly normal questions are taboo, and that he's bad for even thinking of them. "You want to be an 'ask-able' parent," says Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and coauthor of Ten Talks Parents Must Have With Their Children About Sex and Character. "Your kid should know you love this kind of conversation. He's constantly forming pictures in his mind of what reality is — and they're not always accurate. You want to be there to give him the truth and assuage any worries." So answer his questions and praise him for asking: "What a good question! Ask me some more any time you want to." If you don't know the answer, tell him honestly, "I'm not sure, but let's go look it up together." Your willingness to talk honestly with your child is an ongoing gift he'll need as he steers his way through the confusions of childhood, adolescence, and beyond.
Use everyday opportunities. You don't have to wait for your child to ask all the questions. You've probably already been discussing sexuality for years, simply by talking about the mommy goat nursing her baby at the zoo or examining the broken bird's egg he found on the sidewalk. Keep using those moments, as well as scenes of family life in movies or on TV, to talk about relationships and sexuality. Books also provide perfect opportunities for talking about sex and birth. "For grade-schoolers I highly recommend What's the Big Secret? by Laurie Krasny-Brown and Marc Brown, the creator of the Arthur books," says Pearl Simmons, an education specialist who teaches parenting classes at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Teach privacy. Your grade-schooler understands the occasional need for "private time," and he should know that he needs to knock before coming in when your door is closed. Be sure to follow the same rule yourself when your child has shut his door. It's also a good idea to continue to emphasize to your grade-schooler that his private parts are private. It's not unusual — and not really erotic — for 6-year-olds to experiment by "playing doctor," so there's no need to scold your young grade-schooler if you catch him doing this. But he can learn that no one else should touch him there but Mom, Dad, or the doctor, and that he should say "no" to anyone who tries to touch his private parts against his wishes. "This is an important issue, and you should teach it proactively," says Simmons.
What kids ask … What parents answer
"What's sex?" A 6-, 7-, or 8-year-old is most apt to ask this question if something he's seen or heard — usually from an older child or on TV — introduces the idea. Don't shy away from it, but remember that children this age are probably still too young for details about the mechanics of sex. However, even 6-year-olds can learn that there's an emotional element to sex. You can tell him, "The word 'sex' is sometimes used to mean whether someone is a boy or a girl, like when we ask, 'What sex is the baby?' Sex is also one of the ways two grown-ups can show that they love each other very much, by touching each other's body during private time together. Or say, it's short for 'having sex' or, it is a way to say 'making love.' If he asks for more detail, you might say, "Grown-ups use sex to make each other feel happy and wonderful. In sexual intercourse, a man's penis gets stiff and he puts it inside a woman's vagina. It feels good for both of them. If they want, a man and woman can have sex to start a baby." Related questions include, "Why do people have sex? What's making love? Is sex what you do in bed? Does it hurt? Ugh — will I have to have sex?"
"Can I make a baby?" Here you can begin to explain the differences between children's and adults' bodies, as well as the differences in their emotional maturity levels. "No, making babies is something only grown-ups can do. Your body isn't ready yet, but it will be when you're older. It also takes a lot of growing up on the inside to be ready to care for a baby, and so no one should make a baby until he or she is a mature adult." Similar questions include, "How come teenagers can have babies?" and "Why can't dads have babies?"
"How does the baby get out?" Children are fascinated with pregnancy and birth, and they may envision anything from Mom vomiting up the baby to Dad unzipping Mom's belly and letting the baby walk out. Grade-schoolers can be told, "When the baby is ready to be born, the bottom of the womb — which is called the cervix — slowly stretches open. Strong muscles in the womb push the baby down the vagina and out from between the mom's legs. This takes a few hours." Other questions about pregnancy and delivery include, "Does it hurt to have the baby? How does the baby get food when he's inside of you? What does he look like now?"
"What's masturbation?" Odds are, your grade-schooler has already engaged in masturbation, but at this point he may be hearing the word (or euphemisms for it) at school and starting to wonder more about what it means. Because masturbation is a loaded topic for many adults, your child may also be wondering whether it's shameful or unnatural. You can tell him, "Masturbation means touching your private parts — the penis for boys, the clitoris for girls. It doesn't do you any harm to masturbate; in fact, it's a normal thing to do. But because it involves your private parts, it's something people do in private only." Your child may also ask, "Is it okay to masturbate? What does 'playing with yourself' mean? Is it dirty to touch myself down there?"
"What's puberty?" When your grade-schooler starts to think about puberty, he's thinking about growing up. Take his questions seriously, but pace your answers, deciding question by question how much information he's really ready for. You can tell him, "Puberty is the time when your body starts to change from a child's body to a grown-up body. People go through puberty at different ages — some start as early as age 9 or 10, others not until 15 or 16, but most at around age 13. We can't predict exactly when you'll start, but it will be at the right time for your own body." This answer may be just enough for a 6- to 8-year-old, who could be overwhelmed by details of pubic hair growth and monthly periods.
On the other hand, a mature 8-year-old, particularly one who has an older sibling, may be ready for more information. "During puberty, girls grow breasts and begin having their monthly periods — a few days of bleeding from their vagina — which shows that their bodies are getting ready to be able to have babies. Boys start to get wider shoulders, more muscles, facial hair, deeper voices, and they start making sperm in their testes — so they can make babies someday, too. Girls and boys both start growing more hair on their bodies and their private parts." Related questions include, "When will I start puberty? Am I going to be different all of a sudden? Am I going to have to shave? What do you mean that David's voice is changing? Am I growing fast enough?"
"What's a period?" Because young children especially may link bleeding with pain, if they've heard about girls' monthly periods, they need to be reassured that this is a normal and positive part of growing up. Most girls will want specific information, but boys ask about periods, too. Tell your grade-schooler, "A period and menstruation are the same thing — the time every month that a girl's body shows it's able to have a baby. Girls start having their periods when they go through puberty — and it could be anywhere from about age 10 to 15, though some start even earlier or even later. During her period, a girl bleeds through her vagina for a few days every month. Most girls wear a sanitary napkin, then, inside their underpants; later, many use tampons, which are like skinny napkins that fit inside the vagina." Related questions include, "When am I going to get my period? Does it hurt? Can I have a baby then?"
"When am I going to get breasts?" Breasts are a big source of pride, envy, concern, and embarrassment to girls — and many boys tease about them. Let your grade-schooler know that breast size does not determine whether a person is pretty, sexy, or popular. "Your breasts will start to develop when you start going through puberty," you can tell your grade-schooler. "They might be one of the first signs that you're growing up, or other signs — like getting your period — could come first." Grade-school girls may also ask, "How big are my breasts going to be? Can I get a bra? If I don't wear a bra when my breasts are growing, will they sag?"
"What's a wet dream?" Boys are as concerned about their penises as girls are about their breasts. Most 6- to 8-year-old boys aren't having wet dreams yet, but they may be hearing about them from older friends and siblings. You can explain, "A wet dream is a sign that a boy is going through puberty. His testes are making a lot of sperm all the time, and when a lot of it has collected, it has to get out. The sperm comes out in semen when a boy's asleep. It's not the same as wetting your bed. Wet dreams are normal and natural, and most boys have them." Other questions about penises include, "What's ejaculation? What's a boner? How big is my penis going to get? Do all boys have the same kind of penis?"
"What does 'gay' mean?" Unless he's already learned strong judgments about homosexuality from adults, a young grade-schooler is apt to accept same-sex relationships among adults fairly easily. But at this age, your child may be curious about how different relationships work. You can tell your grade-schooler, "'Gay' is another word for 'homosexual.' A gay person is attracted to people of the same gender — so a gay man is attracted to men. A gay woman is called a lesbian, and she's attracted to women. If they love each other — like Mom and Dad love each other — homosexual adults can have sex together, live together, and raise children together." Your child may also ask, "What's a 'homo'? Why is 'gay' a bad word? How can two women or men get married? How do gay people have babies?"
"What are you and Dad doing?" Many parents dread that their child might walk in on them during sex. It can also be acutely embarrassing for your grade-schooler. It's nearly impossible not to get flustered, but try (and then start locking the bedroom door!). You can say, "Honey, Daddy and I need privacy right now. If you go back to your room, I'll be there in just a minute." Then put on a robe, take a few deep breaths, and go talk to your child. "Mom and Dad were making love, showing how much we care about each other. We usually lock the door because that's private. We forgot this time." Depending on your child's reaction, you can ask, "Did that upset you? Is there anything you need?" Make sure your child isn't scared or worried by what he saw, and be sure to emphasize that he didn't do anything wrong. Don't chide, "You should have knocked!" By now your child is already wishing he hadn't gone in.
If you're sure your grade-schooler understood what he saw, you might try to ease the tension with a little humor by saying, "Well, this isn't exactly how I'd planned to teach you about sex! I'm a little embarrassed, but I'll get over it. Now, ask me anything you want." A grade-schooler's response to seeing you making love can range from an upset, "Were you hurting each other?" to a curious "Why were you making that noise?" to an embarrassed, "I'm getting out of here!"
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noramaj says:
Thank you for this post.Very interesting .You wrote a lot of interesting things about children and teenagers too.About sexual and interests between two sexes and go on.I can see that you worked very hard to give so many valueble informations.Very wise.I have read it with an enormous pleasant. and interesting.I'm greatful.You kept your promise and it is in English.Thanks, Thanks.
Nuoi-Day-Con says:
Thanks 🙂 Pls. check tag "English", I will post more entries for you.
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Smart Meetings
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Baja Convention Managers Named
by Emil Docev
Mexico City and Madrid firms have been awarded a contract as a private joint venture to manage the convention centers of Los Cabos and La Paz in Baja California Sur, the lower half of Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Trade Fair Institution of Madrid (IFEMA) and Actidea, S.A. de C.V. were declared winners of an international bidding contest.
"I'm sure they will be able to optimize this incredible infrastructure to stimulate the meetings and events industry in the state," said Luis Genaro Ruiz Hernandez, state minister of tourism. "The meetings and events industry is a fundamental complement to diversify the tourism product of both destinations.
The convention center in Los Cabos has yet to be fully refurbished after damage by Hurricane Odile in 2014. The La Paz venue needs upgrading to be competitive in today's economic climate, especially in the areas of catering and audiovisual equipment.
"Now the next step is to establish contractual conditions in order to start with repairs, maintenance and equipment of both convention centers," Genaro Ruiz said.
IFEMA has more than 30 years' experience as an event organizer of trade shows, conventions, large congresses and sporting events, making it one of Spain's biggest players in that arena. Actidea boasts two decades of coordinating and producing high-level events in Mexico and internationally
The Los Cabos Convention Center, which opened in 2012, features more than 58,000 sq. ft. of event space and can host groups of up to 6,000. The La Paz Convention Center, smaller but only two years old, offers 32,000 sq. ft. of event space and a capacity of 3,200 attendees.
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Peering Into What Goes Awry in Schizophrenia
David Dodell-Feder, an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical & Social Sciences in Psychology, uses neuroimaging and MRI scanners in his studies on cognitive functioning in people with schizophrenia. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)
Personable, with a self-deprecating humor, David Dodell-Feder undertakes research that belies his easy-going manner. A new assistant professor in the University's psychology department with a secondary appointment in neuroscience, he studies the processes that underlie how humans navigate the social world and how those processes go awry in people with schizophrenia.
Every human's physical and mental constitution demands social connection and social contact, but "large numbers of people don't have that social connection and therefore don't get to reap the benefits of having close social relationships," says Dodell-Feder. That's why people with schizophrenia have trouble forming, establishing, and maintaining healthy social relationships, romantic relationships, and relationships at work.
Healthy interpersonal relationships matter
As social animals, the extent of our social connection carries important consequences for our health and well-being, he notes. "When engaged in healthy social contact and rewarding social relationships, we thrive; when socially isolated, we wither." Studies have shown that social isolation is associated with psychiatric illness, physical illness, and early mortality, making social disconnection a major public health concern.
Dodell-Feder is now trying to figure out why people with schizophrenia are experiencing these social difficulties. To that end, he focuses on one process in particular—theory of mind—by which humans attribute and reason about the mental states of others.
"You can look at your husband, for example, and perhaps know what emotion he's feeling, or know what he wants to have for dinner, or do on the weekend," he says. "These processes that we take for granted are actually really difficult for some groups of people."
It's this group of processes that seems to be disrupted in people with schizophrenia, affecting day-to-day social behavior. Dodell-Feder is working to establish how exactly the neural mechanisms are impaired—a first step in designing any future interventions.
His research involves neuroimaging, something that made the University with its Rochester Center for Brain Imaging (RCBI) under the new leadership of John Foxe, chair of the Department of Neuroscience, very attractive to him. And Dodell-Feder says he's looking forward to working closely with schizophrenia expert Steven Lamberti, a professor of psychiatry at the Medical Center.
Return to Rochester
The new job at Rochester marks a return for Dodell-Feder. "I just couldn't resist the prospect of six months of winter," the 32-year old jokes about Rochester's abrasive climate. But then he knew what he was getting himself into: he had left the University in 2008 with a BA in psychology and brain and cognitive sciences.
In the intervening decade, Dodell-Feder picked up a PhD in clinical psychology from Harvard University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Technology in Psychiatry at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, before returning to the University of Rochester's Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology with a secondary appointment in the Medical Center's Department of Neuroscience.
"I'm fortunate that my colleagues are some of the best psychologists in the country," he says. "To be able to work with them, and collaborate with them is just really exciting."
The Queens, New York, native fondly remembers his favorite undergraduate class at the University—a seminar in humanistic psychotherapy, taught by psychology professor (and self-determination theory co-founder) Edward Deci. At his graduation ten years ago, Dodell-Feder had asked Deci for the honor to receive his diploma from his professor's hands. Deci was happy to oblige. Little did either man suspect that just a decade later his favorite prof would be voting enthusiastically to bring Dodell-Feder back as a colleague.
"David was an excellent student when he was an undergraduate here," Deci says. "I had a sense that he would go on to a successful career in psychology, but I had, of course, no idea he'd end up here."
Another passion
During his undergrad years in Rochester, Dodell-Feder followed his second passion—music. He took saxophone lessons for credit at the Eastman School of Music. While an "awesome" experience, he felt somewhat bad for those professionals who taught him. "I'm shocked they let me do it," laughs Dodell-Feder. "I loved playing but, objectively, I wasn't terribly good." Yet, undeterred, he formed a jam band with friends on campus, played one semester in a chamber ensemble group, and for several semesters in a sax quartet.
Ultimately, it was his love of saxophone playing that prompted the idea for his undergraduate honors thesis—a study comparing visual attention skills in musicians to non-musicians, hypothesizing that musicians would score higher.
A great idea, he was convinced. But things didn't quite go as planned. For starters, it was difficult to recruit enough musicians.
His findings?
Nothing. At least nothing interesting.
"My sample size was just way too small to make any sort of conclusions or inferences from the data I collected, I'm sorry to say," he grins. Nevertheless, the experience whetted his appetite for academic inquiry.
Does reading fiction make us better human beings?
Most recently, he's been looking at the effects of fiction reading on people's cognitive social skills, including the ability to feel empathy. Several studies have suggested that fiction reading serves as a way of priming humans' social skills, while others found no effect. Dodell-Feder's own meta-analysis of 14 studies confirmed that those people randomly assigned to read fiction performed better on a host of cognitive skills than those assigned to read non-fiction or nothing.
Yet, while Dodell-Feder found a "robust" effect, he's the first to admit that overall it was "tiny." So small, in fact, that it might be the "type of effect that a lot of researchers would disregard as not necessarily meaningful," he surmises. But for Dodell-Feder, who is looking to improve the social skills of people with schizophrenia with easily available, tolerable, and cost-effective treatments, a seed was planted.
"The finding is important and at the very least deserving of additional research," he says. The crux with the studies in his meta-analysis was that the test subjects had read fiction for a very short time, often just for five minutes. It's possible, he reasoned, that the short reading duration accounts for the very small effects.
That's why this summer, together with co-investigator Diana Tamir, a psychologist at Princeton University, and supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), he set out to study 300 healthy adults, randomly assigned to read fiction (or non-fiction) over the course of four weeks, hoping for a greater measurable impact on social cognition. Data collection has just begun and the results aren't in yet.
Currently, he's looking for a community partner in Rochester to test a similar hypothesis in adolescents to see whether fiction reading positively affects social and emotional development.
"What we really want to know is if fiction reading improves theory of mind and emotion processing, does this actually generalize to day-to-day social functioning and social behavior?" he wonders. "Does it actually help someone improve the quality and quantity of their social relationships? Does it make it easier for someone to connect socially with others?"
Essentially the question boils down to this—does fiction reading teach you better social skills for the real world?
Helping him in his quest for answers is a Brain & Behavior Research Foundation's NARSAD Young Investigator award for $70,000, paid out over two years, awarded this fall. It's for a project that employs real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) to see if social dysfunction in people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders can be improved through neurofeedback.
But all research aside, what's Dodell-Feder going to do about the long winters? As an undergraduate, he says, it didn't bother him as much, having spent much of his time working deep in the windowless stacks at Rush Rhees Library. This winter, however, he vows to be active outside—either snow shoeing, or trying out cross country skiing.
A habit from his undergrad times that he won't repeat any time soon?
"Drink a Genny Light," he says, referring to the somewhat watery but inexpensive, locally-brewed lager, a perennial favorite with students.
"I had a few since I came back and it's just the way I remembered it," Dodell-Feder laughs. "Not good."
Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience
URMC Communications
Researchers identify neurons that "learn" to smell a threat
New grant will use virtual reality to understand trauma and the brain
Researchers reveal how trauma changes the brain
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Julie Resynth, Acoustic Guitar, Marching Band Horn, Square Wave keyboard
It includes 4 packs:
Julie Resynth: A fun cyborg vocal sample set, half human and half robot! This pack is based on one-shot samples of the voice of Julie, a Montreal jazz singer. But here the samples are resynthesized to create new ones that are playable chromatically across the keyboard. Both the demo and the full pack must be installed to have the complete content.
Square Wave: 13 PCMsynth presets and 2 Beatbox kits. The hardware electronic keyboard sampled here is a digital square wave instrument. It has 12 chromatic sounds, bass and 5 percussion sounds: kick, conga, snare, cymbal and hi-hat. All these do not sound like the acoustic instruments they're named after but more like the Sid chip, 80's and early 90's video games. Very good retro sounds for chip music (or chiptune). Square Wave video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNjLvyevv30
Marching Band Horn: It uses a French horn mouthpiece and the range is a little lower than a trumpet and a little higher than a trombone. To make most of the instruments in this set I played single notes and resynthesized them to create multi-samples. In all cases the resulting tone is still very brassy and close to the natural one. The demo has 7 PCMSynth instruments and the full version adds 30 for a total of 37 instruments. Most are multi-sampled. Both the demo and the full pack must be installed to have the complete content. More info in the PDF files included in the free preview for the 3 packs above. And their more extensive computer version (in various other formats) are also on Sampleism.
Acoustic Guitar: A simple, good sounding multi-sampled acoustic guitar bank for the PCMSynth. The guitar had steel strings and was played with a pick. Recorded with 3 different microphones simultaneously: a condenser, a ribbon and a guitar pickup. The notes are not as even and perfect as in many sophisticated guitar libraries. Here's a comment Rej (Caustic's developer) made about it, the capitals are his: "On the other hand, after having done a test pattern, it sounds VERY natural, probably because of these imperfections... For me, it's really cool to have something that sounds so natural... it's a REAL recording of an imperfect instrument." The guitar does not have a demo in the free preview but here's the demo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev3ftY-cDrg
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Home / Christianity / Intan Jaya / military operation / shooting / West Papua / Indonesia's military says 2 soldiers killed in Papua clash
Indonesia's military says 2 soldiers killed in Papua clash
02:25 Christianity, Intan Jaya, military operation, shooting, West Papua
By Niniek Karmini | AP
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Two soldiers were killed in a clash between security forces and independence fighters in Indonesia's restive easternmost province of Papua, the military said Wednesday.
Military spokesman Col. Taibur Rahman said rebels opened fire at troops on patrol in a village in Intan Jaya district on Tuesday, killing at least two soldiers. The village is known as a hotbed of separatist rebels.
He said the troops had been deployed to help police prevent any disturbances by separatists ahead of Christmas celebrations in the predominantly Christian region.
The shootout is the latest in a series of violent incidents this year in the mineral-rich but impoverished Papua region, where conflicts between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces are common.
The military said two suspected rebels were killed in a gunbattle on Dec. 2 in Lanny Jaya district, in an apparent escalation of attacks by the West Papua National Liberation Army, the military wing of the Free Papua Movement, marking Dec. 1, which many Papuans consider to be the anniversary of what should have been their independence.
Police said they arrested at least 34 people accused of treason on Dec. 1 for attending a ceremony and raising flags with the separatist symbol. A declaration of independence from Dutch rule on Dec. 1, 1961, was rejected by the Dutch and later by Indonesia.
In September, more than 30 people were killed during violent protests by thousands of people in Papua and West Papua provinces against alleged racism toward Papuans.
An insurgency has simmered since the early 1960s in Papua, a a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia.
Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham.
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'Something Happened on the Day He Died': How David Bowie Fans Transformed Brixton at FSNNA19
October 29, 2019 ~ valerie gritsch
Below you can find my slides and outline from the presentation I gave at the Fan Studies Network North America academic conference on October 25, 2019, at DePaul University, Chicago, IL in the Agency in Music Fandoms panel. This is part of my MA thesis research, that I am currently working on at the CUNY Graduate Center. Additionally, some of this work will be published soon in the Journal of Popular Culture.
You can watch the video of my presentation by clicking here! Thank you to Jessie Salfen for filming.
This presentation is part of my thesis research, where I am using David Bowie as a case study on the intersections of fandom, celebrity death, and tourism.
As you may know, musician, actor, and international icon David Bowie died on January 10th, 2016 after a secret battle with cancer. His death came as a shock to fans and occurred just two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his final album Blackstar.
The day after his death, about 4.3 million tweets were posted eulogizing and celebrating Bowie in the first 24 hours – per the DailyMail. One tweet, in particular, seen here below and left, suggested having a street party in Bowie's hometown of Brixton in South London, which was seen by other fans and eventually picked up by news outlets like NME, The Independent, and more. This led to a Facebook event being made to further spread the word of this spontaneous memorial, seen below, right. It did not seem to matter whose idea the party was, just that as many people as possible could join on short notice. This is an example of how social media posts can lead to "support through action" where fans meet up at "real-life" events to connect with their community (Courbet and Fourquet-Courbet 285).
The Bowie Brixton Street Party took place on the evening of January 11, 2016. The original proposed meet-up location was at The Ritzy / Windrush Square on Brixton Road (the bottom-most highlighted location). The Ritzy is a famous cinema on Brixton's high street and is situated at a large open, public space known as Windrush Square – which was named after the ship that brought the first Afro-Carribean Immigrants to London post-WWII. The Brixton Underground station is the very end of the Victoria line in London, and is located at the second lightning bolt – is where Brixton Road meets Tunstall Road. On Tunstall Road (which is really more of an alley) there is a huge mural of David Bowie as Aladdin Sane that was painted in 2013. Going slightly south from the tube station, one can find David Bowie's birthplace at 40 Stansfield Road.
The proximity of these three sites was the main reason Brixton stood apart from all the spontaneous gatherings happening in the wake of Bowie's death, and why this neighborhood has endured as a site of pilgrimage. The area is readily serviced by multiple bus routes, the London Underground and Overground lines, and all of these are accessible to disabled users. The neighborhood is flat ground, and easy to navigate, so fans could access these three points of interest the night of the street party – and beyond – to celebrate Bowie's life.
No official number is known, but it is estimated that thousands of fans gathered in Brixton to remember Bowie. Fans sang his songs, wore their Aladdin Sane face paint, danced, projected his videos on buildings, and left material tributes for Bowie at his birthplace and at the mural – typically graffiti, cards, newspaper articles, flowers, candles, and the like. "Spontaneous memorials help mediate the crisis of sudden, inexplicable loss… that are highly scripted performances of mourning and managing grief" (Doss, 298).
Here we can see what these three sites looked like on January 11, 2016.
The local government of Brixton, the Lambeth Council, estimates about 5000 people left tributes at the mural on Tunstall Road the weekend of Bowie's death. Due to the massive public gathering in Brixton, news outlets and social media documented the "spontaneous memorial" that slowly turned permanent, if only by fans' persistence. This was the birth of the main ritual fans enact: coming to Brixton, visiting the mural, leaving a tribute, taking a photo, and remembering Bowie. Shrines like Brixton's mural allow the dead to remain in our lives, we can visit and connect with them whenever we want, and can become authors of their legacy. Death does not rob us of celebrities, it gives them to us. Death didn't take Bowie away, it made him more accessible.
Due to fans' ongoing persistence and attention to the mural on Tunstall Road, The Lambeth Council has made it a protected site, reassuring that this will be a pilgrimage landscape for years to come. Originally they just had the artist of the mural come back on occasion to touch up the work, then they installed plexiglass sheets over the mural allowing notes to be tucked in, and finally, in 2018 they installed a massive plexiglass sheet that is properly secured to the wall and isn't going anywhere. But by installing these protective sheets, they are protecting not just the mural but the graffitied love letters to Bowie underneath. Thus, they are protecting the legacy of Bowie-in-Brixton, in addition to Bowie-fans-in-Brixton.
This means Brixton becomes a place to think about David Bowie's fans as much as it is a place to think about his life and career. His fandom is now as tied to Brixton as he is.
Despite protecting this site, there is no official interpretation of it or the graffiti that surrounds it. This means the area is open to anyone's interpretation and anyone can take a photo, share it, and create their own narrative of what is happening there and why.
Archaeologist Paul Graves-Brown argues that shrines, like this one for Bowie, "are the product of collective and democratic popular activity" – which means we can call this a site of participatory authorship.
The mural and its online archive, through social media, blogs, and travel sites, becomes a form of participatory memory, which Liza Potts defines as "the ways in which people memorialize, celebrate, and reflect across physical and digital spaces." By engaging with the site, fans can influence the story that is being told about Bowie's life. Derek Alderman, writing of Graceland's graffitied outer wall, argues that landscapes like these show "the visible articulation of multiple, sometimes competing discourses…" which demonstrates the versatile way in which these celebrities are important to visitors. (Alderman 28). The journeys fans make to Brixton, and the act of visiting sites like the mural and enacting these rituals we've discussed, allows fans to become authors of Bowie's memory rather than simply a consumer of it. Bowie's fans are ultimately the ones mediating and writing his image in Brixton. They are the ones creating the interpretation of these sites in question. This allows them to portray him in the ways that mean the most to them: other-worldly, comforting, iconic, a sex symbol, a friend. Every persona Bowie embodied throughout his career can be featured and remembered at the mural in Brixton, as long as a fan wants them there.
The otherwise average neighborhood where Bowie was born becomes sacred through the mediation of tourist literature and web-postings from fans, locals, and news outlets. Similar to the study Jennifer Otter Bickerdike and John Sparrowhawk conducted on Bowie's Berlin, the "'sacralization' process" occurring in Brixton is "further reinforced by… the rise of Web 2.0, E-Word of Mouth and the growth of networked communities… which augment existing narratives about sacred places and peoples experience of them" (53). Through the media coverage shared online about Bowie's Brixton, the importance of each site is strengthened and further reaffirmed with each new post on the subject.
This mediation of physical locations allows fans to enter Brixton with knowledge of the area, which can have two effects: fans can become desensitized to the scene and find themselves underwhelmed as the sites do not live up to the hype created around them, or the mediation can make Brixton feel familiar and therefore comfortable to fans upon their arrival. The mediation also conveys to fans at home what rituals they should enact once they are in the area. For example:: Media like this video and article from The Culture Trip contribute to Brixton's tourist literature. "The Best Things To Do In Brixton" begins with our host arriving at the Bowie mural, looking at tributes, and writing his own message on the wall.
Previously, pilgrimages to Brixton were folk events but the persistent fan attention given to the area led to the creation of commercial tours, like Bowie Tour London, which was created in 2017. They advertise their Brixton tour as "an all encompassing journey from birth to death," and here you can see some photos from when I took their tour in January of this year. Brixton naturally lends itself to the story arc of Bowie's life, beginning at Stansfield Rd. (below, left) and ending at Windrush Square and the mural – where fans went when he died (right). To borrow Bickerdike and Sparrowhawk's words – By touring the area – alone or with a guide – fans "normalize and rationalize the transformation of the spaces from overlooked to revered" (Bickerdike & Sparrowhawk 57).
Without Bowie's fans, Brixton is just another place he temporarily lived. It only becomes a destination through their attention (ibid.). This is evident through the lack of landscape interpretation like heritage plaques or posthumously erected monuments, that has still become the place to spend an afternoon with David Bowie's life in a physical way. Visiting Brixton, to use Jennifer Otter Bickerdike's words, allows the "fan to 'follow' Bowie, feel closer to them, if only for a few minutes. It happened here" (Bickerdike 129).
Brixton was always proud of it's hometown hero, and it has responded to the increased tourism from Bowie-mania in stride. For example, the mural is painted on the side of a Morleys department store, which features a large selection of Bowie merchandise in addition to general Brixton and London souvenirs. To me, this reaffirms Brixton and the mural in particular as a tourist destination for Bowie fans, as locals would not buy Brixton centric kitsch for themselves. Other shops in the area have also embraced Bowie in their own ways, like hanging artwork related to him on their walls, or like the cafe Brixton Blend having a special "Stardust" blend of espresso coffee. Even the UK hotel chain Premier Inn features a life-size reproduction of the Bowie mural in the hotel lobby of their Brixton location, despite being a two-minute walk from the actual wall. Additionally, fans can find a truly unique souvenir in a Brixton Pound note. Brixton has it's own local currency, and Bowie is featured on their ten pound note. This was created before his death, but it is truly something you can't find anywhere else but Brixton, and it has become even more of a collectible for fans since his passing.
This mediation and selling of Brixton and Bowie would theoretically clash with the idea of it being a scared site for fans, but it seems to only amplify the message that Brixton is the ultimate destination for them. It is also interesting that despite the merchandise and experiences for sale in Brixton, fans and tourists continue to focus on the mural as the main way to connect with David Bowie.
So what's the aftermath?
Bowie's fans are creating a new layer of meaning for Brixton, that is being embraced by the local government and businesses – because, It's good for business! And, for a neighborhood undergoing gentrification, Bowie tourism can signal safety to white people who in some cases are still scared to visit the area after multiple instances rioting in response to a series of police brutality acts against immigrants and people of color in the 1980s.
Bowie Mania sanitizes Brixton's occasionally troubled past and eclipses Brixton's vibrant history and culture, that is largely a history of Afro-Carribean immigrants. Bowie was actually a small part of Brixton's overall history – He only lived there for the first six years of his life, but to fans that seems to be a minor detail.
Yes, Something happened on the day he died: the three separate entities of Bowie, Brixton, and fandom became intertwined, inseparable and enduring. Bowie's fandom is now part of the history of the area, whether locals like it or not. His fans have forever left their mark on Brixton, and it remains to be seen just how severe the transformation will be based on their repeated visits to the neighborhood as time goes on.
If you enjoyed this and learned something, you can support my continued research and work by: buying me a cup of coffee: https://ko-fi.com/valderie or becoming a patron: https://www.patreon.com/valderie
Alderman, Derek H. "Writing on the Graceland Wall: On the Importance of Authorship in Pilgrimage Landscapes." Tourism Recreation Research, vol. 27, no. 2, 2002, pp. 27-33.
Bickerdike, Jennifer Otter. Fandom, Image and Authenticity: Joy Devotion and the Second Lives of Kurt Cobain and Ian Curtis. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Bickerdike, Jennifer Otter, and John Charles Sparrowhawk, "Desperately Seeking Bowie: How Berlin Bowie Tourism Transcends the Sacred," Enchanting David Bowie: Space/Time/Body/Memory, edited by Toija Cinque, Christopher Moore, and Sean Redmond, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, pp. 49-60.
Courbet, Didier and Marie-Pierre Fourquet-Courbet "When a Celebrity Dies …Social Identity, Uses of Social Media, and the Mourning Process Among Fans: the Case of Michael Jackson." Celebrity Studies, vol. 5, no. 3, 2014, pp. 275-290.
Dean, Christina. "The Best Things To Do in Brixton." The Culture Trip, 13 Mar. 2019. http://www.theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/the-best-things-to-see-and-do-in-brixton/. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.
Doss, Erika. "Spontaneous Memorials and Contemporary Modes of Mourning in America." Material Religion, vol. 2, no. 3, 2006, pp. 294–319.
Giaimo, Cara. "Decoding London's Spontaneous David Bowie Shrines." Atlas Obscura, 6 Apr. 2017. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/david-bowie-shrine-study. Accessed 05 Jan. 2019.
Potts, Liza. Participatory Memory: Fandom Experiences Across Time and Space, 2018. http://www.participatorymemory.org/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2018
Posted in Presentation, Research	academiabrixtoncelebrity deathcelebrity studiesconferencedavid bowiedeathdeath studiesfan studiesfan studies networkfan studies network north americafandomfsnna19londonmedia studiesmourningmusictourismtravel
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Support for Doncaster's ethnic minority projects
Members of an Ethnic Minority Regeneration Partnership, based in Doncaster, are celebrating after being awarded a cash injection of £3,500.
Peter Singh, Sarah Harvey and Mark Field
The funding from The Screwfix Foundation, a charity that supports projects to maintain and improve properties for those in need, will allow them to replace the flooring in their facility where they train. Here, the black and minority ethnic voluntary and community sector learn how to play a meaningful role in the economic, social and economic development of Doncaster.
Mark Field, Store Manager of Screwfix, Swinton, said: "It's fantastic to see money we raised being invested back into a worthwhile community project."
Mark Field, along with Sarah Harvey and Peter Singh from the DEMRP are pictured at a cheque presentation.


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Features, History, Interviews, People
Interview: McSorley's Historian Bill Wander Fills Us In on the Secrets of NYC's Oldest Bar
Posted On Tue, March 17, 2015 By Dana Schulz In Features, History, Interviews, People
Undoubtedly, there are hundreds of New Yorkers and out-of-towners planning to stop by McSorley's Old Ale House today for a St. Patrick's Day round of beers. But beyond the brews and bros, there's a deep history rooted in this East Village institution, and we've found the man who knows it all.
The official historian of McSorley's, Bill Wander can give you the full timeline that dates McSorley's to 1854, making it the oldest bar in the city. He can also fill you in on all the tchotchkes adorning the walls of this Irish tavern, none of which have been removed since 1910. But more important than the textbook facts related to McSorley's, Bill has an undeniable passion for this watering hole, for both its important cultural history and the unique social atmosphere that keeps the bar a neighborhood mainstay after all these years. We recently chatted with Bill to find out some of the lesser-known details about McSorley's and what the title of "official historian" entails.
McSorley's in 1937, taken by Berenice Abbot, via NYPL
How did you assume the role of official historian at McSorley's?
I usually answer that by saying, "I had the library card." And I give it a second or two for the joke to work.
McSorley's founding date was challenged in the mid 1990's. I realized that while the greatest piece ever written about McSorley's was Joseph Mitchell's 1940 New Yorker article "The Old House at Home." But what did we know beyond that? I spent one day in the library and found the trail lead right to 1854. I took what I had back to Matty Maher, McSorley's owner, and he asked me if I'd stay on it. We shook hands with the agreement that we would stand or fall on the evidence. My reward was the title of historian. I had been a researcher in the documentary film world for years, but never tackled primary research. This was before Ancestry.com–census records were on scratchy microfilm, and you found things with an indexing system called Soundex. In a way it was better than the digitized versions–I often found things that had been mis-filed or mis-transcribed.
So my bulging file cabinet, and pile of notes, is a bar bet that got out of hand.
Can you give us the background on John McSorley and what it was like when he first opened the tavern in 1854?
John McSorley is considered a famine immigrant–his ship landed in New York in January of 1851. He is not a dirt-poor Irishman–he has relatives here, one a successful businessman, who probably paid John's passage. He does everything wrong–his saloon is in a neighborhood that is more German than Irish, and his offering is ale, not lager beer, the popular drink of the time. He is not on a corner, and he is too close to a church. In the beginning the building was not five stories tall–there was nothing in the neighborhood that tall. Tavern is the wrong word–at the time tavern usually meant lodging and food. This was a saloon. In a town full of saloons. At first he shared the address–the bar room was only half the size it is today. It would be ten years before the landlord improved the building to a tenement with flats above and the entire first floor became a saloon.
It was a good location, a transportation hub–the horse cars transferred here, there was a booming market across the street, and the street was the uptown edge of the theater district. John's landlord plays a large part in this–he is the social opposite of the McSorleys. He's a lawyer, a southern transplant from Charleston, a former slave owner, protestant, and he left a paper trail, showing that his association with the McSorleys begins in 1852 and continues to his grandchildren in the 1940's.
Over the years, there's been a lot of debate about whether McSorley's actually holds the title for the city's oldest bar. In fact, just last month Neir's Tavern in Woodhaven, Queens said that it opened in 1829, 30 years before McSorley's. How do you defend McSorley's title?
I can't comment on Neir's–I haven't seen the research yet. It may very well be that a business of bar/tavern/of one sort has been there over the years–so I am anxious to see the details. The last time McSorley's age was called in to question, the challenger's evidence turned out to be cherry picked–closures and ownerships were left out, a trucking company occupying the premise ignored, documents misinterpreted at best, misrepresented at worst. The newspapers took off–none of the press checked any of the claims, proclaiming that "city records showed it to be an empty lot," and declaring a "gotcha" to McSorley's. Nobody grasped the fact that tax records are kept in fiscal years, and no one is taxed on what they are going to have. Rather than showing that McSorley's is not there, it shows that it is–right on time.
McSorley's title "oldest" goes back to the end of Prohibition. The day after it ended, a New York Newspaper proclaimed that title (strangely enough they knew right where to find McSorley's). But McSorley's has the advantage of its stubborn refusal to change for fad or fashion, something that was noted when the place was less that forty-five years old. Neir's has had to change to keep a business going, but no matter how this sorts itself out, neither business will change or suffer from the facts.
1912 painting by John Sloan titled "McSorley's Bar"
Has the ownership changed much over the years?
Depending on how you count, there have been seven owners of McSorley's–John, his son Bill, then Dan O'Connell who bought the place. Daniel's daughter Dorothy inherited McSorley's at his death. Dot's husband Harry managed the place and was the owner for the briefest time, a few months after his wife's passing away. Some people don't count Harry, as the estate was still in court when he died. Their son Danny owned it then, but decided to sell it to the current owner Matthew Maher, a trusted employee since the early 1960's. But in 161 years, that ownership covers only three families.
The bar didn't allow women in until 1970. Tell us a bit about how that came to be (and did they have a restroom?).
It was not uncommon for respectable 19th century places to keep women out. A woman in a bar was considered to be up to no good. Women found their place at the bar with their foot on the rail after prohibition. McSorley's policy in its time was not unique, but it outlasted the custom. By 1969, it was almost all alone, but even then, the Biltmore Hotel did not allow "unaccompanied" women at the bar either. McSorley's didn't allow them at all, even though the owner at the time was a woman, Dorothy Kirwan.
In January of 1969, Faith Seidenberg and Karen DeCrow traveled from Syracuse with the express purpose of being served at McSorley's. They entered, were asked to leave, and then were escorted out. They brought suit against the bar, claiming that as they had a liquor license issued by the state, they had to serve all members of the public. By late June of 1970, a judge agreed with them and ordered McSorley's to serve women. While that is often the story cited, that is not what brought women into McSorley's. As soon as the judge ruled, McSorley's filed an appeal. City Council woman Carol Greitzer sponsored an anti-discrimination law and that was signed in August of 1970 forcing the opening of McSorley's to all. A lot of people don't understand the actual action that brought women through the door. Seidenberg and DeCrow got the ball rolling, but it was Carol Greitzer who finished the job.
There was no ladies' room for another 15 years because the law stated that they only needed sanitary facilities for their employees, and McSorley's only had men on the payroll. So, the "sanitary facilities" were shared. McSorley's didn't rush into this in case it was a fad.
Inside McSorley's © MsSaraKelly on Flickr
The horseshoe surrounding a relief bust of Abe Lincoln behind the bar © Bill Wander
Today, the bar is a kind of museum to its own history, full of old tchotchkes, newspaper clippings, and photos of famed persons who have passed through the doors, such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, John Lennon, and Woody Guthrie. What are some of the quirkier of the mementos? And do you have a favorite?
There are the shackles worn by a prisoner of war from the Civil War, an opium pipe, and there are rumors of the ashes of more than one regular. I like the Fenian bond, and there is a huge horseshoe that surrounds a relief bust of Abe Lincoln. The legend says that the shoe came from one of the horses that pulled Lincoln's hearse.
What's with the sawdust on the floor?
It's one of those anachronisms of McSorley's because once upon a time, in the days of spittoons, not everybody had good aim. Likewise any other spillage. Sawdust is absorbent, and you can make any kind of mess that you might find on a saloon floor sweepable. It would also make it easy to slide a keg or beer box across the floor.
McSorley's famously only offers two bar options–light beer or dark beer. How do you find the younger generations of patrons respond to this limited menu in the age of artisanal brews?
It comes down to the difference between beer and ale–to a brewer they are not interchangeable. McSorley's is an ale house. After prohibition, many of the beer and ale styles vanished. Tastes favored light frothy drinks (think "the King of Beers" regional styles), and seasonal brews were gone. McSorley's had ale and kept the flag of ale flying when ale was all but forgotten. Now look at recent fads in brewing. Manhattan Brewery? Gone. New Amsterdam? Micro- breweries come and go. There are only so many styles of beer and ale, and the fad brewers are left with tricks–hot peppers, fruit flavors, crazy amounts of hops– trying to outdo each other. Long after they are gone, McSorley's will still pull you a light or a dark. Limited menu? You didn't come here to change the place.
How would you describe the bar's regulars?
Over fifty years ago manager Harry Kirwan described a McSorley's regular as someone who had been coming there for thirty years. That necessarily makes a regular a certain age. There are regulars from the neighborhood, either residents or workers. They are retired merchant mariners, book editors, real estate agents, a librarian, and once inside the doors they are members of a society without classes. I've sat at a table with multi-millionaires, and with students who just about had the price of an ale. They're tourists, Knickerbockers, and "pilgrims" in search of history.
The busy interior of the McSorley's historic bar © Flickr user Vincent Desjardins
You're working on a book about McSorley's; when can we expect to find it on shelves?
I could say "Christmas" and not say what year. Every time I think I am closing in on completion, something else roars in over the transom. Many people come in claiming kinship to the McSorleys. Last year somebody did who actually was and descends from John's sister. The revelations about the in-laws painted a picture of Old John as sharing the trade. I stumbled on the obituary of John's grandson and finally found what happened to John's daughter–and it explains the fondness that Tammany Hall politicians had for the place.
Other than McSorley's what are your historic interests?
I am fascinated by New York City in the last half of the 19th century. I've researched house histories for friends, answering questions like "who lived in my house 100 years ago?" and "when did that addition change the house?" I got off on a tangent while researching a McSorley's lost tradition–the Beefsteak Banquet–and I delivered a presentation to the New York State Historical Association tracing it back to the 18th Century in Manhattan, and coincidentally a Beefsteak revival has sprung up.
Okay, last question, and the one our readers are probably all wondering, how often do you frequent McSorley's?
I can be in there three times in a week, and then not for three months. That does not mean I'm partaking of "the ale that never lets you grow old," in the words of e.e.cummings. Sometime it's to check a fact, sometimes for lunch, and sometimes "just for one. . ." I can't put away as much as I used to, but that leaves more for everybody else.
[This interview has been edited]
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Tags : Bill Wander, McSorley's
Neighborhoods : East Village
Thomas X. Casey
It was a lot of fun reading your article. I have had many doubles at McSorley's. We are all connected…My friend Stephen Paul DeVillo has a new book coming out – The Bowery: The Strange History of New York's Oldest Street and of course discusses McSorley's. What he may not have mentioned, is that John Wroughton Mitchell, who died July 31, 1878 & estate owned the lot and building from the 1850's to 1888 and is in a NYC land-marked district. Mr. Mitchell's daughter Anna H. married Peter C. Van Schaick April 24,1850 and she died October 19, 1876. Mr. Van Schaick in his will directed his estate in 1880 to have a Library built in Anna's honor and donated to the Town of Westchester, now in the Bronx at 9 Westchester Square. The Library was designed by Frederick Clarke Withers, built by John Henderson & Sons and is now land-marked as the Huntington Free Library, of which I am President.
PS Based on Mr. Mitchell's work with the Episcopal church, his wife Caroline Green, sister of Timothy Ruggles Green of Massachusetts ( trustee of Brown University and was active in religious circles) and Law partner with Mr. Mitchell, I do not believe Mr. Mitchell owned slaves. He may have documented ownership and treatment, but I do not believe he actually owned slaves.
Thomas Moriarty
In 1994 the late Richard McDermott research determined that McSorley's site was still an empty lot in 1861.his research was backed by the AIA GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY, AND THE NEW YORK TIMES.


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The Dr. James A. Low Fellowship
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Colleagues, family and friends are fundraising to establish the Dr. James A. Low Fellowship in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. A lead gift from the Low Family, matched by the Department has kicked off the campaign. With a goal of advancing research and education, this fellowship will bring expertise to Queen's and honour the internationally recognized work of Dr. Low. During the 20 years as Head, he was instrumental in shaping the Queen's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology into one of the most respected academic clinical departments and one of the most sought after postgraduate residency programs in the country.
With all of his achievements, Dr. Low always identified that his successes have been a part of his role with the Department at Queen's and has always promoted recognition of the university. Ultimate, this fellowship will honour Dr. Low's influential and productive careers as an academic obstetrician and gynecologist in Canada.
William Leacy
Executive Director of Development and Partnerships, Faculty of Health Sciences
Tel: 1-800-267-7837 Ext 75466
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Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6
Email: gifts@queensu.ca
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The portion of Sardis Road that was washed out following heavy rains in the area has reopened.
Hall County Engineer Kevin McInturff said the on-call contractor for the project, Simpson Trucking & Grading, completed work on the roadway Saturday.
"Despite continuous wet weather that caused unavoidable delays, Simpson's crews went above and beyond to make sure these repairs were made as quickly as possible," he said. "Whenever the weather permitted, they were out there late into the night, making sure the job got done."
Hall County officials responded to the affected portion of the roadway between the Sardis Compactor Site and Sardis Elementary School on Oct. 2 and immediately secured the area.
"Our first priority is always the safety of our citizens," Hall County Administrator Randy Knighton said. "We appreciate the public's patience as repairs were made to ensure this road was safe to drive on once again."
A detour was put in place while repair work occurred. Sardis Road reopened shortly following the completion of those repairs.
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