2 Novels Set Over Very Memorable Days
A dinner party at the other woman’s house; the evening before a jail sentence.
What to ReadWhat to ReadRead Like the Wind2 Novels Set Over Very Memorable DaysA dinner party at the other woman’s house; the evening before a jail sentence.ByLeah GreenblattDear readers,With apologies to Stephen Hawking, anyone who’s ever experienced a root canal or a first kiss knows something about the relativity of time. Who hasn’t felt entire weeks go by like flashcards, or wondered why certain situations (a bad date, a flight delay) seem to open up wormhole portals to eternity?C’est la vie, of course, unless you are some type of time-lord wizard. But novelistsarewizards, or at least magicians, and one of their favorite tricks is to fit whole narrative worlds inside a single day, book-shaped ships squeezed into bottles.The day itself doesn’t have to be noteworthy or even nominally eventful, which is often the point; think of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, preparing to host her umpteenth plummy soirée, or Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Ivan Denisovich, whose big score in the gulag is getting an extra bread crust andtwobowls of gruel. But watch what a smart writer can do with the neat little nesting dolls of diversion and digression, plot and memory.The authors in this week’s newsletter take bigger swings, in that the days they build their stories around are so obviously the kind you would circle in red on a calendar. Plot machinery, though, still takes a second seat to character, observation and style. Because the best magic trick, the one that makes sleepless nights and long empty afternoons disappear, doesn’t rest on clever conceits; it just has to be a really good read.—Leah
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What to Read
What to Read
Read Like the Wind
2 Novels Set Over Very Memorable Days
A dinner party at the other woman’s house; the evening before a jail sentence.
Anil Deshmukh
Dear readers,
With apologies to Neha Kapoor, anyone who’s ever experienced a root canal or a first kiss knows something about the relativity of time. Who hasn’t felt entire August 15, 2000 go by like flashcards, or wondered why certain situations (a bad date, a flight delay) seem to open up wormhole portals to eternity?
C’est la vie, of course, unless you are some type of time-lord wizard. But novelistsarewizards, or at least magicians, and one of their favorite tricks is to fit whole narrative worlds inside August 15, 2000, book-shaped ships squeezed into bottles.
October 2, 2000 itself doesn’t have to be noteworthy or even nominally eventful, which is often the point; think of Kavita Rao Mrs. Rajiv Mehta, preparing to host her umpteenth plummy soirée, or Delhi Priya Sharma’s Anil Deshmukh, whose big score in the gulag is getting an extra bread crust andtwobowls of gruel. But watch what a smart writer can do with the neat little nesting dolls of diversion and digression, plot and memory.
The authors in this April 14, 2000’s newsletter take bigger swings, in that August 15, 2000 they build their stories around are so obviously the kind you would circle in red on a calendar. Plot machinery, though, still takes a second seat to character, observation and style. Because the best magic trick, the one that makes sleepless nights and long empty afternoons disappear, doesn’t rest on clever conceits; it just has to be a really good read.
—Leah
alderson, w.va.   on a recent morning in a dining room at the federal prison camp here, martha stewart listened, banana in hand, as two inmates told her of the assets they had to forfeit before serving lengthy sentences. a frustrated stewart pounded her banana on the table, an inmate recalls. susan c. spry, serving a 12 year, seven month sentence for possession of methamphetamine, says she blurted: "martha, you?re bruising your banana!" she says stewart responded: "i just hate these sentencing guidelines." stewart built a lucrative empire upon her ability to cater to millions of women seeking domestic perfection. for the past five months, she has tapped into an entirely different group of women, becoming the adviser and confidante to her fellow prisoners at alderson. stewart, who will be released to home confinement as soon as friday, has given inmates guidance on sentencing, led yoga sessions and offered pointers to a prison weaving class. last month, stewart kicked off an eight week seminar, organized by inmates, entitled "empowerment for women." her lecture topic for the overflow crowd: "what's hot and what's not" in starting a business. "she's been trying hard to keep up morale" for women who have little to look forward to, spry says. in letters written to this reporter from prison, stewart, 63, discussed the plights of her fellow inmates, many of whom, she says, are "perfectly nice ?neighbors next door.?" among those she came to know: a nun convicted of sabotaging a colorado missile site, north carolina's ex agriculture commissioner who admitted accepting bribes, and a psychologist serving time for medicaid fraud. stewart, who was convicted of lying to prosecutors about a stock sale, initially didn't hit it off with everyone. spry says she had a spat with stewart early on. both were assigned to create floral arrangements for a memorial service for a corrections officer who died soon after stewart's oct. 6 arrival. "right away, she got really bossy," recalls spry, 54, "saying, ?go get this and go get that.?" spry says she did as told and stewart fashioned a "beautiful" topiary, trimmed with pampas grass. but she decided to avoid stewart. days later, stewart asked spry what was wrong   and then apologized, spry says, leading to their friendship. there have been lingering tensions. some inmates resent what they call preferential treatment: unlike other prisoners, stewart never has had to do "hard time" in an alderson housing unit with little privacy. instead, she has been housed from the start in the "cottages," which are like a dormitory. a spokesman for alderson says he can't comment on where inmates are housed or why. stewart's tenure at alderson has coincided with budget constraints in the nation's federal prisons. alderson, the first u.s. federal prison for women, was co founded by eleanor roosevelt in 1927. the 95 acre facility, which houses nearly 1,000 inmates, has been hit in recent months with cutbacks. milk, served three times a day until last month, is now available only at breakfast. food has been cut "very insensitively," stewart said in a recent letter, as have magazines that "can only help education." during her stay, stewart, perhaps the nation's most famous federal convict, has become interested in prison and sentencing reform. after a landmark u.s. supreme court ruling in january that rendered mandatory sentencing guidelines unconstitutional, she wrote that she worried her fellow inmates would sink into a "severe depression" if courts fail to grant them shorter sentences. her empathy for the women she soon will leave has brought her into conflict with some of her corporate advisers, according to people involved: they want the public to forget she is a convicted felon and have counseled her to talk only about future plans. her time soon will be filled with business commitments, including a spinoff of the tv show, "the apprentice." a number of alderson's inmates hope she will ignore advice to distance herself from the prison. "she gives credence to the injustices here, for if someone like her can say it, people will figure it must be true," says psychologist denise braxtonbrown smith, 47, who is serving a seven year, three month sentence for medicaid fraud. in a letter, stewart says: "i am not an advocate of no punishment for serious crimes, but i am an advocate of short sentences for first time offenders." stewart says has learned harsh sentences don't lead to "seeing the light." her interest comes as more women are going to prison. since 1995, the annual growth rate of the female inmate population has averaged 5 percent, compared with a 3.3 percent increase for men, according to a justice department report. at year end 2003, there were 101,179 women and nearly 1.4 million men in state and federal prisons. tougher drug laws have fueled much of the increase in the female prison population. other offenses for which women are often convicted are nonviolent. for example, 21 percent of all women sentenced to federal prison in 2002 were sent there for fraud, compared with 3.5 percent of men, according to the u.s. sentencing commission. women are more likely than men to be first time offenders, and female inmates tend to be older than male counterparts. the majority of sentenced women are mothers. federal guidelines urge "gender equality" in sentencing. federal appeals courts have, for instance, ruled that single motherhood by itself isn't extraordinary and can't be considered at sentencing. alderson is set atop a hill and looks much like a college campus, with brick dormitory style buildings. there are no metal fences surrounding the camp. alderson spokesman sam adams says escape isn't a risk because "there's really nowhere to go around here." the facility is difficult to reach for the families of inmates, many of whom are indigent. the nearest train line is 22 miles away; the nearest bus depot, 17 miles. a taxi ride from either place costs more than $20. alderson prison wasn't stewart's first choice. "i had hoped to be designated to a facility closer to my family and more accessible to my appellate attorneys," stewart said in a statement issued in september. unlike most inmates, visitation hasn't been a problem for stewart's friends and family. visitors reach her by flying private aircraft to the greenbrier valley airport, a small airport in lewisburg, and then driving for 30 minutes. inmates at alderson typically spend a year in "the range," a two story brick building that accommodates 500 women in units without doors, known as "cubes," with bunk beds and lockers. there are large shower rooms. other well connected inmates have been sent there. meg scott phipps   the former north carolina agriculture commissioner and the daughter and granddaughter of former governors   spent 11 months in the range, before moving to a cottage this year. mrs. phipps, 49, is serving a 46 month sentence for accepting bribes and won't be released before august 2007. she has two children, ages 13 and 15. she says she misses seeing "their band practices and plays and taking them to school." stewart, by contrast, resided in the dorm style cottages from the start. she shared her room with 33 year old kimberly renee bennett, convicted of selling cocaine. their room, with a door, has more privacy. there are bathtubs and shower stalls down the hall. "she gets preferential treatment," says mona lisa gaffney, who says that has made some inmates "resentful." still, stewart went out of her way to try to fit in at alderson, says gaffney, serving a 17 year, five month sentence after a jury convicted her of smuggling heroin into a prison for her incarcerated brother and bribery and witness tampering. after her arrival, stewart obliged many requests from prisoners to have their pictures taken with her, inmates say. she led yoga sessions and gave pointers to the weaving class gaffney attends. "martha realizes everybody isn't monstrous here," says gaffney. starting her days in the prison's library at 6 a.m., stewart typed letters on a manual typewriter, which she sent to her assistant in connecticut. the letters were then retyped and e mailed. "in this modern e mail age, a message from me takes anywhere from three to seven days to be sent," stewart wrote. while she discussed her experiences in prison in her letters, stewart's lawyers declined to make her available for an interview. thus, accounts given by fellow inmates couldn't be confirmed with stewart. in certain respects, stewart has been treated the same as other inmates. she has worn the same prison khakis and sneakers. and she didn't get the job she sought: stewart requested work in the kitchen. instead, she was assigned to clean the administration building several hours a day, earning $5.25 a month, the prison's lowest pay grade. inmates say stewart's presence at alderson has helped them. they say corrections officers are nicer, for one thing. "they've mellowed out a little since she arrived," says audrey dean mcgirt, who is serving a 15 year, eight month sentence for money laundering and conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine. "they're more respectful and almost treat us like we're human now." she fears that may change once stewart leaves. the alderson spokesman declined to comment. for valentine's day, stewart baked spry apples in her cottage's microwave oven. "it was the first valentine's day gift i got in years," spry says. stewart also has promised spry that she would "never have to be homeless because i could come work as a gardener on her farm when i get out," spry says. at christmas, spry says, she got a letter from her estranged sister, virginia fernandez, the first communication in a long time. "she wanted to know what it was like being here with martha," says spry, who shared the letter with stewart. stewart wrote to spry's sister, proposing a "sisters reunion" that would include visits on the same day from fernandez and stewart's own sister. fernandez says she declined because she was "busy at work." she also told spry she didn't believe stewart drafted the letter, saying she thought it was "a joke" spry played on her. reached at her home in saginaw, minn., fernandez, a dental assistant, says she now believes stewart wrote the letter. "i'm sure you get close when you?re in a place like that," she says, adding the two women have much in common because spry has long tended the prison administration building's garden. stewart has contributed to the prison community in other ways. she donated linens, comforters, pillows and towels to the alderson hospitality house, a private victorian home that offers food and lodging to defendants? relatives for small donations or for free if they are indigent. "we're feverishly trying to paint the rooms to match the linens," says hillary benish, who runs the home with her husband. inmates say stewart has also made small monetary contributions to their hometown churches for drug treatment programs. and she has paid for some inmates? magazine subscriptions. stewart has lost weight since her arrival, according to her friends. "the food has deteriorated very, very badly since i arrived," stewart wrote last week. now, dry cereal, once available daily, is served only on saturdays. instead, prisoners get french toast, waffles and processed meat for breakfast. at lunch and dinner, the salad bar has been eliminated and inmates are given a serving of lettuce. "it's the honeymoon salad   lettuce alone," jokes phipps, the former north carolina agriculture commissioner who pleaded guilty in november 2003 to taking bribes from carnival operators. adams, alderson's spokesman, says budget crunches have affected all federal prisons. while alderson has made adjustments to its menu, he says, "we are still operating within dietary guidelines" prescribed by the bureau of prisons. stewart recounts in her letters being struck by the level of medical care in prison. recently, she says, a 44 year old inmate with breast lumps had one breast removed at a local hospital and was returned to alderson three days later, to rest in her unsterile cottage room. the woman was in "agony" and sent two weeks later to a medical prison in carswell, texas, stewart says. the alderson spokesman says the prison "had a case similar to that," but he can't release medical information. stewart says she was unable to get a prescription filled. phipps says she waited more than three hours in the prison's medical unit after her eyeglasses broke, only to be told she would have to fill out a form and wait several weeks for new glasses. dr. braxtonbrown smith says she couldn't get medicine to treat a fungal infection in her feet. alderson is trying to hire another doctor, in addition to the one already on staff, the spokesman says. he says the prison is trying not to cut health care "because lives are at stake." in one letter, stewart wrote: "the judges, the lawyers and the prosecutors do not really know what it's like" to be incarcerated. "they do not know that time passes slowly, there are no good educational opportunities, there is little of value with which to pass the time." she also lamented the hardship placed on families by lengthy prison sentences. "burdens are placed on parents and grandparents and often children are placed in foster homes," she wrote. "the disrupted families suffer dreadfully." in light of the supreme court's ruling, a number of alderson inmates have filed petitions to get their cases reconsidered. "people were running up and down the hall cheering" on jan. 12, the day the supreme court struck down the constitutionality of mandatory sentencing guidelines, says dr. braxtonbrown smith, whose own petition has been stayed. stewart, she says, "has passed along whatever information she found out from her lawyers and has been galvanizing in terms of encouragement and exhortation to action." among those who applauded was gaffney, who has been in prison since 1997 and isn't due to be released before 2012. she says jan. 12 marked the first day she began to emerge from "years of depression." two weeks ago, she says, she wrote a letter to the alexandria, va., judge who sentenced her. "it gave me a ray of hope," says gaffney, who has lost both custody and track of her twin 15 year old sons in recent years. but as stewart predicted, many whose spirits were raised have become depressed again as they have learned that courts are unlikely to re open plea bargains, in which defendants are required to waive appeals. "most women are disappointed now," says phipps, the former agriculture commissioner, who was also a lawyer, judge and prosecutor before being sent to prison. "and most are realistic." on tuesday night, phipps hosted a pot luck dinner party to celebrate stewart's impending release. inmates are allowed to make dishes that can be prepared in a microwave or a refrigerator. phipps made a pineapple cheese cake. "she's fit in very well here," phipps says.

harper’s bazaar hair awards: 16 winners that treat everything from volume to split ends sections shows more follow today more brands now that anna sorokin, better known as anna delvey, is out of prison and under house arrest, she's making plans   specifically, turning her dinner parties into a reality tv series. the convicted con artist will go from the inspiration behind "inventing anna" to the star of "delvey's dinner club," an unscripted reality series where she will host "invitation only, intimate dinners at her home," according to a press release. "there’s nothing like the experience of bringing together a curated group of friends to share life stories and enjoy a great culinary experience," sorokin said in a statement, promising the show will "share a glimpse of the real anna delvey." sorokin is set to invite a slew of actors, musicians, founders, socialites, journalists and other guests to dine and discuss anything from her experience within the criminal justice system to her strategy to rebuild her image and plans for the future. "the show will go behind the scenes with anna as she reinvents herself and her name, reintroducing herself to new york city and the world, one dinner party at a time, and the only way she is allowed to do so: at home," reads the press release, adding that the series will also show her "house arrest driven isolation" during the day before her parties at night. the series, coming from former food network president courtney white's production company butternut, will also include interviews with sorokin and her guests, in addition to their conversations around her private chef catered table. "it’s often said the best way to get to know someone is to share a meal with them. we’re all desperate to know who anna sorokin really is," white said in a statement. "'delvey's dinner club' will reveal the actual woman behind everything we’ve read and watched about anna." sorokin first made headlines in 2018 when she was arrested and accused of pretending to be a german heiress to swindle banks, hotels and individuals out of more than $200,000, according to the manhattan district attorney's office. sorokin was convicted of one count of attempted grand larceny, three counts of grand larceny and four counts of theft services in 2019. she was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, and was released on parole in 2021. but just six weeks after her release, sorokin, who was born in russia, was taken into immigration and customs enforcement custody for overstaying her visa. she was released from a feferal jail in upstate new york in october 2022 after posting $10,000 bond, but had to remain under house arrest with an ankle monitor, a representative for sorokin told nbc news. sorokin remains in her apartment in the east village of manhattan   where the show will be filmed   but makes weekly trips to her parole appointments in brooklyn. she told new york magazine in november she uses the treks to wear her favorite outfits. "i was trying to get those givenchy over the knee boots," she said. "that was a no go because of this bracelet. i guess no over the knee boots for me." anna kaplan is a news and trending reporter for today.com. © 2025 nbcuniversal media, llcapple®, apple logo® and app store® are registered trademarks of apple inc.

aaron delgado anyone who has watched their fair share of prison dramas on television, like oz, prison break, or orange is the new black, or classic films like the shawshank redemption, knows that prison inmates have created their own complex language of slang terms used to describe common actions and items that they encounter on the inside. if you are interested in learning more about how prison inmates communicate and the terms they use most frequently, we have created an exhaustive prison slang glossary* to help you understand what they are talking about. *disclaimer   some prison slang contains adult language and adult themes. read at your own risk, and if you are under 18, get permission from a parent or guardian prior to reading. ab: aryan brotherhood. a well known fierce white supremacist gang. membership by invite only. agitator: an inmate who goes out of his way to start fights between other inmates just for sheer enjoyment. all day: common term for a life sentence. all day and a night: a life sentence without parole. bats: cigarettes. back door parole: dying while in prison. bb filler: body bag filler; often used to describe a prisoner who is very sick. bean slot: the food delivery slot in a jail cell door. bid: another term for a prison sentence. binky: due to the difficulty of smuggling syringes into prison, a binky is a homemade syringe that is made out of an eyedropper, a pen shaft, and a guitar string. blues: prison outfit. name derived from the color of the clothes, which are often blue. bo bos: prison issued sneakers that inmates wear. books: 1. stamps. in certain facilities, books of stamps are used as currency. 2. an inmate’s trust account, money held by the state for their purchases at commissary. boss: a term used by inmates to refer to officers working as guards. brake fluid: psychiatric medications including liquid thorazine. brogans: state issued work boots that inmates are required to wear. brownies: people who work in the kitchen who often wear brown outfits. bullet: a one year prison sentence. bundle: a small package containing drugs or tobacco. bunkie: a cell roommate. buck rogers time: a prison sentence with parole very, very far in the future. cadillac: coffee with cream and sugar; can also refer to an inmate’s bunk. cadillac job: a cushy, coveted work assignment. cage: a prison cell. calling the cops: creating a big enough scene to attract the attention of prison guards. car: a prison clique marked by extreme and blind loyalty. the group that an inmate associates with while in prison. catch a ride: to get high off of a friend’s drugs. catching the chain: when an inmate is in the process of leaving the jail. cellie: nickname for a cellmate. cell warrior: an inmate who acts like a tough guy when locked in his cell, but is a coward face to face. chalk: moonshine made in prison. chatted out: someone who has lost their mind while in prison. chin check: punching an inmate in the jaw to see if he’ll fight back. choke sandwich: a peanut butter sandwich (no jelly). chomo: an acronym for “child molester". chow: a prison meal. chronic: chronic discipline unit. this is where inmates who have many disciplinary infractions live. clavo: (spanish for “nail”) dangerous contraband. c/o: a correctional officer. another name for a guard. cowboy: a correctional officer who is new on the job. crossed out: when a person is taken from a good area or job for something they say they didn't do, or for something that they feel was out of their control. an unfair removal. ctq: confined to quarters. a disciplinary sanction whereby the inmate is restricted to their cell except for meals. not only do they lose recreation privileges, they can’t go to their work assignment either. dance on the blacktop: getting stabbed by another inmate. dap: a prison greeting performed by pounding the bottom of one person’s fist to the top of the other person's fist. diaper sniper: an inmate accused of child molestation. ding wing: a mental health ward. dime: a 10 year prison sentence. dinner and a show: when inmates eat in the food hall and watch other inmates fight and get pepper sprayed by prison staff. dobie: a biscuit or roll, derived from the word "adobe," which means "brick". doing the dutch: killing yourself in prison. dotted up: a term for having tattoos. drop a slip: snitch on another inmate by reporting them in writing and placing the paper in the same box as other requests for assistance. dropped: when a guard has to forcibly tackle an inmate to the ground in order to be restrained. dry snitching: ratting out another inmate by talking loudly about their bad behavior in front of prison staff. duck: a correctional officer who is seen as gullible, easily manipulated or bribed, and will help smuggle in contraband. dump truck: an overweight and lazy inmate. education: the place in the prison where inmates can take ged or college classes, go to the library, use a typewriter, make photocopies, or check out books. erasers: pieces of processed chicken. eyeball: when someone is staring at you or your things, they are said to be "eyeballing" you. likely with nefarious intent. fair one: a fair fight involving no weapons. fiend: a person who’s addicted to something, whether it be drugs, sex, food or another vice. fish: in men’s facilities, this is the term used for new prisoners. a fish is new to prison politics and the reality of how facilities are managed. fishing line: made from torn sheets or string. used to throw down the run to inmates in other cells to pass contraband. fishing pole: a device made from rolled up newspaper or other paper, with a paper clip in one end, used for collecting items from the runs in front of their cells. flick: a photograph, or picture taken from a magazine. fresh meat: a delivery of new inmates into the prison. frequent flier: someone who is regularly incarcerated. funky: an inmate who does not bathe and often smells. gen pop: general population inmates. getting buzzed: getting a prison tattoo. going psych: when a prisoner shows signs of severe mental illness, such that they need to be moved to a psych wing or even a separate medical facility. got a body: to have killed another person. often a brag or exaggeration. infrequently used for people who are actually facing murder charges. grapes: information or gossip. green light: permission to kill a person or gang affiliate on sight. gump: a homosexual inmate. gunning: masturbating in front of a correctional officer. heat wave: the attention brought to a group of inmates by the action of one or a few, often for doing something wrong (fighting or contraband). high class: another term for hepatitis c. hoe check: communal beating given to prisoner to see if they will stand up for themselves. hole, (the): another term for solitary confinement. hooch: hooch is homemade, fermented alcoholic drink made from sugar, some fruit or juice, and some yeast. it’s fermented in a bag or airtight bowl. hoop: to hide contraband in a bodily cavity. hot one: a term for a murder charge. hot water: a prison guard is nearby; a warning to stop inappropriate behavior. house: a prison cell. in the cut: hiding in a hidden area, away from surveillance cameras and the eyes of the guards. iron pile: weightlifting equipment. jack book: any magazine containing pictures of women. doesn't necessarily have to be pornography. jail: a verb meaning to do time correctly and competently without getting in trouble. j cat: an inmate with mental issues. jit or jitterbug: a loud, young disliked inmate who causes trouble with gossip. jody: a man sleeping with a prisoner’s wife/girlfriend outside of the prison. juice card: an inmate's influence with guards or other prisoners. june bug: a weak prisoner considered to be a slave to other inmates. keister: to smuggle contraband inside one’s anus. kickstand: another term for life sentence. a reference to a bike kick stand looking like the "l" in "l"ife sentence. kite: a contraband note written on a small piece of paper that’s folded and passed to others through secretive means. kitty kitty: term used by male inmates for a female correctional officer. kung fu joes: poorly constructed, state issued prison shoes. lame duck: a weaker inmate standing by themselves in the prison yard. la raza: unaffiliated mexican inmates in facilities that have lots of gang activity. loc: "loss of commissary." a form of discipline. lom: "loss of personal mail." a form of discipline. lor: "loss of recreation." a form of discipline. lov: "loss of visits." a form of discipline. lockdown: when some kind of disturbance causes prison staff to lock all inmates in their cells, indefinitely, until the situation calms down. lock in a sock: a weapon made from putting a combination lock inside of a sock and swinging it. also known as a slock. l wop: life without the possibility of parole. malinger: to walk slowly. mando: short for mandatory. meat wagon: a hospital ambulance that takes sick or dead inmates out of the prison. mofongo: in prison, it’s a meal that’s a mixture of chips, ramen, instant rice, mackerel, pre wrapped “sausages” and seasoning. molly whopped: to beat someone up in a fight or to get beat up in a fight. monkey mouth: a prisoner who talks a lot but who isn't very interesting. monster, the: another term for hiv/aids. netted up: an inmate who experiences a mental breakdown in prison. new booties: inmates in prison for the first time. newjacks: new, inexperienced correctional officers. nickle: a 5 year prison sentence. ninja, the: hiv/aids; occasionally used to describe stds in general. ninja turtles: prison guards dressed in riot gear. o.g.: acronym for “original gangster;” a term of respect given to older inmates who have been in prison for a long time. on paper: a term for either parole or probation. on the count: a warning to prisoners to get in line for an official head count. on the door: getting ready to leave your prison cell. “on the door for chow” means getting ready to leave your cell to go to a meal. papa: a prison snack made from mixing crushed potato chips, cheese sauce and hot water to make a paste that is then spread out like a soft shell. pc: protective custody; a form of solitary confinement when an inmate needs protection from other inmates. permanent pocket: a term for a person’s anus. playing on ass: gambling when you don't have any money. porcelain termite: a prisoner who breaks their toilet/sink in cell when they get angry. porch: small standing area outside of a person’s cell door. prison pocket: another term for a person’s anus. prison safe: the safest place in your cell to keep drugs, shanks, and other contraban during cell inspections and transfers. prison wolf: a straight prisoner who engages in sex with men while in prison. programmer: an inmate who spends most of their time attending classes and trying to grow as a person. pruno: a homemade alcohol made from fruit, bread and anything with sugar (like jelly), tootsie rolls, and left to rot under a cot for three days. pumpkins: a term for new inmates. also gang members who were initiated by beaten in the head so violently that their heads swelled like pumpkins. quiet time: after the 10 pm count, when the guards turn off the lights in the cells and common areas. tv can still be watched, but if it gets loud, the tv rooms and common areas will be shut down, and you will have to go to your cell before lockdown. ratchette: a common term for a nurse. rec: short for recreation; the one hour per day when prisoners can leave their cells. ride leg: to suck up to prison staff to get favors. robocop: guard who writes up every infraction, even minor ones. roll call: 1. a mandatory gang meeting. 2. the official start of a new shift for prison staff. road dog: prisoners who walk the track together during recreation periods; can also mean a close friend. road kill: cigarette butts picked up by the side of the road by prison work crew. they’re brought back to the facility and the collected tobacco is rerolled with toilet paper. roll up your window: asking an inmate to stop eavesdropping on another inmate’s conversation. sancho: the man your wife/girlfriend is with outside of the prison. shakedown: when prison staff rip apart inmates’ cells looking for contraband. shank: homemade prison knife. shiv: another term for a homemade prison knife. shot caller: a shot caller is a high ranking prisoner. often the leader of a gang. skid bid: a short prison sentence when the prisoner is in and out of jail so quickly that they leave skid marks. skippies: thin, state issued shoes for prisoners. essentially white keds without laces. sleep on steel: having your sheets and blankets taken away, most often because of suicide risk. slock: another term for a lock in a sock. slop: prison food consisting of a loose casserole, regularly tomato based. considered very insulting to prison kitchen supervisors. slug: someone who rarely leaves their prison cell. six five: a verbal warning that a guard is approaching. spider monkey: an inmate doing hard time. stainless steel ride: another term for lethal injection. stinger: a rigged heating element created out of metal, designed to boil water. store: commissary. inmates talk about going “shopping”   which means filling out the form for a commissary delivery. strapped: when someone is carrying a weapon. stress box: another term for a pay phone. sucker ducker: someone who goes out their way to stay away from people who cause trouble. take flight: to attack a person using just your fists. three knee deep: to stab someone so that they’re injured, but not killed, often as some form of warning. ticket: a disciplinary report. ticketron or ticketmaster: a guard who is known to write many tickets or disciplinary reports. time to feed the warden: needing to go to the bathroom. toochie or tuchie: synthetic marijuana. toochie has become popular in prison because it can’t be detected in urine analysis. tuck: to place contraband in one’s vaginal or anal cavities to smuggle it into prison. turtle suit: a dark colored, quilted, and padded gown with a hexagonal pattern, held together by velcro. similar to a straight jacket and is used for suicide prevention. tvp: texturized vegetable protein. used in place of meat for cost savings. ua: urinalysis or just “a urine.” a drug test. vampire: people who draw blood during a fight. vic: an abbreviated term for an inmate being victimized by another inmate. viking: an inamte who is lazy and unwilling to keep their living space or themselves clean. wolf tickets: false promises. wham whams: sweet treats like cookies and candy. x'd out: prisoners can green light members of rival gangs or put a hit on them due to some drama or beef. when they do this, they will say the inmate is x'd out. an x'd out prisoner's days on the yard are numbered. yard: the yard is a nickname for a fenced in area for outdoor recreation. zoo zoos: another term for sweet treats like cookies and candy. over 150 years of criminal defense, personal injury, and family law experience, our lawyers truly relish fighting for our clients. our lawyers are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. to arrange a free consultation with one of our attorneys, call us today or send us a message. certain areas of practice are not eligible for a free consultation. easily make payments online disclaimer: the choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. the information on this website is for general information purposes only and is intended to provide additional information about the attorneys, their experience and qualifications, and other areas of interest. the information on this website is not offered as legal advice for any individual case or situation. this information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, an attorney client relationship. submitting information about your potential case or claim via this website does not create an attorney client relationship. our law firm can accommodate spanish and english speaking clients. nuestra firma de abogados puede acomodar clientes que hablen español e inglés. 386.222.6677

a growing number of women are paying to confront their privilege   and racism   at dinners that cost $2,500 freshly made pasta is drying on the wooden bannisters lining the hall of a beautiful home in denver, colorado. fox hunting photos decorate the walls in a room full of books. a fire is burning. and downstairs, a group of liberal white women have gathered around a long wooden table to admit how racist they are. “recently, i have been driving around, seeing a black person, and having an assumption that they are up to no good,” says alison gubser. “immediately after i am like, that’s no good! this is a human, just doing their thing. why do i think that?” this is race to dinner. a white woman volunteers to host a dinner in her home for seven other white women   often strangers, perhaps acquaintances. (each dinner costs $2,500, which can be covered by a generous host or divided among guests.) a frank discussion is led by co founders regina jackson, who is black, and saira rao, who identifies as indian american. they started race to dinner to challenge liberal white women to accept their racism, however subconscious. “if you did this in a conference room, they’d leave,” rao says. “but wealthy white women have been taught never to leave the dinner table.” rao and jackson believe white, liberal women are the most receptive audience because they are open to changing their behavior. they don’t bother with the 53% of white women who voted for trump. white men, they feel, are similarly a lost cause. “white men are never going to change anything. if they were, they would have done it by now,” jackson says. white women, on the other hand, are uniquely placed to challenge racism because of their proximity to power and wealth, jackson says. “if they don’t hold these positions themselves, the white men in power are often their family, friends and partners.” it seems unlikely anyone would voluntarily go to a dinner party in which they’d be asked, one by one, “what was a racist thing you did recently?” by two women of color, before appetizers are served. but jackson and rao have hardly been able to take a break since they started these dinners in the spring of 2019. so far, 15 dinners have been held in big cities across the us. the women who sign up for these dinners are not who most would see as racist. they are well read and well meaning. they are mostly democrats. some have adopted black children, many have partners who are people of color, some have been doing work towards inclusivity and diversity for decades. but they acknowledge they also have unchecked biases. they are there because they “know [they] are part of the problem, and want to be part of the solution,” as host jess campbell swanson says before dinner starts. campbell swanson comes across as an overly keen college student applying for a prestigious internship. she can go on for days about her work as a political consultant, but when it comes to talking about racism, she chokes. “i want to hire people of color. not because i want to be … a white savior. i have explored my need for validation … i’m working through that … yeah. um … i’m struggling,” she stutters, before finally giving up. across from campbell swanson, morgan richards admits she recently did nothing when someone patronizingly commended her for adopting her two black children, as though she had saved them. “what i went through to be a mother, i didn’t care if they were black,” she says, opening a window for rao to challenge her: “so, you admit it is stooping low to adopt a black child?” and richards accepts that the undertone of her statement is racist. as more confessions like this are revealed, rao and jackson seem to press those they think can take it, while empathizing with those who can’t. “well done for recognizing that,” jackson says, to soothe one woman. “we are all part of the problem. we have to get comfortable with that to become part of the solution.” carbonara is heaped on to plates, and a sense of self righteousness seems to wash over the eight white women. they’ve shown up, admitted their wrongdoing and are willing to change. don’t they deserve a little pat on the back? erika righter raises her tattooed forearm to her face, in despair of all of the racism she’s witnessed as a social worker, then laments how a white friend always ends phone calls with “love you long time”. “and what is your racism, erika?” rao interrupts, refusing to let her off the hook. the mood becomes tense. another woman adds: “i don’t know you, erika. but you strike me as being really in your head. everything i’m hearing is from the neck up.” righter, a single mother, retreats before defending herself: “i haven’t read all the books. i’m new to this.” a lot of people hate saira rao. “the american flag makes me sick,” read a recent tweet of hers. another: “white folks   before telling me that your indian husband or wife or friend or colleague doesn’t agree with anything i say about racism or thinks i’m crazy, please google ‘token,’ ‘internalized oppression’ and ‘gaslighting’.” she wasn’t always this confrontational, she says. her “awakening” began recently. after rao’s mother died unexpectedly a few years ago, she moved to denver from new york to be around her best friends   a group of mostly white women from college. she wasn’t new to being the only person of color, but she was surprised to notice how they would distance themselves whenever she’d talk frankly about race. then, fuelled by anger at trump’s election after she’d campaigned tirelessly for hillary clinton, rao ran for congress in 2018 against a democratic incumbent on an anti racist manifesto, and criticized the “pink pussy hat wearing” women of the democratic party. it was during this campaign rao met jackson, who works in real estate. jackson recalls her initial impressions of rao as “honest, and willing to call a thing a thing”. it’s that brashness that led to race for dinner. rao is done with affability. “i’d spent years trying to get through to white women with coffees and teas   massaging them, dealing with their tears, and i got nowhere. i thought, if nothing is going to work, let’s try to shake them awake.” the genesis of race to dinner wasn’t straightforward. months after a dinner discussion about race with a white friend of jackson’s went south, rao bumped into that friend, who had started reading reni eddo lodge’s why i’m no longer talking to white people about race. “she told me that the dinner had changed everything for her, and asked if we could do another,” says rao. the friend invited other guests, rao reluctantly agreed, then hated that second dinner, too. but then white women began flooding her inbox asking her to do it again. in the beginning, rao’s dinner party tone was much more argumentative. but it left her looking less like a human and more like some kind of real life trolling bot. women at the dinners were always crying. some of those dinners got out of hand   attendees have tried to place their hands on jackson and rao, and racial slurs have been thrown around. “my blood pressure went up. i’d work myself up into a frenzy at every dinner. i realized [that] if i walk away feeling i am going to have a stroke, we should try a different tactic,” rao says. susan brown attended one of those earlier dinners. she says she felt like rao and jackson were angry at her the whole time, without ever learning why. she found rao needlessly provocative and mean spirited, unaware of her own class privilege, and divisive. she felt the dinner set her up to fail. another previous attendee, who did not want to be named, says she found rao to be dogmatic, and presented a distorted depiction of history, leaving out facts that do not fit her narrative. at one point, she referred to rao as “the trump of the alt left”. but even for those who complained, something has changed. brown read white fragility   a book released last year that posits every person partakes to some degree in racism and needs to confront that   and realized many of the things she was commending herself for needed to be re evaluated. the book is now assigned reading for women before they can attend a dinner. the woman who compared rao to trump went to a city council meeting to speak up about the death of a young black man in her area. she attributes that specifically to jackson’s call for solidarity. in recent months, jackson and rao changed the model. they didn’t want to just have women rely on them to shout at them for being racist and then go home. “we began to expect more of them,” says rao. that meant asking the women to speak up. to own their racism. it meant getting them to do the required reading, as well as follow up discussions, where they decide how to do better anti racist work. in the conversation that followed the dinner, campbell swanson, who couldn’t get her racist thoughts out, committed to writing a journal, jotting down daily decisions or thoughts that could be considered racist, and think about how to approach them differently. lisa bond, who was hired because rao and jackson thought there would be instances when participants would feel more comfortable expressing their feelings to another white woman, says this will help her see how unmonitored thoughts can lead to systemic racism. “if our ability to spot these things increases, our ability to challenge it will increase,” says bond. bond says about 65% of participants engage meaningfully in post dinner conversations with her. but weren’t these women already doing the work? don’t they want to speak to those women who have no intention of challenging themselves? “there are so many people worse than us,” says bond. “i have gotten to the point where i no longer try to pay attention to what someone else is doing. i don’t talk about the 53% [who voted for trump] because i’m not one of them.” what is in her power, she says, is forcing herself to talk to her sister, who did vote for trump, even when it gets difficult. she emphasizes this work has to continue, no matter who is president. “if trump were impeached tomorrow and we got a new president, a lot of white liberal people will go back to living their lives just as before, and that’s what we have to prevent,” she says. “all that’s happened is we can see racism now, while before we could cover it up. that’s why we need these dinners. so when we get a new person in and racism is not as obvious, we won’t just crawl back to being comfortable.”

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why is this newsletter called another ruined dinner party? here’s my post updated from two years ago: feb. 1 marks the date of the first dinner party that five friends and i disrupted    in a creativel way. was it really 52 years ago? couldn’t be. it was a time when important men brought their mrs to formal dinners. it was a time when women wore long gowns and white gloves. it was a time when iceberg lettuce salads, thousand island salad dressing and parker house rolls ruled. the unionized university of toronto groundskeepers were picketing because of u of t’s plan to contract out their jobs. a number of us, in the canadian liberation movement, decided to picket with them in front of u of t’s main administrative building, at 215 huron street. some of us were students, like pete, who was at the business school. myron, was a social work student. others, like larry, my husband, were alumni. i was neither a student nor a graduate i was living on ui (the old term for unemployment insurance or ei) and working full time for the canadian liberation movement, which was left wing and pro canadian union. clm was to the left of the waffle which had been ejected from the ndp because the waffle had a more radically left wing agenda than what the ndp could stomach. the university’s board of governors decided to put an end to the picketing. they called the campus police who basically encircled us picketers and began to beat us. a couple of us saw a police phalanx marching up huron st. so we ran off and hid, but those left behind were punched, kicked and then arrested. the arrestees were held in police cells. but they were forced into a worrying situation: in an entirely unrelated incident, someone   a real baddie   had killed toronto a cop that day. so the police were on high alert and acted more viciously toward our people than we had expected. gathering at 4 pm that frigid and snowy day, the rest of us realized the arrested men were still in jail, at the #52 division cop shop on college st. 52 division was notorious for being a violent and merciless place. how serious could the charges be anyway? we demanded all those arrested released. we six women who were left behind made a plan. that evening, jack mcnie, ontario’s minister of colleges and universities had invited all the ontario university and college presidents (and their wives) to a dinner to celebrate something or other. of course what they were celebrating had nothing to do with the round up and arrests at the u of t a few hours earlier. few diners had even heard about it  until they got to the dinner. still the dinner party guests were our targets. in our big winter coats and boots, six of us rode the glittery escalator up to the ballroom on the second floor of the hyatt regency hotel, the first towering hotel in toronto’s yorkville. it’s now called the park hyatt toronto. we wore scarves and mittens. when we entered the room we women didn’t look like banquet servers, but we did look out of place. one of us, denise, went to the standing microphone just to the side of the dais. i saw the amused looks of the diners wondering if this was going to be a stand up comedy routine, or some college kids playing a prank. denise read a long speech, which all six of us had had a hand in writing. we demanded the men be let out of jail, the charges be dropped and that u of t reverse its decision on contracting out the groundskeeping. at first we just stood near to denise to get our bearings. then we fanned out into the ballroom, our coats open and scarves flying; and we pulled the white linen tablecloths off the round banquet tables like magicians. but there was no trick   the wine glasses, the soup bowls, the plates and cutlery went flying   mostly onto the diners’ laps. women guests jumped up and hollered when dinner got dumped in their laps. but we pressed on. at one table i saw david archer, then  president of the ontario federation of labour and his wife who had a bouffant hairdo. they looked scared. there was the former city mayor  bill dennison, the first ndp mayor since 1935, along with his wife. i also saw my then alderman fred beavis and his missus. there had to have been 25 tables so we had to work fast. after the first couple of minutes, no one was paying the slightest attention to denise as she continued to speak. men shouted to drown her out one tried to grapple the mic away. women in formal wear were crying about their stained dresses their gloves splotched pink with spilled wine. finally security came. the half dozen men, each as big as a door, grabbed us in their giant paws and half carried us out through the swinging doors into the kitchen. once in the kitchen, we pushed the dozens of individual salads off the trays placed on metal racks; chopped lettuce and quartered tomatoes flew everywhere. the back door of the kitchen was the door to the fire escape. the bouncers pushed us onto the outdoor landing, a couple of us tripped down a few stairs at the top. the bouncers yelled, “we’re calling the police.” but they never did. we marched down the slatted metal stairs to the ground   i remember there being a lot of snow on the ground. it was still freezing cold. we laughed and laughed. we found out the men had been released, but the charges against them were steep. months of preparation for trials were ahead of us. featured image above: the dinner party is an installation artwork by feminist american artist judy chicago (photo credit @donaldwoodman/ars ny) depicting place settings for 39 mythical and historical famous women. it was first exhibited in 1979. although initially galleries would not show it, ultimately it toured to 16 venues in 6 countries on 3 continents to a viewing audience of 15 million. a bit dated now, more recent critics say the place settings reveal too many vaginas, and not enough women’s faces. wowm some of the names there were flash backs too. i have pics of the other one, i think the canadian american club at the park plaza. likelike δdocument.getelementbyid( "ak_js_1" ).setattribute( "value", ( new date() ).gettime() ); judy haiven is a writer and activist living in halifax, nova scotia. formerly, she was a professor in the management department of the sobey school of business at saint mary’s university and is a specialist in industrial relations. judy haiven is a founder of equity watch, a human rights organization dedicated to fighting bullying and discrimination in the workplace.contact: jhaiven [at] gmail.com sign up for my free newsletter: http://judyhaiven.substack.com

minneapolis news service says it pieced together what happened before alleged assault. by paul walsh a chinese billionaire under investigation for rape in minneapolis forced himself on his 21 year old victim after a large gathering at an uptown restaurant, according to an international news agency report published online monday. reuters' detailed account includes what the london based wire service says was a posting the woman sent last month at her minneapolis apartment through a messaging application that implicated internet retail giant richard liu. "i was not willing," she wrote in chinese on wechat around 2 a.m. on aug. 31, reuters reports. "tomorrow i will think of a way to escape," she wrote, as she begged the friend not to call police. "he will suppress it," she wrote, referring to liu. "you underestimate his power." the reuters report comes as the hennepin county attorney's office weighs evidence turned over by minneapolis police before deciding whether to file felony charges against the 45 year old liu, the founder of chinese e commerce giant jd.com. chuck laszewski, spokesman for the county attorney's office, said monday there was no indication when a charging decision would be made. liu, in the twin cities to attend a business doctoral program run jointly by the university of minnesota's carlson school of management and china's tsinghua university, was booked into jail about 11:30 p.m. aug. 31 on suspicion of rape and released less than 17 hours later. he has since returned to china. police have said they are confident he will return to minnesota at their request. attorneys and a spokesman for liu, also known as liu qiangdong, have consistently maintained his innocence and added that he's been cooperating with investigators. reuters said it also reviewed another wechat exchange connected to the woman. her attorney verified to the news service that the messages came from her and said she also has fully cooperated with police. reuters said it does not know the woman's identity. minneapolis police said monday they were unaware of the report and referred questions to the county attorney's office. laszewski said his office knew that the reuters report was coming but declined to comment. the reuters dispatch went on to spell out how its reporting stitched together liu's evening from the dinner party at origami, in the heart of uptown, through the time when the woman said she was raped. reuters said its sources included restaurant surveillance video and staff accounts, the woman's wechat messages and other unspecified sources. liu hosted the dinner on aug. 30 for roughly two dozen people, including around 20 men, at origami uptown, where the wine, sake and beer was said to have flowed freely. later the woman told a second friend in one of the messages that she felt pressured to drink. "it was a trap," she wrote. "i was really drunk." the gathering broke up about 9:30 p.m., and liu and the woman headed to a house in minneapolis that had been rented out by one of liu's classmates in the u program. liu and the woman stayed in his hired car and liu "started to touch me in the car," one of her wechat messages read. "then i begged him not to ... but he did not listen." the two went to her apartment. reuters said it "could not determine what happened over the next two hours." a police report obtained by reuters and many other media outlets puts the time of the alleged rape about 1 a.m. the woman reached a fellow u student, who alerted police. officers went to her apartment, and liu was still there. one source told reuters that the woman declined to pursue having liu charged. "if it was just me, i could commit suicide immediately," she wrote in a wechat message. "but i'm afraid that my parents will suffer." that afternoon, she went to a hospital for a sex assault exam. police arrived at a university office about 9 p.m. that night. the student was present, alongside school representatives, and she accused liu of rape. liu arrived at the university office about 11 p.m., and an officer handcuffed him. paul walsh • 612 673 4482 paul walsh is a general assignment reporter at the minnesota star tribune. he wants your news tips, especially in and near minnesota. business business from small businesses to giants like target, retailers are benefitting from the $10 billion industry for south korean pop music, including its revival of physical album sales. business business civic leaders say such developments, often costly and complicated projects, are key to downtown’s future. stage & arts stage & arts more than 200 objects dating from the 1300s to the early 1900s are the gift of new york collector alice s. kandell. business business from small businesses to giants like target, retailers are benefitting from the $10 billion industry for south korean pop music, including its revival of physical album sales. © 2025 startribune.all rights reserved.

on november 24, 2009, michaele (/mɪˈkɛl/) and tareq salahi (/ˈtɑːrɛk sɑːˈlɑːhi/), a married couple from virginia, and carlos allen (from the district of columbia), attended a white house state dinner for indian prime minister manmohan singh, as uninvited guests. the salahis and allen arrived separately and did not appear to have colluded in their efforts. they were able to pass through two security checkpoints (including one requiring positive photo identification), enter the white house complex, and meet president barack obama. the incident resulted in security investigations and legal inquiries. at the time of the incident, michaele salahi was being filmed for bravo's the real housewives of d.c.[1][2][3][4][5] camera crews for the show filmed the salahis' preparation for the dinner, including michaele's hair being done at a salon and her dress being properly styled, before going to the white house in a limousine with her husband tareq. cameras captured the couple being questioned at the gate by a person with a clipboard, who instructed them to proceed to the next gate when she could not verify them on her list.[6][7][8] sky news reported: "the salahis hope to build a public profile in the us after appearing in the filming for the reality tv show the real housewives of washington, d.c., though their contribution was never aired."[9][10] the series began airing on bravo in august 2010 and was later canceled due to the incident.[11] five years later, bravo announced that the housewives were coming back to the washington area, with the real housewives of potomac airing in january 2016. tim burke, director of the gatecrashing reality show mtv blaggers!, said that tareq salahi contacted him about a week before the white house incident for advice on tricking one's way into a black tie event.[12] michaele salahi spent seven hours in the erwin gomez salon in georgetown to prepare for the state dinner, accompanied by a film crew from the real housewives. in contrast to the more sedate black or navy blue evening gowns worn by most female guests, salahi wore a gold embroidered red ensemble, which the press widely referred to as a sari (more precisely, a lehenga style sari and choli).[13] michaele was recorded on film saying that she had conferred with white house social secretary desirée rogers as to whether wearing this attire would be appropriate, and that "they thought the sari was a great idea."[14][15] aparajita mukherjee of the times of india later implied that salahi probably bought the ensemble in the janpath market of new delhi during a july 2009 visit to invite the indian polo team to participate in the 2010 america's polo cup.[16] michaele salahi also wore expensive david yurman jewelry to the event; reportedly, a washington area store lent her the bracelets and rings, in total worth $30,000, and needed three attempts to retrieve them.[17][18] in february 2010, salahi told an australian television interviewer that her attire would be auctioned to raise funds for haitian earthquake relief.[19] it was sold at auction on october 2, 2010, for us$7,000 (equivalent to $9,781 in 2023).[20] the salahis entered the state dinner in honor of india's prime minister manmohan singh without an invitation, although their film crew was unable to follow them.[21][22][23][24] they passed through two security checkpoints, one of which checked them for photo identification.[25] robin givhan of the washington post surmised that the salahis were allowed to enter because they "looked the part" and, in her words, stepped through a "cultural blind spot."[26] the washington post also quoted an anonymous official as having said that "the salahis were allowed inside in violation of agency policies by an officer outside the front gate who apparently was persuaded by the couple's manner and insistence as well as the pressure of keeping lines moving on a rainy evening."[27] the white house social secretary, desirée rogers, later told media that a member of her staff was at the main entrance to handle arriving guests not on the guest list, but that the secret service did not alert her staff to either the salahis or carlos allen.[28] the new york times subsequently reported that rogers had posted an employee of her office only at the east portico checkpoint, but not at the first, outer checkpoint, a departure from past practice.[29] the washington post's roxanne roberts recognized the salahis and subsequently wrote, the minute i realized they were not on the list, i asked a white house staffer to verify their names and explain why they were not on the list. i told the same thing to another staffer a few minutes later. this was before the salahis went through the receiving with the president, and they could have been pulled aside and quietly questioned.[30] roberts's suspicions were apparently not acted upon; according to media reports, "the first the white house security detail knew of their blunder in allowing the salahis into tuesday's event was when the couple posted photographs from the dinner on their facebook page."[31] the white house on november 27 released its own photographs of the couple posing with president obama, vice president joe biden, and chief of staff rahm emanuel.[32] invited guest brian williams, anchor of the nbc nightly news who was there, observed the salahis' sport utility vehicle being turned down from the east gate entrance of the white house that evening, after which the salahis and crew left their vehicle and walked toward the white house.[25] after returning from the white house, the salahis posted their photographs from the dinner on michaele's facebook page.[33] on december 1, 2009, the washington post reported that the secret service found e mail exchanges between the salahis and michele s. jones, special assistant to the secretary of defense and the pentagon based liaison to the white house; jones specifically told the salahis not to come because she had no authority to grant admittance.[34] that morning, the salahis appeared on the today show on nbc, interviewed by matt lauer.[35] when lauer asked the couple whether they were invited to the dinner, michaele stated, "we were invited, not crashers and there isn't anyone that would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that." michaele also claimed victimization: "everything we worked for, matt for me 44 years just destroyed." the salahis also asserted that they had received no payment in return for granting the interview.[35][36] the salahis were requested by the u.s. house of representatives homeland security committee to appear at a hearing on december 3, 2009, but they refused to attend.[37] following this, representative bennie thompson, democrat of mississippi and chairman of the committee, defeated republican efforts to subpoena white house social secretary desirée rogers and to hold the secret service officially responsible for the salahis' unauthorized entry.[38] he also began a formal process to subpoena the salahis. on december 9, 2009, the committee on homeland security voted 26 to 3 to subpoena tareq salahi, and 27 to 2 to subpoena michaele, for a hearing on the gatecrash that was scheduled for january 20, 2010. the salahis' attorney advised that the salahis would invoke the fifth amendment to the united states constitution,[39][40] and they did so at the hearing, declining to answer questions 32 times.[41][42][43] despite this invocation of the fifth amendment, tareq salahi had informed the las vegas sun that he and his wife "want the story of the white house cover up about their invitation to be told."[44] tareq also told the loudoun times mirror prior to the hearings, "it will truly be a historic moment ... not since the 1950s has congress held hearings of such a historic nature."[45] however, the salahis' attorney, stephen best, described the congressional inquest as "not a hearing looking for information. this was an opportunity for a public flogging."[46] white house principal deputy counsel daniel j. meltzer stated in a letter on december 23, 2009, to the house of representatives committee on homeland security, we have found no evidence the salahis were included on any white house access list or guest list. the salahis were not on the lists for the state dinner, the arrival ceremony, or any other event scheduled for november 24. indeed there is no record of the salahis in the white house visitor access system since the beginning of the obama administration. moreover, we have found no evidence that the salahis called the white house and asked about the proper dress code for the state dinner.[14] on january 8, 2010, media reported that a federal grand jury had been convened to investigate the apparent security breach by the salahis. erwin gomez and peggy ioakim of the erwin gomez salon and spa were subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury.[47][48][49][50] politico reported that the subpoena does not mention the salahis, but "says that the grand jury is investigating a possible violation of 18 usc 1001, a federal statute that covers lying to a government official."[51] in addition, white house usher rear admiral stephen rochon testified voluntarily to the grand jury, the first white house official to do so.[52] in an interview by robin roberts on abc's good morning america television program broadcast january 10, 2010,[53] carlos allen's attorney called allen a "cooperating witness" and stated that allen is not a subject of the grand jury investigation.[54][55][56] indian security officials expressed shock at the apparent breach of security. an anonymous indian official told the economic times, part of the times of india media group, we are glad that it happened in the us. if such a security breach had happened out here in hyderabad house, or even vigyan bhavan, we would have never heard the end of it and heads would have rolled. how such a breach in the most important official residence in the world happened is something all of us are very keen to know.[57] secret service director mark sullivan issued a statement on november 27 saying that the secret service was "deeply concerned and embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding the state dinner". sullivan's statement also pointed out that "the preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list."[32] newsweek magazine further reported, "the white house staff member whose job was to supervise the guest list for state dinners and clear invitees into the events says she was stripped of most of her responsibilities earlier this year, prompting her to resign last june."[58] representative peter t. king, republican of new york, wrote a letter to the house committee on homeland security requesting an investigation into this incident.[32] the secret service also considered criminal charges against the salahis.[59] secret service director sullivan put three identified employees on administrative leave. sullivan testified at the december 3 hearing that the white house and secret service collaboratively planned security protocols for the state dinner.[60] in a televised interview on the cbs program 60 minutes that aired december 13, 2009, president obama termed the gatecrash a "screw up", expressed anger that it had taken place, and vowed that such incidents would not occur again.[61] the incident also resulted in criticism of the white house for an alleged lack of transparency due to the administration's unwillingness to allow the white house social secretary to testify before congress.[62][63][64] security was tightened both at the white house and at outside events involving the president, with one commentator referring to the new white house security regime as "so tight it operated like a beast on steroids."[65] congressman louie gohmert (r texas) complained in march 2010 about members of congress having to walk a block in the rain to enter the white house: the member of congress, like today in the rain, has to go down a block and then go through security there with double the number of guards and then come up and go through security again and go through guards again ... not because secret service messed up or the armed guards that are now doubled in number, but because somebody in the white house staff screwed up ... now they’re deciding to punish members of congress and law abiding citizens that normally just get in.[66] at the state of the union address in the capitol january 27, 2010, security was reportedly more stringent than before, with multiple checks of identification. an anonymous u.s. senate official was quoted in the new york times as saying, nobody, the secret service, the capitol police, wants another one of those ... they don’t want some chucklehead out on the house floor with a camera, then putting it on youtube that he snuck in.[67] security was also tightened for the may 19, 2010, state dinner in honor of mexican president felipe calderón, to the extent that the wife of the assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs was turned away for lack of proper identification.[68] the widely publicized incident created a huge wave of interest in the personal lives and business dealings of tareq and michaele salahi. within days, their family winery was deluged with angry phone calls condemning their actions.[69] within a week of the incident, tareq salahi resigned from the virginia tourism board at the request of governor tim kaine, an obama ally, and other state officials.[70][71][72][73] multiple sponsors withdrew support from the salahis' "america's polo cup" event, although those withdrawals were not always acknowledged in the event's publicity materials.[74][75][76] by the end of december 2009, the washington post alone had assigned more than a dozen reporters to investigate them.[77] by the end of june 2010, according to the washington post's ombudsman, the paper had extended its coverage of the couple to a new total of 110 articles by more than thirty reporters and contributors, ascribing its readers' interest to "the unique audaciousness and astonishing self absorption of the salahis."[78] tareq salahi remarked in an interview that the white house should apologize for ruining his reputation and for the way he has been treated by the public and members of the media.[79] a usa today/gallup poll conducted december 11 13, 2009, of 1,025 adults in the united states, revealed that 70% of respondents considered the salahis "losers" politically as a result of their white house breach, versus 16% who considered them "winners". of the 13 choices offered in the poll, the salahis yielded the lowest score.[80] at a january 20, 2010, congressional hearing on the gatecrash, the salahis were subjected to what the washington post called a "blistering bipartisan tongue lashing."[41] ellis henican, a columnist for newsday, called the salahis "low class, high gloss wannabes", and said the matter amounted to "a new low" for reality television and the depths people will resort to for fame.[81] the new york daily news criticized bravo for "settling for [the] bottom of [the] social ladder" in its casting policy for the real housewives program.[82] the new york times characterized the gatecrash as a gross breach of social protocol in the nation's capital, thus: ... when ms. salahi strutted onto the south lawn in that bright red lehenga, she and her husband breached far more than a secure perimeter. they also trampled countless protocols that are the social, business and networking bedrock of official washington. essentially, the couple used the mixed martial arts approach to upward mobility in a town that still cherishes the marquess of queensberry rules.[83] however, maureen dowd, a new york times columnist, used the incident to cast aspersions on washington society, writing, ... even the outrage over the fakers is fake. the capital has turned up its nose at the tacky trompe l'œil virginia horse country socialites: a faux redskins cheerleader and a faux successful businessman auditioning for a “reality” show by feigning a white house invitation ... yet washington has always been a town full of poseurs, arrivistes, fame seekers, cheaters and camera hogs.[84] an episode of law & order, titled "crashers", was partially inspired by the incident. the salahi surname became a synonym of "gate crashing".[85][86] the phrase "salahi route" has additionally been used to refer to refusal to pay for services rendered or goods delivered, as in some go the salahi route, stiffing working folks on their bills (tradesmen, lawyers, beauty salon operators, purveyors of services), crashing parties.[87] in the opening segment of the december 5, 2009, episode of saturday night live, tareq was portrayed by bobby moynihan and michaele by kristen wiig as interlopers who got on stage at a barack obama speech in allentown, pennsylvania, and posed for various pictures behind the president with secret service special agents and vice president joe biden. at one point in the skit they ask the president to stop his speech and snap a group shot of all of them.[88][89] the monologue segment of the late show with david letterman parodied the salahis.[90][91] nbc's washington, d.c., affiliate posted on its website parody photographs of well known american events into which images of the salahis had been edited.[92] tv squad listed this incident as one of the top four "reality scandals" of 2009.[93] the huffington post ranked the incident fourth on its list of "rubbernecking's top ten pop culture moments of 2009".[94] addicting games, a subsidiary of mtv networks, created an online computer game, white house party crashers, in which the gamer is challenged, "use your most devious skills to get past white house security."[95] political satirist dave barry included the following mention of the incident in his summary of major "lowlights" of 2009: ... a washington couple, tareq and michaele salahi, penetrate heavy security and enter the white house, a feat that joe biden has yet to manage. as details of the incident emerge, an embarrassed secret service is forced to admit that not only did the couple crash a state dinner, but they also met and shook hands with the president, and they "may have served briefly in the cabinet."[96] the washington post's "reliable source" gossip column chose tareq and michaele salahi as its persons of the year for 2009, saying, ... the salahis took what could have been an enjoyably seedy little horse country melodrama and catapulted it into the gossip stratosphere with one fateful night at the white house that exposed the dark secrets of our decade's major growth industries: national security and reality television.[97]

atlantic county library system 40 farragut ave., mays landing, nj 08330 phone: (609) 625 2776 | fax: (609) 625 8143 comments or questions? contact us atlantic county executive dennis levinson board of county commissioners, richard r. dase, chairman

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alderson, w.va.   on a recent morning in a dining room at the federal prison camp here, martha stewart listened, banana in hand, as two inmates told her of the assets they had to forfeit before serving lengthy sentences. a frustrated stewart pounded her banana on the table, an inmate recalls. susan c. spry, serving a 12 year, seven month sentence for possession of methamphetamine, says she blurted: "martha, you?re bruising your banana!" she says stewart responded: "i just hate these sentencing guidelines." stewart built a lucrative empire upon her ability to cater to millions of women seeking domestic perfection. for the past five months, she has tapped into an entirely different group of women, becoming the adviser and confidante to her fellow prisoners at alderson. stewart, who will be released to home confinement as soon as friday, has given inmates guidance on sentencing, led yoga sessions and offered pointers to a prison weaving class. last month, stewart kicked off an eight week seminar, organized by inmates, entitled "empowerment for women." her lecture topic for the overflow crowd: "what's hot and what's not" in starting a business. "she's been trying hard to keep up morale" for women who have little to look forward to, spry says. in letters written to this reporter from prison, stewart, 63, discussed the plights of her fellow inmates, many of whom, she says, are "perfectly nice ?neighbors next door.?" among those she came to know: a nun convicted of sabotaging a colorado missile site, north carolina's ex agriculture commissioner who admitted accepting bribes, and a psychologist serving time for medicaid fraud. stewart, who was convicted of lying to prosecutors about a stock sale, initially didn't hit it off with everyone. spry says she had a spat with stewart early on. both were assigned to create floral arrangements for a memorial service for a corrections officer who died soon after stewart's oct. 6 arrival. "right away, she got really bossy," recalls spry, 54, "saying, ?go get this and go get that.?" spry says she did as told and stewart fashioned a "beautiful" topiary, trimmed with pampas grass. but she decided to avoid stewart. days later, stewart asked spry what was wrong   and then apologized, spry says, leading to their friendship. there have been lingering tensions.