text:
"Passing Love"
Jacqueline E. Luckett worked in sales for Xerox for twenty years. During that time she married, raised a family, and took creative writing classes where she reignited her love of writing.
In 2004, she formed the Finish Party (featured in O Magazine, October 2007) along with seven other women writers-of-color. She calls these outstanding women her mentors and advisors, her friends and the toughest (and most loving) readers around.
Luckett applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Passing Love, and reported the following:
In Passing Love two women believe that going to Paris will change their lives. The story moves back and forth between the present day and the jazz-fueled Paris of the 1950s.
A quick scan of page 69 doesn't give the reader a sense of Passing Love's story nor does it suggest the other important character from the past, Ruby. The scene introduces Nicole's sadness over her father's illness. Her father's conversation with his neurologist is one key to her frustration; it's only part of the story.
"What's the day and the year, Mr. Handy?"
Squire screwed up his face and peered straight at the neurologist.
"Let's see. The Giants won the pennant in 2002. Beat Atlanta in the playoffs, then they beat the Cardinals."
Nicole pushed her hands against her chair's thin armrests until they creaked—March 2008—and silently commanded her father: read my mind, Daddy.
Near the end of the page, Nicole tries to explain a photo she found in a small antique store in Paris. Her father's inability to respond to her questions is as disturbing as his inability to answer the doctor's questions.
"…I found a picture of you in a book…and you wrote on the back of it…remember?"
From the other side of the street a blue-eyed cat scurried toward Nicole. The cat meowed and settled near her feet.
"I hear a cat," Squire announced. "Never lock eyes with a blue-eyed cat."
Her father's inability to answer her question is part of a secret. Whether the cat is prophetic, or not, requires turning the page. It's the photo that presents itself as a mystery that I'm hoping will engage the reader and cause her/him to buy the novel.
Learn more about the book and author at Jacqueline E. Luckett's website and blog.
"Anatomy of Murder"
Imogen Robertson is a writer based in London. Her first book Instruments of Darkness was published in the U.K. in May 2009.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her second novel, Anatomy of Murder, now available in the US, and reported the following:
"...confess it likely that if Mr Palmer had not called, had the note arrived from Mr Pither without introduction, I should probably have found myself in that outhouse and driving with you to His Majesty's this morning in any case."
"I see, Madam. You feel you are become the monstrous and unfeminine ghoul some have already made you out to be, and you feel Miss Trench does not approve?"
"My sister made it perfectly plain to the whole house that she does not approve, yet I feel neither monstrous nor less a woman than I was two years ago." She turned towards him and folded her arms. "I will do what seems right to me, but I have to allow that Rachel has a better sense of the social niceties than I do, just as her sense of music is superior to mine. I make myself appear foolish at times, and that reflects on my family."
"Miss Trench wishes you to have something other to think of than your husband's illness, madam."
Harriet smiled a little unhappily. "Yes, Crowther, but I think she would rather I was diverted by her plans for redecorating the salon at Caveley than by whatever corpses we find strewn in our way."
"She must accept the sister she has, Mrs Westerman. I can only hope she does not raise your temper by suggesting you should behave in any other fashion. I have noticed you are at your most sharp when you suspect you are in the wrong."
In a book of over 300 pages, you are probably never going to find one that does a perfect job of representing the whole. Anatomy of Murder is set in London in 1781 and ranges from the glories of the Opera House to the seething misery in the slums; from naval espionage to celebrity worship, and its major characters include a castrato and a fortune teller, but here we have a short, quite bare scene. It does however feature the two principals of the series, Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther, and shows something of their developing friendship. Harriet and Crowther have been asked by an intelligence officer at the Admiralty, Mr Palmer, to investigate the drowning of Nathaniel Fitzraven, an employee of the Opera House, and a man suspected of espionage. The outhouse Harriet mentions is where they examined his body. They have also been asked to conceal the government's interest. Unfortunately this means Harriet's sister believes she is making enquiries out of an unhealthy curiosity, careless of the family's reputation. Harriet's admission here, that she might have got involved in the case even without Mr Palmer's intervention is typical of her honesty. She can be impulsive and stubborn, but she tries to be clear-eyed about herself. I think it because of this she has a talent to see into the motivations of others. Crowther, the reclusive anatomist protected from social niceties by his wealth, can be a great deal colder and sharper than he is here but he is becoming fond of Harriet and her family. I think one can also see here that she has learnt to value his habit of plain speaking.
Learn more about the book and author at Imogen Robertson's website and blog.
The Page 69 Test: Instruments of Darkness.
Writers Read: Imogen Robertson.
My Book, The Movie: Instruments of Darkness.
"The Baker's Daughter"
Sarah McCoy is the author of the novels The Baker's Daughter (Crown) and The Time It Snowed In Puerto Rico (Random House). The Baker's Daughter released on January 24, 2012 and was praised as a "beautiful heart-breaking gem of a novel" by Tatiana de Rosnay and a "thoughtful reading experience indeed" by Chris Bohjalian. The Baker's Daughter is a Doubleday/Literary Guild Book Club selection. McCoy has taught writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso. The daughter of an army officer, her family was stationed in Germany during her childhood. She currently lives with her husband and dog, Gilbert, in El Paso, Texas, where she is working on her next novel.
McCoy applied the Page 69 Test to The Baker's Daughter and reported the following:
The Baker's Daughter is the story of Elsie Schmidt, a German baker, and Reba Adams, a young American reporter. Two women separated by generations, cultures, and wars. Their lives overlap when Reba interviews Elsie for the local El Paso magazine. Both women harbor deep, turbulent secrets. For Elsie, Reba's inquiries are a stinging reminder of darker times: her life in Germany during that last bleak year of WWII. In turn, Elsie questions Reba's inability to commit to her fiancé, Rikki Chavez, a U.S. Border Patrol officer who is battling his own doubts about his occupation's purpose. Page 69 is the last page of Chapter Eleven. Riki has just taken into custody a young Mexican mother and her two children—illegal immigrants hiding in a car. Nearby, on the bank of the Rio Grande border, is a trailer home where a young boy, about the same age as one of his captors, rides his tricycle. It's a stark scene that captures one of the predominant themes of the novel: the internal struggle between what we're told is right and what we know in our hearts to be...
The Mexican woman instructed her children to gather their things. The older boy shoved a worn shirt and a pair of jeans into a duffel bag. The girl climbed between the driver and passenger seats and over her mother's lap. She sat by the front tire, clasping her doll to her chest and sucking her thumb. Beautiful black eyes watched Riki, never blinking. He wondered if this is what his daughter would look like, only with Reba's strong nose and fair skin.
The boy on his tricycle turned to them. "Bye!" he called and waved. "Bye-bye!"
His mother stuck her head out of her open trailer doorway. "¡Vete aquí! Lunch."
Smiling wide, the boy threw his tricycle to the side and obeyed. The woman glowered at Riki before closing the door. All the while, the little girl at his feet hugged her knees and continued to stare up at him. The outline of his CBP baseball cap reflected in her dark gaze.
Learn more about the book and author at Sarah McCoy's website and blog.
The Page 69 Test: Sarah McCoy's The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico.
"Contents May Have Shifted"
Pam Houston divides her time between her ranch in Colorado and the University of California at Davis, where she is director of the Creative Writing Program. She has been a frequent contributor to O, The Oprah Magazine, and her writing appears regularly in More and other publications. She in the author of the best-selling Cowboys Are My Weakness.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, Contents May Have Shifted, and reported the following:
The first full sentence on page 69 is this:
"Any one of those bears could have eaten two of us in the time it took the third one to dig the gun out."
The "out" here refers to out of the boat box, in a sixteen foot inflatable, on the Tatshenshini River in Alaska, where the gun is buried under ten pounds of rice, seven zip locks of instant mashed potatoes, six types of tea, five rolls of toilet paper and any number of wilderness first aid supplies.
I like this sentence for the rough and tumble nature of it. The way it proves that even though I am addressing some fairly heady questions in this book, like what it is to look for faith in a faithless age, and what is the definition of a satisfying life, and what it means to have lived on the planet half a century, and even though this book travels to places as unlike the North American wilderness as Luang Prabang, Laos, and Istanbul, Turkey, I am still really at heart a girl who wants to write about guns, rivers, Alaska and grizzly bears.
Learn more about the book and author at Pam Houston's website.
Read--Coffee with a Canine: Pam Houston and Fenton Johnson.
"Until the Next Time"
Kevin Fox is a producer and writer for the Fox TV series Lie to Me, and his professional screenwriter credits include the film The Negotiator. He splits his time between coasts, living in both Los Angeles and New Jersey.
He applied the Page 69 Test to Until the Next Time, his debut novel, and reported the following:
When I opened Until the Next Time to page 69, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was the beginning of the chapter in which Sean, the naïve protagonist, arrives in Ireland. Sean has traveled abroad in order to try and solve the mystery surrounding his uncle's death twenty-six years before and to clear his uncle's name for the murder he had allegedly committed back in the States. It is the beginning of a scene that introduces one of my favorite characters, the foul-mouthed romantic, Anne, who will be Sean's guide in Ireland, and in life, for the rest of the novel. As a representative page it is probably not as humorous nor as dramatic as other pages, but it does set up a key relationship in the book.
I felt like I was at a bus station somewhere in Ohio, surrounded by overweight Americans and the industrial-strength smell that is common to all transit hubs, whether it's an international airport or a bus terminal in Cleveland. But I wasn't in Ohio, even if it could have passed for it. I was waiting for my luggage in Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland and was severely disappointed. As I watched the people around me, complaining about the airline food, the usual travel delays, and the rude passengers they'd traveled with, I started to wonder if there were actually any native Irish in the place.
As I grabbed my luggage, I finally noticed a few natives, easy to spot. They didn't push, just waited patiently and watched for whatever relative's luggage they needed, sliding back out with a deft "Excuse me" and "Thank you" once they'd retrieved it. I took my cue from them and waited patiently. My flight had gotten in a little early and I'd cleared customs two minutes before I was originally due to land.
I had no idea who I was meeting or what they might look like. My father's only comment was that it would be "one of yer uncle Patsy's kids. How the feck should I know what they look like? Like a cousin of yours, I'd bet." He was always so helpful. As I waited, I overheard a bit of conversation that I couldn't ignore.
"Jaysus, 'ave ya ever seen such a brilliant mass a amadans in one bloody place?" It was a woman's voice, sweet, almost lilting. If I didn't understand her words, I would've thought she were reciting poetry.
"Yeah. Yer da's place at holiday time." That voice was male and typical Irish. He mumbled. I turned to look and spotted a young woman no more than twenty years old, with a face that definitely did not match her words. She had fine, almost elfin features with a smattering of freckles and reddish-blond hair. You might have called her delicate until you saw her eyes, which had the sharp look of a fifty-year-old con artist—the kind you see at the baccarat tables in Atlantic City. She was sipping a Guinness, even though it was only a little after noon local time, and as she turned I noticed a streak of blue in her hair. She seemed to be trying hard to overcome her natural beauty.
The man with her was the opposite: clean shaven, sharply dressed, and handsomely dark. He looked like he'd stepped out of a GQ ad. I never would have looked at either of them twice if I hadn't heard what the foul-mouthed little elf said next.
"I don't know why the feckin' eejit picked me to meet this Yank gobshite of a cousin, do you?"
Sean's introduction to Anne belies the fact that she is actually one of the more sensitive characters in the novel, hiding her vulnerability beneath a crass exterior. In spite of her original resentment toward Sean, she will protect him as he inadvertently prods ex-IRA terrorists with his questions that threaten to expose their past with his uncle, during the 'Troubles' in 1972. Anne also functions as a welcoming committee Sean can comprehend and feel familiar with, given his family background, and although he's never been to Ireland before, he feels as I did the first time I arrived in Shannon – as if it was a sort of homecoming.
Learn more about the book and author at Kevin Fox's website.
"Friends Like Us"
Lauren Fox is the author of Still Life with Husband. She earned her MFA from the University of Minnesota in 1998, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Seventeen, Glamour, and Salon.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Friends Like Us, and reported the following:
Page 69 of Friends Like Us turns out to be a surprisingly good representation of many of the themes and stories weaving through the novel. Willa, the 26-year-old protagonist, and her best friend Jane are having dinner with Jane's parents, in the house where she grew up. Willa can't help but notice, with a bit of longing, how nice and normal Jane's parents are, especially compared to her own fractured, fractious family. She's struck by the ways a happy, functioning family builds a person up, as opposed to creating the layers of awkwardness, neediness, and insecurity that she feels are the legacy of her upbringing. If, in the novel, Jane is something of a mirror for Willa – they are so alike in many ways, but the choices they make, ultimately, are completely opposed – it's here, in this scene, that we see the roots of both their similarities and their differences:
Mrs. Weston upends a slab of casserole onto her plate and looks at me carefully. "You and Janey really do resemble each other," she says. "Even I can see it."
My thoughts careen past each other like eleven-year-old boys on ice skates, skidding, flailing. Family outings that turned into screaming matches between my parents. Days when they would only talk to each other through Seth and me. The time Fran sat down at the table in front of the lasagna she'd made, clearly pleased with herself, and Stan looked at the dinner, rolled his eyes at me and Seth, then turned to my mother with a grin on his face and said, "Oh, my favorite! Cold, congealed, salty lasagna! How did you know?" He was an expert at taking her down, a master of the surprise attack.
I look down and notice suddenly that I've been picking the cornflakes off the surface of my tuna casserole. Quickly, I shuffle them back to their home. "We could eat the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow!" For one fleeting, hopeful breath I believe that maybe I've just thought this and not said it out loud. But then Mrs. Weston, Mr. Weston, and Jane all stop eating at the same time and look at me. The refrigerator motor hums. Mrs. Weston's geese lift off from the plates, flutter their wings, and circle around my head. So long, everyone! Thanks for the Jell-O!
After a few seconds, Jane laughs, a snort of sisterly derision, reaches across the table and pats my hand. "Sure we could, sweetie."
Learn more about the book and author at Lauren Fox's website.
"Pure"
Critically acclaimed, bestselling author Julianna Baggott also writes under the pen names Bridget Asher and N.E. Bode. She has published seventeen books over the last ten years.
After receiving her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Baggott published her first novel, Girl Talk, which was a national bestseller and was quickly followed by Boston Globe bestseller The Miss America Family, and then Boston Herald Book Club selection, The Madam, an historical novel based on the life of her grandmother. She co-wrote Which Brings Me to You with Steve Almond, a Kirkus Best Book of 2006.
Baggott applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Pure, and reported the following:
If you read this page only, you won't really get a feel for the beaten ash-choked world of the book. Yes, there will be a cicada fluttering metal wings. You'll know there's a threat. "When survivors approach sixteen, alliances break down. Everyone knows that they have to fend for themselves." You'll know that Gorse and Fandra are two kids who've disappeared. Otherwise it's Pressia's sixteenth birthday and her grandfather shows her a gift that's shown up from someone named Bradwell -- someone her father stitched up. He has two scars running up one cheek. The gift makes Pressia furious.
All in all, there are worse places to enter the book. The world building looms and the reader will get to it soon enough from there.
Learn more about the book and author at Julianna Baggott's website and blog.
"The Order of the Scales"
Stephen Deas is the author of the acclaimed short story "The Snow Fox."
He applied the Page 69 Test to The Order of the Scales (The Memory of Flames, Book III), and reported the following:
It wasn't a big room. A few crude beds, a simple table, pots to piss in, that sort of thing. Food on the table. Leftover biscuits and dried meat. Alchemical lamps, several of them. And more tunnels leading out of the back of the room. Too many to be looking into. Six men alive and two dead. You said there were eight. Are you sure?
I cannot be certain, Kemir.
'Are there any more of you lurking back there?' he snapped and watched their faces carefully. There was no guile in these men; perhaps they were too shocked by the casual way he'd executed two of them. They didn't start to glance at the tunnels, just stared at him in slack-jawed horror.
'Well? Do I have to shoot a few more of you so the rest can find their tongues?' He took a step towards them and they cringed. They could rush me if they wanted. I could only shoot one of them and the rest would be on top of me. With strength of numbers they would win, and yet they won't. They'll cower, too afraid, and then I'll herd them outside and they'll be slaughtered like cattle. All because every one of them would rather live for another few minutes more than win.
Your kind are indeed curious, observed Snow. What you are doing would not work on dragons.
Kemir gritted his teeth. He muttered under his breath, 'And how would you know that, Snow? Dragons find themselves on the wrong end of these situations often, do they?'
We are very old, Kemir. We remember much that your kind have forgotten. Powers far greater than us. Powers that made us. Snow went silent and there it was, the catch in her thoughts. The something that passed for a pause for breath, a mouth that opened to speak, and then closed and chose to to be silent instead. One of those silver men moments. Even as he thought that, he sensed Snow bristle.
The alchemists, Kemir.
Yes. The alchemists. He'd given them far too much time to think about rushing him. They were exchanging glances and starting to fidget. Two bad signs. He switched his aim to the one who, in the dim glow of their lamps, looked the oldest. In Kemir's experience, the older men got, the keener they became on living.
At the start of the Memory of Flames series, dragons are enslaved to men through the use of alchemy, so it's pleasantly ironic that here we have a man, Kemir, serving a dragon the Snow. Desperate men, dragons issuing orders, the old order being torn down without thought of what it stood for and no mercy for any in sight; and yet, as we see here in Snow's words, We remember much that your kind have forgotten, there are deeper and darker currents running beneath the chaos. If you're familiar with the likes of Prince Jehal and Queen Zafir, perhaps it's no surprise that the dragons are more aware of their histories than men, very much to the cost of the so-called 'little ones.'
There may be far grander schemes at play in the Order of the Scales; battles that darken the skies with dragons and set the horizons alight in rivers of fire, but the changing relationship between Kemir and Snow plays out everything on a more intimate scale; while the fears and the paralysis of the old order (seen here as the alchemists) are all that either ruthless men or ruthless dragons will need to see out their ends.
The Order of the Scales, Deas reports, is "graced by yet another a piece of gorgeous dragon-art from the mighty Stephen Youll."
Read an essay by Stephen Deas on the "Memory of Flames" trilogy.
Visit the official Stephen Deas website.
The Page 69 Test: The Adamantine Palace.
The Page 69 Test: The King of the Crags.
"Drifting House"
Krys Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, raised in California and Washington, and studied in the United States and England. She was a finalist for Best New American Voices, received a special mention in the 2012 Pushcart Prize XXXVI, and her work has appeared in the Kenyon Review, Narrative magazine, Granta (New Voices), California Quarterly, Asia Weekly, the Guardian, the New Statesman, and Conde Nast Traveller, UK (forthcoming). Lee lives in Seoul with intervals in San Francisco.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her new book, Drifting House, and reported the following:
Page 69 comes from an intensely personal story for me. "The Pastor's Son" is one of the few stories that touch on autobiography, as the rest of Drifting House is only informed thematically by my obsessions and my life. I grew up with a troubled pastor as a father. His contradictions, and eventually, his death, haunt my life and my writing. Though I am not a teenage boy, and the manner in which my father died differed from what happens on the page here, the spirit of my father, and our family, is very similar to what it was like growing up a Korean American in difficult family circumstances. It was as dramatic and tumultuous as what happens on this page, and is probably as autobiographical a story as I'll ever write.
Also, there's a lot less humor and fantasy in this story than in the rest of Drifting House. I think of my stories as like life: light and dark, beauty and terror, humor and horror. That's why the Kansas Star's recent review of my collection, which noted that Drifting House recalls "Alice Munro's Too Much Happiness, holding beauty and brutality in an elegant equipoise" was gratifying. It's nice to know a reviewer has read a book carefully and got to the heart of Drifting House.
Page 69 of "The Pastor's Son"--
"This rage…" His voice slowed. "I can't slow myself—"
"Enough, Abeoji."
I walked away. When I held my hand out in front of me, they wee shaking. They were strangers to me, these large knuckles and thick fingers I would grow into. I turned.
"Adeul-ah…"
I said nothing.
My father took off his shoes and laid them neatly on the cement as if he had just come home. He sat, legs folded over each other, then got up again, as if he wasn't sure where he wanted to be. He walked over. His hands held my face, and he stared deep into my eyes. He kissed my cheeks.
"Adeul-ah, pray for me." His voice dropped. "No matter what, tell them I drowned."
And just as I moved toward him, my father turned his back on me and on God, and stepped casually off the riverside path and into the river.
I have not looked at photos of my father for years. His bloated river face and emptied-out eyes have faded for me, though I still hear his cadences, those broken incantations that rang through my childhood. Soon after my father's passing, I stopped attending church. No matter how often New Mother reminded me that I was a pastor's son, I could never go back.
During my college years I dutifully visited New Mother; sometimes I just made phone calls. Every year I poured rice wine that my father liked so much over his grave and pulled the weeds around the tombstone; I ordered flowers for my mother's grave.
Learn more about the book and author at Krys Lee's website.
"The Detour"
Born in 1970 in Chicago, Andromeda Romano-Lax worked as a freelance journalist and travel writer before turning to fiction. Her first novel, The Spanish Bow, was translated into eleven languages and was chosen as a New York Times Editors' Choice, BookSense pick, and one of Library Journal's Best Books of the Year.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Detour, and reported the following:
The top of page 69 happens to be a precis for the entire novel. It includes a reference to the Führer, who has visited Italy just a few months before our main character, Ernst Vogler, travels to Rome to collect the classical statue called the Discus Thrower, which Hitler has purchased against the objections of many Italians. Photos of the May 1938 trip show Hitler looking dreamy, dazzled by Italy's antiquities. But Vogler can't afford to be dazzled.
As the narrator reflects,
World leaders, busy as they were, could afford to look ahead and behind—but not the rest of us, who were merely living day to day, trying not to slip up, trying not to embrace the wrong historical lessons or even the wrong teachings from our own recent personal histories. All too often a quick glance over the shoulder could turn into a risky detour.
The rest of the novel is about that unadvised glance—the remembering, facilitated by the meditative quality of travel, which allows Ernst to consider what got him into the position he is in, working for the Nazis in the realm of art acquisition. It allows him to consider his troubled past, including both ruined athletic dreams and a trauma involving his father.
But The Detour is not all about memory. It's also about moment-to-moment mishap. Enzo, an Italian policeman, starts the next twist in the misadventure on the bottom of the same page, when he starts pining aloud about a wedding feast that will be taking place that very night, off a winding Tuscan sideroad. Enzo wants to attend in order to spend some amorous time with the bride's sister, Farfalla. But of course that can't happen. They have a statue to deliver. They have a deadline. Things haven't gone so well already. With Enzo and his twin brother at the wheel, things will only get worse.
Learn more about the book and author at Andromeda Romano-Lax's website.
The Page 69 Test: The Spanish Bow.
"With Fate Conspire"
Marie Brennan is a former academic with a background in archaeology, anthropology, and folklore, which she now puts to rather cockeyed use in writing fantasy. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Brennan applied the Page 69 Test to With Fate Conspire, the latest novel in the Onyx Court series, and reported the following:
My page 69 quote spans the end of one scene, and the beginning of another:
"Please, Ada," Wrain entreated her. "I have seen the disaster that is Babbage's notes; I daresay you understand them better than he does himself. Or at least can explain them to others, which he patently cannot. We will not be able to do this without help."
It would have taken a harder soul than Ada Lovelace's to say no to that desperately hopeful expression. With a feeling of both doom and delight, she said, "Charles Babbage is too rude and too sane to ever help you in this matter. Poor though my own intellect may be, I will bend it to your cause."
Islington, London: March 14, 1884
Eliza had spent the days leading up to the meeting of the London Fairy Society imagining how things might go. The people might prove to be nothing more than a cluster of bored wives, reading collections of stories from the folk of rural England, clucking their tongues and sighing over the loss of a peasant society none of them had ever seen in person. They might be a group of scholars, documenting that loss and forming theories about what defect of education or brain made peasants believe such ridiculous things. They might be the kind of people Eliza had seen at Charing Cross last fall—working hand-in-glove with the faeries to sow chaos among decent folk.
The first scene is the end of a flashback to the years when Ada Lovelace was alive, and the second returns to the present, when one of the two protagonists is trying to find people who can help her against the faeries of London. Since the past is a crucial element in With Fate Conspire -- the pasts of the characters, and the Onyx Court, and the city itself -- I'd say this is moderately representative.
What it doesn't show is the struggles of the characters. Eliza is poor and Irish, which is a bad combination in Victorian London; the other protagonist, a faerie named Dead Rick, is under the thumb of a brutal crime boss. Neither of them has very much, and they're gambling what little they have in the hopes of regaining the precious things they lost, years ago: Eliza's childhood sweetheart, and Dead Rick's stolen memories. They need each other's help, but at this point in the story, they aren't yet working together -- there's a lot of difficulty still standing between them and that alliance.
I suspect a page from the middle of a scene would show those things much better -- page 79 is a nice one; I recommend that to the reader. But as far as samples go, this one does moderately well.
Learn more about the book and author at Marie Brennan's website and blog.
My Book, The Movie: The Onyx Court series.
"Outside the Lines"
Amy Hatvany's books include Best Kept Secret.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel Outside the Lines, and reported the following:
Outside the Lines tracks a woman's search for her homeless and mentally ill father, whom she's been estranged from for twenty years. At its core, the story is meant to illustrate the sometimes complicated web of family relationships - how far one might go in the name of love. I opted to write from two vantage points: David West, an artist struggling with a deteriorating mind, and Eden West, the daughter he adores, but ends up deserting when she is ten years old.
Page 69 falls in the middle of one of Eden's chapters. She is interacting with her half-brother, Bryce, her mother and her step-father, and the reader is introduced to this blended family's dynamics. We see the true affection Eden and Bryce have for each other and the more complex relationship both Eden and Bryce have with his father. Though they love her, none of her family members understand or support Eden's search for David, so there is the underlying tension of her decision to continue looking for him despite their not-always-so silent disapproval. But this page captures them at a lighter moment…
"Ah, I love you, Ed. You never piss me off." (Bryce speaking).
"That's a lie. And don't call me Ed." Bryce couldn't figure out how to say "Eden" when he was learning to talk so I became "Ed" by default. John made it worse by adding a "Mr." before the nickname. I was thirteen and in the midst of a great deal of adolescent angst. Bryce was two and made a habit of toddling around, pointing at me and saying "Mr. Ed! Mr. Ed!" to anyone who'd listen. I was already struggling with gaining a sibling after ten years of only-child-hood; this did not further endear him to me.
"Okay, Ed," Bryce teased.
I punched him again and the pain in my knuckles reminded me why I shouldn't have. "Ow!"
He cracked up just as John walked over and grabbed Bryce in a bear hug, lifting him off the ground. "My son, the body builder!"
"Pops, knock it off!" Bryce struggled and managed to drop back down to the floor.
Our mother hugged Bryce. "You looked fantastic up there, sweetie. Very good job."
Bryce scowled. I could tell he was not happy John had picked him up, and I didn't blame him. For a man in his early fifties, John could be as exuberant as a Great Dane puppy.
"What's with the tan-in-a-can?" I asked Bryce, trying to lighten his mood. "Did you lose a bet?"
"Ha ha," Bryce said. "Very funny. I haven't gotten the right formula yet. You have to do it in layers and all the other guys who compete say it's a bitch to get it perfect. You want to help me put it on next time?"
"Yeah, you."
"Tempting…" I pretended to ponder this, tapping my finger against the side of my mouth. "But no. Spray-tanning my naked brother just isn't on my Bucket List."
Learn more about the book and author at Amy Hatvany's website.
"Defending Jacob"
William Landay is the author of the novels Mission Flats and The Strangler. The first won the Dagger Award as best debut crime novel. The second was nominated for the Strand Magazine Critics Award as best crime novel of the year.
Landay applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel Defending Jacob, and reported the following:
This is a difficult question to answer without giving away an important plot point, so I'll have to be a little vague here. It is May 11, 1950, in Lowell, Massachusetts. A salesman named Rusty Barber has come to call on Birke's clothing store to show the new line of Mighty Mac winter parkas. After the sales call, Rusty stops for lunch at a hot dog place he liked called Elliot's. Then this:
As he left Elliot's, there was an accident. A car swiped the front of Rusty's Buick Special as he crept out of the parking lot. There was an argument. A shove. The other man produced a knife. When it was over, the other man lay on the street, and Rusty walked away as if nothing had happened. The man stood up with his hands pressed to his belly. Blood seeped through his fingers. He opened his shirt but held his hands over his stomach a moment, as if he had a bellyache. When the man finally pulled his hands away, a slick coiled snake of intestines drooped out of him. A vertical incision split his stomach from the pelvis to the bottom of the chestbone. With his own hands, the man lifted his intestines back into his own body, held them there, and walked inside to call the police.
Again, I can't say much more about that incident for fear of giving away too much. Defending Jacob is woven pretty tightly. It's hard to pull out one page without unraveling a lot more of the plot.
But I will say that this scene grows out of my experience as an assistant D.A. My first assignment was in Lowell, a great community where Elliot's and Birke's were real places. (Elliot's is still going strong and I highly recommend it. Order a hot dog "all around." You won't be sorry.) And the stabbing described in this scene is based on an incident that occurred while I was there — a man gashed across the belly, forced to hold his intestines inside by holding his hand over his belly, pressing it closed, while he was driven to the emergency room. As for the salesman, well, it was my own grandfather who sold Mighty Mac parkas to old stores like Birke's all over New England. As a writer you grab what you can from any source available, your own history or the lives of others, and you spin it into your story.
Learn more about the book and author at William Landay's website and blog.
The Page 69 Test: The Strangler.
"The Flight of Gemma Hardy"
Margot Livesey's first book, a collection of stories called Learning By Heart, was published by Penguin Canada in 1986. Since then she has published seven novels, including: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, and The House on Fortune Street.
Livesey applied the Page 69 Test to The Flight of Gemma Hardy, her latest novel, and reported the following:
On p. 69 of Jane Eyre, Jane, who has become a teacher at Lowood School, advertises for a situation as a governess which of course leads to her going to Thornfield Hall and meeting Mr. Rochester.
On p. 69 of my novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, in which I write back to Jane Eyre, my heroine Gemma has just arrived at Claypoole School, my Scottish equivalent of Lowood, and is arguing with the minister about the interpretation of the parable of the talents. The scene shows Gemma in some characteristic ways - she has large feelings, she is not afraid to stand up for what she believes and she cannot bear mendacity. It also, I hope, captures some of the atmosphere of a small private school like the one I attended at Gemma's age. My school was set in a large country house and the grounds were surrounded by a high wall. For the most part no-one came or went without permission.
But my novel is a journey and the school is only one of the several worlds that Gemma inhabits. She grows up, much more quickly than I did, and is forced to earn her own living which leads to adventures good and bad.
Learn more about the book and author at Margot Livesey's website and Facebook page.
"Danger in the Wind"
Jane Finnis's Aurelia Marcella novels tell of life and death in first-century Roman Britain, the turbulent province of Britannia, on the very edge of the Roman Empire. The series includes Get Out or Die, A Bitter Chill, and Buried Too Deep.
Finnis applied the Page 69 Test to Danger in the Wind, the fourth novel in the series, and reported the following:
Page 69 illustrates something important about this book. It doesn't contain any crime-solving, or even any crime - though we've already had several murders, achieved and attempted, and more violence will follow. But it's a prime example of the balancing act you perform when writing a novel that's part of a series.
You want to include familiar people from previous books; that's like renewing old friendships, for both writer and reader. Yet it's essential to introduce new characters too, to keep the stories fresh. On Page 69 two of the new ones are emerging, starting small, but they'll grow in importance as the story progresses.
The setting, as before, is the ancient Roman province of Britannia. The story's told by Aurelia Marcella, who runs a successful inn on the road to York. As the book opens, she receives a letter from a cousin living at a fort north of York, ostensibly inviting her to a birthday party but including a veiled, urgent plea for help. She relishes the idea of a holiday, even a slightly risky one, but before she's had time to write her acceptance, one of the inn's overnight guests is found murdered, and carrying a message indicating danger at the same place and time as Cousin Jovina's party. Aurelia's twin brother Lucius, an investigator for the provincial Governor and another familiar character, happens to be visiting Aurelia, but a rift is developing in their usually close relationship. He orders her to refuse the party invitation because of the potential danger. And he has brought home the girl he plans to marry: Vitellia, young, beautiful, and empty-headed. Aurelia tries her best, but thinks this is quite the wrong wife for her brother. When Lucius is called away on an urgent assignment he leaves Vitellia behind asking Aurelia to look after her, and assuming this makes it impossible for her to go to the party anyway. But Aurelia decides she'll ignore his orders and go whatever the risks, and she'll have to take Vitellia along too.
On Page 69 Vitellia is befriended by Baca, a young servant-girl at the inn. Both will have important roles to play later, but now, when Lucius has just ridden away, all Vitellia wants is a shoulder to cry on…as Aurelia accidentally overhears.
"I don't know what to do with myself. I can't think of anything but him. I feel so alone here. Everyone's trying to be kind, but you're all so busy, nobody has time for me really. I miss Sosia, my maid. Lucius said there was no need for me to bring her up here because he'd be with me all the time, she'd just be sitting about with nothing to do. And now he's gone away."
"Perhaps I could be your maid," Baca suggested, "just while you're here. I could look after you, do your hair and that. You've got lovely hair. And I could do your sewing. I noticed the blue tunic you had on yesterday has a little bit of a tear in the hem. I can fix that for you if you like."
"Oh, thank you, Baca. But you've got your own work to do."
"I'm in the kitchen mostly. I'd much rather be looking after you." I heard her give a little giggle. "Believe me, sewing ladies' clothes is a lot nicer than chopping onions and pounding herbs. And maybe I could even come with you when you all go on your little holiday."
"Holiday? I don't know anything about a holiday."
Curse the girl, I thought, I was hoping to break that bit of news to Vitellia myself. Well, I suppose she had to find out sooner or later.
"Perhaps I've got it wrong then," Baca was saying. "Maybe it's just the mistress who's going. So how about if I look after you while you're at the Oak Tree? Of course if it doesn't suit you…"
"Oh, but it does, Baca. Only…would Aurelia let you, do you think?"
"I'm sure she would. Ask her."
"I don't like to. To tell the truth she frightens me. I don't think she likes me, and with Lucius not here to stand up for me…"
"Of course she does. And she likes that brother of hers too, she'd do anything for him. Don't you fret. She can be a bit sharp sometimes, but she's all right, is the Mistress. Her bark's much worse than her bite."
And how did Aurelia react to that remark? Turn to Page 70…
Learn more about the book and author at the official Jane Finnis website.
The Page 69 Test: Buried Too Deep.
"The Little Russian"
Susan Sherman is a former Chair of the Art Department of Whittier College, a small liberal arts university once attended by President Richard Nixon. She is also the co-creator of one of the most successful television shows for children in the history of the Disney Network.
She applied the Page 69 Test to The Little Russian, her first novel, and reported the following:
Although, sometimes I like to read a leisurely novel, I guess I'm not partial to writing one. By page 69 in The Little Russian, Berta Lorkis has been placed in her world, Russia at the turn of the last century. It is a world of unimaginable wealth and dismal poverty, of rich Moscow merchants and Jews living on the margins in the shtetls of Little Russia, modern day Ukraine. By page 69 we've seen Berta fall from the magnificence of a wealthy Moscow household to Mosny, a shtetl on the west bank of the Dneiper River; a collection of dilapidated buildings surrounding a hot dusty square. She has already met the mysterious wheat merchant, Haykel Gregorvich Alshonsky and taken a shine to him. She doesn't know what he does when he's not traveling the countryside buying wheat, but we do as we follow him to Kaminits and then to a small village near the Austrian border where a pogrom is imminent.
Here is an excerpt from Page 69. Peasants are arriving with potato sacks in their sledges in anticipation of the goods they plan to loot from the Jewish shops. Hershel has ordered several men up on the rooftops. He taught them how to hold a gun and calls them the naturals because they're the best shots in town. They won't hit anything, but at least they won't shoot each other.
Hershel found a spot between two buildings that had a good view of the square and took in most of the roof line. He stood there among soggy newspapers, a rusted out skillet and rotting garbage and listened for the bells on the harnesses.
He soon heard them in the distance, ringing out in a variety of pitches, sounding all the more unnerving for their childish gaiety. Soon the square was filled with sledges, packed in so tightly that it was easy for a man to hand a bottle of vodka to his neighbor. Hershel looked up at the rooftops and willed the naturals to hurry.
A peasant stood up in a sledge and addressed the crowd in Surzhyk. He wore a filthy tulup, a long sheepskin coat and valenki, long winter felt boots. His head was bare and his hair was straight and thick. He was drunk, but that didn't stop him from standing up and addressing the crowd.
"Friends," he said, swaying slightly on his feet. "Everyday the zhyd cheats us and what do we do about it? Everyday he charges us more for sugar and tobacco. He takes our beet roots and pays us practically nothing. He says he doesn't set the prices. Well, I would like to know who does. Do you? Does your neighbor? Maybe Baba Yaga sets the prices?" The crowded hooted at this and several men clapped.
Hershel kept scanning the rooftops. It was taking them too long.
"And now the zhyd wants our daughters," continued the peasant. "He wants to use them as whores. To dishonor them and humiliate us." His gestures were grander; his voice louder as he grew bolder on the approbation of the crowd. "He has taken an innocent and fouled her with his filth. Does anyone here doubt that she is as good as dead?"
Finally there was a figure on one of the rooftops. He had climbed up from the other side and was crawling over the icy shingles to the peak. There he rose cautiously to his feet, balancing in the bank of snow.
Learn more about the book and author at Susan Sherman's website and blog.


Energy Shift Update: A Huge time for Transformation!
Energy Shift Update: May 29- June 4, 2018: Self Love, and Your Infinite Future!
Energy Shift Update: May 22- 28, 2018 Self Love, Self Love, Self Love!
Energy Shift Update: May 8- May 14, 2018 Conflict, agón,tsaba!
Energy Shift Update: May 1- May 7, 2018 Balancing the Scale.


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Score a Five-Month Apple Music Trial by Using Shazam on Dolly Parton's '5 to 9' Super Bowl Ad
Chris Hauk - Feb 8, 2021
A new promotion offers up to five free months of Apple Music to new users, and all you have to do is use Shazam to identify Dolly Parton's new "5 to 9" Super Bowl ad. Yes, we know the Super Bowl was played last night, but you can still view the commercial.
Country star Dolly Parton created and recorded a version of her hit "9 To 5" for a new Squarespace ad. The song, entitled "5 to 9," is an updated version about people starting up small businesses and side-hustles, and is available for listening on Apple Music.
The video is available for viewing below:
A tweet from Parton on Sunday teased a "special surprise" available to those who used Shazam to identify the song. Parton's tweet also mentioned that new Apple Music subscribers could also get up to five months of free service.
If you missed the Super Bowl commercial, or simply don't want to have to deal with the video, there is also a link to see the same offer, openable on iOS devices. The page includes a link that opens Shazam, which displays a short clip of Parton discussing the reworking of her classic song.
.@Shazam #5to9 during tonight's #SuperBowl to unlock a special surprise! You can also get up to 5 months of @AppleMusic free if you're a new subscriber ❤ https://t.co/Vj5KuzZ0xo pic.twitter.com/8g0oiDpQuW
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) February 7, 2021
The promotion is available in 45 countries around the world and will expire on March 31, 2021. The offer must be claimed on an iOS device that has Shazam installed.
Next Up Apple Increases Developer Transition Kit (DTK) Mac Mini Return Credit to Full $500 Following Developer Complaints
Topics Apple MusicApple NewsDolly Parton

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Biden says a Russian invasion of Ukraine 'would change the world'
U.S. President Joe Biden talks to reporters about Russia and the crisis in Ukraine as he pays a visit to a small clothing and gifts store on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 25, 2022.
Leah Millis | Reuters
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden cast a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine in stark historical terms Tuesday, saying, "it would be the largest invasion since World War II."
"It would change the world," said Biden, if the tens of thousands of Russian troops who have been amassing on the Russian-Ukrainian border were to launch an incursion into Ukrainian territory.
Biden's remarks reflect a growing consensus among experts that any conflict in Ukraine is unlikely to be confined to a small area or a short window of time, and that its effects will ripple through Europe and beyond.
This is very different from the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, which was largely contained within Crimea itself, with fighting lasting a little over a month, and Ukraine ultimately withdrawing its troops.
Biden made the remarks during a surprise visit to Honey Made, a newly opened gift store near the Capitol that sells handmade crafts. The stop was part of a broader effort to highlight a rise in the number of small businesses created during the pandemic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been building up Russia's military presence on the Ukrainian border for months. Putin insists that Russia is only protecting itself from what he sees as an expanding NATO alliance. He wants assurances that Ukraine will not be admitted as a member.
Now, with more than 100,000 Russian troops and armaments in place, analysts and policymakers say it is unlikely that even the frantic diplomatic talks underway in Geneva between Moscow and NATO members can stop Putin from breaching Ukraine's territory.
Biden has repeatedly pledged not to send American or NATO troops into Ukraine. But he recently directed the Pentagon to ready 8,500 U.S. soldiers for potential deployments to NATO allied countries in Eastern Europe.
U.S. President Joe Biden talks with shop owner Viboonrattana Honey as he pays a visit to a small store called Honey Made that sells handmade clothing and gifts on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 25, 2022.
Asked whether the odds of a Russian invasion had increased or decreased in recent days, Biden said it was difficult to predict Putin's next move.
"It's a little bit like reading tea leaves," said Biden. "Ordinarily, with a different leader, the fact that he continues to build forces along Ukraine's border from Belarus all the way around, you'd say, 'well, that looks like he's going to do something.'"
In Putin's case, however, the autocratic leader has a long record of bluffing and doublespeak. Moreover, Russia's economy is dependent on energy exports to Europe, and they would likely take a hit from economic sanctions NATO has pledged to impose in response to any attack on Ukraine.
"There will be enormous consequences if [Putin] were to go in and invade the entire country, or a lot less than that as well," said Biden.
"For Russia, not only in terms of economic consequences and political consequences but enormous consequences worldwide," he said as he prepared to buy a sweatshirt, a necklace and a mug with the face of Vice President Kamala Harris on it.
CNBC Politics
Read more of CNBC's politics coverage:
NATO's promised economic sanctions are still being negotiated, but they are believed to be unprecedented in their scale and scope, targeting Russia's elites and its defense and industrial sectors.
Biden also said Tuesday that he was willing to sanction Putin personally.
It's unclear how much that would accomplish, however. Putin publicly claims his salary of roughly $140,000 as his only source of income, and his assets as an apartment and a few vehicles.
In reality, Putin lives in a palatial home larger than Buckingham Palace, and experts believe he is worth billions of dollars, and that he uses the global shadow banking system to hide his money.
For months, the West has watched as Putin has carried out an extraordinary build-up of Russian forces and equipment at Russia's border with Ukraine.
Russian officials have repeatedly called on the U.S. to prevent an eastward expansion of NATO, the world's most powerful military alliance.
Russia has also demanded that the U.S. "shall not establish military bases" in the territories of any former Soviet states that are not already members of NATO, or "use their infrastructure for any military activities or develop bilateral military cooperation with them."
Since 2002, Ukraine has sought entry into NATO, where the group's Article 5 clause states that an attack on one member country is considered an attack on all of them.
On Tuesday, Biden said all the NATO members in the region, which include Poland, Hungary and Romania, should rest assured the alliance is ready to defend them.
"There's no reason for anyone, any member of NATO to worry whether or not we, NATO, would come to their defense," said Biden.
Ultimately, said the president, the question of what US and NATO troops do next will depend upon what Putin does.
Following the gift shop, Biden stopped for a Jeni's ice cream on his way back to the White House.
— CNBC'S Amanda Macias contributed to this story.
Read More: Biden says a Russian invasion of Ukraine 'would change the world'
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De Jubileumsmedaille, officieel Jubileumsmedaille XX Jaar Arbeiders- en Boerenleger Rode Leger, (Russisch: Юбилейная медаль XX лет Рабоче-Крестьянской Красной Армии), werd op 24 januari 1938 ingesteld en 37.504 maal toegekend aan onderdanen van de Sovjet-Unie. De medaille was bestemd voor oud-officieren en officieren die 20 jaar in dat Rode Leger hadden gediend.

De medaille werd ingesteld in een decreet van het Presidium van de Opperste Sovjet van de Sovjet Unie. De peildatum voor de 20 jaar dienst was 23 februari 1938. Maar zij die in de Russische Revolutie door de Sovjets voor hun verdienste in de Russische burgeroorlog en de oorlog tegen Polen waren gedecoreerd met de Orde van de Rode Banier kwamen in ieder geval voor de medaille in aanmerking. Deelname aan de Rode Garde en guerrilla-eenheden in de jaren 1917 tot 1921 telde mee voor het toekennen van deze medaille.

Men droeg de medaille aan een op typisch Russische wijze opgemaakt vijfhoekig lint op de linkerborst. Op de achterzijde van het lint is een metalen plaat met gaatjes voor de bevestiging van het lint en een speld aangebracht. De medaille werd direct na de Medaille voor de Olieboringen en Uitbreiding van de Petrochemie in West-Siberië gedragen.

De medaille

De ronde medaille heeft een diameter van 32 millimeter en is van geoxideerd zilver. De rand van de medaille is aan voor- en keerzijde iets verhoogd ter bescherming van het oppervlak.

De rode vijfpuntige ster op de voorzijde, het symbool van het Rode Leger en van de Sovjetstaat, is voorzien van doorzichtig rood emaille. Het daaronder staande getal "XX" is van zilver. Op de keerzijde is boven de jaartallen "1918-1938" een militair in het iconische winteruniform van de Rode Garde afgebeeld. De soldaat schiet staande een geweer af.

De geëmailleerde oppervlakte van de ster werd voor het emailleren met een machine geguichoveerd zodat achter het gesmolten glas een patroon van cirkels zichtbaar is.

Het lint is grijs met een smalle rode bies.

De medailles werden tot 1943 aan een koperkleurige metalen beugel en een kort rood lintje gedragen.

Gedecoreerden

Maarschalk Kliment Jefremovitsj Vorosjilov
Admiraal Nikolaj Gerasimovitsj Koeznetsov
Maarschalk Aleksander Iljitsj Jegorov
Maarschalk Andrej Ivanovitsj Jerjomenko
Generaal-Majoor Ivan Vasiljevitsj Panfilov
Generaal Kolonel Jakov Timofejevitsj Tsjerevitsjenko
Admiraal Lev Michailovitsj Galler
Luchtmaarschalk Fjodor Jakovlevitsj Falalejev
Kolonel Generaal Valerian Alexandrovitsj Frolov
Luitenant Generaal Nikolai Pavlovitsj Simonjak
Luitenant Generaal Nikolai Nikolajevitsj Vasjoegin
Maarschalk Georgi Konstantinovitsj Zjoekov
Maarschalk Semjon Konstantinovitsj Timosjenko
Maarschalk Vasili Ivanovitsj Tsjoejkov
Maarschalk Semjon Michailovitsj Boedjonny
Maarschalk Vasili Konstantinovitsj Bljoecher
Maarschalk Boris Michailovitsj Sjaposjnikov
Maarschalk Aleksandr Vasilevski
Maarschalk Ivan Stepanovitsj Konev
Maarschalk Leonid Aleksandrovitsj Govorov
Maarschalk Konstantin Konstantinovitsj Rokossovski
Maarschalk Rodion Jakovlevitsj Malinovski
Maarschalk Fjodor Ivanovitsj Tolboechin
Maarschalk Kirill Afanasjevitsj Meretskov
Maarschalk Vasili Danilovitsj Sokolovski
Maarschalk Andrej Antonovitsj Gretsjko
Maarschalk Andrej Ivanovitsj Jerjomenko
Maarschalk Kirill Semjonovitsj Moskalenko
Maarschalk Matvei Vasiljevitsj Zacharov
Admiraal Arseni Grigorjevitsj Golovko
Admiraal Vladimir Filippovitsj Triboets
Admiraal Gordej Ivanovitsj Levtsjenko
Admiraal Filipp Sergejevitsj Oktjabrski
Generaal Ivan Jefimovitsj Petrov
Generaal Majoor Ivan Vasiljevitsj Panfilov
Luitenant Generaal Ivan Vasiljevitsj Panfilov
Maarschalk Pavel Fjodorovitsj Batitski
Generaal Ivan Vladimirovitsj Toelenev
Schout bij Nacht Ivan Dmitrijevitsj Papanin

Externe link
  Legal Library of the USSR

Onderscheiding in de Sovjet-Unie

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Last month Citi announced plans for a digital-only bank.
Citing its shrinking physical presence, Citi will develop a service that will be available nationally, through a separate app, within the next three years (read the Business Insider story here).
This is nothing new: CapitalOne acquired ING Direct and renamed it CapitalOne 360 in 2012—one of the earliest moves toward all-digital banking. A slew of banks followed: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo are just a few of the big names that have created their own version of an all-digital bank. But what about the not-so-big names? Should community banks and credit unions follow suit?
The value proposition of convenience is certainly a compelling one: 86 percent of consumers surveyed want to make payments online; and more than 60 percent want to do everything online—from open accounts to apply for mortgages (for most people, the largest transaction of their entire lives).
The potential bottom line benefits are certainly compelling too. When Radius Bank launched the direct-to-consumer digital banking platform it built with NYC-based fintech company Mantl in 2017, it resulted in a 60 percent decrease in the time it takes to complete an application—and a 50 percent decrease in costs-per-account opened—as well as 30 percent increase in online account openings.
Commit to the application of data and advanced analytics for the streamlining of internal operations, measuring of results, and creation of an improved customer/member experience.
Digitize your customer engagement process, from the ability to onboard new customers/members who can open new accounts or complete applications through any channel or switch from one channel to the next without starting over.
Digitize your back office processes; the new digital bank needs one common digital infrastructure that underpins the whole organization.
Identify new digital providers; find fintech partners who can sharpen your operational efficiency and respond to customer demands for more innovative services.
Rethink your distribution model, as transactions are no longer tethered to a physical location, resulting in the redefinition of convenience.
There is little question: The importance of banking branches in relation to digital capabilities has seen a serious decline in recent years. The only question is how your financial institution can best embrace the new service paradigm; it's clear you can't afford not to.


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Quote from Jill in Tool-Thousand-One: A Space Odyssey
Jill: But what about the kids? Brad, he's gotta be visiting colleges. Randy's gonna be the editor of the school newspaper. And God knows what's gonna be going on with Mark for that entire six months. I mean... On the other hand, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so it's not like you can pass it up.
Tim: So, let's recap. Am I staying or going?
Jill: Well, you gotta go.
Tim: Yes!
Jill: I mean, it's a great adventure.
Jill: I'm just gonna be the one stuck with trying to make it all work here.
Tim: Has anyone ever said you're the most beautiful, understanding woman?
Jill: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy who just snuck out of here before you got home.
Jill: But what about the kids? Brad, he's gotta be visiting colleges. Randy's gonna be the editor of the school newspaper. And God knows what's gonna be going on with Mark for that entire six months. I mean... On the other hand, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so it's not like you can pass it up. Tim: So, let's recap. Am I staying or going? Jill: Well, you gotta go. Tim: Yes! Jill: I mean, it's a great adventure. Tim: Yes! Jill: I'm just gonna be the one stuck with trying to make it all work here. Tim: Has anyone ever said you're the most beautiful, understanding woman? Jill: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy who just snuck out of here before you got home.


New follower!! I really love your works, they're amazing!
Admiring your work!!! so New follower for you!!! yeahhhh!
Well deserved CDOTW!!! I'm really pleased for you, you're so very very talented!!
Fantastic, love your work ,follow you!
So happy I came across your page ! New follow ! I love your work !


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Q: How to get data from unrelated entities using Core Data?
I have these three entities which are not related. How can i get the salary of an employee. I want something like this :
Select C.salary FROM Employee A, Department B, Salaries C Where A.id=B.empid AND B.id=C.deptid AND A.id=12

i need to do the same above operation in core data.

A: As Martin suggested, the easy way is to set up the needed relationships and traverse them.
But if you don't have the permission to alter the model, you need to work and filter managed in memory object you own once retrieved. In other words, you need to set up NSFetchRequests with the correct NSPredicates.
For example, to retrieve the department for a given employee.
NSFetchRequest * request = [NSFetchRequest fetchRequestWithEntityName:@"Department"];
request.predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"empid", @(12)];

NSError *error = nil;
NSArray *departments = [moc executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
if(departments) {
    // do a NSLog for departments here to see what you have
    // here you can access deptid for each department you retrieve
    // and with that value run another request against Salaries
    // e.g. NSManagedObject* department = [departments lastObject];
    //      NSNumber* deptid = [department valueForKey:@"deptid"]
} else {
    // handle error here

}

Other part is left as excersise ;)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Tag Archive for history
Smolkin Discusses Soviet Atheism on BBC
by Lauren Rubenstein • September 26, 2017
Victoria Smolkin
Assistant Professor of History Victoria Smolkin was recently a guest on BBC Radio 4's "Beyond Belief" to discuss Soviet state atheism.
Smolkin said that Lenin's conviction that banishing religion was necessary to create a revolutionary society was right ideologically, but wrong politically.
"If they wanted to stay in power, they needed to accommodate religion, and they understood that," she said. "However, if they wanted to build a Communist society, ultimately religion had to go."
First Indian Motorcycle Prototypes Built on Wesleyan's Campus
by Olivia Drake • August 16, 2017
In 1901, at the site of the former Worcester Cycle Manufacturing Company (a bicycle factory and now a grassy courtyard area abutting Wesleyan's High Rise and Low Rise Apartments), journeyman Carl Oscar Hedström designed and built a gasoline engine powered motorized bicycle. This area would later be known as the historic birthplace of the Indian Motocycle (now Indian Motorcycle) prototype.
Tucker Comments on Victorian Pseudoscience, Romance
by Lauren Rubenstein • February 21, 2017
Jennifer Tucker
The pseudoscientific myths about love and sexuality that abounded in the Victorian era, many of which seem "cruel and oppressive" by today's standards, could also offer women relief from the era's "rigid gender politics," according to Associate Professor of History Jennifer Tucker, who comments on the topic for a Broadly article.
For much of the 19th century, the Western world was fascinated with a variety of pseudosciences, or theories that lack a basis in the scientific method.
"Definitions of science were malleable and hotly contested in the 19th century," said Tucker, who is also associate professor of science in society, associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, and associate professor of environmental studies. "Far from being on the sidelines of intellectual life, spiritualism and other unconventional forms of knowledge often provided a means for Victorians from a variety of different social backgrounds to question scientific authority and to ask what counted as a proper science, or as a 'scientific practice.'"
"One of the great myths about the Victorian age [was] that it was sexually repressive; on the contrary, Victorian society was obsessed with sexual reform, heterosexual and homosexual love, lust, and sex (as well as of the policing of sexual desires)," added Tucker. "Love and sex were both controversial and politicized."
Pseudoscientific theories included phrenology (which was used to explain the different propensities of men and women toward love and sexual desire); the use of love potions made of dangerous ingredients such as arsenic and belladonna; beauty face masks made of raw beef; cures for low libido such as bull testicles; and vibrators used to treat "hysteria" in sexually frustrated women.
According to the story, "Victorians were also surprisingly progressive on what would eventually evolve into more enlightened views on gender."
"Theosophists [occult philosophers] believed that life in male and female bodies taught different lessons; for some, this meant that it was necessary for the Ego to incarnate many times as both female and male," Tucker explains. "Many theosophists believed, for example, that in their evolutionary progress men reincarnated as women, and women as men. Therefore at any given time, as one believer in this theory said in 1892: 'We have… men in women's bodies, and women in men's bodies.'"
7 Faculty Promoted, 4 Awarded Tenure
by Lauren Rubenstein • May 24, 2016
In its recent meeting, the Board of Trustees conferred tenure on four faculty members. They are Associate Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, Professor of African American Studies Kali Gross, Associate Professor of English and American Studies Amy Tang, and Associate Professor of Chemistry Erika Taylor. They join eight other faculty members who were awarded tenure earlier this spring.
One faculty member, Louise Neary, was promoted to adjunct associate professor of Spanish.
In addition, six faculty members are being promoted to full professor:
J. Kehaulani Kauanui, professor of American Studies and anthropology
Matthew Kurtz, professor of psychology
Cecilia Miller, professor of history
Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento, professor of theater
Andrea Patalano, professor of psychology
Michael Singer, professor of biology
Brief descriptions of their research and teaching appear below:
Associate Professor Fowler specializes in political communication and directs the Wesleyan Media project, which tracks and analyzes all political ads aired on broadcast television in real-time during elections. Her work on local coverage of politics and policy has been published in political science, communication, law/policy, and medical journals. Most recently, she co-authored Political Advertising in the United States (Westview Press, 2016). Professor Fowler teaches courses on American Government and Politics; Media and Politics; Campaigns and Elections; and Polls, Politics and Public Opinion.
Professor Gross is a scholar of African American history whose research concentrates on black women's experiences in the United States criminal justice system between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her book, Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America (Oxford University Press, 2016), explores a crime and trial in 1887 against broader evidence of biased police treatment of black suspects as well as violence within the black community. Professor Gross will offer courses on race, gender and justice and Black Women's Studies.
Professor Kauanui's research lies in the fields of comparative colonialisms, indigenous politics, critical racial studies, and anarchist studies. Her book, The Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty (Duke University Press, due in 2017), explores the cultural and legal politics of the contemporary Hawaiian nationalist movement in relation to land, gender, and sexuality. Professor Kauanui teaches courses on Colonialism and Its Consequences; Race and Citizenship; United States in the Pacific Islands; Hawai'i: Myths and Realities; Decolonizing Indigenous Middletown; and Anarchy in America: From Haymarket to Occupy Wall Street.
Professor Kurtz's research seeks to clarify the cognitive and social impairments associated with schizophrenia, to develop and assess behavioral treatments for these impairments, and to critically evaluate the history and current status of ideas regarding treatment of the severely mentally ill. He has received significant grant support from the NIH, and has received a Fulbright-Nehru U.S. Scholar Award for Academic and Professional Excellence. He offers courses on Schizophrenia and Its Treatment, Clinical Neuropsychology, Statistics, and Behavioral Neurobiology.
Professor Miller is a European intellectual historian with a focus on the long eighteenth century. Her recent book, Enlightenment and Political Fiction: The Everyday Intellectual (Routledge, 2016), examines five works of fiction to argue that the accessibility of political fiction in the eighteenth century made it possible for any reader to enter into the intellectual debates of the time and that ideas attributed to philosophers and political and economic theorists of the Enlightenment actually appeared first in works of fiction. She offers courses on European Intellectual History, Political Fiction, Theories of Society, and Contemporary Europe.
Professor Tatinge Nascimento is a theater artist and scholar with a special interest in experimental performance and Brazilian contemporary theater. She has performed and published internationally, and most recently is the author of a book manuscript, The Contemporary Performances of Brazil's Post-Dictatorship Generation, under review with Palgrave Macmillan for the series Contemporary Performance InterActions. At Wesleyan she directs main stage productions and teaches courses on acting, theory, and performance studies.
Adjunct Associate Professor Neary teaches beginning and intermediate Spanish. She is currently collaborating with a colleague on an online Spanish course for the general public, titled Wespañol, and with McGraw Hill on a test bank project for an elementary Spanish language textbook. She has served as head of Spanish, has chaired the Romance Languages and Literatures Honors Committee, and has served on the Language Resources Center Faculty Committee.
Professor Patalano is a cognitive scientist whose research focuses on mental and neural processes involved in human reasoning, judgment, and decision making. Her lines of research address indecisiveness and decision deferral, clinical and neural correlates of discounting, numeracy and choice behavior, and the role of categories in thought. She teaches courses on Cognitive Psychology, Psychological Statistics, Decision Making, and Concepts and Categories.
Professor Singer is an evolutionary ecologist whose research focuses on the plant-feeding habits of caterpillars in the context of threats from predators and parasites of caterpillars. He uses this research focus to inform issues of broad biological interest, such as animal medication, dietary specialization, dynamics of ecological networks, and evolutionary diversification. He teaches courses on Ecology, Conservation Biology, Evolutionary Biology, and Plant-Animal Interactions.
Professor Tang's research focuses on the relationship between aesthetic form and politics in Asian American literature and theory. Her first book, Repetition and Race: Asian American Literature After Multiculturalism (Oxford University Press, 2016), explores how Asian American writers use structures of repetition to register, and creatively inhabit, the impasses generated by multiculturalism's politics of identity and recognition. She teaches courses on Asian American Literature, Afro-Asian Intersections, and Literary and Cultural Theory.
Associate Professor Taylor's multidisciplinary research investigates problems at the intersection of biology and chemistry. Her work strives to advance medicine and environmental sustainability with two long-term goals – developing bacterial enzyme inhibitors and other small molecules with medicinal applications, and engineering microorganisms to improve the efficiency of biomass to biofuel conversion. Professor Taylor has received significant grant support from both the NIH and the Department of Energy, enabling numerous impactful publications in her field. She offers courses in Organic Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Biological Chemistry, and Biomedicinal Chemistry.
Van Vleck Observatory Celebrates Centennial with Exhibition, Event Series
by Lauren Rubenstein • April 25, 2016
Wesleyan's iconic observatory dome was built to house the Van Vleck Refractor, used in research until the early 1990s. (Photo by John Van Vlack)
The building was named for Professor John Monroe Van Vleck, who taught mathematics and astronomy at Wesleyan from 1853 until his death in 1912.
Wesleyan's Van Vleck Observatory is celebrating its centennial this spring, with a series of events and an exhibition beginning in early May.
On May 6, the observatory's library will reopen to the public with an exhibition on the history of astronomy at Van Vleck. Developed by a team of faculty, students, and staff, the exhibition will use the observatory's extensive collection of scientific instruments, teaching materials, photographs, drawings, and correspondence to illustrate both the changes in astronomical research and teaching over the past century, and the observatory's consistent mission of conducting instruction and research under the same roof. The exhibition will incorporate the history of science into Van Vleck's existing public outreach programs through period lectures, demonstrations of historic artifacts, and gallery talks.
"The Millionaire" Mechanical Calculator. Useful for determining distances to stars, this late 19th century calculator had high precision (eight significant figures) and is still in perfect working order. (Photo by John Van Vlack)
The exhibition was spearheaded by Roy Kilgard, support astronomer and research associate professor of astronomy, Seth Redfield, associate professor of astronomy, associate professor of integrative sciences, Amrys Williams, visiting assistant professor of history, and Paul Erickson, associate professor of history, associate professor of environmental studies, associate professor of science in society.
More events are planned in the run-up to the exhibition opening. On May 1, the Wesleyan Orchestra will hold a concert featuring astronomically themed music, including John Cage's Atlas Eclipticalis, which was composed using star charts from the Van Vleck Observatory library. On May 3, Special Collections & Archives will host an exhibition, "A Stellar Education: Astronomy at Wesleyan, 1831-1916." Located on the first floor of Olin Library, the exhibition documents the study of astronomy at Wesleyan from the university's opening through the construction of the Van Vleck Observatory. On May 4, the History Department is hosting David DeVorkin, senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum, who will give a talk situating Van Vleck in the history of American observatories.
Allbritton Center to Host Series of Panels on the Refugee Crisis
by Lauren Rubenstein • January 28, 2016
The Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life will host a series of three panels in February and March on the refugee crisis. All events will take place in PAC 001.
The first panel, The Development of the Crisis and the Response in Europe, will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 3. Moderated by Professor of Economics Richard Grossman, the panel is comprised of Bruce Masters, the John E. Andrus Professor of History; Robert Ford, former U.S. ambassador to Syria; and Marcie Patton, professor of politics at Fairfield University.
The second panel, The Refugee Experience, will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 17. Moderated by Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock, assistant professor of history, assistant professor of Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, it will feature discussion between Steve Poellot, legal director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP); Mohammed Kadalah, of the University of Connecticut Department of Literature, Cultures and Languages, who was recently granted asylum after fleeing Syria in 2011; and Baselieus Zeno, a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst and a Syrian refugee.
The final panel, The U.S. Response, Locally and Nationally, will be held at 7:30 p.m. March 31. Moderated by Assistant Professor of Government Ioana Emy Matesan, the panel will include Christina Pope of Welcoming America; Chris George, director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services; and Jen Smyers, director of policy and advocacy at Church World Service. It will also feature a video message from U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.
For more information, contact Rob Rosenthal, director of the Allbritton Center, at rrosenthal@wesleyan.edu.
Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock on the History of the Russian New Year's Tree
by Lauren Rubenstein • December 21, 2015
Victoria-Smolkin-Rothrock
A hundred years ago, Christmas in Russia looked a lot like Christmas in America, with trees, presents and twinkling lights. All that changed with the Russian revolution, Assistant Professor of History Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock told NPR in an interview about the history of the Yolka, or New Year's tree.
"The tree comes to be seen as a symbol of both the bourgeois order, which is one kind of class enemy, and of religion in particular, which is another kind of class enemy," explains Smolkin-Rothrock. "There are very explicit statements that essentially unmask the Christmas tree for the class symbol that it is. It becomes clear that one does not have Christmas trees without political sympathies and allegiances falling into question," a dangerous thing in the Soviet era.
In 1935, though, there was a letter in Pravda, the official paper, saying things had changed.
Smolkin-Rothrock sums up the argument of one high-ranking Bolshevik: "Here we are, and Socialism has been built, and why would we deprive those children who had never had a Christmas tree of their own of the pleasure of the tree?"
So, the tree was redeemed. And it moved up the Orthodox calendar, becoming completely secular. Today, New Year's trees can be found in the homes of many Russian Jews.
Smolkin-Rothrock is also assistant professor of Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian studies.
Jennifer Tucker Talks Gun Control in Boston Globe op-ed, on WNPR's 'Scramble'
by Lauren Rubenstein • October 6, 2015
Associate Professor of History Jennifer Tucker is the co-author of an op-ed in the Boston Globe titled, "What the Clean Air Act can teach us about reducing gun violence." Tucker and co-author Matthew Miller of Northeastern University write, "The recent scandal over Volkswagen's polluting engines vividly illustrates the contrast between the way Americans, and in particular elected officials, treat guns and the way we (and our elected officials) treat cars — both of which kill approximately 32,000 Americans every year."
The Clean Air Act, passed in 1970, has averted tens of thousands of premature deaths though "a systematic and scientific approach to the impact of the actors of private actors (from auto owners to power station operators) on the health of their fellow citizens. The force of the law was then used to ensure that these externalities were borne by the companies contributing to the problem."
Tucker and Miller argue the same approach should be applied to regulating firearms. At present, legislation now exempts guns from federal consumer-safety laws and provides immunity for gun manufacturers and dealers from liability lawsuits. And since 1996, the Centers for Disease Control has been effectively barred from funding research into the cause of firearm-related deaths.
Tucker also was a guest this week on WNPR's "The Scramble" in a discussion about gun control, following the mass shooting at a community college in Oregon.
"Our nation's lax attitude toward gun proliferation is partly the result of a Hollywood version of gun technology," said Tucker. "There's a 1953 movie 'Shane,' which has had a powerful influence. Shane is a gun fighter and in a conversation about gun control, he says 'A gun is just a tool. It's as good or bad as the man who uses it. We've heard this notion a lot, but that's certainly not a notion… that we apply to other consumer products in America. We could take, for example, the recent scandal over Volkswagen's polluting engines to illustrate this difference. So after Volkswagen's recent admission that it used illegal devices to cheat on admission testing of diesel vehicles in the United States, the company faces billions of dollars of fines along with expensive recalls and class action lawsuits and criminal charges."
Tucker describes the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 as having a major impact on public health, averting tens of thousands of premature deaths. "It succeeded because it took a scientific approach to the impacts of the activities of private actors on the health of fellow citizens. In contrast to that, while the impact of automobiles on the public's health and safety is closely regulated, astonishingly, the firearms that are used to kill Americans are not subject to government oversight."
Tucker is also associate professor of science in society, associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, associate professor of environmental studies. She recently authored an op-ed on the history of gun control published on Inside Sources.
Johnston, Nakamura Present Papers at History of Science in East Asia Conference
by Lauren Rubenstein • July 14, 2015
Professor Bill Johnston and Associate Professor Miri Nakamura celebrated with a toast after presenting papers in Paris.
Two Wesleyan faculty members presented talks at the 14th International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia, held in Paris, July 6-10.
On July 7, Miri Nakamura, associate professor of East Asian studies, read from a paper titled "Atomic Maids," which focused on the role of Japanese housekeepers in mystery novels that were indirect criticisms of nuclear issues. On July 9, Bill Johnston, professor of history, professor of East Asian studies, professor of Science in Society, professor of environmental studies, spoke about the changing role of the environment in ideas about disease causation in 19th century Japan.
The conference is held every four years at venues around the world. Researchers from around the world came together to present and discuss their latest research relevant to the history of science, technology and medicine in East Asia from antiquity up to the present day. With 317 papers, about 200 of which were delivered as part of the 45 panels, this year's conference was the largest ever held.
Grimmer-Solem Remembers the Sinking of the Lusitania
Associate Professor of History Erik Grimmer-Solem
The Hartford Courant turned to Erik Grimmer-Solem, associate professor of history, tutor in the College of Social Studies, for perspective on the sinking of the ocean liner R.M.S. Lusitania, one century later.
"The British were very effective in using the sinking of the Lusitania as a propaganda tool, portraying the Germans as beastly and dastardly," he told the Courant. "But [Woodrow] Wilson was in a tough spot. The United States had a significant German population, who were certainly not in favor of war."
Grimmer-Solem said the German government naturally viewed the horror of the Lusitania quite differently. He said the British had imposed a crippling blockade of the North Sea, including food, in violation of international conventions.
Also, maritime prize rules of the day required submarines to surface before carrying out searches of suspected vessels — a risky maneuver as the British were known to use decoy vessels to coax U-Boats into firing rage. The situation pushed the Germans toward a policy of "unrestricted" submarine warfare, he said.
"The Lusitania was seen by the Germans as a legitimate military target," the professor said. "We know it was chock full of munitions, which the Germans had suspected. They were listed on the manifest. There were many tons aboard the vessel. The English were ruthless about [using passenger vessels for ferrying arms.] They did this in the Boer War."
Tucker to Study Victorian Sustainability, River Pollution Prevention Reform as Visiting Fellow
by Olivia Drake • March 2, 2015
Jennifer Tucker is associate professor of history; associate professor of environmental studies; associate professor of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies; associate professor of science in society and faculty fellow in the College of the Environment.
As a 2015 Humanities Research Centre Visiting Fellow, Associate Professor Jennifer Tucker will study Victorian sustainability, photography, law and river pollution prevention reform at Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia.
Her appointment will be May 15-July 15.
Tucker's ongoing research, tentatively titled "Science Against Industry: Photographic Technologies and the Visual Politics of Pollution Reform," traces the historical roots of the use of visual evidence in environmental science and pollution reform. Using nearly 300 visual representations (drawings, engravings photographs, and graphs) from archives and libraries, many of which have never previously been studied, she analyzes the scientific impact of new forms of visual representation in chemical climatology and examines the presentation and use of specific visual exhibits in Victorian courtroom debates over air and river pollution.
The research addresses current questions that lie at the heart of several fields and disciplines, including environmental history,
Tucker Explores Photography's Powerful Role in Our Legal System
An essay by Associate Professor of History Jennifer Tucker is included in The Five Photographs that (You Didn't Know) Changed Everything, a five-part BBC radio series focusing on historically important yet little-known photographs.
In her segment, The Tichborne Claimant, Tucker tells the story of how an 1866 photograph of a butcher in Wagga Wagga, Australia, played a central role in a case that gripped Victorian Britain and had an enormous impact on our legal system, raising questions about what photography is for and how it should be used. Says Tucker:
"Sometimes even a mundane photograph can have a powerful and lasting historical impact. This is the story of one such photograph—a picture that not only changed the life of the man it showed, but also set in motion the longest and most expensive trial in British legal history, and sparked a national debate over the role of photography as evidence in a court of law."
Tucker also is associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, associate professor in the environmental studies program, associate professor of science in society, and faculty fellow in the College of the Environment.


sunfire57 is currently hunting Maneki Espurr.
sunfire57 hasn't collected any medals so far.
By ProudWeeb - 2 Hours and 38 Minutes ago.
By ProudWeeb - 1 Hour and 10 Minutes ago.
I've reached a high of about 36000 points and I think that's about as high as I'm going to get. I have to get to bed and I unfortunately have a life.
By Anniversary - 2 Days and 2 Hours ago.
By PokeRadar - 5 Hours and 43 Minutes ago.
Your PokéRadar recorded the 40th Maneki Espurr in a row! You now reached the maximum chance of finding a shiny. Good luck!
Oooooooooo, Noiiice!!! Got a retro zubat from rumbling and it's a shiny!!!!
By Riako - 1 Hour and 31 Minutes ago.
#MyBiggestAchievement! was surviving along with my daughter and son-in-law and welcoming in my first grandchild, my grandson. We're all living in the same house and getting along beautifully.
That doesn't seem very good, does it?


Indie Disco is a two-hour long podcast filled with effervescent dance beats, shoegaze harmonies, new wave hooks, and post-punk aesthetics. It is provided with the intent of helping you discover new and under-the-radar independent artists that don't have a large amount of mainstream exposure, so if you like what you hear please support these artists and buy their music. This 'Best of 2013' instalment features 33 songs by Gary Numan, White Lies, Geometric Vision, Ballerina Black, The Courtesans, and lots of other exciting bands.


I upgraded my macbook osX from 10.4.x to 10.6.x this last week, it was just time. I also came into a nice iPod Touch, so expected to sync it just fine with my iTunes as I had been doing with a smaller iPod Nano I have.
Locate iTunes and then drag it to the Trash.
Choose Go > Utilities. If Utilities is not available under Go, then choose Go > Go to Folder, type in /Applications/Utilities/, and then click Go.
In the process list locate and select iTunes Helper. Click Quit Process. When asked if you really want to quit the process, click Quit.
Choose View > Accounts and then click Login Items.
Look for the iTunesHelper entry and select it, then click the "-" button to remove it from the list.
Enter (without quotes) "/System/Library/Extensions" and then click Go.
Locate the file "AppleMobileDevice.kext" and drag it to the Trash.
Enter (without quotes) "/Library/Receipts/" and then click Go.
Locate the file "AppleMobileDeviceSupport.pkg" and drag it to the trash. Note: This file may not be present in Mac OS X v10.6 or later; skip to the next step if this is the case.
Remove any other file ending with ".pkg" that has iTunes in the title (such as "iTunesX.pkg").
Empty the Trash. This should fully remove iTunes.
In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder and type in ~/Library/ and click Go.
Locate the iTunes folder and then drag it to the Trash.
Choose Go > Go to Folder and type in ~/Library/Preferences/ and click Go.
Locate the preference files that have names beginning with com.apple.iTunes and move them to the Trash.
Choose Go > Go to Folder and type in /Library and click Go.
Locate the iTunes folder, and then move it to the Trash.
Choose Go > Go to Folder and type in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/ and click Go.
Empty the Trash. This should fully remove the files and folders associated with iTunes.
Now go get the newest iTunes and install it. This took care of all my problems, just plugged in the iPod Touch and it sorted itself out just fine!


She also speaks up on the idea of sharing the crown and the burning of her effigy.
Apparently, there is no existing policy by the Miss Universe Organization which prevents winners like her from entertaining suitors and eventually getting into a relationship during her reign.
"Yes you're allowed [to be in a relationship]. They don't try to tell you to not have a boyfriend. Of course not," Pia shared on Umagang Kay Ganda, her first Philippine TV interview since being crowned.
"There's no 'boyfriend rule.' As long as you're focused with your duties, you know your responsibilities and you don't let it disrupt you."
Although for her part, she said she doesn't "have to worry about anything" for she is not involved with anyone as of the moment.
"Wala pa nga eh. Nagtataka na nga ako kung anong problema kung bakit wala. Nanalo na nga ako ng Miss Universe, wala pa rin?"
She continued, "Biro lang. Wala talaga. Sa tingin ko mahirap din kasi 'yung schedule ang higpit talaga."
Meanwhile, the newly crowned Miss Universe 2015 also commented on the viral video of a certain someone burning her effigy to welcome 2016.
"Nabalitaan ko 'yun. Nag-research ako ng kaunti, nalaman ko na tradition nila, every New Year, sinusunog nila 'yung bad memories para 'di na maulit sa susunod na Bagong Taon," she related. "'Yan ang kagandahan ng Miss Universe eh, may matututunan ka tungkol sa mga customs ng ibang bansa. 'Yung iba, medyo nakakagulat pero ganun talaga."
In another interview, this time with US morning news and talk show Good Morning America (GMA), Pia was asked about the idea of sharing the Miss Universe 2015 crown with first runner-up Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez.
"I think it would be a little bit difficult for two girls to share a crown," she told host Lara Spencer during her first-ever sit-down interview as the new Queen. "But I have high hopes that this will give great opportunities for me and for Miss Colombia and the rest of the contestants."